Gaza

How long would any nation tolerate rockets and mortars being fired into it's towns and villages? Not very. On Saturday Israel struck back at the Hamas regime in Gaza and promised that much more was to come. The attack came at midday, completely unexpected, just as the Hamas-launched rockets do in Israel. This timing signals something new in Israeli reprisals, no more 3:00 A.M. actions, you can expect us at any time of day, as randomly as your rockets land here.

The anti-Semites and Israel-bashers are clearing their throats for an end-of-the-year tirade over this but the essential question has been called: Shall the State of Israel survive and live in peace and security? Yes or No?

Days Dwindle Down

The year 2008 is spent, exhausted, wheezing, and otherwise ready to be retired. Today CNN showed a poll that had at least 3/4 of the American people more than eager to see W. and Big Time Cheney take a permanent powder. Their failures are too numerous and well-known to repeat here and there are serious arguments made that several of their orders must be investigated with an eye to future prosecution. Powerful Democrats in Congress are not in the mood for such business and if President Obama needs the full attention of the citizenry in the next few years he could issue a pardon, Jerry Ford style, that would place Bush & Cheney in the Nixon bin for all time.

Must we have disastrous presidents in order to have great ones? Buchanan followed by Lincoln, Hoover by Franklin Roosevelt, W. by Obama? I'm getting ahead of the game here but it is by now clear that we have in President-elect Barack Obama the most promising new leader since JFK took office in 1961. As T. E. Lawrence says to King Faisal in the great Lawrence of Arabia, "time to be great again."

A new year and a new president are at hand and we will all have to do our part, however it appears to us. He can't do the work alone and if he turns out to be as authentic as he seems we will all be ennobled for having been
at his side.

Christmas Eve, 1968

Forty years ago tonight three American astronauts in an Apollo spacecraft were orbiting the moon and broadcasting greetings to the world on TV and radio. A shining heavenly body attracting our attention on Christmas Eve, who would've thought? And human beings so close to it that they could scout out future landing sites. Seven months later we did land there.

The hopeful ending to a terrible year--the Tet offensive in Viet Nam, Martin Luther King's assassination, then Bobby Kennedy's, the Chicago police riot, Nixon's election--did not exactly bring in an era of good feelings, and after a few more trips to it we let the moon go. The political point we had wanted to make in the 60's had been made and the Soviets never could match it.

There are probably people orbiting Earth tonight in the Space Station but we are used to that by now, and the Russians are part of every trip we take. A new light and hope are needed this year and all eyes are on Barack Obama as he prepares in the Hawaiian sun for his landing on January 20th. Here's hoping the next forty years will be a longer leap for mankind than the one in 1968 and that lights in the skies ahead will signal joy, not horror.

Save The Trees?

The Pope said the other day, to his Vatican bureaucracy, that sexual relations between loving and commited gay partners was akin to burning down trees in the rain forests, which practice is said to greatly damage the air we all breathe on our Earth. Apparently, at least according to this learned gentleman, care for the ecology of the planet really does matter and intimate relations between a couple who are not hetero and married equates to removing oxygen from the atmosphere and thus endangers the future of humanity: if the gays keep at it there won't be any more babies being born. Or something like that. What in the world is this man talking about?

It has been said that, well, the gas emitted by cattle herds that move on to the land deserted by the trees--so that they, in their turn, can provide more hamburgers to, well, already quite big people--has become so plentiful that it may actually damage the ozone layer. Studies on the noxious effects of papal gas emissions are on-going and must now include this latest room-clearing blast.

Happy Hanukkah

The Jewish Festival of Lights began tonight at sunset. The first people God spoke to were the Jews and He spoke in Hebrew. Rabbi Hillel (ca. 60 B.C.E. to ca. 10 C.E.) was a great Talmudic scholar whose work was summarized in one word: loving-kindness.

"A certain heathen came to him (Hillel) and said to him:
Convert me provided that you teach me the entire Torah
while I stand on one foot.
. . . Hillel. . . said to him:
What is hateful to you, do not do to your neighbor:
that is the entire Torah;
the rest is commentary;
go and learn it.

And Hillel said, "If I am not for myself, who then will be for me? If I am only for myself, what am I? And if not now, when?"

-----The World's Wisdom, Philip Novak




---------

The Coleman-Franken Tango

They are mirror images of each other. Al is a Minnesota native, raised in St. Louis Park on the always-now west-side of Minneapolis. Smart and funny, he went to New York as a young man and hit it big as a writer and performer on SNL. His political jokes and impersonations--a glorious, grinning Pat Robertson--were sharp and true. Always funny, his serious side came through, and he went back home to run for Paul Wellstone's Senate seat, now held by Norm Coleman.

