THE TYGRRRR EXPRESS

The Tygrrrr Express is Oklahoma City bound. Tomorrow I am speaking to the National Federation of Republican Women at their winter conference. It is my biggest gig yet, and a humbling honor to be invited.

Before getting to the main event, a couple of quick political notes are in order.

Harry Reid’s wife and daughter have been in a car crash. While I do not agree with his policies, I met him and his wife Landra a few months ago. Landra Reid is one of the loveliest most delightful women I have ever met. She was nice to me even though I was a conservative Republican. They have their golden anniversary coming up, and I hope it is a happy occasion. Joe Biden lost his family to a car crash, and I hope Harry Reid is not put in that same awful position. In a tragic coincidence, Harry Reid and Karl Rove have both had a parent commit suicide. This is another reason why we need to separate policy from politics. We see the power, but we do not see their inner pain.

Yet politic does matter, and today is about President Obama continuing to act like a toddler throwing a temper tantrum.

Yet in the tradition of Larry King, I am diverting into ridiculous tangents totally unrelated to this topic.

I almost never cover pop culture except to discuss what screwups they are. Today I have to praise Betty White. The 88 year old White will be hosting the May 8th episode of Saturday Night Live. She has the stamina of people half her age, and this gig is not charity. She was hilarious in her Super Bowl commercial this year, and the former Golden Girls actress has new legions of fans. I hope she hosts the show again when she is 100, and that Willard Scott calls her in front of all of us.

Ok, now back to my typical grumpy self.

Barack Obama is a two year old. He attacks people personally. Then they dare to defend themselves. Then the people defending themselves are accused of a lack of decorum. President Obama then piously explain why we all need to dial it down. What he means is that everybody except he should do this.

There is an unwritten law that when an administration leaves power, they should shut up. Sadly, only Republicans ever obey this law anyway, but that is for another time.

President George W. Bush has stayed quiet, dignified to the end. Yet Vice President Dick Cheney and former political consultant Karl Rove have hammered the Obama administration.

Place the blame on Barack Obama. It is also customary for a president to stop campaigning after he wins the election. His constant criticism of the Bush administration gives Cheney and Rove every right to hit back.

If Obama wants Cheney and Rove to stop, then he has to stop. We get it. He doesn’t like his predecessor. We are long past the point for him to shut up and deal. If he keeps it up, they should keep hammering him back.

While going after predecessors with such reckless abandon is strange, attacking the Supreme Court publicly is downright bizarre.

Barack Obama went after the Supreme Court in his State of the Union speech. This is unprecedented. The justices show up to the speech out of politeness. They are guests in his home. You don’t invite guests into your home and publicly insult them.

When President Obama mischaracterized a recent court ruling, Justice Sam Alito whispered “not true.” Alito was blamed for violating decorum. The man was silently muttering and a camera picked it up. Why does Barack Obama get to slander people with impunity? Why shouldn’t Alito correct him? Obama is a president, not a king.

Now Chief Justice John Roberts has stated that he thinks justices attending the politicized annual speech is a waste of time. He is right.

Some will say they should go out of tradition, but perhaps Barack Obama can obey tradition and not lash out at them like a baby wanting his bottle.

(The totally nonpartisan congressional parliamentarian ruled against Mr. Obama recently on an aspect of health care and reconciliation. I wonder if this formerly noncontroversial figure will now be attacked as a right wing hack for doing his job.)

John Roberts is one of the finest legal minds on Earth. He is an intellectual giant. I will say that on legal matters, he is smarter and better informed than Barack Obama. I know the world thinks Obama is a genius, but when was the last time Obama picked up a legal text? It is the height of arrogance to think that he knows more than somebody who analyzes the law every day of his life.

Barack Obama is no dope, but his skills could be rusty as anybody would be after so much time away from the law. John Roberts is in the trenches.

Why should John Roberts spend his valuable time away from dissecting important legal issues that affect our nation to attend some dog and pony show where a toddler president insults him due to a disagreement brought on by the toddler’s ignorance?

The liberal media thinks that all Obama critics are either evil or imbeciles. Obama should be able to lash out with immunity.

That doesn’t cut it. Until he starts treating his opponents with dignity, he deserves the blowback.

John Robert is an adult. Mr. Obama could learn from him about decorum, civility, and the law.

The first lecturer just got lectured to by a better informed man.

Deal with it Mr. Obama. Then knock it off.

eric

Last night was some partying in South Beach, which reminded me that I love Spring Break. Today I speak at lunch at a fashion show to the East Broward Republican Women. In the evening I have the Cooper City/Davie Republican Club. Both of these events are in Fort Lauderdale.

As exhausted as I am, I had to weigh in about several New York Democrats.

Yes, they are a disgrace. However, most people fail to understand the real disgrace.

I will quickly take them one by one before getting to the scandal nobody wants to discuss, and why this bothers me so much.

Eliot Spitzer was a scuzzbucket. None of the others compare to him. He is a horrid human being. None of the three current New York Democrats reach his level.

Start with Charles Rangel. I will begin with something positive. The man served America honorably in the Korean War. I give him all the credit in the world for that.

My problem with him is that he has played the race card more than once, and compared conservative tax cutters to the KKK. He gets away with it because he smiles. He is “Good ol’ Charlie,” the lovable rascal.

Is he crooked? Of course he is. Should he go to jail? If found guilty, sure. Will he? Of course not.

As for David Patterson, I am disappointed in him. I really had high hopes for him. I disagreed with his liberal ideology, but I really thought it was awesome that a blind man could lead New York. I felt it was another barrier that had been broken down. Also, when Governor Patterson immediately disclosed his past infidelities and drug use, I felt he was going to bring in an ethical administration that was the anti-Spitzer.

Initially he seemed to be like David Dinkins, a good guy that was not tough enough for the job. He was weak. Yet his intervening on behalf of one of his subordinates who beat up a woman was stupid, reckless, and possibly illegal. Richard Nixon taught us that blind loyalty is not the answer. Sometimes friends have to be cut loose, especially when they break the law.

