I’m Not The Only One

Michigan set an unsettling precedent in American politics recently when Governor-appointed Emergency Finance Managers were allowed to overreach their powers over certain towns, cities and counties throughout the state. With Michigan running in debt for decades, EFMs were appointed about 20 years ago and only until recently have had a mostly advisory position within the cash-strapped local governments and school districts to which they are assigned.  But now the state government has expanded what the EFM can do, overstepping the powers of locally elected officials, and in some cases, firing them. (more…)

Anthony Weiner, a Congressmember from my old hometown of Queens, is just the latest (and won’t be the last!) of many politicians embroiled in an embarrassing scandal.  At the same time, we recently learned that former Senator and failed Vice Presidential and later Presidential candidate John Edwards has been indicted by a North Carolina grand jury on six felony charges which if convicted he will face 30 years in prison and $1.5 million fine.

I’m not going to rehash the entire story regarding the New York Senator and his fondness for underage and college-age females but in the event you still don’t know about it just Google Anthony Weiner or check out the compressed version here.

While Congress is trying to determine whether Weiner used Congressional resources to send his semi-nude pics to young girls of all ages, the Weinermeister has decided to temporarily abandon his job to seek professional help for his sex addiction.  According to the Daily Mail of the UK, however, Weiner will continue to stay on the Congressional payroll and will still collect (not earn) $476.71 a day (calculated from his annual salary of $174,000).  Thankfully, Weiner got enough bad press and harassment from the public that he finally gave up his Congressional seat. (more…)

The GOP was given a second chance this week as the party regained a majority in the House of Representatives, a significant number of seats in the U.S. Senate and several gubernatorial and statewide races across the country.

Of course, this should not be seen as a license to pull the same nonsense that went on during the Bush Administration.  And since many Americans, including myself, have lost faith in established Congressmembers to make any kind of change for the better, the survival of the Republican Party rests squarely on the actions of the newly elected Tea Party politicians.  Refusing bribes and ignoring threats from special interest groups and resisting the urge to abuse one’s power may not be easy, especially for newly minted Congressmembers.  But if they give in to temptation these Tea Partiers won’t have to worry about abusing their new powers, because they will be promptly voted out of office. (more…)

California might actually be on its way to legalizing marijuana, at least up to an ounce.

Three Tuesdays from now, Californians will be going to the polls to decide on, among other things, Proposition 19, a.k.a. the Regulate, Control and Tax Cannibis Act of 2010.

For those unfamiliar with the proposal, Prop 19  mandates that people 21 and older can:

• possess up to one ounce of marijuana for personal consumption.
• use marijuana in a non-public place such as a residence or a public establishment licensed for on-site marijuana consumption.
• grow marijuana at a private residence in a space of up to 25 square feet for personal use. (more…)

For those of you whose eyes have drifted towards the header of this website, one of the large links reads “Barack Obama Research Paper“.  It was a research paper I wrote in my final semester of college.  As is the case with most aspects of liberal academia, students are strongly obligated to write left-leaning papers and complete other types of assignments that promote liberal values.

At the time, (fall of 2007) no living person was more popular than Barack Obama, especially in a public university in New York City.  I figured writing about Obama would make for an easy A, and I was right.  Later on, I came up with the idea of posting the text of that research paper on this site so I could pick up extra visitors consisting of people looking for research papers about Barack Obama.  More visitors mean more ad revenue.  Figured if I at least sell out I should have some cash in the end. As you can imagine, the number of visits skyrocket near the end of the school semester. (more…)

With the general elections right around the corner, some are wondering what direction the Tea Party should take in the near future, specifically whether or not the Tea Party should become an official third political party.

Of course this scares the hell out of the GOP leadership.  So far the Tea Party has done nothing but help more Republicans get elected, especially in traditionally Democrat strongholds like Massachusetts, Delaware and New Jersey.  Having the Tea Party emerge as its own political machine would separate the libertarians and other fiscal conservatives from the social conservative fascists who currently make up the GOP leadership. (more…)

Come on liberals, you can do better than this.

