We’ve all heard complaints about the increasing political polarization of our country: Republicans vs. Democrats with Independents holding the deciding votes.  Glenn Beck vs. Keith Olbermann.  The Drudge Report vs. The Huffington Post.  Fox News vs. everybody else.  The common denominator?  Versus.  It’s us against them.  It’s a contest.  Who’s winning?  That all depends on whom you ask.

But is that how it has to be?  On an individual basis, is that how it really is?  When I’m with my Republican friends (yes, I have a few), do we immediately launch into our differences?  Of course not.  We generally avoid talking politics because it’s not why we come together.  We share a meal or a vacation (seriously) because we like each other, our kids are friends and no one is pro-abortion or wants the government to take over our lives.  In almost every way, we want the same things.

Does that shock you?  It shouldn’t, but the media and the yahoos want to paint everyone as an extremist.  You know what?  I’m sick of it.  I’m having my Howard Beale moment.  I’m mad as hell at how I’m being portrayed as a Democrat and I’m not going to take it anymore.  I won’t pretend to know how my Republican friends view me and my opinions, but I do know how House Republican John Boehner and ex-governor Sarah Palin want to portray me and my fellow liberals.  It’s not pretty.  I’d like to set a few things straight.

I don’t want big government.  I don’t want government creeping into areas of my life in which they have no business being.  I didn’t want the stimulus because I like big government.  I thought TARP was a necessary evil to help individuals and small businesses get back on their feet, or at least back on one foot.  Desperate times call for desperate measures.  Private enterprise wasn’t stepping up, but Washington was.  So okay.  The deficit is icky, sure, and I know little of serious money matters, but the theory behind Keynesian economics makes sense to me and to many other VERY SMART individuals who do know about such things.  I’m going with it because I believe it will eventually work.  Does it make me uncomfortable?  Sure, but not nearly as uncomfortable as doing nothing.

Boehner speaks pejoratively about the administration’s efforts to stimulate the economy and lower the unemployment rate by making Democrats sound like we love debt and adore higher taxes.  We don’t.  Not at all.  Rich Democrats don’t want Bush’s tax cuts to be phased out but understand why it should happen.  Middle class Democrats understand that our tax rate will stay the same should Bush’s cuts be allowed to expire, so stop trying to scare us.  We want to keep as much of our money as the next guy because it helps us pay bills which we have just like everyone else, and it helps us buy things occasionally which we need.  Every now and then, we even like to buy things we don’t need because it makes us feel good.  And we wish we didn’t have to pay tax on all of it – goods, services, paychecks – but we understand that the roads we drive on and the police we count on and the street lamps that light our way at night only work if we pay for them.  So no, we don’t want to pay any more taxes than we have to but we also don’t want to pave our own streets.  Also, we know that too much of our money is wasted in the name of bureaucracy and incompetence and it makes us just as mad as Republicans.  We hate waste.

Boehner, let’s talk about joblessness.  If you and your cronies have a magic wand that can *poof* get individuals employed, we would totally be with you.  My Democratic friends and I, many of whom have lost jobs, wring our hands over the unemployment rate.  If Minnie Mouse stepped up with the solution to this problem, she’d get our vote.  We are so completely uncomplicated that way.  We know jobs are the numero uno issue facing this country right now (and many of us speak Spanish) so when the administration offers up an idea that seems to have kept us from falling into the abyss, we support it.  Got something better?  The problem is, John, you offer nothing.

Oh dear.  I can’t write a paper tonight.  I’m just disgusted that, because of November, politicians are trying to create differences where they don’t exist, particularly in the areas of jobs and taxes.  The ideology isn’t big government versus small government.  My Democratic friends and I would be perfectly happy having less government if that could solve our problems right now.  The disagreement stems from the belief that we think government’s deep pockets give us an oddly better chance than that of the private sector alone in getting people back to work.  We understand that the enormity of the situation requires an enormous solution.  It took years for us to get into the mess.  It just may take a few more years to get out of it.  But just like Republicans, we want out, and we so wish it wouldn’t cost us a dime.

It’s late.  There will be a part two.

Is it over yet?

