Notice that Mike Brown has stepped down from FEMA due to everyone realizing that the emperor has no clothes. Could this be the first of many cronies to be removed from key government positions? Don’t get me wrong, I understand you have to try and get your friends and family a job, but one they are wholeheartedly unqualified for? This kind of stuff is ruining America.

NPR said today that there was a Plum book that is given to the president, which lists all the jobs that don’t require any kind of committee approval or congressional approval to appoint a person to. The people should take the opportunity and look through this book and find all of the other Mike Browns in government today.

FEMA used to do a decent job before cronyism and lack of funding messed it up. Based on this same logic, we should continue to move away state and local responsibilites to the federal government in those cases where the federal government is responsible in the case of a national crisis. To this end, I propose we put the education department under the military. Also, driver’s licenses and testing should be done by the Pentagon. After all, the interstate system does run across states and it connects local roads to federal roads.

Hopefully, when this comes to Congress they will not try to pass the disaster relief buck to an already stretched thin military, but will solve the underlying issues. Homeland Security must fulfill its mission of coordinating information and capabilities to protect the lives and security of U.S. citizens. Whether the attack be by terrorists, weather, disease, or other threats, we need to have coordinated preparation and response. Not the finger pointing and buck-passing that has occurred as of late.

I’m allowing comments on this post for the next week or so.

Hillary in 2008 = Democrats lose again
Bush needs to go away = Cheney in power = I move to Mars

So with those two equations, I mean the following. Hillary going for the presidency is pretty dumb. We’ll lose the presidency again. Democrats need to rally to the working people again. While special-interests are important ($$$), we need to rally our old base with legislation and bills to improve the working man’s life. Let the Republicans continue to court Christian conservatives and big business. Democrats need to go after low hanging fruit that appeals to most people. Things like protecting personal information, security (we have to take this away from the Reds), financial protection, workers rights, social rights.

I used to want Bush out of office, but I changed my mind since that would put Cheney in command. Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night, drenched in sweat, thinking that Cheney is a heartbeat away from the Oval Office and that their might be more pretzels in a bowl somewhere with George W’s name on it. Cheney would be scarier than Bush. I’m sure it slows the process of passing evil legislation to have to explain to Bush why he has to sign these bills and to keep his attention long enough to put pen to paper. Cheney would undoubtedly eliminate that bottleneck. Long live Bush I say.

Thanks goodness the 22nd Amendment is there. However, I think considerable progress to armageddon has already been made.

Why doesn’t the media go after Bushie and Cheney as two guys who dodged the Vietnam War and now eagerly send our noble men and women into war. Why doesn’t the Kerry campaign paly up that fact that not only was Bushie a war-dodger, but he also has had a hard time even proving he did stuff in the National Guard. This seems like the big submarine torpedo to launch at the campaign.

Also, Bush is so freakin pro-business that his administration has not fully funded the Small Business Administration. Why doesn’t he help out the small-business owners, the ones he says create the most American jobs? I guess because they aren’t filling his party coffers by attending little $500 a plate luncheons.

Mrs. Bush came by Birmingham yesterday to look at our schools and also pose for $5000 pics with campaign donors.

See what I mean… too much.

Tomorrow, geek stuff…

Where to begin? I was up in North Carolina a while ago. Yara and I visited UNC-Chapel Hill for residency programs, business schools, law schools, and Gerry Andrady. Gerry is a great friend from my Deloitte days. In some ways, he is a lot like a male Yara, careful, dependable, and risk-averse. Or maybe Yara is Gerry-like. He showed us what had changed in NC since we last left. His brother, Anthony, gave me one of the fastest experiences I’ve ever had. He let me ride in his silver bullet Acura NSX. This has to be one of the fastest production cars in the world. It was unbelievable how well that car gripped the road and adored the gas. Those things should be licensed as time machines because the world seems to slow down even though you are racing along at 90 mph in a 30 mph zone. We cruised with the T-tops off and wind blowing through our hair. Then he let me drive the car. Oh my God. There are no words to describe the experience, except a sacred communion between man and machine. Amen. Thank you Anthony from the bottom of my heart. We also got to drive around a Spyder convertible the whole weekend, but it of course paled in comparison after driving the NSX.

Let’s see here, Yara and I watched the peep show that was the Super Bowl. I’ve noticed that Justin’s apology stated that it was unintentional and an accident. Janet’s apology stated that it was planned after the final rehearsals. I really doubt that MTv will be doing the half-time show next year, but it will likely be some major entertainment stars without the channel sponsor. Her nipple ring was cool, but I don’t think it brought about the results Janet wanted. Apparently, Justin’s dumb album sales have risen since the incident. I still can’t believe that Janet did part of Rhythm Nation, that song is so old!!

Kerry for President? I guess Dean is too much of a radical and just too outside. Kerry is now the dominant front runner. He is considered the most electable and most likely to beat Bush. However, Kerry is the ultimate political insider. He’s been a career politician, married into a fortune (Heinz), and went to the same schools as GWB (Yale ‘66). He may end up being too much of an insider. Will we have a Goldilocks like situation and end up somewhere in the middle? Edwards or Clark. Doubtful. It seems Kerry will continue to ride the press wave through the March primaries and lock in the nomination. Unless, some A+ dirt can be dished out about him. If there was some, it would surely have been released by now. The only other case is if the Republicans release it for the fall election.

Personally, I’ve been doing my thing. I’ve been skiing a lot lately. We got back from a week of skiing in Steamboat and are going to Vail in another two weeks for another week. I’m trying to drop some quick pounds so my knees won’t throb so much after some long skiing. I’ve been doing blacks lately. The key for me was to learn how to use my poles to turn. Now moguls aren’t so daunting as long as they aren’t deeper than my knees. I even had a chance to practice my skiing in powder. It’s a lot different than skiing groomed snow when the powder gets deep. It’s fun to fall in though.

I’m off to bed now. Hope you are a little happier now Hume and the rest of you. I’m not dead.

I think then next few days will bring meetings at the UN denouncing Israel’s actions. These will pretty much go ignored as economic sanctions will not be imposed. Colin Powell will again be sent to the area to give stern warnings which the Israeli government will heed for a few days only to begin again after the spotlight shifts away.

If a country has a right to attack terrorist camps in another country, does that mean a country could attack one of the extremist groups training here in the US? After all, we have over 700 hate groups operating in the US. (Yeah, it f***ing scares me to see these peckers in my state).