IS IT TIME FOR "TRICKLE-UP" ECONOMICS?

Ronald Wilson Reagan is generally credited with coming up with the phrase "Trickle Down Economics" but it was actually coined by humorist Will Rodgers decades before. The Nobel Prize winning economist Milton Friedman is also well known for being a proponent of this style of economics, which is based in deregulation and advancing the interest of companies verses the people. The theory goes like this; If the richest among us do better, then some of that wealth will "trickle down" to all of us through job creation and advancement. In theory, I would agree with that. After all, jobs are not created by the poor, they are created by the entrepreneurs, the risk takers among us, who invest their fortunes and thereby create products and jobs for all of us. The problem is that I view CEO's much like Dictators. Without regulation, they will all gravitate toward whatever benefits themselves the most with little regard for the future, the environment, or anything else. Trickle Down theory has been put to the test lately as the American taxpayer has shelled out billions to companies, make that over a trillion, in bailouts, bridge loans, help, investment, whatever you want to call it. The problem is, these companies are not "trickling" the money down. What they are doing instead is using the money as an insulator against the tough times ahead rather than loaning the money out or investing in new ideas or products. You can hardly blame them. Loaning money out to people who, in great likelihood, will out of a job next year is a hard sell when you can sit on the money and weather the storm. But isn't that why we gave them the money in the first place?

The TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program) was passed hurriedly through Congress to stem the panic that had set upon Wall Street. Credit markets had frozen as financial institutions began to realize the extent of the downturn. Without credit, homes could not be purchased, cars couldn't be bought, appliances couldn't be sold and an economic death spiral had begun. Money had to be injected into the system quickly to prevent a total meltdown and as much as I hate to say it, I had to support it. In the rush to get money into the system however, not enough restrictions were put on the billions that were handed out. The end result is; the money we hoped to put in the people's hands is now being used to right accounting books and insulate the companies against more loss. This does very little to help our problem. Perhaps now is the time to try a new approach.

The numbers involved here are staggering to say the least.

To put this in perspective, a billion seconds ago I wasn't even alive, and I'm 48 years old. That's how big a number a billion is. The amount now handed over to the Treasury and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson is well over one trillion dollars, or said another way, over a thousand billions. Some theorize that it may end up topping $7 trillion before this is all said and done. A huge sum to be sure.

What else could be done with this kind of money? Here's a few thoughts.

The United States has approximately 50 million mortgages on file (estimates range from 44 million to 50 million). If you took the one trillion dollars already allocated, and divided it among the people who owe the mortgages, you could give every single one of them $400 off their bill per month for over 4 years! Not just the ones that made bad investments or selfish choices, every single one of them. Hard to believe that wouldn't stimulate the economy and stem foreclosures. To date, hardly any money has been sent to the consumer. The American Housing Rescue and Foreclosure Prevention Act gives a $7,500.00 interest free loan to new home buyers, but that money won't start hitting the hands of the consumer until they fill out their 2007 tax forms. The Bush Stimulus package sent out $600 to each taxpayer (and lesser amounts to some people who pay no taxes) in an effort to stimulate buying, but that was a drop in the bucket for people who were several times more than that behind on their debts. Refinancing through lowered interest rates (now around 5% despite the Federal Rate at near 0%) has helped a little but financial institutions are creating a huge spread (5%) out of fear of future job losses. That's simply not low enough.

Here are some ideas I have for righting our situation.

First, through Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and even HUD, the government should be in direct competition for the refinancing dollars. This will help drive down the interest spread, which is too high, and will benefit everyone. Second, we have to except a certain amount of attrition on the business side. We can't continue to save every company by increasing our National Debt while our GDP shrinks. That's a recipe for disaster. Third, I like the idea being floated by some that foreclosed houses be turned into rentals by the financial institutions instead of kicking the families out. This would reduce the number of vacant houses (which are driving all of our property values down) and would give the owners a reduced payment that they can afford. Additionally, I would outlaw ARM (Adjustable Rate Mortgages). The problem is that they prey on people who don't understand them and put people at risk when the country can least afford to have people defaulting; during a downturn. Finally, we should encourage purchasing, by those that can afford it, by giving tax breaks for cars, housing, or big ticket items. If the guy that owns a refrigerator company sells more refrigerators, everyone gains. The money "trickles up". Trickle down theory has it's place, but when fear on Wall Street is met with hoarding taxpayer money by these corporations, it may be better to give the money to the people who will spend it, not hoard it. H.C.

HIPPIE CLAUSE

Ho, Ho, Ho. Hello everyone, it's me, Hippie Clause. The '60s version of the jolly old man from up north. I'm not quite as well known as the Kris Kringle version, mainly because I don't hang out in malls, don't have a league of elf helpers and don't have a great story wove through the ages. But I am working on it. I don't bring toys for all the kids, I bring advice to all our politicians and people. Not quite as glamerous to be sure, but someone has to do it. So, let me reach into my big tie-dyed bag and see what I've got for everyone this year.

For President Barack Obama;

I thought long and hard about this one. To President Barack Obama I advise humility and Supreme guidance. If ever in our history there was a man that needed the guidance of God, it is Barack Obama. Our economy is in shambles, our stature overseas is dismal and our people are lost. Our families, once the great unbreakable strength that has persevered through war and depression, has now been replaced by fractured families that have devalued fatherhood, the two parent structure and discipline. Our children are lost and we are too busy with ourselves to even care. For Obama to make a mark in this area he will have to show that a nuclear family is worth emulating and help us understand the value of unity verses selfishness and narcissism. In the process, Barack has to have the humility to be one of us, not one above us. It can be far to easy for someone who has come so far, so fast, to become full of himself. In this time of self indulgence, President Obama needs to understand that no one man can cure problems so vast and deep by himself. He needs humility to help guide him to the people most capable of helping him help all of us. We need a leader who leads people willing to follow, not a strong arm. Humility will help him in that area, just as it helped another great president who faced hard times, Abraham Lincoln.

For our Congress;

I advise, guilt. Guilt for running our country into the ground while only thinking of their next election. Guilt for taking money from lobbyists who didn't have the best interest of this country at heart. Guilt for representing big business and advocacy groups that served the few, rather than the many. And guilt for blaming each other, when it is the corrupt system of Washington that is to blame. A system that can only be fixed by virtue, reborn through guilt, that will make a few strong enough to stand up and say, "I will no longer stand still while corruption destroys the country my fore fathers died for."

For us, the people;

I advise, strength. The strength to change back into the people that we once were. People who valued themselves by their ability to sacrifice for their family, country and the greater good of everyone, not by their selfish achievements or possessions. We have come far in shedding our racism and our sexism, even though we still have far to go, but we have fallen so far in other areas. We were once self-reliant and strong, now we are weak, divided and dependent. We seek a government that can cure all our needs by writing a check, not by us volunteering. We don't shovel our elderly neighbor's walk, instead we wonder why the government doesn't create a program to do it for us. In the process we have lost the pride that comes with helping, with caring. In the hard times that are certain to be ahead, we will be faced with the option of continuing down this path alone or together. Tough times will help us realize our own strength and the truth behind one of my favorite quotes, "United we stand, divided we fall."

My last bit of advice for all of you is to not worry about the hard times ahead. Prepare. Hope for the best, but don't worry. We have been down this road before and we will come out of this stronger and smarter. Times will get better, they always do. Love those that are closest to you, support those that are less fortunate. Together we will overcome these hard times just as we always have. As Dr Seuss' character, The Grinch, famously learned, Christmas isn't about things, it's about family and being together. We should all take a moment to remember that. Merry Christmas everyone. May God guide you through these tough times. H.C.

PAGE D-12

Here are some stories that I've unearthed that I feel deserve a lot more attention than they were given. Most were buried deep in the bowels of my many newspapers and are ignored by nearly everyone. Since I love when my friend Andre over at The Unmitigated Word does news snippets, I've decided to give it a short try myself with my own spin on it. I'm sure some of them will leave you wondering, as I was, how the mainstream media managed to bury them.

