Connecticut Attorney General and US Senate candidate has been exposed today by the New York Times as a psychopathic lying fraud who cannot serve in public office. Period.

Lying is bad enough.

But trying to glom onto the glory of combat soldiers is so disgustingly disgraceful that he must resign his post and leave public office at once.

This is not some “misunderstanding” as his spokesman is trying to soft-peddle it. No, this is deranged and sick and malicious.

What veteran would ever believe in this man again?

What future soldier, thinking of enlisting, could ever believe in the policy set by a US Senator who lied about his own military service?

No, this is indeed a disqualifying event. He must not only drop out of the Senate race, but he must also resign as Attorney General at once. As the chief law enforcement office of the Nutmeg State, he cannot hold up truth and justice from this day forward and must step down at once.

What a disgrace Blumenthal is—and all those who support him once this news has come out.

The deterioration of America is startling.



Values that we took for granted have eroded or disappeared - like the slicing of a salami. You know - one slice and then another slice - it appears to be the same as when you began - but then after a few more slices suddenly you look and the salami is almost gone.



That is what is happening to the United States of America - right before our eyes.



The idea that the Treasury Secretary of the United States asks for the power to fire and hire the heads of companies is something none of us ever would have thought we would see in our country. Ever!



The idea that to fix an ailing economy we need to totally re-structure the federal government and expand the budget and create new programs is a hijacking of the recession to mask the imposition of 1970's style Western European-style Big Government Socialism.



The idea that to “stimulate” the economy we need to ladle out projects to every congressional district - most of which are goodies to extol the local Democratic Congressman - is a joke and a shame.



And that the national news media would look at all this with nary a questioning eye?

Oh, my.



Indeed, we have seen over the past two decades the triumph of the 1960's liberals. That drugged-out selfish, self-indulgent culture has come of age - and has swept our nation:

• Honor and honesty are not practiced by our leaders - in every field from business to law to politics to religion to medicine to education; 

• Me first-ness is the way to get ahead now;

• Personal debt has soared. No longer do people save like their parents did. Spending like there is no tomorrow is seen as the way to go; 

• Living beyond the means you have earned is seen as good;

• Lying is so common that you can’t tell the truth anymore;

• American education - from elementary school through graduate school - has become even more rife with teachers with agendas; instead of teaching the basics, these politically-correct “agendas” dominate education;

• Sacrifice, suffering to get what you want, patience, waiting your time, earning your chance - all these time-honored American values are gone! Pffft!

With these basic values gone - or disappearing - the political underpinnings of our system are challenged.

Politically, we Republicans and conservatives became ‘stupid’ years ago - after the Reagan Era - when we fell into Big Government Republicanism under both President George Bushes. And the result is we have no credibility to challenge President Obama’s massive Lurch to the Left.

The Democrats have been lying in the weeds just waiting for the Bush-led GOP to implode. And as soon as it did, they have moved with alacrity to take the country in an entirely different direction - even though that is not what was promised last year during the election.

The idea of the federal government doling out bail-outs worth trillions is/was unfathomable. Thirty years ago we had a wrenching national debate over a single bailout - to Chrysler.

Now a new bank bailout happens almost every weekend.

The Geithner/Obama thinking allows them to fire the head of GM - and now they want to have the power to fire the heads of banks receiving bailout money.

This expansion of federal power is not a good thing. And there will be a back-lash.

Jimmy Carter and the Tip O’Neill-led Congress almost destroyed our nation in the late 1970's - and that led us to Ronald Reagan.

This new Obama-led Lurch to the Far Left will also lead us to someone new - perhaps as soon as 2012.

But that person - and we do not yet know who it may be - might not be a Republican.

He/she might instead be an Independent libertarian conservative who runs against both major parties claiming that “the mess we are in has been created and compounded by both the Republican and Democrat parties - and until we dismantle both we can never get this country back going in the right direction.”

This nation will not stand for long as a Big Government, cradle-to-grave Nanny State.

There is certain to be a reaction against it.

The only question is when - and led by whom?

While reading Joe Torre’s book, THE YANKEE YEARS, written with Sports Illustrated’s Tom Verducci, a few things came into focus:

• Steroid use really does make a player hit, throw and run better;

• Pitchers can throw appreciably harder and hitters’ eyesight, reflexes, fast-twitch muscles and reactions are markedly improved by using the right steroid for the right athlete;

• The proof is in the pudding: take the one-time Mets catcher, Todd Hundley. In 1996 he hit 16 home runs and earned $1 million. That off-season he asked Mets clubhouse attendant and on-the-side steroid dealer, Kurt Rodomski, for “something” to elevate his game. Rodomski complied and began shooting Hundley up; yes, Hudley worked out in conjunction with the steroids to maximize their effect. Rodomski told him, “You’re going to hit 40 homers now.” Sure enough, in 1997 Hundley hit 41 homers - the most ever by a catcher up to that point - and went on to earn another $37 million in his career!

• From the Torre-Verducci book it is clear that steroids and Human Growth Hormone (HGH) have become unbelievably widespread throughout baseball.

• Just look at old ESPN Classic games from 30 years ago and see how thin-waisted and scrawny and wiry the players used to be. Now they are hulking monsters!

• Yes, this was - and is - cheating. Even if prior to 2004 the rules of Major League Baseball did not prohibit steroids, the laws of all the states prohibited possession and/or the purchase of these drugs. Yet the players - through their so-called ‘personal trainers’ - tried to circumvent the law and get injected with these powerful drugs.

• As a result of this cheating, the players made gobs and gobs of money!!!

• And, in the process, they have cheated. Period.

• You know what? In America - even if it takes a long, long time - cheaters and liars get exposed. The truth always comes out.

• And from A-Rod to Barry Bonds to Roger Clemens to Mark Maguire - they all have been or are being exposed as the cheaters and liars they are.



