A New Dawn Over America - Obama Now Needs Evan Bayh

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Well someone seems to have gotten the message from the disgruntled voters in the midterm elections and that someone includes President Obama, the Republican leaders, and even some Democrats. The message, cut the partisanship, work together, and give us back our government.

The result has been the most productive Lame Duck Congress in history as the spirit of bi-partisanship resulted in the stunning passage of tax cuts, extension of unemployment benefits, Continuing Resolution to fund the government, passage of Don't Ask Don't Tell, ratification of the START Nuclear Arms treaty, approval of the 9-11 health fund and who knows what else might be accomplished in just two weeks.

No one expected such a remarkable performance by leaders in Washington although I did predict the bills would all get approved just after the election, but I am the eternal optimist who believes our system of government will always prevail in the end.

Obama has set a great pace since suffering the humbling debacle last November which goes to prove he is more of a pragmatist than a partisan. Maybe, with the new Republican House taking office after the first of the year, he can continue to govern from the center and all will be well in America. If he falls back into his partisan mode which prevailed the first two years and nearly paralyzed the nation it will be a tough two years.

Good government has always been the art of compromise though our current leaders seemed to have forgotten the lessons of history the last two years, but if Obama can never lose sight of the will of the people he could become a formidable candidate for re-election.

Which leads me to my two year old campaign to get Obama to appoint Evan Bayh, the retiring Senator from Indiana, as his new chief of staff. The day after Christmas Bayh turns 55, a remarkably young age for such a highly regarded retiring Senator who is one of few people in Washington to be well respected by members of both political parties and the media.

Everything Bayh has done and stands for is exactly what Obama needs in the person leading his White House operations, managing his policy initiatives and working with what will be a likely restless divided Congress. Evan Bayh would be the perfect antidote after two years of the Rahm Emanuel take no prisoners management style. There would be no foul mouth expletives, no threats against political opponents, no attempts to steamroll Congress like we saw during the first two years.

Bayh is imminently qualified in terms of class, knowledge, communication skills, understanding people and knowing how to encourage bi-partisanship. No one in the Obama administration brings the same quality of assets to the table. The popular Bayh, if named chief of staff, could almost guarantee the re-election of Obama because Bayh is really that good.

If the president really wants to heal the country then he should name Evan Bayh his chief of staff.

As for the politicians in our nation's capitol, I believe the people have given them a chance to govern over all the people but if they slip back into their old ways of partisan bickering and dog fights, then the people will replace them. Main Street is hopeful, but will not stand for more of the same.

Republicans cannot move far to the right and succeed. Seeking a limited government with a balanced budget does not mean forgetting about the real needs of the people nor placing the needs of special interests above the people. Democrats must avoid forcing the agenda too far to the left as well since America is the great melting pot, and that means stick to the middle.

Much remains to be done. Tough budget decisions lie ahead. We still have 150,000 of America's finest fighting in two wars around the world and we should pray for thir safety until they are home. The economy is starting to recover but many pitfalls lie ahead. Our international standing is in need of repair. Over 31,100 Mexicans have died the past four years in our drug war.  In short, we have a long ways to go.

The last two weeks have been delightful to watch as our government actually acted like, well, a responsible body representing the people. What a joy to see. The surging stock market and increasing optimism of the people was the reward. Keep it up and more rewards will come. Let us hope we have seen the beginning of a new era of responsible government and pray that it stays that way.

Our leaders represent all the people all the time, not just the special interests that pour money into their campaigns. They forgot that the last two years. Maybe they will remember it this time. If so, then we have all been given the greatest Christmas gift possible, the gift of HOPE for the future of America.
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How will America Survive the Election Results No Matter Who Does What?

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With both political parties staking early claims to success in the midterm elections and the spin machines in high gear pending the reality of the November 2 balloting, perhaps we should look at how America will survive one of the most contentious campaigns in recent memory.

Let's face it, between the two parties practically every aspect of American society has been demonized by one party or the other. It matters not whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, somewhere someone has probably trashed you and what you stand for this year.

