Granted, the game itself was compelling and well played. The Saints fought hard and played smart - thanks in large part to a daring coach. But the rest of the telecast was a joke - starting with pregame nonsense, military worship during the anthem and inane color commentary. Don’t even get me started on the idiotic, unwatchable commercials.

But here is where reality and showbiz diverge - instead of solving our problems, say the death of tens of thousands and the flooding of a city in real life, we root for a football team. Why? Because the team is based in the city of New Orleans. And as much as I love New Orleans, the fact that everything is now supposedly made better is a load of horseshit. The place is still in the dumps, dangerous in many places, hopelessly backwards in some cases, and very much in danger of being destroyed. No matter, a bunch of guys won a football game. God forbid Americans should deal with reality - instead it’s the same old delusional patriotism and disconnect from the real world.

Somehow, Super Bowl Sunday is now a national holiday. Yesterday’s game was also the highest rated television event ever - breaking a 27 year old record held by the final episode of MASH. But why is it such lousy TV? Start with the pre-game, which featured Guy Fieri serving crap on a ritz cracker. Literally an inedible sludge topped with shrimp - perfect for obese America. Then we suffered through the endless graphics and multiple camera angles during the plays - so much technology it was mind-numbing. Then, most importantly of all was the commentary. It was mostly inoffensive except for one moment when a commentator told the Saints not to blitz. What did they do? Blitz and cause the game ending interception. So much for informed commentary. Next time, I’ll watch on mute.

And if I see one more set of elderly “rockers” on TV, I am literally going to smash my head through the TV.

Then there is the violence - the game itself is under heat for former players with brain damage. This sport is brutal and destroys players’ bodies. Yet, this is treated as a necessary evil so that we may be entertained. It also extends to the embarrassingly stupid commercials - once a highlight. Now we have Betty White getting slammed to the ground, Bud Light trucks driving over human bridges and violin playing beavers. People are upset at the use of the word retarded? Well it has another meaning - to set back. And these commercials retarded the American population by at least a generation. If they weren’t stupid, they were offensive or just plain pointless.

Lastly, if I see one more “journalist” write “who dat - the Saints!” I will personally pummel them. Let’s not promote thuggish behavior or abuses of the English language folks. Especially if you use that same language to earn a living.

Yup, an embarrassment but not of riches. Stupidity and violence reigned supreme. Considering a country that voted for George Bush AFTER he blundered into two wars, that’s no surprise.

Was a good game though. Go Saints!

I’ve always been amazed at the number of gays in the military since they have to live in secret and cannot have open personal lives. Yet, year after year, gay soldiers, seamen and airmen continue to do their jobs, often in harms way. Sometimes, it is a thankless, yet critical job - remember all those Arabic translators who were kicked out to the detriment of our efforts in Iraq? That was plain stupid.

Finally Obama has pushed the Defense Department to act and it’s about time. Fewer people will be dismissed and enforcement of the law will be a lot less strict under new DOD policies. Of course these are Obamian half measures in place of real change - the usual B.S. we get from the administration.

Of course, the world has changed a lot since 1993 when Bill Clinton imposed this horrible policy on the military. It will take time to undo, not least of all because a law to repeal must be passed, no easy feat these days. But the wheels of change have started to turn. Sec Def Bill Gates is on board and that is the kind of support we need. For a former Bush appointee, Gates has shown good leadership under Obama (who it must be said I am very disappointed with in terms of military budgeting) but the Left will need to keep pushing to get the change through.

Here’s to finally killing off this policy in 2010.

While the Obama Administration has done an unexpectedly credible job of repairing some of the damage (contrary to public perception), the pace of developments has not slowed. Let’s hope this month is an exceptional example, but I fear it will not be.

Which is the story of the month? Is it the Republicans regaining their 41-59 “majority” in the US Senate, enabling them to block any meaningful initiative or reform under the current Kafkaësque rules of the chamber (you probably know someone who will die prematurely for lack of healthcare reform; I do)? Or is it Great Britain raising the current threat level to “severe”? The succession of suicide attacks in Iraq? The demonstrated nonviability of the Internet as a secure commercial or communications vehicle by the (presumably Chinese government) hack attacks on our nation’s most savvy Internet companies (blame Microsoft)? The proposed “purity test” for Republican candidates that spells the final death knell for functional moderation in our political system? NBC (and by extension, broadcast TV) throwing away its future by kissing off Conan O’Brien (and paying $44 million just in severance for the privilege)? An all-white basketball league (even if it is a hoax)?

