This is why Obama's President

During the campaign McCain proposed a British parliamentary style "question time" for the President in front of Congress.  This isn't exactly it, but it's damn close.  We have to work together if we're going to solve America's big problems.

Below Obama takes questions from the GOP House caucus for 60 minutes.  Enjoy.

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What I wrote to congress

...about yesterday's horrible Supreme Court decision

We need less money in our politics not more. Corporations that may not even be wholly owned by U.S. Citizens will be able to influence the laws of our country dramatically. This activist and unprecedented decision needs to be stopped. The next time an undercover policeman finds a "John" offering to pay for sex illegally, the "John" can just say he was exercising his right to free speech, because money and speech are apparently the exact same thing.

Wallet First

The real problems in this country will take real solutions and real money and that means a mix of tax increases AND cost cutting.

Right now, Americans are too lame to pay for any of the things they want. This costs money.

Iraq
Afghanistan
Healthcare
Clean Air and Water
Increased Airport Security

But Americans aren't grown up enough to realize that they can't have it all for free. And they're selfish enough to want a discount.

"We are the ones we've been waiting for"

Republicans during the 2008 election liked to paint Senator Obama as some sort of hopeful messiah of the left that would change everything for the better.  The Presidency by design of the founders is probably the weakest branch of the United States government, the most powerful thing he can do is send troops to war and not much else.

Again, the what is not what's important in terms of what the President accomplishes or doesn't it's HOW.

President Obama cannot make this country a better place.  We have to do that if we're grown up enough to make the hard choices.  We can't reduce the deficit and cut our own taxes. We can't afford to stay in Afghanistan forever just so we can feel safe.  We can't bitch and moan about other congressional districts' pork projects while we celebrate and laud our own.  If we want this country to change we have to do it.  No one else can do it for us. And it's not going to be easy.  No one ever said it would be.

Ugh...

Again, Andrew Sullivan says it better than I ever could...

Ditto any attempt to grapple with climate change. In fact, any legislative moves with this Democratic party and this Republican party are close to hopeless. The Democrats are a clapped out, gut-free lobbyist machine. The Republicans are insane. The system is therefore paralyzed beyond repair. 

Yes, I'm gloomy. Not because I was so wedded to this bill, although I think it's a decent enough start. But because if America cannot grapple with its deep and real problems after electing a new president with two majorities, then America's problems are too great for Americans to tackle. 

And so one suspects that this is a profound moment in the now accelerating decline of this country. And one of the major parties is ecstatic about it.

Why the Brown / Coakley Senate race in Mass is so close

The Senate race in Massachusetts has become so close because it has become a national race rather than a state race.  Money from both sides is pouring in as this has become the first referendum on Obama and his proposed healthcare policy.  National Republicans have convinced Massachusetts State Republicans and independents that the things they have grown to like support in Massachusetts healthcare reform such as a universal mandate and an insurance exchange are things that should not be replicated nationally.  That, and from what I hear, Martha Coakley barely ran a campaign after she won the Democratic nomination earlier last year.  Considering I have met both of these candidates, I thought I would give my rough opinion of the two candidates.

I used to work for the Republican Leader's Office on the House side and I met State Senator Brown a couple of times.  He is a very nice man and has a nice family.  He's not ridiculously socially conservative, he's moderately pro-choice and he's a fiscally prudent legislator in the State Senate.  He's a tad hawkish and is becoming more so as he morphs into a national candidate which I do not like, as he endorsed waterboarding during his debate with Attorney General Coakley. I would consider endorsing him were it not for his stance against the Healthcare Bill which is essentially a less aggressive mirror of the Massachusetts Healthcare plan, which he supports.

I met Martha Coakley once while attending a seminar on internet fraud and identity theft.  She was a very bright woman and very nice and knew a lot about the growing threat identity theft and financial fraud.  She also used the seminar to talk about emerging topics such as cyber bullying and how law will have to evolve with technology to make sure that the immense power of the internet will be used for good purposes rather than scamming an old lady or shaming some 13 year old girl into committing suicide. She is a social liberal which I appreciate, but showed a resolute toughness on law and order issues, especially with election law and ethics reform.

Anywho, Martha Coakley is smart as a whip and not a crazy liberal on law and order issues.  We've come too close on healthcare to have it squashed now.  If Scott Brown supported nationally what he supports in his own state, he might have gotten my endorsement, but he caved to the national party.  Ernie's first rule of politics: "Know where you live."  We'll see on Tuesday whether Massachusetts Democrats are active enough to get out and vote and prove whether or not I know where I used to live.

Ernie Crossing The Line endorses Martha Coakley for Senate. Please vote on Tuesday the 19th.

Let's remember R & B legend, Teddy Pendergrass

Teddy Pendergrass, R&B legend passed away too early today at the age of 59. To honor him, you should play this song and as fictional Leon Phelps a.k.a The Ladies' Man would say, "take that special someone and make sweet, sweet love." Rest in peace Teddy.

Passing Strange: The Movie - Premieres tonight on PBS' Great Performances

This show is really great and innovative. Check out this piece below.

Catholics get their music selection right

Here's a performance by the Westminster Cathedral Choir doing Eric Whitacre's Lux Aurumque for midnight mass, probably the primary (and only major) Catholic Church in downtown London and in my humble opinion, the best all-male choir in the world, period.  If you want to hear them at their best check out their recording of Ildebrando Pizzetti's Messa di Requiem.

Here's the amazing choir singing during Communion. I'm almost tempted to go back to the Church. But the guy who wrote that beautiful music is a non-believer. Either way...enjoy.



Oh wow. They also programmed Morten Lauridsen's O Magnum Mysterium. I'm almost converted!

KBR Inc., should be charged with treason and burn in Hell!

It's corporations like these that give corporations a bad name and provide stories that make your blood boil.  KBR, Inc. is a military contractor in Iraq and Afghanistan and that was accused of killing Green Beret, Staff Sgt. Ryan Maseth with their shoddy electric work in base showers and they have now been convicted of the crime of negligent homicide by that crazy lefty commie group, The Department of Defense.

Now it seems that the lovely people at Kellogg, Brown and Root (KBR) are at it again, this time exposing United States Army National Guardsmen to a hazardous substance called sodium dichromate, which has been shown to cause lung cancer in humans. Being the awesome people that they are, KBR sent the Oregon National Guardsmen unit to clean up an old oil refinery in Iraq knowing that this chemical was there, was toxic and dangerous without providing orders to wear adequate safety hazmat gear. They even sent some of their own people in protective gear, while our servicemen were cleaning up! Of those National Guardsmen that were exposed to the toxic substance, 2 have already died of related respiratory ailments and lung cancers.  Here's a video of the report:

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Classy.

Note: Below contains a rant and I do not advocate violence towards people. But...

Whoever within KBR, Inc decided that the corporation could save a couple bucks by building shitty showers and sending our young servicemen and women into a known dangerous and toxic area, essentially killing them; those people deserve to be placed in extraordinary rendition and have some masked person wear a giant purple dildo (because we want to be bipartisan here) and fuck those KBR execs in the ass until they bleed to death.

The enemy is supposed to try and kill our troops. These United States citizens ended up killing our servicemen and women because they wanted to save a couple bucks and keep some more cash for themselves.

Disgusting.

Happy New Year!

Ernie Crossing the Line would like to wish everyone a happy and healthy new year!  I want to thank my readers (all 3 of you!) for joining me on here.

I've got a big crossing the line rant coming up and we'll see if we can get a couple more comments up in in her'.