Last night I got a chance to watch the documentary ‘Casino Jack and the United States of Money’ which was about the life of the criminal, former Lobbyist – Jack Abramoff and the massive GOP corruption scandal in which he was involved during the W. Bush Administration. This film is as good as it gets in terms of documentaries go – 4 star, 5 star… whatever, Alex Gibney, the director (who also made the documentary about Enron) nailed this and I can’t recommend this highly enough -  this is a Must – see. I’m not going to do a movie review (future blog), however I just want to touch on something that struck me last night: how is it possible for a wicked and evil person to be pious, and I mean religious beyond the average i.e. born – again Christian or Orthodox Jew. It doesn’t make sense…it seems incongruous.
If you see the film and listen to the commentary (I recommend it), Alex Gibney raised the point as well – look: Jack Abramoff –Orthodox Jew (comically converted after seeing ‘Fiddler On The Roof), Ralph Reed – born again Christian, Tom Delay, Michael Scanlon, Bob Ney, and the rest of the thugs are all religious zealots. Well, I couldn’t agree more with Mr. Gibney when he theorized that very often religious zealotry and devoted godliness, is in a sense a way of easing one’s conscience; what I’m doing can’t be wrong, God is on my side. I’m the good guy and though bribing people for tens of millions of dollars may seem wrong at face value, it’s a means to an end. They all have this incredible arrogance as though to think ” I’m SPECIAL, I’m not mediocre, I’m allowed to do these things because I’m one of the chosen ones.
I won’t elaborate too much on this and I certainly believe that most ordinary Christians and Jews are good people, WhaDaYaThink ?  how can you rationalize or compartmentalize  such immoral action and with such passion and ambition – not all of these people are pathologically sociopathic.
What do you think ?    

Legislating a ban on assault weapons is indeed going to be a tall order, so yes I am pleased with today’s news calling for strict background checks. If you “try and lie”, you go to jail – that makes sense. I know that a criminal will just go on the black market, buy it on the street, or steal his mother’s guns, but we can’t just “do nothing.” The status quo is just not acceptable – this is indeed a step in the right direction toward curbing gun violence, even if only one life is saved.  New York approved the bill by 43 to 18; this makes NY the first state to act in response to the Newtown massacre but what I don’t get is that there were actually 18 nays – what sane, logical human being is not interested in keeping firearms out of the hands of the mentally ill or people with a criminal history.

I suspect that the naysayers don’t like the piece of legislation which states that people can no longer purchase semi – automatic pistols and rifles with detachable magazines – you know, the weaponry used in the military. However, the folks who already own these guns are still allowed to keep them, they just have to now register the weapon with the state. Like I said – baby steps; am I completely happy with this new legislation?  – No, for example I wish the law compelled the state to force the individuals to not only register the assault weapon, but also ensure that each and every gun – owner undergo a quick 1 hour psychological evaluation. The message should be clear: we will no longer tolerate the ownership of assault weapons by people who are mentally unfit to carry such a weapon.

The next baby steps are to now promote loudly and clearly the aforementioned message, so that the other 49 states in the nation follow suit. If this in fact happens, I can guarantee that we will curb gun violence. Okay, everyone knows my position and I’ve certainly spilled enough ink over gun control, so no now it’s your turn – WhaDaYaThink ? What do you think? Do you like the new laws New York has just passed? I’m proud to say that I reside in a state that acted first

Written by Guest Blogger Le Duke de Fromage

I will admit for years I wavered between being a Democrat and a Republican. Discounting local elections where I just voted for the person, voting for the president was different.However for the past twenty years or so I have remained a staunch independent. Having just witnessed this past election my conviction to remain independent seems to confirm my choice to do so.I cannot get over the the bitterness and outright hatred that is generated by supporters of both parties. It isn’t that the candidates were very nasty, but supporters of both were actually frightening in their conduct.

