Thus, we watched Senator Bayh give his last parting gift to the president – a president he served from his own party. At best, it was horribly rude; at worst, it was the most boneheaded move anyone could think of. (Apologies to Sarah Palin for saying “boneheaded.” Who knows what will tick her off.)

Regardless if he weighed his chances for reelection and concluded it was best for him to retire, couldn’t he have done it with some dignity and class by waiting until the time was right?

Bayh’s blather about, “I do not love Congress,” and “There is too much partisanship, and not enough progress,” only speaks of his own failures as a senator. Does he really believe he can dust his hands of the problems in Congress and magically turn into a spectator? Any criticism he has about Congress goes right back to the source of the problem – himself. He was there, wasn’t he? Or was he the quintessential “warm  body?”

I hope he enjoyed the limelight yesterday making his big announcement about his decision to retire.  Because today in retrospect, he just magnified his weakness as a senator, and worse, he magnified his lack of common sense as a loser.

In for a short tweet. I think the Prez will do all right in his #SOTU.    (about 13 hours ago from web)

Despite negative speculation, I think Obama’s #SOTU address will actually OBLIGATE party Dems to carry out responsibilities & pull together. (about 13 hours ago from web)

Re: #SOTU: After losing MA, the timing of Obama’s #SOTU, is probably good for the Dem party – will settle Dem’s fears. And fears of country  (about 13 hours ago from web)

#SOTU: Prez likely agenda: Review what he inherited yr ago, current economy, why need HCR, new jobs creation, adjustmnts 2 budget & no fear  (about 13 hours ago from web)

#SOTU: Republican’s Response: Instill fear in people in the economy. Stress unemployment and HCR to start over.  (about 13 hours ago from web)

Yes, I hear you, I was a little off on the republican response. Republican spokesman and VA Governor, Bob McDonnell’s main argument was too much spending.

I should also add that my closing tweet after the State Of The Union Address was this:

Well I hope Obama got his team back… Ha, until tomorrow!   (about 9 hours ago   from web)

©January 2010 Reiko Eoh

The Democratic Party is like a really, really bad sports team. They are so bad that even when they have the advantage over their opponents, they go out of their way to sabotage themselves just so they can resort to being losers again. They’re practically saying, “Please take our win because we have no idea how to win as a team.” If I were Obama, I would feel like switching parties just because the democrats absolutely suck as a team.

Prior to becoming president, Obama thought all his party needed was to learn a little savvy, and carry a big game plan. He calculated that with a plan, all he needed to do was communicate the logic of the plan to fellow democrats and have them all on board to execute it as a unified front. In his mind, momentum will pick up and be on your side – as in sports – and with a little luck, everything clicks. Yes we can.

Sure we can. Try explaining an overall success plan with intangible rewards to members of congress and right before your eyes, you will actually see the vault door creaking shut in their minds. As far as they’re concerned, without any guarantees, it’s all nonsense, so momentum, and setting a “magic” deadline for results is fortune-telling mumbo0jumbo. To them, succesful results happen when they are good and ready, and at whatever time they are good and ready – which was almost never.

There is nothing like 100 percent hindsight to fully understand an opportunity after it’s too late. Surely now the democratic members of congress know why President Obama insisted last year that he should have a Health Care Reform (HCR) Bill on his desk before the August legislative recess. Had they done that, Health Care Reform would be on its way to becoming reality by now, and the uproar a distant memory. People would be realizing that Health Care Reform wasn’t the big scary monster that they thought it would be, and everyone would be for the better right now. How can people work, and pay taxes, if they are sick or worried sick? Simple common sense.

If the HCR game plan wasn’t a good enough reason for Obama to have the bill on his desk last year, there was another more obvious reason why President Obama wanted it before the ‘09 summer recess. All you had to do was just look at all the democratic congressmen and women. Democratic representatives were whining, “Slow-down, Mr. President, you’re moving too fast!” From President Obama’s perspective, he’s staring at them thinking, “Slow-down!? Have you guys looked in the mirror lately!? One of you might just suddenly fall out of your chair and croak! And with our party’s luck, we’d have five of you croaking at once!”

Alas, President Obama and the Democratic Party now find themselves in a bigger quagmire – they’ve lost the momentum. They have lost ground and problems are coming in faster than being solved.

Now with the Supreme Court ruling last Thursday allowing corporations limitless spending on political campaigns, President Obama immediately responded that he would have his administration “work immediately with Congress on this issue” and “talk with bipartisan congressional leaders to develop a forceful response to this decision.”