My vote goes to what amounts to nothing short of a fundamental rewrite of our Constitution, issued by our right-wing Supreme Court, in an act of unprecedented judicial activism (even more so than Bush v Gore), that provides unbridled First Amendment protections for corporations, an artificial construct of the state that was never mentioned or even conceived by our nation’s founders, and whose sole purpose is to make money. Hereafter, lobbyists will be able to look any political officeholder in the eye and credibly claim that they will spend any amount of money necessary to defeat him or her. As one cartoonist put it, the Supreme Court has now ruled that corporations can now own as many politicians as they can afford. What representative democracy can possibly survive that? Hint: none. Think about it: who would even want to be a political officeholder in such an environment? Answer: amoral sock puppets and retarded celebrity hounds.

The Bay State’s new Senator, Scott Brown, fits neatly into both categories. How much of a misogynist do you have to be to announce in your very first appearance on national television that your daughters, who are standing right behind you on camera, are “available”? I’m half surprised he didn’t set a price. Evidently, he intends to negotiate the dowry. How shrewd. And this after he trotted them out to defend his indefensible record proposing “conscience” exemptions for dispensing emergency contraception to rape victims. That’s right. Rape victims. But I digress.

Clearly, the motive for the ruling in Citizens United v Federal Election Commission is to create an insuperable advantage for the forces of reaction and darkness. Even John McCain is appalled. The list of concerns is too long to enumerate here. I’ll start with a few that should raise alarms across the political spectrum. Most corporations, and all large corporations, are owned at least in part by people who are not US citizens, and most large corporations have operations abroad. Should these foreigners be able to influence our political system in this way, even indirectly through their equity? Justice Samuel Alito shook his head and mouthed, “Not true,” when Obama raised this very point in his State of the Union address, but Alito himself affirmed this problem in oral argument before the court. He doesn’t think it’s a problem, clearly, but that’s different from “not true.” Or how about the legions of corporations whose management views are in obvious and direct opposition to the opinions and interests of their employees, to say nothing of the communities in which they operate (think Enron, which helped propel Bush to the presidency and before that to the governorship of Texas)?

Here’s a tip for the right-wingers: money is not speech, and corporations are not people, and I’m sure I’m not the first to say this. The reason I ended my membership with the ACLU decades ago is because up to now they have been wrong on this critical point, defending the First Amendment for any and all entities. Belatedly, they are now seeing the evil of this view and may change their policy. That small and likely pyrrhic gesture will be a welcome development, perhaps the only one since the new year.

First of all, Lincoln is toast this Fall as is Harry Reid. So there is going to be a huge re-alignment in the Senate in Jan 2011 and we might as well start looking at the reality of a 55 - 45 seat majority if we want to get anything done next year. (Congress is notoriously skittish to doing big things in election years so let’s figure for sake of argument nothing major goes through).

Well, I hate to tell Republicans but their conservative majority is never coming back. There just isn’t a political reality that gets them to 51 conservatives. First of all there is Olympia Snowe, and to a lesser degree Susan Collins. Then you have Delaware, which looks to go to Rep. Mike Castle since Beau Biden doesn’t want to run and even his father can’t get him to take the plunge. But history has proven Castle to be a moderate and he can be worked with. Add in Brown, who despite his appeal to tea partiers, is not a right winger but a Snowe-wannabe, as is Kelly Ayotte in NH. Brown will have 2 1/2 years to convince MA voters to support him come 2012 - when Obama will be on the ticket so that’s a tall order. So he can go tea party or he can try to pull a Snowe. Watch for the latter and Dems will have little choice to court him, if they want to pass anything. If Charlie Crist wins the nomination in FL - a big if - you get to 5 moderate Republicans. I know, I know, certain readers will say they’re right wingers, but since the entire political spectrum has swung to the right.

So while the Repubs may rip themselves apart over a few tea party candidates, the end result is some moderates will be out there. So if Obama wants to play bi-partisan, he’ll have some more cover besides the two ME Senators. Whether he can pass anything of real substance will remain to be seen.

UPDATE - there seems to be some dispute about the Biden report, which may refer to Ted Kaufman who currently holds the seat. Regardless, this is a tough slog for Dems even if Biden does run, which he does not seem inclined to want to do.

MONDAY UPDATE - Biden is officially not running.

Candidates win elections - good ones, that is. The Democrats have unfortunately had the crap triumvirate this year - rich, out of touch Corzine, hapless Deeds trying to occupy left, middle and right at the same time and Martha Coakley, the lamest of all. Coakley was the only candidate known statewide even two months ago yet there seems to be no love for her. Liberals are suspicious because of her law & order background while Republicans don’t vote for Democratic women no matter how tough they act. Independents swing back and forth between the parties and this time they have swung angrily to the right. Of course they won’t be happy with Scot Brown aka the latest emperor with no clothes candidate. Angry people act stupid and we are about to see the height of stupidity.