Norm is a native of Brooklyn, N.Y. who went to St. Paul for college, got a law degree, and, as a Democrat, was hired by the office of Minnesota's Attorney General, Skip Humphrey, son of the great Hubert Humphrey.
Norm made a name for himself in local politics and got elected mayor of St. Paul on the Democratic ticket. He soon switched to the Republicans, and, as it was reported at the time, took Dick Cheney's telephoned counsel to heart and ran against Sen. Paul Wellstone in 2002. Wellstone died in a plane crash in late October and Norm became a Senator, defeating Fritz Mondale who came to the aid of his party.

The recount tonight has Al Franken ahead by about 252 votes and it doesn't appear likely that Coleman has an encore in him. And last week it was learned that the FBI is investigating him for possible corruption: some money from a rich guy in Bloomington, or some such.

All this over the U.S. Senate seat that had been hard-earned by the humble, public-spirited Paul Wellstone. Who speaks of him in the midst of this carnival? He was a United States Senator, these two others are puppies jumping up for the bone.

CNBC Does Bernie Madoff

CNBC ran a one-hour program on the Madoff Scheme tonight that was full of victim interviews and enticing shots of luxury homes in Palm Beach and elsewhere. The show had a lot to say but it did not present any clues as to how just one guy could steal $50 billion from so many people over so many years all by himself. The report alluded to a revolving door between the SEC and Wall Street people that may have compromised any serious inquiry into Madoff's operations but it didn't dig further. Who else knew of and abetted this gigantic crime? Red flags were visible to some obervers ten years ago but they couldn't attract the attention of the responsible officials. How far does this rot go?

All Day Rain

A popular song in the 80's had a lyric that went, "it never rains in California, but girl let me warn ya, when it rains, man it pours." That would describe today in the desert where it never rains but today it poured, all day. Rain can be a major worry here because the ground is flat and baked solid and the water will form large pools that threaten foot and motor traffic, or flash floods can race across broad stretches that haven't seen water in years. Much damage can happen and people, on foot or in cars who ignore warning signs, may die or put the lives of their rescuers in the balance.

At the same time beauty settles on the mountain tops in snow that stays white until it's gone. You are allowed to think you've had a glimpse of paradise when you turn a corner and see green palm trees against blue sky topped by white mountain crests. It's not Heaven, it's La Quinta.

Joe Biden's Welcome Minimalism & Cheney's Deathbed Confession

Joe Biden is planning a radical down-sizing of the Veep's job and he intends this to be his last major service to his country. During the campaign he called Cheney, "the most dangerous Vice-President in our history," and yesterday Big Time gave direct evidence against himself in one of the exit interviews he and W. are doing for the networks. On ABC he said that the CIA came to him to seek approval for torturing terror suspects in custody. ( Is there any other Administration in American history in which the chief intelligence agency would go to the Vice-President for the go-ahead? Or in which that Vice-President would willingly announce the fact on TV?) The specific practice in question was water-boarding which is as old as the Spanish Inquisition; the U.S. Government prosecuted, on war crimes charges, Japanese authorities who used it on American soldiers in the Second World War. It was illegal in the 40's and it is illegal now, according to international treaties which we have fostered and signed. "I was aware of the program . . . I supported it," he testified on television.

Cheney recommened a trip to the "dark side" after 9/11 and he himself was swallowed by it. Joe Biden knows that Bush-Cheney devised a particularly odious government in which a lazy, uninterested President passed off the real meat of the job to an over-reaching paranoiac. This last work of his will be, in a way, sacrifical--to make his job--and the personality that fills it--less consequential and to return it to its traditional place in American governance.

You Heard It Here First

I'm not too afraid of being embarassed so here I let fly with an observation and a prediction: Caroline Kennedy, for many reasons, has decided to make her move. She no doubt will get the appointment to the Senate seat from New York once held by her Uncle Bobby, but I think her goal is much larger: in 2016 she will restore the Presidency stolen from her father in 1963. She hasn't forgotten, and proud daughters of great fathers are dismissed at one's peril.

The Kennedys have always taken over for each other in emergencies--Jack, in 1946, after older brother Joe, Jr. was killed in the war, was elected to the House of Representatives. Teddy in the Senate after Jack was elected President, and Bobby to the Senate after Jack's death. Caroline's brother died nine years ago, Uncle Teddy is seriously ill, and none of her cousins seem interested in this Senate seat. She will get the job and a new chapter shall begin.

