With elections coming up November 2010, the "Party of No" is focusing on a return to Bush Economics--as if one disaster is not enough, while the "Party of Half-Measures" fails to articulate a bold vision for a better America and a better world.  The Obama Administration has a penchant for seeking compromises on everything:  health care reform, financial industry reform, even nuclear arms reduction treaties.  The results:  half-baked reforms that please no one.

Lost in all this is Senate ratification of the recent agreement between Presidents Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, to replace the expiring START Treaty negotiated by President Bush in 2002....[It] was never ratified by our U. S. Senate, but observed.  The agreement really doesn’t amount to much, but it is better than nothing.

Under the Bush agreement, both sides agreed to limit their stockpile of nuclear warheads to between 1,700 to 2,200.  Obama and Medvedev agreed to hold the levels to between 1,500 and 1,675.  That should not make us feel comfortable.  It is still enough to destroy the world and the six billion of us that share this planet. More...

Daddy was a genius.  He could read a book about anything--like how to build a boat--and bingo!  We'd have a boat.  But not just any boat.  Only Daddy would think to attach a Pratt & Whitney aircraft engine and a 5-foot propeller to an ordinary flat-bottom boat, turning it into a missile capable of launching itself down the driveway and into the alley, with the velocity--and a path of destruction--equal to an F5 tornado!

The neighbors loved us.

They really did.  Especially our next-door neighbors, Benny and Pearl Miller.  Pearl treated us like her own grand-kids and liked to bake us pies: mincemeat in the winter and, in the summer, she used the rhubarb that grew like weeds in her back yard.  None of us kids would touch those pies -- we didn't know what animal gave up its life to become mince meat and didn't care enough to find out.  And we'd seen enough neighborhood dogs pee on that weedy, old rhubarb to know better than to eat it.  But Mama didn't want to hurt her feelings.  So she'd always wait until after dark before scraping those uneaten pies into the garbage can out on the back porch.

According to the Minerals Management Service website:  “On April 20, 2010, while working on an exploratory well approximately 50 miles offshore Louisiana, the semi-submersible drilling rig Deepwater Horizon experienced an explosion and fire.  The cause of the incident is under investigation.  The MMS is working with the U.S. Coast Guard and the operator of the drilling rig in securing the well and protecting the environment.”

I spent 28 years in the offshore oil drilling industry, including deepwater operations, and I can tell you I’m glad I wasn’t there and in-charge.   Basically we have let the genie out of the bottle, and he’s still coming, and we can’t get him or the cork back in.

BP (British Petroleum) is the operator.  They own, or rather lease, the well from the US government.  The MMS is the U.S. government agency which organizes and sells the leases to oil companies, so that they can look for oil on the outer continental shelf.  States do not have control of mineral wealth offshore, i.e. the Federal government (all states and citizens) shares this revenue.  Oil companies know there is oil in the Gulf of Mexico, and certain areas are more likely to have productive reservoirs than others.

Right after the U.S. invasion of Iraq in 2003, a dry cleaner’s storefront was vandalized and set ablaze in Modesto, California. The reason? The business was named “French Cleaners.”

The French government took a strong anti-war stance regarding our preemptive invasion of the sovereign nation of Iraq. They said they would not join the “Coalition of the Willing.” Republican congressmen Robert W. Ney and Walter B. Jones, Jr. then rallied to make French Toast and French Fries less “wimpy” and championed new names for the fried fares. “Freedom toast” and “freedom fries” were soon available in the House cafeteria. Ironic, since the French helped us win our freedom from England in the Revolutionary War.

The French Cleaners became a victim of a hate crime because the French were personae non gratae. Enemies of America! You’re either with us or against us – and the French were against us!
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I recently wrote about the holiday season and the implications, pressures, and heartaches that are bound to occur because of the dwindling cash reserves of many, if not most, of us.  I have had to rethink how I spend each and every dollar, as I don't know whether I will have an income in the future.  My current position is described as "essential," political correctspeak for "we will keep you until we find someone to work for half your pay and no benefits."  A former colleague once remarked that, if the company could outsource our jobs to China, we'd all be gone.  That was five years ago at a company I worked at in Missouri, not in the past year.

I think of how and why I spend each day now.  My former brother-in-law and his wife ate out each day, although they had a perfectly good kitchen in the house.  It was just easier to eat out.  I always thought that was insane, but it worked for them.  Not me.  I will eat in a restaurant now and again, but I prefer a "mom 'n' pop" cafe over Plastic Burger, as I call the franchise places.  The old rule of the road was the more calendars on the wall, the better the food.  That is true.  I have also rediscovered that the local cafe is better than the franchise place, because the wait staff usually already knows what you want and serves it with a genuine smile.

However tragic the story of what Pope Benedict XVI might have known, and when he might have known it, the fact is that the current pope has a GREAT face for caricature! Also, his personality and, thus far, his papacy, are a blessing for editorial cartoonists the world over. Regardless of religious persuasion, or lack thereof.

As a member of the ruthless news media that a Vatican spokesman recently described as persecuting Pope Benedict and the Catholic priesthood like the Nazis persecuted the Jews, I, for one, admit to piling on. Pope Benedict, you see, is just too tempting a target.

For starters, Benedict XVI looks like a ghoul! There, I said it. It's a nasty observation to make, and not entirely accurate. But the current pope looks as though he'd fit as snugly in Dracula's cape as in his own papal vestments. The Pope as Nosferatu, but with a dense thatch of white hair! And Benedict's eyes -- always the secret to caricature -- are deep-set but fiery, framed by a prominent brow above, and wrinkly, brown tea bags of flesh below.
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Dear Editor:

As the trial of former Governor Rod Blagojevich enters a new chapter, I am struck by the claim that a retrial would be a waste of taxpayer dollars and the government’s resources.

As a former U.S. Attorney for the Northern District of Illinois and as the current Inspector General for the Illinois Secretary of State, I know firsthand the importance of ferreting out corruption, unethical behavior and wrongdoing.  The role of the U.S. Attorney is to charge and prosecute federal crimes and to uphold justice. 

Very simply, we can’t put a price tag on justice.

While it’s always important to be mindful of spending, the fact is the costs incurred by the U.S. Attorney’s office for any case are fixed -- covering mostly the salaries of employees who investigate and prosecute cases. 

What’s most important, however, is that justice is served.  And, in this case, justice requires a retrial.