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A new local blog

Thursday, January 8, 2009

We live in an old (1791) house. Sometimes things gradually go wrong, and it takes us a while to realize we have been living with something for a long time that really ought to be fixed. Then, six or seven months later, we actually get it fixed. Today was one of those days.

The light fixture in our downstairs bathroom had three bulbs. It was installed about three years ago, and almost immediately one bulb stopped working (it wasn’t the bulb, it was something in the fixture). Sometime in the last few months, another bulb stopped working. Around the first of the year, the last bulb started to give out, so we sprang into action. We figured, that in addition to dealing with the emergency situation, it might be a good time to get a number of other long deferred electrical problems fixed, like the light in the upstairs bathroom, which showed signs of emulating its downstairs cousin.

We have a friend, a good Democrat, who’s a contractor, and we called him to recommend someone to do the work. He brought a fellow to the house today, and wouldn’t you know, he’s got a blog. Doesn’t everybody? Unlike yours truly, he writes about something he knows something about: energy use in our daily lives. He just started posting toward the end of December. Check him out at Helios at Home.

By the way, he does good work. Our fixture with the pull cord is no more, we now have a functioning light and a wall switch. This may not sound like much to you folks with 20th century homes, but those inhabiting relics from the 18th century may understand.


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Deliver us from Harry Reid

Wednesday, January 7, 2009

The Democrats have a real problem with Harry Reid. Right now we can see the pattern being set for weak, ineffectual, vacillating “leadership” of the Senate, which will inevitably lead to a failure to pass and implement Obama’s programs. The same people who rolled over to give Bush, an unelected President, carte blanche for eight years will join the Republicans to cripple Obama in the early going

First, let us pause to consider where Reid chooses to make a stand. Whatever you think of the Burris appointment, the fact is that there is no legal way that he can be refused a seat. Posturing prior to the appointment was acceptable, but posturing now makes no sense. It is particularly depressing that the Democrats can’t simply come forward and say that the law is the law, like it or not, and that Burris gets the seat. He’s an odd duck, but from all appearances, far superior to what passes for Senators from most of the red states. Reid has managed to make a bad situation far worse by fighting a battle that he must inevitably lose. He will inevitably have to back down, something he’s actually pretty good at, but Burris may be the first Democrat that’s ever made him do it.

Meanwhile, we have the spectacle of Harry Reid, the long time Bush enabler, signaling that he will by no means be enabling Obama:

Reid stated, “I don’t believe in the executive power trumping everything… I believe in our Constitution, three separate but equal branches of government.”

“If Obama steps over the bounds, I will tell him. … I do not work for Barack Obama. I work with him,” he said.

Those are actually very laudable sentiments. Who can disagree? Harry may even have endorsed them during the Bush presidency, but if he ever talked the talk, he never walked the walk. Somehow, he couldn’t bring himself to actually face down the man he says was the worst president in history. Unfortunately, there’s little doubt that he’ll walk the walk now, frustrating Obama while continuing to roll over and spout his “It takes 60 votes to pass anything in the Senate” nonsense whenever the Republicans decide to be obstructionist, which will, by the way, be always.

The Democrats and Obama have about a 6 month window of opportunity to prove that they can govern effectively. The Republicans are going to try to shut that window, but they needn’t go to a great deal of effort. The Democrats, with Reid in the “lead”, will shut it for them.

Reid, by the way, also believes that poor Ted Stevens should be spared jail time. According to Reid, poor Ted just didn’t understand that we’re living in a different world from the graft ridden one in which he rose to power, and that he’s been punished enough. As far as I know, so far he’s only lost an election. I’ve probably lost more elections than Stevens. Maybe I should get some get out of jail free card for a crime of my choice.

I hazard a prediction: every major piece of legislation proposed by Obama will die or be maimed in the Senate.

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Caroline Kennedy’s candidacy

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

By no means am I a Caroline Kennedy partisan. I will lose no sleep if she is not appointed to the Senate. Nonetheless I’m a bit mystified at the heated opposition her “candidacy” has generated in certain corners of the blogosphere, particularly at Firedoglake. In the latest piece on the subject, “Eli” argues that a potential Senator needs some minor league seasoning before hitting the big time:

The record shows that making the jump to the big leagues without any experience is not a recipe for prolonged success. Mike Morgan,the only one of those four players who sustained any kind of career, did spend two years in the minors after a terrible start. There is value to seasoning and experience, especially when it comes to high-pressure jobs like United States Senator or, yes, major-league pitcher.

In truth and in fact, plenty of people have made perfectly good Senators without serving time in the minors. It really isn’t like baseball. Baseball is harder. Just ask Jim Bunning, who had to retire when he lost his fastball, but who satisfies his constituents as a Senator, despite his senility. Moreover, if memory serves, Firedoglake was a big Lamont supporter, about whom the same argument was made by Joltin’ Joe (to extend the baseball analogy) Lieberman.

I can understand the anti-dynasty argument, and I’m sympathetic to it, but it seems that the anti-Kennedyites are becoming a bit rabid on this subject.


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I want one

Tuesday, January 6, 2009


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Coming Events

Tuesday, January 6, 2009

It’s that time again. While we ordinarily hold our Drinking Liberally Meetings on the first Thursday of the month, we decided that wouldn’t be such a good idea this month, considering the first Thursday was a holiday. So this month, and this month only, we will meet on the Second Thursday of the Month, once again at the Bulkeley House, 111 Bank Street in New London. We start at 6:30, though latecomers (within reason) are always welcome.

