FOR PALIN, IT WAS THE DAY THE MUSIC DIED!

They were singing,
Bye-bye, miss american pie.
Drove my chevy to the levee,
But the levee was dry.
Them good old boys were drinkin’ whiskey and rye
Singin’, “this’ll be the day that I die.

- Don McClean

MARK THAT DATE DOWN LADIES AND GENTLEMEN: JANUARY 12, 2011. It will be remembered as the day the music — that is, all the static Sarah Palin has been putting over America’s airwaves for over two years — finally died.

It  was the day she finally piled on the proverbial straw that broke the back of many misinformed and misguided Americans who for a long time bought into her radical bill of goods. This was the day she became a non-entity!

The great magic show she had somehow successfully put on, convincing our society’s most ignorant — the “Joe Six-Packs” — she was the second coming of Christ in political garb, has finally disintegrated in the light of exposure. And guess who turned on the lamp?

This was the woman who told us her knowledge of international affairs was predicated on her ability to see Russia from her Alaskan back porch, the one who warned us of  alleged”Death Panels” that would be a direct result of Obamacare, the one who encouraged the proliferation of  the insane baseless rumor our president was not a legitimate American citizen, and the one who exclaimed “Drill baby Drill,” right before the BP disaster offered the most credible rebuttal.

This was the space cadet who drove the McCain presidential campaign people nothing short of crazy when she kept referring to her then VP opponent Joe Biden as “Joe O’Biden. In order to avoid coast-to-coast humiliation in an upcoming debate between the two, the staffers coached her to just ask his permission to simply call him Joe before the duel began, knowing the gracious Biden would accommodate her.

Clearly not a subscriber to the concept of commitment,  the former governor, after losing out on the vice presidential sweepstakes, crapped out on the remainder of her four-year gubernatorial term and hit the road paved with gold — literally!

Immediately spreading her message of gloom and doom nationwide, she began making untold millions on personal appearances in front of fringe groups, as well as a book clearly ghost written for her.

As part of her Teabag Party strategy during the last campaign, she drew up a map, placing cross-hairs around every candidate she opposed, including Arizona Congresswoman Gabrielle Giffords, the Democrat known as a moderate peacemaker, whose cross-hair was penetrated last week by a near-fatal 9mm round to the head.  Although the distinguished member of the House remains in critical shape, she continues to show signs that she will one day leave the hospital in a wheelchair rather than by transportation provided by an undertaker.

Naturally, Palin was going to receive some backlash for this, although there has been no direct connection made between her and the shooter. But when you continually run your mouth as irresponsibly and as she has, you can’t possibly expect a free pass!

So after waiting a couple of days in political isolation, Palin finally records a video for the nation’s viewing, attempting to the clean up a PR nightmare, if only indirectly, she created for herself.

But the Queen of Falsehoods, with a clearly bitter tone, chose to play the victim of  what she called “Blood Libel” — a term with a deep-rooted anti-Semitic undertone. The vast majority of references she made during her recorded diatribe were about herself. With the exception of Congresswoman Giffords, she made not one mention of the other victims by name.

But later that evening, in front of a packed arena at the University of Arizona, President Obama did! And he spread the message of not only sorrow and grief, but of hope the nation can use this horrific calamity to heal itself, perhaps to set a completely new context of communication in America as a whole, not just in the political domain.

The difference between the messages delivered by Palin and the president was tantamount to that of a third-grade student and a college professor. And believe me, it did not escape the eyes of America. With the exception of the continuously enraged mouthpieces at FOX, several Republicans — even of the most conservative variety — began to distance themselves from the former governor.

With her reality show recently being canned by The Learning Channel due to horrendous ratings, one can only get the feeling that she won’t be receiving any calls from major publishers to author an encore either.

Palin’s fall from her self-constucted pedestal should come as no surprise, given she ran into the most dangerous obstacle in the game of politics: her own ego.

From the moment she entered the national political arena,  she has come off like the consummate bimbo, a completely unseasoned hick politician. Well aware this, indeed, is a “tits-and-ass” society, she has played on the hormones of vibrant males with expensive makeup, top-line push-up bras and exceptionally tight skirts.

As shallow as they come, the Caribous Barbie severely underestimated her prey, as it never occurred to her most intelligent men will not vote for a completely misinformed imbecile, regardless of how well endowed she might be — not unless they came out of the movie “Deliverance.” She just didn’t understand being a former beauty-pageant queen was not a stepping stone to a career as  a savvy politician.

The former governor over-evaluated herself, I suspect long ago. Egocentric, arrogant and completely self-absorbed, she never saw the distinction between running a state with only 698,473 people– which happens to be separated from 48 others by this enormous land mass called Canada — and governing a nation with a diverse population well over 300 million.

I doubt she hasn’t gotten it yet, even after this latest colossal blunder,  but this was the day the music died for Sarah Palin.  There is only one avenue left for Jane Six-Pack to travel: She can go to the closest illiterate redneck bar and commiserate with “them good old boys drinking whiskey and rye.”

So long Governor, or should I really say, “Bye, bye miss american Pie!”

POLITICAL SCIENCE MUST BE ADDED TO HIGH SCHOOL CURRICULUM

The only solution to America’s legendary political ignorance lies with its public schools.

I HAVE CONTENDED for decades that far too many Americans are extraordinarily naive and overly susceptible to falsehoods when it comes to their understanding of politics.

