Wednesday, February 25, 2009

This and that...

Just a couple of quick thoughts on the past few hours/days in politics:
  • Obama's speech has been analyzed to death. Politico has a nice review of what Obama was saying between the lines.
  • Jindal was just plain weak. He's been analyzed to death too. There's a reason I call him the Indian Clarence Thomas: extreme right-wing ultra-conservative that doesn't say much but when he does say something he sounds like an idiot.
  • I don't know anything about Gary Locke other than his Democratic response to one of W.'s State of the Union addresses. I reached out to a friend in Washington state to get his thoughts but haven't heard back.
That's it for now. More when I get another chance...

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

Tom Friedman's column in today's New York Times

Thomas L. Friedman pens yet another great column in today's New York Times showing his expertise on South Asian affairs. Check it out if you can.

Stimulus done; next stop: Housing

Now that the stimulus is done, the President will be announcing his housing plan at 12:15pm today. In a well choreographed moment, 29 minutes after the bill was signed, the first infrastructure project paid for with stimulus money began: the construction of a bridge in Missouri. A lot of folks are saying this is a classic Rahm Emanuel move.

Monday, February 16, 2009

Ooh, a thinker. Why would we have wanted that?

Politico reports that President Obama actually wants to think through recommendations from the Department of Defense and ask probing questions about the usage of troops. Wow, this is what it feels like to have a president that likes to think with his brain? It's a far cry from the 7th worst president of all-time.

Presidential Survey

C-SPAN released their new survey of presidents, ranking the 42 people that have been POTUS prior to Barack Obama. Highlights/surprises:
  • Abe Lincoln was #1, George Washington #2 ... James Buchanan dead last at #42. (Oh gee, surprise, surprise.)
  • George W. Bush debuts at #36 on this list
  • Ronald Reagan cracks the top ten at #10
  • Bill Clinton is the greatest living president at #15
  • Harry Truman at #5?
Check out the list and enjoy!

Friday, February 13, 2009

House Passes Stimulus

The House passed the Stimulus bill by a vote of 246-183 with one member voting present. The bill will be voted on in the Senate sometime today. The vote will most likely occur around 5:00pm, which the monotonous C-SPAN voice said is "to accommodate religious beliefs of some members." In other words, so Joe Lieberman can vote for the bill.

I'm curious to know who voted "Present". House.gov does not have any information yet.

On to the Senate...

House and Senate to Vote today; Stimulus bill now $787 Billion

Looks like the House will hold a vote around 1:00pm today and the Senate sometime later in the day on the stimulus bill. Looks like President Obama could get his wish of having the bill on his desk prior to President's Day. Stay tuned...

New Gigs Coming Up

A personal note here: I have two gigs coming up. The flyers for the gigs are below. One is at 5:30pm on Saturday, 2/28 at Comic Strip Live and the other is at Tierney's in Montclair at 8:00pm on Sunday, 3/8. I need a minimum of four guests for the Comic Strip Live show so if you're undecided as to where to go, please try to come to that one! Thanks.

House of Cards

Great documentary on CNBC last night hosted by David Faber called House of Cards. It really goes into detail explaining all sides of this mess and does not take sides in the Mortgage lenders vs. Home buyers debate. It is going to air a few more times over the next few weeks so be sure to check it out!

Thursday, February 12, 2009

Judd Gregg withdraws nomination as Commerce Secretary

Judd Gregg (R-NH) has withdrawn his nomination as Secretary of Commerce. This made little sense when he was nominated and makes even less sense now. Why do I get the feeling he's only got two years left in the Senate before he goes back home to New Hampshire permanently?

Lincoln/Darwin Birthdays and Stimulus Holding Pattern

Amazing that both Abraham Lincoln and Charles Darwin were born on February 12, 1809, exactly 200 years ago today. Newsweek has an article that talks about the impact both have had on our world. For anyone trying to determine who made the greater contribution (as many of the comments on that article attempt to do), let's just accept it as comparing apples to oranges and leave it at that.

The stimulus issue is in a holding pattern today as the House and Senate decide when to vote on the newly compromised (pun intended) bill.

As far as sharing birthdays go, I happen to share a birthday with former New York Jets running back Curtis Martin (May 1, 1973). He was certainly my most favorite Jet player of all time even before I knew we shared a birthday. This guy was good and helped put the Jets back on the map but I didn't like him as much as his predecessor.

Wednesday, February 11, 2009

We have a deal!

Senators are announcing right now to announce that House and Senate negotiators have reached a deal on the economic recovery (aka stimulus) bill.

Immigration Bailout?

Thomas L. Friedman has a great column in today's New York Times about how restricting immigration could impact the economic recovery. Fareed Zakaria also has a recent column in Newsweek about a similar topic. Zakaria also talks about how Canada is the only industrialized country not to have a banking bailout. Check out both columns because they're chock full of information that you won't typically get from network or cable news.

