Man Up, Mr President

After nine months in office Barack Obama needs to either start acting like the President of the greatest nation on earth or at the very least Obama needs to grow a pair and start acting like a man.

The hypocrisy of this man and his followers knows no bounds. Everyone recalls that one of Obama’s main campaign themes last year was that he was going to enact “change”, right? And wasn’t cleaning up Bush’s mess implicit in Obama’s desire to replace him as President and his pledge to change the direction of this country? And even I agree that Bush left a lot of problems but instead of changing things Obama is still complaining about the mess left by Bush. Excuse me? At my old office the unwritten rule was that you could blame the person you replaced for one month, after that it was your problems and messes. Yet after nine months Obama is still whining about the problems Bush left instead of manning up and taking responsibility. Mr. President, its past time that you quit your bitching and do the job you promised you would do. I didn’t vote for the man but I still want him to act like a President and not like a spoiled brat complaining that the mess isn't his fault and that he needs more time to decide what to do.

Perhaps making a decision might be easier if he actually spent more time at the office. I’m beginning to think that Obama is the kind of president who likes the perks but not the work. Take for example, golfing. Did you even know he was a golfer until after he was elected? It sure wasn’t mentioned much since golfing didn’t go along with his image. And yet, this ex-community organizer recently played his 24th game of golf since being President! So nearly three times a month Obama was out hitting the balls while the country suffered from high unemployment, two wars, bail outs, car industry going up in ruins etc. etc. And yes, the last president was also an avid golfer, but it took him two years and nine months to play golf 24 times!

Obama is also quite the entertainer. Funny how you never hear about this, either, but Obama frequently hosts dinner parties inviting all kinds of Hollywood entertainers, famous singers and musicians. Did you know that the First Couple have been hosting a “music series” whose purpose is rather vague other than to demonstrate a commitment to the arts? Although in a recent MSNBC report, Michelle did mention that “she wants her daughters, Malia and Sasha, to be ‘aware of all kinds of music — other than hip-hop.’” I guess as First Lady, instead of buying her daughters CDs she has a dinner party where the guest of honor works for their dinner by putting on a concert for the First Daughters.

Between rounds of golf and listening to the likes of Stevie Wonder and Earth, Wind and Fire or taking his wife out on a date, it’s no wonder the President doesn’t have time to make decisions. In fact the only decision it seems he has made is that its good to be President and barely into his first term he is planning for his second term. Perhaps this is why he delays decision making – he doesn’t want anyone to be mad at him. It is also why he is constantly traveling gee, guess where, to swing states that he is afraid he might lose now that people actually know him.

The President also likes to hear himself talk. Oh he never settles anything with his speeches but he sure takes a long time to say very little. As Politico.com reported: Six months into his presidency Obama had already “uttered more than half a million words in public.” In one whirlwind week last month, the president made his third appearance on “60 Minutes,” gave a major speech on the financial crisis the next day, and made a record five talk-show appearances the following Sunday. And on the eighth day, He did Letterman. Yak, yak, yak. And yet after listening to one of his speeches you walk away wondering what it was that he said.

This summer Obama held numerous town halls across the country pitching the new health care plan, except there was no plan. There were half a dozen or so plans being discussed by Congress but we had yet to see a plan agreed upon by the Senate and House. And it is also like Obama for him to ask Pelosi and Reid to come up with a health care plan thereby relieving Obama of making a decision. Instead, he did what he does best, talk and at town hall after town hall, there was Obama going on and on and on about a health plan that didn’t even exist yet. Typical.

So instead of being President and making decisions Obama is still campaigning or else enjoying the perks of the office. Hell, after nine months in office he still hasn’t decided which church to join in DC nor could Obama even decide what kind of dog to get! And he never did make that decision as somebody gave him a dog, thereby making the decision for him. So if Obama struggles in making a decision about buying a friggin’ dog, no wonder he dithers on major issues, like the wars.

Speaking of the wars, a key advisor recently quit because we had no strategy for the war in Afghanistan. If we continue to neither bring in more troops nor pull them out then the situation will continue to worsen. Yet when Obama was told of this resignation and asked about determining a strategy, the President said he needed more time. Excuse me? This is the man who complained bitterly about Bush’s “mishandling” of the war so you would think that his team would have had their own strategy in place even before Obama was elected. Instead soldiers will die while the President is out playing golf instead of making a decisions.

