John Adams

The real latest will be nationalized healthcare. He's announcing the preliminary version of that tonight with more details next week. When he talks about it, he says that his admin will have to partner with the private sector, ie, raising corp taxes. When that announcement comes, look for more DOW drop. Really, once Obama gets a little more predictable, the market will rebound. Right now, there's no confidence in his actions and it's an already jittery market.

It will continue until there's some predictability. Obama's lack of details in the bailout, his flip-flop on taxes (over the weekend), his inability to quench bank nationalization rumors, his carczar/opps-committee for auto, and new spending initiatives like healthcare (coming next week) are not helping the market feel like he's a predictable guy. VABills is baiting you. Much of this falls on the governments of both admins, much of it falls on the provate sector, but some of it--without a doubt--falls on Obama's shoulders.

Go make that point at your local St. Patrick's parade where people call themselves Irish. BFD.

If you like/ever liked comics, try this out. http://www.amazon.com/Soon-Will-Be-Invinci...l/dp/0375424865 Most fun read I had in 2008.

It was his shotgun--a special youth version. I'm surprised this doesn't happen more with step-parents. The step-parent situation, even if the step-parent is benign, is often awful for the kid. Especially at his age, 11, with another kid in the oven. This is one of those sad situations where no one should go to jail. The tragedy of it all is punishment enough for the dad and son.

Those two statements are funny.

Penny is dead as a doornail. Ben promised Widmore that he'd kill Penny because Widmore killed Alex (or at least Widmore's thug killed her). When he was on the phone with jack, he said something like "I had to keep a promise to an old friend." Desmond isn't dead but no doubt he's headed back to the island too, just not on the plane.

I remember when the DOW losing 70 points in a day was -0.5%.

Steele is a dwarf so it's OK that he used the term.

It's more enlightening than Limbaugh.

You complete DC Tom.

The odds of me catching that kind of detail are slim. I was TiVoing to the performances. Ryan Seacrest hurts me.

There will be a top 9 this year--no top 12. Not that it matters. Can't believe that uncoordinated big football player guy made it.

I suffered through all the weeks of auditions, or most of them, to finally see what American Idol calls the Semi-Finals. Never mind that in every other sport, the semifinalists are grouped into fours: Idol redefines Semifinals to a group of 3. With 12 people in each group. 3 of whom advance to the final 9...Finalists? THIS IS AMERICAN IDOL! Before I get to the reviews, what have we learned about Season 8 so far. First, the new judge Kara (you figure out how to say it...I say it car-uhh). Yeah, she's a total !@#$. And not in a good way. She sees any woman with talent or beauty as a threat. The annoying bikini-girl in the auditions was a preview of things to come. Just watch: Kara will hate every pretty woman. What's worse though, is she adds less than Randy. Dog. Second, ahh, who cares? Let's get to the reviews. Untied high top girl. Leather high-waisted pants and untied high tops are back? Hey Hollywood: Dust off that Who's the Boss movie script you've been sitting on. The first singer of the night won't be a pop star but she could definitely play the Alyssa Milano character. She sucked but gets 2 golden parachute pants for making me nostalgic for the 80s. Thin guy in purple suede jacket. This dude is a crooner. Great voice. The judges didn't want to prematurely shoot their load praising him (10 more people were coming up) but he was just about top dog. Dog. The Whore Wannabe. I think her name is Alexis. Or Alecia. Whoever she is, Idol is making a huge deal about how the judges told her that if she wants to get ahead, she needs to be a slut. This is usually solid advice. The problem here is that you can only whore it up if you're kind of a whore. This chick looks like that little girl who was in the Parent Trap remake, but with too much makeup and if she was sleeping around. Not a good analogy? Well, you get the idea. If the analogy was better, the point would be right. She's a goody 2 shoes and looks stupid in the whore clothes. But she can sing! Awesome voice--best of the night. Kara won't feel threatened by her (not pretty enough) and thus loved the performance. Country guy with big dimples. This guy was the most entertaining of the night. His song was something about living "In a hick town," which I'm guessing is a country anthem. I dug his modern country groove but the judges hated it. Young Stevie sneakers. If there's anything I've learned in life it's this: When you want to look hot in pants: don't wear sneakers. True no matter what sex you are. Speaking of sex, yes, "sex" is the proper word there. Don't be distracted by gender. Gender relates to characteristics that a society or culture delineates as masculine or feminine. That little grammar lesson was more fun than little Stevie's performance. She's cute but she was a nervous kid and it showed. Indian man. This guy has an amazing voice. Of all the contestants, he may have the biggest and best pipes. And he's likable. His obstacle: Is America ready for an Indian Idol? No !@#$in' way. Here in America, we allow one minority to move forward every 10 years or so. Don't blame me Indian guy, blame Obama. He won't advance. (But he should.) Sting train wreck. I don't know what to say. I want this woman's face out of my mind. She was off key. She couldn't move. She had these kind of boots on. I am ready for a lot of things to cycle back into fashion from the 80s...but not these. You gotta be !@#$ing kidding me. Football oil rigger dude. America is rooting for this guy. How can you not like the roughneck with the big voice. I thought he did well but he picked a bad song that highlighted the backup singers more than him. Paula was right (!) to point out that he bounced the mic back and forth between his hands too much. He looked like a woman in the middle of the icky kind of threesome. You make me feel a natural woman. I didn't have much on this chick. She was serious. She sang a song. Have a nice life. I'll never think of you again. Michael Jackson. There's one King of Pop. If you're going to try to copy him, you must have serious chops. This guy had dick. Simon was right, "Too bad you remembered the words tonight." Tatiana. I remember this lunatic's name from all the auditions. She's boil-the-rabbit-batshit nuts. Her withdrawn persona tonight was creepier than the giggly one from the auditions. Stunningly, she delivered one of the better performances in a really tough Whitney song (channeling Houston's crazy energy). The judges panned her just because she's a kook and that's OK but it's not honest. She was one of the better singers. Danny Gokey. !@#$ this guy. Everyone but Simon gobbled his knob but he was only OK. How in the hell can anyone think THAT was one of the best of the night? He's got a good voice, and he sings on key. But he doesn't have a big voice. He's got no personality. If all the American women didn't get all weepy about the dead wife thing, he'd be just some guy. I don't get it. Top 3: Suede jacket, Indian man, and wannabe whore. (Some multimedia in the blog in my sig.)