The 5-4 ruling by the Supreme Court was appalling. The five Republican Justices who voted to overturn the previous ruling – Anthony Kennedy, Chief Justice John Roberts, Samuel Alito, Antonin Scalia, and Clarence Thomas – were aware that the balance would tilt in favor of big corporations, yet claimed finance limits on political campaigns violates the First Amendment free-speech rights of corporations. Obviously the free-speech rights of big money trumped free-speech rights of individuals.

Some corporations even came out against the ruling as well and are fighting against lifting the ban. It turns out they want limits too. Even they are unwilling to pay more for their already highly-funded candidates to carry out their business agenda.

Sadly however, the corporations that are balking are not the humongous big money companies such as Big Oil. The overturning of limiting campaign spending by the five Republican Justices was clearly a show of them thumbing their noses at the 14th Amendment to the Constitution of Individual Freedom. The GOP justices need to be held in check.

Thank goodness for President Obama. The Democratic Party may not be the party with a winning attitude, but they are the party with a conscience. Their miscues and missteps, and seemingly hapless and hopeless demeanor, is still better than the GOP’s big Wall St. corporations, shelling out money to convince you –yes, you – that the GOP is just like you. Think about it.

© January 2010 Reiko Eoh

But actually, we have adjusted rather well hopping along on one shoe – mainly because we refuse to give up on getting the other one back! That’s the spirit that will turn our frown, upside down. Such is life in the U.S. today; a mega-packed action/thriller/drama with so many twists and turns, one can only wonder: How will this epic saga end?

Well here is what my happy final episode would be: The Armageddon Greyhound Bus arrives to pick up all the Teabaggers. Everyone rejoices because it’s a win-win for all. The bus then drives off into the sunset, and we all proceed to live happily ever after. Hallelujah!

Anything is possible.

Nonetheless, imagine life back in 1999 B.B. (Before Bush). Who would have predicted that today, while the nation works through two wars, an economic meltdown, fears of terrorism and dire environmental crises, the biggest headline news for weeks would be – golfer Tiger Woods and his personal problems? And that his personal problems would climax on Thanksgiving Day with such dramatic finality, that we would – for once – be thankful we weren’t in his shoes?

And worse, just as we cleared our sullied minds of Woods, along comes actor Charlie Sheen, who, on Christmas Day, gave his wife the lasting gift of domestic abuse. Hey Charlie, just wait until she gets a golf lesson from Elin Woods!

But no doubt the Woods/Sheen holiday fiascos could have been worse. Just imagine if Woods and Sheen had hooked up with each other to become best buddies. Yes, that’s right; allow your mind to finish the joke.

Fortunately the world is still turning, and life in America can continue as a magical Disney World with lots of Michael Bay-like sensational tabloid explosions. It’s become the American way: Our world is simply about one’s ego; where facts mean little and truth is mere perception.  Which explains why people today have become Daffy, and standards have become Mickey Mouse!

That said, here is the real 2010, with several movies strung together for what is our mega-blockbuster reality. Do I see a Tarantino sequel on the horizon?

Think of all the futuristic movies of the past, and the result is our reality today: A progressive “2001: A Space Odyssey,” combined with a regressive “Planet Of The Apes.” The tension heightens when a totally outrageous, unqualified character is introduced into the story line as a U.S. president; as the case of George W. Bush, who stunningly does more damage to the country than Chauncey Gardiner in “Being There.” This character would also be obscenely lucky, and have an incredibly cagey ability to receive orchestrated help from a team of public relations people who seemed almost straight out of the movie,  “Wag The Dog.”

So thanks to the “strategery” of the Decider president, the U.S. finds itself facing issues more serious and numerous than any movie ever made. The results are greater economic problems than in the movie, “Wall St.,” as well as the continuing horror of livestock and agriculture practices that have actually turned the food industry into ghastly manufacturing plants of human “feed”, as revealed in the documentary, “Food Inc.” (Amazingly, it is much closer to the movie,  “Soylent Green” than I could have imagined.)

Meanwhile, we have our own “Morgan Freeman, Deep Impact” president, President Obama, but thankfully, no meteors are heading toward Earth right now. But we do have the more imminent crises of global warming, with its extreme weather conditions as in “The Day After Tomorrow.” And, who knows, perhaps an unexpected visitor may pay us a visit, a la, “E.T.” Now that would be cute!

All of this is enough to make you want to take Howard Beale’s advice in “Network” and crack open a window to shout to the world, “I’m as mad as hell, and I’m not going to take this anymore.”

