Tea Party, Anyone?

The Tea Party movement, which has been virtually ignored and sometimes outright mocked by the mainstream media, gathered last weekend from across America in Nashville to rally, share ideas, get information and basically share a camaraderie that they feel is missing from the mainstream Republican party.

Whether you agree or not, the Tea Party movement is about lowering taxes, less government, state’s rights and national security. If you think that’s the definition of the Republican Party, you’d be wrong according to the national spokesman for the National Tea Party Convention, Mark Skoda. He told Fox News that “in the sense that we [fellow Tea Baggers] believe in our freedom and liberty, lower taxes and fiscal responsibility, unfortunately up until recently, the Republican party hasn’t embraced that fully in their actions…”

The convention looked nothing like a GOP or Democratic convention. In fact, that was the goal, according to Skoda. He said it was more of a grass roots effort to bring like-minded people together, get people elected to represent them in Washington DC; not create a third party or a new wing or a splintering, schismatic change in the GOP.

While I get that, one thing that I do not understand is whom the Tea Baggers invited to give the keynote address.

While watching Sarah Palin speak about what “the party of Ronald Reagan used to be,” railing against president Obama, politicos and cogs in Washington, and ratcheting up the disenfranchised on the right, I couldn’t help ask: Why her?

Palin’s speech, full of her usual folksy style, actually reminded me of President Obama’s style of much enthusiasm with little details. The speech made it seem that she is an “outsider;” someone who is not connected to status quo in the political sense.

Look, just because she’s not going to parties inside the beltway or currently holding political office, don’t kid yourself – she’s still more than connected.

Did the Tea Baggers forget Palin was the vice presidential nominee…on the GOP ticket? She is more connected and less of an “outsider” than people realize. She was a governor of a state, groomed (poorly) by John McCain’s staff, and now a contributor for Fox News. The same network who has hired another GOP stalwart – Mike Huckabee.

The whole notion of her going rogue is preposterous. She didn’t change, the GOP saw what a liability and non-factor she had become and quickly scuttled her as a viable candidate for any major office, so now she has become her own attraction, her own circus side show. Scott Brown has gained more relevance than she does in a shorter amount of time.

The Tea Party thinking Sarah Palin as the “outsider” is a mistake. This grass roots movement, or as Palin referred to them in her speech, “young, fresh and fragile” group is not doing itself any political favor or increasing their viability by hitching their collective wagon to her fading political star. That’s like calling John McCain a “maverick.”

The next question the Tea Party people should ask themselves is, “one lump or two?”

POTUS: SOTU

Declaring that he “won’t quit,” President Obama’s first State of the Union speech was a 70-minute patchwork quilt of regurgitated reiteration that he made to Congress a year before.

I wanted an apology. What I got was a do-over.

Last year, after his inauguration, the president went before Congress and spoke of his lofty, laudible goals for the country. Goals that included changes and/or reform concerning health care, energy, education, and the stimulus package.

This time, he added a few more goals while talking about America’s resiliency, taking shots at the Supreme Court and trying to sound like an political outsider and chastising his own party.

But the one line that stood out, the one sentence that made me actually shout “Ya’ think?” during his speech was when the president said, “No wonder there’s so much cynicism. No wonder there’s so much disappointment.” He was talking about American’s reaction to Washington D.C., but he should have shouldered the onus upon his slender shoulders because that’s where the blame surely and soundly sets.

I wanted an apology from the president for not listening, not hearing what Americans have been saying for the past year and wasting that year on his agenda, not the people’s.

We need a president to not only lead, but also have a vision for this country.

Instead of leading, Barack Obama has handled our current state of economic and unemployment affairs as a minor distraction in the grand scheme of what he wanted to accomplish. That goal of Health Care Reform died with the election of a Republican to Ted Kennedy’s seat two weeks ago.

In the SOTU speech, once again we see the president not focusing on what is important, but trying to please everyone by regurgitating his entire agenda that got him elected.

The president didn’t sound conciliatory because he truly believes he’s done nothing wrong. By chastising his own party and attacking a branch of government he has proven once again, he is not a leader.

Leaders take responsibility for their mistakes. Instead, all I heard was the same promises and a vow to “not quit.”

I guess that’s better than “hope and change.”

Resolutions for 2010

I’ve never been one to make resolutions at the end of the year. To wait until the year clicks on your calendar to me is a sign that you don’t want to (fill in your resolution here) in the first place. If you want to lose weight, start writing a novel, learn Chinese, etc., just do it -- no matter what the day, month or year.

But this year was different for me.

As I reflect back on a tumultuous year for me personally and professionally, I think we should take an honest look at ourselves, our city, state and country and make some resolutions. Because I am not afraid that we will repeat history and keep doing bad things or making wrong decisions, I think it is time to take stock and figure out we need for a clear and purposeful path if we want positive changes.

For Phoenix and Arizona:

We need to resolve to find some key people in on beyond the state and divine a mutually beneficial relationship for our collective future. It is abundantly clear that this state is bankrupt -- literally and figuratively -- and we need much better leadership for this state to not only survive, but thrive. We need ideas, plans, and a definite execution of these plans for this state to succeed. State Treasurer Dean Martin says that we are out of money. There is no more. The state doesn’t have a budget. Governor Woo Hoo has dithered with the future of this state to the point of embarrassment. Forget the almost $3 Billion shortfall, if there isn’t money for the state, people will start getting IOU’s in their state paychecks. You may get one for you state income tax return. This should have never gotten to this point.

Which brings me to my next resolution:

We need to resolve not to let Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon or any other elected political hero to go to Washington with a tin cup and beg for money. We are better than that and could be the example of how to stay fiscally viable as a state instead of a handout state if Mayor Gordon would stop racking up the frequent flyer miles and actually make some tough decisions on how to keep the City of Phoenix viable. Instead of a state that relies too heavily on the old standbys (citrus, copper, tourism, construction, etc.) why not become the leader in solar and water technology? Why can’t we become the next Silicon Valley? Why can’t we become the next Hollywood? We can do these things as well as promote and encourage small business. But this state’s political heroes have become lazy and addicted to tax money. Good luck taxing people who move outside of Arizona as California and New York are finding out.

Nationally, let’s resolve to stop government bailouts and allowing government to dictate to you how to live your life through taxes, healthcare and benefits. We have become a nation of slack-jawed wimps who allow others to dictate the rules.

