The Chris Moeller Archives

Year in review- Part 1

On the first day of 2007, I published a list of "35 things to get excited about" in the coming year. As we near its end, it's a great time to look back on what the year actually delivered, and what it didn't. The highlight for me on the calendar was probably Thanksgiving when my father and 3-year-old sister performed a moving, impromptu rendition of "Somethin' Stupid" at the dinner table. The lowlight came probably in September when I let Barry Bonds try on my new turtleneck. Let's revisit the list from January, shall we, complete with thumbs up or down? Oh, what a wild year it's been:

The first 12:

1) Nancy Pelosi as Speaker of the House-- Thumbs way down

Wow, right out of the gate. Not only the biggest disappointment of the year, this qualified as an outright betrayal of the core principles that are espoused on this blog throughout the year. Pelosi's colossal failure as leader was punctuated this week by the announcement of another capitulation on funding for the war on the Iraqi people, and information has surfaced that Pelosi was among the members of Congress who knew about the CIA's waterboarding techniques dating back to 2002. This was perhaps the most dismal year to date for my relationship with this ragtag outfit called the Democratic party. No longer content to stay involved with an organization in which you're considered a radical if you support habeas corpus, I left to join the Greens in the fall and we'll be pulling hard for Cindy Sheehan when she runs for Pelosi's Congressional seat in '08.


2) The theatrical release of "The Final Season" and its Iowa premieres-- Thumbs up

My premiere passes must have gotten lost in the mail, but what a ball it was when the story of Norway, Iowa baseball hit the big screen in October. A former star of the team, Tim Arp, contributed his thoughts in a blog posting, and the film, for all its faults, proved entirely watchable.


3) John Edwards' presidential campaign, and its primary focus on the widening gap between rich and poor-- Thumbs down

Boy, I sure was an optimistic fellow back in January. Maybe you can't make an issue out of something if the media refuses to follow you through the door. The Democratic presidential race has been, instead, about debating the political "experience" of the top-tier candidates and little else of substance. The final nail in Edwards' coffin gets hammered January 3rd at the Caucuses.


4) The terrific theater of Barry Bonds chasing Hank Aaron's all-time home run record-- Thumbs marginally up

This should have been more fun, but baseball's commissioner, Old Penitentiary Face, ruined it, as we suspected all along he would.


5) The new political pressure to act on Global Warming because of the newly-revealed short-term threat to polar bears-- Thumbs down

My overestimation of the popularity of those animated Coca-cola polar bears led to this entry. The news story lasted about two days.


6) No Rick Santorum, Bill Frist, Tom DeLay, or Donald Rumsfeld-- Even thumbs

And how sweet it was. But in their place we got the Angry White Males of the Republican presidential race and their competition to pander to the worst of our nation's collective instincts.


7) The promise of more celebrity crotch shots-- Thumbs down

It was unrealistic to think that we could match 2006. I think all of the celebrities were in rehab this year.


8) Moeller TV Festival #6-- Thumbs up

Like a fine wine, ain't it?


9) Re-mastered and re-packaged James Brown classics on compact disc-- Even thumbs

I'm sure they're out there, or on their way, but Brown's death didn't have quite the cultural or commercial impact on White America that I thought it would, or that it deserved. But go rent Kasi Lemmons' film, "Talk to Me," starring Don Cheadle, for a nice tribute moment to the Godfather of Soul, and for once, it's not centered around the tune "I Feel Good."


10) The prospect of Barack Obama actually telling us something about his agenda if he were to be elected president-- Thumbs down

I guess we know a bit more than we did, but not much considering the size and location of Obama's pulpit, and he missed the biggest vote in the Senate all year, besides the Iraq funding measures-- the authorization for war on Iran.


11) The return of universal health care to the national policy debate-- Thumbs down

Universal health coverage can only exist under a government-run, not-for-profit system. Only Kucinich talks about that, and Democrats don't listen to him.


12) Bobby Knight as college basketball's all-time winningest coach-- it couldn't have happened to a nicer guy-- Thumbs down

I gave up on college basketball four years ago when my alma mater canned its coach for being an alcoholic. I don't think the sport ever hit my radar this year.



Tomorrow, or later this week-- Part 2 of the "Year in Review", Did they ever open that freeway ramp near Chris' neighborhood? Stay tuned and discover.

posted by CM @ 9:08 PM