Now, I don’t mind if Obama wants to go, and it’s probably presumptuous of me to criticize him for what he might say there, since he hasn’t gone yet.

But if I didn’t, then I wouldn’t have a Gregalogue, and that’s not fair to me, or to those delightful unicorn voices in my head.

And besides, I can pretty much go by what I’ve seen of Obama already. Fact is, whenever he’s overseas, he tends to translate American success into past arrogance. Plus, I don’t think he’ll go to Hiroshima and say, “We did it to save lives,” because that undermines his whole point about nuclear weapons being evil.

And look at the fall of the Berlin Wall – the most important positive event in our lifetimes – unleashing a march of countries toward freedom. Obama didn’t even go to that shindig. Instead, he offered a video – the kind of thing Britney Spears does when she can’t accept the trophy for best U.T.I. at the MTV awards.

Still, Obama’s speech wasn’t bad. He championed freedom and stuff.

But then, he couldn’t resist:

“Few would have foreseen … that a united Germany would be led by a woman from Brandenburg or that their American ally would be led by a man of African descent. But human destiny is what human beings make of it.”

So, no mention of Reagan or Thatcher – yet he brings up himself?

Maybe staying home isn’t so bad.

And if you disagree with me, you’re probably a racist!

Tonight, a delightful line-up!

Carrie Prejean!

Allison Brie from Mad Men!

Lance Reddick from Fringe!

Trace Gallagher!

Andrea Tantaros!

“Let’s take a break fellas, I am sick of being in damage control mode. I gotta kick it for a few minutes” President Obama complained .

“Okay everyone, let’s leave the President alone for a bit of a rest” announces the President’s chief of staff, then whispering into his bosses ear he adds: “I think in a few days, our pals at CBS, NBC and ABC will have some surprises for them and this onslaught will stop. It’s just real tough trying to get anything on this Big Hollywood/Big Government bunch, they’re all pretty clean, even that nut Mannix.”

“He’s a Jackass.”

“Just rest up a few minutes Barack, – we’ll come back in shortly.”

With that the group left the room, and the President was unusually alone.

Ticking clock. — Distant siren. — Pounding headache.

Putting his feet up and shielding his eyes from the late September light streaming into the oval office, Mr. Obama tries desperately to turn off his brain for just five little minutes.

Tick,.. tock,.. tick,.. tock,.. tick,.. tock….. the beautiful antique clock meters off the seconds as the Chief Executive closes his eyes and tries to find a few minutes of peace. The comforting ticking of the clock continues, as if  shepherding his thoughts along a path towards some well needed rest. Almost there… moving along …tick,.. tock,.. closer … getting sleepy…tick… tock, tick… tock, tick—  then nothing. Beautiful silence.

“That’s what I had the Jelly Beans for.”

With a start, Obama lurched forward on the couch bursting out of his snooze. The impressive figure speaking before him held out a calming friendly hand as if to say; easy my friend I am here in peace.

“Yes, that’s what I had the Jelly Beans for…, I ate them on a break. It took me out of tense situations, so I could get a fresh perspective on things. Like a five minute vacation, you could say.”

Across from the young President sat an impressive figure of a man. Hair perfect. Suit handsome. Shoes shining. Smile charming.

“Well Mr. Obama, how do you get perspective on things?” Ronald Reagan asked. “What gives you peace?”

“Not much these days” said the dazed young President rubbing his eyes. ” I mean, Kennedy, Washington, Lincoln, now you. What the hell?”

“No, not ‘hell’ at all son, hel-p. We come here to try to help you realize some things. You’re our latest legacy son. We’ve a stake in this, …we love this nation and feel that you are being led down a path by some really misguided notions. Some from your special interest supporters and inner circle, some from inside your own head and heart.

Today, I’d like to talk to you about something you have called for in this nation. You called for ‘fundamental change’  during your campaign. Listen, our constitution is just about as perfect a document and instrument that living beings could ever come up with. I happen to believe it was inspired by God Almighty, through men, to create a great home for freedom to prosper, so that men may achieve, dream and give the way God intended. That document and this nation do not need fundamental change Barack. Tweaks yes. But fundamental change? No sir. That sir smacks of fundamental rights being distorted or even taken away.”

“Come on Mr. President, this nation was being ruined by a war waged by my predecessor,… this nation was in bad shape. Fundamental change is needed to make sure we don’t go back to those days of despair” Mr. Obama beseeches, in a slightly annoyed tone.

