Opinion

FINAL - 2007 Elwood Year in Review DVD - On Sale Now

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 1 Feb 2008 16:27:16 -0800

thevideo

Balance of Power

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:03:34 -0700

caglecartoon

Backstage At The Democratic National Convention

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:02:29 -0700

caglecartoon

Bill Clinton

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 14:01:36 -0700

caglecartoon

Democratic Convention

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:58:50 -0700

caglecartoon

Nobama Convention Bounce

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:57:19 -0700

caglecartoon

Geezer and Gidget

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:56:03 -0700

caglecartoon

Geezer Talk

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:54:45 -0700

caglecartoon

Martha’s Big Adventure: Happy Labor Day

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:49:12 -0700

By Martha Randolph Carr

Here’s to all of us who go to work every day because there are bills to be paid. That leaves out the top end who work to make even more money and the bottom end who have figured out a way to have no bills at all. Middle America, this is your holiday. Sit back and take a load off.

Let’s give a special hurrah to all those who work the late shift, a double shift or have a career that has nothing to do with the degree they got in college. At some point, pragmatism came along and smacked these people in the head and they set out to find a job. Three cheers for setting a fine example for the younger generation.

The way to tell if you’re sitting at a job or embarked on a career is if you stress the benefits, like medical and dental, to your neighbors when describing what you do for a living. Everyone nods their head, noting how nice that is to get your teeth cleaned for free but no one asks what your next move is going to be.

If it’s a job your brain is often scanning for perks and hoping that maybe you can mold this into something else. If it’s a career you’re reading books on how to get ahead and sweet-talking the boss. Both have their upsides to them.

A job is something that’s easy to leave at the end of the day and head home. No paperwork to lug and what needs to be done while you’re working is usually very clearly defined. The emphasis in your life tends to be family and friends, which a lot of people would argue is saner and leads to better marriages and well-adjusted kids. When you’re old you won’t be reminiscing about that case you won or contract that was signed. Instead, the image will have more familiar faces and you’ll be remembered more as a good friend than a competent colleague. That’s all good stuff.

However, jobs tend to rock and roll with the state of the economy and if you’re not a saver it can seem like a precarious existence. Take a moment this holiday weekend and look at your financial picture. If your savings account doesn’t have enough to pay all the bills for at least six months make a resolution to start putting away 10% of every dime that comes your way. Start this holiday and check back in a year to see what that one small change does for your bottom line and your peace of mind.

Careers tend to come with better clothes and opportunities for personal fulfillment and monetary rewards. But here, the price you pay may be the semblance of a life outside of that one little definition. That’s why getting fired from a career can feel like a slip off a ladder and crash into core definitions we’ve created for ourselves. All those late hours can make it possible to forget who we really are outside of where we work. This is your chance to examine that area of your life and ask a few pointed questions.

If your small child runs to the phone when your spouse says, “Daddy’s home,” ask if it’s time to cut back on your hours. If you can easily tick off who everyone is in your suite of offices but can’t remember your children’s teacher’s names or even the first and last names of your next-door-neighbors, see if you can fit a backyard barbeque in your schedule. Make the guest list about neighbors and friends just this once and spend time asking questions that have nothing to do with work.

There’s one last suggestion for all of us this holiday weekend. Say a thank you to those who’ve retired, both from job or career, after a long life of showing up on time and ready to work and were always there when you needed them. They’re the ones who set the fine example for us about how to be of service and get paid for it. More adventures to follow.

Martha Randolph Carr’s latest book, A Place to Call Home, a memoir about the reemergence of U.S. orphanages is available wherever books are sold. If you’d like Martha to come and speak to your group visit: www.newvoicespeakers.com. Wish Martha a Happy Birthday this holiday weekend at: Martha@caglecartoons.com or visit www.martharandolphcarr.com.

©2008 Martha Randolph Carr.

Obama: Is He ready to be President?

