Shana Tova!
The Days of Awe begin.

Channel surfing late night Sundays is practically always futile, if you're not following football. It's a TV dead zone. So I am as amazed as I am delighted to report the discovery of a new show, Huckabee on Fox. Yes, that Huckabee, the former Governer of Arkansas, ordained Baptist Minister and former Republican presidential candidate. It's scheduled for primetime Saturday and Sunday and they do another re-run on Sunday late nights. Crackpot Chronicles is pleased to report a solid winner.

On the discussion seat was not only Elizabeth Hasselbeck, the Conservative chair of the brainy daytime talk show The View, but former Democratic vice presidential candidate Geraldine Ferraro along with a number of Fox finance experts and Conservative pundits talking about the currently explosive economic issues. It was really good. I mean really good. Funny, insightful, balanced, with a homespun feel, I can hardly recall watching something so topical and fresh. Huck is a natural, with his bumpkin persona, wisecracking intellect, and obvious respect for well-stated opposition views.

I tuned in late, but what grabbed me was a question he dropped on Hasslebeck (paraphrasing here): feminism is more about leftist agenda than it is about women these days, isn't it? I stopped plumping my pillows and sat down, stopped cold. He put into words something I've been feeling for years and never could express. It was what bristled me about all the spiteful email forwards and Liberal pundit swipes about how Sarah Palin was going to put women back 40 years. I mean really! It's a good example of the cultural ignorance of leftists that costs the Democratic Party elections again and again. Someone who can field dress a moose and has a pro-life agenda just isn't a woman, according to the left. Well, excuse me, but feminism is the interests of all women, even if they don't have common social or political values. I've seen enough anti-feminist spew over Palin to fund my ire account for a while. Panicky frantic liberal women sniping at her high heels, when Palin is perfectly capable on coming undone politically by her own efforts.

Back to the Huckabee show. It ends with a "house" band composed of the Huck himself on bass and various Fox workers; writers, techs and researchers on the other instruments, a ragtag ensemble, but perfect for the show. Huckabee plays bass guitar in his own rock-n-roll band, Capitol Offense, which has opened for artists such as Willie Nelson and the Charlie Daniels Band, and has played the House of Blues in New Orleans, the Red Rocks Amphitheater in Denver and for two presidential inauguration balls. Even a picky picky picky musikista like me had to grin from ear to ear.

Watch this show, if you can, even if it is a right-leaning show on a Conservative network. You might come to understand something valuable about another point of view. And you will have a good time.

UPDATE: Kyle hung a right, softened up and missed the midcoast, dropping a bit of rain, but that's all.

Coastal Maine is under the first hurricane watch in 17 years. I'm battening down the hatches.

EASTPORT, Maine (AP) - A rare tropical storm warning and hurricane watch were posted for parts of the Maine coast on Saturday as Hurricane Kyle roared north toward the region with a threat of conditions similar to one of New England's nor'easter storms.

...

The hurricane center posted a hurricane watch from Stonington, at roughly the center of the Maine coast, to Eastport, on the border with New Brunswick, Canada. A tropical storm warning extended from Port Clyde, about 50 miles northeast of Portland, to Eastport. A tropical storm watch extended from Port Clyde to Cape Elizabeth, an area that includes Portland, Maine's largest city.

A hurricane watch means hurricane conditions, with winds of at least 74 mph, are possible within 36 hours. A tropical storm warning means conditions for that type of storm, with winds of 39 to 73 mph, are expected within the next 24 hours. A tropical storm watch means those conditions are possible within 36 hours.

Kyle could make landfall near Eastport, possibly late Sunday, the hurricane center said.

Livin' in the USA sure ain't dull these days. On the home stretch of the most vivid Presidential campaign ever, Wall Street has a long overdue meltdown. Republican candidate McCain tries to weasel out of a scheduled debate with his opponent on Friday, seeing his poll numbers tend southward. He announces that he's suspending his campaign and invites his opponent to do likewise; he's rebuffed. Then the President invites both of them to an emergency conference tomorrow.

