Do Blacks with Degrees Achieve the American Dream In Macomb County?

A NATIONAL STUDY BEGS TO DIFFER


Study: High jobless rate for blacks with degrees

Russell Contreras/ Associated Press

Boston — The economic downturn has erased the gains made by the black middle class over the past 30 years as the unemployment rate of blacks with a four-year college degree has skyrocketed, according to a new study by the National Urban League Policy Institute released Wednesday.

The study said that the unemployment rate for blacks with a four-year college degree has tripled from 1992 while overall black unemployment levels are nearing 1982 levels when it was close to 20 percent.

The unemployment rate for blacks with a four-year college degree was 6.5 percent in 2010 compared to 2.9 percent of whites with college degrees, the study said.

The report, released just as the National Urban League begins its annual conference in Boston, mirrors similar studies by the Economic Policy Institute and the Pew Research Center, which says the economic meltdown in recent years has hit black households hard. Like the previous studies, the Urban League report said black home ownership fell sharply in recent years due to the mortgage crisis and affected overall black median income.

National Urban League President and CEO Marc Morial said the report showed that the recession affected the middle class, not just poor and working class African Americans as some might assume. The National Urban League Policy Institute used U.S. Census and U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics.

"These are people who played by the rules. They built wealth, went to college and had good jobs," Morial said. "But in a short period of time, they've fallen back."

We want to know....Is there a recession within the recession?  Or is it a case of every man for himself?  How does this play out in Macomb County?  

We will ask John Bierbusse and get back to you.

Burgers, Beer, and Burps

"I'll Take a Cold One With Those Fries!"

Florida has notched up the fast food game with its recent approval of the sale of beer at Burger King!

Lower than expected national sales has prompted the fast food giant to think so outside of the box that it has turned to beer to up the ante on its competitors.

There are a few BKs selling beer already, mostly in a few other countries. Select Starbucks sell beer here, but don't look for this new BK menu item to be offered nationally for a while.

 Burger King is looking for at a new market; 30 to 50 year-olds are the targeted demographics.  Just wait until some 15 year old, looking like 15 going on 30, scores some suds illegally....training will be a key issue.

You know the world has turned upside down when you get carded at Burger King.

"Have It Your Way" will take on a totally new meaning soon.

Michigan will have to wait for a minute, but I predict this will spread like wildfire.

Would you suds up at the fast food window?  Let us know.

Can Obama Be Trusted By His Own Base?

This is an excellent assessment by Paul Krugman of what others are calling President Obama's capitulation to the economic folly of the Republican Party.

The author of this article is a Pulitzer Prize economist who has been on point for years with his insightful analysis of the state of the country's economics.

However, supportive of Obama he may have been, this article marks a sharp diversion from supportive to critical breakdown of Obama's breaking down....here's the link...

http://www.nytimes.com/2011/07/08/opinion/08krugman.html?_r=2

Affirmative Action Challenge and Public Act 4...Two Sides of the Same Coin?

IS THIS A CASE OF WHAT GOOD FOR THE GOOSE IS GOOD FOR THE GANDER?

The state of Michigan has decided to appeal the 6th Circuit Court of Appeals' ruling that the ban on affirmative action, adopted through a vote of the people, is a violation of the 14th Amendment.

Look deeper and you will see a classic example of a two-faced approach to public policy.

How can the state maintain that the voters have the last word on affirmative action and then turn around and negate the voters' decisions regarding who should represent them when Public Act 4, the emergency financial manager law, strips the voters of their right to elect local officials by giving the emergency financial manager the power to overrule and to effectively "fire" elected officials?

No matter where you stand on the principles of affirmative action, there is a constitutional question as to the state's right to nullify the outcome of the people's right to vote while at the same time saying that right to vote should be respected.

So, the questions remains...should Michigan argue that the vote of the people should be respected as it relates to affirmative action while at the same time, through Public Act 4. the state negates the vote of the people as to who the people vote to represent them in the municipalities where financial managers have been imposed on the people in those cities by the the state?

