10 things I would do if i were president: #10-Making Lobbying illegal in the nation's capital

Some would call me crazy for even suggesting this, but let's face the facts: today, far too much of our policy and law making comes from lobbyist's who represent large corporations and special interests groups trying to force through and/or write specific legislation which benefits who they represent and only who they represent. That's right, if you didn't know it now you do: Lobbyist's, PAC's and special interests groups can write and propose legislation. In reality everyone has the power and ability to write and propose legislation at any level of government, that Lobbyist's have the access to our elected Federal officials and the abuse to which they use their influence in the 21st century makes my blood boil. Most often, the sluggish and poor performance of our elected Federal Senate and House of Representative members is a result of the influence of Lobbyists. They clog the works by hounding these elected officials through implied threats (of turning the electorate against them) or implied monetary donations to party and personal campaigns (often called "soft" money). It wasn't that long ago that a cap was put on these so called soft donations in a small effort to curb the influence of Lobbyist's on Congress, but, based on their performance and laws they have passed in recent years, this effort has failed miserably. Although the U.S. Constitution makes no specific mention of Lobbyists, the right to Lobby was tried in the early 19th century in the Supreme court and found to be Constitutionally legal under the wording of the 1st Amendment to what we know of as the Bill of Rights. Legal or not, Lobbyists are a major problem that average everyday citizens of the U.S.A. have to deal with every time Congress attempts to pass legislation. Their influence (and interference) is so entrenched that newly elected official to our Federal branches of government are actually introduced on a first name basis to the most well known of these lobbyists when they reach Washington D.C...I don't deny for one minute that Lobbying has a place in our political system, my problem with Lobbying is that it is conducted in Washington D.C. If you have ever read the Federalist or Anti Federalist papers, then you may recall that the intention of our Founding Fathers was that Lobbying would be a tool utilized by businesses and private citizens to inform Congress as to how the electorate at large feels regarding any given bill being considered in Washington D.C. Of course, Lobbying today is nowhere near what our Founding Fathers imagined it to be, and now it is such a problem that it is (based on my own independent research) the single biggest reason why people in our country feel "disconnected" from the people which they elect to represent them in Washington D.C. But you can't make it illegal right? No, you can't, and that is not exactly what I would do. I would propose legislation which prohibits Lobbying in the nation's capital-even it it went so far as to to require amending the U.S. Constitution. I have no problem with Lobbying and Lobbyist's at the local and state level because that is where they belong and that is where their abilities would best serve the general populace-not in Washington D.C. where, instead of informing, they influence and clog up the political "machine" to the point that our Federal Government becomes ineffective when it needs to run like a finely tuned machine during times of crisis...Is this a drastic or unrealistic goal if I were president? Probably, but it would not be something I would campaign on, it would simply be an idea I would try to spread through our capital and the nation as a whole, in an effort to reign in the ridiculous influence which these select few people hold over our Congressional representatives.

Superbowl XLIII and its commercials

Ah well, you win some and you lose some...If you've read my blog recently you know that I picked Arizona to win. Well, everyone knows by now that they didn't but they sure seemed to have had it won there late in the game-until the Steelers got lucky (just my totally biased opinion)...Despite the disappointing outcome for myself and the Cardinals it was still one of the better Superbowls of this decade, which is saying something considering we've had several outstanding Superbowls this decade. What stood out most to me however, were the commercials. In textspeak-ROFLMFAO!!! Many spots were way too funny-particularly the Bridgestone, Monster.com and Doritos spots and I can't wait to see them more often on the boob tube...But, alas, all good things must come to an end, and so the Superbowl closed another entertaining season of the NFL and us Football fans are forced to spend a little bit of quality time with the women in our lives while we wait for the NBA and NHL playoffs to start to break up the boredom of having no good sporting events to watch (we all know neither league is much worth watching until then anyways)...Till then, enjoy my occasional sports blogs and my political and social rants.

Another big effing bailout...

