I am writing to you from my office in Macau.  A group of Chinese businessmen have been negotiating to buy Sid’s place in Phoenix.  When they heard I was planning on moving to China along with a couple of the other women they asked Sid if she would consider moving her operation to Macau.  Sid discussed it with her  clients and the next thing I know everyone with a passport is on a private jet. When we got here, Sid announced she was planning to be a very silent partner and turn day to day operations over to me.  Needless to say, I have been consumed with the details since we arrived a few weeks ago.

I totally missed Christmas, but then Macau is more of a place Santa would visit after the Western Holiday.

I’m keeping an eye on U.S. activities and it sounds like, as expected by this writer, Duh-Bya has left a very expensive and depressing set of problems that are going to be very hard to deal with, even for a President Elect who can apparently walk on water.   I’m keeping my U.S. citizenship, but I think I’ll only come back for an occasional visit.  Asia is clearly going to be the place to be over the next 50 years.

Since I no longer live in the U.S. it wouldn’t be fair for me to continue this commentary.   B.L. alluded to the power shifts that are occuring and the need for us to consider the possibilities afforded merely by allocating our resources someplace else.  I took his words to heart and reallocated my ass-ets over here.  How are you preparing for the radical changes about to alter our world forever?

Remember BL’s verse ”Do not neglect the gift you have”
Char

When it became clear last month that you were not going to elect McCain, I decided to take some time off and enjoy all the young college students coming in to Sid’s.  The tips weren’t as good as last year but there are still a fair number of wealthy boys(and even some girls) willing to pay per view.

So as I listened to Obama begin to downplay expectations and watched Duh-Bya get ready to move out of the White House (I don’t think he realized he’s got another 2 and half months before he leaves),
it occurred to me that, given the sorry state of our country and the inexperience of the Prophet Obama, it might be a good idea to create something to help everybody out.

The Council of Former Presidents. 

Whoever wins, even if they are re-elected, in that same November the sitting President MUST convene a meeting of the Council of former Presidents.  Attendance is mandatory for the President Elect and ALL former Presidents(After all we pay them a real nice pension and a little work every four years won’t kill them).  If they are too infirmed to make the trip they MUST send an appropriate representative.
The session must be held in a fly over state and cannot be held in the same place twice.

Each Former President will be required to present to the President Elect 10 things I’m glad I did, 10 things I wish I’d never tried, and the top 10 things to look out for when you first take office.

After that, the President elect will present the 10 things they plan to do when they take office.  The former Presidents will then offer counsel on what they think of these ideas, how they can best be accomplished and/or why they shouldn’t be undertaken.

They must spend at least three days in these meetings but the President Elect can determine if more time is needed.

No advisors can be present at the sessions.
Strippers are optional, but I am available and do have some experience with Bill and Duh-Bya. 

The sitting President will be responsible for running the sessions and ensuring EVERYONE is heard.

That’s it.  What do you think?  Could Obama benefit form three days with Carter, Bush 1, Clinton and Bush 2?

Neither candidate has demonstrated ANY qualities of leadership during this economic upheaval that will prove to be far more devastating than the 9/11 attacks that kept Duh-Bya in office.

The price of gas is down and that is the common denominator when it comes to everyman’s economic indicators.  So both candidates can now lie about tax cuts that can’t possibly be delivered and programs that can’t possibly be pursued.  You see Duh-Bya spent ALL our money.  And now there is no U.S. treasury there is just a big pile of credit card debts to China, Japan and other countries.  We are the largest debtor nation now thanks to idiots in Washington who said “deficits don’t matter”.

So Obama is going to win because McCain has failed to demonstrate any compelling reason to not vote Democrat. But the bills are now past due so Obama and his democratic majority are going to have to start making the payments on Duh-Bya’s spending spree and it’s going to take much more than CHANGE to satisfy our creditors.

I was disappointed when I heard about the Bailout bill that the Senate passed.  But I was SHOCKED that the prophet Obama and maverick McCain both voted for it!  I was apalled when I read that Biden voted for it as well. 

