Hey guys, post-election blues got you down? Check out this new video from The Onion. It brightened my day:

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Note: I wrote this column on the assumption that Barack Obama will go on to win the U.S. Presidency tonight. That is still my active assumption. If I turn out to be wrong, you can pretty much scrap everything I’ve written, and I will happily stand at attention while everyone here hurls digital eggs right at my face.

There will be time for backbiting and recriminations, but right now there are a couple of things we all need to accept. Today John McCain is going down in defeat, and with him goes the Republican Party’s chances of controlling the national government for at least the next election cycle and possibly much longer. More importantly, the Age of Reagan has officially ended. For the first time since 1976 a genuine liberal has won the White House, and that in itself marks a significant point of departure from the last three decades of American political history. My friends, we have entered the wilderness. How long we spend there depends on how we adjust to the challenges we face.

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Jesse Jackson recently gave an interview with the New York Post. While everyone seems to be focusing on the parts of the interview that deal with Israel, I think the reverend’s comments on race and society are far more illuminating:

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The following youtube video is a recorded conversation between Congressman Tim Mahoney and Patricia Allen, a former female staffer, whom we learned yesterday has been, ahem, serving the good congressman in more ways than one. Even for a viewing public inured to the shocking truth of infidelity and betrayal as portrayed on countless reality TV shows, this conversation sounds especially ugly.

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Over the last week or two, the credit crises which first hit the United States has made its way across the pond. And suddenly, European politicians who were only recently chortling over American discomfort are finding themselves trapped in much the same sort of conundrum: declining prices, plummeting stock markets, the absence of business credit, and a contracting economy. And things may get even worse in Europe than they will in America. The UK Telegraph has this to say:

The $700 billion Paulson rescue plan should put a floor under the colossal dung heap known as “structured credit”. It is a bad plan, since it does not target the money on the recapitalisation of the core banking system. But it will help refloat lenders by raising the price of beaten-down securities somewhere nearer their true “hold-to-maturity” worth.

An ugly recession is coming, as debt leverage kicks into reverse. The purge will be slow and punishing. Some 12 million Americans are already trapped in negative equity, but at least they can see where this might end. After much drama, the US institutions have risen to the challenge. The Fed, the Treasury, and Congress have managed to take some sort of coherent action. The jury is out on Europe, where the hurricane is now smashing the banking system.

Those such as German finance minister Peer Steinbruck – who thought the sub?prime crisis was just an “American problem” – have had a rude shock. The collapse of Hypo Real with €400 billion of liabilities has made him face the unsettling truth that German banks have played a big part in this $10 trillion speculative venture undertaken by the whole global banking industry.

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I know I’m not the first to write about this, but it seems that the proliferation of Obama cult-worship on the internet has reached unprecedented proportions in recent weeks, and nowhere is this more evident than on youtube and related video websites. For that reason, I’m writing this diary to serve (I hope) as a clearing house for the creepiest Obamamessiah propaganda online.

My first nominee is a video that appeared earlier this week. It features a kids choir, dressed in identical blue Obama shirts, singing of their love for the Dear Leader … err, I mean Senator Obama. The first words, sung by a brown-haired, glassy-eyed young pixie, are all you really need to know about this video:

We’re gonna spread happiness. We’re gonna spread freedom.
Obama’s gonna change it. Obama’s gonna lead ‘em.
We’re gonna change it, and rearrange it. We’re gonna change the world.

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Allow me to make a modest suggestion to the leadership of both parties in Congress: rather than trying to one-up each other in the blame game over the recent failure of the Bush-Paulson-Pelosi bailout bill, why don’t you try something new. Form all your congressmen and senators in a circle, give them rifles, and then commence firing. It would be just as effective as what you’re doing now, and the upside would be a lot better.

We seem to have reached a curious impasse in Congress in which nearly everyone, including the Secretary of the Treasury, the Fed Chairman, the White House, and nearly the entire Republican and Democratic leadership in Congress agrees that the bailout bill, though distasteful, is absolutely necessary for the long term health of the economy, and yet all these leaders have failed utterly to convince their rank-and-file members to support this bill. In the British parliamentary system, this would be the equivalent of the leadership of the Labour Party and the Conservative Party each receiving a vote of “no confidence” from their MP’s at the same time.

