March 9, 2010 | Comments

Maybe she mis-spoke (again). Maybe she was just flustered (again). Maybe she’s panicked (again). Or maybe she’s just not all that bright….

Whatever it is, Speaker-of-the-House Nancy Pelosi has once again revealed loudly, clearly and for all the nation to hear, the truth about the health-care monstrosity she, her fearless leader in the White House, and their lockstepping minions are currently attempting to shove down our throats:

“But we have to pass the bill so that you can find out what is in it. . . .”

I have a feeling she resisted the impulse to add that “we have to pass the bill” so that she and Congress “can find out what is in it, too.”

Skeptics can see her for themselves at:

http://www.thefoxnation.com/nancy-pelosi/2010/03/09/we-have-pass-bill-so-you-can-find-out-what-it

Pray for our America. . . .

Betsy Siino | Comments

March 8, 2010 | Comments

So I sit out the Oscars last night, and an actual, bonafide miracle occurs after so many years of Hollywood’s wandering the liberal desert. Contrary to the buzz following Avatar and everyone associated with it (including Director nominee James Cameron), into that glittering awards celebration, the Oscar for Best Director went to Cameron’s ex-wife, Kathryn Bigelow, for the war epic The Hurt Locker.

Though this upset alone would seem a miracle, the true miracle occurred when Ms. Bigelow included our troops in Iran and Afghanistan in her acceptance speech! At the Oscars! Brazenly and unabashedly in front of all the Hollywood elite assembled there.

While some in that building last night might have seen the military accolades that followed that win as a sign of the apocalypse, others, particularly the closeted Hollywood conservatives in attendance (and me — not in attendance), would regard it more as a miracle — or simply the desire on the part of the voters to avoid another “king of the world” speech from favorite Cameron.

Either way, brava Kathryn! And thanks for remembering the men and women and their families back home who dedicate their lives to protecting us, our children, and our beautiful country each and every day. Maybe I’ll give the Oscars another try next year….

Betsy Siino | Comments

March 8, 2010 | Comments

UPDATE — 4 HOURS LATER:  Congressman Massa did indeed step down, so we’ll just have to see what happens next. I’m still waiting to hear the rest of the story, since I cannot believe that “salty language” and the tosseling of a staffer’s hair at a party would be cause for an ethics investigation and resignation. We’ve heard hints of cancer, death threats, family safety and of course the Congressman’s “no” vote on health care as further reason, but, like I said, we’ll just have to see what happens next…. 

March 8, 2010 | Comments

In an hour or so, democratic Congressman, freshman Eric Massa from New York, may be counted as yet another casualty of the chaos now reigning in this administration and the Congress enabling it. Last week, we heard that Congressman Massa was the subject of an ethics investigation regarding a male staff member; he ultimately announced that he would step down from his seat today at 5 pm, EST.

Despite the immediate assumptions heralded by the initial headlines, it appears there is far more to this story than we assumed. It seems the Congressman, a former naval Petty Officer, made some silly comments using admittedly “salty” language at a wedding reception, reminiscent of what one might hear among males young and old in locker rooms (more on locker rooms later) and dugouts. A guy at the table took offense and reported the Congressman to the proper authorities.

Now, I have no idea what happened, but if this is the gist of the story, first, should the Congressman be slunking off in defeat like this? And second, you’re telling me that this is grounds for a large-scale ethics investigation?

The Congressman came out slugging on a Western New York radio station yesterday, claiming that this all came to pass because he, a democrat, is being targeted by his fellow democrats, particularly former-ballet-dancer-turned-presidential-attack-dog Rahm Emanuel. Congressman Massa now claims that Emanuel accosted him in the Congressional showers, in a scene involving naked men, the devil’s spawn, poked-finger-to-the-chest intimidation, and Massa’s track record of voting against the administration’s pet agenda items, particularly health care. If you have not heard this interchange, you must, and here is the link:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/video/2010/03/08/massa_rahm_emanuel_would_sell_his_own_mother_for_votes.html

Last I heard, the Congressman still intends to step down. If indeed his infraction involved only some “salty” language at a wedding, I hope he doesn’t. If he fears for his family after taking threats from administration thugs, well, I guess that’s understandable. He would seem an obvious misfit within a party currently doing whatever it takes to gut and remake America as dictated by the White House, but regardless of party, it sure is good to hear some evidence of testosterone in Washington again – and from an actual man this time, not just grizzlymom Michele Bachmann (R-MN) and other warrior moms fearlessly braying that the emperor has no clothes.

It’s tough to see men struggling with their own rights to be men in this touchy-feely time of ours (and it’s not all that appealing to what I imagine is the majority of women, either), but Congressman Massa has taken the first step. If indeed his “ethics violation” involves only this idiotic wedding moment, then maybe he’ll keep that testosterone momentum going and decide not to step down after all. We’ll know in an hour.

Betsy Siino | Comments

March 7, 2010 | Comments

I do miss the Oscars.  And tonight, I am missing them literally – not watching, not paying attention.

It wasn’t always this way. Back in the day, I was a rabid movie lover with an endless list of favorites. I cut my teeth on Gone with the Wind, The Godfather, To Kill a Mockingbird, Streetcar Named Desire, West Side Story, anything Rogers and Hammerstein, and everything Disney. And I never missed the Oscars.

Once I was out on my own, the little “movie club” my friends and I organized would happily await that magical moment after work when we would purchase our tickets for our weekly “meetings” that introduced us to the likes of Schindler’s List, The English Patient, The Verdict, Glengarry Glen Ross, everything from Britain, and anything intriguing and obscure. Afterwards we would discuss the night’s film passionately – what worked, what didn’t – then just as fervently debate our Oscar-night picks.

But in the post-9/11 world, just as plot and character in films were being obliterated by computer generation, the Hollywood elite decided it was their duty not to entertain, but to bash America and scold us for our misbehavior. My viewing habits thus now trend toward kid fare and classic series (Harry Potter, Indiana Jones, Pirates, the new Star Trek), with a Sweeney Todd, Blind Side and romantic comedy (The Proposal, The Wedding Date, Four Christmases) thrown in here and there. The rest, well, I just can’t see beyond the characters most actors portray, thanks to their hypocritical, “America-is-bad” preaching off screen.

The same applies to Oscar night. Back in the day, those of us who made the Oscars a major media event would anticipate the inevitable, usually laughable, political showboating. But now it’s no longer laughable, with Michael Moore’s standing ovation and his proclamation that the threat of terrorism is a hoax; Al Gore revered for a film he made about a hoax; Hollywood standing yet again to honor absent fugitive winner/rapist Roman Polanski (apparently none of these Hollywood types have daughters); and, with the exception of Avatar and the annual obligatory nod to George Clooney, a roster of nominees unknown to the movie-loving, movie-going populace.

Needless to say, the Oscar’s ratings have plummeted. And needless to say, I have seen almost nothing nominated this year. I adore scheduled host Steve Martin, and I’m sure he and his partner-host Alec Baldwin are being hilarious even as I write this, but still, not interested.

So, yes, a sad night tonight as I think of Oscar nights passed. Tomorrow I’ll look over the list of winners, and even if I see a surprise or two, I’ll know what I’m missing is the way it used to be.

Betsy Siino | Comments

March 3, 2010 | Comments

News Update: Today the President announced to the ungrateful American people who don’t know what’s best for them, that he will do whatever it takes to ram his trillion-dollar health-care bill down their collective throats.

The President stood before his twin teleprompters to make his announcement, flanked by the four people in the United States who support this bill, all of them dressed in white lab coats for full dramatic effect. The coats were left over from a similar presidential spectacle last fall, when only those physicians willing to wear the government-issue coats were allowed into the White House Rose Garden.

Thanks to a loophole an unidentified czar found in the CC&Rs for a condominium complex in Myrtle Beach, these four people, and only these four people, will cast the four votes needed to get the bill passed once and for all, and America’s health- care system will at last be fair, rationed and government-run.

Throughout his remarks, the President reminded the American public that he is the President. “But most importantly,” he concluded with a dramatic pause, looking from one teleprompter to the other, then back to the other, “it’s for your own good. I am the President. I won.”

Betsy Siino | Comments

March 3, 2010 | Comments

What a surprise it has been this week to hear the National Organization for Women break the code of silence they typically adopt under democratic regimes (a code made legendary under the last democratic administration when Bill Clinton’s shenanigans were making daily headlines).

Until this week, NOW has maintained the code, remaining mum, for example, when a government agency instructed women to stop conducting breast-cancer self-examinations and, because not enough women were dying to justify the cost, hold off on mammograms until age 50. The organization would also never dream of celebrating a self-made woman like Sarah Palin, who, unlike a certain Secretary-of-State we could name, reaped political success all on her own, without benefit of a husband’s coattails.

NOW broke its sacred code this week, however, as hints began to circulate that New York Governor, David Paterson, allegedly influenced a domestic situation involving his staff. Though the details remain murky, NOW called for the democratic Governor’s head — given the go-ahead, no doubt, by the democrat community at large. The dems long ago abandoned this Governor, who has repeatedly defied his party’s mandate that he not seek reelection – even when it was issued by the President of the United States.

The Governor’s defiance evaporated this week, when he announced, for whatever reason (I envision closed doors, threats, and private calls from Washington), that he will not seek reelection after all. Not good enough, screeched NOW. He needs to step down! If only the organization had issued a similar call back in 1998, when the most powerful man in the world was preying upon a young intern in the White House. Had they chosen to break the code then, maybe I’d be less inclined now to believe that their defense of women is purely political, and thus, purely hypocritical.

Betsy Siino | Comments

March 2, 2010 | Comments

The camera opens on an attractive, well-dressed, well-spoken couple with expensive hair. They sit chatting in what appears to be the kitchen in a bright, airy, well-appointed contemporary home (theirs, I presume).

Their topic on this fine, sunny morning? The high service charges levied upon them when they cash their weekly paychecks, government checks, whatever checks they say they are regularly cashing. It seems these attractive people don’t have a bank account – not even a small savings account that would earn them check-cashing privileges. Poor things. So they apparently have to cash their checks with the shark on the corner, and it’s costing them far too much.

But today they share the great news: Walmart’s check-cashing charges are much cheaper than what they have been paying! Oh, happy day! And it gets better. Once they figure these reduced charges will save them as much as $200 a year, they gleefully agree to put that sweet savings to good use and buy a new flat-screen TV! Oh, happy day again!

Now, if this is indeed a valid portrait of Americans faced with economic challenges today, it’s no wonder households across the nation are in such dire straits financially. I also have to wonder just who Walmart is targeting with this message? Perhaps the woman I saw at Best Buy the other day fits the audience profile. Denied her attempt to purchase a laptop computer with food stamps, she stomped out of the store and bee-lined in a huff to her Lexus parked in a handicapped spot outside the door. I guess she has been cashing her checks at Walmart.

As for you, commercial couple, how about taking that $200 and opening a savings account. You’ll likely find that family security trumps new toys any day.

Betsy Siino | Comments

March 1, 2010 | Comments

I ran across these words of warning today from 4th President of the United States, James Madison:

It will be of little avail to the people that the laws are made by men of their own choice if the laws be so voluminous that they cannot be read, or so incoherent that they cannot be understood.

Seems President Madison foresaw that we the people of 2010, in his beloved United States, would be faced with 2400 pages of health-care legislation that would not only be impossible to understand, but would also severely curtail the liberties for which he and his colleagues fought so hard. Thank you for thinking of us, Mr. President!