As for Congressman Massa, he is slime. I watched his interview on Glenn Beck, and I felt like I needed a scrubbing. He also served his country honorably, but his short congressional career has been dishonorable. His allegations about Rahm Emanuel are believable, which is why I do not believe them. Rahm Emanuel is every bit as awful as he is made out to be, but because he is such an easy target, I think he might be innocent this one time. Massa has no credibility, and unless he has proof of what Rahm did, I am not jumping on the Rahm bashing train on this one.

Yet these corrupt New York Democrats have me angry. I am deeply offended by their screwups for a reason that nobody is talking about. The whispers are already beginning.

You know what whispers I am talking about.

People are saying that New York politicians are becoming like “those people.”

That’s right, I’ll say it. We are on the verge of being seen as…

New Jersey.

This cannot ever happen. New Jersey gave us Jim McGreevey, Jon Corzine, and a million other corruptocrats ranging from crooked politicians to clergy men on the take.

New Jersey makes Pinochet’s Chile seem ethical.

I don’t care if Rangel, Patterson, and Massa go to jail. Just get them out of New York. Deport them to Trenton.

When football coach Sam Wyche saw the home crowd at a Cincinnati Bengals game throwing trash on the field, he angrily picked up the microphone. He yelled at the crowd to be civilized, thundering, “You don’t live in Cleveland, you live in Cincinnati.”

Well my message to these New York politicians is to knock it off. You represent New York, not New Jersey.

I live in Los Angeles, but I am a New Yorker until the day I die. I was born and raised there. New Yorkers are my people. When somebody does something stupid in California, making it the national laughingstock, I can say that I am a New Yorker living in California.

I am proud of my Brooklyn heritage. I am proud to be from New York.

I never want being from New York to be a source of shame.

So take Spitzer, Massa, Patterson, and Rangel, and deport them to Atlantic City.

Some people obsess over Obama’s birth certificate. Well they need to obsess over the birth certificates of the above New Yorker politicos. Find me evidence that they are really Jerseyites. Perhaps they would then under the state constitution be ineligible to serve.

The day the New York Jets and Giants call themselves New Jersey, NYPD and FDNY will engage in cross-border violence. This must be prevented now.

New York Democrats can either act like New Yorkers, or move to New Jersey.

Tony Soprano is from Jersey. The Statue of Liberty is a New Yorker. That settles it for me.

New Yorkers will tolerate many things, but being compared to New Jersey is not one of them.

New York civilization is on the line.

Clean up your act guys. We are not them. The whisper campaign must stop.

The next New York politico to screw up should be waterboarded behind the Log Flume at Six Flags Great Adventure, located in…well, you know. The place where hidden crimes are a way of life.

eric

I had the honor and privilege this past weekend of attending and speaking at the California Republican Assembly 75th Anniversary Convention in Buena Park, California.

http://www.californiarepublicanassembly.com/content/cra-call-convention

Buena Park is in Orange County, and the event was held at the Knottsberry Farm Hotel.

While Knottsberry Farm is a well known amusement park that turns into Knotts Scary Farm on Halloween, the Knotts family is actually fairly religious. In addition to their spiritual beliefs, they were also great with food. The fried chicken and blackberry pie at the luncheon was from Mrs. Knotts’s very own recipes.

I would like to thank Ken Mettler, President of the CRA, and beloved CRA member Peggy Mew for the gracious invitation. Baron Night, head of the Buena Park CRA, had the responsibility as head of the host city CRA with making sure the trains ran on time.

The Saturday luncheon featured four speakers. Congressmen Ed Royce, Darrell Issa, Dana Rohrabacher, and me. Many people looked at me initially and probably thought about James B. Stockdale minus the heroism.

“Who am I? Why am I here?”

As I spoke, Gubernatorial candidates Meg Whitman and Steve Poizner both sat at tables in the front. There is nothing like giving a speech and knowing that one wrong word could get me waterboarded by the next governor. Thankfully both of them had kind words for me.

I let the crowd know that the day after the primary, I will immediately fall into line behind the winner and support them in the general election. I hope all right of center voters do this without hesitation.

I did add a couple of new lines, including an opener, “Anybody who thinks that Barack Obama runs the world has never attended a meeting of the Republican Women’s Federated.”

Congressman Rohrabacher offered a stinging defense of American liberty. He is the original surfing congressman. He brought a surfboard with him to the stage, and publicly endorsed Steve Poizner for governor as they took a picture with the surfboard together. Congressman Issa offered his endorsement to Ms. Whitman.

On Saturday evening, a gala dinner had Hannah Giles and James O’Keefe as headliners. Hannah and James are the two young people that exposed criminal enterprise ACORN. Mr. O’Keefe has even been arrested in an attempt to silence any ACORN critics. Andrew Breitbart has taken them under his wing, as ACORN is suing him as well.

I had extensive amounts of time to talk to Hannah and James. They are good young citizens. The only people against them are those who still believe ACORN is a law abiding entity.

James O’Keefe has his legal defense fund up, and anybody that wants to support a young man exposing leftists corruption should help this young man.

I also managed to make friends with some of the Orange County Young Republicans, briefly performing for them at a late night party.

Sunday was the day for formal endorsements.

For the senate race to fire Barbara Boxer, Chuck DeVore easily defeated Carly Fiorina and Tom Campbell on the first ballot.

(DeVore and Fiorina both spoke to the Los Angeles County Young Republicans Friday night, and DeVore appeared to be the heavy favorite.)

The governor’s race required a second ballot, but Mr.Poizner got the endorsement.

In the hotly contested Superintendent of Special Instruction, Diane Lenning came out ahead of Lydia Guiterriez. George Runner got the nod for the Board of Equalization,

I had the pleasure of meeting Republican Assembly members from all over America, including the National Republican Assembly president and his wife. I even received an offer to speak at a San Juan Capistrano Independence Day Tea Party, in addition to speak in Rhode Island. I have never been to Rhode Island, so of course I want to go there because it is there.

