Charlie Rangel is a charming, engaging fellow. The kind of man you would enjoy having a beer. Most of the journalists who deal with him in Congress like him because he is forthright even when spinning a topic in his favor. A Korean war hero, Rangel’s Harlem voters have elected him to 20 terms, vaunting him to a position of power and by seniority his Democratic comrades have selected him as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee, the second most powerful job in the House of Representatives....

After being bombarded with spin, stonewalling and lies, it doesn’t take long for a journalist to become a cynic. Skepticism grows along with a thick skin and a demeanor where one needs to ask the tough questions. Damn the torpedoes, full speed ahead. If not the journalist, then whom? In my column yesterday questioning the merit of President Barack Obama winning the Nobel Peace Prize after only nine months in office, I wrote that neither Obama nor the White House staff knew he had been nominated,...

President Barack Obama being awarded the 2009 Nobel Peace Prize is akin to me winning a Pulitizer Prize in journalism. Neither one of us accomplished enough to earn it. The world’s most prestigious award is diminished to the level of an Academy Award nominee finishing fifth. Hey, Obama talks the talk but has failed so far to walk the walk. The Saturday Night Live spoof that he has accomplished nothing is closer to reality. It pains me to say that because I have been a faithful advocate and...

Excuse me, but I have some reservations and a bunch of questions about the various healthcare reform bills both houses of Congress could vote on as early as this month. The biggest concern I have is why we taxpayers are subsidizing the private carriers to insure us. The bills are aimed at guaranteeing growing private insurance profits without regard to improving our health. Oh, there are a few caveats thrown in to eliminate companies from dumping us because of pre-exiting conditions and a bunch of...

Shame on the established America media for giving so much air time to convicted former Congressman James Traficant who offers nothing but a populous sound bite and venom to his former colleagues. Since his release from prison last month, Traficant has spent much of his time on the air waves pleading his innocence to a racketeering conviction and vendetta against the Justice Department and the Jewish lobby. He spent seven years in the slammer, much he said in isolation. In the interviews he has threatened...

Where have you heard this before: “We believe that the decision to perform a medical or surgical procedure should be made by the ____ in consultation with their ____.” If you filled in the blanks with “patient” and “physician,” you were wrong. The correct answer is your cat and veterinarian. In California, it seems the health care debate has spread to cats. Specifically, the declawing of cats, a procedure technically known as onychectomy or flexor tendonectomy....

It must be a bittersweet experience for my mother-in-law and hundreds of cannery workers being honored today for their contributions to a city’s industry that was snuffed a generation ago. The San Diego Unified Port District spent a half-million dollars to erect a bronze sculpture and commemorate the site honoring tuna and albacore fishing and cannery workers at the waterfront. The story in the San Diego Union-Tribune featured Eloise Osuna, my mother-in-law, as a primary spokesperson for the...

The building of a prisoner of war camp at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba was as big a screw-up by the Bush administration as is attempts by the Obama administration to close it. Neither administration understood the long-range problems inherent in the system that was created. That’s the analysis we observe in stories today reported in three major newspapers. Retiring Marine Major Gen. Michael Lehnert was the commander of Joint Task Force 160 which built Camp X-Ray in 2002. He was given little guidance...

Headline writers for newspapers and the larger Internet websites have the power to sell, taint, cajole, tease and distort the writer’s works in order to lure the reader to take the bait. I took the bait, hook, line and sinker this morning from the following headline on MSNBC’s web page: WHY OBAMA WISHES HE WERE KING Or at the very least, he wishes he were Mel Brooks The article was written by Bill Pascoe, a guest columnist for CQ Politics. I enjoyed the story. A good read. It explained...

To the dismay of our military leaders, President Barack Obama is pulling a Brett Favre in deciding to send more troops to Afghanistan. While weighing a change in strategy by the president , Gen. Stanley A. McChrystal warns that unless he is provided more forces and a robust counterinsurgency strategy, the war in Afghanistan is most likely lost. Today I am filing a comprehensive report on the Afghan divide based on articles in The New York Times and Washington Post. Nothing in these reports convinces...

Frankly, my dear, I didn’t give a damn about ACORN’s community organizing for the impoverished until I saw the videos on You Tube obtained by a self-described nerd who is more of an icon-shattering crusader than staunch conservative as some would have us believe. That caught me attention. In case you missed it the edited snippets show low-level ACORN representatives telling the filmmakers how to obtain a loan to finance a house of prostitution featuring teenage girls from Third World...

Congratulations to Americans Against Food Taxes for producing a political issues ad that is accurate. The group opposes a one-cent per-ounce tax on sugary soft drinks that Congress is eyeballing to generate more revenue. The ads claim the regressive tax would hit those who least can afford it the most. On the flip side, sugar tax advocates say the products they are targeting pose a significant contributor to juvenile diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity and could generate $15 billion in the...

