A new poll of America’s 18-29 year-olds released yesterday by Harvard’s Institute of Politics gives the Republican Party serious hope for change in 2010.

The poll reveals a significant enthusiasm gap among young voters, with young Republicans expressing greater eagerness to vote in November’s midterm elections than their young Democrat counterparts. Among young Republicans, 41 percent said they will “definitely be voting in November” compared to 35 percent of under-30 Democrats and 13 percent of young Independents.

Even more significantly, young McCain voters are much more likely than young Obama voters to show up at the polls in 2010. Fifty-three percent of under-30 McCain voters say they will definitely vote, compared to 44 percent of those who supported President Obama. There have been early signs that the young Americans who helped fuel the Obama campaign are not beholden to the Democrats: Bob McDonnell won the under-30 demographic 54-44 in Virginia’s gubernatorial election, and only 15 percent of 18-29 year-olds came out to the polls in the crucial Massachusetts Senate special election.

Those were not the poll’s only hopeful signs for the center-right. On the question of political ideology, a statistically equal number of young Americans identified themselves as conservative as they did liberal (34 percent vs. 36 percent, within the poll’s +/- 2.3 percent margin of error).

What a difference a year makes.

But that data does not necessarily translate into party identification on the right. When asked about party affiliation, the exact same number (36 percent) who said they were liberal also called themselves Democrats. But only 23 percent identified as Republicans, 11 percent less than those who called themselves conservative.

The GOP still has a long way to go to revive its brand among America’s youngest generation of voters. But this new data gives the Republican Party hope that its youth movement, once thought lost, can be found – and maybe as early as November.

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Rachel Hoff is a young conservative activist based in Washington, D.C. She developed and implemented a strategy for national media outreach that has established the Young Republicans as the prominent voice of young conservatives, with YR leaders appearing on Fox News, CNN, MSNBC, NBC, and CBS totaling over $2 million of earned media coverage.

My frustration with the rampant government spending hit the tipping point last night.  I’ll preface my point by saying that one can learn a lot about the state of a nation by watching its infomercials at 3 A.M.

An older man and woman appear on the screen.  They’re both past their prime, struggling to rekindle their energy.  Just like some American auto companies and banks.

They’re smiling and flirting as the woman nestles her wrinkly face into the man’s wrinkly neck, whispering sweet-nothings into his Miracle Ear.  Just like when auto companies and banks sweet-talk the government and rub each other’s backs.

A few more seconds pass, and the truth is revealed.  It’s an infomercial for a product that will improve a man’s “sexual performance” with a “vacuum therapy system.”

It’s a penis pump.

You can be scarred for life here:  www.youtube.com/watch?v=sJrPaeOjp1Y

It’s supposed to increase the size, stamina, and performance of the man.  Just like how the bailouts and stimulus packages were supposed to increase the size, stamina, and performance of the economy.  Yet, where are the jobs?

It’s supposed to cure impotency.  Yet, where’s the improvement?

It’s supposed to be “complete” and “last a lifetime.”  Yet, where’s the stability?

People who used the pump give testimonials, swearing that it actually does work.  Even the President of the company gives a sales pitch to vouch for its quality.

Sound familiar?

Yet, it’s an infomercial.  We all know one thing about informercials:  they lie.

Cue Representative Joe Wilson.

The pump probably doesn’t work.  In fact, it probably weakens men, requiring them to become dependent on the pump to get any kind of future performance.

And so it goes with cushy government bailouts, exorbitant taxing, and reckless spending to artificially pump up the economy only for it to fall limp again.  The only thing Obama’s stimulus packages have produced is [un]natural male government enlargement.  In terms of Obama hitting his economical targets, he has only shot blanks.

But, wait!  There’s more!

The pump is covered by Medicare.  Is there no end to government waste?  Is this part of the Obamacrats’ “comprehensive health care reform?”  Is this part of “No Penis Left Behind?”

Not only is our hard-earned money going to bankrupt companies, deadbeat homeowners, and illegal immigrants, but now it’s also going to impotent men.  Actually, our tax money is already going to one impotent man, who would probably claim his “pumps” have saved or created (how can it be both?) thousands of jobs.

Yet, there is one striking difference between the pump and our government.  The pump has a 100% customer satisfaction money-back guarantee.  It also warns that “results may vary.”

Wouldn’t it be nice if the government did the same?

First to chime in was Steve Christopher, running in the highly charged Attorney General primary for the Republican Party.  Christopher was the second offering to come up against Party Favorite Mike DeWine.  Just as Christopher’s campaign appeared to have the positional to upset DeWine in an election mirroring  Scott Brown’s big win in Massachusetts, Bruuner’s announcement hit the media by storm.