Haitian born musician and former Fugees front man Wyclef Jean is not giving up on his desire to become Haiti’s president, even though he was considered ineligible to run because he hasn’t lived in the country over the past five years (lucky for him).  I was thinking this week how much Obama wanted to be president of the U.S. at a time when the country was falling apart economically, we were fighting two wars, and there was a general feeling of malaise and disenchantment among the natives.  He got his wish.  To Wyclef Jean, looking to lead one of the poorest countries on the planet, a year after a devastating earthquake, I say be careful what you wish for.  I wonder if Jean read James Dobbins’ recent article, “A to-do list for shoring up Haiti“?

Thirty-three miners were found alive after seventeen days following a cave-in August 5th in Chile.  Trapped in an area about 540 square feet and over 2000 feet into the earth, it was originally thought the miners could be rescued sometime near Christmas.  What the heck?!  Christmas?  Four inch diameter bore holes have been used to pass the miners supplies through a “tunnel”, including food, letters and clean clothes, but Christmas?!  It sounds like a new reality show, “Extreme Big Brother”.  Today, however, mine engineers believe they’ve come up with a Plan B that may halve the amount of time the miners will be trapped.  So maybe Halloween?  Oh, the stories that will come out of this…

China this week reportedly has decided to revisit their death penalty policies.  Considering the country puts more people to death each year (around 5000 in 2009) than the rest of the world’s governments combined, the reevaluation sounds a bit overdue.  Caught cheating on your taxes in China?  Stealing fossils, damaging public property?  You’re dead.  Seriously.

Former president Jimmy Carter helped secure the release of American Aijalon Mahli Gomes from North Korea and was bringing him home to Boston on Friday.  Gomes was arrested in January after illegally entering the country from China for unknown reasons and sentenced to eight years hard labor.  After Euna Lee and Laura Ling obtained their release via Bill Clinton a year ago from North Korea, shouldn’t we more strongly discourage our citizens from getting anywhere near there?  In terms of ex-presidents able to come to the rescue now, we’ve got George H.W. and his son.  I wouldn’t take my chances.

Former Republican National Committee chairman Ken Mehlman has come out as a homosexual, after “arriving at this conclusion…fairly recently”.  Mehlman, who headed the RNC from 2005-2007, just after  George Bush and his administration pushed an anti-gay marriage amendment, still believes there’s a place in the Republic party for homosexuals.  I disagree.  I don’t get the Log Cabin Republicans.

Glenn Beck was at the Lincoln Memorial today with friend Sarah Palin, on the anniversary of Martin Luther King’s “I Have a Dream” speech delivered at the same location 47 years ago, addressing thousands upon thousands of tea partiers eager to “restore honor” to this great country and deliver us from “wandering in darkness”.  Glenn Beck, you are no Martin Luther King Jr., not by a million miles.

A judge in Washington D.C. on Monday stopped federal funding for President Obama’s expanded stem cell research policies, effectively reverting to the intent and language of the 1995 Dickey-Wicker amendment.  Read my post about it from Tuesday and don’t be ashamed for smiling after reading “Dickey-Wicker”.

Education Secretary Arne Duncan jumped into the fray caused by the Los Angeles Times release two weeks ago of teacher evaluations as they pertained to student test scores and achievement.  It should come as no surprise to anyone in the state of California, specifically the LAUSD, that the teachers’ union doesn’t want any part of a teacher’s “grade” to be tied in with a student’s “grade” (my quotation marks).  The discussion isn’t about making a test score the definitive indicator of whether or not a teacher is effective but rather one of several factors indicating an instructor’s success.  United Teachers Union Los Angeles president, A.J. Duffy (sounds like an NFL quarterback), says the union is willing to sit down with the LAUSD and talk but won’t make any commitment about what he’ll talk about.  So again, the children suffer and on Tuesday, California lost out on federal funds from the Race to the Top initiative.  All is well.

I heard a rumor some Muslims are thinking about building an Islamic community center near ground zero.  Have you heard about that?

“Avatar” was released again this past weekend with an additional eight minutes of footage.  Is it just me, or wasn’t the original version long enough?  Too long?  I will say though that of the seven-thousand movies released in 2010 using 3D technology, “Avatar” was the only one worth the trouble, and the extra price.