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:47:06 -0700

By Floyd and Mary Beth Brown

Almost from the first day since winning his Senate seat less than four years ago, Barack Obama has been running for president. After Chicago’s leading political consultant, David Axelrod, agreed to run Obama’s Senate campaign in 2003, The Economist magazine in Britain reported “he simultaneously set about using his contacts in the Washington press corps to present Mr. Obama as a national star in the making.”

Axelrod is a firm believer in the importance of telling “a positive story about the candidate rather than to muddy the narrative with lots of talk about policy details.” Oh those “silly” policy details -- who cares about them when we can have a Greek god/rock star for president?

This focus on biography has left Americans wondering about his readiness. Sure, he may be a nice guy, but we are electing a president to lead America.

Bill Clinton tried to put the experience issue to bed in his speech at the Denver Democratic convention, but the question still lingers in Americans’ minds. Is Obama ready to lead our country of 300 million people? In addition, the next question is how will his policies affect me?

When the honeymoon is over and people’s infatuation with Obama wears off, they will definitely care about his policies. They will care about how these policies affect their day-to-day lives and pocketbook. Obama cannot be bothered with sharing these policy positions in his rhetorically flashy speeches because they are considered boring. Therefore, we did the research, and will answer the question of how they will impact you.

John McCain would like to make the Bush tax cuts of 2001 and 2003 permanent, and McCain has proposed a few more tax cuts of his own. Obama, by contrast, favors allowing the tax cuts to expire; that expiration will be the largest tax increase in American history.

As though gas prices are not high enough, Obama proposes new oil and gasoline taxes.

However, that is not all in the way of new taxes. Retirement accounts will see new taxes as well as natural resources, including natural gas used to heat homes, water and electricity.

To pay for government-run medicine, new taxes must be initiated to finance this expensive form of medical care. All of these new taxes will hit everyone hard, but they will be especially harmful to the elderly and lower-income folks that Obama says he cares so much about.

Obama would raise taxes on capital gains. He proposes a 28-plus percent tax on all home sale profits. This policy affects all homeowners but will adversely affect the elderly who are counting on the sale of their homes to fund their retirement or the move into a senior or assisted living/nursing home. Maybe you want to downsize to save on all of the utility bills that Obama wants to tax, but he will get your money one way or another with his Catch-22. He wants new government taxes on homes that are more than 2,400 square feet. So you can keep your 2,401 square foot house and be taxed more, or sell it and pay 28% taxes on your profit.

McCain does not want to return the inheritance tax Bush repealed, but Obama wants to. Obama likes to paint inheritance taxes as something that only the “rich” pay. But many families have lost homes, businesses, farms and ranches because their loved ones couldn’t afford the inheritance tax required in order to keep them. Most are not “wealthy” Americans, but people trying to continue their livelihoods (in a business or farming) or pass on a home to family members instead of having it go to the government.

With inflation rising, more and more Americans are putting their money into investments such as the stock market, mutual funds or an IRA, in preparation for retirement instead of savings accounts at banks. Obama plans to increase the dividend tax to 39.6 percent from the 15 percent which McCain wants to keep. Anything that reinvests or pays dividends, including bank accounts, will be taxed at more than twice the present rate. How’s that an incentive for American’s to save money?

Obama echo’s Bill Clinton’s campaign rhetoric from 1992 calling for a middle-class tax cut, but if memories were not so short, Americans would recall that the middle-class tax cut was the first policy reversal of the Clinton presidency.

So as you decide for whom you will vote, look beyond the slick image of Barack Obama that David Axelrod wants you to see. Instead, consider some of the specific public policies Obama proposes that will change your life.

©2008 Floyd and Mary Beth Brown.

Making Sense: A Gathering of Clowns, Acrobats, and Con Men

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:46:10 -0700

By Michael Reagan

You’d never know it from the media’s Obama worshipers covering it, but this week’s Democratic National Convention was a three-ring circus complete with an assortment of sword swallowers, clowns and magicians.

It was the magicians who took the center ring and proceeded to convert their publicly expressed doubts about Barack Obama into ringing endorsements of his alleged fitness to be this nation’s chief executive and commander in chief.