Speaking of rules, can we please resolve to keep our focus on terrorism? As the Christmas Day Almost Attack clearly illustrated, Janet Napolitano needs to quit with the Politically Correct excuses and crack down on people who want to harm Americans who are trying to live their daily lives. But not calling the Fort Hood Massacre what it was, a terrorist attack, and by not catching an extremist on the watch list, it’s clear that this administration wants to handle terrorism like a hobby.

I could go on and bore you with my own resolutions, but I won’t -- except for one: I resolve to keep Gaydos in check, while keeping you entertained and informed 3 - 7 every weekday on KTAR.

Have a safe and prosperous 2010!

One Year Later

Last year this month, this country made history. We elected an African American to the highest office in the land.

Already the word “failure” has seeped into the media about this president. Failure? Even college coaches get more time be a total and complete “failure.”

Barack Obama was ushered into the White House on a momentous wave of a simple, audacious, and ephemeral mantra: “Hope and Change.”

“Hope” has given way to pragmatism. “Change” has stagnated to political gridlock. The recession has shown signs of abatement, but consumer confidence is still lower than the APR on a regular savings account.

When Barack inherited the crushing economic recession, the housing market avalanche, as well as two long and entrenched wars, his approval ratings were above 70 percent.

A year later the president’s approval ratings have precipitously fallen. Obama’s approval rating has fallen farther and fast than his predecessor in the same time frame of GWB’s first year in office.

But has Barack Obama’s first year as president been a failure? Political hacks that get paid to yammer on cable news shows will say yes. They’re idiots. Plain and simple.

There is no way any person, man or woman, could have changed the course of our economic downturn. It wouldn’t have mattered if John McCain were elected president. Ronald Reagan inherited a worse recession, stagflation, gas lines, a long-standing Cold War as well as the Iranian Hostage Crisis. His approval numbers didn’t start to tick up until his second year in office. And we were still in a recession.

The economy is its own entity, a juggernaut of prosperity in good times, the grim reaper of jobs, GDP and investments in a downturn. No one man can control it; even the Fed Chairman has a Herculean task, trying to change its direction, sometimes with catastrophic results.

Now I do not agree with Obama’s politics, and I have been outspoken about his positions, decisions and issues like reforming health care. I have denigrated his Czar appointments, his repetitive and unnecessary press conferences as well as his style-without-substance speeches.

But has he failed? Even I won’t go there.

Meghan, Please Stop!

Ok. Seriously. You need to stop.

Meghan, I kept my mouth shut when you appeared on The View with all the other cackling hens. I didn’t say anything about the Twitpic controversy (see above), but after last night, Meghan, someone needs to pull you over for a "stop-n-chat."

I guess that has to be me because no one else has or no one cares.

Meghan, you don’t need to do the Leno Show, you don’t need to be hanging with D celebs like the faux-liberal Arianna Huffington, the least popular Baldwin brother (Stephen, or as he likes to be called, “Stevie B.”) and a comedian who can only make pedophile jokes to get a laugh.

Even though your father is a senior senator from Arizona, a former POW, and a graduate of the Naval Academy, you need to learn a lesson from dad and know how to do damage control. Instead of posting pouty, petulant pieces on Twitter, or throwing tempest-on-a-Twitter retorts to people who take pot shots at you, pull back. Even your father knew when to bail out instead of going down in flames.

You’ve chosen this life, this mock mash-up of pop culture and serious politics. But it’s become like a cheap ride at the Arizona State Fair and the only thing that separates you from careening is the toothless carnie whose fingers are too sticky from eating cotton candy to stop the ride in time.

Just because you grew up in the “Valley” doesn’t mean you have to be that “Girl.”

You’ve decided that you want it all and when people call you out, you lash out like a reality star claiming you didn’t bring this on yourself. That’s total horse-spit and you know it.

You are the best and worst of your parents combined. You’ve got your father’s quick temper, steadfast resolve, and passion for politics. But you also possess your mom’s insight, intelligence and sophisticated visage.

But you have to learn to harness both and stop this precipitous descent into a has-been, washed-up celeb-utante by the time you’re 30. Hello, Paris Hilton anyone?

Personally, I want you to succeed. I want people to know the person who has wonderfully insightfully, challenging ideas for the GOP. I want you to invigorate and rally young people to be more politically active and invest in the future of this country. I love the Meghan McCain that I read, not the ditz on television or the petulant child that erupts with venomous, sophomoric tweets.

Leave that to Perez Hilton or Bill Maher.

Don't Call It a Comeback

The American people secretly enjoy two things, especially in politics: Power and Scandal.

John Edwards’ political career has all the trappings and context of a Shakespearean tragedy with a healthy dose of TMZ.

So when word came out this week that John Edwards is staging a comeback to the political landscape, I scoffed. This isn’t a comeback; it’s a reintroduction.

Think of it as John Edwards 2.0.

John Edwards’ rise was too good to be true: a small town trial lawyer, who came from nothing, married his college sweetheart and celebrated every anniversary at a fast food restaurant. This small town trial lawyer went into politics and had a meteoric rise that eventually saw him tapped by John Kerry as his Vice Presidential nominee in 2004.

But his fall has been just as fast as allegations that he fathered a child out of wedlock as his wife was dying of cancer splashed across news crawls and headlines in 2008.

But just this week, John Edwards has engaged in a new low in his political career; there are rumblings of a comeback. But wait. Even if Edwards is going to do more of a mea culpa than he did on ABC’s Nightline the first time when he admitted, “in 2006 … I made a very serious mistake. A mistake that I am responsible for and one else,” crying crocodile tears on camera, he still has to face the grand jury.

A federal grand jury in North Carolina is investigating whether or not Edwards or his staff used campaign contributions to pay his mistress hush money or paid her a salary. The New York Times reported that people familiar with the grand jury investigation as trying to untangle the legal morass of “whether payments to a candidate’s mistress to ensure her silence (thus maintaining a candidate’s viability) should be considered campaign donation and thus whether they should be reported.” Two of Edward’s main backers provided the mistress with large sums of money, including a new BMW and a house that was used to keep her out of public view.

That’s not a good thing for any politician – even a Kennedy wouldn’t be able to survive this kind of infidelity mess. Or could they?

Today, not many pesky problems, perverted peccadilloes, or salacious scandals survive in America’s Collective Conscience.

