Christmas 1944 was a pivotal time for the Allied efforts to defeat Nazi Germany. In the 6 months since the D-Day landings they had driven the Wehrmacht out of France and were poised to cross the Rhine into Germany proper. The soldiers of the Allied armies were exhausted and their supply lines were stretched to the breaking point.

While they rested, regrouped and resupplied the Germans had other plans. Hitler and his generals threw everything they had into a final offensive. The plan was to drive a wedge of men and materiel into the American lines thereby splitting the Allied armies in two and then sprinting to the Belgian coast to cut off their supplies. The attack was launched 16 December 1944.

It was a bold move born out of desperation and in the beginning they routed the Americans overrunning their positions and capturing, killing or wounding thousands. The situation was bleak as the Allied High Command scrambled to thwart the German offensive.

Congratulations to new Democratic Assembly members Alyson Huber of El Dorado Hills, Marty Block of San Diego, Joan Buchanan of Alamo and Manuel Perez of Coachella. In the first important vote of your careers, you demonstrated that all the fancy words from your campaigns about “changing the system” and “not a career politician” as well as “ready to go to work” and “performance not politics” were as empty as California’s bank accounts.

The four of you, joined by wily political veteran Charles Calderon of Whittier, abstained from voting on the tax hikes proposed by your own party. You didn’t vote yes or no, you abstained. Merriam-Webster’s online dictionary says that to abstain means, “to refrain deliberately and often with an effort of self-denial from an action or practice”.

Is it because you all got elected from swing districts and you fear the wrath of the voters in two years? Is this about maintaining “political viability” for higher office and are worried about future campaign attack ads that would include you vote for higher taxes? Did Speaker Bass give you “get out of jail free” cards on the vote because she knew it would not pass without three Republicans, and therefore you would not have a “tax increase” vote on your record? Or is it that you don’t have the guts to stand up and vote “yes or no” because you believe it is the right thing to do, political consequences be damned?

Proposition 2 passed by a huge majority. The poultry industry now awaits its fate which could include the shuttering of many farms that have been producing eggs in California for over 100 years. But never mind as long as the chickens are “free to be you and me” as the song from the 1970s used to say.

At the time I warned that the animal activists’ mission was more far reaching than making chickens more comfortable while laying eggs. They don’t want you to eat eggs or meat period. They want us all to eat tofu in its many wonderful forms like tofu hot dogs and burgers and my personal favorite just in time for the holidays, tofurky. Just look at this yummy recipe from the Humane Society’s website and have your family and friends dive into this for Christmas dinner.

Does anybody remember the 1993 movie "Dave"? It was a nice little movie starring Kevin Kline about a philandering President who has a stroke and goes into a coma while he is "in flagrante delicato" with a mistress. (Gee, I wonder who the model was for that character.)

Dave runs a small Washington D.C. employment agency where he helps those who need a job, sometimes even giving them money from his own pocket to help them get by. He bears a striking resemblance to the comatose President, and he is enlisted to "fill-in" for the President at the behest of a deviously evil White House Chief of Staff and Press Secretary.

Dave begins to take the job seriously, and when he tries to fund a homeless program that the Chief of Staff wants cut, he decides to call his nerdy accountant Murray, played by Charles Grodin, to come to the White House and help him look for savings in the Federal Budget so he can restore the funding.

The following is an exchange is between Dave and Murray. After the script excerpt I will tell you what this all has to do with the current mess in Washington and closer to home in Sacramento.

Congratulations President–elect Obama. Good luck. You will need it. Now, time to get to work America.

First thoughts after the election.

Now Republicans know what General Custer felt like at the Little Bighorn. Out-numbered, surrounded and ultimately slaughtered.