Arson at Sarah Palin's church

For reasons that I am unable to fully understand, people on the left side of the political spectrum hate Sarah Palin beyond words. I find this odd because Sarah hasn't, to the best of my knowledge, done anything to any of them except have a point of view, culture and lifestyle that is different from their own. The supposedly tolerant left can't seem to control themselves from attacking her children, her hometown, her looks and even her accent. However, it now appears to have reached a brand new level, when someone, or several someones, burned down the Wasilla Bible Church in Alaska. Authorities believe it may be connected to the church's outreach program for homosexuals that has been recently criticized by several Gay organizations. Governor Palin herself has apologized to the church and people of Wasilla for bringing this vile hatred back home from the lower 48. Move over KKK, it appears you now have some competition on the left.

Bush swings open the border

In the middle of the night G.W. gave a parting kiss to farmers across the country. Bush rewrote the rules for immigrant farm hands in a way the makes it easier for farmers to get low wage workers without having to prove that they at least tried to get labor through conventional means. Bruce Goldstein of the advocate group Farmworker Justice had this to say, "The changes in the posted version would drop a requirement that an employer get the Labor Department to certify it faces a worker shortage before it can get visas for foreign workers; instead, employers would be allowed to simply attest in writing to a shortage. That version of the new rule also would change the method for calculating wage minimums for workers and relieve employers of a requirement to recruit in states or communities where other employers already are hiring farm workers." With the GOP fighting for cheap labor and the DNC fighting for the illegal vote, soon we won't have to ship jobs overseas to lose them.

Riots across Europe

One of the many reasons that I oppose Socialism is that it doesn't absorb hard times very well (due to the majority of the jobs being public) and instills in it's populous the inability to function without the government holding their hands. I call these people "Bridge Sitters" after the people stranded on the infamous bridge in New Orleans waiting for the government to save them. An unfortunate result of disappointed "Bridge Sitters" is that they blame the government for not solving every problem in life that they face. Self reliant people are far better at surviving hard times since they immediately go about helping themselves and others. This is now playing itself out in several European countries as the bad economy spreads. As more and more people lose their jobs, and with no other job source to turn to, angry youths are hitting the streets to vent on their "parent". The government's only option is to create work programs funded by printing money. Any first year economics student will tell you that only leads to devaluing your currency and hyper-inflation. The riots started in Greece but have now spread to France, Germany, Spain, Denmark and Italy. This could turn into a far bigger story later.

Lending money to fools

Lastly, but not least, is the story of a swindler of epic proportions. Wall Street money manager Bernard Madoff's ponzi scheme is being pretty well covered by the mainstream media. Mr. Madoff managed to run off with over 50 billion dollars of investors money. That's 50 Billion with a "B". What wasn't, and isn't, being covered is who was among the burned. J. Ezra Merkin, GMAC chairman. That's right, the chairman of the financial arm of General Motors Corporation that is, as we speak, begging for taxpayer money. Is it too much to ask that before we bail out these losers, they at least shed people that fall for one of the oldest schemes known to man? It's easy to see why this isn't being well publicized. Who would give more money to people who can't even be trusted to hold on to what they have? What's next, we cover their track losses too?

Well, that's it for now. Maybe this helps explain why I walk around mumbling to myself a lot lately. H.C.

A LOOK AT ALTERNATIVE FUELS; IS NATURAL GAS THE ANSWER?

Despite the fact that gas prices worldwide have plummeted, our situation here in the U.S. has not changed. We are still way too dependent on foreign oil, we still will be out of domestic oil in 10 to 12 years, and petroleum is still polluting our planet whether you believe the Global Warming alarmists or not. The majority of the dollars we are sending overseas are still going into the hands of governments that have our destruction as a goal and or trade deficit is still way too high. For all these reasons, I beg all of you not to fall back into complacency and assume the danger is past. It has simply retreated only to return later, far more dire. In this piece I will be looking at the viability of using Natural gas as an alternative. My hope is to go through all our alternatives and help you best decide which will be the most viable option, or if a variety of options used simultaneously is best.

Natural gas is a naturally occurring gas (hence the name) found in the Earth that consists mainly of Methane, but also contains Butane, Propane, Hydrogen Sulfide and other trace elements. It is either pulled out of natural gas wells or is the bi product of oil wells. At the present time, it is used in the U.S. to primarily heat homes. If you live anywhere near a city in the U.S., your home is most likely heated by natural gas. Natural gas has been used in the U.S. since 1816 for both heat and light. More recently, it has been used to create electricity as a fuel in conventional steam boiler generators. It's cleaner than it's competitors such as oil and coal, and some people, most notably T. Boone Pickens, have been recently propping it up as a solution to our oil dependency. But how likely is that to happen? Do we have enough to do the job? And is it a good answer for our future? All of these are questions I will try to answer in this piece.

*Do we have enough?*

At first glance, it certainly seems we have enough. The U.S. has known reserves of natural gas in excess of 1,320 trillion cubic feet. That certainly seems like plenty, but first we have to study the mechanics of Natural Gas. Natural gas is measured in cubic feet, meaning the amount of gas that would fill a box 1'x1'x1' = 1 cubic foot. That would seem to be equivalent to about a gallon of gas, but there's other factors to consider. In order to compare them fairly, we have to "liquefy" the natural gas through compression. In order to get 1 gal of liquid natural gas, we have to compress approximately 100 cubic feet of gas. Even then it's not really equivalent. One liquid gallon of natural gas has approximately 3/4 the energy stored in it when compared to petrol (it takes126.67 cubic feet of cng to equal a gallon of regular unleaded gas) . That means that a gallon of natural gas in a car that normally gets 24 MPG will only get about 18 MPG, which in turn means you will have to burn more of it to cover the same distance. Another problem is that we already use natural gas to heat our homes and to power steam turbine power plants. At the present time, we only produce 24.5 trillion cubic feet a year in the U.S. and we already consume 23 trillion. That doesn't leave a lot of room. With the amount of natural gas that we would have to have to power our cars, estimated at 28 trillion cubic feet per year we would need to increase our production by over 100% or find a way to free up what we already produce. That would explain why the T.Boone Pickens Plan has, as one of it's centerpieces, replacing the amount of natural gas that we use for electricity production with wind and solar and why he's only suggesting replacing only a fraction of our oil consumption.

*So in conclusion.*

Is the idea of natural gas as a replacement for oil viable? Yes. But we have to consider a few more things before we jump head first into it. For one thing, replacing or increasing production would take years. Would that time be better spent chasing something else? We'll get into that later when we look at the other alternatives. Another thing to consider is that natural gas is controlled by the same corporations (Big Oil) that have been raping us at every opportunity. If we're going to invest in a new fuel source, wouldn't be better to not give a big monetary kiss to our rapists? Natural gas is a domestic source that is plentiful, cleaner, (but not really clean), and easily deliverable since the pipeline already goes to most of our homes. It's certainly worth considering. It would definitely be better than sending our money to governments that hate us and quite possibly are the source of funding for terrorists that are trying to destroy us. As we look at the future, it would serve us well to seriously consider all the options we have and natural gas could, at the very least, lessen our dependence on foreign oil in the short term. H.C.

CHANGELINGS

Change, change, change. That was the mantra of the Obama campaign. It also was the buzzword of the Obama-maniacs. That group of faithful followers who cried at all his speeches, took all his words to heart and looked at him as the Messiah who would lead this country to Utopia. Now, nearly a month after the historic elections, change has come to the Obama camp, but it's not the change they thought. That change was from flighty idealist to realist.

It's not really Barack's fault that some people projected unrealistic expectations upon him, those people are seldom grounded in reality anyway. They are people who believe war is never the answer, even when avoiding war is more costly. They are people who think you can force the rich to do your bidding, even as they admit the rich run this country. They believe you can pry power from the powers-that-be simply by voting in a President, even as they admit that we have a balance of power and a Constitution that keeps a President from doing whatever he wants. To all those people, I dedicate this piece.

The problem is, for the most part, that they are ignorant (and I don't mean that in a degrading way) of the way our government runs. Because of that, they don't understand how hard it is for a President to get his agenda through. They have been told by their Left-Leaning Media that G.W. is single-handedly responsible for the War in Iraq, the price of oil, the state of our economy, and probably believe that Bush hired-out the attacks on 9/11. If Bush could do all that, they reason, then why shouldn't Obama be able to push through Universal Healthcare? Better distribution of wealth?

The truth is, and you Liberals should probably sit down for this one, Bush didn't really control all those things himself.

