The People Speak: Watch it and thank me later

I don't often get giddy over anything I watch on television. Typically I only watch news shows and the policy wonk type of stuff you only get on PBS.

That being said, I'm going to throw the full weight of TOKM behind The People Speak on The History Channel.

It's an awesome look at U.S. history through the eyes of those who stood to lose the most and gain the least, no matter the outcome of our country's watershed events.

It's narrated by one of my favorite authors, the infamous Howard Zinn. He's more of a patriot than I'll ever be, but he's hated just the same by the sheepish "my country, right or wrong" crowd.

I'm sure most of you have read "The People's History of the United States," but Zinn has also written several other books on a range of topics that are good reads.

I won't give much away, but my favorites parts are as follows:

1.) The rendition of a speech given by John Brown after his siege on Harper's Ferry. Brown's is a great story and worth reading. He got put to death for what hundreds of thousands ostensibly died for just a few years later: the abolition of slavery. I recently drove to Harper's Ferry (which is now in West Virginia) to be near the setting for the signal event of the Civil War.

A side note: One of my favorite poems is by Herman Melville and about the hanging of Brown. I put this baby to memory years ago, but it's fading.

THE PORTENT

by: Herman Melville (1819-1891)

Hanging from the beam,
Slowing swaying (such the law),
Gaunt the shadow on your green,
Shenandoah!
The cut is on the crown
(Lo, John Brown),
And the stabs shall heal no more.

Hidden in the cap
Is the anguish none can draw;
So your future veils its face,
Shenandoah!
But the streaming beard is shown
(Weird John Brown),
The meteor of the war.


2.) John Legend performs "No More Auction Block."

So, set your DVRs or do whatever you have to do to see this.

Obama's political life hinges upon KSM trial? Pat thinks so

This, my friends, is how you write a column.

In a recent WorldNet Daily column, Pat Buchanan lays out the political ramifications of the Justice Department's decision to give a civilian trial to 9-11 conspirator Khalid Sheikh Mohammed.

Buchanan writes:

For if we are at war, why is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed headed for trial in federal court in the Southern District of New York? Why is he entitled to a presumption of innocence and all of the constitutional protections of a U.S. citizen?

Is it possible we have done an injustice to this man by keeping him locked up all these years without trial? For that is what this trial implies – that he may not be guilty.

And if we must prove beyond a reasonable doubt that KSM was complicit in mass murder, by what right do we send Predators and Special Forces to kill his al-Qaida comrades wherever we find them? For none of them has been granted a fair trial.

And then there's this:

In America, trials often become games, where the prosecution, though it has truth on its side, loses because it inadvertently breaks one of the rules.

The Obamaites had best pray that does not happen, for they may be betting his presidency on the outcome of the game about to begin.

This is a mistake, in my opinion, with the potential to be a calamity for Obama. Honest to God, I don't know who is advising this man.

The claims 'are ridiculous': How the federal stimulus plan has done nothing for Michigan

Is it any wonder that an increasing number of Americans don't trust their government to run anything?

Remember the near $800 billion dollar stimulus package that was supposed to be the cure-all for the American economy? Well, it has been an abysmal failure. It has not jump-started the economy or created jobs -- the unemployment rate has only gotten higher.

Why? Because the money didn't go into job creation. It went somewhere else, though no one really knows where.

Look at Michigan and its worst-in-the-nation economy for proof that the stimulus was a total debacle.

Just this morning the Detroit Free Press published a story that said, in essence, that the stimulus practically created ZERO jobs for this state.

From FREEP:

WASHINGTON -- Seven months into the massive federal stimulus program, the vast majority of government grants, contracts and loans in Michigan so far have created or retained virtually no jobs, a Free Press analysis shows.

The analysis also revealed that others who have been promised or have received stimulus money have overstated -- in some cases greatly -- the number of jobs created or protected.

Obama administration and state officials say it's too early to draw conclusions about the overall impact of the $787-billion nationwide program to stimulate the economy and generate jobs. They promise that job growth will follow as more funding arrives.

"It looks to us like the program is unfolding much as we hoped in Michigan," said White House economic adviser Jared Bernstein.

Just as you hoped? That's the single most idiotic statement I've read all year. Come to Michigan Mr. Bernstein and revise your statement.

Are man-made carbon emissions off the hook? One scientist thinks so

If you're like me, you're probably somewhat tired of all the climate change/global warming misinformation coming out of the talking heads all over the world.

For me, it's not a very difficult issue to comprehend:

Has there been an increase in the temperature of the globe of late: Yes.

Have we seen marked, if still mostly subtle, changes in global climates: Yes.

Who's responsible for most of it: Not us.

Honestly, it's the height of human arrogance to suggest that we, the people of earth, are so significant that we could be responsible, in any substantial way, for global warming (or global coolng, for that matter).

