Archive for the ‘Government’ Category

Let’s give credit where credit is due.

The U.S. government has reacted to the UNESCO vote to give full nation status recognition to the Palestinian territories by announcing that the U.S. will not continue to contribute the $60 million dollars to the UN agency’s budget. Well, hallelujah!  It seems someone in our government still knows how to stand up for what is right. And while I’d like to see such appropriate actions occur more often… I’ll at least pause here for a moment to acknowledge, and enjoy, this one.

That was the sense. Now, here’s the nonsense.

Herman Cain’s campaign director, Mark Block, created and starred in a campaign video promoting the candidate for President of the United States, Mark Block.

Oops. Sorry. He was supposed to be promoting Herman Cain, his boss. But not so much. Block not only made himself the star by creating a video that went viral on the web… he did it while also promoting, if even passively, smoking.

Is that possible?

Could a thinking person trying to positively influence voters to back his candidate actually conclude that promoting a product that has killed millions of Americans (and will continue to do so) would be a good idea?

Despite the enormity of his ego, Block is not the main topic here or my concern. My concern is the poor judgment of Herman Cain. Mr. Cain has said repeatedly in both interviews and debates that in areas in which he lacks foreign policy or other experience to govern he will surround himself with competent and capable people. Like Mark Block?

It seems to me that if Herman Cain was lax enough to hire Block (Block seems to have had more than his share of run-ins with violating the law) and now is not conscious or concerned enough to fire Mark Block… then Mr. Cain is not a viable candidate for the highest office in the land.

After all, I think we can agree that we’ve had enough morally and ethically wanting leaders in recent years. Can’t we?

 

Adbusters, a Public Relations firm located in British, Columbia, is a company with a website of interest to me. It should also be of interest to you…if you want to understand the manipulation and money fueling the “Occupy” protestors nationally.  Adbusters is financed in part by the Tides Foundation, a George Soros organization. Soros, you may or may not know, makes sport of manipulating global currencies and politics. Which means manipulating you.

On their website today, Adbusters is advising and directing the protestors as follows:

“We’re living through a magical moment … OCCUPYWALLSTREET has catalyzed into an international insurgency for democracy … the mood at our assemblies is electric … people who go there are drawn into a Gandhian spirit of camaraderie and hope for a new kind of future. Across the globe the 99% are marching! You have inspired more than you know. People are digging into Act One of the long Spring.”

A few observations:

1.  Democracy is not an American aspiration. Democracy is mob rule. We live in a Constitutional Republic by deliberate design of the men and women who were sufficiently educated and enlightened to know the difference.

2.  Gandhi never advocated defecating on police cars, carried signs that said “Eat The Rich” or espoused getting “all the Jews out of the country.” Gandhi was abut peaceful, unwavering commitment to the dignity of individuals and national self-determination.

3.  It’s apparent that “digging into Act One of the long Spring” is a planned strategy intended to unfold over time while making unequivocal demands accompanied by continued disruption and unrest.

If there was ever a time for individuals to think for themselves, rather than as a monolithic herd, it’s now. Group think will get us mob rule. Just look at the photos of the rebels who found Ghadaffi. While I have no love of the deceased dictator, rational and civil people who think for themselves don’t pull and pick at a body as animals over a carcass might do.  And that’s giving short shrift to the animals, since they do it for the sole purpose of obtaining nourishment.

Let’s be conscious and aware that whether it’s Vice President Biden giving out false statistics on crime rates in Flint, Michigan in order to scare us into passing President Obama’s jobs bill… or a Canadian P.R. firm doing the bidding of its financial backer by cleverly manipulating public opinion and passions…it’s up to each of us individually to discern truth from fiction and have the courage to act upon our findings.

Unless you are willing to do that, you’re in for more Hope and Change. By the way, how has that worked out for you thus far?

Herman Cain was an upset in Florida only to those who do not understand how thoroughly the American public is fed up with career politicians and how desperately they want to be told the truth while being presented with viable solutions likely to solve existing problem.

Romney looks the part but wants it too badly and comes with baggage. No thanks. Perry has the bravado but not the gravitas. Not interested. Bachman has the experience but appears to lack the common sense. No way. Ron Paul has the intelligence but is scary. Definitely, no thank you. Huntsman has experience but lacks depth. Pass. Santorum seems an experienced, decent man with some way too religiously based positions. Translates into not viable.

