Veteran’s Day was yesterday. Since it also was my birthday, I was so busy I did not have time to write. Using my father’s way of determining age, I am 7 this year. To determine age, you take your age and add the numbers, like 29 is 2+p=11. Since 11 is a double digit number you add them again to get a single digit number, 1+1=2. Therefore, you would be 2 for the year. It is a fun activity to do with the children as they can be the oldest from time to time. My kids enjoyed it while they were growing up and my grandkids are learning how much fun this activity can be. I will let you figure out how old I am. My grandkids ask if I had to fight dinosaurs when I was young. That gives you a hint on my age.

Veteran’s Day is an important day in our family. Members of my family have served in the military almost every generation since 1776. That means that they have participated in the various wars for independence and survival. None of them have been historically important. The closest was the one who served as an officer on the staff of General George Washington in the Revolutionary War. Most of the others were officers in the various wars. My two grandfathers were not officers during World War I. They happened to meet and become friends while serving in the same unit. After the war, they bought homes that were close to each other. They socialized together periodically. My father and mother became friends and then married each other after World War II. My two grandfathers served in law enforcement in San Francisco after World War I.

Because of this long standing military tradition, we honor the military on a regular basis. I did not serve in the military because of bad knees. My knee problems were not bad enough to keep me out of law enforcement, but bad enough to keep me out of the military. That was during Vietnam when they didn’t do much more than take your temperature to determine if you were physically eligible to be a soldier. My brother was just young enough to miss his chance to go to Vietnam. They withdrew all the troops by the time he was eligible to be drafted.  

The current occupant of the White House does not honor the troops. In fact, I believe that he would rather that there were not any military units in the United States at all. He acts as if the military is an annoyance that he would gladly give to someone else, if he could. This dithering over whether to back the general he picked to lead the troops in Afghanistan is instructive on whether he backs the troops or not. If he backed the troops, the decision would have been made within one day of receiving the request. The other fact that shows that our current occupant does not back the troops is the fact that he does not meet with the leaders of our troops in the field. When General McChrystal made the request for additional troops, he had only met with the President one time in two months. That is not enough for a President to keep up on where things are in the field. There is a small chance that I could be wrong and our current occupant could back the troops to the hilt. The problem is that there is little evidence to back that position up. There is a lot of information to back up the position that he does not back up the troops.

Another bit of information that shows the current occupant’s position on the military is how fast he came to Ft. Hood after the shooting. George W. Bush came within a couple of days and met individually with many of the families and other members of the military at Ft. Hood. Our current occupant of the White House did not come until there was a memorial for those killed in the terrorist attack. Then, when he did come he had to have the press cover his every move. It is as if the entire incident was about the current occupant of the White House instead of the people that were killed. President Bush has his priorities straight. Barack Obama is still having issues on where his priorities are located.

The military that serves today and all those that have ever served us in the military deserve our honor and respect. As citizens of the best country ever created, we should honor those that have made us free and kept us safe. I try to go out of my way to make those that have served in the military feel like they are honored for their service. When I get a soldier in class, I let him/her know that their service for this country is respected by me. I go out of my way to accommodate them and the demands their duty to the country and the military require them to make. I work with the soldier to make sure that they receive the credit they deserve for their work in the class.

An example of how to work with the soldier to get them the credit they deserve is when a soldier is called to go to Iraq or Afghanistan before the end of class. I work with them to get as much done as possible. Then, if they are almost finished with the class, I usually give them credit for finishing the class. Early in the semester, that is not possible, but at the end of the semester it is an option. That way they don’t have a couple of things to finish the class hanging over their head while they are gone. There is one student in another class that has to go to Iraq. He already had another class that he had to finish, so I was not going to add to that.

Our military is the best in the world. If we honor those that serve in the military, we help to keep our military on the top. When our military slipped to second place in the 1970’s, it was because of Vietnam and people disrespecting those in the military. We need to give our military the support they need. The emotional support is probably as important as the physical support they get.

Iran held elections last week. The election was supposed to be close between the mad Mullah’s man and the challenger. After the election was held, the results were announced. The mad Mullah’s said that their mad had received 66.7% of the vote. The people that voted knew that result was wrong, so rioting started. The mad Mullah’s cracked down with violence. The situation is volatile. It could go either way. The Mullah’s will most likely prevail because they have the army. But if the rioters convince the army that they are right, the Mullah’s could be in trouble.