Like good conservative citizens, we left the hotel as spotless as we found it as Baron Night made sure that every sign was picked up. We were not going to be like environmental protesters leaving our signs on the grass.

While there was plenty of serious politicking, and plenty of socializing, the best aspect of the CRA Convention was seeing old friends and making new ones that I will have for life.

Happy 75th Birthday CRA.

Well done Buena Park!

eric

Last night was the Academy Awards. The Oscar for best insignificant narcissist goes to…some insignificant narcissistic. Who the hell cares? Not me. To save the environment in 2010, here is my barely altered recycled column.

While Iraqis were voting in another election that again vindicated President George W. Bush, the imbeciles in our media were focused on gaudy outfits, red carpets, and ever pious millionaires pretending they cared about ordinary Americans. They were too busy bashing Sarah Palin to comment on the John Edwards sex tape. Perhaps some of them are on the tape. Charlie Sheen had no comment.

(The Bush comment was to see what liberals would try to hijack this thread that has nothing to do with him. Cherry pickers love doing that.)

As for me, I spent the weekend in Orange County at the California Republican Assembly 75th Anniversary Convention. There were no Hollywood celebrities present. It was excellent. I got to meet politicians that make decisions that affect many people. In other words, I prefer to talk to people that actually matter.

This morning I drive to Palm Springs for an event with Congresswoman Mary Bono Mack. Tonight I am on a redeye to South Florida for Spring Break. Why? Because I can. You wish you could. There will be no celebrities infecting my air.

Sarah Palin was on Jay Leno a few days ago. I do  not have to watch the Oscars to know that several leftist parasites on society will make fun of her having notes on her hand. That is called being “edgy,” if edgy is defined as stale jokes in front of a supportive idiotic audience.

My rental car did get home in time to watch some of the Oscars, which of course I did not do. It was bade enough that “Desperate Housewives” was preempted. Fox News had reruns. Thankfully the NFL Network had the NFL Combine. Normally I do not watch that, but it was not the Oscars.

I was debating whether or not to put on the last 10-15 minutes of the broadcast with no sound on, like I do with the ninth inning of the seventh game of the World Series when there are two outs.

I am sure tomorrow I will read whether or not Bill Clinton showed up to play the saxophone while John Kerry gushes about the heart and soul of America in a building filled with people that have neither. I wonder if the John Edwards sex tape won for best documentary. The Oscar’s are even more leftist, boring and long winded than an Obama health care speech, although it is close.

Some say it is unfair to indict every person in Hollywood. After all, like Palestinians and liberals, why blame the 20% of entertainment industry that are not drenched in toxicity? After all, 80% is not a majority. Oh, wait. Yes, it is.

The reason why the industry is so disgusting is because left wing politics long ago replaced quality.

The first thing that all Academy voters should be required to do is sign an oath that they watched every movie that they voted on. If they are caught paying their relatives or others to watch the movies and report back to them, their voting privileges should be permanently revoked.

The Oscars are boring, predictable, and disgusting. Voters have a formula for what they like.

One way to get nominated is to play a homosexual. In fact, it cannot be any homosexual. It must be a homosexual activist, and the activist must be a hero. If it is played by a left-wing activist, all the better. Personally I would like to see a movie made about Sean Penn. A conservative actor would play him, and make sure to show the part where he engages in domestic violence against his wife and assaults cameramen. For “dramatic effect,” he can be shown praising Alec Baldwin while a tape runs of Baldwin verbally abusing his daughter. I personally thought “Milk,” was a movie about lactation. After all, the same people that praise the “Vagina Monologues” as “groundbreaking” must have thought that a movie about breast milk would be “courageous.”

Another way to get nominated is to play somebody that is dying from a politically correct disease. AIDS is a good choice. Cancer is not. After all, many homosexuals and drug users get AIDS. In fact, to really stir the emotional pot, the person has to suffer from discrimination, either from an evil corporation, vile Republican, or both. The exception to the cancer rule will be the El;izabeth Edwards life story, where she will be cast as the innocent victim.

Another option is to play a retard or a “handicapable” person. It works. After all, they are politically correct. Whether overcoming a physical or mental illness, provided that the story tilts leftward, it will do fine. Anti-war activists injured in battle make great Oscar nominees.

When the academy runs out of generic movies of leftists as heroes, the next option is to find an evil conservative villain. The actor playing the lead role should have a hostile attitude in real life towards Republicans. Barring that, anything that attacks Republicans works. I mean, “Frost-Nixon” is a movie that takes place three years after Nixon resigns in disgrace. Talk about kicking the dog while he is down. Listening to a conservative bellow, “I told you I didn’t want to take any questions on Watergate!” makes Academy voters cream their undies.

The last step is to ignore the movie altogether and find somebody that died “tragically” and “way too young.”

Look, the “Batman” movie was outstanding. It should have gotten nominations in every major category. Yet the movie was politically conservative. That is a non-starter for the Academy. Also, the snobs at the Academy would not think of deigning to let a “comic book” movie win where it counts.

Why should that matter? “The Dark Knight” was a stunningly brilliant movie that should have given Oscar nominations to Morgan Freeman (Lucius), Michael Caine (Alfred the Butler), Christian Bale (Batman), and especially Aaron Eckhart (Harvey Two-Face). Another almost certainty behind Eckhart should have been Gary Oldman (Commissioner Gordon). Michael Caine has been praised in the past by the Academy, but that was for playing the lead role in a movie that pushed a pro-choice activism on abortion. The movie was marketed as a sweet movie about children in an orphanage, but the agenda was clear.

Yes, Heath Ledger deserved a nomination. He was excellent as well, although not as brilliant as Oldman or Eckhart. Yet he got the nomination because he died too young, and tragically. The Academy said this loudly.

