University of California students should be better informed. Where have they been for the last year or two as California’s economy went into the tank and the Governor and state Legislature refused to raise any taxes to balance the budget? What, exactly, do they expect UC President Yudof and the Board of Regents to do? Print money?

Students should be protesting the fact that Californians refuse any tax increases — alcohol taxes, commercial real estate taxes, and corporate income taxes to name a few — that could close the yawning budget deficit and save the world’s greatest university system from this historic decline. A quarter a drink alcohol tax alone could raise $3.5 billion a year.

Students should be protesting against the people of California — including their parents and themselves — who always seem to want something for nothing. Either we raise taxes to balance the budget or we dismantle the greatest system of higher education ever created — UC, CSU and California community colleges together — along with all our other social services.

The Legislative Analyst says that California will run $20 billion deficits through 2015, at which time there will be little left of our great state. Why don’t UC students aim their protests at the people and politicians who refuse to raise taxes and save California?

We are in the grip of the greatest economic downturn since the Great Depression of the 1930’s…which by the way folks, was a largely Democratic creation. If that sounds familiar it’s because many of the same power grabs that contributed to it then are in motion now.
Here on the left coast, in once sunny California, even some of our 20 million ILLEGAL aliens have given up to move back home to Mexico and go to work for the great growth industry down there…drug cartels.
Meanwhile, in the second biggest Fantasyland in the nation, Sacramento, the Democratically dominated State Assembly, along with that ever acquiescent RINO Arnold Schwarzenegger, have taken the State with the tenth largest economy in the world and destroyed it as a viable economic entity. If you think I’m exaggerating, wrap your ponytail and Birkenstocks around this: Our Great Central San Joaquin Valley, virtually BY ITSELF, could feed the world…or could before the gutless California politicians allowed the environmentalists so much sway (for a price) that a Federal judge was able to take water away from California ranches and farms, for the sake of a lousy 2″ trash fish…the Delta Smelt. Supposedly because they were getting trapped in the pumping stations of the main irrigation canals, thereby depriving the salmon of this delectable hors d’oeuvre. Um…seems like salmon all over the world thrive without a single visit to our delta…fancy that.
There are dozens of examples of this abject environmental stupidity all affecting California business and investment, even education and infrastructure. Although I’ve researched most I can’t go into them…we’d be here all week. One thing you can be sure of, wherever the ENVIRONAZIS are in this state, there will be a politician nearby waiting to have his palm crossed with silver…our silver. I imagine it’s much the same in the other States as well. This, and the invariably higher taxes, both personal and business that go hand-in-hand with increasingly repressive regulation, have resulted in the MASS exodus of business and jobs from this State, once one of the most prosperous stand-alone economies in the world.
Now our ever-sleazy State Legislature, probably jealous of  Nancy (Bugeyes) Pelosi’s one-sided attempt to railroad the country into Marxist servitude and unable to con the voters of California into saying yes to a handful of doublespeak hidden tax bond measures, have resorted to complete and total NO FRILLS (meaning no voters, no election, no governor) TAXATION WITHOUT REPRESENTATION. Illegal and unconstitutional as hell…blatant spit-in-your-eye we’re-going-to-do-it-anyway taxation, in the form of a 10% additional withholding from pay checks. This in a state with 12.5 to 17% unemployment, depending on which set of depressing statistics you’d care to peruse. The aforementioned San Joaquin Valley has closer to 40% unemployed and invaluable farm land being destroyed by neglect and disuse.
Supposedly, this additional ‘loan’ will be deducted from State income taxes at the end of the tax year…where are those Madoff investments? We’ll make a killing. I know I can speak for a whole lot of people in this State when I say there’s not a damn thing anyone in that Statehouse does to represent me!
Even the Kool-Aid crowd has begun to figure out that gay sexual indoctrination of our helpless children is of a higher priority for these creeps than anything approaching responsible governance.
We’ve put Congress and the White House on notice. The spin machine is working overtime, but the truth is the Democrats back there are scared peeless. NOW it’s time to take the Conservative Revolution to the California Statehouse!!

Semper Vigilans, Semper Fidelis

© Skip MacLure 2009

Http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CDK8Ue43Dko

70 years ago today Loug Gehrig said goodbye to fans at Yankee stadium. He was diagnosed with what later would become known as Lou Gehrig’s disease. He died a very young man, two years later. I love sports, and have always been a big baseball fan. Would love to watch baseball as a sport played by people who truly love the game, as opposed to ego driven multi-millionaires. How great would it be to play a game for a living? Yes, there is stress and yes they are good, but there is no way you can convince me in the scope of life that hitting a ball or putting a ball in a hole is worth the absurd amounts of money these guys get paid. They should make a very good living and tickets should be $10. Not punters, who punt a ball three times a game making $2 million a year and tickets are $100.