Also on the horizon is the end of our national nightmare, scheduled to take place at the stroke of noon, Eastern Standard Time on the 20th. We in Groton are going to be celebrating on the 20th at the Par Four restaurant at 93 Plant Street. We plan to be there starting at around 11:30. Even people from outside our fair city are invited. Here’s a critical excerpt from the mass mailing that my spouse sent out:

Please understand —we have not made reservations for food…since we don’t know how many people will be coming. We’ve simply arranged for at least one of the large screen TV’s to broadcast the event, and agreed a few of us will definitely be there and we hope many others will join us!!! But if you want to, you can choose and purchase your own food and drink.

Just as you should not drink alone, you should not watch this inauguration alone. You need to be with like minded people, so come to the Par Four and enjoy this historic day.


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Unmitigated gall

Monday, January 5, 2009

It’s hard to decide which is more egregious: the gall of John Yoo and John Bolton warning Barack Obama to stay within the constitutional limitations of the presidency, or the outrageousness of the New York Times decision to give these two fascists a platform.

I have said on numerous occasions that both the courts and the Republicans would suddenly discover that the president’s powers are limited, once a Democrat was elected. It will take a while for the courts to weigh in, but the Republicans are starting even before the inauguration. Imagine John Yoo, the torture enabler, the man who said that George Bush could make and unmake law at will, telling Barack Obama that he should avoid cutting constitutional corners. The article is in the opinion section of the New York Times. I refuse to provide a link, as a tiny protest against the irresponsibility of the Times giving these two a forum.

And who are Bolton and Yoo? Well, according to the Times:

John R. Bolton, the ambassador to the United Nations from 2005 to 2006, is a senior fellow at the American Enterprise Institute and the author of “Surrender Is Not an Option.” John Yoo, a deputy assistant attorney general from 2001 to 2003, is a law professor at the University of California at Berkeley and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

Just a few facts are missing. Among them: John R. Bolton is also the man who became ambassador to the United Nations because George Bush chose to cut constitutional corners by giving him a recess appointment after his nomination failed to pass the Senate. John Yoo is the guy who authored the torture memo, which Kevin drum aptly summed up as follows:

Basically, the president can authorize any action at all as commander-in-chief in wartime. Congress can’t bind him, treaties can’t bind him, and the courts can’t bind him. The scope of power the memos suggest is, almost literally, absolute. And since this is a war without end, the grant of power is also without end.

The New York Times gives these guys space to lecture Obama on constitutional niceties. Will there ever come a time when the “liberal” media will stop enabling these people?


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Harry Reid says that Bush is the worst president ever

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Harry Reid states the obvious: Bush is the worst president ever:

Given that he believes that, we must wonder why he did such a terrible job opposing the man, and why he caved in to him at almost every turn.

(Video from Think Progress)


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My nomination for the Bush turning point

Sunday, January 4, 2009

Bush is busily trying to burnish his legacy, and while the Washington Post appears to be assisting in every way possible, it’s a pretty good bet that the American people have now arrived at a settled judgment that even the “liberal” media won’t be able to alter. Many of the articles discussing this subject date the significant shift in Bush’s standing to the Katrina disaster, but I would suggest that Katrina represented more of a knockout blow to an already staggering President.

Bush started his first term by trying to destroy Social Security, which didn’t set well with the 98% or more of us who will actually need that money to get by in our geezer years. But what really sent his approval on the downward slide was the now almost forgotten Terry Schiavo episode.

The American people had been willing to give him the benefit of the doubt when he was accused of preferring to extend his vacation rather than deal with a pre 9/11 terrorist threat. But the sight of him rushing back to Washington from yet another vacation in order to inject the federal government into a personal, family issue, on the side with which most sane people disagreed sent him into a tailspin from which he never recovered.

There were those (including me) who saw the political opportunities the Schiavo crisis gave to the Democrats, but in true Democratic style, which persists to this day (I admit the post to which I linked was wrong about Reid) the Democrats ran scared. But that didn’t matter much. The American people were appalled, and when the Democrats in Congress came out of hiding they realized that Bush had suffered a huge self inflicted wound.

It was the Schiavo fiasco (along with the Social Security debacle) that set Bush up for the Katrina kill. Not many people, except the usual right wing suspects, were willing to cut him any slack when he screwed that up, precisely because they had already turned on him. Katrina may have made his position irretrievable, but it was Schiavo that turned the American people against him.

In my own humble opinion, what Bush and the Republicans did about Schiavo (with help from some scared Democrats such as Dodd, and turncoats such as Lieberman) was worse as a matter of principle than the Katrina disaster. Katrina was an example of incompetence on a grand scale. That’s not good, but it’s not evil. Schiavo was an example of a calculated attack on our system of government and on the basic human rights of our citizens, all rolled up into one. It was evil, one among many, and perhaps not the worst atrocity in which Bush and his folks engaged. But it was one to which every American can relate (and it was free of ambiguity, as opposed to the torture issue, which after all only applied to suspected terrorists), because each of us knew that one day we might have to make the same decision that Schiavo’s husband had to make, and none of us wanted the government making that decision for us, particularly a government run by religious bigots.

Update: Digby agrees.


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Franken lead swells

Saturday, January 3, 2009

The recount is, as far as I can see, over, and Franken is ahead by 225 votes. You can watch the proceedings at theuptake.org.


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Friday Night Music-Mavis Staples

Friday, January 2, 2009

Thanks to a reader for this suggestion, as well as a few more that I’m keeping in reserve. I never heard of this lady before, but I enjoyed this song.


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