Betsy Siino | Comments

February 28, 2010 | Comments

In the spirit of my affinity for mama Grizzly Bear, I have a great passion for all animals — the world’s wild predators in particular. Having had the great honor of writing about them professionally and catching glimpses of them in their home territories, I am, needless to say, heartbroken by the events surrounding the death last week of a trainer by an orca at Sea World in Florida.

I never would have witnessed a spectacle like this myself, as I am one who avoids like the plague “shows” that feature the ability of whales of any kind – orcas, dolphins, belugas – to tolerate life in small concrete tanks, coerced at specified times to jump through hoops or “kiss” the faces of young spectators. Seeing such magnificent animals humiliated in this way is nothing short of, as I said, heartbreaking.

As for the case at hand, we know now that this is the third death attributed to orca Tilikum. Third. This beautiful, tragic animal — a wild animal, mind you, a wild predator — has done everything he can to convince our so-called “superior” species, that he is not cut out for life as a trained clown. Indeed, I believe that none of these animals should be sentenced to such a fate. And I am not alone.

Through the years, thanks both to writing assignments and personal passion, I have had the great privilege of spending time with marine-mammal trainers and caretakers who have lived and worked with orcas and dolphins (dolphins being the smallest members of the whale family) – many ultimately turning against their vocation, once they realized that they were in fact abusing animals of such sensitive, intelligent souls, and, as the statistics bear, shortening the animals’ lives significantly.

And now here we are, faced with yet another so-called “mishap,” in which an orca was simply being an orca – a large, wild predator (also known as “killer whale” for legitimate, biological reason). The public really can’t be blamed for the mass misconception, given the rosy portraits painted by those who seek to make a buck off of whales, proclaiming them to be sweet, gentle giants driven to dedicate their lives to humans. How else do we explain the playful smile on the dolphin’s face or the orca’s wish to be ridden by a salmon-wielding trainer? The same holds true, I suppose, of other predators — lions, wolves, tigers, cuddly bears of all species — all of whom have at one time or another been convicted of crimes committed because of their true, though misunderstood, natures.

When the news broke about this most recent orca attack last week, debate erupted over what should be done to/with the whale. When further news broke that this was his third offense, attention actually turned from the whale’s culpability to the grossly irresponsible decision on the part of those who own him to keep him performing despite his record. I only hope that Dawn Brancheau, the trainer who lost her life, knew of Tilikum’s past and made her decision to partner with him voluntarily and out of love for him. If she didn’t, well, that’s an issue for her family to handle now that she is gone.

Tilikum the whale, however, remains with us, a public-relations nightmare destined now to become not the elephant in the room, but the whale in the room. Sea World has benevolently announced that he will retire from show business and live out his days in leisure. His fate, then, is to become a curiosity, “that whale that killed those people.” Either way, captivity is a torturous existence for an animal created to roam the open oceans with his pod, his family, hunting, procreating and navigating underwater mysteries with only other whales and his superior mind to guide him, without benefit of cheering crowds or artificial reward systems.

I can only hope that someday our own species, in the wake of these repeated and tragic events, will hear the whales’ message and realize it’s time to stop relegating these creatures to those mind-numbing concrete tanks and the show-biz humiliation that comes with them. In that sense, I have found last week’s public support of this animal heartening. Maybe we’re starting to hear the whale’s song at last.

Betsy Siino | Comments

February 25, 2010 | Comments

I’m not sure what to say about the summit today. I didn’t watch the whole thing (did anyone?), but what I saw…well…like I said, not sure what to say.

What I did see made me laugh. I can say that. The congressional representatives in attendance took the opportunity to regale whoever their audience was with well-scripted statements and talking points, while, with or without audio, the President, a man who seems capable only of giving campaign speeches and calling summits (beer and otherwise), looked bored, petulant, perturbed.

The President seemed downright annoyed, sometimes angry. This wasn’t part of his plan. It wasn’t supposed to be this way. He figured months ago that all he needed to do was mesmerize us with his voice as he painted a beautiful picture of his oh-so-compassionate plan to take control of our health care. According to his plan, it would all proceed seamlessly, without protest, with very little attention to detail even. But it didn’t. And now, if we’re lucky, it may not happen at all.

Way back when, this President promised us that health care, and every issue tackled by his administration, would be presented publicly and transparently. They haven’t been, and he has been called on it. Again and again. Not his fault, of course. America just wouldn’t cooperate. So today, he had to follow through with that promise of televised transparency. And he was not happy about it. Didn’t want to be there. Didn’t want to share the microphone. Didn’t want to share the camera. He was miffed. Even though it was his idea.

The bright side, I would say, was that the conservatives in attendance decided not to play nice-nice, not to reach across the aisle. They took the opportunity instead to publicize their previously arrogantly-ignored ideas — tort reform, insurance portability – and their abject opposition to the presidential/congressional attempt to seize control of America’s health care system.

Other high points:

Republican Majority Whip Eric Cantor (R-VA) stacking 2400 pages worth of House and Senate health-care-bill pages before him on the summit table – and the President chastising him for bringing “props” to the summit.

The endless sob stories presented by attending democrats to illustrate the critical need to turn the control of our health care and, thus, the most intimate details of our private lives over to the government. Their attempts to outdo each other with tragic tales became laughable.

In response to charges that democrats were given the floor more than republicans (ultimately confirmed by the democrats’ 233 minutes to the republicans’ 114), the President commented in the classic arrogant tone to which we have all become so accustomed: “I don’t count my time, because I’m the President.”

So what was accomplished at the summit? Well, on its face, nothing I guess, other than finally giving voice to republicans and conservatives (not necessarily the same) and their health-care ideas that have been conveniently ignored by those on the other side of the aisle since January of 2009. I suppose we should be grateful that nothing legislatively was accomplished. We simply can’t afford it, and those who supposedly represent us in Washington are finally having to hear our call.

Thanks to we the people; thanks to the voices raised by those courageous Americans at the town halls last summer; thanks to viewpoints presented on the internet that have drowned out the agenda promoted by the so-called mainstream media; and thanks to the voters of Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts, we will not and cannot be ignored any longer. Those who wish to “fundamentally transform America” are being forced into the spotlight to plead their case, along with those who may not share the full force of their agenda, but, for whatever reason (threats perhaps?), have voted for it anyway.

So, viewed in this light, I suppose today’s summit can legitimately be labeled a success for those of wish to see this would-be attempt to socialize and ration America’s health care defanged, destroyed and forgotten once and for all. Yet I frankly doubt many people even watched the summit. I would imagine there were chunks of time when even the participants (el presidente included) wished they could have been somewhere, anywhere else but at that table at the Blair House. Indeed as he looks back at the proceedings of the day, I have a feeling even the President himself is wishing he had never come up with this “brilliant” idea in the first place.

So for now, stay tuned. There will be more to come, I’m sure. And we must remain on our guard.

Betsy Siino | Comments

February 18, 2010 | Comments

This morning our nation fell victim to what appears to be an act of domestic terror, when a disgruntled American, Joseph Andrew Stack, crashed his private plane into a building in Austin, Texas, flashing us all back in a heartbeat to that terrible day in September of 2001.

The attack was preceded by the alleged perpetrator’s online posting of a manifesto outlining his anger at the United States government in a day and age when “taxation without representation” is epidemic. He then lit the home occupied by this wife and daughter on fire, and went on to crash his plane into a building that apparently housed an IRS office. Much is yet to be learned about this event, which occurred just a few hours ago, but we do know that his wife and daughter, and most of those in the office building (thanks to amazing acts of heroism for which Americans are legendary) survived. Stack is counted among the casualties, yet he carried out his mission intending to take as many souls as possible with him.

In the rambling pages of his online rant, we learn that, for whatever reason, life has been difficult for Joseph Stack. Seeking a source to blame, he insists that he lives in “a country with an ideology that is based on a total and complete lie,” chastising the American public, who “buy, hook, line, and sinker, the crap about their ‘freedom.” He speaks of the storm raging in his head, concluding that “violence is the only answer.”

It’s safe to say that anger is indeed prevalent in this nation today in light of what is being done to our country. Not prevalent, thank God, is the Joseph-Stack brand of that anger, which justifies attempts on the lives of one’s own family, attacks on innocent Americans, and the violation of the pure ideology and heroism on which this country was founded. Such actions are the ultimate betrayal committed by a very sick man, who has left us with a collective anger now even more palpable because of what he has done to our people and our country.

Stack’s act of terrorism has undermined the mission of modern-day patriots who share a fury at the federal government and the war declared upon our freedoms. Our shared anger, and thus our energies, are now directed toward this man, who would take our cause and use it to fuel his attack on his fellow Americans. It makes as much sense as the White House declaring this was no act of terrorism, but we Americans know terrorism when we see it, and our founders knew it, too.

The patriots who founded and fought for this nation knew well the anger ignited by oppression and unrepresented taxation. But they did not use this anger to attack and destroy each other, as Joseph Stack did today. In time we will probably seem this man written off as a victim of self-delusion or insanity or circumstance or whatever, but what he has done has damaged our nation and those who take seriously the cause of freedom during a very dangerous and precarious time. Those who oppose us in this mission, those who truly are trying to undermine our freedoms, will find some way to paint patriotic Americans in his same light and use his actions against us. And we do not need that right now. Or ever.

So yes, a sad day for America. Another sad day. May God bless those this man took from us today and the families they leave behind. And may God bless the heroes, about whom we are just starting to hear, whose courageous acts ensured that fewer would be taken.

Betsy Siino | Comments

February 16, 2010 | Comments

I’ve received some interesting, not entirely unexpected, feedback in regard to my most recent post on Patrick Kennedy’s (D-RI) decision not to seek reelection to his seat in the House of Representatives this year.

As we all know, the Kennedy legacy (or mythology) is alive and well, and we are all entitled to our own opinions and interpretations of it. What puzzled, and even saddened me, as I read the feedback opposing the opinion I presented in the February 12^th post, was the generalized statement that no family has sacrificed more for this country than the Kennedys.

I’m sorry, but that simply is not true.

The history of the United States is graced with countless families that for generations have sacrificed everything to build, protect and maintain this great nation of ours. From the pioneers who first carved out an existence on the eastern coastal regions of the United States, then moved westward, facing unspeakable hardships to create our notion of “sea to shining sea;” to immigrants who brought to life such wonders of the world as railroads, skyscrapers, tunnels through the Rockies, and their own proud multi-generational dynasties and traditions in the promised land that is America; to slaves that made the ultimate sacrifice to claim freedom for their children; to those military families that for generations have devoted themselves to the protection of our nation and our Constitution….each has demonstrated the extraordinary brand of sacrifice that has for centuries set this country apart from every other nation on earth.

So please don’t insult or belittle these families, some renowned, some not, that have made America what she is and always has been. Most families cannot boast Presidents and Congressmen among their ranks, and, thankfully, most have never experienced political assassination. Yet virtually every family has experienced its own victories and injustice, and, like the Kennedys, its own brand of tragedy, self-made and otherwise. In other words, all have sacrificed, and in a land where all are created equal, all families that have sacrificed for this nation are worthy of honor – even if they don’t have powerful public relations teams and unbridled wealth behind them to tell their stories.

America is the product of these families, some who have been here from the very beginning, others who came later, all lured by the legendary promise of a nation unlike any history has ever witnessed. So go ahead and tell me precisely why a certain individual of a certain family may be deserving of a certain honor, reputation or office (more than merely a name, please) – and I may or may not agree with you. But let us also agree that the heart and soul of this nation are the many, many families who have made this country what she is, families that I believe remain devoted to that same mission today. I remain forever grateful to them, even if I don’t happen to know their names.