Tiger Woods finally did well golfing, shooting a 6-under 65 on Thursday at The Barclays in Jersey.  Today, however, he hit a triple bogey, among other bogeys.  Oh, and his divorce was final this week.

Twelve days to the season opener of the NFL, Thursday September 9^th, the Minnesota Vikings vs. the New Orleans Saints on NBC.  And yes, before then there’s a lot of baseball going on.  I like baseball.

And I think I like all of you, although I’m not sure.

By August 31^st, we’re to have only 50,000 troops remaining in Iraq.  With the departure this week of the last combat brigade, it looks as if we’ll meet that deadline.  Are we supposed to feel good about this development?  Are we meant to feel anything at all?  I remember the March evening seven and a half years ago, driving in my car, when “shock and awe” commenced.  I remember cursing George W. Bush’s name and every Congress member who allowed him the vote to go to war.  Former Prime Minister Iyad Allawi broke off negotiations this week with Prime Minister Nouri Maliki to form some sort of coalition government, so complaints about leaving now are rampant, both in this country and Iraq.  As there was no good and right time to go into and invade Iraq, so there will be no good and right time to leave.

Pakistan is experiencing a natural disaster of massive proportions, though because it’s not quite epic, the world doesn’t seem nearly as focused as we did for the Indonesian tsunami and the Haiti earthquake.  Monsoon flooding has killed over 1600 and left millions homeless.  So far, the U.S. has pledged $150 million in aid.

Gay marriage in California is on hold until the week of December 6^th, when the 9^th Circuit Court of Appeals will hear arguments against Judge Vaughn Walker’s ruling that Proposition 8 is unconstitutional.

On a similar note, in Mexico City, an eleven member court reaffirmed the law that gives gays and lesbians the right to marry and adopt children.  That didn’t sit well with Mexican prelate, Cardinal Juan Sandoval, who accused Mexico City Mayor Marcelo Ebrard of bribing the judges.  “Would you want to be adopted by a pair of faggots or lesbians?” he asked.  That’s not a very Christian attitude from a guy who is supposed to represent Christ on earth.  God is shaking his head somewhere.

Target has been in hot water lately from liberals boycotting the store that sells everything because Target gave $150K to a PAC in Minnesota that runs ads for GOP gubernatorial candidate Tom Emmer who opposes gay rights.  Got that?  A similar boycott of Best Buy is happening for the same reasons.  And many thought the Supreme Court’s decision to allow corporations and businesses to donate directly to independent election campaigns was long overdue.  They were wrong.

In huge news, Israeli-Palestinian peace talks will resume September 2nd after nearly two years.  Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet in Washington with President Obama on September 1^st and then hole up together in Lincoln’s bedroom and hash things out once and for all.  I don’t really mean to make light, but there’s a reason this wasn’t on every newspaper’s front page this past week.  Sadly, most of the world gave up a belief in Middle East peace a long time ago, though I suppose stranger things have happened.  Nothing comes to mind just this second.

On Tuesday, Rod Blagojevich, former governor of Illinois, was found guilty of lying to federal agents.  But wait.  What about the other 23 charges against him?  The jury was deadlocked, or at least one woman couldn’t make up her mind.  Saturday, he was signing autographs at Chicago’s Comic-Con event.  He thinks he’s a super-hero.

Speaking of super-heroes…or liars, take your pick, Roger Clemens is facing 30 years in prison and a $1.5 million fine for lying to a federal grand jury about using steroids and human-growth hormones.  We’re talking about a baseball player.  Murderers don’t serve that much time.  Sure, it would be nice to have a sport where an equal playing field didn’t require everyone participating to shoot-up, but 30 years?  I’ve never liked Roger Clemens, never thought he was a “good egg” as my dad used to say, but surely we shouldn’t be spending tax money to incarcerate baseball pitchers for lying, should we?

And speaking of bad eggs (don’t you love my segues?), there’s a bunch of them all over the U.S. causing salmonella poisoning.  It’s hard to keep up but, for the record, I bought a dozen at Ralph’s yesterday and ate two and I feel fine.  For more info, check out this comprehensive list of brands you should be aware of in case you decide to make yourself an omelet or soufflé anytime soon.

Hey, did you hear about the mosque they want to build at Ground Zero?

