Sunday Coffee

Will screaming actually delay the Obama Administration? The two day honeymoon is over for the Republicans. John McCain said he wouldn't vote for the economic stimulus package without substantial rewrites because it wouldn't create enough jobs. This is a bit rich since nothing McCain proposed during the campaign would have created jobs either and he thought we were simply in a recession. I can't see how more tax cuts will generate jobs quickly either. In this case I think Obama went too far in accomodating the Republicans. Instead of getting into a useless exchange with Rush Limbaugh, Obama should simply propose raising the top tax levels to the same rate as under a respected Republican President--say Dwight Eisenhower. Same applies for McCain, let Cindi pay more and enact the estate tax.

To be fair, Warren Buffett and Robert Reich are saying that no one knows whether any of this is going to work. However, it must be said that the Republican comments at the White House meeting were laughable. They really don't get the severity of the crisis facing us. Constructive ideas would be welcomed but Boehner is really an embarrassment.

Would someone get Fredo a job? Alberto "Fredo" Gonzalez appeared on television to give an account of the ride home with Junior to Texas. He said the plane watched a film of Junior's achievements and Fredo wept. Junior said goodby with a kiss to his forehead and said to him,"Be Strong". In WASP code, that's "Get Yourself A Lawyer". If the family has let him remain unemployed for two years, it means he has been disowned. With possible prosecutions of illegalities during the Bush Administration, Fredo, David Addington, and John Yoo look like very easy targets. Will Fredo dive on his sword for Bush? It looks like it. Sad Sack.

Hormel is working overtime to produce SPAM, even putting on new shifts. SPAM was an old Depression favorite.

The New York Times bonds are rated "junk" now, another sign that newspapers are facing possible extinction. Even more disconcerting is the decision by American institution, MAD magazine to go a quarterly format.

Ken Silverstein, a wayward investigative reporter who has a habit of beating up old men--recall his attack on David Broder--finally has landed himself a real story for change. Writing in Mother Jones, Ken, pretending to be a burned out NASDAQ trader, saunters down to the Caribbean to open an account to hide his" personal wealth" to avoid taxes. Finding it easy to do, he reports that some $5 trillion has been laundered abroad by our fellow citizens to avoid taxes. Before Obama clamps down on the NSA, he might have it vacuum up the accounts and deposit them in the Treasury. In the Fall, the Bush Administration put out a report that suggested at least $1.5 trillion went abroad. Good job, Ken!

Democratic Underground is being nasty. They are enthusiastically encouraging Baseball Great Jim Bunning to seek re-election to the Senate in 2010, since he only won last time by 10,000 votes. Republicans are trying to dissuade Bunning from seeking re-election because of strong suggestions he suffers from Alzheimers. It's not going to be nice. Let the man go in dignity.

Norm Coleman certainly isn't going gracefully. He continues his lawsuits in Minnesota. Is this so he can keep raising money, which he deposits into his defense fund? Isn't that illegal? What if he actually won, how quick would it be before he was expelled from the Senate? Do you have to be indicted?

Joe B of Alexandria asks ,"Why wasn't Sarah Palin at the inauguration and why isn't anyone talking about it?" Her $150,000 wardrobe ended up in trashbags this week and not given to charity as promised. One answer to Joe's question is that she gave her state of the state address this week in Alaska. Another is that she was busy working on a $11 million book deal to provide for her family, who sacrificed so much for the country.

The wags are saying Obama's approval rating has fallen from his transition high of 86%. He is now down to 77%, which proves absolutely nothing. After all George W. Bush did what he thought was right, and his ended up at 22%. But let's look at someone others. Nancy Pelosi is at a high of 42%; Hapless Harry Reid is at 34; Mitch McConnel is at 27% and Boehner is at 22%. Congressional Democrats have an aggregate rating of 41% and Republicans at 26%. Overall, asked about who will help the economy the most: the Democrats rate 57% and Republicans 34%. I would humbly suggest these numbers account for Republicans plaintively criticizing the stimulus package for the lack of jobs being created.

Progressives worried that Obama had adopted some loophole against the prohibition against torture this week by establishing a group to study possible other techniques. Only in Washington could this stuff happen. The CIA wants its very own techniques even if they are identical to those in the Army Field Manual. So someone will have to re-word the Field Manual to reflect that it is CIA agents doing the interrogating and this will be issued as a CIA publication--no hand-me down Field Manuals from the Army. Obama staff made it clear to the press that there will be no loopholes. It is pathetically simple as that. For all the back and forth in the press on all the Gitmo closing nonsense and the curtailing of surveillance, all the sources are engaged in bureaucratic warfare and tryng to secure their own turf. It has nothing to do with policy--heaven forbid.

Al Qaeda had a tough week. The Saudi farm team lost 40 of their trainees, who were training in biological warfare and infected themselves by accident with the bubonic plague. As the Washington Post reported this morning, they are scrambling to find an effective propaganda effort against the Obama Administration. They loved Junior, he was a goldmine for recruiting. Zahawiri blasted Obama as a "House Negro" and championed real blacks like Malcolm X. This only led Malcolm X's family to blast back at Al Qaeda and embrace Obama. The next stunt was to blame Obama for the Israeli offensive in Gaza, even though he had refrained from speaking of the matter before being sworn in. I feel this was more ambulance chasing by Al Qaeda, who wanted to match Iran's condemnation of Obama on this matter. By the end of the week, Obama came through with his campaign promise, sending Predators after their bases, something John McCain and Junior had said was foolhardy.