Truthfully, politics to me is the most boring endeavor that humans partake in. I would no more get excited or involved than I would in a bullfight. While realizing that politics must exist I just have no interest in it at all. With all the corruption, greed, and hypocrisy involved why would I? Therefore it is all the more puzzling why humans get so upset over elections. This country seems to find a way to even out the most radical changes that any candidate or party can make, so why all the anger?If your party or candidate lost, correct the mistakes and do better next time.
I have always suspected that the minute a person assumes public office an immediate change takes place. They are no longer the person you once knew and actually liked. They are now a politician, a curse more obscene than any you could direct at family or friend.They continue to remain so until out of office, by then the distaste is too great as to reconcile. The one exception seems to be ex-presidents. ex. Clinton, The Bush’s, Carter.They are treated far better out of office than they ever were while serving.
During this past election, I received as a registered independent over 19 calls asking me to support Obama.I live in a highly Republican area and I guess Indies are a prime target.They offered me rides to the polls,posters, and an invitation to meet certain candidates.I even received three calls from Pres. Obama himself along with one from Michele Obama. Surprisingly I never got any calls from the Republicans which is probably why they lost.I have since read that certain independents were targeted by Democrats to see if there was any change in their voting selection as the campaign ran down. I didn’t count the call I got from Washington during the primary from Newt Gingrich.
I felt all along the Republicans ran a poor campaign, and had lost sight of the real issues and concentrated more on trying to vilify Obama.They also seemed to react poorly to change and refused to appeal to certain classes of voters.
After the election, I read a very illuminating comment made by a top staunch Republican, which states as follows.”This has got to stop–Trump, Mcconnell, Fox news. Sarah Palin, ultra conservatism and a fanatic desire to self destruct. We don’t seem to be able to gage the public and are unable to react”. This statement seemed to me a very precise analysis of the problems of today’s Republican party. Pres. Obama was ripe for defeat by a viable candidate, unfortunately for them the Republicans were not able to provide one.The Reagan era is gone and the Republican party has to revise itself once again and appeal to a nation that wants real leadership.

Written by guest blogger, Karl Larson

In the 1950′s, 1960′s and 1970′s was the beginning of the growth of technology that eventually created the mobile phone, computer, internet, and GPS, it was government funded university research; the military funded Military Air & space programs and NASA that originally fueled these industries. These technologies would have never been fueled by private enterprise most of the tough specifications required funding that might be considered too risky for private enterprise. These early stages of development and success created in industry and system of venture capital investments that snowballed the process fueling the exponential growth in the 1980′s 1990′s and early 2000s.

We are using everyday products that were created during this time that we only read about in Science fiction novels / movies and television shows. Who would have thought that more than 3 Billion people are connected everyday via the mobile phone or that 1/6 of the world’s population can communicate on an internet device daily via Facebook. These were all created by the process explained above not by just private enterprise but by government programs and private enterprise working together sometimes not even knowing it, but working together all the same.

We are currently stuck in neutral and need other program(s) like these to fuel the next innovation and growth boom. Private enterprise can not create this alone, we need to have programs that to some seem unprofitable to fund technologies that might seem way too risky for the private investor. Government programs can fuel economic growth as they did in the past. Private enterprise and small business alone can not drive economic prosperity in the USA. Private and public enterprises all demand a profit, and shareholders today wish to see that profit in months not years or decades. Government backed or generated programs are not in it for the profit, the programs should be designed to fuel new unproven technologies. Some will fail,but the successful ones will create new markets and business’s we have never even predicted.

Austerity and Cutting of spending will only lead to more economic uncertainty. Fighting with China for their low paying jobs is a losing proposition. Putting tariffs in place will not work. The Low paying jobs that went to China will not come back; we need to focus on what will work here now. Focusing on high tech alternative energy and technologies, New ideas fueled within the university system. Aerospace, Military and NAS programs. if we expand H1A Visa’s foreign students who get their degrees here in the USA will actually stay and work here innovating HERE not in China or India or Japan, Korea. It will be these students and our own kids who will create industries that we don’t even know about or can imagine yet. Making it easier to manufacture here with minimum restrictions and regulations and low Business taxes will make it more attractive to actually innovate here then keep the manufacturing here and not ship it to Contract Manufactures in south east Asia.

Whomever is the President in January needs to work with the congress and get this economy out of the mud and make this country a powerhouse of innovation and prosperity for all. That in my opinion is the most important issue. I have not heard from either candidate a solid action plan that will really create these opportunities. What happened to accountability? What happened to actually holding these guys to a standard of telling us exactly how they are going to get it done. Where is the plan? I have only seen fluff and meaningless vaporware.