I still believe that every president this country has had has been a good American who tried to make America better. Take Richard Nixon (please!) President Nixon did some great things for our country, but he had some personality flaws which occupied part of his seat in the Oval Office and proved to contribute to his downfall and to the lessening of confidence that the American public has in the presidency and government in general.
        It always gets under my skin when I hear the venom-dripping hatred some people display for our presidents. Less than two years ago that painful disdain was directed at President George W. Bush. Today, the bitter animosity is directed towards President Obama. His antagonists have lined up some serious charges against him.

        They claim that he’s a communist, an illegal president, born in Kenya. He is a liar, he has a secret plan to turn our country into a Marxist state. They assert that he is a secret Muslim, leading this country into being a Muslim nation. Those who hate President Obama see a plot behind his every move.
        Is it possible for the electorate of this great nation to be so completely flim-flamed that we would elect a Marxist, Communist, Muslim, Socialist, illegal president?
        If so, President Obama deserves not the Nobel Prize, but a golden Oscar. One for every year he serves as president.
        Our presidents have been easy targets for criticism, especially by the opposition party. President Bush got raked over the coals by the Democrats. President Obama is getting his head handed to him by the Republicans. Our government in Washington D.C. is barely able to function thanks to the bitter partisan opposition of the two parties. The country remains as an injured party, prostrate and bleeding as the politicians blithely stand over the body, contemplating their next election campaign.
        For decades our legislators have spent billions beyond our country’s realistic income. Americans by the millions have benefited from the escalating profits from selling their homes. Banks have loaned money to home buyers as if they were handing out peanuts at a ball game. They have closed down thousands of our factories in our Homeland and opened them on foreign soil. Millions of our workers are unable to find jobs as they read, with frustration, about the continued financial growth of China and India and their people.
        As Americans have pocketed the evaluations from the sales and refinancing of their homes, our federal, state and local governments have been spending as though tomorrow would never come. Americans have used their credit cards to finance a style of life the world has never before known. We have become overweight and unwilling to fill the jobs available that require physical ability.
        Our legislators and officials have filled their pockets and provided themselves with remarkably generous retirement checks. City, county, state and federal officials have awarded themselves unconscionable pensions. So large, in fact, that scores of cities in our great land are closing libraries, laying off police and firemen and letting their roads and highways rot because the pension payments have grown to grotesque proportions.
        In one American city 450 city retirees have annual pensions above $80,000 a year. This same city has projected that 47 per cent of its operating budget by the year 2025 will be for pensions.
        So, while were sniping at our presidents our local governments were digging into their coffers and fattening their pensions to obscene amounts.
        The time has come for Americans to pay attention to all of its governments, from small town to Washington D.C.
        Americans need to study their ballots and get out and vote. The absence of interest in what our politicians have been doing has finally caught up with America. We are about to come to the realization that one of two things is going to happen in America. We are going to pay more in taxes or we are going to be faced with greatly increased fees for services – and perhaps both.
        We are headed for a period of adjustment. We are headed for a time when Americans must pay attention to what is happening in our country.
        We have had it easy for a few decades now, but those days are over.
        Like my old grandmother used to say, “Pay now or pay later, but you’ll pay.”
        God bless America and don’t forget to vote next election.

       I’ve always been an independent voter. Even a moderate. I’ve believed, and still do, that our presidents have all been good Americans. I didn’t care a lot for President George W. Bush, but that was based more on his personality than his intrinsic beliefs, although some of his decisions left me cold and mystified. I liked President Obama because he is intelligent, charming and has the capability to communicate openly and effectively, although, some of his communicating lately have missed the mark.

“In the new millennium, the world will turn to Hawai’i in its search for world peace because Hawai’i has the key…and that key is aloha,” Pilahi Paki declared prophetically in 1970. At the futuristic Governor’s Conference on the Year 2000 held in Honolulu, this Hawaiian woman in a red-and-white muumuu bravely faced the international audience and shared her definition of aloha. A Hawaiian language teacher and cultural consultant, Paki, a native of Maui, cut through the political and academic rhetoric with the wisdom of her ancestors. She described aloha as “the coordination of mind and heart.” She said it was not just a word, but the working philosophy of her Hawaiian ancestors, who bequeathed to her the following definition:

A stands for akahai, meaning kindness, to be expressed with tenderness.

 

L stands for lokahi, meaning unity, to be expressed with harmony.

 

O stands for ‘olu’olu, meaning agreeable, to expressed with pleasantness.

 

H stands for ha’aha’a, meaning humility, to be expressed with modesty.

 

A stands for ahonui, meaning patience, to be expressed with perseverance.

     I was tired when I settled into the recliner. I turned on the television set and waited for the picture to appear. I could barely keep my eyes open and I knew that within minutes I would be asleep. It didn’t matter what showed on the television – I was worn out and wanted to take a nice, long nap.
     A “talking head” appeared on the screen. I watched the man’s lips move and I heard him say, “ Hi, my name is Walter Cranktite and welcome to the ‘Truth Channel,’ where you’ll find out the truth about what people are saying in government, sports, religion, politics, advertising and show business.”
     “Truth Channel?” What was this? Never heard of it. I flipped out the foot rest on the recliner and decided to stay awake a bit longer.
       The announcer reporter, "And now we bring you the 'Sodium Pentothal Hour,' where we inject a prominent person with sodium pentothal, or as it is also know, truth serum.  Then we ask them penetrating questions in order to find out if they've been telling the America Public the truth.

I know what men want. Men want to be really, really close to someone who will leave them alone"
                     ...Elayne Boosler


"Some things aren't funny. Beatings aren't funny. Stabbings aren't funny. Mimes aren't funny. But beating and stabbing a mime - why is that hilarious?"
                           ... Dave Attell

 

"My mom was a little weird. When I was little Mom would make chocolate frosting, and then she'd let me lick the beaters. And then she'd turn them off"
                        ...Marty Cohen

 

"My boyfriend won't see anything he terms a "chick film." That's any film where the woman talks"
                          ...Maura Lake

 

"You know it's not a good wax museum when there are wicks coming out of the people's heads"

                     ...Rick Reynolds

"Argh. How disgusting. How could you even suggest that people were eating 'donut cheeseburgers." Next your writers will be writing about eating liver. Double Argh."

"Puhleeze. My stomach is churning, just thinking about Krispy Kreme cheeseburgers!"

"Isn't there something else your writers can write about. Krispy Kreme and cheeseburgers don't go together, never will."

"How could America let that mosque be build so close to where the great tragedy happened?"

"No, no and no. Don't let that mosque be build where those murders took place."

"This is American. Land of the free. Home of the brave. Let them build their mosque."