TV ads already tell us both the Democrats and Republicans are bad for America. The Democrats are socialists or selfish if they back Obama while Republicans are Neanderthals or racists f they oppose him. Conservatives and liberals are both anti-American. There are the pacifists and war mongers, the tree huggers and drill baby drill brigades, '60's revolutionaries and Reaganities, Muslim haters and Jewish lovers, radical Christians and atheists, and the list goes on and on.

These were times when finding the issues in the midst of the virulent debate was almost impossible. Truth seemed to serve no purpose, facts were much too long for sound bites, and worn out clichés and slick slogans were always more convenient than honesty with the voters.

Partisanship and polarization were accepted strategies while reason and compromise were condemned. Heaven forbid if you were a spokesperson of any significance for a cause like Sarah Palin, John Boehner, Nancy Pelosi or Harry Reid, not to mention Barack Obama, because you were the target of scorn, rumor and innuendo at a scale not often witnessed in America.

The news media and the politicians were guilty of baiting the opposition, freely distorting facts, spreading untruths and character assassination, all plastered in our faces by blank checks from corporations, unions, billionaires and a bevy of special interests intent on having a bunch of politicians in their back pocket.

Yet come November 3 America will awaken to a new day and a bunch of new leaders just like it will awaken every day from now until Judgment Day. No doubt there will be some deep wounds left by the hatred and bitterness of the rhetoric and the lack of good judgment by politicians of both parties who were all too willing to forfeit fair play and common decency for their own egos and political survival.

Still, we are a nation that survived politics for 234 years because we placed our faith in the wisdom and genius of our Founding Fathers, not the politicians of expediency of today. By adhering to the incredible blueprint for success left as a legacy from our Founders, the Constitution and Bill of Rights, the people of America have always survived the politicians.

Politicians come and go but the principles of our foundation never change. Our people are guaranteed life, liberty, equal opportunity, freedom and the pursuit of happiness no matter what the politicians in Washington do to try and take it away. Long ago the people understood that the conservative or liberal views of our politicians swing like a pendulum throughout our history when the people decide it is time for it to swing, not when the politicians declare they know what is best for us.

Our Founding Fathers created this great political show in our nation's capitol and then added an elaborate government framework with three distinct branches of government and checks and balances in order to protect the people from wasting all our lives being preoccupied with politics. There are 546 people in Washington doing the people's business at the beck and call of the people. That includes a president and vice president, 100 Senators and 435 house members, all elected, and 9 Supreme Court Justices appointed by the president and confirmed by the Senate.

That's it. It takes 2 million civilian employees and 2 more million military to do the work of the 546 people but then it does keep a lot of people employed, out of Main Street and out of our hair throughout the year. In the end the 4 million people running our federal government equal just over 1% of our population so at least we have saved about 99% of the people from taking themselves too seriously.

Outside of Washington we know that a hard work ethic, common sense, a good sense of humor and a good bit of humility are the keys to our economy, education, competitiveness, sense of fair play, creative energy, compassion and place in the world, not the boasting or saber rattling of our politicians. And certainly not the pre-occupation of the media with the sins of the politicians.

It is the politicians who have the most to learn from the election. They must learn to shut up, stop whining and get on with the people's business or they will be thrown out of office. Right now they have lost sight of their role. We don't send Messiahs to Washington to lead us to salvation, we have our own churches and Gods to take care of that. We send people to Washington and the moment they lose sight of that relationship to us, is the moment their usefulness to America has ended.

This year the politicians are a sorry lot with a huge ego and an even bigger appetite for money. Greed is not an asset for our elected representatives. Come November 3, those lucky enough to survive and get elected have two years to demonstrate they have got the message. They better clean up their act, all of them, work together, and fix the mess they have got us into before we take things into our own hands.
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How do I know if I am a Republican or Democrat in America Today?

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Now that is a very good question but in light of the surge in the voter registration for Independents one must re-phrase the question to How do I know if I am a Republican, Democrat or Independent? You see, just this past spring the number of Independents surpassed the number of either Democrats or Republicans in America for the first time in the last 100 years.

Roughly speaking there are now about 40% Independents, and 30% Democrats and Republicans. If you are an Independent you are not responsible for the political nonsense in Washington because your party has not been in charge the last century. Free of blame you are also free to condemn all the crooks in Washington.