This just keeps getting better (shitty) and better (shittier) all the time...My blood boils every time I hear or see a story on the way in which our elected officials in Washington D.C. are choosing to handle the current economic "crisis" which they, in large part, help create and perpetuate!!! It amazes me that anyone could have voted for an incumbent this past election, and I hope that every one who did vote for an incumbent is feeling "shitty" right now...Anyways, we've already allowed Congress to give away nearly a Trillion of our dollars to a bunch of banks and other corps without any effing accountability! and now, they want to do it again!!!! Are you kidding me?!! Come on people wake the hell up. This is ridiculous, we are allowing our elected officials to blow our money out the proverbial window! Fortunately for all of you who voted for this mess of crooked, greedy, conniving and conspiring liberal loons the repubs (most of whom aren't much better) look as if they aren't going to let this 2nd "bailout" go through without some deep accountability. I mean, hell, I don't know about you, but have plenty of trillion dollar checks to toss around don't you? Who cares what you do the money, just take it and enjoy!...Dirty effing sobs...If there are more than 10 decent members of Congress I'll eat my hat...Compounding the fact that these morons have no clue how or even if the first $700 Billion got spent, they are choosing the absolutely worst effing way to fix what is broken. Every economist and person with a brain whose only 2 cells arent fighting can read back in history and learn that the best way to work an economy out of recession is through tax cuts on businesses and capital gains taxes. Historically this works and its success is easy to prove why. Even though I believe I have better ideas than even these proven tax cuts, at least this sort of move would provide long term, reliable and stable growth leading to a steady raise out of the recession...No. Instead we have a bunch of left wing ideologues who really do believe we are made of money and have no problem proving it!...I digress...I'll leave with this: I'm scared, and not ashamed to admit it. The economy right now is bad. Printing money in an effort to save it only makes it worse-much worse, just ask or listen to any economist. Anyways, if there was ever anything 'big' to worry about, nobody would blame you if this was your first time to start worrying about 'the big one'. At the very least, as Americans, \ we all need to pay close attention, keep our fingers crossed and keep moving forward.

10 things I would do if I were president

Ok, so it may be way egotistical of me to think that I could ever be president, and therefore a total waste of time to even have such a list, but I do. It came about over the years in those fun conversations you have at bars or with friends over a few beers and since I am now in the world of blogging I figured now is a good time to post my list-in brief (I actually meant to post this before Obama was inaugurated). In the futue I will go into detail on each of them.
1. Repealing the 16th amendment to the constitution and instilling the Fair Tax as our new tax system (If you don't know much about the Fair tax I strongly encourage you to go to fairtax.org). 2. Fixing the public school system (I have a lot of ways that I would do this). 3. Implementation of the ATN (this is something of my own creation that I am seriously trying to draw attention too as it has the ability to permanently stabilize our country both culturally and economically). 4. A 100% committment to alternative energy usage and ending our dependance on foreign oil. 5. Ending the war on drugs. 6. Modernizing our Military. 7. Isolationist Foriegn policy for 25 years. 8. Petitioning the U.N. to recognize the region known as the West Bank an official "global holy land". 9. English as the official language. 10. Making Lobbying illegal in the nations capital.

08-09 Lions: The season of defeats leads to the most interesting team in football

