It was just all about DePalma and now he's looking over his shoulder. He said as much during an entertainment review segment on the BBC back in September.

Do you worry about what's going to be said in the states about it with the whole "Support the Troops" campaign?

While Neil Cavuto reminded fact-challenged, Clinton operative Lanny Davis that 95% of homeowners are indeed paying their mortgages on time, Davis continued his recitation that America is spiraling downward.

Despite all the doom and gloom, America is not in a recession, in fact, according to our rule of economics, “if the economy contracts for six straight months it is considered to be in a recession. That, however, didn't happen in the last recession in 2001”, and it isn’t happening now.

Soaring gas prices, higher food prices, and a sputtering job market aren’t helping things but since the Democrat presidential candidates, in an effort to differentiate themselves from President Bush, chose the economy as a topic to beat on, well, if you repeat something often enough, people will believe it.

Just last fall, the stock market was soaring, jobs were plentiful, the sub-prime mortgage mess was just starting to rear its ugly head, but the economy was rolling along full steam. That is, until presidential candidates who have to appear at photo-op visits to people’s places of employment so they can understand what “ordinary people” do, decided to call ours the worst economy since the Hoover Administration.

According to Fox News and Associated Press,

Many analysts were predicting gross domestic product (GDP) growth would come in at 0.5 percent during the January — March 2008 period. Earlier this year, some economists thought the economy actually would lurch into reverse during the opening quarter.

The latest numbers reported Wednesday by the Commerce Department also did not meet what economists consider the classic definition of a recession, a retraction of the economy. This means that although the economy is stuck in a rut, it is still managing to grow, even if the growth is modest.

So why do so many Americans believe we are in recession? Ignorance of what the true definition of a recession is. The fact that presidential candidates are repeating this inaccuracy doesn’t help either.  Continued...

While overturning previous Romney-era fiscal vetoes, that gave us a billion dollar-plus surplus, and giving us an almost billion dollar deficit overnight, Massachusetts is eagerly looking for more businesses to soak for revenue, and justified or not, they now have their eyes on tax-exempt endowments from colleges.

According to The Boston Channel,

It's all part of a plan being discussed on Beacon Hill aimed at finding new revenue for the state budget. Lawmakers are considering taxing endowments at huge universities and colleges around the state. House representatives have a proposal that would impose a 2.5 percent tax on endowments that exceed $1 billion.

An example of how much the top schools would pay if the state adopted such a plan would require Harvard, with its $34.9 billion endowment, to pay $875 million to the state. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology, with its $9.9 billion endowment, would pay $247 million to the state. Boston College, with its $1.75 billion endowment would pay $43.75 million in new taxes to the state.

To be fair, Congress is also looking into this latest example of Robbin’ Hood politics.

That irks Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, who has suggested colleges with endowments of $500 million and up be required to spend 5% each year, just as private foundations must, and use it "to help families and students afford college.” Under that rule, 141 colleges this year would have been affected, up from 97 in 2003.

"I don't begrudge them their financial success," he said in a statement. "I just want to remind them that their money is tax-exempt. They're supposed to offer public benefit in return for (that) exemption."

Now while the huge endowments are in the crosshairs, many in government who apparently know little about balancing their own books, are aiming at some of those college gifts as a way of balancing their books, now in the red. Some are also arguing that colleges should spend more of those funds to justify their tax-exempt status.  Continued...

While signature trolling this morning at a local coffee shop, I asked a woman for hers, upon which she asked me how I felt about a bill presently on Boston’s Beacon Hill about nurse staffing. She felt the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should tell hospitals how many patients nurses should be responsible for, while adding that hospital CEOs make too much money.

At some point, after I officially make the ballot, I’ll have to bone up on more state issues like this one. The woman, who it turns out is a nurse, kind of threw me for a loop and I had to think quick.

I responded that I didn’t feel the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should be telling any business how it should staff. Once you open that door, it’s very hard to close it later. Also, I don’t believe the Commonwealth of Massachusetts should be regulating the pay of a CEO, or minimum wage worker for that matter.

I’ve previously argued that just because one is a politician, doesn’t make one an instant expert on any given topic. I’m sure a lot of you remember Hillary Clinton’s personal crusade to institute universal health care nationally. One would think she would know all about the topic, given the size and scope of her undertaking.

But contrast her apparent expertise on the subject with her highly publicized visit last summer with Michelle Estrada, a nurse at St. Rose Dominican Hospital in Henderson, Nevada.

According to Susan Page of USA Today,

The nurse's 12-hour shift at the hospital's Siena campus started as usual at 7 a.m. but at mid-afternoon Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived. The New York senator spent more than two hours shadowing Estrada in the fourth-floor medical/surgical ward before heading to Estrada's home for dinner with her and her three children.