Betsy Siino | Comments

February 12, 2010 | Comments

I was in the middle of writing a piece on Patrick Kennedy (D-RI) last night, when the news broke that he would not be seeking reelection to the House of Representatives in 2010. Perfect timing.

Kennedy’s poll numbers have apparently been slipping – no surprise, given the tsunami threatening to hit the democratic Congress come November. On a more personal level, last month he watched the sacred Massachusetts Senate seat long-held by Ted Kennedy, his late father, go to Scott Brown – a man Patrick Kennedy describes as “a joke.” This upset threw a road block in the passage of his father’s pet project: nationalized, socialized, rationed health care, a mandated plan that would be the exempted Kennedys’ legacy to we the little people.

When Patrick steps down, Congress will be Kennedy-less for the first time since 1962. I frankly don’t consider this much of a loss. If indeed first impressions offer our most illuminating insight into the people we encounter, my first impression of this guy was right on target.

I first noticed Patrick Kennedy pre-Congress, when his cousin William Kennedy Smith was standing trial on rape charges in Florida in 1991. Because Patrick was out partying with his cousin and dad Teddy on that fateful night (Good Friday, by the way), he was called to testify. Jittery and sweating, TV cameras rolling, he stuttered his answers, his eyes darting, voice cracking, desperately seeking, it seemed, that “special treatment” to which his family is so accustomed. Dangling out there alone, I thought he would burst into tears at any moment.

Three years later, at age 26, Patrick was elected to Congress. His legislative career since has been anything but extraordinary, his name making headlines primarily in connection with mind-altering substances: repeated stints in drug rehab, come to mind, as well as his collision with a security barrier in the wee hours one morning in DC (at least he was driving alone). His failed attempts to convince authorities that he was on official business ultimately morphed into a more truthful tale, in which prescription drugs and impaired sensibilities played the starring roles.

In recent months, Patrick Kennedy has made valiant attempts to reach out and grasp daddy’s baton to claim the title of heir apparent. First, he scolded the Catholic Church for refusing to support the democrats’ socialized health-care bill — and, by extension, abortion and rationed care for the elderly, the imperfect and the critically ill. (It would seem a return to chatecism for a refresher course might be in order).

But when, during a post-Massachusetts-special-election hissy fit, Patrick referred to now-Senator Scott Brown (R-MA) as “a joke,” he let slip his spoiled-brat gene – conduct unbecoming, I’d say, of a 42-year-old Congressman. Come to think of it, though, like so many in the political spotlight these days, little in Patrick Kennedy’s life experience has offered him the challenges and obstacles necessary for the transformation from child to adult.

I’ll never forget seeing that “child” in a photo taken at one of his early campaign events in 1994. Shaking the hand of an older woman who could have been his grandmother, he seemed as gawky and uncomfortable in his own skin as he had in that Florida courtroom three years prior. But the woman whose hand he touched…she was in tears, sobbing, it seemed, as though she were touching the hand of a god. It sent a chill up my spine. Given her age, though, and thus her many years exposed to the Arthurian mythology of the Kennedy dynasty, in her mind, perhaps she was touching a god, willingly ignoring the warts and the scandals and the arrogance that have followed that god’s family through history and damaged so many of its young.

Almost 20 years later, it seems that wisdom and clarity are finally beginning to trump the blind infatuation that has protected a name many have considered royal for decades. We saw this in the election of Massachusetts republican Scott Brown. We saw it when Caroline was denied New York’s vacant U.S. Senate seat and an ambassadorship to the Vatican last year. And we see it in the eyes of Patrick Kennedy, who rode into Washington on Kennedy coattails that have now been whipped out from under him. We the people will be better off for the shake-up. Perhaps the esteemed Congressman Kennedy will be better off, too.

Betsy Siino | Comments

February 12, 2010 | Comments

For the many months leading up to his election, one of the primary promises repeated by the President was that he absolutely will not raise taxes on families that earn less than $250,000 a year. No way. Won’t happen. Don’t even think about it.

Well, earlier this week — in a flip-flop worthy of comparison to the first George Bush’s “no new taxes” – when asked by Bloomberg BusinessWeek about the inconsistency of this promise with the crippling multi-trillion-dollar federal budget released last week, the President said:

“What I want to do is to be completely agnostic in terms of solutions.”

Huh? Agnostic? What exactly does that mean, Mr. President? If you didn’t mean to say “antagonistic,” does it mean you don’t plan to commit one way or another? Given your habit of voting “present,” I’ll assume you’re voting present here, as well.

Betsy Siino | Comments

February 11, 2010 | Comments

As we all know, the East Coast is being pelted by a series of record-setting blizzards, unlike any the people there have seen since such weather has been recorded (caused, of course, say the true believers, by global warming – but what isn’t?).

As a veteran of this global-warming phenomena myself, I grin as I hear the short sound bites that have punctuated the news coverage of this epic event:

“I just finish shoveling, and then I have to shovel again!”

“Everything is closed, so I stayed home and had a snowball fight with my daughters!”

“I can’t drive anywhere, so I’m going sledding with my son!”

What makes me grin is the common thread of pleasure and excitement running through these speakers’ voices. While we know frigid cold and snow can be violent and destructive, especially for those who are unprepared or unable to withstand its potential wrath, I hear in these exuberant voices their acknowledgement that this is a special, unexpected time in their lives, and they intend to cherish it. Every minute of it. And I say, good for them.

Speaking from experience, I have personally mourned for people stuck in snowbound cars on freeways, cringed at the news of children stuck at school overnight (or longer), assisted friends and neighbors with flooded basements and broken windows, and shuttered at the howls of 60-mile-an-hour winds that seem intent on ripping the roof off my house. But so have some of my most poignant family memories come from those times when Mother Nature blankets us with crippling depths of snow and frigid climes that will chill a bottle of wine in minutes (very romantic, by the way).

I wouldn’t trade for a moment the sweet, warm memory of sitting before a sparkling Christmas tree while that wind battered the windows, or giggling with kids and dogs as we leap through snow as deep as we are tall. Kids don’t forget these moments either. Indeed as many families are learning this week for the first time, there is no sweeter music to a kid’s ears than those golden words: “snow day.”

So to those currently experiencing Mom Nature’s surprise, if you have heat and light and food and find yourself housebound, take this time to enjoy your family, to enjoy your kids, to enjoy what you may someday look back upon as one of your warmest and coziest of your family memories.

Betsy Siino | Comments

February 10, 2010 | Comments

UPDATE/CORRECTION:  In regard to my post earlier today, it’s been brought to my attention that yesterday the President said not that the goal of small business owners is to take loans out to “meet” their payrolls, but rather to “boost” their payrolls. Sorry about that, but this frankly doesn’t change the gist of my thoughts (or my son’s) on the subject. In fact, I think it makes it worse. This President’s idea of “creating jobs” thus consists of his notion that all a business needs to do is borrow money and “create” a job. Mission accomplished. Of course the rest of us know this is not how it works in the real world. It is, however, how it works in the welfare/socialist/non-capitalist world. –Betsy

February 10, 2010 | Comments

It’s no secret that we have a President who has never held what we might call a “real” job. He has never worked the counter at McDonalds or 7-11. He has never swung a hammer on a construction site, waited tables at Chili’s, or assisted customers at a sporting goods store. Sure, he has organized communities (not entirely clear on what that means, but I have a good idea) and given lectures to students and to the American people. But I see no evidence here of any experience that might lead to an understanding of economics, budgeting, shelf stocking, investing, or even operating a cash register and making change.

Yesterday, the President’s lack of business experience was displayed front and center when he thrilled the Washington press corps with a surprise press briefing (something for which the corps has been clamoring since July).

Now, as we know, this Pres doesn’t work off teleprompter with impromptu questions, a weakness he attempts to mask with an arrogant smirk and condescending tone of voice that utters repeatedly such phrases as “move forward,” and “look…” But yesterday, some concrete questions came up that required a little more meat, a little more substance. ABC’s Jake Tapper, for one, dared to ask the President if he is concerned that small business owners are hesitant to hire because they fear such economically crushing policies as cap and trade and health care in the future.

The President predictably responded that no, small business owners don’t have that fear (a surprise, I’m sure, to the small business owners I know, that we all know, who are indeed worried that future policies from this administration’s agenda would destroy them financially). Then he continued, and here is where the business “brilliance” kicked in. In a nutshell, according to the President of the United States, the true worry among small business owners is their inability to get credit so they can take out loans to meet their payrolls.

Again, according to the President of the United States, all small businesses need and want to do is take out loans so they can pay their employees.

And that will lead to more jobs and hiring, Mr. President? Really? Have you ever actually held a job in a place of business, small or otherwise? Have you ever managed a payroll or even glanced at a business budget? Never mind, we already know the answer to that one.

I had just picked my teenage son up from school when we heard the President utter these words on the radio. “What!” shouted my son. “Did he really just say that?”

Yes, he did.

“You don’t take out a loan to make payroll!” my son continued ranting. “Anyone knows that! If you can’t make payroll, you can’t pay back a loan. If you can’t pay your people, you have to lay them off. And you know where I learned that? From “The Office!”

So there you have it, Mr. President. According to the teenager in my car, and I’m sure from teenagers working fast-food counters and helping customers at malls everywhere, maybe you need to watch some episodes of “The Office” and get some business training from Dunder Mifflin’s own Michael Scott.

If nothing else, I was left smiling, knowing that at least my son is on the right track. Let’s just hope we still have a country left where he, and all our children, can someday practice their own brand of business brilliance (and common sense).

Betsy Siino | Comments

February 8, 2010 | Comments

Today the Boy Scouts of America celebrates its 100th birthday. As a scout mom, I thank the BSA for all it does to promote character, loyalty and patriotism in the young men of our nation. Here’s hoping it continues to deflect the efforts made to undermine its foundation in this crazed world of ours, so it may celebrate 100 more years in February, 2110. Cheers!

Betsy Siino | Comments

February 7, 2010 | Comments

A question to all who voted for this President back in November of 2008, to all who voted for a man who made it clear that he would be soft on terror, that he could seduce and pacify all who seek to kill our children and destroy our nation with nothing but his golden words (his “gift,” he calls it). So how about it? How has it worked out for you? Are you feeling all warm and fuzzy now that your kids are safe and secure within the new world this man’s “gift” has given us?

Maybe you are feeling warm and fuzzy, but I have to tell you, I’m not feeling it. One year after this man’s magnanimous coronation, it appears that those who wish to kill our children and destroy our nation have not been so pacified, so seduced. Indeed we have been repeatedly attacked by terrorists on our own soil since this President was sworn in back in January, 2009. As we all know, this hit a crescendo on Christmas Day when the so-called “underwear bomber” made his attempt to bring down a plane over Detroit. Fortunately, his fellow passengers embodied more courage than what we find in our current administration, and they refused physically to permit this man’s success.

Not to be overshadowed or influenced by that courage, the administration stayed its course. The “alleged” terrorist was interrogated for a mere 50 minutes, and then, ostensibly by order of Attorney General, Eric Holder, the suspect was read his rights as though he were an American citizen. (Just a note here: Contrary to what the White House and Holder may claim, no one in this or any administration takes such drastic action without approval from the President, whether we speak of reading a terrorist his rights or trying terrorists in civil court on American soil.)

Whatever the “alleged” terrorist said during those 50 minutes caused the leaders of the United Kingdom to place their country on high alert. What did we do? We made sure the “alleged” terrorist got properly lawyered-up.

