Dear President Obama:

Congratulations on your historic ascendancy to the office of the President of the United States. You are now the leader of the free world. My hope is that you understand the gravity of this office and that you are serious in reaching out to all Americans, myself included.

I have to be honest. I didn’t vote for you. Some of your campaign rhetoric seemed designed to do nothing more than to win the election, even though you and I both know that there was no way you could adhere to the promises you made. But many of my fellow Americans were unable or unwilling to think critically, so now you’re my President.

I apologize that I was unable to watch your inauguration ceremony yesterday. Unfortunately, many of us had to work to pay the taxes to support the United States Treasury and the government that you are now responsible for. I guess that my efforts allowed others to take the day off and actually go to Washington and bask in your afterglow yesterday. Be that as it may, here are a few things you can do for me and my family in the next four years.

First, please don’t raise my taxes. My wife and I already [...]

Today we celebrate the birth of one of the icons of our nation: Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. I shared some thoughts last year, which remain as they are, but I never imagined at that time the course that history would take between these two celebrations of his birth.

There are days that I still find myself seeing even more deeply just how depraved we have been as a nation. I’ve been studying our history this past year, and find that in the midst of a hundred other events in the course of time we have been surrounded by our constant failure to give all people the respect and opportunity they deserve. Although I would contend that we have done what should be done by government to bring dignity and equality to the masses, I know that many would be quick to disagree. It would be interesting to hear the opinions of those like Condoleezza Rice, Barack Obama, Clarence Thomas, all of whom have lived through the years of dramatic change in out society and have been in roles where they can see many of the aspects of the society’s changes in judicial, legislative and education worlds.

I consider myself, as well as the whole nation, indebted to Dr. King for his sacrifice in carrying the message of our social failure and need for transformation to the leaders and people of our country. It still makes me sad to think he died so young (he was only 39), but he had already successfully lit the fire of reform in the hearts of many people, both black and white.

It surprises me that racism is still such an unfettered evil in our society. It pains me to think that people can still look down on others for any reason. But we have frail feelings, frail hearts, frail souls… we are difficult to mend.

~ ~ ~ ~ ~

Tomorrow the 44th President of the United States will be inaugurated. The first African-American to be President.

I don’t agree with Mr. Obama on some key policy areas, and that is not likely to change. But I do hope that he is successful in his role as President. For the [...]

… for the most boring interview in history. Last night felt more like 3600 seconds. For those of you that missed it (lucky you), it was the big “first interview of the 44th President Elect of the United Stated”. Steve Kroft, one-on-one with Obama for half the show, Michelle included in the second half (with a little time for Rooney).

Softball questions by Kroft… oh, wait a minute, he did press Obama mightily to reveal yet unannounced cabinet position appointments. Darn, Barack refused to slip up on that!

Why oh why do we care about Obama’s position on college football playoffs?

Very little of what was discussed from a policy standpoint was any different than what we’ve heard on the campaign OR Obama just didn’t provide a real answer. Auto industry? Let’s see what happens. Gitmo? Shut it down… and as a commenter at James Hibberd’s The Live Feed said, no follow-up from Kroft on an obvious question: what to do with the prisoners?

Economy: do [...]

When James Madison and friends put together the Constitution, one of the key things they endeavoured to do was ensure that the Chief Administrator (President) did not have the power of a king. After all, we had just fought our tails off for the right to not have to be subjugated by King George, and as such provide sovereignty to the people and not the President.

I say this in preparation for something that Valerie Jarrett, co-chair of Obama’s transition team, said on Meet The Press yesterday:

“Given the daunting challenges that we face, it is important that President-elect Obama’s prepared to really take power and begin to rule day one.”

DavidL at BitsBlog takes this at face value, which is not in the least unfair. He characterizes this [...]

From the Washington Post:

Transition advisers to President-elect Barack Obama have compiled a list of about 200 Bush administration actions and executive orders that could be swiftly undone to reverse White House policies on climate change, stem cell research, reproductive rights and other issues, according to congressional Democrats, campaign aides and experts working with the transition team.

All of you that were taken completely off-guard by this news, please raise your right hands. Now smack yourself on the back of the head.

Any turmoil and angst over this should[...]

This is going to be a great day! I liked Sister Toldjah’s emphatic “What a great day it is to be an American!”. I woke up with a sense of anticipation at what the next year in our nation’s history will be like. What kinds of decisions will we make? How [...]

Not that anyone should be shocked, but definitely frustrated, but today’s Washington Post provides some insight to the plans of Congress with regard to converting more and more land over to federal protection control.  You know what’s scary?  If this had been the approach Congress took when Thomas Jefferson was president, we’d still be all [...]

I’ve been subscribing to Fortune magazine for about 15 years now, and in the last couple of years I’ve given serious thought to letting my subscription go for something more substantive and/or right-leaning, as I’ve watched the editorial staff at Fortune take their publication further and further left.  And then, just when I begin to [...]

I’ve got just one little point that I haven’t seen any comment as yet which I noticed while listening to a rebroadcast of last night’s debate between Clinton and Obama in Austin.
There was a question regarding having 2 languages spoken in the US (English and Spanish presumably). Here’s a transcript (courtesy of the Chicago [...]

Demosthenes is this week’s winner!
You may recall the question was:
Hypothetical question: If President Bush, Vice President Cheney, House Speaker Pelosi, Senate President Pro Tempore Byrd, Secretary of State Rice, Secretary of the Treasury Paulson, Secretary of Defense Gates, Attorney General Mukasey, Secretary of Interior Kempthorne, and Secretary of Agriculture Schafer were all killed, who (today) [...]