The War in Iraq was pushed through by a cabala of people from Rumsfeld to Bush Senior. Poor G.W. was just their pawn. It was planned and agreed upon by the RNC with the help of other nations and even some Democrats that were sick of bowing for oil and sick of the troublesome example that Sadam set forth in the Middle-East. After 9/11, they saw their chance and used, let me repeat that, used, not created, the event to their advantage. You people who believe that Bush orchestrated 9/11 have a real problem sorting fact from conjecture and I can't do a thing to help you. As hard as I have tried. If it wasn't 9/11, it would have been something else. Our Presidents can't get away with a blow job or a burglary much less something that would require the Pentagon to kill it's own people. God, I can only hope none of you end up as part of a jury.

The price of oil, and thereafter the price of your gas, is manipulated by world factors such as supply and demand, OPEC, and the value of the U.S. dollar. Most of this oil (77%) is in the hands of Governments who have their own agendas which are contrary to ours. Bush couldn't control that if his life depended on it. Do yourself a favor and spend some time researching where oil comes from and how much we (the U.S.) consume. It'll do you a lot of good.

What really happens is that these ideas are hatched over years and through politics and money, people are brought on board until they have enough people to make it happen. Then they sell their idea to the unwitting public through their media sources. It's as simple as that. Without those people in Congress, without the support of your party and without the lobbyists to pay for it, ideas die. Some things have tons of support from the public (like ending abortion) but aren't supported by either Party because it might dry up the well of lobbyist monies that both sides get from hotly contested issues. Change in Congress is for sale to the highest and most organized bidder. No one can do it alone, including President Obama.

For this reason, President Obama has carefully tried to craft a cabala of his own. One that he hopes will be powerful enough, connected enough, and financed enough to pass the ideas that he holds closest to his heart. In looking at his options he has to consider the politics involved. Will he piss off others in his Party that expect power through seniority? Will he lose their support on key issues? Are there people on the other side of the aisle willing to join him? Can he trade positions for support? This is not change, but it is reality. For Obama to get anything done, he needs to enter the very world he threaten to change. Fortunately for him, all his fellow politicians understand that "Change" is simply the keyword used by every politician to take a position held by the other Party. Especially when things are going wrong.

So don't be too hard on Barack, you Changelings. He's just doing what he has to do to get any change at all. He picked ex-Clintonites for posts because he had to. He picked Hillary for Sect. of State to unify his Party, and he's cutting deals just like every politician before him. It's true that it's not change, but it's what he has to do. The best we can hope for is that he will keep our best interests at heart. But most importantly, don't blame him for not bringing the change that you hoped for in the blink of an eye. After all, it's you that didn't understand how hard it is to "change". H.C.

AND SO IT BEGINS

Of all the problems that plague our government, none infuriates me more than the "Pardon Season". Although Presidents typically pardon people throughout their terms, controversial pardons are usually avoided until this time of year. This is the part of the election cycle that America suffers a "lame duck" President. That is, a President who is nearly powerless, but has nothing to fear from voters. He doesn't fear the voters because he's already been voted out or termed out and his Party has two years before another election. Let's face it, no one can ever remember who any President ever pardoned anyway, much less two years later. The Pardon Season starts sometime just after the Presidential election cycle and can last right up to the very last day of the departing President's reign. Each departing President tries his best to do this outrageous act in a way that draws as little attention as possible. Maybe during a hot news day, or after a major sporting event.

Today the Bush Administration released a list of 14 people who would be the recipients of a Presidential Pardon from George W. Bush. Including these pardons, he has now granted a total of 171 pardons and eight commutations. Conveniently, this list was release at the same time that every journalist was covering Barack Obama's announcement that his new economic team would include Timothy Geithner and Larry Summers. Yes, the same Larry Summers that I wrote about a while back who lost his job as Harvard's President because he had the nerve to suggest that women might just not be interested in becoming engineers. That infuriated the leftists at Harvard who demanded, and got, his resignation. Despite that, it appears Obama is unconcerned that the press will make an issue of his appointing a known sexist. My guess is that he's right, since the press always seems to be far more forgiving to the Dems for acts of racism or sexism. But back to Bush.

Bush's pardons so far are in line with the usual lame duck pardons. A bunch of rich people, a bunch of well connected people. Each has fought long and hard to make their way on to the list. Whether it's Republicans or Democrats doing the pardoning, you can rest assured that each pardon is represented by sizable donations to the President's campaign or his soon to be constructed Presidential library. Clinton pardoned domestic terrorists along with an assortment of white collar criminals and drug dealers and George H.W. Bush pardoned his Iran-Contra buddies and a long list of white collar criminals, both sides abuse this loophole terribly. Among Bush's recent pardons were for 3 people who committed various types of bank fraud, a women who committed medical insurance fraud, a couple of drug dealers and even a killer of bald eagles.

So how do we stop this abuse of power?

First, there should be no lame duck pardons at all! All pardons should be given out before Oct. 1 of their last year in office. That way the press has time to publish all their pardons and let the voters take it out on their candidate or party. This system of allowing criminals to buy or barter their way out of their convictions through lobbyists or personal connections is a form of nepotism and elitism that we should all be trying to limit in our government. Government is a service to one's country, not a position of power to shield one's friends and relatives. Presidents, Senators, House Representatives and Governors all abuse this power for their own benefit and it's time to make it so that it's also at their own peril. Justice can never be completely equal, but it is what we should all strive for. H.C.

TWO DAVIDS VS. TWO GOLIATHS

The banners have all come down, the streets are all swept free of the confetti, and the last party has been thrown. Now comes the time to analyze the election, the blame and the credit. To be sure, a lot of the credit for the big win on the Democrat side has to go to Barack Obama and a lot of the blame for the loss has to go to John McCain. That's just the way it is, the buck stops at the top. The McCain campaign leaders (not to be confused with the RNC) have thrown Alaskan Governor Sarah Palin to the wolves. This is to be expected, they certainly don't want to take the blame themselves, after all, they're all hoping to work on another campaign in the future and that's not likely to happen if they blame themselves. Governor Palin is doing the right thing. She's defending herself while pointing out that these attacks aren't coming from McCain or the RNC. Her future, from my point of view, has to be bright, I can't picture the RNC throwing away anyone with that much star power and name recognition. On the Democrat side, everyone wants in on the credit, as can be expected. But who was really the brains behind the impossible? From everything I've seen and read, it was two relatively unknowns that brought down the the twin Goliaths of McCain and Clinton; David Plouffe and David Axlerod.

So, who are the two Davids? Let's take David Plouffe first.

David Plouffe began his political career when he went to work for Senator Tom Harkin's 1990 re-election campaign. He later worked as a state field director for Harkin's unsuccessful 1992 Presidential campaign. He then successfully managed Congressman John Olver's first re-election bid in Western Massachusetts. In 1994 Plouffe managed Delaware Attorney General Charles M. Oberly's unsuccessful campaign against Senator William V. Roth Jr.. He then worked as campaign director for the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee in 1995. In 1996, Plouffe managed Bob Torricelli's successful campaign to fill Bill Bradley's seat in the United States Senate.From 1997 to 1998 Plouffe served as Democratic leader Richard Gephardt's Deputy Chief of Staff. From 1999-2000 he worked as executive director of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, and then in 2003 he met David Axelrod and began working on Barack Obama's successful 2004 U.S. Senate Campaign and finally on Barack's Presidential bid. From the very start of Obama's campaign, Mr. Plouffe made one thing abundantly clear. There would be no drama. As Barack's campaign manager, David was the "details man", in charge of the Obama strategy to win. With every state thought out in his head and every move calculated, David Plouffe believed the only possible problem would come from either his staff acting out badly or his candidate coming across as an "angry black man". On that, he was completely correct. White America had seen it's share of passionate black presidential candidates from Rev. Jesse Jackson to Rev. Al Sharpton and they had demonstrated one thing beyond any doubt. While all were popular among black people, white people would not vote for them. Without the white vote, Mr. Plouffe concluded, Barack could not win. This theory of "no drama" was applied not just to Barack Obama, but also to his wife, his spokesmen, his supporters, campaign workers and anyone else that could be tied to Obama. David Plouffe was directly responsible for the discipline that the Obama campaign showed.

