General Motors has come to Washington, begging for a $25 billion bailout to keep it and its ailing Detroit counterparts going next year. But nobody seems too thrilled about the prospect. Liberals dwell on the companies' gas-guzzling sport-utility vehicles. Conservatives obsess over all the well-paid union members with gold-plated benefits. And people of all ideological backgrounds remember how they used to buy domestic cars, years ago, but stopped because the cars were so damn lousy. "The downfall of the American auto industry is indeed a tragedy," the Washington Post editorial board sermonized recently, "but the automakers and the United Auto Workers have only themselves to blame for much of it."

There are lots of commentaries in the press and on television now about the future of the Republicans and the direction its party will take in the next couple of years (and specifically for the 2010 congressional election.)

Newt Gingrich on Face The Nation yesterday made it pretty clear that Sarah Palin was not the direction Republicans would go toward.  Yet, Palin is getting lots of attention around the country, most recently at the Republican Governor's Conference, and she doesn't seem ready to let go of her anti-Obama and anti-Democratic statements.

After revealing that Obama and Hillary Clinton have met to discuss the Secretary of State position, the change team let out this release today:

"On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama and Senator John McCain will meet in Chicago at transition headquarters. It's well known that they share an important belief that Americans want and deserve a more effective and efficient government, and will discuss ways to work together to make that a reality. They will be joined in the meeting by Senator Lindsey Graham and Congressman Rahm Emanuel."

I learned three things listening to Secretary Paulson on the Bailout program yesterday:

  1. Paulson is a worse public speaker than Alan Greenspan (something I didn't think possible), leaving a more confused image of the Bailout Program behind him.

  2. Homeowners will now not benefit from any kind of mortgage recovery from the Bailout, as it is now all going to keep banks afloat.

  3. Since thee has, so far, been no oversight by Congress over the program, Paulson can do anything he wants without accountability.

In other words, we are screwed.

I was born and raised in Connecticut. After living in Illinois, Massachusetts, and New York, I spent 25 years after marrying Elly in Connecticut before we moved to Maryland and then West Virginia for work reasons.

Until my working for CSC as a commuter to and from Texas took up the time, I spent five years as a Justice of the Peace in Marlborough, CT. My specialty was marrying other atheists like me.

Today the first same-sex couples received Connecticut marriage licenses as the new law passed in my home state became the reality it is. I would have been thrilled to be performing weddings there now. I can't tell you how proud I am of Connecticut... and how disappointed I am at California.

Under The LobsterScope

Yesterday we watched as Obama and Bush met at the White House and it seemed pleasant to the press... as to what they really said to each other, we have only second-hand information and even that is uncertain. They talked about the economy, we are told, and I would imagine they talked about some foreign policy issues and other things.

We know Obama is pushing the "one President at a time" mantra, but he is starting to have influence in enough spheres that any changes by Bush in the next 70 days will be limited at best. We watch with a certain amount of anticipation as Bush gets ready to convene a G20 world energy summit that the President-elect will not attend.

Here it is... after all the campaigning, the speeches, the attacks and comebacks, the primaries, the local committee meetings, the blogs, the newspaper articles, the hours an hours of Morning Joe and C-Span, the worries and the reliefs of the polling... Election Day. I'm, of course, an early voter who is now waiting to see how the rest of America comes in.

Worrying about the final outcome has cost me sleep, made my poor diabetic blood sugar run high in the morning for no apparent reason, and kept me returning to rightist blogs and Fox News to see what the Republicans are doing, waiting for a last minute trick to spoil Barack's potential win (last night alone I must have seen fifty Reverend Wright commercials by some right-wing 527... and read entry after entry in right-wing blogs that made fun of the death of Obama's grandmother... an unimaginable set of evil jabs that I thought were beyond what Americans could do.)

With the polls in Obama's favor and the view of most pundits (not, of course, the consummate asshole Fred Barnes) that the election is his, I sit waiting for the expected dirty trick that Republicans are so good at pulling off. Whether it is voting machine manipulation or keeping voters away from the polls, or coming out with a new lie which is big enough to shake folks up, I don't know. But the last couple of Presidential elections have left me damned worried.

I get nervous when I see replays of joking comments like  "McCain's not a Maverick... he's a sidekick" because I remember Ann Richardson getting a big laugh when she said George W. "was born with a silver foot in his mouth."

And politicians cracking jokes have hurt the Republican side as well. I remember Giuliani (and Palin) at the Republican Convention making fun of Obama having been a "community organizer." And on the news this morning as the usual pundits evaluated the success of each of the campaigns, they attributed the great strength of the Democrats to the "organization" of the Obama team and volunteers.

So I sit watching the last speeches and get ready to volunteer this afternoon at the Obama office in Shepherdstown. And I'll be glad when it is all over.

Please get out and vote... and vote for Obama/Biden.

Under The LobsterScope