Brunner announced Christopher was disqualified and indicated had not even turned in enough signatures to meet the minimum requirement of 1000.  While Brunner’s press release indicated only 770 have been turned in, the real number was 2750!  Within hours,  Christopher’s campaign released a receipt stamped by an elections official at the Secretary of State’s office attesting that 2750 had been received directly contradicting the press release.  To make matters worse, when Brunner’s office was confuted they stood by the claim of 770 even in the face of proof from their own office!

Many people in Ohio are continuing to cry foul, as Brunner had also disqualified several candidates in the very same Democratic primary for an open US Senate Seat she is on the ballot for.  The Columbus Dispatch reported today: “Democrat Traci “TJ” Johnson alleges foul play and conflict of interest by Brunner, whose office certified 834 of the nearly 2,000 signatures Johnson submitted — 166 short of qualification for the ballot.”

Rumors are now floating around the Columbus that members of the State Senate are preparing to open an investigation into the Office of Secretary of State.  Calls for large public protests in front of Brunner’s office in true TEA Party fashion are everywhere.  This combined with the potential for several high profile law suites, the answer seems clear.  Jennifer Brunner needs to retract her statements and certify these candidates soon.  With every day that passes, she brings more shame to the office she was entrusted by the people of Ohio to serve and places at risks the very future of her own political career.

As the nation’s frustration and anger continued to rise, a CNBC anchor by the name of Rick Santelli went on an on-air rant, clearly articulating what many everyday Americans were feeling as they watched from their living rooms – exasperation at the economic illiteracy of the White House and Congress. Citizens around the country who had never protested anything in their lives got tired of yelling at their televisions and being ignored by those with whom they’d entrusted the responsibility of leadership and representation by and of the people. Thus they were compelled to get up, get out of their comfort zones and protest the out-of-control spending and taxation they’d been subjected to for far too long from both Democrats and Republicans. “Taxed Enough Already” or T.E.A. became a national slogan. And in the spirit of 1776, the modern-day TEA Party movement was born. Some may argue the order of events, or the actual individuals responsible for setting it in motion, but what is undeniable is the fact that a signification movement had been established.

“Tea Party” has now become synonymous with the preponderance of grassroots organizations that have sprung up in all 50 states, and in every corner of the country. Groups like Tea Party Express, Tea Party Patriots, 9/12 and DC Works For Us – all grassroots organizations with parallel goals – have grown and attracted like-minded, patriotic Americans, offering them a vehicle through which they can assemble peacefully to express their discontent, make their voices heard, and above all, stop the radical agenda of the Obama Administration and their ultra-left wing allies in Congress – an agenda aided and instigated by special interest groups including the labor unions; the environmental lobby; ACORN; and other far-left groups.

By way of town hall meetings, street corner protests, mass phone calling drives, emailing and faxing campaigns, social networking and of course, the million-plus person 9/12 March on Washington, D.C., Americans have repeatedly tried to get the message across to those who are supposed to represent them, that they fully reject statism and socialism – the obvious and undesired direction in which their elected leaders are moving this nation.

In response to the sincere efforts of average, hard-working, tax-paying American citizens to exercise their First Amendment right to peacefully express their grievances, the President of the United States, the U.S. Senate Majority Leader, and the Speaker of the House of Representatives promptly branded them as “racists”, “Nazis”, “tea baggers” (an especially repugnant term), “Astroturf” and even “un-American”. Members of Congress have literally laughed at the notion of reading bills that will have long-reaching and potentially devastating effects on our nation, imposing an even greater burden on already struggling people and businesses.

But in spite of the smear campaign propagated against them, freedom-loving Americans refused to be stopped; the voices of true patriots would not be silenced.

Now several months later, due to the tenacity of the American people, passage of Obamacare is still in doubt, cap and trade is stalled in the Senate and the Democrats are poised to suffer an electoral massacre in November.

However, the narrative has also changed somewhat. Many Republicans, seeing an opportunity unavailable to them since 1994, are fighting the good fight against the president’s agenda by voting against the harmful, socialist legislation Obama, Reid and Pelosi seem hell bent on passing, even at the cost of their majorities in both houses of Congress. Some, but unfortunately not all, appear to have gotten the people’s message and are heeding it, while RINOs like Lindsey Graham, John McCain and Charlie Crist continue to play footsie with progressives on things like “climate change”, “cap and trade” and amnesty for illegal immigrants.