I first put this assertion in print in a column I wrote for my old college newspaper. And sadly enough, the electorate — over the past 30 years — has just continued to build more evidence in support of my case!

Without at least a basic knowledge of our political system — not to mention the underlying economics behind it — voters are easily sold on virtually every piece of propaganda that is thrown their way. And believe me, propaganda in politics is as common as Jesus in Christianity!

And it is for this very reason that we got straddled with George W. Bush and Dick Cheney for eight agonizing years. It is why the masses were sold on the Iraq War, presented  to them under completely false pretenses.

But even more pertinent, this is how they bought into Ronald Reagan’s “Voodoo economics” — the way it was described by former President George H.W. Bush before being chosen as his rivals running mate in the 1980 election.

Reagan convinced America that its economic woes were due to the  regulation of  Corporate America, which he maintained needed to be given more room to breathe. By doing so, he contended, they would create more jobs and the wealth would “trickle down” to the working class.

So with the support of John Q. Voter, Reagan began the lengthy process years ago that took Big Business out of the light of scrutiny, while offering them major tax breaks and incentives.

The result was a bunch of  buyouts, takeovers and mergers that eliminated much competition that for years kept pricing competitive. So the corporations got rich, but not a penny “trickled down” to the middle class or poor.

And how did he pay for this: by dismantling social programs that had helped the most impoverished, disabled and underprivileged Americans.

But then when Bush Sr. succeeded Reagan, the cracks in the system grew noticeably, throwing the country into a major recession — one that was undeservedly blamed on Bush and cost him his reelection bid in 1992.

Then came eight years of Bill Clinton, who left office and the nation with a multimillion dollar budget surplus — the first in over 25 years — and more new jobs than people to fill them.

Geometric logic would have dictated an easy win for his vice president, Al Gore – also a progressive thinker. It was a foregone conclusion a year earlier that Gore could handily beat any opponent the Republicans chose.

Yet, the voters –  in complete contradiction — moved 180 degrees to the Right and elected the inarticulate Bush Jr. Almost immediately, “W” reemployed “Reaganomics,” almost bankrupting the country, while starting two wars without exit strategies.

With a great deal of hard work and creativity, Barack Obama’s campaign team convinced the public to  restore a Democrat to the White House in 2008.

The current president, as both a candidate and president-elect, warned the people it would take at least two years to see any progress on the economic front. He did so a third time as well just weeks after his inauguration in front of a joint session of Congress on national television.

Although the voters — who almost predictably flip-flop in opinion polls every other day — seemed to both understand and accept the Obama plan and timetable, it was only a matter of months before the GOP propaganda machine convinced them he was failing. And in the past few months, they ran scared and gave the Republicans victories in a few governors races as well as the Massachusetts special election to elect a replacement to finish the late Senator Ted Kennedy’s term.

So this is the American electorate: uniformed – or at the very least misinformed —  and gullible.

But there is a solution: let’s educate our kids as they are growing up as to what makes the system tick. Let’s mandate a political science course to the high school curriculum and henceforth give our newest voters at least a basic knowledge about core political concepts: how special interest groups operate, as well as corporate influence on the people they elect allegedly to carry their will.

Let’s teach them about the Constitution and how the Supreme Court which interprets it depends solely on the justices chosen by the person they elect president.

It wouldn’t hurt either to enlighten them to what the almighty filibuster is and how it negates the Senate’s ability to be a truly representative body.

The way our educational system is structured, this information is only available in college freshman Political Science classes, which are only required by a small percentage of the student population. So this leaves the masses of even college grads with a huge educational void in this extremely important subject!

This is exactly why the U.S. Department of Education needs to encourage local education boards throughout the entire country to incorporate and mandate Political Science 101 into their respective high school curricula for all students.

It is only then that this country’s voters can begin to make some intelligent, well-informed decisions at the polls, while becoming far less vulnerable to the bullshit thrown their way each day by their legislators and  chief executives.

This would also put the real power back in the hands of the citizens, who would finally be able to elect a Congress — and state legislatures — which were willing to change our campaign system from the current one that is privately funded to the time-tested effective European model that is publicly financed. This in turn would completely minimize — if not virtually obliterate — the influence of  Corporate America and special interest groups on politics.

Then, and only then, would we honestly be able to call ourselves “a government of the people, by the people and for the people.”

Two Quantum Leaps By Computer Industry

eMachines all-new e250 netbook offers users a 10.1″ screen and comes with 250 RAM and Windows 7 Starter installed.

IF YOU ARE in any way like me, your computer is an extremely — if not the most — important part of your life. This could very be because “the future of Data Processing” has arrived — right here, right now!

Virtually everything that used to be done manually is now done on a PC or laptop: paying bills, shopping, communicating with others,  job interviews, staying in touch with the news — even psychotherapy sessions!

And with the computer industry making advances basically faster than the proverbial speed of light, the technology — both in hardware and software — continues to make life much easier.

Two such recent advances have caught me eye — as well as my wallet:

Windows 7 — This operating system is by far Microsoft’s greatest development since it first created Windows 3.1, it’s original, almost 20 years ago.

Sleek and fast, this new OS offers the best features of the ever-problematic and pregnant Vista, while adding a few more dynamite options as well.

Unlike it’s predecessor, Windows 7 — available in both 32- and 64-bit versions — did not have a compatibility issue with third-party software — even on its release date late last year.

Universally given high grades by computer critics, including CNET, Its start-up and shut down time are noticably faster than ever as well.

eMachines’ Netbook: Model e250 – For those historically into the traditional laptop,  their major complaint has been its generally cumbersome design and weight.

