December 2008 Archives

As we enter the home stretch up to Christmas, we've been watching all our favorite holiday movies at my house.  This week, I'll be sharing some of my favorites with you along with my normal political musings.  Today, the funniest Christmas movie ever: National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation starring Chevy Chase and Randy Quaid made in 1989.  I've probably see this movie at least 20 times, and still get down in the floor laughing every time...

Word got out yesterday the President Elect Obama has selected Steven Chu as his energy secretary.  Who?  Steven Chu.  Chu is a Nobel Laureate in Physics, holds numerous teaching fellowships and board seats and is director of the Lawrence Berkley National Laboratory.  Not political in the  slightest, Chu will bring his scientific approach to a job that normally goes to politicians as a reward.Chu was an early proponent of using science to understand and deal...

Corrupt politicians are nothing new to Americans, and are as familiar as an old pair of shoes to the people of the state of Illinois when it comes to their governors. Consider Rod Blagojevich’s four immediate predecessors. George Ryan (1999-2003) was convicted of 16 charges of conspiracy, fraud, and lying under oath, and now makes his home in federal prison. By the way, the prosecutor who put Ryan in the crossbar hotel was none other...

With all due respect to Timothy Geithner, Lawrence Summers, and the rest of President-elect Obama’s economic team, there is one name I would like to have seen included on that list--that of Nobel prize winning economist Paul Krugman. Here’s why. From a Krugman op-ed piece in the New York Times recently: "A few months ago I found myself at a meeting of economists and finance officials, discussing — what else? — the crisis. There was...