This was only the beginning of the terror landscape we face for 2010, for last week, as part of an annual briefing on the threats to our national security, Chair of the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence, Dianne Feinstein (D-CA), asked Dennis C. Blair, retired Admiral and Director of National Intelligence:

“What is the likelihood of another terrorist-attempted attack on the US homeland in the next three to six months? High or low?”

The Admiral’s response: “An attempted attack, the priority is certain, I would say.”

His four fellow members on the panel, which included CIA Director Leon Panetta and FBI Director Robert Mueller, agreed.

So no, not feeling the warm fuzziness. Rather, as I’ve said before, elections have consequences, and I see no clearer evidence of this than in the current state of our nation’s security — or lack thereof. For future reference, let’s all remember: Be careful who you vote for. He or she may just get elected. And I think even those swept up in the fervor a year ago are starting to see how devastating the consequences can be.

Betsy Siino | Comments

February 1, 2010 | Comments

Responsible mom, responsible American, that I am, given the current state of the American economy, I worry for the people who need and want jobs and have none. I worry for the lack of common sense and capitalist know-how that seems to drive the current administration. I worry for the future of my children — and yours – as they are sentenced to suffer the consequences of the radical, even criminal, economic agenda currently at play. I worry about the punishing debt that is being heaped upon our children, and I worry for the lack of opportunity they are doomed to face, thanks to the current regime in Washington, DC.

Given these worries, I wish the President would just stop talking!

Case in point: Last Friday, mid-day, the stock market was plugging away, enjoying an increase of about 60, 80 points…doing okay. Then the President, ever a moth to the camera’s flame, stepped up to his podium to regale us with yet another televised montage of his golden words. Instantly the market plummeted, never to recover that day.

Today, recent history repeats itself, but with a twist, as we witness the release of the President’s record-breaking, $3.8 trillion 2011 budget. So, yes, he’s scheduled to take to the microphone once more. In response to this scheduled speech, traders on the floor of the NY Stock Exchange (several having stated recently that “we all hate” this President for the effect he is having on the economy), are confessing that minutes before their fearless leader begins to speak, they will place “put” orders. In other words, they will bet that the market will fall in response to this President’s voice, a voice proven to damage stocks and profits – and, by extension, jobs and a robust economy.

A recent survey conducted by business entity Bloomberg, revealed that 77 percent of investors think this President is anti-business. This budget isn’t likely to reverse those results, despite the sugar-sweet words the President uses to pacify us. Indeed words, like elections, have consequences, too.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 28, 2010 | Comments

Last night I felt we had just witnessed the spinning of a desperate man offering up a glorified campaign speech under the guise of a State of the Union Address. Today I awaken with a truer insight. What we actually witnessed last night was the pathetic tantrum of an angry President who does not understand – or simply does not want to understand — the basic tenets of the magnificent country he serves.

As someone on our local talk radio station said yesterday afternoon, this President needs to learn the difference between a leader and a ruler. I say that even if he does understand this, he has convinced himself that he was ushered into office with a landslide mandate (which he was not), an event, he seems to believe, that endows him with the title “ruler,” and, perhaps, “supreme being,” as well.

But last night’s disconnected, disjointed performance gave evidence that he realizes he is being regarded as mortal after all. Thus the root of his anger. He has forgotten, or simply chosen to ignore and disparage, the basic foundation of our nation – the separation of powers between the executive, legislative and judicial branches of government – a separation that in every way offers us the ultimate safety net. Last night he lashed out at that safety net like a spoiled child, revealing to us once more how little he thinks of this nation, her system, and, yes, her people, who have had the audacity to stand in the way of his transforming America in his own image.

In one of the most inappropriate moments of all presidential history, he blasted the Supreme Court Justices seated as a group at his feet. With a nasty sneer, he berated their majority for daring to pass down a ruling that upholds our sacred right to free speech, a ruling with which he disagrees. He then urged the Congress to fight this ruling (by whatever means necessary, perhaps, Mr. President?). The members of the legislative branch in attendance who are in his camp responded with a rousing ovation.

But he berated the legislative branch, as well, scolding them for failing to push his agenda through swiftly and secretly. As a result, he found himself standing before the nation, unable to announce his long-coveted government takeover of the American health-care system. And now, it just won’t be that easy. The democratic supermajority has been squelched, he whined, thanks to the election of a man he did not name. His dominance of all three branches of the U.S. government has been destroyed, he said in so many words, and the republicans can now take the blame for standing in the way of progress.

Which led him to the target of his most ardent anger. He is angry at us, folks, the American people, and he didn’t even try to hide it. We dared to steal that supermajority – and, in turn, the unfettered power it offered him as a ruler. He bared his hostility toward us loudly and clearly, essentially obliterating any other message he tried to cloak in false sincerity and folksiness. And we will not forget that. I don’t think those Supreme Court Justices – particularly Justice Alito – are likely to forget either.

So I suggest the President consider, perhaps, getting himself to an anger-management class. Even more importantly, though, he needs to go back to school for a basic civics lesson. Time to refresh his understanding of the separation of powers, a concept he swore to honor when he pledged on his inauguration day to uphold that “flawed document” (his words), the Constitution of the United States.

If, as we hear, this President truly was a lecturer on constitutional law in his former life, this certainly makes me wonder what he taught his students in those classes. After hearing last night’s lecture to the American people, if I were the parent of one of those students, I’d be asking for my money back today.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 27, 2010 | Comments

The President’s first State of the Union just ended, and all I can say is that it was a disconnected mess. This confused President, rattled, perhaps, by the events of the last several months that culminated last week in Massachusetts, ping-ponged back and forth in his speech like his head ping-pongs back and forth to catch the messages transmitted by his twin teleprompters.

It began with his grand entrance, heralded with applause that was noticeably more muted than the applause that greeted him when last he addressed both Houses to discuss health care. He reached his exalted perch, and for the next hour or so we watched him bob back and forth between his teleprompters that, on my television at least, remained visible for the duration on both sides of the screen.

First, the President blamed George Bush, a tactic, though tired and worn, continued throughout his convoluted diatribe. Next stop: the stories of American doom and gloom always heartily embraced by the democratic party — the doom and gloom that for so many years this President has witnessed in this wasteland we call America. I have watched “the struggles,” he said, that are “the reason I ran for President.” But then he just as suddenly changed gears in a lame attempt to summon the spirit of Ronald Reagan (who, we learned tonight, was apparently a proponent of America’s nuclear disarmament), singing the praises of American optimism and extolling, without a hint of irony, the joys of accountability and transparency.

Sifting through all this ping-ponging was a challenge, punctuated as the speech was by the incessant standing Os (86 in all), Nancy Pelosi’s jack-in-box-like bouncing from her throne, and Joe Biden’s big, goofy, electric smile, reminding me of the current Walmart commercial, where the dad clown impales his foot on a unicorn (or Bozo, take your pick).

But once all was said and done, the message was clear: Nothing has changed. The President is staying the course, disappointing those who predicted so ardently that he would move to the center. As other, more realistic, pundits predicted, he instead double-downed on his agenda, taking no responsibility for our nation’s catastrophic debt, and reaffirming his devotion to cap and tax, the same ol’ health-care agenda, bigger government, the punishment of banks and Wall Street, an increase in government spending, and a vague, touchy-feely approach to national security (avoiding the issue of terrorists and Miranda rights altogether).

Perhaps the greatest shock for me began when he proclaimed, “We cut taxes for 95 percent of working Americans!” How? Really? But tax cuts are “unfair,” right? To the inevitable applause that followed, he smirked, “I thought I’d get some applause on that one.”

This segued into mention of the runaway success of the recovery act – “also known as the Stimulus Bill” – that apparently made all this possible. Really? In bread-line America? And all the stimulus-caused jobs he proceeded to list: Do those include the jobs created in congressional districts and zip codes that don’t exist? How does this dovetail with the unemployment rate? I’m so confused. (Where is Joe Wilson when we need him? Even Bill Clinton at the height of Monicagate was not so brazen).

When the speech ended, I felt kind of sick, kind of empty – as though I had just spent 70 minutes watching a desperate man, having been betrayed by his own self-importance, grasping for the essence of his identity. With squishy rhetoric and a decidedly unpresidential demeanor, a meandering flip-flopping speech, and hollow attempts to summon emotion, the President tried to speak of America’s strength and to praise her military, while at the same time laughing at those who would question the veracity of global warming and blasting the Supreme Court Justices seated before him for daring to rule in support of our Constitutional right to free speech.

But this man’s true essence came through when he spoke of health care, using direct excerpts from the countless speeches he has given on the subject since last summer. Staying the course on this one, he claimed to understand the frustration of the American people who are fed up with all the wheeling and dealing that has gone into the passage of a bill that two-thirds of Americans oppose. He revealed who he is, when he said that this process has “left most Americans saying, ‘but what’s in it for me?’”

And I say, you are wrong, Mr. President. Once again you have severely misread the citizens of this nation. Contrary to the people to whom you apparently try to appeal, we the people did not ask what’s in this bill for us, and we resent you’re implying that’s who we are. As we have made evident in Virginia, New Jersey and Massachusetts in recent months, you and yours have us asking instead, “What are you doing to our country?” And, upon learning your intentions, we have said, “No!”

You don’t understand us, Mr. President. You don’t know who we are, and I fear you never will. As you stated clearly tonight, you are still pledging allegiance to “change we can believe in.” No thanks, Mr. President. We don’t want your brand of change. And we never will.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 27, 2010 | Comments

Attention, everyone: Four hours until show time. Four hours until the President’s long-awaited State of the Union Address to the nation. And yes, a show it will be.

As we all know, the President won’t be able to sing his own praises tonight about his passage of the health-care-reform bill.  That plan was squelched last week in Massachusetts, leaving him now to claim never had anything to do with it in the first place. What we can expect tonight are ample loads of transparency – not the type the President promised incessantly during his hope-and-change-riddled campaign for President, of course, but rather, the type he, his wife, his administration, and his party have been rehearsing since the tsunami they endured one week ago.

We’ve seen it coming, but we must be on our guard tonight as he takes to his telepromptered stage with humility and such compassionate concern for the “ordinary Americans” who comprise the previously dreaded “middle class.” Remember that everything you see tonight, every word, every gesture, every glance, will be carefully orchestrated, carefully scripted. The stage directions have probably even been incorporated into the teleprompter’s script.

As he enters the great hall, the President will ignore the fact that the applause that greets him tonight from a previously adoring and slobbering Congress is a bit more tepid than it was the last time he addressed them en masse. He will ignore the fact that many within this body now suddenly regard him as a potential impediment to their careers, preferring that their consitituents, who they have suddenly remembered exist, not see them applauding too enthusiastically for this suspicious character. Once positioned at the helm, the President will take a breath and adopt the majestic countenance that he believes has served him so well during the last year, looking down his aristocratic nose at the masses who have had the audacity to defy him.

Somewhere in his speech, the President will greet the wounded warriors we hear he will be planting carefully in his audience tonight, and the struggling ordinary working families – also scheduled plants – for the dramatic effect (and photo-ops) they always provide. He will refer to his wife’s address yesterday to military families, proving yet again that this ultimate power couple have the little guy’s best interests at heart. Then he will regale us with such words as “tax cuts,” “spending freeze,” and “incentives,” uttering them without hint of a sneer or a smirk. He’s got to get it right tonight, if he is to fool the masses once more.