Simultaneously, just this past week Nancy Pelosi, the same woman who once demonized everyone who opposed the radical agenda of the Democrat majority, publicly stated that when you get right down to it, she actually has “a lot in common with the Tea Party”. No doubt the speaker herself is still trying to figure out exactly what she meant, along with every member of legitimate, grassroots organizations.

Pelosi aside, there are other much more sinister, disturbing changes in the narrative of the movement. Some self-appointed “leaders” of the Tea Party have begun to enjoy the power and notoriety involved in steering and orchestrating a large group in the achievement of a shared goal. They’re no longer involved in order to save our nation from the runaway spending and relentless march towards socialism and statism, but instead to promote themselves and – in some cases – make a nice, healthy, self-serving profit (assuming their motivations were even pure to begin with). There are some that have never met a television camera, a microphone, or a reporter they didn’t like. When mugging for the camera and getting your name in print become more important than the ultimate goal of the movement, then either the movement collapses or a new one replaces it.

Some have tried to spawn a Tea Party political party, which has led to lawsuits and distracted from the basic purpose of the movement. Not all the attempts at creating a political party using the Tea Party name have come from within, however. Here in Florida for instance, it’s rumored that two Democrat lawyers filed the papers and have been suing Tea Party groups, in an effort to force them to stop using the name. Obviously, this is a concerted attempt to hurt the movement from the outside, but it’s still an unwanted distraction.

Either way, forming a third party now won’t stop the progressive agenda everyone has been valiantly fighting against. Like it or not, at its core, the Republican Party is the party of smaller government, lower taxes, strong national defense and pretty much everything else the Tea Party and companion grassroots groups hold dear. We simply have to elect Republicans who will support, uphold and fight for the ideals outlined in the party platform – Republicans who have not been corrupted by Beltway-itis. In other words: voters must take responsibility for informing themselves, and then choosing their candidates wisely.

Human nature being what it is, yet another problem has cropped up in the grassroots movement: inter-group rivalries. As Democrats, Republicans and the media have come to call every grassroots person a “tea partier”, and every group by the generic term “tea party”, some within certain Tea Party Patriot groups have expressed their disdain for members of other grassroots groups for working within our established political system to effect positive change through dialogue with party leaders. Such folks are doing everything they can possibly do to get both Republicans and Democrats to heed the will of the people – a simultaneously valid and welcome approach that should be applauded by all like-minded Americans.

Is it jealousy? Is it vanity? Is it a desire for the party to never end? Historians and citizens can be the judges of that. But what’s apparent is that there are members and true leaders who have become disenchanted with what has become of the movement and have decided to move on to other things. There is a splintering occurring – not everywhere or in every organization – but definitely within some of the most powerful and most well-known groups. So far they’ve managed to keep the disharmony quiet, but it’s becoming more pronounced and detrimental.

This writer is not a member of any aforementioned group, but is well-acquainted with many of their members, and is quite concerned by what he sees. He’s spent much of his time trying to get the Republican Party back to its fiscally conservative roots from the inside, because ultimately the genuine platform of the GOP is in line with the goals of the various grassroots organizations. All the while, he’s been supporting friends who are actively involved in their fight to let those in power know that they’ve lost the consent of the governed. When he observes the infighting, and the resulting departure of genuine grassroots leaders due to understandable disgust and frustration, he feels legitimate concern that the movement may come to a crashing halt.

Those who are in it for themselves should either get with the program or step aside. If they can’t or won’t do the right thing, then their members should either remove these selfish figureheads or move on to another group. With our very freedoms at stake, real American patriots have no room or tolerance for grandstanders and camera hogs.

The lesson Ohio learned late Friday is NEVER trust a career politician! A clearly political action Secretary of State Jennifer Brunner again reared her ugly head. After all she is the Queen of elections; she is the ultimate decider of who is elected in Ohio and who isn’t, no matter what the committees say and no matter what the people say.

Brunner is no stranger to the spotlight. Most of us remember her in the 2008 election taking quiet orders from the Democratic Party, and the Obama campaign. In that election she turned her eye away from massive voter fraud in Ohio by groups like ACORN who had registering thousands of illegitimate voters. It’s ironic that her office now seems to take the idea of validating signatures seriously.

As November approaches and Brunner makes her bid for Ohio open US Senator’s seat on the Democrat ticket, she plaid her last ace in her Progressive hand. Seeing a primary with four other opponents, she decided now was the time to make her move. Leaking a press release under the cover of darkness late Friday night, her office announced they had disqualified not 1, not 2, but 3 of her opponents.