But that all changed a little over a year ago, when the major industry manufactures developed the Netbook.

Slender and weighing an average of just 3 ounces, for a cost around $300, this new creation offered those who primarily used computers for email and surfing the web — especially travelers — an inexpensive and practical solution.

But as with any new computer product, netbooks did come with its share of problems:

For one, with only a single gigabyte of RAM and full versions of Windows XP and Vista operating systems installed, the netbook barely operated at a snails pace.

These mini laptops also only provided a 6G hard disk. So even with an external CD/DVD drive (there was no  room for manufactures to install anything internal), one couldn’t upload their important documents — let alone music or videos — without bringing the device to a virtual halt.

But that has now changed with major innovations eMachines (and a few other competitors) have recently added to the original design!

Now built with a 250G hard drive and a special compressed version of  Windows 7 called Startup, 1G of RAM is more than adequate to provide both decent speed and a means to upload a large library of personal  favorites. And with a three-hour-plus battery, the e250, with it’s 10.1″ screen,  offers users a means for more interesting air travel.

The best news yet: the e250 costs less than last years rookie models and is currently on sale at Walmart for a paltry $228. You can also purchase an HP external disk drive — which is Blue Ray capable — on sale there for $72.

And for even greater speed, the new version was also built with the capacity to operate on 2G of RAM, which is inexpensive nowadays.

It Really Can Be Lonely At The Top!

Alexa Ray Joel: Youth, Beauty, Talent, Wealth And Success Have Yet to Bring Her Inner Peace!

WE CLEARLY LIVE in a society where celebrities are so unrealistically idolized, virtually to the level of Demigods!

The public spends millions on their heroes’ movies, CD’s, autographed photos, posters and concerts. But of even greater significance, these loyal supporters spends hours, days and years regretting not having the talent, prestige, bank accounts — not to mention the lifestyle of travel, continuous parties and rampant sex as those they adore.

This is because we are only privy to what we see and hear about these talented and famous individuals, which is basically only a sliver of the big picture. Rarely do we even have a clue what’s going on within these superstars.

I say this as Alexa Ray Joel, the 23-year old daughter of the “Piano Man” himself — Billy Joel — lies in a Manhattan hospital today, recovering from a drug overdose. The younger Joel, clearly on route to emulating her father’s success as a talented recording artist, pianist and song writer, has no history of drug abuse whatsoever. It is believed — with complete justification – this was a suicide attempt.

Ms. Joel just recently has been open about the pain she has experienced finding romance in both recent music and her blog site. In her new cut, “Invisible,” she sings about the delusion she felt when a recent relationship failed with the opening lyrics, “They say it doesn’t matter. This love is in my mind.We never got it right, anyway.”

On her MySpace page last summer, Joel described herself as “forgotten” and said she was finding it hard to meet a nice guy:  “Just Men. UGH!!! MEN!!!!” she wrote in August. “I’m so terrible at dating — I don’t know if I’ll ever get used to it! And I HATE the game-playing! Can’t stand it.”

And this is a young woman who — on the surface — appears to have everything life can bring to live for. The daughter of the “Piano Man” and supermodel Christy Brinkley, she was raised in Sag Harbor, a village on Long Island, NY. Clearly favoring her father both physically and creatively, she attended New York University for a short time before leaving to focus on her music career.  Her parents divorced in 1994 after nine years of marriage.

Her talent is enormous with equivocation. She possesses the same skills as her father first displayed in the early ’70s on the piano, is a phenomenal songwriter and has a voice that cuts right to the heart of her listeners.

One thing that is real clear though is that following in the footsteps of her father has not sufficed to bring her inner fulfillment. She is a human being  just like you and I and longs for that special relationship with her soul mate. Granted, she is still quite young at 23, but who at that age ever realized that?

I’m sure she has been no more enthralled living in her father’s shadow as Hillary Clinton was when she first established a political career in 2000 as the former wife of a popular, highly successful president. The distinction, of course, is the difference in age between the two. The current secretary of state and former senator had already established a legal career years earlier, raised a child and wrote a few best sellers.

But the younger Joel is at a very fragile age, a period in life when one is still in the process of establishing an adult identity of their own and tends to be extremely and unrealistically demanding of themselves. This would, indeed, to be the case here.

Personally, I never had a clue what it felt like to be the only child of two parents at the top of their respective professions. I also never experienced anywhere near the wealth she did growing up. The pressure to fill their shoes all these years must have been enormous.

That said, I believe it would be fair to say there is something to be said for being a common pee-on!

TIME FOR A COMPLETE SYSTEM OVERHAUL!

THE FOUNDING FATHERS HAD NO IDEA WHAT AN ALBATROSS THE SENATE WOULD BECOME!

IF THERE IS ONE GLARING MISTAKE our founding fathers made when designing our three-branch government, it was the creation of the Senate, a blunder “We The People” have come to pay for dearly — both literally and figuratively — as time has passed.

If Thomas Jefferson and company were looking for a way to create a lasting representative government, they couldn’t have found a worse means than by creating the upper chamber of Congress.

The House of  Representatives, the only true representative legislation body, is based on per capita population. Each congressional district is formulated with ceilings on a maximum number of constituents. The figure began at 30,000 at the Constitution’s inception and has expanded in proportion to the nations growth over time. This was supported mostly by the large states (Virginia, Massachusetts and Pennsylvania). But the smaller ones demanded equal representation for each state , regardless of population.