"I'm following Michelle around today to see what a nurse does," Clinton explained to the patient in Room 471.

Now, I may have missed something here.

Save for the fact she’s a politician, is thereby granted expert status on every topic, and was very close to crafting legislation for every hospital, medical school, insurance company, and patient in the United States, if she was THAT qualified to do so, why did she need to follow a nurse around all day just to find out what she does?  Continued...

This was supposed to be the “Year of the Woman”, that is, until Hillary Clinton cried. But Lindsay Lohan, Randi Rhodes, Britney, Jamie Lynn Spears, Naomi Campbell, and Paris Hilton have showed us that some high-profile women have a long way to go when it comes to being our national inspirations.

  For years, Democrats have lamented how badly the Bush Administration has left our “standing” in the world. Other nations “hate” us; wish us ill, blah blah blah. Even Mexicans are thinking twice before sneaking across our border.

According to Mary Mitchell of the Chicago Sun-Times,

“Clinton loses 11 consecutive races, and the photograph of Sen. Barack Obama in Somalian garb shows up.

 “Clinton falls behind in pledged delegates and gets caught in a lie about her Bosnia adventure, and the Rev. Jeremiah Wright Jr. story reignites.”

On Philadelphia radio, Bill Clinton accused the Obama campaign of playing the race card, while denying he said that a day later.

Barack Obama has sewn up the youth vote, indoctrinated with the ideal that affirmative action on the presidential campaign level is one whose time has come. Hillary Clinton, despite the pride Democrats boast with the historical possibilities of this campaign, is playing upon the no-longer inert racist concerns some have with having a black man in The White House.

Apparently it’s working for Hillary, and after her Pennsylvania primary victory, we’re assured of hearing more cloaked race talk from Bill and her surrogates as the race to the Denver convention drags on. It would appear the only way Hillary Clinton can win the Democrat nomination is to convince the superdelegates that a black man cannot beat John McCain, and (without being an elitist…) Democrats are not ready to shuck their deep-seeded racism and give the reins of power to a black Obama. 

A woman, yes; a black man no. For that reason, she’s the only person who can beat the Republican.  Continued...

But it would appear the ladies, Joan Juliet Buck (Vogue), Lesley Stahl (CBS), Liz Smith (NY Post) and Whoopi Goldberg (The View), don’t think the elitist criticism is fair when applied to Barack and Michelle Obama.

JOAN: What is this thing of Obama being perceived as an elitist? Is it important? Is it going to harm him? What do you think?

LIZ: I think it does harm him. And the National Review story on Michelle Obama complaining to ladies in Ohio about how could the two of them live on $500,000 a year, and how they couldn’t pay for their children’s tennis and dancing lessons, or piano lessons, or something. But, honestly, you have to admire the Obamas. They’re an upscale, young American couple. They’re a model for every downtrodden person in America. So, I think a little elitism goes a long way. But do I think the Obamas are intellectual elitists, probably. They’re smarter than the rest of us.

It’s a rather lengthy four-way, and you can check it out at your leisure. However, there was one exchange within that interview that prompted me to do some digging.

You see; one of the side effects of being an elitist seems to be the belief that you’re smarter than everyone else. That could be one reason (aside from the “evil” component) that politicians tell tall tales, believing that the consumers of those whoppers are too stupid (and in awe of them) to discern fact from fiction. Hillary Clinton obviously believed she could get away with her Bosnia delusion, while Barack Obama stated he never personally witnessed a negative Pastor Wright sermon.

When publicly presented with the facts, they both recanted.

In the conversation, Whoopi Goldberg appears to have committed a similar offense…

WHOOPI: No, but that’s the way it is with us. And I’ll tell you something, this thing that happened at that dopey John Kerry fundraiser …

 JOAN: What thing?

 WHOOPI: I was accused of doing something that I didn’t do on stage. And not one Democrat stood up and said, "I was there, that’s not what happened.”  Nobody said …

 LIZ: You were accused of making a nasty remark about George Bush. Is that right?

 WHOOPI: I was accused of making disgusting, rude, ugly, crappy remarks about the president. And that’s not what happened. And before I got off the stage it was already on the AP wires. And there were people making ugly, crude, nasty remarks about the president that night. But I wasn’t one of them.

JOAN: But it stuck to you and nobody stood up for you?

 WHOOPI: None of them. None of them stood up and said, "Wait a minute. That’s not what happened! This is not what went down.”

Apparently, a lot of people got it wrong then, Whoopi.  Continued...

I touched on this over the weekend, but the more I think about it, the more I feel the need to expend a long-simmering rant.