An interesting development has taken place in the last 24 hours; the mad Mullah’s have announced that they will review the results of the election. That is the first time that they have reversed themselves since taking power in 1979. That is a big development. Their air of infallibility has been snapped. That could be a sign of better things to come. Or it could just be a minor blip on the radar.

Iran is important because they have enormous amounts of oil. Nobody is getting their oil because of the embargo that was put on after the Mullah’s took over in 1979. The Mullah’s are also seeking to get nuclear power. They say it is so they can have nuclear power plants. Since they have more oil than almost anywhere else in the world, which would be a rather thin argument. Their real goal is undoubtedly to produce nuclear weapons. They are probably close to doing just that.

Iran has pledged to wipe Israel off of the map, if they get a chance. Since they do not border Israel their opportunity is rather limited. They cannot wage a land war as they would have to travel across other countries. That would be detected by those countries and/or Israel and stopped. An air war would be impractical as their air force is far below Israel’s in capability. Their only chance to wipe Israel off of the map would be to drop a nuclear bomb on Israel. They have the missiles to deliver the bomb. All they need is the bomb to deliver and they can make good on their promise. That is why Iran is important to the world. Bombing Israel would start a world war that could have a devastating impact.

Our illustrious President is busy pretending that nothing is happening in the Middle East. He goes to Cairo and talks to moderate Muslims. Moderate Muslims might exist in large numbers, but they are ineffective as a group. They are easily intimidated and ruled by small numbers of Islamo-Fascists. That means that even though there may be large numbers of moderate Muslims, they effectively are radical Muslims when taken as groups in their countries. There are no Muslim Democracies, except for Iraq and Afghanistan. Iraq and Afghanistan are Democracies only because we imposed democratic rule. The other countries are despotic at best.

The people rioting in Iran need the support of America. Barack Obama needs to speak out in their support. So far, he has remained silent. The entire administration has said nothing about Iran. It would seem that Iran does not exist as far as our administration is concerned. I am not sure that even with our support the rioters could pull off the overthrow of the Mullah’s, but we have to try. If we can get Iran in the hands of someone who actually cares if he lives or dies would be a real plus. Right now, the Mullah’s do not care whether the world ends or not. That makes them truly scary. Hitler and Stalin were scary people, but they both did not want to die. These Mullah’s do not care and that makes them truly scary.

America needs to support those who seek to achieve the goal of independence from tyranny. Unfortunately, our country is sprinting down the path toward tyranny faster than I ever thought possible. Pretty soon, we may be the ones rioting and hoping that some other country sees our plight. Let’s not lose sight of the goal of independence from tyranny. That is what our Founders did and that is what we should also do. I support that goal from the bottom of my heart and with every fiber of my being. I support freedom wherever I find it.

The yearly White House Correspondents dinner was held this past weekend. The usual suspects were in attendance. Everyone who is anyone in the news media in Washington and surrounding areas was there. There was also the usual amount of political types, capped by the President.

The lead comedy act set a new low for comedy at these events. She did have her funny moments, but really stepped in it when she started to talk about Rush Limbaugh. I thought that the comedy at this event was to poke fun at the current administration, not the past administration or the opposition. But, when she talked about Rush, she started getting personal. She accused him of being the 20^th hijacker but could not make it because he was high on drugs. To a liberal, that might have been funny. At the dinner, most of the audience laughed. Some made their disapproval known with a chorus of “boos". But, she then got even worse by wishing Rush would die of kidney failure. Now, you may wish someone were dead, but it is not a joking matter and you do not say it in front of the President.

Much is being said on the talk shows about this problem with the “jokes” in the comedy act. They were not funny and were not really intended to be funny. Putting them in a comedy act gives you cover in case they turn out to be offensive. You can claim that it was just part of a joke. You could tell from how she said the remarks that she really did mean what she said. That people laughed showed how sick the audience is. You do not wish someone were dead in a joke. That is not funny, no matter who it is and no matter what the situation.

When performing in front of an audience, you should have a standard of behavior that says that you will not intentionally offend anyone. The remarks about Rush were bound to offend some people, regardless of their political affiliation. The standard of behavior should go up when performing in front of the President, not down. If you respect the office of the President of the United States, you should treat whoever holds or has held that office with respect. That means that you have a higher standard of behavior that is expected of you when you say or do something in front of the President than when you are with anyone else. She lowered her standards to the lowest level of the gutter, not a smart thing to do.