“Oh please cut that baloney with me Barack.  Your predecessor had just what you have; A war. Ignore it if you will, but it will still be there. They are still there. Tell me; what ever happened to those Code Pink Sirens outside this office? They aren’t blowin’ any more are they? You campaigned with all those others that were screaming ‘this war is lost’. Like hell it was. Darn fine job Bush did. Not perfect, but war never is. That guy was like a pit bull – his teeth sunk deep into his commitment to protect our nation, – and he never let go. Damn the polls, damn the popularity. Handle it in your style, but please literally for goodness sake, handle it.

And while we’re on the subject; it’s up to you not to pull an ‘LBJ’ in Afghanistan. Get your act in gear Mr. President and listen to your commanders on the ground.

Well my time is short, I am due back at the ranch. Gonna cut some wood.  Yes, that’s another thing that would give me perspective; good hard physical work. I was never one for the treadmill or the aerobics you know. So, Mr. President, I wish you piles and piles of therapeutic wood to cut, and may they solve your problems by healing your thoughts. Oh and one more thing, stop referring to yourself in the third person. It sounds pompous, and quite frankly, a little silly. Not to be a dime store Sigmund Freud, but by talking about ‘The President’, in the third person all the time  you sound a little defensive. You don’t have to announce the position.  You bear the responsibility, not the position…  you are the position.”

Slapping his knees lightly and standing up out of the chair, California’s favorite son sparkled a youthful smile and added; “It’s a service business you’re in Mr. President. You above all, are in the business of serving the nation. So my final advice to you Barack is simple, find yourself your own type of Jelly Bean break, and in those minutes search your soul, think of the people, and reflect on the genius of the document. No fundamental change needed there at all.”

Then touching President Obama lightly on the shoulder and motioning him back towards the couch, Ronald Reagan added;

“Hey, you know what?  You do look really very sleepy. You’d better get some rest there Mr. President.  Go ahead Barack, close your eyes… that’s it my friend, …listen to the clock. I always loved that clock.. the way it went; Tick…Tock,… tick ….tock,…”

Tick, …tock, …tick,…

That’s why my blood went to full boil a couple of days before he died when I glanced at the TV in a rural Bates motel — been staying in a lot of those lately — and saw Harvard law professor Alan Dershowitz laud the youngest Camelotian as the greatest Senator and humanitarian of all time from the deck of Geraldo Rivera’s berthed yacht in Martha’s Vineyard. Dershowitz went on to tell the FOX mustachioed-one how he had rushed to Teddy’s aid with expert legal skills “in his hour of need” after Kennedy had left his date, Mary Jo Kopechne, to die in a Chappaquiddick Island tidal pond during the summer of 1969. Dershowitz’ considerable skills aside, the fact that full media attention was diverted from Kennedy by the coming Moon landing and walk to take place two days later probably helped the Kennedy fixers regroup and save his political hide.

I don’t say that based on the accounts of others. Since I was working at WSAR radio in Fall River, a town about 30 miles from the demi isle de riche crime scene on Martha’s Vineyard, I saw the Kennedy fixers do their work personally. To save space, I’m going to assume everyone reading this knows the Chappaquiddick narrative by heart — click here if you don’t — since it is so well known and what implausible parts of Kennedy’s story the fixers needed to fix. To say they succeeded is an understatement.

While America’s eyeballs and attention were diverted to Neil Armstrong’s step onto the Moon, the fixers hustled the five remaining unmarried women from that initial gathering of six married men away from investigators and reporters and then started throwing the weight of the Kennedy political machine around.

Despite the testimony of the diver that pulled Mary Joe Kopechne’s body from Kennedy’s car that it appeared to him she died of asphyxiation while gasping for oxygen in an air pocket, the local coroner refused to perform an autopsy, ruled her death an accidental drowning and released her corpse for burial in another state. Later attempts to exhume Kopechne’s remains for autopsy were successfully fought by the Kopechne family which had received about $150,000 dollars from Kennedy that we know of.

The official inquest into Kopechne’s death was done in secret one year after the incident on orders from the Massachusetts Supreme Judicial Court.

Was Kopechne’s death really a tragic accident? Was it a murder? Did Kennedy have a motive to kill her? We’ll  never know for sure now, but based on what I and WSAR News Director Mike Cabral learned at the time about Kennedy goon threats, payoffs and political favor swapping, put me down as a believer that Kopechne was pregnant with a child of Teddy’s she did not want to abort and that he had to do something drastic to make that situation go away for the sake of his political career and that was all that mattered. It’s all that ever mattered, which is why Ted Kennedy was willing to engage in treason for political gain.

