To say the President is between a rock and a hard place is putting it lightly; he will be damned if he does and damned if he doesn’t send more troops to Afghanistan.

More than one news agency has commented that Afghans, as were the Iraqis before them, are dependent on the US to fight their wars for them while offering little or no help; that they must stand up and be made to take more responsibility in wresting their country from the enemy. So where does that leave our soldiers?

The death toll of US military in Afghanistan is increasing now that the focus of the war has switched countries, so what is the President to do? If we pull out now, will everything our soldiers fought and died for be lost? Will the terrorists ramp up their attacks on Americans both at home and abroad? If we stay, we will have to send more of our young men and women into harms way; ask the American people to offer up their young to a war we may be fighting for many more years. Should we leave our soldiers who are there already without the proper and necessary backup to get the job done?

The idea of a the reemergence of the draft is brewing just below the surface of the war, something that makes me terribly uneasy. Although the threat of a draft has not been uttered, I feel it is only a matter of time. The recruitment centers are offering incentives to try to get young men and women interested in signing up; I even heard incentives for officers who have been discharged after serving their time, who are needed to help with the training of new recruits.
I agree with Rep. Feinstein when she said that we need a clear time line as to how long our troops will remain in Afghanistan; there is no clarity on this at this time.

To repeat the mistakes made in the Iraq war is just unacceptable just as it is unacceptable that the lives lost and those to be lost in this present war will be in vain! They fought and died for our country, so win we must!

Racial profiling will be with us as long as there are differences in one group of people from another, be they black, white, red, brown or yellow.

The sargent is reportedly teaching others about how to handle potential incidents over racial profiling. Was sensitivity to the plight of the person who may view the incident as racial profiling part of the training? Where is there evidence that he was taking his own advice in all of this? I’m just sayin’…

Why has the media now given this unfortunate episode in the lives of two respectable people a gate?

And to top it all off…the President was asked for his opinion. Asked! And when he gave it, many were upset and wanted an apology. For what? In a country of free speech, does that not apply to the country’s leader? What President Obama did was graciously accept part of the blame for fanning the fire with his unfortunate choice of words; no apology needed! He is entitled to his own opinion!

With so many other more important things to be covered, why has the media sat on this story for so long? In all the days since this has happened, how many times were our soldiers profiled for their bravery? Why is it we only hear of them when they are carried home in a casket?

Enough already! Get on with reporting more relevant news and stop igniting the fire under what has become nothing more than a poorly written soap opera! Tear down the gate and move on!

What I want to know is…where was the love when Michael was alive?

For years, the media made reference to his ever changing appearance – even referring to him as “Wacko Jacko”. Did anyone ever stop and wonder why he wanted to change the way he looked? One of my theories is that Michael hated his father for all of the physical and emotional abuse he suffered at his hands and didn’t want to identify with him in any manner – not even in looking like him.

Michael needed unconditional, emotional love and support but with the people he surrounded himself with, their love and support came with a price. As for the charges of child molestation…I prefer to believe him innocent, especially since he was not proven to be guilty of such a heinous act.

Michael was a child in a grownup body and gave his life to his fans from a very young age. He surrounded himself with younger children in his efforts to recreate his childhood to what he would have liked it to be including the development of the Neverland Ranch.

Micheal’s cries for help were ignored for years and I believe it may have been to prevent anything from disrupting the flow of fortune this one man created for so many. Once his musical career started to wane, those surrounding him waned as well.

I feel as though I have lost a family member…the same devastation I felt when Princess Diana died. I feel helpless and as though I let him down after he gave me and my children so much.

Michael was always other worldly; a talent unsurpassed by anyone who went before him and certainly not by any imitators to come after him.

I hope his tortured soul finds the peace it sought while here and that the lives he touched will remember that touch in all the good ways that have bought them to mourn his loss.

And the comment that the President should lead instead of follow – well that’s exactly what President Obama is doing, leading the way for the Iranians to take control of their own future; letting them fight for their rights.

Didn’t the American Civil War come about because Americans wanted freedom and rights within their country as its citizens? Many died during that conflict but we won. Well…many will die before this holds true in Iran but the people are prepared to do whatever it takes to get their votes counted and oust the present regime!

No one likes to see others die but the people of Iran have had enough of being told where to go and how to get there. This conflict has been simmering just below the surface for a very long time. Oppression makes for hotter fires and eventually that pot boils over!