The Republican caucus is in an especially bad state of affairs, with only about 1/3 of House republicans willing to follow their leadership in support of the bailout bill. However, Republicans are not the ones in control of this process. The Democratic Party, under Harry Reid and Speaker Pelosi, has been in charge of this legislation from the beginning. They are the ones who control all the relevant committees, and they substantially controlled the drafting process for the bill that just failed in the House. In light of the fact that the eventual bill that went before Congress was substantially a Democratic product, Speaker Pelosi’s inability to get more than 60% of her caucus to support this legislation was startling.

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If you are like me, you have spent the last week listening to President Bush, Harry Reid, John McCain, Nancy Pelosi, Henry Paulson, and all the rest telling us that the financial crisis looming on the horizon will cause a recession so bad, so terrible, that we simply have to act now to prevent it. And by “act now” they apparently mean “pass a bailout package in the neighborhood of $700 billion.” Although they disagree on many (relatively minor) details, like CEO compensation, and oversight, both the Bush Administration and Congressional Democrats seem to agree that the nature of the problem with our financial system is so severe that it will require a massive infusion of cash to fix it.

So far, nobody has asked the one question I want to hear answered: just how bad would it get if we didn’t “fix it”? I understand that we’d go into a recession. Granted. But a lot of very smart people, including former General Electric CEO Jack Welch, seem to think that we’re headed for a recession no matter what Washington does:

“I now believe we are in for one hell of a deep downturn,” Welch told the World Business Forum in New York on Wednesday, adding that the first quarter of 2009 will likely be “brutal.”

Until recently, Welch said, he had believed the U.S. economy could avoid recession, but he has changed his mind.

“I am now caving,” he said. “Get ready for real tough times. They’re coming. There is no credit available.”

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“It came to pass …” Or to use the words of the Martins haunting southern gospel song, “It didn’t come to stay; it came to pass.” Most of the baseball universe has a love-hate relationship with the New York Yankees. The Yankees have won a lot of championships over the last 85 years, which stokes the ire and resentment of all the professional baseball fans who haven’t been so fortunate to root for such a successful team. Even so, the Yankees, their storied history, and their hallowed stadium, constitute an undeniable part of American sporting history, not to mention American history in general.

Over the years, Yankee Stadium has seen more than its share of history. The 26 World Series championships are only the beginning. It was also the scene of some historic football games ever played. Do you remember Knute Rockne’s famous “Win One for the Gipper” speech before the 1928 Notre Dame vs. Army game? It happened at Yankee Stadium. Then there was the 1946 Notre Dame vs. Army contest, a virtual national championship game in which the Irish were ranked number 1 and Army number 2. It ended in one of the most exciting ties in football history. Then there was the 1958 NFL Championship game, which many football historians still refer to as the “Greatest Game Ever Played.”

For my money, Yankees Stadium also witnessed the most important sporting event of the 20th Century on June 22, 1938 when Joe Louis destroyed German national hero Max Schmeling in one round of rage-filled passion and fury which forever demolished to the myth of Aryan supremacy. Although the 21st Century is still young, I would argue that the century’s most important baseball game thus far has to be Game 3 of the 2001 World Series. With President Bush throwing out the first pitch in a bullet-proof vest (a perfect strike, I might add), the New York fans rallied their team for three dramatic wins that gave the Yankees a 3-2 lead over the Diamondbacks going back to Arizona. The fact that New York eventually lost that series 4-3 is virtually irrelevant. Those three games gave the city of New York a much needed psychological boost following the devastating events of September 11.

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The Times Online would like you to believe that Sarah Palin endorses witch-hunting. At least, that seems to be the implication of this story written by Hanna Strange. The Times reports that Kenyan preacher-evangelist Thomas Muthee visited Palin’s former church, Wasilla Assembly of God, in October 2005 to speak there.

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The New York Post is reporting that during his trip to Iraq last July, Senator Obama tried to convince Iraqi leaders to delay signing an agreement with the U.S. government to begin drawing down the number of U.S. troops in Iraq. Apparently, the junior senator from Illinois specifically requested that the Iraqi government put off signing any agreement until after the presidential elections this November:

WHILE campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence.

According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July.

“He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and the formation of a new administration in Washington,” Zebari said in an interview.

