On Monday, those candidates participated in a debate in Washington. Held in the ballroom of the National Press Club, the event drew 600 attendees, was carried live on C-SPAN2 and was viewed live on the micro site RNCdebate.org by 2,800 others. Americans for Tax Reform hosted the debate moderated by ATR president Grover Norquist. The 90-minute debate featured all six declared candidates for Chairman: Mike Duncan, current Chairman, Republican National Committee; Saul Anuzis, Chairman, Republican Party of Michigan; Ken Blackwell, former Secretary of State, Ohio; Katon Dawson, Chairman, Republican Party of South Carolina; Chip Saltsman, Former Chairman, Republican Party of Tennessee; Michael Steele, Chairman, GOPAC.

A memorable and telling comment was offered by Dawson, on the subject of technology. “What we’ll be using in 2012 is being invented right now,” he said. Michael Steele presented himself well—he is the most charismatic candidate and is very popular with the grassroots. Steele has a recognizable national brand, always an asset in politics.

Thousands of people submitted questions via an Internet site. “Today’s debate will set a precedent,” said Norquist. “Never again should the RNC chair be appointed by anyone. Every center-right activist should have a say in questioning the candidates and communicating with RNC members who cast votes...just like lobbying your Congressman and Senators. The route to a freer America begins with each of us caring enough to engage on this first election in the campaign for 2010, 2012 and beyond.”

Robert Willington wrote commentary about the event at the website Rebuild the Party, noting, “How ironic it is that the most open and transparent moment in the campaign for RNC Chair comes at a time when the Democrats, in a backroom deal, have Obama hand-pick the Chairman of the DNC.”

On Wednesday the RNC will hold a special candidate forum at the Capitol Hill Club in Washington. All potential candidates for RNC Chairman, Co-Chair, Secretary, and Treasurer have been invited to participate. Candidates for each office will have an opportunity to deliver remarks and answer questions from Members of the RNC.

Whatever the outcome, the process is a step in the right direction. Traditionally a chair for each major party has been appointed based purely on politics. Involving the grassroots in the selection of a party leader is the first significant step the GOP has made and a good move at eroding the mythic country club image Democrats use to great advantage in campaigns.

There’s certainly a need for a fiscally conservative party that is small on government and big on national security. Whether the GOP can recoup that platform and satisfy the extreme right wing of the party while hanging onto the moderates is a question begging an answer.

Today's expanded West Wing is very similar to the 1902 "temporary" executive office building. After 100 years, the West Wing has transformed the grounds of the White House and the presidency.

For fiscal conservatives it’s wakeup time. The kids are in the candy shop, with Democrats controlling all levels of the U.S. government. Most Washingtonians, our new president included, have never run a business. Sen. Hillary Clinton declared from the campaign trail that the federal government should not be run like a business. She appears to have support for that ideal.

Obama’s website is a commendable development for taxpayers because it permits us to see what’s on his agenda. Congress should do the same thing, listing everything from earmarks to resolutions in plain English on a central government page. Especially the earmarks.

At the moment you’d think the U.S. was made of money. How deep a hole the ARRP digs in an already deep abyss is anyone’s guess. But 600,000 new government jobs is probably the worst idea I’ve heard from anyone as a remedy for the ailing economy. One way to shore up some cash for the government is to impound all assets of those who defrauded investors and/or abused trading practices. Another is to reduce the retirement package and other benefits members of Congress receive, starting with a moratorium on pay raises. Yet another is to do away with any government agency that does not provide a vital service. We could start with the U.S. Dept. of Education.

Running government like a business is the solution, not the problem. Most in control of our government have never met the challenge of running a business. The current predicament with the U.S. economy is an example of what happens when we elect leaders who place the interest of the taxpayer at the bottom of the priorities list. Our do-nothing Pelosi-Reid Congress is a perfect example.

On the federal level, talk about President-Elect Barack Obama’s plans for a “middle-class” tax break are beginning to re-emerge. Obama wants to allow President George W. Bush’s “tax cuts” to expire, but no one’s mentioning the marriage penalty that will return a burden to those of us who chose a traditional lifestyle path. No one’s mentioned Bush did impose more taxes on the “rich.” No one’s talked specifically about the income range “middle-class” represents.