Video of Obama's First Primetime Address

Okay, I've got this embedding thing figured out. So here is the full video from Monday's Press Conference.



I have to say, this is a refreshing change from a guy (Bush 43) who couldn't answer a question and, on a couple of occasions, used a planted reporter to ask positive questions if the press conference was getting away from him.

My Thoughts on A-Rod

As a Met fan it kills me to defend a Yankee but I have to do it. I wasn't surprised by Alex Rodriguez's admission that he used a banned substance in 2003. Oddly enough, it was in 2003 that a former co-worker (who I will not name because I am no longer in touch with him and don't have his permission to quote this story) told me a story about his days as a minor league ballplayer. He mentioned that one of his minor league teammates played high school baseball with A-Rod. (I don't recall if this person was a teammate or on a competing high school team in the same league.) He mentioned that the person has told him that as a junior, A-Rod was approached by a team's scout, who told him that he had the skills but needed to bulk up by 15-20 pounds to guarantee being the top overall draft pick. The scout arranged for A-Rod to acquire some illegal substance to add on the weight and, lo-and-behold, Alex Rodriguez becomes the first overall selection of the Seattle Mariners.

Now I'm not saying what A-Rod did was right. I'm just saying that there are many more layers to peel off this onion and we can't swing from calling him the player with the most integrity to the one with the least overnight. There is a large gray area here regardless of whether or not the story I recall above is true. (Remember, I'm getting this information third-hand so I can't verify its validity other than to say the co-worker telling me this story was a pretty reliable guy.)

Also, to all those people that think the records should be thrown out, I was saying this back when Bonds was chasing the home run title: "throw out the records only if you can prove that not a single pitcher that gave up a home run to Barry Bonds was juiced." Few people were with me before the Mitchell Report when I said the pitchers had more reason to use performance enhancing substances than hitters and the Mitchell Report proved me right. In a bizarre, twisted, and absurd way, the playing field was level for all those home runs hit by Bonds, A-Rod, and everyone else in major league baseball, just like all of Roger Clemens' strikeouts against clean hitters count as much as those against juiced hitters.

Tonight's Word - Colbert Report 2/10/2009

I haven't posted in the week since I started this blog. I'm still getting the hang of this thing and to figure out how to post a video clip, I decided to post this clip from last night's Colbert Report. Enjoy!

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

I need to get this off my chest...

I've been watching MSNBC today and I have only one question:

WHAT IN THE WORLD IS CONTESSA BREWER WEARING TODAY? If you haven't seen it, it's a red dress that looks like the face of any non-human "Star Trek: The Next Generation" character.

Next HHS Secretary?

This morning on Morning Joe, Chuck Todd reported that the replacement for Tom Daschle could be Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius. I am amazed by Sebelius' political acumen simply by the fact that she is a Democratic Governor of a bright red state. Also, she was the state insurance commissioner that took on the largest insurer in the state of Kansas, so she's not likely to be bullied by the insurance industry as others might be.

A name that is interesting in all of this is former Oregon Governor John Kitzhaber, who is an M.D. and has made health care reform a personal issue with his Archimedes Movement. It is also believed that he may campaign for the position.

A thought I had was in addition to being HHS Secretary, Daschle was also going to be the White House Health Care czar. I wonder if both Sebelius and Kitzhaber would fill each fill one of those positions. No word on whether the two know each other. Ironically, Sebelius was sworn into office on the same day Kitzhaber's term ended in Oregon.

Either way, both of these potential nominees give me a better vibe than Daschle, especially with both of them being former governors and Washington outsiders (Tom Daschle was neither) at a time when Obama seems to be getting burned by Washington insiders.

Quick Thoughts on Tom Daschle

What I've heard from a couple of people that work in the healthcare industry is if Daschle had enacted what he put in his book, the healthcare industry would not be better off. And I'm hearing this from people that think the system is broken now!

I haven't read the book but I'll get around to it and see what I think. Right now I just got Gwen Ifill's new book and Chuck Todd's book on Amazon so it's next in the queue after I finish reading Stephen Colbert's book.

My Solution to the BCS Mess

(Wow, I have had way too many thoughts these past few months. I should have started this blog months ago.)