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In the strange world of political punditry you run into a lot of arguments that are specious, twisted, and sometimes downright dishonest. That’s true of both sides, and probably equally so. And then there are the columns and blogs that just sound plain bizarre. Such is the line of thought advanced by Bob Beckel, former manager of Walter Mondale’s presidential campaign, who was last seen filling out a job application at Burger King in November 1984.

Apparently, the years have not been good to Mr. Beckel. There have, no doubt, been one too many doors shut in his face. One too many sleepless nights staring at the bare wall of a studio apartment, with nothing but stale pizza in the fridge and a goldfish to keep him company. One too many pot brownies to chase away the pain. (I’m kidding, of course. He works for Fox News and writes a column for USA Today.)

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I won’t bother quoting from Michal Kinsley’s new column because I don’t want to dignify it. Kinsley won a reputation in the 1980’s and 90’s as one of the most influential and thoughtful voices of the American left. That’s why it’s a shame to see him perform a hack job like this.

The essential argument of the column is as follows:

1) Alaska is the new Texas. It is a fundamentally evil economic and political entity that exploits the rest of us for its own advantage.

2) Anyone remotely associated with Alaskan politics is, ipso facto, also an evil person. That goes double for Sarah Palin, who is practically the embodiment of all the evil things that Alaska represents.

3) Alaska is responsible for high oil and gas prices the rest of us pay because, unlike the other major oil producing states, does forces the oil companies to pay a substantial share of its oil profits in taxes to the state. This amounts to a tax “on the rest of us,” for the benefit of those evil Alaskans.

4) Alaska also takes way more than its own share of federal revenue; it receives more federal revenue per person than any other state. Apparently, this too is Sarah Palin’s fault.

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There were certain things we knew about Bobby Jindal before Hurricane Gustav. We knew he was incredibly young to lead a state, especially one as diverse and politically cantankerous as Louisiana. We knew he was very bright, that he was well-spoken, and that he had a pretty wife. Shortly after coming into office Jindal scored a big political coup by passing long-sought ethics reforms. For the most part, his future seemed golden. Then came Hurricane Gustav, the first major test of his administration. Just as Hurricane Katrina undermined Gov. Blanco’s political career, many people worried that Jindal would not rise to the occasion. So, how has he done? So far, it seems he’s done pretty darn well.

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Let it be known, Hurricane Gustav is a big, nasty, ugly storm, and it means to do some business with the South Louisiana. With this storm bearing down on the South Louisiana coast, the word is out from the state and the City of New Orleans: Get Out Now! This from Mayor Ray Nagin:

New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin called Gustav “the mother of all storms,” saying its destruction could outstrip that from Katrina, which flooded much of his city.

“You need to be scared,” Nagin said of the Category 4 hurricane tearing along Cuba’s western coast. “You need to be concerned, and you need to get your butts moving out of New Orleans right now. This is the storm of the century.”

Governor Bobby Jindal’s public have been equally dire:

Governor Jindal said, “The most updated information from the National Hurricane Center shows that the storm is very likely to get stronger. As early as tomorrow afternoon they will issue a hurricane watch and on Sunday they will likely issue a hurricane warning for Hurricane Gustav. Louisiana will most likely begin to see tropical storm force winds Monday morning. These are very dangerous winds, and because people cannot drive in these conditions, we expect to begin contraflow Sunday morning or even late Saturday night. They are now predicting this could be a hurricane category 3 or 4 storm, and the state is working closely with coastal parishes to aid them in evacuating their residents in a timely manner.”

Governor Jindal announced that a total of 19 total parishes have declared a state of emergency now … The Governor said, “Coastal parishes should be recommending that their residents voluntarily begin to evacuate today, and some will issue mandatory evacuations tomorrow, so residents are evacuated before contraflow begins on Sunday morning.”

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Christmas came early this year for John McCain. It came gift-wrapped in the form of Senator Joe Biden the biggest, most pompous windbag in the United States Senate, a man so full of cr*p his speeches bear an awful resemblance to twenty minutes of flatulence preceded by “Good evening ladies and gentlemen,” and followed by “God bless America.”

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The Italian edition of Vanity Fair has recently tracked down George Hussein Onyango Obama, half brotherof the presumptive Democratic nominee, living in a two by three meter shack in a small town near Nairobi. The man’s income amounts to about one dollar per day, and the neighborhood he lives in is extremely dangerous. During the recent disturbances following the disputed presidential election Obama’s town saw extensive rioting in which six people were hacked to death. This in turn provoked severe police brutality.

