As expected Obama spoke eloquently last night but without changing one vote in Congress. There were no really surprises. I mean everyone says that they want to improve education, increase production of clean energy, cut the deficit, defend the country and even reform healthcare. But it is impossible to get even everyone in his party to agree on any of these issues. So it is like talking to the wall. Most of the voters don't really understand these issues. Ultimately they are going to vote base on how the economy is doing.

Basically Obama will have to pretend he has the answers and keep telling the people that. Just like FDR and Reagan. I think he is trying too hard to get a consensus so liberal and conservatives in his party are able to push him around. Healthcare may be dead no matter what he does. And I have said he should forget it with this bill. But if he insists on moving forward, he should just tell his party what he wants in the final bill now and let the Republicans filibuster it. And I mean REAL filibuster. Make them stand up there and talk without food, drinks or bathroom break as in the past. No more telling the umpire we are walking this guy and no pitch is thrown. Make them actually throw the pitches. It may be a waste of time but so what? Then go out and tell everyone he is in charge and the economy will be better soon. As I said if the economy turns around and he appears to be in charge, he will be a hero. If things get worse, he will get the blame. But he would have gotten the blame anyway if he tries to get a consensus, so he may as well act like he has better ideas and is the one totally in charge.

With Scott Brown's victory in Mass. it is time for Obama to pull the plug on healthcare reform. Any attempt to prevent a filibuster by having the House allowing the Senate bill to be the final bill without any changes will be seen as an underhanded move by the Democrats and will lead to more voter revolt in November. The inability for an overwhelming Congressional majority and a president of the same party to pass this legislation shows what a gridlock and ineffective government we have. Basically the Republicans are worthless as they don't want to do anything except cut taxes for the rich, protect people with guns, glorify religion even as most of them are total hyprocrits when it comes to moral value. The Democrats are the pawns of the unions, they use white guilt to promote minority causes even when those causes are wrong. What started as an overwhelming majority wanting healthcare reform ended with a bill that is not really worth having. The republicans complain that they were not being heard. But in truth they had no ideas that were worth anything. They really only wanted to stop the Democrats from passing a bill. Their spread of rumors about death panels was unconsciousnable. The Democrats had people like Ben Nelson which fought against the public option which was the only thing in the bill that would likely bring down cost. People like him held the bill hostage for things that would only benefit their states. So with people like that no wonder we will continue to have rising cost in health insurance with more and more people becoming uninsured in the years ahead.

What has happened at USC in the past week is an indictment of big time NCAA sports. USC put its own basketball team on probation due to the investigation of O.J. Mayo who is in the NBA now. To me, if the NCAA is set up so that people would comply with the rules and punish those that don't, then why are the current team and current coach the only ones being punished when they have nothing to do with the wrong doing? Mayo is earning millions in the NBA and his coach Tim Floyd can apply for any coaching job. The current players are being sanctioned. It is totally unfair.

Of course the basketball team is being offered up as a sacrificial lamb by USC to prevent or decrease the punishment by the NCAA to the football team. It is interesting that the Reggie Bush case has been going on for 3 years and the NCAA and USC have not finished the investigation. Yet the Mayo case is resolved so fast. Meanwhile Bush is making millions in the NFL and Joe McNight, another footballer under investigation, has declared for the NFL draft. If they are found guilty, there is nothing the NCAA can do to them as they don't care about their eligibility.

Now Pete Carroll is going to the NFL. Again the NCAA can't do anything if Carroll had known about Bush and McNight. The new coach and current players are the ones who will get the penalty, if there are any. The NCAA has to make a deal with the NBA and NFL such that they would suspend the players and coaches involved if they turn pro. It is unlikely that the NBA and NFL will go along with this. Given that, why do we need the NCAA at all? We should just declare big time college teams semi-pros. We should just declare the champion of the Ivy League, where there are no athletic scolarships and the players are qualified students, the real college champions.

Well, my prediction of 4 wins for the Big Ten came true as Iowa defeated Georgia Tech tonight. So what a couple of the game prediction were wrong, the total was correct which is the most important.

I don't understand how stopping people from going to the bathroom the last hour of a flight is going to make us safer. Why can't the terrorists attack before that time? Why he has to watch the in-flight movie before he tries to blow himself up? All this is just going to make whole bunch people get up just before the last hour and create chaos. It will also make people who needs to go anxious, especially old people like me and kids. Who thought of this idea?

Frankly I am surprised they are not banning people from wearing underwear on the plane. After all when someone had a shoe bomb, we all had to take our shoes off. When someone tried to use liquid to detonate, we are not allowed to carry more than 4 oz of fluid on board. So now this guy tried to hide power in his underwear I thought logically, at least logically in the government sense, would mean at least everyone has to show their underwear before boarding. If they come up with a hair bomb, we would all have to be bald. What's next?