Presidential Candiates and What You Should Know Before Voting in November

7/31/2019 Presidential Candiates and What You Should Know Before Voting in November

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The Debate between the two Presidential Candiates and why both are failing us!



Preface / Introduction

This is information to help every voter become better educated on who they want for President come

November.



Table of Contents

1. An open letter to President Obama. We electors of these United States have spoken. Here's whatwe said..2. Reflections on the US National Debt. Will we do what it takes to shrink it?3. 2010 U.S. Census, Republicans savor the population trends, as Democrats digest and despair.4. GOP dumps egregious chairman Michael Steele. An open letter to his successor, Reince Priebus.5. 'Do not go gentle into that good night.' Hosni Mubarak toughs it out as Barrak Obama pleads withhim to get out!6. An open letter to President Obama, Vice President Biden and every U.S. state and federallegislator. Make gay marriage legal now.7. Obama administration moves to the right side of history. Belatedly declares Defense of MarriageAct unconstitutional.8. Highly desirable (White) House for sale. Price tag: one billion, or more. Obama says, 'I'll take it!'

9. GOP desperate for a winning 2012 presidential candidate. But is it desperate enough for DonaldTrump?10. Osama bin Laden has been killed and we say Hallelujah!11. Republican faithful near despair at their plethora of ho-hum candidates who have underwhelmedAmerica. It's time to prune to get serious!12. Thoughts on Princeton professor Cornel West and his egregious attack on the president. Does theintellectual really have any ideas?13. What's wrong with America? Get mad along with me and sound off!14. Up to $60 billion squandered in Iraq and Afghanistan says The Wartime ContractingCommission. It's time for massive overhaul.15. A look inside my crystal ball. Here are the results of the 2012 elections... trust me!

16. A great sadness in the land. An open letter to my president, the Honorable Barack Obama.17. President Obama is a goner, unless he gets the message fast: the issue is and always has been:Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!18. What the Herman Cain scandal is really all about... and why it's bad news for the GOP.19. Keep your mitts off America. Why they're writing songs of love, but not for Mitt Romney.20. Jobless rate drops to 8.5%... Obama winks at Michelle and does his happy dance... O! Mamma!21. New biography of Mitt Romney claims to deliver 'The Real Romney'... but will anyone reallycare?22. 'Hey, look me over' as two-timin' Newt stops Romney's coronation coach in South Carolina.23. Why the 2012 presidential campaign is boring me witless... and why that's bad for the GreatRepublic. A sound off.



An open letter to President Obama. We electors of theseUnited States have spoken. Here's what we said..

Dear Mr. President:

The people of the United States have spoken... with a message that must have been gall andwormwood for you. Because you see, sir, these elections -- endless, expensive, full of expletives

undeleted and charges of every kind and variety... were all about just one person... and that person isYOU.

You must feel today as Abraham Lincoln felt when once handed his lunch by the voters: It hurt toomuch to laugh, he said, but he was too big to cry.

(By the way, another Illinois politician named Adlai Stevenson used this memorable line, when hetoo got sucker punched by the voters and was denied the White House, twice. It seems Prairie politicians should keep these words handy, to be used when their own native wit fails.)

Unlike Stevenson, however, you remain in the Oval Office for at least two more years. And, of course, you want to stay there beyond that as well. That's why I'm sending this letter... so you will

understand why you went at your inauguration from a man revered by millions who thought youcould walk on water, to a man whose head is now barely above water, dog paddling like crazy tostay afloat. First, for the good of America, second for your own "legacy" you must hear and heedwhat we just said via the ballot box... and you must seize this moment of humiliation,embarrassment and profound chagrin to turn these bitter fruits into fuel for greatness.

Let's review how you got to this place and what you must do about it.

1) Your presidency has been more Harvard than Chicago.

On the opening day of the Kennedy presidency, revered New England poet Robert Frost told thenew chief executive this memorable truth: "Be more Irish than Harvard. Poetry and power is the

formula for another Augustan Age. Don't be afraid of power." Good, shrewd, succinct, New Englandadvice. Take it.

I am writing to you today right across from the Harvard Law School and its Law Review. Youworked hard to get both... but to save your presidency (and propitiate an angry nation) you must now be more IIlinois and Chicago than Cambridge. Cambridge is a magic place, a civilized place... a place which draws the best and the brightest from all directions. But Cambridge is a bad model togovern from because we here produce elitists... and you need kick boxers and jujitsu masters.

Yes, you can turn a neat phrase... but the moment for neat phrases is gone. You must, in brief andagain, be more Chicago than Harvard... and this essential transformation must start at once. Your presidency, sir, and the improvement of America depends upon it.

2) You tried to do too much, too soon... and ended up "jack of all trades master of none."

Sir, we all know people who make promises they can't keep. It all sounds so good when you hear them... but when you promise, then leave project after project unfinished, you merely engender thevery cynicism about politicians and government you say you abhor; you become your own worstenemy.

What the country wanted from you was jobs. Put Americans to work, sir, with real jobs and we canastonish the world with our range of skills and a "can-do" attitude that still defines us. Yes, we needhealth care. Yes, we need better schools... and all the rest of those good ideas we all want. But, first

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and foremost, we need jobs.... and when you selected other priorities you showed us all that you justdidn't get it; that you were more Harvard than Chicago. Because, sir, in Illinois (from whence I hailmyself) they get it: jobs, jobs, jobs. You didn't like Richard J. Daly very much, but he kept his earsopen and knew that a man without a job is a desperate man, a hurting man, a man without hope.

You should have commandeered the Roosevelt Room in the White House and turned it into your personal command post... where the total focus was on jobs, jobs, jobs. For you see,sir, we are nowin a world war for the protection of our way of life... and that way is based on putting Americans to

work in ways meaningful and timely.Americans would have cheered you to the echo if you established such a command post and hadoverseen the execution of a Manhattan Project for employment. If you stayed with it daily... and letAmerica see you at this work you would have had the hopes and prayers... and unconquerable skillsof a great nation at your side, as well as the rightly earned gratitude and reverence of millions.

Consider this: when the Great Fire of London took place in 1666, King Charles II was advised toflee the city and save his royal skin. But Charles Stuart, king for all that, made a better choice: hewent into the heart of burning London and helped move the water buckets. He was burnt and singedlike his fellow Londoners. In the process he was raised to a greater dignity... the dignity of a man.Uunsurprisingly he was the most successful Stuart of them all... because he engaged with his

subjects, including the mundane, prosaic, and dangerous.

3) Show us what you believe in.

Sir, you are a lawyer, superbly trained as such at that esteemed institution across the street. Butlawyers, with their "have gun, will travel" approach to life are not a good model for the remainder of your at-risk presidency. You need core beliefs. Your party senses and Republicans charge that youare a man who believes in little beyond your all-consuming drive for yourself. Very well. You areambitious and have, in British Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli's notable phrase, climbed to the topof the "greasy pole." That's the beginning of your career, not the end.

Now tell us that you believe, what you believe, and what you will stake your presidency on. We

hope it will be jobs and the revitalization of America. Diminished, buffeted though your president is,you can turn it all around by focusing all on your hurting countrymen. Your great moments are yet tocome if you will commit, focus, live for them... and bring us safely through this unabated storm.

We have spoken, sir, we electors of these United States. Our message is not ambiguous. It needs noHarvard academician to decipher, though they may say otherwise. It needs one man, supremely placed for good, to use all his powers, all his considerable gifts to enhance America. Your countrymen have shown you and dramatically so just how strongly they feel about the wrongfulmoves and misdirections of your first two years. Listen to them for in this cacophony of restivevoices lies the majesty of the people. You have been disengaged from them. Now reconnect andresurrect your presidency. Do this and you will come to see the chastisement of today as the best

thing that could have happened to you... and America. Do this and we will in due course bless youfor rising up like the Phoenix and winning back our trust, love, and admiration. All other coursesyou pursue at your peril... and ours.







Reflections on the US National Debt. Will we do what it takesto shrink it?

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

So, President Obama's bipartisan deficit commission headed by former Wyoming Senator Alan K.Simpson (R) and former Clinton Chief of Staff Erskine B. Bowles (D) has issued its preliminary

report.It is a stark, sobering document. It says, in glaringly specific ways, that we as a nation have blithelyspent too much too long, unconcerned like Mad Magazine's Alfred E. Newman: "What me worry/"

Well, we have partied and now wake up to a colossal headache of global proportions. Now what?

President Obama, understanding that Congress needs help with this hot potato,early on in his termissued an Executive Order on the matter. Per this order, a panel of 18 members was created; 12 aremembers of Congress. Six are private citizens of impeccable pedigree. Fourteen of thesecommissioners must agree before the panel can send any recommendations to Congress, which theymust do shortly.

What the commissioners recommend... so far

The commissioners were given a breath taking charge by the president: either recommend $4 trilliondollars in budget cuts and savings and/or raise that sum in tax revenues. Everything was on the table;nothing was sacrosanct and inviolable. In short, "deal with it, boys and girls, for the good of thenation!"

The commissioners, selected for a gravely serious purpose, took the matter seriously, and have produced a serious document... the more so since others both within the Congress and out continueto play "gotcha politics" on the matter. Not so the commissioners. They set about their vital work with a will that promises to be sadly lacking in a Congress which will ultimately decide on what to

do. Here is the heart of what they reported.Item: deep cuts in domestic and military spending

Item: gradual 15-cents-per-gallon increase in the federal gasoline tax

Item: limiting or eliminating popular tax breaks (including the home mortgage deduction) in returnfor lower rates.

Item: benefit cuts and an increased retirement age for Social Security.

It is all sensible, logical, necessary and desirable. It is also DOA because only the commissionershave the will to make changes... and they don't have the power to save a penny or increase tax

revenues Thus, under the heading "Fools rush in where angels fear to trend", here are my thoughtsand recommendations. Mr. and Mrs. America and all the ships at sea, take note.

1) We live in supremely selfish times where no one is willing to give up anything. "Ask not whatyou can do for your country. Ask what your country can do for you."

I start from the proposition that making the necessary changes to the budget will arouse the wrath of Americans nationwide, whatever Tea Party budget- balancing tenets they espouse. Everyoneentering into this necessary budget shrinking debate should expect two certain things: up fronthigh-blown patriotic rhetoric about sacrifices willingly made ; behind the scenes bare knucklefighting of the crudest variety to protect the haves... no matter how grossly illogical and piggish their







benefits.

2) Tackle Social Security first. It is the easiest to rehabilitate.

It is time someone told the American people, who treat tampering with Social Security as the thirdrail in politics (touch it and die), the truth. The entitled, immovable age of 65 is the cynical legacy of Europe's most successful politician, Prince Otto von Bismarck. He's the man who engineered theunification of Germany. Looking for a way to undermine the burgeoning late 19th century Socialistmovement (very strong in Germany) he asked actuaries to find a number where most men would bedead and only voteless women left. Pensions would begin then. Otto and his conservatives get thecredit... but have to pay little! Actuaries said age 65 would do the trick... and so it has remained.

Since Bismarck's day, however, there have been huge improvements in health and longevity, therebymaking the number 65 less an "entitlement" than a fantastic gift from the government for manyyears, to the detriment of succeeding (and rightly concerned) generations who foot the bill.

Note: Congress should bite this bullet early and deep. Whereas the president's commissioners wantto raise the age by gradual stages to year 69, instead make the magic number go to 71 for those inreasonable health who can work. It's the right thing.

3) Make each member of the Congress take a pledge to eschew "gotcha politics" on this matter. Inour brutally tit for blood-letting tat Congress to say A (like "you voted to slash military spending")immediately fuels the opposition to return (B) a blow of equal or greater intensity (like "you voted togut all domestic spending programs"). This gets us no where and fuels national rage about "donothing" congresses.

Members of Congress raise money to clobber each other. That's what they do. They've been doing itsince Minute 1 of the new republic. Now some aspiring statesman should, in the name of getting toyes with this budget imbroglio, say "basta!" and ask all members, on both sides of the aisle, to joinhim and appreciably move towards the solution we must have. Make working together politicallyattractive and a "must"; do this and the politically pusillanimous who constitute the core of theCongress will rush to embrace it.

4) Urge the president to spend his (admittedly diminished) political capital to solve this problem --even at the risk of losing a second term.

Americans love big men who focus on big things which benefit the nation in big ways. Let our nowwounded president do this and secure a truly significant and majestic legacy.

President Obama could rise to the occasion and say, "The issue of securing a balanced, lean, fair budget and with it the sound future of the nation is so important, I intend to make it my Number 1 priority. It is crucial that America get this benefit, and if it costs me my second term, so be it. It isthe right thing to do." (P.S. Not only would this be statesmanship in the grand manner, but thiswounded man would sail to a second term and a legacy of substance and real worth.)

5) Explain to America what is at stake. Then sell it to the nation.

John F. Kennedy's father, Joseph Kennedy, was a marketing man. He stayed behind the scenes,raised money and gave sharp, sensible advice. Before the crucial Wisconsin primary in 1960, he toldhis son Jack that they would sell him "like soap flakes." They did... he romped in the primary.... andgot a crucial boost on the road to the presidency.

President Obama et al need to do the same thing now. Hire the best marketing brains on earth... brainstorm every benefit. Then go out and sell it to the nation. This matter of the budget is not themost difficult problem this country has ever faced; it's entirely solvable. What is necessary is to







enlighten Americans, enlist their support and show them what to do. Then lock the Congress in aroom and tell them to cut deals until the deed is done. And because cutting deals is what they do best, in due course the thing will be done. Then spread the credit, take the White House photographs... and start the next spending spree. For that is the American way







2010 U.S. Census, Republicans savor the population trends,as Democrats digest and despair.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Imagine the scene on December 21, 2010

Officials of both major political parties waited impatiently as the minutes ticked far too slowly for Republicans and Democrats alike. They were awaiting the delivery of the pivotal report of theCensus Bureau. Released every 10 years, this report contains crucial population information thatdetermines just what percentage of federal funds for every project the states get... the number of representatives for each state in the federal House of Representatives... and the number of electoralvotes each state casts for president.

The stakes for politicians and their parties couldn't be higher, and one sensed the tension as theywaited. There was palpable anxiety and sweaty palms in both party headquarters... for no one in thenation understood better than these Tadpoles and Tapers what was happening and what it wouldmean -- positive and negative -- for them.

Within minutes of report arrival, these expert crystal ball readers had hard numbers to work with.The broad outlines of the game ahead began to emerge as these practiced number cruncherscommenced work at the core of America's political establishment, work vital to every politician,little noticed or understood by the average (woefully uninformed) citizen.

The game begins

The Census Bureau's numbers, as stated above, determine how many seats each state is entitled to inthe national House of Representatives.

In the current report, two states are big winners and two states are big losers. Texas, now at the pinnacle of its steadily expanding power, gains 4 seats; Florida's sun- drenched growth also

continues apace, now entitled to 2 more seats.On the flip side, both New York and Ohio lose two seats each.

6 states -- South Carolina, Georgia, Arizona, Utah, Nevada, and Washington state add 1representative each.

8 states -- Massachusetts, Pennsylvania, New Jersey, Michigan, Iowa, Illinois, Missouri, andLouisiana, lose 1 representative each.

The theory, the reality

Once state politicians know the task (in Texas' case to add 4 seats), the game becomes acutely,

unabashedly political, often ending in bare knuckle brawling. Remember, the stakes could not behigher.

In theory, per order and guidance of the U.S. Supreme Court, districts are to be drawn up with equityand equality solely in mind. The word "fairness" is much employed.

In reality, while giving judicious lip service to the justices directives, politicians immediately set towork with a will, determined to deliver the most seats (and benefits) to themselves while happilydishing their opponents. After all, to the victors belong the spoils, whatever the Supreme Court maythink, (though this sentiment is never uttered publicly.)







This is a great American game and tradition, with every politician involved saying one thing openlyand quite another behind closed doors. To watch this is to understand how politicians really think and work. It is the best and most useful civics lesson of all.

"All politics is local."

This famous phrase was uttered by the late Representative Thomas O'Neill (D-Massachusetts),sometime Speaker of the House of Representatives. He knew whereof he spoke, and no where is thismore true than in the matter of implementing the district changes necessitated by the U.S. census.Let's look at just one of the affected states, Massachusetts.

Massachusetts, father of (more) presidential candidates and (occasional) presidents, will lose yetanother seat. 100 years ago this Commonwealth had 16 House seats. As a result of this census, thenumber will drop to 9. Since all Congresspersons from this state are Democrats, this most likelymeans a permanent reduction of one in potential Democratic seats and a rise of 1 in potentialRepublican seats.

