The Supremes Rule on Health

I have to admit that I was very surprised yesterday when the Supreme Court ruled yesterday to uphold the Affordable Health Care Axt, commonly known as Obamacare. I think the general consensus was that the Conservative majority on the court would rule to invalidate the mandate at the least, and perhaps tows out the complete law.

As we know now they did not. Proving that truth is stranger than fiction Anthony Kennedy, who had been presumed to be the swing vote on the issue, voted with the minority to invalidate the whole law. The shocker was that Chief Justice Roberts, presumed a true Conservative,voted with the liberals to uphold the law.

Roeberts added more mystery, and some big television blunders by siding with the conservatives that tbe mandate could not be upheld based on the commerce clause of the Constitution but that it could be upheld as a tax that Congress did have the power to legislate.

The reactions have been swift and all too predictable. Republicans now are running with the talking point that Obama has passed the biggest tax increase in history and that further he did not reveal it asva tax when enacting it so he was deceptive. This is silly. We all know that Obama did not consider it a tax, Republicans did not either or they surely would have used it as a point against, and neither side argued the tax angle before the court. In short Roberts created this argument. Some legal scholars argue he did so as he did not want to overturn the bill in full, he had been prepared to toss the mandate but when he saw the whole bill ready to be tossed he stepped back from the brink and came up with the tax argument. Roberts did not want to give Congress more leeway with the Commerce clause but frankly was concerned with his legacy being sealed in such a divisive case with perhaps another twenty years or more on the court.

Some Republicans have called Roberts a traitor, some have said he was just wrong. Mike Pence compared the day to 9/11, can you imagine, and some of my wife's acquaintances said on Facebook " that this was an awful day for the country." I understand being angry at the Court, living through the travesty of Bush v Gore one can never think of the court as anything but a political body, but our Republican friends have had their way with the Court so long that they simply do not how to react with losing a case. One expects their vindictiveness to continue.

Governor Romney who built the prototype for Obamacare vows he will repeal it. The only fun prospect of his victory will be his learning that it takes 60 votes to pass something through the Senate when a Republican is President. The fact is Obama needs to win. We cannot be changing healthcare laws by administration over the next 12 years. An Obama victory would assure it to become law and get ingrained. In 2016 Republicans can bring a candidate like Jeb Bush out who will move the party forward on issues like immigration or, if they repudiate Bush, they can drive their party off a cliff and on to the destiny of the Whigs.

This law is not perfect, it makes the insurance companies richer. Watch the crocodile tears that the insurance companies shed. Tons of healthy new customers and with the preexisting clauses an excuse to raise rates. I would have almost preferred it to be tossed and energize the base and someday get single payer. Perhaps that will come.

Still a victory for Obama is good news considering the alternative. And Roberts just made court watching much more interesting.

Kevin Youkilis is Our Biggest Problem

Kevin Youkilis was traded to the Chicago White Sox last weekend. In New England, in the land of Red Sox nation, this was big news and rightly so. Youkilis had been a member of the two World Championship teams but his performance had slipped. That, along with his pending free agency, and the emergence of rookie Will Middlebrooks made the deal something that had to happen.

The trade of Kevin Youkilis has somehow became an issue in the Presidential campaign. Barack Obama speaking at a campaign event in Massachusetts made a joke about " Thanking Boston for Youkilis" as of course the President is from Chicago. The crowd did not respond in a hugely positive way and the President joked about " knowing his audience."

Certainly this is not a news story. However the Romney campaign jumped on the story, criticizing the President. It should be noted that were the situation reversed the Democrats would be doing the same thing to Romney.

This is indicative of the major problem in the Presidential campaign. With all the major issues in this country our political campaigns become exercises in minutiae. When Kevin Youkilis become an issue for the two major party candidates for President to spar about we have taken a very wrong turn.

We deserve better.

Immigration and the Supreme Court

Immigration has always been an issue in the United States. In the 1800's the Irish in America were considered low class and later after The Civil War as immigrants from Eastern and Southern Europe the prejudice that Italians and others from those countries experienced was in some cases extreme.

Our immigration history is not always one to proud of. In the 1930's the United States, as well as other countries, put very low limits on Jewish immigration even as it became clear that they had much to fear by staying on mainland Europe.

Today when you say immigration you are talking about Mexico and in most cases illegal immigration. Both sides of the political aisle use it to excite their base and unfortunately by doing so they do nothing to improve the political situation.