In a stunning Forbes article, Peter Robinson, a research fellow at Stanford University’s Hoover Institute, quotes from a Soviet memorandum discovered by London Times reporter Tim Sebastian. The note was written by Victor Chebrikov, the top man at the KGB, and was addressed to Yuri Andropov, the top man in the entire USSR. The subject: Sen. Edward Kennedy.

“On 9-10 May of this year, Sen. Edward Kennedy’s close friend and trusted confidant [John] Tunney [Kennedy's law school roommate and a former Democratic senator from California] was in Moscow. The senator charged Tunney to convey the following message, through confidential contacts, to the General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Communist Party of the Soviet Union, Y. Andropov.”

Robinson writes:

Kennedy’s message was simple. He proposed an unabashed quid pro quo. Kennedy would lend Andropov a hand in dealing with President Reagan. In return, the Soviet leader would lend the Democratic Party a hand in challenging Reagan in the 1984 presidential election.

Bad as that is, Kennedy’s actions prior to approaching Andropov indicate Teddy knew he was engaging in treason writes James Simpson:

What is not generally known is that Kennedy collaborated with the Soviets well before Reagan was elected, and had a direct hand in crafting the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act. As a result of his efforts — which appear in retrospect to have been crafted to prevent detection of his seditious activities — the FBI was prevented from accessing critical intelligence that could have warned of 9-11. This story has been brought to light in an article, Treason and Ted Kennedy: The Story the Media Won’t Tell by Herb Romerstein, a veteran investigator for the U.S. House of Representatives.

Kennedy made Andropov a couple of specific offers. First, he offered to visit Moscow notes Robinson:

The main purpose of the meeting, according to the senator, would be to arm Soviet officials with explanations regarding problems of nuclear disarmament so they may be better prepared and more convincing during appearances in the USA.

Kennedy would help the Soviets deal with Reagan by telling them how to brush up their propaganda.

Kennedy then offered to grease the skids for Andropov to be favorably interviewed on American television:

A direct appeal … to the American people will, without a doubt, attract a great deal of attention and interest in the country. … If the proposal is recognized as worthy, then Kennedy and his friends will bring about suitable steps to have representatives of the largest television companies in the USA contact Y.V. Andropov for an invitation to Moscow for the interviews. … The senator underlined the importance that this initiative should be seen as coming from the American side.

Kennedy would make certain the networks gave Andropov air time–and that they rigged the arrangement to look like honest journalism.

“Tunney remarked that the senator wants to run for president in 1988,” the memorandum continued. “Kennedy does not discount that during the 1984 campaign, the Democratic Party may officially turn to him to lead the fight against the Republicans and elect their candidate president.”

Is the word treason ringing in your head too? How about the phrase “honest journalism?” But Robinson notes more:

In 1992, Tim Sebastian published a story about the memorandum in the London Times. Here in the U.S., Sebastian’s story received no attention. In his 2006 book, The Crusader: Ronald Reagan and the Fall of Communism, historian Paul Kengor reprinted the memorandum in full. “The media,” Kengor says, “ignored the revelation.”

Teddy Kennedy offered to collude with America’s arch enemy and our media ignored the revelation? Can’t claim a Moon walk diversion for slacking that story.

Does that make you wonder how many other treasonous Washington Teddys our constitutionally protected Fourth Estate may be ignoring?

Me too.

Sammy was a Bronx born actor and comedian who had some minor success in the 1950s.  He took his physical similarity to Jerry Lewis and ran with it.  He became known as the “fake Jerry Lewis” after creating an onstage and onscreen persona that mimicked Lewis’ shtick.  He even went as far as to hook up with a Dean Martinesque straight man named Duke Mitchell.  The real Jerry Lewis wasn’t amused and even went so far as to intimidate others in Hollywood not to feature Petrillo on their shows and bullied Vegas venues into blackballing his act. 

Most reboots are epic fails.

The point of bringing up Petrillo (besides encouraging you to watch his funny performance in “Bela Lugosi meets the Brooklyn Gorilla” on YouTube) is to illustrate that the “trend” of ripoffs, remakes, reboots, and re-imaginings is nothing new. Take it from me, the guy who shamelessly made “Transmorphers,” remakes and ripoffs are part of Hollywood history.  What is more depressing is the fact that re-imagining and remakes are also part of the political culture.

Our society has a sort of “political amnesia”; forcing us to repeat the same economic and policy mistakes every thirty years or so.  What else is the Obama administration but a “remake” of the Clinton administration (with almost half the original cast!)?  You can almost hear the pitch meeting.  “It’s FDR meets Clinton!  We reboot the franchise.  We forget about the Carter episode just like we pretended that Superman III and IV never happened.”