This is of the utmost importance, because the census data make clear that the states losing seats areoverwhelmingly Democratic... while the states gaining seats are comfortably Republican. Thus thesechanges, helped along by more GOP governors and state legislators from the massive Republican

victory of November, 2010, move appreciably towards the Republican objective of a permanent,structurally based majority with nothing the Democrats can do about it. This is what the censusnumbers suggest and why Republicans are so jubilant as they read them. They see, with reason, anation happily and permanently Republican, the only exceptions being those interregna broughtabout by GOP embarrassments, missteps and goofs... all of which are theirs from time to time.

Viva Hispanics

However, to (potentially) confound GOP exuberance and (potentially) save the Democrats' baconthere are the Hispanics, America's fastest-growing ethnic group. As all the political types know,these hold the key to American politics. Thus both parties are engaged in strenuous outreach toHispanics, outreach which will inevitably be increased to match its importance and historic

consequences.

Here the Democrats currently lead but not overwhelmingly so. Republicans, already popular withCuban-Americans, have every chance to improve their standing with other crucial Hispanicconstituencies. And they will do so, in my humble opinion, by becoming the first major party to putan Hispanic on the ticket, as vice president. You read it here first. Viva!

And what of once golden California, the dream of determined pioneers

No report on the 2010 census would be complete without a few words, but only a few, on the oncegolden state of California. For the first time in decades, California gains no seat, thus indicating thatthe great days of growth are gone forever. The golden gate has shifted Florida and Texas way, and

they are glad to seize the palm -- and crow. Perhaps it is fitting that the census report arrived in themidst of torrential, constant, unused to (much complained about) California rains, as if the very godsabove wept for the end to a great American dream, obliterating its proverbial sunshine.

And so the census has arrived.

Let the (inevitable) games begin... with fervor,craft, masterful lies and dissemblings, hard work anddeceit. It will all be most amusing, this set piece of American politics and democracy. I can't wait tosee how this cookie crumbles.







GOP dumps egregious chairman Michael Steele. An openletter to his successor, Reince Priebus.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Dear Sir:

I do not have the honor of knowing you personally, but that won't stop me from issuing the mostcandid advice on how to succeed in your brand new job -- Chairman of the Republican NationalCommittee, to make your sojourn both pleasant and productive and avoid the pratfalls and gaffes of your predecessor, the bumptious and unlamented Michael Steele.

You were, it seems, a good friend of Mr. Steele but somewhere along the line you decided that hiscomplete misunderstanding of his role at the RNC necessitated his removal. And you decided thatno one was better qualified to lead the putsch than -- you. No problem. Ambition in Washington,D.C., especially when it involves changing your alliance, is not a sin. Quite the reverse. That youknew when to strike and how is a sign that you are already better qualified for the job than Steeleever was.

Good. Now for the things you must know and do to succeed.

1) Realize that you have the 4th or 5th grandest title in Washington... and are absolutely a person of no significance or public stature whatsoever.

Can you name, say, 6 out of 10 of your predecessors? If you can, no one else is able. Why is that?Because the office is designed to function at the beck and call of the president of the ruling party(Obama)... and with the advice and consent of the last (defeated) presidential candidate (McCain),until such time as the next presidential candidate is well and duly nominated, whereupon he (or she)makes his (or her) choice.

In other words, you are there for a very short time, to keep the office going and to Make NoEmbarrassing Mistakes.

2) You are a low level bureaucrat without the one essential thing every truly significant person inWashington has: elected office. That is what distinguishes the men... from the chairmen.

Given this fact, no one wants or will even tolerate you taking positions on public issues. You do nothave any standing for that. Instead, refer folks to Speaker of the House of Representatives JohnBoehner for he is (just now) the highest ranking official in the Republican Party and, as such, isadmirably situated for position taking. Indeed, clearing important statements with him seemssensible, CYA.

3) Avoid the media like the plague.

Your predecessor never met a media person or program that he didn't like. As a result, the number and seriousness of his errors grew calamitous, thereby diminishing the (never great) respect in whichhe was held and the embarrassments of his colleagues.

You, mild mannered man that you are (as must be the case for one from Pleasant Prairie,Wisconsin), should have a plaque made for your desk reading "Chairman Priebus did not returnfrequent calls from our paper (radio, television, etc.)" It will constantly remind you to shut up andstay out of public view.







4) Bill Clinton, garrulous and diffuse to a degree, was elected President of the United States becausehis entirely focused staff concocted a very simple way of keeping their candidate on track. When hedigressed (often), one held up a sign reading "It's the economy, stupid!"; the stupid in question beingMr. Clinton. It helped him remember.

A similar sign for you, sir, is in order. Yours should read "it's about fund raising, stupid!"

As I write, the Republican National Committee is $21 million in debt. State GOP committees arealso deep in red ink. This is not an auspicious situation for a party bidding to retake the White Housethey think of as their own real estate.

Every day, in every way, yes in every waking moment and in your dreams, too, you must have justtwo words in mind: fund raising.

This, dear sir, is the reason you were elected and what will determine whether you leave office withthe blessings and congratulations of your colleagues... or their ample and unyielding execration. Itwill also determine whether you get a respectable job in the next Republican administration which, Isuspect is often on your mind.

5) Keep your expense account to the bare minimum.

Mr. Steele was seduced by the high life of Washington and took to it like a duck to water. Inevitablyhe was seen dining at the "best restaurants", where he ate prodigiously and knew his wines well. Nothing but the best for Mr. Steele as his (notably incomplete) expense accounts testify. Hereckoned that he, as a Person of Consequence, was entitled.

My advice, sir, is simply this: find a good delicatessen in your neighborhood and learn what an(inexpensive and thoroughly justifiable) gourmet treat tuna on rye (with kosher pickles) can be. Andnever forget to turn in complete expense accounts, with nothing missing. You are a midwesterner;frugality becomes you.

6) Return all phone calls, except those from the media. (See above.)

Washington is a town perpetually engaged in the most exciting and intricate of games: who is up,who is down, and why.

Avoid this game... for it is all-consuming and insidious.

Players of this game start shedding their civility and good manners as soon as possible. Calls fromcertain people get returned at once; calls from others, the lesser folk, are never returned.

Dear sir, playing this game is ill-advised and in the poorest of judgements. Treat all with the generalcourtesy which has always distinguished the citizens of Wisconsin, your home state. All that isexcept presidential candidates and their staffs, for they must always and forever have their callsreturned and wishes granted at once, if not sooner. After all, you need friends in the next GOP

administration... and this is a superb way to get them.

Last admonition (for now).

Next year, at a place and time to be announced, your party will engage in the ancient and honorablerite of nominating the person they think most likely to defeat the president and reclaim the glories of the Executive Mansion.

A word in your ear about your role. Even before your candidate is nominated, you will be informedthat he (or she) has a new chairman in mind. Be prepared.

And be prepared, too, for the stark reality that a few days later, perhaps a week, no one, absolutely







no one, will remember your name, and all the good you're sure to do in your brand- new office uponwhich I congratulate you.







'Do not go gentle into that good night.' Hosni Mubaraktoughs it out as Barrak Obama pleads with him to get out!

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Could it be that Egyptian president Hosni Mobarak has been spending his leisure time these daysreading Welsh poet Dylan Thomas? It certainly looks that way. After all what Thomas wrote in 1951

must speak to the soul of 82- year old Mubarak today:Do not go gentle into that good night, Old age should burn and rage at close of day; Rage, rageagainst the dying of the light. Though wise men at their end know dark is right.

For the last week or so Mubarak was like an aging champ, past his prime, being beaten down anddown again. The world saw, but could not quite believe, that this octogenarian tyrant, with more power than the pharaohs before him, would go without a fight.

The revolutionaries, the children of Egypt who had grabbed the attention of the world and wereabout to evict the dictator, could not believe their good luck. As they gained momentum every day, itseemed that changing regimes was child's play indeed.

But, it was all rope-a-dope, with Muhammad Ali the model. Rope-a-dope is performed by a boxer assuming a protected stance, in Ali's classic pose, lying against the ropes; allowing his opponent tohit him and hit him and hit him again. The opponent thinks he's winning.... but he's actually tiringhimself, while his opponent "rests". The attacker, hoodwinked, is being readied for the counter attack.

In due course, predictably, the attacker flags, thereby creating an opening which can be exploited bythe old fox, the real champ... and so to victory, again.

Mr. Mubarak knows this trick, and several others, and he now means to show us each and every oneof them. The world has written him off... but that, he knows, is not the end of the story.

Rage, rage against the dying of the light. Do not go gentle into that good night.

Mr. Mubarak has now let it be known, especially to one time friends who have fast deserted, somany rats, that he will not go, gentle or otherwise; that he will stay until September, 2011 when histerm ends.

And so the next phase of the Egyptian revolution begins.

For the last week or so, the initiative was entirely, completely with the revolutionaries. Theseyoungsters, for they are, most of them, still wet behind the ears, seized the world's attention andadmiration from the unlikely platform of Facebook. There they called upon all the disaffected of Egypt to rally in Cairo, to rally for change... for an end to Mubarak's increasingly ramshackleadministration, contemptible but still lethal.

The response was immediate, electric, overwhelming, as Facebook showed Mubarak and every other unsavory despot on earth that you can challenge regimes the electronic way, that Facebook was goodfor far more than picking up chicks. Now it could uplift an entire population and topple imperialthrones.

It was crazy, man. The stuff of legend and made-for- television movies.

Mubarak, his back against the ropes, his back against the wall, Mubarak bided his time... and workedfuriously behind the scenes, the most active and focused octogenarian on earth.







He had not accepted the "inevitable." He did not mean to go. He would not make it easy, would notgratify fair weather friends and waxing revolutionaries.

They did not know Mubarak and, come what may, he was fully determined that they should.

Mubarak, born May 4, 1928, came from the Egyptian lower middle class. Amenities were few;evidence of scrimping was everywhere. There was too little at hand, too long to wait to get it. AndMubarak, even in his early days, was nothing if not determined, ambitious, never content to make do

with less.

Such a man gravitated naturally into the military... for, as always in the history of Egypt... militarymen knew the better life, the secret to a good life with little work. And if that comfy, privileged life began to pall, they had, one way and another, the means to improve it. Bit by bit, Mubarak masteredthese ways, in approved Dale Carnegie fashion making friends, influencing people, especially powerful people, like Anwar Sadat (in power 1970-1981).

Mubarak let it be known to such people that he would do anything, anything at all, to ascend.Powerful people know the value of such limitless assistance, for such people need clean hands anddeniability. Helpful people like Mubarak provide both.

And so he moved up, from merely valuable to indispensable, a man of action... a man of destiny.

Of course along the way, he coarsened, as Lord Acton admonished so many years ago. Power didcorrupt and absolute power did corrupt absolutely. But Mubarak, having made his deals with thedevil, was content... most of the time, at least.

"It is a very tough job," he once told a television interviewer. "All you seem to do is wake up totrouble and sleep to trouble."

Whatever troubles he has had in the past, he well and surely has troubles now and to spare.However, he who made a fetish of unprincipled advancement is yet the Mubarak of old. He hasresources, the resources of Egypt, at his disposal. What, then, matter the jeremiads, exhortations and

self-serving advice from Washington if that advice does not keep Egypt in his pocket? Make nomistake, Egypt, so hard to possess, having possessed he means to keep.

That is why in these early February days, Mubarak is hard at work. He has discarded members of hisgovernment who cannot help him maintain his ascendency. He has summoned his thousands tomarch in his favor in Cairo and so demonstrate how vibrant and alive his regime remains. And hehas informed President Obama and his emissaries, no doubt politely, to pipe down and get out of theway. He is not, after all, dead meat yet.

Mubarak knows, of course, that the odds are against him. After all, the army he once thought was histo command, has now made clear that they will not fire on Egyptians peacefully seeking change.That was a signal indeed about what they thought of Mubarak's chances to remain in power.

Mubarak says he simply wants to serve out his term. But, we all know and Mubarak knows weknow, that he is angling for time... time to make a new deal with the devil, a deal that will enable himto keep the power he has given up everything to grasp.

Thus, while other men his age and even younger putter around the golf course today chasing a littlewhite ball, Mubarak is convening all the resources of his diminished but still potent hegemony.

And, at night, he reads his Dylan Thomas and girds his loins, in Biblical fashion, for the last, greatfight. For he is Mubarak still and will not go gentle into that good night, but rage, rage against thedying of the light.






http://slidepdf.com/reader/full/presidential-candiates-and-what-you-should-know-before-voting-in-november 16/69http://www.HomeProfitCoach.com Copyright Howard Martell - 2012 16 of 69






An open letter to President Obama, Vice President Biden andevery U.S. state and federal legislator. Make gay marriagelegal now.

Ladies and gentlemen,

Now that "Don't ask, don't tell" has been consigned to the scrap heap of bad ideas and ludicrous

policies, it's time to give the whole apparatus of sexual oppression one final push and remove thisissue from the national agenda.

It's time to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act of September, 21, 1996 and all the invidious vestigesof legalized oppression, in which one group of people tells another group of people what they can dowith their bodies and with whom they can do it. And, most daft of all, that sexually oppressivemajority tells the despised minority whom it may marry and under what circumstances. Here is(misused) power indeed.

Last time I checked America was the land of the brave and the home of the free. Somewhere alongthe line, however, we let our core values be turned on their heads. What was brave, after all, about

subjecting the sexual minority to needlessly repressive legislation and allowing generations of abuse? What was free about parsing liberty so that it was available to some, but not to all? It wasunnecessary! It was cruel! It was unAmerican... and it is the policy the overwhelming majority of you "leaders" have pursued... depriving thousands of our best citizens of their rights whiletriumphing the rights of other people. In the process you created a culture sanctifying by law thesuperiority of some, at the expense of others. And you dared call this the American way? It is theway of tyrants throughout the ages for whom divide and conquer was the best way to govern.

Think for a moment about "Don't ask, don't tell." Now that it's gone and we can review it throughthe rear view mirror of history, we can see it for what it was: a downright silly attempt to oppress,control, demean. Of course, it didn't work, although it was the law far too long. Who, after all, wantsto devote their life to the business of sexual snoopery? Have we not better things to do with our time

and resources than turning people into legalized Peeping Toms?

Who thinks up this stuff, anyway? It's no wonder your vocation -- politics -- is the subject of near universal contempt. Your business is to empower people, improve their lives rather than pander tothe basest instincts of humanity.

Do you need more reasons that this for legalizing gay marriage? Take these for openers:

* Legalizing gay marriage nationwide delivers long-delayed rights to many without costing the restanything except their arrogance and condescension. In short, it delivers equity and the full protectionof the law without detriment of any kind to anyone.

* Legitimizing gay marriage strengthens the institution of marriage while providing those marryingthe security and comfort of the law.

* Legalizing gay marriage, making it a civil right, removes often muddled clerics from the debateand puts them firmly in their place. Has anyone read the Constitution lately about the separation of church and state/ This is not a theocracy like Iran where mullahs set policy, disastrously so.

The debate on gay marriage has brought out the worst (and also occasionally the best) in today'stheological discussions and sermonizing. Let's be very clear on this point: gay marriage is tooimportant to be left to clergymen. Making gay marriage legal marginalizes these thought-challengedtheologians without diminishing their rights.







Such people, once gay marriage is legal, will still have the right to thoughtless fulmination... butwhat they say will be viewed correctly as insignificant, quaint, outmoded, trivial thought from theill-educated and mean spirited, not the Word of God.

* Legalizing gay marriage promotes marriage. It enables people who have yearned for lawful protection of their relationships the security they have asked for. Really, what sensible person couldregard this as anything other than good? Legal marriage between two consenting adults is good,whoever those two people are. And that's a fact.

Want more?

Legalizing gay marriage removes an issue from the national agenda that should never havedistracted us in the first place. It has never created a new job, never uplifted anyone's standard of living, never increased the rights and welfare of anyone at any time. In short it's been a foolish wasteof time all round, perpetrated by those who claim to have a direct line, always accessible to thedivinity, who gives them their hate lines direct. This sounds like Torquemada and the SpanishInquisition... the stuff of fear and loathing, not enlightenment. And, remember, this country wascreated by men of the Enlightenment who understood what repression was and crafted a society thatabove all let freedom ring.

Be ye unafraid our leaders. Little enough is required of you, including you, Mr. President Obama.The glory days of the gay rights revolution are history. The heroes of the Stonewall riots of June 28,1969 and the brave lads of the Mattachine Society (founded 1965) cry for a Vietnam-style Memorialall their own. Now you need only copy what legislators in a handful of progressive states (mostly inthe Northeast and in Iowa) have already done. Pettifogging legal expertise is needed, no realcourage at all. You legislators are surely up to this. It's what you do: "talk leadership whilefollowing... way far behind."