Republicans talk about building a wall. They talk about deportation like deporting 11 million people is practical. They speak about illegals taking American jobs when we know that A. Few Americans will do the jobs that these folks do and B. many of the Corporate interests and such that contribute to Republican campaigns are those that will be hiring illegals.

Arizona Governor Jan Brewer who, incidentally may be the worst person in politics, had led the effort that had Arizona pass a controversial and restrictive law. The Supreme Court in a Five to Three opinion ruled that the three of the four provisions of the law were unconstitutional. When this Supreme Court, this Supreme Court rules against Republicans you know they have gone far to the right.

Then perhaps funniest of all to see Brewer claim that this was a victory for those behind the law, as " the heart of the law was let stand." The spin machines on both sides will come up with a nonsensical interpretation of whatever happens.

The President signs a bill saying that the deportation of young people who were brought here illegally as children, if they are in college or being responsible, will stop. Romney says that he is against the bill as it is a temporary measure, in that it is an executive order not a Congressional action but of course does not acknowledge that the Republicans in Congress will never pass a bill that looks like anything the President could sign.

Demographics will correct this issue but it also will cause even more fear for those prone to be against immigration. As Hispanics become a much larger proportion of the population Republican failure to be responsive to their needs will lead to political losses that will make them irrelevant. So this will correct itself, it is just a matter of time. However, this will also cause a backlash, somewhat like what was seen in the South in the days of the Civil Rights Era. The same concerns that created George Wallace and created what would later be called Reagan Democrats will split Republicans in the same way.

Truthfully a Romney victory and subsequent Supreme Court seats filled by him might be the only way that the Republican majority of today can have their value systems extend more than another decade.

Conversely the best way to improve their lot would be to embrace immigration reform and measures to help more and more Hispanics into the middle class. Right or wrong one of the best ways to produce Republicans is to let people get a piece of the American Dream that they wish to protect. Hispanics being more religeous than the average Americans would be a natural fit to the Republican party if....and only if the Republicans could find a way to balance the Tea Party that keeps them in power now with the Hispanics which could later.

Good luck with that Mitt.

Roger Clemens Trial

Did Roger Clemens use steroids? If the answer to this is yes and Clemens under oath said no then he committed perjury. Committing perjury is a big deal. Committing perjury under oath is a pretty big deal.

Barry Bonds is now a convicted felon over similar charges. I beleive his ws obstruction of justice but I am not sure.

There really is no doubt that starting in the late eighties up through the mid nineties most, in not all, of the successful home-run hitters of those times were taking steroids or otherwise bulking up. You can go back to Brady Anderson and his fifty home run season, many others that came out of nowhere for a short time. Does anyone really think Luis Gonzales became a star with that much power all of natural causes. Jeff Bagwell insists he was clean but he is painted with the same brush because of when he played.

It does not even take a sniff test. You just have to look at the numbers in that time frame and compare them with the numbers in this time frame. In any other time have offensive numbers regressed this dramatically? Are we supposed to believe that pitchers have just become that much better. Certainly not.

So back to Clemens. Did he take steroids. It really does not matter. The question is can you prove beyond a doubt that he did and thus that he committed perjury. There was very little doubt in my mind in what the outcome of the case would be just as there was very little doubt in my mind of his guilt.

I will not complain about the verdict however. Rich and famous people should be convicted the same as anyone else for a crime. The question remains however of who really was to blame for the steroid era. Players, certainly but blaming the players is only half, or less, of the story. The owners knew, most fans knew, certainly journalists knew. Maybe we wanted to pretend we did not. The evidence however was there, if we did not see it, we just did not want to.

The bottom line is that as hard as it is to accept people really don't care. We all know a great majority cheated. Roger, Barry, maybe they are guilty of not being smart about answering the questions. Rafael Palmiero is not on trial. Sammy Sosa is not on trial. Heck David Ortiz, Boston's favorite is not on trial. The fact that who is charged and who is not is so arbitrary and so dependent on the accused players personality and ability to portray himself as a nice guy makes these trials a sham.

It seems baseball now has standards in place that at least prevent some drug use. Ryan Braun and his incident last winter with a failed test that was subsequently thrown out shows the process still needs refinement but the process does appear to work. What may be hard to understand is that even the Ryan Braun thing did not create much heat with the fans.

Why? I do not know. Honestly I think it is because we have lost our innocence. These players are good at a sport but I do not think that as a rule any parent would encourage their children to make these players heroes and role models. I think that we have done a much better job as parents in explaining to our children who the real heroes are in life.