If the U.S. interferes, what would change? Nothing and all the people who have lost their lives will have died in vain!

President Obama’s approach is the right one. No one has asked for U.S interference but Lindsay Graham is champing at the bit, literally frothing at the mouth to do just that. Of course, if President Obama does interfere and his efforts backfire, Graham will then say the president is too weak to lead, is not effective.

Strength is not determined by the wars you begin but by how you govern and come up with other ways to handle conflict, especially when that conflict is in another country’s backyard!

What I love is the fact that President Obama is following his own platform and ignoring the whining and back stabbing of the failed, former Republican-led government.

It seems there is a lot of noise and rhetoric coming from those who object to the President suggesting they invest in their own countries.

And to blame the U.S for the world’s economic trouble is just plain unfair! Granted…the U.S under George Bush’s watch went down the toilet in a slow eight-year flush; it did cause the domino effect but other countries were already suffering losses and asking the U.S. for help.

It is time for the whining of the world’s other leaders to stop – time to pull back the hand asking for the U.S to help and join in formulating a plan to pull the world’s economy out of the bowl!

Iran has already blamed the U.S. and Britain for the civil unrest spawned by a dubious election; they do not want us there!

Why is it that some politicians want the president to wield a big stick when it comes to another country’s politics? We preach freedom and democracy as long as it’s according to U.S. guidelines then complain when said countries cannot stand alone.

If President Obama interferes in the Iran conflict…it will become his Iraq! Bloodshed is being threatened and this will undoubtedly be placed at the feet of the president if he intercedes.

President Obama, in his short tenure, has boosted the approval rating of the U.S around the world, something that was trashed during the last administration. He is keeping his allies close and his enemies closer – talking with them and taking the pulse of their feelings towards peace between our two nations.

Some complain that he is seeking too much media attention, especially on the TV. Well…this smacks of sour grapes, especially where the comments come from those who make their living in front of a TV camera!

The attention will always be on this new president, mainly because he is governing in a way that is firmly out of the box, and he is the first black president in our nation’s history. The status quo did not work so change is the order of the day!

The president promised visibility. He said the public will always know what he and his administration are doing. He also said he is not perfect, that mistakes will be made. Well…if any of his critics are perfect and have never made mistakes in their political careers – let them cast the first stone!

We don’t need another conflict to worry about; we have two active wars and a third threatening without delving into the politics of Iran. Those young people will get their country sorted out; they are willing to fight for change and rightly so. Isn’t that what we did in November 2008?

Change is not only coming to America – it is spreading around the world, one country at a time. Welcome, finally, to the new millennium!

It is the perfect platform for the hate mongers and radicals whether they travel in groups or alone to rear their ugly heads, taking aim at the unsuspecting…the innocent who, by being born different, makes them a target of someone’s intolerance. And I resent the fact that in order to get along we have to tolerate one another…we should be able to do better than tolerate!

It doesn’t help that there are those speaking for political parties to spew their hatred in the name of a better America; those in the media who barely hide a snare when calling the president by name yet professing to be unbiased and independent. Give the man a chance. He has a lot on his plate and is dealing with it pretty good from where I sit! Stop complaining when he doesn’t seem to be doing enough then balking when he ramps up his work load. I believe a lot of the arm-chair judges know they would be incapable of handing such a work load and superimpose this notion onto the president. Like I said, stop complaining and start supporting. President Obama do no worse than what was done to divide the country on every level possible over the last eight years!

The sad part about all of this is that racism and hatred will never be torn from the fabric of our society. For as long as children are bought up in the racial bias of their parents and taught to hate those different from themselves; while society accepts and gives voice to all those who would put them asunder, in the name of free speech, racism in all its forms will be the one constant for as long as the world is in existence.

We are fighting three wars…two in foreign lands and one right here at home. I daresay the ones overseas will be won while it’s sad to admit that America will lose the war within.

It is the perfect platform for the hate mongers and radicals whether they travel in groups or alone to rear their ugly heads, taking aim at the unsuspecting…the innocent who, by being born different, makes them a target of someone’s intolerance. And I resent the fact that in order to get along, we have to tolerate one another!

