Monday, December 20, 2010

Serial killers and Playmates


DECEMBER 20, 2010

December 20 is … Games Day. Go forth and play.

Christmas is almost here. I hope you are ready. I completed most of my shopping, with the help of my daughter, home from U of I for break. I never thought I would say this but I actually enjoy Christmas shopping…with her anyway.

The Packers gave the Patriots a game last night. It made the Bears’ performance against New England look like men against boys. When the Packers and Bears play the last game of the season, a playoff spot better not be on the line. If it is, I see the Bears missing the playoffs. Tonight’s game should be a no brainer. Next week against the Jets could easily be a loss making the final game meaningful. We will see together.

New York police are now conceding they may not be dealing with a serial killer a week after they found four bodies close together. The police say they are just not sure what they have. It may just be a popular area to dispose of murder victims by unrelated murderers Every large city needs such a place. You just cannot have corpses lying around in the street.

New York may not have a serial killer, although they are not sure, California may have had a prolific serial killer at work. On December 17th, Los Angeles police released the pictures of 160 women, some feared to be possible victims of the Grim Sleeper serial killer.
The photographs, dating back to the 1980s, are alleged by police to have been found at the home of Lonnie David Franklin, who was arrested in Los Angeles in July and charged with the murder of 10 women. Franklin denies he killed them. To date, five of the 160 women have been identified.

With good weather, nearly one-fourth of the world’s population, 1.5 billion people worldwide, will be able to watch when the Earth's shadow creeps across the moon's surface early Tuesday morning, the first time in hundreds of years that a lunar eclipse will fall on the winter solstice, December 21st.

This is a rare opportunity no one on earth has ever seen before. "Since Year 1, I can only find one previous instance of an eclipse matching the same calendar date as the solstice, and that is  DEC 21, 1638." Geoff Chester said, according to NASA. "Fortunately we won't have to wait 372 years for the next one ... that will be on  DEC 21, 2094" I doubt I will make that one.

This year's event will take 3 hours and 38 minutes. The eclipse begins on Tuesday at 1:33 a.m. ET, when the Earth's dark-red shadow will turn up on the edge of the moon, according to NASA. It will take about an hour for the shadow to cover the entire moon. Totality begins at 2:41 a.m. and lasts for 72 minutes.


Notable births on this date:

1940 Larry Willis rock keyboardist (Blood, Sweat & Tears) Spinning Wheel has got to go round.
1944 Robert Colomby New York NY, rock drummer (Blood Sweat & Tears-When I Die)
1949 Claudia Jennings [Mary Ellen Chestrerton] Minnesota, playmate (November 1969)
1961 Bonnie Marino Cleveland OH, playmate (June 1990)
1967 Wendy Hamilton Detroit MI, playmate (December 1991) Good birthday to where your birthday suit.
1970 Grant Flower cricketer (brother of Andy Zimbabwe Test opening batsman)

Notable deaths on this date:

1812 Sacagawea Shoshone interpreter for Lewis & Clark, dies. I got her quarter.
1876 Hannah Omish at 12 is youngest ever hanged in US
1968 John Steinbeck author (Grapes of Wrath, Nobel 1962), dies in New York at 66
1973 Bobby Darin singer (Mack the Knife), dies of heart failure at 37
1976 Richard J Daley Chicago mayor dies at 74

Notable events on this date:

1192 Richard the Lionhearted captured in Vienna
1669 1st jury trial in Delaware; Marcus Jacobson condemned for insurrection & sentenced to flogging, branding & slavery
1803 Louisiana Purchase formally transferred from France to US for $27 million
1820 Missouri imposes a $1 bachelor tax on unmarried men between 21 & 50. The good old days!

1879 Tom Edison privately demonstrated incandescent light at Menlo Park
1880 New York's Broadway lit by electricity, becomes known as "Great White Way"

1920 Bob Hope becomes an American citizen. Thank God.
1944 Battle of Bastogne, Nazis surround 101st Airborne (NUTS!)
1993 Donald Trump weds Marla Maples
1956 Montgomery AL, removed race-based seat assignments on its buses
1957 Elvis Presley given draft notice to join US Army for National Service

1967 474,300 US soldiers in Vietnam. Some things never change, just the faces.

