Happy New Year!

Soon this will have fireworks over it.

Have a safe and happy New Year's Eve. I'll see you in 2010.

Darth Cheney Opens His Mouth Again

Yet again, former VP Dick "Dark Side" Cheney has flapped his irrelevant gums regarding President Obama's foreign policy decisions. This time, he's politicizing Obama's response to the attempted terrorist attack on Christmas Day.

From Politico:

"As I’ve watched the events of the last few days it is clear once again that President Obama is trying to pretend we are not at war. He seems to think if he has a low-key response to an attempt to blow up an airliner and kill hundreds of people, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if he gives terrorists the rights of Americans, lets them lawyer up and reads them their Miranda rights, we won’t be at war. He seems to think if we bring the mastermind of Sept. 11 to New York, give him a lawyer and trial in civilian court, we won’t be at war.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1209/31054.html#ixzz0bJVW66XO

Once again, Cheney and the Rovian Republicans have shown their willingness to politicize pretty much anything, including the attempted murder of 300 American civilians. Stay classy, Darth.

And yes, you can clearly see how President Obama is pretending we're not at war. After all, he risked further alienating his base by choosing to escalate the war in Afghanistan, sending even more troops. And after several months of trying to decide what to do in Afghanistan, no less. Surely this was all an elaborate scheme to click his heels and wish the war into oblivion, as Mr. Cheney suggests he is doing.

I suppose we should listen to the advice of the former Vice President. After all, his administration gave us the foreign policy disaster that was and is the Iraq war; he's an expert at alienating the entire world and saddling the nation's military with an unnecessary and ill-planned war, costing thousands of American lives, hundreds of thousands of Iraqi lives and hundreds of billions of dollars. I suppose President Obama should have continued the shoot-first-ask-questions-later mentality of the Bush Administration, rather than planning the right course of action. That'll prove we're at war!

Shame on Dick Cheney for politicizing what could have been a Christmas tragedy, and shame on any Republicans who attempt to do the same in the coming elections.

Local Soldier Gets Capitol Flag that Flew in Her Honor

It's always good to see this kind of story, as it shows the kind of commitment our soldiers have to their jobs. Whatever your opinions about the wars we're fighting, I hope we can all agree that it's pretty incredible to have these kinds of people serving in our armed forces. From Monday's Martinsville Bulletin:

Army Maj. Sherri Sharpe was honored recently for defending the United States and protecting Americans’ freedoms, while helping the citizens of Afghanistan and Iraq.

Sharpe, who grew up in Martinsville, was given an American flag that flew in her honor over the U.S. Capitol on Dec. 2 at the request of 5th District U.S. Rep. Tom Perriello. “I’m overwhelmed. I’m honored,” Sharpe responded Wednesday, as her parents watched the ceremony at Perriello’s office uptown. Kimble Reynolds Jr., regional director for Perriello, read a letter from Perriello, who was unable to attend.

...

Sharpe will be redeployed to Iraq in October 2010, and it will be her fourth tour of duty in combat.

Sharpe will be redeployed to Iraq in October, and she called that part of her job. She has been in the United States since 2007, and during that time, some soldiers have had two tours of duty.

“It’s my time to go again,” she said. “I believe in what we do there,” Sharpe said, adding that she has seen positive results.

This will be her fourth tour of duty and her third to Iraq. She also did a tour in Afghanistan, she said.

Hats off to Maj. Sharpe, and 'attaboy Tom for recognizing her accomplishments. Here's a brief list provided in the article. Again, these are quite impressive:

•Serving as a platoon leader in Afghanistan, predominantly stationed at Bagram Air Field, in 2002. She remembers the first day little girls were allowed to go to school because it had been illegal under the Taliban, and she remembers American soldiers handing school supplies to boys and girls. According to Internet reports, many schools had been closed for years because of civil war and political unrest.

• Serving as a platoon leader in Iraq in 2003, moving several places while providing air support for the U.S.-led ground invasion of Iraq and finishing in Balad. She remembers flying “hero missions” in which KIAs (those killed in action) were flown to Kuwait so they could be transported back to the United States. She said it was a meaningful mission. “We were taking care of our own,” she said. She also remembers flying a man who had been exiled from Iraq for 18 years back to his homeland. He didn’t know whether his family was alive or dead but was grateful to be able to find out. And there were others like him, she said.

• Serving as company commander in Taji, Iraq, in 2006, in which she said her main responsibility was to bring all the soldiers in her command home alive. Everyone under her leadership did make it back alive in all three of her tours, she said. She led about 65 soldiers as a platoon leader in her first tour in Iraq, about 65 in her tour in Afghanistan and 83 as a company commander in her second tour in Iraq.

• Flying Chinook CH 47 helicopters, the largest the Army uses, for most of her career.

• Serving as an assistant professor of military science at Virginia Military Institute from December 2007 to December 2009.

