My Lincoln-Douglas and Kennedy-Nixon moment

Last thurday I had my Lincoln-Douglas and Kennedy moment.It was debate for the borough council of Fort Lee,which is really a town but legally a borough.It was fun but a bit tension,I lost myself in world at moment had some good line blow a good line.The line I blow was in responds my opposes calling the overdevelopment in Fort Lee a renaissance.I said,in respond "Some renaissence".It's like a grotesque park they've created". I meant to say it's like a grotesque jurassic park.But good was "They should call the(the council) the House Lords." Because no Republican has been elect to council in about twenty years.The same people stay power no matter what,it ain't democracy. 
Of course,the most famous debate in American History was Lincoln-Douglas Debates which made Abraham Lincoln a rock star.For he was not well know,certainly not as well know as Stephen Douglas.Lincoln shared the stage with little giant as Douglas was know.Douglas was formable man,know as great orator yet Lincoln hold his own and as they(whoever they are)say the rest is history.
The Kennedy-Nixon debate made John Kennedy.Not that he top Nixon,he didn't but hold his own,don't forgot Nixon was Vice-President and had some stature,Kennedy on the oter hand was little know Senator,who accomplish very little in Senate was know as playboy,a rich men's son,indeed,a lightweight.Also what help Kennedy was he look cool and refresh,Nixon on the other hand,look haggard,sweat from lips,not pretty picture. 

Grover Cleveland a different type of Democratic

When Grover Cleveland was elected President in 1884 he was first Democratic to be elected after Civil War,the last Democratic elected President was unfortunate James Buchanan.And Cleveland could be described as fluke for ran against James Blaine,who part of was called the Maine dynasty,anyway Blaine was campaigning in upstate New York and on Sunday he went to church,and story goes he fall asleep,well preacher's sermon was against the Catholic Church(Rome) Rebellion(the South) and the Irish Catholics(Rum) well after services a reporter ask Blaine what thought of seamon? Blaine didn't want say sleep though so said it was very good.Well as kknow the three R did him in,for thoughout the Southerns dip shirts in Blood and Cleveland.
Cleveland might been Democratic but today's Tea Party people would love him.He veted many spending bill,believe in small government and even vetoed Texas seed bill-Several Texas counties had been stricken by drought.In his Veto message,Cleveland stated "though the people support the government,the government should not support the people" Boy they don't make Democrats like that any more.

Angela Merkel makes full circle:she maybe no Iron Lady or Bismarck but not bad leader

Merkel win biggest victory for Chancellor since Helmut Kohl in 1990.Of course,Kohl left politics in bad way,a cloud corruption was left over his head.He was first German Chancellor over unified Germany and seem to do very well,for reunification went far better then one would expect.But he forgotten today because of cloud over his head.
Merkel runs the state like a well run machine.A confident woman is she always seem in control an old fashion gal that adjusted to new world is she.Of course,Germany like Europe has seen it's better days and worst you know Hitler and World War Two and first World War also took a toll on Germany.Bismarck put state together a clever fellow was he,the junker landowner who ruled with iron fist one great statesmen of his day.The world could use great leader but these days of weak leadership Merkel might be the exception.

William McKinley maybe the most underrated President in American History

William McKinley maybe the most underrated President in American History.McKinley not T.R was probably the first modern President.To outsider he seemed unwiting tool of special interests,a dope control by Mark Hanna.But reality was Hanna was McKinley's partner,however,Hanna was junior partner ultimately McKinley was the boss.Mckinley great strength was his ability to say no but nicest way,to point were people felt bad for him because they made him say no.Of course,while McKinley was mild manner and soft spoken and nice,Hanna on the other hand,was plain spoken and gruff.One time Henry Cabot Lodge at convention in 1896,went to Hanna and said mak sure the gold standard is in the platform.Hanna replied,who the hell are you?
Some important acts in the McKinley Administration:The Dingley Tariff Act-This act imposed the highest tariff up to that time it remain in force until 1909.The act was passed 1897.Also passed in 1897 was Northern Pacific outlawing the killing of seals.Also sign in 1901 National bureau standard,reality mordenizing government.Of course,the Spainish American War dominated McKinley's Administration it showed the world America would soon be dominate player in world.