Charlena Renee Bradley of Lyndhurst and Traci Johnson of Hilliard – were disqualified from the Senate race. Bradley filed 1,170 signatures, but her office claimed that only 642 were valid. Fewer than half of the 1,305 signatures Johnson submitted were considered valid.

If voiding 50% of signatures submitted sounds unbelievable, would you believe over 70%? Sounds nearly impossible, even if ACORN collected the signatures? This is where the story gets even worse.

At the same time Brunner used her office to “Clear the Field” in true Saul Alinsky syle, she also disqualified 2 entries in the Ohio Attorney General race in the up coming Republican Primary.

Steve Christopher, Tea Party favorite who stood to upset Mike DeWine who has been reluctantly endorsed by the GOP, filed 2,700 signatures out of the 3,100 he collected, yet the office claims only 638 valid signatures. Owens, who ran unsuccessfully for attorney general in a 2008 special election, filed only 282 valid signatures according the Brunner’s office.

So let’s see if I have this right: Brunner clears the field by using her office, buries the story on a Friday night. To cover herself even further she co-opts fellow progressives within the Republicans party to take down the “Little Candidate that Could” defeat Steve Christopher. You know the one the TEA Parties want, the same TEA Parties the Party has worked so hard to become friends with. The Republicans get what they want, and can blame her, and since they got their way won’t make a stink about any of her actions. Actions mind you, that are a conflict of interest at the least, and down right illegal at the worst. Every one wins right? Except you and I, the people trying to change Columbus, the people who have been promised our voices would be heard.

The papers got the headlines wrong again. The Columbus Dispatch read:
Only 3 races to be contest in May ballot
Five candidates booted for filing too few signatures
Can we go with this one instead:
Secretary of State Brunner Counts Better in 2010 after Learning fro 2008 Election
After not investigating thousands of illegal votes, She made up for it in disqualifying signatures in her own race
or maybe:
Progressives Reach across Party Lines to Help Each other Stay in Power
Secretary of Sate Brunner fixes both Democrat and Republican Primaries to further the cause

I could go on, but why bother. That was yesterday, now what are we going to do about it today? Steve Christopher will appeal, and according to their campaign have copies of and are having the signatures independently evaluated for every one for them. Keep the pressure on the media to report this, or outcome will not change. Every members of the Ohio Central Committee (paid for by the DeWine campaign) knows that there were two possibilities here: One he would go away, and two he would fight. They will now help Brunner by ignoring the story, and helping delay any appeal so that they can cheat DeWine over the finish line. Don’t believe me? Ask Dave Yost, the former front runner who was duped by the party to change races, and is now getting kicked while down by county party endorsements against him. And you thought Chicago politics were bad.

The Tea Party movement was created, in part, as a reaction to Bush and the other big spenders. It was created as a non-partisan group long before Obama was elected. It was certainly not created as a racist slur. It’s not even anti-democrat, per se. It is anti-big government.

But you knew it would happen. It was just a matter of time. The Tea Party has met its match from liberals who don’t feel that the tea parties represent them. Never mind if I found it divisive, reactive, and combative just for the sake of being so; which ironically is precisely what they rail against.

The name is even sort of clever. “The Coffee Party,” makes no bones about whom it’s opposing. I couldn’t help but beam with pride at democracy in action.

The slogan is “Wake Up and Stand Up.” The mission statement assures us that the federal government is “not the enemy of the people, but the expression of our collective will, and that we must participate in the democratic process in order to address the challenges we face as Americans.”

[Interesting, I didn’t hear that kind of sentiment when Bush was in office].

I planned to give the Coffee Party a fair shake. Believe it or not, I really wanted to. I watched and believed founder Annabel Park talk about her “sheer frustration” with what she calls “government gridlock,” and the lack of “civil dialogue” and “cultural cooperation.”

While she was willing to admit that there may indeed be some overlap between her and the tea parties, “The way they express themselves is so alienating.”

I was prepared to let Ms. Park have her big government version of the Tea Party movement with due respect. Who was I to stand in the way of free speech and differing opinions? That’s what makes America great, isn’t it?

Then I realized that the Coffee Party doesn’t have grounds to stand on. This is no grassroots organization, as the party claims. Annabel Park is a secret agent for Obama. She apparently is a former Strategy Analyst at the NY Times, and was one of organizers and operators of the United for Obama video channel at YouTube. Unfortunately I can not absolutely confirm this, because when I clicked on the link to her Linkedin profile, it was “not found.”

There seems to be a lot of confusion as to the intent of the TEA parties. They are non-partisan. [in fact, http://taxdayteaparty.com/, one of the first articles was entitled “John Mccain must go.” That doesn’t sound partisan to me].