Forgive me, but Heath Ledger was a dumb (redacted) who killed himself, either accidentally or in a suicide. That must not have any impact on the voters. If anything, it cheapens his nomination because had he lived, he would have been worthy of a nomination anyway.

I am tired of people who die this way being glorified, whether it be Janis Joplin, Jimmy Hendrix, Curt Cobain, or Heath Ledger. This should have no bearing on Emmys, Grammys, or Oscars.

When all else fails, foreign love stories are the answer. In fact, anything foreign appeals to the Academy.

Whether it be Asians Crouching about tigers and dragons, or some people from India falling in love, foreign lovers are all the rage. If there is no love story, political activists are a global sensation. One year it is Irish revolutionaries. The next year it is Tibet.The less the story matters in the real world, and the fewer the number of people that watch it, the greater the chances for a nomination.

The worst part of this fiasco is the self-congratulatory left-wing blather. Yet in very tough economic times, the Academy tries to scale things down. They then congratulate themselves on how spectacular they are at scaling things down.

For those that want a recap from the California Republican Assembly Party Convention, that will occur this week.

For those that need a recap of events at the NFL Scouting Combine, there is a fabulous website.

http://www.nfl.com

For those that truly care about the self-indulgent spoiled brats that make up the Academy, just walk outside. There will be people bent over just enough to treasury the aroma of their own rumpuses. If that does not work, follow the trail of cocaine powder.

(Monique is exempt from criticism. My bizarre fascination with her still burns. If she ever says anything political I will add her to my list of yummy bouncies in the spring. She was is one plus size bag of beauty.)

At least the event is over with. Now the industry can get back to its day job, putting out left-wing crap and calling it art.

eric

I recently interviewed radio host Leslie Marshall.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Leslie_Marshall

Leslie is a nationally syndicated radio host.

She is also different from most people I interview. She is a liberal.

For those wondering why I would cross party lines to interview a liberal radio host, it is not because she has the looks of an underwear model.

Although for the sake of ethics, she absolutely does.

http://www.lesliemarshall.us/

I saw her appearance on Bill O’Reilly, and was impressed.

She expressed that she gets in trouble with her liberal friends for saying positive things about him.

I disagreed with her political stances, but respected her graciousness. I began corresponding with her by email. While our politics could not be further apart on many issues, her emails reflected her to be funny, pleasant, and downright charming.

The world is a better place when we do not let politics get in the way of potential friendships.

Comity does not mean compromising one’s values. Comity merely means better holiday experiences with relatives at the dinner table. In the spirit of comity, I present my interview with Leslie Marshall.

1) What is the Leslie Marshall story? What led you to enter the radio arena?

LM: My “story” well…I got into radio as a step before television. i had wanted to be a news anchor. One night, working in Miami at WNWS, the talk host got sick. I filled in for him and got hooked. I’ve been doing it ever since.

2) What 3 political issues are you most passionate about?

LM: a) Healthcare Reform

b) Education

c) Terrorism/Dispelling the myths of Islam

3) Is the War on Terror real or a slogan?

LM: It is a slogan.

4) It is one thing to ask people to have faith in God. It is much tougher to ask people to have faith in government. What does our government do right? What does it need to do better so people can start believing in their government again?

LM: I think there is a lot our government does right. We’re not being attacked on the level of a 9/11, the highways still are there and lights are on, etc.  I feel the problem is that our government’s “good” is not presented accurately as the majority of the media is conservative and the message they send is that the government is bad, wrong, and cant be trusted. For years we have watched too many lies and secrets and we are less trusting. Transparency and results I believe will get the public to start trusting the government again. It is about getting things done and working for the people, not their party/platforms.

5) What Americans call 9/11, Israel refers to as every day life. Israel is then asked to show restraint. What is your view on Israel taking preemptive action, including a strike on Iran’s nuclear facilities if necessary? What about with regards to the disputed territories such as Gaza? What about against Damascus, who funds Hezbollah?

If Israel preemptively strikes, then they have invited that nation (Iran, etc.) to attack them. Israel can’t launch a missile and then cry about the ramifications of their actions. Regarding the disputed territories: the Palestinian people were in Israel first, and although Israel did win the land, they better than anyone know what it is like to be thrown out of your country based on religion, culture, ethnicity, being different, and being hated.  The people in Gaza and the West Bank aren’t going to leave; Israelis know this. The two party state is the only solution. Israel needs to accept this, work toward this and move on. For the sake of PEACE for Israel and Palestine and the children of both; the future, there must be an establishment of a Palestinian state.

6) Who are your 3 political heroes, American or worldwide?

LM: a) Ghandi b) Yitzak Rabin c) Bill Clinton

7) Outside of another 9/11, what can be done to reduce the acrimony and polarization in America?

LM: Accepting our similarities rather than focusing on our differences. Stopping the hate, needing someone to blame. Education is key.

8.) You have succeeded in a tough industry where many have failed. Why do you think Air America failed?

LM: I think AA failed because of funds obviously and also because they started with a lot of celebs. I think that good, sound, experienced radio talk hosts are always the way to go when putting together a network or lineup.

9) What is your stance on the Fairness Doctrine?

LM: We need the Fairness Doctrine. Americans need to hear all sides of an issue and then figure it out for themselves. All right-wing all the time is not only dangerous and unbalanced; but it makes people lazy to let the hosts think for them.

10) Many conservatives dislike National Public Radio for its perceived liberal slant. Given that you and other liberal radio hosts have succeeded in the marketplace, and given the thousands of choices available, is there a justification for shutting NPR down? Why should taxpayers pay for it?

LM: NPR is privately funded last time I checked. NPR isn’t liberal. It’s probably truly the only fair and balanced station in my opinion. Every time I hear an issue, they have both sides. I think NPR is great and should remain.

11) Without delving too deeply into your personal life, what would you want Americans to know about Leslie Marshall the person? 100 years from now, what would you want people to remember about you, and what would you hope the history books say about you?