Can anyone make since of this schizophrenic public policy?

Affirmative Action---Back by Legal Command?

The next phase of the fight for and against Affirmative Action begins today with a federal appeals court's overturning of a lower court's decision affirming the ban voted for by Michigan's voters. The federal judges ruled by a 2-1 vote that the ban violates the equal protection clauses of the 14th Amendment.

What is not so clear is what happens in the interim, but one thing is a certainty. This latest ruling will probably be appealed to the full 6th Circuit Court of Appeals bench or be moved up to the US Supreme Court.

Some will say they thought this issue was settled by the vote of the people, while others will maintain the the Constitution allows for remedies for past discrimination.

What do you think?

Palin's Weather Connection?

COINCIDENTAL?

TRENDING: Palin movie to premiere in Iowa next week – CNN Political Ticker - CNN.com Blogs:

From "Marie MD":

"Iowa better be careful.....she (Palin) came to DC and we had some of the hottest days in recent history in May. She bought a house in AZ and the fires started (/btw mccain – in spite of what you say there's no record of it being started by illegals). She went to Massachusetts and they had a tornado that they hadn't had in decades. She goes back to AK and they have a 7.2 magnitude earthquake. The she devil leaves destruction wherever she goes to peddle her wares!"

Whoa! Palin may be a lot of things, but she's no Morgana!

Three Squares--and Free Health Care To Boot!

SHOULD THIS MAN BE CONDEMNED?

This article is from CNN's "The Chart"...the link is below the story!

Man says he robbed bank to get health care

A man walks into a bank and slips a note to the teller.

The note reads: “This is a bank robbery. Please only give me one dollar.”

Then the man tells the bank employees, “I’ll be sitting right over there in the chair waiting for the police."

He perches himself on a chair outside the bank he just robbed and waits for the police to arrive.

That suspect, James Verone, who is from Gaston County, North Carolina, told CNN affiliate WCNC that he robbed a bank for $1 for the sole reason of getting in jail so he could get free health care. He was not armed during the robbery.

Verone, 59, told WCNC he doesn’t have health insurance, but has a host of medical problems: A growth on his chest, two ruptured disks and a problem with his left foot. Without a job and money, he reached the conclusion that going to jail would mean free medical care (although it's not free for taxpayers).

“I wanted to make it known that this wasn't for monetary reasons, but for medical reasons," Verone said. His jailhouse interview with the station is above.

The logic, he told the news station, was to get a three-year sentence so he can get out of jail then collect Social Security and then later live in a Myrtle Beach condo.

Verone told his local paper, The Gaston Gazette that he had worked as a delivery man for Coca-Cola for 17 years. That career ended three years ago, and he couldn’t find steady employment. Then the medical problems began. He lived off his savings and sought a part-time job.

The police charged him with larceny, not bank robbery, because of the $1 amount he demanded at the bank. Verone told his hometown paper if the jail penalty isn’t great enough, the crime will happen again.

Verone told WCNC, "I guess I am manipulating the courts to get medical care."

Is Verone’s story an example of one man gaming the system or a product of a flawed health care in America?

The link to the story is below:

Man says he robbed bank to get health care – The Chart - CNN.com Blogs

Referendum To Stop Public Act 4 Debated

WHAT ABOUT THE CONSTITUTION?

The Constitution of the United States of America speaks to the right to one man one vote and taxation with representation.

Public Act 4 strips the people of a right to elect their leaders. Nowhere in the constitution does it reference that the state can strip elected officials of their office for making dumb decisions. That's what elections are for...to throw the bums out if they mismanage the public's assets or abuse the public's trust.

The state has a great many resources at its disposal. It can manipulate fiscal policy through its manipulation of tools such as revenue sharing, educational funding, etc.

Those are acceptable mechanisms for prodding local municipalities to adopt more efficient policies for the good and welfare of the genera public.

But negating the outcome of elections reminds us of old-school Russian tactics. America is better than that.