But given the miracles we masses have witnessed over the last year in Virginia, New Jersey, Massachusetts, and in town halls and parade routes from sea to shining sea, I just don’t believe it’s going to work for him. His orchestrated words, and the embarrassing transparency inspiring them tonight, just won’t be enough to lull the sleeping giant back into its slumber.

The President, of course, will claim victory in the aftermath, refusing to acknowledge that we see his pathetic attempts as the hackneyed transparent acts of desperation that they are. He’ll convince himself that we the people – we the dupes – are buying it. He’ll convince himself that we have no choice but to swoon in the presence of his hypnotic gift. But we the people are far too sharp, and far too awake, to believe a word he says. We know transparency when we see it, and tonight’s show will be the most transparent attempt at salvaging a presidency and an administration that we have seen since Bill Clinton’s second term.

So enjoy the show, but remember, that’s all it is. Personally, I’d like to see the teleprompter have a tantrum, short out, and leave its very dependent speaker to his own devices. Now that would be a show. And as we know, miracles do happen.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 27, 2010 | Comments

Just when we thought we could not be more embarrassed because of this President, and, more importantly, just when we thought we could not be more embarrassed for our beautiful country…

We find this:

In case you haven’t yet seen it, this is the official presidential teleprompter set up last week in a 6^th-grade classroom in Virginia – official presidential podium and all — for a speech, an inspiring one about himself, no doubt, that the President gave to said class.

A 6^th-grade classroom!

I have never seen anything so ridiculous in my life. How could anyone, student or teacher, have entered that classroom, taken a gander at the electronics occupying half the room, witnessed the President’s predictably self-important expression as he spoke with his equally predictable robotic cadence, and kept a straight face? And how could anyone stand at that podium and keep a straight face?

Of course amid the deafening laughter this image has inspired among what the President likes to refer to so arrogantly as “ordinary Americans,” his spinners claim the teleprompter was necessary for a meeting with media following his inspiring talk to the 11-year-olds. (Gotta wonder why he would need the teleprompter for that, too, but you know him…)

Much has been made of the President’s addiction to his teleprompter. The man truly seems unable to give a speech without his electronic crutch — kind of a problem when your one claim to fame, and the reason you were elected in the first place, is your alleged, self-proclaimed gift as a “great orator.” This recent incident has nevertheless taken me back with a giggle to a video from the satirical website The Onion, featuring the trauma of a teleprompter malfunction at the First Family’s dinner table. It’s a must see:

Obama’s Home Teleprompter Malfunctions During Family Dinner

We all have to keep our sense of humor, now more than ever. Enjoy…

Betsy Siino| Comments

January 26, 2010 | Comments

To commemorate the earthshattering election that occurred one week ago today – the election of republican Scott Brown in the deep blue state of Massachusetts to occupy the seat previously held for decades by Ted Kennedy — I have collected quotes from carefully orchestrated speeches and interviews the President has given in the wake of this event that has rattled to the bone his party, his presidency – and no doubt his arrogant world view, as well. The quotes, which speak for themselves, would have been drastically different, I think, had there been a drastically different election outcome last Tuesday. Enjoy…

“The same thing that swept Scott Brown into office swept me into office.”

 “People are angry. They are frustrated. Not just because of what’s happened in the last year or two years, but what’s happened over the last eight years.”

“I’d rather be a really good one-term President than a mediocre two-term President.”

“Part of what I had campaigned on was changing how Washington works, opening up transparency and I think it is — I think the health care debate as it unfolded legitimately raised concerns not just among my opponents, but also amongst supporters that we just don’t know what’s going on. And it’s an ugly process and it looks like there are a bunch of back room deals.”

“Let’s just clarify: I didn’t make a bunch of deals. There is a legislative process that is taking place in Congress and I am happy to own up to the fact that I have not changed Congress and how it operates the way I would have liked.”

“I know folks in Washington are in a little bit of a frenzy this week, trying to figure out what the election in Massachusetts the other day means for health insurance reform, for Republicans and Democrats, and for me. This is what they love to do. But this isn’t about me. It’s about you….I’ll never stop fighting for you. I’ll take my lumps, too.”

“We were so busy just getting stuff done….that I think we lost some of the sense of speaking directly to the American people about what their core values are and why we have to make sure those institutions are matching up with those values.”

 “Now, we’ve gotten pretty far down the road, but I have to admit, we’ve run into a bit of a buzz saw along the way….And the longer it has taken, the uglier the process has looked.”

Tomorrow night this President will give his State of the Union Address to the nation. He has been shocked and he has been stunned, but the true character and fiber of a man do not change, and we all must remember that we have seen the true character and fiber of this man who wishes, and has never stopped wishing, to “transform” America. Should he attempt tomorrow night to convince us that he, too, has been transformed by last Tuesday’s massacre, we will not be fooled by whatever “new and improved” words we hear from him. We will not be the fools he and his believe us to be.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 22, 2010 | Comments

So, RINO-turned-democrat Arlen Specter (D-PA), tells outspoken conservative Congresswoman Michele Bachmann (R-MN) to “act like a lady.”

I, in turn, invite all uppity Grizzly Moms “ferociously protecting home, family, cubs and country” (even when that means defying a flailing Senator’s definition of ladylike behavior), all anti-appeasement/non-bowing Americans, and even Senator Specter himself, to take a look at the following video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cc35H5D0TTU

The footage may indeed cause liberal head explosions, but that’s the risk you take when there’s a severe shortage of testosterone in the White House.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 22, 2010 | Comments

I believe in the permanent record, that elusive checklist hovering somewhere out there in the atmosphere that moms, teachers and school principals use to keep us in line. Though it may not tangibly exist, I do believe there are serious, devastating, character-damaging choices people make in life that, once revealed, become part of one’s indelible being, not to be written off as “mistakes,” never to be erased, forgotten, or sometimes even forgiven.

Join the Ku Klux Klan: permanent record. Cheat on the wife with 16 women: permanent record. Drive drunk and kill a family: permanent record. Attack innocent people in the name of your religion: permanent record. Sell secrets to those who wish to harm our country: permanent record. Vote “yes” on a 2000-page health-care-reform bill that you haven’t even read that will nationalize and ration American health care, plunge our children and grandchildren into decades of punishing debt, and inject the government into the most intimate corners of American lives: permanent record.

As to this latter example, the democrats are in chaos at the moment, thanks to that 2000-page monstrosity they have jammed down our throats almost to the point of reaching the President’s desk for one of his staged photo-op signings. But after Tuesday’s election in Massachusetts, we are seeing mea culpas being performed all over the place by democrats, who have been shown quite dramatically that their days could be numbered on Capitol Hill. “We had no idea you guys were so mad,” they whimper. “We are listening now. We promise.”

But we the people know self-preservation when we see it. What these so-called representatives are realizing is that the fury of the American public that has made itself abundantly and very vocally clear for the last year (do the town halls and tea parties ring a bell, anyone?), the fury these arrogant stiffs have chosen to ignore and vilify, has the power to run them out of office and back to their hometowns faster than you can say Martha/Marcia Coakley.

So now that they have recognized America’s true power brokers (us), vested with power handed down by the Founders themselves, they beg us to forgive them. “We understand now,” they claim. “You want us to slow down and trash a bill that only a third of you support. And you want us to read the Constitution. Okay, okay, we will. We promise. And look, we’ll even stop being the President’s lackeys! See, we’re not his toys and his tools anymore. We’re in this for you! We made a mistake, that’s all. So we’re okay now, aren’t we?

No. We’re not okay. Permanent record. We don’t trust you, and we don’t trust the President, either, even if he suddenly begins speaking with a centrist tongue. You all made your choice and signed on to an agenda designed to destroy the fabric and fiber of our great nation. You showed us who you are when you voted “yes” on that 2000-page atrocity and called us Nazis and racists, simply because we want to protect our nation and our families. Worse yet, we know you would have gleefully voted “yes” on all the atrocities yet to come: amnesty, cap and tax, more stimulus bills, appeasement of terrorists….And now you beg us to forgive you, claiming you didn’t mean it.

But you did mean it. We never heard a peep from you about the bribes and the threats and payoffs, some of you even taking the bribes yourselves. You endangered our nation as it has not been endangered since those first shots fired at Fort Sumter back in 1861. You fired your own shots. You voted “yes.” And you would have voted “yes” again and again and again.

You misread or simply dismissed the power of the American people. You ignored your own convictions (if you even had any) as well as your voters, and you knew exactly what you were doing every step of the way. We told you, no. We told you again and again and again that we don’t want this, that we don’t want our country plunging deep into a hard-left rabbit hole, that we don’t want to abandon what makes us the last best hope, the shining city on the hill. But you ignored us. You defied us. You attacked us.

So go ahead and offer your apologies, make your peace with the man upstairs, and confess to your moms and your families if you feel like it. We, however, are in no mind to forgive you. You have shown us who you are, and you have shown us we cannot trust you. Our country is too precious to us. You woke the sleeping giant, and we will not sleep again.

I teach my children that they will be faced with countless choices throughout their lives, each bringing consequences. As they will see, doing what is right when others around you are doing the opposite and beckoning to you to join them is the most difficult choice of all. But stay on your path, stick to what you know is right, and you will have no cause for regret, no reason to fear you have damaged what you love, no need to beg for forgiveness.

As Aaron Tipton says in one of my favorite songs: “Whatever you do today, you’ll have to sleep with tonight.” Plenty of elected officials are tossing and turning “tonight” after what they did “today” and over the past months. They went along with the “in” crowd, and now they see the consequences of that choice scribbled all over their own permanent records. They should have listened to their moms.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 21, 2010 | Comments

The results of Tuesday’s election in Massachusetts have left me thinking about a conversation I overheard this last Christmas.

Our family was flying west to California for the holidays as we do every year, this time with stopovers in both Las Vegas and Reno. On the flight between those two cities, I was seated in front of an older woman and a young female college student. As we took off over the glittering lights of the Las Vegas strip, the older woman introduced herself to her younger seatmate (and, by extension, to me) as a medical-school professor, a recent transplant to Nevada from the East Coast.

Sounding almost like a young schoolgirl herself, this mature professional woman chirped with abandon about her love for her new state. Compared to her life spent entirely in the east, Nevada was in every way living up to its reputation as “the wild west,” she said, a genuine “frontier.” Her enthusiasm for her new home was so infectious, I wanted to jump off the plane and enroll in her medical school.

Anyway, the young woman next to her, a native of Reno, she said, was in her first year at a small Massachusetts college – an International Relations major (whatever that is). The physician spoke to her about her own years training, practicing and teaching in Boston, and they chatted a bit about living in the Bay State. Then the doctor popped the big question: “So how does it feel moving from a state that has no income tax [Nevada], to a state that has one of the highest tax rates in the country [Massachusetts]?”

“Well,” said the girl, “I’m in college, so it doesn’t really affect me.”

I grinned, imagining the wise smirk the International-Relations major’s comment must have inspired on the face of her seatmate. “Oh, it will affect you,” said the doctor. “And I’m sure it’s affecting your parents, and the new federal taxes coming are going to affect them, too.” (As a parent myself, I would not be very happy to think my daughter considered punishing tax burdens as something that “doesn’t really affect me.”)

The girl’s ensuing silence indicated that she didn’t want to talk about this anymore (not a good sign for someone who wants to relate internationally). I’d like to think that once she got home, she made a similar comment to her parents, who in turn decided to look in to the education they were financing for their beloved daughter. If nothing else, I hope the physician’s statement at least gave the girl some food for thought.