 “To criticize the incompetent is easy; it is more difficult, to criticize the competent.”
Today is a great day to buy my book. It makes a great gift for anyone including, yourself. Buy it while you still have money. There are just six shopping days before Christmas; buy now and beat the rush.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2010
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
www.brucebrennanlaws.com
www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan

www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.


Sunday, December 19, 2010

Way to go NIU! SALT is no good for America.


DECEMBER 19, 2010

December 19 is … Oatmeal Muffin Day.

The Northern Illinois Huskies were rather impressive against Fresno State in the UDrove Humanitarian Bowl came on Saturday afternoon. Congratulations to the entire Athletic Department and the University’s administration for supporting the football program.

What is all this talk about the weapons treaty in the news for?  How much money do we spend on research and development in coming up with these new-age weapons? How much do we pay defense contractors?

We never use the weapons of mass destruction we develop. The other guys never use the weapons of mass destruction they develop. It is all a game played by the military industrial complex President Eisenhower warned us about during his farewell address on January 17, 1961. He was as prophetic as he was accurate.

So we spend trillions of dollars on developing weapons we know we will never use. We do not test most of them other than in controlled laboratory conditions. We are not entirely sure they will work in practice but they are scary in theory.

Our perceived enemies spend trillions of dollars on similar weapons, we think. In reality, we are the only nation with the knowhow and financial wherewithal to develop these weapons. President Reagan proved that when he spent the Soviet Union out of existence, as they once were, in the late eighties.

Now we are having an internal political fight over the ratification of a treaty that is insignificant. Doesn’t this country and most of the world owe their existence to the fact the United States had bigger and better weapons, people, ideas and finances enabling us to defeat the enemies in WW I, WW II, The Revolutionary War and many other examples throughout history. Why do we want to give up this advantage?
The White House is making it a top priority to get the lame-duck Congress, now in progress, to pass the new SALT agreement. The agreement would shrink the U.S. and Russian arsenals of strategic warheads. That means it would shrink our expensive arsenal since the nearly broke,  non-existent and irrelevant Russians are not devoting much of their budget to strategic warheads any more. The agreement would also revive on-the-ground inspections that ceased when a previous treaty expired nearly a year ago. I don’t recall any nuclear wars or threats of any nuclear wars since that treaty expired.
This Cold War game continues and will continue after this treaty like it has after previous treaties. We know what they have. They know we know what they have. We know they know we know what they have and so forth. The insanity continues. Neither side will ever use one of these weapons. Everybody knows that. The last one to pull the trigger wins, if you call dying first winning.
Sen. Jon Kyl, takes the Republican position on the issue. He and fellow Republicans are seeking more money; focusing on maintaining and modernizing the remaining arsenal we already have rather than destroy it. If we destroy what we have now, it seems obvious we will just develop new weapons. We have a lead over every other country in the world in this area, why give up a strategic lead? That just allows those trailing us to catch up. Why not just enter into an agreement not to develop more weapons than we now have? Both sides can break that agreement as easily as any other at a much lower cost to the United States.
Notable births on this date:

1753 John Taylor Virginia, philosopher (Jeffersonian Democracy)
1778 Marie-Thérèse-Charlotte daughter of King Louis XVI & Marie-Antoinette
1916 Mervyn Wallace cricketer (13 Tests for New Zealand, latterly as captain) 
1920 David Susskind New York NY, TV host (Open End, David Susskind Show)
1920 Jimmy Dickens Bolt WV, country singer (Grand Ole Opry)
1926 Jeanne Kirkpatrick US ambassador to UN. Made famous on SNL as a slut.
1945 John McEuen rocker (Nitty Gritty Dirt Band). Mr. Bojangles
1957 Liz Glazowski Chicago IL, playmate (April, 1980)
1960 Mike Lookinland Mount Pleasant UT, actor (Bobby-Brady Bunch

Notable deaths on this date:

1930 Johnny Douglas cricketer (soccer int, boxing gold medal), drowns. Good athlete but he couldn’t swim.
1959 Walter Williams claimed to be last survivor of Civil War, dies at 117

Notable events on this date:

1686 Robinson Crusoe leaves his island after 28 years (as per Defoe)
1732 Benjamin Franklin (under the name Richard Saunders) begins publication of "Poor Richard's Almanack"
1776 Thomas Paine published his 1st "American Crisis" essay, in which he wrote, "These are the times that try men's souls"
1777 Washington settles his troops at Valley Forge PA for the winter
1843 Charles Dickens publishes "A Christmas Carol" in England
1910 Rayon 1st commercially produced, Marcus Hook PA
1913 Jack Johnson fights Jim Johnson to a draw in 10 for hw boxing title
1918 Robert Ripley began his "Believe It or Not" column (New York Globe)
1941 German submarine U-574 sinks
1941 Hitler takes complete command of German Army
1941 US Office of Censorship created to control info pertaining to WWII
1958 1st radio broadcast from space (recorded Christmas message by President Eisenhower: "To all mankind, America's wish for Peace on Earth & Good Will to Men Everywhere")
1960 Frank Sinatra's 1st session with Reprise Records (Ring-A-Ding-Ding)
1971 CBS airs "Homecoming - A Christmas Story" (introducing the Waltons)
1995 Queen Elizabeth askes Prince Charles & Diana to divorce
1997 MTV drops video "Smack My Bitch Up" by Prodigy
“To save one life is better than to build a seven story pagoda.”  I don’t know what that means but someone probably does.
Today is a great day to buy my book. It makes a great gift for anyone including, yourself. Buy it while you still have money. There are just six shopping days before Christmas; buy now and beat the rush.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2010
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
www.brucebrennanlaws.com
www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan

www.barnesandnoble.com (do a quick search, Title, my name)
www.smashwords.com Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.




Saturday, December 18, 2010

Trouble posting or reading?

DECEMBER 18, 2010

If you cannot get the post today, go to http://www.lawyerbruce.wordpress.com/ Sorry for the inconvenience.

Bruce A. Brennan

Does Madoff get Social Security?

These thoughts are mine. They may be shared by many but I am speaking for myself. If you are offended, it was not intentional. If you continually get offended by my positions and opinions, you should change, I doubt I will.

Friday, December 17, 2010

Death taxes should die!

These thoughts are mine. They may be shared by many but I am speaking for myself. If you are offended, it was not intentional. If you continually get offended by my positions and opinions, you should change, I doubt I will.

DECEMBER 17, 2010

What follows is my opinion. I rarely devote the majority of a column to one issue. I have written this as an editorial piece. You may quibble with my assertions but the facts are accurate. You do not have to agree with me; that is the concept of an editorial. As always, post a comment with your opinion or response.

December 17 is … Underdog Day and National Maple Syrup Day. We are all underdogs when it comes to the government. Who doesn’t like Maple Syrup?

Before the opinion flies, take a look at; http://www.rockthetower.com/ for a good read and a fine article on the Battle of the Bulge.

Let me get this straight. I or anyone works their entire life earning money and accumulating wealth. During the entire period of working and accumulating wealth, income taxes, capital gains taxes, property taxes, sales taxes and an assortment of other taxes and fees are paid on what is earned, accumulated gained or gathered. If any of your wealth is a result of investments in the stock market, your dividends have been taxed twice. It is taxed once as income to the corporation before it is distributed to the investor and taxed again by the investor after distribution as income again. Taxes and fees are paid at the federal level, the state level and in some cases, at the county and city level. Fees are imposed on everyone at every level.

You have worked hard and have become a success. You have never been on welfare or received any government “entitlement program” funds. You make charitable contributions in line with your beliefs. You are a generous person You have raised children. Your children have never been a burden on society. You taught them well. Perhaps you gave them an employment opportunity. You have grandchildren. You want to leave the world a better place than when you entered it. You parents afforded you a better life than they had and you want to do the same for your children and grandchildren. But wait, the government of the United States does not want this to happen.

Estate taxes, death taxes, one last kiss our ass tax from the government, the stifle your drive tax, the give it to the government tax, the screw your children tax, the might as well spend it while I am alive tax or whatever you want to call it is wrong. It is Socialism. It is communism at work.
 Congress is debating this immoral tax with the Democrats wanting to raise the tax rate and Republicans wanting to lower the tax rate. I want to eliminate the tax rate. If and when the tax kicks in, it is taxation without representation at its truest form. You are dead and therefore getting no benefit from the tax. If you are buried in a cemetery, the plot you rest in already pays property taxes. That is enough post death tax for me.