There is a good reason why referendums exist. Some say the existence of the middle class is under attack.

Whether you agree that unions are the bane of our existence or not, what is indisputable is that the middle class arose from the ministry of the union effort to establish humane working conditions for workers.

Is there a way to separate unions from the discussion regarding America's malaise? Probably not. But to blame unions for the entirety of America's financial morass is akin to saying that what is going on in Detroit Mayor Dave Bing's office is attributable to the union workers' control of the the executive branch of government.

Really?

Ed Bruley Does It To Minorities Again!

BRULEY AGAIN BRUSHES OFF ANOTHER OPPORTUNITY TO

POLITICALLY ENFRANCHISE MACOMB COUNTY MINORITIES

The Macomb County Apportionment Committee meets today, Friday, June 3, 2011, to once again give the shaft to minorities in Macomb County.  Oh, wait, I should clarify that....three of the committee's four Democrats will do today more to keep blacks in their place than any other group in Macomb County ever has.  


The commission is made up of Macomb County Democratic Party chairman Ed Bruley, Macomb County Treasurer Ted Wahby, Macomb County Clerk Carmella Sabaugh, Macomb County Prosecutor Eric Smith, and Macomb County Republican Party Chairman Michael Ennis.


Smith, Ennis, and citizen John Cruz have submitted apportionment maps that more properly represent the latest census data in a way that provides for minority enfranchisement through the political process, while Ed Bruley's maps continues his practice of disenfranchising blacks in Macomb County. 


Ed Bruley will have his way. On the commission he controls Wahby and Sabaugh. Remember, Wahby gave Paul Gieleghem a cushy $50,000 job and Sabaugh can be bullied. The three of them could care less about what the census revealed regarding the increasing minority population.

Despite Bruley's history of ignoring opportunities to politically enfranchise Macomb County's minority population, Bruley has found a group of blacks he can control and even tried to hijack the Macomb County Democratic Black Caucus, of which I am chair. Bruley needs a group of blacks that he could pull off the shelf to support his latest act of dis-enfranchisement (he took Bobby Hill's seat. carved Clinton 
Township's 5th and 31th precincts out of Fred Miller's district, and now his latest map will deny blacks a political footprint in Warren and Eastpointe). His ice is always colder...and refreshing because Bruley's blacks bask in the validation and trinkets of acknowledgement that he provides them.

It will take the departure of Bruley, Wahby and Sabaugh for minorities to be properly integrated into the political landscape of Macomb County. John Cruz and Eric Smith tried their best. Their maps, and that of the Republican representative on the apportionment committee, would have more fairly represented the growing diversity of Macomb County. Bruley's map does not, perhaps because he has not yet found the blacks he needs to control in Warren and Eastpointe.

So, it will take another ten years and the departure of Bruley, Wahby, and Sabaugh for minorities to see real political enfranchisement in Macomb County.

Snyder Running Bing's Office?

JUST WHO IS RUNNING DETROIT?

"The matter has caught the attention of Gov. Rick Snyder, who has offered the mayor management assistance from his team. Business leaders have been meeting with Bing for several weeks to try to help him stabilize his operation"

Now, that quote can mean a great many things, but one interpretation is clear:

It seems that the Bing administration is falling apart at the seams, and Bing's sub-urban benefactors are scrambling to keep the facade from disintegrating altogether.

That Bing needs management assistance is akin to saying that Bing has no clue how to manage his own office, much less his own city (not really his--remember, he was moved into Detroit to barely and technically meet the filing requirements to run for mayor). 


Remember all that hype about how Bing the businessman was not Bing the politician?  His "supporters" got together a top notch public relations team that hijacked local media to shaped an image of Bing as some form of an "altruistic" politician...sort of like a "nerd" of a different color.  Detroit may actually have been a dry run or laboratory for Snyder's gubernatorial campaign theme.  It just sounds all too familiar now.