This goes for you, too, Mr. President. You went to the gay community cap in hand and made promises that gained you its adherence, its money, its votes. And here, as elsewhere, you have failedto deliver. If you have a liberal bone in you (which many now doubt) use it to solve this problem...

or at the very least hoist your colors to the masthead, showing gumption for a change, not just theability to read poll numbers.

It's clear which way history is moving.

Christmas Eve, 2010, on ABC's "Good Morning,America" Vice President Biden opined that gaymarriage was on its way in as points of view "evolved" on this non-issue.

More telling 29-year-old Barbara Bush, the daughter of President George W. Bush, has releasedthrough the Human Rights Campaign, a video that takes her own father and his intolerance to task.Speaking as a New Yorker she says, "New York is about fairness and equality and everyone shouldhave the right to marry the person that they love." In this, Ms. Bush joins her mother and grand

mother, First Ladies both, who have always seen this issue clearly and in human terms. Why can'tthe ex-President? We forgave him many things including his alcoholism. Where is a drop of humanity in return?

It doesn't much matter, for the solution to the problem is at hand. People Barbara Bush's age regardthe matter as settled; the grim reaper daily removes more obstructionists and haters. Demographics,not courage, will settle the issue.

Still, Mr. President and honored legislators all, it would have been nice if, even as this issue issettled, you would demonstrate some little leadership. It is little enough to ask, given how little youhave all done to help the afflicted people, rather than add to their burdens.for so very, very long.







Take the step, the right step, the necessary step. Claim all the glory and the kudos. You have notearned them, but it's the way you do business, leaders in name, seldom in fact. So, then, do your business without further ado. We have waited enough.







Obama administration moves to the right side of history.Belatedly declares Defense of Marriage Act unconstitutional.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

This is a story about a basic human right long deferred and now advanced.

This is the story of a president who tried to have his cake and eat it, too; who finally decidedleadership was necessary and not merely finesse.

This is the story of a great nation's contortions to affirm the right of marriage for some... whiledenying it to others.

This is the story of the ironically named Defense of Marriage Act, now called by its right name:unconstitutional, discriminatory... and now, with the stroke of the president's pen, dead.

Here are the facts

The Defense of Marriage Act started its ill-starred career when President Bill Clinton (who shouldhave known better) signed it into law September 21, 1996. (Public law 104-199.)

It was silly, stupid, and abrasively un-American from the first minute this profoundly bad idea wasconceived. It said, in effect, these United States will create a club called Marriage. Certain peoplewill be able to join this club and derive significant advantages and benefits (one man and onewoman together) while others (one man and one man or one woman and one woman together) will be told that the way they love each other, deemed unsuitable by others, thereby precludes them fromthe receipt of any benefits, sentencing them instead to a lifetime of second-rate status and the bitterness, despair, and alienation accompanying that status.

In other words, in the land where the words "it's a free country" are constantly mouthed by even theyoungest children... the Congress of these United States and its president threw freedom out thewindow, the better to allow the majority to ride roughshod (and sanctimonious, too) over the rightsof the harassed minority... which only wanted to be able to join the club and share its benefits.

This minority never wanted to do to the majority what this majority had already done to them:harass, demean, deprive, though that majority was adamant there could never be equality.

This minority never wanted or ever proclaimed its practices superior to the majority's although thatmajority regularly did that to them.

This minority never asked that the marriage rights of the majority be suppressed, withheld, deniedthough that majority insisted that that minority be so victimized...

And this minority never said, never hinted, that the majority's concept of love and relationships be

declared illegal and bring about the immediate cancellation of the majority's substantial economicadvantages, although that majority insisted upon this depriving, this spoliation, this theft from theminority they victimized.

A great nation, conceived in liberty and dedicated to the proposition that all men are equal, withmalice aforethought rejected and re-wrote the very high and mighty documents of its revolutionary birth, opting instead for bigotry, legal segregation; selecting and endorsing instead the defining principles of the gulag, the ghetto, the concentration camp: that while all animals are equal, some aremore equal than others and that these others must be punished accordingly... and for the crime of love at that.







Enter Barrack Obama, beneficiary of the civil rights movement, slow to protect the civil rights of others.

Obama went cap in hand to the gay community and pledged his assistance towards their struggle.But as became more and more clear, he preferred their money and block support. President in part because of their overwhelming support, community members were livid at his glacial pace wheretheir constitutional rights were violated and withheld. There was outrage from these goodAmericans, and their outrage was both understandable and right. Obama had taken from them.... but

done nothing to secure their civil rights. He was, in these days, part of the problem; not part of thesolution.

Instead of endorsing and supporting what he had to know in both head and heart was right, hesuccumbed to the prevailing vice of the capital, walking a fine line between retaining the wrong thatwas... and the hornet's nest he would unleash if he moved to secure the undoubtedly rights of theminority. This wasn't leadership... it was politics... and it was despicable. As any civil rights leader could attest.

In December, 2010 the entire dynamic of the debate changed dramatically when the Congressrepealed the ban on gay people serving openly in the military, a result which only a few days beforehad seemed to be dead. It is my belief that the two ladies from Maine, Senators Olympia Snow and

Susan Collins were crucial in this reversal. If so, they will have resurrected the old slogan "AsMaine goes, so goes the nation." If later historical research should vindicate my supposition, it will be no surprise to me that two women brought sense, humanity, and equity to the debate; women,after all, were second-class citizens in their own marriages for long... and they knew the destructionand damage of that servile position too well to impose it on others.

February 23, 2011 Barrack Obama began to make amends, advancing freedom, instead of supportinguntenable means to restrict it. The Department of Justice will no longer defend the Defense of Marriage Act in court, saying that that law prohibiting recognition of same-sex marriages isunconstitutional and discriminatory.

At last!This does not conclude the matter, there are still many significant aspects to be resolved and there is,even now, a backlash in certain states where gay marriage rights had become law. It is always thusin this protracted, interminable debate. But this is progress, make no mistake.

Each time a significant bastion of bigotry and oppression falls, the jeremiads of opponents seemmore and more clearly what they have always been: the bitter fruit of counselors of hatred and fear,wearing America on their sleeves while never understanding that America is nothing where personalfreedom remains the province of some who deny it to others. Our motto, remember all, is yet "Letfreedom ring!"

This step towards final resolution of this issue has cheered multitudes... and has, I think, helpedrestore to the president a recollection of who he is and what he represents. These, it seems, he hadsomewhat forgot in his first years in office. Now he has remembered that he himself, his presidencyand all its officers and affairs, would never have existed without the pioneers of civil rights. And hehas found that civil rights are not for blacks alone... or any other single group... they are for all of us,no matter who we love, or how.







Highly desirable (White) House for sale. Price tag: onebillion, or more. Obama says, 'I'll take it!'

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

To absolutely no one's surprise President Obama officially kicked off his re-election bid April 4,2011. The real story is not that he's running (since the day he was elected in the first place, he's been

running for the second term whose function is to validate what he's done and his place in history). No, the story is on that most American of subjects: money, specifically the money it's going to takehim to ensure his re-election.

Yup, it's all about the money.

In 2008, Obama set the spending record, $760 million for the primary and general elections. Obama,to the astonishment of many, was unstoppable in the fund raising department. Democrats wereconflicted on the matter.

For one thing, they wanted to win... and here was a man dedicated to raising the money to makethem competitive and give them victory on a sterling silver platter.

But that unnerved many Democrats at the same time, for such people have a knee jerk tendency toregulate campaign funds and limit them; Obama was always about victory, not limits. And victory,sweet victory, historic victory they got. Such victory papers over a lot of cracks.

The president opens his campaign.

Because this is 2011 and the world is wired President Obama launched his re-election campaign bye-mail. He said his campaign will be about "coordinating millions of one-on-one conversations between supporters across every single state, reconnecting old friends, inspiring new ones to join thecause, and readying ourselves for next year's fight." The man of soaring rhetoric commenced hiscampaign with business sobriety, without a memorable word. What did that mean?

It meant, above all else, that Obama realizes he'll be the issue; that what people want is not rhetoric,not to run on hope. Been there, done that. What the people want now is demonstrated results andsensible, realistic talk about the next four years of the U.S.S. United States of America.

Where does this captain want to take us.... and how does he intend to get us there? High blownrhetoric which was the centerpiece of the 2008 campaign will be used, of course, but carefully,sparingly. The country, after all, is still seething with rages... and Obama needs to be seen as a manof deeds, not words, however thrilling.

His re-election message signifies his understanding that the "first black president" card is not goingto cut it. The high flying speeches about opening doors, too, are old hat, beside the point.

What America wants is a strong chief executive (white, brown or black) whose sole function is totackle our grab-bag of problems and use the power of the presidency, which includes marshallingthe people, to deliver results, results, results. Nothing less will satisfy the nation... and the presidentsurely knows that even results, great results, will fail to satisfy many. That is the nature of our times.

Obama knows better than anyone that keeping the White House as his house is going to take a breathtaking amount of money. And Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission came at justthe right time for him to raise it, in the historic amounts needed to make his case.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission.







On January 21, 2010 the United States Supreme Court made a decision of historic proportions. Bythe thinnest of margins, 5-4, the Court struck down a provision of the McCain-Feingold Act that prohibited all corporations, both for- profit and not-for-profit, and unions from broadcasting"electioneering communications". These were defined in McCain-Feingold as a broadcast, cable, or satellite communication that mentioned a candidate within 60 days of a general election or thirtydays of a primary. The decision overruled Austin v. Michigan Chamber of Commerce (1990) and partially overruled McConnell v. Federal Election Commission (2003).

The Honorable the Justices of the Supreme Court had just made history, striking a hammer blow(albeit barely) on behalf of the First Amendment, which means, so the majority said, exactly what itsays:

Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercisethereof; or abridging the freedom of speech, or of the press; or the right of the people peaceably toassemble, and to petition the Government for a redress of grievances.

Liberal outrage.

Most every liberal in the land was enraged by this decision. Liberals, you see, specialize in tellingfolks like you and me, just what we can do, just when we can do it, just how we can do it. In thiscase, that means doing everything they can to limit your right to uninhibited electioncommunications, including spending your money freely to influence these elections.

Freedom means being able to squander your money on elections if you want to.

Personally, I have never understood the thrill of throwing money away on presidential candidates.I'm of the firm opinion that spending the hundred or two I might donate to candidates, say, on dinner with winsome partner would be better spent. However, I am equally clear that people, by the Bill of Rights, should have the right to waste their money, be they private citizen, union, or corporation onthe candidates they fancy.

Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission reaffirmed that right, and strongly so.

President Obama, chief beneficiary, the strongest attacker.

The president is a past master in the art of having one's cake while eating it, too. This decision hesaid "gives the special interests and their lobbyists even more power in Washington -- whileundermining the influence of average Americans who make small contributions to support their preferred candidates." Obama later elaborated in his weekly radio address saying, "this ruling strikesat our democracy itself," and "I can't think of anything more devastating to the public interest."

Having stated, for the record, the standard liberal line... Obama set out to make the Court's rulingwork for -- him.

Every time he lamented the realities of politics and fund raising and predicted the end of democracy... he was busily raising money, unparalleled amounts of money from... private citizens,corporations, and unions. If a billion will do the trick, fine; if not, he'll up the ante. For you see, he isdetermined to prove, through his re-election that America made no mistake in electing him in thefirst place.

Millions of American who voted for Obama have come to the conclusion they bought a pig in a poke; they've having second thoughts. But the president knows what money can buy. He'll raisewhatever he needs so they'll buy -- him, secretly thanking Citizens United v. Federal ElectionCommission for the favor, while criticizing it every step of the way. The White House is worth it.












GOP desperate for a winning 2012 presidential candidate.But is it desperate enough for Donald Trump?

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Donald Trump. The name conveys many things

-- open mouth, insert silver foot.

-- knows everything about everything and never hesitates to tell you.

-- braggart

-- billionaire

-- bankruptcies galore

-- women

-- more women

-- much younger women.

And now President of the United States?

He's signaling the nation he wants it, but there is not a single reputable authority in the land who believes he'll actually throw his oversized hat (for that oversized head) into the ring. Or that he'llever get into the Oval Office, unless he's got a visitor ticket.

Except, that is, my go-fer Aime Joseph. The other day Mr. Joseph (as we call him) let me know in nouncertain terms that Trump was his pick for president next year. Given the fact that he was rabid for Obama last time round, this is a monumental change of mind.

What caused it?Mr.Joseph's reasons were these:

-- Trump's demonstrated business acumen.

-- His knowledge and exploitation of the media, giving him near universal name recognition.

-- His money.

-- His money...

Get the picture?

More GOP presidential candidates than ever... no clear-cut leader or even early favorite amongstthem.

It has long been a given of American politics that Republicans select presidential candidates theyknow well and who have generally already run for president before, even if they've lost. Thisdescription fits Richard Nixon (defeated 1960, elected 1968); Ronald Reagan (defeated 1968,elected 1980); Robert Dole (defeated for vice president on the Gerald Ford ticket 1976, thendefeated for president 1992); John McCain defeated 2000, then defeated again 2008).

The man who fits this mold for 2012 is former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney, defeated byMcCain 2008. But while he's the likeliest at this hour to become the next GOP nominee, the Grand







Old Party is not yet ready to crown him.. or Sarah Palin either, who unlike Romney, actually got onthe McCain ticket, only to go down to defeat with the man who chose her.

Which leaves the Republicans with the largest field of presidential candidates since 1964.

Here Trump sees his advantage... and with billions at the ready, he'd certainly be a strong candidate,right?

Absolutely not. Take a look at these...

1) First, the little matter of presidential manner, seriousness, temperament and demeanor. We likeour presidents to be.... well, presidential. And even a tyke in grammar school will give a reasonabledefinition of what that means. We want a president (man or woman) who without much stretch fitsthe truly gigantic shoes of George Washington and company.

For openers Trump's favorite subject is Trump. In fact, he hardly knows another. And whenattention turns to that subject, Trump is always ready with yet another egregious, bumptious,tasteless battery of arrogance and self-congratulation. America may have near universal namerecognition of the man... but we also know Trump stands for a brand of noisomeself-aggrandizement that permanently closes the door to 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue.

2) Complete lack of suitable experience for the presidency. Americans so liked the idea of our first black president that it swallowed Barrack Obama despite his thin resume with national affairs. Still,he was a sitting United States senator at the time of his nomination and election.

Republicans have traditionally been sticklers for offering the nation men who had blue-ribbonresumes with plenty of valid experience. Trump offers absolutely none of that; not a single exampleof foreign policy experience and (except for specialized tax information) absolutely no experiencewith any important subject of national affairs. In addition, he has not one scintilla of experience withmembers of congress. Not a cream puff amongst them, they will soon show a putative PresidentTrump that he needs more than bombast and one-liners to deal with them.

3) A lifetime of often silly, sophomoric, ill-considered very much on-the-record remarks.

Trump is quotable alright... in spades. However, his remarks range from mean-spirited tovituperative; just plain stupid to wildly ludicrous. The media of the world love him. Voters won't.

They know the importance of the American presidency; it's the most important office in the worldand the nation won't tolerate an ignoramus in the job, for all that he's rich.

4) And while we're on the subject of the Trump billions, I reckon one very good reason The Donaldwon't run for the roses is his tax returns. He'll have to publish them of course; folks would rightlywonder at their contents if he didn't.

But is Trump willing to bet that the nation and its tax-pressed citizens will overlook any even minor

infraction that may surface? Being just the third billionaire to run for president (Nelson Rockefeller 1968 and Steve Forbes 2000), you can bet your bottom dollar each and every line of every documenthe is forced to release will be examined under a microscope... forcing Trump to defend the taxes he paid, the deductions he took... thereby pushing his campaign off message for days, weeks... or evenstopping it altogether.

5) The women.

Trump has gloried in his ability to pick up chicks, all but his first wife years younger than he is. Heshould open a museum called Trophy Wives inside one of his casinos. Inquiring minds want toknow.







The thing about collecting and discarding chicks (married or otherwise) is that the discarded oneswait a lifetime for sweet vengeance. Trump is a sitting duck. And God only knows how much of theiceberg of domestic catastrophes is known... just the tip?

As for his platform, policies, beliefs, and recommendations for a Trump- lead renaissance? He's onan odyssey around America right now inciting kooks everywhere on the matter of President Obama'sright to be president because of where or where he was not born. Yup, Trump's a "birther", despitethe fact that the State of Hawaii long ago certified Obama's birth there. It's typical Trump has leadwith an item that has no benefit for America but that ensures buckets of free media attention fromshock jocks suckled on conspiracy theories.

In short, it's petty, beside the point, trivial.

In other words, perfect for Trump in these heady days when he looks at his unkempt locks in themirror and sees a President Trump none of us looking hard can ever see at all for all that he's rich asCroesus.







Osama bin Laden has been killed and we say Hallelujah!