When you raise your glass to the New Year tonight, give a nod to people like Maj. Sharpe. Here's hoping 2010 will be the year we get closer to peace.

Music Monday: "I and Love and You" by the Avett Brothers

I hope you all had a wonderful Christmas, and that you're not finding it too difficult to trudge back to work. I for one had an awesome Christmas, wherein I received an Audio-Technica USB turntable--that is, a record player that can be used to convert vinyls to Mp3 format. Yes, in 2009 there are still bands that release new albums on 12" LP format, and it's becoming a more common practice. As CDs continue their inexorable slide into irrelevance, vinyl sales have actually increased over the last few years.

Today's Music Monday comes from one of my new vinyls. With a special nod to two of my Brosville-area readers, here's the Avett Brothers with the title track from I and Love and You.



The Avett Brothers hail from North Carolina, and over the last several years they've built up quite a devoted following in the indie music scene. They merged punk, bluegrass and rock instrumentations to create a unique sound that raised plenty of eyebrows, and by all accounts they put on a pretty kickin' live show. The album mentioned above is their first major-label release, coming out on American Records. Check out I and Love and You, and also look into their previous album Emotionalism.

Merry Christmas from Congressman Perriello

Dear Friend,

I hope this holiday season finds you warm and safe. As you know, a ton of snow fell on us in the Fifth District this past week, and many of us are still digging ourselves out (this is me getting my truck free!). As cold and frustrating as all this snow can be, these are the times when Virginians show our spirit of giving.

This weekend I was helping a friend cut up some trees that were down across our road when four more neighbors showed up with chainsaws to pitch in and clear the road. On road after road, people were lending their plows, shovels, and backs to pull neighbors out of ditches and clear driveways. This was one of those moments when a community really comes together and shows the real meaning and beauty of this holiday season, even if it might mean a big January for chiropractors.

This season is a time to be with the ones we love and be thankful for everything that has blessed our lives. In addition to my wonderful family, I am truly thankful to have supporters like you. It is with your help and inspiration that I have been able to go to Washington and fight for Central and Southside Virginia and challenge politics as usual. I am so grateful for the opportunity and trust you have given me.

I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday.

Blessings,

Tom

That's What Christmas is All About, Charlie Brown

Whether you're a reader or detractor, Democrat or Republican, thanks for reading my blog. Merry Christmas from Max at 220 South.

Kevin, You're What the French Call "Les Incompetent"

Well it's Christmas Eve, so that means it's time to take a break from politics and blog about the greatest Christmas movies ever. In no particular order:

Home Alone: The first one, and maybe the second one too. Home Alone 3 was an abomination of cinema.

Christmas Vacation: "Eddy, if I woke up tomorrow with my head sewn to the carpet I wouldn't be any more surprised than I am right now."

Charlie Brown Christmas: See a forthcoming post

A Christmas Carol (the one with George C. Scott, who is still the best Scrooge of all time)

UPDATE: How could I forget A Christmas Story? (The one with the Red Ryder BB Gun) A classic, of course.

Obama, Krugman Respond to Left on Senate Bill

NPR interviewed President Obama yesterday and asked him about anger from the left over the Senate's health care bill. From Political Junkie with Ken Rudin:

And so I actually think that, considering how difficult the process has been, this is an end product that I am very proud of and is greatly worthy of support. This notion, I know, among some on the left that somehow this bill is not everything that it should be, that we still need a single-payer plan, et cetera, et cetera, I think, just ignores the real human reality that this will help millions of people and end up being the most significant piece of domestic legislation at least since Medicare and maybe since Social Security.

And in his New York Times blog, Paul Krugman pointed out that it could have been much worse:

Howard Fineman, last summer:

When the history of President Barack Obama’s first year in office is written, scholars will try to answer this puzzling question:

How did a gifted, charismatic young Democrat — who won the White House by a large margin and brought in huge congressional majorities — manage NOT to enact fundamental health care reform, a goal his party has been seeking since Truman?

Yes, I know, someone is going to tell me that this isn’t fundamental — but the truth is that the bill the Senate is about to pass looks a lot like the Obama campaign plan, so something real has happened. Give credit to Obama, or Harry Reid, or whoever; the fact is that four months ago the usual suspects were gleefully writing the obituary for reform, and have been sorely disappointed.

I have to say he has a good point. I still have big problems with the fact that the public option ended up being dropped and I think the Senate bill is deeply flawed. We should work hard to make sure the bill that comes out of conference committee looks better, and in a way that can actually pass through the sausage factory again. But I remember those miserable August days all too well--it looked as if Jim DeMint and the Republicans really were going to succeed in turning health care reform into "Obama's Waterloo."

Earlier this week I wrote that it might be a good idea to kill the bill and start over. It's now clear to me that not only is it flat out not going to happen, it would be a terrible idea--to start over now wouldn't mean starting over, it would mean giving up. I say that because the political will would be exhausted and the media would immediately set an "Obama failed" narrative that would be very difficult to overcome. Even if we could start over, it would add months to the process and stick a big fat do-nothing label on the current administration and congress, in an economy that is likely to generate anti-incumbent feelings anyway. On top of all that, we could still end up with a bad bill.

