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Christmas concert

Friday, December 21, 2007

Pick and choose what you’d like to watch. This is sort of eclectic. It’s hard to find good stuff on Youtube sometimes. I spent about half an hour trying to find a good clip of Eartha Kitt singing “Santa Baby”, which I think is a real howler. No luck, and Madonna’s version sucks by comparison.

First, from the White House, back in 1999, Eric Clapton and Sheryl Crow:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0UCi2HcrT4[/youtube]

My fellow aging hippies will no doubt remember the Perry Como show, a big hit in the ’50s. Here’s Perry with the Ray Charles singers:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9E5WqegfuyE[/youtube]

One of the oddest pairings in history, Bing Crosby and David Bowie:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gKTHvW2JcAA[/youtube]

Finally, this is a political blog, so I can’t leave out John Lennon. BE WARNED, this is not light viewing.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-BAvAA53sLo[/youtube]

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A moral dilemma

Friday, December 21, 2007

My wife and I watch almost no television. We have replaced the Daily Show/Colbert with Keith Olbermann since the writer’s strike. The Simpsons completes our weekly viewing. The TV itself is almost never turned on- I use my Mac as a Tivo, and I edit out the commercials.

Since we are rapidly approaching old geezerdom, we like our routines, so we really miss Stewart and Colbert. So it is with mixed emotions that I learn that they will both return on January 7th, writer’s settlement or no. They will be left to their own devices-no writers.

I am in a quandary. If I watch when they return, am I crossing a virtual picket line? Shouldn’t I, out of solidarity with the writers, who clearly have right on their side, hold out until the strike is settled? Can I justify watching by rationalizing that since I’m not a Nielsen family it doesn’t matter? Does the fact that I don’t watch the commercials make it alright?

All those years in Catholic school, and yet I can discern no clear answer to these burning questions. Ah, I know! What would Bush tell me to do? He would tell me to cross that picket line, would he not? At least he would as an abstract principle, though maybe not in the specific cases of Stewart and Colbert. Still, if I’ve learned anything in the past seven years, it is that I should never agree with George Bush on a matter of principle. My mind is made up.

Filed in Media | | Comments (1)

Town Council gives Hilton tax break for Christmas

Friday, December 21, 2007

Last week I mentioned that the Town Council was thinking of giving a developer a $60,000.00 tax break as an incentive to do something it had already done. This week the Council voted to do it:

The Town Council this week approved a one-year tax abatement for the Hilton Garden Inn of a little more than $60,000, in a 5-3 vote.

Groton Hospitality LLC, which is building the hotel on Gold Star Highway, asked for tax relief under the town’s financial incentive policy last summer. The final amount is 25 percent of the value of the upgrades to the hotel, which include a brick façade, additional landscaping and cherry finishes inside the hotel.

Councilor Rita Schmidt changed her mind since the council committee vote last week and opposed the tax break. Councilors Frank O’Beirne and Kathryn Brown-Tracy also voted against it. Councilor Heather Sherman Bond was absent.

The council plans to reconsider its incentive policy, which does not specify a time element in granting the tax breaks.

Granting the tax breaks is discretionary, so the time element is irrelevant. Congratulations to Rita for changing her mind on this giveaway and to rookie Brown-Tracy for being against it from the beginning.

Filed in Local issues | | Comments (0)

Suggestions wanted

Thursday, December 20, 2007

My wife and I are hoping to organize a local chapter of Drinking Liberally, starting in January. Before we formally hook up with the national folks we want to see if enough people show up to make it worthwhile. First order of business is choosing a location. We’ve been thinking of the Harp and Hound in Mystic, but we’re not sure there’s enough room there (or if it will be too noisy, since they often have live music), if it turns out people actually show up, or if it grows over time. We’re thinking of having meetings on Thursday nights, once or twice a month. If you’re unfamiliar with Drinking Liberally, here’s a nutshell description: Liberals meet at a bar for drinks and politics.

Anyone have any suggestions for a meeting place in the Greater New London area?

Filed in Uncategorized | | Comments (4)

Another blow for corporate rights

Thursday, December 20, 2007

The SEC takes care of business:

The U.S. Securities & Exchange Commission (SEC) has proposed changes that could prevent many shareholders from raising issues of social and environmental corporate responsibility.

Over the past few decades, shareholder resolutions have played a significant role in persuading major companies to improve their labor, environmental and corporate governance practices.

Filed in Creeping Totalitarianism, Economics | | Comments (0)

A simple proposal

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

The Fed has proposed a Plan To Curb Risky Lending which does not much for the past victims of predatory lending practices and appears to do not that much to prevent future abuse:

The plan includes provisions that would require more extensive disclosures, restrict advertising and make it harder to lend to borrowers with little or no documentation and a questionable ability to repay. It would also allow borrowers, in some circumstances, to sue lenders who violate the rules.