Side topic for Giants fans: Why in the world are the Giants in discussions to trade for Nick Johnson? We need a power hitter or a 2B. Trading for Johnson does NOTHING. Travis Ishikawa has hit more home runs in his last 60ish AB’s (Six) than Johnson has all year (Five)! How does that help anything? Please don’t make a move just so you can say you did something. Aubrey Huff might be a good pickup. But I don’t want to see us lose a prospect or team chemistry for a first baseman who is good for 70 RBI. Here’s another Giants thought. Why will they stick with a proven bad player over the potential for someone to be good? Barry Zito has proven himself to be bad for 2 ½ years now. All are talking about how he has been better this year. He is 4-8 with an ERA close to 5. How is that better? Better than what? That’s not bad – it’s actually horrible. We saw what Sadowski can do; called up from AAA he is 2-0 and hasn’t given up a run. Kevin Pucetas is by all accounts better than Sadowski. Why not give Pucetas a chance and move Zito to the bullpen? The only thing worse than paying Zito $18 million a year, is paying him $18 million a year and having him hurt the team. If you bench him, yes you are out the $18 million, but at least you have a chance to win!

FYI, The governor of South Carolina should be impeached. How could the investigators say he did not misuse funds? He went to Argentina for a week to f%^k his girlfriend on taxpayer funds. He repaid them after he got caught, but he had no intention of doing so beforehand. So if I steal a car, and get arrested and then go back and pay for it – is that not a crime? He also abandoned his post, nobody knew where he was, he didn’t tell the lieutenant governor, his wife, ANYBODY where he was. What if something had happened while he was gone? This is the classic definition of dereliction of duty. Do I even need to touch on the hypocrisy of him cheating on his wife for a year while standing on the religious right podium of moral superiority? He cried for Clinton’s impeachment on moral grounds, and then when he gets found out has the audacity to quote the Bible to justify keeping his job. UNBELIEVABLE!!!!

The entire California political pool responsible for the State budget should be fired including Schwarzenneger. He is the leader and has proven to be completely incapable of getting anything done. The time for talk and political differences is over. California is on the brink of financial collapse. We are offering 90 day IOU’s for over $3 billion to vendors, and my question is how are they going to pay them back in 90 days??? They just missed a deadline for passing a budget that cost the state another $2 billion dollars. Kind of important don’t you think?

So I have been back in the lower 48, back in the land of normal human beings for a little more than half a year. How is the adjustment going? What are my observations and feelings? There are very few things I miss about Alaska. I miss the work and the challenges. I miss the pay… The work culture has changed in the States (not that Alaska isnt a State, but it is different). Gainful, stable employment is hard to find. Jobs that offered benefits for decades no longer do. Even government jobs (post office, IRS, etc) that used to offer stability in return for tedious nowhere jobs – are now replacing that stability with temporary positions that offer no benefits. The only way to get a job as a carrier with the post office is to serve six months to a year as a “rural on-call carrier” working whenever they call you with no benefits. Who can do that? How do you pay your bills if one week you are working 40 hours and the next you are working 10, and you have no benefits. The working class is much, much harder to survive in. I am 45 years old and finishing my Bachelors degree so I can get into teaching or similar field that still offers some form of stability, benefits, and retirement. I don’t know that I can survive otherwise. Among the many things I don’t miss about my island in Alaska are working with alcoholics and drug addicts every day, $7 a gallon milk, the weather, the dire shortage of attractive women, and having absolutely nothing to do except fish or hike (and not that many places to hike). One thing I do miss is not having bills. Rent, Gas and Electric, Gas, insurance and repairs on my car, etc. It is definitely not as easy to save money here as in Alaska.