It certainly gave me food for thought, as I now think back and wonder if Tuesday’s election in this young student’s adopted state has in any way “affected” her. How has it been presented and discussed, I wonder, in her probably elitist, liberal, kumbaya International Relations classes? I have my assumptions, of course, but do she and so many others like her now realize the gravity of what is at stake for her and for all of us in this country? Do they realize that this election “affected” the state in which this girl now resides, but also in her home state? And my home state. And yours. And every other state in the union.

Perhaps before this girl embarks on her career in International Relations (whatever that is), she should learn about the dangers her own country is facing at the moment – including the tax burden that will await her once she graduates and embarks on that career. I’ll wager she is learning nothing like that in those International Relations classes of hers. We can guess what she is probably learning: the Blame-America curriculum embraced by the President and his advisers and colleagues during their formative years.

As someone more in line with the American-Exceptionalism curriculum, I ask you college students out there to start thinking beyond the walls of those classes. Before you agree to packing your university auditoriums to cheer on the President and provide him with a backdrop for his latest photo-op, as happened last Sunday in Boston (and will surely happen when he campaigns for Harry Reid next month in Nevada), think about the effect this man, this Congress and their agenda could have on your long-term goals, your long-term hopes and dreams. Battles are being waged right now in all of our own backyards that you think “affect” only your parents at the moment, but if this President gets his way, the outcomes of these skirmishes will profoundly affect your future – and not in a positive manner.

So look to Massachusetts and be grateful for what happened there on Tuesday, despite what your professors may be telling you in class. Time to see the big picture and your place in it. Time to think about long-term consequences and, to paraphrase JFK, what you can do, not for this President and his colleagues, but for your country, your family and your future.

In short, wake up. It does affect you.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 20, 2010 | Comments

When a little-known Massachusetts republican wins the Senate seat occupied for decades by Ted Kennedy, endangering Kennedy’s signature issue, nationalized health care….

When you wake up the morning after that election and see a republican strategist not only appearing on MSNBC, but actually being treated with respect….

When democratic Congressmen who have voted for everything the President has mandated over the last year (particularly the health-care-reform bill opposed by one-third of the American people) state that it will be a catastrophe if democrats ignore the Massachusetts election (Evan Bayh of Indiana); that the health-care vote should be suspended until the new Massachusetts Senator is seated (Jim Webb of Virginia); and that “health care might be dead” (Anthony Weiner of New York)….

When British newspapers gleefully predict that “there will be more Scott Browns!”….

When the San Francisco Chronicle floats the notion that San Francisco Congresswoman and Speaker of the House, Nancy Pelosi, might be in trouble….

When the morning news broadcasts footage of lifelong democrats waiting in line yesterday to cast their votes for a republican candidate because they want “to save America”….

When you hear a democratic strategist say that the democrats on Capitol Hill have awakened this morning, wondering “Is it wise for me to continue following this President?”….

When liberal pundits and news commentators for the first time openly acknowledge that the Massachusetts election results are proof that the American people are obviously not happy with the backroom deals cut by the President with the pharmaceutical companies, and the singular payoffs to individual representatives in Congress (on Christmas Eve no less).…

When you sense an outright sigh of relief among democratic politicians and certain individuals within the administration’s lapdog media who have finally been given an excuse to oppose this President, this administration and this radical leftwing agenda – an excuse to vote “no” next time and perhaps even to offer criticism.…

When Americans from coast to coast awaken, having slept better and more peacefully than they have in months….

.…it’s morning in America.

At least for now. Indeed for this lovely moment, let us enjoy the morning light and the brief sense of security that was returned to us last night by the election results that came to us from Massachusetts. Provided 100,000 absentee ballots cast for that election’s democratic candidate aren’t suddenly discovered in the trunk of Al Franken’s car, we can smile, knowing we can claim victory in this battle forever to be known as the Massachusetts Miracle of 2010.

But we can’t rest, of course. Our fight continues. Even now our opposition, haven shaken off the shock of last night’s upset, is mobilizing, designing their next tactic for bypassing the will of the American people and the U.S. Constitution. We will be ready for them, of course, just as we were this time, energized and confident that we who love this country are not alone. As we’ve said all along, 2010 is gonna be great. Last night, just 19 days in, was only the beginning.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 19, 2010 | Comments

And now we can breathe. He won. Scott Brown won. And we have witnessed a miracle in Massachusetts akin to the same miracle that occurred in Massachusetts more than two centuries ago that led to the birth of the United States of America.

This is huge, folks. But I don’t have to tell you that. Massachusetts, a state dominated by democrats three to one elects a republican to the Senate for the first time in three decades. But it goes so much deeper than that. The seat this republican won “belonged” to Ted Kennedy, the beloved “liberal lion,” a virtual god in Massachusetts (or so we were told), whose legacy issue was the health-care bill currently being jammed down our….er, I mean, currently making its way through Congress. The symbolism is just more than I can even stand!

In only a few short weeks, Scott Brown overcame a double-digit deficit behind a woman of the democrat machine, a woman who promised she would do everything Uncle Teddy – and the current President – would want. A woman America was apt to assume was exactly what Massachusetts would want.

But then tonight the miracle occurred.

They tried to stop it. Bill Clinton, Uncle Teddy’s son Patrick, John Kerry (the other U.S. Senator from Massachusetts, who you know is shaking in his boots tonight knowing that he, too, could fall victim to these voters he formerly always trusted), and yes, even the President of the United States himself – to Massachusetts they came, singing the praises of the machine and their candidate’s place in it. But the voters of Massachusetts, the patriots who cast their votes for Scott Brown, they took as much heed of the Traveling Democrat Show as the voters in Virginia and New Jersey did last November.

Tonight we watched a state of deepest blue exercise the true spirit of America – and it did so on the eve of the first anniversary of this truck-hating President’s inauguration (again, you just can’t beat the symbolism here). Indeed tonight we witnessed history – and a wake-up call to politicians coast to coast, democrats and republicans alike. We have reminded them that we are the ones with the power, and they had better never again ignore and dismiss our anger and our fury. If these politicians who have carried this administration’s water were nervous before this election – and the San Francisco Chronicle even admitted today that has been the case in California, who have been watching the Massachusetts race very carefully – they are downright terrified now.

Lots of soul searching going on tonight among these so-called elected representatives of ours, I’m sure. Am I really going to sacrifice my career and everything I have accomplished for this  guy in the White House? Should I start listening to the American people — and to my own conscience – and realize I have been following marching orders from a guy who has never even had a job in a 7-11? Do I really want to identify with the unbridled arrogance and name-calling that has spread like a virus through the halls of power of this great nation?

We’ll see, won’t we. In the meantime, we can celebrate tonight the miracle in Massachusetts, the first shot in our taking our country back to where it is meant to be. But you know, maybe it wasn’t a miracle. The founding of America was a miracle, to be sure, but the American people’s fierce determination to protect this nation and her Constitution and her people is anything but. That is our mandate, our responsibility, our honor and our privilege.

Throughout the insanity we have endured over the past couple of years as we have watched our country overtaken by leftists, globalists, appeasers, terrorist sympathizers (you know who I’m talking about), I have always maintained that the heart and soul of the American people has remained what I always believed it to be. And tonight, yet again, they have not let me down. Thank you, Massachusetts. And thank you, America. Good night.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 19, 2010 | Comments

The polls in Massachusetts have closed, and now we wait. I tried not to listen or read too much during the day, because it’s all anecdotal.  What I did hear — record turnout in the suburbs, snow falling in Boston, vocal voters for Scott Brown all over the place — I found encouraging, but I know it’s just wishful thinking. I was pleased to hear that Scott’s ascendency has happened so quickly that those who would try and steal the election didn’t have time to set up the necessary tools (fraudelent absentee ballots, bogus exit poll feedback, etc.).  Disgusting, isn’t it, that we discuss voter fraud with such candor, such inevitability. 

So now, coast to coast, Americans who revere the Constitution and all that make us the last best hope sit waiting, holding our breath, a collective knot in our collective gut. It has come to this: one man and a relatively small election in a relatively small state that could change our nation forever. May God bless our America on this snowy winter night.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 18, 2010 | Comments

First Martha – or “Marcia” as Patrick Kennedy (D/RI/Teddy’s-Son) likes to call her – Coakley labels Red Sox star Curt Schilling “another Yankee fan” because he supports her opponent in the upcoming Senate special election. Now, not to be outdone in the out-of-touch arena, the President, campaigning for Coakley last night in Massachusetts, chooses another American institution to bash: the all-American pickup truck.

You see, Martha’s republican opponent, Scott Brown, has been driving around Massachusetts campaigning from his GM pickup, only to hear the President demean him during his whistestop for Martha/Marcia last night, stating that “everybody can buy a truck.”

Of course the many millions who have found themselves jobless in the Obama economy might beg to differ with that comment. Yet that has not stopped this President from criticizing a symbol that we can bet has just as much to do with Mr. Brown’s rising poll numbers as the President’s own hostility toward a symbol – the America pickup truck – that is embraced by those same people who “cling” to their Bibles and their guns (and are thus equally despised by the President).

I have a feeling this will play just as well as Martha’s Curt Schilling fumble. Indeed just as Curt responded that he is anything but a Yankees fan (“Check that, if you don’t know what the hell is going on in your own state….”), Scott Brown has not allowed the President’s slam at America to go unchecked either, responding:

“Mr. President, unfortunately in this economy not everybody can buy a truck. My goal is to change that by cutting spending, lowering taxes and letting people keep more of their own money.”

Scott, we who cling to baseball, mom, apple pie, American pickups — and, yes, guns, Bibles and kids and country, too – are praying that you and Massachusetts make it happen tomorrow! Here’s hoping the Bay State gives us another shot heard ‘round the world.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 18, 2010 | Comments

The following is a link to a breathtaking video dedicated to the “Massachusetts Miracle” we hope to see occur in the Bay State on Tuesday.  Click it, watch it, and please send it on to everyone you know — especially if they happen to live in Massachusetts! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7nEoW-P81-0

And pray for a miracle on Tuesday.  Pray for our children, and pray for America.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 17, 2010 | Comments

Two days ago, as part of my post on the tight race between Martha Coakley and Scott Brown in the upcoming special election for Ted Kennedy’s vacated Massachusetts Senate seat, I included bonehead comments Coakley has made during her rather incompetent campaign of entitlement. Well, on Friday night, she did it again.

Friday night during a radio interview in Boston, Coakley dismissed Curt Schilling, beloved Boston Red Sox pitcher and World Series star, as “another Yankee fan” – her brilliant comeback to interviewer Dan Rea’s comment that Schilling is supporting Scott Brown in the election. In the wake of the interview, highlighted by Rea’s perplexed reaction to the insipid comment and Coakley’s fumbled attempt at recovery, the candidate’s spokesperson claimed that it was Coakley’s attempt to make a joke (the left once again taking the American people for fools).

All this American can say is: Talk about being out of touch with one’s constituents! Come to think of it, though, I guess she would fit in perfectly with this administration, this Congress. I just hope the people of Massachusetts are listening.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 15, 2010 | Comments

Back in November, the dems pretended they were not at all concerned when republican candidates decisively claimed the governorships of New Jersey (New Jersey?!) and Virginia.  They have attempted to feign the same nonchalance now, as Massachusetts approaches the special election for the Senatorial seat left vacant by Ted Kennedy last year. But, given the revolutionary events of the last few weeks, they have officially given up the ghost, now running scared, panicked, hysterical – they couldn’t hide it if they wanted to.