Tea-baggers, as we are so tastefully called, are not a “right-wing fringe group,” as the media would like to believe. But we are dangerous, because we stand in the way of the bitter blend of people who have been stealthily threatening our democratic freedoms.

Even with this political realignment, Republicans still won a substantial portion of the black vote. No Republican Presidential Candidate had ever won less than 23 percent of the black vote and in 1956 GOP President Dwight Eisenhower won a post-FDR record high of 39 percent of the black vote. (Then-vice president Richard M. Nixon won 32 percent of the black vote 4 years later).

It was not until the 1964 Presidential election that blacks left the GOP en masse. The combination of Presidential Candidate Barry Goldwater’s vote against the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the removal of Civil Rights from the Republican Party platform (against the objections of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr who, along with his father, had supported Nixon four years earlier) signified that the GOP had officially moved away from its historical base.

Fast forward to 2010. African Americans have voted for Democrats over 90 percent of the time since 1984 and a new generation of Republican leaders are looking to heal the historical rift. Ironically, many African Americans today feel about the Democrats the same way that the African Americans of 1936 felt about the Republicans: the party that they have supported has taken them for granted and it is time to look at other options.

Republicans hope to capitalize on a small but growing trend away from the Democrats among certain African American demographics (such as young blacks and Black Evangelicals). This year, Republicans will run the largest amount of black candidates for Congressional office in the history of the party.

In perhaps the ultimate case of irony, the African Americans with the highest chance of success all reside in the same location that chased blacks from the GOP in the first place: Dixie. Out of 5 top tier Black Republican candidates, Allen West (R-FL), Lou Huddleston (R-SC), Michael Williams (R-TX), and Princella Smith (R-AR) all reside in southern states. Only Ryan Frazier (R-CO) is not running for election in a southern district. In recent years, southern states have become far more hospitable to Black Republicans than their northern counterparts. In many of these states, the Republican brand is so dominant that any fairly conservative candidate can have a chance at success, regardless of race.

Republicans are not content with running black candidates in likely pick ups either. The GOP will challenge Democrats on their own turf with long shot candidates such as Charles Lollar (who is running against House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer in Maryland), Rev. Isaac Hayes (who is challenging Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr. in Illinois) and Rev. Michael Faulkner (who is challenging Rep. Charlie Rangel in New York). Other Black GOP candidates, such as Angela McGlowan (R-AL) and Vernon Parker (R-AZ) face tough primary fights but will likely win the general election if they win the nomination.

In a miracle scenario, the Republicans could have as many as nine black Republicans in the House and Michael Williams in the Senate, a record. It is doubtful that all ten black GOP candidates will win in November (between four and six is more likely) and running black candidates alone will not erase the Republican Party’s checkered past with the black community, but it is a start.

Republican National Committee Chairman Michael Steele, who is black, has signaled a willingness to acknowledge the mistakes of the past in an attempt to move forward and heal old wounds. Although this has made Chairman Steele controversial, it would appear that the sheer willingness of Black Republicans to run for office alone is proof that his approach is working. Only time will tell if Chairman Steele’s policies & the success of black GOP candidates will lead to a healing between the Republican Party and the Black Community, but for now it appears that the stigma attached to being a Black Republican is beginning to wear off.

President Obama and his party are finding out the hard way that when you bait the bear, you risk a mauling.  The bear, of course, is the electorate and the governing Democrats’ seemingly inexhaustible healthcare push continues to provoke the beast that has them by the scruff of the neck.

Fundamentally, the majority party’s dire predicament is due to a colossal miscalculation of street-level economic reality as reflected in their mantra that uncertainty is keeping American consumers and small businesses from propelling an economic recovery.  It is to laugh.  This is like saying that uncertainty is keeping patrons of a burning theater from making an orderly exit.

Welcome to economic reality: first, retirement portfolios were decimated and then, home values and mortgages were turned upside down.  In other words, Americans have lived through the trauma of having two out of the three legs of their personal finance stool broken.  Then the government came after the third leg of the tottering stool with sweeping “reform” of health care that has raised the specter of greatly expanded government intrusion into a vital component of personal and business finance.

That’s not to mention the dark shadow cast by the towering and growing national debt.  In this environment, the governing economic dynamic is not uncertainty, but raw fear, and coming to grips with this distinction is the key to political survival.

But the Administration, legislators, economists and pundits – voices across the political spectrum – keep yammering about uncertainty.  President Obama has reassured small business owners and urged them to get out there and start hiring.  Do we really believe that entrepreneurs, of all people, cannot deal with risk and, like skittish cattle, just need a bit of prodding to get out of the chute?  This is either condescension masquerading as empathy, or cluelessness analysis.