Senator Dick Durbin recently said it was pure greed driving those that want to do away with the estate tax or lower it from the current 45% to 35%.. I earned it. I own it. I want to distribute as I see fit. It is not greedy to want to control what you own. It is greed to simply take it from me after my death so you can spend it as you see fit. The taxpayer is not greedy, Congress is greedy.

Every dollar earned by working, productive Americans is taxed through numerous taxes, taxing bodies and government imposed fees at nearly 80%. That means to accumulate one dollar in wealth, a citizen has to earn over $12.00. To accumulate a significant estate takes a lot of work and a lifetime. The estate tax has been around for awhile but it is being debated now because the greedy Democrats want to take most of a person’s estate and give it to welfare recipients. The tax convinces many brilliant, hard-working individuals to cease trying to be the best they can be. Why work yourself to the bone when you and your family will not enjoy the fruits of your labor. It convinces others to spend everything they have before they die so the government will not get their fortune. Off shore banks are making a killing. The law invites law-abiding citizens to skirt the law. If I spend everything I have before I die, the government will take care of me. They do it for millions of lazy welfare recipients already. What is one more?

Individuals who use tax advisors and wealth experts will be able to get around the law. The easiest way is to make sure everything one owns is titled by a legal entity that does not die. These entities could be corporations, trusts or limited liability companies. In that case, an individual can draft the terms of ownership to give the entity legal title while equitable title is retained by the person who created the wealth. T will not be long, however, until the government finds a way to tax these arrangements or make them illegal.

Slavery is outlawed but the tax laws force my descendants to work just to put money into the government coffers. If I worked hard enough and was successful enough to leave a legacy where my children and grandchildren did not have to work, why will the government not allow that to happen? According to the government, i.e. Democrats, everyone must work unless, of course, you are lazy, a drug addict, an illegal alien or a baby making machine that votes Democratic.
 “Every human being comes equipped with a brain at no extra cost.”
Apparently, our government does not follow this adage.

Today is a great day to buy my book. It makes a great gift for anyone including, yourself. Buy it while you still have money.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2010
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
www.brucebrennanlaws.com
www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
http://www.smashwords.com/ Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.

Thursday, December 16, 2010

Bad Santa; Bad weather girl!

These thoughts are mine. They may be shared by many but I am speaking for myself. If you are offended, it was not intentional. If you continually get offended by my positions and opinions, you should change, I doubt I will.
DECEMBER 16, 2010

December 16 is … National Chocolate Covered Anything Day One of my favorite days!

Heidi Jones, a New York weather forecaster who works at the ABC affiliate in New York City, WABC, and is occasionally a fill in forecaster for Good Morning America was arrested Monday on charges she fabricated a sexual assault. She filed a police report in November claiming she was assaulted by a Hispanic male while jogging on Sept. 24th in Central Park. It was never clear why she had waited over two months to file the charges. Police found inconsistencies in her story and she has now admitted she made the entire story up. She has been suspended by WABC. You have to figure her credibility as a journalist has been destroyed. You have to believe even the weather forecaster. Credibility and honesty count in this world. If only the politicians and Santa Claus actors would learn that.

Six crimes committed by Santa Claus. These have been gathered by researching the internet. I have no personal involvement in any aspect of any of these cases. I do not vouch for the accuracy of the stories. They are just amusing to read.