Had she said things like that against people that are on the left, I would have the same reaction. There are some things that are not funny and should not be attempted. The politics of personal destruction should not be attempted in comedy clubs. If your neighbor wants to do it in your house at a party, that is one thing. To do it in public in front of the TV is quite another. She probably feels like she really said something clever because she has everyone talking about it today. What she does not realize is that we feel sorry for her because she is not intelligent enough to realize that she did something incredibly stupid and tacky.

Dennis Prager said that he holds himself to a higher standard when he comes to the radio station. He makes sure that he dresses in nice clothes. He could wear cutoffs and a T-shirt, but he does not do it. He feels it is part of his integrity to try to live to a higher standard when performing. I tend to do much the same thing. When I go to work, I could wear shorts and a T-shirt because I work in the lab and with an autoclave. Those are dusty, dirty and hot jobs. I wear nice pants and a nice shirt so that I look professional at all times. I feel that it helps me maintain a higher standard of behavior. It also makes the lab look like a better place to work if we dress nicely. That is the kind of thing I am talking about. The same idea holds when using speech.  

Barack Obama has now served for 100 days as President of the United States. This has been some sort of a milestone after Franklin Roosevelt had a productive 100 days. Ever since then, Presidents mark the 100 day anniversary and measure their accomplishments/failures. Barack Obama is no exception.

If you are a kool-aid drinking Democrat, the first 100 days could not be better. The United States has changed its foreign policy from one of projecting strength to one of projecting weakness. Liberals believe that other countries will now love us more and peace will reign on the Earth. Barack Obama, as President, has bowed before a foreign ruler for the first time in American History. That was great for liberals as it shows we care about the feelings of other countries. But, bowing before someone indicates that you believe that the person you bow to has more power or authority than you do. Picking a Muslim ruler was a bad choice. Muslims ate it up.

On the domestic front, liberals are beside themselves because every dream they have had for the last 40 years is being realized in the first 100 days. They had been squawking about the deficit being too high under President Bush. But when the deficit swelled by a gazillion percent, they cheered as if their dreams were being realized. The recession, which usually lasts somewhere between 60-90 days, is now approaching 150 days with no end in sight. That is not a problem for the Democrats; it just means another opportunity to add another government program or three.

In summary, for liberals and other assorted Democrats: Barack Obama has been highly successful in his first hundred days. They would like to see this continued.

Now for a real assessment of what has happened. The part that preceded this analysis obviously had rose colored glasses on. The real assessment is that the first hundred days has been the worst in American history. Barack Obama has ignored the Constitution at every turn. He has also made the United States a laughing stock among other countries. There is little he could do to make things worse, except for actually nationalizing everything. He has done everything up to nationalizing our economy.

Let’s look at a couple of specifics to highlight my paragraph above. When Barack Obama took his trip to Europe, he spent the entire trip saying he was sorry. At no time did he stick up for our country and tell the Europeans to stick their plans in their ear. He said we would accept anything they came up with. That is not the mark of the leader of the free world.

When Barack Obama bowed to the King of Saudi Arabia, it was an insult to the American people. American President’s do not bow before foreign rulers. We are independent and equal or superior to any other nation on the planet. We do not bow, nor has any President ever bowed before a foreign ruler until Barack Obama. Bill Clinton was scolded for almost bowing. Barack Obama actually bowed and nobody said boo, except for the conservatives.

Obama and the Democrats have undertaken a full court press against the Constitution. Their Porkulus bill that was supposed to be a stimulus bill was almost entirely unconstitutional. That is not even saying that we do not have the money to pay for that Porkulus bill.

In the first 100 days in office, Barack Obama has managed to lower the United States from the leader of the free world to a second class country. He has spent money from our children, grandchildren, great-grandchildren and great-great grandchildren to accomplish nothing. Our descendents will curse this President and Congress and the people that elected him for that outrage. They will be paying for his stupidity for generations to come, all to achieve Democrat Nirvana.

