Bowling for Cuyahoga?

#Obama & #BowlingGreen Take #Ohio - a feat #Romney could not accomplish - digitalsportsdesk.sportsdirectinc.com/football/ncaaf…
— DigitalSportsDesk (@DigSportsDesk) November 8, 2012

The Right to Vote and an explanation of the facts behind my own voting choices:

To start today's Election Day blog post, I'm going to quote the words of a good friend from here in the Commonwealth.

"The school of thought that because you are informed and pay attention to what is happening in the country and the world around you means that everyone who comes to a different conclusion is not ludicrous (nor) counterproductive. Go out and vote your heart tomorrow and then accept the results, move on and respect winners, the will of the majority and the choices they made. We all deserve that and nothing less."

USA! USA! USA!

With that thought in mind on this Election Day 2012, I urge all American citizens old enough to have the right to vote to get far beyond the media filter, do your own research to make your own decision(s).  I can't stand it when people take misguided and inaccurate statements from ill-informed media or ignorant fellow citizens who parrot inaccuracies. No generalities. Just FACTs. No lame drame, Just FACTS.

One such claim that I read and hear far too often, sometimes from erroneous political ads is --  "Oh, Obama hasn't done enough.  Even former Private Equity Investor Mitt Romney made this statement (his exact words):  "Almost everything he did hurt the economy." (That sir, is a false statement, an out-right lie and a conscious effort to mislead the voters).

Well, here is a (partial) list of some of the things accomplished - with my Top 10 and then a more "complete" partial list...

1. Recovery Act to begin to pull the economy together.

2. Auto Industry support - saved millions of jobs and turned the tide that would have very likely resulted in an all-out Depression.

3. American Opportunity and Pell Grants to help students and families fund college education.

4. Signed 18 tax cuts to help small businesses.

5. Healthcare Reform, an accomplishment no other President was able to do in 100+ years.

6. Healthcare act also stopped Insurance Co's from discrimination against some policy holders; helped insure and keep policies for those with prior/existing conditions. (17 million kids benefitted)

7. Overhaul of many Federal Govt regulations to save time, money, establish policy.

8. Investment in clean energy solutions.

9. Massive Wall St and Banking reform - to benefit the consumer not the Banks. (Championed by Senate Candidate Elizabeth Warren too)

10. Tremendous record as Commander in Chief, especially to support the Vets, serviceman and their families while taking key steps to eliminate Al Queda regime to bring 9/11 terrorists to justice.

***

So ... Strong International Policy (Foreign relations) - as he "began" to build back the USA rep to the world after what was absolutely LOST from 2000-2008 ... Equal Pay (Ledbetter Act),  Consumer protection policy for the very people/corps who "broke" the economy and he fought for the Rights for Women (Reproductive healthcare issues; and so many, many more.... Please see:

1. The first bill President Obama signed was the Lilly Ledbetter Fair Pay Act, to help women fight back when they don't get equal pay for equal work.
2. His Recovery Act supported millions of jobs and helped to stave off a second Great Depression.
3. He pushed for and won middle class tax cuts that benefited every American worker, and saved the typical family $3,600 in taxes over the last four years.
4. President Obama rescued the auto industry, and now GM and Chrysler are healthier than they've ever been. The American auto industry has added nearly a quarter of a million jobs since June 2009—and they most likely wouldn't exist right now without President Obama's leadership.
5. He doubled funding for Pell Grants, helping to make college more affordablefor nearly 10 million families.
6. His student loan reform ended billions in subsidies to banks serving as middlemen and reinvested those savings directly in students.
7. The President established the American Opportunity Tax Credit, worth up to $10,000 over four years of college.
8. His Race to the Top Initiative helped spur nearly every state to raise academic standards.
9. His tax cuts, social-welfare programs, and economic policies lifted nearly 7 million Americans above the federal poverty line in 2010.
10. President Obama has signed 18 tax cuts for small businesses since taking office.
11. We've seen 5.2 million new private sector jobs over the last 31 months.
12. The unemployment rate is at the lowest level since President Obama took office.
13. Health care reform—passed after decades of failed attempts by every previous president—provides affordable health coverage to every American and will lower premiums by an average of $2,000 per family by 2019.
14. Obamacare expanded access to lifesaving preventive care such as cancer screenings and immunizations with no out-of-pocket costs for 54 million Americans.
15. Obamacare ends insurance discrimination against the 129 million Americans with pre-existing conditions.
16. Because of Obamacare, over 3 million more young adults have health insurance today than would if the new law hadn't passed.
17. The parents of over 17 million children with pre-existing conditions no longer have to worry that their children will be denied coverage.
18. President Obama has ordered the overhaul of federal government regulationsto make them smarter, practical, and more efficient. Just a fraction of these common-sense initiatives will help save businesses $10 billion in the next five years alone.
19. His historic investments in clean energy have helped more than double the amount of electricity we obtain from wind and solar sources and helped increase biofuel production to its highest level in history.
20. President Obama is doubling fuel efficiency standards, which will save drivers more than $8,000 at the gas pump, not to mention lessen the impact of automobiles on our environment.
21. President Obama has taken unprecedented action to address climate change, reaching historic international agreements to curb carbon emissions, and taking action here at home to reduce carbon pollution from our vehicles and promote clean energy production.
22. He has taken historic action to protect our environment—signing one of the largest expansions of protected wilderness in a generation and putting in place standards to reduce toxic air pollution that will save thousands of lives.
23. President Obama fought for and won landmark Wall Street reform that reins in the abuses that led to the financial crisis and ends the era of taxpayer bailouts and "too big to fail."
24. Wall Street reform created the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, the nation's first federal agency focused solely on consumer financial protection—and the Bureau is already protecting families from unfair and abusive financial practices from Wall Street banks and shadowy corners of the financial industry.
25. As part of President Obama's commitment to transparency, the White House has posted its visitor records online for the first time ever.
26. President Obama's all-of-the-above approach to energy has helped cut the United States' dependence on foreign oil to its lowest level in 20 years.
27. President Obama responsibly ended the war in Iraq.
28. He announced a plan to end the war in Afghanistan and transition security responsibility to the Afghan people.
29. President Obama sent the largest security assistance package to Israel in history and funded the Iron Dome system, which is protecting Israeli homes and schools from rocket attacks.
30. President Obama rallied the international community to implement the toughest sanctions on Iran in history.
31. Through the President's historic increases in Veterans Affairs funding, he has expanded and improved healthcare and job training access for our returningveterans.
32. President Obama negotiated the New START Treaty with Russia to reduce the number of nuclear weapons in both countries. At the same time, he also secured commitments from dozens of other countries to lock down nuclear materials.
33. His administration naturalized 11,146 military servicemembers as U.S. citizensin 2010; more than in any year since 1955.
34. President Obama set a bold new plan for the future of NASA space exploration, using the skill and ability of the private sector for short trips to the International Space Station, while building a new vehicle for exploration of distant space, and doing everything in his power to support the economy on Florida's Space Coast.
35. President Obama recognizes that tourism is one of America's largesteconomic engines; he's worked to encourage international visitors to come here, maintaining our security while keeping millions of Americans in good, paying jobs.
36. He has affirmed his personal support of marriage equality, directed the Justice Department to stop defending DOMA in federal courts, and took the practical and compassionate step of extending hospital visitation rights to same-sex partners.
37. He fought for and won the repeal of "Don't Ask, Don't Tell", allowing gay and lesbian members of the military to serve openly for the first time in history.
38. When Congress failed to fix our broken immigration system, his administration did everything in its power to improve it, streamlining the legal immigration process and announcing a policy that lifts the shadow of deportation from hard working young immigrants brought to the U.S. as children.
39. Oh, and he gave the order to send troops in after Osama Bin Laden—and has decimated al Qaeda's senior leadership.

A GREAT TV spot ...

NBA and WNBA stars get the word out to register to vote. See their message:

Romney on FEMA: As Herm Edwards Would Say, "HELLO?"

Mitt? Since CNN's John King was probably reaching for a stun gun or maybe a pint of Scotch after your answer to this question and he failed to follow-up, I have to ask?