1) Motorcycle Kidnapper Santa
Don’t trust a Santa on a motorcycle. A family stopping for gas in Columbia, South Carolina in December 2006 noticed an innocuous-looking Santa refueling his motorcycle. He asked if the children wanted to see the stuffed Rudolph in the sidecar, then drove off with the family’s 8-year-old daughter. The girl’s father chased the kidnapping Santa, who eventually stopped and turned over the uninjured girl. Police later found John Michael Barton, 55, hiding out in the utility room of a local bar. Apparently Barton had been playing Santa in the area for several weeks, posing for pictures with local children, and got carried away. He apologized to the family, saying he got “caught up” in his role.
2) Pedophile Hiding in the Bushes Santa
Another failed Santa Claus kidnapping occurred in 2009 in Parma, Ohio. Anthony Russo, 46, was dressed as in a red Santa suit and carrying a box of candy canes and a unicycle decorated with bows, bells, and a Santa gift bag. He jumped out of some bushes and began following a 12-year-old girl, whom he tried to grab several times. The girl got away and called police from a nearby convenience store. The Pedo Santa was arrested on a Cleveland bus, still in full costume.
3) Psycho 2×4 Santa
Christmas shopping got a little out-of-hand in Atlanta in 2004, when a man dressed as Santa attacked a 74-year-old woman with a 2×4 board at a shopping mall. Elkin Donnie Clarke told police he knocked the woman unconscious because she had taken 29 boxes of Hershey’s chocolates from him.
4) Swedish Robber Santa
A thief dressed as Santa seems to be doing fairly well for himself in Sweden. Santa and two of his helpers robbed a perfume store in Falkenberg, a garage in Hylte and a clothing store in  Kungsbacka, Sweden, in 2007. Each time the trio escaped in a different car: witnesses reported seeing a white Volvo, a silver Volvo and a blue Audi at the various crime scenes.
5) Nashville Bank Robber Santa
In Nashville Tennessee Santa Claus robbed a bank December 22, 2009. When bank officials asked Santa to remove his sunglasses, he pulled out a 9-millimeter handgun and demanded cash. Witnesses described the thief as “jovial” and heard him explain that he had to pay his elves.
6) DUI Santa
Santa works hard, so it’s not surprising he might want to relax with a little Christmas spirit once in a while. Unfortunately in Sparta, Wisconsin in 2009, Santa was cited for violating the state’s open container law. Witnesses called police after noticing an alleged drunken driver; Santa, aka 47-year-old Kevin Arnold,  was in the passenger seat. When the car stopped, Santa stumbled out of the car, hugged several nearby children and asked if they knew where his reindeer were.

Notable births on this date:
1775 Jane Austen England, novelist (Pride & Prejudice)
1850 Fred Morley cricketer (legendary Notts & England bowler 1880-83)
1882 Sir John Berry Hobbs England, 1st cricket player knighted (1953)
1890 Harlan Sanders founder/CEO (Kentucky Fried Chicken)
1901 Margaret Mead Philadelphia PA, anthropologist (Coming of Age in Samoa)
1929 Ian Board barkeeper Who is he?
1941 Lesley Stahl Lynn MA, White House correspondent (CBS-TV)
1962 William "The Refrigerator" Perry NFL defensive back (Chicago Bears)

Notable deaths on this date:

1858 Richard Bright British Dr (Bright's disease/nephritis), dies at 69
1859 Wilhelm Grimm writer (Grimm's Fairy Tales), dies at 73
1916 Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin a powerful Russian monk is murdered at 45
1945 Fumimaro Konu Japanese prince/PM (1937-39, 40-41), commits hara-kiri
1976 George a goose that lived to 49 years 8 months, dies. THAT IS AN OLD GOOSE
1980 Harland "Colonel" Sanders founder Kentucky Fried Chicken, dies at 90. CHECK OUT WHO WAS BORN TODAY.
1985 Paul Castellano Organized-crime chief, shot dead at a New York NY restaurant. John Gotti bit off more than he could chew.
1989 Lee Van Cleef US actor (Good, Bad & Ugly), dies at 64

Notable events on this date:

0882 John VIII ends his reign as Catholic Pope
0882 Marinus I begins his reign as Catholic Pope. No grass growing under his feet.
1773 Big tea party in Boston harbor-Indians welcome (Boston Tea Party). I like tea.
1892 Commencement of 1st Sheffield Shield cricket game, South Africa vs New South Wales
1915 Albert Einstein publishes his "General Theory of Relativity"
1918 Jack Dempsey KOs Carl Morris in 14 seconds
1929 1st NHL game at Chicago Stadium; Chicago Blackhawks beat Pittsburgh Pirates, 3-1
1944 Battle of the Bulge begins in Belgium
1953 1st White House Press Conference (President Eisenhower & 161 reporters)
1953 Charles E Yeager flies over 2,575 kph (1,650 mph) in Bell X-1A (first man to fly at nearly two and one-half times the speed of sound)
1971 Don McLean's 8+ minute version of "American Pie" released
1975 Bill Veeck buys 80% of White Sox from John Allyn
1994 Davy Jones (Monkees), charged with DWI

“When forced to choose between two evils, try the new one”

It is a great day to buy my book. It makes a great gift for anyone including, yourself.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2010
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
www.brucebrennanlaws.com
www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
http://www.smashwords.com/ Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.