It’s the same tired ideas.  Same scripted attacks.  Same demagoguery.  Just listen to mental midgets like Paul Krugman discussing Keynesian economic models and talking about getting the “factories” started.  Hey, Knuckleheads, in the modern world the factories are all in China and Wal-Mart is the nation’s largest employer.  Let’s get “shovel ready” projects going so we can help out all those Starbucks baristas who are unemployed.  Let’s pretend that race relations today are only slightly different than they were in Mississippi circa 1950.  These clowns live in the past.

It’s maddening that this amnesia also affects our ability to learn from global history.  How well has pandering to maniacal, tin pot, dictators worked out in the past?  Why don’t we ask the Eastern Europeans how cool it was to have centralized everything and a government that spied on average citizens?  Yeah, that flag@whitehouse.gov thing was a great idea.

I’m sure that every evil dictator started out by laying out his case for evil fascism.  Stalin, Castro, Idi Amin, and yes I’ll go there, Hitler all showed up twirling their mustaches and telling everyone how great its going to be living in a statist hell hole.  No, it always starts out with smiley faces and unicorns, but it ends in bread lines and political prisons.

While I don’t advocate a wholesale freak-out at this point, a little perspective would be refreshing.  Anything resembling a massive clusterfark should ring alarm bells for all citizens, regardless on which side of the left/right paradigm they sit.  We should be past the point of deficit spending orgies, head-in-the-sand foreign policy, and irrational discussions about impending Christian theocracies.

I like to smack around my leftist friends by pointing out that since 1970, for the past 38 years, we’ve had 26 years of Republican administrations and 12 years of Democratic presidencies.  Yet, we don’t have prayer in school, forced Christian conversion, film and television censorship, book burnings, gay concentration camps or back alley, illegal abortions.  Still, you can bet that in early 2011, the news media and the wunderkinds of the left will start crying about Palin’s book banning, Romney’s Mormon proselytizing, and Huckabee’s closet desire to turn the airwaves into 24/7 Christian programming.  I can’t imagine what they will dredge up about my homeboy Bobby Jindal (oh, wait didn’t he perform and exorcism?  Frack!)

I’ve seen this movie before.  Several times actually.  It is old and busted.  Where is the new hotness?

There is a bright side.  The latest episode of leftist nincompoopery seems to be particularly inept.  Too many development execs and a weak, first time director.  They had a big opening weekend, but their box office is down, and dropping fast.  In 2010 and 2012 the other side may have an opportunity to return to the top spot.  The question for us is this; do we want another lame remake or sequel of our own?  Do we want our own “Transformers 2” or a remake of “Nightmare on Elm Street”?

I dig the original, but give me something new.

I vote that, at a minimum, we push for a re-imagining like “The Dark Knight.” I want familiar concepts and ideas but told with a new spin and by really talented people.  I want it to be multi-layered and complex.  I want a classic.  I want something with staying power that resonates for generations and changes the landscape for the foreseeable future.

Even better, I want something completely original and fresh that changes the political landscape forever.  Just look at the cinematic world before and after “Star Wars”.  That’s what I want for politics. A reformation.  I want to build on the successes of the past and avoid the obvious failures.

I want politicians who don’t want to be politicians.  I want senators and representatives who push for term limits, and drastically reduce their pay.  I want them all to understand the concept of “public service”.  I want a massive dismantling of our government’s bureaucracy.  I want a complete rethinking and overhaul of the tax code.  I want massive, massive privatization.  I want people of all races, creeds, religions, and sexual orientations to put aside their differences and join together under the banner of national pride.  I want politicians who not only preach the dangers of socialism, but also extol the virtues of liberty and free markets.  I want my fellow countrymen and women to understand that the true path to success for all people lies in self-reliance, responsibility and national brotherhood, not in the suffocating embrace of big government.

Any politician or movement that can capture that sentiment and actually deliver will get boffo box office.  I’m talking “Titanic” numbers.

After eight years of George Bush bashing, a financial meltdown and a general desire for “change”, the left waltzed into total control of the nation.  The right and the middle may find themselves in the exact same position in a very short time.  When we do, let’s not make the same mistakes.  Lets not accept another retread, no matter how nostalgic it feels, and demand something bold and totally different.

We are Americans.  We deserve nothing less.

Originally launched in 1963 as a male version of the Barbie doll, GI Joe’s creators intended for the “action figures” to be a tribute to the armed services (prototypes included “Rocky,” the Army soldier, “Skip,” the sailor, and “Ace,” the pilot). GI Joe wore WWII or Korean War issue uniforms.  For the next five years, GI Joes (including black GI Joe figures in particular areas) would dominate the market. 