Of course it is also true that Independents gave the margin of victory to Obama in the last election so you really aren't completely off the hook for blame. Another problem for Independents is that every party or group from conservative to progressive, radical to just plain nuts, has no other place to go so they are part of your group. Just look on the ballot at all the splinter groups listed as Independent of the two main parties.

That means there is no common platform other than most Independents think the best government is no government, they want a balanced budget, no more national deficit, and get government out of their lives. Things like regulations and laws, taxes and fees drive them nuts.

Democrats seem to like fees, higher taxes, more deficit spending and a big fat federal government. They would rather reduce individual liberty than let maniacs have guns, or free speech if it is opposed to the Democrat party line. They love unions though many have no idea what happens to all the union dues paid. Most lawyers seem to be Democrats though they may work for Republicans.

Socialists are Democrats though Democrats may not be socialists. Liberal advocates are Democrats like the Civil Liberties Union who have sued to get God out of America though most Catholics are also Democrats who kind of like having God around. The means both pro-abortion and pro-life advocates are Democrats as well who seem to cancel each other out in elections.

Of course a lot of Conservative Republicans are also pro-life so one wonders why so many Catholics are Democrats. Just about all Blacks are Democrat though it was the Republicans who freed them from slavery under Republican President Abraham Lincoln. As for Hispanics, illegal immigrants would be Democrats if they could vote but most Cuban Hispanics are Republican because the Democrats gave away Cuba to Castro and Communism.

Anyone oppose to big government, deficit spending or increasing the national debt is a Republican because there is no way the Democrats can please all the radical factions that demand more money for their pet (special) interest. If you believe in cradle to grave care (socialism in other countries) you are Democrat but if you believe in making and keeping your own money you are Republican.

Republicans most likely are strict civil libertarians while Democrats often want to coddle criminals in the interest of criminal rehabilitation which causes the Republicans to make sure we can all own guns to protect us from the people who should be in jail or institutions.

Corporate fats cats used to be mostly Republican until Democratic President Clinton started acting like a Republican and passed the NAFTA act and other big business friendly bills and a bunch of Democrats became fat cats themselves. President Obama claimed to be the innocent outsider though he was the first Democrat to get more money from fat cats than the Republicans. Two years later his legislative agenda seems to have driven the corporate world back to the Republicans, ever since he and sidekick Joe Biden declared war on corporations and small business.

Independents are those mostly silent Americans who have watched the two parties and their schizophrenia and decided there just wasn't any difference between the Democrats and Republicans and wanted nothing to do with either political group.

Perhaps after reviewing the differences or similarities between the Democrats and Republicans, we should not be talking about a third party Independent movement but just get rid of the first two parties.

Sometimes the simplest solutions are the best. Or many we all need a ballot choice of "None of the Above!"

Besides, Democrats and Republicans are not specified in the Constitution or Declaration of Independence so why do we treat them as some type of privileged class?
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Shades of Nixon's Watergate psyche as Obama, Biden & Axelrod Flail at GOP Straw Dogs in Obama's Watergate

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Like many Americans I lived through the Watergate era and it was a sad time in our nation's political history when a paranoid president and his team was so obsessed with foreign money being given to the Democratic party to oppose the incumbent president that evil possessed the president and they went on to violate law after law before the straw dog collapsed as do most straw dogs and the president and his palace guard were disgraced and thrown from the highest office in the land.

It was 38 years ago when the political paranoia overwhelmed the White House and the Watergate was the outcome. There was the paranoid Republican president, Nixon, his top defender Haldeman, and his political operative Erlichman. The target was the foreign money pouring into the Democratic party to beat Nixon through Democratic operative Lawrence O'Brien.

Today we have a complete role reversal as Obama (Nixon) is raising the charges of foreign money pouring into the Republican coffers to defeat him, while Biden (Haldeman) is running around the country screaming foul about the foreign money for his boss, Axelrod (Erlichman) goes on national TV to denounce the foreign money and all three targeted GOP operative Carl Rove (O'Brien) as the villain.

Just like Watergate 38 years ago, the charges of foreign money influencing the election in 2010, this time by the Republicans unlike Watergate when the Democrats got the money, are baseless, senseless political drama and those feeding lies into the national debate deserve the same fate as the perpetrators of the Watergate.