Well, apparently Detroit's emperor has clothes even the Salvation Army won't accept, no coherent strategy to lead or cohesive leadership team, a bully-like temperament (my way or no way---as evidenced by his negotiating style with the unions and Detroit's City Council), and no inclination to deep-six an aide who most around Bing consider a pretty power hungry poison within his inner circle.


No matter what magic may have befallen a mayor who be be smitten in other respects, the fact that the governor's office is stepping into Bing's office should alarm everyone.


Is it not remarkable that the business community is now prepared to thrown some money on the table to rent Bing expertise his transition team was supposed to already have?  Let's see...where have we seen that before?  Oh, yes, can anyone spell DPS?

There is a difference between keeping your eye on the prize and keeping one eye on your co-workers to make sure you you have a job tomorrow.  Bing's job today is to run the city...not to allow Governor Snyder to execute an administrative drive-by on the city's residents and assets. 


In that context, just what does "home rule" really mean when you need and allow yourself to be propped up by a business community that has successfully framed every working Joe and Jane as greedy, lazy, incompetent and too expensive to pay a decent wage? 

The air is rare on Mackinaw Island this week.  This is a place where Michigan's "royals" meet to determine the fate of  urban commoners.  The real shocker may be that perhaps the hidden agenda of this so-called "Leadership Conference" may be to start the process of selecting Bing's successor.


How many wheels does the bus have, anyway?

Obama's "Chicken or Egg" Immigration Policy

FOCUS IS IN EMPLOYERS HIRING ILLEGAL IMMIGRANTS, NOT ILLEGAL IMMIGRANT WORKER

The Obama administration has been criticized for its alleged lack of action on the immigration front.  Republicans has accused the president of playing politics when it comes to the tens of millions of illegal immigrants in this country.  The race is on for the Democrats to find a way to make democrats out of them...Republicans can count, and they would rather have them on the first bus back to Tijuana....

However, Obama's ICE is a lot colder than President Bush's ever was.

For now, the Obama administration is focusing on prosecuting employers who hire illegal immigrants.  The illegal immigrants themselves were the target of the Bush immigration policy.

The question for the day is which comes first--the employer's interest in securing low cost workers, or does the availability of low cost immigrant work lead to the work itself?

Take a look at this piece in the New York Times, and let us know where you stand:

Obama Administration Cracks Down on Illegal Immigrants’ Employers - NYTimes.com

Nolan Finley to Detroit's rescue...NOT!

Detroit News editorial director Nolan Finley has Detroit's problems all figured out.....NOT!

In an editorial published on May 26,2011 in the Detroit News, Finley suggests that Bing should have five Detroit City Council members in Bing's back pocket. What a reveal!

He even goes as far to suggest that the protections against back room deals...through his call for a so-called "waiver" of the Open Meetings Act provisions...be forfeited for Bing and what has been called Council's "fickle five", so that Detroit's future can be ordained by surreptitious imperial fiat.  What desperation!

Say what you want about Gary Brown, and at times I have been part of the chorus questioning his motives, Councilman Gary Brown has stepped up to the plate by his published statement that the votes are there to override Bing's expected veto of the city council's budget cuts.

Despite her constant voting for contracts which violate Detroit's Privitization Ordinance, Maryann Mahhafery would have a reason now to be proud of Suanteel Jenkins....Councilman Tate is the weakest link, but Council President Pugh has found his "sea legs" and appears to be settling in regarding his role of protecting Detroit's residents from Mayor Bing's version of voodoo economics...Councilman Spivey's insightful probing has illustrated that he is not a "go along to get along" seat on the council....Councilman Kenneth Cockrel is always hard to gauge, but Councilpersons JoAnne Watson, Brenda Jones, and Kwame Kenyatta are firmly grounded when it comes to advocating for the most vulnerable of Detroit's residents.


On June 6, 2011, Detroit City Council will vote on whether to override Mayor Bing's anticipated veto of council's budget.  More than anything else, it will actually be a referendum on Bing's insistence on "blended governance", which some believe to based on his past personal failure as a "businessman" and his willingness to advance the interest of ghost masters from other parts of the state.

