It’s Saturday,but not just any Saturday, it is Bush-lite Saturday. The Bushie staffers have handed in their cell phones and other implements of mischief, cleaned out their desk drawers and left town (except of course those who have been insinuated into the fabric of the permanent government so that their misdeeds can continue.) Bush is wallowing in myopia at Camp David and Laura is chain smoking in the kitchen (more about that in a moment.) It’s done. It’s over. Of course there may very well be last minute pardons. But, no more neo-con governing. I am relieved, as if that nasty splinter has finally been removed.

As for Laura, I met someone recently whose brother, or brother-in law, is a secret service person who says that Laura is a three pack a day chain smoker. Can’t blame her if it’s true. It’s probably quite unnerving to have your inept, incurious, husband sitting with Dickie Chaney and plotting to change the world. I think I’d smoke too, but I doubt it would be tobacco.

I find myself very excited about Obama’s inauguration and I am surprised, having lived through many inaugurations before this, at all the excitement around me. Schools are planning ways to have the students watch. The receptionist at Hubby’s doctor spontaneously volunteered that she’s going to the inauguration. Hubby and I are planning to go upstate (sorry PJ it’s north of The City so it must be up) to watch with son and daughter and their families. It is not like the usual inception of a prez that takes place while I’m working and I hear about it on the news, that evening.

Hope really does spring eternal. Have a good one.

Finally, the weekend is here. And it’s even a three-day weekend. I think. I’m still a little up in the air as to whether to take Monday off or not, but I hate to pass up a three-day weekend, so I’m leaning towards taking it off.

Pretty big weekend, TV-wise, with the beginning of the end of Battlestar Galactica tonight, SU hoping to bounce back from the pummeling they got at Georgetown when Notre Dame comes to the Dome tomorrow, the Obama pre-inauguration festivities on Sunday afternoon (for those who won’t be watching the NFL Division Champisonship games), followed by the season 3 premiere of Big Love, the second season premiere of Fight of the Conchords, and the series premiere of The United States of Tara, all on Sunday night.

Gotta get through today first, though.

Today is a momentous day indeed. My dad would have been 89 today, if it hadn’t been for him dying and all. It’s too bad he isn’t still around. Martin Luther King Jr would have been 80 today, if it hadn’t been for him getting shot back in ’68. Tough year, 1968. And this day is the day that George W. Bush has picked to sully with his farewell address to the nation. It would be pretty funny if none of the networks carried whatever he has to say (except for Fox News, of course). Maybe he’ll apologize for fucking things up so bad. Maybe he’ll tell us the real story of the pretzel incident. Or perhaps he’ll tell us he’s sorry he never caught Osama. Or maybe he’ll go out being the same arrogant piece of crap that he’s always been.

Whatever. Personally, I won’t be watching. I just wish the asshole was gone already. And I wish he hadn’t picked my dad’s birthday for this.

There’s a reservoir around here that’s got a great hill for sledding. I know I’ve gone there (back when I was still young enough to trudge up a steep hill in the snow dragging a toboggan). It was cool, because it has kind of a two-level hill – a really steep upper part that levels out briefly, and then turns into a really steep and much longer lower part.

Over the years, kids have gotten hurt, since even if you don’t wipe out somewhere along the way, you have the potential to reach the road going at a pretty good clip. A while back, they put a fence around the upper hill, and put huge “NO SLEDDING” signs all the way around it. Naturally, this didn’t stop anybody, but I guess it helped with the City’s liability insurance.

This weekend, a 12-yr old girl managed to slam head first into a parked car, prompting cries of outrage for the City to “do something” about that hill. Sadly, she died last night.

Now, they’re scrambling to put up some of that orange plastic snow fence about 1/3 of the way up the hill (and at another, similar, reservoir in the City), which they say will come down in the spring and go back up in the fall (it’s a rather huge area, so even that plastic stuff will cost a bundle). Now, it’s very sad that this poor kid died, don’t get me wrong. But this is Syracuse, and it’s winter, and sledding is something fun for kids to do. Is it dangerous? Potentially. Care is certainly advised (for instance, try not to aim for the road). But it’s a dangerous world out there, and in the scheme of things, sliding down a hill isn’t the worst thing in the world. Something like 40-50 thousand people die in car accidents every year. Sonny Bono slammed his face into a tree while skiing. People drown, fall off of (and into) things, crash in airplanes, and die from all sorts of things. Hell, a block of toilet water ice can fall off an airplane and smack you in the head (it happened in Six Feet Under, anyway).

I mean, do we outlaw every potentially dangerous activity in the world, never leaving the house unless we’re wearing chain mail suits, inside portable shark cages? Kids (and adults) are gonna do some dumb things. They’ll get hurt, and some will die. It’s always sad when it happens, but that’s the nature of life on this planet. Nobody gets out alive. There’s no point in going out of our way to get ourselves killed, but while we’re here, we can either live our lives the way we’d like to, or cower in fear at the possibility that something horrible is about to happen.