Relax. It’s never as bad as you think. We’ll probably end up like Woody Allen, in the movie, “Sleeper,” who unknowingly becomes cryonically frozen, but comes back 200 years later to fall in love with Diane Keaton. Or maybe we’ll wind up like Mike Meyers and Heather Graham, going through a time machine and coming back as “Austin Powers” and his girlfriend, in an awesome 60’s time warp to find peace and love – among other things. Now how cool would that be?

But perhaps a little caveat might do well here: In case you decide to go the cryonics route, you might want to do a thorough background check of the laboratory first, because, well you know, Ted Williams…uh-huh, enough said.

© January 8, 2010 Reiko Eoh

The public had its twisted little fun and it should have ended there. But then the news media couldn’t leave well enough alone.  It dug deeper, and just had to locate all of the “transgressors” involved.

So the story goes on. It is now two weeks and counting. What I want to know is: Why can’t journalists do as good a job investigating hard news as they do digging up dirt on people’s personal lives?

It’s one thing for the media to report Tiger’s accident, quite another to report and interview the numerous bimbos coming out of the woodwork claiming they had affairs with him.

I thought for a moment that maybe calling the women bimbos was too harsh. At one point I said, well, what if Tiger’s first paramour just got caught up in a situation she couldn’t control? Who am I to judge? I’m talking about the P.R. woman from New York, who initially planned to hold a press conference with her sleazy attorney, Gloria Allred, but then cancelled it at the last minute. Sure, Woods must have paid her off, any fool would know that, but what if it was just one of those unfortunate situations?

As it turns out, she is a bimbo. Recently, she was seen on the news, being followed by a reporter and a cameraman as she walked down the street in skin-tight leggings, holding on to a new boy toy. While the camera was taping, she approached her apartment and realized she didn’t have her key. Well, no problem. She climbed up over her balcony and broke in. That seemed like bimbo action to me.

In the meantime, Tiger Woods’ former friend, Jesper Parnevik added his opinion on his “friend’s” affairs. He felt a need to tell the world what a bad guy he thinks Tiger is, and that he regrets ever having introduced him to Elin. Well, Parnevik turned out to be kind of a jerk himself by dissing a friend while he’s down. Just wait and see what happens to him if the couple patches things up.

Then, as if Tiger’s wife, Elin, didn’t have enough problems, her mother comes to visit, collapses at their home, and was rushed by ambulance to the hospital. Mom is so not helping.

And all the while, the news media are calling in their analysts to comment on Tiger’s gameplay on the course of life. All the P.R. and marketing people advise that Tiger’s best approach would be to come out, explain himself ASAP and put it behind him before he starts losing more endorsements. Psychiatrists weigh in and advise immediate treatment for his sex addiction. Even Tiger’s bimbos are giving their analysis and advice on his lovemaking and relationship problems.

No one is without advice for Tiger, so here is mine: Hey Tiger, you’re way too serious. It’s not like you molested children (or at least I hope not), so you still have a chance. Hire yourself a joke writer and come out on Letterman or Oprah and say, “Yes, I screwed up. That’s right, you heard me, I have had sex with other women, and I screwed up.” Then make jokes about it and browbeat yourself. People love that stuff. This is good advice; trust me.

In the meantime, let me help you by coming out with a vid and posting it on YouTube. I’m practicing my crying jag right now:  “Leave Tiger Woods Alone! Please! He’s a human being! You’re all lucky he plays golf for you, you bastards! Leave him alone!”

Don’t worry, Tiger, just get well soon. You can pay me later.

CA zip code 95814 added 75,000 jobs. Population: 16,600. That’s 5 jobs per person! http://bit.ly/14Uijc

But the most relevant information on Recovery.gov is that most of the jobs created or saved are in the public sector. For instance, according to Vice President Biden, out of the 640,329 jobs, 325,000 went to education and 80,000 to construction jobs. The difference we will soon find out is going to other government jobs. You need more evidence? 13,080 grants went to the private sector, and 116,625 went to [federal] agencies.

First, $159 billion has been spent so far. That’s $248,273 per job. However, when you look at some specific contracts that were awarded you find that some jobs were created or saved at an insane cost to taxpayers. For instance, $1,359,633,501 were awarded to CH2M WG IDAHO LLC, in WA to create 2,183 jobs. That’s $622,827 per job. That’s not as bad though as the $258,646,800 awarded to the Brookhaven Science Associates, LLC in NY, to create 25 jobs. That’s over $10.3 million per job.