Conservatives pointed out during the election last year that most of Obama’s political experience was in campaigning. And in the little time Obama did spend in office he rarely voted on an issue and if he wasn’t conveniently absent for an important vote he would cop out with his indecisive “present”. So it should come as no surprise that Obama continues to dither on making decisions.

Except he isn’t one of 50, where he could let others make the decision. Instead he is now the top man. And guess what, as President you don’t always have the luxury of more time. Nor can you vote “present” and hope someone else makes the difficult decisions for you. As Truman so succinctly put it “The buck stops here.” So its way past time that you man up and do your job, Mr. President.

Fox Hunting Season

Barack Obama’s administration is handling their power and influence like a Chicago bully rather than like a United States President. And the White House’s bullying of Fox News is getting way out of hand. No surprise that Obama and his Chicago crew are not enamored with Fox News but they have crossed a line into very scary territory.

The White House war on Fox News seemed to take a new turn after Fox was the first, and for a while only, news media to show the public the disgraceful films of ACORN employees. Fox then had the audacity to run negative reports on Van Jones, a White House environmental adviser, one of many advisers who were never vetted. Therefore it came as a surprise to the WH to see that Fox discovered Jones had signed a statement indicating the government was involved in the 9-11 collapse of the Twin Towers. With Van Jones's quiet resignation, Fox is continuing to investigate other Czars and unvetted advisers. To add insult to injury, the MSM (mainstream media) are now paying more attention to the stories that Fox News breaks and quicker to go after the stories themselves.

To make matters worse Chris Wallace, the Fox Sunday New’s host, actually had the gall to have someone fact-check what the assistant secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs said. Chris Wallace explained “She criticized 'Fox News Sunday' last week for fact-checking -- fact-checking -- an administration official," Wallace said Sunday. "They didn't say that our fact-checking was wrong. They just said that we had dared to fact-check." Wow. What kind of people is Obama hiring? Isn’t shutting down the media that disagrees with you the first thing a dictator does?

Shortly after the fact-checking debacle, Obama, acting more like a spoilsport, then a President, announced that on a single Sunday morning he would be on every major network, including the Spanish network, but not on Wallace's Fox Sunday News show.

In the latest attack on Fox News, the White House senior advisor David Axelrod and White House Communications Director each separately reiterated the new Obama lie that Fox New is “not really a news station”. On Sunday, White House chief of staff Rahm Emanual provided a telling insight into what the core group running Obama’s presidency is thinking “It’s not so much a conflict with Fox News," Emanuel told CNN’s John King. "I suppose the way to look at it and the way … the president looks at it, we look at it is: It’s not a news organization so much as it has a perspective. And that’s a different take. And more importantly, is not have the CNNs and the others in the world basically be led in following Fox, as if what they’re trying to do is a legitimate news organization …”

Wow. They are afraid that the MSM networks, which basically glorify Obama’s presidency with no questions asked, might be influenced by Fox and who knows, the MSM then might even do a negative story. But the frightening part is that as in typical Chicago style politics, the chief of staff is warning the MSM that if they ever act like Fox News, which I guess means to stop deifying Obama, then the White House will go after them, too. As a further signal of how the White House treats their enemies; the number of interviews the President has granted to each network stands as: NBC-12, CBS-11, ABC-9, CNN-7 and Fox News just 2.

But the blatantly unfair treatment of Fox News by the White House has not gone unnoticed. First, ABC’s Jack Tapper asked the following of White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs “It’s escaped none of our notice that the White House has decided in the last few weeks to declare one of our sister organizations “not a news organization” and to tell the rest of us not to treat them like a news organization. Can you explain why it’s appropriate for the White House to decide that a news organization is not one.” Gibbs couldn't explain it. And even the venerable Helen Thomas, who is as liberal as they come, has chastised Press Secretary, Robert Gibbs, for trying to control and manipulate the media.

This week, however, the White House went too far. According to an article by the NY Times; The Obama administration on Thursday tried to make "pay czar" Kenneth Feinberg available for interviews to every member of the White House pool except Fox News. But to their suprise ABC, CBS, NBC and CNN all stood up to the White House’s and in a united front said either all of us, including Fox interviews Feinburg or else none of us will.

