The Series

Witht the World Series tied a t 1-1, I have to say that all of us in Connecticut are rooting for the Phillies to win in 5.

NY 23

Today's announcement by the Republican candidate suspending her campaign in the 23rd district of NY was simply a bow to her inevitable loss. Still, it is strange for her to suspend without endorsing the Conservative candidate, Hoffman. There are no polss telling us what effect her move will have, but I believe that the likely result is that GOP party stalwarts will now have the choice of four courses of action: voting for Scozzafava even though she has withdrawn, not voting, voting for the Democrat, or voting for the Conservative who has been endorsed by many national GOP figures. My guess is that the Conservative is likely to get a substantial boost from this move. If he gets half of Scozzafava's voters and 20% still vote for her, it should provide enough of a boost for the Conservative to win (assuming of course, that the Democrats do not manage to steal the election).

Taking a break

I will be away for the rest of this month. Don't be too distraught.

Congratulations to Charlie Rangel

Congressman Charlie Rangel of New York has accomplished something that I never thought could happen: Rangel managed to get pundit Margaret Carlson to say something sensible. Today Carlson called upon Rangel to resign due to his various ethical (and allegedly criminal) lapses. After reading her column on Bloomberg news, I drove down to the beach to see if the waters had parted. Strangely, they had not, but it still seemed as if a miracle had happened. Margaret, who never says anything bad about a Democrat or good about a Republican, actually called on Rangel to go. This is even more surprising than Obama's Nobel Peace Prize.

the Nobel Prize for Peace

President Obama has been awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. I can only say congratulations to him. It is quite an honor.

My question actually goes to the committee that awarded the prize. How could you possibly award this prize to Obama when he has done essentially nothing to merit it? The peace prize certainly has to be connected to foreign policy -- I do not think that the stimulus package could be the cause. So what has Obama done? In the Middle East, he has managed to destroy the ability of the United States to affect Israeli public opinion. He has solidified the position of Benjamin Netanyahu as Israeli Prime Minister despite his attempts to undermine Netanyahu. He has managed to delay Israeli-Palestinian talks for nine months by raising the settlement issue.

In Latin America, he has accepted a book from Hugo Chavez (maybe that's the reason for the prize). He has supported the legally ousted former president of Honduras who violated that country's constitution, albeit that support has had no effect of restoring the ousted president.

In Iraq, he has followed George Bush's policies exactly.

In Afghanistan, he has increased the level of the war (certainly a peaceful move) and is now vacilating on whether or not to follow his generals and increase troops further. In the meantime, casualties continue to mount.

In dealing with Iran, he has been uniformly unsuccessful in moving forward with stopping the Iranian nuclear program.

In Northeast Asia, he has not managed to put any check on the North Korean regime. Nor has he moved closer to peace with that regime.

In Europe, he has sent the Czechs and the Poles into near hysteria by removing the missile shield designed to deter war. Again, this is not a move towards peace.

The only thing I can figure out that Obama has done that may support this award is his meeting between Professor Gates and the Cambridge Policeman who arrested Gates. He was supposedly trying to bring about peace between them. At least that was the cover story. Actually, he was trying to repair his damaged image after he falsely accused the police of racism.

I guess the truth is that the Nobel committee in Norway that gives out the peace prize is just hoping for a role in the upcoming remake of a hollywood favorite: Clueless.

Fall

Here in Southwestern Connecticut we have moved into Autumn with the nights getting colder and the leaves beginning to turn colors. It is a particularly beautiful time of year, not quite up to the levels of May, but still impressive. Unfortunately, we are faced with impending winter, and this winter is predicted to be especially cold, notwithstanding global warming. Who knows, maybe some day global warming will be something other than a scare tactic. For now, however, we will have to deal with the cold.

The MLB playoffs begin

This afternoon, the major league playoffs began with the Phillies beating Colorado on the strength of a masterfull pitching performance by Lee. All I can say is that some things are still right with the world.

SNL sees the realities

Last night, SNL's opening segment was a parody of a speech by president Obama in which Obama listed, at great length, his lack of accomplishment. They even had a check list of his campaign promises which he ticked off while proudly announcing that he had done nothing with regard to all of them.

The truth of the skit is not big news. What is big news, however, is that SNL now not only realizes this truth, but it accepts the premise that enough Americans also accept it so that SNL can use it for the basis for a parody. In short, even NBC (or as it should be called: Obama Central) has come to the conclusion that America recognizes Obama as a failure so far. My guess is that the Olymipcs fiasco pushed NBC over the edge on this point.

The Chicago Olympics

Well, the news is in. After a personal appeal by president Barack Obama, the International Olympic Committee has rejected Chicago's bid to host the 2016 Summer Games. Clearly, Obama had no clout at all with the IOC. In fact, not only was Chicago rejected, but it was the first city whose bid was rejected. It seems to me that the IOC was sending Obama a message. Let's hope that Obama heard it and finally realizes that his ability to convince people to do what he wants is limited.

Maybe now that this farce is over Obama can actually get down to the job of being president and focus on what to do in Afghanistan. After all, doesn't he owe it to our troops who are fighting and dying in that country to at least decide on the proper course of action there?