Barack Obama has managed to take this country from a center-right position to a leftist position in 100 days. That has to be the operation of a shrewd operator. Yet, you see that he gives gifts to foreign leaders that are insults, not gifts. He has so many gaffes that you could fill up a 3 hour movie and still have some left over. He seems to be smart at what he wants to do and completely ignorant of everything else. His staff is just a bunch of people to tell him how good he is. They are completely incompetent. Axelrod seems to be running the country, while Barack Obama seems to do all the photo ops. Barack and Michelle Obama are all over the print media in pictures and articles at how wonderful they are. We are also told how beautiful they are. It is nauseating.

Michael Savage seems to think that we are on the path towards fascism. If that is the case, we need to take the steps necessary to stop those steps. In other words, we need to stand up to the leftists and say, “NO!” That might be enough to put off the truck careening towards the disaster of fascism. We shall see what happens. I fear for my country, I really do. I love this country too much to see it turn into something that I do not recognize. It has already changed more than I would care to see.

From his actions in the first three days after taking office, it looks like Barack Hussein Obama has decided to govern by fiat instead of by legislation. He has issued 5 executive orders in the first three days after taking office. That is more than the combined executive orders of Nixon, Ford, Carter, Reagan, George H.W. Bush, Clinton and George W. Bush. Their total made it up to three. Most of them issued no executive orders in the first three days, Carter and Clinton issued two of the three.

We have a system where the legislative branch passes laws and the executive branch carries out laws. The judicial branch rules on the legality of the laws passed by the legislature. The executive branch is supposed to issue the executive orders only when the legislative branch does not do its job. Obama did not give the legislative branch any chance to do their job. He decided that something should be done and it should be done now.

If I was in the legislature, I would scream bloody murder. He is taking away the right of the legislative branch to do its job. If Obama is going to be the legislative as well as the executive branch, we might as well send all the Senators and Congressmen home. That would save the government a lot of money in overhead. But, then we would have a dictator ruling our country. If Obama keeps this up, we will have a dictator.

One of the things I feared about Obama before he was elected was that he was a closet Fascist. I do not mean a Nazi. I mean a Fascist after the style of Benito Mussolini. I also feared the leftist mindset that Obama had shown in the few votes that were on the record and the few comments where he actually said something. Both of these sides are showing themselves right now.

The mindset behind the executive orders that Obama has issued show that he does not understand the problem we are facing with Islamo-Fascism. He thinks that if we play nice and by a set of rules, the Islamo-Fascists will play nice and by the same set of rules. He is sadly mistaken. The Islamo-Fascists want us to either be Muslim or dead. There is no nice in those options. The dead part does not mean letting us die in our sleep, it means killing us in the most gruesome fashion possible.

The most disturbing of the executive orders closes our primary place to house the worst of the enemy that we capture on foreign battlefields. We now house them there because it is outside of the United States and it keeps them from using our laws against us. By closing the facility, he wants to move these people into the United States. That will give them access to our courts and access to liberal judges appointed by liberal Presidents. When the liberal judges throw out the enemy that wants to kill us by any means onto our streets, they will have the chance they have been looking for. They will be in our heartland where there are millions of us. They can kill lots of people before being stopped. That should surely get them into heaven, or at least the heaven they envision.

This problem will not show up tomorrow. It will show up in about 1-2 years when people have forgotten why they were housed away from the US. Then, the terror will be on our streets to kill and destroy. We will have to live like the Israelis. I do not want to have to live like that. I want to be free to do what I want, when I want and where I want.

We may not have a United States in two years. We may have a place where the United States was and it may still be called the United States. But, I fear we will have a dictator in place instead of a President. We will have a socialist form of economy instead of the free economy that has made us the envy of the world. Nothing that was good about America will be left. Everything good will be gone and only a semblance of the United States will be left in its place. I just wish that I was not here to see it happen.

Today, Barack Hussein Obama was sworn in as the 44^th President of the United States. For good or ill, he is now President for the next four years. If he means what he has been saying leading up to the swearing in and in his speech at the swearing in, he will be a great President. Of course, he would have to fight the Democrat Congress every step of the way. He has shown no inclination to fight the Democrat Congress in any way.

The inauguration of the 44^th President is one of the spectacular events in human history. Every four years we swear in a new President. Sometimes that is a re-elected President and sometimes it is a newly elected President like it is this time. Also, this time the event is unique because this President is the first one of color to be elected. That is a historic first that no-one can take away from Barack Hussein Obama.