That’s an amazing feat of legerdemain, especially if the woman in the wizard’s cap is Hillary Rodham Clinton, who up to now has solemnly assured us that Barack Obama is not even remotely equipped to be president.

Targeting his failure to vote on key abortion measures she quipped, "A president can't vote 'present.' A president can't pick and choose which challenges he or she will face.”

Now, with a wave of her magic wand, Obama’s unfitness to occupy the White House (which she and her husband are still convinced is theirs) is suddenly transformed. He is now uniquely qualified for a presidency she had warned us he was utterly unfit to occupy.

Too bad. She was right the first time, but that was before she joined the circus in Denver.

Then, with a blare of trumpets, Joe Biden enters the center ring and waves his magic wand. The man he railed against as unqualified to be president is now, he tells us, the very man for the job. The same man, he recently insisted, has no business running for president.

Said Joe before he became a magician (and Barack’s running mate): "I think he can be ready,but right now I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training."

Obviously, Joe wants us to believe Obama has taken a crash course in presidential fitness and passed with flying colors.

Next comes Bill Clinton the sword swallower, who wants us to swallow the whopper of his belief in Obama's presidential fitness, as he all but worships at the altar of Obamamessiah -- the same Obama about whom just a day or two earlier Bill Clinton had suggested was not the man for the job, the same Obama he regularly pilloried while campaigning for his wife.

In a stem-winding speech he pulled out all the stops in trying to convince us that Obama is fit to take the office of president and solve all problems great and small. He pledged he’d go all-out to help Obama, but he never quite got around to saying that he’d vote for him in November.

And of course they sent in the clowns. What circus would be complete without them? There was the parade of sad-faced clowns -- the losers, featuring John Kerry and Jimmy Carter, and even Mike Dukakis. Al Gore couldn’t make it -- he was too busy waving his magic wand to save the planet from a non-existent threat.

Among the happy-faced clowns were Nancy Pelosi and her Senate counterpart Harry Reid, taking time out from the sideshow on Capitol Hill where they have presided over that comic skit called the 110th Congress, which came into the Capitol tent waving promises that were never kept.

Watching this spectacle may have been fun, as long as nobody took it seriously. Now they’re taking the show on the road. We’ll see how it plays in Peoria.

Mike Reagan, the elder son of the late President Ronald Reagan, is heard on more than 200 talk radio stations nationally as part of the Radio America Network. Look for Mike’s newest book, “Twice Adopted” and other info at www.Reagan.com. E-mail comments to Reagan@caglecartoons.com.

©2008 Mike Reagan.

Michelle Bernard Looks for the Right McCain

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 13:44:18 -0700

By Bill Steigerwald

MSNBC, which has tried to position itself as a liberal, albeit less-watched, counterbalance to the Fox News Channel, hired Michelle Bernard as a conservative political analyst in January. Bernard, the CEO of the Independent Women's Forum think tank and a lawyer by training, is a regular panelist on "Hardball With Chris Matthews." This week she made nightly appearances on MSNBC's wall-to-wall coverage of the Democratic Convention in Denver, and she will move on to cover the Republicans next week in Minneapolis-St. Paul. I talked to Bernard by phone from Denver on Thursday, just hours before Barack Obama delivered his grand finale at Invesco Field.

Q: Do you think the Democrats have done a good, mediocre or bad job of selling themselves and their ideas?

A: They got off to a slow start. But my observation since I got out here is that they are building momentum. Sometimes when you think about a political convention you are really looking for a lot of excitement and drama, and I had expected more of that earlier in the week. But it seems to be sort of a slow crescendo and I guess it'll be topped off tonight.

Q: Has anything the Democrats have done or said riled you up in any way?

A: I can't place my finger on who said what that riled me up. But I have been listening to the Democrats’ vision for the future of the country and what kind of an America they want. I don’t think their ultimate vision is different than the vision the Republicans have for the country. More than anything else that has disturbed me personally is how we get there. Speaker after speaker this week has left me with the impression that for the Democrats the great civil rights issue for the 21st century is nationalized health care. That is something I disagree with. I do believe that people need health care, but I don't understand the Democrats' plan on how we get there and how it makes our nation a better nation. We've heard it over and over again and I think that ultimately that's going to be a problem.

