They both like to fly in private jets - Al barnstorming to warn us of the dangers of global warming, the CEOs heading to DC to explain why we should bail out their atrociously run companies for billions. We don’t live in America the Beautiful anymore. We live in America the Black Comic.

Pity Chrysler spokeswoman Lori McTavish (see link above) who was forced to issue this pathetic excuse on behalf of her spendthrift chief executive: “while always being mindful of company costs, all business travel requires the highest standard of safety for all employees.” No matter that private planes are often less safe than commercial jets, I suppose the poor woman had to say something. It’s not a pretty picture. A report from the WSJ’s The Wealth Report tells us private jets get exceptionally bad marks for pollution, have recently been favored (2008) with exceptional tax breaks, even with the current energy crisis, and don’t pay their fair share of air safety costs (air traffic control, etc.).

I have a proposal for some legislation: It is against federal law for anyone advocating an environmental cause or seeking a government bailout to be permitted to fly in a private jet in transit to espouse their position. Call it the Simon-Feingold Anti-Hypocrisy Act. Maybe I can’t get Russ Feingold to co-sign my bill, but, hey, you’ve got to start somewhere. I was going to try Harry Reid, but he’s from Nevada and we all know Vegas is lousy with private jets. No hope there.

Overwhelmed as we have been by US electoral politics, we can often overlook what may be more important news in the long run. Israel Air Force commander Maj. -Gen. Ido Nehushtan has given an extremely interesting interview to Der Spiegel in which he seems confident of Israel’s ability to destroy Iran’s nuclear capability. He also says the following:

“Hizbullah has been part of the Lebanese government since this spring. It is not a fringe terror organization - it is supported by the state. Militarily, Hizbullah is stronger than the regular Lebanese army. If they attack us, we might react differently [to how we did in the 2006 Second Lebanon War].”

I guess that’s another version of the old saw: Fool me once, shame on…. well, you know the rest.

Meanwhile, Al Qaeda in the person of Rhymin’-Ayman Zawahiri is apparently playing “house music,” accusing Obama of being a house you-know-what.

Speaking in Arabic, al-Zawahri uses the term “abeed al-beit,” which literally translates as “house slaves.” But al-Qaida supplied English subtitles of his speech that included the translation as “house negroes.”

Oh, well, here we go again. Zawahiri wasn’t the first doctor to disobey the Hippocratic Oath (”First, do no harm.”)

QUICK UPDATE: Zawahiri is probably moving quickly to make sure his “faithful” are not infected by “Obama-mania.” That would not be good news for him or the Al Qaeda leadership.

If the present mood continues, the Big Three automakers were just too late for the Big Handout given to their friends in the financial industry. Too many people are suspicious that these billions - unlike the other billions or trillions - will be money down the drain. I can see why. Everyone knows those auto companies are hopeless but few, including most of the so-called experts I’ve read, have a clue what all that financial mess means. Better to do something to paper that over (pun intended) or the world will explode. And despite the good old nostalgia for American cars from Don McClean’s song, this particular levy is dry and Them good old boys drinkin’ whiskey and rye singing “This will be the day that I die” probably have it just about right.

But still, I have a suspicion that the day will be saved via Chapter 11 and some restructuring will occur (although I probably can kiss bye-bye to my small pension plan investment in GM, bought in the naive belief that it can’t possibly go any lower.) This will provide an interesting test case for the whole bailout. I am the furthest thing imaginable from an expert in such things, but I noticed a few weeks ago that the market kept going up when it seemed as if the bailout was failing and then down as soon as it was accepted (and has continued to go down, as we all know, for the most part since then). Watch how the market responds. GM is headed for nowheresville. But the larger group of investors may be pleased. Milton Friedman is watching.

As one who has made a film or two, I can’t understand why it takes a movie for people to come to conclusions (tentative or otherwise) about global warming - whether that film be this unfinished one or Al Gore’s. The degree of anthropogenic global warming would seem to be a subject for on-going (and constantly revised) scientific study, not the source of cinematic fame.

Yet it would seem in this post Michael Moore era that primary way we communicate on these serious matters is in the movie theater. Hmmm…. Anyway, while in New York, I was able to interview Roy Spencer, a former NASA scientist and author of Climate Confusion, on his latest thoughts on the subject. Unlike the movie above, you will not have to wait until they appear in a “theater near you” but will be available on Pajamas TV in the next day or so. Watch for a link here. Spencer apparently thinks his global warming skepticism has been validated by the latest satellite information. (Satellite data are his area of expertise.) Please note that (unlike Al Gore) I do not consider myself sufficiently trained to evaluate this. Also, please remember that no matter what the level of AGW, energy independence is still a necessity for the security and economic health of our country. So we must find alternative systems anyway, though perhaps not with the same level of panic.

I am typing this as the acrid smell of burning brush seeps up through my doorsill.  Out my window the sky looks like steamed piss.  The fires are back and homes are going up in flames.  It’s those Santa Ana winds.  Chandler put it this way: 

There was a desert wind blowing that night. It was one of those hot dry Santa Anas that come down through the mountain passes and curl your hair and make your nerves jump and your skin itch. On nights like that every booze party ends in a fight. Meek little wives feel the edge of the carving knife and study their husbands’ necks. Anything can happen. You can even get a full glass of beer at a cocktail lounge.

Yeah, the dude could write. Fires, earthquakes, hellacious traffic. And now the Lakers have lost. I wonder why any of us live in this place. [Well, you can get some good sushi.-ed. Yeah, that you can. And some aces up Korean bbq at places like Park's. But is worth it? Now that's the question.]