While the mainstream media’s been giving us wall-to-wall all-Pope, all-the-time coverage, many here in the Boston area are well into their sixteenth minute of fame, and bashing the Pope for avoiding our city on his America tour. While he has publicly acknowledged the scandal, and now met with some of the victims, enough is not enough for these professional victims.

"I acknowledge the pain of the Church in America is experiencing as a result of sexual abuse of minors," Benedict said, urging parishioners to reach out to victims with love and compassion.

I’ll admit I’m being insensitive here.

Now while I can’t even imagine what the victims of the pedophile priests have gone through, this scandal has no longer been swept under the rug. The victims have non-profit advocates, and Hollywood celebrities have added ammunition when using the Catholic Church as a punching bag.

I guess what I’m asking is will there ever be any closure here? It’s not like because the Pope left Boston off his itinerary, the victims have been efficiently blown off. Many have been seriously paid off for their years of abuse and subsequent mental torment.

According to Yahoo,

“Of the monies paid out by the church, 526 million dollars went to settling cases…

 “Around 23 million dollars was paid out for therapy for victims or support for accused offenders, and 60 million dollars for legal fees, said the report, which was commissioned by the US Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB).”

Granted, money doesn’t heal all wounds, but it doesn’t hurt.

Victims have been paid hundreds of thousands (if not millions) of dollars each for their pain. Many churches in and around Metropolitan Boston were forced to close due to the budgetary constraints those settlements produced. Now while I’m not a lawyer but I watch them on television, I always thought people accepting settlements usually sign confidentiality agreements. If that’s the case, and everyone knows about the scandal, why are these victims still whining like victims?

They got paid, and in some cases, very well. What more do they want? Pope Benedict wasn’t the Pope when all this happened. Do these people want an eye for an eye? When do THEY forgive?  Continued...

This is what I don’t understand.

Many of those people believe he has the conservative credentials to codify a fractured Republican voting block.

I beg to differ.

This morning, I received the following press release from a publicist…

 Is history about to repeat itself?

 Abraham Lincoln left the popular party of his day, The Whigs, to run for President on the long shot fringe new political party calling themselves Republicans. The long shot won and Honest Abe became the first Republican President.

On April 15, 2008 at 9 pm ET in the Lincoln Room in Hazelton, PA, Dr. Alan Keyes made history: he formally left the Republican Party and is looking seriously at a Presidential run on the “long shot” Constitution Party ticket. The Constitution Party convention begins in just over one week. 

Whenever I hear Alan Keyes’ name, I also hear two words: Barack Obama.  Continued...

The Herald article cites numerous, horrific instances of bullying. Things as children we’d never think of doing to another human being, but when it comes to succumbing to the “do something”, knee-jerk mentality that is election year politics, is this a case of the wolves minding the hen house?

“’This is an urgent situation. I had one case where young boy was set on fire at another kid’s home,’ said state Rep. Paul Donato (D-Medford), co-sponsor of new anti-bullying legislation. ‘This has got to be addressed, and it’s got to be addressed quickly.’

 “Donato’s bill would force school districts to create bullying prevention plans and guidelines for punishing students who torment their peers. It would also require administrators to focus on increasing instances of “cyberbullying” in which students use text messages and online images to harass and humiliate their classmates.”

So, “Donato’s bill would force…. It would require….”

Is this not bullying? Shouldn’t the state representative’s quotes end with a verbal and not implied “or else”?  Continued...

While Barack Obama is “clarifying” his remarks issued to the San Francisco elite that hicks in Pennsylvania are drawn to guns and religion because they’re broke, ignorant bigots, Hillary Clinton now describes herself as a woman of the people because she says she shot guns as a child after going to church.

Of course, a truth meter has to be applied to any of their comments nowadays as their words sometime require a “suspension of disbelief”. It’s amazing that Hillary and Obama feel they need to embellish their pasts in order to impress us. It’s sad that they feel they can embellish, as we’re all too stupid to catch them in their false braggadocio.

As many of you know, I’m in the preliminary stages of a political campaign myself. I can only imagine what you’d think of me should I make up stories about my relatively uneventful past.

Before I start, many of you have asked if I’m related to Rosa Parks. It turns out my great-grandfather changed our last name in her honor. While some have brought up the fact that he did so long before Mrs. Parks refused to go to the back of the bus, I think it important we honor the spirit in which this story is given.  Continued...

Many of us have heard the story of Jamiel Shaw, the promising young Los Angeles high school football star shot to death by an illegal-alien-gangbanger. We know that his mother, Army Sgt. Anita Shaw, got the news while serving her country in Iraq. We know that the punk who killed her son was at one point in custody, but was released without having his immigration status scrutinized.