I had a discussion with somebody the other day where I was explaining the good things I see about Barack Obama, but my complete and utter distaste for higher taxes and this notion of Robin Hood and stealing from the rich to give to the poor. It’s a message that resonates with Democrats and people here are getting very excited when they hear about it.

But the thing that riles me up is, why is it that people have such disdain for the people who are the engine of the economy and who make it possible for Americans to have jobs, feed their families, send their kids to school and put clothing on their backs? I know that we live in difficult economic times right now, but this disdain for the engine of the country is something that I don't understand. If we had no quote-unquote “rich people,” if we didn't have, for example, Bill Gates and Microsoft, what would happen to the hundreds of thousands of people all over the world that he employs?

Q: Did MSNBC choose you as an analyst because you are a woman, a black woman, a conservative?

A: I would say probably a little bit of all of the above. Given the nature of this political season with Sen. Obama and Sen. Clinton being the front-runners, and even before that, I think a lot of the networks realized that the American people wanted to hear more than one voice and one type of viewpoint. I guess I’m a “three-fer” as a black person and as a woman and as a conservative. For all of those reasons, MSNBC was looking for a variety of different voices. I actually feel honored that I am one of the people who has been able to work with them in covering the Democratic and Republican nominating process.

Q: What is the Independent Women's Forum?

A: Plain and simple, the Independent Women's Forum is a think tank. But we are a think tank made up of all women scholars. We are a 501(c)(3) nonprofit educational institution, and our mission is to promote the principles of limited government, free markets and personal responsibility.

What's really important to understand about the Independent Women's Forum also is that our mantra is that "All issues are women's issues." Typically when you hear the word "women" in any kind of organization, most people automatically think you are concerned with reproductive rights, sexual harassment in the workplace or employment discrimination, and that those are the only topics that women care about.

Early on, when IWF was started, one of our founders used to say, “It’s a really silly woman who divorces her needs from the needs of men.” IWF is very different from other women’s organizations in the sense that we don’t talk about those other issues. Lots of other people talk about them. You see IWF scholars every day of the week -- you see us on television, you hear us on the radio, you see us in print, we write books, we write policy papers, we write op-eds on health care, national security, terrorism, education policy, Social Security policy -- all the big issues of the day you hear us talking about as women scholars, because women’s voices need to be heard on those issues -- and not just on issue that revolve around child care or sex discrimination in the workplace.

Q: Could Hillary Clinton or her husband work for IWF?

A: Oh, they could work for IWF! I don’t know if they would enjoy working for IWF (laughs), but we would most certainly entertain a job application from either of them. The problem is that they would have to adhere to our mission, and since we really believe that limited government and free markets are really the great social equalizer, I have a feeling that neither one of them will be submitting an application any time soon.

Q: How attached to the Republican Party is the IWF?

A: We’re a nonprofit, nonpartisan group. I would venture to guess that most people would consider most of the people who work at IWF to be more aligned with Republicans simply because we believe in free markets and limited government and that is a traditionally Republican ideal. But we have a lot of people who are Republicans, libertarians, independents. We even have Democrats who are affiliated with our organization. We really feel that one of the greatest things that we could do for our organization is to open up the fold on issues where there is common ground with Democrats, Republicans, libertarians, whatever, and that we work together to make the nation a better place for all Americans.

Q: How do you define your own politics and where did they come from?

A: I think the best way to describe me is as an independent. I am without a party affiliation. I am definitely right of center. I have a very, very deep belief in individualism rather than group thought. I believe in personal responsibility. I believe in free markets. I believe in equality under the law rather than equal outcomes. My preference is equal opportunity. I don't know where they come from, other than this is just the way I was raised. I am the first person in my family to be born in the United States. My parents are American citizens, but they come from Jamaica. I was raised with very American and Jamaican values. In our culture, we have a very strong sense of pride and of family honor and of self-reliance.