Democrats are grasping at straws to discredit Tea Party favorite Christine O’Donnell.  Bad enough head Republican honcho Karl Rove is talking trash about her, but now liberal pundit Bill Maher has uncovered old clips from when O’Donnell appeared on his old ABC show, Politically Incorrect from 20 years ago, when O’Donnell, then not even old enough to drink a beer, repeatedly admitted to “dabbling in witchcraft” as a mere teeny-bopper in high school.  Maher, who pretends to be a libertarian, is extorting her by threatening to show a different clip every week featuring O’Donnell admitting to having practiced in her past some witchcraft (she appeared 22 times on his previous show, and apparently the born-again Christian inexplicably mentioned her youthful exploration of witchcraft on every single appearance) until she agrees to appear on his current show on HBO. (more…)

So President Obama is asking black people to “guard the change” come November (translation: vote for liberals only), I suppose, to avoid a changing of the guard.

Well, he didn’t actually approach the black community; he addressed the Congressional Black Caucus (I’ve actually heard one black conservative refer to them as the Congressional Black Caucasians!), who obviously represent all people of African descent in America.  I mean, duh, they’ve got the word “black” in their name! (more…)

I’ve spent the last few hours combing the Internet trying to learn more about this Coffee Party.  At first glance, the name appears to be a parody of the Tea Party, so I assumed it was a clever parody of a grassroots movement a la Stephen Colbert as opposed to an actual grassroots movement.  However, multiple sources including the New York Times and Washington Post suggest that it is very much real so I guess it is.

The following is is the mission statement from the Coffee Party website:

“The Coffee Party Movement gives voice to Americans who want to see cooperation in government. We recognize that the federal government is not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges that we face as Americans. As voters and grassroots volunteers, we will support leaders who work toward positive solutions, and hold accountable those who obstruct them.”

Here’s the mission statement from the Tea Party website:

“Tea Party Patriots, Inc. (”TPP”) is a non-partisan, non-profit social welfare organization dedicated to furthering the common good and general welfare of the people of the United States. TPP furthers this goal by educating the public and promoting the principles of fiscal responsibility, constitutionally limited government and free markets.”

Is it just me or do the Tea Party and Coffee Party appear to be thinly veiled disguises for the Republican and Democratic parties?  The fact that Fox News so fervently promoted the Tea Party and that two of the biggest liberal media outlets in the country are strongly promoting the Coffee Party raises some red flags for me.  In addition, these two mission statements eerily resemble the broken promises of the two major political parties. The Republicans are always preaching about free markets, fiscal responsibility and limited government, but when in power, do the complete opposite.  The Democrats assure the public that they want to bring transparency and accountability to government and that in the end all the heavy taxation and regulation will have been for the greater good of the American people.  This of course is also bullshit because when Democrats are in power they also do the complete opposite of what they say they stand for.  In the end, both parties end up being statist control freaks who give away billions in tax dollars to the various special interest groups who bribe the leadership of both parties. (more…)

It was definitely an interesting election this year.  Nationwide, Obama’s dropping approval rating has hurt Democrats in local elections.   That is certainly the case in New York and especially in nearby New Jersey, where proverbial fat cat Dem John Corzine (who deserved to lose for poking fun at his Republican opponent’s weight problem in his campaign literature) lost to the literally fat Republican Chris Christie, who oddly resembles a Sopranos cast member. (more…)

Poor Carolyn Maloney!  The Congresswoman’s campaign for U.S. Senate died before it was even born.  Poor, stupid Carolyn Maloney!

For those of you not in New York or just not following the news, Rep. Carolyn Maloney, a Democrat whose oddly gerrymandered Congressional district includes a portion of western Queens and the ultra-snooty east side of Manhattan (Tudor City, Murray Hill and Carnegie Hall).  Her Congressional website declares, “I think our district is one of the most diverse and exciting places anyone could hope to represent in Congress.”