During the Vietnam era, Hasbro, GI Joe’s maker and distributor, decided to tone down the action figure’s military theme as a result of the Vietnam War. Instead, Hasbro shifted the marketing to “Adventure Team,” which included turning GI Joes into superheroes and having them fight “The Intruders: Strong Men from Another World.” 

With the coming of Reagan, GI Joe regained his footing. Hasbro began marketing the product again as “GI Joe: A Real American Hero.” The action figure even spawned a successful TV series, which touted GI Joe as “the code name for America’s daring, highly trained special mission force. Its purpose: to defend freedom against Cobra, a ruthless terrorist organization determined to rule the world.” 

Fast forward twenty years. Hollywood, always eager to capitalize on already-lucrative marketing, is ready to release its version of GI Joe: GI Joe: The Rise of Cobra.  And the creators of the movie are marketing it specifically to the so-called NASCAR crowd. Says Paramount Vice Chairman Rob Moore, “Our starting point for this movie is not Hollywood and Manhattan but rather mid-America.” 

Or not. Director Stephen Sommers, wary of international audiences, says that GI Joe will be in the mold of the Adventure Team 1970s. “This is not a George Bush movie,” Sommers explains.  “[I]t’s an Obama world. Right from the writing stage we said to ourselves, this can’t be about beefy guys on steroids who all met each other in the Vietnam War, but an elite organization that’s made up of the best of the best from around the world.” 

So GI Joe isn’t a Real American Hero – he’s a UN peacekeeper. This is reminiscent of the determinedly unpatriotic Superman Returns, which deliberately refused to state that Superman was fighting for “truth, justice and the American way.” Even GI Joe is now subject to the dictates of political correctness. We wouldn’t want Europeans thinking that we idolize the men and women of the American military. That would be uncouth. 

This is a reflection of Hollywood’s read on the Obama Administration. When Hollywood tackled GI Joe back in the 1980s, it focused on the GI Joes as Americans through and through – undoubtedly, a stance impacted by the renewed patriotism of the Reagan Administration. But with Obama, it’s different – we’re supposed to think of American soldiers as pieces in a larger coalition. GI Joe is supposed to be GI Hans, GI Vladimir, and GI Cho.  

GI Joe may be a good movie. It may not.  But if the creators’ intentions are reflected in the film, there’s little doubt it won’t be an American movie.

Back in the eighties – when popular music reached its pinnacle of achievement - I would be home from college, in my room, cranking cool tunes and my father would get home from work, peer in, scrunch up his face and ask how I could listen to that infernal racket.  The answer, of course, was that I had (and still have, dammit) really awesome taste in music.

–

I actually pitied my Dad for being unable to appreciate the Midwestern-inflected post-punk glory of The Replacements, or the sonic frenzy of their Minneapolis brothers-in-noise Husker Du, or the soaring, roaring guitar heroics of The Clash.  I don’t know what music he actually liked.  There were some LPs lying around the house – kids, you can ask your parents what those are – but they were things like the Kingston Trio and the Sound of Music soundtrack.  This last one was a particular sore point for me since my mom got the idea to name me Kurt, which is the German equivalent of Melvin, from the little Von Trapp twerp who sang “Fa.”

And now I find myself in a similar position to where Dad found himself a quarter century ago – hating, well, pretty much everything in the world of popular music and having it hate me right back.  Like my Dad, popular culture wrote me off well before I hit 40.  There is, however, an important difference between Dad and me, as well as between the younger generation and me.  My Dad was, and young people are, completely and utterly wrong about music, and I am unequivocally right.

Let’s review some of the popular music of today.  A group called the Black-Eyed Peas is kind of popular.  The woman in the group is named Fergie and she looks like she could take me in a cage match.  Their music is a kind of dance-chant mish-mash of various musical styles – all bad – combined with a visual sense that makes me wonder “Do you people look like that on purpose?” I have no clue what the hell they are singing about. I’m just pretty sure it’s not particle physics.

There are a whole bunch of rappers out there.  I know some of their names:  Jay-Z, 50 Cent and Flo Rida, who is apparently unaffiliated with the State of Florida.  They’re all badass gang-bangers.  Just ask them.  Oh, and they also sing, which seems to be an afterthought. 