...It's hard to admit to being a Lions fan down here in Naples, Florida-especially with so many freaking Steelers fans around here. But I can admit to it at least-it is the first step after all...Now that the Lions have completed the greatest most pathetic season in the history of the NFL they have become down right interesting and I, for one, will be watching them closely the entire off season. Why, you ask? Do I have several screws loose? Are both of my brain cells still fighting? Sorry to disappoint, but everything is fine with my head (except the permanent 9 inch scar on it lol), no the Lions are interesting by virtue of the facts. At the end of the year, Tom Lewand and Martin Mayhew get moved to President and General Manager of the team, respectively. First order of business-firing head coach Rod Marinelli and most of his staff. With that done basically immediately (to no ones surprise) they then hire Jim Schwartz as head coach-the Tennessee Titans defensive coordinator, who in turn has hired Gunther Cunningham as his Defensive Coordinator and Scott Lineham as Offensive Coordinator...Now, I loved the hire of Scwartz (then again I liked Marenilli's hire 4 yrs ago too), the coordinator's he has chosen I am split on. Cunningham as more than 3 decades of experience at all levels of football and has a proven track record of improving team defenses that he comes too. Lineham has a similar, though briefer, track record of success, but has close ties to Dante "wide in the arse" Culpepper-who the Lions signed out of retirement last year in a desperation move hoping to win at least one game. That move backfired as Dante ended up hurt for the final 3 games of the season and didn't exactly look 'sharp' in the 4 or 5 games he actually started (still scratching my head as to how that worked). I don't like this past between Lineham and Culpepper, I'm afraid that he will start Culpepper next season and allow Orlovsky (who played pretty good in relief of Dante) slip away in free agency. Don't get me wrong, Orlovsky is not the Lions' answer at QB, but at least allowing him to play doesnt hold the team back any further than it already is. Culpepper is, for all intents and purposes, washed up. At 32 he is out of shape and out of football mind, and it was way too obvious last year. True, he was basically thrown to the wolves on the worst team in football, but he obviously didn't truely care to stay in shape for a come back. The guys ass would have made Oprah's look small during one of her eating binges and because of it he was slow, sloppy, and awkward on the field. So unless he sheds 30 pounds of ass and hips, I'd rather see Orlovsky or even Stanton start. But what about their #1 overall pick you may ask? The Lions would be effing stupid to use that pick on a QB. If they pick a QB with that pick I will NEVER care about the Lions again (thats right I said it and it's in print now). This is where the Lions become REAL interesting this offseason-their draft picks. As of now, they have 5 of the 1st 83 picks of the draft and they need every single one of them. IF the Lions are stupid enough to draft a QB (Stafford or Sanchez) it would do nothing but set the organization back another 6 years just like Harrington being drafted did. What the Lions need-as will ALL the great teams-is an O-Line that can keep their QB up right and not fearing for their life every play. No one needs to look any farther than the likes of Trent Dilfer and Brad Johnson-2 very average QB's who have rings because they had outstanding Offensive Lines. Therefore, if the Lions' new coaches intend to stick to their mantra of "building from the inside out" they will draft one of the 3 top Offensive Lineman with that first overall pick. Our only hope is that the idiot owner doesn't scream, bitch, cry and whine about having to pay an Offensive Lineman 5 mill a year because those positions arent "flashy" enough to be worth that kind of cash (what an moron)...I digress...If you've read this far you can tell I obviously think the Lions are interesting right now so I won't bore you with going through any more of their drafts picks (they better take defense with the next 2 picks though lol).

The Superbowl

Ahhhhh...Yes....The SUUUUUPERBOWWWWL!!!! (As a couple of bartenders I know would say)...Needless to say, my prediction of Pittsburgh vs. Carolina got all shot to hell thanks to the Arizona Cardinals, who busted my bracket twice before I finally did pick them in the NFC Championship game (yes, I picked them in that game, even though I know no one will believe me)...I'm actually surprised that the "pundits" are being as fair to Arizona as they have been. I mean, it's Arizona. Until this year, they had the same basic history as my pathetic Lions did when it came to being in Superbowl-keep dreaming and hoping. But, here they are, in Superbowl 43 facing a veteran Steelers squad that wants their 2nd ring in 4 years...My pick...(drum roll please)...Arizona, 31-30. I know the Steeler defense is good, but Arizona's O'Line picked the perfect time to gel for old man Warner and there isn't a defense in the league that can cover the Cardinal recievers. One of those guys is going to be open and my bet for Superbowl MVP will be Anquon Boldin (assuming Arizona wins that is)...BUT, the most important thing to take out of Superbowl 43 has nothing to do w/either team that is in the game itself, it's for the new GM and President of the Detroit Lions: If they can do it, so can we-after all, until this year Arizona and Detroit were 2 of the 4 teams in the league who HADNT at least appeared in a Superbowl yet.