Which leaves Herman Cain. But not simply by default.

Herman Cain talks straight, thus far seems an honest man, and has proven he knows how to build and lead. This is all very attractive to a Nation in dire need of leadership and someone with the guts to actually see a good idea through to a successful conclusion. New Jersey Governor Chris Christie has similar appeal which is why there are those desperately trying to convince him to run. Whether he does or not remains to be seen. In the meantime, a few things are certain.

1.        If Christie jumps in his sheer presence along with Cain’s will most certainly put pressure on all of the candidates to get real or get lost. This would be a welcome turn of events.

2.        The Florida straw vote is likely not an anomaly. Cain really appeals to something stirring in people across this entire country.

3.        Cain’s appeal, and apparent viability at the moment, certainly throw a monkey wrench in the argument the Democrats are trying to sell that Republicans, the Tea Party and, basically, any white person who disagrees with this Administration’s policies is racist.

Phew. It’s going to be a busy week!

Palestinians plan to seek United Nations approval for an independent Palestinian state with Jerusalem as its capital and pre-1967 borders by brining the proposal to a vote in both the General Assembly and the Security Council despite the United States having made clear its intention to veto such a proposal in the Security Council.  Israel is shoring up its internal defenses in anticipation of possible pro-Palestinian marches or, worse, terrorist activity.

This week, Friday to be exact, NASA’S Upper Atmosphere Research Satellite (UARS), launched in 1991 and weighing 61/2 tons is due to breakup as it burns through the atmosphere and land somewhere on earth. While some of the pieces are expected to survive the burn and impact earth, scientists have estimated that with 70% of the earth being covered in water, the likelihood of any of those surviving pieces from the bus-sized orbiter impacting a person is 3600 to 1. I know that totally eliminates any concerns I have.

The U.S. Federal Reserve, along with the Bank of England, Bank of Japan and the Swiss National Bank have decided to “provide dollar liquidity” (read as print more money) to help stabilize the highly unstable banking system in several EU member countries.  This “international stimulus” seems like a tried and true approach given the apparent success of the two stimulus efforts here by this Administration and its economic geniuses guiding monetary policy.

Finally, malcontents and other assorted groups with a variety of issues but an apparent common goal… to bring down Wall Street and/or the U.S. government… have begun pitching tents in New York’s financial district this weekend with the intention to stay put until their goal is achieved. Soon, they will be joined, in spirit, by those organizing October 6^th as a national day of protest wherein they will begin sit ins at Freedom Plaza in Washington, D.C.

Phew. I’m tired and it’s only Sunday morning. The week hasn’t even begun.

Assuming the Palestinians and other Arab nations do not react violently to a negative outcome to their quest for statehood via the UN (my 18-year-old daughter is in Israel for 9 months)…and NASA’s UARS doesn’t fall on me (or anyone I know) as the “1 in 3600,”, …and someone in this Administration wakes up before we can’t even afford to buy the paper to print more money on…and those sitting in on Wall Street and the Capitol go home realizing they have neither the spiritual motivation of Gandhi nor the political will of Martin Luther King…I’m still left with a pounding headache at the possible wrong turn any of the above might take.

So what’s the solution?

Its faith and trust. I have faith and trust in a Divine Pattern of love and unity. Does that mean I can sit back and silently wait? No, I’m part of that pattern and, as such, have to hold my space. My space, as I see it, is to be an individual standing for what is good and true:

To say out loud that Palestinians should have a state of their own but not at the expense of the State of Israel and not by appropriating, through threat of violence, what is not theirs.

To say out loud that The Federal Reserve, and its very secretive members, seem to be clueless about our current financial situation. Given their repeated errors in judgment they should be stripped of their power while we open the discussion to alternative ways from alternative minds.

To say out loud that it is right, just and necessary to speak out against greed and corruption and to become active in changing course…but not when destruction is the only goal and where no plan exists for rebuilding anew from what remains following the breakdown.