If we want to expend time, energy, outrage, and, yes, money over something, why not put some effort into ending poverty, starvation, and war? Why not stop poisoning our air and water (and maybe quit shooting wolves from helicopters)?

Or isn’t there enough money in that?

Hard to believe, but the day we’ve all been waiting eight long years for finally arrives one week from today. After 2004, I wasn’t sure it would ever happen. Part of me still wonders if they’ll try and pull something funny, but these Republicans – and the Bushies, in particular – have been exposed as being so pathetically inept, corrupt, and incompetent, I don’t think they could get away with it. They’re fortunate they’ll never have to answer for their crimes.

No, I reckon they’ll be content to sit back and be obstructionist for the next four years, blaming Obama and the Democrats for not fixing everything they’ve destroyed. Then we can look forward to the Palin Administration. I wonder who her VP will be? Paul Wolfowitz maybe?

Ah, another weekend shot to hell.

Sports-wise, it was a good weekend (for me, anyway), as the SU basketball team took advantage of a relatively easy Big East opening schedule to go 4-0 in the league (16-1 overall), most recently pummeling Rutgers on Saturday night. No doubt they’ll move up a bit from their #9/#11 national ranking. With games against nine top-25 teams (including #1 Pitt) in their next 10 games, that isn’t likely to last long.

Then the Philadelphia Eagles earned a trip to the NFC Championship game by beating the Giants 23-11. Geographically speaking, I’m supposed to be a Giants fan, but as long as Donovan McNabb is the Eagles QB (and the Jets continue to be, well, the Jets), the Eagles are my team. And I actually got to sit down and watch the whole game for a change, which was nice.

I realize you non-sports people think all this is stupid, but, hey, it gets a bit dark, cold, and snowy in these parts during the winter, and it sure makes trudging out to work at zero dark-thirty on a cold Monday morning a little bit easier when “your team” is on a roll (for one thing, you can kill lots of time on the ESPN website and sports blogs – at least if you spend your workday in front of a computer the way I do).

Speaking of winter, we seem to be getting a hell of a lot of snow here this year (even by our standards). As of midnight last night, almost 94 inches had fallen this season, which is about double our average. At this rate (which I doubt will continue, but one can always hope), we’ll wind up with over 200 inches for the year, which would be both a record, and pretty nifty (I rather enjoy the snow, personally; as long as you’re going to get it, you might as well embrace it. Plus, it’s really pretty and the dogs love it). And it’s supposed to get downright frigid by midweek here – looks like we’ll be struggling to get above zero by Thursday.

I watched a little bit of Jurassic Park yesterday morning before I went out and shoveled the driveway (rather shocked to find another 8 – 10” had fallen overnight). It’s not a bad movie, I guess (the book was better), but I realized that the reason things turned to shit was that the computer dude was using a Mac. No wonder it all fell apart. I mean, when your dinosaur containment system starts acting up, you don’t wanna rely on somebody who needs to set up an appointment with a “genius” at the Apple store, do you?

Speaking of Jurassic Park, Laura Dern was just so goddamn great playing Katherine Harris in “Recount.” Her old man is great in “Big Love,” too (though my favorite Bruce Dern movie will always be Silent Running).

Oh well, guess I’d better go and get ready for work.

Today on Press the Meat, it’s African-American day, as Gilligan Gregory hosts Bill Cosby & Dr. Alvin Poussaint, co-authors of “Come On, People: On the Path from Victims to Victors,” D.C. Mayor Adrian Fenty & Maxine Waters (D-CA). Plus, can Obama’s stimulus package save the economy? Former Rep. David Bonior of Michigan, Wall Street Journal hack Paul Gigot, CNBC putz John Harwood, Vanity Fair’s Bethany McLean and Economy.com’s Mark Zandi will pretend to have all the answers.

On Faze the Nation, it’s the man of the hour (or not), Roland Burris. Plus Bush Buddy Bobby Schieffer pops a Boehner, and Dick (no way we’ll seat Burris, unless maybe we will) Durbin is along for the ride as well.

Over at Fux News, Weaselface Wallace is off this week, so he’s leaving the show in the capable lips of Brit Hume, on to suck off the Bushs one last time (hopefully for the last time, at least) with a two-fer: Poppy Bush and his idiot son, Georgie. Plus the usual fuxheads, of course.

At the Goebbels network, George Snufalufagus has President-elect Barack Obama, on how he’s going to fix the big steaming pile of shit dubya is leaving him, and then there’s a roundtable with the disgraced and irrelevant (if only theses media people would realize it) Newt Gingrich, Tom “idiot” Friedman, the ever-disgusting Peggy Noonan, and, of course, George :jerk: Will.

Later, on 60 Minutes, Steve Kroft reports on the price of oil, David Martin profiles Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Mike Mullen, and Scott Pelley profiles Wyclef Jean, who is apparently somebody rich and famous, and trying to use his wealth to help his native county, Haiti.