There is someone named Lady Ga Ga.  She looks and dresses like a she-male George Jetson, which I mean in the kindest possible way.  She sings a song called Poker Face that does not seem to be about Texas Hold ‘Em, or anything else that I can discern.  It’s a really bad song.  After I pointed out that even I wouldn’t inflict it on a Guantanamo inmate, one of her fans countered that her hit “is really catchy.”  Yeah – so’s herpes, and I don’t want anything to do with that either.

Let’s be clear – I do not hate popular culture.  I like it.  I grew up marinating in it, and I even paid for a car using my experience to write TV trivia questions and jokes for that old pre-Internet computerized quiz game they used to have in bars back in the 90’s.  And when we would assemble the right wing newspaper at UC San Diego, I would play The Ramones really loud to annoy both the sullen Trotskyites lurking about as well as the dorky conservatives who thought you couldn’t be down with Reagan unless you wore a suit and tie to class.  Hell, most mornings in college I was lucky to just find my pants.

And I do like some recent good popular songs – Mr. Brightside by The Killers thoroughly and completely rocks, and U2 rose above their morass of suck with Beautiful Day.  And… well, I guess that’s about it.  That’s all the music I like since 2000.

It’s not just music that wrote me off at 40.  I also hate the movies hip young people seem to adore.  Remember how everyone loved Superbad?  Not me.  I like my comedies funny.  And remember how everyone thought Lost In Translation was so profoundly moving?  Well, I like my dramas unfunny – though it gets props for including the Jesus and Mary Chain’s Just Like Honey on the soundtrack.

 Perhaps it’s just time to accept that at age 44, ones’ views and opinions have absolutely no value or resonance within popular culture, despite their manifest correctness.  But I’m not going to do that.  I’m going to keep pointing out to misguided young people that everything they hold dear is wrong.  Because I’ve earned that right.  Because I’m older.  Because I am my Dad.

And now I have to go turn the hose on some kids who are playing on my lawn.

There was no debate, no discussion; in fact the bill wasn’t even finished when they started voting on it. Yet they all knew they would like everything in the bill, and rushed the vote. I’m somewhat envious of the common goal they all seem to share, but I’m also suspicious of why nobody bothered to read it. Granted it was fifteen hundred pages, Fourth of July recess, and the deposit on the Martha’s Vineyard cottage wasn’t refundable.

I think there is also something else at work here: Democrats tend to have more faith in the system than they have in the individual. When President Reagan tried to close the Department of Education, he was considered to be against education. It’s not just spin, Democrats really think that way. They feel it’s important to keep the Department of Education, because without it, there will be no education. Without the Department of Health, we would all be sick; without the Department of Commerce, the economy would fold. Ditto for the FDA, the FCC, FAA, and the rest of the alphabet soup.

I’ve been a fan of Rush Limbaugh for quite some time; he is an incredible source for information and salient points. Unfortunately, I can’t repeat anything I hear in front of Democrats, because once you do, your point is considered moot. It doesn’t matter if the statistic you quote comes from the Congressional Budget Office or the United Nations, if you say you’ve heard it on Rush Limbaugh, your point is dismissed, and the conversation is over. (Not only don’t Democrats want to listen to Rush, they don’t want to listen to anyone who admits to listening to Rush.) Yet, these same people claim to know everything about Rush. How is that possible?

Democrats don’t have to listen to Rush, (or Fox News either) because there are other people charged with that task. Organizations like Media Matters do all the dirty work then translate it for all the Lefties. So they never have to soil their mind by exposing it to a contrary opinions, or risk being converted to Conservatism. (For some reason, people on the Left believe they are incredibly susceptible to brainwashing, so they feel it is better not to listen to anything contrary.)

I assume the same thing happened with the energy bill. Like the trust they put on Media Matters to tell the truth about Rush, there are people in the Party they trust to read the bill. Since it had the Waxman-Markey brand on the label, Democrats knew there was nothing but good old-fashioned Marxism inside.

There is nothing more secure to Democrats than a big bureaucracy–it makes them feel safe. Perhaps that’s why so many of them linger on in colleges longer than the average American. Inefficient bureaucracies and musty old buildings with union swept halls are warm fuzzy places for them.  These people are the kind that like being looked after–it is the natural state of the Left.

They want to live under a huge bureaucracy that will direct their life, from the time they are born into a government hospital through their time in government schools, then punch the clock at a government job until a government appointed doctor gives them an assisted suicide. A Democrat Utopia would be like a human zoo where the lions are kept separate from the zebras, every one is fed, and the doctor comes round once a year. Just keep re-electing Democrats who will insure the air is clean, your food is safe, your retirement is secure, and the tithe is paid.

