Red State/Blue State

He's Gone Rogue! Obama has carved out something of a Lone Wolf Presidency in recent weeks. After the China Climate deal, the immigration Executive Order on immigration, plus his budget deal with Congress and finally the announcement of the opening of ties with Cuba….it all adds up. Obama has finally broken out of the box. He’s free now without fetters from Congress, from future elections, and even from his own party. He’s gone rogue, as they say, in defining his legacy. And in his final two years, or as he terms it, “the fourth quarter” of his Presidency, he’s ensuring that his legacy is going to be more about the positives and things he can do then the obstruction that has plagued him throughout much of his last six years. Obamacare will always be a defining force with this President. But after scaling down two of the longest wars in American history, killing Osama Bin Laden, ramping up a new policy of spying and drone warfare, and propping up a faltering economy, O

You have to wonder what Obama must be thinking these days. The President doesn’t seem contrite when he speaks of the failure of Dems to hold the Senate. Some have even suggested there is somehow a “free-ing” effect on his demeanor and posture. It’s not in what he has said, but what he hasn’t said that speaks volumes. If only…   If only …the Dems had pointed out the positive aspects of Obamacare -health care for the first time available for so many Americans after decades of failed attempts.   If only …the Dems had made a stand on immigration.   If only …they had run on my economic record and achievements over the past six years.   As one canny GOP observer put it, “It was the only way through that pass in the mountain. If you didn’t follow that light, you were doomed.”Even the GOP operatives were stunned at the enormity of the stupidity of the Dems. Obama must be thinking, If only they had listened . It may have excited enough Latinos, enough young people, enou

It’s not even worth getting worked up about anymore…Dems win big in high voter turnout elections; lower turnout favors the GOP.So the GOP has won big in the midterms and they’ve taken control of state and local houses too. They’ve also consolidated a number of Governor’s seats. That was a surprise! Because Sam Brownback put forward legislation that slashed taxes, but also contributed to a huge budget shortfall in Kansas. Yet they voted him in again and that’s not all. They also re-elected a Congressman from Staten Island, Michael Grimm, who is currently facing indictment on 19 counts of tax fraud. And in Florida, my home state, Rick Scott was considered one of the most vulnerable and least popular Governors in the Nation. Yet he won a narrow margin of victory.   Rick Scott poured millions of dollars of his own money into the race in the final days. And Florida became one of the most expensive races in the country. That’s saying a lot. 4 billion dollars in total was sp

Would that someone would simply ask Mr. Romney & co. to explain exactly how they would have handled the situation in Iraq differently? There is some question, even among experts, as to whether or not a U.S. force would have prevented ISIS from evolving into the terror powerhouse it has become. In any case, there are no American casualties in the latest war against ISIS, in comparison to 4,491 dead and at least 50,000 more wounded and disabled. That somehow makes a difference.   In regard to Putin’s escapades in Ukraine, and the Ebola crisis, what exactly would have been done differently by President Mitt? It’s one thing to trash talk when you’re engaging in lots of Monday morning quarterbacking, but when it comes down to details, that’s where the devil overtakes you. What- exactly -would you be able to accomplish? Other than being Masters of Spin, enabling an entire party to hoodwink at least half of the voting electorate into believing they have some kind of answer to co

The mid-term elections are almost upon us. And even before Election Day, the trend lines are clear. The race has become a numbers game. It’s nail-biting time for Dems, only because we wait to see how big the losses are. My prediction-apart from my hopes & beliefs- is that the GOP will probably pick up the Senate. Nate Silver has it as a 66% certainty. At that point, the Governor’s races will be the only bright spot on the horizon. If the Dems can pick up Florida, and perhaps knock Scott Walker out in Wisconsin, then it will be a good night. Or at least the lesser of the worst-case scenarios envisioned for the Democratic Party.   If the losses are contained in the Senate to either hold a 50-50 majority with VP Biden as tie-breaker, or simply at +1 for the GOP, the majority will not mean so very much for the Senate. However, the near future looks bleak in terms of endless investigations into Benghazi, the IRS, the Impeachment threat, plus whatever the GOP can find to throw a