Democrats should be just as disgusted as the Republicans and Independents by the insane charges and mudslinging by the highest office holders in the land and Obama, Biden and Axelrod should be shamed that they have resorted to Watergate tactics in a selfish and arrogant attempt to con the American voter and public opinion.
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Obama & Pelosi New Democratic Campaign Strategy - Bush Babble

Our president who promised to champion change starting with eliminating the polarization of politicians and the partisanship in Washington, not to mention the adoration toward special interests and dependence on campaign contributions, seems to have forgotten all those promises.

Now we see that our president, the one who is supposed to serve all Americans including Independents, Republicans, Democrats and the Disinterested, has returned to the campaign trail with a whole new Democratic strategy called the Bush Babble attack mode.

I suppose when you don't have a leg to stand on any old Bush will do.

Obama just might be the first president in modern history to conclude after just two years in office it is easier to be against everything Bush than to learn the art of compromise and work with those you were elected to serve.

His new image is quite a contrast from the slick, intelligent, pre-packaged, self-assured Ivy League image he tried to convey when he got elected. Those days of the consummate elitist are gone it seems, replaced by the tough talking, slang slinging Bush basher he has become on the fall campaign trail.

Here we thought two years ago we had put Bush behind us with the election of Obama. He was not running against Bush two years ago and he sure is not in 2010 but when your legislative initiatives have passed and still no one understands them or has seen any evidence of what good they will do for us, you are in desperate need of a straw man to blame for your misfortunes.

So Obama and Pelosi have instituted the Bush Babble strategy and so far about the only thing it has achieved for them is to bring them one step closer to oblivion as far as their political power and careers. No presidents have bashed their predecessor like Obama has bashed Bush. I mean Clinton even worked with George Bush senior and George Bush junior worked with Clinton on highly successful charitable causes.

Such unabashed Bush bashing as Obama undertakes daily from the bully pulpit is demeaning to the office of president and much more in tune with the bully politics of Chicago than the dignity of the office of president.

How can the nation have hope when our leader is too busy tearing people down and pointing fingers to set an example for the world? Of all the empty promises we heard during the election none are missed more than the promises of an experienced healer to lead the nation.

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The Breakdown of Morality in America - Have we Gone Too Far to Recover?

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Main Street America must be wondering what happened to the United States of America? There is nothing united about America anymore and nothing but more and more signs of the destruction of any hope for being united.

Political parties have led the way and both are at fault. It is almost impossible to find a politician no matter what party who is willing to tell the truth about our nation and there is no chance they will tell the truth about each other.



Once upon a time political opponents like Ronald Reagan and Tip O'Neill would go at each other in debate and then get together for a drink after. Gone are the days of civility in politics and gone are the days of truth. Both parties daily make exaggerated claims about their policies that are never fact checked by the media. Spinning the truth is far more prevalent than telling the truth.

The news media, supposedly the defenders of truth and protector of the people long ago became a tool for politicians and a whore for the corporate interests trying to take advantage of the public. We have, plain and simple, the best news money can buy and that is the truth. News is bought and sold and truth is a secondary issue.

As for the government, it no longer serves the public interest but the special interests. Congress and the president are owned by special interests and will be as long as billions of dollars are needed to feed the campaign appetites of our politicians. No one in Washington is talking about campaign reform and it is the only way to rid politics and government of special interest control. War is acceptable while helping the poor is a burden.



Greed dominates our culture from education to health care and career choices are based on what is in it for me, not how can I help people. Once upon a time non-profit organizations and churches were the primary force in helping people but they are rapidly disappearing from the social, health and human needs of our society. As they fade into the history books so does the mindset that people have a responsibility to help people whenever possible.

Churches are measured by their success in drawing crowds and generating donations rather than saving souls and fighting for the invisible Americans. Charity used to be freely given but now it comes with a price tag.



Sexual promiscuity used to be bad but now it dominates advertising in all media and has led the American public from a society of values to a society of need and greed. The disease of pedophiles has reached epidemic proportions with hundreds of thousands roaming the land and Internet. There is no cure yet our justice system continues to let them loose to prey on innocent children.