On Tuesday, January 19^th, Massachusetts voters will go to the polls to cast their votes for either republican Scott Brown or democrat Martha Coakley. The latter, willing to vote however Ted Kennedy would have voted (and however the current President might command), seemed at the outset to be a shoo-in. This is Massachusetts. This is what Uncle Teddy would have wanted. She won the endorsement of the Kennedy family. She has vowed to support health care reform at all costs. The President says she will be his ally. This is what dems want, right? Again, it’s Massachusetts. Piece of cake.

Not so fast, Martha. Put the cake down.

Call it a belated Christmas miracle — a response, perhaps, to the Christmas Eve Massacre perpetrated when Senate democrats voted to pass the health-care reform bill on that most sacred December day. However we might see it, in a shocking twist, after months of trailing state Attorney General Martha Coakley in double-digit territory, Massachusetts State Senator Scott Brown has come thundering like a rocket from the right, campaigning tirelessly during the holidays, despite the frigid Arctic blast that hit the Northeast. As Brown’s poll numbers climb daily, as his name becomes a household word and a call to action nationwide, his momentum has left Martha standing in his dust, looking every bit the victim of a marauding Mack truck.

Indeed, given some of her recent comments, candidate Coakley seems to be exhibiting clear signs of concussion. Catholics shouldn’t work in emergency rooms if they oppose abortion, she tells us. Taxes need to be higher and there are no more terrorists in Afghanistan, she stammered during last weekend’s debate with Brown. After the debate, she hightailed it to D.C. for a fundraiser, smirking that she would rather collect donations from big-money special interests in Washington than stand out in the cold campaigning in her home state.

In addition, it seems that Martha’s refusal in 2005 as then-District-Attorney to bring charges against a child rapist whose weapon of choice against his 23-month-old victim was a curling iron has also failed to resonate positively among voters (especially among those who happen to be Grizzly Moms and Grizzly Dads, I’m sure). It’s yet to be seen if last-minute campaign pleas from Bill Clinton and the President will help (here’s hoping they garner the same results they did last November in Virginia and New Jersey). Also yet to be seen is whether dead, undocumented and fictitious voters will turn out in droves on Tuesday as they did in 2008, or whether Massachusetts voters will be deterred by club-wielding thugs guarding the polling places.  

Meanwhile, Scott Brown is making history, not only with his potential victory in bluest-of-blue Massachusetts in one of the most critical elections in our history, but also by answering a commentator’s question about Ted Kennedy’s Senate seat with his now-legendary response: “Well, with all due respect, it’s not the Kennedy’s seat, and it’s not the democrats’ seat. It’s the people’s seat.”

And that has resonated with voters – those in Massachusetts and in every other state of this union, who understand that the election of Scott Brown could be the first step toward bringing us back from the brink of the precipice on which our nation now stands.

It seems fitting, doesn’t it, that the first salvo in this battle should be fired in Massachusetts? Having played host and homeland to our founders; to the courageous belief in independence and liberty; and soaked in the blood of patriots who risked all for this great nation, Massachusetts is now once more being called to action. Though the Bay State has swung hard left in recent history, we ask her people to hear the call that still resides within their DNA, the call that more than two centuries ago spawned the revolutionary miracle that was, and is, America. We’re depending on you, Massachusetts. Please make it happen on Tuesday.

As for those of us who don’t happen to reside in Massachusetts, well, as I posted here on January 5^th, now is the time for all proud Americans with checkbooks to donate to those candidates who represent the best interests of America. We have now been offered such a candidate, whose election would destroy the democratic super-majority in the U.S. Senate, and thus hinder the devastating agenda – nationalized health care, for one — of this administration and the democratic leadership driving it. I have made my donation to Scott Brown (www.brownforussenate.com), and countless others have joined me nationwide. We can’t afford to squander this golden opportunity. Our children are depending on us.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 14, 2010 | Comments

Since my post yesterday about my personal farewell to Food Network, I just wanted to check in with the latest on the network’s partisan decision to showcase the First Lady and produce from the White House garden on a very special episode of Iron Chef.

Contrary to what was claimed on said special episode, the produce used by the Food Network chefs did not come from the extensively flaunted and photographed White House garden after all. Indeed, according to a statement released by the Food Network, “due to the production delay between the shoot at the White House and the shoot at Food Network, the produce used in Kitchen Stadium during the Super Chef Battle was not actually from the White House garden.”

And so, once again, we see an entity — Food Network this time — like so many entities before it, that align themselves with this adminstration and its agenda, convincing themselves that there is no harm in the deception — and besides, no one will ever find out. Trouble is: We always find out. Always. And almost instantly.

When will they learn?

I have a feeling Food Network has learned. And the pitiful Food Network chefs who participated, once so admired by my family, have learned, too. On its face, it sounds trivial, I know, but the more important message here is that again we see that nothing, and I mean nothing, about this administration is authentic. From admitted “photo-ops” with our troops to idiotic covers on golf and fashion magazines to doctors wearing phony white coats in the White House rose garden to the ongoing American apology tours to speeches set before a phony Parthenon: It’s all a fraud.

Yet this administration continues to entice and woo would-be collaborators in to do its bidding, to assist in the fakery. Those who agree wind up learning firsthand that when you lay down with dogs you’re going to get fleas. Kind of an insult to dogs, I know, but as so many have learned, from, among others, certain car companies, lapdog media outlets, so-called “representatives” in Congress, cable networks that focus on food and cooking — you may emerge from these associations, the agreements, the backroom deals, a bit anemic with an itch that just won’t go away. And, I have to believe, with a terrible case of regret.

So I ask the Food Network, which I know is suffering grief for the decision to join this bandwagon: Was it all worth the aemia, worth the itch? You won’t admit the truth, I know, but somehow I doubt it.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 13, 2010 | Comments

Refer back to my post of January 4th, and you will remember that I have cancelled my subscription to Golf Digest in the wake of its slobbering collusion in the President’s unquenchable addiction to photo shoots and media attention. Well, now Food Network Magazine is on my chopping block (to borrow a phrase from the network’s own Chopped program), and, given what I’m hearing from others out there who previously considered themselves fans of this network, I have a feeling I’m not the only one doing the chopping.

It began a couple of months ago, when, as is so often the case, I was watching the Food Network – which I have, day in and day out, since the network’s inception in the early 90s. Indeed I have been one of their most loyal, most enduring fans, knowing that the Food Network was both a safe territory for kids and a sanctuary of political neutrality. But that all changed on that fateful day a couple months back, when a commercial announced that a guest of “national importance” would be gracing a special episode of Iron Chef from Washington, DC.

Uh oh. Red flag. I knew what was coming.

A couple teaser weeks passed, and there it was: the quick flash on the screen of the First Lady. She would be challenging the chefs with a special secret ingredient: fresh produce, including some taken from her own White House garden, all in keeping with her focus on good health and nutrition, blah, blah, blah, slobber, slobber, slobber.

I didn’t watch, of course, and the phony-baloney artificiality of the idea and its execution made me cringe (to put it nicely). Don’t know how it played, but I will trust that nothing was said during the course of the challenge about the First Lady’s appetite for the finer foods in life: Kobe beef, lobster, caviar – items not readily found in the White House garden.

Anyway, it didn’t end there. I also happen to be a charter subscriber to Food Network Magazine, and I love it — read it from cover to cover every month. But the November issue brought another red flag: a slobbering piece on the First Family’s favorite restaurants. Then came December: a celebration of the First Lady’s Iron Chef challenge. And now, January: the First Family’s favorite recipes, blah, blah, blah, slobber, slobber, slobber. Three months in a row! And that’s it for me. I’m out.

I have cancelled my subscription to the magazine, re-programmed my cable “Favorites,” and notified both network and magazine why they may no longer count me in. I have asked, as well, knowing no answer will be forthcoming, if their embrace of partisanship and some of the most polarizing figures in American history has garnered them more viewers and readers than it has lost. I simply mentioned Food Network Magazine in my “photo-op” post, and I heard from like-minded fans who are equally disgusted by this former sanctuary’s new political focus. I have a feeling the network is learning the hard way just how severely they have misread their audience.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 6, 2010 | Comments

During the 2008 presidential campaign, the President insisted repeatedly (each statement now being presented on Breitbart TV) that the health-care-reform process would take place on CSPAN with the entire Congress in attendance, in full view of the American public. My, what a difference a year makes.

Yesterday the President — after lecturing us (again!) as if we are children (again!) about how everyone around him messed up and almost caused an isolated extremist to take down a plane bound for Detroit on Christmas Day — completely ignored CSPAN’s very public request that he keep his campaign promise and permit the health-care-reform process to be broadcast on their airwaves. Yesterday Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, in his typical inept fashion, dodged questions about this alleged transparency from a lapdog media that surprisingly pressed him on the matter. And today, the President, his advisers and the democratic leadership locked themselves in an office to manipulate and massage their health-care bill privately, to cut all those vital sweetheart deals, without intrusion from republican Congress members or the vast majority of Americans who oppose this monstrosity.

When Nancy Pelosi emerged from the closed-door meeting, she was asked about transparency and the promise to keep the American people engaged in the health-care process. Channeling the spirit of Robert Gibbs, she gasped, eyes bulging, that promises are always made on the campaign trail. Wink, wink. Tee hee. Next question.

So yes, South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson was right months back when he shouted to the President in that legendary moment of emotion: “You lie!” You were right, Joe. He does lie. And they lie. All of them. They will say and do whatever they need to say and do in their mission to destroy this country. Catch them in the lie.…Wink, wink. Tee hee. Next question.

I teach my children that they are judged by the company they keep and by their actions. I teach them, too, that there are consequences to the choices they make. On election day a little more than a year ago, adults coast to coast willingly chose to disregard their candidate’s sketchy past; his suspicious associations and the company he has kept; his complete lack of professional experience; and his blatant disregard and disdain for the greatness of our nation, our history and our Constitution. In doing so, they cast their votes against our country, against our greatness, and against our children — my children and yours.

I’ve said it before, and I will say it again and again and again: Our country is being attacked daily by those within our own ranks who seek to bring it to its knees for twisted and very personal reasons. The resulting blood of our nation’s wounds is on the hands of every person, well-meaning and otherwise, who voted for this man, his agenda, and his agents of “hope and change.”

Many of the voters who made this happen now regret their votes. Claiming they were misled or mistaken, many now seek absolution for their devastating, even catastrophic, choice. Sorry. No. I don’t want to hear it. You knew what you were doing, people, and when you made that very deliberate, conscious choice, you assaulted my children, my family, my country. Now you are suffering the consequences of that choice, but unfortunately we are, too. You feel bad now? I should hope so.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 5, 2010 | Comments

I read an article yesterday lamenting the GOP’s lack of funds needed to finance Congressional elections in 2010. The left, no doubt, will run with that, giggling their “we told you so’s,” completely misreading the facts.

Allow me to clarify this for my left-wing friends. What this story failed to mention is that there is still plenty of conservative money flying around out there, only now the donors are being very selective about who their political benefactors will be. After the fiasco in New York’s District 23 last November, when the GOP endorsed a woman ranked as one of the most liberal politicians in one of the nation’s most liberal states, simply because she put an “R” next to her name and proceeded to endorse the democrat when she dropped out of the race, conservatives just don’t trust the republican party to distribute their precious funds in the right direction. Myself included.

Like so many conservatives I’ve heard from, I have been receiving solicitations from the Republican National Committee. I have in turn informed them that, for the time being, my political donations will be sent directly to those bonafide conservative candidates throughout the country who will be opposing the left-wing tyrants – on both sides of the aisle – who are ignoring the will of the American people and gutting the Constitution of our United States.