Abraham Lincoln the most unlikely man to be President

Abraham Lincoln the unlikely man to be President.In the mid-1850's if you say Abraham Lincoln would be elect President in 1860 people would say Abraham who? Now if said,Stephen Douglas would President many would agree with you.The rise Lincoln was meteoric,to say the least,a clumsy
backwoods men,but with gift of words and despite being ugly a likeable man would shake world,indeed,when he died his War Secretary Stanton put it so well,he now belongs to ages.
After being Congressman,for short period,leaving politics because he opposed the Mexican American War.Few expected they would ever heard from him again,but it issue of Kansas-Nebraska Act that Lincoln back in politics.And it's his House Divided speech running for Senate in Illinois that made him a national figure plus the Lincoln-Douglas of campaign.In a sense,Lincoln lost the battle in that campaign-Douglas win the Senate seat,but Lincoln win the war for campaign lead to presidency and as say the rest is history.

Is uncle Ben the crazy uncle in the attic?

Is uncle Ben the crazy uncle in the attic? Is Janet Yellen calamity Jane?Well according to David Stockman that's the case.Money,Money it may not make the world go around but feeds the hungry market,asset go up and up but economy not so much is this receipt for bubble? Who knows market operative in there own world and yes sometimes they fall back to earth,but not always.
Will the G.O.P save Obama from himself but shutting down the government by trying to defund Obamacare?The G.O.P won't go softly into that good night but overreaching by shutting down the government is fool's errand.
A bad year for Yankees doesn't look like they will make playoffs.saw Moneyball last night maybe Yankees should hirer Billy Beane as G.M.
Caroline Kennedy seems to have forgotten what father stood for,not peacenik arroch to foreign policy she seem advocate.For John Kennedy was the ulimte cold warrior-just listen to his Inaugural speech were he said:"Let every nation know that we shall pay any price ,bear any burden,meet any hardship,support  any friend,oppese any foe to assure the survival and the success of liberty."  

The sun won't shine on Summers. Yellen seems to be the men

The sun won't shine on Summers for Yellen seems to be the men.Of course,she is a women and if she becomes FED Chairman she will be first women to FED Chairman.Of course,Wall Street seems to like a woman's touch for easy money.
There have been interesting character,and by the way,Summers was interesting character,a smart guy but big mouth which I think did him in.Some FED Chairman from past Eugene Meyers(owner of the Washington Post)Hoover point man of the economy and first President of World Bank.Follow by Marriner Eccles,who was FDR's man but believe or not he was a Republican and Mormon and one of riches men in the West,however,he believe in Welfare State,big government spending and high taxes on wealthy and on inheritance.Truman fired him.
William Martin was chairman of FED from 1951 to 1970.His father had written much of law then foundered the FED.Martin himself was first paid President of the NYSE then Treasury official in Truman Presidency then FED Chairman fired by Nixon.Arthur Burns follow Martin then Volcker,who along with President Reagan help the American people regain confidence in american economy.

The former number two at the C.I.A who was interviewed on 60 minutes tonight is an idiot.

The former number two at the C.I.A who was interview on 60 minutes tonight is an idiot.I mean,anyone believe Assad will negotiate to transition government is fool,for Assad is no fool,he understand once he loses power a death sentence awaits him.Another people dealing with foreign policy,like State Dept and C.I.a always seems fear a break of country,however,most these country borders were artificially created.Now it's true if Syria broke up al-Qaeda could set the same deal they had Afghanistan

Did John Kerry pull a Dean Acheson?

