Once a Liebermann…

I haven’t been keeping up with the antics of one Joseph Liebermann since the election. If you haven’t either, here’s a great piece at Salon.com about the crazy Indie Dem’s latest moves. What a guy. If there was ever any doubt that Liebermann is still out for Liebermann (instead of, say, representing the people who elected him), this piece should set the story straight. Even George W. Bush seems to be rethinking the way he speaks about the occupation in Iraq. Why isn’t Liebermann?

Elsewhere, who would have expected the Senate’s Republicans to push for even stricter ethics reform rules than those proposed by the Democrats? Well, hell hath frozen over, my friend. There’s a new wind of transparency coming. By a 98-0 margin, the Senate voted to mandate that all earmarks be put on the internet for 48 hours before they are inserted into any legislation. Rock on. As for the House, representatives there voted to ban all gifts from lobbyists, as well as travel paid for by lobbyists or taxpayers or campaign funds. Some representatives complain the measures don’t go far enough. I guess we’ll see.

According to Salon, Stephen Colbert wasn’t invited to this year’s White House Correspondent’s Dinner. If you didn’t catch his wrap-up of the event last year, check it out here.

And So It Begins…

The first day of Democratic rule in the Senate in over a decade had a few controversies, but it looks like Nancy Pelosi will struggle on with her “first 100 hours” plan. Here in NY, our new Democratic Governor, Elliot Spitzer, promised to lower property taxes and generally make things a bit easier for the struggling middle class.

The signs are all good, I just hope that some of this will make a real difference in peoples’ lives very soon. The talking heads on the radio are already complaining about “wealth distribution.” I find that funny, since under GOP rule the price of running the government and the war/occupation in Iraq has been placed on the working class, and the working class of the next several generations. There is no “shared burden” here. The wealthy continued to get more wealthy and the poor continued to slide deeper into poverty. It’s time to level the playing field again and allow the poor and middle class a chance to catch up a bit. As the brief Clinton experiment proved, when everyone shares the load, a good economy floats all boats.

So things are looking up, and I suppose this is a good time to mention here that I’ve started a side writing project and that I won’t be writing here as much in the future, if at all. Over the years I’ve become more and more invested in technology and consumerism, and it’s time to start getting back in touch with my creative side. I have started to put together a new website at www.topstepkitty.com. Over the coming weeks and months I’ll be putting more stuff up there, so if you’re interested, keep checking that site.

Otherwise, thank you to the thousand or so people who have come to this site every month for the past few years. This was therapy for me to a certain extent, and you folks kept me honest with your e-mails and comments on the site itself. Happy New Year, and may the future bring us all peace and joy.