Day One

On the first full day of the Obama presidency he met with General Petraeus and the joint chiefs of staff to establish an exit strategy from Iraq. It seems hard to believe that we have now occupied Iraq for six years, a mere six years after our former President said, "mission accomplished." For the record, on March 1, 2003 Bush said, 'mission accomplished," since than 4,090 Americans have been killed. We have lost 4,229 Americans to date in this war, with a total wounded count of 30,960. These numbers are staggering because no seems to know what we are trying to accomplish in Iraq. We went to war with Iraq because there was "a gathering nuclear cloud" and the CIA assured us there would be weapons of mass destruction. I do not blame Bush or Clinton or the FBI for the catastrophic errors in intelligence on finding WMDs. It did seem like the right thing to do at the time and I fully supported the war. When Bush began to change the reason for going to Iraq, insisting it was part of an endless, "war on terror" that is when his credibility fell apart. I believe that if Bush would have been open and honest with the American people about Iraq his poll numbers would not have been at historic lows. Now it is up too Obama to deal with the "Mission not accomplished in Iraq." The only way to go from here is to establish a timetable and make the Iraq people responsible for their own future. If they want to continue killing and blowing people up than they can, I just do not want one more American to die in Iraq. I do want one more American to die because I do not know what we are fighting for.

The Mountaintop

"I may not get there with you, but I have been to the mountaintop."
-Dr. Martin Luther King
Today, like millions of Americans, I watched history being made as the United States of America peacefully transferred power to the 44th President of the United States. This is a day that I will tell my grand-children about. I was most moved when Obama came out to be sworn in and he stopped to hug an original Freedom Rider, Congressman John Lewis. If you think about what John Lewis has been through, beaten and jailed in Selma, denied due process of law, forced to go to a segregated school, ride at the back of the bus, eating at separate lunch counters, and put in the hospital for marching with Dr. King, it is an unbelievable change in our country. He is a living reminder of the belief in non-violence, standing up for a cause, and shedding blood for his fellow man. What must have been going through his mind as he watched Obama take the oath? How many of us have the courage of our convictions? How many of us put our faith and belief into action?
I was also struck by the tone of Obama's speech. He did not come to gloat in his victory, instead he came to tell us to put away our childish thoughts and words, leave the bitter rancor behind, and celebrate that we are all in this together. He invited an evangelical pastor, a gay bishop, a poet, and classical musicians. He thanked President Bush for his kindness during the transition, kept an even and somber tone, and acted like a serious adult who is ready to take on the challenge of the Presidency. If you love your country, you must pray for our new President. Pray that God gives him wisdom, pray for his judgement, pray for his family. Patriotism is not wearing a flag pin, patriotism is the respect you give to the commander-in-chief. Christianity is not going to church on Sunday, Christianity is extending love and compassion to those who disagree with you.
We do not choose our parents, we do not choose the color of our skin, we do not choose our given name or the country of our fathers birth. But we do choose what we do with our life. We choose how we respond to history unfolding in front of our eyes, we can choose to judge people on the content of their character, not on the color of their skin. We can choose happiness over anger, hope over fear, love over hate. We can pull together as a country and choose to support our new President or we choose to spend eight years tearing him down. The choice is yours........

"Hey, the man built the Staples center"

Today I was a guest at a real-estate conference in downtown Los Angeles. A friend of mine who works for a small firm (Jones, Lang, LaSallee) invited me and I was happy to go. The featured speaker for the day was billionaire Ed Roski. The company he founded, majestic realty, as well as his minority ownership in the Lakers, Kings, Staples Center etc. has made him a very rich man. (#42 in the world according to Forbes) Ed Roski is a visionary who has plans to bring back a professional football team to Los Angeles. It goes without saying he is a brilliant man (and a proud Bruin) and we would all be wise to listen to his words as we collectively try to recover from the worst economic disaster since the Great Depression. (Thanks Bush, that M.B.A. did a lot of good) Now, it is important to remember that Ed Roski, as well as all the speakers on the panel, are Republican! They have no ax to grind, they are not looking to blame anyone, they simply are reporting the facts about our economy. They presented slide after slide of where we were in 2000, and where we are now in 2008. They were making the point that EVERY ECONOMIC INDICATOR IS DOWN! This is unprecedented, it has never before happened in the history of the United States. Ed and the speakers opened up for the audience to ask questions and people kept on asking, "how could this have happened?" Every member of the panel spoke of an unregulated wall street, unregulated credit, unregulated lending, unregulated borrowing, a "laissez faire" attitude towards regulation. Think of Enron, BearStearns, Wachovia, Meryl Lynch, Fannie, Freddie, Lehman (You get the picture) Now, the people in the room were hopeful because our new President promised massive new regulations in the financial industries. It is human nature to want more, to give in too greed, to take the short-cut, to take the quick buck. The role of government is to regulate human behavior, if you don't believe me why do we have cops and a military? So why would Bush promote this massive deregulation of business? It is not because he is the devil, or because he is stupid, he just believed in the wrong economic philosophy. And for this, just like Ed Roski, I hold him accountable for his mistakes. The bottom line is that we hire the President to do a job, and one of his main responsibilities is managing the economy. The simple fact is that Bush is the worst President since Hoover.