OK. That is baseball. Our one-time National Pastime. Just a sport. Not anything of any real substance.

Oh yeah?

Guess what?

The very same pattern has overtaken us as a nation.

Cheating and lying are all over the place in the leadership class.

From politicians to lawyers to doctors to business titans to leaders in the entertainment industry.

Madoff, Enron, no-WMD-in-Iraq, the“I never had sex with that woman - Miss Lewinsky,” soldiers ripping off our aid to Iraq, mortgage-lenders ‘teasing’ home-buyers with deceptively low rates and then jacking them up, wide-spread Medicaid fraud, famous historians committing plagiarism and getting away with it, self-centered business leaders taking huge bonuses while laying off their lesser-paid subordinates, overpaid executives spending $1.2 million to decorate an office while the bank is going bust - we could go on and on and on.

The point is clear: like the ballplayers who - while blessed with incredible, superior athletic talent - still wanted to cheat to do even better - these societal leaders also want to cheat and lie about it to make even more money; more money than any one person could ever reasonably spend.

This Super-Sized greed and drive is out-of-wack with our values of fair play, hard work and treating all people fairly and equally.

And these privileged people - in key positions of leadership across the spectrum - are dragging down our country, making awful decisions that harm thousands of people, and are helping to destroy the once-glorious image of the good old U.S.A.

The only good thing about this recession is that it will “shake out” the system and flush many of these greedy jerks down the tubes. Unfortunately, along with them go many, many good people.

America is a self-correcting nation. We do address our problems - sometimes a little too slowly for many of us - but we do face up to things. In this case, we need widespread condemnation of the lying and the cheating and the rip-offs.

And we need to re-instate a long-lost sentiment in our society: shame.

Until these crooks and cheats feel genuine shame for what they have done, they will continue to do it.

They need that kind of shame where you hide your face on the perp walk - not smile into the mug shot camera as if you are proud of what you have done - and can’t face your friends and family and instead you’d rather jump off a building.

Today’s frauds and crooks and cheats revel in their notoriety.

That needs to change - and fast.

Prediction: America is undergoing a whole lot of “change” right now - most of it forced by the crumbling economy. In ten years we will be a stronger nation and a better-behaved people than we are today.

MORAL METER


OK. Let us try a new way to analyze the 2008 presidential campaign: through a Moral Meter.

First, let’s look at the country. How would you rate the United states on a Moral Meter? Low, high or in the middle?

Personally, I’d rate it this way: a majority of people are upset over some aspect of the declining moral atmosphere in our country. But, when it comes to politics, the overwhelming majority of people believe - correctly - that our elected and appointed officials are so ‘low’ that it is hopeless to try to make it better. In other words, the people no longer even expect anything better than the absolute lowest standards. Thus lying about oral sex or non-existent WMDs or the true cost of the prescription drug program no longer hurts that candidate’s credibility; people seem to discount lying - figuring "they all do it" - and they accept it.They may not like it, but they accept it.

How sad.

Knowing this, voters don’t care when Hillary lies about her "cattle futures" $100,000 windfall or her scores of other lies. Nor do they care about Romney’s lies about his positions 10 years ago or his lie about his residency when he took over the salt Lake City Olympics. And they don’t care about Giuliani’s constant womanizing and philandering.

Conclusion: in American election politics, there is little expectation of any morality in any candidates. Or, in another way to look at it, a lack of morality will not hurt a candidate.

OK. That means the least moral candidate may very well win. In the GOP, that is Rudy Giuliani. Thrice married, an inveterate womanizer, surrounded by sleazy people, a fraud when he tries to glom onto the Reagan tradition (he was a McGovernite anti-war protestor in the 1970's and a registered Democrat when Reagan was elected and only switched in order to get a job in the Reagan Justice Department), it is highly possible this most amoral man will become the nominee of a political party that claims to be moral.

And it is also possible that he will be elected President in a country which has lost its moral compass.

Many view Rudy as "tough" (he is) and "determined" (he is) and will "stand up for us" (he might).

But those qualities are useless without a moral basis from which to operate. Toughness without good judgement is a prescription for trouble; determination without a sense of history and balance is a road-map for bad decisions.

Rudy Giuliani is - without a doubt - the most amoral candidate running for president in the GOP in 2008.

His entire life - from his Mafia father - through his private and public life show a pattern of ‘do anything to get what you want - no matter how you do it or who you hurt.’

No need to go over his past marriages, his social positions so at odds with the GOP he now courts or his meanness and arrogance; that will all be played out over the next few months. And McCain - another totally amoral liar (funny how these two lead in the polls, isn’t it? Doesn’t that prove this point?) - will now, in his desperation, take off his gloves and try to savage Rudy to knock him down in the polls.

But the GOP has proven itself now to also be a Moral Wasteland - no longer aware of its purpose. They tolerate Bush’s lies and condemn the Democrats’ lies. How does that figure?

How about some outrage over our own failures instead of a knee-jerk defense of every lie and misleading statement?

Evangelical ‘leaders’ are cropping up all over the nation supporting Giuliani - and saying things like, "Well, I am supporting him because he can win."
So that is the standard: winning - not principle - is now the gold standard even of the self-proclaimed moral leaders!

On the Democratic side, Bill and Hillary Clinton are by far the most amoral politicians we have ever seen. And the mainstream - i.e. also amoral - media has allowed them to get away with it for two decades.

So, using this Moral Meter, it isn’t too hard to believe that the 2008 race might be between Giuliani and Hillary - both from New York (probably viewed by most American as the most amoral (blue) state).

What a wonderful choice, eh?

No wonder so many people are so depressed over the present course of our once-great country.

And oh how we need a new candidate to enter this race - and change the whole dialogue.