When a massive natural disaster, like Katrina or Sandy come along, are you saying the States should budget and pay for the clean-up, medical care or the injured, and the rebuilding projects that result from the damage? And, meanwhile, the rest of our country, including the Federal govt. is just going to stand back and watch its fellow American citizens suffer?  Won't your viewpoint result in State and local taxes soaring?

Take it further? I believe you said, "From the States to the private sector."

So instead of American Red Cross or FEMA coming to our aide, it would be a for-profit company ready to bill me or my local town to remove the 60-foot fir tree blocking the street?  Do I have that right, ole Mitt, me boy?

If I do, then just keep on campaigning and letting us all know how you feel, how you'll run the country and how your ignorant viewpoint will effect our lives, the budgets of the States, Towns and individuals living in these  United States.  Or, I guess under Mitt Romney, we can change the name of the country to "The Country formerly known as United States, now just sovereign States."

The question voters need to ask themselves before they walk in to vote next week is this:

"Is Mitt Romney just ignorant? Out of touch with reality? Did he just miss Math the day they taught Math? Does he think anything out to its fullest extent before he shoots his mouth off from a pulpit, err podium?

What will the trickle down of Romney's views on Federal government do to your local, state, property taxes, sales taxes?"  Where will the money come from?

If Mitt is elected, will a single woman choose to remain in the USA? 

Get rid of Planned Parenthood?

Get rid of Healthcare Act?

Require States to create their own versions of FEMA?

Where else would he choose to cut Federal responsibilities?

Transportation? Highway care? Air Traffic? (And, in the most telling action, see the story from Boston (dot) com below this video...

October 31, 2012 -

***

In the "Can't make this stuff up category of political comedy, here's what Flip, err, Mitt had to say today:


Mitt Romney on Wednesday stepped up his support of the Federal Emergency Management Agency, further rebuffing accusations that he would end funding for disaster relief if elected president.

“I believe that FEMA plays a key role in working with states and localities to prepare for and respond to natural disasters,” Romney said in a statement. “As president, I will ensure FEMA has the funding it needs to fulfill its mission, while directing maximum resources to the first responders who work tirelessly to help those in need, because states and localities are in the best position to get aid to the individuals and communities affected by natural disasters.”

Romney’s comments last year during a GOP debate in New Hampshire were interpreted by some as a call to eliminate FEMA altogether.

“Every time you have an occasion to take something from the federal government and send it back to the states, that’s the right direction,” Romney said. “And if you can go even further, and send it back to the private sector, that’s even better.”

The topic has taken on greater political implications as the federal government mobilizes to provide relief for communities devastated by Hurricane Sandy this week.

RNC Owes it to USA - No More Liars on Stage, please

The "liberal' media gave the RNC a free ride by not having a fact-checker and lie-detector unit hired and wired by each media outlet to buzz each and every lie put forth to a convention hall full of gullible stiffs who do not know any better than to believe their party leaders.

It's a sham and a shame.

While many of us view it for its value in setting a new bar in the unintentional comedy world record meter, others actually believe the stuff being tossed around as fact by the puppets of Mitt Romney, Karl Rove and their brothers in harm.

Want some insight?

Read this, written by a good friend and an honest journalism student:

TAMPA, Fla. — It was about halfway through the speech given by Mary Fallin, by the grace of a pitiless god, the governor of Oklahoma, where I finally came close to losing it. She rolled herself into this remarkable passage:

The history of my great state of Oklahoma offers a great example of pursuing the American Dream. It was built and settled by pioneers movibe west to seek better lives. During the Great Land Run of 1889, thousands of families rushed to put a stake down on empty plots of land. They built tent cities overnight. They farmed the land and they worked hard. And, in 1897, eight years after the land run, a handful of adventurous pioneers risked their own money — not the federal government's money — to drill Oklahoma's first oil well, the Nellie Johnstone. By doing so, these early-day pioneers changed the future and Oklahoma forever and today Oklahoma is one of the nation's key energy producers and job creators. President Obama wants us to believe that Oklahomans owe that success to the federal government — to the Department Of Energy,to the EPA, to the IRS, or maybe even to him. Mr. President, we know better. As we say in Oklahoma, that dog won't hunt.