She was staging a fund-raiser last week for a then-not yet announced campaign to run for the U.S Senate seat in New York.  Running against the incumbent Senator, Kristen Gillibrand, Maloney decided to talk some smack about Senator Gillibrand, focusing on her stance against bilingual education, a covert conspiracy by white liberals to disenfranchise Hispanic immigrant children into making sure they’ll never be able to fill out a job application in English, or anything else for that matter.  Puedes decir, “Home Depot”? (more…)

Until recently I was convinced that America’s greatest threat was terrorism.  But now I’m beginning to believe the real threat to our freedom is not Al Qaeda but Al Abama.

I recently received the following e-mail: (more…)

An old colleague and friend started a web site with a bunch of other writers recently called Ms.Ann Thropic.  Basically, Ms. Ann Thropic is a very witty site with a borderline dark sense of humor in which the fictional character gives a reality check to people in the news who she feels are seriously detached from reality.

Past victims include:

• Louisiana Governor Bobby Jindal
• Pope Benedict
• Starbucks

My old buddy asked me, way before the site was even up, to provide a piece for Ms. Ann Thropic.  Unfortunately, his partners said it was funny but too outdated.  In any case, here is the piece I wrote.  Enjoy!
Al Gore: Wuss Turned Idol, Waited To Lose the Election to Become the White Obama (more…)

You’d probably call me crazy if I told you a book written eight years ago focusing on the flaws of the Clinton Presidency would have a greater wealth of relevance for Americans today than it did when it was written.  But Rob Nelson’s Last Call: 10 Commonsense Solutions to America’s Biggest Problems conveys serious issues facing our country (ironically, issues that have gone unresolved since 2000) and unintentionally puts the last eight years with George W. Bush in context.  The author draws examples from his own life, his experience working with the Clinton administration and being the co-founder of a Gen-X grassroots organization that was once 30,000 strong to illustrate then ten most pressing issues (which are actually far worse than they were when Clinton left office) to which he offers radical yet sensible solutions.

It’s almost impossible to not hear many Americans these days, especially liberals, look at the turmoil of the Bush Administration and long for the days when Bubba was in office. Bill Clinton’s Presidency as a result has become romanticized, with Bill’s less noble moments vanishing from public memory.  Written way back in 2000, Nelson frowns on what he considered to be the lame duck Presidency of Bill Clinton (needless to say, this book was published before George W. Bush became President) that failed to serve the Americans of the future.  This eight-year old critique offers a refreshing view of the Clinton Presidency, debunking the existence of the so-called “budget surpluses” of the Clinton years, Clinton’s signing of the Defense of Marriage Act which basically refused to acknowledge gay marriage, and continued air strikes in the Middle East and Africa.

The book focuses on the U.S. national debt, something that is often ignored in the discourse of national politics because it isn’t very well understood.  Most Americans don’t understand why it exists and understand even less how it will absolutely cripple the economy 10, maybe even 20 or 30 years in the future.  The U.S has borrowed trillions of dollars from banks around the world and pay about $300 million a year in interest payments alone.  At the end of the day, all debts must be repaid, Nelson argues, and the leaders of the present have decided America can gleefully live beyond its means, doling out funds to as many special interest groups as possible, and stick future generations with the tab.  As the then-twenty-something Nelson says, he was born at the beginning of the end of the American Dream. (more…)

Now that Sen. Hillary Clinton’s appointment to Secretary of State in the Obama Administration is almost a done deal, it seems that Caroline Kennedy, whose only claim to fame or a political career consists of being the daughter of martyred President John F. Kennedy, appears to be a very likely appointee to fill Clinton’s New York Senate seat.

Already she has begun campaigning for a vote of one in Harlem, the same State senate district New York Governor David Paterson used to represent.  Not surprisingly, New York City’s own self-appointed “black leader”, Al Sharpton took Caroline out to lunch at Sylvia’s, a restaurant in Harlem known locally as one of the few soul food joints in the world white people aren’t afraid to walk into. Scores of white politicians, including the Clintons, have enjoyed photo ops and overpriced soul food at Sylvia’s to show the press how much they care about the African-American community.  No word as of yet if Caroline plans to further impress the Governor by hawking shea butter and incense on 125th Street. (more…)