The inauguration of a new President is always a time of hope for the future. We hope that this President will be able to lead us through the coming trials and keep us safe. President Bush did just that for the past 8 years. My hope is that President Obama will do the same. I do not have much faith in his ability to do so because of the policies that he believes in. If the policies Barack Obama believes in get passed, the country will definitely be in trouble during the 4 years of this term of office.

Should we celebrate the inauguration of the 44^th President of the United States, even with the misgivings we hold for the future? We should celebrate the inauguration as a signature event in the history of the country. But, we should also keep in mind that we should never put our integrity on hold and back this new President’s crackpot ideas for the future. We should keep in mind that freedom is the most important asset we hold as Americans. We should fight anything that infringes on that freedom. If this President puts things forward that increase our freedoms, we should back him to the hilt. If he puts things forward that infringe on our freedoms, we should fight him every step of the way.

The next two years will not be easy. We have a small minority in the House of Representatives that has almost no voice thanks to the Democrats in the House. The Democrats always cry that they need to have a voice in everything when they are in the minority. When they are in the majority, they do not believe Republicans should be heard at all. In the Senate, we have at least 41 votes that can stop the worst offenses. We may get 42 votes if Norm Coleman wins his challenge. There is an almost 100% chance that he will win the challenge in Minnesota and take his rightful seat. That allows the Republicans to filibuster whenever the Democrats want to take away our liberty. Let us hope that all 42 Republicans have the backbone to follow through with the filibuster whenever the Democrats vote to take away our liberty.

For me, I have tried to ignore all of the hoopla that is going on today. I managed to ignore all the hoopla that surrounded all the other Presidents that were inaugurated during my lifetime. I thought I would try it again today. It has proved to be extremely difficult. The reporters are just gushing all over themselves on how happy everyone is. They forget that almost 50% of us did not vote for this man. They are just projecting their own happiness onto the rest of us. Doing so, makes me sick to my stomach. I cannot stand it when someone else tries to tell me how I feel. I know how I feel and it may or may not agree with them. If it does agree with them, then I validate their feelings. If it does not agree with them, I resent being told that it does. A good announcer may project happiness, but does not tell the audience that they also feel extreme joy today. That is insulting. Hopefully, things can get back to normal tomorrow.

What stupid thing will Barack Obama do as his first thing? I have read articles that said he will close Gitmo as his first act. I have read articles that said he will sign the bill making abortion the policy of the US government. Nobody knows for sure what he will do because he has not said what that first thing will be.

Closing Gitmo will be a problem for Obama. There are a lot of bad people housed there. Closing Gitmo would have the effect of bringing them to the US for trial and that would be a very bad thing for the US. They could be transferred to some other location outside of the US, but that is just moving the problem. He said he would close Gitmo and bring those people here for trial. Moving the detainees to another location would not work for him to keep his campaign promise. His best option is to keep Gitmo open and say that he is working on closing it. That way he can put off the crazies in his party while still doing the right thing for security.

Signing a bill making abortion the rule would send shockwaves around the world. The US has always stood for life. We have made it a point to stand for life in country after country where it would have been easier to just let those children die. Making abortion the policy of the government would change those guidelines. We could no longer be counted on to come to the rescue of countries when they have problems and are considering abortion as a solution.

It would also create massive problems in the US as well. The government has basically a policy of hands off when it comes to abortion right now. That means that abortion is legal. But, states can create laws that make it difficult or impossible for abortion clinics to function. Making abortion the policy would create problems for those states that have made it difficult or impossible for the abortionists to work. The pro-life movement, which already does not like Obama, would really be ticked off at him and be energized to put forward candidates in 2010 that could thwart the Democrat agenda.

Or, Obama could do something completely different. He has a lot of things that he could do. He has a lot of things that would be good, most of which he would never choose. He has a lot of things that would be harmful to the US, most of which he would most likely choose from.

Why do I say that he has a list of things that would be harmful that he could choose from? Obama wants to raise taxes on the “rich”. That means anyone who has a job. If he raises taxes on the “rich”, that would be bad for the economy. If it is bad for the economy, it is bad for the US. He has a list of things like that to choose from. Those things would be harmful to national security, the economy or other parts of the US. Now, I have to admit that it is my opinion that those actions would be harmful. A liberal would not think that raising taxes on the “rich” would be bad. The resulting economic disaster would show that it was bad, but a liberal would disagree with my opinion. The same goes for most of the other “bad” options that Obama has when he takes over next week.