I am not talking third party here, for I think that would spell disaster for our conservative efforts and our country – and that is exactly what our left-wing opponents are hoping to see happen. No, I am talking aggressive action that will further our efforts and send a clear message at the same time. In the months to come, I will be sending my donations to any true conservative anywhere in the country who opposes the likes of Harry Reid (NV), Olympia Snowe (ME), Mary Landrieu (LA), Ben Nelson (NE), Barbara Boxer (CA), Kirstin Gillibrand (NY), Barney Frank (MA), Nancy Pelosi (CA), Dick Durbin (IL), John Murtha (PA), Chris Dodd (CT), Alan Grayson (FL)….you get the drill.

If en masse we conservatives take this tact, I have confidence the RNC will get the message and get back in both word and deed to the fearless conservative principles that make this country exceptional. In the meantime, we must keep reminding them: You have failed to represent us and our Constitution, dear RNC, you have thrown away golden opportunity after golden opportunity to carry our flag, so we are doing it ourselves. You’re welcome to come along, but we will gladly leave you in the dust if you continue to preach touchy-feely moderation and liberalism. And we’ll take our money with us.

What we have learned from our life under the current, and very oppressive, regime, is that the votes of everyone in Congress, whether or not they represent our own districts or our own states, affect us all more dramatically than we ever dreamed possible. You may live in Florida, but the vote of a Senator in Nebraska can sentence your family and our country to bankruptcy. I may not in any way be represented by my Congressman and my Senators – and believe me, I am not – but I can take action to help ensure that people are elected in other districts and other states, who will directly represent my beliefs and the well-being of my country, my family and my children.

So this is our challenge in 2010. It will take time and effort and research, but together we can take our country back from those who seek to “transform” it forever. We have our work cut out for us, but we can’t let that transformation occur. And we won’t.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 4, 2010 | Comments

I knew it was coming. But I still was not prepared. I went to pick up my mail today after being away in California for the last week-and-a-half, and there it was. Innocently I lifted it from the stack of magazines and catalogs that had been held for me, and from my throat came a guttural, purely involuntary, groan, a roar, summoning, without my conscious consent, the spirit of mama Grizzly. Kind of embarrassing when you consider I get my mail at the post office, but some responses can’t be helped.

You’ve seen it by now, too, I’m sure: the January 2010 issue of Golf Digest, boasting that tragically embarrassing, posed image of the President and his mentor, Tiger Woods, both looking so earnest, so driven, so bonded in their shared mission.

Of course Tiger has his own problems right now, but to be fair, we expect to see him on the cover of a golf magazine that went to press months ago, even if the timing is, shall we say, unfortunate. What bothered me was the President’s mug once again found on the cover of a magazine – especially a magazine in my mailbox.

This goes beyond mere over-exposure. The man is downright addicted to the camera lens. Given the fact that in the midst of the attempted Christmas Day underwear bombing — where all we got from our fearless leader were smiling images of him golfing, snorkeling and enjoying the paradise that is Hawaii – the man’s constant mugging is obviously taking a heavy toll on his job performance, as well as the safety and security of our nation and our children.

Though I am not an addiction counselor, I speak with some authority on the consequences of photo-shoot addiction. Having myself been involved behind the camera in countless photo shoots back in my magazine days, and more recently when collecting images for my books, I can tell you, they take time. Lots of time. Whole days, sometimes, for that single perfect shot.

So now I’m wondering, just how much of his valuable time is this President spending at these endless photo shoots of his? We see him on just about every cover of every publication out there – if not the cover, then in some elaborate multi-page spread inside, often with multiple poses, multiple costume changes, multiple backdrops. He is everywhere: Time and Newsweek, of course (practically on a weekly basis, since they are part of the President’s official PR machine), as well as, among far too many others, Us, People, Esquire, Men’s Vogue (which for some unknown reason also made its way into my mailbox and elicited that same involuntary mom-Grizzly growl), that magazine with a shirtless him on the cover, Food Network Magazine…and, of course, GQ, which he was spotted carrying with him as he stepped into a limousine a few weeks back. And now Golf Digest, where we find him crouching on the course with the newly beleaguered Tiger Woods standing over him. According to the cute cover blurbs and the blubbering, slobbering article within, the two are mentoring each other in the art of golf and the art of life. Just adorable.

Once we’re done swooning, let’s try and count up the hours this President is logging in front of the camera, any camera, every camera. We might forgive the First Lady her own penchant for the camera, as she ostensibly has a little more time to devote to showcasing her arms for the cover of Prevention, or assuming the perfect pout and posture of a demure, 50s-era teenager for Glamour as she did this month (wince).

But the President: Just picture him posing like a supermodel for a fawning fashion photographer who urges him to look more manly or god-like or powerful or concerned, waiting patiently as the assistants, between poses, adjust the lights, the silver umbrellas, his wardrobe, his makeup. I don’t think he get that whole concept of “unbecoming of the office of the President of the United States.”

And while he’s not getting it, terrorists are sneaking in, regular Americans and airline passengers are taking on the responsibilities of national security, and our troops are waiting, worrying, knowing that their Commander-in-Chief does not have their backs. Even if he did, the demands of the photo studio would still take precedence. Priorities, you know.

My own priorities in tow, I will be making a small symbolic gesture of my own: cancelling my family’s subscription to Golf Digest. It’s not much, I know, but we didn’t sign up to be members of the President’s fan club, and we resent Golf Digest assuming we did. Of course you would think that if the powers-that-be at the magazine are actually golfers, they would understand that if the man they chose to grace their January cover has his way, fewer and fewer people will even be able to afford to play golf, let alone subscribe to Golf Digest. Brilliant move, guys. Consider me cancelled.

Betsy Siino | Comments

January 2, 2010 | Comments

Welcome 2010. Glad to bid farewell to 2009 (I don’t have the energy or the inclination to rehash the reasons, but I know I’m not alone in that), even though I’m doing so here a day late. My delay is not because of delays experienced flying from one coast to the other in the midst of post-terrorist chaos/denial (which, according to this administration, is all George Bush’s fault). Oh, we felt perfectly safe as we watched two wheelchair-bound grandmas in the San Fancisco Bay Area get the full-boar anti-terrorist security treatment. They didn’t at all strike me as would-be believers in Sharia law, but you can’t be too careful now, can you. Dog person that I am, I did love seeing all the dogs on duty, and I thanked them and their handlers for truly keeping us safe.

No, my delay here was not related to homeland security; it was viral and respiratory in nature. Now that I’m on the mend, I look back at this Christmas, this New Year’s, and I have to believe it was different for families all over the country. Our own family visits, despite our best efforts to keep the Christmas in Christmas and avoid certain incendiary topics, did have momentary erruptions into the political arena. As my husband said, this probably happened in households all over the country, despite best efforts to keep the conversation from turning in that direction. Things are running way too hot right now for political neutrality. The palpable fury, sparked at the summer’s tea parties, in Washington, D.C., on September 12th, and coursing through the veins of those Americans who know we are not being represented by our government, that fury just won’t be contained. No matter how we might try.

So now, armed with that fury, we greet the year about which so many have spoken for months: 2010. Despite my own disgust with this administration, this Congress and the blatant disregard for our Constitution, I greet this new year with confidence that the will of our founders and the true spirit of America will prevail. We have no choice but to believe that. The alternative is to see the destruction of our nation, and I will not even give life to such a thought. So happy 2010, America. Thy will be done.

Betsy Siino | Comments

December 27, 2009 | Comments

Tomorrow with my family I board a flight in San Francisco headed for the East Coast. We are seasoned travelers. We do this all the time, traversing the security checkpoints as a well-oiled machine, yet tomorrow we will face a whole new routine.

We will arrive at the airport three hours early. We understand our carry-ons may be checked twice. We understand we may be patted down, x-rayed, photographed, sniffed by dogs, poked, prodded and interrogated as never before. And we will have to stow everything on the flight an hour before the scheduled landing and sit stone still for that hour with nothing in our hands, nothing on our laps. We will comply obediently, of course, because it’s all part of remaining safe in the sky because yet another terrorist has successfully made an attempt on American lives.

So yes, we will comply. And I suppose this is okay, as long as the young man in the line with a certain type of name who paid cash for his ticket and has no luggage and whose father recently turned him in as a terrorist threat will be subjected to the same rigorous procedures, even though he and his brethren — as well as the President of the United States and the U.S. Secretary of Homeland Security — may find such scrutiny of the young man to be humiliating and insulting.

Indeed in the wake of the most recent terrorist attack in U.S. airspace, the President took three days finally to announce in his usual scripted and robotic manner that it is “an isolated incident.” Following his lead, his Secretary of Homeland Security first announced that despite said attack (foiled by couragous passengers who jumped on the guy) “the system worked.” Then, a day later, she backtracked, stuttering and channeling the deer in the headlights as she muttered incoherent statements that made it abundantly clear that she has no idea what to do, what to say, or even who she is. Incompetence, thy name is Janet Napolitano (the same woman who believes the real threat to America comes from NRA members, pro-lifers and returning war veterans).

So do you feel safe? I sure don’t. Yet we are expected to  believe that we will be protected by people who close their eyes and hope that all the scary stuff will just go away. Sorry, we the people see the threat for exactly what it is, and we see this President and his administration for exactly what they are, too. Pray for safe travels, America. And for more lucky breaks and courageous passengers. We’re going to need them.

Betsy Siino | Comments

December 24, 2009 | Comments

You’ve heard of the St. Valentine’s Day Massacre, when, on Valentine’s Day, 1929, Al Capone’s Italians faced off against Bugs Moran’s Irish in Chicago, and seven ended up dead. Today, in honor of that infamous day in America, the United States Senate, inspired by the Chicago mob currently dominating the White House, executed the Christmas Eve massacre, passing the Senate’s version of the health care reform bill that will plunge our beautiful nation into a tailspin from which it might never recover.

For years now the left has waged war against Christmas and all it represents, but that they would consciously choose Christmas Eve as their moment to cast our nation into abject poverty, despair and fascism is unforgiveable. Indeed they have fired yet another shot against all who love and revere this country. All I can muster to say in my fury is: How dare they! But how many times do I have to say that? It’s getting so, so very old. When will it stop?!

Nevertheless, what we need to let these alleged “respresentatives” know (as if they ever listen) is that we will not go quietly into that soft Christmas Eve night. They have made it abundantly clear that they have no intention of ever listening to the vast, vast majority of Americans who oppose this vile bill, the vast majority who have raised their voices in unison to make that opposition known. And with these votes, we will make it abundantly clear that they have only strengthened our resolve.

But we know they won’t listen. With the exceptions of those Senators who have listened, who have demanded that the thousands of pages of this horrible piece of tripe be read aloud on the Senate floor, they don’t care. For their own insidious reasons, they have jammed this bill through, initiating all the necessary payoffs to individual Senators who pretended they would do what was right and inevitably fell in line, goosestepping in perfect unison as demanded of them, not by their voters, but by this administration and the party leadership. Next step: a co-mingling with the House bill, more bribery, more payoffs, more false promises (and here we thought that, for the most part, prostitution was illegal in the United States). Then on to the President’s desk for signature and another choreographed photo-op. Oh, happy day.

But we who love this country will not be defeated. As we celebrate this Christmas Eve, we will in unison pray that this dual assault on both our nation and our most holy night will result in the ultimate massacre of the careers of all who have dared to vote for it. They have declared war upon us and on our country, and we will not take it lying down.

God bless us, everyone!

Betsy Siino | Comments