Until real leadership shows up on the state and federal levels, the taxberg will grow. Cigarettes, cell phone and landline phones, gas and any other item a government can tax will be up front and center on the government tax seekers' target lists.

Personal income taxes on the federal level will rise for some of us who consider ourselves middle class. There was a lot of campaign talk about redistribution of wealth. Seems to me it's already in progress.

The only solution to dealing with the taxberg crisis is reducing the size of government on all levels. This can be done without harming healthcare, security/defense and transportation. Governments should take the approach we Main Streeters take—eliminate every single item that isn’t necessary for survival.

A good start—eliminate the Department of Education on the federal level and reduce state departments as well. If all those educational bureaucrats were earning their keep, our kids would be geniuses. By eliminating the bureaucracies, there'll be room to give teachers a well-deserved raise. Another idea—find a way to do something about fraud in healthcare programs like Medicare. Yet another idea—if investors defraud their clients, lock the perps up and throw away the key. There’s very little difference in a drug dealer and a white collar crook. You think white collar crooks don’t cause serious problems in other people’s lives? White collar crooks are one reason we are inundated with bailouts now. And those crooks don't all ply their trade on Wall Street.

The most significant move Congress can make: freeze payroll levels. I read that Congress is getting a raise. Why? The last two years have been the lousiest Congress in history. They don't deserve a raise. If they get one, they're just as guilty as those renegade CEOs they love to bash. Raises should be tied to performance not entitlement.

Until we have real leadership, the taxberg will grow. Can global warming be directed to government ‘bergs’? We predict the berg will mushroom in 2009. States and the federal government are desperately seeking your money. New York and Oregon are just the tip of the berg.

Former congresswoman Cynthia McKinney (photo from US Congress Bioguide).

Meanwhile, if, like McKinney, you plan to head into a war zone in a pleasure boat (even if media describes it as a relief boat), you may want to rethink your strategy. Or even better, your politics.

Pravda reported Panarin believes the U.S. will split into six parts as follows: “The first part is the US Pacific Coast. Here is an example. The Chinese make about 53 percent of San Francisco’s population. An ethnic Chinese used to be the governor of the State of Washington, whereas its capital, Seattle, is dubbed as the gateway for Chinese emigration to the USA. The Pacific Coast gradually falls under the influence of China. The second part is the south and the Mexicans. The Spanish language is widely spread there, it has almost become a state language of the territory. Texas openly fights for its independence. The Atlantic Coast represents a different ethnos and a different mindset, which may split into two. Central depressive regions make the final group. I have to remind here that five central states of the USA, where Indians live, declared their independence. It was considered a joke, a political show, but it’s a fact. Canada’s influence is strong in the north. We can claim Alaska after all, it was granted on a lease…”

Map from U.S. Government/CDC, NOAA.

The White House wouldn’t comment. The Wall Street Journal and other publications have run editorials. The scenario seems implausible, but it gives excellent insight into who has their eyes on our country. I’ve often wondered how much of the agitation inside our borders and the defamation occurring outside our borders is due to organized under-the-table efforts by other countries. Russia would certainly like to get her hands on Alaska. And our reputation is at the moment a target for other world leaders who don’t allow freedom of speech in their own countries. A single American shortcoming outlives the most egregious wrongdoing by countries like China and Russia where journalists have a habit of dying young or spending time in prison. U.S. media don’t even express outrage when a teen girl is stoned to death in another country, having been accused of adultery after she was raped. There are injustices aplenty. U.S. media only covers U.S. injustices.

We can hope that U.S. leaders pay attention to the forecast Panarin has offered. We may justifiably view his predictions with skepticism. But written between the lines of Panarin’s thoughts are indications of what other countries might like to see happen here.

At the moment, we have limited control over who actually comes to this country. An economic meltdown has not been explained and tax dollars are going to the very parties that helped cause the meltdown. We are under assault not only by terrorists but also by one of the most globally organized and well-funded disinformation wars in contemporary history. Meanwhile ex-presidents and wannabes go to other countries and criticize the U.S.