Wednesday, December 15, 2010

A New York Serial Killer and Bon Jovi

These thoughts are mine. They may be shared by many but I am speaking for myself. If you are offended, it was not intentional. If you continually get offended by my positions and opinions, you should change, I doubt I will.
DECEMBER 15, 2010

December 15 is … National Lemon Cupcake Day. I do not like Lemon Cupcakes.

In 2009 Hallmark sold 85,000 birthday cards for people celebrating their one-hundredth birthday.

Christmas is getting real close. Pretty soon we will all be saying “Twas the night before Christmas and all through the house…”

Please watch the video below. Many of you, especially those around my age have likely seen it before but it may have been years. I always enjoyed Red Skelton. I like him more today.

                        http://media.causes.com/604250?p_id=42563578

a London Judge released Julian Assange on bond. He is staying in London’s Wandsworth Prison for the next 48 hours o the Swedish government can appeal the decision. He must post 2000,000 lbs or $320,000.00 in cash to be released. The money is to be posted by friends, strangers and wannabees.

A group of 10 celebrity supporters pledged to post Assange's bail, including film director Michael Moore, British filmmaker Ken Loach, war journalist John Pilger, human rights advocate Bianca Jagger and socialite Jemima Khan. In a statement posted on his website, Moore called the WikiLeaks boss a "pioneer of free speech, transparent government and the digital revolution in journalism" and said that he would contribute $20,000 to the bail fund.

This move is sure to make Moore popular no matter where he takes his sagging, nearly nonexistent career.

The New York City police are looking into the possibility that a serial killer is working in the New York City area. Three bodies were found Monday in the same beach area. A fourth body had been previously discovered in the same area. Two of the bodies were wrapped in burlap. The bodies were badly decomposed making identification difficult. Two of the bodies have been determined to be female. No result s are in on the other two.

Las Vegas police are looking for a man who robbed the Bellagio Casino around 3:45 a.m. Tuesday. A man with a similar description robbed the Suncoast Casino on December 9th.. At the Suncoast the robber made off with about $20,000.00. The robber got away with 1.5 million in gaming chips from the Bellagio. It may not be all that easy to cash in the chips, however. The chips are only good at the Bellagio. Many Casinos embed a radio chip into their gaming chips for tracking purposes. The Bellagio will not say if they follow that practice. Where is George Clooney when you need him?

I am real glad to see President Obama is taking care of the people’s business. With yesterday’s appointment, we can all sleep better and I am sure we are safer. Jon Bon Jovi: rocker and presidential adviser? It's true. The "Livin' on a Prayer" singer has been appointed to the 25-member White House Council for Community Solutions.

In its announcement Tuesday, the White House said the new panel will "provide advice to the President on the best ways to mobilize citizens, nonprofits, businesses and government to work more effectively together to solve specific community needs."

Bon Jovi, a long-time supporter of the Democratic Party, performed at President Obama's inauguration. The Grammy winner heads the Jon Bon Jovi Soul Foundation, a group devoted to ending homelessness.

This announcement comes on the same day The Brookings Institute released a study detailing how and why Presidential appointments have become a joke in Washington DC. The actions of the Senate clearly prove our government is too big. The government does not need the employees and appointments it has but refuses to confirm.

When it comes to its constitutional duty to confirm presidential nominations, the U.S. Senate often spends more time on advice and far less on consent.

But here are two things all should all agree on: The system for confirming presidential appointees is broken and puts the country in peril. How else to explain the manufactured crisis in the early days of the Obama administration when Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner found himself "Home Alone," facing one of the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression while his key deputies awaited Senate confirmation?

The problem, the subject of one commission and study after another for a quarter century, is well-known and cuts across partisan lines. Yet despite reams of recommendations, little if anything has been done to address the problem, which is a recurring theme in Washington DC.

The name of the report is "A Half-Empty Government Can't Govern: Why Everyone Wants to Fix the Appointments Process, Why It Never Happens, and How We Can Get It Done."

