January 2009 - Posts
Shame That Tune:
The men of the past were called Robber Barons... The ones who dreamt of cornering the Gold Market, or monopolizing silver, or even of paying 450 million in bonuses to 400 people who caused a company to collapse -- that last example coming from the ancient history that was... yesterday. But in our fifth story tonight, financial treason so injurious to the nation that it makes a beggar out of language, and an angry President out of a heretofore almost imperturbable new chief. 18 billion in bonuses for Wall Street last year... the year you and I gave Wall Street...billions more... as bail-outs. CONTINUED >>
Economy by Partisanship:
It is Lucy pulling away the football she has held for Charlie Brown. As she always has. As she always will, in perpetuity. The Republicans who have pushed to strip decades of regulations that had protected the economy from -- from, well, this... Have, now, in our fifth story on the Countdown, reneged on promised bi-partisan support for the Stimulus Package, and offered instead... more George Bush tax cuts, which they had promised would protect the economy from -- from, well, this. CONTINUED >>
Everything Must Go:
Having spent his first full day in office enacting orders to make his administration open and transparant... President Obama, spending this, his second full day, starting to reclaim America's moral high ground. Our fifth story on the Countdown: The President, signing an order to close the prison at Guantanamo Bay Cuba... by one year from today. CONTINUED >>
Almost Here: Inheriting a nation at war on two fronts...as well as a financial crisis. At least one stimulus plan already seeming to have been put into action... even before Mister Obama takes the oath of office at Noon tomorrow on the steps of the Capitol behind me: Our fifth story on the Countdown: For all the grim reality, it is as if a grimmer one still has been removed, exorcised... As if a storm has broken, and for whatever the devastation, now, at long last, the clean-up and the repair, can finally begin.
CONTINUED >>
America's Torture Scars:
And virtually everything Mr. Obama must undo starting next Tuesday, President Bush did... in the name of 9/11. We had to shred the Constitution, for 9/11. We had to become torturers, for 9/11... to prevent another one... to ensure justice for those behind 9/11 itself. And tonight, in our fifth story, on the eve of Mr. Bush's last fevered attempt at legacy re-writing, tonight we know for sure not only that Mr. Bush's decision to torture merited that word -- we know it now from a Bush official... But we also know that it has denied this nation, the victims of 9/11, and their loved ones... the chance to see some justice done... for that awful day. CONTINUED >>
You're Welcome, America:
The ranking Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee today calling Senator Hillary Clinton, quote: "the epitome of a big leaguer"...Making reference to working with her "when she is secretary of state"...Adding that "her qualifications for the post are remarkable."Our fifth story on the Countdown: Since her fitness for the job is not and never was the question...Congressional Republicans today dredging up their most memorable accomplishment of the 1990's. Pointlessly beating up on her husband. CONTINUED >>
Closing Argument:
He ranged from reminding the viewer of the angriest of Richard Nixon's news conferences... to recalling Hillary Clinton choking up with emotion at a diner in New Hampshire... to finally, ultimately, sounding like the buzzed guy at the bar running the gamut of emotions from regret, to buying a round for the place, to challenging everybody there to a fight. Our fifth story on the Countdown: at least there was this to say about the final news conference of George W. Bush, as President...Nobody threw a shoe at him this time. CONTINUED >>
War Crime and Misdemeanors:
The trouble with running as a change candidate...With presenting your candidacy as a vessel to wipe clean the abuses of the previous administration...Is that -- upon taking office -- people are going to be expecting change... substantial change... with the urgency of now. Our fifth story on the Countdown: On the one hand, President-elect Obama again promising today that his administration will not torture... On the other... picking as his top adviser on counter-terrorism... a CIA veteran under fire for his past statements about... torture. CONTINUED >>
The Fierce Urgency of Mid-February:
Throughout the transition -- the American economy plunging ever deeper into crisis -- The reality that the nation has only one president at a time...and it is not yet Mr. Obama... Never seeming more prohibitive... or surreal...Than this morning... When, in our fifth story on the Countdown: The President-elect, taking the extraordinary step of giving an address to the nation before he takes office... Warning that without swift and dramatic action... The American economy could be mired in recession -- or worse -- for years to come. CONTINUED >>
Reid it and Weep:
On Capitol Hill, the clock, ticking down on putting together that economic stimulus bill... that Mr. Obama has named as his top priority upon taking office. Exactly what has the Democratic leadership of the Senate done during the 32-hours -- and counting -- since it convened its new session? In our fifth story on the Countdown: We know what they won't be doing -- they won't be watching someone seek their Senate nomination in Pennsylvania... details presently. But exactly what have the Democrats done? Day two of the Circus Burris... CONTINUED >>
In The Line of Firings:
Vice President-elect Joe Biden today calling the transition team's leak of the Panetta pick at CIA -- without having first informed Senators Feinstein or Rockefeller, the top two Democrats on the Intelligence Committee -- quote: "Just a mistake." Yet the transition did not make the mistake of neglecting to inform Senator Wyden -- the one, two, three -- third ranking Democrat on the Committee... Raising the question -- in our fifth story on the Countdown -- of whether the President-elect deliberately did an end-run around Mrs. Feinstein and Mister Rockefeller... Two Democrats who have failed to curtail -- if not enabled -- the Bush administration's policies on the torture of detainees... And the wiretapping of its own citizens. CONTINUED >>
Back to Work:
And the night before the Senate of this nation is to convene... With twin plot-lines that neither Frank Capra nor Rod Serling would've touched. An ex-Saturday Night Live comic, elected by just 225 votes in a Minnesota re-count... And a distinguished member of the Hall of Fame of Centralia, Illinois, appointed by an allegedly, almost-cartoonishly, corrupt governor. Call it: Mr. Franken and Mr. Burris Go To Washington... And who knows what they'll find when they get there. CONTINUED >>