In recent months, Senator David Vitter R-LA, is seeking re-election after a prostitution scandal. Senator John Ensign, R-NV is still in office after having an affair with a staffer’s wife. And who can forget Mark Sanford, the married governor of South Carolina, whose lusty emails and covert trip to Argentina to see his Buenos Aires baby doll didn’t get him kicked out of office.

John Edwards wants to come back. He wants to, again, be in the spotlight and be in politics even though he has fallen out of favor in his own state of North Carolina.

But we have seen other elected political heroes survive scandals and maintain their political toehold in Congress. Why should John Edwards be any different?

Americans’ memories are short. John Edwards cheated on his dying wife, fathered a child out of wedlock and, allegedly, misappropriated campaign funds to keep his mistress hidden and his run for president viable.

John Edwards will be back – maybe not representing the good people in North Carolina – but he’ll find constituents that will fall for his narcissistic charm and forgive him enough to get him re-elected.

But don't call it a comeback.

Obama Overexposure

What do Jon and Kate, Speidi, Nickelback and Ann Coulter have in common? They suffer from a cultural phenomenon that is akin to having an itchy skin rash.

It’s called being overexposed and no one in the public spotlight wants to suffer from its debilitating effects.

Come this Sunday, the president may need some Calamine lotion.

Since President Obama’s Health Care Plan has not been greeted with accolades but with resistance, (which quickly turned into downright skepticism) Barack has been on the offensive. He spoke in front of both Houses of Congress last week to push for Health Care Reform, even invoking Teddy Kennedy's name to punctuate the immediacy and urgency of his plan.

But the president’s eloquent speech has not translated into a huge bump in the polls. Almost half of the American public is not sold on Health Care Reform. So what is Obama to do? The White House announced yesterday that Obama would take his message to the American people…again…by going on television.

Be ready to start applying the cortisone cream.

This Sunday, unless you’re watching HGTV or ESPN, it will be hard to miss the president. He will appear on This Week with George Stephanopoulos on ABC, Meet the Press on NBC, as well as Face the Nation on CBS. In between the major networks, he will do interviews with CNN and Univision.

That’s a lot of TV. That’s a lot of exposure. Too much, in my opinion. Barack’s message is getting lost in his own limelight. What this administration has to learn is how to handle the magnitude and his rock star quality that got him to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. So far, they’ve overexposed a man that should not have to go on every major network to get his message across.

Most presidents since the television era began have had all the presence and stiffness of a cardboard cut out – or worse. Comedians, late night talk shows and regular people mock them because they are utterly inept at connecting with the public. Not this president. Not since JFK have we seen someone who electrifies the podium.

But like chocolate or fantasy football, too much is not a good thing.

For the record, President Obama has done 114 interviews in his first seven months in office compared to 37 interviews by former president George W. Bush and 41 by Bill Clinton. I was no math major, but Obama has been on almost four times than Dubya.

Barack Obama is a Hollywood casting agent’s dream for a calm, assured presence on camera. (As long as there is a teleprompter.) But the main rule of Hollywood success, and to a lesser degree, political success, is not to be overexposed. People tire of you then turn a deaf ear to your message

Sunday, Barack will reach that level and the America public will be itching for a new message.

Too Little, Too Late

Finally.

Speaking to both Houses of Congress, and to the nation, President Obama finally gave details of how his Healthcare Reform Bill would help millions of uninsured Americans.

Too bad it’s too little, too late.

Last night his speech (by my notes) had eight separate parts. But what political heroes, cable and radio talk show hosts, and many Americans have been clamoring for are details in how the president’s magnanimous plan will directly affect the American health care system and medically and monetarily impact citizens.

Last night some details emerged.

The president said that if you already have health insurance, are covered by Medicare/Medicaid, your status will not change. For the rest of Americans who don’t fall into those categories, he outlined a comprehensive, detailed plan that sounded good, but really failed to live up to the “game changer” he needed to push those opposed to the plan into supporting it.

Under Barack’s proposed plan, the government would:

• Offer an affordable plan for those who don’t have medical insurance.
• Create a new insurance exchange where companies will be competitive.
• Provide tax credits based on your needs.

The president also took on those who were putting forth lies, untruths and misrepresentations of his plan. Calling Death Panels a “lie, plain and simple,” the president also said that the plan would not cover illegal immigrants. Then Barack Obama took a swipe at those who dared question his plan by saying that anyone who misrepresents what’s in his plan, he and the administration will “call you out.”

These are bold, confrontational words (almost a thinly-veiled threat; maybe he’s channeling the “Chicago Way”) from the president. But they are also understandable because the president was on the defensive after letting his own plan and bill get mired and tarnished by his own inaction. When he proposed the plan needed to be ratified and voted on in three weeks last July, people scoffed, questioned and jeered his timeline. Moderate Democrats even started to raise objections saying that that kind of sweeping comprehensive reform was too much, too soon, too fast. But the president believed the American people truly wanted this and since he needed a solid victory before Congress went on vacation, he did something utterly baffling: he went on vacation, thinking it would be passed because he wanted it. Big mistake.

And that’s when he lost control of the narrative on health care, even with the death of Ted Kennedy and the rallying cry from people like Nancy Pelosi that we needed to pass health care reform because of Kennedy’s commitment to reform. The debate shifted and was changed by those who were strongly opposed to government-controlled health care.

The proof is in the latest poll numbers where over 52 percent of Americans are now against President Obama’s plan, while his overall approval numbers continue to plummet below 50 percent.

So last night was a good speech – a solid, passionate performance from a man whose oratory ability cannot be questioned.

But the timing was too late. He should have made this speech a month ago.

Shine Comes Off the Penny

Last week the president realized that his Health Care Reform bill was stalling in Congress. Not only were Republicans balking over nationalized health care, but Blue Dog Democrats were expressing hesitation and concern about cost as well as feasibility; just how could we pay to insure every America while our national deficit just topped a trillion dollars the week before?

As he has done in the past, the president took his case to the airwaves, before the American people holding his fourth (fourth!) press conference since taking office in just over six months. Obama was emphatic and stridently determined; laying out a plan to make sure that not only would 47 million uninsured Americans (a “fuzzy math” stat, by the way) be covered, but also all Americans would have a choice under the government’s plan.

