Mom’s birthday was yesterday, July 24.

“Happy birthday, Mom, did you get my flowers?”

I promised myself, don’t ask Mom questions on the phone.  I start over. 

“I’ve been thinking about you all day, wish I were there to help you celebrate your birthday.”

Silence.

“It’s a beautiful day in San Diego.  The sky is clear blue.  I read most of the day, a biography of Lyndon Johnson.”

“David?”

“Hi, Mom.  Yes, it’s me, David.  Remember?”  I stop myself from asking her a question. 

“I love you, Mom.” 

Breath sounds. 

“I hope you know that.”

Was that a question?

“I better go Mom.”

Silence. 

“I love you.”

Silence.

“Bye Mom.”

Silence. 

I wait.  She doesn’t hang up.  A minute passes, I can hear her breathing.  I see her face in my mind’s eye, see her green eyes - they have always appeared to be lit from behind.

“Happy birthday, I hate birthdays, don’t you?”  Another question.

Silence.

“Mom?” 

Silence.

I hang up first. 

copyright, 2010 

Obama finally called out the Republicans this morning on their refusal to extend unemployment benefits to the unemployed - even though he did it the day before the Dems have enough votes to finally pass the extension of benefits, which makes me wonder, as I have wondered for the past two years, why Obama is not harder on the Republicans? 

I am furious over Obama’s refusal to talk now when all he wanted to do was talk before he was elected. The fact that unemployment insurance has not been extended by Congress is the perfect place for him to step into his bully pulpit. And, the fact that BP was left in charge of the Gulf Oil Spill, spewing their dispersants which do nothing but interact with the oil and multiply the damage just so BP can send cameras into the Gulf and the cameras won’t see any oil is an abomination. It doesn’t mean the oil isn’t there, it is DISPERSED. It is time for a third party in this country. I can’t bring myself to vote for Republicans who are dumbed down to the point of being irrelevant and I find myself for the first time in my life not being able to vote for a Democratic President who I worked my ass off for. And the Dems in the Congress have nothing to say. Why? They don’t want to lose their jobs? I’m reading TEAM OF RIVALS by Doris Kearns Goodwin about President Lincoln and the Civil War and every time I put the book down I shake my head and think, “what has happened to our politicians and what has happened to the citizens who elect them, me included?”

At the end of the day, it is about winning and James needs a new challenge. All creative, talented people do. I think sometimes the public forgets that sports stars have the same dreams as writers/actors/musicians, etc… Writers want to publish the great novel — James wants to win. To me, there is no difference.  I don’t ask writers and actors and musicians to stay in the same cities and towns where they first got their starts — I don’t want them to keep writing the same novels or playing the same roles or tunes – so I feel the same way about LeBron James.

“Let’s just disengage ourselves from the myth that Ronald Reagan never raised taxes. He did. And here are four big ones. So I hope this will clear the air for some of the groups today. In 1982, the Tax Equity and Fiscal Responsibility Act, that rolled back about a third of his ‘81 tax cuts, raised corporate tax rates, and to a lesser extent income tax rates. Raised taxes by almost one percent of GDP, which at that time was the largest percentage in peacetime increase ever. 1982 gas tax increase, 1983 Greenspan commission raised payroll taxes…Then there was the 1984 deficit reduction tax…Then there was the Railroad Retirement Revenue Act, Consolidated Omnibus Budget of ‘85…So there were a lot of them. Just thought I’d throw that in,” - Alan Simpson, reality-based conservative, former Republican Senator from Wyoming. 

If you want to cut the debt, you will have to raise taxes. Letting all the Bush tax cuts expire is a start. Ending an unsustainable tax cut is not a tax hike. It is simply financing the government through taxation rather than borrowing from the Chinese.  - Andrew Sullivan, The Atlantic.