Granny is off to the big Single Payer heath rally in Albany today, so I guess I’m stuck alone with the dogs, forced to spend the day watching the NFL Playoffs all day. In preparation for next week’s season premiere, there’s a Big Love mini-marathon on HBO tonight, with six back-to-back episodes starting at 7:00 Eastern. If you’ve been missing your torture porn, you’re in luck, as the new season of 24 premieres on Fox tonight at 8:00 Eastern time.

Enjoy your Sunday, everybody.

Saturday has come again to give all the working folks, including KP, a welcome respite from the demands of the boss. Instead we get to satisfy the demands of the household, however that be configured. Here on Shelter Island we’re waiting for snow, or ice, or freezing rain, or some disturbing combination of all three. Ice is the worst, of course. It’s at its most diabolical when it is hidden under a layer of snow. But, if it’s bad enough, it will mean no school on Monday and that will be a good thing. No matter what, school will be open on Tuesday because that day of THE TEST.

Our dear mayor, who campaigns on the test results, floated the idea of testing the kindergarten, first and second grades, too. He got a lot of flack from parents and teachers over that plan and I haven’t heard anymore about it. But, there’s always next year. He also wants to pin teacher tenure to test results as well as bonuses for teachers and principals. He will then be shocked when he discovers widespread cheating and a school system devoted entirely to learning how to take THE TEST.

If you’ve paid any attention to these test scores you know that they keep rising. This is, of course, a miracle as each successive year a new group of students scores better than the previous group. How is this possible? Do we teach better each year? Are the kids taking better vitamins? The answer is that the first year the test is unknown and very hard. The miracle occurs each successive year as the test is both more familiar and easier. Oh, look how the students are improving. Strangely, when the students take the national test, as a group does every several years, they do not show this improvement.

I had a dear friend, a high school bio teacher, who said that everyone has been a student so everyone thinks he or she knows all about teaching, having been exposed to so much of it. That always makes me what to write to Bloomberg to tell him that I can run his radio station as I’ve listened to so much radio. I won’t tell him that it’s mostly radio on which Maron exposes his neuroses and insight.

The really good thing about today is that is makes us one day closer to saying goodbye to Bushco. Obama will no doubt delight and disappoint us, but Bushco will be gone and that can only be good.

Have a good one.

So, I find myself in the odd position of agreeing with Nancy Pelosi. She wants the Bush tax cuts for rich people rescinded immediately. Barack Obama? Not so much.

Over in the Senate, though, Democrats don’t like the new tax cuts that Obama is proposing for the less than wealthy. Hate to say it, but I kind of agree with them, too. Giving me an extra $10 a week isn’t gonna do diddly for the economy (that barely covers a six-pack of my current favorite beer, after bottle deposit and sales tax).

I say, restore the pre-Bush tax rates for rich people, and use that money (and more) to put people to work (fixing roads, bridges, and schools, building parks, creating a world-class rail system, etc.), develop alternative energy sources, create single-payer healthcare, whatever.

Putting people to work at decent pay with decent benefits will stimulate the economy a hell of a lot more than an extra six-pack in my fridge (and have the added benefit of fixing all the shit that’s falling apart). Get us off non-Western Hemisphere oil (for starters) and provide affordable healthcare for everybody, and so much the better.

But, I doubt much of that will happen. Oh well, at least it’s Friday.

Our Governor gave the “state of the State” address yesterday. He’s calling for layoffs of State workers (because there’s nothing like more unemployment to help out a sluggish economy), cuts to State aid for schools, and, oh, I don’t know, probably tax cuts for rich people or something.

Locally, Syracuse University yesterday announced 48 layoffs (in addition to hiring freezes that have been put into effect). Now, 48 people isn’t a huge number for the largest private employer (second overall) still standing around here, but it isn’t so much how many people are getting dumped, but the fact that Syracuse University – which has been around here since 1870 or so – needs to lay off anybody at all.

It’s not as if they’re sending jobs to India (if anything, they insource students and faculty from other countries), or that they’re producing widgets that they can make cheaper in Mexico. Hell, if they need more money, they can just let a few more dumb rich kids from Long Island enroll. They’re in the midst of raising $1 billion to add to their endowment (they’re more than halfway there), and always have their hand out to the alumni (might as well stop sending that crap to our house; I vowed that that $60 late fee on a $30 balance was the last penny they’d ever get from me, and the College of Nursing that Granny got her degree from doesn’t even exist anymore).

So, it’s just kind of a shocking sign of the times that SU would have to lay people off, even if it’s “only” 48 (which, they say, will save them $8 million this year, and $11 million in 2010). The US corporate/fascist economy is a big scam – a house of cards ready to come in the process of crashing down around us, and things aren’t going to be much fun around here (for us regular folks; the rich people – those that weren’t scammed by Bernie Madoff, anyway – shouldn’t have much to worry about, either from our “don’t tax the millionaires” Governor, or our “I’ll play ball with the Republicans on tax cuts” President-elect).

But, until the Gov decides to lay me off, I guess I’d better get off my ass and get ready for work.