Leadership in Washington is a hotbed of corruption and greed. Many of our highest offices are held by the equivalent of American royalty. Labor unions have succeeded in usurping the power and the purse of American taxpayers. Our President-Elect is completely inexperienced. Our Vice-President Elect is best left to your imagination. Our congress is controlled by elitists most of whom are clueless about the challenges faced by Main Street. Our politically correct pop culture deifies diversity at the expense of unity. Those facts should definitely give us pause even if a wishful Russian analyst’s predictions don’t.

We are about to usher in an era of promised change. That’s nothing new. I’ve often said change is the oldest pickup line in politics. While Panarin’s forecast may seem outrageous, history reveals outrages and surprises dating to ancient times. If U.S. media did their job and U.S. leaders criticized other countries as eagerly as they do our own, the playing field for revealing outrage might at least begin to approach balance. It is that lack of balance that may have spurred Panarin’s predictions. Until balance is restored to the American narrative and to the global narrative, such predictions are likely to continue.

At the grocery store yesterday, it was the same. People walked around with big lists, looking for hard to find items like the mini-cupcake liners it seemed to take me forever to find. My daughter dropped by Barnes and Noble for a few last minute gifts and she said the place was crazy. She said Target and World Market were busy too. Target was the busiest of all.

We traveled to South Carolina last week for our annual Christmas gathering of the tribes and the cars were bumper to bumper on both sides of I-95, a sharp contrast to the sparse traffic we encountered when gas was so high.

Does this mean the economy is picking up? Or did everyone end up like us, doing things last minute because the end of the year has been so busy it’s been hard to shop?

Whatever the case, hopefully retail will come out better than forecasts suggested. There are deals galore right now for those brave enough to face the harried shoppers searching for that last minute deal that makes a perfect gift. Gift cards are popular with us this year, simply because times are tough and we figure with a gift card, the recipient can pick up what he or she needs.

I’ll soon have an idea what Christmas Eve shopping will be like. Yesterday, our trusty stainless steel percolator developed a crack in the plastic base on the bottom. I tried to convince my husband to buy a drip coffeemaker while we finished our shopping yesterday, but it was hopeless. It has to be a stainless steel percolator or we’ll have to resort to drinking tea. I’m hoping I can talk him into venturing to the Wal-Mart or Target while I put the Christmas Eve feast together. Being the chief cook sometimes has its advantages.

And I’m hoping retailers will report the figures better than economists projected. From the vantage point I’ve had, the shopping has proceeded at a healthy pace, so Christmas may turn out rosy for retailers after all. Maybe there’s an angel on the retail corner like the one who saved half a dozen of us from the SUV driver at Whole Foods Market.

____________________________________

Merry Christmas to my readers--and whatever your faith, may your holidays be blessed with love, the greatest gift of all.

Dr. Michio Kaku (Dr. Kaku website photo]Dr. Michio Kaku doesn’t come across as a tedious physicist—you know what I mean. Scientific experts usually affect me like an income tax audit. Kaku renders a very complicated subject interesting and understandable for those of us challenged by quantum mechanics and relativity. Kaku talked about the solar cycle on Fox News on Thursday. “We made a mistake,” he said, speaking about industry calculations about solar flares. Kaku believes the cycle will peak around 2012, possibly playing havoc with Earthling gadgets like Blackberries.

NASA agrees, predicting the next solar maximum should be a “doozy.” Some experts like Kaku project Solar Max for 2012. But 2 years ago, others predicted it will arrive sooner, in 2010 or 2011.

Two large solar prominences in extreme ultraviolet light (ionized helium at 304) roughly the same size but quite different in structure appeared on the Sun on March 18, 2003. The observation of two large prominences in one image makes this one of the most spectacular images that SOHO [Solar and Heliospheric Observatory] has captured. Prominences are large clouds of relatively cool, dense plasma suspended in the Sun's hot, tenuous corona… [SOHO/NASA image]

The popular website Astronomy Now featured an article in March, 2008 after 3 large sunspots formed in a 24-hour period. The website said the eruption, “unleashed a coronal mass ejection into space, emitting radio bursts audible in shortwave receivers on Earth.” In November, 2000, NASA reported the STARDUST Spacecraft was "temporarily blinded" by a solar flare.