Celebrity Sighting & Desert Rain

I just encountered the actor and economics commentator Ben Stein in Barnes & Noble. I was a big fan of his show Win Ben Stein's Money on Comedy Central a few years ago. He was very pleasant and I said that I enjoyed his appearances on TV. It's cold and wet here today and Ben had on his rain gear as he shopped. End of story. This is a very small matter but you would think that after years of living in SoCal I might have some good celebrity-sighting stories. But no; Ben was only my second hit. About five years ago at a red light in LA my sister said to look into the car next to us, and there in full tan sat George Hamilton in a black Mercedes. So that's my lackluster record to date, George waiting for a light to change and Ben Stein in a wet coat. I can't help thinking that Ben and I could have had a nice conversation this afternoon if he hadn't just kept on walking.

Christmas Words and Music

Something about Christmas moves song writers and composers to a special beauty. Irving Berlin closes his great White Christmas with, "may your days be merry and bright, and may all your Christmases be white." We could hope that for our loved ones any day of the year. O Little Town of Bethlehem expresses the belief of all Christianity about the season, "the hopes and fears of all the years are met in thee tonight." In bleak winter these words alone, without music, offer warmth and the promise of happy life ahead, with their music they inspire us to see a higher life than we've known and to believe that we will get there. The comma is very important in God Rest Ye Merry, Gentlemen. It does not assume that we are already merry but that "tidings of comfort and joy" will cause us to become merry.

As you can see, I am coated in carols tonight and thinking of the things that the ancients may have prayed for as the days grew short and dark. Their gloom as life took its natural course was misplaced and so, we pray, is ours.

Well, thus endeth the lesson.

Christmas on the Radio, 1940's

We've been listening all day to Bing Crosby Christmas broadcasts from the 40's and early 50's on satellite radio. All the great songs are there, with great comedy, and he sings "White Christmas" at the end. The commercials are for Philco radios, Chesterfield cigarettes--a blend of the world's "finest tobaccos,"-- and a Kraft cheese spread for your holiday entertaining that "only takes up two ration points,"--this was war time. Substitute Bing's "our boys in Europe" with our guys in Iraq and Afghanistan and you find that the jokes and sentiments are about the same as what we have on TV today. ( Note to "A Prairie Home Companion" fans: it has already been done in 40's radio from Sunset Boulevard in Hollywood, but Garrison Keillor already knows that.)

--More on Blago:

I came storming out of my corner just like everyone else when this story broke but I am starting to rein back some. It's a very ugly scene when virtually every American agrees, at the same moment, that a certain someone is anathema, an "enemy of the people." These stampedes come out of nowhere but within a few days we move on to more shopping or packing or screen-staring. Left back in the dust are wrecked lives, and perhaps a kind of sadness and hurt that most of us will never know. Are we a mob this week? Political corruption has existed ever since there were more than two people on this earth, and often, the fallen end up being embraced in memory as rather lovable old rogues. Who died? Nobody died. What we have so far is a lot of disgusting talk. As Pat Buchanan said the other day, "where is the crime?"

JFK and the Unspeakable

"We can know the essential truth of President John F. Kennedy's assassination . . . .

"Thanks to the pioneer investigators into President Kennedy's murder, the truth-telling of many witnesses, and a recent flood of documents through the JFK Records Act, the truth is available. Not only can the conspiracy that most Americans have thought was likely now be seen in detail. Not only can we know what happened in Dallas. More important than filling in the crime scene, we can know the larger historical context of the assassination--why President Kennedy was murdered. We can know the liberating truth. . .

"For turning to peace with his enemy (and ours) Kennedy was murdered by a power we cannot easily describe. Its unspeakable reality can be traced, suggested, recognized and pondered. . .

"Is our wariness of the truth of JFK's assassination rooted in our fear of truth's consequences, to him and to us? For President Kennedy, a deepening commitment to dialogue with our enemies proved fatal. If we are unwilling as citizens to deal with that critical precedent, what twenty-first century president will have the courage on our behalf to resist the powers that be and choose dialogue instead of war in response to our current enemies?"

----From the Preface of "JFK and the Unspeakable," by James Douglass,
published by Orbis Books, New York, 2008


We must know the truth about John F. Kennedy's murder, not only so that he may have justice but in order to set American history back on its proper tracks. Our President was assassinated before us and unless we know why and how and who, it can happen again. Something is stirring: Caroline Kennedy, at age 51 wants to enter the U.S. Senate; three important new books on the crime in Dallas have been published in the past 18 months, and, perhaps, there is no longer a danger from those who caused the President's death.