As usual, the president was long on rhetoric and short on specifics, with reporters tossing softball questions for him to expound upon. It was the lowest rated press conference so far. In fact, NBC had to be talked into carry his address; the Fox network completely passed.

Then, toward the end of the press conference, a reporter asked President Obama about the arrest by the Cambridge, Massachusetts police of his long-time friend, Harvard professor Henry Lewis Gates, Jr. The president said the police, “acted stupidly.”

With that one comment, the president inserted himself into a story that was about race and law enforcement in a city that has had a long history of strained race relations. Forget the particulars, the president became part of the story and suddenly, his message about health care and insuring every American faded into the back pages of newspapers and television coverage. Now the story was about the president calling into question the integrity and responsibility of the Cambridge Police Department.

When you step into the cow pasture, you are bound to step into a cow patty. I can only imagine as soon as the president walked back into the Oval Office after the press conference, his staff was not pleased. Now he would have to do something that presidents loathe to do: damage control and try to get the self-inflicted stink off of his shoe.

For the latter part of the week, the president has come close to apologizing about his remarks, but will not fully give a mea culpa for his stinging, personal words about a local matter that has ballooned into a national debate.

Barack Obama had been the master of the media. His oratory ability and calm assurance not only in front of the camera but the American people as well got him elected. Not this time. Not this past week.

A new Rasmussen poll indicates the president’s approval rating has dipped below 50 percent. This is lower than Jimmy Carter and George W. Bush’s poll numbers in their first six months of office.

I thought that Barack Obama’s first real enemy would be from an outside threat: North Korea, the ecomony cratering, or a natural disaster like Hurricane Katrina. Instead, this past week Barack Obama has had to deal with another kind of enemy: himself.

Still Scratching My Head

After John McCain “went maverick” and picked Sarah Palin to be his running mate, I was left scratching my head. And, unfortunately, I still am over her latest (and not so greatest) move.

Last week, Sarah Palin announced, rather abruptly, that she is stepping down from being governor of the state of Alaska to pursue something, to do something. The blogosphere and talk radio has been swirling with punditry and prognostications about what Sarah is going to do.

Some of the theories that have been floated, flummoxed and tweeted are, in no particular order that she will run for the Alaskan Senate seat in 2010. She’s getting her own tv show on Fox. She is being investigated by the FBI, which has already been shot down by the Bureau. She is sick of being criticized so she’s going rogue once again and will start up her own consulting business, and, of course, that she is preparing for a 2012 challenge of Barack Obama.

On Sunday, she came out and threw the media another curve ball. She told the Washington Times something that left me scratching my head – again. She stated, “I will go around the country on behalf of candidates who believe in the right things, regardless of their party label or affiliation.”

Okay.

Some people are still hanging on to Sarah with these delusional last vestiges of saving the GOP.

Far from it.

This woman isn’t a savvy politician. She’s become a low-rent media hound. Obviously, quitting being Governor to start campaigning goes against her “I am no quitter” stance she railed on during her oft-missed opportunity campaign. We saw how badly she handled the media and yet, she keeps popping up. Whether it’s by her own press conference or late night talk show feud, Palin hasn’t gone away to re-tool, refresh and gone back to run Alaska, she’s kept a slow burn relationship with the media; to the point where many Americans are burnt out on Palin-mania.

This also opens her up to more and strongly worded criticism. This is a page from Al Gore’s playbook after her lost in 2000. Instead of going quietly, he insisted on reforming and remaking his image and placed all his chips on saving the planet. If Sarah is to be believed, never mind her abrupt quitting, and her secrecy) saying it’s not about ideology but about the “right things” just leaves me where I was when John McCain announced her as his running mate.

So where does this leave Sarah Palin? Who knows. She told the Washington Times that her goal is to keep going, to make some kind of difference. “I’m not ruling out anything — it is the way I have lived my life from the youngest age,” she said. “Let me peek out there and see if there’s an open door somewhere. And if there’s even a little crack of light, I’ll hope to plow through it.”

Even the bull doesn’t hit destroy every piece of fine China in the shop…Palin may just take down the whole building.

Which leaves me still scratching my head.

AZ Needs Leadership

When the Arizona Supreme Court decided to punt Governor Jan Brewer’s suit to have her party surrender the passed budget, a red flag went up in my mind.

This state is in real trouble. Not because we are in a 2 billion dollar budget hole, but because Jan Brewer lost all of her political leverage with that ridiculous lawsuit. What’s worse is that she has to go back to the bargaining table with the stain of being an ineffectual leader.

This state can’t afford to have a bunch of wannabe Barry Goldwaters or Janet Napolitanos to guide us into the future. A new person must take the mantle and the onus of leading this state with clear and definitive goals that make Arizona financially stronger, economically stable, and with a strong and active business community rallied behind that person.

But don’t hold your breath.

The time is now for someone to step up and have a vision for Arizona. As a state, we cannot continue down a current path of electing political heroes that have only live on their mediocre deeds of the past, talk about what needs to be done today and not have any plan for the future.

It’s down right pathetic that renewable energy companies have passed over Arizona time after time. We should be the leader in solar and renewable energy business and yet, places like Canada and Oregon are luring more business than we are. And they think that glowing orange orb in the sky is a UFO, not the sun.

We keep electing people who want to lead by committee, leaving the tough decision up to someone else. As an electorate we have settled, and no one cares. It is more than troubling when our own governor can’t get along with her own party. Political party in-fighting, partisan hackery, whether on the Left or the Right, is kryptonite to the well-being of any party and that toxicity and lack of clear leadership trickles down to us, the voters who care more about the future of this state than our own elected political heroes.

Time is running out for Jan Brewer. I hope she doesn’t run in 2010 because even her own party doesn’t support her – or she doesn’t know how to gather people on the steps of the Capitol, hold a press conference and actually show the people who think her plan for the future of Arizona and the budget is a solid, productive plan.

Nature abhors a vacuum. Let’s hope there is someone who emerges from the political thicket to take Arizona where it needs to be – into a bright and sunny future, not just sticking fingers in the wind and guessing which way the wind blows.

Barack's Unchosen Legacy

If George W. Bush’s legacy is stirring up an international hornets nest after 9/11/01 by starting two wars, Barack Obama’s legacy could be on the same track, but with some subtle differences.

By going to war with Iraq, deposing a dictator, and dividing the country (and the world) on what is a “just” war, there’s no doubt that Dubya made a decision, consciously choosing to take our troops and plant them in a region of the world that has been chaotic and unstable for generations.