What about Brett Favre deciding to come back ONCE AGAIN and play his twentieth season in the NFL?

What about Dr. Laura deciding NOT to come back after thirty years in radio?  She claims she’s through having her 1^st amendment rights trampled upon after being criticized for using the N-word on her show in response to a black female caller looking for advice on how to deal with some of her white husband’s insensitive friends.  Dr. Laura is a pig.  If that’s insensitive to the porcine population, I apologize, but I will not quit.  I’m so grateful, however, that Schlessinger did.

So thanks for listening.

Seriously, not another word.

That’s it.  This is ridiculous.  Our elected officials need to stop talking about this mosque at Ground Zero as if it’s the most important issue facing our administration currently.  Enough politics.  Enough talking heads and their opinions.  Enough Newt and Nazis, enough John Boehner and his bronzed face.  The public can continue to talk about their feelings, sure.  I, too, thought a mosque further away would have possibly been a better idea.  But our government leaders, continuing to diss Obama because he said what the leader of our great country must say, must believe, is unacceptable.  For God’s sake (or Muhammad’s), even George W. Bush would have said what Obama said last Friday, supporting the right of a group of Muslims who want to build a mosque two blocks from where the twin towers fell.

Yes, the roots of our founders were dug into Christian soil, but the freedom we enjoy is extended to all religions, even those that have been around a mere 1400 years or so.  Do I understand Islam?  No.  But other than my own Catholic upbringing, I know little about the world’s religions, lesser still the 300 or so practiced in this country.  I know a decent amount, however, about the freedoms we protect in the United States, explained elegantly in the Federalist Papers, and how the majority must not trample upon the rights of the minority – specifically, freedom of speech and expression, freedom of religion and belief, freedom of due process and equal protection under the law.

Politicians, using Obama’s words against him in regard to this mosque matter, should not be in public office, but if we start holding our leaders to the high standards the framers asked of them, much of Congress would be wiped out.  I’m beginning to think, however, that it wouldn’t be the worst idea to subject politicians to a written civics test before they’re allowed to run.  Honestly, shouldn’t there be more tangible requirements for holding public office than ambition?  Like Bible study, shouldn’t there be Constitution study available to those in Washington?

President Obama is an articulate man.  After verbalizing his support for the rights of the people to build their mosque, he added the following day, “I won’t comment on the wisdom of the decision to put a mosque there…”  In other words, I’m the President of the United States and I can’t comment about how I feel about this building being built on private property, not like that ordinary civilian lady over at Daily Cup of Jo.  Would it have been easier if they’d decided to convert a building on, say, W. 18^th St?  Absolutely, but they didn’t.  And so, because America supports freedom of religion, we must support the rights of those who practice one, even if we disagree about where they build their places of worship, even if deep down inside we’re uncomfortable with them.  I’m reminded how much JFK’s Catholicism was a point of contention for numerous voters.  Those damn Catholics, many thought.  They scare us.

And seriously, when it comes to politics, if Obama had come out and said he disapproves of the Ground Zero mosque, would Republicans have embraced him?  Would they have mentioned to their constituents to start paying attention to the capabilities he possesses?  Of course not.  I firmly believe that had he been politically careful and come out against the mosque, he would have harmed himself even more than speaking his truth.  He still occasionally does that, you know?  He speaks his truth.  It’s why I still like him.

No more mosque talk.  Children need to be educated and fed.  Jobs need to be found or created.  Ask the politicians if they have any opinions on these subjects, or any ideas.

This is NOT what the Islamic Center will look like.

I don’t know.  I wasn’t excited about the news this week, good or bad.  There was news, sure.  Levi Johnston is seeking public office in Wasilla, so I’m not claiming it was a quiet week.  Not at all.  Primary elections continue to add color to the picture in November.  A flight attendant named Steven Slater gave new meaning to the phrase “You can’t fire me, I quit!” with his profanity laced tirade against a rude JetBlue passenger.  Stuff happened but like congress, a vacation mentality has set in.  Regardless…