When John Kerry make off cuff remark about how Syrian crisis can be void,giving up their chemical weapon to international body:it was,in a way,redux Dean Acheson remarks about America's spear of influence in Asia,when didn't mention South Korea in that spear which may have lead to Korean War.Kerry's off cuff remark was pick very quickly by Putin,who then play America for fool and just might lead to another,or made America look like a paper tiger.
Strangely,Kerry and Acheson have some similars:does the word aristocrat come to mind?In a way,Kerry is a half fake aristocrat,although,plays the play very well.For Kerry father was Jewish,a fact that hidden from public for years,yes mother's side of family was WASP aristocrat.
Acheson was a pure aristocrat,indeed,his background is pure Connecticut Yankees his family dates back to pre-revolutionary times and many of kin were Episcopalian clergyman.  
There differ on the Kennedys and Vietnam:Acheson thought the brothers JFK and RFK were punks out of there league,of course,Kerry was JFK wannabe.On Vietnam Acheson was a hawk,Kerry headed the Vietnam vets against the war.

The Charge of the Light Brigade is no strategy for victory but tell that tell to American Right

The Charge of the Light Brigade is no strategy for victory but tell that to the American Right.This idea to shut down government to defund Obama is one stupidest and sure loser I ever heard.If want Democrats to win back the House and win more seats in Senate then Republicans should shut down government.Yes,Rush Limbaugh and Sean Hannity of would will eye the G.O.P to stand tough but is suicide standing tough? Limbaugh and Hannity don't care about election only ratings.

12 years later after 9/11 and what have we learned?

12 years later after 9/11 and what have we learned? Nothing! We in the West have lost our guts.Oh yes, after 9/11 there was brave talk about us taking military against our foes but as time went on and things got meeses as will in war America,indeed,lost it's nerve.
I remember 9/11/01 very well,for at time I work at New York County lawyers Association(a Bar Association but dealing with lawyers will make go to real bars) which katy corner to World Trade Center.Never forgot morning,first I was running late then elevator I saw Denise,a nice asian girl who usually dressed conservatively  was wear flaming red dress.Then on A train at 59 st. station an announcement due to police investigation the A train would not go the eighth Ave. Line. Got subway got Lexington Ave then heard talk the Pentagon was attack,I thought himself my God World War Three,but then I thought and said to myself that can't be Russians are now our friend this this mushroom be wild talk,but train stop 28 St. and got out and saw a mushroom cloud over downtown I knew something big and bad had happened.

Have the murders of the Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri brought to justice?

Have the murders of the Lebanese Prime Minister Hariri brought to justice? Didn't all signs point to Syria? Didn't the U.N say so? Yet nothing was ever done and now same thing will happen by Syria for using poison gas.Why? Because the West is weak,we lose our nerve we are afraid to do the right thing.

Where were You? (Khrushchev)

In 1956 at 20th congress of communist party,in the Soviet Union Khrushchev denounced Stalin.Somebody in audience yelled where were you? Well,one could see steam coming out Khrushchev ears,and yelled who said that? And there is stoney silence and Khrushchev chuckled and said well comrade I was where you are now.
I wonder when slaughter stops in Syria and monuments are built for victims of butchery of  Assad,and somebody like Obama put a reef on monument and decry the butchery of Assad,will somebody yell out where were you?

The lion and eagle are dead devour by the bear

The lion and eagle are dead devour by the bear.Or another Great Britain ain't so great,the of Battle of
Britain,the brave people who took the boats to Dunkirk rescue the British army so that fight evil another day no longer exist,the great lion has become cowardly,but American is no better the once shining hope men,the country that believe in higher force,if you will God,no longer believe in its greatness the eagle has stop soaring to sky but now stuck in mud of self doubt.Obama is no leader,a produce of phony,and disgusting Left that left human decency behind.
Now bear has emerged from forest,it was put to sleep by the great Ronald Reagan,but now it has awaking putting morality aside for power.