But Barack Obama, who has repeatedly stated that his is willing to talk to regimes that have been hostile to us, compromise with nations who threaten nuclear violence and deal with third world punks, cannot avoid the fact that in the next couple of months he will have to make some unpopular decisions.

The first one will be how to deal with a dictator who is hell bent on making sure everyone remembers him when he is gone. Kim Jong Il is not long for this world and when he shuffles off his mortal coil and his son takes over, his decisions on how to leave this world could have dire consequences. He has been saber rattling for years, going all the way back to Bill Clinton’s Administration when he totally pulled the wool over Madelaine Albright’s eyes as they looked eye-to-eye (they’re the same height and both wear heels) and she came back to DC with glowing reviews of a nice man who didn’t want to do anyone or nation harm.

Now he is building a nuclear program and testing short and long-range missiles. Obama has to deal with this. Whether the president decides to embargo goods from the already poor country or take direct action for Il’s constant testing of missiles, action needs to be taken. Ignoring the problem will only embolden Lil’ Kim and his son.

The second hot spot that the president has to deal with is Iran. Elections over the past weekend were a joke, but what do you expect from a leader who comes out and spews hate for Israel, the United States and anyone else that is on his mind that day in a Members Only jacket? Iran’s young people love the West and we should embrace them. But the currently elected (ahem) officials want to wipe Israel off the map and encourage any kind of act of violence against the US of A.

Barack Obama was warmly greeted in the Middle East on his recent visit. He should use this advantage to take down the power of Iran and let the people truly decide what direction they want their country should follow in the 21st century.

The third problem Barack Obama has to face is our increasing division between what to do between the Israelis and the Palestinian settlements. Former President Jimmy Carter, who I wish would just got back to Plains, GA and sit on his front porch and count how many red cars pass by in the afternoon, said something over the weekend that actually made sense to me. Asked by the liberal Haaretz newspaper whether the Jewish state was looking at a "head-on collision" with the United States if it doesn't comply with Washington's demands, Carter said, "Yes."

The Obama Administration has been trying to ease the Muslim world while rankling the Israelis. This could have severe consequences for not only the Obama Administration, but other presidents down the road. Israel has been an important ally for us in the Middle East. If Barack shows too much favoritism to the Muslim world, he will not only make up for the “failed policy of the last eight years,” he could create some new problems that will define and tarnish his legacy.

And I haven’t even gotten to the Pakistan and Taliban problem.

Barack Obama wants to be the International President, but he needs to make sure he prioritizes his objectives and how he deals with certain leaders.

If George W. Bush was vilified for making a decision to go to war, let’s hope Obama isn’t blamed for doing nothing or being ineffectual. That could be substantially direr than what the GWBA ever did.

Lil' Kim Jong Illin'

Forget about Iraq or Afghanistan. Who cares about Iran?

Don’t worry about China or Darfur. And skip the Palestinians versus Israelis.

The first major foreign policy challenge of Barack Obama’s presidency concerns a small man (5'3"), who has the largest porn collection in the world, enjoys keeping tabs on Hollywood celebrities, and letting his own people starve while he proudly shows his pendulous belly.

Oh, and he wants his own nuclear arsenal.

Earlier this week, Kim Jong Il, the totalitarian dictator of North Korea, decided that he wasn’t getting enough attention and launched a couple of short range missiles. Not only do these tests directly impact surrounding countries like South Korea, China and Japan, it also can affect other countries like the United States. These missiles could possibly be fitted with nuclear weapons and could start a world conflagration – if North Korea is allowed enough time to pass their technological baby steps.

South Korea has joined the United Nations in condemning the tests, but what needs to happen is a swift, defining move to make sure that North Korea has no chance of testing anything in the near future.

As of Wednesday, Pyongyang threatened war against South Korea and the United States because of their alliance to intercept any ship they feel may be delivering nuclear materials to North Korea.

Enough writing is on the wall: Kim Jong Il wants to sit with the Big Boys and have nuclear capablities. The United States, as well as the world, cannot allow that to happen.

Our president should have taken immediate action and with the Chinese, launched weapons to take out the launch pads of the missiles that were launched over Memorial Day weekend. Instead, Barack Obama will continue to want dialogue, consensus, while Lil’ Kim grows stronger and has more time to build, test, and implement his nuclear program.

South Korea says it is prepared to “respond sternly” to any kind of aggression, while five ambassadors (including the United States) are drawing up a new resolution for North Korea; a resolution, like many others, Kim Jong Il will dismiss and continue his nuclear program.

Kim Jong Il has made it abundantly clear that he has a Napoleon complex, wanting to be taken seriously as a modern day leader, but there is no room at the Big Boys table for an unstable, egomaniacal dictator.

But President Obama won’t do what’s necessary, and by doing so he will allow history to repeat itself.

Constantly blaming the “failed policies of the last eight years,” Obama has hamstrung himself into not being able to take swift, decisive action on the world stage when necessary. This president cannot do what needs to be done to a despot who loves to saber rattle, and with every puff-up gesture and temper tantrum Kim Jong Il takes, he and his country gets that much closer to having the potential of using nuclear and long range weapons against other countries.

Kim Jong Il has repeatedly ignored the UN. Here is a brief timeline:

Oct 2006 - NKorea conducts an underground nuclear test. (A major no-no)
Feb 2007 - NKorea agrees to close its main nuclear reactor in exchange for fuel aid. (They didn’t)
June 2007 - NKorea shuts its main Yongbyon reactor. (For a short time)
June 2008 - NKorea makes its long-awaited declaration of nuclear assets. (Lil’ Kim delayed the results)
Oct 2008 - The US removes NKorea from its list of countries that sponsor terrorism. (BIG Mistake)
Dec 2008 - NKorea slows work to dismantle its nuclear program after a US decision to suspend energy aid. (Kim loves playing this game)
Jan 2009 - The NKorea says it is scrapping all military and political deals with the South, accusing it of "hostile intent." (Kim gets more attention from the world)
April 2009 - NKorea launches a rocket carrying what it says is a “communications” satellite. (Another resolution broken)
May 25, 2009 - North Korea conducts a second nuclear test. (I sense a pattern here)

Lil’ Kim has enslaved his people in a totalitarian state and has aggressively sought out scientists and materials to make Weapons of Mass Destruction. Yet the United States, and the world, just sits by, forms committees, enacts resolutions and wrings its collective hands, acting like a paper tiger.

