Fun With Dick & Jane

Today’s show was really fun. I had expected to interview Jay Fleitman who is running for the republican nomination for the 2nd Congressional District in Massachusetts, but I had the wrong week. So Joe and I just talked politics.

First we have a new theme song – Dolly Parton’s 9 to 5, which has absolutely no relevance to anything but is fun. Secondly I think I’ve got the podcast to 2 segments instead of 4. Let’s hope.

Joe and I talked Scott Brown, SOTU address, budget, debt, debt and more debt, the Virginia’s legislative victory (democrat) which makes it illegal to mandate health insurance (thus sticking a fork in any hope for resurrecting health care) NASA, Nancy Pelosi and affirmative action.

Meanwhile, I have a new project with some friends called YOU TOO CONGRESS which you can see here. We are pre-launch while we work out the bugs, but feel free to poke around. Congress gives itself a lot of perks on our dime and excludes itself from a lot of obligations. Our goal is to point those things out, which should lead to voting them out.

One can hope.

Dick and I were both excited about having met Kerry Healey Monday night at our weekly Rotary meeting.  Kerry is the former MA Lt Governor (under Mitt Romeny) and a former Rotary Ambassadorial scholar.  She was a spectacular guest, and about as open and friendly a politician as I have ever seen.

We also talked about the Government takeover of GM (Govmo), the pushback on Chrysler by the bondholders and other funky economic moves under President Obama.

Next we were on to the Obama’s date night to NY city, which Dick believes is the status quo, and I think is outrageous given the state of the economy.

We talked about the disparity between Dick Cheney and President Obama on the gay marriage issue.  Cheney supports gay marriage as passed by the states – my position, and President Obama supports civil unions but opposes gay marriage.

We also talked about Sonia Sotomayor’s battle to be named to the Supreme Court and the double standard applied to minorities and white men.

We wondered when Nancy Pelosi will address her allegations that the CIA often lies to Congress , and we talked about a Chinese audience laughing at Tim Geithner’s assurances that the US economy is strong and Chinese assets are safe.

Enjoy!

The President  announced the appointment of Judge Sonia Sotomayor shortly before we went on the air which provided fodder for discussion.  I lamented that it is getting tougher and tougher to be a white male in this country these days, particularly in light of Judge Sotomayor’s remarks:

“I would hope that a wise Latina woman with the richness of her experiences would more often than not reach a better conclusion than a white male who hasn’t lived that life”

What a double standard we have in this country! A white male who made those remarks about white men would have been immediately disqualified.

We went on to discuss the Nancy Pelosi v Leon Panetta prize fight.  Dick believes a  Pelosi explanation or apology will save the day.  I mentioned that our intelligence agencies have a time proven way to win a fight (leaking) and the President and Speaker should be careful in this matter.

We talked briefly about the Cheney v Obama smackdown of last week.  Dick did not see it, so my gloating went unanswered.

We also talked about the situation in N. Korea which has worsened overnight.

Enjoy!

The confrontation yesterday between Barney Frank and his posse at the Financial Services Committee was a sight to see. In this corner we have the guy who along with Chris Dodd at the Banking committee repeatedly refused to regulate Fannie and Freddie . That refusal to act pretty much forced banks into oblivion via the subprime mortgage mess. In the other corner, the Presidents of those banks who while losing assets in record speed were lining their pockets even faster.

It was very hard to decide which set of crooks to root for but I finally made up my mind. Until we find some way to get testimony under oath from Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and the rest of the elected officials who have become rich beyond expectation on an elected official’s salary, I’m going with the bankers.

Tough choice, I admit.