odds and ends

Here are a few interesting or amusing things that caught my attention over the weekend:

1. News that, because of extreme cold weather effects on musical instruments, the quartet for the inauguration were playing along with a recording they had made the day before. They were actually playing, but what we heard was their recording. While that is perfectly understandable (tuning problems or a broken string would have marred a historic performance that needed to be perfect), it somehow was a slight deflation to learn the truth.

Now that has been turned to humor. In a letter to the New York Times, a writer suggested that for the next inauguration, perhaps the Chief Justice and the President can pre-record and then lip-synch the oath, so as to prevent the kind of flub that occurred this time.

2. Not to be upstaged by the inauguration and first week of fellow Illinoian Obama's presidency, the embattled Governor Rod Blagojavech is skipping his impeachment trial today in favor of a big PR push, appearing on Good Morning America, The View, and Larry King tv shows to declare his victimhood and martyrdom.

I suppose, when your lead attorney removes himself from the case and says he won't defend you at the trial because you refuse even to listen to his advice, the best you can do then is hit the entertainment circuit and play victim.

Blago almost surely will be turned out of office by the State Senate. His impeachment carried by 140 to 1, and he's not even mounting a defense in the trial, claiming that it is unfairly rigged against him. Even if some of the charges would not stand up in a court trial, an impeachment trial has different rules. They don't have to prove he committed an ordinary crime. Bringing dishonor to the State or simply being judged unfit to serve are enough. Bye, bye, Blago. It's time for you to go.

3. Another good riddance. A year ago, we progressives were astonished that The New York Times had hired William Kristol to write a weekly opinion column. One of the chief spokesmen for neoconservatism that led us into so much trouble during the Bush administration, Kristol has notoriously been wrong about so many things (including praise for Sarah Palin) that it was astonishing that The Times would give him a platform.

Apparently they now agree. Kristol's column today ends with these words: "This is William Kristol’s last column." Good riddance. Maybe the Atlanta Journal-Constitution will follow suit and stop publishing fellow-neocon pundit Charles Krauthammer.

4. Now that he has time on his hands, and no power to mess up government anymore, I wonder if george bush is reflecting at all on the fact that President Obama is busy with an undoing-a-day of bush's mess: time-line to exit Iraq, stop torture, close Guantanomo, end gag orders on family planning agencies, allow stem cell research, stop selling our national parks to developers, cease warrantless wire-tapping, purge DoJ of politicization -- and today's: allowing California and other states to set auto fuel and emissions requirements that exceed the federal levels.

Despite dubya's reputation for not listening to criticism, it must sting a bit to be so thoroughly repudiated.

Ralph