Hudson River Airplane Crash

Amazing new video of the crash and the first moments thereafter was released today. It shows just how quickly passengers were moved outside the plane and just how little time elapsed before the first rescue boat arrived. In about four minutes, a river ferry arrived and did an amazing job of matching the drift of the plane to help remove passengers. Had that not happened, the ferry could have made the situation much more dire in the opening minutes.

The more I read about this, the more it looks like the plane's pilot, Captain , is -- to quote "Apollo 13" -- a steely-eyed missile man. Bravo!

17 January 2008

18 January 2008 Addition: More on the pilot.

"Forgive and Forget"

Paul Krugman writes today that Bush and members of his administration must be held accountable for their violations of the law. It's up to Obama, most likely, to push Congress to set up an independent investigator to look into these matters. Well, actually, it is up to us as citizens to actually care.

16 January 2009

The George Bush Years

I'd been contemplating writing a recap of the Bush presidency. The last eight years have seen a marked decline in the status, influence, and strength of the nation, quite probably the greatest in our history. Bush is easily the greatest failure as a leader in the modern era if not in our history as a whole. However, I'm worn out on the guy. Or maybe I've been worn out by him. Watching his farewell address last night, I could not even muster rage at his words, although pity was far from my mind. It is simply that he has done a great deal to dig America into a very, very deep hole and now the next guy must attempt to dig us out... if he can.

Arianna Huffington wrote a short piece today at her site. It is worth a look at the whole thing, but the tease for it is as follows:

Arianna Huffington: Bush's Farewell Address: Still Delusional After All These Years

Thursday night's valedictory speech was quintessential Bush: delusional from beginning to end. He made Afghanistan sound like a swell place to vacation when, in truth, only those with a death wish venture out these days without an armed convoy. He lauded Iraq as "a friend of the United States" -- without ever mentioning the fact that if Iraq has a BFF it is Iran, not America. He claimed that America's "air, water, and lands are measurably cleaner." Who is doing the measuring, the same eco-unfriendly companies to which he handed his environmental policies? It's dangerous spin. It's easy to feel a pang of pity for a guy heading out the door. But the more sympathy he evokes, the more susceptible we are to the lies he is telling. Before we know it, his revisionism becomes accepted as the truth.

I'm sure there will be more recaps of Bush in the week to come. When I see a good one, I'll let you know.

16 January 2009

Edit: 17 January 2009: Video with Huffington here.

Our New Leaders

Here are our new leaders. Wish them success. We can't afford anything less.

15 January 2009

Breath of Fresh Air

I may have a few policy issues with the President Elect right now, but damn is he a breath of fresh air.

14 January 2008

Bingo!

Great new post on TPM by Josh Marshall, quoted here in full:

If Not Now, When?

Real change almost always comes in the face of crisis. So if you believe that Global Warming is real and that sometime soon will have to be confronted in a big way ... and if you believe that our reliance on oil is not only an environmental threat but a threat to our economic security and national security as well ... and if you believe that we need to start manufacturing things that people in other countries want to buy, when else do you expect real change to come on these issues -- a real start on the big changes -- if not now?

It's a lot to expect early in an administration. But look through a couple centuries of our history and you'll see that there are just no examples of administrations that started small and did big things in year 2 or 4 or 6. That doesn't happen. Look at Roosevelt, Johnson, Reagan, presidents pack their biggest punch on day one. And even though many big things can happen in subsequent years, the presidencies are almost always defined at the beginning. Later triumphs and reforms grow from the changed political terrain created at the outset.

A lot I've written over the last few weeks that's been critical of what seems to me like a too little ambitious approach from Obama. But I base that on a belief that the current economic crisis is just the immediate hole we find ourselves in, perhaps the immediate manifestation of these other deep and critical challenges I noted above -- all tied to unsustainable reliance on fossil fuels, financialization of the US economy and decline of US manufacturing. I don't think we have much time to spare.

13 January 2009

My Spidey Sense...

Yet another reason to like Obama.

With great power comes great responsibility!

9 January 2009