Friends and love. It’s hard to stay in touch with friends as you get older. The world tends to lend itself to staying in touch, but at a shallower level. Things like cell phones, texting, MySpace, Facebook, etc – are great tools for staying in touch with people. But it’s a bad substitute for actually seeing somebody or hanging out with them. People seem to feel connected with somebody after texting or commenting on a Facebook post, but it just doesn’t do it for me. I need real friendships and real contact. But that takes real time and a commitment. It’s important that I take time for this. Girls…what can I say…this is an area I am really struggling with. Maybe it’s my age. Maybe it’s my baggage. I tried to date a little and have failed miserably at it. I hope I’m not jaded, I don’t think that’s the problem. Am I carrying a flame for somebody else?   Is it making it impossible to be serious about dating anybody else or have I just not met anybody to spark interest for me?   I’m not one of those people who just jumps from person to person. I don’t want to settle, and I don’t think it’s fair to anybody that I date to keep dating them if I’m not “feeling it.”  I sure wouldn’t want somebody to be dating me with lukewarm feelings, even if there was nothing else going on – I don’t like wasting time.  I don’t want to be anybody’s second choice.   I don’t want somebody who is mourning some other relationship.  I want love, or I will continue to be alone. For now, I guess I’ll just be alone. Dating isn’t working so I guess I’ll just plug along and achieve the personal goals I’ve set. Maybe things will work themselves out, maybe not. I don’t want to be alone, I certainly don’t want to die alone, but I just don’t have any answers right now. Well, I need to go for a run. Trying to stay in shape. Don’t want to get old before my time. I want to be one of those 60 or 70 year old men out playing tennis. It’s not time to be old and fat yet.

Schwarzenneger is in a pickle. Granted. His state is in serious trouble, and has voted not to raise taxes to help alleviate it. And so, confronted with the notion of having a state go bankrupt, he’s making cuts. Got it. And, since federal support is not so much enjoyed by the rich, it’s going to be stuff for the rest of us. Got it.

Salary reductions for state employees are pretty standard, as are, unfortunately, education cuts. They suck, but they’re standard. However…

Mr. Schwarzenegger, a Republican, is threatening to eliminate the Healthy Family Program, the state’s health insurance program that covers over 900,000 children and is financed with state and federal money, as well as the state’s main welfare program, known as Cal-Works, which provides temporary financial assistance to poor families and a caregiver for the severely disabled.

Taking away poor children’s health insurance? Wow. Just…WOW.

Well, at least now we know there’ll never be a Presi-nator, whether or not the Constitutional requirement for nascent citizenship gets amended.

P.S.
Ahnold, watch your back. Hillary’ll get you for this if it’s the last thing she does, especially if Obama’s health care reform goes through and winds up dwarfing her (already small) health care legacy. And, as we all know, that bitch is mean.

Greetings Constituents and Constituentettes

You may not have been able to catch me at my surgeries recently as I have been on many top secret diplomatic missions and other extremely serious matters that have meant that I have not been available to answer your queries, especially those regarding my, shall we say, extenuatingly exaggerated expenses claims. I have not been ducking out of public view, as some insensitive people have claimed, a duckhouse is the last place you’d find me. I have receipts for all of the biscuits that I have bought from the public purse, some of which I have fed back into the community at my one-to-one meetings, so in a way, it could be said that you owe me, really. But Jack is kind like that, and won’t hold it against you. The bathplugs and other additional items were all to help me to perform my duties as an MP. You wouldn’t seriously want me to turn up for work without having a bath in my deep-imbedded luxury jacouzzi, would you? Many a floosie has been waylaid in Jack’s Jacouzzi.

While surfing the wonders of the world wide web, my secretary Rowetta spotted THIS scurrilous article about my very blog! Somebody calling themself The Pickards is claiming that I, Councillor Jack Brody, am an imposter! Just because he may not have heard of me, it does not mean that I do not exist! How indignant can you get? These are not the only false claims that have emerged relating to myself. I confess, I did use a little creative accounting on my expenses, but we’ve got to move on from that now. I fully admit that I have learnt my lesson. I paid back the money for those Hob Nobs, and so let’s let nothing more be said of it (while we vote in new rules to allow us to ciphon money in a different way behind the scenes!).

Now, one of my favourite movie film actors of all time is Arnold Schwarzenneger. In the coming weeks I would like to employ The Arnie Approach to Politics. Governor Schwarzenneger of California (uber alles)’s political campaigns have been some of the most successful of recent times, and I am going to apply the principals of Arnie Power to my own upcoming campaigns. I will be saying, “The time has come to get tough with unemployment!” I will be saying, “Hasta la Vista social security club!” And I will be saying, “I will not tolerate The Gays and their fake fairy marriages!” Just who do they think they are, mincing about without a care in the world, going to discos, attending Mardi Gras and having touchy bottom shenanigans? My good colleague Stephanie Turnpike of the Liberals may find this viewpoint contentious, but then she would. Even if she booted me out, I’d be back.

