Debt is the fatal disease of republics, the first thing and the mightiest to undermine governments and corrupt the people.
Wendell Phillips

America borrowed its first dollar to fund the American Revolution.
Two hundred thirty three years later, we owe the People’s Republic of China over $740 billion dollars.
America is becoming the front office fro the rest of the world. They manufacture and export. We process their paperwork.
This must stop.
Our addiction to debt is not exclusive to any political party. History will show us that the national debt soared under the Reagan Administration. But so did our economy.
Would that it were so for the Obama Administration. Our national debt will hit the $12 trillion dollar mark very soon. That is over $30,000 for every American Citizen. My three children, Sophie, Jeb and Clara owe $90,000. They are all under 12 years old.
Over the next ten years, our national debt is expected to double to $24 trillion dollars.
As we migrate to a world made flat by the Internet, America faces even greater challenges to maintain its economic dominance. If our GDP continues to falter, and our ability to generate jobs and manufacture goods continues its downward spiral, the taxpayers of America are going to have to pay back this $24 trillion dollar debt.
This must stop.
We cannot continue to borrow without producing.
We cannot continue to fund programs without results.
We cannot continue to burden our children with massive debt without providing them with a hopeful economy.
It is time for America to wake up and invest its dollars in science, in engineering, in mathematics, in energy research and in programs that will create jobs and opportunity.
It is time for America to invest in America.
We don’t need good editorials and poll numbers.
We need jobs and results.

Buoyed by the recent Scott Brown victory in Massachusetts, the incredible victory of Ed Mangano and the return of the County Legislature, many Republicans feel that we are turning back to our conservative roots.
That presumption, in my opinion, is not only wrong but will cost us elections and set us back.
The fundamental ideology of our friends and neighbors has been conservative and just right of center.
What has changed is the people first stopped believing in the party of George W. Bush and now their disbelief has spread to the party of Barack Obama.
The lesson to be learned is not to slap slogans on the bumpers of our car and gloat.
Rather, we must stop and listen to the people and not the media. . Listen to their needs, their fears of job loss, their insecurities about their future and their desires for a better life for their children. After we listen, we must listen some more.
Then, we have the obligation to act to address their concerns then work night and day to solve their problems. If we are unable to bring closure to the needs of the people, then we must have the courage to tell them with honesty and not words buried in rhetoric

Then, and only then, will we earn the right to govern.

The lesson from the Scott Brown and Ed mangano victories is that the people are speaking loudly and in a clear tone.

The winner is the one who is listening.

He grew up in another village, where he worked in a carpenter's shop until he was thirty. Then for three years he became a wandering preacher.

He never wrote a book. He never held an office. He never had a family or owned a house. He didn't go to college. He never visited a big city. He never travelled two hundred miles from the place where he was born. He did none of those things one usually associates with greatness.

He had no credentials but himself.

He was only thirty-three when the tide of public opinion turned against him. His friends ran away. He was turned over to his enemies and went through a mockery of a trial. He was executed by the state. While he was dying, his executioners gambled for his clothing, the only property he had on earth. When he was dead he was laid in a borrowed grave through the pity of a friend.

Twenty centuries have come and gone, and today he is the central figure of the human race and the leader of mankind's progress. All the armies that ever marched, all the navies that ever sailed, all the parliaments that ever sat, all the kings that ever reigned, put together, have not affected the life of man on this earth as much as that One Solitary Life.

Attributed to Dr. James Allan Francis

As reported in the LA Times, the NY Times and the web, it looks like vinyl records are making a comeback. In fact, U2 released its 1984 album, The Unforgettable Fire in vinyl.
The return to vinyl is not an anachronism.
It is an artistic and business decision.
It is also a leading indicator of a wake up call to America and the world at large.
You can’t digitize the intangibles that make us humans tick.
Going back to the music industry, one of the drivers of the return to vinyl was the analog experience was missing when music was digitized. While the recording was technically perfect, it was missing the subtle hisses, pops and subliminal experiences that defined our music. It is not only an experience built on memory. It’s not just that the needle from a Thorens TD-165 is part of the Black Dog guitar riff of Led Zeppelin IV.
It’s that the analog experience is warmer, fuller and more human than cyber perfection.
That realization has ripple effect far beyond Dark Side of the Moon.
In government, in politics and in every day human interaction, you can’t digitize the power of the handshake, the barometer of truth of eye contact and the impact of a hand our shoulder.
On one hand, technology has made us more efficient and capable of mass output. Yet, we only reap the benefits of technology if we drive our thoughts towards a least common denominator capable of mass duplication. In other words, we must orient our thought process to bits and bytes, and ones and zeros.
Some of our decision can effectively be translated to cyber capabilities. Thus, the dominance of the GPS, car maintenance warnings and EZ Pass.
Yet not all of what we are can be make the translation to the digital universe without being corrupted.
This realization is the Tabasco in our Bloody Mary. The absence of humanity in our polls, in our press and in our politics as we rely on computerized data is skewing our leadership decisions from what it means to be human. Thus, we experience a sever disconnect from our business and governmental leaders that leads to voter and consumer unrest.
In short, we may be able to replicate our DNA but we can’t clone our souls.
Let’s use technology as a tool to help us and not replace us.
There are no songs praising the Steam Shovel. We all remember John Henry.

This year, as in years past, I like to read the Declaration of Independence on July 4. I know that there are historical purists out there (John Adams being among them) who believe July 2, the day that independence was decided upon, to be the more important day. Tell that to the Grucci family.
Anyway, this year, the words of the Declaration rang truer than ever. Instead of reading it myself, I had my 11-year-old daughter and my 9-year-old son read aloud, each taking turns. “Unalienable” was a bear.
The words sounded even more poignant, in the same way that Linus’ rendition of the Gospel of Luke in “ A Charlie Brown Christmas” resonates.
We stopped at each paragraph and I did my best to explain what Thomas Jefferson and the other contributors were trying to say. After reciting the litany of abuses that were submitted to the candid world of 1776, Jeb thought King George was a pretty mean dude.
The last paragraph hit me especially hard this year and it bears repeating.

We, therefore, the Representatives of the united States of America, in General Congress, Assembled, appealing to the Supreme Judge of the world for the rectitude of our intentions, do, in the Name, and by Authority of the good People of these Colonies, solemnly publish and declare, That these united Colonies are, and of Right ought to be Free and Independent States, that they are Absolved from all Allegiance to the British Crown, and that all political connection between them and the State of Great Britain, is and ought to be totally dissolved; and that as Free and Independent States, they have full Power to levy War, conclude Peace, contract Alliances, establish Commerce, and to do all other Acts and Things which Independent States may of right do. — And for the support of this Declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our Lives, our Fortunes, and our sacred Honor.

Through the voices of children, Jefferson’s brilliant and noble rhetoric rang truer than the crisp brilliance of the Liberty Bell itself.
I think I have found a new tradition.