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

I am not a violent man but I have waited, with all Americans, for the violent end to one man of consummate evil, Osama bin Laden... and now -- at long last -- his end has come and my heart beatsquicker and in gratitude to the people who have done this worthy deed and rid the world of the manwhose face was the face of death.

The facts.

For years, the CIA had been monitoring an al-Qaida courier. They knew he was important becausedetainees told investigators he was profoundly trusted by bin Laden and might very well be livingwith bin Laden. Last August, as a result of monitoring this courier, intelligence officials got a break.The courier arrived at a highly fortified compound nestled in an affluent neighborhood of an affluentPakistani town two hours outside Islamabad.

Everything about this compound suggested some nefarious purpose. It was surrounded by walls ashigh as 18 feet, topped with barbed wire. Two security posts were the only way in. A third-floor terrace was shielded by a seven-foot privacy wall. No phone lines or Internet cables ran to the property. The residents burned their garbage rather than put it out for collection. Intelligenceofficials came to believe that this highly distinctive compound was built about 5 years ago at a costof about one million dollars for a person of consequence in al-Qaida.. The question now was whothat person of consequence might be.

Increasingly, after innumerable reviews of the compound and everything known about it,intelligence officials came to believe that the compound was bin Laden's... but for this mostimportant of covert operations there could not be any error of any kind. Americans, they knew, hadto have success, total success from this mission... and that's precisely what these officials aimed togive an aggrieved, long-suffering, and patient nation.

And so they did their important work, their painstaking work, their essential work so that when theydid what they must do they would be completely successful, and Osama bin Laden would notescape yet again.

Absolute certainty required.

By mid-February, intelligence from multiple sources was clear enough to enable President Obama to"pursue an aggressive course of action." During the next two and a half months, Obama led fivemeetings of the National Security Council focused solely on whether bin Laden was in thatcompound and, if so, how to get him.

Everyone was agreed from the President on down: this time there must be complete success...

And so, first of all, just who had access to this growing body of intelligence was drastically limited.Our closest allies -- Britain, Canada, Australia, etc. -- are ordinarily in the loop... but not this time.Too, the United States does not normally carry out ground operations inside Pakistan withoutcollaboration from Pakistani intelligence. But this was the ultimate covert operation and what was"normal" in such matters was not good enough.

There had to be total success; everything had to be done right... the first time.

April 29, 2011. The President approved the operation to kill Osama bin Laden and the countdown tovengeance began.







For this most important of missions, Obama went with real people instead of our sophisticatedPredator drones. President Obama entrusted the honor of America to some of America's finest, theelite Navy SEAL Team Six under the command of CIA Director Leon Panetta. The names of teammembers have not (so far) been released... but they have well and truly earned the gratitude of thenation.

A fiery end, a bullet to the head.

In the dead of night, helicopters descended out of darkness to deliver Armageddon. One can imaginethe event.

The inhabitants of the compound would have awakened, drowsy and disoriented, to their worstnightmare. Coming for them, every one of them, were the deliverers of promised retribution... therepresentatives of a great nation delivering at last what every citizen of that nation wanted: Revenge!Retaliation! Justice!

Unimaginable horror scarred the night skies as, one by one, the representatives of al-Qaida fell... thecourier who lead the CIA to this place... bin Laden's brother... his son... and the man of practised andunfathomable evil Osama bin Laden himself... one blessed bullet into the brain that brought so muchundeserved pain to so many.

This was the man whose hatred created, on the fateful day of September 11, profound misery; a manwho turned happy children from happy homes into orphans... a wicked man who tore wives fromhusbands and husbands from wives... a man who turned doting grandparents into crazed people madwith despair... asking a single question over and over again: "Why?" What had so many innocent people done to deserve so much....

And so, even as the Twin Towers fell, even as a great nation reeled and wept... the sentiment took root that the perpetrator of this great evil must be found and punished.

And that day of righteous punishment came -- May 1, 2011.

Buried according to Islamic practice and tradition.

The bodies of Osama's victims were buried in the burning debris of the once majestic towers, thevery symbols of our greatest city. The bravest of the brave found these bodies and gave them themost reverential burials. We gave the remains of bin Laden the same high respect... burying himwith decency and full honors, so that no one could say we treated him with the deep contempt withwhich he treated us. Here, as so often, we rose above... to behave with the deep decency which is thecore of who we are.

An incident, not the end.

I am not, as I said, a violent man; I often wonder why we humans seem to need, even crave, so muchof it. But of this I am sure: the total eradication of this man was needed, warranted, and beneficial.His misguided followers, now disoriented and dismayed, will turn the man into a martyr, but theywill be wrong to do so. His twisted perspective hurts them, too, and can deliver nothing more thanmore infernos and more pain.

That is why we must continue to be vigilant. One bullet is not the end... but that bullet surely marksthe end of the chapter which began September 11, 2001.

It is a beautiful day here in Cambridge, Massachusetts... the kind of day that makes one glad to bealive. I intend to go, in a minute, into the sparkling air and the brilliant sunshine... to say a little prayer for the victims, our honored dead... and hope their spirits may now rest more easily, abidingforever in the Peace of God they came to know too soon.












Republican faithful near despair at their plethora of ho-humcandidates who have underwhelmed America. It's time toprune to get serious!

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Many years ago Nancy Saunders, one of England's celebrated gardeners, informed me in no

uncertain terms of one of the essential conditions for horticultural success: prune, prune, ruthlessly prune. Find the little buds and, ruthlessly, cut them off, focusing on just one bud, the bud you haveselected for greatness. A house full of gardening awards great and small, local and international,testified to the lady's insights and no-nonsense approach to a stunning garden and a reputation asdiva, sorceress, sculpter of beauty, impatient with anything other than the eye-catching andimportant.

The Grand Old Party could learn a lot from Ms. Saunders and her stringent regimen for success.

Politically alert Americans, particularly Republicans, have watched with growing dismay, chagrinand (let's be honest) complete fascination as the party of Lincoln, Teddy Roosevelt, and Reagan,

titans all, revered by the nation, has become the Pee Wee league of presidential candidates -- and thisdespite stunning electoral success in 2010 and a Democratic incumbent who has failed, so far, togain the affection of the nation and portray himself as more than the necessary evil.

In fact, there has never been (since its founding in 1856) so many GOP candidates for president withat least some (no matter how attenuated) claim to plausibility. Even in the days of brokeredconventions with "favorite son" candidates given nomination just to impress the folks in Paducah,such lavish numbers were rare indeed.

Surely, the GOP should be glad that it has so many potential presidents at hand, but if you recall Nancy Saunder's stern admonition about how to produce gorgeous flowers -- prune, prune, prune --you get the message that too many candidates produces weakness, not strength and is a sign that the

party that believes America is safe when and only when it governs has lost its way, becomingrivulets, not the great river it has so often been.

This situation has produced torpor, procrastination, and a growing sense that the GOP is not up tothe necessities for governing a great land beset by high and serious problems, and economic muddle.

The biggest most Republican donors are, in unprecedented numbers, sitting on the sideline, listless,uninspired, concerned. Fully 45 percent of Republican voters (as per a May, 2011 Associated Press poll) are dissatisfied with their presidential candidates, a figure that is growing, not diminishing.

Democrats, of course, are not-so-secretly thrilled by a scenario which already shows them far aheadin fund raising; (President Obama has made it clear he'll raise a billion dollars or more to keep the

White House as his house), with GOP fissures now causing some of the donkey ilk to speak, not tooloudly just now, of land slides and electoral college pulverization. Early days to be sure... but the possible is there, oh yes it is. It is unseemly for Democrats to be so exultant so early... but they are.

For Republicans to counter this political "Happy Days", they must Saunderize, at once, with a will,ruthlessly... for a chance to produce a winning candidate. Humbly, since no one of significance in theGrand Old Party has stepped forward with garden shears and elimination list, I present myself accordingly. Without any expectation of power, privilege, patronage, or even gratitude, I am here tosave the party, its chances for victory, and its (as yet) not obvious presidential candidate.

In the next few minutes, I intend, with a few deft moves, to change all that.







These Republican candidates (declared or still ruminating) are a bad joke:

Newt Gingrich, former Speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives

Ron Paul, Congressman from Texas.

Michelle Bachmann, Congresswomen from Minnesota.

Rick Santorum, former U.S. Senator from Pennsylvania.

Rudy Giuliani, former Mayor of New York City.

Sarah Palin, former Governor of Alaska.

Buddy Roemer, former Governor of Louisiana.

Herman Cain, Godfather's Pizza executive and Georgia talk show host. (An expert on three cheeses, but anything else?)

The unanswerable reasons for eliminating this drab, unappealing crew of Tweedle Dees andTweedle Dumbs? Not one of them alone, or all of them together, have one ounce of charisma andthe kind of fundamental popular appeal a winning presidential candidate must have. None is even

remotely a household name (or done the exceptional to deserve it); some are so threadbare(Santorum) that they didn't merely retire from public office; they were booted out by local voters presumably the most knowledgeable about them.

In short, these are the Morgan Memorial, the Salvation Army candidates, colorless, spent, yawnmaking, infuriating... their highest potential service to the party to be placed as vice president on asure-to-lose ticket.

Nice guys... too early.

Tim Pawlenty, former Governor of Minnesota.

Bruce Johnson, former Governor of New Mexico.Jon Huntsman, former Governor of Utah. These three have legs... but they are too short andundeveloped just now for the Oval Office. They should be planning to emerge, not now, but as themost beautiful, fascinating candidates of 2016. Needless to say, each will disagree vehemently withmy patriotic assessment and so, like Pawlenty, build candidacies on the irrelevant details of personalresume. ("I was born in the meat packing town of South St. Paul; my father was a truck driver.")Stop it, stop it at once!

Some who were in or contemplating, now (gratefully) out.

Haley Barbour, Governor of Mississippi.

Mike Huckabee, former Governor of Arkansas.

Donald Trump, billionaire enfant terrible.

John Thune, U.S. Senator from South Dakota.

Mitch Daniels, Governor of Indiana.

We owe them profuse thanks and appreciation for reading the tea-leaves early and right; no onewanted them for any reason and certainly not for president.

What's left? Just one.







Mitt Romney, former Governor of Massachusetts, though capable of denying it, stiff, austere, littleloved, policy wonk, 100% committed to becoming president, doing whatever he must.

Romney may very well be the eventual nominee, but he must learn how to rouse America and makeus not only think well of ourselves... but do well, too, a surgent nation again.

No one from this huge field of candidates has been able to do this and make themselves seem theinevitable resident of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue. And that's why Republicans of every stripe are

becoming increasingly desperate, tossing even more names in the hat. They should instead solve the problem as Nancy Saunders would: prune, prune, prune. Then focus on turning the last bud intosomething glorious, historic, larger-than-life. For whatever pygmy we select today... by election day2012 that candidate will have been massaged into history, person of legend, colossus. Let's hope bythen he or she is ready for what we insist they be.......







Thoughts on Princeton professor Cornel West and hisegregious attack on the president. Does the intellectualreally have any ideas?

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

First, the facts.

Just the other day, April 11, 2011, Princeton professor of African-American studies and religionCornel West managed, in one fast-moving interview with the political blog Truthdig to

* make a series of outrageous, unsubstantiated remarks about his now former friend Barrack Obama, president of these United States,

* act like anything besides the Ivy League social scientist and truth seeker he claims and issupposed to be,

* show that just because you have a fancy title at a fancy institution doesn't necessarily mean you'reany better informed than the guys on the street who mouth off without one scintilla of fact,

* prove conclusively that West has aged from being an enfant terrible to being a thin-skinned cry baby, petulant, spoiled, coddled, and an embarrassment to himself and the great institution which, ingetting West, clearly got a pig in a poke and may well wonder why they didn't scrutinize longer and better and what it says about their selection process.

Because he is a professionally angry black man, he must always have a Cause (and because causesneed to be photogenic and a fountainhead of publicity), these days West has massaged himself intoadvocate of the poor, clothing himself in moral hauteur and cheap outrage. Yes, when he seeshimself in the mirror (no doubt frequently) he sees -- vox populi, and very much, vox dei.

Yes, to listen to West, he's morphed into a protege of Emma Lazarus, maybe la Lazarus herself

whose iconic words (written 1883) grace the Statue of Liberty..."Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free the wretched refuse of your teeming shore sendthese, the homeless, tempest-tost to me".

West seems to think and certainly acts as if that last word, "me", meant him, their self-appointed,self-aggrandizing, tenacious (for now), unyielding (until something better comes along) but never getyour hands dirty advocate, thank you very much.

Well-known 18th century British author Dr. Samuel Johnson one April day in 1775, pronounced inhis magisterial fashion that "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel." Boswell hurriedly wrote itdown. I'll update that aphorism here and now for West's benefit: "the poor are the last refuge of the

demagogue". ( Remember born-again populist Al Gore and that other glib Southern boy who belatedly discovered the poor, former North Carolina senator John Edwards? Gore ditched his populist mode in favor of things green; Edwards is seeking a berth as a Trappist monk... or anylocale that makes women difficult to access while keeping a photograph of wronged ex-wifeElizabeth always at hand.)

It was in this mode of unassailable moral superiority, as one of America's overfed collegiateintellectuals, and a pampered black intellectual at that, that Cornel West mounted his high horse...and made one thing shockingly clear: the intellectual has no ideas, just pettiness, bile, self- pity, andnow a social calendar which will no longer feature cozy chats with the president chez 1600Pennsylvania Avenue. Oh, my!







"Those whom the gods wish to destroy they first make mad." Euripedes. (485-406 bc)

One may imagine West's state before this now infamous interview. Like a colossus he strodeforward, resolute, confident, his mere name a progressive statement, and much beloved too, of callow undergraduates. He would take his bro' Barrack to task in no uncertain terms and so reframethe whole debate on the poor... and keep the president where West wanted him, under his thumb, to be let loose only at the professor's dictate and whim and following a long course of Professor West'sapproved bromides and idiosyncracies. The gods had, as usual, done their work well...

This then is what esteemed Professor West outrageously said, each word an arrow into himself andany claim he could make, not just to truth, but to common sense and common civility.

Obama is a "black mascot of Wall Street oligarchy and a black puppet of corporate plutocrats".There was more of this red meat, much more:

"I think my dear brother Barack Obama has a certain fear of free black men... It's understandable. Asa young brother who grows up in a white context, brilliant African father, he's always had to fear being a white man with black skin. All he has known culturally is white. He is just as human as Iam, but that is his cultural formation."

And still more...

Obama, he said, is "most comfortable with upper middle-class and Jewish men who consider themselves very smart, very savvy and very effective in getting what they want."

Then, after much more of the same, a glimmer of why this is all happening now: our pamperedhouse intellectual has been disrespected:

"I couldn't get a ticket (to the inauguration) with my mother and my brother. I said this is verystrange. We drive into the hotel and the guy who picks up my bags from the hotel has a ticket to theinauguration... We had to watch the thing in the hotel."

Of course, lese majeste', not what the majestic West is accustomed to and perhaps the reason for hisastonishing words and equally astonishing foolishness. Political sage Niccolo Machiavelli(1469-1527) knew that if you intend to kill the king, make sure you do not just wound the king, for then of a certainty, the king will kill -- you!

This is why, so long as former buddy Barck Obama, remains president, Cornel West will learn whyMachiavelli, long dead, is smarter than West, long on words and short on sense. For West is now notonly intellectually irrelevant but a dead man, too, by his own hand.

One who no doubt saw this coming is Larry Summers. When he was president of Harvard, he had acelebrated run-in with West, (then on the Harvard faculty) whose friendships and professionalrelationships are prone to fray as folks come to know the man. Summers, a man of brilliance with his

own propensities for self-destruction, rebuked West in 2000 for missing classes and other misdemeanors. But his major criticism was just: West needed to do a major book in keeping with hisrank, giving tv talk shows and other trivial pursuits a pass, to concentrate on the really important.

Diva that he is, at this revolting development, West complained high and low; he ranted, he raved,he took umbrage, he played for sympathy. And in due course, he took his leave of Harvard where, tohis surprise, a great research institution demanded -- great research, not trite opinions masqueradingas undisputed fact.

To the surprise of cognoscenti of such games, Princeton University took West; no doubt they neededhis brand of glib inconsequence. Or maybe it's just, as Cambridge folks suspected, that Princeton is a







backwater, out of touch with neo-realities. West, from his new tenured perch, did what West alwaysdoes... he lashed out at Harvard... the hand that had fed him so well for so long. Such ingratitude being one of the things he does best, as in due course Princeton will no doubt discover.