I’ve noticed that there has been a lot of aggression in the news recently. The North Koreans are getting a little uppity, firing off missiles to show that they mean business on the international stage. What sort of business, I can’t quite fathom, but they mean it, quite vociferously. There’s all that unpleasant activity in Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Afghanistan, Iraq, Iran, Zimbabwe, Sudan, The West Bank, Burma, Tibet, close by in Ireland, all over the place really! I for one do not condone this sort of behaviour.

Anyway, I was very disappointed by the Man Utd score against Barcelona. They should’ve given them a good thrashing and beaten their heads into a pulp! What’s wrong with them? Sissies! Crush the opposition! Pound them into the ground and make them whimper in fear as their bones crumple to pieces! Destroy them! Mash them to bits!

Peace off, Jack.

With a nonchalance that no doubt will elicit a collective groan from some California Republican faithful, Governor Schwarzenegger told a national TV audience on Sunday, that it doesn’t matter what your party affiliation is:

“Who cares if you’re a Republican or a Democrat?,” the governor said on ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopolous. “We are public servants, not party servants.”

It may have been a comment to highlight the need for unity, but it also reinforced the notion of a broad gap between Schwarzenegger and the party faithful who just wrapped up their convention in Sacramento.

Later, on CNN, Schwarzenegger said he would’ve been at the convention, had it not been for the national meeting of governors in D.C. It’s probably a lucky break, with the party faithful so up in arms over last week’s budget deal that there’s actually a nostalgia for the guy Schwarzenegger helped kick out of office more than five years ago.

But on this weekend’s morning show circuit, Schwarzenegger knew he was going to get the ‘Didn’t you break your pledge against taxes?’ question, and thus gave a well-rehearsed answer to both interviewers –specifically that he always left himself wiggle room in the event of an emergency.

And he defended the overall budget deal as a good one. “We got huge reforms out of that,” he said in referencing the spending cap proposal and others. On ABC, the governor was asked to comment on the fact that some Republican governors, especially Gov. Mark Sanford of South Carolina, have balked at the federal stimulus money coming their way.

“I’m more than happy to take his money,” quipped Schwarzenegger, “or any other governor in this country that doesn’t want to take this money.”

One other observation from both one-on-one interviews (an audience he rarely gives to California reporters): Schwarzenegger provided yet another candid contrast to a man he once helped elect president, George W. Bush.

 Bush was a frequent critic of politicians who read polls, once calling it a game of “chasing your tail” when it came to leadership. Contrast that with Schwarzenegger on Sunday morning, who quoted poll numbers supporting a mix of spending cuts and tax increases to solve the state’s deficit problem. The governor told Stephanopolous that an effective leader must “listen to the people.”

-Keely Field

A very nice advantage of moving back to California after being on an island in Alaska for three years is the adjustment to being around normal people.  By normal I must clarify that while in Alaska I adapted and even got accustomed to  living and working with a group in which 80%+ had committed felonies and spent time in prison, and probably 80%+ were alcoholics and drug addicts.   It’s nice to work with a group that isn’t jonesin’ to get to the bar at 9 A.M.  It’s nice to know that I can leave a soda, or a dollar bill on my desk with a reasonable expectation that it won’t be stolen if I leave for sixty seconds.  It’s nice to have intelligent conversations and discuss sports other than NASCAR and wrestling.   It’s also nice to see women on a daily basis that shave their legs and have all their teeth.

I watched Arnold Schwarznegger (no idea if I spelled that right) on This Week with George Stephanopolous (again…no idea if I spelled that right – anybody named Smith around here?).  I still don’t know what I think of Arnold as a politician.  I like the way he talks about the two party system, saying right or wrong is not a party issue.   Issues are individual and it seems that no matter what the topic it starts out contentious along party lines.  Republicans would argue against saving a drowning baby if Nancy Pelosi supported it, and the same is true in converse of the Democrats.  Where do they find these people that are 100% Republican and 100% Democrat?  I have some views on each side and some that are right down the middle.  Watching Congress and the House argue is like watching an episode of Crossfire or Wifeswap, where you take two polar opposites and try to get them to get anything done.  The fallout of this type of politics is that our politicians don’t represent us anymore.  I’m not proud of either side, 99% of the Republicans in politics are very close to Rush Limbaugh in their view and opinions.  99% of Democrats are close to Sean Penn or Al Franken.  Even our great hope for change, President Obama is a classic far left Democrat.  He is not a moderate as he portrayed himself and as such it is VERY unlikely that he is going to be some great “uniter,” able to bring these bitter enemies together.  Arnold is probably able to stay a little far from the fray for two reasons.  First, since he was Austrian born is he is constitutionally barred from being President.  Second, he has so much money he isn’t too terribly worried about his life and future in politics.  He would be much better off financially to return to acting.  Most politicians aspiring to a continuing career need the support of their party, and rocking the boat, or straying from the party line is severely frowned upon.   As I said earlier, our politicians no longer represent us, they have abandoned us.  They are looking out for themselves and the money machine they need to get elected.  This is the major cause in the elimination of our middle class.  Maybe someday soon I’ll stop bitching about it and come up with a proposed solution.