To say out loud that NASA… well, what can I say? They meant well. Besides, there are physical laws and one of them is “what goes up must come down.” I just hope with everything else going on this week that 70% ocean and 3600 to 1 turn out to be sufficient odds.

 

 

 

 

This is about why Texas Governor Rick Perry should not be the Republican Party’s Presidential nominee in 2012. We have come to the end of the line in our ability to knowingly close our eyes to the character of those we elect to public office. It’s no longer acceptable that we decry, after the fact, having gotten exactly what is was we willfully refused to see before the fact.

When then candidate Perry was running for Governor of Texas he was interviewed by a local television reporter who asked the candidate, if elected, would he serve out his term?  Governor Perry answered “Yes.” When the reporter pressed him to confirm that he would not then run for the office of President, the now Governor said he would “not” and reiterated he would serve out his term as Governor of Texas.  If Governor Perry is the 2012 nominee, and is elected, he will not serve out his term as Governor of Texas despite having given his word to the contrary.

Strike one.

In the recent Tea Party Debate, Governors Romney and Perry got in a verbal back and forth over the legality of Social Security.  Governor Romney said that calling it a “Ponzi” scheme, as Governor Perry had, was frightful to seniors. Governor Perry countered that in Governor Romney’s book, he too called the Social Security System“criminal”… as is a Ponzi scheme. However, in his book, No Apology: Believe In America, Governor Romney called the actions of Congress in taking money from  Social Security an act that, in the private sector, would be deemed criminal.

Strike  two.

When Barack Obama was running for the Presidency, I read a book by Shelby Steele titled A Bound Man. It is the reason I did not vote for Mr. Obama. After reading it, I believed that I understood something about Obama and I thought that what I understood presented a danger to the nation.  Very few others must have read that book.  In fact, very few others did any kind of inquiry into who he was, what he stood for, or his level of integrity. We got what we refused to see.

When Rickard Nixon ran for President, he already had the nickname “Tricky Dick.” We got what we refused to see.

I’m not waiting for strike three from Governor Perry. He has shown himself, to me, to be a man upon whose word I cannot rely. While I have also eliminated a few of the other Republican contenders, I feel it important to address Governor Perry directly and outwardly as the press, and some polls, see him as the “frontrunner” or “the one to beat” and I think the flaw is glaring… as I did with Obama.

Regardless of his or her policies, we must have a leader with integrity on whose word and in whose judgment the American people can rely. We are all out of time to delay or err. This next President will determine a lot more than fiscal or foreign policy. This one will determine who we are as a People and what we value. Who we elect as our next President will tell us much more about who we are than who they are.

I’m writing this post at the same time I’m watching the Tea Party Presidential debate on CNN.  I had to write now because I am concerned that if I don’t express my feelings in the very moment that I’m experiencing them, time may diminish the power of my ability to communicate them to you.

These seven  men (Romney, Perry, Santorum, Gingrich, Cane, Huntsman, Paul) and one woman (Bachman) are intelligent, articulate, and impassioned. That’s nice, but not as important as the fact that I think they are, overall, telling us the truth.  Even though its not pretty. And while we have tuned in to hear the questions they are asked, and the answers they provide, I think the greater question is “Do we really want to hear the truth?”  Or, are we guilty of the accusation Jack Nicholson made to Tom Cruise in the movie “A Few Good Men” when he said, “You want the truth? You can’t handle the truth!”

Can you?  Can we?

Because the truth means that each of us has to take personal responsibility for how we got to where we are and personal responsibility for what we do in our own lives in getting us out of here. It means re-prioritizing our values, reallocating our time, renewing our commitment to personal integrity, and remembering that we are… above all… in this together.

Leadership starts with us but it doesn’t end there. If we are ready to meet those demands and standards in our own lives then we will get the leadership we deserve. However, if we want the bumper sticker promise and the quick fix we will not only get more of the same, we will meet the real enemy and have found it to be us.

I can handle the truth. Can you?

Paul Krugman is an American economist, Princeton University professor and Nobel Memorial Prize in Economics recipient. Charles Krauthammer is a Pulitizer prize-winning syndicated columnist, political commentator, and physician. Two very bright men. One of them wrote a factually researched, well-substantiated, thought provoking column on the tenth year anniversary of the terrorist attacks perpetrated on September 11, 2001. The other threw a schoolyard bully’s punch and then left the playground before anyone else could respond.

