I WANT A BAZOOKA (SUNG TO "I LOVE A PIANO"

I want a bazooka, I want a bazooka,

The 2nd Amendment says I can

I want an RPG (rocket propelled grenade), I want an RPG,
The 2nd Amendment says I can;

I want a flame thrower, I want a flame thrower,
The 2nd Amendment says I can;

I want a nuke, I want a nuke,
The 2nd Amendment says I can;

OK, maybe those items are beyond the imagination of the Founding Fathers who wrote the 2nd Amendment on December 15, 1791. Guess I'll settle for what those wise men meant in my right to bear arms: a musket.

Also published in the Glen Ellyn Patch, July 22, 2012

RANDOM THOUGHTS ON A RANDOM SHOOTING

Guns are like firecrackers...they demand that we fire them. The younger the gun toter, the quicker that demand is satisfied.

A society which allows citizens to acquire automatic weapons that fire hundreds of rounds in minutes, and acquire thousands of bullets to fill those guns, is suicidal and insane.

Man, after millions of years, has evolved into an incredibly efficient killing machine

Forget about a make believe just and loving God: the universe is random, morally neutral, and unspeakably violent.

Aside from the 12 dead at screen 9 in Century 16, approximately 10,000 other folks will be murdered by gunshot in the US this year.

Thousands more will succeed in killing themselves with a gun

About 700 will die this year from accidental shootings. Just last week, a 3 year old picked up a nearby gun and blew away pop watching TV.

Neither Presidential candidate will say boo about reducing access to despicable automatic implements of death in this election season.

NRA membership and donations will increase.

USA is still No. 1. Just don't ask me in what.

Also published in the Glen Ellyn Patch, July 21, 2012

THE JOB SEEKER IN THE PHOTO

The slick, multicolored flyer arrived by post heralding my Congressman Peter Roskam's Chicagoland Job Fair next Monday, July 23 in Addison. Roskam is co-hosting the Fair with fellow GOP Congressman Bob Dold, Randy Hultgren and Joe Walsh. The flyer featured a photo of Congressman Roskam, pen in hand, counseling an eager job seeker at the last Job Fair.

On second glance the job seeker bore an eerie resemblance to co-host Congressman Joe Walsh. That is appropriate because come January 2, former Congressman Joe Walsh, possibly the most vulgar, disrespectful and mean spirited Congressman I've witnessed in 60 years of following politics, will be seeking a new gig.

While Walsh hasn't broken any laws, he has broken the basic code of civility and fairness with the public with his reckless, outrageous rhetoric as Congressman. Civil, mature and fair minded GOP Congressmen like Roskam, Dold and Hultgren, should shun him for his unforgiveable behavior. Walsh's senseless rant against Tammy Duckworth, his wounded, double amputee Iraq war vet opponent was the last straw.

With four days till the Chicagoland Job Fair, Walsh's three Congressional co-hosts should rescind their invitation to join them. He can attend the next job fair as a job seeker after the more civil 113th Congress is sworn in.

Also published in the Lombardian, July 25, 2012

WHO DAT? NOT ME

Ed Gillespie, longtime GOP operative and Mitt Romney adviser, concocted a new political concept on CNN's State of the Union with Candy Crowley. Trying to explain Mitt Romney's non-volvement in Bain Capital's jobs out sourcing, or job off shoring as Romney calls it, that occured big time between 1999 and 2002, Gillespie said that Romney wasn't involved in Bain Capital during that time because, "He took a leave of absence and in fact, Candy, ended up not going back at all and retired retroactively to February 1999 as a result

Retired retroactively? Maybe Gillespie coined that term because Romney's signature appears on SEC filings as President, CEO and Chariman of the Board, and recipient of at least $100,000 in annual salary during that time. In Gillespie speak, Romney never stepped foot in, telephoned, emailed, texted or even thought about a Bain Capital job outsourcing decision regardless of what those pesky SEC docs say.

What a great way for any officeholder or businessman to avoid responsibility for the unfortunate man made disasters that occur on their watch. Using that device George W. Bush could say he prematurely withdrew being President in 2006, the year before the economy nearly collapsed under his watch. Hey, why not take a mulligan on the catastrophic, immoral, illegal and criminal Iraq War. "Me start that dumb war? I stopped being Prez in 2002, the year before Shock & Awe started. Retroactively, I didn't do it".

Also published in the Glen Ellyn Patch, July 17, 2012

CONGRESSMAN ROSKAM JOB CREATION: AN ENIGMA WRAPPED IN A RIDDLE

My poor brain struggles to decipher how my Congressman Peter Roskam (IL - 6th) is working to create jobs. His first term spanned the economic meltdown under President George W. Bush, caused in part, from loosened financial regulation and trillion dollar tax cuts for the rich. Millions of jobs were lost, yet Congressman Roskam has spent the entire three and a half years of the Obama Administration championing those same twin anchors to our economy.


Maybe his support of the Republican Senate filibuster of the American Jobs Act will help create jobs. But that doesn't make sense since this new stimulus would have pumped $447 billion into the economy adding around two million jobs and will be a net deficit reducer over ten years.

Could his role as a House leader in the utterly phony GOP debt ceiling crisis last summer have been a job creator? Not likely, since that foolhardy stunt spooked financial markets which further damaged job creation.
How about the cuts in discretionary spending Roskam championed in last year's budget deal? Well, according to the Economic Policy Institute, the $30.5 billion in discretionary spending cuts in 2012 cost the economy 0.3% in growth and over 300,000 jobs, so it couldn't be that.

I've got it! It must be those 33 votes Roskam cast in the House to repeal Obamacare. Yes sir, by repealing Obamacare, the health insurance industry will be free once again to hire thousands of additional workers to scour medical claims for reasons to deny benefits, and re-institute finding technicalities such as pre-existing conditions deny coverage outright to new enrollees.

I'm so happy I found the secret to Congressman Roskam's job creating genius. For a moment I thought Congressman Roskam wasn't doing a single thing to create jobs.

Also published in the Glen Ellyn Patch, July 16, 2012