It doesn’t help that there are those speaking for political parties to spew their hatred in the name of a better America; those in the media who barely hide a snare when calling the president by name yet professing to be unbiased and independent. Give the man a chance. He has a lot on his plate and is dealing with it pretty good from where I sit! Stop complaining when he doesn’t seem to be doing enough then balking when he ramps up his work load. I believe a lot of the arm-chair judges know they would be incapable of handing such a work load and superimpose this notion onto the president. Like I said, stop complaining and start supporting. President Obama do no worse than what was done to divide the country on every level possible over the last eight years!

The sad part about all of this is that racism and hatred will never be torn from the fabric of our society. For as long as children are bought up in the racial bias of their parents and taught to hate those different from themselves; while society accepts and gives voice to all those who would put them asunder, in the name of free speech, racism in all its forms will be the one constant for as long as the world is in existence.

We are fighting three wars…two in foreign lands and one right here at home. I daresay the ones overseas will be won while it’s sad to admit that America will lose the war within.

That hope is fading as a new tension rears its ugly head and gives rise to “lone wolf” attacks on the unsuspecting. Not only is the tension a racial thing, its all about being different!

There are those who don’t think racism and racial violence is domestic terrorism. Well…if you look at the definition of terrorism: the use of terror and violence to intimidate; and the word domestic: not foreign, you’d be hard put to call it anything else.

Every time I turn on the news, it’s to learn that someone’s life was taken because they were different or some place of business or residence was destroyed as a warning to its owners.

America is known as the melting pot…a pot that has been is beginning to boil over leaving its contents burnt and crusted over on the landscape of our country. Unless there is a way to lower the gas, there will be no stopping those who seek to destroy the very fabric holding our society together.

Our young men and women were responsible in a large way for the election of Barack Obama yet there are those who are trying to recruit them to fight against the very thing they voted for…a hate free country. To these young people I say stand strong. This is your world to inherit; you are our leaders of the future. Do not let these radical racists and hate mongers ruin your future as they have the present and our past.

There will never come a time when there is no racism, no hate for being different; I’d be less than honest with myself if I thought there would be. I am hoping for the day when acceptance becomes the norm.

The war by racists has been waged in America for centuries and it has not been won. Isn’t it time to stop the hate, stop the fighting? It is so sad that those who are not living their life as they wished it would be, that those who are not loved as they want to be feel the only way to make their hurt go away is by inflicting that hurt on others. Can they not put the shoe on the other foot and see what damage they are doing to themselves and others and give a damn? Answering “no” is the saddest statement of all!

It is time the Republican party stops furthering their agenda on the backs of the poor and middle classes who have born the brunt of their messed-up governing. The Republican Party has stomped the middle class into the ground, causing them to lose their homes and jobs. Look on the backs of any of them and you’ll see the boot prints the Republican slave masters have embedded as they squeeze the very life blood from the people whose lives they campaigned to protect!

John Boehner says he thinks it is a sign of weakness for the President to sit down with our enemies. Well…I say it is better to know what they are thinking then to rush in on false information and start a needless war that has taken the lives of so many innocent men and women. The Republicans are war mongers…we all know this and George Bush was on his stallion, cowboy hat waving in the air, leading the charge!

They cannot even get along in their own party; the representatives are a disaster and yet they sit in judgment of what this President is doing.

Mr. Boehner goes on to say that the Republicans have a “better way forward.” The Republican way forward is what has led this country into the mess the President inherited and now has to clean up!

To the Republican party I say – instead of trying to poke holes in the new administration by using gas bags such as Rush Limbaugh…try to clean up your party and work on your message. Show the American people that you are more than just a party of losers (a stretch); shut your mouths, go into hiding for awhile then try to reemerge as a better choice. Of course, I don’t ever see this happening since they say that Sarah Palin is one of the more suitable to lead the party and that scares me!

I am tired of the rhetoric and all the negatives from the Republicans. They are sore losers who have spent their first 100 days complaining and whining and doing battle with one another. Their next 100 days shows little change. I applaud Colin Powell for voting for the BEST CANDIDATE and not for a black man or for his party because he is black and a Republican. He is still drawing heat for that one.

Look at Arlen Specter…he jumped the fence and I don’t blame him. The Republican party is going to implode and it is only the smart ones who see this coming and are getting out of the way of the fallout!

Moaning…always moaning! The Republicans will feel better once they face the facts that they will not see office again for eight years – if ever! President Obama will fix the mess and it is guaranteed the American people will remember who caused their lives to collapse and won’t vote those responsible back into office!

Dick Cheney is the last nail in the Republican coffin so to him I say – talk on old man…talk on!