Most of us fail to grasp the enormity of trillions of dollars, let alone billions, so let’s just throw the numbers out the window and for the sake of argument concede we’ll never pay back what we as a nation owe in our lifetimes or those of future generations. Instead, let’s focus on ending this insanity and establishing our priorities. For the most part, these are tough decisions our elected leaders do not have the guts to enact. National Security. We are a bankrupt superpower...

I’m bummed out on politics for the moment and as Keith Olbermann does more often than not escape into the world of sports entertainment as Plan B. Just to piss off Glenn Beck and annoy Rush Limbaugh who hasn’t thought of it, I am applying for the position of College Football Czar as an adviser to President Obama. With the powers invested in me by executive order, the first and only decision I will make is abolish the Bowl Championship Series aka BCS. College football is the only major...

The murderous Mexican drug cartels are known for their viciousness conducting their illicit trade. U.S. drug manufactures are less sanguine but equally adept at protecting their profits. In anticipation of new health reform legislation that would curb their oligarchy, drug makers have raised their prices about 9% this past year while the Consumer Price Index has fallen by 1.3% during the same period. The widely acclaimed deal the industry struck with the White House and Senate Finance Committee chairman...

The right-wing tsk tsk tskers are at it again. This time it is a deep bow of respect President Barack Obama offered when greeting Japanese emperor Akihito this weekend in Tokyo. That bastion of conservatism, The Drudge Report, signaled its disgust by shouting in 42-pt. boldface headlines “How Low Can He Get?” And, get this. Drudge uses as an example of diplomatic decorum none other than former Vice President Dick Cheney shaking hands with the emperor at the same residence in a 2007 file...

Americans such as myself step into troubled waters when we try to understand why an Army shrink would kill 13 and wound 33 on the pretext he didn’t want to be assigned to Afghanistan. Therefore, I find it not at all unusual that today’s authors of Op-Ed columns in today’s Los Angeles Times argue amongst themselves. The issue is not whether Maj. Nidal Malik Hasan committed a terrorist act. He did. The issue which is only partially addressed in the opinion pieces is why the army failed...

As President Barack Obama deliberates — no, Dick, he’s not “dithering” — a revised strategy and troop levels in Afghanistan, some people in the White House and Pentagon have loose lips and leaked some startling news this past week. If true, consider these developments: The president has rejected four options on strategy and troop levels from his military intelligence team and instructed them to start over. The U.S. Ambassador to Afghanistan, a former commander of troops...

I’m facing a moral crises over some fundamental issues regarding health reform legislation. First, I believe a woman has the right to choose an abortion, not the government nor any religious organization. At the same time, I would not encourage my wife to abort our child unless it would save her life. Second, as a policy issue, I have no moral grounds to oppose the Hyde Amendment which essentially prohibits taxpayers’ money to pay for an abortion. The reasoning in itself is contradictory...

From the very outset of the health reform legislation debate, I had this premonition that when the House and Senate bills reached the conference committee for reconciliation, President Barack Obama would come charging to the rescue like the hero wearing the white hat in those old western movies. He still may do that if the Senate manages to actually pass a bill but he is quickly running out of ammunition. He did fire a silver bullet by sending Tonto disguised as former President Bill Clinton to the...

What bothers me is the time frame and number of shots fired from one if not two pistols by Army Maj. Nidal M. Hasan in Thursday’s shooting spree at Fort Hood, Tex. News reports and eye witnesses said the shootings lasted nearly 30 minutes. Army investigators said more than 100 shots were fired. Local police were quoted as saying all the shell casings were recovered from the same gun. If that is true, what about the shell casings fired by police officer Kimberly Munley who is credited for gunning...

I’ve given President Barack Obama a long leash in his efforts at governing and now must concede his biggest mistake in changing how Washington works is his staff’s petty feud with Fox News. This running story has legs and they must be chopped off at the knees. This dog must sit, lie down, whacked on the behind with a rolled newspaper and attend obedience school. The latest bark from the White House is troubling because the source of the story is a third party who works for Fox and claims...

While Americans tuned into the political gyrations of a handful of elections yesterday and political operatives pontificating what it all means today, it remains dwarfed by what happened in Afghanistan. Five British soldiers embedded with locals were shot and killed by an Afghan policeman with whom they were mentoring at a security outpost in Helmand Province. The embedded NATO troops were carrying out a key part of the counter-insurgency strategy to train Afghan army and police. The assailant escaped...

Tell your friends you read it here first. Don’t bother watching the wall-to-wall cable television coverage of today’s handful of odd-year elections. Robert McDonnell, the Republican candidate, will be elected governor of Virginia. Barring a minor miracle, incumbent New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine will lose to Republican Chris Christie. Douglas Hoffman, the Conservative Party candidate, will trounce Democrat Bill Owens in the 23rd Congressional district of New York. UPDATE: (12:15 a.m. Wednesday)....

The style book says elected politicians be identified by abbreviations of their political party and state after their names which is why I find it rather amusing that Sen. Joe Lieberman is (I-Conn). That Lieberman is conning progressive Democrats is paramount in their frustration directed at the man selected as their party’s vice presidential candidate in 2000. They overlooked a quirk in Lieberman’s cover-all-bases political style because he simultaneously ran for reelection of his senate...