Q: What would you most like to hear John McCain say or promise to do next week in Minneapolis?

A: Really what I want to hear from John McCain, after listening to some of the speakers here at the Democratic convention this week, is his vision for the future of the country. And given how much emphasis has been placed at the Democratic convention on women and the women's vote and on the future of African-Americans in our country, I will be very greatly interested in hearing how he addresses those groups.

In the Republican Party there is always a great reticence to look at people in voting blocs or in groups, but that is the reality of the politics of the day. These are two very strong voting blocs and constituencies. I think he has been doing a magnificent job of reaching out to all Americans and I am hoping to see more of the same. I thought that the John McCain that I watched during the Rick Warren interview (at the Saddleback Church forum on CNN) is the John McCain I want to see next week.

The John McCain who spoke before the NAACP is the John McCain that I want to see next week. There have been a few times this summer where I said, "Here's the maverick that we've heard so much about. Here's the man that so many Americans have been attracted to." I am hoping that he will be on track next week and we will see that same man again. I thought he was superb during that Rick Warren interview.

Q: For the last eight years, the Republicans have not exactly stuck up for the principles of limited government and free markets.

A: And I am hoping that he will get back to that. I'd love to hear positive comments about free trade. Unfortunately, the nation -- and even some people in the Republican Party -- are becoming a little bit isolationist. I hope that is not the track John McCain will take us down. I believe in free trade. I want to hear more from him about our responsibilities as a nation with regard to countries like Georgia and the Georgian and Russian conflict that is going on.

And obviously, the economy is the big issue; what are we going to do about it? I've heard John McCain speak about educational reform. I hope that we will hear a lot about that next week, because school choice is the big deal. When we talk about preparing our citizens for the 21st century economy, rather than blaming corporations that do business inside and outside of the country, I think we need to talk about how we prepare our children to be competitive in the 21st century work force. And obviously, anything he can say about cutting spending will be a marvelous thing.

Q: If Obama wins in November, do you think he will do anything or push any policies that would make you happy?

A: Oh, my goodness. I have to think about that. I can tell you right off the top of my head -- and I don’t know how this would translate into policy -- but as an African-American woman with two young children, I can tell you that the one thing I have heard Barack Obama talk about over and over again that I find incredibly appealing is the need for personal responsibility for all Americans but particularly within the African-American community. We don’t hear him talking about increasing the welfare state, we hear him talking about taking care of your children; the fact that you are not a man just because you can have a baby if you don’t take care of your child; getting a good education; turning off the television; fixing your child a meal rather than going to McDonald’s. I don’t know how that translates into policy, but if he is elected and we continue to hear that type of rhetoric and see it transferred into public policy, I would be very pleased.

Bill Steigerwald is a columnist at the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review. E-mail Bill at steigerwald@caglecartoons.com. ©Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, All Rights Reserved.

Brian Howey: Evan Bayh’s surreal odyssey

kpaul.mallasch — Fri, 29 Aug 2008 12:08:54 -0700

By Brian Howey

INDIANAPOLIS, IN – It was the strangest thing. Evan Bayh could be sitting inside his house, peer into his computer screen, and see the front of his home. Or he could go jogging, and watch it on ABC News, where he could also hear news of Susan Bayh’s new hairdo.

Such is the life of a veepstakes finalist. “It was surreal at times, watching the front of your house on TV in real time,” Sen. Bayh said of the live coverage last Friday on CNN. “And then the last day, one of the networks literally had someone following me around in a car. The last couple of weeks were a bit of an emotional roller coaster. I knew we were under serious consideration, I knew it was a small group. I knew it was less than 50/50 but still a decent chance. So we were following the process just like everyone else.”

Could Bayh have eluded the news media by sneaking out through the bathroom window? “Not the way our house is constructed,” he said. “Well, I guess I could have scaled the fence and run through the neighbor’s yard. But, I have might have impaled myself.”