They admire players and their moves, for the most part however I do not think they admire them as people. Now perhaps other kids other places, perhaps those without full family units and positive role models feel and act differently. I cannot get worked up about Clemens or Bonds. I do not like what they did, but I think making them scapegoats for a system where everybody including owners got filthy rich is foolish.

I also think that harsh as it is that athletes in most cases are as much cautionary tales for our young people as they are role models.

It certainly is a different world. It is a world where expecting anyone to care about the semantics of what an assumed steroid user said about his alleged steroid use is hopeless. We have learned a hard and painful lesson, adults and children alike, it however might be a good lesson, one we should have learned long ago. Choose your heroes wisely and perhaps, just maybe treat your fallen heroes with just a little of the empathy you wish they would have had when they were on top. It will not hurt you to do so, the days of most of us being hurt by an athletes failings are long gone, perhaps the best we can do for them is to feel sorry for them. That in itself might be the greatest punishment of all.

One Year Later

My Mom died 53 weeks ago. For the last week I have been pondering the significance of a year passing. My Mom lived to be almost 90. She struggled with some health issues the last few years, but overall after her bypass surgery in her seventies she had good health for a woman of her age. So when she passed no one could say that she did not have a good long life.

My Father died much younger than he should have. This made my Mom a widow in her early sixties. She lived almost a third of her life as a widow, that is a really quite something to think about. The idea of dating again was totally foreign to her. She had no interest in that. I do think that my Mom wished that she had developed more friendships in life. Having so many children and so many siblings I think that for her life as pretty closed. When she worked outside the home she might have friends from work but that rarely translated into a true friendship. Later in life she would go to church with one of my sisters and she was always admired for her resolute nature, and dedication to her family.

When your last parent dies, no matter how old you are, you feel alone. I read somewhere today that if you were attached or very interested in the moon as a child that looking at the moon always makes you feel like a child. I get that. I was scared of the dark for a time in my childhood, the moon became in that time an important friend. Looking at the moon can make me feel like I am little. That makes me think of my Mom.

At various times I have called my Mom quite frequently, we kept in close touch and while she was never one to push her ideas onto a person she was always there with quiet support. Kind of like a retaining wall you knew was there but could not see it. You just knew.

Yesterday my wife and I , and our two youngest children went to my parents graves. At the same time we took a tour or some of the haunts of my growing up. My childhood home, my friends homes, parks, schools, places where remember-able events happened. Visiting my Mom's grave is not as comfortable as one would perhaps hope it would be. Perhaps comfortable is the wrong word, comforting, reassuring, would be better. I do not have a strong sense that my Mom is there. I know the urn her ashes are in is there but I do not have a sense of her.

I told my kids about her and their Grandad who they actually never met. They had questions and I answered them. I do think if My Mom's grave was closer I would probably visit it weekly. I get a sense that even now there is no reason for me not to do so, I feel like the routine would make me feel good, but I am not sure of the connectedness I would feel. Perhaps that would come.

The winter before my Mom died she came to my sister's house in the town I live for a visit. I have too many kids and too small a house to play host but I took the opportunity of her being in town to see her each day. I would go over and spend each morning with her, by this time she had slight dementia, and would repeat herself. Still we had breakfast and it was a time that I treasure.

I do not know what this essay means. It means that I still pick up the phone every once in awhile and think that there is something going on in my life that I want to tell her. I am not sure when that muscle memory will go away.

I also know this however, the last time I saw her as I was leaving I hugged her and kissed her like I always did. I knew I would not see her for a couple of weeks. As I was leaving, everyone else was out the door, I turned and saw her there and just had a feeling. I returned to her and gave her another hug and kiss and told her I loved her.

Two weeks later I got a call at 3 in the morning that said my Mom was fading fast and while it was unlikely I could get there in time did I want to try to go get there in time. I chose not to. I felt like I had known and had said my goodbye that afternoon two weeks earlier.

It turns out I would not have made it in time as she passed ten minutes later. Even so I had no regrets of my actions. I saw her, I listened to my heart and returned to her again. My last interaction was true to my feelings.

Of course not everyone dies at ninety and fades in a predictable way. Live your life with those you love so that should the unthinkable happen you know they knew how you felt. My Mon has been gone a year and I miss her everyday. I do not have any regrets however. I urge you to make sure you do not either.

Your Not Special.....and Neither Am I

A couple of weeks ago at a commencement exercise in Massachusets a popular teacher spoke to the graduates. Unlike most speakers at such events he told the students something you can rest assured that they are not used to hearing.

