White House Suffers another Reversal

My early-morning walk to the bottom of the driveway to pick up a couple of newspapers was well rewarded. Coffee in hand, I gathered the Courier News and The Star-Ledger. The front- page story in one of them was enough to warm any American’s heart in this sub-freezing cold:

“New York ruled out as site for terror trial,” it read. The jihadist bum Khalid Sheik Mohammed and his co-conspirators will not be tried in lower Manhattan, after all. It looks like the American democracy’s pushback against some of the nonsense continually seeping out of the White House has finally taken hold.

Even Democrats on The Hill are also resisting the Obama/Holder decision to provide Constitutional rights to enemy combatant nut jobs who are working hard to destroy that very document. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), chairwoman of the Senate’s Select Committee on Intelligence and who is privy to top secret information, strongly opposes the trial’s venue in New York City.

Ever since the day that Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts came on the scene, matters seem to have taken a turn for the better. I’ve never liked one-party control of both the White House and Congress, no matter who is in charge.

But don’t expect the Obama/Holder camp to relent very much. What it should but won’t do is to remit KSM & Company to military authorities for trial as enemy combatants under the code of military justice.

Thanks for reading. Keep warm and give thanks for what you are and what you have.

Plouffe Goes Plop

If last night’s speech was to be the beginning of the winning strategy that would accompany the return of Barack Obama’s campaign manager David Plouffe into the inner circle of advisors, that beginning fizzled before it started.

How in the world can the President possibly deliver on everything that he proposed last night? Perhaps he could start by focusing on the single outcome that I think we all want: Getting the economy back on track first.

Yesterday, that’s what he said he would do. But that only happened because his super-majority was blown to bits with the election of Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts, as well as the mounting threat of further casualties feared by Obama in the November mid-term Congressional contests – that’s why Plouffe is back.

Soon, it will be a return to the same old Washington power game. In his speech, Mr. Obama addressed his Democrats, “We still have the largest majority in decades, and people expect us to solve problems, not run to the hills.” To Republicans, he said, “The responsibility is now yours as well.”

Democrats aren’t running for the hills; they are eyeing November and running for re-election already. Republicans always had the responsibility, but Obama, Reid and Pelosi have been hitting them over the head with the sledge of a super-majority.

Obama’s habit of thinking and speaking of himself in the third person as a Washington outsider is not a good sign. He has been in office a year now, sitting in the seat of the highest position in the land. He is Washington.

Looking Beyond Obama

Tonight, President Barack Obama will go before TV cameras and will deliver his first substantial report to the nation. He should stay home and go to bed. Here is more of what I think:

Despite Obama’s presence in the White House, spring will come. Yes it will. In several months, despite all of his misbegotten and self-absorbed approaches to governance, we will be able to go out into the warmth of the spring sunshine and see nature awaken from its winter slumber.

We will be able, once more, to watch the buds bloom; to coax our gardens into fresh growth; to make do with what we have – that which has not yet been taken away from us by the mismanagement of the boys and girls inside the Beltway. Yes, we can.

And there – in that eternal yearning for a spring that always comes – is where we will find the genuine hope and change that we can truly believe in.

My Truck ‘n Me

It was a midnight blue Isuzu pickup. I bought it secondhand from a neighbor who had retired from New Jersey Bell. It was one of the most practical vehicles that I’ve ever owned. I used it to clear yard waste from my property and to carry all manner of stuff that would not fit in the trunk of a car. I even removed about four full truckloads of old tree stumps from my neighbor’s yard.

When I first purchased the truck, though, many of my friends and acquaintances asked me why I had bought it, instead of a car – didn’t seem to fit my personality some told me. Others were not quite as direct about it, but seemed to imply the same. I found it amusing, because it was as though I had suddenly developed another personality.

But now I get it. Scott Brown drives a truck, and politicians are not supposed to be seen driving trucks – somehow it kills the image of what a politician should be. Even President Barack Obama, when he made a last-minute flight aboard Air Force One to Massachusetts, trying to break the momentum of Scott Brown’s drive for Ted Kennedy’s vacant seat referred negatively to Brown’s truck.