Washington doesn’t seem to appreciate the significance of the fact that small businesses, unlike corporations, are typically tied to the personal finances of the owner.  When business owners fear they cannot keep their homes and cannot sell them without a loss, when their personal financial supports are compromised, you can forget about hiring, investment and risk-taking at the shop.

Making matters worse, vastly-expanded government borrowing is hoovering up what liquidity remains in the capital markets and many small business owners have nowhere to turn for the financial tools on which their livelihood depends.  And here’s a sobering note: these harrowing conditions are at play on top of anemic revenues that are the “normal” fallout small business expect in a down economy.

But the political class – the Obama administration and congressional Democrats in particular – keeps paying lip service to the economic dislocations Americans have endured.  Do they not understand the crippling impact of fear on our consumer and entrepreneurial economy?   They certainly didn’t when they made another gross miscalculation, the cynical decision to fan economic fears in order to ram through Obama’s legislative agenda.

An Administration notably light on business and market experience let political expediency trump any voices that warned against baiting a bear market.  Now the Obama Administration is learning, at great cost to us all, that a president can talk a weakened economy down, but he can’t revive it with smiley-faced rhetoric.  As we have seen, consumers and entrepreneurs deal with uncertainty routinely, but they are paralyzed by fear

Blind to Main Street’s fears, the Administration and congressional Democrats see only partisanship, special interest maneuvering or ignorance in the opposition to their trillion-dollar, government-run healthcare scheme.  This dismissive attitude – and the relentless, reckless rush to force ObamaCare on the nation – pushed popular sentiment from fear to anger.

But the White House and Congress were surprised by the populist distemper that emerged in last summer’s town hall meetings and that has been growing ever since.  And they still seem clueless.  The post-healthcare summit spectacle resembles nothing so much as bear-baiting in the Elizabethan era.  Obsessed with larger concerns, our royalty just sees the game, another season of sport.   They cannot relate to the pain and anger of the bear tethered in the arena and set upon by their dogs.

High above the carnage, from the royal suites of American politics, President Obama and Congress are calling for their healthcare show to go on, never mind the howls of protest.  But this could be the fatal miscalculation.  Expect a fearsome fury, like nothing seen so far, when the bear slips his chains and turns on his tormentors.

Brian, my son, it’s been quite a week, for me and your mom.  It started off with a rather loud thud when Doc broke me the bad news.  I call her Doc like I do all of them. Come to think of it, I can’t remember seeing the same one twice in over 20 years!  Dr. Shooter, now there was a great doctor!  When I decided to start my own business back in 2002, and signed up for a personal health care plan and he was just a name on the PPO list.  I could not have picked a better doctor.  I know the idea of actually paying for my own insurance sounds totally crazy today, but I tell ya, it was a better time.

Back to Doc, she barley looked old enough to hold a high school degree, let a lone be a full fledged doctor. About ten years ago when the Medical Provider Revitalization act was passed during the doctor shortage, the Republican Union Collation (RUC, formerly the RNC) scoffed at the idea, claiming it would cost the federal government too much money.  The Democratic Union Party had a majority, and rammed the four thousand page edict through during a congressional recess while no one was looking.  Even the president did not want to pass it, but the Fed Chairman was able to overrule his veto, and the rest was history.

As you know today, all doctors go though the FHCEP (Federal Health Care Education Program) in universities all over the country.  All entries into the program get a complete education funded solely by our government.  The truth is all of the old time doctors wouldn’t take the pay cuts mandated in 2012 and 2016 and retired, leaving a huge problem. The country needed new doctors, and fast!

After the fourth nationally televised mob riot in front of one those hospital lottery centers, we all knew something had to change, and our legislators stepped in again to save the day.  This system has turned out some humdiggers, all trained to maximize their time, and minimize costs to the system.  Did you know that within two years of the first class to take the new Federal Hippocratic Oath, the abortion rate in the country went up two thousand percent?   Before they came along, I had never heard of a prescription for an abortion.  Systematic balance 101 was just one of the many things that they learned in their new fangled schools, and all of it handed down by bureaucrats with an eye on saving money rather then lives.

I’ll get down to it, Doc looked at my heart, and I do in fact need double bypass surgery.  She gave me six months at best, and the current waiting list is well over a year.  I asked her to email in an appeal for expedition, like my attorney told me to.  I was excited to get a chance to see if that Expedition Appeals Act from last year really worked.  I granted permission to share records across all government agencies as was required, answered a few rather personal questions and e-filed the appeal.  While I waited in the office, the system scored everything out, and a ruling was issued in a matter of minutes.  Unfortunately for me, not only was the appeal to expedite turned down, after further review I was also deemed to not be qualified for the surgery at all.  You see, after reviewing the demand for such a surgery against the cost to expedite and factoring in my age, life expectancy after such a surgery and my adjusted IRS remaining life & death tax forecast, the appeal was declined.