David Axelrod was Barack's Senior Political Advisor, but he could better be described as Barack's "Right Hand Man". David began his political career at age 13 handing out campaign buttons for Robert F. Kennedy. He pursued his passion for politics by attending the University of Chicago where he majored in political science. Like his counterpart, David Plouffe, he didn't graduate and went to work at the Chicago Tribune and became the City Hall Bureau Chief and a political columnist. Unhappy as just a writer, (I can relate), in 1984 he joined the campaign of US Senator Paul Simon as communications director and within weeks he was promoted to co-campaign manager. He then formed his own consulting firm, Axelrod and Associates, and was hired by Harold Washington, Chicago's first black mayor.This established his experience in working with black politicians and he later went to work on similar mayoral campaigns of blacks, including Dennis Archer in Detroit, Michael R. White in Cleveland, Anthony A. Williams in Washington, D.C., Lee P. Brown in Houston, and John F. Street in Philadelphia as well as Chicago mayor Richard M. Daley. David met Barack Obama in 1992 through a mutual friend and the two became so close that Obama consulted Axelrod before he delivered his famed 2002 anti-war speech and asked him to read drafts of his book, The Audacity of Hope. Axelrod is credited with coming up with the Caucus Strategy and post Super Tuesday Strategy that helped defeat Hillary Clinton in the primaries. I think it's fair to say that without David Axelrod, we would be looking at a Clinton or McCain Presidency.

As we assess the 2008 historic election of Barack Obama, let's all remember that Barack is not just the product of the streets of Chicago, not just the product of a caring Grandmother or the support of black people. Barack Obama is where he is today by virtue of his gift of communication and the efforts of two Davids who helped him slay two Goliaths that no one, not even me, thought he had a chance against. H.C.

WHAT A DIFFERENCE A DAY MAKES

On September 11, 2001 all of our lives changed forever. On that fateful day, Americans were no longer black, brown or white, we were all Americans. The attacks on the World Trade Center unified us all in a way I have never seen. In the face of an enemy that didn't care if they killed who they killed or what color they were, we suddenly all became Americans, brothers and sisters. But time has a way of making us forget the significance of a single day, of a single moment in history. Whether it's April 4, December 7, or September 11, we slowly drift back into all the things that divide, not unify us all.

And now, on November 4, 2008, after all the divisive attacks by both sides, America has seen another equally important moment in time. Unlike the previous days I mentioned, this day is a joyous one, even for the people who did not support the change that has come. On this day America chose an African-American, Senator Barack Obama, for their highest, most powerful position, the President of the United States of America. This happened even though blacks are only 14% of the population. It happened with the help of white people, Asian people, Hispanic people, Gay people and people of every race, creed, and religion imaginable. It happened because a majority of people did not care about his color or his mixed race and mixed religion background. What they all shared was his positive message of an America that could be better, of an America that lives up to it's creed; "That all men are created equal". They all shared his vision of unity, not divisiveness, of hope, not of fear.

On this one day America is again unified by the one bond that binds us all, a future that is tied and bound by our love of the United States, our home.

Don't get me wrong, there will be times of trial, and divisiveness will again rear it's ugly head, but after today, we will never look at America the same. The Nay-sayers, the haters, the people stuck in the sad reality that was the '50's, '60's, and '70's will have to admit that America has changed and for the better. On this day, November 4, opportunity has spread and now warms the hearts of people who honestly felt that it was simply not theirs to enjoy. It is truly a day for hope and optimism.

The saddest part of all of this is that one day separated Barack's grandmother, the women who raised him and the person he credits with being his biggest influence, from seeing her son become everything she believed he could be. I am sure, however, that she is in heaven smiling down, knowing that the sacrifices she made were not for naught. Family has won out.

To all my black friends, congratulations. It has been a long hard road but one that has lead to a better tomorrow. Yesterday is gone, the moment is fleeting, and tomorrow is all we have. On this one day, history has been made, hope has resurfaced and racism has been dealt a serious blow. What a difference one day can make. H.C.

WHO AND WHAT I'LL BE VOTING FOR AND AGAINST NOVEMBER 4th

In this historic election, I have tried to give you as fair an analysis of the issues and events that I possibly could. I believe I have treated each candidate with equal suspicion and equal respect. But at some point we have to make a final decision. I will say this one thing to help comfort you in case your candidate should lose, either Senator John McCain or Senator Barack Obama would make a good President. Neither of them will destroy our country or our economy. The rhetoric that you has been fed to you by the Mainstream Media and the campaigns has been carefully designed to make you fearful of the other. The differences between the two lies simply in their philosophy of what would be best for our country. Nothing more. Barack Obama is not a secret Muslim America hater and John McCain is not trying to destroy the Middle Class for fun and profit. So, with no further adu, here is how I will be voting, why I'm going that way and what I think the results will be.

*President of the United States of America*

I have given this considerable thought and I feel that Senator Barack Obama is the best choice for this moment in history to lead our country. I'll say right up front that Barack's association with a Preacher that spews hatred instead of Love as commanded by the very religion that he embraces, bothered me the most. I do not believe that Obama didn't know. I believe that is a lie, simply put. What I do think happened was that Barack thought he could benefit from Rev. Wright's connections and that he needed the Church to get elected, as is the case for all black politicians running in black communities. For his support, Barack sold out and then lied about it when it was no longer convenient. However, in this respect, Obama is no worse than John McCain who ran legislation for shady people like Charles Keating. The difference is that Obama's associations didn't cause thousands of people to lose their life savings and didn't cost me a dime. So, on the issue of associations, McCain lost.

Now, on the issue of oil. I can only hope that Obama will lead us out of our dependency on foreign oil. John McCain, I am dead certain, will not. With his Bush ties, his 20+ ex-oil lobbyists on his staff and his "drill baby drill" mentality, I have no faith that John McCain will lead us away from the biggest danger we face today. We will be out of domestic oil in 12 years at our current pace and I am tired of bowing and sending young lives and billions of dollars to countries that hate us and have our destruction as a goal. This is my number one issue and it effects our foreign policy, our domestic policy and our economy. On this issue, again, McCain lost.

Even though those two issues alone would have pushed my vote away from McCain, there are other considerations that have moved me to Barack. I feel that Barack Obama's election would send a message around the world that is so powerful, it can not be ignored. We, the United States of America, will have elected a person that represents a minority of less than 14% of the population, African American. This doesn't happen in any of the so-called "progressive" countries around the world. France will never elect a Muslim, the U.K. will never elect a Catholic and Ireland will never elect a Protestant. Only in the U.S. is this possible. The message sent within our borders could be equally important. Every minority child in the U.S. will now know they have the opportunity to be anything they want to be. This is America at it's finest. I believe the odds of this happening are very good. I predict Barack Obama will win by 2 to 3% of the popular vote...maybe even more.

*U.S. Senate seat now held by Senator Carl Levin (D-Mich)*

Despite the fact that Carl has lost my respect, deserted our state, and sadly become another Democrat partisan hack, I believe he will handily beat his challenger Republican Jack Hoogendyk. I will be voting for a 3rd Party candidate out of disgust. Carl, you were once my hero, how far you have fallen. J.P. McCarthy would be ashamed.

*Proposition One-Medical Marijuana (Michigan proposal)*

I would be a complete hypocrite if I didn't support this proposal. I have been a advocate for legalization of Marijuana my entire adult life. I used medicinal Marijuana when I was being treated for Cancer when I was 32. It absolutely helped. For my complete testimony check out my video at http://hk.youtube.com/user/bentdrive. I believe that this proposal will pass. Opponents claim it's an effort to move toward legalization and I don't care. To quote Jimmy Carter (the only time I do), "The punishment for a crime shouldn't do more harm to society than the crime itself."

*Proposal Two-Stem Cell Research (Michigan proposal)*

The fact is, we don't need this. Stem Cells can be grown from skin, umbilical cords, amniotic fluid, placenta, and even testes. This is a attempt to discount life at conception, a"fuck you" to people with religious morals, and I do care. Although I am Pro-Choice, there are issues surrounding this that can reach far beyond simply Stem Cells. The issue is whether it's O.K. to create life just to destroy it and I just can't support that. My joke on this issue is that when the Democrats found out that there was other ways to get Stem Cells they asked, "Can't we kill them anyway?" It is unnecessary at this point and I've done a lot of research including asking some of my very knowledgeable University colleagues. After reviewing the polls and doing some "man on the street" interviewing, I'm going to update (10/3 at 7:30am) my prediction and say that this proposal will pass. I will still be voting against it.

There you go folks, I hope all of you will make up your own minds and do what you feel is best for all of us. Most importantly, don't forget to vote November 4th. It is our most sacred right. H.C.