In any event, this tempest in a tea-cup proved at least one thing: Cornel West is irrelevant as he has been for a long time. The black community has grown up; they wanted -- and got -- a president.Such men as West, with only rants and cants became, at the inauguration he wasn't invited to attend,obsolete in an instant. For all his high titles and purported intelligence, it took him a while to figure

that out. I suspect he knows it now.







What's wrong with America? Get mad along with me andsound off!

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. Before you read this article, go to any search engine and find Peter Finch'scelebrated "Mad as Hell" speech from the 1976 film "Network." I know exactly how Howard Beale,

the character he plays, felt. Disgusted! Infuriated! Past mere anger! A nuclear melt-down gone beyond all these... His was pure rage... out of control rage... volcanic, explosive, searing. It ignited a profound response in the national psyche. And though his words date from 1976, they are as apttoday, as perfect a fit today, as unadulterated truth today.

See for yourself...

"I don't have to tell you things are bad. Everybody knows things are bad. It's a depression.Everybody's out of work or scared of losing their job. The dollar buys a nickel's worth, banks aregoing bust, shopkeepers keep a gun under the counter. Punks are running wild in the street andthere's nobody anywhere who seems to know what to do, and there's no end to it.

We know the air is unfit to breathe and our food is unfit to eat, and we sit watching our TV's whilesome local newscaster tells us that today we had fifteen homicides and sixty-three violent crimes, asif that's the way it's supposed to be.

We know things are bad -- worse than bad. They're crazy. It's like everything everywhere is goingcrazy, so we don't go out anymore. We sit in the house, and slowly the world we are living in isgetting smaller, and all we say is, 'Please, at least leave us alone in our living rooms. Let me havemy toaster and my TV and my steel-belted radials and I won't say anything. Just leave us alone.'

Well, I'm not gonna leave you alone. I want you to get mad!"

And so with this (here abbreviated) speech he got the apathetic up, the procrastinating, the

nay-sayers and every Chicken Little in the land. He got the fearful to get up, the people who justwouldn't say what they saw. He got the politically alienated to get up, the people who never votedand always complained, doing nothing. He got them and all their listless friends and neighbors up,too.

He told them to throw up the windows, stick their heads out and scream their heads off: "I'M MADAS HELL... AND I'M NOT GOING TO TAKE IT ANY MORE!"

And in a minute or less, people, enraged people, angry people, chagrined and shame- faced peoplewere doing just that. And, friend, when you finish this article I want you to do the same thing, for it's way past time for such a profound tribal, deeply primitive outburst from us the good people who built this nation and who keep it going. We are the tax-paying, America loving, thoroughly

responsible, helping others citizens of the Great Republic, the people devalued, diminished, demotedand still asked for more as we seethe while watching others do less, scoffing at us, the heart of thenation.

Open that window!

Throw up the sash!

And SCREAM.... for you and I have taken it all far too long and there is vengeance in our heart...

I'm mad about the fact that we can find billions of dollars to blow up Iraq and Afghanistan but not a penny for our decaying infrastructure. Where's the logic in this?







I'm profoundly angry about the fact that for each dollar we spend on homeland "security" we feelless and less secure. Taking off our belts, shoes, pants, shirts and everything else has just made usridiculous, without improving our security one iota.

I've had it with both political parties, who think their work consists of charging each other withobstructing the business of the nation when we all know they are both the culprits.

I've had it with candidates like Michele Bachmann whose every utterance is another embarrassment.

It's time to call it not just the way we see it, but the way it is. Michele's an uneducated bigot with sex, particularly gay sex, on the brain. Let's just say everything about the lady makes me mad and shouldmake you mad, too.

As for Mitt Romney, he's a pompous twit; after spending millions of the dollars he made byreorganizing companies and putting people out of work, he's less liked now than when he started.The plain fact is, no one likes him or wants him in the Oval Office.

As for Rick Perry... tell the unvarnished truth. If he created a single job in Texas it was a minimumwage position in the service sector flipping burgers. What he likes doing is signing executive ordersexecuting felons under 18 and the mentally ill. I'm enraged that no one bothers to say that Perryalone executed more criminals in his 11 years as governor; more than all the other governors of thenation combined.

I'm enraged about the "birthers" the people who still waste their time and money with their "proof"Barack Obama is an alien, disqualified to be president. And I'm mad at Obama too, for not fightingfor jobs and what must be done to lift the economy and cut the unemployment rate. He's beenadvised over and over again what to do; he lacks the grit and fortitude to make it happen and thatmakes me mad all over again.

I'm mad at the "leaders" who lie to us and pander by suggesting easy choices will solve the nation'sfinancial problems. Tell us how bad things must get before they get better. Stop lying to getre-elected when your policy back in office is to lie some more to get re-elected all over again.

Tell the truth, the whole truth and nothing but the truth about what has to happen with Medicaid,Medicare, Social Security and every single entitlement that exists. Don't sugar coat the pill... tell the people the God's honest truth.

And while you're at it...

Clean up the Internet, too.

I'm mad as hell about

* the jerks who send those millions of emails lying about some bogus legacy and what I have to payto get it. Use our sophisticated technology. Go get 'em; clear 'em out. Put 'em in jail, or worse.

* the guys who launch viruses, clog the system, bringing down the unwary. It's time to find them(easily done) and put them away for a significant stretch for crimes against humanity.

I'm mad as hell about our educational "system"

* teachers who cannot teach but can erase and alter standard test results, each one more adamantlyopposed to educational reform than the last.

* principals who have none, their only concern to keep the financial tap open whether or not anyoneis learning anything.







* students who wear their trousers at the ankle, every inch of exposed flesh cocking a snook at thesystem and outraging any opportunity to learn.

And there's more, much, much more to get mad about, to get up and scream about, but let this sufficefor now. What we must do is clear... but I wonder if any of us has the guts to do it.... I wonder if I'vegot them myself.... or whether we'll stay mad as hell while saying nothing, absolutely nothing, whichis how we got in this mess in the first place.







Up to $60 billion squandered in Iraq and Afghanistan saysThe Wartime Contracting Commission. It's time for massiveoverhaul.

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's Program Note: Are you a tax-paying American? Then today's article will not merely irritate

or anger you; it will enrage you.

It is the story of stupidity, of waste, of fraud, of corruption -- and of a government asleep at theswitch; it's all too frequent position.

There are three ways to approach this story:

1) you can ignore the facts and, ostrich-like, put your head in the sand and keep it there for theduration, or

2) you can say, "What can I do? I have no way to influence the people who need to be influenced toeffect the necessary changes", or

3) you can say, "I am mad as hell, and I'm not going to take it anymore."

I want you to know, I am very definitely in the third camp, and I want you in the third camp, too.

To get you in the right mood to tackle this problem, I've chosen one of the best "jump-up" songsever, "You keep me hangin' on," by The Supremes (released in 1966). The lyrics are perfect for thisarticle. As you read them, imagine you are uttering them -- to the people in charge, the peoplefrittering away your hard- earned money:

"Set me free, why don't cha babe Get out my life, why don't cha babe 'Cause you don't really loveme You just keep me hangin' on."

In this tune, an exasperated Diana Ross says, "And there ain't nothin' I can do about it."

But there is......

Start by going to any search engine to get this tune. Clear a space. Turn up the music... and get thenecessary "in your face" attitude. Then dig in...

The facts.

The United States has lost billions of dollars to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan and standsto repeat that in future wars without big changes in how the government awards and managescontracts for battlefield support and reconstruction projects, independent investigators reported

August 31, 2011.The Wartime Contracting Commission urged Congress and the Obama administration to put in placeits detailed recommendations to overhaul the contracting process and increase accountability. Thecommission suggested that the joint House-Senate debt reduction committee take a close look attheir proposals.

The commission was adamant, failure to act now ensures continuing waste and fraud at the massivecurrent levels. "What you're asking for is more of the same", said Dov Zakheim, a commissionmember and the Pentagon comptroller during President George W. Bush's first term. "More waste.More fraud. More abuse."







The bipartisan commission, created by Congress in 2008, estimated that at least $31 billion and asmuch as $60 billion has been lost in Iraq and Afghanistan over the past decade due to lax oversightof contractors, poor planning, infrequent competition, and corruption. "I personally believe that thenumber is much, much closer to $60 billion," Zakheim said.

The commission's recommendations.

The commission offered 15 recommendations including creating an inspector general to monitor war zone contracting and operations, appointing a senior government official to improve planning andcoordination among federal agencies, and carefully monitoring contractor performance.Representative John Tierney (D-Massachusetts), top Democrat on the House Oversight andGovernment Reform national security subcommittee said the commission's findings are alarming andthat he'll introduce legislation to create the inspector general's post.

This is all fine as far as it goes, but it's not good enough, not least because it won't capture theattention of the American people and get them sufficiently interested to demand the necessaryreforms, and demand them NOW!

What then is necessary?

Senator Harry Truman and his approach suggest a do-able solution.

All wars produce massive fraud, mismanagement and corruption, even "good" wars like World War II. And all wars require that every expenditure be reviewed. The man who did this in WWII was anobscure senator from Missouri, Harry Truman. Thanks to David McCullough's magisterial biography, at hand as I write this, I am in a position to share Truman's important work as chairmanof the (Senate Special) Committee to Investigate the National Defense Program. It provides thenecessary inspiration and specific steps we must take to solve this infuriating, debilitating problemand solve it now before we hemorrhage to death through mind-boggling selfishness,mismanagement, and stupidity.

Truman's secret? Legs.

Harry Truman had no idea what he was getting into when he decided to see for himself what waswrong with the nation's wartime contracting process. But he was a game fellow and knew the secretwas understanding how the process worked, including where abuses were likely to occur. This meantgetting out of Washington, to visit wartime facilities, meet the people, understand the procedures.And so facility managers woke up to discover an unexpected and unannounced Senator Truman attheir door, pleasantly (but sternly) asking for admittance and cooperation. This is the kind of thing hefound, this time at Fort Leonard Wood in Missouri:

There "he found costly equipment and material lying about in the snow and rain 'getting ruined,things that could never be used, would never be used...' The contractor had no previous constructionexperience.' And there were men, hundreds of men, just standing around collecting their pay, doing

nothing'. Truman walked about this and other sites taking notes on what he saw and whatever peoplewere willing to tell him."

In due course, through one on-site visit after another and then informative Senate hearingsshowcasing the usual abuses, Truman captured the attention of America... and fueled by concerned,aggravated, irritated Americans he was able to effect dramatic changes and save millions of dollarsneeded elsewhere. They knew, Senator Truman knew, as we know -- there is nothing Americanscannot accomplish together so long as we clearly understand the task and have an inspiringhard-working leader like Truman, willing to put shoe leather to pavement to achieve the goal. And by the way, if it hadn't been for this work he would never have been selected by President Rooseveltfor vice president in 1944 and thus would never have become president of the United States.







President Obama take note.

This vast effort needs an elected leader, a big man or woman with grit, determination, perseverance-- and a smile, the better to put a human face on the task, work and achievement of the goal, no mere bureaucratic inspector general will do. We need leadership and we need it now, capiche?

And remember, Diana Ross and The Supremes are here to help us aggrieved taxpayers. We need allthe help we can get!

"You're just using me Go on, get out of my life And let me sleep at night 'Cause you don't reallylove me You just keep me hangin' on...

Why don't you be a man about it And set me free Now you don't care a thing about me You're justusing me."

Exactly.







A look inside my crystal ball. Here are the results of the 2012elections... trust me!

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. Whether you like it or not, the song to learn is John Sinclair's 1903 favorite,"The Eyes of Texas Are Upon You" ... but worse, for the likes of Mitt Romney, it's not just Texas...

but the whole of the US of A. that is taking a good, close look at the strapping, big haired, stentorian back slapping Texas governor, Rick Perry.

What's more, every day that goes by makes Mitt Romney less palatable, less electable, and lesslikable (if that's possible) than he was the day before. But let's not get into that matter quite yet; let'sinstead set the mood by going to any search engine and finding a rendition of Sinclair's snappytune... then put on your favorite Texas football jersey and tune up the music. It is, after all, athoroughly rousing number.

The House of Representatives.

This one is easy. As I write (September 13, 2011), the Grand Old Party holds 240 seats in the

House; Democrats hold 193 seats. There are currently 2 vacancies.Let's start from some facts much cited that, in the final analysis, won't matter much. Call it the"stink" factor. Poll after poll comes in with numbers like these, according to an NBC News/WallStreet Journal poll. These results, from August 27-31, show 82 percent of respondents disapprove of the job Congress is doing, compared with 13 percent who approve.

Forty-six percent disapprove of the Republicans' job performance, while 32 percent approve.Congressional Democrats' disapproval rating stood at 44 percent in the poll, compared with 33 percent who approved of their job performance.

Now, let's be candid. These numbers, almost identical for both parties, are bad news for the

Democrats; Americans hold their noses for both parties and that's not at all helpful for the Democratswho must be perceived as a credible alternative They aren't.

Thus, when the votes are in, Republicans will increase their already staggering majority by 3-5seats, leaving the Democrats yearning for the cosmic tsunami they require to change things. If youdon't like this prediction, consider the long-term damage Republican redistricting has wrought. Thatwas perhaps the most significant result of the 2010 mid-term elections and cannot be undone untilDemocrats increase their presence in the nation's legislatures and so control the next bout of redistricting.

The Senate.

Right now, the Democrats (with the help of two New England Independents) control the Senate53-47. But the outlook is bleak and hinges partly on whether President Obama and his race candeliver the huge number of folks to the polls who usually don't vote, but did in 2008. High turn-outis necessary or the GOP will control the Senate, too.

Here's the current situation. Fewer than a dozen Senate seats appear to be in play, and almost all areheld by Democrats. Just two Republican Senators, Nevada freshman Dean Heller and Massachusettsanomaly Scott Brown are thought to be vulnerable. A Perry candidacy helps Heller. As for the photogenic, likable Brown, even Boston's longest serving (and Democratic) mayor, ThomasMenino, says Brown's a shoe-in. I agree with his honor. Democrats will make a huge effort to regainthe seat that was once held by the late Edward Kennedy, but will fall short.







As for seats currently held by Democrats that the GOP expects to capture, that includes knocking off Joe Manchin in West Virginia, Bob Casey in Pennsylvania, Missouri's Claire McCaskill (the Senator simpleton), and Ben Nelson in Nebraska.

My prediction? When the dust settles, Democrats lose the Senate holding 48 seats plus oneIndependent (Bernie Sanders of Vermont), Republicans hold 51. It ain't heroic, but it's enough. TheGOP presidential nomination.

There are no doubt indiscretions, peccadilloes, and embarrassing episodes in Rick Perry's personalhistory; we all have them. But Mitt Romney better hope they are whoppers and soon or he's toast.

When Romney was running against a field of pygmies (which he was until August 13, 2011 whenPerry declared), he was the "front runner." But the very first foot step Perry took as an announcedcandidate kicked Romney out of that questionable position and reminded the Mitt-ster that "some of these days these boots are gonna walk all over you." That time is nigh and so Romney is runningaround America trying to get Tea Party-ers to like him. But it's no good. They loved motor-mouthMichele Bachmann, but in Perry they get the best of Bachmann without her craziness... and they getthe distinct possibility of backing a winner. And that's not good for Mitt. Neither is the primaryseason.

Romney must do well in the February 6, 2012 Iowa caucuses. If Perry wins, Romney will bevulnerable. And if Perry wins in Iowa and in the February 14th New Hampshire primary, Romney isa goner... because while he may win the Wisconsin primary (February 21) he will almost surely losethe Nevada causes (on February 18) and the South Carolina and Arizona primaries (February 28th).Romney may win the Michigan primary on the same date because his father was once governor there... but Perry won't care. He can and should be the prospective nominee by then and der Mitt-ster will be sniffing around the vice presidency Perry won't offer. Mitt better get that dirt on Perry fast;he needs all he can get.

Ladies and Gentlemen: The President of the United States....

Americans always need to be reminded, we do not elect the president; we elect electors who thenelect the president. Electors, unless otherwise mandated by the laws of each state, may vote for whomever they wish. Here are the electoral facts.

President Obama's poll numbers are bad, and worsening. But he is a formidable campaigner, knowshow to use electronic media for maximum impact, and will raise about a BILLION dollars to keepthe White House. Democrats may no longer be enchanted with their man, but they have no where togo. Here are his challenges.

Obama won 365 electoral votes in 2008. Because of redistricting he would lose 6 electoral votes,and these may prove crucial to the final result. Here's what the electoral college looks like for Obama today.

Assuming Perry is the GOP nominee, Obama will sweep New England for 33 electoral votes. ANYstate Perry takes here is gravy and bad news for Obama.

Obama similarly sweeps the mid-Atlantic states including the District of Columbia (3), for 79 votes,including the big prizes of New York (29) and Pennsylvania (20). About this time, Perry folks aredespairing... but despair is premature.