The former was Charles Krauthammer.  The latter, Paul Krugman, tempts me to give his “column” no time at all. However, in Mr. Krugman’s judgmental name calling and accusations, he teaches us much about what’s wrong with the world and why we have found ourselves so far from who we want to be.

Mr. Krauthammer’s column in the National Review On-line recaps the U.S. response and successes in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan. He also factually disproves allegations that the War on Terror is the basis for our current financial difficulties and places the blame where it belongs.  Finally, he gives us pride in our national determination and endurance in the face of adversity.

As for Mr. Krugman… he used his bully pulpit to bully. He accused former President George W. Bush and former New York Mayor Rudy Guilaini of “cash[ing] in on the horror” and unnamed others of “hijacking [of] the atrocity.” He actually goes so far as to call the memory of 9/11 “an occasion of shame.” Mr. Krugman’s opinion piece is a lesson in turning the victim into the perpetrator… in deflecting responsibility from where it rightfully belongs. He offers no facts, piously judges others, and tries to make us feel badly about ourselves as a nation. Let’s learn from his mistakes.

1. Conclusions should be based upon facts, not conjecture.

2. Judgment belongs to Our Creator and when exercised by humankind separates and alienates us from ourselves and one another.

3. Giving others confidence and hope, not criticism and despair, is the answer to both personal and collective growth.

Mr. Krauthammer’s column allows for posting comments. Mr. Krugman’s does not. Deliberately so. He noted that he was not permitting comments “for obvious reasons.” What is obvious to me may be different from what he intended. I post here the email I sent him following a read of his column:

“If you are going to make the kind of judgments and bold statements made in the NY Times Opinion piece ‘The Years of Shame,’ have the courage to allow those who see the world differently from you the courtesy of access to reply.  Free speech, I presume, is one of the founding principles upon which we can agree. What follows that principle in a free society is the battlefield of ideas.

The only thing that is ‘obvious’ about why you would have precluded responses to the piece is your need to strike while insulating yourself from the counter-punch. This was not a courageous act. Being able to take the heat, not just give it, is the sign of a confident individual committed to, above all, the truth.”

 

It’s hard to believe that Thomas L. Friedman, writing for the New York Times, would be so foolish as to write something a hair-brained as his column on August 23^rd titled “Obama, Tiger, Golf and Politics.” But, I am grateful for the laugh.  Not that Friedman intended me or anyone else to laugh, but when you posit a theory or opinion as intellectually empty using an analogy that sets up your subject matter for ridicule…well, you just have to love the guy. In such trying times, we can all use a good laugh.

Friedman thought a “golf” analogy would be a good way to make the point about the high stakes political strategy President Obama should employ. Never mind that most people are furious over this President’s 75+ rounds of golf since elected.  Through thick and thin, rain or shine, economic crashes and Middle Eastern revolutions…it’s all tee time to our fearless leader.

But what really got me in Friedman’s piece was the particular excerpt  he chose from the Kevin Costner movie “Tin Cup” to give direction to President Obama:

“Meanwhile, Mr. President, on a rainy day, rent the movie “Tin Cup.” There is a great scene where Dr. Molly Griswold is trying to help Roy “Tin Cup” McAvoy, the golf pro, rediscover his swing — and himself. She finally tells him: “Roy … don’t try to be cool or smooth or whatever; just be honest and take a risk. And you know what, whatever happens, if you act from the heart, you can’t make a mistake.”

I would choose the same movie… but a different scene.

When Roy McAvoy refused to take the easy shot and make the green, he went instead for the long shot and missed it causing him to be dropped from the competition. When his caddy, Romeo, asks him “Why?” McAvoy replies, “You know why I’d still hit that shot? I hit it again because that shot was a defining moment, and when a defining moment comes along, you define the moment… or the moment defines you.

President Obama has had many defining moments in his Presidency and they have, sadly, definitely defined him.  He has shown himself to be a man lacking the skills to unite, absent allegiance to things American and her Allies, and absent a core understanding of who he really is or what he really values.

Next time, Mr. Friedman would do well to spend less time previewing the fictitious world of cinema and more time focused on the realities of this President’s defining moments.

