The Most Essential Skill of Any President

I think everyone, no matter what political party they aspire to, can agree that the most crucial skill for any President is to surround themselves with intelligent advisers who will guide them to the best decisions. Kennedy did this with McNamara and his own brother (who did deserve the job). Bush "did" this with Rove and Cheney (good choices? probably not). But I see this as Obama's serious downfall. I know I don't agree with any of his policies, but, barring that little detail, he can't seem to appoint an adviser that hasn't evaded taxes or done something extremely reckless politically.

Back in March of last year, Samantha Power (Obama's foreign policy advisor) called Hillary Clinton a "monster" (forget for a minute that she was right, you still can't say that and hope to have a job under the President of the United States). Also, last March, it came to light another foreign policy adviser Rob Mailey, had been meeting continually with the terrorist group Hamas. And then we have Tim Geithner who evaded large amounts of taxes. Then we have Bill Richardson (corruption), Nancy Killefer (payroll tax evasion), Hilda Solis (tax evasion), and Tom Daschle (more tax evasion). You starting to get the picture yet?

The latest in this trend of poorly thought through and piss poorly vetted advisers (or czars if you prefer the Soviet term like Obama does) is that of Van Jones (read about him here and here), the Green Jobs Czar. He came out last week with all guns blazing and called all Republicans "assholes" (they generally are but you can't say that on the record and hope to hold a political office). He also signed the 9/11 Truth petition arguing that the Bush administration either turned a blind eye to 9/11 or perpetrated the attack themselves (which could be the case but you don't want a special adviser to the President holding that belief). He also founded the ColorofChange.org which "addressed black issues" (aka he's a racist).

Now, I am torn over the "assholes" comment. I believe that people should be able to say whatever they want and if that was Jones's only slip up, I would have wanted to keep him around. But he's a racist and a conspiracy theorist, good riddance.

But this highlights a bigger problem. Obama cannot choose staff intelligently (a simple Google or Wikipedia search would have told him all he needed to know about Van Jones). This scares me more than his socialist-leaning policies. I think the ability to choose your comrades is the most important ability a President has to have....... and Boh'Rock ain't got it.

A parting thought: Maybe Obama needs a Czar for Appointments of Czars

I'm Getting Old

Disclaimer: If you don't understand what I'm talking about here, you are too old.

I stopped by Starbucks this morning as I do a few times per week. As I am waiting for my fru-fru, sugar and cocaine infused "coffee", Nirvana's In Bloom comes up on my iPod. I couldn't help but thinking "Kurt would kick my ass if he knew how mainstream I have gotten in the last few years" (Yes, SBux and Nirvana are both products of Seattle but that's about all they have in common).

It has been a LONG time since I have listened to Nirvana with any regularity (6 years at least) but in the last few months, I have re-discovered my love for grunge rock (it might have something to do with me feeling like "the man" is getting me down, thanks Boh'Rock). This has got me to thinking...... where has the in-your-face, kiss-my-ass mentality gone that I knew so well as a kid? Maybe it's just me getting older but I do feel as if we are just too accepting of everything. When did the counter-culture attitude of the Fight Club and Black Flag persuasion die out?

Let's look at Green Day as an example (not one of my favorites but a great example of my point). Who remembers Dookie and Kerplunk? Those were albums I could listen to the entire way through. There were messages of hatred and angst captured there that had not been mitigated by mainsteam culture. Compare this to the "Green Day" of today. Every song is moaning and whining about Bush this, anti-war that. Where did the heart go? Where are the balls? The Green Day I grew up with didn't give a damn about the political process, all it cared about was destruction and telling the man to get off their back (I did most of my growing up in California so the effects could have been more pronounced for me). I am using Green Day as a mirror for what seems to be happening to society as a whole. We have accepted that this is the way things are and we think we need to conform (I am just as guilty as anyone here).

Would Nirvana have gone the same way as Green Day? I certainly hope not (Sorry but thank god Kurt died. Always go out on top of your game).

I guess what I'm saying here (this hasn't been my most articulate posting, I know) is let's think a bit more outside the box. Let's ask "why?" a little more often. Question authority (but please don't go home and die your hair blue, I did that once and it turned out pretty poorly). Let's bring back the Rape Me and Lithium attitude and crack some skulls (so to speak). So go home, put on Nevermind, and crack open a Zima for old times sake (my spell check doesn't like Zima, such a sign of the times).

Sorry for the departure from my usual Libertarian tirade although for some of you, this was probably a welcome occurrence.