Whatever Obama picks as his first act as President, I am sure that we conservatives will not care for it one bit. Whatever it is, we will predict that something bad will happen and it will. Liberals will love Obama for the decision and praise him for doing the right thing. When the bad result happens, they will blame the “evil” Republicans and make another bad decision to “fix” the first bad decision. That is how we got to where we are right now. Liberals making bad decisions to fix bad decisions to fix bad decisions caused the economy to tank. We are expected to think that the economy will be fixed when liberals will make more bad decisions to fix the bad decisions that got us into the mess in the first place. Only a liberal would think that another bad decision would fix the string of bad decisions that got us into this mess in the first place.

Yesterday I read that Barack Obama has selected as his science advisors, two men who support junk science over real science. It does not matter what credentials a person has if they reject real science and embrace junk. A science advisor should have impeccable credentials, but should also support real science. These two gentlemen do not and are quite proud that they do not support real science.

Why do I say that these two men do not support real science but support junk science? The answer is simple; they both were early supporters of global warming and remain so today. That they were early supporters of global warming is not the problem. Everything was looking like global warming had to be true back in the 1980’s when it was originally proposed. That it was a man-made phenomenon was always debatable, but that it was occurring was not really debatable at the time.

Things are quite different now. Global warming stopped at least 10 years ago. There has not been one year where the temperature increased since before 1998. Now, I know that NASA has been screaming that we are in a warming period. But, every time someone checks their figures they find out that they are wrong. They do things like use September figures in October and claim that October is the warmest on record. Then they take those incorrect figures and use them to indicate that a particular year is one of the warmest. According to NASA, seven of the ten warmest years have occurred since 1998. When NASA’s figures are corrected to use actual data, none of the years they claim are the warmest show up in the top 50.

Why are NASA’s figures so bad? The reason is that the director of NASA is one of the people that came up with the idea of global warming and he wants his theory to be correct. If global warming is not occurring, then his theory is incorrect. Nobody wants to be wrong. So, he “cooks” the books at NASA and incorrectly reports climate data. NASA has become a joke among those that know anything about climate data as being the most incorrect data source available. That is a sad story for a government agency. But it is a government agency and that is all that can be expected. NASA moved its recording instruments into locations that will give higher readings than is the generally accepted way of gathering weather data. They put their boxes in the sun; this raises the temperature during the day time. They put the boxes next to heat vents; this increases the temperature during the winter. They put their boxes on asphalt, which raises the temperature in the day time. A box is supposed to be located in a protected site away from areas with asphalt or heat ducts. The boxes should be located in the shade and on grass. At least that is the preferred way, if possible.

Since we all know that global warming is junk science, anyone who believes in global warming should be disqualified from becoming a science advisor to the President. The President should get the best science information possible, not junk science. Having advisors who believe that junk science is real science will necessarily cloud their judgment when it comes to evaluating scientific information. Any scientific information that disagrees with their pre-conceived notion that global warming is occurring will be rejected and not passed on. They will only pass on the hype they receive from non-scientists like Al Gore. To have a non-scientist like Al Gore telling supposed scientists what to tell the President scares me. Al Gore knows nothing about science. To watch his movie is to see someone who knows nothing and is trying to impress us with his lack of knowledge.

I for one do not want Al Gore advising the President on scientific issues. Al Gore is a failed journalist, minister, attorney, vice-President and everything else he has done. He should not be given any position of authority, except for maybe in a mental hospital in one of the wards. Al Gore is hysterical and delusional. We do not need delusional people advising the President.

Over the weekend an Iraqi reporter threw his two shoes at President Bush. This was done as a protest to the Iraqi leaders that follow what President Bush says without question.

The protest raises a lot of questions that do require some answers. The first and most important is: where was the secret service when this reporter threw his first shoe? Where were they when he threw the second shoe a couple of seconds later?

A report I read said that the Secret Service had checked everyone for weapons and because the room was small, put a small presence in the room. Still, when this reporter raised the shoe to throw it, someone had to see it. If they saw the man raise his hand, nobody reacted to the action of someone throwing something at the President of the United States. They still had not reacted when this same man threw a second shoe. Then, the Secret Service showed up and tried to protect the President. They also showed up and wrestled the Iraqi reporter into submission.