A WORLD IN CRISIS, A WORLD OF HOPE

The housing crisis, falling stock markets, shrinking government revenues and rising unemployment all have us feeling more than a little anxious lately. On top of all that, we have a historic election for the President of the United States, the most powerful country on Earth and the country the rest of the world is both blaming for the crisis and hoping will lead us out of it. At the root of all our problems is the problem of debt. How much is too much and how do we go about shrinking it without sending the world's economy into a tailspin? I wish I had an answer.

As I've said here several times before, "You can't be better off tomorrow by spending tomorrow's money today." It's as simple as that. As long as we insist on living beyond our means by demanding loans we can't afford, houses we can't afford and luxuries we can't afford, our problem will continue and grow. It's total hypocrisy to point at the excesses of Wall Street, or the Government, as we live in excess ourselves.

For far too long the situation was twofold. The lenders were pressured by politicians to lend to people who couldn't afford it and in return the lenders got less regulation so they could offset their losses by engaging in shady market dealings that pushed the risk around to other countries and businesses. The return for this game of "hot potato debt" was a booming economy built on a shaky premise that couldn't possibly be sustained.

So what is the end result? Millions have now lost their homes to foreclosure, the housing market is flooded with too many houses that can not be sold, credit cards are being defaulted on because the equity the borrowers once used to refinance is gone (mark my words, this will be the next crisis.) Financial Rapture is upon us. Markets worldwide have seen their wealth disappear at 20, 30 even 60 percent. Countries like Iceland have gone completely bankrupt and Russia has frozen their stock trading. Buying is shrinking and the domino effect is reverberating throughout the Global Market.

For those of you that enjoy seeing the rich suffer out of jealousy, I have a wake-up call for you. The rich throughout the world pay the majority of the taxes. This is even more true in the socialist countries. As their wealth has shrunk, so has their tax burden. This is much like the way we want people to stop smoking at the same time we use their "Sin Tax" to fund health and education. If we get our wish, we are the ones to suffer. Capital gains is a thing of the past. In fact, the richest amongst us will be claiming losses, not "gains". Retirement accounts based in the stock markets are seeing huge losses (although better lately) and that will lead to increased burdens on social programs aimed at the elderly. Automaker pension programs are in danger of not being able to meet their obligation. The government will be forced to take over more and more of the burden while receiving less and less revenue. You don't have to be an economist to see tough times are ahead.

The bright side of all this is that we have finally had our veil lifted. John McCain and his Band of Merry Deregulators are being seen for what they truly are. Robber Barons. The Democrats, for their part, are being seen for what they truly are; irresponsible and too focused on the now. We are seeing the "It's all good" generation realize that it's not all good. You can't just hand money to people who can't afford to pay it back. You can't just rely on the Rich to pay all of your bills, you can't just live for today with no foresight into tomorrow and you can't push your responsibly to yourself, your children and your future onto the Government. This is the ultimate lesson on personal responsibility. If your benefactor disappears, can you survive without him? The next President of the U.S., whoever it ends up being, will find himself, from day one, in the uncomfortable position of explaining to the American public that we simply don't have the money that we had just one year ago. We can't create more programs with less revenue. The Entitlement Generation is in for a shock.

The bad news is that hard times are ahead without a doubt. My suggestion to all of you is to save, cut down on the unnecessary, and prepare for the worst while hoping for the best. The good news is that we are finally, once again, going to understand what is really important in this world. Our families, our friends, and our inner strength.... not our possessions, our appearance and our Ipods. H.C.

A PERSONAL UPDATE

With hunting season now upon us, I'm having a little trouble keeping up with all my chores. Such as posting on my blog. For those of you interested, I've already bagged a fat 6-pointer that I caught trespassing and the venison is already in my freezer. (I do all my own processing) Outside of that, here's a quick update.

Unfortunately, Flinttalkradio and me have parted ways. The removal of Steve Brewer, who I consider a good friend, from the show has caused me to re-evaluate my relationship with the owners/operators of Flinttalkradio and Studio 1714. While I hold no animosity towards either Steve Meyers or John Wilson (they did give me good exposure), their view of the world and our working relationship is considerably different than mine. This happens even among friends. I stand by my view that everyone has a right to their opinion and I respect those of both Steve and John even as I adamantly disagree with them. I would have hoped that I would get the same respect, but I unfortunately, did not.

I will however, be trying to keep our business relationship solid and would not discourage anyone from visiting their sites.

This leaves me with only my blog for venting and I've already decided that is not enough. So, in order to create a new venue for my music, opinions and commentary, I've started working on several new sites that I'm hoping to link all together with my blog. The main idea is for me and Steve Brewer to build our own studio where we will not be under the whims of other people's visions of our show. Steve is a gifted comedian/commentator and I can't wait to start producing what I'm sure is going to be the best product we've produced yet. Part of what we're looking to do is to help promote local bands and music by running their songs between our commentary.

I'm going to be posting our show on YouTube and any other venue that will have us. I'm looking forward to working with Steve and he is already full of ideas on how we can make our show even better. I'll keep all of you posted as to our progress and I'll let you know when and where you can catch us on the Internet. For now, here's a sample of the kind of stuff we'll be running. We had a misunderstanding with Eric and Carson from Banana 101. I apologize for the bad audio, it was out of my hands. H.C.

ONLY THE LOSERS

There were a few problems with the 2000 presidential election, as all of you probably already know. There were arguments over "Hanging Chads" and "Pregnant Chads" and over missing ballots, and disenfranchised voting groups. In 2004 we went through it all again with accusations against the companies that made the electronic voting machines. For the most part, I think we, the public, view voter fraud as something Republicans do to poor people and minorities to increase their chances at the ballot box. But certainly there's always two sides to the argument, so here's what we'll do. I'll simply list the examples of how both sides try to gain advantage and let you decide. At the end I'll give my thoughts on both sides.

*Democrat Cheating Methods*

Since you already have a few examples of Republican methodology, I'll start with the Dems. When considering the Democrat position, we first have to understand that Democrats, in general, do better with people as their income bracket goes down. Republicans do better as the scale goes up. For the Dems, that means recruiting poor people, lower middle class and minorities to vote. Unfortunately, a great deal of their prospective voting block has felonies, moves often, doesn't register to vote, is here illegally and in some examples, is just plain lazy. The truth of the matter is; Democrats benefit from letting some of these people break the rules. If they let illegals, for instance, register and then vote despite not being a U.S. citizen, the odds are, the result will overwhelmingly favor their party. This is also true with people who vote under several names that they know are registered, even if they happen to be dead. (I'm sure they would have voted for my guy anyway). The Democrats know that these methods are used more by their constituents than by the Republicans, so they turn a blind eye. If it turns out people are gaming the system (like illegals), the Democrats defend them as being disenfranchised and the Republicans get portrayed as threats to the right to vote. Even though those people should not have had the chance to vote to begin with.

*Republican Cheating Methods*

The Republicans would probably like to simply respond-in-kind with districts that favor them. Unfortunately, those districts are overwhelmingly rural. In the small towns across American, cheating is not tolerated. In my small town they will check my I.D. even though I've known most of them for 20 years. No, for Republicans, their best method is to try to stop the Democrat voters from ever reaching the ballot box. Including some methods such as manipulating ballots, shorting the supply of ballots in poor areas, etc.. They demand consistent registration because they know poor people move more, voter I.D.'s to stop the illegals from voting, and clean criminal records because poor people are more likely to commit crimes. They search for any Demographic that fits them best. Drunk drivers favor Democrats? Then no voting if you've had a D.U.I.! Potheads favor Democrats? Let's make sure possession is a felony.

*MY SPIN*

I feel very strongly that the right to vote is the most sacred of our rights. Without it, everything else is out of our hands. I would like to see more people participate in voting, even though I know that would favor Democrats. However, Democrats should remember you shouldn't use public funds to encourage voting only in segments of society that favor you. For instance, Democrat voter outreach programs target the poor or minorities because they stand to benefit from it. Organizations that front being bipartisan such as the American Democracy Project or more recently the organization ACORN, who's being accused of voter fraud. If an effort is made with public funds, it can't be that one-sided, it has to be targeted to the public in general. Not just Universities, big cities or poor neighborhoods. What private people want to do to promote voting and who they want to support, is their own business. As far as the Right to Vote, I would require I.D.'s for voting because it cuts down on cheating. I would continue to demand that illegals become an American citizen before you can vote and I would make efforts to enforce that law. I would make registering to vote easier, even on-line (registering only, I don't favor on-line voting). I would make Voting Day easier in any way I could. For example, I would give every American the first Tuesday of November off from work as a Federal holiday (we could use the 'off years' for local elections). What's more important than voting? I would encourage participation in our system through P.S.A.'s and our public schools. I would monitor election personnel carefully and the companies that run the machines. I would have harsh punishments for all people caught cheating. Cheating the Vote is close to treason in my world.