And this is exactly why I’ve  always found the 10th Amendment — which created the whole idiotic notion of ‘states’ rights’ – utterly counterproductive and a travesty of Democracy,  as it completely negates the concept of  “one man, one vote.”

Eventually, the states’ delegates  reached what was coined the “Connecticut” or “Great Compromise,” which established the House of Representatives to provide representation proportional to each state’s population and the Senate to give each state equal power.

But the major problem didn’t just lie in the mere creation of the Senate as much as its bizarre procedures, the absolute worse being  the almighty “filibuster”  – which allows a minority of 41 or more on any proposed legislation to block  it from even coming to the floor for a final vote.

Perhaps, the greatest tragedy as a result was the exclusion of Civil Rights in the Bill of Rights and Constitution. Although favored by the larger northern states, because of the filibuster power of the Southern representation, it was postponed for a “better day” — which turned out to be 188 years later — as  Senators from Dixie successfully prevented it from coming to a floor vote until then President Lyndon B. Johnson, the powerful former Senate majority leader  of the ’50s, called in all his political markers from his former Bible Belt colleagues.

The irony in LBJ’s success in pushing through the Civil and Voting Rights Acts of 1964 and 1965, respectively, was Johnson’s once conservative cultural roots as a Texan.

But the filibuster has never become more obvious and decisive than this year during the ongoing attempt to pass major health care reform — which seems to have taken an eternity and has virtually taken up all of the lawmakers time, making it next to impossible for the Congress to take care of any other substantial  business.

In a true representative Democracy, this should have been a no brainer, as the vast majority of Americans support the “Government Option,” which the GOP and Conservative “Blue Dog” Democrats — whose previous campaigns have been bankrolled by the insurance industry — have opposed. This is despite  public opinion:

CBS GOVERNMENT HEALTH INSURANCE PLAN LIKE MEDICARE (October 20)

Favor                               62%

Oppose                            31%

And not surprisingly, the House — which truly represents the people — passed a version of the bill in question with a  clearly-defined pubic option. Then again, there is no filibuster in its procedural guidelines. No, all it takes is a simple majority in the true spirit of Democracy.

Yet, the way business is conducted in the Senate is – and always has been – a different story altogether, a sad one at that.

If this country is to become a true representative government “Of the people, by the people and (most importantly) for the people,” a group of gutsy Senators is someday going to have to take the bull by its gonads and change the upper house’s procedures to eliminate the filibuster — altogether!

This would be a terrific start in moving the nation in the most just direction in its history. But to complete the job, both houses of Congress must take the initiative to change election campaigns laws in “The greatest country on Earth.”

It must follow the lead of our Western allies and eliminate the current system of private contributions for one which is publicly funded. That means both candidates in any federal election would receive an equal amount of cash to mount their electoral offensives. It also means Corporate America would be prohibited to contribute a penny, thus permanently eliminating their power — absolutely — on Capitol Hill.  And thirdly, and of most importance, the lawmakers would be solely responsible to their constituents, their one and only bona-fide employers.

This is not a revolutionary concept! It means Congress couldn’t continually get away with giving themselves these excessive pay raises annually or other perks without the people’s consent — especially in times like these when so many are unemployed and getting tossed out of their homes by the heartless mortgage banking industry — which, coincidentally, has also perennially filled these so-called “public servant’s” pockets.

Sens. John McCain and Russ Feingold, of Arizona and Wisconsin, respectively, had exactly this in mind when they wrote and submitted their Campaign Finance Reform Act of 2002. Although it is now law, the final version of the legislation actually looked like a sliver of its original form. I mean, after all, why should Congress do away with a system that significantly thins out their wallets — especially when the ignorant American public has never taken a stand for it?

Ah, so that’s the answer: The people!

Granted, some pretty ballsy folks on Capitol Hill will need to get the ball rolling. But it is ultimately the voters that will have to take a more active role in their country and keep on their legislators cases like velcro! This, indeed, would be the true measure of patriotism.

Conservatives who wave flags and call those who exercise their First Amendment right to take issue with the government  “Subversives” are no more than “Archie Bunker patriots” at best and are unequivocally shallow, misguided and uninformed.

And if there’s anything that has prevented this country from reaching its true potential for the past 233 years, it is clearly that brand of ignorance!

A VERY SPECIAL ODE TO “THE MOST TRUSTED (AND LOVED) MAN IN AMERICA”

“And that’s the way it is!” – WALTER CRONKITE’S LEGENDARY SIGN-OFF SIGNATURE

I SOMEHOW ESCAPED becoming a full-time obituary writer when I entered the newspaper business, although this incredibly boring and completely unrewarding task has traditionally been reserved for the most recently hired scribe.

In fact, the one and only obit I was ever forced to write got me fired!

This was at a small daily rag sheet in Warner Robins, GA. It was my third job, but first as an investigative reporter. The regular obit guy had called in sick that day, so the news editor laid that responsibility on me — in addition to the two front-page stories I was already writing –  just an hour before deadline.

Naturally, I was quite upset. And when the funeral director called to give me the details about the only person who had died in the previous 24 hours, it literally took her about 15 minutes to ramble off the list of survivors. Watching my deadline tick away, I became quite annoyed and made some sort of smart-ass remark alluding to large dumb-ass, inbred Southern families and was canned an hour later.

