Better Late Than Never

Here's video from MSNBC of Bush's departure from Washington. The crowd got the moment right. If you haven't seen this yet and are happy to see Bush go, this is a must-watch.

But Now What?

The pageantry of Barack Obama's inauguration is dying down. And by now he's probably wondering what the hell he's just gotten himself into.

The always excellent William Grieder has a great story on U.S. finances and how they're now driving the bus, not any politician, as reprinted here from the magazine "The Nation".

It brings to mind another occasion when a great world power had a new, eagerly awaited, leader that was promising more openness, accountability and freedom. I'm speaking, of course, about Mikhail Gorbachev, and we all remember how that worked out for the Soviet Union, right?

The important thing to remember is that the collapse of the Soviet Union was primarily a failure of their economic system and that the resulting disappearance of Ronald Reagan's Evil Empire was pretty much a complete surprise to everyone.

Arguably, U.S. supremacy has long rested not just on their military, but on the power of having the globe's reserve currency at their beck and call. Today, in the words of writer James Howard Kunstler, “America doesn't produce anything but fried chicken and haircuts.”

And Paul Craig Roberts, a former editor of the Wall Street Journal's opinion pages and Reagan's former Assistant Secretary of the Treasury (as well as being a noted paleo-conservative who's sometimes accused of being a whack-job) has gone even further, describing the U.S. as the world's largest ever 'failed state' in waiting.

Even some mainstream columnists are taking up the meme.

Nobody knows how the whole thing will play out, but one thing is certain. The America of tomorrow won't look much like the America of today.

But whether a better country or just another Third World hell-hole emerges out of it is anyone's guess.

Obama! Comix! Hooray!

Apparently I'm not the only funnybook devotee pleased with Barack Obama's shiny new presidency. Here's a link to a series of short essays on the United State's new top dog. One of them is by cartoonist Dan Clowes, a former Chicagan who's the same age as Obama. Clowes, for those not familiar with the man, is the author of the acclaimed graphic novel Ghost World and one of the best cartoonists in the world. Check it out.

Inauguration Part 2

President Obama's speech on YouTube.

President Obama's speech on YouTube -- played backwards.

And something that makes even less sense than President Obama's speech played backwards -- Rush Limbaugh's er, um, 'analysis' of President Obama's speech

Six In The Morning

Here's your post-sunrise headlines, for the second time this week. Maybe I'll eventually find the time to post this linkapalooza everday. (But so busy! And so lazy!)

1. STOP WHINING AND EAT THE DAMN TAR Liberal leader Michael Ignatieff tells Montrealers they should support Alberta and it's magical mudfields: "The stupidest thing you can do (is) to run against an industry that is providing employment for hundreds of thousands of Canadians, and not just in Alberta, but right across the country." He also apparently said the tarsands development must be made sustainable. Good luck with that.

2. REGINA DAYCARES CLOSING remember when everyone in Saskatchewan voted Stephen Harper's Conservatives into office and, as promised, they scrapped the Liberal national child care plan for a crummy monthly allowance? Maybe this is karma. (With apologies to the parents who are impacted.)

3. MASSIVE LAYOFFS AT MICROSOFT Five-thousand jobs, poof! gone. Microsoft blames the economy, we blame Vista.

4. STATE OF AFFAIRS Regina Mayor Pat Fiacco will give his State of the City address today. Wonder if he'll mention our town's anorexic rental market.

5. CAN'T HELP YOU, PLEASE GO AWAY The Dziekanski inquiry continues.

6. DRIP, DRIP, DRIP Oh yeah, and it looks like the south pole is melting after all. Global warming skeptics will have to find something else to justify their insane and dangerous delusions.

Inaguration Part 1

The first “WTF” moment came, for me, with the sight of Pete Seeger. Seeing the 89-year-old folk singer in front of a crowd isn’t all that new a thing – that’s been his job and career – and seeing him do it at the Lincoln Memorial wasn’t surprising. I would argue that seeing him sing under the gaze of law enforcement snipers and plain-clothes cops wasn’t new, either. But the fact that the guns weren’t pointed at him – and that the then-President-Elect was a few dozen meters away and smiling and clapping along – surely was.