This is reminiscent of a former totalitarian dictator who enslaved his own people, used WMD against his own people and violated over 42 United Nations resolutions and the world decided to do nothing. (See above infractions.)

His name was Saddam Hussein. And (whether you agree or not with the reasons and the fallout) we know who finally took him out.

Obama Speaks At ASU

I Would Have Preferred Oprah.

When addressing the graduating class of 2009 at Sun Devil Stadium, President Barack Obama had the opportunity to inspire, lifting the spirits and motivating students to reach for their dreams and realize their goals. And he did that, while bashing what most grads worry about the most when on the precipice of springing into the work force: making money.

Oprah, who gave the commencement address at Duke University earlier in the week, said that she loves living in a mansion and “it is really fantastic to have your own jet, and anybody who says it isn’t is lying to you. That jet thing is really good.”

Now that’s honesty you can take to the bank, no pun intended.

Using a clever euphemism for making money, calling it “the old approach,” the president denigrated those living in a higher tax bracket saying, “It was in pursuit of gaudy short-term profits, and the bonuses that come with them, that so many folks lost their way on Wall Street.”

Wow. How disappointing and hypocritical.

Addressing over 71 thousand people in Tempe, Barack said that “formulas for success that have dominated these recent years,” should not be the brass ring to shoot for, adding, “how much money you make and how big your corner office is; whether you have a fancy enough title or a nice enough car” isn’t what graduates should concentrate on.

Sorry, but that’s not a goal for many. The corner office, the nice car is also a sign of success; it shouldn’t be a symbol of shame or arrogance or greed as President Obama (and others) have suggested.

Speaking of arrogant, what I find particularly galling and offensive is how people who have attained a level of financial success, (ahem, Mr. President) feel it is their right to lecture and chastise people on the evils of making money; or wanting to attain wealth. Or simply working selfishly to be successful. That somehow wanting to be successful and have that success be rewarded by financial gain is inherently corrupt and goes against what this country stands for.

Nothing could be further from the truth.

Does that mean Thomas Edison, Henry Ford, JP Morgan, Bill Gates, Steven Jobs, Mark Cuban and the Jonas Brothers are corrupt and evil because they worked with a single determination and became wildly successful, i.e, wealthy? I think they are something to aspire to, not denigrate. Well, maybe the Jonas Brothers.

Blind greed is evil; avarice is a sin, but what of our elected politicians who have made plenty of money in their lifetimes before, during and after they are elected political heroes? Should we mock Bill Clinton for commanding a million dollars for a speech? Should we insult Bill Frist for being a good doctor and had a thriving practice before being elected to Congress from Tennessee? I would feel better being lectured by Mother Theresa who actually lived in abject poverty than John Kerry or John McCain who married women of wealth.

But the president did say something that I agree with wholeheartedly: “no matter how much you’ve done, or how successful you’ve been, there’s always more to do, more to learn, more to achieve.”

And if that monetarily rewards you, don’t feel shamed.

I think Oprah would agree with me.

Peer Pressure May Help

A quick disclaimer: I have never used illegal drugs, (e.g., pot, cocaine, meth, heroin or any number of illicit substances) finding them to be a ludicrous waste of time and money as well as not having any social or conventional value. That being said, I am sick of our country using valuable resources, i.e, our tax money, to fight a senseless and hypocritical War On Drugs.

Remember back in high school when your friends got you to do stuff by pressuring you with ridiculous and empty phrases like, “everyone else is doing it, why won’t you?” And my favorite, “Don’t you want to be cool?”

Even though I never fell for those ridiculous and insipid siren songs of hip “coolness,” I think it’s time channel our inner high school, using it to pressure the state of California to decriminalize marijuana.

Always wanting to be the coolest place in the country, if not the world, the Golden State with its perpetual tan and beautiful people, is flat broke and has been for awhile. There is no end in sight as the land of fruits, nuts and flakes sinks deeper into debt to the tune of $15.6 billion.

So when Governor Arh-nuld suggested that his state look into legalizing marijuana for recreational use and thusly, tax purposes, I immediately think back to high school and the irony of goading Cali into being the first state in the country to pass major legislation, making the possession and use of marijuana not only legal, but a taxable commodity.

And it would make them “cool.” What’s not to like?

Unfortunately, the Governor is being a buzzkill by not fully endorsing the prospective change in the laws. He endorses studying how much money could be derived from taxing pot. “Well, I think it’s not time for (legalization), but I think it’s time for a debate.”

Dude, that’s so lame! Don’t you want your state to be so “rad” and “cool” to be the first place to legalize the mary jane? How awesome would that be, dude?

Let’s be honest with ourselves. The so-called farce called the “War On Drugs” hasn’t accomplished anything. We are siphoning off billions of dollars to fight a crop that was demonized by the government back in the 1930’s because African-American musicians were the primary users of “reefer” and lawmakers in a Jim Crow era didn’t want their white children to be exposed to that drug (or the music) at that time. So elected political heroes not only demonized cannabis with propaganda pieces that were shown in movie theaters across the country, (check out the earnestly hilarious “Reefer Madness”) they made it illegal.

Yet tobacco products (which like hemp, was grown by our forefathers) are legal and kill more people every year than pot.

According to a study by the California Board of Equalization, legalizing marijuana and taxing it like cigarettes and alcohol would bring in an additional $1.34 BILLION dollars to California’s coffers. Also, the state would save money on law enforcement because the War On Drugs would only apply to hard-core stuff like heroin, cocaine, meth, etc. Local jails would be emptied of people serving sentences for pot possession, saving money on incarceration expenses like jail upkeep, maintenance, staffing and feeding prisoners.

Still not convinced, Governor? Go back to your native Europe and look at Portugal. In 2001, the country became the first on the continent to abolish any and all criminal penalties for personal possession of not exclusively cannabis but cocaine, heroin and methamphetamine as well.

The biggest fear among Portuguese lawmakers was that their country would be a tourist destination for total stoners, turning Portugal into some kind of Spaniard Holland. (Holland, by the way, has never legalized possession of marijuana; they just don’t enforce their own laws).