The term “Made in China” really started in 1978, when Deng Xiaoping opened up several Special Economic Zones along China’s eastern coast. In these zones, for the first time since the dominance of Mao, regular citizens were allowed to openly engage in business. It is no surprise that some of these SEZs, such as Shenzhen, quickly became a place where the adventurous type could find his fortune. Despite the traditional Chinese stance denouncing traders as the lowliest class, the Chinese as a people have always been natural entrepreneurs. Like my father calls them, they are the Jews of Asia. (Like from all great minds, his wisdom often seems contradictory.)

How times have changed since the days when almost all Westerners had only a few simplistic evocations of China: the exciting and mystical exoticism of storybooks and kung fu movies, the cold, gray symbolism of Communism, poverty and leftover feudalism and, more recently, the image of billions of blissfully ignorant smiling factory workers producing the low-end products gracing endless shelves at Wal-Mart. The rising influence of China a.k.a. The Sleeping Giant is now impossible to ignore and therefore our ideas must evolve and grow along with China else we will be forever trapped in a child-like and perhaps dangerous fantasy.

Growing numbers of people are well aware of this phenomenon. What else could explain the exponential jump in American students of Mandarin Chinese? Individual states in the US have seen students studying Mandarin increase from practically zero to thousands in just the past few years. The so-called “Third Wave” of international expatriates is at its crest as droves of job hunters and thrill-seekers make the trek once overwhelmingly made in the opposite direction. The popularity of Hong Kong, Taiwanese and Mainland Chinese film, music, art and books has been slowly but surely growing in the West, making the Japanese Manga/Anime craze of yesteryear seem downright conventional. Just recently, a handful of Chinese rock bands just capped off a nationwide tour in the US, playing their last show as headliners at the Chinese Culture Festival in Washington D.C.

Of course, one only has to open a newspaper or turn on the television to get a picture of what is happening in China these days. More so than ever before, nearly every political decision made by the Chinese government is talked about and milled over by countless editorials and talking heads. More interestingly, what used to be only criticism has begun to develop into praise, even envy, of the way the Chinese do things. For example, Thomas Friedman, a columnist for the New York Times that frequently used to bemoan the Chinese reluctance to improve human rights and the environment, now can be seen applauding the Chinese system for its success in getting quick and practical results – especially in contrast to the currently bedraggled partisan politics in the States.

Undoubtedly so, many things Chinese are not met with open arms. In fact, many people’s perceptions of China are still so much like the foggy and unknown (and therefore threatening) concepts previously mentioned. For example, recall the recent Chinese company’s purchase of Hummer. Many Americans were aghast to behold the loss of a quintessential American icon: the bold, braggartly and bombastic SUV once driven by the Governator himself. Cable news scaldabancos from coast-to-coast enlivened the fears of many Americans: China is an unstoppable colossal firebrand that, if it is anything like the West was centuries ago, will utterly destroy us. The best expression of this was relayed to me by my friend who was chatting with a cowboy in a bar in Texas. As my friend ordered his beer, the older roughneck said: “Hopefully I won’t be alive to see it, but one day you’ll be payin’ for that beer with Chinese dollars.”

So, let’s put this all to rest. First of all, most Chinese wouldn’t believe you if you told them that China would soon become the world’s superpower. It would be akin to telling a geek in high school that one day he would be a rich and suave playboy. “But I can barely get a date now,” he would lament. Most Chinese don’t see what we see – a fast rising economy and world influence projected by a media saturated with their successes. Instead, they see the China of everyday life and recent past: dirty, poor and still in many ways backwards.

Assuming that China does become Number One, that old cowboy was right about one thing: he won’t be alive to see it and it’s perhaps likely that neither will many of us. Although upwards of half of the general populations of developed nations like the USA and Japan believe that China already is or soon will be the world’s superpower, experts estimate that even if this occurs, we still have another forty years or so. Their journals and articles are littered with language like “not anytime soon” and “nowhere close.” So if you are waiting to pay for that beer with “Chinese dollars,” by that time it’ll be a real flat one.

OK, so worst case scenario: we wake up tomorrow and the Chinese are our new overlords. At this point only one question would remain: how bad is it? Well, historically speaking, not too bad. The Chinese have also been a world superpower many centuries ago. Although they would demand tribute from surrounding areas, they were never too aggressive. China’s borders have pretty much been the same throughout the ages, meaning they were never too interested in vast conquests or takeovers. China, or Zhongguo in Chinese, literally means “The Middle Kingdom”. Could this be because they are so focused on their own business? One can only hope.