Handed in as a seventh-grade history essay, this would get no better than a D. Delivered to the convention of one of our only two political parties, it was perhaps the most singularly dishonest speech I have ever seen a politician give, and I grew up in Massachusetts, and Willard Romney was once my governor. My god, Oklahomans wouldn't even have Oklahoma without the federal government, without the Homestead Act of 1889 or the Railroad Act — both, by the way, achievements of a Republican presidents named Abraham Lincoln and Benjamin Harrison. And the land wasn't exactly "empty," Governor. It got emptied by a big-government program called the United States Army. You know what your state would be without the federal government, Governor, without the votes for the legislation from congressmen from the east and north, without the soldiers from New England and the Great Lakes? You know what Oklahoma would be?

Sand, with a whole lot of pissed-off Native Americans.

I'm not sure if it will be played this way. Ann Romney was sweet and lovely — and very defensive about people "attacking" hubby's success, but only as a "mom," of course — and Chris Christie brought down the house. But the Republican Party did something remarkable at its convention on Tuesday. It set out on an experiment to see exactly how much unmitigated hogwash the American political system can contain on a single evening. The Republican Party has set out at its 2012 convention in search of the Event Horizon of utter bullshit. It has sought to see precisely how many lies, evasions, elisions, and undigestible chunks of utter gobbledegook the political media can swallow before it finally gags twice and falls over dead, leaving the rest of America suckers all the same. What you didn't see in primetime, from Arthur Davis to Ted Cruz, and from one 2016 contender to another, was the GOP embarking upon the task of seeing exactly how much nonsense it could produce at top volume before democracy screams and gives up, like Noriega in Panama when they played the metal music at him.

It was something to see, I'll tell you. An entire evening based on a demonstrable lie.

The theme was We Did Build It — which, as every sentient being knows, is a mendacious barbering of something the president said a while back. (On the video screens in the hall, television commercials based on a severely edited version of the president's remarks were interspersed between the speeches, just in case somebody sought relief from the lies for a couple of seconds.) And there also was a lot of talk about how the various speakers Did Build It.

There was Jack Gilchrist from New Hampshire, the metal-shop owner, who was briefly an important Romney surrogate until it was revealed that his company took a few cool millions in small-business loans. There was Sher Valenzuela, running for lieutenant governor of Delaware, who talked about how she and her husband Did Build their business. She also talked about her husband, who was a soldier, and her father, the former drill sergeant and "a blue-collar union guy." She did not talk about her sideline, which is giving PowerPoint presentations to people — probably, I am sure, not in convention centers built with tax dollars — on how to suck up government contracts. There was a similar thing going on with Bob McDonnell, the slippery, up-and-coming transvaginalist of Virginia, who proved that his family Did Build It, by having his father join the army, his children doing the same, and himself, finding the "same job" in government once held by Thomas Jefferson and Patrick Henry. After listening to this laughable bafflegab for a spell, you begin to wonder whether or not the U.S. military is a rather large venture-capital concern with anti-tank weapons.
It was an entire evening based on a demonstrable lie. It was an entire evening based on demonstrable lies told in service to the overriding demonstrable lie. And there was only one real story for actual journalists to tell at the end of it.

The Republicans simply don't care.

They don't care that they lie. They don't care that their lies are obvious. They don't care that their lies wouldn't fool an underpaid substitute Social Studies teacher in a public middle school, who would then probably go out one night and get yelled at by Chris Christie. ("They believe in teacher's unions. We believe in teachers," he said in his speech. Yeah, you just don't believe in paying them.) They don't care that their history is a lie and that, by spreading it, they devalue the actual history of the country, which is something that belongs to us.

