"So long Barney"

If there is a poster boy for what is wrong with American politics, this is the man. After 30 years in politics, Barney Frank announced this week that he will not run for reelection.

He is not "retiring" because he is in his early 70's, he is retiring because due to redistricting he actually has to "run for reelection" with a new group of voters and he knew he would lose.

His problems with new constituents has nothing to do with being gay, or the fact that years ago a male prostitution ring was run out of his DC condo; his personal and political record simply reeks of all the things that are wrong with Washington. He was a major sponsor of the legislation which enacted the Fanny Mae/Freddy Mac loan programs that resulted in creating the sub-prime housing bubble that led to this deep recession; and maybe was even the cause of it. He denies it, but that program put millions of low income people into homes that they simply could not afford; homes that were destined to go into foreclosure.

One of his reasons for leaving congress: "I don't like being in the minority". Like many of our politicians power was all that mattered to Congressman Frank. The fact that this arrogant, corrupt, career politician will be gone is a small step in the right direction.

He may not be purple, but this "Barney" certainly is a dinosaur.

"Super Failure"

Deep down we knew the so-called "Super Committee" would fail. And think about it, what was so "super" about this committee of ideologues who were just shills for their leadership, and for the President. Congress continues to display their complete incompetence and Obama continues to display his complete inability to lead.

So here we are back at the starting line.  The failure of this super committee means that by law the $1.2 trillion in cuts will be automatically split between the Defense Department and spread among other governmental agencies except social security, Medicare, veterans programs, and programs for the poor. But these automatic cuts will not start until 2013...isn't that interesting, after the next election. And they will probably never happen.

The super committee was a sham from day one . The Constitution states, among other things, that the Congress shall have the responsibility to lay and collect taxes, spend money, borrow money, and pay debts. It says nothing about a "super committee" and the fact that Congress took this cowardice method to try and work on the debt problem illustrates one thing - a majority of Congressional members did not want to go on record voting for any spending cuts or tax increases before an election year. What a shame that the self-interest of our politicians overrides what is good for the country.  I believe this "super committee" was designed from the beginning to fail, since Obama was giving a press conference within hours after their announcement, blaming the failure on the Republicans. And that will be his campaigns mantra: "I could not perform my job because of an ineffective Congress". He sure as hell cannot run for reelection on his record.

Those that read this blog know I am a partisan, but whether you are Republican, Democrat, or Independent you must feel like I do; this is the most ineffective, incompetent Congress and President in our lifetime. We need to replace the whole lot.

"Obama is a Godsend"

Some of you may have heard the interview of the Russian man with one of the Wall Street protesters last week. He had lived under communism/socialism for more than 20 years and is now a US citizen. He decided to go down to the protest and talk to some of the protesters.

He was very polite and asked this young girl what they were protesting against. She said: "Capitalism!"  Trying to keep things simple he asked if she would rather live in North Korea (communism/socialism) or South Korea (capitalism). Amazingly she said: "North Korea, socialism rocks".  Now obviously this young lady was either "high" or she simply is so uneducated that you could not say she is representative of her other protest compatriots.

Today Laura Ingraham interviewed this Russian guy and he had a chance to further discuss this experience at the Wall Street protest. He said that his first comparison to this young lady could have been East and West Berlin during the cold war. But since the fall of the Berlin wall those people in East Berlin are now starting to see the benefits of, (bad word) "Capitalism", and East Berliners are living prosperous like the rest of Germany. So he used North/South Korea as his example to her. And in the Ingraham interview he made a simple point - North Korea and South Korea are the same country, the same people, and the same resources. The difference is the SYSTEM.

Now here is a guy that has seen both sides and loves America.  Laura Ingraham ended the interview by asking how he felt about this country now, with all our economic problems, protests, and in many people's opinion: "America is in decline".  His response: "I am very positive about America, recent studies show that 40% of Americans call themselves 'Conservative', and their numbers are increasing, 20% of Americans call themselves 'Liberals' and their numbers are decreasing. For that I thank Obama, he is a godsend".



Editor's note: In 1967 I had the opportunity to visit East Berlin during the cold war. My brother was imprisoned there for; "Aiding in the escape of an East German citizen to the West", a crime he did not commit. It was an experience I will never forget and I wish these protesters could just experience 10 minutes of what I saw traveling from West to East Berlin during that time.