Big mistake. Even more so when it’s made by the President of the United States. There are millions of people who drive trucks in this country, yet the image still seems to linger of some redneck guy in a pickup with a rifle slung in the back.

As for me, I like truckers, whether they drive pickups or eighteen wheelers. Even if they are politicians.

Such a Fuss!

His victory made him the 41st vote for Republicans in the U.S. Senate. Still, I am bemused by all the attention being heaped upon Senator-elect Scott Brown of Massachusetts and the unexpectedly glowing characterization of the Bay State by talking heads, writers, and bloggers of all stripes. It’s as though someone had just discovered a 51st state tucked away in the northeast.

Having been born 26 miles northwest of Boston; having roamed the Bay State and its environs for nigh on to four decades, I think that I know a little about Massachusetts, its people and the region. Trust me: It’s the same U.S. Commonwealth that it was before Scott Brown was elected – no better, no worse.

Massachusetts, a Source of Firsts: I won’t go through a list. But I will point out that long before Barack Obama began to remind Americans so often of how he is the first this and the first that, Massachusetts residents once chose Edward Brooke as the first modern African-American to serve in the U.S. Senate way back in 1967. I was proud of Brooke back then; yet I don’t recall Bay Staters making such a ruckus over it. Voters thought him qualified, put him in office, and that was that: Get to work.

Getting down to work on their behalf is no more, no less what Bay State residents expect from Scott Brown. He entered the race as an underdog, had the platform that voters wanted, worked his butt off campaigning, and pulled the rug out from under Martha Coakley, a lifelong Bay State resident fully backed by the Kennedys, but who simply did not keep her ears to the ground, and who forgot to campaign.

The Kennedy Factor. The mystique, charm, negotiation skills, effectiveness, political street-smarts, family tradition and tragedy associated with Ted Kennedy – love him or hate him – constituted the psyche of a political giant. Personal psyches, as Martha Coakley and the remaining Kennedys discovered, cannot be duplicated and are not transferable.

That is why Scott Brown is heading for Washington and Martha Coakley is not.

Note:  Photo of Edward Brooke, Courtesy/San Francisco Chronicle

Republican Scott Brown Stuns Washington and Bay State Dems

Scott Brown just won a major victory in Massachusetts in the fight to replace Ted Kennedy’s vacant seat in the U.S. Senate, defeating Martha Coakley by a margin of 5% at the time of this writing. This victory is enormously significant and has implications far beyond the boundaries of what is perhaps the bluest of blue states in the nation.

President Barack Obama’s filibuster-proof majority in the Senate has been broken. A post-election focus group indicated that one reason for Coakley’s defeat is her staunch support of the Obama administration’s healthcare proposal now in the hands of U.S. House of Representative’s leader, Nancy Pelosi.

Logically, this defeat should shock Mr. Obama into workable bi-partisanship. But don’t bet the farm on it: He and his chief advisors can be expected to hunker down even more now, and to railroad the legislation through the Congress. Hope I’m wrong about that.

More later on as to why Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown’s victory isn’t nearly the surprise to me that it seems to be to so many people who may not understand the psyche of Bay State voters.

Martin Luther King, Jr., a Prophet for all Seasons

A prophet is a person with deep moral insight, a quality sometimes accompanied with an exceptional power of expression – character traits very rarely bundled up into the psyche of any one person. When they are combined, those leadership qualities propel a person inexorably to the fore, and societies can change forever. Martin Luther King, Jr.was just such a man.

But a prophet enters at his own risk into a very dangerous profession indeed: Not everybody is ready to hear the message that comes along with the person: The message usually implies structural change within an organization or in society, and that can be threatening and costly for people, even if the change is to the good.

King was born in 1929 and was destined to enter his productive years in the 1960’s, a time of enormous turmoil and fermentation on many fronts in the American scene.

This American black man employed the medium of non-violence and civil disobedience to deliver his message, a notion established a long time ago in the early years of our republic by Henry David Thoreau. It would be for Martin Luther King, Jr. to apply it to the accumulated injustices of the 1960’s that had held back so many Americans for so long.