If you watched Glenn Beck give the keynote speech from Jerusalem this morning, you experienced a glowing moment in human history.  If you missed it, it’s not too late. The intention and purpose of the speech can be summed up in two words: Rights and Responsibilities.  I say it’s not too late because, if you understand what those words truly mean, its not too late to go live them in your own life.

As for Rights, for more years than I care to count, we have treated them with disregard.  We have failed to understand their source and, by so doing, acted as if our individuality and the power of self-determination rests better in the hands of a “capable” few over the many.

As for Responsibility, we traded our dignity and the very connection to one another that makes us uniquely human… to make free willed-based choices and live with the consequences of those choices… for the illusion that if we did not look under the rock, nothing sinister could possibly be concealed there.

We were foolish, adolescent, myopic and flat-out wrong.  The refusal to acknowledge the Source of our freedom and the willing abdication of what action freedom demands of us, has brought us to this moment. Now we must take the more difficult road home… but it is the only road worth taking… for all others lead to enslavement.

We have two choices in life. Always. To be in service or to be en-slaved.  For several thousand years we have periodically been enslaved. More so than not. This is not the first time. But it may well be the last time.  There is an expression among people who believe in reincarnation. “You do it again ‘til you get it right.” It presupposes endless chances.

I am not so sure. Sometimes we run out of “do-overs.” Such may be this time.

The technology has outpaced spiritual and social development. Violence has reared its ugly head. The world is looking for scapegoats. It has looked before and found them before…as  too many turned a blind eye and a deaf ear thereby allowing the slaughter of millions. Repeatedly.

Glenn Beck’s message is more than we can “never forget.” His message is that we cannot permit blindness, deafness and the violence that inevitably accompanies them to… this time… define who we are or to silence open acknowledgment of the Source of All That Is.

Know your rights, their Source, and the responsibility that being blessed with them requires of you.

Yes, the burden is great but the reward is greater. And just as devaluation of rights leads to enslavement… so too does refusal to bear the burden of personal responsibility lead to a world wherein violence and destruction reign by fear unopposed.

This is a do-over.  Let’s get it right this time.

Howard Schultz is brilliant and courageous. 

Don’t know who he is, you say? Read on.

Starbucks CEO, Howard Schultz, recently suggested that we suspend all contributions to political candidates and politicians generally until they address the deficit and begin to do the People’s business for which they are elected. His suggestion has taken root.  Just today, both Duncan Niederauer, head of the New York Stock Exchange and NASDAQ CEO Bob Greifeld have joined in support and are encouraging other CEO’s to do the same.

If you’re not a CEO don’t fret.  I’m not and I’m on board because I know a good idea when I hear one.

For too long, and too often, we’ve allowed ourselves to feel powerless to affect issues that seem way beyond the capability of one individual.  But one individual can, in fact, turn the world upside down or right side up… depending on their intention. Think Hitler and Jesus Christ.

Your thinking “extraordinary examples” aren’t you?  Well, maybe… but you get my point.

Perhaps more to the point, and more relevant to what you can do, is this:

1.       We are all connected, and the action of one of us inevitably influences the outcome for all of us. It’s like the butterfly flapping its wings in New York City whose motion ultimately affects wind patterns in China.

2.       You vote every four (or six) years at the ballot box. However, you vote every day with your money.  Money is energy. Where you choose to spend (or not spend) yours is an act of self-definition.

I think Howard Schultz has exhibited leadership at a time when we are in search of such talent. He’s done his part. Now it’s up to all of us who know a good idea when we hear one to do our part.

If memory serves me correctly, President Obama was very proud of his grassroots, social network-based campaign approach that managed to collect millions of dollars from “ordinary citizens” who were moved by his promise of Hope and Change and, who by their individual contributions, made the difference.

See, you matter.  Your money is an expression of what you are willing to support. Withdraw that support now!  Make your contribution (no pun intended) in support of Howard Schultz’s idea.  Say “no more funding” for alleged leaders, of any and all parties, whose word means nothing and who exhibit both a lack of understanding for the People’s will and an unwillingness to perform the job for which they applied.

Just do it. You’ll feel empowered and together… real change is possible.