If President Bush is looking for his legacy, NBC News has put together some helpful stats comparing how things were when Bush took office in 2001 with how they are today.
UNEMPLOYMENT RATE Then: 4.2% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, January 2001) Now: 6.7% (Bureau of Labor Statistics, November 2008)
As of November!!! Just wait until they figure in the numbers for December and January!!!!
DOW JONES INDUSTRIAL AVERAGE Then: 10,587 (close of Friday, Jan. 19, 2001) Now: 9,015 (close of Tuesday, Jan. 6, 2009)
Now there’s a legacy for you. Eight years of gains in the stock market completely wiped out. Heck of a job, Mr. President!
I wanted to believe that the new X-Files film would be a good movie. I was disappointed. I don’t regret having watched it. It wasn’t THAT bad. It’s just that it was more like watching an extra-long TV episode, and one that I wouldn’t have turned into a feature-length film anyway. I kept hoping that Fox Mulder would do something heroic during the film, but he was played more like a bumbler who somehow managed to solve big cases Clouseau-style in spite of himself. In the very end of the film he nearly gets himself killed, only to be saved in the most cliched manner. Oh, well. X-Files had a good run on television. And then I watched Millenium until they abruptly canceled it after just a couple of seasons. And then I started to watch Harsh Realm, but they canceled that one before it could even get off the ground. After that, X-Files creator Chris Carter said “Screw it.” and left television altogether. Sigh.
A lot happened over the weekend. First, I’m very disappointed that Bill Richardson had to withdraw from being considered for Commerce Secretary. The news that there is an investigation about pay-to-play allegations concerning a state contract seems oddly timed. It would certainly be unethical if a company had been awarded a big contract BECAUSE they gave money to the governor’s political action committee. But, at the same time, can we really expect that people who donate to PACs are automatically suspect and should be excluded from getting state contracts? I just hope that once the state investigation is finished that Obama will find some room in his administration for Richardson.
Second, I was disturbed by the report that Harry Reid had allegedly lobbied Gov. Blagojevich over the Senate appointment prior to his arrest. The AP reported that Reid had called Blago to express his disapproval of appointing Chicago Reps. Jesse Jackson Jr. and Danny Davis, and state Senate President Emil Jones Jr. All three are African-Americans. Reid is now denying the report and saying he did not tell Blago who NOT to appoint. Nevertheless, it now looks even worse to have Reid threatening to physically block Roland Burris from the Senate chamber this week. Since I don’t think he has any legal ground to stand on anyway, I hope that Reid will back off of the Burris confrontation and cut a deal this week.
Third, Congratualtions to Senator-elect Al Franken from Minnesota. Franken is going to be tentatively certified later today as the winner of the Senate race after the recount gave him a slim-250 vote margin over Republican Norm Coleman. Now I just hope that the courts will throw out all of Coleman’s frivolous challenges just as fast as he can file them. Oh, and John Cornyn can stick his threatened filibuster up his you know what.
Fourth, I hope that Gov. Paterson in New York hurries up and appoints Caroline Kennedy as the Senator to replace Hillary Clinton. It’s a smart move politically for New York to have a celebrity Senator because their power and influence is greatly enhanced beyond their low ranking in the seniority system. Sen. Kennedy will have no problem gaining media attention, despite being the low-woman on the totem pole. And besides, rejecting her and picking someone else at this point would result in a huge uproar that we really don’t need right now. I don’t care about the whole legacy issue and how unfair it is that she is getting the appointment based on her family name. That is the way politics has always been in this country. And besides, political legacies can cut both ways too. Just ask Jeb Bush.
And Fifth, Colorado Gov. Bill Ritter was unfairly criticized in my opinion for appointing a non-celebrity, non-legacy individual to replace Ken Salazar in the Senate. I don’t know much about Michael Bennet other than that he was superintendent of the Denver Public Schools, but I wish the first consideration when evaluating a nominee wasn’t whether or not he can raise lots of campaign money. Nor do I think that Ritter should have been confined to picking another Hispanic to replace Salazar.
Did you hear the one about FDR and the Great Depression?
Did you hear the latest nonsense from dimbulbs on the right? Yes, I know, it is hard to keep track. But specifically I mean the bit about how FDR’s New Deal programs and government spending actually prolonged The Great Depression? It sounds contrary to everything that we learned in history. Well, that’s because it is. It’s complete bullshit. David Sirota does us all the favor of quashing it in this piece for Salon. Of course, that won’t matter for most rightwingers. Things like the truth, logic and rational argument are all easily discarded whenever it conflicts with their ideology. The “FDR prolonged the Depression” nonsense fits in well with their preconceived notions, so they naturally embrace it irregardless of how completely stupid it is.
Here is a good example of how this kind of silliness gets perpetuated in rightwing circles. JimmyK takes an article by historian Alan Brinkley and carefully extracts a section that is critical of the New Deal to support the meme about prolonging the Great Depression. But left out is the all the stuff at the beginning of the article praising 90 percent of the New Deal programs....
Does the New Deal provide a useful model for fixing our own troubled economy? In many respects, yes. The frenzy of activity and innovation that marked Franklin Roosevelt's initial months in office--a welcome contrast to the seeming paralysis of the discredited Hoover regime--helped first and foremost to lessen the panic that had gripped the nation. And, during the prewar years of his presidency, Roosevelt's actions produced an unprecedented array of tangible achievements as well. He moved quickly and effectively to address a wave of bank failures that threatened to shut down the financial system. He created the Securities and Exchange Commission, which helped make the beleaguered stock market more transparent and thus more trustworthy. He responded to out-of-control unemployment by launching the Civil Works Administration, the Public Works Administration, and the Works Progress Administration, which created jobs for millions of the unemployed. He passed the Social Security Act, which over time provided support to the jobless, the indigent, and the elderly--and the Wagner Act, which eventually raised wages by giving unions the right to bargain collectively with employers. He signed the Fair Labor Standards Act, which created the minimum wage and the 40-hour workweek.
And even in his criticism, Brinkley notes that one of the biggest mistakes of the period - the Federal Reserve Boards insistence on keeping interest rates high - was not a product of New Deal policy.
This just proves that music is the universal language. The late-great Isaac Hayes’ masterpiece “Theme from ‘Shaft’” as reinterpreted by the Ukulele Orchestra of Great Britain.
I sure hope the Senate Democrats rethink their plan to physically block Roland Burris from entering the Senate chamber next week. I don’t care how righteous they think they are, it will turn into a huge and embarrassing fiasco if the all-white Senate were to bar the door on the only black man. Go ahead and launch the silly investigation and such - it will all be decided in the courts anyway, but spare us all the theatrics of having Burris escorted from the chamber by the Sergeant at Arms.