When you have a society that 1) applauds Governors with the highest rate of executions in their states' history; 2) a Congress that won’t even pass background checks; 3) Allows AK-47 guns to be bought through the mail; 4) Allows the NRA to buy politicians & elections; 5) Enacts  "Stand your Ground" & "King of the Castle" gun laws that allow people to indiscriminately blow people away; plus give teenagers access to guns; and hot-headed adults that can’t solve disputes without shooting someone; plus you have African-American kids driving around ….just being black!....(that seems to be the crime in most cases); you have road rage cases where two people fight and someone gets killed…in other words, mass hysteria and dogs and cats living together….what did you think would be the result? Less deaths from guns?   If the NRA would like to experiment with the notion that everyone should strap on a gun, including all public school teachers, I would invite

** Ace Reporter Joe Scarborough… someone has taken Mr. Scarborough to the woodshed recently and explained to him that he doesn’t work for Fox News. They have explained that people who watch MSNBC do not enjoy their own {albeit partisan} network anchors constantly belittling the President and prefacing remarks with the equivalent of: When did you stop beating your wife ? One example of Scarborough’s line of questioning always ended up sounding something like this: Why do you think President Obama will be remembered as the worst President in History?...   The Giant Chicken Hawk War: One of my pet peeves is the network/Cable News TV fascination with the same neo-cons who bravely volunteered our soldiers to fight a never-ending war in Iraq & Afghanistan, and now complain that they should go back to fight more mindless wars in the Middle East. John McCain has earned the right to pontificate about war.   But he doesn’t get a pass for the petty and partisan small-minded remarks h

On The Roosevelt’s The best part, for me, remains the section on FDR. He was a loveable man. No wonder so many men & women pledged their lives, their full measure of devotion, to his care & well-being. His faithful cousin, his secretary Missy Lehand, Harry Hopkins, Louis Howe, Harold Ickes, his old love Lucy Mercer, his children who literally supported him as he spoke to the nation and helped care for him, .. The other two Roosevelt’s, Teddy & Eleanor, were not easy people to know. Even in documentary form, their restless energy comes through in leaps and bounds. They are to be admired, respected, and even revered. But to be loved, that task belongs to Franklin. His smile and sunny, engaging personality, his commanding presence compounded with the touching vulnerability of a man bound for life to a chair, all of that commands not just deep and abiding respect but love. There is love for a man so willing to be pushed and pulled without admitting defeat. There is lo

On the war word: So what? Who cares if we say the word war ? Does it really matter? What should matter is whether we are placing so much of our emphasis on the military might of the United States that all else, education of our youth, our future infrastructure, our economic welfare, is perpetually tied to the military industrial complex. How does that happen? Our enemies have kicked sand in our faces and  then ran. But they could be David to our Goliath if we continue to allow the enemy to define us as they have for the past fifty years. If we limit our military actions, if we insist that the Arab states begin to police and govern their own regions, then perhaps we will change the dynamics of the situation. If we reframe the question, instead, and ask, “Why are you bent on destroying the lives of innocent Muslims as well as Christians?’, Why do you continue to operate as dishonorable and ignoble thugs instead of honorable men and warriors?, Why do you dishonor the Islamic religio

James Baker was the man who was purported to negotiate with someone who said of him, ‘You needed to see both his hands on the table, or else you couldn't trust him.”   Even a slippery eel such as Baker had to admit that the reason they didn’t go into Baghdad in the First Gulf War was because, as he put it, “…you see what happened. We knew it would be a mess!” (I predict he’ll have to walk that one back, but sometimes the truth slips out).   George W. Bush once said, truthfully, during the 2004 presidential campaign, when asked about the war on terror, “It’s not something…you can’t actually ‘win’ it”. Of course, he had to retract that truth gaffe immediately, but it was out there.   That was the most truthful statement I ever heard from the man. You can’t traditionally win a war on terror. You can subdue, you can contain, but you can’t declare victory over a group of jihadists or extremist guerilla fighters.   In Somalia and Yemen, there’s been some controversy over the Wh