I thought that the job of the Secret Service was to keep the President safe at all costs, including the loss of your own life. Not one Secret Service Agent reacted fast enough to get between a man throwing a shoe from 15 feet away and the President. The President had time to duck away from the shoe, so the shoe was not thrown at high velocity. The tape shows that the first agent shows up six seconds after the Iraqi throws the shoe at the President. That is much too slow. They should have identified that there was a threat when the man started moving his arm and started a reaction. I think that they thought there was no possibility of danger and relaxed. This relaxation almost cost the President his life. I know the shoe was not a danger, but it just as easily could have been a bomb. The President could have been injured by the shoe striking him in the eye. That would not have looked good for the Secret Service. As it is, they do not look good, but there is no harm done.

Many have asked the question, what would have happened if this had been Barack Obama? I think that the Secret Service would not have been asleep at the wheel. When the Iraqi raised his hand, someone would have been in front of Obama in an instant and the shoe thrower would have been taken out by another agent or more. The shoe thrower might have been able to deliver one shoe, but not two. But, the shoe would have been delivered at a Secret Service Agent, not the President.

Why do I say these things? I believe that the Secret Service protecting President Bush believe that their job is almost done and are relaxing on the job. They think that they just have to run out the clock and the President will have been protected on their watch. This is much like the Buffalo Bills on Sunday. They had to run out the clock to defeat the New York Jets. Instead of taking care of the ball and doing their job, they decided to run a risky play. The risky play failed and they lost the game. The same thing can happen to the Secret Service if they are not careful in this last month before President Bush leaves office. They almost fumbled the ball. They got lucky this time. They might not be so lucky next time. There are a lot of people in this world that have Bush Derangement Syndrome and wish the President was dead. How many want him to actually die is unknown. How many could do something about it is unknown. That is the job of the Secret Service to make sure that nobody gets a chance to do something about killing the President. This time they dodged the “bullet”. Will they do so next time? Will there be a next time? I hope that President Bush lives a long and happy life like his father. I also do not wish ill for our new President when he takes office, January 20, 2009. I did not vote for him and do not want him to serve, but that is not my choice at this time. He was elected by the people and so for the next four years, Barack Obama is the President.

I just wish President Obama would show us his birth certificate to prove that he really was born in Hawaii. He should not leave that question open. Every other candidate produced their birth certificate in this election season, except Obama. He will still be President, just let us cross off all the questions. It will help morale in the country.

Since Tuesday, there have been anonymous leaks trashing Sarah Palin from those that worked for John McCain. Trashing someone anonymously is cowardly. Some other people have trashed Sarah Palin and have been. At least the second group is more honorable than the first group. Of course, the two groups could be the same, we may never know. Sarah Palin is considered by many, including me, to be the leading candidate for the Republican nomination for President in 2012. These attacks could have come from a potential competitor.

Those that trashed Sarah Palin need to have their heads examined. She was the one bright spot of the campaign season. If she had listened to her “handlers” she would have been this bland vanilla candidate that would not have been worth much more than Joe Biden. By going off script and attacking Barack Obama, she excited the crowds and drew ever larger crowds to her speaking engagements. The public loved her “going rogue” moments. The “handlers” hated the going rogue moments. Part of the trashing could be sour grapes, but I think that is not the true story. I believe that she single handedly kept John McCain in the race.

Trashing Sarah Palin by people from the John McCain campaign is making John McCain look bad. They are saying that John McCain’s judgment was flawed by picking someone so unprepared. He introduced her as being ready to be Vice-President of the United States. Who was right, John McCain or the trash talkers? I would put my money on John McCain. He has a longer record of honor and honesty than the trash talkers have of reliability. I may disagree with John McCain on what he has done, but I have never ever disagreed with his honor or integrity.

I read an article earlier in the week that hinted that the trash talkers might have an agenda for their trash talking. They might be trying to tear down Sarah Palin now, so she could not defeat their person in 2012. That is a real possibility. There were three viable candidates for the Republican nomination. They were: John McCain, Mike Huckabee and Mitt Romney. John McCain won the nomination and has no chance for 2012 so he is not a suspect in this case.

That leaves Mitt Romney and Mike Huckabee. Let’s look at how they attacked their opponents in the primaries to see if this gets a glimpse at who might be the suspect. Mitt Romney attacked his opponents through ads directly. He also criticized them by himself. He did not resort to any surrogates to do it for him. In other words, he was always above board and honest in his attacks. The person being attacked may not have felt the attacks were honest, but at least they were above board and not through surrogates.