The wrong men

I just saw the movie the Wrong Men it was great.It was Albert Hitchcock film,with Henry Fonda,a great actor,this was the only film Fonda and Hitchcoak did together.This film deals with mistaking identity and how people rush to judgement denying justice and criminal justice system can easierly make mistakes.Fonda did two other film with simliar themes:The Oxbow Incident and Twelve Angry Men also great films.
I remember Albert Hitchcock doing interview on late David Frost show and told an amusing story about Jewish and the English public schools(which of course are private).Hitchcock said,a Jewish businessmen sent his son to elite public school and end of day,the boy look beat up.The father said what happen? The son said,there beat up because of was Jewish.Father angrily said,to his son,tell those boys Jesus Christ the founder of their religion was a Jew,and they should be ashamed of themselves for beating up a Jew.Well the next the businessmen again found his son crying and beat up,and businessman said to his,well didn't you tell about Jesus Christ? And so said,yes father but they said they never heard of the gentlemen.

The catcher not in the Rye but who was a spy.

The catcher not in the Rye but who was a spy.Morris(Moe) Berg who had a most unlike live,for he was Jewish boy from Newark,N.J who was a professional baseball player,16 years in the majors and side he was a spy.
Moe was very good defensive catcher but couldn't hit,indeed,Casey Stengel once said of Berg,he could speak twelve languages but can't hit curve ball in any one of them. In 1934 a bunch of major ballplayer,like Babe Ruth and Lou Gehrig barnstorm Japan(played exhibition games) and Moe Berg went alone and people said what Moe Berg doing going on that trip,after all,he's barely 200 hitter and answer was well nobody handles pitchers like Moe Berg,but real reason he went was photograph Japanese military sights.
After leaving baseball,in 1941 went on fact finding mission to Latin America for Nelson Rockefeller,who was at the time coordinator of Inter-American Affairs for the State Dept.
In 1943 Berg join the OSS(forerunner of C.I.A) he parachuted into Yugoslavia to size up Titto partisan.He also enter Norway to fight the Nazi effort to develop a nuclear weapon from heavy water.
He died in 1973.

Today's front page story in the New York Post reminded me of my days with N.Y.C.L.A

Today's front page story,in the New York Post reminded me of my days with the New York County Lawyers Association (N.Y.C.L.A) and it has nothing to do with fleas.For front page of Post,has picture of Spitzer and a dog licking him and big letter headline,"Which Dog HAs Fleas?" In small print is what story is about,"Spitzer's 70G to shady Dem group."
The reason it reminded me of my days working at N.Y.C.L.A(which worked from 1998 to 2006)one,Spitzer when he was Attorney General for New York(A.G) use to hang there all time,indeed, a few times I come almost face to face with him,unlike many politicians when you made eye contract with him he'ill would acknowledge you.Also I got feeling by looking at him close up,his head was always spinning,or other words he was always thinking,like chess master think three moves ahead.
Also what got my attention was former disgrace Brookyn Democrat Chair Clarence Norman was involved with this shady group.Now Ravi Batra was very important member of N.Y.C.L.A when I work there,but at that time he was being sued by some lawyer claiming he was hogging the patronage from the Brookyn Courts.Curiously party chairman(boss) Clarence Norman was on Batra payroll,work in his lawyer firm as council of.Now Charles Hynes,Brookyn D.A now fighting for his politcal life did prosecuted Norman which lead to demise in politics.

Assad isn't going away without force

Assad isn't going away without force,for knows if gives up power there is noose around his neck.Also you have know ethic make up Syria,Assad and his family,don't his father was dictator before him and gain power by being an Air Force General,are Alawite who only make up 10 percent of  the country but dominated the military and many sources of power in Syria.The majority of people in Syria are Sunni Muslims,maybe three quarters of the country,the rest are Druze and Christian.The Alawite aren't going to give up easy and scared that Sunni will slaughter them.
It maybe the chance of stability in Syria is if foreign power,like the U.S occupies and set a military distant until things can settle down and Syria's can rule themselve again and then the outside power would leave.

