The Larry Kane Report

The great fall classic is about to begin. I’m not talking about the world series here, but the election season.

This is about the date that most people forget about – election day. There are seven weeks left until the classic.

Forget the lectures. This is ABOUT YOU. Whatever you do, save this column. Print it. Send it on. Deliver it to schools. With seven weeks to go, it is now time to issue my election alert.

For those of you too busy with other things you are hereby advised that there is no excuse not to vote.

Why bother?

If the following doesn’t get you interested in voting, you should consider yourself uninspiring, lacking in vision, and just plain SAD.

Here it is: my annual lecture on “What is Politics?”

Politics is money. Politics is war and peace
POLITICS IS IRAQ, IRAN..AFGANISTAN, POLITICS IS IMMIGRATION. POLITICS IS REGISTERING FOR THE DRAFT….
Politics is your kid going to war. It’s the chemicals in your food and water. It’s the guns on the streets of America.
Politics in somebody you never heard of increasing your taxes. Politics is censorship., bad air, good air, leaded gasoline, HYBRID CARS, GAS PRICES Politics is recession, inflation, interest rates. money in the bank, bills in the drawer, privacy invaded, power abused. Politics is the IRS.
Politics is higher transit fares, dirty or clean streets, and price controls.
Politics is the minimum wage, the chance to make a living, POLITICS IS THE BIG DIG, YOUR SCHOOL BOARD, CLEAN OCEAN WATER,POLLUTED RIVERS.
Politics is welfare, workfare, smoking.
Politics pays you off with labels, regulations, solicitations, and
standards.
Politics is your child getting a state scholarship. Your trash collected, not often enough. Politics is stem cell research
Politics is de-regulation of TV. Politics is less coverage of politics because of de-regulation. Politics is saving the eagle, killing the forests, trapping the illegals. Politics is justice and injustice.
Politics is playing with power, arrogance,. and a payback to cronies.
Politics is good government. Politics is bad government, free speech, protecting free speech. Politics is the power of the people.
Politics is quotas, discrimination, retribution and paybacks.
Politics is using prosecutors to persecute sometimes.

Politics is the Berlin Wall, Saddam Hussein, Vietnam, the Civil War, Haiti,Cuba. Politics is taxes, a street sign, and limits.

It affects every aspect of daily lives.

Politics is our way of life.

If you don’t get informed and vote after all of that, it is time for you to consider moving to a new country, where your rights and freedoms are not protected by the vote.

And for those who tell me it is their right not to vote, so be it. The future has just slipped out of your hands.

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It is Monday morning and millions of Americans are counting their profits and losses in illegal gambling conducted via telephone and mostly on the internet.

In the “get real” department, I tackle the subject of online gambling and how our government has its priorities backward.

Very simply, the federal government should make online gambling legal, tax the revenues and tax the winnings, just like it does at racetracks, casinos and for lottery winners.

This is a “no brainer”.

The federal government has been trying to get tough on online gambling, by targeting a few online firms operating overseas and arresting their executives. It is a small effort to curb a multi-billion dollar business.

Frankly, I wonder why they are doing it. Why don’t we just kill the business by making it legal?

Instead of prosecuting online gambling firms, the U.S. government would be better off examining how these firms work, and crush their business by making online gambling legal in America.

Think of the revenue possibilities. We might even erase some of those trillions in deficits that are threatening to bankrupt our children and their children.

Casino gambling is legal in so many states. Online gambling is such a huge business in this country that the overseas firms are actually listed on the stock exchanges.

If Americans are so quick to enrich these firms, why not enrich our treasury by legalizing the business, banning foreign ownership and creating an all-American business.

Instead of a token prosecution of some of these firms we should take a new tack: kill these businesses by legalizing the business and turn the profits and taxes over to America!

In the meantime we are just giving the business away to overseas companies!

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What if Annie Jacobsen is one hundred percent right?

That question has been nagging at me all weekend. It is really bothering me. Annie is my guest tonight on Voice of Reason, 9:30 P.M. Eastern on the Comcast Network, CN 8. This is not just a plug. This is a serious question that deserves more answers than we are getting.