So let the bill pass. It's not perfect, but neither was the first Civil Rights Act--and barely a year later, activists forced Washington to pass something that actually had teeth. We can learn a lesson from that great legislative victory. Progressives should keep fighting for a single-payer system that would guarantee basic coverage to all Americans, regardless of ability to pay. But for now, we've pulled off something pretty impressive.

Just in Time for Christmas: The iGod Revolution?

I found this really interesting, especially given that we've entered the last Christmas season of the 2000s. Technology is moving at breakneck speed, and sometimes it's pretty cool to just look around and think about what that means for our daily lives.

Back at the beginning of this decade, Apple introduced the iPod portable mp3 player. Since then, that little gadget has revolutionized pretty much every aspect of the music industry, from major labels on down to independent local artists. On top of that, the iPod has a tendency to make its way into every facet of its users lives--I know that's true for me. Then Web 2.0 came along, and suddenly we had blogs, podcasts, Facebook and RSS feeds; the new web tools merged perfectly with the portable phones and music players we all started carrying around--think about the way you get your news, listen to music, keep up with sports, conduct business or keep in touch with friends. Now think about how you would have done those things fifteen years ago.

So it should be little surprise that the last decade's advances in personal entertainment would eventually have their effect on religion as well. NPR reports:

It's another Sunday morning at Rick Warren's Saddleback Church in Southern California. But some congregants are holding more than just the printed page, thanks to their iPhones. That's because they have access to the entire Bible on the device.

Technology is producing a new form of religious interaction. There are over two dozen Bible apps for smart phones. And beyond Scripture, people are using gadgets for devotional purposes.

...

"We believe that technology can bring people closer together and closer to God," says Bobby Gruenewald, a pastor at Lifechurch.tv. The Web site brings worship services to approximately 60,000 computer screens each week. Gruenewald tries to allay fears of social and religious isolation by pointing to earlier concerns about telephones and VCRs.

"When they were invented, people made these bold predictions that people are no longer going to need to meet with each other," Gruenewald says. "But we have this history now to look back and say that humans are actually pretty capable of integrating technology into their lives." (My emphasis)

On top of that, podcasting seems to be a growing practice among churches, especially in the Emerging/Emergent Church (see emergingchurch.info, emergentvillage.com or Homebrewed Christianity for more info). For those of you unfamiliar with podcasting, it's basically like downloading a radio show (or in this case a worship service) to your iPod so that you can listen at your leisure. There are podcasts for just about everything you can imagine. I have some personal experience with this--never one to wake up too early, podcasting was pretty much the only way I could get to church in college!

Register-Bee Demolishes Danville Tea Party

The Danville Register & Bee had some pretty harsh words for Danville Tea Party leader Nigel Coleman. Apparently for all his group's pronouncements against taxes and government spending, one of Mr. Coleman's projects is receiving hefty taxpayer support--without a City Council vote.

For some context, the Danville Tea Party apparently paid for a plane to fly over rush-hour traffic last week with a banner reading "OBAMA STOP DESTROYING OUR COUNTRY" in tow. Quoth the Bee:

Perhaps the Danville Tea Party’s next meeting should be buzzed by an airplane towing a banner that reads — in five-foot-tall letters, of course — “FISCAL CONSERVATIVISM BEGINS AT HOME!”

In case members of the Danville Tea Party missed it, retired City Manager Jerry Gwaltney gave the Coleman MarketPlace project an extra $465,000 without Danville City Council voting on it. They should know about that, because two members of City Council — Wayne Oakes and Fred Shanks — have been spotted at local Tea Party events.

But for now, the only member of Danville City Council who seems willing to raise a stink about it is Adam Tomer, a Democrat.

So, the question we have to ask the high-flying members of the Danville Tea Party is why a Democrat is leading the charge for fiscal accountability on Danville City Council — and whether their group is even concerned with how taxpayer money is spent outside the Beltway.

Based on their latest stunt — and the group’s silence on the Coleman MarketPlace appropriation — it appears they have no interest in an issue so close to home. That’s too bad, because it’s all taxpayer money. (Bolding added by me for emphasis)

Yowzers, that's harsh! There seems to be a lot of this going around in the Tea Party movement--how many "Keep The Government Out of Medicare" signs did you see at town halls last summer? And let's not forget Rep. Kevin Brady's angry letter complaining that the DC Metro didn't adequately prepare for the Tea Party's anti-government protests back in September.

This is why "lower spending" and "small government" are brilliant as campaign slogans, but useless as policy. They're utterly meaningless and universally meaningful at the same time--everyone wants to cut everything except the program that benefits them, and it looks like the Tea Party is no exception. I guess it's true what they say: Where you stand depends on where you sit.