I need a vacation.  Unfortunately I just started a new job a couple of weeks ago.  Of course it is one of the new generation in American jobs.  My official title is Field Operations Supervisor for Quality Control for the U.S. Census Bureau.  I supervise about 250 people.  I have a ton of responsibility and cover an area from Merced to Mojave.  I am well paid.  The downside…it’s temporary, they can release me any time they want.  I can be let go next week or two years from now.  I also receive no vacation or sick time, and no health benefits.  I am a broken leg or a car crash away from total financial ruin.  I like the job, I like the people I work with and I like the challenge.  It is just the reality of the new world that there are so many positions like this.  I need to go to Vegas and have fun for a week.  I have plans to go to Aspen in September for a rugby tournament, possibly Costa Rica in 2010, and New Zealand in 2011.  I just need a small filler trip in the mean time.  I get antsy without travel and fun periodically.  Guess I’ll just wait until I’m in Mojave on business on a Friday, and keep heading east for the weekend.  It’s the best I can do.

As we all anxiously await the inauguration of our new President in a little more than a week, I thought I’d throw out some of my plethora of political commentaries.  Feel free to call bullshit on me, as I’m fully aware that when discussing politics or religion I’m as full of crap as anybody else and rarely know what I’m talking about.

Bailout:

When I was in Alaska, with little ability to discuss with intelligent life forms, as the banks started having problems and discussion of the bailout started I emailed a buddy of mine and we both had the same opinion.  With my knowledge limited to little snippets of info on the news we both said the bailout was the equivalent of putting a band-aid on a gunshot wound.  There were no rules attached to the billions of dollars “loaned” to the financial institutions and in one of the few instances where I thank the media for existing, if it wasn’t for the investigations and reports  by the media – the banks and CEO’s of these companies would still be snapping up huge bonuses and going on corporate jets for meetings at spas and golf country clubs worldwide.   Anyway – my first thought when I heard the suggestion of hundreds of billions of dollars in bailouts was “WTF – isn’t this a capitalistic country?”  OK – we don’t bail them out, what happens – some banks fold, some condense their operations.  It becomes harder to get a loan, but it SHOULD be harder to get a loan.  When did it become common thought or expectation in America that somebody who has a history of not paying their debts deserves loans for houses and cars?  If I don’t pay my debts I don’t expect anybody to loan me money for a pair of pants, let alone a house.  So if we don’t bailout the banks, it just becomes harder for people to get loans, maybe we need to fix our cars for a couple years until things pan out as opposed to buying the 2009 Hummer.  If businesses haven’t saved enough money to get through the tough times they DESERVE to go out of business.   I look at GM and think what have they been doing with all the money they made for the past 100′ish years?  Well the CEO made 24 million dollars in verifiable compensation in 2006-2007.  Numerous others were in the $5-$10 million dollar range.  Workers are making $30 an hour for line jobs, with some of the best benefit plans anywhere.  Well, if the companies executives are cashing in, and “getting mine” and the workforce is overpaid for both their skill level and comparative industry – then what do you expect?  They aren’t selling cars because they aren’t providing a product that people want, and they are wasting huge amounts of cash.  Well – surprise!!!!!  Now times go bad and our governemnt and taxpayers bail them out.  Fantastic!!!  This whole bailout idea is a joke in my opinion and is a horrible precident for our country.  *IF* capitalism works, and is the backbone of our way of life – let it work.  In good times and bad.  Let’s use that 1 trillion dollars we’ve given to banks and auto makers and encourage new business to open, sparking new employment.  Use some to prop up unemployment benefits while things are playing out – but don’t bail out the greed and wastefulness of corporate America.  I have to reiterate that this was my opinion from the FIRST day I heard about this, and the  months of lack of results of what our gov’t has done – has only strengthened my view.  Proud to say that Mike Huckabee and Lou Dobbs are two much more intelligent people who agree with me and did from the start.

