DUMB-O

Wow, just as I was enjoying a wonderful Christmas season, this story comes across the wires about some shyster politician from Tennessee who is seeking to be the chairman of the Republican National Committee. Apparently as a Christmas present, he thought it would be amusing to cook up some *original* Christmas songs for his pals and sent all 41 of them to members of his party.

Among the many songs (Wright Place, Wrong Pastor; John Edwards' Poverty Tour; and Love Client #9) was a particularly disturbing piece that was entitled, Barack the Magic Negro, sung to the melody of Puff, the Magic Dragon. I believe it was just over a month or so ago that I was accused of using the *racism card* in one of my postings when I wrote:

It covers up, rationalizes and minimizes positive qualities in one candidate and emphasizes negative qualities in another when there is a color difference.

Furthermore, another comment to this posting included, "It's a shame when someone stoops to that level."

Indeed, it is quite unbecoming and shameful. In fact, it's downright idiotic and stupid. So it's no surprise that Rush Limbaugh played this song on his program last year. The individual - Chip Saltsman - is publicly defending this song as "satire."

Many of my close friends and family would agree that I have a great sense of humor. I get a kick out of a lot of things. This attempt at humor is an insult to my intelligence, and to anyone else's within reason. I am sure there are a few people who would disagree: perhaps acquaintances of Mr. Saltsman and Rush Limbaugh.

Anyhow, this is not going to keep my interest much longer. I simply wanted to point out the fact that I am afraid we are going to have to deal with this sort of issue for as long as we live. While I was accused of using the *racism card* I can assure you that I am most certainly not worthy of being deemed as prejudiced because of race.

However, it appears that the individual - Saltsman - interested in chairing the Republican's National Committee would like to use the word *satire* instead of *racism* to describe his efforts to entertain members of his party. Geez, and for so long we thought it was the Democrats that were out of touch and struggling to find unity. I am not sure that the African-American members of the GOP like Condoleeza Rice, NBA legend, Clyde Drexler, or former FCC chairman, Michael Powell, would have this tune on their iPod. You think?

The election is over, by the way. President Obama crushed John McCain in a landslide. He now inherits an Oval Office where, for the past eight years, President George W. Bush has added $4 trillion dollars to the national debt. It's the biggest increase under any president in U.S. history. The latest number from the Treasury Department shows the national debt now stands at more than $9.849 trillion. That’s a 71.9 percent increase on Mr. Bush’s watch.

While the song has a despicable title, you certainly can't argue with one thing: it will certainly take a lot of *magic* to get us out of this mess. If it happens to be an African-American who leads the way, more power to him! This is an individual, by the way, who raised his own money to run for president through American citizens like you and me, as well as just about anybody and everybody as the numbers indicated on election night.

And since being elected, has not wasted any time in establishing a circle of advisors that will help to get the ball rolling long before January 20th. It's a shame we have to wait so long at this point.

Former U.S. Attorney General Ed Meese ran the 1980 Reagan transition, considered by some the most effective in recent decades.

What does Meese think of the Obama transition?

"I think they read our book," Meese said. "They've almost followed the same pattern."
Experts on presidential transitions all gave Obama high marks last week for the way he has prepared to govern since the campaign ended.

"There's very little to criticize," said Charles O. Jones, a retired University of Wisconsin professor and author of "Passages to the Presidency," a study of four transitions: Richard Nixon in 1968, Jimmy Carter in 1976, Reagan in 1980 and Bill Clinton in 1992.

Having a good transition is no guarantee of a successful presidency, but "not having one can cost you pretty dearly in the first six months," Jones said.

God Bless America and Change that we can believe in!