Recently, a geologist in Australia made the case that the "recent rise in temperature around the world is caused by solar cycles and other 'extra terrestrial' forces."

Imagine that, forces outside of our charge and (and even our planet) are responsible for a faux phenomenon that we've been trying to take the blame for all this time?

An economist would approach the issue this way: How much are we responsible for (i.e. what we can control)? Once we've established that, do the benefits of alleviating our miniscule role in global climate change outweigh the costs of the alleviation? The answer, most likely, will be a resounding no.

Some have suggested that, at minimum, 1.5 percent of global GDP should be reserved for reversing global warming. That's 1.5 percent of $61,000,000,000,000.00 folks. We'd be better off investing in giant plastic ice cubes.

Is it too late for diplomacy with Iran?

I spent 90 minutes this afternoon in downtown Detroit at a restaurant that's way too swanky for a guy like me. I was invited to be a part of a luncheon sponsored by the Jewish Community Council of Metro Detroit.

The council invited Hilary Krieger, the Washington Bureau Chief for the Jerusalem Post, to speak about the possibility of a peace deal being brokered in the region with the help of the new U.S. administration.

Afterwards, she opened up the floor for questions and I couldn't help but get in the mix.

Jared: What is the perception of the United Nations on the Israeli street? Does the U.N. have an credibility there with respect to Iran's nuclear ambitions.

Hilary: (and I'm paraphrasing) Absolutely not. The Israeli people think that the United Nations has been powerless to do anything of substance to rein in Iran. And she went on.

Of course, I pretty much knew what the answer would be before I asked. I was just struck that during the course of her entire 45-minute talk, she never mentioned the U.N. -- not once.

How impotent is this body? Iran has simply thumbed its nose as each and every U.N. resolution aimed at quelling their nuclear motivations.

Putting aside the U.N. as a somewhat benign variable, is time truly running short for diplomacy with Iran? I get the sense from Krieger that it is, and that the Israeli people are looking for a stronger stance on Iran from the American government.

It's scary to think that a military strike on Iran made be in the offing in mere months if nothing can be done diplomatically to solve the Iranian problem. It's the 500-pound gorilla in the room that most Americans, I believe, aren't paying a whole lot of attention to.

I'm afraid that it may be too late for diplomacy. I believe Israel may well be on the verge of taking military action against Iran. The Iranians cannot be allowed to become a nuclear power, and Israel is the only country in the world willing to do what the western powers secretly know has to be done.

'O' No: My media man-crush went too far

My television viewing habits are pretty predictable. Every weeknight I record two shows: Hardball with Chris Matthews for my politics fix and The O'Reily Factor for news and entertainment -- oh, and few ask hard questions to people in power these days like Bill O.

Last night, Matthews, during a discussion of the recent massacre at Fort Hood, wondered allowed if it's a crime to contact Al Qaeda. If it isn't, it certainly should be. That was about the maturity level of the whole handwringing discussion. The only storyline with respect to the massacre is this: How on earth was Major Hasan still active in the United States military in spite of all the outward signs that he was a threat?

To make matters worse, Bill O'Reilly inexplicably used the massacre as the centerpiece for his goofy News Quiz segment. You know, the one in which he brings in friends from the network to compete against one another to see who is more hip to current event.

In any event, it was in extremely poor taste and I'm surprised no one at the network thought it was over the top.

BILL: It hasn't even been a week since 13 U.S. troops were gunned down on American soil, and you want to make this tragedy the centerpiece of a goofy trivia game?

Go with the 3-wood, save the world

In a recent study, scientists plumbed the depths of Loch Ness to uncover a near universal truth, unknown to many weekend warriors:

Go with the 3-wood, save the world.

From CNN:

Research teams at the Danish Golf Union have discovered it takes between 100 to 1,000 years for a golf ball to decompose naturally. A startling fact when it is also estimated 300 million balls are lost or discarded in the United States alone, every year. It seems the simple plastic golf ball is increasingly becoming a major litter problem.

This, of course, isn't an attack on my eco-conscience since I, unlike so many, hit the ball straight as an arrow (laugh).

It's no wonder that the degradation of golf balls is having a noxious affect on the environment; I mean, have you seen what they're making golf balls out of these days?

When I was a kid, I can still remember cutting into a golf ball and finding tightly wound rubber bands. I called them Balatas, because that's what Titleist decided to call theirs (though Titleist balls were too expensive for me). I didn't much care for them because they didn't travel very far. The new balls, the ones that got me the distance, were made of all sorts of stuff that I'd only heard about in science class -- stuff like this: surlyn, urethane, titanium and zinc.

And what about that number? 300,0000,000 golf balls are lost in the United States every year. Seriously, since most golfers are not very good (myself included), let's just be good citizens of the world and put away the driver.

Most people that I know can't hit the driver straight for love or money. Do the right thing, folks.