He told them that they were not special. He explained that while of course they were the pride of their parents eyes, and grandparents too, that the sheer volume of children that graduated each spring, had big dreams, went to college and moved on with their lives made them not special.

This is a conversation I have had with my own son, due to be a senior next year. It is not that I am not proud of him. I am. It is not that I do not think he works hard and should be commended for it. I do. It is simply this. My son is currently ranked 12th in a class of 340 kids. This is excellent. Far better than I ever did. That said all over the country there are kids that are ranked in the top ten percent of their schools. Are all of these students special. Perhaps? The question becomes however that if everyone is special than why are so many young people and frankly older people struggling.

Arguments can be made about the economy and our financial system and those from the right or left would have arguments that they feel strongly about. However the bottom line is this. Talent does not make you special. We all know someone who is very smart, super intelligent, who never gets to a level of success that we would equate with their gifts. Conversely we also know people who are in positions of success and power that we would struggle to ever identify how they reached that position.

Success in the world is made up of many factors. Talent, intelligence, attitude, social I Q, these are all factors but no one or even two of these will guarantee you success. Should we stand and tell our graduates that success is a crapshoot. No of course not. There are skills that translate well to success. Strangely some of our modern parenting techniques do not always help develop those talents. The ability to deal with adversity and disappointment is missing in many of our children. We do them no favors. In fact I would go so far that until a person has experienced such times we cannot really consider them special. The world is not, for most of us, easy.

Life is wonderful and I am blessed. If I could tell twenty year old me something though I would tell him, you are not special. Everyone has bad times, things go wrong. It is truly how you conduct yourself through these things that become the starting point for future success. Rarely does the roadmap we start on get us to our destination.

Graduates you are not special. You can be special. You, hopefully, will be special. As parents of young children we have to remember that learning to deal with disappointment, heartache, adversity and failure is a part of life. As a parent if you remove all the sharp edges of life, if you take away the consequences of mistakes that become teachable moments you need ask yourself what your goal is.

My son had a teachable moment the other day. In the end he was taught that you have to communicate and you have to communicate respectfully. Or....it could be that you walk to work. One and a half miles to work seems to me and some of my friends like a joke, heck we might have walked that to work every day. For my son however it was something he had a hard time fathoming that I had gone and left him without transportation and no way to get to work. This is a minor consequence of an action, he had ample time to get to work.

Our kids are not special to the world. We owe them that lesson. Trust me it is better heard and learned from us than from the mean old world.

Greece, France, Egypt, Syria, etc

This summer the United States political system is virtually on hold. Most acknowledge that nothing much will get done until next year when either a reelected Barack Obama or a newly elected Mitt Romney will take office. The American economy is, as always, the number one issue in the election. While issues of foreign policy and cultural issues that are perpetually in conflict will influence some votes for most it is the economic issues which will be the deciding factor.

With our own pending election to ignore Americans for the most part have not been paying attention to what goes on in Europe, The Middle East and the rest of the world. Here, however, is a news flash. What happens in these countries might affect people in this country more than what any President of our own country does. Or said another way, how the United States President handles what happens in these countries might well be more affecting of us than anything they do domestically.

In Greece today they had what seems like the fifth election so far this year, that may be exaggerated but who can keep up. The results today indicate that the Center Right parties have won enough seats to form a coalition of those that support taking measures to keep Greece in the Euro zone. Thus far these measures have been to cut and cut and cut some more. We, on the outside looking in, can all say that of course the Greeks need to make cuts, that they have been spending in a totally unreasonable, unbalanced way. Even if all these things are true, in the end, the Greek citizens have to accept whatever proposals are handed down. Thus far, mo matter how many elections they have, the measures proposed have not worked and have not been embraced. For me there is no reason to think this will change. The Germans are really the only country that has prospered under the Euro and they will insist on austerity measures to continue propping up Greece, Spain and other countries failing in the Eurozone. This is not over, not settled and could still all fall apart. Greece, Spain, Italy, their economies are in collapse and their governments and participation in the Eurozone could collapse as well. If this happens no one knows what this will mean for the European economy or the World economy. It has to at least be noted how ironic it is that again German hedgemony, this time economic, has the power through domination of other European countries to cause the world a whole lot of problems.

France had a new Presidential election a month or so ago. Nicolas Sarkozy lost his office as the French tired of his act fairly quickly. A more left leaning politician, I forget his name, has won the office and has promised, while not making radical change, that he will be much less inclined to austerity measures being considered by Sarkozy.

