With the horrible state of the economy in the nation and here in California I find it absurd that everyday in the news here there is a story of protests regarding the passage of prop. 8 which bans same sex marriage. I voted against the ban because I don't think it is anybody's business what two people want to call each other. It will be a mute point in a few years anyway because prop. 8 passed with 52%, less than a similar prop. a few years ago. More and more young people don't have problems with same sex marriage and as more of them become adults and vote, same sex marriage will become a reality in the future. Why waste all the energy and money? Now that the prop. has passed, the gay right groups are out in force everyday. Where was the energy before the election? It seems to me that before the election the proponents of prop 8 were really working hard whereas the opponents were not getting their message out. Hey, accept defeat and try to do better next time.

Instead the gay activists are targeting people who supported prop. 8. The Mormon church is a big target because of huge donations from the members. I don't agree with their position but I think it is their right to do what they want. Even if the church had not come out and urge members to support prop. 8, the overwhelming majority of the members would have anyway because that is their religious belief. What I find absurd is that the Calif. Teachers union contributed money to defeat prop.8. Why is a teacher's union involved in this issue that has nothing to do with education and teachers? I am sure that a significant numbers of teacher members do not support gay marriage. Why is their money used against their will?

Hollywood is in a dilemma. There has been calls to sanction people who work in the industry and who had contributed money to prop.8. This seems to be like the McCarthy era where people in Hollywood were blacklisted for being possible communist sympathizers. The ACLU supports the free speech of hate groups so it seems to me they should come out and support people who voice their opinion against gay marriage. So it seems that liberals and conservative alike only want freedom for themselves but do not respect the rights of the other side. We should be spending time and energy on the economy, the war, healthcare and global warming. Instead we are wasting time on this nonsense.

News came out today that the bailout money for AIG is not enough. The tab is up to 150 billion and the government is now saying it would spend another 40 billion to buy a stake in the company. So the original 700 billion bailout for everybody is not going to be nearly enough. And we have started the process less than a month. Already the auto companies are calling for bailout money also. If this is not socialism, I don't know what is. Well, in socialism I don't think a company who gets a handout would immediately throw a big party as AIG did a month ago. If this is a communist bailout the executives of these companies would be in hard labor camp by now.

Speaking of communists, China is coming up with a stimulus plain of its own. I actually think the communists have a better idea here. They are investing mostly in infrastructure. So if the stimulus does not get the desired economic effect, at least they have new roads, bridges and hospitals. With companies like AIG and Fannie Mae still struggling even with the infusion of cash, you wonder if we are throwing good money after bad. I always thought that bailing out companies or have government take over parts of them was what communist countries do. But we are doing that now while China is investing in its infrastruture. Something is wrong here.

Obama has no choice but to call for the Bush administration to help out the auto companies. He owed the unions for their support. But he should make sure there are union concessions and strategy changes in the companies before the loans are approved. If the companies don't have a new strategy of making cars that are more energy efficient or use alternative fuels, they are not going to survive. They would just die in two or three years instead of next year even with the cash infusion. If there are no union concessions the big 3 will not be competitive, and again they will die off sooner or later. Didn't they learned the lessons of Chrysler years ago?

It is a difficult challenge for the new president to fill his cabinet posts. You have to have various races represented, at least one woman and a Republican. There is a rumor that Colin Powell may take the job of sec. of education. This will take care of the token Republican. Powell's background is from the Carribeans. This can count as a Hispanic as well. This gives me an idea to make things simple for the president-elect. He can just appoint a few light skin blacks who are usually of mixed races and thus give the cabinet the diversity it needs.

Sec. of defense: Tim Howard, U.S. national soccer team goalie. Plays excellent defense obviously. Played for Manchester United so is well known around the world. Plus he has Tourrette Syndrome which will scare the enemy when he is negotiating.

Sec. of agriculture: Tiger Woods. Takes care of the Asian plus American Indian quota. He plays golf which Karl Malone says is a waste of good farm land. Can also helps with the Treasury dept with his enormous earnings.

Sec. of transportation: Lewsis Hamilton, new world driving champion. Has to be naturalized first but maybe we can SPEED up the process.

Attorney General: Charles Barkley. Wants to run for governor but since he is always complaining about referrees he should be good at law-enforcement.

Sec. of Commerce: Halle Berry. Sex sells. Need we say more?

Sec. of State: Derek Jeter. Captain of the Yankees forever so must be able to be very diplomatic. Plus he went to Michigan, so must be smart.

Sec. of Treasury: Alex Rodriguez. This is the man with the richest contract in baseball so must be able to contribute to our economy. Also counts as Hispanic as family was from the Dominican Republic. Can get Madonna to sing at the inauguration.

Dept of energy: James Blake. You ever see those 5 set tennis matches? Must have a lot of energy for those. Plus he went to Harvard and thus is almost as smart as Jeter.

So no more bland old white guys. The cabinet composition will be as hip as the new president. All these people are well known worldwide. Obama will even be more popular around the world after these appointments. And I have saved him a lot of time.

Yes, the young black man has made history. He will inspire a generation of young people of color to become whatever they want to be. Yes, I am talking about Lewis Hamilton, the first black world F-1 driving champion. Ok, Barak Obama didn't do too bad either. It is great victory for him and the Democrats. But I think it is also a victory for America. It shows the world that this is still the land of opportunity, that the son of an African and a white American can grow up to be president. I think this will make America look greater than ever in the eyes of the world.

Now comes the hard part. He will now has to govern. His victory speech was rather subdued. This is partly due to his personality. While he is capable of arousing the crowd, he does not let the highs get too high or the lows get too low. I think this temperament is very good for a president. But I think he also understands the enormity of his challenges. He made a lot of promises during the campaign, as any candidate would. He knows that he can't possibly keep all or even most of them. I won't hold him to all the promises. I know that is impossible for any human being.

I do hope that he will reach across the aisle and work with the Republicans as he promised. He cannot let people like Nancy Pelosi and Barney Frank run the government. He will have to shed the liberal label and become a president for all Americans. I have been a big fan of his since the beginning of the primaries. I think he has the potential to be a great president. But I will judge him by his actions. If he uses his intellect and his ability to bring people together, I will continue to be a fan. If he becomes a pawn for the left, I will be a critic.