This song was probably the best way to dance on the grave – and tramp the dirt down – on the Bushco doctrine. After everything, and all that’s been done, the ideas Seeger espouses are as unconquerable as sunrise. (video is at the bottom of Al's post)

To be honest, I once didn’t have much use for him. In my teenage years, when I was starting to get into music, I mistook volume for subversiveness, all folk music was suspect. It wasn’t that much different for most of my friends at the time. As well, I did a lot of my music listening in farm tractor cabs – and you just can’t hear a folk singer that well if you’re sitting six feet away from a diesel motor at full throttle.

And when I started knowing a lot more about music – including folk heroes such as Woody Guthrie – it seemed to me that Seeger was merely trying to make a living off the reflected, fading glory of Guthrie. Freaking out about Bob Dylan going on stage with an electric guitar and performing with the Paul Butterfield Blues Band at the 1965 Newport Folk Festival also didn’t endear himself to me – he seemed more like a conservative old fuddy-duddy.

It’s only later, when I read his life story and saw the pain and crap The Powers That Be gave him over his life, that I got a look at the real Pete Seeger. And after all this, he’s still a patriot to his country – partly because he’s not only read his country’s constitution but also he took it to heart.
As for Bruce? Well, one should compare this version of this song with the version he sung with the E Street Band for his first live album. That one sounded tentative, as if Bruce wasn’t sure that his audience grasped what the song really meant: the audience at the Washington Mall respond to Bruce, Seeger, and Seeger’s grandson as if they’ve been just released from jail after a revolution.

There’s a website that’s starting a petition to have Seeger receive the Nobel Peace Prize. Well, they should give it to him. They’ve given it to worse people …

Thank God

Goodbye Bush, hello Historic President. I wanted to find one simple link that sums the moment up. How's this? Give it up for number 44.

(More here.)

Government Demands Auto Industry Cut Wages

Apparently, according to industry minister Tony Clement, if GM and Chrysler want to tap into the $4 billion bailout fund the government has set aside for them, they have to slash their labour costs.

Now, hang on a second... weren't we told the whole problem with the North American auto industry was that the cars they were making were... well, maybe not crappy, but... inappropriate? You remember. It was that thing about American cars not being fuel efficient or environmentally responsible. The Big 3 were making big ol' gas guzzling SUVs and everybody agreed that just didn't make sense any more. Wasn't the bailout supposed to be tied to a commitment that they'd make better cars and start to take things like CO2 emissions and high fuel prices seriously? That way people would want to buy their cars again. I don't recall wage cuts being on the table back then.

And, another thing... in a period of recession, isn't the idea to keep as much money in the pockets of the public as possible so they can go out and spend it? Isn't that what you're supposed to do if you want to stimulate the economy?

So, wouldn't our government demanding that an industry cut their employees' wages do exactly the opposite of stimulate the economy? Mightn't that make it more flaccid?

I'm just saying...

Bush's Boring Last Day

Whelp, looks lawk Dubya has done pardoned hisself out. Two ex-border guards convicted of shooting an admitted drug smuggler in the ass will soon be out on the streets, their sentences commuted. The move is expected to delight the law 'n' order/anti-immigration crowd.

The non-pardons are expected to be the closest thing to last-minute pardons before Bush leaves office, though he can technically pardon anyone he wants until Obama is sworn in.

Bush previously issued 14 pardons before Christmas when nobody was paying attention, but sadly, nothing and no-one monserously controversial. In fact, at a piddly 189 pardons, Bush trails Clinton (457), Reagan (406) and one-term wonder Jimmy Carter (563).

Even worse, Bush isn't issuing dozens of controversial, pre-emptive pardons for war criminals and torture-boosters his administration was home to.

And here I was hoping to type up an easy afternoon cheap shot against the outgoing Worst American President Ever.

Oh well.

The Fly-Tanic

We know by now what happened in the Miracle on the Hudson. Here's a pilot's eye view, courtesy a British news agency and Microsoft Flight Simulator.

But there's two extra-special reasons to celebrate the successful controlled landing just offshore of Manhattan. First of all, as the blogger emptywheel notes, everybody involved in the emergency and rescue -- from the pilot and co-pilot to the New York ferryworkers and firefighters involved in the rescue -- are unionized workers.

Secondly, the captain of the stricken Airbus is 57 or 58 years old. Usually, airlines try to pension off guys as old as Sully, because pilots with less experience are cheaper. Sure, an airline might save a few thousand bucks if you let someone with experience go. And if the end result is a smoking hole in Midtown because of that ...