Saturday Rant And Reflections

Kathleen Parker
Mark McKinnon
Jacob Heilbrunn

"You can call what I am doing today whatever you want -- you can call it a filibuster, you can call it a very long speech. I'm not here to set any great records or to make a spectacle. I am simply here today to take as long as I can to explain to the American people the fact that we have got to do a lot better than this agreement provides." - Sen Bernie Sanders

"The Republicans might be willing to allow homosexual men and women to die for their country, once anyone earning over $500,000 a year is allowed to park in handicapped spaces and be addressed as 'Guvner' in an English accent." – Daily Show correspondent John Oliver

Kathleen Parker is returning to writing opinion columns after her experience with television on CNN. I don't know if she is quitting being a television pundit or not, but her writing is a bit rusty here, a bit too forced, which should smooth out once she gets back in the saddle again... Mark McKinnon's piece fleshes out the reasons why Mario Rubio will become the GOP vice-presidential candidate in 2012, which I predicted a couple of weeks ago. I don't know if Mark read my post or not, but I do know that there are a couple of folks at the Daily Beast who occasionally check this blog out. I may have almost gotten one writer fired for ripping off my headline and using it as his own. Perhaps one day I will have a national platform where I can rip off the little guys without giving them their props. Until then, I remain one of the little guys and must defend our honor and integrity...

Speaking of just such a thing, one of my local television news shows took my post about the paedophile Barbie and sensationalized it, making it their top story of the night. They interviewed 3 people outside a mall for their opinions and they were all horrified that someone might use the doll to spy on a kid. Except you can't use it without the kid's knowledge, so the police say that if your creepy uncle gave your child the Barbie, and then the kid starts acting strange and secretive about the doll, you might have a right to worry. They also could not find one complaint about the doll in the state of Colorado, though I will bet there will be some after their story aired...

I've been thinking and reading over the disillusionment with Barack Obama and the recent tax cut compromises he made with the Republican leadership. I subscribe to the viewpoint that since the Repub leaders have done nothing constructive over the last two years, they should be punished by letting the Bush tax cuts expire. It would be nice to make my own reality like Michelle Bachmann, who want to pretend that the tax cuts won't add to the national deficit, and why can't we all pretend along with her?  Many see Obama"s art of compromise a cop-out, and an illustration of how he shrinks from any real fight in politics.

An article in the Nation a couple of weeks ago pointed out that when Obama was campaigning, he adopted a transformational platform, and gave eloquent and inspiring speeches on how we could work together to change the world in a more idealistic fashion. I admit, on his inauguration speech, I had tears in my eyes, so I know how powerful his message was.

Since he has been in office, the idealistic rhetoric has vanished along with all forms of action. Passing the health care legislation is a good thing, but the timing was bad; he should have concentrated his first two years on solving our economic problems. Once we were on our way to lowering the unemployment puzzle, he would have had the confidence of the people to enact the rest of his agenda. Instead, he has gone off in a helter-skelter fashion that allowed the constant criticism from the GOP to take hold, and places in danger any more legislation that he wants to get passed. If he continues on this path, he won't be re-elected to another term and he will have set the advancement of Blacks back in our culture for many years to come.

During the next two years the Repubs will never get themselves together enough to reconcile the tea party spirit, the ghosts of conservatives passed. Obama needs to work almost solely on fixing the economy and be patient on his other plans. In foreign policy just concentrate on Israel and Iran and get us out of Afghanistan. We really don't give a rat's ass about the Taliban. You could easily have turned this war around and made them our friends and allies if only you had used some imagination, that transformational magic that you pretended you had. Too bad people like Obama and JFK are only humans, after all...
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