But this is one obituary — actually a tribute — I truly want to write. This is in memory of  Walter Cronkite,  the consummate  journalist and man I loved and admired, especially as a child growing up in the ’50s and ’60s.

He was truly a gentlemen (and gentle man) who created a standard in the profession that I strived toward. But like just about every other journalist I’ve ever known, I fell far short of  the mark — no matter how hard I tried.

I’ll never forget that fateful Friday on November 22, 1963. I was in my 5th-grade classroom when it was announced on the loudspeakers throughout the building that the 35th president of the United States, John F. Kennedy, had just been shot.

Our teacher quickly turned on the old over-sized  black and white TV. Mr. Cronkite — clearly shaken –relayed minute-by-minute updates from Dallas’ Parkland Hospital, where a team of top surgeons made every attempt possible to save the president the vast majority of America loved, the man whose courage averted a nuclear war with Russia over the Cuban Missile Crisis a year earlier. Dan Rather, then a young reporter for CBS’s Dallas affiliate and ultimately Cronkite’s successor 18 years later, was on the scene live.

Although two large-caliber rifle rounds tore through the president’s head, my classmates and I believed he would emerge from surgery successfully, then recover and return to the White House. Only 10 at the time, we didn’t have much of a grip on the reality of life’s horrors.

And then 35 minutes later, “the most trusted man in America” struggled to hold back tears as he told us and rest of the nation, “From Dallas, Texas, the flash apparently official. President John Kennedy died at 1pm, Central Standard Time, 2:00 Eastern Standard Time, some 38 minutes ago.” It would be the only time Mr. Cronkite failed to contain his emotions as a journalist.

As the years went on, the creator of the 30-minute CBS Evening News in 1962 (a revolutionary concept, as previous network newscasts were only 15 minutes long) was always there the second a big story broke: the assassinations of Bobby Kennedy and Dr. Martin Luther King in 1968, the lunacy both inside and outside the Democratic National Convention in Chicago later that year, the announcement that then President Richard Nixon would resign in disgrace and avoid impeachment by the U.S. House of Representatives for his cover-up of the Watergate fiasco, both the ’69 and ’73 attacks of Israel by Egypt and its Arab allies — the beginnings of what came to be known as the “Seven Day” and “Yom Kippur” Wars, North Vietnam’s highly successful Tet Offensive, former Vice President Hubert H. Humphrey’s death after a long and unsuccessful battle with Bladder Cancer, and every other major event that went down until his premature retirement from CBS in 1981 – one he always regretted.

It was extremely difficult to conceive the amount of hours the news legend put in each week. Logically, one would had thought he had an apartment at CBS Headquarters. Regardless of the time of day or night something big occurred, he was there right in front of the camera, looking as professional as always, as the network interrupted regular programming for one of his many bulletins of huge import.

Last night, both former NBC Anchor Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather — Mr. Cronkite’s long-time protege at CBS News – reminisced about the media legend, once known as “The most trusted man in America,” and his uncanny emotional balance. Rather noted the uncharacteristic humility of  his predecessor and mentor “in a profession that is egocentric.” Bernard Shaw, a former CNN anchor who gained much of his expertise during an earlier tenure under Mr. Cronkite at CBS, sadly spoke volumes of his former boss’s integrity and brand of journalism — one of the highest ethics possible. It was called the “gold standard” of journalism by Rather, who noted it has unfortunately become completely obsolete in today’s media.

I was a avid fan and steady viewer of “Uncle Walter” — as he was known by his colleagues and viewers — until the day he retired. He was one of only three  journalists who inspired me to choose that profession myself (New York columnists Jimmy Breslin and Pete Hammil were the other two).

Just as truly humble religious people talk about falling short of their spiritual objectives no matter how hard they try, I never could come remotely close to that “gold standard” of journalism he created. And it wasn’t because of a lack of effort, but more so that egocentricity that Rather noted. It prevented me  — like most members of the media — from reaching my true potential.

Mr. Cronkite left this world with a sour taste in his mouth for today’s brand of news reporting. With the exception of a few documentaries and election night coverage, he sat on the sidelines for the past 28 years observing helplessly as the rise of Corporate Journalism with its 24-hour news cycles virtually destroyed the respectability and fiber of the once-great profession for whom he was its standard bearer for 40 years.

Given the media attention Michael Jackson has been — and still is — receiving three weeks after his death, it would only be appropriate to give this media icon and legend page-one coverage for the next year!

Goodbye Uncle Walter, and thanks for the wonderful memories and legacy you have left us all. Journalism will never see the likes of anyone like you again!

GOP’S STOCK DROPPING DAILY!

THE MOUTH THAT ROARS: AS DICK CHENEY KEEPS FIDDLING, THE GOP BURNS!

SO JUST WHAT IS the Republican Party’s end game?

To the average Liberal — as well as moderate and even Blue Dog — Democract, the answer would appear obvious: complete extinction!

The dedicated GOP Conservative, however, who currently occupies perhaps 99 percent of that party, would most likely argue the steady decline of the Grand Old Party for the more than two years is just part of a historical political trend. He/she will tell you with complete confidence (denial), the GOP will again emerge on top as it has in the past under similar circumstances.

While this sounds like a logical argument, I believe it is quite shortsighted on a number of fronts.

First off, in my 56 years, I have never seen the GOP lose anywhere near this much ground. It’s last accent from purgatory, in 1994, occurred while Centrist Democrat Bill Clinton still occupied the White House. Thus, their power was just as limited by the same presidential veto pen Congressional Democrats experienced during the final two years of the Bush Administration.