LM: Wow- I hope that my tombstone says: Here lies one of the best talk show hosts America had (I’m not there yet, it’s a goal obviously). I hope people remember me for making a difference, although I doubt I’ll be written about in history; unless I run for office someday and do something really really good or really really bad!

12) Do you get bored with the marriage proposals that you get inundated with on a daily basis, and does your share of 18-30 year old male listeners decrease when they find out you are unavailable?

LM: My numbers are always good 18 plus and I’ve never checked if they go away when they find out if I’m married. Funny question. I don’t get marriage proposals daily; from time to time and of course, I must decline. It’s flattering obviously if anyone likes your work, as well as what you look like. I’m female and am on television. A marriage proposal beats the heck out of “You’re fat, you’re ugly!” etc….both of which I have also been told!

While Leslie Marshall has amazing (redacted) and (redacted), I genuinely give her credit for substance to match the style.

I am going to make an assumption that the people who referred to her as fat and ugly were people who disagreed with her politics. Either that or they were homosexual. After all, Marc Antony rejected Cleopatra.

Ms. Marshall is not fat or ugly. Despite her having views that occasionally make me think obscene (angry, not sexual) thoughts, that does not make her ugly inside either.

I have views that most likely cause her to feel the same way. Yet rather than hurl bombs at each other, we just communicated in a calm rational manner.

Republicans and Democrats are opponents. We are not enemies.

When we communicate with people we disagree with, we learn things that we cannot learn by conversing with those already on our side.

Leslie Marshall understands this. Watch her appearances on the O’Reilly Factor and judge for yourself.

Bill O’Reilly gave her a platform to enhance her already successful entity. She then turned around and did the same with me.

I would like to thank Leslie Marshall for her time and her pleasant nature.

I wish her well always.

eric

Water is wet, the sun rises in the East, and the President is still talking.

Those on the left worship him. He has no faults. His words are true simply because he says them. Appealing to those people to actually judge him on substance is a waste of time. For those actually capable of cutting through the fog, welcome to the world of our Spinal Tap in Chief.

Although the issue is health care reform, I am not referring to the medical procedure known as a spinal tap.

I am referring to the fictional rock band Spinal Tap, with Michael McKean of Laverne and Shirley playing Nigel Teufel.

The more I listen to President Obama, the more he reminds me of Spinal Tap. He sounds like he is saying lofty and groundbreaking things, but he is really saying absolutely nothing.

The song “The Majesty of Rock” is as hilarious as it is analogous.

“When we die…do we haunt the sky…do we lurk in the murk of the seas…

What then…are we born again…just to sit asking questions like these…

I know…for I told me so…and I’m sure each of you quite agrees…

The more it stays the same…the less it changes!”

(Even those who love Mr. Obama should find this song riotous.)

“That’s the majesty of rock…the fantasy of roll…

The ticking of the clock (or the crowing of the cock)…the scoring of the goal (or the running of the foal)…

The shepherd with his flock…the miner with his coal…

We’re in this together!”

I will get to the President’s remarks momentarily, but think of how the lyrics apply to him.

“I know, for I told me so, and I’m sure each of you quite agrees.”

If that does not perfectly encapsulate the mentality of this man, I don’t know what does.

Instead of “the more things change, the more they stay the same,” we get, “the more it stays the same, the less it changes.” It sounds so deep, but upon further analysis, is nonsense.

Barack Obama does not understand the economic concept of diminishing marginal returns. If every speech is a groundbreaking speech, then none of them are.

(In college, the 4th beer may have been better than the 3rd beer, but the 27th one might not be better than the 26th one. I was not a drinker, but the analogy is the same with barbecued ribs. It is a different type of physical pain that is self-inflicted.)

Now for Mr. Obama’s Spinal Tap remarks.

“The status quo is unacceptable. Doing nothing is not an option.”

Nobody is saying we should do nothing. Those are fictional arguments he keeps repeating.

He then tries to triangulate himself as a reasonable moderate between two extremes. On one side are those who want the single payer system. Mr. Obama yearns for this, but is honest enough to know it is not politically feasible at this time. Fair enough. Yet he claims that the Republican approach is solely to “loosen regulations on insurance companies. I disagree with that approach.”

No, it is not. I have not met a single Republican who said that letting insurance companies run wild is the only solution, and that everything will be fine if we do that.

He then stated where there was agreement.

1) Removing the ban on preexisting conditions (He cited the 39% Anthem Blue Cross increase in premiums).

2) Giving the people the same plan as Congress.

3) Bringing down costs

# 2 will not happen. Congress always finds a way to get special treatment. This is a bipartisan form of entitlement.

# 3 is a meaningless platitude. Everybody wants stuff to cost less.

# 1 makes sense. However, the reason why Anthem Blue Cross got away with what it did is because they lack competition. Does anybody in their right mind think that Coca Cola could charge $20 for a soda with Pepsi breathing down their neck?

Allowing insurance across state lines would absolutely prevent Anthem Blue Cross from engaging in such maneuvers.

President Obama kept saying that he “incorporated ideas from both sides.”

No he did not. He will not look at legal reform. Some call it tort reform, but we need wide ranging legal reform that balances reducing frivolous lawsuits without letting legitimate ones get buried.

He said that the CBO claims his plan will reduce the deficit by 2 trillion dollars. He neglects to mention that in the late years, it explodes again.

Anybody criticizing his numbers has their motives attacked as racist or unpatriotic or uncaring. I have one questions for these people.

How the heck can one reduce any deficit by spending more? It does not work that way.

“I took the best ideas from the Democrats and the GOP.”

No he did not.

“There is a disagreement over regulation of insurance companies.”

That is not the debate. That is a small slice of the debate.

“If Republicans feel that way, they should vote against my plan.”

Good. We will continue to vote against bad plans. It’s called being principled.

I have said that the president should take a piecemeal approach. The president feels that unless we get universal coverage (although his plan does not cover everybody), insurance companies will still deny those with preexisting conditions.