The authors are Brookings Institution senior fellows William Galston and E.J. Dionne Jr., who also write columns for the Washington Post. They call for a new urgency and political will to reform a dysfunctional system. Yet they note the challenges before them.

Two of the problems pointed out are the political games played in Washington and the fact the government has grown too big.

By the midterm elections, nearly one in five key policymaking slots in the Obama administration were still unfilled, and most still remain that way. The problem is particularly acute for Obama's judicial appointees. The Huffington Post recently reported that only 39.8 percent of his judges have been confirmed, compared to 76 percent for George W. Bush and 89 percent for Bill Clinton at the same juncture in their presidencies.

The problem also has been aggravated by a proliferation of presidential appointees requiring Senate confirmation. When Ronald Reagan took office in 1981, he filled 295 core policy jobs in Cabinet departments and executive agencies. Obama had 422 such positions and a total of 1,177 full-time appointments that required Senate confirmation.

During the alarmist early days of the manufactured economic crisis, we often heard the term “too big to fail” Clearly, our government does not practice what it preaches.
Notable births on this date:

1735 Cesare Beccaria-Bonesana Italian lawyer
1832 Alexandre-Gustave Eiffel French engineer (Eiffel tower)
1836 Edmond Picard French/Belgian lawyer/writer (La forge Roussel)
1879 Hugo W C Bordewijk Dutch lawyer
1922 Alan Freed Pennsylvania, DJ, accepted payola/introduced term "rock-n-roll"
1929 Keith Andrew cricketer (England wicket-keeper in 2 Tests 1954-63)
1930 Alim-ud-Din cricketer (Pakistani batsman in 25 Tests 1954-62)
1933 Tim Conway Willoughby OH, comic (McHale's Navy, Carol Burnett Show) NOW HE IS FUNNY
1942 Dave Clark London England, rock drummer (Dave Clark 5-Glad All Over)
1985 Sheeba Reiter Florida, illegitimate daughter of Jackie Mason

Notable deaths on this date:

1688 Gaspar Fagel lawyer/Netherlands grand pensionary (1672-88), dies at 54
1890 Sitting Bull Hunkpapa-Sioux chief (Little Big Horn), killed by US Army
1939 Tom McKibbin cricketer (5 Tests for Australia 1895-1898, 17 wickets), dies
1944 Glenn Miller US band leader/jazz composer, dies at 40
1966 Walt Disney animator, dies at 65, put in suspended animation NOT REALLY DEAD?
1997 Lillian Disney widow of Walt Disney, dies at 98

Notable events on this date:

1791 Bill of Rights ratified when Virginia gave its approval
1791 1st US law school established at University of Pennsylvania
1792 1st life insurance policy issued in US (Philadelphia)
1877 Thomas Edison patents phonograph
1894 Cricket day 2 1st T Australia vs England Australia 586 (Gregory 201) England 3-130
1939 1st commercial manufacture of nylon yarn, Seaford DE
1939 World premiere of "Gone With The Wind" in Atlanta GA
1939 Snip departs for 1st flight to Paramaribo, Curaçao
1941 USS Swordfish becomes 1st US sub to sink a Japanese ship
1944 Bandleader, Major Glenn Miller, lost over English Channel
1944 Hizbu'allah (Arm forces for Allah) forms
1973 American Psychiatric Association declares homosexuality is not mental illness
1978 Test Cricket debut of Malcolm Marshall, vs India at Bangalore
1979 Deposed Shah of Iran leaves US for Panamá
1979 World Court in Hague rules Iran should release all US hostages
1988 Lori Davis of Long Island sues Mike Tyson for grabbing her buttocks
1990 Rocker Rod Stewart marries super model Rachel Hunter

“If reality wants to get in touch with me, it knows where I am.”

Today is a great day to buy my book. It makes a great gift for anyone including, yourself.

BRUCE A. BRENNAN
DEKALB, IL 60115
COPYRIGHT 2010
Email: brucebrennanlaw@aol.com
www.brucebrennanlaws.com
www.lawyerbruceabrennan.com
Go to web sites below to buy books by Bruce A. Brennan

http://www.barnesandnoble.com/ (do a quick search, Title, my name)
http://www.smashwords.com/ Do a Title or author search, Check this site out.