Sales of illegal child pornography rakes in an estimated $3 billion a year in the U.S. The industry enslaves an estimated 300,000 children. In America 1 in 4 females will be sexually assaulted before they reach the age of 18 and 1 in 6 males will be sexually assaulted before the age of 18.



As for the Internet, it represents the greatest advancement in the growth of pedophiles, pornography, sexual deviation and human slave trafficking in the history of mankind. The lack of regulation, the early success of pornography and the compromising of social sites by sex predators has resulted in an explosion of moral decay.

Some Startling Internet User Statistics:

20% of children are solicited for sex (by either adults or other children) each year

67 of those arrested for Internet crimes against children also possessed child pornography

25% of children who receive sexual solicitations online tell their parents

89% of online sexual solicitations are received in chat rooms or on Instant Messengers

13 million children use Instant Messaging

Yet the moral degradation is felt in many others ways as well. We promote the rape of the earth through the obsession with petroleum, coal, minerals, diamonds, uranium, water and countless other natural resources. We destroy our ecosystem by leveling rainforests and over fishing our oceans.

Achievement is measured in assets and excess with accumulation of wealth the goal, not the protection of natural resources. We buy and sell land that was never ours to begin with and absorb resources faster than they can be acquired.

As a civilization we have adopted goals and standards with no relationship to good or moral quality. Our technological advances have removed the parents from parenting and the teachers from teaching and now every forbidden secret is exposed on the Internet, cell phones, text messages and videos unedited and sexually explicit.



Our movies glamorize sexual deviation and a breakdown of morality while our television programs make deviant, even criminal behavior an acceptable lifestyle. The state of moral decay in America makes stories of decadent cities in the Bible seem almost innocent. Sodom and Gomorra are commonplace cities in today's world.

We are in serious trouble. We are far more advanced toward moral collapse than any civilization in previous history yet no one is shouting alarm. We have met all the requirements of all types of prophecy to be at the End Times, to be in the midst of the Quickening and fast approaching the Purification when the spiritual forces must come forward to alter the fatal course of humanity.



Our institutions and our leaders are so caught up in the game they cannot see the truth. Greed and need has so captured the psyche of America that those souls wanting to do good have difficulty finding like minded souls who share their dream. Are you prepared for a spiritual intervention of epic proportions like predicted? Maybe it is time you consider what is really important to your salvation.

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New Jersey Governor Christie Leads Nation Toward Economic Sanity

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Since stunning the political pundits and national media with his victory last November over the state and national Democratic machine, New Jersey Republican Governor Chris Christie has been leading the state through a tea party revolution that has changed the fortunes of the state for many years to come.



After 18 years of Democrats running the state, during which time two governors were tossed from office for corruption and corrupt secrets, Christie inherited a pretty bleak mess. There were 115 tax increases by the Democrats over the past 8 years. The state had a deficit of $11 billion. Jersey had the highest property taxes in the nation and highest corporate taxes in the Northeast.

For the first time in decades Jersey lost it's leadership position for population gain and job development in the Northeast and the population of Jersey was actually dropping. State union pension and health care benefits, the highest in the nation, were crippling the state budget and out of control.



When Christie proposed his new budget with $11 billion in cuts the special interests for the unions spent millions of dollars in television ad campaigns misleading the public on the budget, clearly adopting the Obama strategy of spending hundreds of millions of dollars to influence votes on social policy issues.

Christie took his impossible fight directly to the citizens of all the towns in the state and the citizens gave him what the politicians did not have the guts to pursue, support for a major overhaul in the New Jersey budget.



In the end Christie overcame the odds and fierce opposition and got 99% of everything he requested in his budget and cuts. A $29.4 billion balanced budget was intact and even some prominent Democrat politicians put partisanship behind and supported the Governor's budget for the good of the state, people like Mayor Corey Booker of Newark, a rising star in the Democratic party.

For the first time in history all state employees and teachers will pay one and one half percent of their benefit costs, still far below the national average. Unemployment benefits will no longer be paid to workers who were fired for drunkenness, drug abuse or stealing from their employers.

As the Governor said, "New Jersey has changed and is now a contribution society, not an entitlement society."