Moving to the Middle East Syria moves closer and closer to a Civil War. What has been going on in Syria is a travesty. Could the United States provide air cover for the Syrian rebels. Of course we could. The problem is that in the case of Syria, Russia has been much more strident in advising that they would not consider this a good thing. What happened in Libya, it seems to depose Quadaffi, is not as acceptable in Syria. Assad in Syria certainly is even more involved with terrorist groups such as Hamas and Hezbollah. It seems likely that for that reason alone he provides a valuable counter balance to United States interests in the region. For this reason Russia has an interest in propping up Assad. The people and citizens of his country struggle each day however.

Perhaps most significantly Egypt has had, in the eyes of some Western observers, a coup as it's Generals are making very apparent that their influence is not abating and they have very little incentive or plan to cede power to any Democratically elected government. This is not getting much play in America right now but this story may be the most important. What happens in Egypt could trigger a conflict throughout the Middle East.

So the next time you see Romney and Obama pointing fingers and discussing some silly inane thing remmeber their are important things going on in the world and how the next President handles these will have a great impact on us all.

Sargent Shriver Piece on CBS Sunday Morning

I wrote last year about the passing of Sargent Shriver. This man who led and or founded so many programs which benefited the lesser amongst us and at the same time gave unseen benefits to those doing the helping was a special man,

Recently his son Mark Shriver has written a book entitled A Good Man about his father. I plan to read it soon and will be writing of that on my media blog. Today's piece however was a visit with Mark, Bobby, and their famous sister Maria Shriver who spoke of their father's life and his influence on them and the world.

With politicians and public figures embarrassing themselves and us in watching each and everyday it might be good for all of us to spend a moment to learn more about the life and lessons of this man.

As the book says simply " A Good Man ", we need more of them.

Jeb, Bubba and Barack is Too Busy

We seem to have hit another pocket of headlines on the political front. None of it seems to be destined to make us feel better about the state of American Democracy.

On the local front we now know that Cynthia Dill for the Democrats and Charles Summer will be the sacrificial lambs for Angus King in the Senatorial race this fall. While it seems and is a given that King will be elected I would caution everyone that Mr. King is no savior.

In the last couple of days King has recanted his position that the Bush tax cuts should be allowed to expire. Now Angus says that should not happen until unemployment hits five percent. Give me a break. First, that might not happen again in our lifetime. Second how many times do we have to say this. Trickle down does not work. We have so much money being held by businesses and hedge funds and zillionaries that is not doing anything to create jobs nothing government can do will do so. Certainly not in the era of tax cuts. King claims he will be the voice of compromise and that in itself is not a bad thing. However if he is going to call capitulation to the vested interests that have and continue to eat at the troth of profit at the expense of the middle class, if that becomes compromise we can do better.


On the national front Jeb Bush made headlines when he advised that he felt that Ronald Reagan would not do well in today's Republican party. Bush went on to say that Republicans had to be willing to accept some form of increased revenue, even if only in the form of reduced tax deductions. He bemoaned the fact that then ten to one spending cuts to increased revenues could not even get a vote in the Senate. In short he stated that if Republican went to Washington on nothing more than a leash from Grover Norquist then they were just puppets. The immediate reaction from the right, something that until Monday Bush thought he was a part of, was savage. Norquist stated that it was a tax increase that cost Bush the elder his Presidency. He further stated that no tax revenue increases were acceptable. This has to be the most foolish position I have seen.

When Jeb Bush is not an acceptable candidate to the Republican faithful than they are going places as a party that will, with the demographics of the country soon to be in place, make them a party with no relevance. What you are seeing is perhaps the retrenching in of those that cannot see the future as it runs at them full barrel.

Perhaps Bush can become one more of those politicians that will save this country when it is in financial ruin and needs grown ups and compromisers to solve the problems. Calling Jeb Bush a RINO indicates nothing so much as how far the party of the big tent of Reagan has fallen into a cult of right wing propoganda.


On the left Bill Clinton strayed a little off the reservation when he said that the President's plan to campaign against Bain capital might not be the best course of action. Recently James Carville stated that Obama's plan to run saying the economy has and is improving will not ring true with the faithful in key states like Pennsylvania and Ohio. In short Obama would be better suited to run against a do nothing Congress than to say ignore what you see, the recovery is here.


Obama is not a man who enjoys campaigning. One senses that he has an industrial strength jar of Purel that he uses after he walks a crowd rope after an event. This does not mean he is a bad person but I for one have to say this. I will vote for him. I think it is a terrible proposition that Romney could win as he might be the only thing worse than Obama. However we Democrats have to do a better job. Republicans do as well. Buying Obama four years ago over Hillary Clinton was nothing short of buying a pig in a poke and now we are stuck with him. It is a sad state of events.

