Five Questions for Mayor Bloomberg

I don't know if I'll get a chance between now and election day, but here are some questions I would like to ask our mayor before I vote.

1.) The residents of the city voted for term limits twice, yet you got the city council to overturn them so you could run again. Isn't your campaign thwarting the will of the voters, and what does this say about your respect for democracy?

2.) You are the richest man in New York: how can you understand the needs of average Joes like the bus-driver from Brooklyn or the carpenter from Queens.

3.) You made your fortune servicing Wall Street, and you hold your business acumen up as an asset, but given Wall Street's culpability in the current financial crisis, are you part of the problem?

4) On Meet the Press you said you did not want to take away people's legally obtained guns, but then you voiced support for an assault weapons ban, which would do exactly that. You said you were only interested in stopping the trafficking of illegal guns, yet then voiced opposition for the Thune Amendment, which had nothing to do with illegal guns. Given the inconsistencies and the obvious contradictions in your statement, why should we trust you on this issue?

5.) A blogger quoted in AM New York said that what scares him about you is your need to control everything, including people: what is your understanding of the term "nanny state", and given your stated positions on trans-fats, smoking, and sodas, aren't you trying to control people, telling them how to live their lives and how to raise their children? And how is this not elitist?

They are certainly answerable questions, but I'd like to hear him do so.

Say what?

Ok, I'm a supporter of the president. I believe int he change he is trying to bring about. But I've got to say: the Nobel Peace Prize? Now? He's not even been in office a year? I get it: we are actually being good members of the international community, we are using diplomacy and talking to people again. The UN has some status once more. But come on, what has he actually done? What has he accomplished? Nada. That SNL sit was right. I agree that the hand he was dealt was bad, and that he is moving in the right direction, but he hasn't actually *done* anything! He couldn't even get the Olympics.

In a way this proves the conservatives right once again. The Nobel Peace Prize is just a shill for globalist liberal politics. They gave Obama the prize for the same reason they gave Gore the prize: as a slap at Bush. There can be no other reason.

But at least our president now has something to brag about. It's not peace in the Middle East or a strong economy or nuclear disarmament, but it is a fancy award that everybody can talk about. He needed a win.

And therein lies the problem. I don't think Obama is the anti-Christ. The religous nut-bags who are saying that are, well, nut-bags. But I do fear that in the end he may prove to be all flash and no substance. So he won the Nobel Peace Prize. Big fat harry deal. Gays are still oppressed, we are still at war, the economy still sucks, Iran is still getting a bomb, Gitmo is still open, and my girlfriend still doesn't have health care. I wasn't one of those idiots who thought Obama was going to ride in and fix the world, but I did expect him to do SOMETHING by now. Yes, I know, it's Congress that actually does things and the President just enacts the policy that Congress sets--at least that's how it's supposed to work. But that wasn't how it worked for Bush. Obama has control of both houses of congress and so far all we have to show for it is Cash for Clunkers.

What if that's it? What is all he really is is a gifted orator, a charming man with a great story, and none of the skills necessary to get anything done. Like Kennedy. Two presidents have won the Nobel Peace Prize while still in office: Teddy Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson. Both actually accomplished something to win it. Right now we need Roosevelt. We need the guy who loved to pick fights with corporations, who negotiated the end to a major war, who broke up Standard Oil and instituted mine safety regulations and at least tried to institute national health care and, oh yes, started the American conservation movement. We don't need an intellectual who basically did nothing but send troops into war overseas and flood Hetch Hetchy.

Put the prize on your mantle, Mr. President, and spend the honorarium buying Christmas gifts for your daughters, and get back to work, because so far you are a bust and if it keeps up you well could lose the house in next years elections.

In other words you have done nothing for me lately. Or at all, for that matter.

Congratulations on winning the Nobel Prize.

Dog bites man

Tell me how exactl it's news that "Judge Empowers Jackson Executors to Handle Debts"? That was the first headline I saw when I logeged on this morning. Not the one about nuclear regulators seeing a turning point with Iran, mind you: the one about the dead King of Pop. And it's not even news: the Judge gave the executors permission to do their one and only job: distribute the estate, debtors first. In other words this IS IN NO WAY NEWS!!!!