This election, like every election, will have it's share of complaints by the side that loses. It's funny how the winners rarely complain. All of these accusations should be taken seriously and people found guilty should be punished harshly. So when November 5 finally comes around, and as we're looking over the results, let's remember it should be every one's goal to make our elections fair, not just the losers. H.C.

SHADES OF '92

Back in the Presidential race of 1992, George H.W. Bush Sr. was running against a young upstart Governor from Arkansas named William Jefferson Clinton (as well as against Ross Perot). The race was not going the way of the challenger despite Bush Sr. having had a divisive Middle East War, a failing economy and a banking crisis called the S&L Scandal. One day a nearly unknown Clinton advisor named James Carville hung a sign on the door of Governor Clinton's "war room". The sign read simply, "It's the economy, Stupid." Clinton took the advise to heart and the rest is history.

Fast forward to the present time and we see history replaying itself once again. This time the young upstart is named Senator Barrack Obama and the Steward of the past administration is Senator John McCain. But the issue is still the same. The economy.

As our jittery market sways back and forth like a tire on a frayed rope ready to break, Americans are pushing the economy to the front of the issue line. This was most evident in the first Presidential Debate moderated by Jim Lehrer this past Friday. The subject matter was supposed to be "foreign policy", presumably John McCains' strongest position. However, from the very first question, it became clear that the economy was going to dominate. When Obama flat-out accused McCain of being wrong on the fundamentals of the economy, moderator Jim Lehrer asked Obama to "say it directly to him," meaning McCain. After Barrack repeated his accusation face to face, McCain gave the funniest statement of the debate. Turning to Lehrer, he bitterly questioned, "You afraid I couldn't hear him?"

Senator McCain then tried desperately to divert attention away from the economy by injecting war stories and dropped the names of every politician and political player he's ever worked with from Henry Kissinger to General Petraus. Obama would have no part of it however, At ever opportunity he steered the conversation back to the economy. The approval monitors CNN had given to the audience told the tale. When the economy was the issue, Barrack's approval soared while McCain's faltered.

From my stand point, the debate went very well for Senator Obama despite some high points for McCain on taxes and "the Surge". If the economy doesn't turn around before election (and it's hard to see how it could), McCain will continue to suffer for it. Just as it's hard for Barrack to separate himself from his past, Senator McCain will have a difficult time separating himself from the deregulation and policies (such as Social Security Privatization) that he once supported. As shady as some people find Obama's past acquaintances, the fact remains that it didn't cost the American public any money, or possibly their financial future. My instinct is that we will see a repeat of 1992 this November and I am boldly predicting that, barring any unforeseen ethical scandal, Senator Barrack Obama will be our first black President. The math is simply against the Republicans this time around. In most people's mind it will spell out like this; Two Bushs, two Wars with questionable motivations, two recessions, two banking scandals and now two bailouts. John McCain will never be able to totally separate himself from the policies and people he once supported. Shades of 1992? Yes, once again, "It's the economy, Stupid." H.C.

THE REGULATORS

Let's do a little critical thinking. Reach into your wallet and pull out a one dollar bill. (Assuming you have any left after the financial chaos of the past week.) Hold it up and take a long look at it. Now ask yourself a few questions. Why is this piece of paper worth a dollar? Who decides how much it's worth? What keeps it from being damn-near worthless like so many other foreign currencies that have failed? Will it always be worth a dollar? What exactly is a "dollar"?

The main reason that dollar in your hands is worth a set amount of goods is because you believe that it is. Faith is the true currency. You believe that when you accept that dollar from someone, you will be able to use it in the same way to buy something from someone else. If you start to doubt that for one instant, it all falls apart.

The best way to view a currency from any country, is to think of it as stock in that country. If your country is powerful and stable, your "dollar" is worth more. Likewise, if your country is failing, your stock falls. Once again "faith" comes into play. In order for your dollar to be safe, people around the world have to have faith that your country is stable and financially secure.

And so we get to the problem that has faced our financial markets this week.

Around the world, that "faith" is on the decline. The main reason is because we have become a debt society and a debt country. When other countries look at our balance sheets, they see a country that has no savings to fall back on should things suddenly go south. Our houses are borrowed on beyond their worth. Our credit cards are extended beyond what most of us can afford. Our banks have taken all their assets and put them on the table as bets on Wall Street with nothing to fall back on should these bets fail. With no assets to borrow against, it's hard to imagine a way out for our middle class. Foreclosures are everywhere, and with fewer people able to buy, house values are falling to a point where it's no longer profitable for contractors to build.

How did we get here?

A look at the history shows lots of blame to go around. Both Dems and Reps have had their hands dirtied in this mess. Rather than do the right thing long-term, they all opted for the quick buck. We live in a "quarter culture", where our CEOs, our stockholders, our politicians and even our population only looks at the fiscal quarter to see how they are doing with very little concern over the long term. Our Presidents all encouraged such behavior by removing the barriers against spending more than we even have. G.H.W. Bush deregulated, Clinton deregulated, and Dubya deregulated. The only thing that mattered was how things were going right now. Unfortunately, the future no one cared about is now.

The blame can be spread out, but examination of the players shows the same names popping up all over the place. In the early '90s, the Savings and Loan Scandal raced through the financial markets. Spurred by deregulation brought about through bank lobbyists, S&L's sold bonds that had no real assets backing them up. When shady corporate weasels funneled off the only money in the system, the taxpayers were left holding the bag to the tune of $160 billion dollars. Privatized profit with Socialized risk. Infuriated, the taxpayer demanded to know what happened and the Keating Five found themselves in the spotlight. One of the "Senators for hire" was none other than Senator John McCain. Among the big benefactors was the Bush Brothers, Jeb and Neil. The deregulation was pushed through by their father, George H.W. Bush. Working with him behind the scene was Texas Senator Phil Gramm.

Fast forward to the present. Phil Gramm, who until recently was John McCain's financial advisor, was instrumental in the most recent wave of deregulation. G.W. Bush has allowed the banks to operate with nearly no oversight. Oil companies are practically guaranteed alternative energy is kept on the back burner and profiteering will go unpunished. Once again John McCain is front and center and once again we are supposed to believe he didn't have a hand in the cake even though his face is covered in chocolate.

We, the taxpayers, are now on the hook to the tune of nearly $1 trillion dollars. The industries that made the most during the run up to this crisis are having their debt cleared because we can't afford to let them fail. The very fact that we fell for this twice is disturbing to say the least. That we need more regulation and oversight of our financial institutions isn't even debatable. Now John McCain wants you to believe that the same people that created this mess twice are the ones to trust to fix it. Well as G.W. himself once said, "Fool me once, shame on me. fool me......." well, you get the idea. H.C.

MCCAIN, REPUBLICANS IGNORE ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUE

The young man stood up in the back of the crowd at one of Senator John McCain's many small town stops. "Senator McCain, what are you going to do about DHMO?" the young man questioned. Quickly McCain's security detail moved in, escorting the young man out of the venue. "It's killing our children!" the man shouted repeatedly as he was forced out the door. John McCain ignored the disruption just as he and the Republicans have ignored any environmental issues throughout the campaign. But what is DHMO and why do the Republicans try desperately to keep it off the list of campaign issues?

DMHO is the acronym for Dihydrogen Monoxide. A substance that is so toxic a thimble full can kill a child. In fact, it is the leading cause of death of children under 4. Despite this fact, it is an ingredient in manufactured soft drinks, soups, and dozens of other products sold throughout the U.S.. However, the dangers of DHMO do not end with it's consumption.

Dihydrogen Monoxide, also known as hydroxyl acid, is the main component in acid rain. Prolonged exposure to its solid form causes severe tissue damage in humans and in animals. It contributes to the "greenhouse effect" which is warming our planet and quantities of dihydrogen monoxide have been found in every stream, lake, and reservoir in America as well as in the rivers, streams, and lakes around the entire globe. It kills thousands yearly, while Republicans shove millions of dollars of lobbyist contributions in their pockets to keep it legal.