Conversely, the Party of FDR, JFK and LBJ now dominate both the Executive and Legislative Branches of government and are on the threshold of obtaining a filibuster-proof 60 votes in the Senate this summer when Al Frankin is expected to finally emerge as #60 from the quagmire of Minnesota legal red tape which has prevented him from filling the lone vacant seat he rightfully earned by virtue of his November victory over incumbent Republican Norm Coleman.

But 60 Democratic Senators will not cut always cut it, as the Blue Dogs will clearly dissent from party on certain matters.

Yet, the Party of Obstruction on the other side of the aisle has both angered and frightened so many former members, only 21 percent of all registered voters are willing to identify with it. I expect that number to drop to 13 percent — precisely the same figure as Dick Cheney’s approval rating upon his departure last January — by the 2010 elections.

Speaking of which, the former vice president has become the Democrats most effective marketing tool as of late. Unable to keep his trap shut, his omnipresence in the media only serves to remind the electorate why it laid its trust in the Party of Barack Obama last November!

The gut feeling here is that the Democrats will be able to run at least more moderate candidates against the Blue Dogs in their respective primaries next year. In addition, if my instincts serve me, don’t be surprised if the Dems pick up an additional 7 seats from incumbent Republicans as well!

Adding insult to injury, I get the feeling the GOP’s two remaining moderates — Maine Senate siblings Olympia  Snow and Susan Collins — will fellow Arlen Specter to the other side of the aisle by next summer.

What exactly does that spell for the future of bullet-ridden GOP?

I have little doubt the massive Conservative majority will have it’s way, “purifying” itself and becoming the “Christian Conservative Party.” In fact, it might not be a bad idea for them to officially change their name right now, laying their cards out for the American public face up — perhaps for the first time since the death of Abe Lincoln!

This would be the second name change for the political party that began as the “Whigs.” But it would clearly spell out their values and objectives in a new millenium where they would be interpreted just as archaic as slavery became by the turn of the 19th Century!

PTSD VETS CHEATED BY PENTAGON!

WHILE MEMORIALIZING THEIR CASUALTIES, THE PENTAGON HAS KNOWINGLY RIPPED OFF PTSD VICTIMS OF THEIR BENEFITS!

MSNBC VIDEO. PLEASE VIEW!

IT WAS FOUR YEARS AGO when I met the first of many returning Iraqi War veterans at a VA Medical Center. The 21-year old had recently been discharged with all the tell-tale signs of Post Traumatic Stress Disorder.

The former GI was extremely bitter and resentful with the Army’s bizarre decision to diagnose his illness as “Adjustment Disorder” rather than PTSD.

Simultaneously, the VA disability filing and evaluation process began to surpass two years, significantly longer than the 90-day procedure when I was discharged from the Navy in 1973 with an disorder later to become known as PTSD.

This was just the first testimony I received of what has become another federal scandal with its roots firmly planted during the Bush Administration.

Adjustment Disorder is the Army’s way of avoiding disability payments to those truly deserving by blaming the serviceman’s traumatic experience overseas on personality disorders existing prior to enlistment.

But wait! Don’t the Armed Forces give a whole battery of psychological exams to all recruits before accepting them?

They sure do and have done so for the longest time.

A personality disorder is something an undergraduate psych student would be capable of diagnosing. So how does the Pentagon explain this massive number of combat vets escaping detection by fully-credentialed mental health professionals who administered those tests?

Actually there is a simple explanation, especially when the previous administration and its relationship with the all-mighty dollar always seemed to trump humanity!

Although there was no actual diagnosis on the books for my disability 36 years ago, the VA was far less concerned at that time with a medical label than a patient’s symptoms and personal discomfort level.
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What folly this is! “W” left office virtually three months ago and this country is still stinging from the Bushing we took on all fronts.

Can you remember how many times Bush and Cheney publicly avowed their support for our troops in Iraq? But behind the scenes they were simultaneously looking for the means – any means –to pay the debt on that war. Their determination: decrease veteran benefits.

Despite the multitude of differences that have long existed between Congressional Republicans and Democrats, they do both possess a passionate desire to eliminate wasteful government spending. But even with this concept, the parties are far apart on their respective perceptions of what constitutes “wasteful.”

For the GOP, it is any “entitlement” program that enables the disadvantaged to get back on their feet and into the mainstream of life. This includes Social Security, Medicare, college federal grants and loans, vocational rehab for those who grew up in rat-infested ghettos and weren’t privy to those services earlier.

Sadly, the Republicans hit list also includes the United States Veterans Administration — our nation’s primary health care organ for former servicemen. For nearly 80 years, the VA has been the mainstay for an array of veteran benefits.

The Democrats, in contrast, equate wasteful spending to non-bid government contracts (Dick Cheney conveniently arranged these for all his old cronies in the Military Industrial Complex),  massive tax breaks and loopholes for the top five percent of affluent Americans and their multi-billion Dollar corporations, stockpiled nuclear weapons, outdated military equipment and do-nothing government oversight departments that allow the private sector run wild.

Regardless how the Bush White House and hyperbolic news agencies like the FOX New Channel have attempted to put a positive spin on the war in Iraq, Americans have watched in disbelief the shabby treatment experienced by those who volunteered to serve us over there. In addition to the defected, inept equipment military personnel received for the first few years of the war, more than 4,200 of them have been killed and 10,000 additional injured. The death toll for Iraqis has surpassed 1.3 million.