Lindsay Graham of South Carolina now has become the latest Senator to defect from Grover Norquist. Graham is an intelligent idealistic Republican. Anyone who calls him not Conservative enough again needs to start examining themselves. Graham offers that if you go to Congress unwilling to compromise in any fashion then you are really doing a disservice to your country. I forget who but someone said never let wanting perfection keep you from getting the pretty good. That is a paraphrase but still the point is made.

Mitt Romney told a crowd that Wisconsin voters had said by voting in Scott Walker that they wanted cuts in education, fire fighters, police officers and other items in state and municipal budgets. Romney is not right, he is also not all wrong either. Poll after poll shows that people do not want education and such cut. They do want lower taxes however. It is when the cuts start happening that people get upset. In short what makes the public angriest when the politicians on the right do what they say they are going to do. They say they are going to lower taxes for the wealthy, impose cuts on services that the majority of the public support, and then Mr, Middle Class gets upset when he has to wait longer at a government office, or if his local taxes go up. Taxes slide downhill. They will always find you. The only people who benefit from tax cuts are those that have so much wealth that they save a great deal. Saving 1000 dollars a year on your federal taxes will inevitably come back to haunt you when you pay your local taxes, or register your car. Romney is wrong when he says we want fewer taxes but he is correct to be confused by the message the public is giving.

Lastly the outrage of the week, Barack Obama told an interviewer he did not go to Wisconsin because he was " too busy" Please forgive me. This is not even good political theater. It is a lie so feeble it is not even worth criticizing. It is a joke. He did not go because A. he did not want to put his political prestige on the line and B. and this is the damning one in my eyes, the President is not comfortable embracing unions, he is not comfortable in a populist setting. Obama, hold onto your hat here, at times seems like he would more comfortable with Republicans than with the dirt under your fingernails blue collar union workers that have traditionally been the Democratic base. This is never a good thing for a Democrat.

I would vote for Jeb Bush tomorrow. The question is when Jeb becomes a candidate will he recant his recent statements.

Advertisement: Pocket and Longreads, A Match Made in Heaven

For someone like me there is more information available to read on a daily basis than there is time to read. Books, Magazines, and the multitude of online sources can fill your day.

Recently I have found a Website called Longreads. This website gathers long articles from magazines, newspapers, and other sources both in print and online media and makes them available. Yesterday I found articles I would like to read, and this is just a small sample, The Atlantic, Newsweek, The New York Times, and Sports Illustrated.

Another recent find that facilitates this website is Pocket. There are many programs and apps available to save articles for later reading, the tablets such as the Ipad have made this a booming business, the Pocket program is the best I have seen.

It runs as smooth as could be. Going through the Longreads website I look at an article, decide to read it later, press a button, and then it is in the Pocket App on both my phone and Ipad. The next time I am waiting for my children somewhere, or my wife is in the grocery store, all I need do is pull up the app on the phone and start or continue an article.

For those of us who find much to read online ...check out Pocket. To find some of the best articles being written today look at Longreads.

These work great together. Check them out.

Tom Coburn Makes Too Much Sense To Be In Washington

Watching Tom Coburn on Morning Joe this morning it seems to me that he has too much common sense to belong, not just in the Republican Party, but in the Senate itself. As a Republican I do not agree with him on some items, but surprisingly I agree with him on more issues than not.

Today he is talking about 70 billion dollars that is unspent from Congressional allocations that could be pulled back and thus not borrowed. These are funds that have not been spent such as money from the mortgage " help " program that the banks have not used and have no intention of using.

Talking about the national debt, the tax code, and surprisingly what the President could do to get reelected what seems clear is this. Tom Coburn is a conservative man with common sense. We need a few more.

Walker Wins Wisconsin, What Does It Mean

Scott Walker won his recall contest last night in Wisconsin and it really was not close. I heard a commentator say on television that if you try to kill the king you better succeed or you are worse off than before and that is certainly the case for the Democrats in Wisconsin.

Looking for a big picture takeaway from this election is more difficult. Does this mean that Wisconsin has become a red leaning state, it appears as if it might. Does it mean that the union movement does not have enough power to carry the day in a traditionally union state. It certainly looks so.