So who benefits the most from DHMO? Mostly, it's companies like Coca Cola. Since adding DHMO to it's products, Coca Cola has seen their profits rise exorbitantly. It now accounts for a full 1/3 of all their profits. But it's not only the soft drink industry that fattens the pockets of politicians, it's also industries that produce products like automobile coolants, solvents, fire retardants, Styrofoam, pesticides and too many more to even list.

The Earth is our mother and if we don't make an effort to stop the politicians (mostly Republicans) from receiving lobbyist monies to ignore this problem, I fear it may soon be too late.

There is a lesson here that needs to be learned. Research for yourself the dangers of DHMO and of remaining ignorant. Understand that we are all constantly being manipulated by people who use fear mongering and our lack of understanding of the problems to push us toward policies that make no sense. Is DHMO a major problem? Yes, but more so because we don't take the time to even know what we are supporting, or opposing. H.C.

SARAH, SWEET AND SIMPLE

With both the DNC and RNC conventions out of the way, our attention is now turned to the Vice Presidential picks. On the DNC side, Senator Barack Obama decided to go as white male as he could and picked fellow Senator Joe Biden from Delaware. Biden shares his anti-war stance even though he voted for the Iraq war, and adds some foreign policy chops to Obama's ticket. On the RNC side, McCain wisely picked a fresh face from the Governor's office in Alaska of all places. Sarah Palin has everything McCain was looking for. She can steal away women from the Democrats and possibly turn this race around for him. She has the conservative credentials to appeal to the right wing and is an engaging personally to say the least.

Oh, and did I mention she's a woman?

Not just any woman, but an Alaskan woman. That's right, this woman can split wood. She can kill and skin a moose. She also could, I'd be willing to bet, whip the ass of most of the women that will be criticizing her. Maybe that's why the democrat media seems to be so quick to attack her. They fear her. In a very primitive way, they recognize that Sarah Palin is a predator, not prey for their fodder.

The left has always had a difficult time dealing with powerful Conservative women. From Goldie Meir to Margaret Thatcher the Left simply avoids commenting on them. In their view, powerful women do not play by the men's rules, they make up their own separate but equal rules. They should be for Women's Reproductive Rights as long as that choice isn't to have the baby, they should have the right to choose their own careers, as long as that career isn't "Stay-at-home-Mom.",They should be against hunting and anything else that defines Traditional American Male Culture, while protecting every other culture on the face of the earth. For a women to hunt, be against abortion, and be a conservative women's voice, can only mean one thing in their eyes.

She's a Hand Maiden to the barbaric, imperialistic, male dominated establishment.

This is much akin to the way some blacks view other blacks as being a "sell out" or a "Uncle Tom" if he sides with the whites on an issue. This makes Governor Palin a Pariah of the worst sorts. If other women should start looking at Sarah and admiring her, that may lead to more women like her. The left has long enjoyed the lion's share of the women's vote, especially on issues like Animal Rights and Abortion. They're not about to watch it all bleed away because of some self proclaimed "Hockey Mom."

To them, I would like to send a piece of advice......"Be careful, very careful."

Senator Obama went out of his way to say that he would not comment on Palin's family, but the Liberal Media wasted no time attacking Sarah's daughter for getting pregnant. They used it as an attack on Palin's conservative stance on Sex Ed in schools, and as proof that conservative ideas fail. They laughed at her experience as being "small" town and therefore not valuable. They taunted her description of herself as a "Hockey Mom" as laughable, considering the office she's applying for.

Meanwhile, across the U.S., thousands of parents with unplanned grandkids are thinking, "Hey, are they saying it's OUR fault?" The Leftist Media goes after Palin's "Hockey Mom" self description and thousands of Hockey Moms (and Soccer Moms, Baseball Moms, etc.) see themselves being talked down to. They put down small towns and the same people who got angry over Barack's "clinging to guns and religion" comment, get angry about the Latte Liberals showing their contempt for them. The Democrat Party cannot afford to lose these people. Already the RCP polls are showing a strong bump for the McCain/Palin team.

Sarah Palin is set to possibly become the first female Vice President in our Nation's history. If the Left doesn't give her due props, a lot of women could move over to the Republican's side in anger. If they continue to devalue her and not take her seriously they are going to find out what it's like to tangle with a conservative, frontier woman who believes in her values. Sarah, Sweet and Simple? Nah, this women can split wood, and maybe Democrats. H.C.

2008 DEMOCRATIC CONVENTION; CATHARSIS OR CHAOS?

Hillary Clinton claims her supporters need a "catharsis", a healing, to get over their loss. To hear her tell it, it would seem that her supporters are the first in history to be disappointed and to have to deal with their candidate failing to meet their expectations. In an effort to placate her supporters, Barack Obama has agreed to allow Hillary's name to appear on the nomination at the convention and to be voted on. For Barack's people, or the DNC, to believe that Hillary's supporters will be pacified by losing yet again in a very public fashion seems insane to me.

At the DNC Rules and Bylaws meeting May 31st of this year, the dems gathered to decide what to do with Michigan's and Florida's suspended delegates, the mood could not have been any worse. Despite repeated attempts by the chairwomen to keep control, Hillary's supporters shouted out comments and disrupted the proceedings throughout. Any Democrats watching must have been embarrassed by the lack of class and decorum exhibited by some of their own. To expect that the DNC convention will be any less chaotic seems naive at best. My prediction is that at least on Wednesday, the day the V.P. nomination takes place, you can expect much of the same if not worse.

How the DNC thinks this will lead to a catharsis is beyond my thinking.

The problem the Democrats have, and will continue to have, is that they have to explain to a group of very pissed off Hillary Fem-bots how it is completely fair to have one group win out over the other. Democrats sub-groups have been taught by the DNC all their political lives that any loss is the direct result of some prejudice, not the result of one group doing a better job of representing their point of view. Is it any wonder then that a women that every single pundit (including me) thought would win the democratic nomination hands down, now tries to blame misogyny and sexism as the cause of her downfall. This despite the fact that her own chief campaign strategist, Mark Penn, said in a recently released memo that Obama, "Couldn't win against Attila the Hun." It couldn't possibly be that they simply underestimated their opponent.

To make matters even worse, Obama has to try to pacify Hillary's supporters while choosing someone else as V.P.. This has as much of a chance of flying as Lead Zeppelin. While I'm sure Howard Dean will do everything in his power to keep everything under control, this convention will be sure to have Republicans grinning from ear to ear. H.C.

EDDIE

Sad is the story of a life gone past

Muddled in secrets and memories cast

The tears of a child who fears his own home

Ended in a basement dark and alone

Edward Farrar was a "Paste Eater." He was the kind of kid who didn't seem to have a lick of sense. His hair was greasy black and combed in a Pompadour like Elvis used to wear. Strands of it would break loose from the rest and hang in front of his eyes. His clothes were dirty and out of date and he smelled of poverty. He had a maniacal laugh that reminded you of the Joker from the old Batman series and he could be counted on to disrupt every class with his outbursts and antics. He was hyperactive, out of control, and was put on Ritalin by our school. The only time Eddie seemed in the least bit restrained is when the Ritalin would take effect and he would nod off. I don't believe anyone knew why Eddie was like he was, and I don't think anyone really took the time to care. Sadly, this included me.

Eddie entered Merrill Elementary School on the north end of Flint in third grade and right away it was obvious that he was a troubled child. In those days, acting out was not tolerated, children who misbehaved were sent for spankings by the Principle. So common was this form of discipline that our Principle's office included outlined hands drawn on the wall. When you were to be punished, you put your hands on the outline and then your feet were moved back to put the pressure on your hands. This method was devised to keep kids from putting their hands in the path of the swinging paddle. After you were paddled, you were then told the reason for your discipline and what kind of behavior was expected of you. It seems cruel now, but back then it was totally excepted. I have to say one thing about that form of discipline; very few kids acted out and classes were far better behaved then now.

Eddie was clearly the exception to that rule. No amount of punishment seemed to effect him. He beat a path to the Principle's office and soon the Principle gave our teacher permission to paddle him herself. The first time our 60-something teacher tried to spank Eddie, it didn't turn out so well. She lead him out into the hallway to receive his discipline and seconds later, in burst Eddie paddle in hand, our teacher in pursuit. Around and around the desks Eddie ran, laughing and tormenting his pursuer in a game of "Keep away." The class, sensing a rare moment of chaos, roared it's approving laughter. After Eddie was finally caught with the help of two other teachers, his Ritalin was increased to a point where he rarely raised his drugged head from off his desk.