You know I have paid in over 3.5 million in my lifetime to the now defunct Social Security, Medicaid and Medicare systems as well as the current NHCS (National Health Care System) and it doesn’t mean a thing!  If my life expectancy was 20 more years, and the IRS saw enough tax revenue potential I might have had a chance.   But now that I have been forced to retire thanks to the Make Way for Youth act, I’m stuck between a rock and a hard place.

Mom and I decided to dump the remaining carbon stocks we had to make ends meet. Since we were exiting the market permanently, that damn exit penalty from the Cap and Trade Reform Act took 80% of the value away in fees, leaving us very little.  The whole thing was a racket from the start, and when everyone wanted out, the government had to do something to keep everyone in, or GE would have had to bail out the government again.  We all remember the mess that made the last time.

To make matters worse, as we finally came close to closing the deal on the house…guess who showed up?  That’s right, Joe from the Federal Housing Authority.  We went over his evaluation and summary of all the inspections performed, and after adding in all the mandatory upgrades to the house and the cost of the 10 year federally mandated warranty I have to carry on the house (thanks Fanny Mae), we stand to have a pre-tax commission of $25,000.  After capital gains taxes we should pocket $8,500.  Not bad for a house I paid $190,000 to have built in 1999, of course that was when the dollar meant something.

What they don’t know about is all the gold we have horded away over the years.  We managed to stuff a lot away before the U.S. signed on to the U.N. Federal Reserve Council.  While the Chinese laughed and stock piled gold, so did we!  Except for the yen, gold is all that is worth anything outside the U.S. these days.

Thankfully, your mom got a hold of one of her cousins overseas and got a doctor over there to accept a big pay-off.  We had to pay him enough to go into retirement in exchange for the surgery.  It was all kept on the “Down Low” or his government would have him jailed, the good news is the gold cannot be traced.  You may not hear from us for a while, but I’ll make sure mom contacts you after the surgery to tell you how it went. Got to run, I’m sending this message from the plane, and I’m not telling anyone where I am going, nor do I ever expect to return.

I hope and pray you listened to us well, and have found a quite way to take care of yourself.  My grandparents were part of what they called the “Greatest Generation”, your mom and I on the other hand, were part of the “Inept Generation.”  You need to know we were born into that generation, it was NOT by choice and that we fought against the things you are now forced to endure; the empty shell of a once great nation and the empty shell of a once great world that was driven by the old United States.  It’s a shame that more people of my time didn’t stand up with us, or the story would have been quite different.

By Javier E. David and Don E. Smith Jr.

DON SMITH: Greetings, we are trying a “roundtable discussion via e-mail” with Tuesday night’s Mitt Romney appearance on “The Later Show” with David Letterman on CBS while Sarah Palin appeared on “The Tonight Show” with Jay Leno.

JAVIER DAVID: You could call it the battle between the Head Cheerleader and the Mutual Fund Manager.

DON SMITH: That works! Both are expected front runners in the 2012 election for the Republicans going up against President Barack Hussein Obama (hmm, hmm, hmm).

Javier, how would call the match up?

JAVIER DAVID: Tuesday’s late-night talk show circuit could almost be characterized as the political equivalent of HBO Boxing After Dark, as two heavyweight Republican contenders went mano-a-mano (or rather couch-to-couch) on competing networks.

Early returns indicate that Sarah Palin – the indefatigable former Alaska governor and Vice Presidential nominee (not to mention best-selling author), won the match-up handily. Yet the impeccably-coiffed former Massachusetts governor, appearing on CBS’s “Late Night with David Letterman” and currently on a widely-publicized tour for his new book, No Apology, Mitt Romney demonstrated some well-choreographed footwork, and even landed a few choice jabs of his own.

DON SMITH: I was going to add that for almost two years, Sarah Palin, has been the butt of jokes and thanks to her appearance on “The Tonight Show”, she was able to turn that around.

As Leno said in his introduction, “Either they love my next guest or they don’t…”

JAVIER DAVID: Yeah!