Perry will sweep the South for 183 votes. Obama is weak throughout the region, Perry is from theregion. The big imponderable is Florida, but Perry could help nail down victory by selectingfreshman Senator Mel Martinez for vice president which would give him a useful leg-up with the







Hispanic community. Missouri (10) could prove difficult for Perry, but incumbent Democraticsenator McCaiskell could prove a drag for Obama and thus I give the palm here to Perry and with itthe Solid South.

There are now three more regions to review. One goes to Obama (Pacific West), one to Perry (West)and one will determine the election (Middle West). First the Pacific West...

Obama takes California (55), Oregon (7), Washington (12), Hawaii (4). 78 votes total. Nothinglooks hopeful for Perry at the moment, but if Obama's poll numbers fall, Perry should aim for Washington. Alaska's three go to Perry.

West. Strong for Perry (92). And if he selects Martinez, that would secure Colorado with its sizableHispanic community.

And finally, the Mid West, including Ohio (18), Illinois (20), Indiana (11), Michigan (16),Minnesota (10), Wisconsin (10), Nebraska (5), Kansas (6). Perry takes Ohio, Nebraska and Kansasand Indiana. Perry gets 85 votes; Obama gets the rest (56 votes) but it's not enough.

Perry wins 292 electoral votes to 246 for ex-president Obama.

Of course this is all just projection but it does show how Perry can win... and Obama lose. However,

November 2012 is over a year and a multitude of unplanned events away, so Perry had better notstart whistling "Hail to the Chief" quite yet... and neither should Obama.







A great sadness in the land. An open letter to my president,the Honorable Barack Obama.

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

A special preface for my readers worldwide. Today, with a measure of reluctance, I step outside myusual role as a commentator on a myriad of facts, occurrences, events, trends and happenings to be

what from my birth I have been and treasured, a Citizen of the United States, my country.Today I shall not merely report on the news in all its many aspects, at home and universally, but Ishall, in a small but not insignificant way, make history... which is what Citizens do when theyconsider their nation, its affairs and directions, its misadventures and glorious achievements andreport their opinions, feelings, complaints, concerns and admonitions to the individual who is, for the moment, the chief magistrate of the Great Republic, a position granted by the people who remainthe ultimate repository of all power... and who, therefore, are, in such reporting doing what theyhave the right and indeed the obligation and responsibility to do... for all that their language may,from time to time, become choleric, injudicious, and intemperate.

As one of these people, these Citizens, I am today writing for and immediately thereafter sending to

my president my thoughts and observations at this moment in our history, for I sense a great sadness beginning to move across the land, which must give pause to every thoughtful member of the body politic.

I want you, Reader, to note the matter of how I have headed these remarks, for I am sending themnot just to the President of the United States, but to "my president," for first and foremost he is not just a quondam official, holding office from such a time to such a time. He is, instead, the lawfulleader of my country, a nation in which my hopes and dreams, along with the hopes and dreams of unseen millions of my countrymen, reside. I therefore write because I must... for the stakes are far too great to be silent... and I trust that the first lesson to be drawn from this letter is that you, too,shall, with thought and high seriousness of purpose, send to your president the fruit of your wisdom

and concern, for whatever divides us, we have everything to unite us.... the articles and means of governance, centuries of shared triumphs and adversities, the first fashioned, the second overcome by our united actions. We share hopes, dreams, visions, and the abiding knowledge that, of all peoples on this earth, we have created our realities... and so we must take action when our directionfalters... and our vision is obscured.

... as it happening now, to the growing certainty, concern, lamentations and jeremiads of the people.And because all these are not the best of us... we call upon you, as we are in duty bound to do, tolead the people... exhort the people... lift up the people and return us intact, renewed to former greatness and greater greatness yet to come.

Mr. President, you came into office in a flood tide of exclamations, gratitudes, hosannahs... a man

not merely of destiny but a man of reconciliation, joy, and healing purpose. You broke the stringentand oppressive color barrier, for every office and high position in the land, an invidious reality thattoo long oppressed a nation dedicated to eradicating the oppressions of others, yet for long unable toeradicate the oppressions we inflicted upon ourselves. You were a living symbol of all that is best inus. And we were glad of it... and thanked you for liberating all the people from the cancer of oppressing.

Now, however, the man who verily walked upon the water, is in danger of being swept out to sea, avictim of expectations too high, a man perhaps to be remembered and derided, for having peaked as president in his first hour on the job. What has caused this implosion, this great fall from grace and







on high?

It is not the problems which assail us, for the Great Republic was conceived, born and grew strongand proud because of great problems greatly engaged. Because we believed -- and still I trust believe-- that only from great problems solved can a great people evolve towards perfection.

It is not that the political climate is more divisive, harsh, noisome and belligerent than our FoundingFathers and their generations of descendants faced, for the political atmosphere and actions in this pantheon of strong opinions have often been incendiary, ad hominem, vulgar, and abusive. As a people we know the alchemy for turning such bile into unity. It is our particular genius.

Nor is it that we are less dedicated and committed to the usages of our great system of governanceand life, for the blood and passions of our forefathers run strong in us, too.

What then is the cause for our disappointment, dismay, and of the incipience of despair and growingdisillusion? And what then must we do?

There are many causes, profound, significant, challenging... and many are at work even now to bringsolutions to the problems at hand. But your office, our customs and immemorial usage all dictatethat you, our oathed and solemnly sworn leader take precedence in action and constructive purpose.And here you have faltered, and I wish to suggest why.

I am writing to you now from a neighborhood and institution you know well and loved, Cambridgeand The Harvard Law School. There you learned and then mastered the principles and procedures of the law, one of the glories of our entire civilization. Here amongst the grassy precincts and serene buildings redolent of learning, judgement, and, above all, due process you found yourself and grew.You were happy here... but it did not prepare you for your current responsibilities, turbulences,conundra, attacks and altercations. As a result you are suffering... for lawyers learn how to divide pies... not how to make them. You are now the duly chosen Chief Baker... but without a recipe for sustaining and improving your aggrieved customers to be had.

These good people were at first confident, then patient, then exasperated, frustrated and irritated,

now they have turned angry and exigent. They know what you should know: the casualties inflicted by global economic maelstroms and a host of related economic and social realities are greater thanthe greatest of wars. If a wreath was placed on the door of every individual adversely affected weshould fall down in disbelief and horror. For the people know how great is the trouble in the landwhere God once shed His grace.

Your job, your only job, is to put America to work... for only an employed America can be a happyland of serenity, security and sustained peace of mind. You are Commander- in-Chief. Thus declarewar on America's most pressing enemy, unemployment

Create a "war cabinet" and set up your headquarters in the Roosevelt Room of the White House,already hallowed as a place to secure and defend America's interests. Make it known throughout the

land that this is not an Obama initiative; it is an American initiative and therefore you call upon allAmericans to do their bit, as their parents and grandparents did in World War II. And if someoppose, let them. You have God's work to do and cannot allow little men and their self-servingobjections to hinder you. You are America's leader, and you have America's work to do.

Every time any business or organization adds a job, post a notice and laud the job creators. They areall heroes in a war we must fight and we must win. They deserve recognition. Set up a websitewhere you list jobs created. Go live on the Internet at least one each day and show and tell theAmerican people just what you are doing and results achieved. Our people do not understand our presence in Iraq and Afghanistan. But they will all understand this. You are at a crossroads of your life and office. But there is a grand, honorable and necessary thing which you can do. Leave the







many good things you would do if you had world enough and time. Focus on the one thing we musthave now and without which we can achieve little else. Embrace your true calling, sir, and lead theendeavor to put America to work. It is what's needed... a goal we can reach together and must starttoday.







President Obama is a goner, unless he gets the messagefast: the issue is and always has been: Jobs! Jobs! Jobs!

By Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. You know and I know (and may be even they themselves know) the folks inWashington, D.C., those congress people, and even the president of these United States, just don't

get it. I mean, it just seems like common sense, logical, that a human person needs a job and theincome that derives from it. So today I'm going to do these exalted poobahs a favor. I'm not going towait a moment longer... I've got a detailed plan for what the Honorable Barack can do -- right now.And he better use it, too, before all the folks without jobs hand him his hat... and some other gent his job.

It doesn't cost trillions of dollars and your right arm. By Washington standards, it's cheap... andthat's probably why they'll turn up their noses at it... because this plan isn't going to swell the ranksof the bureaucracy; it is only going to help real people get work and focus the president on what'simportant: having a job, like he does.

For the incidental music to today's article, I've selected a pip of a tune. Your mom probably sang it to

you when you were a kid. Mine did... and mom (who was a bit of a ham, like all good mothers)needed no persuasion, not just to belt it out, but pretend she was a train and that I was her favorite passenger. The tune is "I've Been Working On The Railroad." You'll find it in any search engine. Gonow, find and sing it at the top of your voice. Feels good, doesn't it, especially if you've got a job!

It's a traditional American folk song first published in a book of glees, "Carmina Princetonia", byPrinceton University in 1894. Those privileged boys knew nothing about work, of course; but theydid know a good tune when they heard it...and so did the Sandhills Sixteen who first recorded it. Itwas released by Victor Records in 1927... and was so popular everyone and his bro' recorded it, too.It's easy to see why. It's got traditional American pep and toe tapping rhythm. It's the way a bunch of folks would sound as they let off steam (and had a cool one, or two) after work... The key was

"work." And that, Mister President, is why you need to listen to this tune and its lyrics and get themessage:

"I've been working on the railroad All the live-long day."

A pie cutter, not a pie maker.

To understand Barack Obama better, you've only got to remember that he's a lawyer. And while thatisn't exactly illegal, it is certainly not what we need when the issue is, as it has been throughout his presidency, jobs, pure and simple. That's because lawyers are adept at dividing wealth (alwayskeeping a good slice of it for themselves); they are not and never have been good at creating wealth.I like to say, lawyers can cut up a pie and distribute it... but they don't know a hill of beans about

making pies. And that's Barack's problem and why he's having so much trouble... and why muchmore trouble is heading his way unless he gets the message and starts creating some jobs.

And one more thing... the problem is even worse because he's a Harvard LAW grad.

Now, I've got nothing against the "Harvards" (as Lyndon Johnson used to call them); I have twoHarvard degrees myself. but you've got to understand something. Harvard Law graduates (the besttrained lawyers on earth) are cool, detached, analytical to a degree. They have been trained in themastery of words... not in the necessary skills for working with, inspiring and motivating people.And if you don't see Barack Obama in these words, you need to change your bi-focals. He wastrained in a way that provides no assistance whatsoever in making pies and feeding Americans who







need them.

I'm here to help. I am always glad to pull a Harvard Law grad out of the drink... It helps humble thatinsufferable breed.

Here's my suggestion designed to save the president's bacon and, while we're at it, put millions of Americans to work, which is where they ought and want to be. Here's where a knowledge of business, marketing, and the Internet come in handy.

First, let's make sure we're focused on the right enemy and get Obama focused, too. He missed the boat (as every political junkie knows) by concentrating first on health care, gays in the military, etc.These were important, of course, but never as important (or as marketable) as JOBS. And here theHonorable Barack unquestionably muffed it. It's what put him in the soup and soured America. Real people never forgot that which Obama gave no indication of ever knowing; namely that having a job(with that all-important predictable income) is the key to the good life and the mental serenity thateveryone needs. It's that "pie maker" thing I mentioned above.

Declare war on the real enemy -- unemployment.

Obama is the Commander-in-Chief of all the president's horses and all the president's men. He needsto act like it and select the right enemy: unemployment. This means setting the goal and going aboutthe business of achieving it.

Start by turning the Roosevelt Room into what it used to be: a military command center. Tell thenation that a 24 hour-a-day strategic center will work from there... and that it will help folks aroundthe nation CREATE jobs... and recognize those who do. Make it clear that you, the president, willappear in this war center daily; also, that you will address the nation for 5 minutes or so. Mondaythrough Saturday. Set up the necessary video facilities in the White House.

Then get a website where the jobs being created are listed along with the folks responsible for thushelping achieve victory in the war for employment. Make it clear to your fellow Citizens just whatyou are doing and that you are calling upon them to help add new workers to their enterprises and

organizations.Each day cite progress, outline problems, say what you're doing to solve them and make progress.Show the American people what YOU are doing... and then make it clear what they need to do.Americans like this kind of common sense approach. They can understand it, unlike mere statisticsas reported by government agencies and run in newspapers. Your job is to keep it clear and simpleso that even teen-agers understand.

"Hi, fellow Americans, here's what we achieved together today."

You pioneered in using the Internet to raise money and identify supporters. Now use it to motivateand recognize job creators of any kind for everything they do. Be enthusiastic! Always mention the

names of these heroes in the war for job creation and growth. Make your website interactive like myLive Business Center. Have employers leave their job creation info... and have a staffer get back tothem at once for all the details. Make sure you phone some of them... and always, always, alwaysthank the people -- by name -- for what they do towards creating the jobs Americans need. And,remember, every job created has a tremendous ripple effect, the new job holder, his family, thechildren, the merchants where they shop, you get the picture.

Turn it into a Big Deal.... because it is.

One more thing: by doing this and embracing the American people and their needs and concerns,you'll not only save your soul; you'll probably save your presidency, too. And if you follow these







recommendations and achieve success, you'll deserve it!







What the Herman Cain scandal is really all about... and whyit's bad news for the GOP.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. I'm Illinois-born and bred, and that's why I'm tickled pink by the latestdevelopments in the political education of pizza man Herman Cain. I mean, we loyal Illini were

beginning to pine for another good scandal. We haven't had one, you see, since ex-Governor RodBlagojevich was convicted in August, 2009 on 17 counts, including the really bright idea of trying tosell the U.S. Senate seat vacated by some guy named Obama who got a promotion and immediatelymoved out of the old neighborhood.

Anyway, we're so used to red meat in the Loop and what we call Chicagoland that a piece of ham-fisted political skullduggery doesn't begin to satisfy us to the extent that it would with, say, therubes of Des Moines.

So, we're all just pleased as punch at the advent of Sharon Bialek, a Chicago woman you didn'tknow about a couple of days ago... a woman you will call "what's her name?" just a few days fromnow. But she's got news value right this minute... and I say, "Hurrah!" since all the political junkies

in bars around the Land of Lincoln were beginning to lament the scandal-free landscape. But theyare sure happy now.

Here are the facts:

Herman Cain is a guy who woke up one morning with a well-known American bee in his bonnet: hedecided he was the White Hope of the nation, a Man of Destiny, ready to be outfitted for his place onMt. Rushmore. Never mind that the man, a titan amongst pizza makers, had never had to make adecision more weighty than whether his pizzas should include anchovies, or not; Herman knew hewas exactly what ailing Uncle Sam needed. And so he wrote a book (mandatory for all presidentialcandidates) to make his case to the nation and so started his gaffe-filled quest, a quest that made Don

Quixiote de la Mancha and his Impossible Dream look as grounded as money in the bank..For instance, on the matter of China and our need to worry, candidate Cain warned us of our jeopardy should the Red menace ever get The Bomb. It was promptly pointed out to the defiant"What me worry?" candidate that China became a nuclear power 47 years ago. But who needs factswhen you are a master in the selection and positioning of pepperoni, which impacts us all and every palate. That's real power.

Herman Cain, a man who could partee!

I'm guessing from the censorious commentary in publications online and off that these guys don'tunderstand the hospitality industry in which Cain cut such an expansive, larger-than-life figure. But

I do know this industry where enough is too little and satisfying every little whim is their credo and pride. In short these boys and girls knew how to have a real good time.

Too much rich food, way too much booze, too much conversation that skated perilously close to theunacceptable and unprofessional (and often went beyond)... too much skin showing, too suggestive by half, and nary a spouse to be seen. They were at home like Mrs. Herman Cain, wife of 43 years,teacher, librarian, mother of two, grandmother of three, and completely invisible while her back-slapping, late playing, grand-standing hubby fights for his political life. The dutiful spouse whoused to stand by her man... now lets "till death do us party" swing in the wind while she makes other plans. Nice.

You can picture the scene; it goes like this. "Hi, I'm Herman Cain." "Nice to meet you, Mr. Cain."







"Call me Herman." And so the primordial dance of man and woman, big- wig and small fry, promotion giver and promotion seeker begins and progresses, all fueled by a ton of gratuities in thehospitality suite, overseen by one of those eye- popping ice sculptures, now melting from swan tougly duckling.

In this business cum pleasure environment, Herman Cain, master of innuendo and the can't becomplained about hug and kiss, ruled. And he got away with every questionable action... even to theextent of dishing out tidy sums to ease forgetfulness amongst the ladies who rebuffed him and

needed to be removed from sight and mind. Had he never run for president of the United States noone would have cared about these ancient gropes and grinds from the libidinous 'nineties.