As a lawyer, I love that last line. What it really means is that in most circumstances the victims will be unable to sue for violations of the rules. But, I digress.

I’m well aware that simple solutions to complex problems are usually flawed. Nonetheless, in this case, I think there’s a simple solution that will be more effective than any disclosure requirements could possibly be. This is not to say that the sleazy kickbacks, etc., should not be outlawed. But if you really want to stop this stuff, you make sure that the loss falls on the people who cause the problem. Most of these subprime loans were retained by the original lenders for periods of time that could easily be counted in nanoseconds. They had every incentive to lend, and no incentive to care about future defaults. Nothing in the above proposals changes that. My suggestion: no mortgage secured by residential real estate can be transferred, conveyed, securitized, etc. for a period of five years from closing. If such a transfer takes place, the mortgage and underlying obligation becomes null and void.

I’m sure that the people who brought us this world wide economic disaster could tell us why this would be a terrible idea, inasmuch as it would deprive people like them of the chance to make a lot of money off of other people’s misfortunes. I’m sure it would be mocked as at attempt to roll back the clock and that it would stifle creative financing and cut off some people from the American dream of homeownership (followed by home-losership). But I’m willing to bet it would result in lenders being a lot more prudent about the loans they make, almost as if they were lending out their own money.

This proposal, by the way, has the virtue of being self enforcing. Despite what Alan Greenspan now says, the Fed could have got out in front on this issue. It didn’t want to, and it won’t want to on some future date when it is once again run by the disciples of Ayn Rand.

Filed in Economics | | Comments (0)

Kabuki show

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

Today the Senate Judiciary Committee, its members still outraged at the fact that Mukasey has told them to stuff it on investigating the CIA or anything else, are now going through the same dance with the fellow he’s chosen to be his deputy. Mark Filip, who helped Bush steal the election in Florida, is everyone agrees, just the nicest guy. But will he commit to respecting Congressional prerogatives? Well, there he gets a bit fuzzy, and on the “is waterboarding torture” question, well he just has to defer to his boss, whose still thinking about it. Maybe, just maybe, Mukasey should undergo the procedure himself. That might help him make up his mind.

For better or worse, the waterboarding question has become emblematic of the contempt with which Congress is held by Bush and all his minions, and the confirmation process proves just how much that contempt is deserved. There seems to be no chance this fellow will be denied confirmation, even though everyone knows that once confirmed he will follow Mukasey’s lead and tell Congress that the actions of the executive are none of their business. Yet hope seems to spring eternal in the breasts of the assembled Senators, particularly Arlen Specter, who constantly decries the Administration’s lawlessness, yet constantly enables it.

Some highlights:

The nominee, Federal District Judge Mark F. Filip, said in response to senators’ questions that he considered waterboarding, which causes a drowning-like sensation in the person being questioned, to be “repugnant,” and that the issue for him is not an impersonal one.

“I don’t view that as some sort of abstract platitude,” said Judge Filip, who has been nominated to be deputy attorney general. “I had a grandfather who was in a German prisoner-of-war camp.”

More:

“That said,” the nominee went on, “the attorney general of the United States is presently reviewing that legal question.” With Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey studying the issue, Judge Filip said, “I don’t think I can or anyone who could be potentially considered for his deputy could get out in front of him on that question while it’s under review.”

Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.), the panel’s ranking member, pushed Filip to agree that Congress had broad authority to launch investigations even as the Justice Department conducted its own. But Filip would not say that the department should defer to Congress. “I would hope, senator, not to have to pick between the two,” Filip said.

Would anyone like to make me a rich man and bet against me on two propositions:

1. Mukasey will not decide if waterboarding is torture until January 21, 2009, if ever.

2. Filip will choose between the two in a heartbeat, and he won’t be choosing Congress.

They all know it. He knows it. They know he knows it. And he knows that they know he knows it. And they all know, and he knows, that they’ll confirm him anyway.

Filed in Creeping Totalitarianism | | Comments (0)

Connecticut Democrats vote right

Wednesday, December 19, 2007

All four Connecticut Democrats voted against funding the Iraq and Afghanistan wars with no strings attached.

