Wanted: Tree-Shaking Leaders With Balanced Strength.

As our nation faces unprecedented change, and we try to navigate through uncharted waters, it's imperative that our leaders understand the need for balance. They must be able to blend the strength of their convictions and character, with enough humility, to prevent the arrogance that so often accompanies powerful positions.

Regardless what you may think of his views, Pope John Paul II, exemplified the type of balanced strength and leadership we need now. Eight months after he was elected Pope, armed only with his charismatic presence and the courage of his convictions, he took the calculated risk of visiting his homeland, Poland, in an effort to normalize church-state relations with its antagonistic communist government. One year later, in 1979, Soviet Foreign Minister Andrei Gromyko said he was interested in establishing diplomatic relations. Ten years later, the Berlin Wall fell.

In a nutshell, the leadership of Pope John Paul II, an amalgamation of great strength, intelligence, charisma, and paradoxically, a willingness to subjugate his ego for the good of all, succeeded in establishing a meaningful geopolitical presence for the Catholic Church, in an effort to advance social justice and human rights all over the world.

“I didn’t cause this to happen. The tree was rotten. I just gave it a good shake.” -- Pope John Paul II, in response to his role in helping to dismantle the "evil" empire

Well, starting with our own economy, rotten trees abound, and we need a "tree-shaker" leadership.

Vice-President Joe Biden has been around long enough - taking his fair share of lumps - to make most of us feel comfortable that he is - no matter what his position or status in life - who he is. He doesn't "mask" his truth or put on heirs; he's comfortable in his own skin and even more important, he is "comfortable", making mistakes. So, it's fairly safe to say that Biden is a man of balanced strength, not to mention, he also has a history of shaking, at the very least, a few branches.

President Obama, although, not quite as "seasoned" as Joe Biden - as we have already seen - does not fear failure, nor does he let it stand in his way. There is no question that President Obama possess a balanced strength, and it appears he's willing to shake a few branches.

In conclusion, both President Obama and Vice President Biden are courageous men. They can admit error with the same confidence they celebrate success because they both understand failure brings them one step closer to accomplishing the intended purpose, as it provides a learning opportunity. However, the question still remains as to whether they will not only shake a few trees, but shake them hard enough

"There’s never been an elected official I’ve worked with — a president or in my iteration as a senator for 36 years — who is as incisive and disciplined about what he focuses on. He’s clear, he’s disciplined, there’s a precision in his thinking that has surprised everyone. And it goes along with a genuine informality,” he continued. “That informality breeds you being prepared to say, ‘Well, Mr. President, I don’t think that works ... . As opposed to walking in and saying, ‘Sir ... .’ - Vice President Joe Biden on President Barack Obama

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Marking an Historical Transition to a Politics of Inclusion

From the Denver Post:

(Photo by David McNew/Getty Images)

(AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

(Photo by Alex Wong/Getty Images)

(Photo by Jim Bourg-Pool/Getty Images)

(Andy Cross/The Denver Post)

"Vertie Hodge, 74, weeps during an Inauguration Day party near Martin Luther King, Jr. Blvd. in Houst"

(ROBYN BECK/AFP/Getty Images)

(Ozier Muhammad/The New York Times)

(PAUL J. RICHARDS/AFP/Getty Images)

(Andrew Councill/The New York Times)

(AP Photo/Pablo Martinez Monsivais)

(Eric Draper/The White House)

In addition, you can zoom in and out of David Bergman's amazing Gigapan made from the north press platform during President Obama's inaugural address at the U.S. Capitol in Washington, DC on January 20, 2009. The panorama is made up of 220 images and the final image size is 59,783 X 24,658 pixels or 1,474 megapixels.

Catch another interesting perspective of this event at CNN's The Moment.

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George W. Bush Again?

President Hockey Mom, her first dude and his buddy, Joe Six-Pack.



Funny, folksy, gregarious and winsome? What more can you ask for? Well?

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Republican Strategy: Speak Untruth to Fools

The Republicans understand the truth doesn't matter. The only thing that matters is appealing to the masses or as Frank Dane says,

"Get all the fools on your side and you can be elected to anything."

CBC News broadcast raises questions about Trig Palin's birth, suggesting that Sarah Palin may in fact be the grandmother.



Vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin is under investigation for the firing of a former Alaska public safety commissioner, Walt Monhegan.

A tyrant must put on the appearance of uncommon devotion to religion. Subjects are less apprehensive of illegal treatment from a ruler whom they consider god-fearing and pious. -- Aristotle

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Vetting the Antichrist.