Let us keep on with the good work of truth-telling, not only to give full and complete honor to Jack Kennedy himself, but that it may be a protective grace for Barack Obama.

The Clouds Gather

The U.S. Senate released a report today that informs the American people that torturing suspected terrorists in custody was discussed at the highest levels of the W. administration. He gave the go-ahead for the dirty work after being assured that 100% of U.S. military volunteers in water-boarding--what to call it, practice--broke and spilled whatever beans they were told not to spill. Festus, in his boots and cowboy hat, holding his near-beer, and giving full reign to a good ole Midland-style blackout said, "Hell, yes! Wanted dead or alive! Bring it on! Axis of evil! It'll be good for bidnit!"

At the same time military and intelligence retirees were all over TV advising the viewing audience--no doubt small--that torture usually brought the opposite of the intended outcome: the victim was likely to say anything just to have the pain stopped. But W. is the feather that Garry Trudeau used to signify the presence of Dan Quayle, he was kept aloft by any putrid, gassy release that occured in his vicinity; he did what he did and refused to ever reconsider.

Lying to the American people to get us into a war that only made sense in his own head, and torture, will be at the top of the bill of indictment when history fully assesses this oaf.

On Forgiveness

On Monday, in San Diego, a U.S. Marine Corps F-18 jet crashed on to the home of Dong Yu Yoon, an American citizen and immigrant from Korea. Inside the house were his wife, whom he calls "a gift from God" and their two daughters, aged 15 months and two months. His wife's mother, who had come from Korea to help with the babies, was with them. When the jet fell on them all four were killed.

Today Dong Yu Yoon asked that people pray for the pilot of the plane, who ejected before the crash and was not seriously hurt, "I know he's one of the treasures of our country," he said. "Pray for him not to suffer."

Babs-Bush Buss

On Sunday, at the White House, before a sober clientele, W and Barbra Streisand exchanged kisses and sweet smiles. Babs said that on this night the arts trumped politics. That's a lot, coming from her. She is one of this year's Kennedy Center Honorees and the White House do is part of the program that has been held every December for thirty-one years. These Honors have become an important celebration of the performing arts in America and are televised late in Christmas week by CBS. The broadcast always begins with a recording of President Kennedy speaking of the high place of the arts and culture that he envisioned for the country, and his daughter, Caroline, has now replaced Walter Cronkite as the annual host.

If Bush and Streisand can rise above it all, at least for one lovely evening, what may the rest of us be capable of doing?

Rocket Rod

A few minutes ago on the Keith Olbermann show Jonathan Alter of Newsweek said a very shocking thing regarding Rod Blagojevich and his scandal. Alter is a Chicago native and knows how things go down there. He said that the governor has "a couple of loose screws" and that he, Alter, would not be surprised if he began spreading lies about Barack Obama in an effort to"take him down with him." What kind of guy is Blagojevich anyway?

Goodbye, Newspapers

The New York Times today took out a $225 million mortgage on its Times Square mothership because its business is doing so badly. In Chicago, Sam Zell, the real estate billionaire who owns the Tribune and the Los Angeles Times went to court and filed for Chapter 11. Ever since the Internet became a member of the household people have been predicting the end of print media, but all this does seem rather sudden. Why have all three papers gone so public with their money problems at the same time? Are the owners trying to scare someone? Could the someone be the great, collective moi? If Wall Street banks and Detroit can grovel before Washington why not the ink-stained wretches?

If these three papers and the Big Three car makers all expire at the same time, it is going to feel a little lonely around here. That loneliness, in fact, got started in Southern California a few years ago when the century-long owners, the Chandler family, sold the L.A. Times largely because there was no one left in their ranks who cared enough about the paper--or the city--to keep it and run it properly. Talent and history were quickly dispensed with and the paper began to decay before the very eyes of its readers. Mr. Zell is the third owner in a decade. Now, in the morning, one has no idea what may appear in one's driveway with the words, "Los Angeles Times" across it.

Well, maybe these great newspapers will survive in some form, but I fear the writing is on the screen.