But not only did he run... he ran without first examining his life and actions.. .to be sure he was likeCaesar's wife far above and far beyond any reproach whatsoever. He owed this scrutiny to thesupporters who flocked to the hokum of his "9-9-9" message until all hell broke loose and hiscampaign needed "911" not "9-9-9."

And when it did, he stood before the world as naked and confused as the Emperor who had noclothes... exposing both himself and the party which made him its "front runner" to the most vulgar of jokes and erudite speculation on how a man of so little knowledge, absolutely no demonstrated political successes and no ability whatsoever to deal with this crisis had the unmitigated gall to stand

before the citizens asking for the greatest gift of all.

The culprits of course are not the 4 women who say Cain made grossly improper suggestions. Theyare but the proximate cause of the current imbroglio. They will all come forth, all 4 of them, asSharon Bialek already has, and they will tell their squalid little stories to a nation which caresnothing for them or their "courage" in making their claims. They are only insignificant pawns in thefar bigger story; of why Cain, with so little to recommend him to a great nation, should still be politically kicking at all, for that is the true surprise.

Cain, of course, has only himself to blame for this debacle for which he blames himself not one iota.He is innocent, the victim of a witch hunt; he is misunderstood, he is white as snow, he is the victim,

the greatest victim ever; he categorically rejects anything that is detrimental to his ludicrouscandidacy. And so he goes on, day by day, hoping Adolph Hitler was right, that if you say a thingoften enough the people will come to see it as the unvarnished and total truth. And so he stonewalls,never understanding that by so doing he fuels the media's desire and determination to discover all...and so make the pizza maker eat dirt.

In the end the ladies will have their moment of fame and they will say enough so detrimental thatCain will drop out as his support and finances tumble.

Why has this happened?

And now we come to a blunt assessment of why this is all so bad for the GOP. The man who should

be the beneficiary of Cain's pratfalls and misjudgments, Mitt Romney, is in fact the problem, not thesolution. He issues white papers; he offers numbers and plans, but the people see him as a man withstatistics but no heart; a man it is virtually impossible to like... and they do not wish to follow such aman.

Cain exists now for one reason, because his supporters cannot abide the unpalatable Romney and arenot sure what to do now that their unlikely paladin hangs by a thread. Any of the accusing women,with a plausible story and good presentation, can cut this thread... making Mitt more likely as thenominee but no more likely as the man to lead America forward. And this is the great dilemma of the GOP, once a great engine in the triumph of the nation, now in search of someone to lead us togreatness again.







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Keep your mitts off America. Why they're writing songs of love, but not for Mitt Romney.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. 2012 ought to be a big Republican year, not least because President Obamais perceived by almost no one as the leader we need. A good man, yes; up to the job... no way. But

Obama, with all his baggage, remains, in my humble opinion, the likely winner, unless (and it's a big"unless") unemployment goes up. However, most of my commenting colleagues think a verymarginal drop is likely -- not an increase. I concur. Thus, I've selected the song "But not for me"(written by George Gershwin in 1930) to accompany this article. "They're writing songs of love"... but not for Mitt! Go to any search engine to find this much sung song. I like the Rod Stewart version best... Mitt, of course, won't like any version at all.... pity. It's a great number.

Dismal

With the state of the nation what it is, and what it threatens to remain -- dismal -- a guy like MittRomney ought to be riding the crest of a wave that'll deliver him in due course to 1600 PennsylvaniaAvenue with whoops of joy and the prayers of a great people.

He's brighter than bright.

A hard-working, dedicated policy wonk with a graduate student's dedication and ardor.

So rich that even he doesn't have a clue how much money he's got.

A picture-perfect family with smiles to die for.

Yes, Mitt's got it all... except for judgement, integrity and honesty. And he's got only himself to blame for this glaring lapse, so big you could drive a coach and four comfortably through it, andwhich you can see for yourself any day you like.

This is why der Mitt-ster is in trouble and why the hapless big wigs of the GOP want anyone,absolutely anyone, other than Mitt. And I understand why: as a tax- paying citizen of Massachusetts,I know how they feel. Like they want to puke, every time they think of this guy at the head of their next national ticket.

Thus these diligent Solons of the Great Republic have been tripping over themselves to find acandidate, their actions ham-fisted, clumsy, but telling as they have scrounged up and praised suchverifiable pygmies as Michelle Bachmann, who is next door to a moron; Rick Perry who wouldn'tknow how to spell his own name if a less challenged aide didn't hold up a cue card to remind him;Herman Cain who has never had trouble wooing les femmes, just profound difficulty rememberingwhere and when... and keeping his wife of decades up to date.

And now, wafted by the incense of New Hampshire's largest newspaper, the Manchester UnionLeader, which never met a kooky idea it didn't like, is touting Newt Gringrich, a man who woulddenounce his own mother if it got him a look-see, much less the White House. Ask his many wives,mistresses, chicks and concubines and see for yourself. It'll all come out in the wash anyway.

It would all be hysterically funny... except that we voters of America, denizens all of the GreatRepublic, are going to have to live with the results... and that's a revolting development if anythingever was.

Why are all these people working so hard for Anyone But Mitt?







"Veritas", Harvard's motto -- and Mitt's.

Let's get one thing perfectly straight, everything that Mitt says, whenever he says it is alwaysTRUTH, no matter that it is totally opposite to what he said on the subject five minutes ago. Mitt isto American politics what the Pope speaking ex cathedra infallible is to Rome, a man never wrong,with a license to reshuffle the truth that we lesser folks must adhere to. Mitt went to Harvard (allserious candidates always do)... and so "Veritas" (truth) is his motto. Luckily, he never has to worryfinding it. It's what he utters all day, every day, no matter his subject, implausible, disingenuous or

inaccurate. As you can imagine, this considerably simplifies his life and labors... and makescampaign fact-checkers superfluous; around Mitt they are simply unneeded.

Governor Mitt of Massachusetts instituted a progressive health care program which was timely,needed, forward looking, a program that would have made any governor of any state proud. ButCandidate Mitt has done everything but deny he was governor at the time to get out of acceptingresponsibility and credit for what ought to be his acme.

Sometimes he's pro gay rights; sometimes he's not.

Sometimes he'll cut a deal on illegal immigrants; sometimes he won't.

Only one thing is constant: that whatever he says, to whomever he says it is the God's honest truth,cross his heart and hope to die.

In the last few days Mitt has gotten himself in at least two middens which would surely trip up andsoil any other candidate, lesser folk all.

First the Boston Globe (which takes a proprietary interest in Mitt, having helped elevate him to hiscurrent celestial status) reported that in 2006 Governor Mitt's top aides purchased their computer hard drives just before his administration ended, and the usual Democratic hacks returned to theState House's corner office. Fully 11 of Mitt's minions ponied up for their drives, something never considered by previous excellencies, much less done.

Now you and I could guess what was going on, couldn't we? After all, in the real world we inhabit, people put things, all sorts of things, on their computers they don't want the world and his brother tosee. So we make sure those hard drives belong to us and nobody else. And so le tout Massachusettscame to the instant conclusion that those drives and their owners were up to no good. Purchase wasthe result... never mind that this was unprecedented... awfully suggestive... and maybe even illegal.

But remember, Mitt is not merely potentate, he is Pope. And so, after waiting days to respond toreporters' queries on the matter, he released his encyclical, explaining all, disclaiming all. All wasright, nothing wrong, why even wonder?

Why wonder, too, about Mitt and company's next faux pas; the outright lie that was his very first adagainst Obama. It shows a clip of the president saying, "If we keep talking about the economy, we're

going to lose." Never mind that these words were Obama quoting John McCain, the GOP nomineeRomney wanted to run with last time round. The ad was not just misleading... it was a blatantdistortion...

... which Romney aide Eric Fehrnstrom, the most indiscrete and bumptious campaign counselor ever, confirmed, happy in this deception. "It's all deliberate," he exulted. In other words, St. Mittknew it was a lie; authorized the lie, then told the world he was happy that he lied. Even the mostcynical were appalled.

And so the matter rests at this moment, as we await Mitt's next assault on truth, justice and theAmerican way; his next distortion, deceit, disingenuity. For make no mistake, the next one is on the







way, as Mitt plumbs the depths he expects to take him to the top. That's why you'll find me at all hiscampaign rallies selling air sickness bags, three for a buck. I'll clean up.

### Your response to this article is requested. What do you think? Let us know by posting your comments below.







Jobless rate drops to 8.5%... Obama winks at Michelle anddoes his happy dance... O! Mamma!

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

It is Saturday, January 7, 2012 as I write. The nation's air waves and print publications are filledwith stories about Republicans. About today's flash-in-the-pan former Pennsylvania senator Rick

Santorum... about the Boston Globe endorsing former Utah governor and U.S. Ambassador to ChinaJon Huntsman over Boston's not-so-favorite son former Massachusetts governor Mitt Romney.Bummer, but what can you expect from that crowd anyway?

Despite that little drawback, it's the Romney people who are cock-a-hoop this morning not only because they are ecstatic to be running against a pigmy like Santorum, whose friends and neighborsin Pennsylvania refused him -- and by a huge number -- a third U.S. senate term. Even better today'slatest poll results show Romney still romping to an avalanche in the crucial New Hampshire primary, and, lordy, lordy, way out in front in what could be the make-or-break primary in SouthCarolina. I hear Mitt's got all those toothsome boys of his learning to deliver a winsome a cappellaversion of "Hail to the Chief." Cute.

If all this is so -- and I assure you it is -- why did one Barrack Obama, after seeing a certain newsitem on the front page of all the newspapers he reads with voracity, take Michelle in his arms andwhirl her about the breakfast room letting those delicious blueberry scones he loves get cold?

It's because of this single number: 8.5%. And you don't have to be a political junkie to know what itmeans: It's the latest piece of welcome news... in what is getting to be a lengthening string of suchnews... because every time the jobless rate drops the political fortunes of Barrack Obama go up.Let's review the facts that make the First Mom and Dad so awfully cheerful, even giddy.

8.5% unemployment means the lowest rate in almost 3 years.

Barrack Obama is a very fortunate man, a man who can say to America, with complete factual

accuracy, too, that "You've never -- at least in my Administration -- had it so good."

The nation added a tidy 200,000 jobs in December, 2011, a burst of hiring that drove theunemployment rate down to its lowest point in just under 3 years. Tra la!

Moreover, December was the sixth straight month that the economy added at least 100,000 jobs, thelongest such streak since 2006. As a result of this happy-making data, more and more practitionersof the dismal science have resoundingly concluded there's a dance in the old dame America yet.

What makes a weak and vulnerable president purr with contentment?

Just this. The unemployment rate declined to 8.5% from 8.7% in November, and 9.1 percent at the

start of 2011. The jobless rate peaked at 10.1 percent in October 2009.

These numbers made Sung Won Sohn, an economics professor at California State University,Channel Islands, positively rapturous. "There is more horsepower to this economy than most believe. The stars are aligned right for a meaningful economic recovery." Obama when he read thiswas heard to mutter "From your lips to God's ear" and beamed a mega-watt smile that had been littleseen throughout the early days of his watch.

More good news.

But heart-warming though all these data were to the residents of 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, theywere only a portion of the good news arising from grass roots America. For instance, the nation







added 1.6 million jobs in 2011, on top of 940,000 added in 2010. Mind you, more than 8,000,000 jobs were lost in the Great Recession that began in December, 2007... but this figure was History(and therefore of no interest) whereas the jobs added were very much about the present and give thePresident credibility when he launches into a rousing rendition of Franklin Roosevelt's iconic ditty,"Happy Days Are Here Again," the tune that always means we have something good to smile about,wide and broad, and which you can find in any search engine, to play along with this article.

The pretzeling of presidents; their dexterity with astonishing contortions.

Now President Obama knows... every Republican presidential candidate knows... every member of the Congress knows, whatever party they adhere to, that the good news is only part of the report, butwhat's a politician for if he can't take a crumb and turn it into a bakery?

Take this bothersome conclusion, for instance, the considered opinion of Eric Rosengren, presidentof the Federal Reserve Bank of Boston. He said just a couple of days ago that he expects theeconomy to grow modestly this year -- 2 to 3 percent -- despite signs of building momentum.

The reason for this deflating opinion is that households and small businesses were especially hard hitduring the recent economic turbulence now widely called the Great Recession. Until these sectorsimprove and get distance from their particular issues of foreclosure and falling house prices, the

recovery won't be as glittering as you can be sure Obama and the Democrats will paint it. You can be equally sure Mitt Romney will be assiduous, morning and eve, about pointing out this and everylapse from the strict Truth.

Keep in mind that Mitt, too, is a close reader of these data and learned predictions. And more to the point, as a business wunderkind, practiced in high level (and very lucrative) leggerdomaine, he is themore likely to glean helpful suggestions and ideas from what he sees than Obama, who was a merelawyer (albeit, like Mitt, Harvard trained.)

Thus, whatever Rosengren and his ilk recommend, Mitt will (with alacrity) recommend... whilestrongly censoring Obama and his minions for not having acted. Rosengren wants the ObamaAdministration to do more to stimulate the economy.... Mitt does, too, whilst Obama (whatever he

has done) has done it too little, too late. Rosengren says the housing market and small businessshould be a particular focus, because these two sectors have traditionally lead the nation out of recession and unemployment... but not this time round. Mitt says ominously that is because of Obama's ineptitude and lack of vision. Obama will point to what he has done for those folks... whowere always in his mind,his heart, and his political calculus. He well knows he needs these people,especially with the acute disappointment and chagrin of Blacks, Liberals, and young voters (withhigh unemployment rates) who were once wild for Barrack but now mutter darkly about how theywere hoodwinked and deceived by their hero and his mastery of high sounding, flatulent rhetoric.

And so it will go, ad nauseam, until our can't-come-quickly-enough-for-me November Election Dayconfirms what most of us already feel in our bones...

... that the President will defeat Mitt in a solid but not overwhelming victory.

... that both houses of the Congress will be comfortably Republican.

... that Obama's second term will be in such slow motion and so undistinguished you'll think theWhite House Sleeping Beauty's castle, all asleep.

What then should der Mittster do, when he's handed the worthless presidential nomination of hissplintered party? Easy. He should tell the truth, the straight-forward, unvarnished truth about wherethis country is going and offer SPECIFIC proposals of the type congenial to policy wonks like him.In this role the Romney too few like to make him President will become respected and even admired,







his considerable merits at last put to proper and significant work, saving America as he once savedthe Olympics; greatly honored by all who love the Great Republic and wish her Godspeed.

*** What do you think? Your comments are invited below.







New biography of Mitt Romney claims to deliver 'The RealRomney'... but will anyone really care?

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Last night, January 19, 2012, The Boston Globe, the biggest and most influential newspaper in NewEngland, pulled out all the stops for two of their best and brightest reporters; Michael Kranish,

deputy chief of the Washington bureau of The Boston Globe and Scott Helman, staff writer at TheBoston Globe. The occasion was the release of their new biography of former Massachusettsgovernor Mitt Romney, the likely Republican presidential nominee.

First, my compliments to The Boston Globe. The special reception before a panel on der Mittster wasnicely done and gave us all the opportunity to meet the authors and chat with them. The helperswere all efficient, polite, unobtrusive. Perfect.

It looked like a long evening until....

I sought out Michael Kranish first; he seemed like the senior member of the team and I try to getwhat I need for my article out of the way as soon as possible, so that I can sit back and enjoy the

event. I told Kranish I had three brief questions for him.First, would Romney ever be president? His unpromising answer: "It's possible. It could happen."This was not the incisive, insightful comment I was looking for... and suggested the possibility of avery long evening in the making, one to be ditched as soon as I'd eaten more of their fine brie.

Question 2: will Mormonism be an issue in the campaign? "In some places it could be," heanswered. OMG! It was indeed going to be a very long evening.

But I said I wanted to ask him three questions... and it wasn't over until it was over. I ventured mythird query. "What was the most unexpected thing about Romney you discovered in your research"?Then the intriguing answer, "What happened at Stanford University" when he was a student there

during the Vietnam War, the war that derailed his father's presidential campaign. Ok, this wassomething promising... at last.

Of father brainwashed and campaign imploded.

Mitt Romney (born 1947) had as his dad a human dynamo called George Romney, celebrated as therescuer of American Motors (which gave me my push button Rambler in high school), governor of Michigan, member of the Nixon cabinet; a man who rightly thought he had a superb shot at being president of the Great Republic... until...

... he went to Vietnam, where he got star treatment and massive misinformation about how the war was going, how we'd win, how the people loved us, and enough manure to fertilize Connecticut. He

came back to America feeling like a fool; then shot himself through the head when he claimed themilitary had "brainwashed" him. His presidential campaign ended the minute the words were out of his mouth. Nobody wanted as president a man who could be controlled by the military or anyoneelse. And so George Romney's career ended... providing his son with a lifetime of lessons aboutwhat not to do... including the vital necessity to avoid the media whenever possible.

