News, Views and Shoes

Reply to self: No, I am not ignoring the news, but neither am I getting carried away by the current of events just lately. Sometimes, when you practically need an umbrella to keep the stories off your shoulders, an old and trusted format is the way to go: "News and Views".

News: Barack Obama's cabinet is heavily staffed with Clintonistas, moderates and otherwise noted non-leftists. The liberal sphere grumbles.

Views: Well, sure. With quite the rough patch ahead, it makes sense to appoint people who can hit the ground running, and they'll make for nice scapegoats while their eventual replacements serve as understudies. At this point, things are so bad that Obama could name D.B. Cooper to be Treasurer and Tommy Chong as Drug Czar, and it wouldn't matter too much.

More of a concern is the fact that the president-elect is bleeding the Senate (and a couple of governor's mansions) dry of capable Democrats. The most recently plucked apple was Colorado's Ken Salazar, seen by most environmentalists as a puppet of the mining and ranching industries. But that sticks to Obama's approach of not over-reaching early on. Smart.

News: Southern Republican Senators block financial assistance for U.S. automakers. They say that the employees make too much money.

Views: Those same Senators forked over hundreds of millions of dollars in taxpayer money to foreign automakers to open manufacturing plants in their states. The Big Three should fight fire with fire; close all the Ford, Chrysler and GM dealerships in Alabama and Tennessee.

If those good people want to buy American cars and trucks, they'll have to take their money to another state (say, a union state). As far as the lost jobs and the sales tax revenues are concerned, they will have noone to blame except their own Senators.

News: Illinois Governor Rod Blagojevich gets caught on tape trying to sell Barack Obama's vacant seat in the Senate. Conservatives desperately seek to link Obama to the scandal. The state Senate votes in favor of impeachment proceedings by a margin of 113-0.

Views: "Pay to play" politics is nothing new in Illinois, and Blago will not be the first governor of that state to face jail time. He's pretty much been under an ethics cloud for years. The only unresolved matter is whether he's crazy enough to appoint himself to the Senate before being dragged out of office.

As for the degree of Obama's involvement, U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's reports indicate no connection thus far - although his Chief of Staff, Rahm Emanuel, did have numerous conversations with the governor's office.. Time will tell and, most likely, exonerate.

News: Wall Street mucky-muck Bernard Madoff made off with billions of dollars in a classic Ponzi scheme, possibly the tip of a fraud iceberg. Banks across the world are exposed to considerable damage, with many people left in financial ruins. Victims include charities and pension funds.

Views: (Shrug.)

News: In Baghdad, an Arab journalist hurls his shoes at President Bush during a news conference alongside Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki. He also calls Bush a "dog" (gender not specified).

Views: The president, an old pro at ducking behind a podium before the media, actually lauded the fellow as a member of a "free society". Shortly thereafter, the good stewards of that free society took the conservative approach to dissent, which left the man with a broken arm and broken ribs. He remains in their care and custody despite massive public protests for his release.

Never mind the obvious reticence of the Secret Service. Look, the Iraqis are still learning this democracy stuff. He probably heard the expression, "vote with your feet", and it just didn't translate so well (as so many other things, alas, have not).

pH 12.17.o8