We've heard politicians talk about the college football "championship" situation. Here is what I think they should do:
  • Keep the BCS points system: this can be used to determine mid-major conference teams and seeding.
  • Use the Rose, Orange, Sugar, and Fiesta Bowls as National Quarterfinal games: this way if a team makes it to the Final Four but doesn't get to the championship game, they can still call themselves "Rose Bowl Champs", "Orange Bowl Champs", etc. Even better, keep them all as January 1st games to make New Year's Day the National Quarterfinal Day. Then you can have the semifinals around 1/8 (which is when this year's championship game took place) and have the national championship around 1/15. Better still, why not schedule the national championship game to take place on Martin Luther King, Jr. Day every year?
  • Select three new locations each year for the two semifinal games and championship game: cities fall over themselves trying to host college basketball's final four. Can you imagine how far they would go for college football even if they'll just be getting one game?
How would the teams be picked? Take the conference champion from the Big Ten, Big 12, Pac Ten, Big East, SEC, and ACC. Then take the top two mid-major teams in the BCS standings, so long as they finish in the top ten. If there is only one mid-major team in the top ten, pick the highest remaining team without an automatic bid. If there are no mid-major teams, pick the two highest teams without an automatic bid.

What if there are two or more mid-major teams in the top ten and a high ranked team, like Alabama in 2008, did not win their conference? Too bad. Win your conference or go to a lesser bowl. You deserve to go to the San Diego County Credit Union Poinsettia Bowl on Dec. 23rd for thinking you're better than you actually are. This suggestion is still not truly equitable for the mid-major conferences but at least it's better than what they have now.

Where would teams play? After the seedings are done, the best way to do it would be to send the #1 seed to the bowl closest to them, followed by #2 to the closest of the remaining three sites, etc. This would reward teams for finishing higher in the standings.

What matchups would this have yielded for the 2008-09 bowl season? Here goes (based on this past season's final BCS rankings):
#1 Oklahoma vs. #8 Virginia Tech (Sugar Bowl)
#2 Florida vs. #7 Cincinnati (Orange Bowl)
#3 USC vs. #6 Boise State (Rose Bowl)
#4 Utah vs. #5 Penn State (Fiesta Bowl)

Then the 1/8 winner would play the 4/5 winner, etc. You can also preserve the other "lesser" bowls that schools currently use to generate revenue for their schools.

How would things have turned out this year? I'm guessing Florida and Oklahoma would still have made it to the national championship game with the same result. However, as President Obama said in his interview with Matt Lauer before the Super Bowl, wouldn't it be much better if Florida had won through a playoff?

Barack Obama: The First 7 Habits President?

The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People is a self-help book written by Dr. Stephen Covey in 1989. I was fortunate enough to take a 7 Habits workshop at a previous employer. For people that aren't familiar with the 7 Habits, check out the FranklinCovey website for more information.

How do the 7 Habits relate to Barack Obama? I started thinking about this during the campaign as I watched how he fended off both the Clinton machine and the Republican party. Here are some quick bullet points on what I've seen and what I think:
  1. Habit 1: Be Proactive - The use of 'proactive' here is as opposed to 'reactive'. The was evident when he made his speech about race after the barrage of Rev. Wright clips making their way around the media.
  2. Habit 2: Begin with the End in Mind - The campaign talked about how focused they were by establishing their message and strategy up front and following through. Where the Clinton campaign constantly changed their message, the Obama campaign established their message and adapted their tactics to the situations that came up.
  3. Habit 3: Put First Things First - Obama has focused on the economy first and foremost. Although there are other issues and problems in the world, it seems the economy has been put on the front burner because resolving that issue will lead to the betterment of other problems.
  4. Habit 4: Think Win/Win - Obama's focus on bipartisanship has shown how he seeks to seek a Win for everyone involved, not just the Democratic side at the expense of Republicans, which is the way politics has been played in the past.
  5. Habit 5: Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood - The President's leg work in reaching out to Republicans, even visiting with them at the Capitol shows this habit. A profile that one of the cable news stations did about him (I don't recall which one) mentioned how as president of the Harvard Law Review, he would make conservatives members that he vehemently disagreed with feel as though he heard their point of view even though he did not share their opinions.
  6. Habit 6: Synergize - This habit is all about the sum being greater than the individual parts. His selection of former rivals Joe Biden and Hillary Clinton, as well as other key figures that were not always ardent supporters shows how he values differences and collaboration.
  7. Habit 7: Sharpen the Saw - Aside from his Hawai'i vacation prior to the inauguration, he has shown that he takes time off to focus on things that matter to him personally, like taking his daughters to school.
These are just things I've seen and noticed about his habits as a candidate and president. Let's see if this holds in the future.

Welcome to my blog!!!

Hey folks! Thanks for checking out my blog. I created this mainly to share my thoughts on things happening in the world of politics (and occasionally about sports). Unlike most blogs, I don't want to be the guy shouting "hey, listen to me, I'm important!" I'd like to be more like Matthew Cerrone of metsblog.com (which is my favorite blog, by the way. Please check it out if you're a Met fan), who once described himself as "the guy in the middle of a crowded room telling people 'check this out and check that out'".

So I hope you enjoy this and become readers for as long as I have something to say.

Thanks for your time,
Amod