And it has cost us a whooping 10 million dollars monthly for the past six years.

During this time, only the final veteran spending bill was supported by the Bush Administration and his GOP allies on Capitol Hill. Yes, even former Mighty Squid, himself — John McCain — repeatedly voted against veteran funding.

This has been such a dismal embarrassment for any man or woman who has ever worn the uniform of our Armed Forces. Even our European friends could smell the stench all the way on the other side of the Atlantic after each vote.

Given the prohibitive cost of combat itself, I can’t see how any decent man would try to save a few dollars treating the disabilities of those who participated in America’s least-justified war.

No doubt, President Obama is doing everything possible to completely reverse direction from the Bush years. And without a single complaint, he has taken on a far-oversized plate from day one.

And I’m sure this calamity has already been added to his agenda – which more resembles the passenger list of a 747 – and he will take corrective action.

But again, like so many others, I can’t understand how we all allowed this to go on for so long. It is perhaps the worst “dirty” bomb America ever built.

GOP’s Boehner Plays Like A Broken Record!

COLD AS ICE: HOUSE MINORITY LEADER JOHN BOEHNER

 

OBSTRUCTIONIST-EXTRAORDINAIRE JOHN BOEHNER is doing everything humanly possible to personally undermine any economic recovery this nation and its anxiety-ridden people are looking to the Obama Administration to facilitate.

The House minority leader – a thorn in the side of political stability on Capitol Hill – has been the clearly-defined catalyst behind the public’s perception of the Republicans as the “Party of No,” as he continues to lead his conservative troops in a unified stand against virtually every fiscal initiative to come out of 1600 Pennsylvania Ave.

Boehner — who bears an uncanny resemblance in both appearance and personality to the warden from the “The Shawshank Redemption” — could very well be the coldest, most distant and dispassionate politician this side of former GOP Vice Presidents Dick Cheney and Spiro Agnew.

His nauseating daily sound bites depicting Obama spending measures as a one-way ticket to financial Hell disingenuously paints a picture of his party as the more fiscally responsible.

This is completely absurd, given how the Bush Administration, with the full support of a Republican-dominated Congress for the first six years, managed to convert a budget surplus inherited from the Clinton White House into the largest deficit in modern history before the new president took office.

Boehner’s amnesia of political histroy also includes the huge spending programs of the Conservative Republican Reagan Administration throughout the ’80s.

The Ohio congressman insults the collective American intelligence with his attempts to convince us every problem currently facing this country — from the economic crisis to the devaluation of our education system — is the president’s fault.

While a strong bipartisan effort ensued on the Hill this past week to battle the AIG scandal – the first sign of any significant cooperation across the aisle since 9/11 — Boehner was once more running his mouth, faulting the new administration, especially Treasury Secretary Timothy Geitner, for the insurance giant’s contractual indiscretion with its executives.

Boehner was well aware that Geitner has been operating with a skeleton staff from day one. He has also around long enough to realize this is not unusual for a new Cabinet member who has been on the job for less than 45 days.

What the House majority leader refuses to own up to is that the agreement signed with AIG in the first place occurred during the latter part of the Bush years. Yet he remains steadfast in accusing the president and Geitner of “missing the boat.”

Then again, how many boats can one board at the same time? The list of inherited calamities this administration has already been attempting to rectify is as long as a line for a new Robert Di Nero movie!

Even political scientists and media analysts generally reserve  major judgment on a new administration until at least after its first 100 days, and generally longer. But from the moment Obama was inaugurated, Boehner began ripping apart every move he’s made.

The Ohio Republican couldn’t possibly have already forgotten the major beating his party took lat November — mainly due to its inept, antiquated conservative policies – you know, the ones which in less than eight years turned our economy upside down, while destroying our credibility worldwide.

He has been relentless articulating how his party could again gain ground with the American electorate by moving – yet — even further to the right, a deluded contention of the first order. His sense of reality is microscopic at best!

Boehner fails not only to recognize his party no longer has any power in the House whatsoever, but could only be two seats away from complete extinction in the Senate after the 2010 election (actually one after laid-bakc Minnesota finally certifies Democrat Al Franken as its new junior senator.

Denial – a state of mind traditionally used in psychological terms –is defined as an individual’s subconscious unwillingness to accept and deal with a painful reality about themselves or their life. Yet somehow, the stoned-faced GOP leader has made this dysfunction part of the political lexicon as well, and in record time.

Although considered “the ego’s shock absorber” by mental health professionals, denial always has a way of eventually backfiring, ultimately compounding an already bad situation exponentially. And this is exactly what we are seeing right now with Boehner and his followers.

By refusing to recognize the devastating effects his party’s ideological flaws has had on the nation – not to mention the GOP itself – the “distinguished gentleman” from Ohio is slowly leading his maimed party into oblivion.

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Obama, Liberals and Nationalism: Oh My!

NATIONALISTIC CONCEPTS ARE VERY MUCH RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ECONOMIC GROWTH OF MANY EUROPEAN NATIONS IN RECENT DECADES

WHEN FORMER FED CHAIRMAN ALAN GREENSPAN warned last week that major banks — at the rate they are spiraling downward — ultimately might have to be nationalized, he didn’t realize the term would set off the type of alarm that hasn’t been heard since the Communist witch hunt of the McCarthy era!