On his way back from Vietnam, Pere Romney stopped to visit Mitt at Stanford... where this devotedson got the opportunity to talk to his father about Life, War, God... of winning, losing, what'simportant and what isn't. It's the kind of conversation one has with a parent once in a lifetime... andMitt took it all in and to heart. He would, he vowed, revenge what had happened to his father... beingsure to derive all the proper lessons from this seminal event, including the absolute need in his life







for God, the God of the Mormons...

God.

To understand Mitt Romney, you must appreciate the importance and influence of his Mormonfaith. It has provided the sinews of his life while isolating him from other people; people who oftendisdained his religion, calling it a "cult" and worse. Mitt learned to be private, very private, about hisreligion...letting very few people into that side of himself. Privacy, particularly privacy about hisfaith, became an obsession... something that may have connected him with God... but most assuredlyestranged him from his fellow men, the people he'd need if he was ever to run for president.

Money.

What further separated him from the run of mankind was money... he made awesome amounts of it,largely through what are called leveraged buy-outs. This is a practice whereby investors buy acompany, with the intention of doing everything they can to make it as profitable as possible, asquickly as possible; so they can sell the whole or its parts, often for staggering return on investment.This almost always involves the firing of employees in an attempt to decrease expenses and increaseefficiency. Here Mitt Romney was king; a paragon who knew the delights that come when makingonly millions in a day was "bad" compared to the brilliant days, and plenty of them, when you made

tens, even hundreds of millions lickety-split. Such days did absolutely nothing to connect him withmere mortals... and presented a problem he has still not been able to solve. Every time he got richer,Mitt got more disconnected... and less electable.

So, here we've got a candidate with a perfect marriage, 5 sons made by Disney, nary a scandal to behad... richer that God Himself... super bright... the hardest worker on the planet... but a loser for allthat, because he just cannot connect with people and their everyday concerns to save his life.

Thus as I roamed the thin crowd talking with people, who were very keen to be asked their opinionabout Mitt and his prospects, the temperature never rose above "tepid." Yes, right smack dab in themiddle of Boston, capital of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts that Mitt had reigned over asgovernor (2003-2007), he couldn't have thrown off less heat. And so, the people whom he needed so

desperately to make him president evinced absolutely no excitement at all, much less any abidingglow.

And you could see this puzzled authors Kranish and Helman because their unauthorized biography(without a single interview with Mitt), into which they had poured time, life and commitment couldonly go as far as its subject, and not an inch more. If he sailed into the White House, their book (which I made sure they both autographed) would have the legs most political books never do, but if the world was as lukewarm as the folks in their audience, their $30 book (praised though it was bythe usual East Coast media suspects) was DOA...

That's why they came back to this point several times: awkward and disconnected as Mitt was in

public, he was in private something of a cut-up (of the wonk variety), a man who could tell a story,give a hug, engage... even (and this arrested my attention for sure) moon walk while singing tunesfrom the Grateful Dead, tunes like "There's Whiskey In The Jug", an odd favorite for a tea-totallingMormon:

"Mush-a ring dum-a do dum-a da Whack for my daddy-o. Whack for my daddy-o There's whiskey inthe jar."

But this, though it made me smile and nod my head in wonderment was not the highlight of theevening. That was the rapt attention and joy in Aime Joseph. You see Mr. Joseph is my driver, aHaitian by birth, obsessed with American politics, always quizzing me about political people andtheir measures. He dressed up for this event, and imbibed every word with the utmost focus and







concentration. "We have nothing like this in Haiti," he said as I gave him the present of a lifetime,an autographed copy of the book. And when he saw me about to drop it, he grabbed it from myhand, the better to ensure it did not fall; chiding me for lack of care with this valuable artifact.

And I saw so clearly what was the best part of all: the fact that this kind of forum, this kind of book,this kind of open dialogue and honest conversation still was foreign to most of the world... and thething we should be most proud of, our gift to the world and our collective future.

Now, go to any search engine and find "Whiskey in the jug," and imagine Mitt moon walking to it...If there's enough whiskey in the jug, that should be no problem.

*** What do you think? We invite you to post your comments below.







'Hey, look me over' as two-timin' Newt stops Romney'scoronation coach in South Carolina.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant

Author's program note. There can be only one song peppy enough, bouncy enough, irresistibleenough, a song that is the very essence of what is best about America... that we get hit and hit again

and hit again... yet get up, dust ourselves off and do what's necessary to win, thank you very much.That song is "Hey, look me over," from the 1960 musical "Wildcat" (book by Richard Nash; lyrics by Caroline Leigh; music by Cy Coleman); and it fits the mood today at the headquarters of NewtGingrich, the man who squeezed the bitter lemon of his contorted and messy relations with womeninto a lemonade sweet enough even the good Christian folk could drink by the gallon.

Thus, go to any search engine now. Find this tune and play it loud and proud... For, in the finalanalysis, we love the people Teddy Roosevelt described as "the man in the arena," the people whohave to win because losing is unthinkable. Even if we have to hold our noses when we get too close,we just can't help admiring them, getting off our posteriors and cheering them to the echo. And theGOP citizens of South Carolina did just that.

They decided to vote for an idea... the idea that it is "we, the people" who make presidents... not pollsters, not handlers, not pundits and prognosticators... and if you don't like it, that's your problem. Not theirs. Thus did Romney get his gourmet, tax- deductible lunch handed to him... his contriveddesigner jeans ripped, torn, muddy, and a black eye to boot. This doesn't mean he won't benominated, but it most assuredly means he will not be, cannot be nominated the way he's gone aboutthe job so far. South Carolina has dictated that if nothing more.

Prize day.

To sketch this influential event in a way that even third-graders could understand, consider this: MittRomney is the school kid we all hated; hated with our heart, soul and brain, for we knew -- and could

see evidence every single day, every day he raised his hand and knew the answer -- that he was thekid the teachers idolized, the one they could with abiding pride point to and say, "That's our boy."Whereupon the boy would beam... and our hatred would grow... and we'd dream delicious ways of taking him down a peg or two... the faster, the sooner, the most abashing, the better.

Then one day one of the kids couldn't take it take it anymore... and he pops, goes nuts. It's the dayschool prizes are awarded; Mitt getting the lion's share. It was the day something must be done... thetime for mere rage gone; the need for action this day nigh.

Thus does this kid (call him Newt) see picture-perfect, not-a-hair-out-of-place Mitt coming to schoolin his chauffeur driven car and goes postal; he decides enough is enough... that Mitt (whose very

name he abominates and loathes) must be taken out... but without of course implicating himself.Thus with a "sorry, man" at the ready scruffy, incorrigible Newt maneuvers Mitt into the nearest,stinkiest, festering mud, thereby rendering the apple of every teacher's eye an unholy mess when hewalks into class...

How much sympathy does ol' Mitt get, for all that he's the victim? None, absolutely none at all...and they elect Newt Student Body President in a landslide... because, because... Mitt makes themsick, every last one of them.

And, friends, this is what happened yesterday in South Carolina... the state oh-so- clearly indicatedthat they want candidates who fight for their favors, including the ultimate favor of getting to whack on their behalf, the man each and every one of them despises... Barack Obama, president of the







Great Republic... for make no mistake about it, the fractured, snarling, uncooperative members of theGrand Old Party want brother Barack's head on a platter... this is and has been since InaugurationDay 2009, their first and preeminent desire.

And they aren't convinced Mitt can bring home the bacon... stinging the incumbent, slashing theincumbent, wounding the incumbent, humiliating the incumbent, for that's what they insist their candidate deliver... like Salome with the head of John the Baptist, a reference every Evangelicalknows and savors.

So, what has the great Palmetto State, home of nullifier John C. Calhoun and war profiteer RhettButler, the state that lobbed the first treasonable shot, thereby launching a war anything but civil,what has this state said?

First, that the Romney Coronation is off. That the carefully contrived, minutely controlled candidacyof Massachusetts' least popular governor has ended. Mitt is going to have to do what Mitt hates:engaging in a bare-knuckles brawl that must show the GOP he is their boy; a man who can deliver the red-meat the much challenged and riven party craves. For these folks, rabid revolutionaries alland Constitution-hugging patriots as they are, are not about to go gentle into this good-night; theyinsist upon a candidate who can turn their white hot rage about the wrongful direction of the GreatRepublic into a lifetime lock on 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue and the nation's agenda.

They look at Mitt and want to puke... What kind of American is he, they wonder, who wants themost precious of their gifts, their vote for president; but who, they feel in their gut, not only does notlike or understand them, but faces them with incomprehension and even disdain? They know that adinner-party with Mitt and his dutiful, adoring wife (a role model impossible for today's woman)would be proper, dull, an unhappy memory for all... for all that Mitt might say just the right thingswith gestures approved by his stable of handlers.

And so while Republican hosts may yet dine with this stiff, control freak and paragon, they areafraid, and rightly so, that there won't be any pleasure in it, no fun, no grandiose joys and memories;worst of all, no White House.

And this is why the GOP has gone through the long, exhaustive, often abjectly humiliating processof vetting one potential presidential nominee after another, all ardently desired and even adored atthe outset; all found wanting and disquieting in so very many ways.

Will these folks be happy with Newt, his many wives, his inexplicable financial arrangements, his blatant self-service and prevarications? Maybe not. But he is serving their purposes right now --forcing Mitt out of his bubble, demanding he get real on why his association with Bain Capitalunnerves so many at a time when he has so egregiously mishandled the matter of his tax returns. Weall know, and Romney knows we know, that what we will find when he at last makes them public --no evidence of illegality but a text-book case of how the super-wealthy gain and use loop-holes onwhich they build their empires.

Newt has all of Romney's many inadequacies going for him... and he has, mirabile dictu, brigades of Southern women for him, too. They already knew that men are lyin', cheatin', low-down scoundrels.But now it's official. Messin' around with women is no big deal, no sin at all, whatever the GoodBook says... just keep our taxes low, hold our Founding Fathers high, make us as special as we seeourselves, and above all love us... something Mitt Romney just cannot do...







Why the 2012 presidential campaign is boring me witless...and why that's bad for the Great Republic. A sound off.

by Dr. Jeffrey Lant.

Author's program note. I have been a political animal my whole life, my entire life since birth,February 16, 1947. I mean, I was chairman of the Puffer School Republican Party in 1960. When

Illinois Governor William G. Stratton came down on the school playground for some platitudes, Iwas the guy who was taken up in his excellency's helicopter. The local paper blazoned "Local Laddflies high," being a play on my middle name ("Ladd").

The fact that Governor Stratton was wiped out in his bid for a third term (thereby helping hand JohnF. Kennedy Illinois and the White House) and later made the obligatory stay in the Big House theway most Illinois governors do, in no way diminished my personal thrill. For I was the most political of animals... beguiled by America's real national pastime and blood sport -- politics -- never happier than when sticking pins in the huge maps that turned my adolescent bedroom into CampaignCentral, its very walls covered in ephemera -- buttons, posters, autographed photos and brochuresfeaturing the greatest slogans every written -- and ignored. Everything -- absolutely everything --

about politics thrilled me. That was then...... this is now. But before I survey the lugubrious aspect of political affairs, before I hold up systemand candidates to justifiable obloquy and disgust... before I offer a panoply of needed reforms andrecommendations, I shall give you today's music, for if this rollicking set-piece of Americana cannotimprove the atmosphere and help revive and reinvigorate, then we are well and truly doomed. Andso, with the greatest possible hope, I give you... "Take Me Out To The Ball Game," even moreAmerican than the apple pie nobody's grandmother makes home made anymore.

"Take Me Out to the Ball Game."

This 1908 Tin Pan Alley song was written by Jack Norworth and Albert Von Tilzer. The first

notable thing you need to know is neither of its creators had ever attended even a single game prior to writing it, thus providing justifiable license for politicians (and that would be every politician)who talk vehemently and so well about matters they have never seen and know nothing about. (Bythe way Von Tilzer didn't see his first baseball game until 20 years after his iconic achievement; ittook Norworth even longer, 32 years. They helped immortalize a game that clearly neither saw much point of even attending.) Go now to any search engine and find it. Personally I prefer the original1908 Edison recording by Edward Meeker. He sings it with just the rousing gusto andtongue-in-cheek enthusiasm required.

The boys of Cambridge.

It is now time to tell you something about the presidential candidates you have probably never

known or considered before, namely that these men are both card-carrying members of the best andthe brightest, that is they are both Harvard boys, Harvard grads. But they were instructed by andmatured in two quite different faculties, Law and Business. Once you understand this you begin tounderstand their manifest strengths -- and weaknesses... and our national predicament.

Barrack Obama was a star at Harvard Law School, right across the street from where I'm writingyou. As such he became adept at what clever lawyers do: he learned not to make pies but to divide pies. In other words, he was trained to be expert at dividing what is not his; what he had donenothing to create. Instead, lawyers prosper by taking a sum of anything and making a deal with it, adeal that will give his client as much of what's being cut up as possible; thereby increasing hiscommission... and wealth.







Lawyers, especially Harvard trained lawyers, know nothing about the grubby, demanding, evensqualid work of building wealth. But when partners fall out, marriages fail, squabbling children fighteach other for more than their share, no one is more equipped to fight for you using the tools which,in the right manicured hands, can and will be devastating to opponents. Here the pen (and precedent)are truly mightier than the sword. Barrack Obama is the master of masters here.

On the other side of the River Charles lies the citadel of capitalism and unimaginable wealth,Harvard Business School. Here Mitt Romney, plutocrat, learned the essential secrets that turned himinto one of history's richest people. The game went something like this: find a business, review itsoperations carefully, then surgically remove what is not profitable (including excess labor) to create profit. Then sell the reorganized, vastly more efficient enterprise for maximum -- and fastest --return on investment. It was all about what capitalism is always all about -- money. Creating jobs,employing people and improving their lives had absolutely nothing to do with it.

Now these supremely gifted men are charged with the pressing task of persuading "we the people"that they have what it takes to lead a fractured, factious nation at a perilous time. And so far we areunderwhelmed.... and increasingly impatient. As sardonic Miss Peggy Lee sang so well, lyric acid inher voice, "Is that all there is?" Because if that's all there is, then let's keep dancing.

Going through the motions, enthusiasm tepid at best.In 1948 an execrated little man from Independence, Missouri, a man who by an accident of historywas President of the United States wrote his sister a letter which said volumes. He told her he wasgoing to go out across this great nation and present himself to the majesty of the people, show themwho he was... and learn more and more still about who they were and what they wanted from him.He choose to do this on America's railroads, the greatest on Earth. Thus, fully committed, withastonishing energy and high good humor and desire to connect, Harry Truman boarded theFerdinand Magellan and, at even the tiniest whistle stop, gave them hell...

The nation responded by giving him a smile, a hand shake, and the presidency.

Sadly the candidates have drawn the absolutely wrong conclusion from this event. Harry Trumanwon not because he whistle-stopped but because he had personal convictions, because he dideverything possible to connect with Citizens of the Great Republic, and because he came across as aman of integrity, credibility, and a man who did not just expatiate and make promises, but whoactually said what he meant and meant what he said, pledging, not merely promising.

Is there anyone out of rompers who believes that about our candidates as they too "whistle stop";this time ordinarily in supremely appointed air-conditioned buses, usually in the key state of Ohio?If so, I don't know this person. And neither do you.

As a result, I have come to the infinitely sad conclusion that neither candidate believes in anything,anything at all, except what is directly related to seizing the White House, the most bully pulpit in

the world, and neither one knows how to use it to grasp minds, create visions, and achieve the greatsuccesses we expect of our hailed to chief.

That why I am disheartened, dismayed, and increasingly despondent about these men and their vapidcampaigns. And I remind them of this: that the truly great create precedents and do not merelyfollow them. They seize the future and then use the unparalleled resources of both their person andoffice to achieve success and make this Great Republic greater still. Until this happens, fewer willcare, fewer will vote, and more, like me, will become disenchanted by a process that continues to produce so much less than we need and which our Citizens deserve.

In the meantime...







"Take me out to the ball game, Take me out with the crowd: Buy me some peanuts and Cracker Jack, I don't care if I never get back"

... especially if there's not a better prize in this box.







Resource

Harvard-educated Dr. Jeffrey Lant is CEO of Worldprofit, Inc., where small and home-based businesses learn how to profit online. Attend Dr. Lant's live webcast TODAY and receive 50,000free guaranteed visitors to the website of your choice!

Republished with author's permission by Howard Martell http://HomeProfitCoach.com.


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Documents

Presidential Candiates and What You Should Know Before Voting in November