Why would any group choose to behead someone? In the 21 st Century,  the words barbarians and beheadings should both be viewed as arcane language. Instead, we see South and Central American drug cartels plus groups of extremists fighting in the Middle East using beheadings as a frequent and popular method of murder. For those of us living in the relative shelter and peace of the Continental United States, it’s hard to fathom the black hole of hatred and darkness seen and used by these people. Why do they behead people? One clue concerning the Islamic extremists leads us to the time of Mohammed. Even in the prophet’s time, (570 AD to 632 AD), he was condemned for an act of violence which left seven-hundred Jewish men beheaded at the siege of Banu Qurayza. In certain parts of Italy and in the U.S., the Mafia and drug cartels of South America use beheadings to serve as warnings to those who would stand in their way. Sadly, we probably have not reached the end of this appalling

Can we have Peace in the Modern era? What would it take to bring about world peace? I’ve been thinking a lot lately about the elusive quality of peace. Specifically, after the beheading of a journalist named James Foley, I wondered why a group of people would resort to such a barbarous and medieval act. In the name of religion, it’s sad to admit that many of our most barbarous acts of violence take place under the auspices of religious fervor. Why can’t some bunch of zealots start a Jihad for Peaceful Co-existence? It just doesn’t happen this way. Peace has the distinction of being all things to all people. The ever-changing definition reveals the subjective nature of peace.   My ruminations have led to the idea that human nature can never realize the concept of a world at peace. Our peace is not the same peace sought by those who live in different parts of the globe. Our foreign allies must struggle with a different definition of world peace. The type of peace we all know com

One way to suggest the type of president that Obama is may be explained by the advertising world. There's a different way that Mad Men may look at the Presidents. The Ad Men of Manhattan would look at the last half century or so of Presidents and attach labels to them based on their appeal to the American Public. They would be “Hot and Cold”. The list is as follows:   Kennedy: The first Television President...was Cool. Definitely Kennedy was cool. He was ultra-cool, a younger man’s president with young children. He appealed to women and knew the power of the new and all-powerful age of television. Indeed, he won the debate with Nixon through the appeal of his cooler look, as compared to Nixon’s “hot & sweaty” appearance. The adage- “Never Let ‘em see you sweat” was born with that debate. And through Kennedy’s tragic and untimely death, his image was further cemented in the public’s mind of a young man, never aging and always coo

  Thanks to Thomas Pynchon, I became aware of the definition of Entropy while reading, “The Crying of Lot 49”. While watching the roll-out of Obamacare, entropy immediately came to mind. A definition of the term  is clearly needed here.   I wish I could provide it, but the science is far too complex for my tiny mind. The best description I can bring forth is that entropy defines the energy within any given system.   We know from the law of thermodynamics that over time, in any given system, the energy will decrease. Eventually, this will lead to the death of the system, but to quote from the scientific analysis of thermodynamics, “interesting things continue to happen at increasingly low levels of energy.”   That sounds like a deliberately provocative statement. Of course interesting things may happen…but the fact that they may happen at increasingly low levels of energy makes me think of dying.   There is something about the waning energy in any given system that imme

My bent is naturally leaning towards a progressive government. I'm fiscally conservative by nature, yet the arc leans toward progressive policies on social issues. I've got to say lately I've become more and more resigned to the fact that I'm disappointed in all GOP candidates and elected office-holders. Not because I believe the Democratic candidates are so far morally superior. But the policies of the Republicans have pushed them out of the middle completely. There should be common ground on many divisive issues. All Americans should have backed banking and finance reform and worked to carve out a strong bill. Instead the Dodd-Frank bill was rendered toothless in many respects because of GOP opposition and pressure from big banking interests. Campaign finance reform should be a national cause from both parties. Instead the Tea Party groups are sponsored again by big money interests and powerful lobbies. It's not that Democratic candidates don't have the

  The latest rap from Obama’s base is that he didn’t do enough to “change” Washington. They complain that he came in as an agent of hope and change and now it’s even more partisan. Obama is seen as a creature of Washington, according to his leftist critics. He’s too conventional.   One thing I would ask: Are they living in the real world or the Land of Oz? Since when is one man solely responsible for changing a nation? Martin Luther King represented generational change that took a lifetime. It’s my belief that the electorate has changed. The makeup of the voters has changed. The Eisenhower years, and the Obama years, may seem a bit flat to some. Maybe because there are no new wars? The impression remains that he has worked behind the scenes to get things done.   His legacy will be Health Care. He has taken the country off of a “war footing” (the Military Industrial Complex). His oratory, his personal style, and his capture of Osama Bin Laden remain highlights for his a