Did Ted Cruz really quote Martin King in this hall? Did Artur Davis, the newly minted Republican turncoat from Alabama, just cite Jack Kennedy, Bill Clinton, and Lyndon Fking Johnson as examples of "leaders" who "reached across the aisle"? Lyndon reached across the aisle? Yeah, he did, and he grabbed their peckers and put them in his pocket, and he didn't give them back until the skinflint bastards coughed up Medicare. Jesus, this was pathetic. They don't care that they lie so obviously that they always get caught, like they did with the evening's entire theme, like they have in and around the Tampa Bay Times Forum, or with the story of poor Jack Gilchrist. The Republicans will just tell the lie again. And again. And once more, until people get tired of telling the truth in response.

It was an entire evening based on a demonstrable lie because it was an entire evening based on rejecting — publicly and dishonestly, and without caring that the facts of your own biographies give the lie to the words you're saying — the idea of a general political commonwealth as expressed through the national government, which has been the great engine behind the expansion of the country's size, the country's wealth, and, yes, the country's freedom. It was a purchase in that political commonwealth, and not in a loose confederation of states, that King sought, and that Lyndon sought to give the country's poorest citizens, including the vote, which the government of John Kasich in Ohio is presently working assiduously to roll back.

It was an entire evening based on a demonstrable lie, and it was topped off by a demonstrable liar named Chris Christie, who talked about how the president can't lead, and that nobody wants to tell the Americans the truth of the sacrifices we have to share, and talked about "politicians who pander" at a convention that is preparing to nominate Willard Romney, which was the final hilarious lie of the night, since Romney hasn't stopped pandering since he walked down the steps of the Massachusetts State House in 2006.

Earlier, though, Christie rang the theme of the evening's overriding demonstrable lie, too. He talked about how his family Built It, his Irish father and his Sicilian mother.

They both lived hard lives. Dad grew up in poverty. After returning from Army service, he worked at the Breyer's ice-cream plant in the 1950's. With that job, and the GI Bill, he put himself through Rutgers University at night to become the first in his family to earn a college degree.

Chris, old man, you didn't even build yourself - yourself. The tax dollars — the federal tax dollars — of, among other people, my parents paid your father's Army salary, and they paid for the G.I. Bill. The tax dollars of thousands of other people paid for his education at Rutgers, which is, as it proclaims, The State University Of New Jersey. All of them were proud to do it, because they knew that they were part of a political commonwealth that has as its proudest expression a national government in which all citizens have purchase.
And, Chris, and Bob, and Sher, and Jack, and all of you, you're welcome.

Liars.

Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/rnc-tampa-night-one-12158408#ixzz24xalShNQ

This is the United States Calling ...

Camelot in 2012

By LARRY CAMELOT

HELLO: United States Olympic Committee, may I help you?

Yes. Hi, I'm an intern from the office of the presidential campaign of Mitt Romney, may I speak with Mr. Sandusky, please? 

US: Patrick Sandusky?

MITT-TERN: Is there another?

US: Well, um, yes, but PATRICK Sandusky works here.  He's the head of communications for the USOC.

MITT-TERN: Yes. That's the guy.  May I speak with Mr. Sandusky, please?

US: Well, he's a pretty busy man.  The London Olympics are about to begin and Mr. Sandusky...

MITT-TERN: I know, I know, he's very busy, but I'm calling on behalf of Mitt Romney, the presumed republican candidate for the office of the President of the United States. Mr. Romney is a busy man, too, and he is trying to become the President of the United States. Indirectly, Mr. Romney could become Mr. Sandusky's boss.

US: Good point, but, I'm here in London and the people around here have a very different opinion.

MITT-TERN: Well, I know. That's why I'm calling.

US: Are you in London?

MITT-TERN: No. I'm just an intern. Mr. Romney's in London, though.

US: Oh yes, we know. He's made quite a name for himself with our colleagues over at the London 2012 Organizing Committee, and, with the British press, God Save the Queen.

MITT-TERN: Well, I know, that's why I'm calling.

US: You see, your candidate, your presumed candidate - and I do stress presumed - decided to undermine the efforts of the entire London Olympics on the day before the Games were about to begin with the Opening Ceremonies. In one fell swoop, he managed to un-do about four years of painstaking preparations, millions of hours of hard work and he thoroughly and unabashedly embarrassed the entire nation.  He was asked a simple question in a television interview -- over here, they call it, the telly - and he began an unnecessary rant about the lack of qualified security officers, then he started in on ticket sales issues, And, then ...

