A few things to think about before the State of the Union Tonight…

Before our fearful leader gets up this evening and tries to use truthiness to obfuscate what the state of the union really is, I thought I'd link to a few relevant articles that deal in facts and truth rather than the administration's preferred truthiness.

U.S. Congresswoman Louise Slaughter has a fantastic diary at DailyKos.com regarding the truth about the current administrations track record when it comes to energy policy. The president may get up tonight and talk about "alternative energies," and when he does, make sure you know how little the administration has done to actually reduce our dependence on oil, and how much they've done to fatten the pockets of the Big Oil Companies.

TPMCafe has a primer on HSAs (Health Savings Accounts), which has been reported to be a big part of the SOTU tonight.

If tonight's speech contains references to the warrantless (and thus illegal) wiretapping the administration has done, here's a couple articles to read… First, what the country really thinks about illegal wiretaps, and second, why illegal wiretaps and surveillance should matter to everyone.

UPDATED: Steve Soto over at TheLeftCoaster.com has a great diary on the empty gestures sure to be made in tonight's SOTU.

Strange Bedfellows…

Only with this administration… Iran might be a member of the axis of evil, but when it comes to gay rights, Dubya and Iran are best buddies!

Alito to be confirmed… *sigh*

Today, the senate voted 72-25 in favor of cloture, or ending debate on the confirmation of radical right-wing Supreme Court nominee Samuel Alito. Democrats did an incredibly poor job of exposing Alito for who he really is. During Alito's questioning in front of the Senate, Democrats did a terrible job of exposing all of Alito's beliefs (which were easily deduced from his past decisions and writings). Of course, the Republican noise machine painted Alito as mainstream, which the media happily ate up, and the Democrats who are afraid of their own shadow were too scared to hammer Alito on his beliefs. This confirmation was not just about Roe v. Wade (although everyone should be able to see that Alito will vote to overturn Roe v. Wade at the first opportunity), but about Alito's 19th-century views on the rights of individuals, minorities, women, etc. Even worse are Alito's views on the power of the executive branch, which should have been under even more scrutiny given the recent news of illegal warrantless wiretapping by the current administration.

Getting back to Roe v. Wade, there is one important point to note… Any senator who claims to be pro-choice but voted FOR cloture (i.e. to end debate and allow a vote) is VOTING FOR ROE V. WADE TO BE OVERTURNED. Make no mistake about it… if the right to choose is important to you, those "pro-choice' senators who voted for cloture should be held accountable at the ballot box the next time they are up for re-election.

Katrina Incompetence

It should have been clear from what happened during the administrations pathetic reaction to Hurricane Katrina that the administration was woefully unprepared for the hurricane, despite a 2004 computer simulation which predicted much of what would happen as well as warnings days before Katrina hit about the impact it would have. On top of that now comes the news that FEMA ignored offers of the use of personnel experienced in water rescues from the Department of the Interior, along with offers of vehicles and equipment.

But boy, did Brownie do a heck of a job!

Coming Oil Crisis?

Jerome a Paris, a diarist at Dailykos.com, has been writing for a while about environemental and energy-related issues facing the world. I first learned about the concept of "peak oil", or the idea (gaining more support in the scientific community, as it turns out) that we are getting very close to reaching the peak in the world's ability to produce oil… that after that point, the amount of oil the world can produce will start to drop. Unfortunately, the demand for oil is only increasing, and at a pretty fast rate. Jerome's diary has a pretty good summary article of the concerns here, which refers to this excellent article detailing the problem here. Jerome also has another article here which states that the world's four biggest oil fields are in decline.

All are worth reading; they really make it clear that even leaving global warming considerations, the world *HAS* to start thinking NOW about how to reduce/eliminate our dependence on oil and think about other, preferrably renewable, sources of energy.

Surprise, surprise… Cal Over #9 UW, 71-69!

After the post earlier in the week taking Cal head coach Ben Braun to task for the team's poor play against Arizona last Saturday, I have to give him credit for having the team prepared to play against No. 9 ranked Washington. The Golden Bears played extremely well the first 35 minutes of the game, and somehow survived some extremely dubious coaching decisions the last 5 minutes. The game wasn't perfect, but the Bears outplayed the Huskies for most of the game, and came away with the win. The win keeps alive the Bears faint hopes of an at-large berth into the NCAA tournament, but in order for this week of basketball to be a successful one, the Bears have to come into Saturday's game against Washington State focussed and emerge with a win. A loss on Saturday really hurts the Bears, and Coach Braun must have his team as up for Saturday's game as he did for today's game.

A game like today's shows how good the Bears can be if they put their minds to it. It's up to Coach Braun to get that kind of focus from the team game in and game out.

The Incompetence of our Fearful leader…

Read it if you have a chance.

The Triangle…

And no, I don't mean the offense run by Phil Jackson's Chicago Bulls teams. Peter Daou has a great article regarding the triangle of grassroots/bloggers, Washington DC insiders (aka the party), and the media, and how the Republicans have mastered that triangle and the Democrats haven't. Even worse, he says, Democrats are allowing Republicans to frame every issue in the media, meaning they've lost the fight in the media even before they've had a chance to engage the Republicans. Great read.

HSAs… A great explanation

A great explanation of HSAs (at TPMCafe), and what they do, and why they are *not* right for most people, from someone who uses them to great benefit. Definitely worth reading.

D is for dastardly, dumb and disaster…

In 2003, the Republican controlled congress passed the so-called Medicare Modernization Act, which was supposed to bring prescription drug coverage into the Medicare system through Medicare part D. Two great posts at TPMCafe explain what is really going on. The first summarizes exactly what Medicare part D does and doesn't do (which should be enough to scare you), while the second examines how the bill benefits the people who wanted it passed, namely the pharmaceutical and insurance companies. If anything shows how much the Republican-controlled government is in the pockets of big business, it is this.

UPDATE: To keep up to date with what all the posts on Medicare part D, go here.

UPDATE 2: Even better, if you're eligible for Medicare and don't sign up for Part D, you have to pay a penalty for the rest of your life when you do want to join.