This is not the case. He claims that there is broad agreement, but insists on an all or nothing approach, disagreements be d@mned.”

He then complained that his bill “deserves an up or down vote.”

Again, Democrats are the ones that have had a year to have an up or down vote. 100% of the fault with failure has been because Democrats fought amongst themselves.

Kentucky Senator Mitch McConnell as usual made sense.

“The President left out the medicare cuts and tax increases.”

“The only thing bipartisan about this bill is the opposition to it.”

“This is not an argument between Democrats and Republicans. It is an argument between Democrats and the people.”

If Barack Obama wants a bill passed now, then get one passed! It is intraparty fights between the center-left and the hard left.

He can attack Tea Party attendees, Republicans, insurance companies, and everybody else, but the fault lies inward.

The bigger picture is that his passionate speeches on health care should be replaced with passionate work on jobs. 85% of Americans are happy with their health care. 100% of Americans are worried about the economy and job creation.

Over and over again Americans have said that they want the economy dealt with first. He pretends to get the message, then continues charging forward on health care.

We keep being told that “the time for talk and debate is over,” and that “the time to act is now.”

All this president does is talk. His party is the party of inertia. If they want to act, then shut up and act. Just stop boring me.

“I know, for I told me so, and I’m sure each of you quite agrees…the more it stays the same, the less it changes.”

eric

The main event today is Sarah Palin, but first, some quick housekeeping notes.

I am on a plane today to speak to the Silicon Valley Young Republicans in San Jose.

Last night California Gubernatorial candidate Steve Poizner spoke at the San Fernando Valley Republican Club headed by Gary Aminoff.

http://www.sfvrc.org

While I am publicly neutral in the race, I will say that this is the second time I have listened to and met Mr. Poizner. He is impressive.

Yet yesterday was a day of agonizing sadness. Sarah Palin visited Los Angeles, and again I am one crushed Tygrrrr fella.

(I expect you all to pretend to care and feel my pain.)

I have met so many politicians, but I have never met Sarah Palin. At the 2008 GOP Convention in Minneapolis, I met tons of politicos. However, Governor Palin was on lockdown. This was understandable. The Presidential and Vice Presidential nominees are under Secret Service protection for their safety.

Yet Sarah Palin is now a private citizen, and every time I think I am about to meet her something goes wrong.

On March 12th she and I are both in Florida. Yet while I have speaking event in Florida on the 11th, her event is the evening of the 12th. By then I will already be on a plane to Oklahoma City.

Yet yesterday I was so close. She came to Los Angeles to appear on the Jay Leno Tonight Show.

I drove the 30 minutes to the studio, was able to obtain a ticket, and was sitting in one of the front rows. We were 30 feet apart.

She was on fire. She joked with Jay about his own negative press coverage. She referred to the writing on her hand as a “poor man’s teleprompter.” It was a great line. She also did a comedy monologue that went over very well.

I have said many times that her critics are so rabid and frothing at the mouth that they will take a harmless event such as writing on a hand and use it to attack her, when the truth is they have a predetermined hatred of her and simply make things up to fit the predetermined narrative.

A couple of people that looked like they were still in the 1960s tried to hand me a copy of “Going Rouge.” I changed seats. They looked filthy, and their behavior was typical leftist intolerance. They could not even be polite enough to shut up and let the guest speak. Thankfully the supporters drowned them out.

The guest list in addition to Sarah Palin featured Olympic Gold Medalist Shawn White and American Idol singer Adam Lambert.

While Mr. Lambert looks a little creepy to me with all of his piercings and black eyeliner, I had never heard him sing before. He does have a good voice, and the song he sang was pleasant. It was odd to hear women in their 40s and 50s screaming like teenagers over this young man, but I never grasped Beatlemania either.

I was not there to see Mr. Lambert or Mr. White, although the chants of “USA” for Mr. White were nice.

I was there to see Governor Palin. I really wanted to meet her. I was 30 feet away from her.

She almost became Vice President. Then the financial crisis hit, and the GOP was done. SHe was so close, and yet so far away.

I feel the same way. She was right there. Yet meeting her on this day did not happen.

I may or may not have gotten on camera due to the band. The saxophone player was unbelievable, and the woman belted out classics during commercial breaks. As they played “Old Time Rock n Roll” by Bob Seger, I had a microphone shoved in my face. Lord help those who now know that I, in a very fake gravelly manner, “Reminisce about the days of old…”

I understand that there are many people in this world with bigger worries than me.

Yet I still wish we had met.

No, for those wondering, I would not have hit on her. I would have been very polite, and just let her know I supported her and admired her.

This is worse than the time in junior high school when some girl whose name I can’t remember did something I forgot that bothered me for reasons I cannot recall.

On March 27th, Sarah Palin is doing a tea party near Las Vegas. I am trying to be the undercard for that event.

I have built up very positive reviews among the ladies of the Federation of Republican Women.

Ladies…you run the country. All I ask…can you please get me in front of Sarah Palin so I can say hello to her?

I cannot go to Alaska. I am deathly afraid of cold weather. Somebody let me know when she is in the lower 48 in a climate controlled room (Not climate change you nimrods, climate controlled).

Until then, from 10 yards away, I offer a daydreamy sighhhhhhh.

Now to go sob uncontrollably.

So close, and yet so far away.

Oh, and for those wondering, she looks as stunning as ever.

(Editor’s note. This is not about lust. I wanted to give her a copy of my book in the hopes she would admire it and launch me on the road to superstardom. I may pretend to chase women, but I really am all business all the time)

eric

I have decided to endorse violence against women.

Men, it is open season. Brutalize away.

Despite my column “Light a candle, smack a woman” that rings in every Hanukkah, I used to actually be opposed to violence against women.

http://www.tygrrrrexpress.com/2007/12/light-a-candle-smack-a-woman/

Yet an event recently had me switch sides. Naturally, it was the National Organization for Women that made me see the light.