MITT-TERN: I know, I know, that's why I'm calling.

US: Hold on, now, your candidate is trying to beef-up his resume on the foreign relations side but he proceeded to second-guess one of our closest and longest standing allies? On the nightly news?

MITT-TERN: Yes, yes. he did. I know. I'm calling to get the emails and phone numbers of some of the media people over there in London.  We need to contact them with a new statement.

US: You mean, Romney wants you to call up or email the media to cover up his mistake?

MITT-TERN: Oh, no, we wouldn't want to use the word cover-up, that's too strong.  How about back track?  Or, better yet, we'll clarify what Mr. Romney actually meant to say. Cover-up reminds people of President Nixon, one of the great Republican Party Presidents, along with President George W. Bush, uhh.

US: You mean during his live, on-camera interview, they might've mis-quoted him?  We have the tapes, here, and most - make that all - of the London tabloids have already called seeking apologies from the State Department or at least the Olympic Committee.  It's late over here, you know?  It's well past deadline.  They still have deadlines here in London because they actually have newspapers that people read.  They sell dozens of them, all day and night.  Your man is on most of the covers of all of those broadsheets and tabloids tomorrow, you know?  And, since you brought up President "W" - he was quite the darling of the British media, you know. I think they're looking for a new foil, and your man stepped right into his tea and crumpets.

MITT-TERN: Oh no.

US: Oh yes. On the Olympics, he's quoted as saying, "It's hard to know just how well it will turn out.  There were a few things that were disconcerting." He said that on camera to NBC News, then, he went on to talk about the bane of all event organizers, the hated (psst) SECURITY ISSUES, then, he speculated about a proposed customs strike that never materialized.  The guy has no clue! Even when he went to apologize today, he said something to the head of the organizing committee that really pissed him off.  Let me get it for you, hold on."

Silence ...

US: Oh yeah, all the reports say he met with the Prime Minister, not the head of the organizing committee, that guy's too busy. Romney is quoted as saying, "Of course there will be errors from time-to-time" but they'll be over-shadowed by inspiring performances. So, even in his "back-track" he totally blew it.

MITT-TERN: I know, I know, but can I JUST speak with Mr. Sandusky?

US: Well, Patrick Sandusky is on another line, right now, can I put you through to his voice-mail?  He checks it often, and it works great, except when the mailbox is full, like this past Friday, Saturday, Sunday, when your Romney candidate caused this stir, this semi-international incident of the most ridiculous proportions, especially for someone who is already so weak at foreign relations.  

MITT-TERN: Now, wait, that's not fair.  Mr. Romney is a good man.  He's helped many nations by taking decent paying American jobs and while he worked with his old company, Bain, he bought-out companies, then directed them to out-source those jobs to places like India.  Millions of Americans lost their jobs, but they need those jobs in India, you know, it's one of the burgeoning world powers, just the way China was a few years back. Mr. Romney catches quite a bit of flack for that portion of his life, when he started Bain, made hundreds of millions of dollars that he's been living off from off-shore accounts he's invested in heavily for the past decade or so, while he avoids paying high income taxes and tools around in politics.

US: Really? I thought he had some type of Olympic Games experience?

MITT-TERN: Well, he did, but that's another story. You know, he was the Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts when they began a universal healthcare initiative on his watch.  He was quite proud of it until all his Republican colleagues started to criticize President Obama for trying to do the same thing, you know?  And, while we're on that topic, I saw where the Opening Ceremonies paid quite a tribute to Great Britain's (National Health System) NHS, they had a lot of nurses out there, along with Peter Pan, Mary Poppins and even Paul McCartney!