Perhaps the MSM finally remembered the Freedom of the Press and how the media is supposed to react to being manipulated even if the person manipulating them is ordered by Obama, himself. And how did Obama’s administration react to this surprising stand? By punishing all of the networks! They said that by not including the Fox network each journalist would only have two minutes for their interview instead of the five minutes as promised when they were excluding Fox. How childish can you get? And doesn't the President have more important issues to worry about, like two wars, increasing unemployment, etc. etc.

I am proud of the MSM for finally standing up to the White House’s strong arm tactics but saddened to discover that I couldn’t find a single MSM article about what happened except for the NY Times. Even if the MSM are afraid to admit they came to Fox’s aid, at least the big networks took a stance and did the right thing. And that’s a good start.

New Flu Facts

Did you know that a person with the H1N1 flu can affect people as far away as 10 feet? I learned that when I watched 60 Minutes last night. Then this morning I read a Facebook dialogue between two young mothers who are very worried about their children getting the flu. They talked of sanitizing the handle of the grocery carts when shopping, not letting their young children touch anything when they go out and constantly sanitizing their hands. Now these are all good steps but the truth is it still won’t protect them from the flu. How could they know that the woman two places behind them has the flu and is affecting everyone in a 10 foot radius? This is not to say stop disinfecting your hands and other objects but the truth is you’ll still probably get the flu. Unless, of course you get the flu shot.

Getting the flu shot seems like a no brainer and yet I have overheard a number of conversations where people are saying they refuse to do so. This gets me extremely angry with their stupidity, especially since I am one of the few legitimate folks who can’t get the shot. Why am I exempt? Well about 10 years ago, I would make sure that I got the shot every year. But the last few shots made me ill, not in the normal way of giving you flu like symptoms but instead gave me severe stomach cramps. Long story short, I had developed an allergy to eggs. I learned that the flu shot is egg based and apparently I became allergic to both the shot and eggs. So I now can not take any shot that is egg based.

Even without the shot I wasn’t feeling very worried about this flu for my sister who is a nurse had said that it was hitting younger people a lot harder than older people. She said older folks had lived through similar strains of flu in the past. She was basically correct except for one small detail, her definition of old. The 60 Minute show said the same thing she did except that they defined old as anyone born before 1950. Oops. Turns out that I am not in that protected group of “old people” as I had thought because I was born in 1958 which is after the cutoff date. So again, anyone born since 1950 needs to get the new flu shot.

Then this morning the Drudge Report had an article from yesterday’s Sun Sentinel. This report was about the health officials from my state, Florida, drawing up a plan to deal with critically ill flu patients. I was reminded of something I first learned about by watching MASH – the TV show about a mobile hospital during the Korean War. In the show, when the doctors were inundated with wounded soldiers they would first do a triage, separating the soldiers into three categories: soldiers who were dying or couldn’t be saved were put in one group; the second group contained soldiers who were severely injured but could be helped and the third group were the soldiers without life threatening problems. The first group was made comfortable while they were dying, the second group was immediately rushed into surgery and the third group was assisted only after they were done with the first group.

It now appears as if my state, and probably yours, too, is looking into doing its own triage to meet the growing H1N1 problem. Today’s triage is really no different than the old TV show where doctors made life and death decisions. The report stated that the Florida Health official’s goal would be “to focus care on patients whose lives could be saved and who would be most likely to improve”. So just as in the TV show, patients who are critically ill, who aren’t responding to the ventilator and who they deem have a slim chance of recovering will be made comfortable but will not be placed on any of the scarce ventilators. Can you imagine the reaction when people are told that their elderly grandmother or son with AIDs or sister with cerebral palsey are denied life-saving treatments?

On the other hand, patients who show no life threatening problems, only typical flu like symptoms will be told to go home, drink fluids and rest. The patients, however, who do have life threatening problems, which are primarily respiratory, and have been deemed to have a strong chance of survival will be admitted to the hospital and will be put on one of the few ventilators. However they will be monitored every 2-3 days and if the patient isn’t responding or is getting worse they may end up in that first group and their ventilator given to someone else with a better chance of survival.

