1. Obama signed his first bill as president this morning: the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Restoration Act, which ensures the right to challenge not getting equal pay for equal work, even if you don't discover the discrepancy until years after it began. This is one more repudiation of George Bush and Senate Republicans who had previously blocked the bill's passage.
2. The Iraqi government is kicking Blackwater out of Iraq. Good riddance to the bad idea of privatizing and outsourcing the defense of our diplomats. Another repudiation of Bush's failures in Iraq.
3. HolyJoe Lieberman, who campaigned for McCain and spoke ill of Obama's readiness to be president, is now singing a different tune. Highly praising his stance on Afghanistan, he said of his interview with Al-Arabiya, "I thought the president was superb in that interview, it was very important that he did this as his first interview after he took office, that he spoke to the Muslim world." Chalk one up for Obama's political wisdom in letting HolyJoe stay in the fold. HolyJoe owes him one, and he is paying off.
3. "Outrageous. That is the height of irresponsibility. It is shameful:" President Obama's reaction to news that Wall Street had paid out $18.4 billion in bonuses to employees of financial companies in 2008. We all should be outraged at the rewards these people gave themselves for squandering other people's money.
4. Angry House Democrats are demanding that the tax cuts put in the recovery bill to gain Republican support be removed from the bill, now that it didn't work. I agree, and I also want them to put back in the family planning funds. John Boehner tried to turn it into an outrageous sound bite: "how can you spend $100 million on condoms?" In fact the funds were to save states' programs that help low income people avoid unwanted pregnancies, which save far larger future costs to the state health and welfare systems. Boehner's playing pure politics in the worst sense.
5. Governor Rod Blogojavech gave a spellbinding performance today in his "closing statement" to the Illinois Senate impeachment trial, after previously boycotting the proceedings, where he could have been questioned, in favor of TV talk shows where he could play victim. That's what he did today in the senate, play the innocent unfairly treated victim. The senators didn't buy it. They voted for impeachment 50 to 0.
Ralph
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Any second thoughts generated by Blago's spirited 'I'm innocent' performance were dispelled quickly as the senators got up, one by one, and expressed their outrage at what they heard on the tapes and in the dishonor he has brought to their state.
ReplyDeleteA unanimous vote to oust a governor -- not a single senator voted for him or even questioned the fairness of the proceedings -- that is as decisive as it gets.