No, I'm not saying Sarah Palin is the Antichrist. However, speculating on who the Antichrist is, is important work, since the evil one should be rearing his or her ugly head soon. So, I thought I'd post "Vetting the Antichrist" on the first Friday of every month to discuss potential candidates. Thus far, I've suggested George W. Bush and Erik "D. for Darkness" Prince, owner of Blackwater Worldwide.

Sarah Palin is my next choice, given how the shade, diabolical red flatters her so, not to mention, the negligible "vetting" process that took place before selecting her as John McCain's running mate.

The last time I "vetted" the Antichrist, I asked a couple of questions: What is the extent of this person's power and influence or potential magnitude of his evil doings? How conspicuous is the evil doing? Based on these questions, I've come up with some guidelines. Please tell me if I'm misguided as I am no expert on the principal antagonist of Christ.

• The Antichrist can be male or female, any age, race, ethnicity or religion, and can "claim" any sexuality ( because of society's bias, an openly gay Antichrist is highly unlikely).
  
• The Antichrist can belong to any political party and/or originate from anywhere in the world.
• The Antichrist must be charismatic, must have vast influence and refrain from being conspicuously evil (his evil will manifest when he's sure he has conquered the world)
  

Assuming Mr. Obama failed to meet Antichrist criteria, and is not the prince of darkness, let's see if the prince may be a princess.

What do we know about Sarah Palin other than "diabolical red" becomes her?

Well, Ms. Palin is a 44-year old married, Republican female with five children and a soon to be a grandmother. She is very articulate and extremely magnetic (80% approval rating as Governor). She has the world as her stage, thus, the potential to influence billions of people. What else do we know about her?

According to Tom Hamburger, one of the authors of One Party Country:The Republican Plan for Dominance in the 21st Century , and on staff at the LA Times, she relied on the earmark system that she now opposes. As mayor of the small city of Wasilla, Alaska, population approximately 9700, Ms. Palin hired a Washington lobbyist to secure earmarks. As a candidate for governor, she backed the notorious "Bridge to nowhere", later changing her mind, claiming it as wasteful, and then using the funds for other projects, instead.

In a biting speech that epitomized style over substance, Sarah Palin, an Assembly of God church member, said the "difference between her and a pit bull was lipstick." She targeted that inner pit bull toward Obama, mocking his prior position as "community organizer" because after all, a community organizer helps low-income people, in poor urban communities stand up for their rights. Translation: That's not a real job! Those people are worthless!

She has also been described as having a fragile ego, allegedly dismissing people from jobs they've held for a substantial period of time, for offending her.

Is she the Antichrist? From what we know so far, on a scale from one to ten, ten indicating the "Beast" Ms. Palin rates a three.

Beast Ratings:
George W. Bush ******
Erik D. Prince ********
Sarah Palin ***

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Dick Cheney Has Privatized the Job of Vice President of the United States.

Americans are accustomed to Vice President Dick Cheney’s waiting out a terrorist threat in a “secure undisclosed location.” Now it seems that Mr. Cheney wears the cloak of invisibility in secure disclosed locations.
The Associated Press reported that Mr. Cheney’s office ordered the Secret Service last September to destroy all records of visitors to the official vice presidential mansion — right after The Washington Post sued for access to the logs. That move was made in secret, naturally. It came out only because of another lawsuit, filed by a private group, Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington, seeking the names of conservative religious figures who visited the vice president’s residence.

This disdain for accountability is distressing, but not surprising. Mr. Cheney has had it on display from his first days in office, when he refused to name the energy-industry executives who met with him behind closed doors to draft an energy policy.

In a similar way, Mr. Cheney seems unconcerned about little things like checks and balances and traditional American notions of judicial process. At one point, he gave himself the power to selectively declassify documents and selectively leak them to reporters. In a recent commencement address, he declaimed against prisoners who had the gall to “demand the protections of the Geneva Convention and the Constitution of the United States.”

Mr. Cheney is the driving force behind the Bush administration’s theory of the “unitary executive,” which holds that no one, including Congress and the courts, has the power to supervise or regulate the actions of the president. Just as he pays little attention to old-fangled notions of the separation of powers, Mr. Cheney does not overly bother himself about the bright line that should exist between his last job as chief of the energy giant Halliburton and his current one on the public payroll.

From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Cheney received “deferred salary payments” from Halliburton that far exceeded what taxpayers gave him. Mr. Cheney still holds hundreds of thousands of stock options that have ballooned by millions of dollars as Halliburton profited handsomely from the war in Iraq.

Reviewing this record — secrecy, impatience with government regulations, backroom dealings, handsome paydays — it dawned on us that Mr. Cheney is in step with the times. He has privatized the job of vice president of the United States.

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