Rasta Rants

Tragic Shootings in Connecticut Every time I see a school shooting my heart bleeds but none more so than Friday. For someone to kill 6 year olds is a different kind of deranged and evil. We will never understand the mind of such a person but can only be thankful that he took his own life so we did not have to struggle through the legal and mental health system to get justice. My heart bleeds for the surviving families and for the community that has been forever scared by this tragedy. The only solice that we can derive is that these wonderful children and heroic school staff will be with God forever. I am pleased at the Presidents response and it was comforting to see him actually get choked up during the press conference as some thought he had no heart. I am not sure what he meant when he said that we as a nation are going to have to take some action to prevent this, regardless of politics. I suspect that this is his desire for some form of draconian gun control. Let me g

One of the joys (perhaps curses) of being semi retired is that I can watch a Presidential news Conference in the middle of the day. (why don't they do these at 6 pm so working folks can actually see their President in action?) So today I decided that since this was his first news conference in eight months I would tune in. He made a surprisingly brief opening statement reiterating that the Fiscal Cliff is upon us and we can solve it as long as Congress does it his way. Then he started taking questions from the press. I want to learn more so I listened carefully. A lot of questions were around Benghazi and the Petraus scandal. Sadly it is apparent we will never know the truth on either so we probably should just drop it. The President says there is a an investigation of Benghazi and we will find the killers and bring them to justice. He diverted all specific questions about his role in trying to save the four American on 9/11 and why they did not have adequate protection. Short

The election is over and the Democrats won. Now we have to contend with many changes and a lot more taxes in the next four years (see my Post Election Thoughts). As I watched (as much as I could) the campaigning I was struck by the new and very arbitrary definition of rich in America. Someone has decided that a family making over $250K is rich. When I think of rich I think of fancy mansions, exotic cars, lavish clothing, servants, rapper gold teeth (grilles), expensive pets and first class travel. What do you think of as rich? Well I decided to explore this a bit more so we could actually see what this new definition means. Let say up front I think that a family making $250K certainly has a comfortable life and compared to the millions of Americans in poverty they are rich but so are folks making $60K. This debate is about the arbitrary way this definition was set and how unrealistic it is. It is also about defining these folks in a manner that is unfair and ridiculous. Finally

Well the big election is over. I have been sick with the flu so delayed in my comments. Obama will be our President for another four years and the House and Senate are still divided. In short nothing has changed – or has it? Clearly Obama has learned nothing from the election and shows no signs of changing anything. And truthfully why should he? He is a lame duck President and has a specific agenda he wants to accomplish and he will. Nothing anyone did or said in the first term deterred him in anyway so why should he change now? He won by a big margin; the women and Latinos love him and who cares if he drives the economy down. After all the only people bitching in the US are the darn rich Republicans. Has Congress learned anything from the election? I doubt it. The Senate will shoot down everything that comes from the House and the only things they will try to shove through the House will be entitlements and increased taxes on the “rich”. I don’t see any miraculous bipartisani

Well it is the day before the big election and what do we know? We know that the race is too close to call; that each side is claiming victory will be theirs; that both are still campaigning hard; that there is a big push to get folks to vote and that this election means a great deal to the future of America. When I look at the election a few things spring to mind: This election is not just about the President. It is about over 200 House and Senate seats; it is about many referendums in many states and it is about the future of America. It is about failure and how we fix our economy It is about our kids and grandchildren It is about the global economy and how we compete It is about peace and how we keep and encourage it worldwide It is about our morals and families We have seen a partisan divide the likes of which i cant ever remember. We are a polarized nation with a blurred vision and weak morals. We seem lost and our American pride is not what it should be or has been. We

California -Gas Prices & More I live in California and I recognize that complaining about anything out here will probably fall on deaf ears. Folks in the rest of the country tend to think Californians are all fruits and nuts or the weather is so good we should shut up and take whatever is thrown at us. To some degree I understand that perspective but I want to opine on California, its gas prices and more as it might give some insight into what the rest of the nation may face soon. As all of you have seen California gas prices have spiked enormously in the last two weeks. The excuse is that we had two big refineries go off line and thus supply was cut causing prices to jump. In many metro areas we are seeing prices between $5 and $6 a gallon . The highest recorded last week was $6.65 a gallon. This is serious inflation and is hitting our businesses and citizens hard. The average is supposedly $4.67 but you would be hard pressed to find that in most areas. Compare this

Well I hate to ever say I told you so but I said in my Debate blog a few days ago Biden would come out on the offensive. Biden was on his game last night and clearly won in a few areas. He had a strong mastery of the facts and Ryan did not challenge them enough. He clearly dominated the time and won most points. And surprisingly he he won is addressing the American people. I know this was Paul Ryan's first debate and he was nervous. It also appeared he was thrown by the attack of Biden and decided to respond by trying to act "Vice presidential" and not lower himself to Joe's status. This was a mistake and it cost him. Much has been made about Joe Biden's demeanor and smirking by the Republicans but it appears the American people were not put off by his behavior and in most cases they seemed to like it. In a debate it is okay to show some emotion and while I think Biden went over board I don't think Ryan showed enough. I agree that Biden's fake smile

Immigration Policy We all know that we live in a global environment and marketplace. However, we still must compete for nearly everything. If we assume that we will not return to the days of conquering and pillaging then we must have a foreign policy that conveys our values, limits and desires. It is only fair that our allies and enemies both understand clearly what our policy boundaries are and why. If everyone knows the rules then there is a greater chance that we will get high levels of compliance and cooperation. We must lead from a position of strength and pride. We must start with our Immigration Policy. Today, it seems we have no concrete immigration policy. We are fighting internally about it and states are trying to address their problems because the feds won’t. We can’t display this front to the rest of the world or we will never be taken seriously and we will definitely be taken advantage of. Knee jerk Executive orders by the President to garner political gain are