POWER OF THE PEN

I am not posting this to start a debate about gay rights (or LGBT rights, as I guess the new politically correct term has become).

Rather, I wanted to highlight that with all that is happening on the international front, where the President is focusing his attention.

On July 21, President Barack Obama signed an executive order aimed at protecting workers at federal contractors and in the federal government from discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity.

“I firmly believe that it’s time to address this injustice for every American,” Obama told a group of LGBT activists gathered in the East Room of the White House. Later, he added, “we’re on the right side of history.”

The administration had held off on the order as the Employment Non-Discrimination Act made progress moving through Congress, including a bipartisan 64-32 vote in the Senate. But after months of inaction from the House, and as Obama responds to midterm pressures, the White House chose to act where it could this summer.

“I’m gonna do what I can with the authority I have” to protect workers, Obama said. “This is not speculative, this is not a matter of political correctness. People lose their jobs.”

Besides highlighting Obama's misuse of executive orders when he does not get his way, this really serves to highlight why he is such a poor president.

In the wake of the Ukraine crisis, Obama has done very little, reinforcing his status as a joke on the world stage.

Instead he retreats to the cause that is his secret passion, and the only activity where he feels comfortable.

To lead, you must be decisive.

Governors are leaders. They typically make pretty good presidents.

Senators do not lead. 

They make laws. 

That has been Obama's answer to everything during his tenure as a White House tenant-he uses executive orders to make more laws.

Obama has shown a talent for reading off of a teleprompter and fooling some of the people all of the time, but he has never demonstrated any leadership ability.

Obama has never lead.

He's afraid to. 

He never had the guts.

Plain and simple, he is a puppet. 

A punk.

And I am not advocating that we send troops off on yet another fool's errand.

But heck, some kind of response would be nice.

Remember Reagan's address after the Russians bombed a Korean flight a few decades ago?

He may have not been perfect, but at least the guy was a LEADER!

By contrast, here is our Puppet-In-Chief's televised statement.

ME-OW!

How sad that our celebrated "first black president" is basically Stepin Fetchit.

And I fully expect that I'll get a comment from someone accusing me of racism.

That's the other Obama strategy.

Executive orders and the race card-it's all he's got.

R.I.P. ROCKFISH

James Garner died of natural causes at his California home Saturday, July 19, at the age of 86. It almost does not seem possible, as I am sure that somewhere right now an episode of “The Rockford Files” is playing.

We all loved James Garner's TV characters, who with no visible heroic traits could somehow beat the bad guys in the end.

Bret Maverick and Jim Rockford were basically the same character in different footwear, the antithesis of almost every traditional protagonist on television.

Maverick was a gambler who aspired to become nothing higher than a hustler, happy to finesse a few bucks and leave town untroubled by any gunfire he heard behind him on his way out. He didn't use a gun much. He started with his wits and when necessary moved on to his fists.

Low-budget private investigator Jim Rockford lived in a mobile home and liked to eat Mexican food. He hung out with a bizarre posse whose help often got him beaten up. He constantly was taking cases so low-end you wondered how they ever got on television, yet the show developed characters like a good drama and put them in situations that sometimes seemed closer to a good sitcom.

Garner’s charisma served him well on the big screen, starring in more than 50 films and earning an Oscar nomination for best supporting actor in the 1985 romantic drama “Murphy’s Romance.”

He acted well into his 70’s only slowing down after suffering a stroke. He is survived by his wife of 55 years and two children.