Mike Huckabee on the other hand rarely criticized another candidate in the entire primary season. He left the attacks and slurs to surrogates. The attacks were generally below the belt and dishonest. They attacked a person’s religion by telling lies about it. They told lies or half truths about events. They waited until the attacks could hardly be refuted before attacking. The attacks on Sarah Palin are in exactly the same vein as the attacks by Huckabee surrogates during the primary season. Huckabee could then be above the fray and look Presidential. Huckabee has a new TV show and would not want to be seen attacking anyone. That would drive down his ratings.

I am not accusing Mike Huckabee of master minding these attacks on Sarah Palin. I am just saying that it is following the pattern established in the primaries. The people doing the attacking may be just doing what they think that Mike Huckabee would want them to do. Mike Huckabee may be completely innocent of trashing Sarah Palin. We will not know until the people we do know start to find jobs with candidates in the 2012 Presidential campaign. If they all end up working for one candidate, then we will know the truth. If they retire or work for different candidates, we will never know exactly what happened to cause them to attack one of the Republican leading candidates for President in 2012.

I am biased in my observation that it might be Mike Huckabee or his surrogates that are masterminding the attacks on Sarah Palin. He skillfully attacked my candidate using underhanded lies and half truths by surrogates. The attacks against my candidate also were attacks against me personally as we share the same religion. I will never forgive Mike Huckabee for those attacks. I will probably always attribute false attacks on Republicans by Republicans to Mike Huckabee. That was his style in the primaries and a leopard does not change his spots.

Barack Obama tried to sell himself in an infomercial last night on TV. He spent a lot of money and time to try and close the deal with the American public. Right now, he has not closed the deal. The polls are hovering between tied and 3% up for Obama. That is not enough to get him across the finish line as the winner. Of course, there are the cheerleader polls that have him up 13-20%. Those polls are only believed by the main stream press. Anyone with a brain knows that the race is a lot closer than a 15% lead for Obama.

My guess is that Obama has to have a 7% lead on Election Day to pull out a victory. Right now, he does not have that much of a lead. He hopes that his huge amount of illegally obtained funds will enable him to buy the election. McCain hopes that his grittiness in the last few weeks will sway the 10-12% of stubbornly undecided voters.

Obama keeps having things pop up that should have popped up months ago. The LA Times story should have been vetted in April when it first broke. It was not vetted because Mrs. Clinton could not take advantage of the story because she kissed the wife of Yassar Arafat. So, she could not call Obama on the carpet. The story was largely forgotten until it was found last weekend. Now, it is starting to have some traction. Obama should have allowed it to come out on Monday to allow it a week to blow over. Now it is growing and it may impact how people perceive Obama and his support or rather non-support of Israel. Most Americans are solidly behind Israel and are ready to defend Israel at all costs. Only the lunatic fringe left where Obama resides is anti-Israel. It is inconceivable that any candidate could reach this level without being pro-Israel. But the story is growing and the main stream media will have to address it by the weekend.

Obama is trying to paint America as a dreary place where everyone is in dire straits. He believes that if you are poor, you will stay poor all of your life. That is not the America that exists in real life. Most people that are “rich” at some point were in the poor section. My wife and I were considered poor when we first got married. We had little to no income. We were watching every penny like a hawk. When I got my first “real” full-time job, one of the interviewers asked us how we lived on such a small amount of money. I am not sure how we did it either, but we did. We are now on the lowest level of “rich” as defined by Joe Biden. We made right around $150,000 last year. We should make somewhere near that again this year. We went from the poor to the rich in one lifetime. Many other people do the same thing. Obama believes that if you are poor, you should stay poor.

I do not think that Obama will ever completely close the deal on whether he should be President. There are too many unanswered questions about Obama that he will not let us ask or answer. When voters go into the voting booth on Tuesday, many will say, “Do I want an unknown as President in these times, or do I want someone who has prepared himself to be President?” If people ask that question, John McCain will be our next President. If they think that it is “cool” to have a black President, then Barack Obama will be our next President. Serious voters will vote for McCain, casual voters will vote for Obama. It just depends on which group shows up at the polls. I hope that people are serious when they vote. I would rather have people ponder their vote than take voting like it was for “American Idol”.