With the huge budget and deficit victory and public support now behind him Christie has set his sites on a Constitutional cap on property tax increases of 2.5% maximum to stop local governments and school districts from their reckless spending habits and spiraling property tax increases.



Thanks to the relentless pursuit by the governor of his campaign promises to end the political nonsense and get New Jersey back on the road to greatness there is a very good chance the Garden State will be in full bloom again soon.



By the way, government belt tightening is not all the governor delivered, he also has lost 35 lbs. since taking office, another promise he made on national television.

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Democrats Continue Demolition Derby as Godmother Pelosi Protects Pandering Politicians!

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Just when you think sex in the city couldn't get any worse Eric Massa, former Congressman from way Upstate New York (29th District), gave mainstream media a reason to remain in the gutter with the supermarket rags while the Godmother, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, added fuel to the meltdown.



Massa is giving us a whole new set of word definitions along with insight into the unusual party favors in Washington. It started off innocent enough Tuesday when the media got wind that Massa was having a meltdown because of another ethics problem but intensified when Massa went on the Glenn Beck Show and the show of the poster boy for health care reform, Larry King, to explain himself.



What a mistake. First we learned a whole new definition for the home Congressional District for Massa. And we always thought a swing district was one that went from being Republican to Democrat and back in elections.



There are Red states who vote Republican. They are called Red because the media wants you to associate Republicans with Communism. The Blue states are Democrat. Now Blue stands for being conservative and pure, like the Virgin Mary, neither having anything to do with Democrats. So you might say the media reference to Democrat states as Blue is an effort to make you forget what they really stand for.



Some states aren't really red or Blue because they vote Democrat one year and Republican the next. So they are called swing states. What color do you think the media assigned this group? Purple, the color that implies royalty, mystery, nobility and spirituality. Now that is a mouthful. But I guess what the media meant was the Swing states are the Holy Grail of politics, you win them you win the election.

Massa taught us a new meaning for his Swing District. It has nothing to do with politics. It is staff and associate interaction consisting of groping, tickling, pointing fingers while naked in the steam room, even snorkeling, which is a twisted sexual perversion performed under water. Apparently a Navy buddy of Massa said he was always trying to snorkel with them.



Larry King got into an extended battle of words with Massa over homosexual tendencies. Who knows what they were saying? Then just when we knew beyond doubt this guy has a serious mental meltdown, into the cameras jumps the Democrat's Godmother, Pelosi, never one to miss a press op, and claims she knew about his sickness last October. So Pelosi covered up the meltdown of a fellow Democrat for the last six months to hang on to her votes in the House.



If she knew he was groping staff back then did the thought ever occur to you, Godmother, that maybe you should turn his actions over to the ethics committee and get him out of Congress and into rehab before he could hurt anyone else? Well of course not.



So Obama leaves town to campaign and the only fund raiser he can get is for a Senate race for 2012. It seems Democrats running for election this year don't want to be seen around the president. And Obama continues to talk about health care as if he never stopped campaigning and got real.



What about the economy Mr. President? What about jobs and unemployment? What happened to Main Street? Why did you send Biden to negotiate peace in the middle east, you are the one with the Peace prize?

Poor Joe. He gets to Israel and gets slapped in the face before he even gets a word out as the Israelis announced thousands of more homes will be built in the Palestinian area, a move Obama and the United Nations warned Israel not to do. Some start for peace. Is this a sign of the Israeli attitude toward Obama or the peace process? It sure helped set back relations between the USA and Israel but then how could the Israelis negotiate peace if they are planning to go to war to stop Iran? It would be kind of like winning the Nobel Peace Prize then expanding the war in Afghanistan. Nothing makes sense.



So now the Godmother is busy sweeping the dirt under the rug and tying to get people to think all is well in her transparent world. Let's see, if what is going on is transparent then why didn't we know about Massa a lot time ago? Hummmm, Messa, Rangel and Paterson, not a bad start for the campaign cycle.

As if that weren't enough for one day, last night Congressman Patrick Kennedy goes on TV and rails against how the press and media are not covering the most important issue of the day, the war in Afghanistan, and he calls the fact only two press people are in the gallery as "despicable!" I'm beginning to think all the politicians in our nation's capitol are losing their marbles.

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