It was last Thursday afternoon that Bayh finally got the phone call from Barack Obama saying he would not ascend to the vice presidency. An office in the West Wing of the White House has been a goal of the senator for two decades. The fact that he ended up on the short list for the third time since 2000 was unexpected. He had ardently backed Hillary Clinton in the Indiana primary, helping her eke out a razor-thin margin.

That caught the attention of Obama and his campaign brain trust. The campaign is piling resources into our state and by early July, they called Bayh. “I had no expectation of being considered because I was a strong supporter of Hillary Clinton,” Bayh said. “And then he was kind enough to call me and said, ‘Look, we're going to cast a wide net.’”

“He said he would be honored if I would be willing to go through the process of being considered,” Bayh said of his conversation with Obama.

Obama told him that only a handful would merit serious consideration and “I think you're one of them.”

“To get to the final two or three obviously you've got to have some pretty good things that recommend you or you don't get there. And obviously you can't have too many negative things otherwise you don't get there,” Bayh said.

Fueling the speculation were his campaign events with Obama at Purdue on July 16 and his swing through Elkhart and Portage in early August. “They wanted to come to Indiana,” Bayh said. “And, by the way, all the talk about them not being serious in Indiana, well, that's not true. They're serious about it, even now. And that's good. So he came here to campaign, they wanted to focus on national security and Sam Nunn and I were strong voices on national security.”

And Elkhart? “The Elkhart thing that everybody got all excited about, it was really just a campaign event, there and Portage,” Bayh explained. “And on the bus between the two we spent a lot of good quality time, but we did not discuss one word about the vice presidential situation. We talked about kids and we talked about sports, which should tell you he's a pretty regular person.”

So, why didn’t Bayh get Obama’s nod?

It might have come down to the Russian tanks rolling into Georgia. The Cold War ended with the first President Bush, and it has been revived under the second President Bush with talk of bringing Ukraine (and half its Russian population) and fractured Georgia into NATO. This would be as provocative as the Russians adding new military bases in Cuba or Venezuela. Sen. Joe Biden, as chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has the expertise and gravitas when it comes to dealing with an increasingly unstable world.

“When you get to that point it just becomes what the particular dynamics of the campaign happen to be,” Bayh said. “So I'm pretty philosophical about it.”

Or as Washington media consultant Chris Sautter observed, it probably came down to whether Obama needed a state (Bayh’s Indiana) or stature.

As for the fall election, recent polls show John McCain ahead in Indiana by 6 percent. When Obama called Bayh with the disappointing news, the junior senator replied with good news. “I told him I would do everything to help him out when it comes to campaigning in Indiana.”

A few minutes after we talked, Bayh called back. “What matters are the people of the country and Indiana. That's why I'm supporting Barack Obama. I was asked this morning by the Indiana delegation if I was disappointed. Well, I am disappointed, but it's not for the political reasons. I am disappointed in costs of health care. I'm disappointed with the war in Iraq and the state of the economy. I'm really going to be disappointed if we don't do what we can to change that.”

Opinion

FINAL - 2007 Elwood Year in Review DVD - On Sale Now

thevideo

Balance of Power

caglecartoon

Backstage At The Democratic National Convention

caglecartoon

Bill Clinton

caglecartoon

Democratic Convention

caglecartoon

Nobama Convention Bounce

caglecartoon

Geezer and Gidget

caglecartoon

Geezer Talk

caglecartoon

Martha’s Big Adventure: Happy Labor Day

Obama: Is He ready to be President?

Making Sense: A Gathering of Clowns, Acrobats, and Con Men

Michelle Bernard Looks for the Right McCain

Brian Howey: Evan Bayh’s surreal odyssey

McCains new digs

caglecartoon

Race for the White House

caglecartoon

GOP PUMA Brigade

caglecartoon

Message Discipline

caglecartoon

Dirty Politics

caglecartoon

GOP Has No Soul

caglecartoon

In the closet

caglecartoon

Democratic Convention

caglecartoon

Economy

caglecartoon

Baracky Mountain High

caglecartoon

Obama and Biden

caglecartoon

Biden Stays on Message

caglecartoon