Bing Needs a New Bogeyman

SCARE TACTICS GETTING STALE

Detroit's Mayor Bing is at it again...scaring people and demonizing others.

Mayor Bing is counting on the public to not check his  submitted budget.  He has so many vacant positions in his budget that millions of dollars can be "reprogrammed" as he, or the departments, sees fit. 

His negotiating style is "my way or the highway!"  He is actually upset that Council out-cut him!

Mayor Bing knows very well that Council cut millions of dollars in vacant positions in both the police and fire departments.

First it was city workers, then their unions, then the pension board...and now it is City Council. Mayor Bing is upset that City Council cut even deeper then he did....stole his thunder, like when City Council negotiated the pension boards giving up the $60 million....with Council's $50 million in additional cuts, Mayor Bing  seems to always need to find a bogeyman, and that bogeyman is now the Detroit City Council

The unions have been asking for years that the city bid out the health care package, but Bing is wedded to Blue Cross Blue Shield due to their moving thousands of employees to Detroit...he does not want to upset BCBS by bidding out the health care because BCBS may move their operation out of Detroit.

It is important to remember that the majority of the cuts City Council made for police and fire are for vacant positions.

There are more than 500 Detroit police officers riding a desk instead of a squad car.  If the city hired clerks to do those jobs, think of how safer Detroit would be with an extra 500 officers on the streets every single day!

Will GOP Raise "Cain" For Presidency?

To Call Cain's Candidacy A Long Shot May Be Gracious

Political newbie Herman Cain announced his candidacy to be the Republican Party's nominee for president of the United States. Despite his complete lack of elective experience, Cain believes he has what it takes to beat more mainstream GOP stalwarts to go toe to toe with President Obama.

Cain is the third leg in a political menage a trios---the GOP conditionally loves the Tea Party, which loves Cain's conservative rhetoric. He is not so much loved by Democratic and independent women, who find his position on abortion and Planned Parenthood to be nothing short of vile vitriol.

Cain has a way with words that seem to excite his base, which seem to think that his business credentials will make up for his lack of real-time political acumen. He certainly will have a hard time putting together the funds to off Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich, Tim Palenty, Mitch Daniels, Jon Huntsman, or,  for that matter, some of the junior league candidates such as Michelle Bachmann, Jon Bolton, or the quitter from Wasilla, Sarah Palin.

It won't be too long before reality sets in....the real question for Cain is whether political reality will set in or how long will it take for Cain to be relegated to nothing more a footnote in the annals of American political theater trivia?

Gingrich Goes For the Gusto

THE MORE THINGS CHANGE, THE MORE THEY REMAIN THE SAME

Newt Gingrich has made it official: He is in it to win it.

Announcing that he will run for president is not the surprise associated with the announcement, The real surprise is how much forgiveness Gingrich is banking on receiving from the American public and particularly the Republican Party's conservative wing.

Gingrich is and has been full of ideas, some of which have been pretty darn good. The issue is that they were good for the past. The present is a whole new world that seemingly has passed him by....at least from a political vantage point.  Yet old ideas die hard, as has many of his Georgian ways.

Many will question whether he has the moral rectitude to present himself as a man who would be a realistic presidential role model. His personal life is certain to be highly scrutinized. On his third marriage (he married his girlfriend, McCain style), the real question is can he be rehabilitated as a politician while being what some would call a habitual bad husband. With all due respect to Tina Turner, his marital record proves that love, or better yet, the lack of it, has everything to do with it.

Known as the guy who shut down the government, Gingrich is sure to be raked over the coals for not fessing up to the hypocrisy of his campaign of condemnation targeting Bill Clinton's infidelity while he was doing the same thing at the same time with a congressional aide.  Later on he blamed his wandering ways on the weight of his job as speaker of the house; makes you wonder what the power of the presidency might portend.