The NOW should be renamed the 4-H club. Maybe we can call it Hillary’s Horrid Hags and Harpies.

For those who have better things to do (meaning you are not a feminist), a quick recap is necessary.

A football player named Tim Tebow appeared with his mother in a Super Bowl ad. Mrs. Tebow was over 40 when she was pregnant with Tim. She was advised to have an abortion due to complications, and she refused due to her pro-life beliefs. She was not crusading against other women. She had a choice, and she chose life.

The purpose of the commercial was to advertise the pro-life cause.

Naturally pro-choice groups went into a tizzy, expecting an “offensive” commercial. The commercial was so mild that no reasonable person (again, excludes feminists) could have possibly been offended.

Yet the NOW exists for the purpose of being offended, and setting women’s rights back. In the same way racial grievance mongers act like it is still 1863, the NOW offers gender grievances as if the 19th Amendment had never happened.

Because the ad was pro-life, the NOW needed something, anything, to attack the ad. Unable to attack it on substance (big surprise, the left avoiding substance), the president of the NOW offered a ludicrous criticism.

Tim Tebow playfully “tackles” his mother in the ad.

For those living in real life and not fantasy land (once again, feminists exempted), no actual mothers were hurt during the ad. In a separate unrelated ad, 88 year old actress Betty White was belted and slammed to the ground in a pickup game. Apparently it was make believe, and Mrs. White is walking just fine.

The NOW president threw her tiara to the ground, and in hysterical hissy (oh wow, make it the 6H Club) fit fashion, decided that the Tebow add promotes violence against women.

http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/National-Organization-for-Women-upset-83814942.html

Therefore, I have decided to propose new ways to commit violence against women.

As tempting as it is to advocate duct taping NOW members mouth’s shut, that would be illegal unless they voluntarily wanted it. Even so, they are most likely too ugly to play bondage with anyway.

My first act of violence against women will involve invading random flower gardens and pulling all the petals off of the flowers.

Women are obviously delicate little flowers, too soft and fragile to withstand the slightest slights. I will pull every petal off of every flower and violently throw them to the ground. Instead of yelling, “she loves me, she loves me not,” I will chant, “I hate you, I hate you more.”

Plus, I hate foliage. Most feminists are environmentalists, another reason to attack flowers.

Next, I will be sabotaging the Lifetime network. I will be jamming the feed and replacing it with the NFL network. The only commercial on tv will be the Tebow commercial.

Next, I will send religious monks into NOW headquarters. The NOW is secular, so religious people showing up would freak them out. The monks will be equipped with a chalkboard, using illustrations to teach them how to take a vow of silence.

If I have to, I will order the monks to throw the flower petals at these women. The women might get injured upon being hit by the petals. Then again, some of them may swoon because they will see it as an act of love, the only time flowers have ever been near them.

At this point some feminists will claim that it is unfair to criticize all of them for the lunatics at the NOW.

Either people stand up and condemn the cancerous elements in their own movement, or they are complicit.  Silence is acquiescence.

The solution is to reach a compromise on the abortion issue. Conservative pro-lifers should keep breeding. However, if a radical feminist gets pregnant (most likely through en vitro fertilization), and a crystal ball shows that the child will grow up to join the NOW, an abortion must take place.

Women who complain that I am trivializing a group that fights real violence against women can shut up and sit down. Until they care about honor killings in Muslim nations, they are hypocritical has-beens (oh wow, the 8-H Club).

Until then, I need to go to the hardware store. It is not easy to take broken flower petals and duct tape them together, but it will be worth it.

eric

It is time to tell the truth about why the Democrats failed to pass their own version of Obamacare. It had nothing to do with Republicans.

I am against Obamacare, but my concern is that I am not going to sit by and let Republicans take an ounce of blame for liberal uselessness.

Barbara Boxer and her ilk killed health care reform.

The truth is simple. I finally stated this last week, and although it deals with an issue I prefer to avoid, it is unavoidable for the health care discussion.

It is all about the A-word.

The only thing the left cares about is abortion. Liberal women have blinders on, and liberal Jewish women do not know a single other issue exists. Barbara Boxer is the trifecta.

Michigan Congressman Bart Stupak has language that keeps abortion from being part of a comprehensive plan. Right now abortion is considered an elective procedure.

I have publicly stated my neutrality on the issue. When a tough bill comes up, the easiest way to deal with the abortion issue is to maintain the status quo. I am not taking a pro-choice or pro-life position. I am taking a “deal with it separately” position.

On the issue of abortion alone, I am not wedded to Barbara Boxer or Bart Stupak. What I am looking at is which person is trying to change something. The Stupak language keeps the status quo. Barbara Boxer opposes this. She wants to increase abortion access.

This matters because she is willing to let the entire health care reform process go down in flames over abortion. The Democrats have the votes to pass a bill with zero support from Republicans. Yet pro-life Democrats will not accept new abortion expansion.

Barbara Boxer and her ilk cannot let this go. This is her greedy nature.

Getting bills passed is about consensus. Barabara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi are not about consensus. They are about rigid ideological feminist hysteria. Whether the issue is tax cuts or the War on Terror, they are obsessed with the abortion issue. This is why Boxer has been in the Senate 18 years and has virtually zero accomplishments.

If the Democrats were smart (they would be Republicans, based on their results), they would go to Boxer and say that getting a bill passed with many things the left likes has to be good enough, and that abortion can be revisited later.

The Democrats know that if they cannot get health care passed in 2010, it will never happen the way they want it. Who could be so selfish to torpedo an entire 30 to 40 years of work on an issue that divides Democrats?

Barbara Boxer and her ilk.

Barbara Boxer is a disaster of a human being, and she is dragging down an entire political party along with the Pelosiraptor.

How utterly delightful.

I would worry that this could be prevented, but it would require President Obama to grow a spine. That will not happen.

Barbara Boxer will rally the angry hard-left women of the world. She will claim a moral victory.