In the meantime, media pundits will say that the Dems are doomed come November. They may be, for various historical reasons not to mention a blundering, ineffective, poorly sold “agenda,” but they are not doomed because Republicans are resurgent or even popular. Angry people may act stupidly but they are not stupid. They know Republicans can’t run the government for more than five minutes without piling on the debt and blowing up fourth world countries. So they will protest and vote for people that are no more likely to turn things around then Democrats. (Actually these people are so retarded in their thinking presently that they feel stopping any action at all will be positive. That is not rational thinking by any stretch.)

So what are we left with? It’s the candidate stupid and this year Dems have tons of bad ones. Some we’ve seen, others are yet to rear their heads. OK, Harry Reid and Blanche Lincoln have. But that’s the true narrative folks - bad candidates lose, especially when the political winds have shifted. And one year into Obama’s destined to be disappointing tenure, the gale is fully in our faces.

All we can say is Chuck Schumer better blow up the filibuster next year. Because Harry Reid ain’t gonna be around and the Dem majority will likely be only a few seats.

Almost five years ago, McGwire refused to answer questions before Congress about steroid use. Today he changed his tune, calling it “foolish” and a “mistake.”

Sorry Mark, you are a disgrace. You helped destroy a sport you purported to love. What you did was not a mistake nor was it foolish. It was malicious and criminal. It was systematic and devious.

Oh and this devious lying crook’s new job? Hitting coach for the St. Louis Cardinals. One of baseball’s great teams has sullied its image beyond repair in my book. I’ll enjoy rooting against them for the rest of my life.

But she makes another point about which she is entirely correct: everything of significance that we are about to get from the pending healthcare legislation could have been achieved last winter: individual mandates, ending discrimination against pre-existing conditions, and the lame cost controls now under consideration. Everything else that has gone on in Congress has been wasted breath, whose effect has been the erosion of essentially all of the Democrats’ popularity advantage. All the tea-bag froth, all the Congressional grandstanding, all the innuendo and lies (death panels?), all of this was unnecessary and avoidable if the Obama Administration had not bitten off more than it was prepared to chew.

Meanwhile the focus of the American electorate has shifted elsewhere, mainly toward terrorist paranoia and joblessness. The former misses the mark, but the latter does not.

Now that the healthcare reform law is, one way or another, almost behind us, we are only now getting around to financial reform. Demonizing Wall Street would be a good way for the Democrats to get some of their mojo back, but we could have been doing this eight months ago. Why do I think that all that lost time will come back to haunt us big time?

You may recall that EPA scientists recommended stringent limits on smog back in the Bush Dark Ages and industry rebelled. Bush stepped in and arbitrarily set the limits much higher. (Maybe God told him what they should be?) Regardless, and countless asthma cases later, the EPA finally got it right and will impose the limits those scientists originally recommended.

Cue crying from the right wing, anti-regulation forces and big electric. It’s gonna be a long 8 years for those folks.

Let’s face it - Dodd was a dead duck this year and now the Democrats have a very good shot at holding the seat. That means our biggest dangers are now Harry Reid, who is one tough SOB to beat, Michael Bennet and Blanche Lincoln. Bill Ritter’s retirement means that it is likely Andrew Romanoff will jump into the Governor’s race and clear the field of serious competition for Bennet. This is all good news too, especially since with Dorgan retiring, North Dakota is all but assuredly going Republican now.

But Dodd is the tipping point - because it means we can still have 60 seats even if we lose a few such as those above or Delaware (what the hell is going on down there, by the way?). That’s because Republicans are still very unpopular and may lose in Missouri, Ohio and/or New Hampshire. Throw in Florida, where we get a 50/50 shot should Rubio beat Crist and North Carolina where Richard Burr’s numbers stink and you have a heck of a cliffhanger come November. But at worst, we have about 56 Senators. Time to kill the filibuster?

Meanwhile, best we’ll do in the House is lose 12 - 15 seats. My guess is still at about 20, not at all mitigated by near-certain pick-ups in Delaware and Louisiana.

Over 84,000 chemicals are in use in the U.S. and these substances have to be registered with the federal government. However, for 33 years, companies have been registering new chemicals under the Toxic Substances Control Act, which allows them to “exempt from public disclosure any information that could harm their bottom line” according to an article in today’s Washington Post. In essence, this means a company can - and nearly always does - cite this clause in requesting secrecy. Up to 95% of recent requests have cited some need for secrecy resulting in basically a bogus rubber stamp for companies to do whatever they wish. The result is chemicals on the market that may be dangerous and secret mixtures that can cause great harm if ingested or touched - but no one knows how to treat since the company does not need to tell what the ingredients are.