There comes a time in history when an adult enters the fray of uncivil discourse, shakes America by her broad shoulders, and admonishes everyone that enough is enough. I’m uncertain whether former President Jimmy Carter is that heroic adult. Carter in an interview Tuesday and later in an address to his own forum said Rep. Joe Wilson’s “You lie” outburst to President Barack Obama during a speech to Congress last week was an act “based on racism” and rooted in fears...

I want to take a breather for a couple of minutes from bashing Joe Wilson and other stupid Republican claims about our health care legislation and discuss a condition that has bothered me the past several months. For no apparent reason my brain insists I sleep 10 to 12 hours a day. Anything short of that, I feel like I’m hungover but I don’t drink booze. Furthermore, less than that amount of sleep tends to contribute to stupid mistakes in my blog writings which I greet with self-deprecating...

In an attempt to regain control of the health care debate if not his presidency, President Barack Obama crafted a speech a fifth grader could grasp and Congress could follow allowing all Americans to receive affordable medical services. What struck me was all the goals and specifics outlined by the president seem reasonable enough for Congress to adopt with all sides of the equation giving up some of their hallowed turf. That’s what sausage-making legislation is all about. I think if Obama...

I’m not gloating but two New York Times columnists agree with my assessment that U.S. military presence in Afghanistan is untenable although neither go as far as my desire to pull out all our troops. Normally, opinions by New York Times columnists are not those that sway the powers in Washington. But in the case of Afghanistan the White House and Pentagon should be taking notes. One columnist is Thomas L. Friedman, arguably the most authoritative voice in the main stream media on Middle Eastern...

I have a story to tell that relates to the brewing controversy over President Obama’s speech to the nation’s school children next Tuesday. It was during the war years of 1943-45. Our grade school teachers made it a contest. Who could raise the most money for Infantile Paralysis. The money was for research to cure the disease that crippled President Franklin Roosevelt in the prime of his life. The campaign was based on the slogan “March For Dimes.” My parents nor the parents...

President Obama this weekend at Camp David is studying a classified report submitted by Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the U.S. and NATO commander in Afghanistan, that some say could be a game changer by putting a larger emphasis on “protecting the Afghan people.” You can bet he will not take my advise and that of a growing number of both liberals and conservatives that the U.S. should pull its forces from that country which has booted out every invader in recorded history. From the U.S. perspective,...

For the first time in my life, professional pollsters tracked me down and actually asked my opinion on what they considered vital questions on the state of the union. Naturally, I was flattered. But the conversation went downhill in a hurry. It was a legitimate poll conducted by Pew Research Center of Princeton, New Jersey, and I suspect the woman conducting the poll was a college student. I am also guessing the pollster who called last Friday was bored to death and eager to go party based only on...

I was born and raised in Orange County, Calif., the hotbed of right-wing political conservatism. As a young reporter on The Tustin News I met and admired James. B. Utt, my congressman and probably the most conservative Republican to ever walk the halls of the House of Representatives. The closest clone to Utt in today’s Congress would be Ron Paul. But Utt was a flaming liberal compared to the ultra wing-nuts in Orange County where the John Birch Society flourished and the House Un-American...

As the nation pays its final respect for the life and times of Sen. Edward Kennedy it has become clear to me we will never again see a politician of his stature grace the halls of Congress. That is sad. What struck me was the litany of friends and foes alike who all agreed on one basic principle: Ted Kennedy was a man of his word. He was passionate in his beliefs even though many disagreed. He was an engaging politician with that booming voice and Irish wit who could charm the pants off his fiercest...

Remember those kid sandlot games we played where the oak tree was the goal line on one side of the field and the public restroom the goal line on the other. The sidelines were marked by Fatso’s dad’s Chevy on one side and Jimmy’s mom’s lawn chair on the other. Any disputes over the mock gridiron’s imaginary chalk lines were settled with a do over. Folks, welcome to the National Football League, the most popular sports league in the country, home of the sparkling, new...

Believe mewhen I tell you I am writing a column about a review by Jessica Bennett of Newsweek about psychologist Robert Feldman, the author of a new book, The Liar in Your Life, the inspiration for a new film, The Invention of Lying, as well as a Fox TV series Lie To Me. We are a nation of liars, Feldman is quoted. Writes Bennett: Time and time again, public-opinion polls show that honesty is among the top five characteristics we want in a leader, friend, or lover; the world is full of woeful stories...

Professional journalists in America, those who record the first chapter in the books of history, are challenged writing obituaries of our fallen leaders when the person’s life is filled with complexities, contradictions and accomplishments such as that of Sen. Edward M. Kennedy. Citizen journalists, those who write blogs, are not constrained by such niceties. They call it as they see it. They come straight to the point. The guy was flawed. The guy was a hero. Etc. A classic example is The Moderate...

As I write this, Chula Vista, Calif., is about to play San Antonio in a preliminary round of undefeated teams in the Little League World Series in South Williamsport, Penn. The Chula Vista all-star team is the equivalent of the 1927 Yankees. They slugged 46 home runs in their last eight games and shutout their first two World Series opponents 29-0. Sally Jenkins, the renowned sports columnist for The Washington Post, is not impressed. While she admires the talent of the Park View team from Southern...