Gingrich has spent a great deal of time building up a donor base and putting together a national campaign infrastructure.  Heck, he's even been known to hang out with Rev. Al.  At the end of the day, his announcement may really be more Trumponian (to be full of oneself's grandiloquent bluster---yes that is my new synonym for 2011).


Let's follow the money.

We Don't Need Jesse Jackson to Get Justice

SORRY TO SAY JACKSON'S ON THE WAY

It has been reported that Jesse Jackson is on his way to set up shop in Benton Harbor so that he can better position his legal fight against the emergency financial manager law, Public Act 4. As an American, he is free to do so, but as a Michiganian, I say, "We got it covered."

Do those who oppose this tyrannical bastard of legislation require Jackson's presence to highlight the unconstitutionality of Public Act 4?

NOPE.

Is there no advocacy organization in Michigan that can take on this abominable take over of our right to elect our own representatives?

YEP.

Where, oh where, are the usual suspects when you need them? We have yet to see legal action taken by the Michigan office of the American Civil Liberties Union, the Michigan State Office of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, the Detroit chapter of the NAACP, etc.  

FYI, everyone: The City of Detroit's pension boards have already filed a lawsuit.  From their website:

"On April 18, 2011, the General Retirement System of the City of Detroit and the Police and Fire Retirement System of the City of Detroit (the Retirement Systems ), along with several individual active and retired City employees and pension participants, filed suit in the United States District Court for the Eastern District of Michigan challenging the constitutionality of Section 19(1)(m) of Public Act 4 of 2011, commonly known as the emergency financial manager legislation (the Act). The lawsuit challenges only Section 19(1)(m) of the Act."

Here's the link:

http://www.rscd.org/R110421%20DRS%20Challenges%20Pension%20Provision%20of%20EFM-FINAL3nocontact.pdf

While I agree this is fight is a civil rights issue as well, I believe we have the local resources necessary to stop this voiding of our right to taxation with representation.  Sure we need all the legal help we can get and that can be evidenced by the filing of amicus briefs to the pension boards' lawsuit.

So to Michigan advocates, I say:

Let's get cracking, and say thanks, but no thanks, to Jackson.

What do you think? 

Same-Sex, More Costs, Bigger Deficit?

ARE WE CATCHING UP OR GIVING IN?

Michigan's Attorney General has filed a lawsuit to stop Michigan's Civil Service Commission from going ahead with providing health care and other state employee benefits to persons living in the home of employees without benefit of those persons enjoying the title of spouse or legal dependent.

In fact, the Civil Service ruling allows for same-sex partners, their dependents/or and other non-related house-mates to receive these benefits. Attorney General Bill Schuette believes the commission exceeded its authority by extending the associated benefits. One union covering many of the employees, UAW Local 6000, believes that the benefits are a result of the collective bargaining process and should be allowed.

Michigan voters in 2004 passed a state-wide initiative defining marriage as a union between man and woman, which then prompted the Supreme Court to rule that benefits for the same-sex significant others was not allowable under that initiative. That prompted a change in contract language that broadened the definition of eligibility for these benefits. The Civil Service then ruled that based on the language change, the benefits were  allowable, which is what the fight now is about.

The AG's office says the Civil Service Commission has authority to set wages but not to establish eligibility for benefits. Another of its arguments is that since relatives and other siblings in the home are not eligible to receive those same benefits, it violates the Michigan Constitution's Equal Protection Clause.

Extending these benefits at this time clearly has a negative impact on the state's deficit. What pot of money can be shifted to offset these new costs? If the Civil Service does not prevail, is that yet another attack on a union's ability to negotiate contract terms?

Snyder sends a clear message when giving a billion dollar tax cut to business, while at the same time taxing the pensions of younger retirees. The administration says we cannot afford these benefits because it will cost the state about $8 million we don't have, but gives a tax break to the business special interest lobby while attacking vulnerable seniors with a new tax many of them cannot afford.

