Friday Mashup (11/06/09)

“Floats” for the Yankees parade today in honor of their World Series win, huh?

We didn’t need any damn “floats” here when the Phillies won last year. All we needed was to load up everybody into assorted vehicles and take them down the parade route to Citizens Bank Park for the celebration.

(No, I don’t begrudge the Yankees their “day in the sun” here. As much as it pains me to admit it, they were the better team, though part of me wonders what would have happened if Hideki Matsui had taken the wrong subway train to the stadium on Wednesday, though on second thought, all those guys probably have limos.)

I’m surprised there isn’t a commemorative A-Rod “float” with circular mirrors surrounding him so he can gaze upon his supposed gorgeousness at every moment (with Kate Hudson fawning appropriately, of course).

Let’s see this bunch get back to the Series next year (past the Sox, Angels of wherever they are, Texas, whoever in the Central division and maybe Tampa Bay). This definitely isn’t the Yankee team of Paul O’Neill, Bernie Williams, Chuck Knoblauch, Scott Brosius, etc.

Hopefully, though, the Phillies can make it back also, though their biggest NL foes have all improved as well.

The off-season should be interesting (and the palace for the Yankees sounds as ridiculous based on this as the F.U./Wachovia/Wells Fargo/Whatever It's Called This Week Center where you can pay top dollar to watch the orange-and-black get beat by the best the NHL has to offer, to say nothing of the Sixers getting flattened by the NBA's elite teams).

Also, over at the AEI blog yesterday, Danielle Pletka tried to make a joke out of the following here…

…as the president searches for different approaches to the conflict formerly known as the Global War on Terror, there’s another option that hasn’t received the attention it deserves: Bear deployment. It’s green. It’s mean. It’s a killing machine.

And clicking on the “bear deployment” link takes you to a BBC News story, which tells us the following…

A bear killed two militants after discovering them in its den in Indian-administered Kashmir, police say.

Hmmm, Kashmir, I think to myself; no, not that overplayed Led Zeppelin song on the “classic rock” station, but that endlessly-fought-over territory between India and Pakistan.

The area that was “ripe for resolution” according to Former President Stupid Head in 2008 here, even though he was told here in 2002 that he “can’t let it spin out of control.”

And as noted here, the most recent development is that India has objected to what it considers Chinese interference in PoK (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir), though the Indian home minister has said, “We will have a dialogue with every section of the people of Jammu & Kashmir. We mean dialogue process will start and it will be carried to its logical conclusion."

Maybe we can’t exert much influence on this conflict, but it would be nice if the AEI’s resident pundit (one of many) would at least acknowledge that that area of the world is a legitimate trouble spot and not some background upon which she can manufacture a veiled dig at the current occupant of An Oval Office (and you can read about more Pletka foreign policy misadventures from here).

Also, I really don’t have anything to add to this, but I just wanted to point out the following “Thumbs Down” selection in today’s Bucks County Courier Times…

To Bucks County Commissioner Charley Martin for his stubborn and thoughtless resistance to televising county commissioner meetings. And to Commissioner James Cawley for his cowering decision to defer to Martin on the issue.

The cost of televising meetings has long been a convenient scapegoat; that and because the county, unlike municipalities, does not have a franchise agreement with the cable TV companies. Still, the commissioners could record the meetings and stream them on the county Web site, which would let interested citizens view them at their convenience.

An opportunity to replay this week's commissioners meeting one way or the other - and at no expense to county taxpayers - was presented by minority Commissioner Diane Marseglia when she volunteered to pay for recording the meeting with video equipment at the Middletown Township building, the site of this week's remote meeting.

Martin initially dismissed the offer, saying, "I don't see any advantage to it."

Maybe not to you, Charley, or the other commissioners. The advantage would be to citizens, most of whom can't attend the commissioners' late-morning meetings because they have jobs.

Cawley said he had no problem with the meeting going online or on TV but wouldn't back up his convictions. Instead, he meekly yielded to Martin.

The senior commissioner later reversed himself, according to Marseglia, and gave the go-ahead for the meeting to play on Middletown's public access channel. Good thing for Middletown citizens - but what about the rest of us?

And somewhere, Jay Russell smiles (note: he was the “third party” candidate who con-vee-niently ran in the last Bucks County Commissioners’ election and took just enough votes away from Dem candidate Steve Santarsiero to ensure that Martin won instead).

And finally, I should note that I’m really sorry for Dem U.S. House Rep (NJ-3) John Adler that Jon Corzine lost his bid for re-election as New Jersey governor last Tuesday, but that’s no reason for him to believe that “the sky is falling,” as it were (on the subject of Corzine’s loss, by the way, I thought this was an excellent analysis that appeared in the New York Times).

As I’ve said at least once and many people smarter than I have pointed out numerous times already, the lesson, now as always, is to find a way to get your “base” into the game. And the Jersey Repugs, with the not-insignificant help of independent voters, did that for Christie (at times, I think “independent” voters are people who go into the voting booth, recall something they’ve heard no earlier than the day before or within the last five minutes and vote for that reason only; to be fair, though, that works for both parties).

But if Adler thinks that this qualifies as getting the Dem base in the game, then I think he can expect to serve no more than one term in Congress (I have just about nothing for the weekly congressional writeup today, so I might as well point this out now).

Because, as noted from the "Hill" post, Adler said the following…

"Congress should not pass a bill that costs more than $1 trillion dollars or increases the financial burden on middle class families and small businesses," Adler said in a statement. "Health care costs are rising faster than wages and inflation, and this bill does not change this trend."

In response, this post from Media Matters tells us the following…

The CBO has said that the $1 trillion figure (cited here by Adler)doesn’t include $167 billion in new penalty taxes imposed on businesses and individuals, reducing the cost to $894 billion, and beyond that, the CBO explained that that $894 billion figure represents the "net cost of coverage provisions." CBO found that those provisions "would be more than offset by the combination of other spending changes, which CBO estimates would save $426 billion, and receipts resulting from the income tax surcharge on high-income individuals and other provisions, which JCT [the Joint Committee on Taxation] and CBO estimate would increase federal revenues by $572 billion over that period."

Ultimately, the bill would result in a net reduction in federal budget deficits of $104 billion over the 2010--2019 period.

Congressman, if you’re going to do nothing but parrot right-wing talking points and run away from what should be the courage of your convictions, please switch parties now. You’re giving the Republicans everything they want as it is. Why not make it official and be done with it?