Clearly this is unacceptable and the law needs to be changed. The Post indicates that the Obama administration is not happy with the law and the EPA recently removed 580 chemicals from protection because companies published info on them or posted them on websites. However, that is a drop in the bucket. It’s time the government step up and protect its citizens by repealing the portion of the law allowing for secrecy.

Clearly everyone deserves a vacation - but when you’re the President of the USA and a terrorist strikes, you don’t downplay it or ignore it. You certainly don’t stay on vacation. What you do do is face it head on, take the media by storm, form a bi-partisan commission, etc. Because that is what Americans expect and what your political enemies will be looking for. You don’t, I repeat, don’t leave it to subordinates or fail to manage the message. That is a huge problem, especially when your DHS chief suddenly gets “foot in mouth” disease.

Now, of course, the right wing predictably overreacted to the attempted bombing and now the TSA et al is overreacting by blacklisting 14 countries (while ignoring other terrorist homelands such as Egypt). But my biggest problem with Obama’s White House has reared its head again - not managing the message properly. This is a continual headscratcher considering how adept the campaign was at managing information and stories.

But the White House is a different animal, one that Rahm Emmanuel was supposed to be intimately aware of. But Emmanuel and the rest of the President’s team are letting Obama down. They are not telling him how to cut-off political attacks and how to manage the perception. It’s almost like they don’t understand the tenuous position they - and Democrats - are in this year. If we lose the House, it will be because of the ineptitude of the Obama White House. (Okay, a crap health care bill will also be to blame.)

It’s a shame because Dems have made huge strides with the public with security issues. Dems pushed for all cargo coming into the US to be screened, Dems pushed for the TSA and Dems are the ones who insisted that every suitcase be screened for explosives before being loaded on a plane. Unfortunately, and it’s not really fair since this was also Dutch security screw-up, Dems are taking the brunt of the criticism now.

Let’s hope Obama learns that the next time he is on vacation, when the shit hits the fan, you head back to DC to take charge.

We have railed against the Dept of Homeland Insecurity for years as being rife with incompetence and stupidity - banning liquids on airplanes took the cake in our book since no one ever proved you could mix a liquid explosive on a plane. And no one ever bothered to follow up to see if such restrictions were needed.

Right now people are once again being subjected to mindless security procedures - having their carry-on bags taken apart after they go through scanners, having to remain in their seat for an hour before landing, not being allowed to have anything on their laps, etc. This kind of knee jerk “security” is nothing of the sort - yet no one can say boo when they are instituted. The airlines comply and commentators drone on and on about the dangers of terrorists.

So let’s add some facts to the discussion - first of all, in spite of all the “security” at airports, individuals have shown several times they can get some sort of low-grade explosives on the planes. This is in spite of ramped up security. And it will probably continue unless we subject everyone to the full body scanners now being implemented around the country. (These behemoths are fine by me and I’ve been through one once. Only thing is they are so bulky as to be unfeasible in high volume situations - Amsterdam has only 10 of them. Maybe they should watch the film Running Man to see how to scale them down).

Of course the knee-jerk security measures imposed would have done nothing to stop this particular bomber. After all, his explosives were in his skivvies, not in his carry-on, and he tried to set the bomb off WHILE seated. I can imagine there may have been something in his lap but do we know for sure? Or are we just trying to desperately do something, anything to protect airplanes?

Here is what does work - intelligence. Flagging a guy like this or anyone from certain countries like Yemen, Nigeria, Syria, Morocco, Egypt, etc. and put them through the secondary screening, including full body scans. What does not work - half-ass “security” like taking your shoes off or banning anything other than tiny liquids. And don’t get me started on feeling up grandma because she was randomly flagged.

Terrorists will just find another way because they are motivated. So until we get our intelligence agencies in order and listen to guys like this bomber’s father, we will get nowhere. And be subject to more TSA and DHS stupidity when one of these guys breaks our defenses. Which ain’t too hard, if you haven’t noticed.

Update 12/25 - the policy is officially dead according to CNN.

After years of horror stories, airline passengers will finally get a break - in 120 days. That is when new DOT regulations go into effect requiring all domestic carriers to return passengers to a terminal if a delay is more than three hours. It has been a shameful practice that heretofore Congress has been unable to deal with. Now the Obama administration and perhaps most significantly DOT Secretary Roy LaHood (yes, a Republican and a damn fine leader for DOT), has acted where Congress could not. More details courtesy AP.