The contrasts between the two potential rivals could hardly be starker. I thought, Palin’s affable charm and crowd-pleasing humor can’t be denied. The former governor showed up comfortably yet stylishly dressed in jeans – thankfully she left the running shorts at home – and put her star-power on full-display for Leno’s audience (alas, a much hoped-for televised tete-a-tete between Palin and flamboyant “American Idol” rocker Adam Lambert did not come to pass). If the rousing applause she got from the audience was any indication, Palin’s charm offensive certainly paid dividends.

DON SMITH: Let me add something to that: Palin, for whatever reason, has probably probably the most maligned Republican since President George W. Bush, and Bush was treated with the same “whipping boy” status that former Vice President Dan Quayle was given. But Palin is capitaliznig on what these two gentlemen did not have - her “franchise” status.

In fact, back in January, I bought a special “collectors issue” write up on Palin I found at a CVS and Boom! Comics released a publication called Repuglicans! with a distorted view of Palin on the cover. But something that Leno and the people behind the “collectors issue” capitalized on is that Palin echoes a huge segment of America that is maligned by the current media. In fact, this is something she touched on last night.

Javier, how would you contrast this with Romney?

JAVIER DAVID: Well, Romney, on the other hand, appeared more the management consultant than relaxed talk-show couch fixture in his expensive-looking banker’s suit and tie. While he shouldn’t give up his day-job (come to think of it, does he even have one anymore?) for stand-up comedy, the former 2008 presidential nominee brandished a quick-wit and propensity for one-liners for the Letterman audience. Romney also regaled them with tales of his humble upbringing that included an anecdote about a tricked-out car he drove in college.

But like the encyclopedia salesman who struggles to get a rise from stone-faced clients, Romney sometimes tried too hard to be crowd-pleasing, in a way that makes his critics raise questions about his sincerity. His good-natured humor is sometimes strained in ways that fall short of the mark. Romney tickled the audience’s funny bone with a self-deprecating joke that a rap artist with whom he had an altercation on an airplane “broke my hair” – but prompted a wry reply from Letterman moments later when he stretched the joke near its breaking point, quipping he wanted to claim the rapper on his income taxes.

DON SMITH: Palin had some good one-liners too, but she did not touch on policy issues as much as I would like. But she did mention the liberal media.

“I want to build trust,” said Palin regarding her signing on to be a commentator with Fox News. She said that viewers no longer trust the newspapers and news broadcasts because of the need to insert their own commentary on the world, politics and Hollywood and hide it in the guise of “news.”

Not counting her stand up performance (I say this as a Palin fan, but she is not a stand up comedian), she was met with at least five resounding applauses in her 10 minutes she was being interviewed by Leno.

Probably the most resounding applause was met when she asked, “I wish my kids were left alone.”

JAVIER DAVID: Yeah, but regarding Romney, if nothing else, he’s demonstrated his penchant for policy matters and a well-earned reputation for economic savvy. He appeared in his comfort zone when holding forth on topics ranging from the troubled auto sector to the Tea Party Movement. Romney also showed his gallantry by calling Palin “terrific” – even if he couldn’t resist the urge to fire off one more one liner about her status as a pistol-packing mama.

Palin was effervescent, funny, and exuded a girl-next-door earthiness that eludes most politicians; that said, her remarks were light on policy specifics.

DON SMITH: Exactly! Actually, I thought the funniest parts were Palin giving it back to Leno.

“C’mon,” to paraphrase her. “You’ve been in the news in recent weeks.” Leno gave a self-depricating-Rodney-Dangerfield-like grin.

In fact later, he asked, “So are you going to be talk show?” And she joked back “The Tonight Show seems to go through hosts a lot!”

Leno gave the same smirk.

If there was one area I thought needed work, was it semed Palin and Leno just discussed the tabloid stories. I was actually hoping they would get into ideas about energy indepence, healthcare and the economy. Instead, it was Leno saying, “About you writing on the hand…”

Granted she had a great line calling it a “poor man’s teleprompter” but I get the feeling people are going to view her just as a tabloid headline and not the leader I know her to be. And I did not think her stand up act helped cultivate the image.

Though it did show she can remember anything and not need a teleprompter to speak to kids. (Follow the link: http://www.floppingaces.net/wp-content/uploads/610zxvsdx.jpg ).

JAVIER DAVID: I have to admit Romney reminded you of the guy who manages your retirement account, but came across as confident, encyclopedic and in complete mastery of details.

DON SMITH: As a Palin fan, I’d give this a “fair” rating, but I think she needs to get someplace where she can give a speech for all of America to see. Let’s see her for the leader we know she is and not the tabloid joke that everyone else has made her out to be.

Your final thoughts?

JAVIER DAVID: Romney/Palin 2012, anyone?

DON SMITH: Works for me! Let’s just wait and see what is out there!