That’s a big one. When you decide to become a Democrat, the need for you to ever contribute to charity is completely eliminated. Every election cycle Democrat candidates are exposed for being skinflints when the 1040s are released. There is always a ridiculously small number on the lines of where charitable deductions are listed. The contribution is always so small you would think it was an accident, like they thought their $100 donation to the Breast Foundation was a subscription to a porn site.

In actuality, I think they believe that membership in the Democrat Party is their donation to charity. The Party is their Church and the leaders are their clerics. Why should Al Gore give more than a couple hundred bucks to charitable causes when he has made his life work saving the earth from prosperity? (That could explain why so many of Obama’s appointees didn’t feel the need to pay taxes–churches are tax-exempt.)

Never mind that Gore’s “charitable’” works have netted him billions. That’s just a bonus, and as most people like Gore will tell you, the nature of his job requires certain amenities. The Pope doesn’t fly coach either.

I’ve yet to meet a public “servant” that didn’t whine about being underpaid and brag about how much more they could make in the private sector. Personally, I think it is the duty of Americans to help out these dedicated “servants” by removing them of their obligation and set them free to find their fortune.

If you don’t want to read your assignments, it’s time to get a job. We need to make Democrats learn responsibility. Call it “tough love.” We need to lock the Democrats out of Government, the same way that a parent might eventually need to change the locks on the house while a 30-year-old child is at the Arcade. We need to tear down their posters, throw away the bongs, and put their X-boxes out on the back porch. Let’s turn the basement into an exercise room.

Our next opportunity is coming in 2010.

Her name was Neda. In Farsi, it means “the voice.” True to her name, she loved music; sought freedom; and she’s dead – shot down in the streets by the Iranian regime’s state sanctioned murderers. She must not have died in vain.

Today, Iranians and Americans face a generational chance for freedom – one that ensures a rogue regime’s implosion prevents a nuclear confrontation.

Regrettably, our president’s “post-American” foreign policy presumes talk can thaw the murderous mullahs’ hearts and attain a “grand bargain” for peace in our time; consequently, while Iranians demanded their freedom from a barbarous regime, the president vapidly opined: “It is up to Iranians to make decisions about who Iran’s leaders will be… We respect Iranian sovereignty.”

Then, as the crisis escalated, the president optimistically noted:

“You’ve seen in Iran some initial reaction from the supreme leader that indicates he understands the Iranian people have deep concerns about the election… And my hope is – is that the Iranian people will make the right steps in order for them to be able to express their voices, to express their aspirations.”

Tragically, the supreme leader’s deep concern drove him to step on the throats of pro-democracy demonstrators, like Neda.

Next, on June 20th, the president stated, “The universal rights to assembly and free speech must be respected, and the United States stands with all who seek to exercise those rights.” It was painfully evident just how far behind them he stood: “The last thing that I want to do is to have the United States be a foil for those forces inside Iran who would love nothing better than to make this an argument about the United States.”

With these contradictory statements of support and appeasement, the president returned to square one: “The Iranian people will ultimately judge the actions of their own government. If the Iranian government seeks the respect of the international community, it must respect the dignity of its own people and govern through consent, not coercion.”

In truth, the Iranian people have already judged the regime and found it wonting. The supreme leader, his cleric cronies and their puppet government have never respected the dignity of the Iranian people or governed through consent. This is why the regime stole the election and shoots peaceful, pro-democracy demonstrators. Implying otherwise mocks the Iranians risking and losing their lives for liberty.

As for the claim that American “meddling” in support of the demonstrators plays into the mullahs’ hands, the Iranian regime will claim this regardless, for as our president noted, “That’s what they do.”

Yet, what matters is not what the regime says about America, but what the demonstrators think about America. Presently, brave Iranians watch as our president still holds an open hand to the regime that opened fire on them…that opened fire on Neda. This is the passive, disastrous policy of Jimmy Carter that led to the rise of this rogue regime; not the courageous policy of Ronald Reagan that led to the demise of an evil empire.

The surest, safest termination of Iran’s nuclear weapons program and support of terrorism is to hasten this fanatical tyranny’s collapse by supporting its people’s liberty. Taking its rightful place amongst the community of free nations, a democratic Iran will necessarily realize and reverse the insanity of this terrorist regime’s homicidal obsession with nuclear weapons. Thus, for their liberty and our security, the United States and the world must do everything in our power to further the Iranian demonstrators’ sacred claim to freedom. We know Neda did.

Further, in the grand strategy of our War for Freedom over terrorism, how we aid pro-democracy Iranians’ will remind the world who we are – we are Americans: the revolutionary children of freedom who have lived and died defending our liberty and extending it to the enslaved and oppressed. We will do no less today in support of our Iranian brothers and sisters.