President Obama

Unlike the TV and radio talk shows I've intentially stayed quiet about our new president so that I can sit back, watch, and see if he can bring about the "change" that everybody who voted for him so wanted. After 10 days in office it's clear that O'bama is about change, but the changes I've seen out of him aren't the ones I believe those who voted for him had in mind...Despite not voting for the man myself, I was more than willing to give the guy a chance and see what he can do-the guy does have the hardest job on the planet now, after all, and I felt he deserved some peace from the likes of people like myself. Well, after just 10 days the gloves are off-as far as I'm concerned-and now it's time to speak my mind: if this is the sort of "change" Obama meant when we was elected, we need a do-over. At first, I was liking some of O'bama's appointments to his Cabinet. Then his inauguration came up and I was totally turned off to the man because the media treated the event like it was the freaking Oscar's and O'bama was the man who won that gay ass little trophy in every category. The bowing and foot kissing of O'bama by the national media for those few days was enough to make me physically ill and made me embarassed to be a member of the media myself. Needless to say, all this nonsense hoopla surrounding Obama's inauguration (i.e. "what was Michelle wearing"; "don't his girls look cute" and "school they will attend"; "Obama and his blackberry"...) was a bad omen as far as I was concerned. But then the man himself set about to his task-and a formidable one it is given the current state of our country on all fronts. Here I had to give him a little bit of credit because he sure as hell wasted no time getting to work. The only problem is that he jumped into a shallow pond head first with his hands and feet bound together! Executive order after executive order flowed from his office in those first few days-most of which involved the closing of gitmo-and now the pressure is on to push an "economic stimulus" package through the-now-democratically controlled congress. In the midst of all of this work, Obama did something that has set the tone for his presidency. In a nutshell it was scary; and, just like the cool aid drinkers and ass kissers they are, it is something that EVERY news outlet in the country glossed right over as nothing more than a presidencial quirk: Obama, in all of his vast intelligence and in the middle of the worst economic crisis since the great depression, decided that his first television interview as President would be conducted with an Arab cable news network...Are you freaking kidding me?!!!! Is Obama that fucking stupid? I mean, please, he would have gotten better favor from people like me if he had just turned around and flipped off the entire country. Doing that interview, as his first as president, for that news network, when things are as bad as they are here, is borderline treasonous in my opinion. YES, Obama should have conducted that interview, but not freaking now!...But it get's better my friends. Obama did something early this week that raised my eyebrows even further into my ever receding hairline: Obama pushed for the release of a (supposedly) high ranking Al Queda prisoner in gitmo. Fortunately, his attempt was blocked by a federal judge. I don't know any more specifics on this 'little' story that those already stated, but if you don't find it odd that O'bama, just 10 days into his presidency, is smooching up to the middle eastern world more so than his own country, then you arent a true American. Personally, not only am I pissed and hateful toward the man now, but I'm down right scared at the direction he is going to take this country over the next 4 years...To me, his actions so far have basically said that he is more an Muslim sympathizer than a "red blooded American male" and his economic "stimulus" plan looks as if it will do no better for our economy than viagra would for a dead man. In fact, based on what I've seen in the stimulus's package current form, we can expect the U.S. economy to collapse completely within the next 5 years care of the massive debt this plan places on us tax payers shoulders...Alas, I digress...If I get any more worked up over it, I won't live long enough to see Obama's true colors come out: those of the middle eastern world, and I definitely don't want to miss that! When it happens we may institute public hangings again!

Why the Lions are going 0'fer-yeah baby!!

In a little over an hour that NFL team fielded by the pathetic ownership of the Ford's gets ready to make the worst history a team can have-not winning a regular season game...I know the players are embarrassed and in no way do they want to go 0-16, but they haven't even played well in 3/4 of their games. Every veteran on this team as given up and is simply collecting a pay check at this point. To be honest, I don't really blame them because they knew they had an owner who didn't care about wins and losses...When Millen got fired, the real problem with this team became blatant: that the Ford ownership is responsible for this mess. Millen's first draft was the only one he ever really had complete control of and he drafted 3 lineman with his first 3 picks. Unfortunately-at least in the here and now-they are OL's Backus and Raola and the often dominate-but now in Cleveland-Shaun Rogers. In sum, Millen knew how to build a Superbowl contending team-you start with your interior line play. It's no co-incidence that after Ford saw how much money he dished out on those 3 players-but got little 'bang' for his buck-that things changed..."Never mind the win loss column, let's try and puts butts in the seats!"... Obviously, the drafting stratedgy took a took a major u-turn and "Millen's" next 4 drafts featured 5 draft pics, all at 'flashy' (i.e. mustangs???) positions on the field-2 of them no longer play in the NFL, and 2 others are on their way out...And here we are, the Lions are on the verge of going to the NFL hall of fame in the worst way and everything is stacked against them winning. True, Green Bay has jack to play for, but the Lions haven't won in Green Bay in 16 years...Soooooo-Go Lions!!...Ooops...Go Green Bay!!!