Can we afford it? Is it legal? Are we playing catch-up to other states that recognize same sex marriages? Is this a slippery-slope scenario? Is this yet another attack on the collective bargaining process?

Do you even care?

These Republicans Get It!

California's Orange County Republican Party's executive committee has laid the hammer down (sort of) on Marilyn Davenport, a committee member who sent an email out depicting President Obama as a baby chimpanzee.  They censured her, which was less than demanded but more than expected.

Apparently, the OCRP did not buy either one of her two apologies.  As best said in one of the comments to her actions, she played the usual "I'm not a racist" card and exposed herself by saying that she thought it was a joke. Her mea culpa included a reference to being an imperfect Christian lady.  Step back and think about that.....she actually also used the "God" card.

The group issued this statement:

"The Republican Party of Orange County condemns racism in any form, and this censure is consistent with that position."

Scott Baugh, chair of the Orange County Republican Party, went even further and asked for her resignation in a statement published on their official website:
OCGOP Chairman Scott Baugh calls for resignation of member as a result of racist email.

April 18, 2011

Citing the grossly insensitive and racist email forwarded by OCGOP Central Committee member Marilyn Davenport, Scott Baugh called on her to apologize and to step down from her elected Central Committee position. Baugh does not believe her half-hearted apology after the incident reflected the magnitude of the offense.

"It's just highly inappropriate, it's a despicable message, it drips with racism and I think she should step down from the committee," Baugh said. "It undermines everything we are doing to reach out to ethnic communities. Furthermore, it is simply wrong"

When was the last time you heard or saw the Republican Party use the word "racism" in any admonition of a party member?

Is Ms. Davenport's behavior representative of her Tea Part activism?  Is she too smart by half?

Say Hello To The "Deather" Movement

Conspirators Have Closed The Loop!

At first, it was the birthers, who did not believe that President Obama was born in America.

Now we have the omega element; those who do not believe that Osama bin Laden died in Pakistan.

What a world we live in.

Of course, the president's decision to not release the photos of bin Laden's head shot will now stoke the "deathers" to new heights of suspicion, feigned outrage, and out right delusional claims that Obama did not kill Osama.

All we need now is for Donald Trump to demand the Navy Seals' digital recordings so that he can authenticate them. The next thing you know, these folk will demand interviews with the Seals who participated in the mission, regardless of whether such identification would put our brave soldiers, their families, and others at risk of direct retaliation by Al-Qaeda.

The president's refusal to satisfy the blood-lust of the "deathers" was yet another gutsy call.  We are not like those who parade our soldiers through the street or who release videos of  beheadings, murders, and other torturous behavior. America has more class than that.

It Took An Obama To Nail An Osama

WHAT WILL HISTORY SAY ABOUT THIS?


I waited for all the hoopla to die down before weighing in on what Osama bin Laden's death means for President Obama, so here goes...

The right man was in the captain's chair at the right time. His actions belie a coolness...no, a steeliness, that many would have you believe is limited to professorial paralysis.  In billiards, "if you study long, you study wrong."  His aim was as steady as was his resolve was to keep a campaign promise to hunt Osama down wherever he would be found. In the right guy, those traits can lead to greatness.

This will be a hard act to follow.  Political capital from this success will be short-lived. There are so many other hurdles to overcome (jobs, jobs, and jobs) that 14 months from now, this will be a footnote he dare not beat the electorate over the head with when heading into November 2012.

My mother used to say "One kind act does not a saint make."  A week from now, the birthers may devolve into a conspiracy conversation with themselves about whether Osama was really buried at sea or brought back to lie the secret bowels of the Smithsonian.  Or, others will want to credit every actor in this play except the lead, relegating President Obama to nothing more than  being a bit player lucky to be in the right place at the right time Wait for it....

To get back on point, it's hard to find fault with the flawlessness of the moment, but it is just that...a moment, one we gloriously inhale for as long as our lungs will hold, only to eventually realize that what goes in that way must surely come out someway.