The H1N1, according to 60 Minutes, is similar to the flu pandemic of 1918 which killed over 50 million people worldwide, but today's flu is not nearly as virulent. H1N1 is expected to kill less than 1 percent of the population but this is still a significant number. And it assumes that people act responsibly and get the flu shot. After learning all these new flu facts I almost think not getting a shot should be criminalized because many of those without shots will end up hospitalized and using scarce resources that could have saved someone else’s life. So please, get the shot, to save not just your own life but somebody else’s life, too.

Tired of Breast Cancer Awareness Month

As everyone knows, October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. My mother had breast cancer when she was in her late 70’s but they caught it very early and after months of treatments the cancer was eliminated. We are all thankful that she has been cancer free for years now. So you would think that I would have a greater appreciation for all of the hoopla this month regarding breast cancer. But to be honest I am more than a bit tired of it all.

In addition to my mother, I have known half a dozen or more women who were diagnosed with breast cancer. All of them caught it early and are doing fine now. So on one hand I agree with the push for early diagnosis. But this is something that every woman knows. And if she doesn’t her doctor or OBGYN will be after her to get a mammogram. By now everyone knows about breast cancer, so do we really need an entire month devoted to this one disease?

Actually this is beginning to remind me of Jerry Lewis’s annual telethon to raise money for Muscular Dystrophy. Jerry Lewis has been holding a telethon for 44 years, that’s right ever since 1965 he has been on TV in September begging for money. And each year he raises millions and millions of dollars, in fact he received a record $65 million last year alone. Good heavens. What do they do with all those millions? You would think by now that they would have found a cure what with all those donations each year.

Jerry Lewis and MDA have less than 24 hours to beg for money. Breast cancer has been given an entire month. A little online research showed me that Breast Cancer Awareness Month (BCAM) has been going on for 25 years now! Again, like MDA, where has all the money collected from those walks and donations for the past 25 years gone? In fact, unlike MDA, they do know how to cure breast cancer if caught in time, so why do they still need all these millions? Not surprisingly, on the website for BCAM I couldn’t find any mention of how much money has been raised in the past Octobers. But with all the corporate sponsorships I am sure it is probably more than what Jerry raises for “his kids”.

I realize that Muscular Dystrophy and breast cancer are terrible diseases. But there are other diseases out there which are overshadowed by these bigger, much publicized diseases. It is wonderful that more and more women are surviving breast cancer but if an infant is diagnosed with Cystic Fibrosis the diagnosis is death. Maybe not immediately but a parent of a CF infant knows that their child will lead a difficult life full of pills, breathing treatments, hospitalizations, diabetes, lung transplants and operations and even then if the baby is lucky she or he will die in their mid thirties, although many still die in their teens and twenties.

Yet with what few funds CF has received, their researches have been successful in increasing the years a CF child might live. As the chart shows, in 1979 a CF child would , on average, only live to 18; today it is nearly 37, doubling their lives. As wonderful as this is, 37 is way too young to die, especially when the average person can expect to live into their 70 and 80's.

As previously mentioned, my 81 year old mother had breast cancer a few years ago. Of course I am thrilled that she beat it and has remained cancer free. However, my 8 year old niece has Cystic Fibrosis. Although she is remaining healthy due to massive doses of pills, breathing treatments and painful chest palpitations we know that she will die in her mid thirties or younger for there is no cure. And yet CF can raise only a fraction of the money that goes to breast cancer or MD.

I do have empathy for children and women with MD or breast cancer. Yet these diseases attract so much attention that it results in massive corporate sponsorships and donations from the population which then makes it difficult for other diseases to obtain donations. Although CF has no cure and results in death it is still nearly impossible to raise awareness and thus money to find a cure because of these other “popular” diseases.

During October’s Breast Cancer Awareness Month, if you are planning to donate money to breast cancer, why not take a portion of your donation to help out the children with CF. Therefore, if you planned to give $100 to the breast cancer foundation, could you please give $20 to CF and $80 to breast cancer instead? This way you will help both and possibly give the children with Cystic Fibrosis a chance to live a long and healthy life.

To make a donation to Cystic Fibrosis go to the following website: www.cff.org/lwc/auntpatti

Thank you.