Obama's first scandal

The guy hasn't even officially took office yet and already he is in the center of one of the biggest scandals in U.S. history. Is anyone really surprised? Can't say that I am...Whether or not Obama's "people" had any contact with the soon to be imprisoned Blagoblahblah (I would have masacred the name anyways) is up for the U.S. Attorney General and a Grand Jury to decide, but it does put the spotlight on Obama's sudden rise through the political ranks and that he did so by coming up through one of the most politically corrupt states in the union...Let's be honest about it: there is something fishy about his meteoric rise throught the political ranks. Obama basically went from a local/community politician to the President of the USA in roughly 6 years. Don't get me wrong here, I'm not trying to spin some stupid conspiracy theory worthy of those dirt rags you find near the Grocery Store check outs, no, I'm just pointing out that there is nothing normal about the sudden rise of Barack Obama. Who else in our nations history has climbed so rapidly and become president? Who else has risen to be our president while having to wade through such a corrupt political environment? None that I know of. Oh sure, there have been plenty of corrupt politicians who have been president, but none whose only national political experience is a mere 2 years worth of being a Senator from Illinois....Anyways, I digress...Back to Blagoblahblah (briefly)...What a moron this guy has to be. Who in their right mind says the things this guy is caught on tape saying, given their position as govenor? This guy had the balls to call people out left and right with no care of the political fall out as he attempted to sell Obama's vacated Senatorial seat. It's almost surreal that a govenor of this country would do and say such things. Unfortunately its just another black eye on American politics, culture and society for the global community to point at and laugh-much like the dead possum for a hair do Blagoblahblah has on his head!!! Now THAT is priceless!

Why Santa Claus really exists

We've all grown up hearing about the fat man with the long white beard, wearing the red suit and giving out gifts and coal to good and bad little girls and boys the world over...But alas, we get older and learn that this jolly man, who, as children, we all cant wait for, is nothing more than a made up story to get us to behave as children...Personally, I've never stopped believing in Santa and I think he exists...Don't get me wront, I don't think a fat guy with a white beard, a fat suit and driving a sleigh pulled by 8 magical reindeer is breaking into homes all over the world on one day a year to give out gifts to people. What I do believe, however, is that you get what you have earned-which is what the story of Santa Claus is all about. Everyone remembers the story: if you are good in school, do your chores and do as your parents ask, you will be rewarded. This philosophy, in many ways, applies to real life: if you work hard, obey the law and dont live foolishly (including how you spend your money) then you will have the ability to get whatever you want. This isn't a mind blowing realization for most people, I'm sure, but how many of us forget this all important way in which we should lives our lives? Most, I would say, and forgetting about it starts-and ends-with the myth of Santa Claus. Why? Well that's simple. We are told this story in an effort to make us "behave" as children, but then, as we get older, we are told that Santa doesnt really exist and it was all "made up" so that we wouldn't be the little tyrants and vagrants most of us are as young kids. Destroying this myth while we are still young is what (I believe) starts us all on the paths of forgetting what it means to earn what we want. By destroying this myth at a young age, it teaches us that how we really act doesnt really matter because, for at least once a year you get whatever you want-whether you have earned it or not. It's sad-and pathetic-really that we should toss away so important a lesson so early in our lives. In doing so we start ourselves on the self destructive financial paths so many of us end up on as we grow older...Well, I for one believe in Santa-and the important lesson his story tries to teach us...Of course, this doenst mean I can't still be "bad" if I want too .