Lionel Chetwynd and I have a mild difference of opinion about the Coen Brothers’ new movie Burn After Reading on this week’s Poliwood.  (He’s more positive than I am.)  Please leave any suggestions for future shows here.  We’re anxious to hear your thoughts on what we should gab about.

Joe Biden was wrong when he predicted that Obama would be tested by our enemies within six months.  Seemingly only ten minutes after his election, and long before his inauguration, a resurgent Russia is on the move, first by stating it would put missiles in Kalinin, now by their president revealing his intention to visit Cuba and Venezuela — a symbolic, though still obviously small scale, reconstitution of the USSR.

Would this have happened if McCain were elected?  I doubt it, because, regardless of the reality, that would have sent a signal that America would remain vigilant. Now, especially to the Russians, the opposite message has been sent.

I am not completely surprised they are testing this almost immediately. I know this sounds pompous, but I  have some inkling of how they think.  I have twice spent time in the Soviet Union with Russian writers and visited once after the break up and the introduction of their brand of capitalism. The differences were not as great as the similaritis).   Despite the works of Chekhov, the Russians, particularly at the leadership level, have little interest in nuance.  Russian life is very tough (considerably beyond anything in our normal existence) and a continual struggle.  Everything is based on power relationships.  You give an inch, the other will take it.  (Ever been on line in a Russian market? It’s not Westminister.) Anyway, I wish Mr. Obama luck, for all our sakes.  He is now living in the  land of “Be careful what you wish for.”

It doesn’t appear in the index of the  Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders of the American Psychiatric Association, but the DSM is well-known as a “living document” and subject to revision every few years.  I was wondering whether “politician” should be included in their next listings as a category of disorder when I read that Senator Sheldon Whitehouse (D-RI) and others on the Hill had plans to investigate the Bush Administration for numerous alleged offenses during their term in office. (Of course there are other reasons to include politicians in the listings - excessive narcissism, etc.)

Whitehouse et al intend to investigate Bush for malfeasances including the harsh treatment of terror-related detainees and, yet again, the firings by Harriet Miers of certain federal prosecutors.  Never mind that everyone knows the executive branch has the perfect right to make such firings. Whitehouse doesn’t care.  The point is to investigate.

But there is a much more important “never mind.”  Our government already provides us with a corrective for such alleged malfeasances, which are more often than not really policy differences.  It’s called “The Vote.”  And we just had one.  The Democrats won and they get to do whatever it is they want - up to a point.  Yet Whitehouse and his cronies want to continue spending their time and our money investigating and holding hearings on these matters, all this while the global economy is in freefall and we are at war on multiple fronts.  Talk about personality disorders.  How’s that for being out of control of your emotional behavior?….  Or why not put it more simply?  They’re jerks!

Seems as if Pelosi and Reid are hellbent on bailing out GM and  other American auto companies. I’m of two minds about this and am trying to restrain my bias. It’s worth remembering that — just as Al Gore is finally irrelevant to the existence or not of anthropogenic global warming — just because Pelosi and Reid are for something, doesn’t mean you have to be against it. Again, they, like Gore, are irrelevant.  Stick to the facts, as far as they can be ascertained.

And that is where I am confused.  The knee-jerk libertarian response is clear - leave these clowns to twist in the wind.  And, yes, there is a good argument for that.  Our big auto companies were run by the biggest collection of troglodytes this side of the Sudan.  Almost anyone with an IQ in triple digits could see that the day of the gas guzzler was over for years now and that new technologies were needed.  But the high-paid, high-powered execs in Detroit persisted in doing it the old way, thinking in terms of short term profit and what they thought was the real (not the phony) interest of consumers - and they failed big time!  The results are everywhere.

So why save them?  [You own a small amount of GM stock you bought for a song, don't you?  That's a good reason.-ed. Shhh....] Well, for one thing, some big auto companies in Japan, Korea and Germany are going to be getting tons of government support and they are working on the same new technologies we are. Don’t help the Americans and our industrial base goes even further in the toilette.  Then what?  Some start up in San Jose saves us? The Tesla formula for one hundred thousand dollar electric sports cars doesn’t look so smart at the moment.  Not so simple, is it?  I turn it over to you, dear reader.

But one suggestion I have made before.  Make Steve Jobs CEO of General Motors.  At least their cars will look better.  My new MacBook Pro, on which I am typing  this post, is a much slicker piece of design than anything GM has put out in years. [Wouldn't you rather drive a MacBuick?-ed. Somehow I knew you'd say that.]

Given human nature, it’s not surprising the long knives have come out instantaneously after the failure of the McCain-Palin campaign.  Never mind that it was not such a huge failure.  When did a party in power get reelected during an imploding economy?  But the race to blame seems especially repugnant this time.  I’m ambivalent about Palin but I certainly think the Vice-Presidential candidate was being polite in calling her anonymous critics “cowardly.”  A better word would be jerks.

Regarding McCain, his post-election behavior hasn’t been especially sophisticated either.  I was always puzzled why he recoiled from discussing Reverend Wright.  It was clearly an issue worth dealing with on an intelligent level. What does it say about a man that he could have remained in the church of such a person for twenty years? Surely something. (Even Jerry Nadler had his justication.)  Whatever it is, it is more important than much of the blather that came out during the campaign from both sides.  For all the time it went on, very few ideas were discussed in any depth at all.  It was two years of intellectual bankruptcy… a kind of a disgrace to democracy.

UPDATE: Sorry to have to subject you to a day of horrendous typos.  I posted this hastily on the Virgin America flight for LAX to JFK this morning before takeoff.  Corrections have been made on the other end.