So has Portugal become a pit of open-air drug use? Has crime and debauchery increased, flooding their courts and jails with collateral crimes in the wake of decriminalization? According to the American Cato Institute, a Libertarian-leaning think tank, their answer is after five years of decriminalization, drug use among teens has declined. The rate of HIV cases caused by sharing dirty needles has also declined. And Portugal has the lowest rate of personal marijuana use of any other country in Europe.

So, like, Governor Arnold, dude, it’s time for you to stop talking and take some action. If you continue to believe the fallacious and tired argument that banning marijuana is good for your state, then it’s time we resort to Beverly Hills 90210 tactics and just say, “don’t you want to be the coolest guv, ever, dude?”

And if you are not a 90210 fan, Jeff Spicoli would think you’re “totally awesome” if you signed into law the decriminalization of marijuana. But you won’t do it, because deep down we know you’re a total narc.

Ben Smiled

Earlier this week, Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke appeared before Congress and, for a moment, smiled.

Yes, the man who’s job it is to interpret the vagaries and vicissitudes of all things financial in our country spoke to our elected political heroes on Capitol Hill, actually lacing his economic forecast with positives words.

Saying that the housing market has “hit bottom,” he was described as guardedly optimistic about the Recession being over by the end of this year and the road to economic recovery being less treacherous in 2010.

I can’t buy it.

Calling Chairman Bernanke a liar would be misguided and slanderous, but I am keenly aware of what his job is (and, more importantly, isn’t) all about. The Fed Chairman has the incredibly unenviable task of constantly walking a high wire. Part prognosticator, part huckster, wrapped up in a song-and-dance man as well as trying to remain a straight shooter, Bernanke must sound somewhat if not cautiously “optimistic” in the midst of this crisis. What other choice does he have; tell the blatant and naked truth?

No, that’s the media’s job.

He must carefully interpret the documents, data and disseminations that his office receives and carefully formulate, massage and parse words and phrases, redefining what the word “is” is so many times, that it would make the Clinton Administration pull their hair out.

Imagine the responsibility, the burdensome gravitas of one person who can make the stock market plummet like a lead balloon with one sharp, caustic sentence by being too “negative.” Or, conversely, artificially inflate a forecast only to be ridiculed and castigated by the President of the United States for being too “positive.”

Such is Ben Bernanke’s life; wedged right there between that economic rock and financial hard place.

It is a balancing act that has the fate of President Obama’s re-election, global economics and consumer confidence hanging on his every word. Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan was the master of speaking in front of Congress and saying absolutely nothing and making it sound as if we were fine. He was the master, not of spin, but of deception. In hindsight, some cable pundit should have barked in 2006 as the curtain was pulled back in the fray of a hot housing market, “Pay no attention to that man married to NBC’s Andrea Mitchell as our toxic mortgages balloon and our financial bubble ready to burst.”

Forgive me as I revert back to my Doubting Thomas ways; I remain utterly skeptical.

Remember, that back in October, former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson called a late night meeting on Capitol Hill and said that we were “staring in the financial abyss,” only to have Ben Bernanke tell Congress that he thinks the Recession will be over by the end of this year.

When did that financial abyss turn into a fiduciary pothole?

It took a war to get us out of the Depression, almost four years of Reagan-o-mics to beat stagflation. Ben Bernanke is suggesting we could be out of this Recession in less than a year? No way.

All I know is that economic cycles are like what Tip O’Neill said about politics: “It’s all local.”

If you still own your house, have a job and money in your pocket, you may believe the Fed Chairman. If you’ve lost your house, or looking for work and/or can’t pay your off credit cards, you don’t believe a word out of Ben Bernanke’s mouth.

No matter how “optimistic” this Fed Chairman sounds.

Don't Buy the Swine Hype

If you’ve been watching the news, you would think that this new strain of the “Swine Flu” has caused millions of people to die, decimating whole towns and countries like the Black Plague from the Middle Ages.

But in reality, that's just not accurate.

As of Monday, 149 people have died from this virulent strain in Mexico. The United States had 40 confirmed cases in five states and the Director Of Homeland Security, Janet Napolitano, was on every cable news outlet pleading for people to not sneeze on anyone. Great advice, even if you’re not sick. It’s just disgusting and rude.

Outbreaks of diseases and biological agents are the stuff of great novels (The Stand by Stephen King) and movies (The Andromeda Strain, and Outbreak, to name two) but to start wearing one of those masks you see in an ER is ridiculous.

Pharmacies in some states are seeing a run on flu medicines and cold remedies. People are stocking up, in some cases hording, waiting to see how bad this new strain of “Swine Flu” could potentially be.

Some people who have gotten the strain of the virus and have recovered quickly; others say it’s not as bad as the “normal” flu, whatever that means. The most alarming piece to this new influenza puzzle is that it seems to attack and infect those with the strongest immune systems: 15-55 year old people.

Every year, people get the “flu” or “influenza.” According to the Center For Disease Control in Atlanta, last year over almost 26 thousand people were diagnosed with the virus. Don’t get me wrong; it’s serious, as people die every year from the flu.

But I am not ready to push the panic button yet like they did back in the mid-seventies.

Back in 1976, Gerald Ford made a decision that is still hotly debated today. When an Army Recruit at Fort Dix became sick and died from a strain of the “Swine Flu,” people panicked, gravely concerned about a plague that killed over a half a million people back in 1918. Could the same type of influenza cover the world, killing innocent people?

Gerald Ford imposed a mandatory inoculation of (at that time) all 220 million Americans, with a program that cost 135 million dollars.

To some, it was the pinnacle of the health and medical fields in United States history. The federal government made a series of public service announcements to alert people that the “swine flu” was not to be taken lightly and everyone needed to line up in an orderly fashion, receive their vaccination, and in doing so, save humanity.

But thousands of people didn’t die; whole towns weren’t wiped out. Some thought it was the greatest government infringement on their personal freedom. Some were killed from the rushed vaccines; others were severely crippled or paralyzed.

The Ford Administration said they erred on the side of caution.

I just remember it being called, “The Epidemic That Never Was.”

America's Little (Big) Secret

Here’s a little secret that many people don’t know. But don’t tell too many people because it will throw the media into a tizzy! Most Americans surveyed say they don’t want government intruding on their lives.

Last week when I read that a new USA TODAY/Gallup Poll revealed that most Americans “approve of President Obama and the government’s latest assertiveness” in dealing with our soured economy. But they don’t want government’s intrusion to last too long. I hate to tell you this, Sally, but that horse has been out of the barn for years.