For me there are several things to be said about this race. First and foremost I believe that we must accept that the Supreme Court's ruling on Citizens United has changed elections in this country. No matter what side of the aisle you sit on politically you need to ask yourself if the fact that single individuals or corporations can give unlimited contributions to a candidate or a cause is a good thing. We need to ask ourselves what do we think the billionaires who backed Rick Santorum and Newt Gingrich almost exclusively this spring think they are getting for their contributions. Or perhaps my sensible Republican friends need to ask themselves how they would feel if George Soros or Ted Turner spent 20 million dollars on a ballot issue in their state.

Money changes everything. Only a few people who have a sincere interest in buying public officials can think this is a good thing.

Democrats however need to face facts. This is the law of the land. They are in the unfortunate position of not being able to make inroads to change the law until they regain power in the Washington and the law itself makes it very hard for them to regain power. For those who say that unions are now unlimited in what they can spend they do need to realize that while this is true, and it is , it also looks past the point that unions have no measure of power equal to the Koch Brothers or the other right wing boogeymen spending hundreds of millions.

So for Democrats they need to raise money. It is a hard position. Rich Democrats will gain financially from Republican victories, they are in effect being asked to bankroll to a large extent measures and ballot initiaves which will cost them money. It is one thing to understand the self interest of the Republican backers, it is quite another to find a significant amount of Democrats to work hard to lose money.

That is the first challenge. The second and I have written about this before, is the change in American values. Republicans point to Democratic tactics of class warfare but what the Republicans have done is nothing short of brilliant. They have made the middle class of America despise the poor and idolize the rich. This is totally reverse to what it has been until the last 40 years. Prior to that time the poor wanted to be in the middle class, the middle class wanted to help them get there, and they all thought that the wealthy should be made to help them, usually in the form of progressive taxation.

I think it has to do with the love affair America has created with wealth and materialism. In doing so we all dream more of our 1 in a 1000 chance to be a millionaire rather than finding contentment with our good middle class life and wishing to see others join us. In short we find that a good amount of middle class people believe that it is better to believe in lower taxes for the wealthy because they aspire to be that person, even if the chances of them becoming a millionare are small.

It is disturbing at best. And yet my son as we talk about politics does not understand why Republicans and rich folks get so upset about paying four percent more in taxes, the net effect of the Bush tax cuts being reversed for most. I reminded him however that he himself says that the most important thing to him about his career choice has been the chance to make a great deal of money and have a big house. I advised him that were he successful in that plan that he might in twenty years look back at his teenage self as being naive and idealistic. It is a fact that as people gain in life they become more conservative. It as if part of being successful is wanting to hold onto it against usurpers. I guess, realistically, that is human nature as well. Lincoln spoke of our better angels in dealing with the South, perhaps we need to find those in dealing with each other.

In terms of what Walker's victory means. It means what we already knew is true still and perhaps more so.

1. The Union movement in America, if not dead, is on life support.

2. Elections can be bought, if not outright, through unlimited and anonymous contributions. This seems Ok to you if your side is the one spending. Before Democrats get too holier than thou however they should keep in mind that in Maine the initial disclosures of fundraising for the Gay Marriage referendum has the supporters of Gay Marriage collecting monies at a clip of at least 100 times that of those who wish to keep the ban.

3. It means that when Dems pick a battle they need to do a better job. Why would Wisconsin Dems set up a battle that was one that could change the course of events and have no arrangement to field a better candidate. Tom Barrett is I am sure a good man but a rematch two years later was just Dems saying "I told you so." No one wants to hear that. Where was Herb Kohl the longtime Senator or better yet liberal champion Russ Feingold. One has to ask them why they refused to run but one really has to question the long term planning that went into this.

4. The midwest is no longer solidly union and therefore no longer solidly Democratic. This does not bode well for Obama in the fall.

5. Pundits say the fall will be different because Obama's base will be energized. If a vote to remove an anti union Governor in the state of Wisconsin cannot energize the base enough to earn a victory what can this President do to do so. This President who kept us in Afghanistan, failed to deal with Guantanamo, did not even attempt a public option in his health care bill, who watered down his Bank reform bill and on and on it goes. This President who, despite being hated by the right, has had policies more in line with George Bush,his predecessor, than with his Senate Democrats. Without a sleight of hand worthy of David Copperfield there is nothing this President can do to energize his base.


6. Exit polls show that 17 percent of union households voted for Walker. What this means is that sometimes no matter what you just cannot fathom why people vote the way they do. I do not want to be too hyperbolic and certainly do not want to offend but union members voting for Walker is akin to Black folks voting for David Duke. It just does not make sense.

