West Wing Live

I'm watching the closing statements of the Presidential candidates on NBC's popular West Wing live broadcast. The entire sixty minute episode, with only one interruption for commercials at the the thirty minute mark, was devoted to a mock debate between the Democratic candidate (Jimmy Smits) and the Republican candidate (Alan Alda).

On the suggestion of Senator Vinick (Alda), the candidates agreed to discard typical debate format and engaged in a lively teté à teté that was reminiscent of the Bush/Kerry debates of 2004, with the Democratic Congressman Santos (Smits) even using the line "I voted for it before I voted against it."

Both Alda and Smits brought believeability to their characters, with a few very minor slips. Alan Alda gave an especially realistic performance as a Republican candidate arguing for tax cuts, for increasing border patrol, for reducing the size of the federal government, and for oil drilling in the Arctic Natural Wildlife Refuge.

Jimmy Smits presented us with a Democratic candidate who stands strong on education, healthcare and job creation ("I'd delete two words from the current Medicare plan: Over 65"), while openly admitting that he would raise taxes on Americans earning more than one million dollars per year.

Alda was a confident politician, while Smits (in my opinion) did a respectable job of portraying one. My vote: Arnold Vinick for President.

You can cast your vote online at NBC.com, but good luck getting there. It's my guess that half of America is logging on right now, which would explain the download lag.

Kudos to Alda and Smits for a fine performance! And good luck to both as they do the whole thing live again for viewers on the west coast.

One thing's for sure: this has me looking forward to the real thing in 2008.

Joe

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Sent from my Palm Zire 72

mp3 Killed The Radio Star

If you aren't a regular listener of Jim Mahon's This Week in Palm podcast, you should check out this week's episode.

Jim does a good job of providing a rundown of all the Palm-related news of the past week, as well as special savings on select titles at the Palm OS Central software store.

Most notably in this week's episode is the song that the episode closes with: "I Heard It On A Podcast." This song is good enough to get radio airtime.

You can download the podcast directly here. The song starts at the 13:41 mark.

Give it a listen.

Joe

President Bush's Weekly Radio Address

20051105.a.mp3 (audio/mpeg Object)

In his weekly radio address President Bush said, "This week I was proud to nominate Judge Sam Alito to be an Associate Justice on the Supreme Court of the United States. Judge Alito is one of America's most accomplished and respected judges. During his long career in public service, he has demonstrated all the qualities that the American people expect in a Supreme Court Justice: mastery of the law, a deep commitment to justice, and great personal character. He is scholarly, fair-minded, and principled, and these traits will serve our nation well on our highest court."

Reader Comments

Anonymous said...

my comment is about bayh's email address. He keeps changing it so we can't easily contact him! We need to contact him now about defeating Kennedy and McCain bill to give amnesty to illegal aliens and 400,000 guest workers. They are trying hard to bring us socialism. Fight Back!!!!!

12:04 PM

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Average Joe replied...

Evan Bayh has a Senate email address, but if you email him at this address you will receive an auto-response telling you to contact him using the webform at his website, located here: http://bayh.senate.gov/LegForm.htm.

You can also contact him by mail at:
Senator Evan Bayh
463 Russell Building
United States Senate
Washington, DC 20510.

Also, by phone at one of his many district offices:
DC Office, Washington, DC
(202) 224-5623
Indianapolis
(317) 554-0750
Evansville
(812) 465-6500
Fort Wayne
(260) 426-3151
Hammond
(219) 852-2763
Jeffersonville
(812) 218-2317
South Bend
(574) 236-8302.

REMEMBER, there are TWO Indiana Senators. I encourage you to contact them both. You can reach Senator Richard Lugar, Republican, in a much simpler manner. Just email him at:

senator_lugar@lugar.senate.gov.

10:00 PM

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If you would like a personal reply when posting comments, or notification that a reply to your comments has been posted on the site, you can email me at averagejoe.blogs@gmail.com.

Joe

Reagan - Silver Anniversary

OpinionJournal

Best of the Web Today - November 4, 2005
By JAMES TARANTO

Silver Anniversary

The assassination of John F. Kennedy on Nov. 22, 1963, marked the end of an American political era: the age of confident liberalism. Lyndon B. Johnson carried forward JFK's legislative legacy, cutting taxes and pushing through landmark civil rights laws. But LBJ's overambitious wars in Vietnam and on poverty were damaging to America and shattering for liberalism. The late 1960s and the 1970s saw skyrocketing crime and illegitimacy, American humiliation in Vietnam, and the tragedy of Watergate.

Finally, with the presidency of Jimmy Carter, the country hit rock bottom: malaise, gas lines, the Soviets in Afghanistan, the invasion of the U.S. Embassy in Tehran. Blessedly, 25 years ago today, it came to an end with the election of Ronald Reagan and the dawn of the age of confident conservatism. The ensuing two decades saw unprecedented economic growth, victory in the Cold War, and a gradual diminution of the timidity about employing U.S. military force overseas that is known as the "Vietnam syndrome." By the mid-1990s, a Democratic president was even undoing the worst excesses of LBJ's Great Society.

We're inclined to view the presidency of George W. Bush, and especially his muscular foreign policy, as a continuation of the Reagan era. There is an argument to be made on the other side: that conservatism is now in its LBJ phase, having produced swollen government at home and overextended America's capabilities abroad. The left, meanwhile, is as weak, angry and paranoid as the right was in the heyday of the John Birch society--but perhaps one day it will reconnect with reality and resurge politically.

History will reveal itself in due course, but for today let us remember how, on Nov. 4, 1980, America began to reverse its decline by electing a man who shared the country's faith in itself.

CBS News - Finito To 'Scalito'?

CBS News | Finito To 'Scalito'? | November 3, 2005 13:00:06:

"There is no question that Alito is qualified, in that he has been an assistant solicitor general, a deputy assistant U.S. attorney general, a U.S. attorney and an appeals court judge. He is reputedly intelligent and scholarly. There will be no major disagreement over document releases; there are fifteen years of appeals court decisions for his friends and foes to scrutinize. That leaves the Democrats one avenue of attack: Alito would be bad for America. "

Gas Prices Decline

From a high of almost $3.00 per gallon this summer, I've seen a dramatic decline in the price I'm paying for gasoline: as low as $2.199 this morning. During my lengthy morning commute I saw prices as low as $2.169.

Are we seeing a decline related to record prices recently reported by the big oil companies? Will prices dip below the $2.00 mark again? And will natural gas prices rise enough to make it a moot point? Don't get too comfortable yet.

Joe