There’s a bit of a “my dick is bigger than yours” charade going on near the Korean peninsula.  If you recall, back in March, North Korea torpedoed a South Korean warship that killed 46 soldiers.  They won’t claim responsibility but the facts are the facts.  In retaliation, sanctions were put in place and military exercises in the Sea of Japan commenced in July, involving the U.S. and South Korea.  Then last Sunday, North Korea seized a South Korean fishing boat that may have accidentally drifted into their exclusive economic zone.  The following day, the North followed up by firing 100 rounds of artillery into the waters off North Korea’s west coast.  It would be silly if it weren’t so scary.  North Korea has nuclear weapons that they’ve threatened to use should they be properly provoked, and their leader is no less frighteningly ridiculous than Iran’s Ahmadinejad.  Why doesn’t Kim Jong Il get as much press?  North Korea for that matter?  When Bush claimed, after no WMD were ever found in Iraq, that our real goal there was to get rid of Saddam Hussein because of what he was doing to his people, many wondered why we weren’t as benevolently concerned about the North Koreans.  I still wonder, even if I suspect what the reason might be.

Mia Farrow could’ve called Naomi Campbell a big, fat liar while testifying in the war crimes trial of former Liberian president Charles Taylor except that Campbell is a model and has probably never weighed much more than I did at birth.  Campbell claims she didn’t know where certain rough, “blood” diamonds came from when they were delivered to her hotel room in Pretoria after a dinner with Nelson Mandela, which Taylor and Farrow also attended.  Regardless, the trial continues in The Hague and will hopefully come to a conclusion that puts Taylor away for life.  I’m going to go out on a limb and say Taylor is a bad, bad man.

The World Health Organization has claimed this week that the H1N1 virus, better known as the swine flu (oink), is officially quiescent.  Good news for all of us, and an easy opportunity for me to use the word “quiescent”.

Many on the losing side of Judge Vaughn Walker’s decision overturning Prop. 8 still have their panties in a bunch over the idea of gays getting married.  One of their latest arguments is that Walker should have recused himself before trial because he’s homosexual.  I can’t write a better case about how wrong this approach is than the one Jon W. Davidson wrote in the Los Angeles Times on Friday.  Read it.

In business, the nation’s top five for-profit health insurers compensated their top executives a lot of money last year – to the tune of $200 million.  All but one received raises.  The poor guy at Aetna, Ron Williams, went from a paycheck of $24.4 million in ’08 to a mere $18.2 million in ’09.  This, while trying to hit customers with double-digit premium increases because of the rising cost of health care.  Ugh.

Looks like the smog in Moscow is letting up and temperatures have fallen one or two degrees.  Rain has helped clear the air and extinguish the wildfires near the capital as Muscovites toss their face masks in the air, a la Mary Tyler Moore.  You’re gonna make it after all.

President Obama said today that he supports the right of Muslims to build a mosque and Islamic Center two blocks from Ground Zero.  The right is up in arms, naturally, but they have absolutely no argument to stand behind.  I mentioned last week in my weekly wrap-up that I, too, supported their rights but thought further away might be a better idea.  In my mind, as I’m sure in the minds of so many others, was a gold-domed symbol of a religion I don’t understand, in the shadow of the Twin Towers site.  Intellectually, I know it is only a radical, extreme form of Islam that was involved on 9/11 and so I was hardly righteous in my feelings about the subject.  God bless Jon Stewart and his gang who put me to shame.  The Islamic Center will be built in a non-descript storefront and denizens of Manhattan don’t care.  Obama absolutely must support the right of religious freedom in this country, period.  End of story.

Actress Patricia Neal died Sunday from lung cancer at the age of 84.  My fond memory of her was from the Walton’s introduction in a 1971 television movie “The Homecoming: A Christmas Story.”  G’night John-Boy.  G’night Patricia.

Producer David L. Wolper, of “Roots” fame, died Tuesday at the age of 82.  Where were you when Kunta Kinte changed the course of television and riveted us for twelve hours over consecutive nights?

Former Alaska senator Ted Stevens died Monday in a plane crash near Bristol Bay, Alaska.  He was 86.  Though controversy surrounded the end of his political career, he was known as a man who thought of Alaska first and everything else second.  He was a leading advocate for Alaska statehood in what year?  Right.  1959.  His first wife, Ann, also died in a plane crash, in 1978.

Let’s see what the coming week brings.