Finally I have to accept that I am in the minority. I do not how that is. It seems so simplistic to me that unions help the average person and that rich folks should pay a progressive income tax. It seems clear to me that cuts to education at the same time as tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy do not make any sense. In the end though I have to accept that I am in the minority.

I do not understand it. I am pigheaded enough to still believe I am right. I am not foolish enough, however, to think that I am in the majority any longer. That makes me very sad.

Verizon and A T & T, The Terrible Two of Cellular

As our contracts ended on our cell phones in our household last month our kids were very excited. It would be easy to me to say I find it a little silly, after all it is just a phone, but of course my family and friends know that I have a very close relationship with Suri and my Iphone.

So I get it. Our kids are picking out phones. If they want the free ones that is great, if they want a phone that costs money they need to pay half, we think that is fair.

My middle son was the first to make a decision, he tried to be responsible, he researched the phones and decided on one that would not force him into an expensive data plan.

We were shocked therefore to learn when he arrived at the store to find that he would have to pay a standard $30 upgrade fee. This is a fee that is now being charged by Verizon for any purchase and activation of a new phone. When asked what this is for we are told it is to cover costs of educational seminars in the stores and etc. Love that etc. What they should say is we needed to find another way to make more money for doing nothing. Seriously. Charging us for the sales efforts and seminars that they have in the stores to sell us products.

This is on a line with car dealers who charge you a paperwork processing fee. It is, on the surface of it, a ridiculous thing.

Try to challenge it, tell them you will not pay. They simply do not care. After all where are you going to go, coincidentally all the major carriers charge it. I am glad there is no collusion however. That would be improper.

Banks, phone companies, power companies, insurance behemoths, they are all the same. Every time you see something big joining with something else big to make something even bigger remember that this is all about limiting choice, cutting employment and forcing you to pay higher fees.

I have a very good friend who I told years ago that all corporations are evil and as soon as you understood that you would do better in life. He is a Republican and while I do not think he agrees with that assertion even today I do think that he has a much better understanding of why I say that. The sooner we all lose the perception that any for profit business is out there trying to do anything that improves your life for any reason other than to make money and more money. In short, if they could make more money by making your life worse, and get away with it they would.

This country needs another Teddy Roosevelt. Both parties are dripping in cash from corporations. It will, however, take an enlightened Republican to accomplish any improvements on the situation. Dems are so knee jerk that they cannot be taken seriously.

So here I sit awaiting an enlightened Republican politician. Waiting. Waiting.......

Obama's Cowardly Response to Wisconsin " Your On Your Own"

Tuesday voters in Wisconsin will go to the polls to vote in the recall election of Governor Scott Walker. While most polls have the race as being close they also all show Walker holding a slim lead.

You may remember that Wisconsin has become the biggest battleground in the battle for union rights. Walker, much like our Governor LePage, took office and immediately passed a tax cut for the wealthiest citizens of his state. Then claiming revenue shortfalls he and his Republican colleagues rammed a bill limiting state workers collective bargaining rights through the legislature.

Since that time Wisconsin has become the proxy battleground for all things left and right. It is estimated that Walker, funded primarily by the Koch brothers and other secretive conservative groups has outspent Bennett at least eight to one. One must ask this, with this kind of money advantage, if Walker wins by one point should we feel good about the influence a few rich men can have on an election.

This past weekend Bill Clinton appeared in Wisconsin. Nothing energizes our former President more than a chance to speak up for the working people of this country.

Barack Obama, well the President did visit Illinois and Minnesota last week. He could not , it seems, find time to make a stop in Wisconsin. The reasons are many you can be sure. The President does not want to put his prestige on the line for a cause that might fail. He does not want to be seen as stepping in a local race.

What it really means are a few other things. First the President still does not understand that his best chance of winning in November is to energize the base of his party. Right now he appears to be following the " Are you really going to vote for Romney? " approach to his base, and lack of attention to them. He is correct of course, they will not. What they might do is stay home. Ohio last year rebuked their own Governor John Kasich strongly by forcing a vote on his union limiting bill and the measure was repealed. Still Obama cannot seem to understand that he needs to stand with these union men and women if he wants them to stand for him.

His decision to not involve himself in Wisconsin is hypocritical and shameful. It might also be indicative of the fact that the President really does not understand the union experience. He does not really understand loyalty as a feature of an honorable politician.

One thing we can be sure of and this goes to one of my more recent columns. President Joe Biden would have spent this past weekend in Wisconsin. One should have no doubt about where he would have stood.

It really is true, people you have hope for can disappoint you much more than those you believed nothing good of in the first place. Barack Obama = Disappointing