Looks like you folks out in the Denver area have a little bit of snow to deal with. I see it’s supposed to heat up in the next few days, though, so no white Halloween for you. I say just call in sick ’til it melts. Speaking of heating up in Denver, the Nuggets opened the NBA season on fire last night, with everybody’s favorite former Orangeman Carmelo Anthony picking up where he left off in preseason, scoring 30 points, grabbing 8 rebounds, and handing out 5 assists. Let’s hope they keep it up. Everybody’s other favorite former Orangeman, Jonny Flynn, scored 18 points in his NBA debut, overcoming the flu (swine, no doubt) to help the Minnesota Timberwolves win their season opener over the Nets. Everybody’s other other favorite ex-Orangeman – Etan Thomas – only had 2 points in 9 minutes in the Oklahoma City Thunder’s season opening win. I feel kinda bad for Etan. I hope it’s OK (so to speak) for an articulate, outspoken black man to live in Oklahoma City. That’s enough sports, I guess (don’t have time to look up all the former SU players and see how they did, and I’m not really an NBA fan anyway), except I feel obliged to mention that the Phillies stomped the Yankees last night in Game One of the World Series. I’m not a Phillies fan (not much of a baseball fan in general), but everybody hates the Yankees, right?

OK, on to important stuff like politics. Yesterday, we brought you the shameful story of AR Blue Dog Marion Berry voting against HR 562, “Congratulating Syracuse University for winning the National Collegiate Athletic Association Division I Men’s Lacrosse Tournament.” His peckerheaded excuse was that “[h]e makes it a practice not to vote for any resolution honoring sports teams” (never mind that he sponsored a resolution to name a Post Office in his district after Hall-of-Fame 3rd baseman George Kell). Well, yesterday afternoon Berry voted in favor of HR 824, “Congratulating the Northwestern University Wildcats on winning the 2009 NCAA women’s lacrosse championship, and to commend Northwestern University for its pursuit of athletic and academic excellence.” Liar! This guy needs to be ridden out on a rail.

According to the AP, President Obama is considering sending more troops to Afghanistan – just not as many as the military wants. In other words, he’s just gonna stick it in a little.

Now, personally, I think it’s nuts to try and “nation build” in Afghanistan. It’s just not gonna happen, and things can only go from bad to worse. So my choice would be for Obama to ignore all the hawks and have the guts to weather the shit storm he’ll get from faux patriots and cowards like Dick Cheney and Fux News, declare victory, and get the hell out. But I’m willing to entertain the possibility that I’m wrong about that, so if he feels it’s really necessary to “win” over there, then he ought to make his case to We the People (including a specific definition of what winning consists of – no vague bullshit), and then commit as many troops as would be needed to occupy every cave and do whatever it takes to get the job done (likely hundreds of thousands – if not millions – of troops, and tens of thousands of US deaths), even if requires a draft.

Either do it or don’t (either it’s worth billions of dollars and thousands of lives, or it isn’t worth on red cent or one American – never mind Afghan – life); don’t try and have it both ways.

This epitomizes the Obama Presidency for me. Give a good speech about being bold and visionary, then try to have it both ways, with the result being you get nothing (except dead, if you happen to be one of the poor dead soldiers sent on a fool’s mission). It’s more or less the same thing that’s happened with health care reform (if we get a “public option,” it won’t be Obama’s doing), closing Gitmo, Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell…. Did I miss anything?

Speaking of the public option, the House unveils its version today, apparently not the “robust” version with rates tied to medicare, but with “negotiated” rates. So the House will go to conference from that much weaker a position (assuming the Senate can actually pass their version, which seems difficult, what with them having to rely on the likes of Joe Lieberman). Oh well.

“Expert” Chuck Todd is on the Today Show right now, reporting on Obama’s unexpected trip to Dover AFB to watch 8 dead soldiers being returned from Afghanistan. He just told us that one of the fallen was from “Terry Hot” Indiana. Seriously. That’s even more stupid than thinking the abbreviation for Arkansas is “AK.” 🙄

I see by the old clock on the wall, it’s time to head out to face the day. At least I don’t have to shovel the driveway (yet).