I would revise that a little bit. If I were in the market for a huge truckmonster, I love the Escalade. My cousin has one and it's amazing for what it is. For me, it makes no sense (setting aside the price issue). If I wanted a pickup, I'd get an F150. For anything in the sedan range, I have no interest. The Fords made me look harder this year because they have come a long way but I still didn't feel it. But as much as I'd like to buy American to support Ford, if I'm not spending 25K on a car that I don't like.

If I had any use for a pickup other than once a year, I'd buy an F150. The new Taurus looks OK and there's no denying that their SYNC technology is pretty cool. I agree. I just wasn't wowed enough at the car show to even give 'em a try. Even at the Lincoln level.

I went to the Philly Auto Show a few weeks ago and sat in or looked inside every major automobile I could. From just the show-room (not the road) perspective, it's easy to see why American cars don't sell. GM and Chevy have zero appeal. Like you, I really wanted to like a Ford/Lincoln product (because they are not in the dumper) but I had a hard time, even looking at the newer better models. FWIW, I also wasn't impressed with Nissan/Infiniti or Honda/Acura.

Obama's already floating Stimulus II (see today's papers), and neither stimulus addresses the bad bank issues, which are likely another 2 trillion dollar mess. Things will get worse before they get better. The good news is that most of the bad news is now out there. The bad news is that there's a lot of bad news and no one's quite figured out how to un!@#$ the system.

Exactly. Shame on you.

You can choose to hear this how you want to. My point, and concern, is that the current crisis is at least in part a crisis of confidence. By continuing to flame fears of the Depression (which we are still far from) and fearmongering up his base, he's doing the people that will get us out of the recession (the people who work and pay bills and take risks) a great disservice. His spending plan may very well coincide with the time when a natural recovery would take place--maybe not. I wasn't commenting on his spending plan. I was commenting on his rhetoric. When the president says "Were !@#$ed," it's self-fulfilling. How about choosing a different FDR-like rhetoric? That's my critcism in this thread.

I agree with myself and so does this WSJ piece. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123457303244386495.html

There's a physical addiction to substances--that makes the body sick when it doesn't have the substance. And then there's free will. Every time an addict reaches for the substance, it's an exercise of free will...harder for the addict, but still free will. If people could cure cancer with free will, most would. No such correlation with alcoholism. So for me, the "disease" alcoholism is a BS term. The addiction may be real and have a chemical basis but again, every drink requires the addict to walk to find the booze, open the booze, pour the booze, and drink the booze--each of those steps requires free will. Just like the obese person has to go to the fridge. To say otherwise is to deny someone's free will: Something I refuse to do. I have family members with eating disorders and alcoholism.

Lincoln shared a bed with a man while on the circuit. Since most lawyers on the circuit looking to save money did the same thing, it hardly makes him gay. The evidence that he was gay is underwhelming. To DC Tom: What is your case that he's not a great president? I can't say I've read a lot of histories of the bottom 10 but I've definitely read biographies and related histories of at least half of the presidents who matter. I could make a case for Truman. I could make a case for Washington. I could make a case for Lincoln. I have no problem with Abe being number 1. I am suspicious of FDR. I don't buy that he got America out of the depression. What he did do was give hope in a down time. But he may have prolonged the depression and ultimately, it was WWII that pulled America out of that depression. Further, it was the rest of the civilized world being in shambles post WWII that lead to US world dominance.

I have been suspect of VWs for that reason too but the Jetta gets good scores from Consumer Reports (better than the other VW models). In fact, if you look at hte turbo diesel's reliability, it's even higher than the normal gas Jetta. It's not Lexus-reliable but it's in the CR "good" category. Many other VW and Audi models are in the less than average and bad categories.

I am stunned that so many people here are so gullible. I enjoyed his schtick, and that's what it was. Great PR, not only for the current movie, but also the next. He's going to keep this up for 2 years until the next movie comes out and don't ever expect the "gotcha" moment.