Gen. Shinseki Returns, Vindicated

Before W. gave the final order to invade Iraq back in '03, the U.S. Army Chief of Staff, General Eric Shinseki, made the career-ending blooper of doing his duty by telling the truth to a congressional committee. He was asked how many American troops would be needed to prevail in a war in Iraq, he said it would take perhaps 300,000 to win a war and pacify the country. His boss at the Pentagon, Secretary Rummy, had a much lower figure in mind and was most unhappy with the General's testimony. Shinseki was informed that he had reached the end of the road in the Army--no more promotions--and would be deprived of any more oxygen while he remained in uniform. Final salute and good-bye. And don't let the door hit you on your way out.

Within months of Shinseki's testimony it was violently clear that he had been right and that Rummy was one of history's losers. Iraq just wouldn't end, Rummy saw the door in '06 after the Republicans got creamed in congressional elections, and today comes the happy news that President-elect Obama will name General Eric Shinseki, U.S. Army (Ret.), as the next Secretary of Veterans' Affairs. It will be his job to care for the lives wrecked by Rummy.

Let us pray that he succeeds beyond all hope and that the idiocy he had to endure will not visit us again.

Caroline Kennedy

Caroline Kennedy called the Governor of New York Thursday evening to talk about the Senate seat that Hillary Clinton will soon be leaving. I sense Uncle Teddy's guiding hand here. This seat was once held by Caroline's Uncle Bobby and Bobby, Jr. has said that he doesn't want the job. With only a two-year hiatus, there has been at least one Kennedy in the Senate since Caroline's father entered in 1953. We're talking 56 years here, and Teddy's health must have him thinking of the future and his family's legacy.

On the other hand, it has been said that in today's world those committed to the county's welfare are obliged to think tragically: to imagine the worst and then work to prevent it. Has the flame attracted her?

Rahm

Rahm Emanuel--what a great name!--is to be the enforcer at the Oval Office doors, Barack Obama's Bobby Kennedy, H.R. (Bob) Haldeman, junkyard dog. Cross him at your peril. He is from Chicago. As a young aide in the Clinton White House he angered so many people ( "I swear a lot," he says) that Hillary tried to have him fired--but even she couldn't pull that off: he stayed and rose in the ranks.

His father is a doctor born in Jerusalem, as a young man Rahm studied ballet and was so promising he was offered a scholarship to the Joffrey Ballet, which he turned down in order to join the Israeli Army. After the IDF he returned to the States and got into politics. In 2006 he ran the House Democrat's Campaign Committee and won the first Democratic majority there since 1994. Obviously, a considerable man.

Hilarity entered into all of this after Rahm's appointment by Obama when a CNN reporter, at a loss for what to call a male ballet dancer said on Wolf Blitzer's show, ". . . and before he got into politics he was a ballerina."

Dance, ballerina, dance.

Shards

I.

There has always been a question as to whether or not Richard Nixon ordered the 1972 break-in at the Democratic National Committee offices at the Watergate. After today's release of more Nixon tapes there can be no doubt of his involvement in the crime itself as well as in the cover-up. We hear him directing his capo, Charles Colson, to burglarize the Brookings Institution and there is talk, by Nixon, of fire-bombing it. Despite a superior intelligence, Richard Nixon was wholly unsuited to political office of any kind. That our
Republic survived this thug is truly a blessing.

II.

Saxby Chambliss has been re-elected to the Senate in today's runoff in Georgia. Six years ago he slandered Senator Max Cleland, who lost both legs and an arm in Vietnam, by charging that Cleland's votes in the Senate against some George Bush proposals was un-American and helpful to terrorists. John McCain, who has forgotten more about Vietnam than Saxby Chambliss (who claimed a physical exemption from the draft in the 60's) could ever know, called the charge reprehensible in 2002 but made his way down to Georgia after his defeat by Barack Obama to put in a good word for old Saxby.

It is said that we get the leaders we deserve; does Georgia deserve Saxby Chambliss?

III.

Nate Silver on fivethirtyeight.com predicts that Al Franken will ultimately win the Minnesota Senate seat by 13 votes. He's good enough and he's smart enough . . .

IV.

I'm a strong Democrat, but if I lived in Pennsylvania and Chris Matthews was on the ballot as the party's U.S. Senate candidate I would find a decent third-party guy to vote for.

"And down by the shore an orchestra's playing . . ."
(Cole Porter, "Begin the Beguine")

Typhoid Hank

Every time Henry Paulson delivers an economic speech the market tanks. It happened again this afternoon as numbed CNBC viewers saw a number drop with every word this guy said. Barack Obama has defended his knowledge and hard work, but shouldn't he at least be kept away from microphones for the next seven weeks?