As for the millions off people without health care, Barbara Boxer cares nothing about them. Unless they are having an abortion, any other medical procedure is too boring for her to deal with.

Republicans should just sit back and let Boxer be Boxer. Then everything will work out fine.

eric

Yesterday I spoke to the Pima GOP ladies. Today I have the Pinal GOP ladies, in Saddlebrook, Arizona, near Tucson.

I said yesterday that I was not going to be covering President Obama’s newest self-indulgent waste of time. People who say I should be open-minded and just hear him out at some point should concede that he has had enough chances to speak. Nevertheless, hours driving in a car allowed for me to hear more than enough to determine that he is completely wasting our time.

When a liberal tells a conservative to “be bipartisan,” that liberal is really telling the conservative “shut up and agree with me.”

When people reject what the left offers, the left claims that their opponents are either evil or stupid.  Claims that they did not explain it right means that we are complete dolts too unsophisticated to grasp concepts. Claims that we have no interest in coming to the table attacks us as bad people when the truth is that dialogue is not the same as monologue.

Let’s start out with a basic premise that will anger conservatives. Barack Obama has every right to ram through his agenda. He won the election. He has healthy majorities in congress. If he rams through a left-wing agenda and we on the right dislike it, too d@mn bad. We lost the election and have to shut up and deal with it.

However, my objection with Mr. Obama is not that he wants to ram through an agenda I dislike. That is what elections are for. My problem with him is that he keeps telling us that he wants to be bipartisan. He doesn’t. He is an ideologue. He wants to govern from the left. I do not believe the right should refuse to deal with him out of spite. However, we have every right to refuse to deal with him until he starts speaking honestly.

Here is the truth, with a lowercase “t.”

Republicans did not block health care reform. Democrats did. The Democrats had a filibuster proof majority in the senate and could not get the job done. Again, there is absolutely nothing the Republicans could have done to block the bill. Failure to enact Obamacare is 100% the fault of the Democrats.

Barack Obama is not coming to the table because he is bipartisan. He knows that the Democrats are a bunched of undisciplined children that can’t govern. If they could, his bill would have become law.

The next truth is that Mr. Obama wants the Republicans to agree to his bill. He does not want to enact any Republican proposals.

Republicans favor legal reform. He is against it. His concern that legal reform would allow corporations to crush innocent victims is bogus. There can be a compromise legal reform bill that limits frivolous lawsuits while still allowing legitimate ones to go forward. Mr. Obama will not stand up to the trial lawyers.

Selling insurance across state lines would lead to competition, which is good. Mr. Obama is masterful at saying that Republican ideas should be “looked at,” which his way of pretending to acknowledge opposing views before completely discounting them.

Mr. Obama is even trying to revive the public option. Republicans do not want this.

So what is the solution?

I personally think Mr. Obama should try and ram his bill down our throats. Then when he fails, he and the Democratic Party should face the deserved humiliation, as they did with Hillarycare in 1994.

The Republicans should absolutely not cave in to this man.

Flash back to 1992. In a recession, Tom Foley and George Mitchell convinced President George Herbert Walker Bush to agree to raise taxes. Vice President Dan Quayle correctly pointed out that he would be breaking his word, ending his presidency.

President Bush gave a speech about how he hated to do it, but that he really wanted to work with the other side. The Jayson Blair Times praised him for compromising.

What was his reward? Foley and Mitchell and the rest of the Democrats called him a liar for breaking his “no new taxes pledge.” He was fired.

Politics are like the cartoon Peanuts. Democrats are Lucy, and Republicans are like Charlie Brown trying to kick the football. How many times do we have to get fooled before we realize that the other side wants to bury us?

The Democrats screwed up health care reform. They desperately want Republicans to come on board so that if the bill fails, blame will be spread out.

Hell no. Let me say this again. Hell no.

President Obama keeps saying we have no ideas. We have plenty of ideas, and he keeps rejecting them. Either he adopts some of our recommendations, or he tries to pass a hyperpartisan bill on his own.

(Tomorrow I will explain WHY the Democrats cannot pass it on their own, and what is causing their own members to immolate themselves. It involves Barbara Boxer.)

Barack Obama keeps saying that the people want his bill. Therefore, he should pass his bill with his party and get all the credit if it succeeds. He is scared of blame, which tells me that he knows the people are not buying what he is trying to sell.

The left can cry and throw temper tantrums about GOP obstructionism, but it is a lie. They have the votes. They are too gutless and useless to do anything with the votes.

There is no need to talk anymore. It is a waste of time.

Meetings are useful when both sides are willing to listen and compromise. Mr. Obama wants face time in front of the camera in the hopes that the public will become weary with the Republicans and demand his bill be passed. This was the strategy that allowed Bill Clinton to defeat Newt Gingrich during the government shutdown of 1995.

Mr. Obama wants to talk everybody to death until the public says “enough already.” Then pressure will fall on Republicans to cave.

This cannot happen. Mr. Obama should not be rewarded for his own intransigence.

The bill is a bad bill. He refuses to change it. Having a meeting with the other side is not the same thing as taking concrete actions.

Mr. Obama did not definitely promise to put one GOP proposal into the bill or remove one liberal poison pill out of the bill.

He also promised to focus on jobs first, but he cannot let health care go.

He could sign a smaller bill eliminating restrictions on preexisting conditions. In 1994 Hillarycare collapsed, but after the GOP took over congress we got the Kennedy-Kassebaum portability bill. It was good legislation.

Barack Obama wants what he wants, and he will not stop until he is dragged kicking and screaming to the center.

Republicans should hold the line. If we can get Bill Clinton to agree to a balanced budget, we can get Barack Obama to move as well. He is mortal, despite his own visions of grandeur.

Hours and hours of wasted time accomplished nothing. Mr. Obama talked, blathered, lectured, and nothing changed.

Mr. Obama, either pass your own bill, or work with the Republicans.

Just stop talking. Nobody that matters believes you any more.

Enough already.

eric