Wall Street Bonuses

President Obama (that has a nice ring to it) expressed outrage at the $20 billion in bonuses that Wall Street executives awarded themselves despite the fact that their firms received taxpayer money to encourage them to make loans, which have not been made. Didn't members of Congress fall all over themselves in the fall of 2008 babbling about how they insisted that such conduct must be forbidden for them to vote for the Wall Street bailout pushed by former President George Walker Bush? I thought that Congress had taken care of that. What happened?

Gov. Paterson, why pick an upstater?

New York Governor David Paterson picked Rep. Kirsten Gillibrand to be U.S. Senator replacing Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

The nature of the Senate is that it over represents rural areas. Wyoming has two senators just like New York even though New York has a population about 20 times that of Wyoming. That puts populous states like New York at a disadvantage.

Now New York's own governor has chosen someone from a rural area. Since this person has not been elected to the office, Gov. Paterson should have chosen someone who comes from New York City or nearby, so that the overwhelming majority of the state population would have one of its own in the Senate.

The list of candidates was weak except for Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, for whom Rep. Gillibrand worked briefly as special counsel when Cuomo was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development under President Bill Clinton. There was also former Nebraska Governor and U.S. Senator Bob Kerry, currently president of the New School in New York City.

This appointment will help define David Paterson in 2010 when he seeks to be elected to the office of governor, an office to which Paterson ascended unelected when his predecessor resigned in disgrace because of a sex scandal. Former governors Theodore and Franklin Roosevelt must be turning over in their graves.

Nationalize the damn banks!

A couple of days ago Paul Krugman wrote in his New Times OpEd piece that no one wanted to consider what seemed like the obvious course to correct the economy's money problems: nationalizing the banks.  We should nationalize any institution that we think should be bailed out, especially the banks.  This is an extension on my original position that the Federal Reserve BANK (that four letter word that is always omitted) lend money directly.

Otherwise what you have is trickle down economics on a massive scale: providing private banks with money and hoping that they do what you want them to do with the money.  Just do it!  Treat the banks like loan sharks, pests that you tolerate but do not need.

What I have in common with President Obama to the exclusion of all other presidents.

Each of us is the son of an immigrant.

Obama is president. What a relief.

When Jimmy Carter was inaugurated in 1977 it was a breath of fresh air.  The stench of Nixon's scandals and Ford's preemptive pardoning of Nixon left the country in need of a good airing out.   Carter becoming president did that.

Clinton succeeding Reagan/Bush in 1993 was refreshing.  Finally another smart guy.  It was a break from the small mindedness and trillion dollar per four year term of increased federal national debt.

Obama succeeding Bush the younger, who won two elections he should have lost, is a relief.

What a great country.  No other country could have come this far, this fast, to overcome second class citizenship for blacks and move into an entirely new culture.  This is why America is better than other countries: we use all our people.  We do not hold them back.  That generates enormous energy and creates a huge pool of talent.  It enables us to imagine.

Laura Bush for U.S. Senator from New York

Laura Bush.  Of course.  She has exactly the same qualities that Hillary Clinton had when Hillary became U.S. Senator from New York:

1. Laura does not live in New York.

2. Laura was married to the President of the United States for the previous eight years.

3. Laura has never held elective office.

New York Governor David Paterson yesterday indicated that he may take gender into consideration in selecting a successor to Sen. Clinton (who is becoming Secretary of State) because only 17 of the 100 U.S. senators are women.  Hey, Laura is a woman!

Gov. Paterson also indicated that ethnicity may be considered.  Well, he mentioned only one  ethnic group: Hispanics.  He said that New York has not had an Hispanic hold state wide elective office.  I cannot recall an Hispanic person being the nominee of either the Democratic or Republican parties for governor, U.S. senator or state attorney-general.  Comptroller maybe? Being a candidate would increase chances of being elected so I do not understand the governor's reasoning in singling out one particular ethnic group for special consideration unless, maybe, the governor is playing politics.  For instance I do not recall an Asian person being a candidate for any of those offices and the governor does not seem to be concerned about them.  Maybe because they are not vocal.

New senate candidate for New York.

Bob Kerry.  No, not John Kerry.  Bob Kerry.  Bob Kerry has been living in New York longer than Hillary Clinton has been a U.S. senator from New York.  Bob Kerry is president of the New School where he may have worn out his welcome.  Good.  That frees him to consider the senate seat soon to be vacated by Obama's ill considered nomination of Hillary Clinton to be Secretary of State.  Hillary will be only the second politician to be Secretary of State since 1947.  The other was Maine Senator Edmund Muskie who was filling in during Carter's last year because Cyrus Vance had resigned in protest to Carter actually taking action after Americans had been taken hostage in Iran.  Remember all that?

Bob Kerry is a Viet Nam war hero who lost a leg fighting for his country.  He was elected governor of Nebraska, then U.S. Senator from Nebraska.  After that he moved to New York City.  He had the courage to propose real changes to reform the Social Security system.  He briefly ran in the 1992 presidential primary, which was ultimately won by Bill Clinton.

Bob Kerry would be a great choice to succeed Hillary Clinton as U.S. senator from New York.

Obama enters by train.

Barack Obama will enter Washington, DC by train.  He will arrive in Philadelphia, then take the train to Wilmington, DE to pick up his VP, Joe Biden, then slowly head to Washington waiving to onlookers along the route.  Great imagery.  Great message.  That moron Bush could never have mustered enough imagination to make this simple but fundamentally important trip.

As president he should take the train to New York City to go to the United Nations building to address the General Assembly.  I have been waiting many years to see a president make that train trip.  The last president to do it may have been Truman.

We need trains.  America should have the best trains in the world.  Since we need to spend gobs of money to stimulate the economy, spend it on trains.  That helps with energy, manufacturing, jobs, infrastructure, environment, national defense.  Whew!  That's a lot.  So let's do it!

Bush is a pig.

I just read that George Walker Bush, outgoing president of the United States, is buying an 8,500 square foot house in a Dallas, TX suburb.  That makes him a pig.

1. We are in the middle of financial meltdown with many foreclosures.

2. We have finally accepted that we have a big problem with energy and need to conserve and stop burning stuff (oil, gas, coal, etc.) to create energy.

How the heck does this total failure justify his opulence and ignoring the twin realities mentioned above?  He must be a pig.

8,500 square feet for two people?  How much energy will each of them consume living there?

I did not expect Bush too return to that prop ranch that he bought to imitate his presidential hero.  No, not his father.  Reagan, who had a prop ranch long before Bush the younger would have ever thought of it.  Why are they props?  What actually gets done?  Both prop masters cleared brush to have a pretend activity that might justify the description as a ranch.  Plus, it gave each a photo op to show to the white trash who flocked to them against their own best interests.

Way to go, white trash.  Elect pigs who use up way more than their share of the resources and at your expense.  White trash electing pigs.  Great metaphor.