When we were both graduated to Emerson Junior High I knew Eddie's life was going to get far worse. Some of the black kids immediately recognized him as an easy victim and Eddie was tormented endlessly. His tattered clothes and dim intelligence gave the poor oppressed black kids a rare chance to feel better than someone else. Even better for them, someone white. Eddie soon found himself being ridiculed by the lowest rung on the social ladder. For him, it must have seemed life could get no worse. I always watched from a distance, glad that it wasn't me. Glad that their attention was directed on someone else. In hindsite, I could have been a better person, a better human. It's a guilt I still feel today. Normally the few white kids banded together, co-miserating at their mutual misfortune. Eddie suffered alone and walked home alone.

On the day we were told that Eddie had killed himself. I remember that there was no crying. No one walked around with a vacant stare, in fact, no one seemed to care at all. His obituary read like a life wasted. No baseball trophies, no school accolades, no achievements. It described his 9 brothers and sisters and grieving mother, nothing else. For some reason, I started asking questions about Eddie. I realized that despite knowing him for 4 years, I knew nothing about him. I rode my bike past the address I had read in the obituary. His house was a small 235 house (houses given to the poor that only had only about 600 square feet of living space.) I tried to envision how 9 kids and an adult could live in one. The house was in complete disarray; broken bikes, chewed-up lawn, dog feces everywhere and broken windows. I learned from one of his brothers that Eddie had been molested repeatedly by one of his many step-fathers and severally beaten by all of them. His mother was an obese women who tolerated any behavior by her men as long as they would stay. I tried to envision even one happy moment in such a scenario. I could not. Eddie, it turns out, had hung himself in the basement during a very rare moment alone.

The more I found out about the sad life of Eddie Farrar, the more shame I felt for having laughed at him, for being part of making his already pitiful life even worse. I still think about Eddie sometimes and wonder why God had seen fit to treat someone so badly, who had so little to begin with. Life is filled with regret and all you can do is ask for forgiveness. I have tried to make up for my transgressions by being a better person now. Part of that process is recognizing what you have done wrong. The purpose of this post is part of that process. I now recognize that I wasn't as good a person as I could have been to Eddie. That I could have tried to help him or at least listened to him. For that, I am truly sorry. Forgive me Eddie, I didn't know. H.C.

BARACK'S BIGGEST PROBLEM? BLACK PEOPLE

I know what your thinking. How could Senator Barack Obama have a problem with black people who are supporting him 90 to 95 %? Isn't that his strongest base? Absolutely. But Barack can not win this election with black people alone. He needs to have a decent chunk of the biggest group in the U.S., working class white people. And these are the people that are the most fickle constituents that Obama has in his stable. Ask your average white person if there is a disadvantage to being black and the majority of them will say "yes". Ask the same group what to do about it and they split into fractions. Race politics divides. Every since the Reverend Wright videos surfaced on youtube and all of our T.V.s and radios, Barack's support among white people, particularly white males, has fallen. I now believe that the biggest threat to Obama's campaign is the very people who have shown him the most steadfast support.

After the Reverend Wright videos, Barack's support among white people fell off considerably. In fact, Hillary Clinton actually got more of the Democrat's votes afterward. Is that the fault of white people? The mostly white media? No, and I'll tell you why. With the advent of the Internet, it's virtually impossible for the Main Stream Media to ignore a story that big. It's the introduction of the story that is the problem. Afterward, Reverend Wright went on to make even more outrageous statements, dragging poor Barack's misery out even further. Is it the media's fault that they responded to the Reverend's requests? If they didn't allow him his voice wouldn't the argument that Hill made of media bias be even more sound? Of course.

Later, when Jesse Jackson made his infamous, "I'd like to cut his nuts off." statement, was it the media's fault, or Jesse Jackson's? More recently, when Ludicrous, a black rapper, sang about painting the White House black, was it wrong for white people to be stunned? What if a white person became mayor of Washington D.C. and white people started saying it was time to "Whiten-up the place." wouldn't black people be equally stunned?

The truth of the matter is; Barack doesn't need to have race brought into the race at all.

Part of the problem is that black people are not used to black politicians avoiding the issue of race. Far from it. Black politicians usually thrive on it, it's their oxygen. Without it they can't survive or win in their mostly black districts. Obama avoiding the issue seems to black people the same as not caring. That's simply not true. Barack just understands white people far better than the Jesse Jacksons and Al Sharptons of old. The reason both Jesse and Al couldn't make their campaigns work as well as Barack's is because they cast themselves as a "black candidate", centering on black issues. With the possible exception of a very few guilt-ridden white Liberals, most of the white people ran to the white candidates as fast as they could. That is not how you win a Presidential election folks. You win by forming a constituency that is bigger than your opponents.

If these prominent black figures continue to inject race into the election, either through gloating or out of concern that it's being left out, Barack Obama will lose this race. Every time they bring up anything racial in nature, Barack's opponent's will seize the opportunity to make the election a racial issue and Obama loses the support among white middle class voters that he so desperately needs. The right will simply say, "We didn't bring it up." and they'll be right. Black advocates need to take a page out of the Republican hand book on this one. When the conservative right started showing up at functions and making statements, the Republican Party suffered. Now they are kept in the backfield. They still have as much influence, just not so publicly. Black people need to make a choice; do you want to have your problems heard during the race, or do you want influence and win. It's your choice, and I promise you can't have both. H.C.

BREAKING THE GRIP

It's an ugly truth most people just don't want to admit. We Americans are puppets on a string. We're forced to send our money, our influence and even our children's lives to nations that hate our guts and take turns pulling the strings. Nations like Venezuela, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Syria, Russia and many more. With one meeting between the OPEC nations our economy can go into a panic, with one war in a oil-rich nation our life style becomes precarious. And we do it to ourselves. Like an animal that will eat and eat until it kills itself, we don't seem to know when to stop. Like an addict, we run to the pump for our fix no matter the price and like an addict, it's our addiction that will kill us. This addiction to oil is ruining us, and my friends, it can not go on.

When I was quite a bit younger in 1973, I saw all of this play out in a way that should have been a warning to us of times to come. In response to the Yom Kippur War, the OPEC nations announced they would no longer ship oil to nations that support Israel. The United States, along with several European nations and Japan caught the worst of it. Gas prices jumped through the roof and our economy took a serious hit. Later, during the 1979 Energy Crisis, we again got a glimpse of what was to come. Because of unrest in the Middle East we again found ourselves at the mercy of our puppet-masters. Just as we were gearing up to finally take action to end our dependency, the price fell back down again. Just like the addict that we are, there was no problem as long as we got our drug, and just like the addict that we are, we continued to bow to our drug dealers.

The recent rise in gas prices is just another example of the oil rich nations exercising their strength. With the collusion of Oil companies, speculators, politicians and investors, our dealers have become even more powerful than they could have ever imagined 50 years ago. They now have the power to bring us to our knees and quite possibly destroy our economy and our way of life. I can not stress enough how important this issue is. For me personally, it's the only issue. The amount of oil money that we export has now reached $700 billion dollars a year, the largest exchange of wealth in all of the world's history. If it continues it will ruin this country. Our politicians are all feigning outrage while stuffing their pockets with oil money. They pretend to search for solutions, when all they are doing is shifting the profits from Chevron to Exxon. As a reward for their misdeeds we offer them even more subsidies, more access to our land, less regulation and more power. In an effort to secure our supply, we have prostituted ourselves and our land.

In the past year, Americans have begun to wake up to the reality of our problem. People like T. Boone Pickens have taken it upon themselves to try to force our government to act. Researchers everywhere are searching for new answers and a way to self dependence and a cleaner form of fuel that is safer for our environment and our children's future. Fuel cells, Ethanol and hydrogen are all being explored as alternative energy. Wind and Solar power are getting a second look as are new ways of harnessing geothermal energy and even wave energy. We are standing at a crossroads and our choices are clear; continue being an addict or clean up our act and be self-dependent. Unfortunately, like an addict, as soon as we begin to get sick of our situation, as soon as we decide to change our ways, the dealer makes sure to give us what we need, until the next time they want us on our knees. H.C.