In case you’re wondering, George Obama’s famous brother is aware of him and his circumstances. Barack Obama mentions his half brother in his autobiography, and he met him during his last visit to Kenya in 2006. For his part, George Obama says he is too ashamed of his circumstances to even admit to most people that he is related to the famous U.S. Senator. Of course, this begs the question: what exactly is Barack Obama doing for his Kenyan relations?

If this were the only example of the junior Senator from Illinois allowing a close relative to suffer in penury, we might be able to over look it. But just last year, during the Democratic primaries, Obama himself made a point of discussing his Kenyan grandmother’s impoverished condition:

“It’s that experience, that understanding, not just of what world leaders I went and talked to in the ambassadors house I had tea with, but understanding the lives of the people like my grandmother who lives in a tiny hut in Africa,”

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One of my favorite stories about the late Senator Ernest “Fritz” Hollings (Yes, I know it’s kind of sad that I have a favorite Fritz Hollings story. I know it probably speaks to my lack of a personal life.) involves the South Carolina grandee’s off-the-cuff remark concerning certain salacious tabloid photographs of a certain well-known colleague caught in flagrante delicto with a young female friend on a yacht somewhere in an exotic location. When asked what he thought of the pictures, Senator Hollings reportedly replied, “Well, I declare, it does appear that the Senator has changed his position on off-shore drilling.”

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Tonight I went and saw the new Batman film, The Dark Knight, and I thought I should review it while it’s still fresh in my head. I have good news and bad news to relay about this film. First, it is possible that this movie falls just short of the hype surrounding it. That’s not to say it isn’t a good, solid summer action movie, because it certainly is that. It’s easily the best movie of the summer so far, and I seriously doubt there’s anything left on the summer schedule to top it. But the hype surrounding this movie was epic, and only an epic film of “Lord of the Rings” or “Godfather” proportions could have justified it. I’m not sure it measures up that high standard, although I wouldn’t be surprised if it won a well-deserved best picture nomination.

What’s wrong with the movie? Well, it’s too long, for one thing. At about two and half hours, I thought the last 15 to 20 minutes felt a little forced and superfluous. The writers and director also tried to cram a little too much into the last third of the film. For one thing, there was a regrettable bit at the end where Batman uses this mega-computer, electronic surveillance thingy with about a thousand screens that can monitor every cell phone call in the city. Supposedly, the purpose of the machine is to help Batman track the Joker, but his conscientious R&D guy (played by Morgan Freeman) objects that it’s “too much power for one man.” Keep in mind, this is the same worldly wise tech geek who has been building badss machines like the bat mobile, which is basically a crossbreed between a Hummer and a Tank on steroids, as well as million dollar body armor, motorcycles with machine guns, and who knows what else. All that is OK, but the supercomputer that looks like a leftover prop from *The Matrix? Oh no, that’s “too much power.” The gizmo is an obvious attempt at tackling the very serious issue of electronic surveillance in our own society, but it’s a shallow attempt at best. About ten minutes after we see the thing it melts down when Morgan Freeman enters a password that triggers a self-destruct mechanism. Apparently, electronic snooping is OK as long as you only do it once.

The other part that I found a little forced was the introduction of a second major arch-villain, Two-Face, who fans of the comic books, the cartoons, and the TV series will remember as a major character in his own right. For a while I thought they were bringing Two-Face into the mix so he could star in a sequel, but then they killed him off in the last five minutes. It was a shame because the character, played convincingly by Aaron Eckhart, seemed like he had a lot of potential.

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I’m not sure this topic merits a whole diary, but for some reason I feel compelled to write about it. Elizabeth Edwards has written a very nice obit on Tony Snow, which is totally unobjectionable except for one eye-catching detail. Consider the first two sentences:

“Tony Snow has died. A young man (with my next birthday being number sixty, I am entitled to the folly of calling a fifty-three year old “young”), with a facile mind, an easy smile, and a quick wit; a man who had a perpetual twinkle in his eye when he was doing what he he born to do; a man who loved his wife and his children; a man who loved politics and maybe a little more loved the verbal sparring that comes with politics well-played; a man who desperately did not want to die.”

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