Kaku has a new book out, ‘Physics of the Impossible,’ currently a bestseller. The book is at the top of my Christmas wish list. Kaku’s official bio on his own website is short but powerful: “Dr. Michio Kaku is a theoretical physicist, best-selling author, and popularizer of science. He’s the co-founder of string field theory (a branch of string theory), and continues Einstein’s search to unite the four fundamental forces of nature into one unified theory.” Visiting his website is worthwhile, not only for the intriguing topics but for his creative methods of expression. He frequently uses analogies that encourage readers and listeners to engage with the topic at hand. He also has something lacking in many of his colleagues: common sense. Asked in an interview about SETI, Kaku notes it may not be a good idea to beam messages out to the universe instead of just listen to them. He told the website Daily Grail it’s an “awful idea to advertise our existence in space…” The interview is fascinating, covering a variety of topics such as the possibility of extraterrestrial life, human consciousness and the Large Hadron Collider.

Dr. Kaku's new book is a best-seller. It's available at online booksellers and in stores.Kaku conveys impossibly complicated concepts to the layperson yet makes them comprehendible. He’s a frequent guest on TV shows. I think he needs his own. What he has to say is fascinating, and we can all use some help when it comes to understanding topics he’s an expert on. He draws interest with no effort—charisma is another gift he received in addition to his intellect. Somehow he is also fairly sexy. That alone is a completely alien concept when it comes to most physicists. While networks promote inane reality shows, experts like Kaku can teach us something valuable and manage to entertain at the same time.

It's tempting to tie in Kaku's predictions with the Maya calendar predictions for 2012 sensationlized by media, considering the Maya civilization was quite skilled in astronomy. To be honest, I'd love to ask Dr. Kaku whether ancient civilizations had any idea about the impact of solar flares. I can think of dozens of questions I'd like to ask him. Dr. Kaku is one of those experts who inspires creativity and curiosity, a rare scholar who'd be a singular asset to TV viewers around the globe.

Globe from History of Continents, U.S. Geological Survey, US Gov.

Of course, it’s impossible to know the darkest moments in countries that hate us. For instance rulers of Cuba and Venezuela don’t exactly allow a free press. Try throwing a shoe at Castro or Chavez and see how long you continue to breathe.

What countries don’t hear or rarely hear is anger from those of us in the United States, those of us who subsidize and often feed the poor around the world, courtesy of our tax dollars and our donations to charity. Even our “friends” like France and England fail to remember had a Democratic president in the U.S. not finally yielded to enter World War II, those same Europeans would likely be communicating in extremely fluent German.

The U.S. has been a force for peace for decades, caught in a quagmire of countries recovering from imperialism exerted by European and Asian powers, among others. That’s without internecine warfare pitting brother against brother in African countries and in other places as well. We are not a perfect country, I admit. But we have a conscience and that is expressed in the voices of our people—the unrestrained voices.

The Iraqi shoe-thrower who claimed to be a journalist faults the U.S. for conditions even before Saddam Hussein was ousted. That same shoe-thrower apparently had no complaint with a dictator who almost starved his own people, whose corruption is documented in volumes. That same shoe-thrower of course would never have hurled footwear at Hussein. That would have been the alleged journalist’s last act on Earth had he done so.

Meanwhile the likes of Chavez and Castro blame the U.S. for their own shortcomings, for their own refusal to lift their own people out of poverty and keep them submissive while glorifying the values of socialism. And we continue to send aid. To the political elitists only, socialism is a beautiful word.

It’s time we spoke out. It’s time we let these thugs know we too are angry. Our hard-earned dollars have time and again lifted countries’ struggling populations, created infrastructure, offered medical aid. We almost always come out on the short end of the stick where debt is concerned. The U.S. is the best target ineffective leaders in undemocratic countries ever had.

So as a Christmas present for those who scorn us, I’d like to toss you a few shoes. Chavez, Castro, et al, just let me know where to send them. I’ll be happy to share the addresses with my fellow Americans and maybe they’ll lob a few to you as well. American  media deserves a few tosses of the shoe too, for steadfastly refusing to point out cruelties in other countries and overemphasizing mistakes in our own.