Here are the Democrats who didn’t cave:

Abercrombie, Ackerman, Allen, Andrews, Arcuri, Baca, Baldwin,
Becerra, Bishop (NY), Blumenauer, Boswell, Brady (PA), Braley (IA), Butterfield, Capps, Capuano, Cardoza, Carnahan, Castor, Clarke, Clay, Cleaver, Cohen, Conyers, Costello, Courtney, Crowley, Cummings, Davis (IL), DeFazio, DeGette, Delahunt, DeLauro, Doggett, Doyle, Duncan, Ellison, Engel, Eshoo, Farr, Fattah, Filner, Frank (MA), Green, Al, Grijalva, Gutierrez, Hall (NY), Hare, Harman, Higgins, Hinchey, Hirono, Hodes, Holt, Honda, Inslee, Israel, Jackson (IL), Jackson-Lee (TX), Johnson (GA), Jones (OH), Kagen, Kaptur, Kennedy, Kilpatrick, Klein (FL), Langevin, Lantos, Larson (CT), Lee, Lewis (GA), Lipinski, Loebsack, Lofgren (Zoe), Lowey, Maloney (NY), Matsui, McCarthy (NY), McCollum (MN), McDermott, McGovern, McNerney, Meek (FL), Meeks (NY), Michaud, Miller (NC), Miller (George), Moore (WI), Moran (VA), Murphy (CT), Murphy (Patrick), Nadler, Napolitano, Neal (MA), Oberstar, Obey, Olver, Pallone, Pascrell, Payne, Perlmutter, Price (NC), Rahall, Rangel, Richardson, Rothman, Roybal-Allard, Ryan (OH), Sánchez (Linda T.), Sánchez (Loretta), Sarbanes, Schakowsky, Schiff, Scott (VA), Serrano, Shea-Porter, Sherman, Sires, Slaughter, Smith (WA), Solis, Stark, Stupak, Sutton, Tauscher, Thompson (MS), Tierney, Towns, Tsongas, Udall (NM), Van Hollen, Velázquez, Wasserman Schultz, Waters, Watson, Watt, Waxman, Weiner, Welch (VT), Wu, Wynn, Yarmuth.

Democrats not voting: Hastings (FL), Hooley, Jefferson, Johnson (E.B.), Kucinich, Markey, McNulty, Pastor, Thompson (CA), Wexler, Woolsey

Nonetheless, it is a sad commentary on our times that the Democrats couldn’t get their act together on this. It’s interesting to note that Steny Hoyer, the Majority Leader, and Rahm Emanuel, the Chair of the DCCC, who insists that we race bait the immigration issue and who recruits right wingers to run for Congress as Democrats, are among the Democrats who, by process of elimination, must have voted to enable Bush’s wars. There is something very wrong when the leaders can’t get in front of the led. The first item of business in 2009 should be to show these folks back to the back benches.

Filed in Democrats | | Comments (1)

Fact free zones

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

According to the press no politician, particularly a Democratic politician, ever does something because it’s the right thing to do. Many of us believe that Chris Dodd saved the Constitution, at least temporarily, yesterday, but the AP knows best:

While his Democratic rivals campaigned in Iowa and New Hampshire, Sen. Christopher Dodd took to the Senate floor on Monday in hopes of pumping new energy into his presidential bid.

Dodd, D-Conn., spoke for several hours, seeking to block a bill that would shield telecommunications companies from lawsuits for their actions helping the government tap American communications after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.

No doubt, all about presidential politics. But this is a twofer. First they degrade the actions of a real hero, then they lie about the issue. The companies weren’t “helping the government tap American communications after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks”. They were helping the government wiretap communications before the terrorist attacks. If the reporter was unaware of this fact, he had no business writing this story.

UPDATE: Chris Dodd thanks the troops for their support:

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-I4Z0_dyFMc[/youtube]

Filed in Media | | Comments (1)

A legislator doing good work

Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Recently I passed on a suggestion from the comments that the Democrats in the Connecticut State Legislature should use their veto proof majority to keep Jodi Rell from appointing a replacement for Joe Lieberman, should Joe decide to depart for greener pastures. State Representative Tim O’Brien, (D. New Britain/Newington) wrote in to say that he proposed such a bill in the last session, and he’s planning to do so again this session. You can read the bill here. I thought I should promote this out of comments because 1) state legislators who do good things should be recognized, and 2) I’m not sure how many people read comments, and this is something that people should know about. I wrote my state legislators (and a couple of others) on this yesterday; so far no response from any of them. It seems like a no brainer, really. A companion bill to prevent the type of third party run he pulled in 2006 might be a good idea as well.

Speaking of Joe Lieberman, there was a piece about his McCain endorsement on the Olbermann show yesterday, in which there was a clip of Joe justifying his action by saying that none of the Democrats had asked for his endorsement and McCain had asked. Olbermann’s stand-in asked E.J. Dionne why none of the Democrats had asked, and for reasons that seem mysterious to me, Dionne danced around the answer. The same Democrats who ran interference for Joe in 2006 (looking at you Hillary and Barack) now realize that an endorsement from him would be the kiss of death in 2008. There’s not a one of them who wouldn’t be tempted to pay him to endorse one of their opponents.

Filed in Lieberman, Local issues, Presidential Politics | | Comments (0)