Today, The Washington Post published an editorial by President Barack Obama. Substituting "action" for "change," he calls for an end to the partisanship and failed, out-dated thinking that are holding back the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act from gaining more support in Congress. While it has already passed the House, with no Republican support, the bill is being discussed in the Senate now. Yesterday a bipartisan group of 19 governors including Charlie Crist (R-FL) wrote a letter to Obama in support of the bill, but Rush Limbaugh has made it his personal mission to see this bill fail having his supporters call their Senators. If you would like to help out in passing this bill, please call your senator and tell him/her why you need a better economy for both the short and long term health of America. Contact information for all U.S Senators can be found here.
Probably the main thing holding back the highly-anticipated Arrested Development movie project is Michael Cera's refusal to be involved. As I've posted before, he apparently doesn't want to be typecast as George Michael. Well, according to Jeffrey Tambor, it appears he has had a change of heart:“If I have to call him up and say, ‘Get on set right now, young man,’ he’ll be
there. . . . The movie is going to happen this year, and Michael Cera is on
board. Trust me.”
It has not been the path for the faint-hearted, for those who prefer
leisure over work, or seek only the pleasures of riches and fame.
Rather, it has been the risk-takers, the doers, the makers of things -- some celebrated, but more often men and women obscure in their labor -- who have carried us up the long, rugged path towards prosperity and freedom.
But by the time he got to "For us, they fought and died in places Concord and Gettysburg; Normandy and Khe Sahn," he sounded like Walter from the Big Lebowski.
Now, there are some who question the scale of our ambitions — who suggest
that our system cannot tolerate too many big plans. Their memories are short.
For they have forgotten what this country has already done; what free men and
women can achieve when imagination is joined to common purpose, and necessity to courage.
What the cynics fail to understand is that the ground has shifted beneath
them — that the stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no
longer apply. The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big
or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a
decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the
answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will
end. Those of us who manage the public's dollars will be held to account — to
spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day —
because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their
government.
America, in the face of our common dangers, in this winter of our hardship,
let us remember these timeless words. With hope and virtue, let us brave
once more the icy currents, and endure what storms may come. Let it be said
by our children's children that when we were tested we refused to let this
journey end, that we did not turn back nor did we falter; and with eyes
fixed on the horizon and God's grace upon us, we carried forth that great
gift of freedom and delivered it safely to future generations.
President-elect Obama recently said, "if I found out that there were high
officials who knowingly, consciously broke existing laws, engaged in coverups of
those crimes with knowledge forefront, then I think a basic principle of our
Constitution is nobody above the law."
Attorney General-designate Eric Holder recently said top Bush
Administration officials "authorized the use of torture, approved of secret
electronic surveillance of American citizens, secretly detained American
citizens without due process of law, denied the Writ of Habeus Corpus to
hundreds of accused enemy combatants, and authorized the use of procedures that
both violate international law and the United States Constitution."
The Bush administration has refused to investigate its own crimes and
President Bush may issue blanket pardons before he leaves. President Obama must
appoint a Special Prosecutor - ideally Patrick Fitzgerald - to fully investigate
these crimes and prosecute those responsible to demonstrate that we are truly a
Nation of Laws and no one - including the President - is above the law.
