the rix mix

Seven years ago, in the midst of general peace & prosperity, a Republican Congress began impeaching a President for lying about an extra-marital affair. I'm not joking, this really happened. They insisted it was a Constitutional crisis. The majority of Americans, who liked that president very much, yawned & kept on buying computers & SUVs, watching Friends, or whatever else we were preoccupied with then, but it made no difference. The impeachment failed. It was absurd. The president betrayed his family. But he did not endanger us, or the nation, or our freedoms. To most of us he had simply been very, very foolish.

Now we are in a real constitutional crisis. George W. Bush, who has lied about matters important to us continuously through five years in office, has been illegally spying on us, too. Surprised? Not me. This is so serious that, incredibly, even some Republicans are becoming concerned. & that ought concern everyone. A lot.

In New York, Transport Union leaders are wise in deciding to go back to work pending a settlement. It's a still union city; cops, fire, sanitation, teachers, theater, hotel, hospital, theater, TV, trades, all organized. While there's a lack of rancor toward the strikers, the timing & circumstances didn't feel right to anyone. There's a billionaire Republican mayor just re-elected in a landslide & a lame duck Republican governor & their ugly rhetoric was just terrible to hear. Major irony listening to Bloomberg trying to sow division among "working people," wearing a bomber jacker & jeans as he walked across Brooklyn Bridge toward a tailored suit waiting in City Hall. But it's Christmas week & if the weather isn't that bad now it can turn quickly. Besides, there's a long holiday weekend coming up & for almost three days commuters would largely succeed in ignoring the whole situation. Unless union leaders spent Christmas Eve in jail. Even Bloomberg was worried about that scenario, his hard line threats backfiring as TV reporters compared correctional system suppers with Salvation Army turkey & stuffing. Does TWU Local President Roger Toussaint know how to play that script? The kind of militant unionism bordering (so it seemed) on lunacy the late Michael J. Quill displayed is missing. If you're going to put New Yorkers through transit strike hell you have to at least keep them entertained, or intimidated.

WFMU narrowly averted a major disaster last week. Low voltage fried the servers containing thousands of archived radio shows dating back to 2002, a great treasure. It freaked me out, & I only have about 35 programs compared to the hundreds most DJs have online. WFMU's staff technogeeks erroneously believe everyone has the same expensive toys & that we all download our own MP3 backups, but I stopped recording my own airchecks when archiving began. Anyway, it was typical WFMU timing; Manager Ken, who likes to take a vacation at Christmas, was faced with a real crisis. Our e mail lists were strangely silent as we all held our breath. But somehow nearly all the archives were restored thanks to our 'puter jeenyuses, & the remaining damaged ones will also be magically recovered. Enjoy your vacation, Ken, you earned it.

Burger King up the street is offering a "Triple Whopper." Looks like same amount of regular Whopper toppings on three slabs of chopped meat. Costs over $6. 1230 calories. 82g fat. This is food for sled dogs. Bizarre. There's a point where the price of fast food surpasses the price of the dinner specials including salad bar at a good diner.

With due respect for Jerry Izenberg's incomparable experience, he's been known to shovel horseshit; & he dumps a very large pile of it in today's column (byline: Phoenix) about Rutgers & the Insight Bowl.