When MLK accepted the Nobel Peace Prize in Oslo in 1964 he said, “I believe that unarmed truth and unconditional love will have the final word in reality.” That can be a tough one to swallow, but King put his life on the line for it.

Mr. Brown Goes to Washington?

The center of gravity in the national political arena has unexpectedly shifted from Washington, D.C. to Massachusetts. What was once expected to be an uneventful, solid Democrat win by Martha Coakley for the senate seat vacated by Ted Kennedy upon his death is turning into the possibility of an earth-splitting defeat for her and the Democrat party.

If Scott Brown, the Republic contender who mere days ago was trailing Coakley by a wide margin wins, President Barack Obama will lose his filibuster-proof majority in the U.S. Senate. The implications of such an upset are mind-boggling for the nation – everything would change overnight. The President would have to alter his ram-it-through attitude towards legislation, and Americans would be the better for it.

Bi-partisanship, discordant though it might be, could actually take hold.

If anyone reading this does not believe that Washington Democrat power brokers are pulling out all stops to abort the last-minute possibility that Republican candidate Scott Brown will ever see the light of day as a U.S. Senator, consider this: 

Observe what President Obama is doing, not what he is saying: The White House announced today that he is leaving for Massachusetts on Sunday to campaign on Coakley’s behalf.

There is one place that would benefit far more from his visitation– Haiti. Yet there’s been no announcement that he has any plans to personally reassure the Haitian people and to bolster their morale by his presence.

President Obama has more pressing things to do in Massachusetts.

What Hath Love Wrought?

Poor guy! All he wanted to do was to accompany his girl to the airport, give her a last minute hug and kiss, and then see her off. The last thing in the world that Haisong Jiang, a Rutgers student from China intended was to create the international stir that occurred after he walked inside Terminal C at Newark’s Liberty International Airport.

The world’s gone a little crazy lately. Governments mimic the craziness also: Like, for instance letting a Nigerian board a plane bound from Amsterdam to Detroit, even after his father, a prominent Nigerian, alerted the U.S. Embassy that his son might try to pull off some jihadist trick.

Not to be outdone by Amsterdam security, the U.S. Government booked the alleged jihadist in a civil court in Michigan after his failed attempt; gave him no-charge premium medical care; and let him have an expensive civilian lawyer.

The alleged Islamic terrorist will be tried in a U.S. civil court with full U.S. Constitutional protection. We may never find out who the jihadist’s possible Yemeni associates were.  All of this thanks to Eric Holder, the legal front man for President Barack Obama.

Meanwhile naïve Jiang – legally here – incurs the wrath of our two U.S. Senators, especially that of Frank Lautenberg who, I initially thought, might favor placing him under the guillotine. But cooler heads prevailed, and Mr. Jiang is now subject to “only” 30 days in jail and a $500 fine.

Too bad there are not more loving Jiangs in this country and fewer potentially malevolent jihadists.

Memories of Monir

I knew him as Monir and hired him to work with me a long time ago, when I was with a mini-computer company in Massachusetts. After I left that firm for a career move, I lost track of Monir for years. A legal immigrant to this country, Monir is Egyptian. He was a most pleasant person, intelligent, easy to work with, quick with a smile, and effusive with laughter. (For reasons of security, I am not revealing his full name.)

In his home country, he was part of an ancient Egyptian minority known as Coptic Christians, a branch of Christianity which predates the time of Islamic culture by centuries. In Egypt, Copts are a minority of about 10% within a Muslim population of about 78 million people.

Looking to reconnect again after years of separation, I called my old friend and arranged to meet with him and my previous boss, both of whom lived in Framingham, Massachusetts at the time. It was a great afternoon, one spent at Monir’s home reliving old memories as colleagues and genuine friends.

Much later, when I tried to reach Monir again, I found out that he had decided to return to Egypt.