The Washington Post breathlessly tells us today that 33 lawmakers are being investigated for questionable conduct that includes defense lobbying and corporate influence peddling. Granted, this is a legitimate story in Washington. But for the rest of the nation, it most likely will produce a collective yawn. “What else is new?” they might ask. The report was prepared in July. It was accidentally leaked by a junior staffer who used software from his home computer known as “peer-to-peer”...

If there was ever any doubt why California is known as la la land, I offer these stories ripped off the wires. 1) — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who was heckled recently when he crashed a Democratic Party fund raiser, vetoed a bill authored by one of his hecklers and despite the fact the Legislature approved the measure unanimously. Here’s the veto message. Now follow the first letter in the left margin of each line. Here’s the set up as compiled by the Wall Street Journal. In Left...

For those of you who believe our mission in Afghanistan is a war of futility as I do then this article in today’s Washington Post reaffirms that notion. As you will learn, Matthew Hoh is no peacenik rabblerouser but a seasoned combat Marine, civil engineer and member of an elite Foreign Service team whose resignation shocked the top civilian foreign policy leaders in the Obama administration. “I have lost understanding of and confidence in the strategic purposes of the United States’...

A Saudi Arabian court sentenced a female journalist to 60 lashes because she worked for a television station that aired the sexual confessions of a Saudi man, she and her attorney said today. The Reuters news agency said the woman, who requested only her first name used, was unaware her Lebanese Broadcasting Corp. did not have proper authorization to operate in the Islamic kingdom. “The verdict was just because I cooperated with LBC,” Rosana, 22, the female journalist, told Reuters. By...

Reports from Bratislava, Slovakia, today indicate NATO defense ministers support Gen. Stanley McChrystal’s recommendations to increase counterinsurgency strategy, nation building and additional troops in Afghanistan. Easy for them to say. More than two-thirds of the 28-country NATO forces totalling 104,000 troops are American and far less than those one-third are involved in combat operations. The ministers did not discuss the number of additional troops expected. Reports claim McChrystal wants...

The House Judiciary Committee Wednesday voted 20-9 to remove federal antitrust exemptions the health insurance industry has enjoyed since the 1940s. Majority leader Harry Reid said a companion bill will be voted on soon in the Senate. Finally the Democrats in Congress have showed some spunk. If the final bill is signed by President Barack Obama, the nation’s insurers would be liable for certain antitrust violations including price fixing. In the Beltway, the proposed legislation is considered...

The White House must end its fight with Fox News now. Enough already. David Gergen, White House advisor to three former presidents, said it is “risky strategy.” I agree and add it’s stupid and unproductive. While Fox commentators may have succeeded in tweaking President Obama’s massive ego, retaliation from the Oval Office violates a very simple rule: You can’t win a fight when cable news television is on the air 24/7, radio talk show commentators three hours a day five...

For critics claiming we cannot afford health care reform for our own people in which 45,000 uninsured die annually — a report I admit may be high — consider these apples. It costs about $400 a gallon to deliver fuel to our troops in Afghanistan. The Pentagon reports it costs about $1 billion for ever 1,000 troops in that land-locked nation which has an infrastructure worse than the poorest barrio in Tia Juana, Mexico. The military is asking for an appropriation of $1.3 billion this year...

I am a native Southern Californian, love baseball, played it as a youth and because my hometown San Diego Padres suck, don’t follow it that much on television until the playoffs. Watching Friday night’s game in New York with the Yankees playing the Angels I may have caught a case of pneumonia in my own home 3,000 away from home plate. Believe me, it was a lot warmer at Yankee Stadium than Coors Field in Denver when the Rockies played the Philadelphia Phillies last week and the World Series...

The mere mention of the Westboro Baptist Church in any form of the media is a victory for the gay-bashing anti-Semite demented hate mongers. I’m sorry but I will risk being struck by a bolt of lightning by saying the group will be protesting at a number of San Diego area churches Saturday night. Here’s a blurb from their website: Since 1955, Westboro Baptist Church (WBC) has taken forth the precious from the vile, and so is as the mouth of God (Jer. 15:19). In 1991, WBC took her ministry...

Biting the hand that feeds me, I think it is a bad idea that President Barack Obama is urging Congress to kick in an extra one-lump $250 to each of the 57 million seniors, veterans and people with disabilities because they will not receive cost-of-living increases in 2010 from Social Security benefits. It’s not that I prefer to go without. If Congress goes along with the president, and key leaders say they like the idea, I would prefer it be paid in 12 monthly $20.83 increments added to the...

It’s not official but early returns of talk radio conservative mega voice Rush Limbaugh’s bid to become part owner of the St. Louis Rams is all but dead before arrival. It seems the money earned by the mouth that roars is not good enough for one of the most exclusive clubs in America. “I’ve said many times before we’re all held to a high standard here, and I think divisive comments are not what the NFL is all about,” Commissioner Roger Goodell said at a National...