Then Dennis Kucinich stood in the empty House chamber last night saying what a leader should be saying at this time.  This Bill does not address the root cause. This Bill should be about U.S. citizens and Jobs and Healthcare and stopping the loss of dollars and lives in Iraq.   THIS is change I can believe in.  This is leadership I can support.

Obama, McCain and Biden all voted WITH Bush on this Bill, so why should we vote for any of them?

Some of us here at Sid’s know a lot about posting bail and putting up a 700 billion dollar bond
on a guaranteed flight risk is just bad business.  We say, just lock’em all up.

The lack of intellect in Duh-bya is now legendary.  Your re-election of this man has allowed him to violate the prime directive of the Federation and ruin our diplomatic credibility.  Now it appears he and his Federal cohorts have fiddled while our financial infrastructure has been going up in smoke.  And today in a simulated panic they are trying to prop up the nation for another 3 months so this all becomes the next guys problem.

While the next guy will proabably be Obama it’s still too soon to tell whether some October surprise stunt will send you all rushing to vote for the Maverick Prisoner/Warrior.  Regardless the stuckee will have to deal with the realities of a bankrupt Federal Funding system, endless/heightened tensions in the middle east, and an undereducated, largely unqualified workforce trying to compete in a depressed global economy.

Friday’s debate gave no hint of how either of these guys might help our situation.  McCain seems to feel we can conquer anything with sufficient force.  Obama seems to think he can change everything with the mere turn of a non-commital phrase.

One of my Republican guys from the convention told me some guy named Cornel West said “the mark of a prophet is to speak the truth in love with courage…come what may”.  He was trying to make the point that McCain and Palin were such prophets.

I have no doubt that they are speaking with love and courage and maybe they actually believe they are speaking the truth.  It just doesn’t correspond to my version of the truth. Many believe in the Prophet Obama. Yet, I haven’t felt the love, sensed the courage or even heard what he considers to be the truth because he seems too worried about what will become of him if he were to speak it.

Understand, I’m still voting for Obama because the Republicans have clearly demonstrated their approach leads to crisis and ruin.  Unfortunately,  Obama is the only viable alternative…I’d have a lot more confidence if I knew Hillary was going to be in charge with Good Times Bill as her first gentleman.

Okay so Obama is going to stay on the campaign trail, because the people want to hear from the candidates on this crisis!  McCain is going to drop everything and go back to Washington to hammer out a solution. Politics be damned!  The crack Bush team presented a 3 Page bailout program to the greatest economic crisis to hit our country in 70 years and today Bush went on TV to tell us, in  just 12 minutes, what a mess we’ve gotten ourselves into and how HE can get us out.

Tell me, are you scared yet?

The Feds want to buy up all the troubled mortgages, because…because…well I guess because if they don’t the U.S. economy will suffer a melt down and we will endure another even Greater Depression.
Or so they say.  They also say that there is no credit available, even to the most credit worthy of citizens and businesses.  So?  I’m still getting credit card offers in the mail every day, and my credit is considerable less than worthy.  Sid was talking to her bookie last week and he can get her all the money she needs to renovate the dance floor,  and the vig is only 20% per year on the unpaid balance.  Business is down at SId’s but she’s still making money.  I’m still able to get all the party work I can handle and working fewer hours for Sid has acutally increased my weekly income.

I know a lot of customers and friends who are driving less and buying less, but they are making their payments and I don’t know anybody who has been laid off. 

So where is this economic crisis that we will prevent if we just add another 700 billion dollars to the National Debt?  If we’re spending 200 billion a year on the war in IRAQ does this mean we have to withhold payments to the troops for 3 and half years to fund this bail out or are we going to get this money from somewhere else?  Who is going to get this money?  Who is going to loan it to us, IF there is no credit available?

IF I thought they were smart enough I’d say this was a conspiracy to prop the U.S. up until January and then it all becomes the next guy’s problem.  But the reality is, our government is just incompetent and until we experience the inevitble economic meltdown, we will remain satisfied with politicians that keep telling us everything is going to be okay even if we know it has to be a lie.