State of California:

I haven’t been back in California for long.  Not long enough to gain an opinion as to the job Schwarzenegger has done.  Ironic that it is the same issue (budget) that could be his downfall as was Gray Davis (his predecessor who’s failure created the opening for the job).  I do find it almost laughable that the State of California has announced that they may be issuing IOU’s for tax rebates filed for the 2008 tax year.  This is the same state that sent me a bill for $2000 in 2006 while I was living in Alaska, WITH NO PROOF WHATSOEVER for taxes they thought maybe I might owe – and then made me prove I didn’t owe them.  Basically I took a vacation while living and working in Alaska and had my Federal tax refund mailed to my parents house in California – because I knew that’s where I was going to be.  I guess California in a constant process of revenue generation searches mailing addresses for federal refunds, saw I received mine in California, took the taxable amount total, administered their calculation of their share and sent me a bill.  With no W-2 showing I worked in California, no pay stub from anywhere, no use of any California facilities, no drivers license – nothing.  No proof at all.  The California Tax Franchise Board sent me a bill and then made me prove by a certain date that I didn’t owe it or they were going to pursue judgment against me.  So they sent me a bill AND threatened litigation.  It took me three clearly worded letters explaining that I never took residence in California, earned one penny, or owed owed penny in taxes in California. After the first two of my letters which they ignored totally, they sent me a final letter saying this is your last chance to prove you don’t owe this money, etc.  My response was not polite.  Lots of bolded and underlined words explaining that once and for all I don’t owe you a penny and it should be the States responsibility to prove that I do, not mine to prove why I don’t.  Finally I got a letter saying the matter was resolved.  Anyway…I digress.  The State of California are now failing miserable to pass a budget.  We are almost out of money and services are threatening to shut down.   Budgets are being presented and the Govenator keeps vetoing them.  He wants to raise taxes – which in many areas including Fresno where I live – which will drive sales taxes in excess of 10%.  That’s just sales tax.  Doesn’t include Federal taxes, or state income taxes, or gas taxes, or any of the luxury taxes they collect from hotels, rental cars, alcohol, tobacco, double taxing auto sales, etc.  10+% sales tax.  Makes me want to move to Oregon or Florida, or one of the five or six states that have no sales tax.

Illinois Senate Seat (and rambling into Caroline Kennedy):

Are politicians so attracted to power that they will take it any cost?  Roland Burris is acting like there is nothing wrong at all with accepting the appointment of Rod Blagejovich (who should almost be found guilty just for looking and sounding stupid).  Burris is trying to take his seat and referring to himself as “the junior Senator from Illinois.”  I don’t know – maybe it’s just me, I don’t care if I was squeaky clean, and by all account Burris is, but I wouldn’t WANT the seat if it was appointed by somebody who is as dirty, creepy and in all likelihood guilty as Blagojevich.  If Burris is deserving let it play out and see what happens.  Not to mention I would probably want to be elected.

Which reminds me…Caroline Kennedy a couple of weeks ago when asked what inspired her to enter the political forum was quoted as saying that Obama (OK – I get that) and 9/11 (are you kidding me?) were the two issues that led her to ask NY Gov. David Peterson to consider her Hillary Clinton’s soon to be vacant senate seat.  9/11 inspired you to enter public service?  Of course public service is a term that only politicians and the media use.  A large majority of them  aren’t serving anybody but themselves.  Anyway…back to 9/11.  Well that’s inspiring, you were motivated by 9/11 and it only took you what 7+ years to act on it?  Why because all the rest of the time you would have actually had to run for office and right now you can have it handed to you solely on the basis of your name?  Oh yes that must be it.

Obama and campaign promises:

He’s almost here!  We’ll finally get to see if it’s all hype or if he can be the great leader we all need.  Hopefully his first act won’t be to start reneging on all his campaign promises, closing Guantanimo and getting the troops out of Iraq are two that come to mind.  I hold a lot of hope for him and I really hope he doesn’t sell out.  My faith in our country might be totally shot if our great attempt at change turns out to be the same as the rest.  But I will remain hopeful and give him some space.  It is humorous, that nothing could be worse for him.  Really what else could happen – a meteor hitting Denver?  China decides it’s a good time to attack?  I just hope Pelosi and Reid shut up long enough to get something done instead of blaming conservatives for everything bad since the Revolutionary War.

It’s finally here!