Public financing of campaigns is now dead thanks to the Obama Campaign. No Republican will ever agree to it again, and if you hear the Democrats say they want to “tweak” the system, Republicans should say thanks but no thanks. In fact, let’s get rid of all limits. They are an affront to free speech. The influence of big money will never be removed from politics, so why are we kidding ourselves and enriching election lawyers to figure out ways around the laws. Any reform has within it the seeds of its own corruption.

The term “canaries in the coal mine” has been around for a long time. Unfortunately we are a nation of urbanites, suburbanites, and ex-urbanites who have no idea what it means. For that matter most Americans have no idea where their food comes from either, but that is a story for another day.

Here is the best definition I have found, courtesy of wisegeek.com.

“Life for an actual canary in a coal mine could be described in three words – short but meaningful. Early coalmines did not feature ventilation systems, so miners would routinely bring a caged canary into new coal seams. Canaries are especially sensitive to methane and carbon monoxide, which made them ideal for detecting any dangerous gas build-ups. As long as the canary in a coal mine kept singing, the miners knew their air supply was safe. A dead canary in a coalmine signaled an immediate evacuation.”

In modern terms, the canaries were an early warning system to keep the miners out of danger.

When I worked at the California ISO during the California Energy Crisis of 2000-01, the skilled engineers there gave me a great education about how California’s and the nation’s electricity system works. But the more important lesson they taught me was about contingency planning. Contingency planning means that you must be prepared for any and all situations and have plans in place to resolve those situations.

With that in mind, it not unreasonable for Republicans to develop some contingency plans to deal with what would come under a Democratic President and an overwhelming Democratic majority in Congress.

And while never conceding defeat before the votes have been counted, prudence dictates that one must prepare for any and all possible contingencies.

Today’s piece will focus on what we might expect from and Obama Administration and the Reid-Pelosi Congress in the first 100 Days. Here are a few things to watch early next year.

What seems like the longest election cycle in history will mercifully be over in three weeks. President Bush is down to his last three months in office and I am sure that after eight long and difficult years he is ready if not eager to go home to Crawford, Texas and let someone else see if they can govern this restless and divided country.

But what about the foam-at-the-mouth Bush-haters? What will they do with themselves? How will Keith Olberman, Bill Maher, Chris Matthews, Maureen Dowd, MSNBC, NBC, CNN, CBS and the New York Times cope with this situation? To say nothing about the late night comedians like David Letterman who will have no material.

And what about the insipid and vacuous Hollywood celebrities? Who will they trash from the safety of their mansions in Beverly Hills and the Cannes Film Festival? And the Democrats in Congress will have lost their favorite punching bag . The Daily Show with Jon Stewart and The Colbert Report with Steven Colbert will be dropped from the Comedy Central due to drastic ratings drops without Bush and the Republicans in power providing fodder.

If you think this year has been one of great turmoil and uncertainty, just wait until next year.

With tongue firmly planted in cheek, the following is a preview about what might happen in 2009 and beyond in the aftermath of the Great Financial Debacle of 2008. The public will demand someone be held accountable and it will be ugly even by Washington standards. The media guillotine will have a sharp edge and be very busy.

My scenario assumes an Obama Administration. My apologies to Republicans but I think they will like the ending.

So take a trip in my handy time machine as we fast forward to the spring of 2009…

The election has taken a dramatic turn over the last few weeks that no one foresaw a year ago and no one knows how it will end. Any pundit, commentator or columnist who says they know who will be the next President is either a fool or a partisan.

And as Lincoln once said, “Better to be silent and be thought a fool, than open your mouth and remove all doubt.” So I will take his counsel and not make a prediction on who will win in November.

However there is one thing of which I am more certain. America is entering a new age—the Age of Uncertainty. This new era has been coming for a long time and its roots run deep.

The very cornerstones of the American system that have sustained this nation through good times and bad are being challenged as never before and some will disappear forever. Financial institutions that have been around for many years have already disappeared and more are likely to follow. The media giants of the last century, the newspapers, are in serious trouble challenged by the internet, theblogosphere and a rapidly changing media environment.