Nationalism, or government owned, is synonymous with Socialism. This is why the mere thought of that “forbidden” concept brought even the most obscure conservative talking heads across the nation out of hiding to denounce this notion passionately. And, needless to say, they used every media outlet available.

‘The government has no right to be in the banking business,’ was the jest of they collectively preached. ‘Everyone knows the private sector can do a much better job.’

Oh really?

Where have these geniuses been for the past several months? Hasn’t it been the private sector — mostly through the greed, deception and an utter lack of integrity of their multi-millionaire CEO’s — which led the major banking empire down the fast track to extinction?

Yet, one mention of Nationalism tends to unjustifiably terrify much of our society, which acts as if its time to go back into those old fallout shelters built in the 1950s as protection against  a possible Soviet nuclear attack!

Interestingly, nothing has ever been more effectively employed by Conservatives than fear to control Americans’ collective mindset. Sadly, this completely disingenuous tactic is facilitated through propaganda campaigns.

Former President Dwight Eisenhower laid the groundwork for both the Korean and Vietnam Wars with his “Domino theory.” His philosophy was simple, although quite short-sighted: By allowing a Communist takeover of any turbulent nation on the other side of the globe, the entire region would fall to the Marxists.

In just three years in Korea, the American death toll reached just below 37,000. Fighting a losing battle in Vietnam for over a decade, more than 58,000 died.

In recent years, the Bush Administration used a fear campaign after 9/11 to remind us why we needed to continue fighting an enormously ludicrous war in Iraq. You might remember, he even linked Saddam Hussein to al-Qaeda and “The war on terrorism.” The sad truth was that there were no terrorists in Iraq until we intervened.

Even last fall, John McCain used deception and propaganda in a futile attempt to scare the electorate away from Barack Obama.

“Guess who is the biggest Liberal in the Senate,” the Republican candidate exclaimed during one of the debates. “This one,” as he pointed to Obama. It was as if he was calling his opponent a Communist conspirator.”

The Republican Party has tried to minimize government for decades, claiming it crams the space of the private sector with “unnecessary regulations.” But ever since Ronald Reagan lifted many of those regulations in 1981, Corporate America has led us by the hand into financial ruin.

There is a reason for government, and a rock-solid one at that. It’s the same logic used for having larger police departments.

Left to their own devices — or should I say egos and greed — the lords of Big Business tend to become addicted to power, prestige and money — with emphasis on the later!

Let’s face it, there is a huge necessity for government oversight because these unscrupulous animals simply can’t be trusted.

And please allow me to make an important distinction: The Nationalism we’re addressing here is not the Communism of Lenin’s Soviet Union, Mao Tse Tung’s China, Castro’s Cuba or even Ho Chi Min’s Vietnam. In reality, those regimes didn’t even constitute anything close to authentic socialized governments in the first place. All of them, without exception, employed very few basic socialistic principles in conjunction with Totalitarian political systems.

Karl Marx, the father of Socialism, intended for his economic philosophy to allow people to live in true freedom, emancipated from unnecessary economic anxiety and political oppression.

Many European countries have successfully blended Nationalism with free market principles to create Social Democracies. And it has worked far more effectively than our system over the past 30 years.

For one thing, you will never see a homeless, starving individual there, nor will you see a citizen — any citizen — without health insurance.

In other words, no human being suffers without the absolute essentials of life, while the opportunity to make a great deal of money still exists as well, but under heavy regulation.

In reality, Nationalism has been going on in the United States since the 1930s in one form or another. Some examples:

- Social Security

- Public Works programs, which put many victims of the Great Depression back to work

- Medicare

- Medicaid

- The Veterans Administration, which has provided an untold number of vets with quality health care, a college or trade-school education and disability benefits when service related.

- Federal grants for a variety of useful purposes, including higher education and vital research — specifically in medicine.

- Food Stamps for the impoverished

- Programs from the “Great Society” — which was a catalyst for the great success many minorities have enjoyed in both the public and private sectors.

- Affirmative Action, which evened out the playing field for people of color, and women.

Yet, none of these programs were instituted with the forbidden label of “Nationalism or Socialism.” But they have all worked quite competently — that is, until the GOP started hacking away at the funds appropriated to them since the Reagan years.

And now, it has been suggested by Greenspan — one of the foremost experts of our time on the banking industry  — that the government might have to buy and run some of the most troubled banks in order to keep them buoyant.

What is so aweful about that?

In fact, a few banks recently have already asked Uncle Sam to buy shares in their failing financial institutions –  in effect — offering the federal government part ownership.

As the stock market continues to plummet each week, reaching a 30-year low on Monday, it is imperative for the government to step in.

We are dealing with a horrifying viscous fiscal cycle, as stockholders continue to sell off their shares to avoid even further loses. Someone has to pick up the slack, and Washington seems to be the best and most pragmatic candidate.

This is also why national (or universal, which sounds less socialistic) health insurance is a necessity. We can no longer go on allowing our citizens — especially children — to go without the proper treatment for their ailments, especially those that are life threatening. In private medicine, treatment is just another commody sold only to those who can afford it.

So it’s time for the American public — especially the GOP — to wise up and become edified about the true nature of Nationalism, rather than the myths passed down for 91 years!

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Below is a text of Karl Marx’s Communist Manifesto.  If you haven’t actually received a fomal education about Nationalism, you might want to read it in it’s entirety before continuing to make false interpretations about this delicate subject!

http://www.anu.edu.au/polsci/marx/classics/manifesto.html