A lot of answers

Jacobsen is the financial journalist who encountered a dozen Syrians on a flight from Detroit to Los Angeles in 2004. An air marshal and the pilot confirm that the men were assembling an object by taking numerous turns in the bathroom. Annie charges it was a dry run and many people in her book, “Terror in the Skies”, charge that terrorist dry runs are going on all the time, with the government taking great pains to cover them up, for fear that people will stop flying.

Her book is well documented. Air marshals, who have spoken out about lax security and a lack of profiling because of a sense of political correctness, have been fired or reassigned. Jacobsen is no overreacting extremist.

Yet, it is hard to believe that our government would cover up dry runs. isn’t it?

I’ve read the book. I’ve interviewed her. I’ve researched every article I can on the subject. I don’t want to believe it, but this entire saga, Annie’s story and the reaction to it, is making me nervous.

The only thing we can do is hope she is wrong. But then again, I keep thinking, in an age of secrecy and distrust, that Annie Jacobsen is on to something big, because one thing has not happened.

The government has not responded in full to Annie Jacobsen’s accusations.

Does that bother you?

It disturbs me and makes me want to once again ask the question:

Are we as vigliant as we should be?

Her book and her story deserve a lot more attention.

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The President stood in the rose garden facing reporters, his facial expressions illuminating his frustrations. It may have been the most important news conference of his administration with the exception of the one after 9/11/01.

Key Republicans in the U.S. Senate are in major revolt over legislation designed to give interrogators of terror suspects more freedom in the tactics they can use. The President says that these more harsh interrogation tactics are necessary in the battle to protect America. Opponents like Republicans John Warner, Lindsey Graham, Susan Collins and former Prisoner of War John McCain have refused to compromise.
The Republican opponents say that authorization of tougher measures will hurt America’s image in the world. They are being fueled by former Secretary of State Colin Powell has offered sharp public criticism of the Bush plan. Powell’s voice is a powerful one. McCain argues that possible American prisoners could face torture and worse if they are captured and our enemies choose our methods.

Here’s where it really becomes the biggest political story yet of this year.

Seven weeks from the mid-term elections, the President cannot afford to lose a battle with his own party. The issue also brings the Iraq story, a miserable one, back to the front pages at a time when GOP candidates are struggling in many states.

The White House is hoping for a full vote on the Senate floor next week. The irony of all of this is that if the President loses this one, it may be a sign to terrorists that we are weak on the home front. Or it could be a sign to our allies that we have moderated our tactics.

Either way, this issue, designed again in the election cycle to show Mr. Bush tough on terrorism, could backfire on the White House. A Republican revolt against a Republican President, fired up by Powell, a former chair of the Joint Chiefs, is political dynamite.

As the headline says, this battle is risky business for the President of the United States.

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Who would have guessed it? Months ago, Democrats thought that Bob Menendez’s bid for a full U.S. Senate term would be a cakewalk. Tom Kean Jr. was given little or no chance.

Until today.

Sources in both camps report to us that internal polls show a dead heat in this battle, and that Kean may have the lead. The Republicans had given up on this race. The Democrats were thinking it was an easy win, until newspaper reports that the U.S. Attorney might be looking into Menendez business dealings. Might is the important word here. Subpoenas have been issued. But Menendez has not been charged with anything.

Add to this an unusually vigorous campaign by Kean, and suddenly the Garden State has a horse race.

We have also learned that the Republican Senate Finance Committee has decided to pour major resources into Kean’s race. To match that, the Democratic National Committee will work to shore up Menendez.
The accent in this region has been the Santorum-Casey battle in Pennsyvania. But the struggle for control of the U.S. Senate may very well be decided in New Jersey.

Our forecast. You won’t get one here. Kean is a magic name in New Jersey. Menendez is a tough campaigner who will fight hard. The commercial blitz will be nastier than ever.

Governor Jon Corzine, whose tax increases may be hurting Menendez, will probably stay on the sidelines.

Meantime, supporters of Congressman Rob Andrews, who was hoping Corzine would name him to the Senate, are saying, “I told you so.”

And we all thought Casey-Santorum was the only show in town!

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