I thought of Monir on Friday morning, as I read a report that Sunni Muslims shot and killed six Coptic Christians and a Muslim guard, as well as injuring other Copts over a crime allegedly committed by one of their own. The attack with automatic weapons happened as Coptic Christians were leaving Midnight Mass after celebrating Christmas, which for them is on January 7th.

A newspaper report quotes a Sunni Muslim official as claiming that the attack was not religiously motivated, but that “The concept of revenge is strong in southern Egypt . . .”

It certainly is.

Note: Information for this post originates from an article by Sheeren El Gazzar of The Wall Street Journal, as well as from another source.

Transparency According to Frank Pallone

Congressman Frank Pallone, Jr. who represents the New Jersey 6th Congressional District doesn’t see any lack of transparency by President Obama, the Senate, or the House of Representatives when it comes to the national debate on healthcare.

In a TV interview yesterday, Pallone said, “It’s inevitable that there be some private discussions, and that’s what you are seeing now.”

Apparently it doesn’t much matter to the congressman that Obama has reneged on his promise to televise the healthcare debate on C-Span; that Reid and Pelosi are excluding Republicans from meetings; or that this president is also having closed-door meetings with congressional leaders while excluding all media and members of the opposing party.

Pallone must be quite confident in his reelection chances and doesn’t seem to care about the integrity of the healthcare process. But then who else in the Democrat-led New Jersey delegation does? Even our two senators Menendez and Lautenberg are sending us the message that what’s good for the White House is good for New Jersey.

Take a look at how gerrymandered the 6th Congressional District is as it snakes along from Plainfield to Asbury Park, and then you will know the real reason why Pallone can be so blasé about the security of his position in the House of Representatives.

Note: After a challenge by C-span, there is now the possibility that the Obama administration will permit a one hour infomercial explaining ex post facto what it is about to do on healthcare.

Costco: Cash on the Barrelhead

On Monday, when I drove to Costco at the Bridgewater Promenade to return a pair of sweats that didn’t fit, it suddenly struck me: Costco’s policy of accepting only cash on the barrelhead is a great retail model:

Who would have thought that establishing a cash-only, high volume business with an annual membership fee would succeed? But it did – wildly. On any given day, because of quality and good prices, the Bridgewater Costco has a stream of customers purchasing an assortment of food and merchandise, and happily rolling their carts up to the checkout to pay with greenbacks or debit card. (American Express is the only credit card accepted.)

It’s a sterling example of a good business enterprise, one which could be well emulated by governments and citizens across the land: Don’t spend what you don’t have. And, if you are in a position of responsibility in a government agency at any level, don’t try to fleece cash from Americans through a confiscatory tax structure.

But we all have short memories and, as the economy recovers, people and bureaucrats will return to their old habits. That is, if they even modified them to begin with.

Have You Thought of your Next Step?

I’m still getting used to the fact that we are in the New Year. The most obvious sign occurs when I write down a date. You know how that works: you begin to write down the month and year on a memo or to type it into a blog post as I just did, and what you get is: xx-xx-2009. Whoops! It’s January, 2010, isn’t it?

Which reminds me: Have you made any resolutions yet? I stopped doing that about 15 years ago and try to think about life in a more basic way. For example: Have you thought recently about your next step? No, no . . . I don’t mean what you plan to do next at work, or at home, or with your friends.

What I mean is this: Have you thought about your next step? Literally! That is, have you thought seriously about what happens when you put one foot forward, then the next, and then the other – repeatedly? As in walking. What is behind all that?

You must think that I am certifiably insane (you wouldn’t be the first). Let me explain. A person who decides to walk doesn’t go through an elaborate mental process of instructing all of the involved body parts what to do. A dedicated part of the brain handles that automatically.

I once remember walking up to one of my brothers who was wheel-chair bound and bending over so he could hear me. His first words were, “I wish I could do that.” The remark took me by surprise.

I, as you might have done, took the simple task of walking and bending for granted. We all do. That is, until we can no longer perform it. Just ask any handicapped person.

Which leads me to this conclusion: Some power greater than anything we can adequately visualize must have set up the rules. I call that power God.