If you die earh survives”

Last night was really slow…Guys were watching the Cowboys on Monday night football.  Sid tried to put some TVs in and have us play the cheer leader last year, but when it comes to football they would rather watch a quarterback under center than a hot tight end bent over their goal post.  So last night Sid just closed up early.

When I got home, my sister was watching the sneak preview of the new Keanu movie, “The Day the Earth Stood Still” and that’s when I caught the quote.  This movie is not a remake of the 1951 classic  with Michael Reny.  I believe it is the sequel.  From all indications the Aliens are coming back to make good on their threat to “reduce earth to a burned out cinder” because we did not heed their warning.

In B.L.’s Considering SomeplacElse, Nature is positioning us to destroy ourselves.  There is no need for klaatu barada nikto .  In Godzilla vs the Smog Monster the only way to save mankind is stop polluting the planet.  In Kevin Costner’s Rapa Nui Islanders destroy their environment in an effort to build monuments to their gods. 

This list of warnings in fiction goes on and on and on.  Unfortunately, in the United States anyway,  we seem to prefer that our ”leaders” tell us tall tales of continuing abundance and immediate gratification with no consequences.

It may all be fiction, but I prefer a story that has, at least, some basis in reality!

Well, I was in Singapore for almost a week, but when I left LAST THURSDAY Obama had an 8 point lead in the polls and McCain had given one of the dullest speeches I have ever heard!  I wake up this morning in my own bed and what do I read in the papers…”Dead Heat”.

Are you serious?  These Republicans have embroiled us in an unnecssary war, destoyed Clinton’s fragile but balanced budget, run up record deficits, ruined our financial infrastructure with enormous corporate bail outs and given more welfare to Haliburton than the combined welfare payments of every unemployed single mother ever to apply for food stamps!  You want more of this, because John McCain spent 7 years in a POW camp and deserves our admiration and sympathy for his personal sacrifice?

Now I know Obama is condescending and has yet to layout an agenda for his first 100 days.  And I know he ignored Hillary’s 18 million supporters in making the intelligent choice of Joe Biden.  And I know he has essentially the same policitcal track record as Sarah Palin.  BUT PLEASE, don’t do this.
Look beyond Obama’s ”above it all” attitude.  Forget about Hillary.  Forget about the Democrats inability to end the war and impeach Bush and Cheney. Throw the real rascals out.

Look I want women to have a shot at this as much as anyone, but Sarah Palin is not going to take us where we need to go.   I hate this two party system that forces us to vote against someone instead of for something. 

What a mess!  You elected this idiot Bush in 2004 and look what it got you.  If Obama doesn’t fix it you can vote him out in four years.  He can’t make it worse, he can only try to make it better.  And if you think for one minute that McCain/Palin are going to keep you safe from another 9/11…Think about who was in total power when we were sooo successfully attacked by terrorists FOR THE VERY FIRST TIME back in 2001.  IT WAS THE REPUBLICANS with a man in the White House, control of the House and Senate, a majority in the Supreme Court, and their hand picked operatives in all the intelligence and judicial systems!

YOU must now rise up and take control of this situation because no one is going to fix this unless YOU tell them to.  They fooled you once and you can blame them, but if they fool you this time YOU have no one to blame but yourself.

That was one of the most refreshingly comfortable deliveries I have ever heard.  No, BL’s speech on taking the Devil out of Development was off the hook. But Sarah Palin didn’t have video clips and powerpoint slides, she did it all with words.  
Damn, I wish I could vote for her.  But there are two things stopping me:
1. That McCain guy is way passed his prime and just so whack.
2. I disagree with just about everything Sarah and John represent.

I have no problem with bringing in fresh ideas and personalities to clean up government, but only if those ideas are founded in reality.  The world is NOT FLAT, Republicans.  You can’t fund anything without taxes whether it’s a war or disaster relief or 5 million ”Green” collar jobs.  We DON’T have enough oil and we can’t just steal it from IRAQ.  Women should have the right to choose.  Sarah, what if the government told you that you COULDN’T have that baby? 

I must admit that having Sarah a heart beat away from the Oval office will give me some comfort if the Democrats fail, again, to turn this country around.  But I think I’ll move to Singapore where the real capitalist action is just getting started.