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.

Fishguy sent this, via, the Contact Form:

Boehner Response to Obama’s Package : “It’s Huge”

Minority Leader John A. Boehner (r-ohio) …expressed concerns about the size of the package…..

Maybe they can get Larry Craig to work on Obama’s package for them?

Poor, ineffectual, Senator Arlen Specter is afraid that Eric Holder will be another Alberto Gonzales. This is only a bad thing when there’s a Democrat running the show, of course.

Joe Biden and Barack Obama have done what they can to kiss Diane Feinstein’s ass over the Panetta kerfuffle. Not a pleasant image, that.

And, of course, former MN Senator Norm Coleman has vowed to go to court to try and, well, pay off his lawyers’ mortgages and yacht loans, I guess, because he doesn’t appear to have a chance in hell of overturning the election results. You folks out there in Minnesota will just have to make do with only one Senator. On the bright side, Larry Craig has offered to fly in (as soon as he’s done with Obama’s package, of course).

Here, we got a couple inches of ice overnight, so I guess I’d better go put the ice skates on the car and get ready for what should be another miserable ride in to work. Hey, at least it’s hump day.

Poor DINO Diane Feinstein has has her knickers in a twist over the Leon Panetta appointment. Aw, poor Di, nobody groveled before her to find out who she wanted. I hope this is just the first of many things where DiFi and her ilk are out of the loop, though I’m sure that means they’ll make things difficult for anything Obama wants to do. But they would anyway, so fuck ’em. They have their own agendas, and what’s good for the country doesn’t factor in. They’re a lot like Republicans that way.

Monday, and the start of the first five-day week of 2009. Bleh.

On Press the Meat today, it’s an exclusive with perhaps the least impressive person to have ever held the title of ‘leader,’ Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Then it’s a roundtable of smarmy Richard Engel, The Atlantic’s Jeffrey Goldberg, BBC World News Katty Kay, Al-Arabiya’s Hisham Melhem, Andrea “boy did I marry a schmuck” Mitchell and the NY Time’s David Sanger.

On Faze the Nation, Bob Schieffer wants one last chance at some dick. Dick Cheney, that is.

Weaselface Wallace has Steny Hoyer, Poppy Bush, and the regular fuxheads on Fux News Sunday.

On the Goebbels network, George Snufalufagus has maybe (maybe not) the next US Senator from Illinois, Roland Burris, Dick Durbin, and dickhead Mitch McConnell. Plus a roundtable with Katrina vanden Heuvell, and George :jerk: Will, Jonathan Karl, and Cokie “the hag” Roberts.

Later, on 60 Minutes, Bob Simon does a piece on drunken driving fatalities, Lesley Stahl reports on the ability of neuroscience to read a person’s mind, and Scott Pelley reports on Texas Tech coach Mike Leach.

Enjoy your Sunday.

It’s Saturday. The day to get the wash done and all those mundane things that need doing. Ugh!

We got back to the City yesterday. The snow had completely disappeared so it musy have rained. Thus we were spared that uniquely urban landscape of dirty black snow. Instead it was cold and windy. The nice thing is all the people here who are really happy that we will soon have a new president. We ran into complete strangers who wished us a Happy New Year and said they were waiting for the real celebration on January 20. Now all we have to worry about is how much damage Dicky and his friends can do between now and the inauguration. They can and will do as much as they can.

I watched Chris Matthews’ special recapping the year yesterday, in the middle of the night. (No, there was nothing else on.) They said all the usual pap and nonsense. But, Pat Buchanan said that neo-conservatism is dead. I don’t think I’ve ever said this before, but I hope Buchanan is right. The Retugs still left in the Senate are fighting to maintain their “vision” though. I can only hope that their antics will get them ridicule and malice.

Have a good Saturday. Monday will come soon enough.

Back to work for me today. It’s been a long week, so I’m glad today is Friday. Now I have to wait over two weeks for another day off.