Today, Neda’s voice calls to our consciences and warns that the fate of Iranians’ liberty is entwined with the fate of Americans’ security. We must not miss this generational chance for freedom – again one that ensures a rogue regime’s implosion prevents a nuclear confrontation; and that Neda and all liberty’s martyrs shall not have died in vain. As Americans, we must seize this moment and help Iranians seize their freedom.

That’s what we do.

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Click here “Tehran Scream” video of Neda’s murder. Viewer discretion is advised.

We truly have succumbed to the idiocy of the MTV/Mountain Dew/Road Rules backward hat and baggy short culture. Did I miss something, or is the White House the future set for the next Real World? Where are the wallet chains? Is Hot Topic handling our foreign policy? Obama should be grounded for a week for letting Tony Hawk play in OUR house. Where in hell are the adults?

Look: Tony Hawk is in his mid forties. He’s a grown man…and he skateboards. Could you imagine your dad or anyone who lived during World War II treating a man who skateboards with anything less than scorn and ridicule?

Right now, people are risking their lives for the glimmer of freedom, and Tony Hawk is in the White House tweeting about Frosted Flakes.

Someone please dig up Reagan. I’d take a dead leader with balls over a living camp counselor who wants all the cool kids to like him.

What a screaming joke.

Mohammad Asgari worked for the Iranian Interior Ministry to protect the security of their IT network. Officially President Ahmadinejad received two thirds of the vote with around 24.5 million votes, while his closest rival, Mir Hassein Mousavi, received over 13 million votes. According to figures leaked by Asgari, President Ahmadinejad came in third. 

Hundreds of thousands of Iranians are in the streets demanding liberty. Officially 37 have been killed: shot in the streets and in their dorm rooms. Iranians are standing up to the Mullahs. They are standing up for freedom and they are being killed.

These are not people who were promised a day in the park for a free rock concert, sausages and beer. These are people who are risking everything to go against an evil theocracy. It is no longer simply a matter of candidates, the Mullahs are in real danger of losing their power, and they know it.

Ronald Reagan stood at the Berlin Wall and demanded: “Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!” In that moment the world changed. That was leadership.

There is an opportunity here of historical proportions. Two thirds of the population of Iran are under the age of thirty. Most of them are pro-American! These protests have the potential to take down a regime. The Iranian people are crying for democracy not theocracy.

Where are you Mr. President?

As a citizen of the world, why aren’t you decrying the violence and thuggery going on in Iran at this very moment?

As a human being, why aren’t you applauding the brave Iranian women tearing off their headscarves and leading this revolt?

Today Iran is a country where kids have to play rock and roll behind closed doors for fear of being arrested. Women are stoned to death for alleged adultery and gay people are executed for being themselves. The country is screaming for change, they are willing to die for it and yet you remain silent?

Mr. President you told Ahmadinejad and the Iranian Mullahs that, “We will extend a hand if they will unclench their fist.” Sir, they are using that fist to hammer their own people for exercising the very human rights we hold dear.

Where are you Mr. President?

Tonight the Mullahs are expecting the largest protest ever. The Iranian people must know they are not alone, that free people across the planet stand with them.

Democracy was brought to the people of Iraq with the blood of our servicemen and women.  Will you shed some television time to free the people in the streets of Iran?

As the president of a republic birthed out of revolution, will you hold out your hand to the revolutionaries who are ready to die in the streets of Tehran for freedom?

For the past five months I have seen you on the television eating cheeseburgers, pondering puppies, swatting flies and pushing fear-driven agendas. Will you have the audacity to take five minutes to broadcast a message of hope to the Iranian people?

With all due respect Sir, I believe this to be a defining moment in your presidency. For you to continue to remain silent will be nothing short of a moral failure that history will not soon forget.

Sir, you do not have to endorse any candidate, you only need to endorse democracy! Germany and France already have! Why can’t we?  

We Americans, those of us who do not subscribe to the teachings of Saul Alinski, are extremely proud of our heritage. We hold ourselves to the standards and ideals of that “Shining City on the Hill.” We expect our President to act like the leader of the free world, not react like a Chicago politician. 

Sir, destiny is calling and this is not the time to vote present.

Who are you Mr. President?

We stand at a precipice.

Dr. Martin Luther King had a dream that he was willing to die for. For that he was, and always will be a hero in my family.

Millions of Iranians also have a dream that they are willing to die for, and we Americans would be so proud to have a President who stood up like he had a pair, and held his hand out to them in liberty and fellowship.