The poll stated that, “3-to-1 people surveyed say government’s expansion should be cut back when the economic crisis is over.” Excuse me, but does anyone realize that Big Government’s been intruding, inserting, injecting, insinuating, interjecting, interpolating, interposing, and introducing itself to the American people almost a complete century?

According to Big Government, the crisis is never over.

*When the Great Depression hit and the banks failed, Big Government decided to introduce a novel idea called The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation so people would have faith and deposit money back in the banking system. We still have that program today. In fact, he government recently doubled the guarantee on your account from $100,000 thousand dollars to $250,000.

*When Lyndon Baines Johnson signed into law social programs that were titled, The Great Society, it was supposed to wipe out poverty. These programs were expanded under the Nixon and Ford Administrations and we have actually spent more money trying to expunge poverty from America and yet more people are living below the poverty line than when LBJ signed the bill into law.

*Speaking of Nixon, it was on his watch that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) and the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) were created. These agencies were supposed to last 10 years and then dismantled.

*After 9/11, George W. Bush decided that all agencies that dealt with security (CIA, FBI, ATF, NSA, etc) in the United States needed to be brought together under an umbrella of one department that would report to the president. Not since the Truman Administration had a layer of bureaucracy been added to that size and magnitude and so quickly. You know it today as the Department of Homeland Security.

From spending trillions of dollars to prop up the economy, to absorbing toxic assets with tax payer money, to firing CEO’s from the private sector, Barack Obama is redefining Big Government’s role in taking control of our current economic crisis. Obama says he inherited the mess created by “the last eight years of failed economic policies.” His solution? Do what many other presidents have done before him. Insert Big Government programs.

The president said at Georgetown University last week, “we’ve been called to govern in extraordinary times.”

Can’t any time in American history be called “extraordinary” if the government feels the need to insert itself into the private lives of Americans?

FDR would be proud.

Jet Packs and Tang

After JFK said we would make it “to the moon within this decade,” (and we did) the Space Race permeated every facet of American culture. Television shows like Lost In Space and Star Trek gave us an inaccurate, but optimistic look at what we could do after taking “one small step for man.”

America was fascinated with anything about space, the stars, and life on other planets. Astronauts were treated like rock stars. Every space launch was covered with reporters and viewers holding their breath as that long tube blasted upward higher and higher with a loud, deafening roar and explosive fireball into space.

Back then, when people and experts talked about the “future,” we were all supposed to be wearing unitards, food would be reduced to a tablet and we would go everywhere in air cars (like George Jetson) or by jet pack.

And we would be free from the smelly, dirty viscous fossil fuels that we had to dig out of the ground. We would look upward to the skies and find a new source of energy.

Sadly, that day and that dream haven’t come to fruition. We don’t dress in unitards (thank goodness) or take pills for nourishment, but we have white-knuckled a technology that really hasn’t changed since Karl Benz received a patent for a two-stroke gasoline engine in 1879.

Sure, certain car producers have made hybrids. But for the most part, the dreams of clean, renewable energy hasn’t been realized and people finger point and make excuses as to why we can’t seem to drive something that’s not dependent on 87 or 91 grades unleaded gasoline.

Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon wants to implement EV Car charging stations at ballparks, malls and city garages. He also announced this week that he wants to see the city fleet as go with electric cars as soon as it's feasible.

Good luck.

Here’s the dirty little oily secret that people don’t want to talk about: our dependency on oil and gasoline is not about the car or the fuel; it’s about behavior.

Inventors, politicians, soothsayers and talk show hosts alike can say, scream, and demand until they are red in the face about getting off oil dependence, or going green, but until there is a seismic shift and conscientiously alter their behavior to make going green a habit, then all the talk and good intentions are for nothing.

We all need to look upward again, be inspired, alter our behavior, or else we still be stuck back in the 60’s talking about wearing unitards and wishing we had jet packs.

And when was the last time you had a glass of Tang? They don’t even drink that stuff on the Space Shuttle.

Economic Downturn Has People Scaling Way Back

This economic downturn has spawned a new phenomenon among some Americans.

Instead of taking advantage of cellar-low mortgage rates and refinancing their house, buying foreclosed homes to sell when the housing market comes back, stockpiling money in anticipation of a bullish stock market, or just simply weathering this doom and gloomy storm of a recession, some have decided to just simply drop out. Their mantra? “Start over.” Scale Back. Less (a lot less) is more.”

They’re called Economic Survivalists, their goal is to make the least amount of money, surviving on skills not needed or used since Manifest Destiny took hold of the American Spirit back in the mid-nineteenth century.

Their cable’s been cut, their cell phones thrown in the garbage or donated to charity. The expensive SUV’s traded in for a used pickup truck; golf clubs are being sold to buy farming equipment.

Folks have had enough – and their ranks are growing. People are stockpiling food in numbers not seen since the Great Depression. Seed packets and transplants have seen a 30 percent rise in sales. The National Gardening Association released a stat that was staggering: 7 million more households are growing their own food compared to just last year.

But it goes beyond just having a green thumb or wanting to go out in the back yard and pick your supper. Economic Survivalists are serious about being off the main “grid” of society. Canning supplies have seen a 30 percent rise since last year, more people are researching and learning how to sew to mend or make their own clothes, blankets and other home items.

In extreme cases, people are just moving to live in a smaller, simpler place.

The goal? People want to feel more in control of their lives. There is a need, a desire for people to get back in control of what they have, redefining what they need and radically changing their lives. It sounds like an oxymoron, but there’s much validity to this “radical” way of living.

We have evolved so far from an agrarian society – where if you didn’t make it, grow or farm it, you didn’t need to it – to a consumption society where you can’t walk a block without seeing two Starbucks facing each other on opposite sides of the street.

Coming from a farming community, one thing I learned early on was self-sufficiency. The earth took care of you, if you took care of the earth and hardly anything went to waste. You learned to sew a button back on a shirt, not go to the mall and buy a new one. If the tractor stalled, you learned quickly how to get it running again before the sun went down. And you never took for granted that you could just rely on someone else to take care of things.

Now I don’t know if I want to throw away my iPod and cut my cable off just yet, but I do know that I feel a kindred spirit towards these people, these Economic Survivalists, who actually decide to take more control of their lives.

Self-reliance is a beautiful (and simple) thing.