US: Well, that's not here nor there, because those Republican friends of your man, Romney, keep voting down the healthcare bill, then when it passed, they keep trying to repeal it, even though the Supreme Court made a ruling that's it's certainly constitutional. Then they tried some word-smithing, the way you are trying now, with this “Mitt-Flip,” and some guy named Boehner who always cries when he gets emotional said it was a TAX!”  Can you believe that? You think those guys don’t think the American public can tell when they are lying right through their teeth, trying to manipulate the truth, then pointing fingers all over the place. Even when the Supreme Court rules, they try to reverse it, always trying to make things stand still, always stagnant, stuck in the same old place without trying to fix things their predecessors screwed up from 2001 until 2008.

MITT-TERN: Well, now. If that's what you say? You didn't have to bring the United States Supreme Court into the issue, now did you?

US: So, well, Mr. Sandusky's line is free now, let me see if I can connect you.

MITT-TERN: Thanks.

Silence...

US: Oh, sorry, he's stepped away from his desk and he said something about Mitt Romney making him sick.  Can I connect you to his voice mail?

West Wing Map: Obama Style ... clck here

I thoroughly enjoyed the NBC News/Brian Williams special entitled, "The Obama White House." The two-part special aired last week and has the honor of a "NEVER DELETE" on our home Tivo machine.

I enjoyed the Obama campaign and have purposely given the administration a LOT of time to get settled before starting commentary. I will begin that commentary today with the following notes:

1. I think Obama's trip to the Middle East and his speech in Cairo were among the Top 10 most impactful political moves of my lifetime. It can become #1 if the follow-up goes well.

2. I think a 65% approval rating is VERY LOW. It should be in the 90% range. Period. No arguments. I will NOT listen!

2a. The actual steps, thoughts, moves, actions, calls, strategy sessions, national security meetings and other IMPORTANT things in the real world of government and The White House were not covered by NBC and are not visible to the public for obvious reasons. I'm okay with that and I respect the national security issues and the fact White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel had to close his door or ask the film crew(s) to leave was very much a positive part of the NBC News documentary (deposit one Emmy Here, by the way).

I believe, the work being done in the White House - in both East and West Wing - is the most important work ever conducted by the people of the United States of America. Our international standing, our global foreign policy, our view of the world and the world's view of us has been negatively impacted by the Bush Administration (I blame Cheney and Rumsfeld, by the way, not the POTUS 43) for the years 2001-2009. It set us back decades and maybe 100-200 years in terms of foreign policy.

President Obama had to start to re-build the framework. His choice to "really" start with the Middle East and the Muslim community - in and outside of the USA - was brilliant. It can become a new frontier much like racial relations were to President JFK and his brother Robert in the 1960s.

My suggestion would be to also work a little closer to home and work together with Canada and Mexico on the issue of homeland security for the CONTINENT and the world would be a great step going forward. Let's work together on security, not just address "BORDER CROSSINGS."

Read on for far less important observations, please:

1. The PR stunt of Obama heading to "Five Guys" in DC for a burger run was TREMENDOUS. The reaction of the customers, the people on the streets jumping up and down and hugging was fabulous. It came so naturally, so wonderfully. Damn, the President of the United States very naturally took burger orders for his fellow-workers, remembered to take care of Brian Williams' order, then personally hand-delivered them to his staff. Does it get any better than that?

2. Duke's Reggie Love has a great job and he is very good at it. I hope to meet him someday and will take him with my cross-over dribble and fall-away jumper. Case closed -- St. John's over Duke once more.

3. The fact that basketball's get tossed around the oval office like bags of peanuts at Dodgers Stadium is the coolest thing I've ever seen in government.

4. Camille Johnson and the staff of the First Lady of the USA deserve equal mention and 100% of the support of the American public. Mrs. Obama is the REAL DEAL. Smart, great mom, real values, real sense of "where she is at" in history. The First Lady can impact this world like no other before her. She can surpass Ms. Jacqueline "Jackie" Lee Bouvier Kennedy Onassis and wouldn't that be a wonderful thing for us all to witness.

I could go on and on and on....

Here's to you, Mr President. You have earned the vote I cast for you in November. I proudly work to serve the United States of America. And, for the first time in nearly a decade, I am very, very proud of the direction that our country is headed. I am proud of our government and its administration and I will do what I can to help them move forward and not rehash the past.