The Republican President desperately requests a Rooseveltian solution: nationalizing huge financial institutions with $700 billion of “taxpayer” money. The laissez faire, anti-big-gumment Republicans have their shorts in a knot over this, "it's un-American!" they wail. The Democrats are hee-hawing like the donkey that symbolizes that party. The terse-bail out plan handed down from the throne had no provision for oversight – and the lack of oversight was what brought this collapse on. All this happens just before Congress is scheduled to adjourn for the year. Are you kidding me? This is better than a Tom Clancy movie! I stayed up all night last night watching analysts hash this over on TV.

This is just a more drastic repeat of what happened in the Reagan administration. He deregulated the banks and soon after there was a Savings and Loan collapse that had to be bailed out. The real estate loan business was deregulated under Bush, high-risk derivative publicly traded securities based on these loans were legalized and that precipitated this calamity. And to be fair, there was some deregulation, or more accurately, less than diligent attempts at regulation during the Clinton administration as well. President Clinton, by coincidence, has been making the rounds of all the talk shows this week to report on the Clinton Global Initiative summit, and has had to address this (among other issues).

I don't have any money in the market but I know this is a ricocheting calamity. My livelihood is probably at risk and my grocery, fuel and other expenses, which have risen over the last year, are certainly going to go higher. But I've got some savings and some momentum; I'll get on fine. No pain, no gain. What's the gain, you might ask. In a word, perspective. You can see a bit more clearly when a bubble bursts. This situation is not likely to repeat itself on the next economic upswing, an upswing that can most absolutely be predicted, in time. These are very deep pockets, at least at the top, and this is a very resilient and radiantly ingenious people, one that historically is able to tighten its belt and soldier on.

But if the working American public sees this bailout money going to failing institutions without any penalties, oversight or payback, if executives of these bailed out institutions can subsequently sell their stock, pocket the proceeds and bow out, there will be riots in the streets. Bush knows this and announced in his speech tonight that there would be limits in CEO pay, provisions for taxpayer reclamation, and oversight. It has been suggested that a CEO of a bailed out, and subsequently taxpayer-owned institution should earn no more than the highest paid civil servant, i.e. the President, who earns $400,000.00 a year. Can you imagine? 400K as a booby prize?

I'm not personally fearful, I'm flabbergasted and intrigued. I expect this will sort out very soon, because it has to, and I expect that there will be hell to pay in the Republican sector which will guarantee a Democratic victory in November. Democrat's joy will be short lived as it is the future president who will inherit this mess. And we'll all feel the pinch as this plays out. Most Americans are going to have to live with diminished assets. But as Bill Gates said earlier today in an interview "most of the people in the rest of the world love to have our problems." And in truth, this fissure in the N.Y. Stock Exchange will have much more severe repercussions overseas than it will here.

Thanks to Richard (Peking Duck) for bringing this to our attention on Facebook. It is fantastic.
Representative Marcey Kaptur, D, Ohio.



If it doesn't play on here, you can play it directly on YouTube
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zHmvyjkQ-rQ&feature=related

My home town, my birthplace. You taught me the grit and the grandeur of life. You taught me passion. And what greatness really means.




















Your streets, the aroma of pretzels and mustard, the brownstones and the skyscrapers, the art, the style, the street life, the pizza and the penthouses. And after the worst man-made hit in the history of this great nation, how you stood back up and showed the world that the soul of our magnificent city had a resilience and a spirit beyond compare.

I remember my first trip back when I was living abroad, in 2004, a year and a half into my almost four years in China, circling Manhattan at night over the glittering skyline, beckoning, welcoming, pirouetting, a beacon, a monument, and a homefire. And the words just fell from my mouth, "There it is, the crown jewel of the civilized world."

I remember my annual family Thanksgiving visit in November of 2001, walking from the Lower East Side where I was staying to ground zero and as I passed City Hall, you could still smell the smoke, as the angry crater smoldered in the aftermath. And when I got there, the stunning amazement at how unimaginably huge the attack site was. They were still digging out all the gold and negotiable securities, with the pieces of the fallen, from under the mangled ground. It broke my heart, New York. But it didn't break yours.

No, we don't have to get over it! We're over it. But we'll never forget, not you, not the bravery and shining pride, nor those who were lost on September 11th, 2001.

Labels: New York September 11th 2001