Hankey Pankey spymaster or bureaucrat:The life and times of Maurice Hankey

Hankey Pankey spymaster or bureaucrat or both:the life of times of Maurice Hankey,1st Baron Hankey.Maurice is one of those man in history that molded it,but public knows little about even in his heyday for he was a behind scenes operative.
He was very a produce of English public school(which of course are private) his school was Rugby,made famous by the book "Tom Brown's Schooldays" witten by Thomas Hughes.Hankey joined the Royal Marine Artillery and so on the Ramillies battleship.He so impressed Admiral Sir John Fisher(very much a legend in British Navy) what when Fisher became Second Sea Lord at Admiralty in 1902,Hankey became a member of his staff despite being so young.
In 1907 he return to sea,as the intelligence office for the Mediterranean Fleet,shortly after he was appointed to the Committee on Imperial Defence,a forerunner to M15 and M16.In 1912 he become the Secretary for the Committee,a position he hold though out World War One.In that position,he worked very closely with Prime Minister David Lloyd George and he notice the ideas of Major Ernest Swinton for tanks and brought to attention of Winston Churchill.
In 1919 he was made Secretary of the Cabinet a post he held for nineteen years.At same time he kept his position on the Committee on Imperial Defence and he was also Secretary for British Delegation in the Paris Peace conference.
After government service,he become a British Government Director of the Suez Canal Company a pot he only held for year.For war was brewing and Neville Chamberlain wanted him back in government,hence,he made Minister without Portfolio in War Cabinet.Churchill who didn't trust or like Hankey perhaps because of what John Colville(Churchill's private secretary,in U.S it's chief of staff)wrote in his book "The Fringes of Power" on page 50 date Sunday 11/12/1939 "Winston's speech has made a very bad effect at No. 10 but the F.O and the city take a favourable view.The Italian and Dutch Representives protest at the F.O. and Rab Butler tells me he thought it beyond words vulgar.The Cabinet were evidently embarrassed;but Hankey(who,I am tod always "suck up")
expressed great approval to Winston".
Maybe Hankey could see Winston would be the P.M and Winston wasn't buying it.For Winston got Hankey out of the War Cabinet,made him Duchy of Lancaster and the Paymaster then out of government.  

Murder,Inc.

Yesterday,on the Fox Movie channel,it was old film,in black and white,call Murder,Inc.It was about real Murder Inc. which started in early 1930s,Meyer Lansky idea of army of professional killers,who would kill on contract,but between kills they got a salary,insurance and pension benefits.
This was Peter Falk first movie,he is most remembered for playing on T.V the detective Columbo,great actor.Anyway in this movie Falk plays a real character Abe Reles.
It was Reles testimony,he did deal to save his own neck,that lead to the execution of  Louis (Lepke) Buchaler,who ran murder,Inc. Lepke as he was known was biggest fish(gangster) ever execution,indeed,he was a millionaire.He was executed on 3/4/1944 at Sing Sing which is in upstate New York I think near Ossining,which as kid I was at the reservoir there maybe 1963.

What has happen to John Kerry?

What has happen to John Kerry? I mean,this sounded like such jerk for ran for President in 2004 and yes started his public life as a traitor,but now he sounds Presidential,unlike Obama,the only one in administration that show passion in defending human right.For Assad does bite the dust then message you can be the biggest bad ass around,murders thousand,maybe million and there is no price to pay.
Our policy (the U.S.) regime change in Syria anything else meanless exercise and better to nothing then half measure.

Obama Neville Chamberlain light?

Is Obama Neville Chamberlain light? Both men have similarity,I know the idiot Al Gore once called President Bush Neville Chamberlain what insult to history Al Gore is,a backwood who because his anti-capitalist view(although he is capitalist myself) has made darling of sophistry simpletons that ran our schools and media,however,Chamberlain and Obama did both get involved in politics over domestic issues,both had little vision or understanding foreign policy.Both did through a nation caught in disbelief in it's own mission,both were very influenced by unpopular wars,in Chamberlain case World War One,in Obama's Vietnam.
My nation,the United States of America is in unhappy mood,indeed,it's lost it's will to believe in itself.Obama does punt when he said Congress must approve any action Syria a scarce man,with no stomach is our President and God save us.