Grant Me This

A NEW ECONOMIC PLAN

Tue, 31 Mar 2009 03:37:00 GMT

Dear Mr.President,

Patriotic retirement:

There's about 40 million people over 50 in the work force- pay them $1 million apiece severance with stipulations.

They leave their jobs.
Forty million job openings - Unemployment fixed.

They buy NEW American cars.
Forty million cars ordered - Auto Industry fixed.

They either buy a house/pay off their mortgage - Housing Crisis fixed.

THE PRESIDENT COMES TO MESA

Fri, 20 Feb 2009 14:43:00 GMT

When I was a kid growing up in Mesa, there weren’t a lot of big events. Little League was big and the Mesa-Westwood football game always got people excited. On Friday nights we went to games, on Saturday we ate Mexican food at El Charro or Matta’s, and on Sunday we went to church, some all day and the rest of us for an hour. Our population was in the five figures then and the most important person I can remember ever visiting was the Mazola margarine lady (she called it maize) at the Salt River Pima Parade.

Times have changed. Mesa grew rapidly after I left and became one of the larger cities in the country. The orchards and the cotton fields disappeared and were replaced by houses, gas stations, and convenience stores. Farmers became millionaires and speculators made even more. With only a few speed bumps along the way, folks abandoned life in the slow lane for more money and more things. Until this year.

I should be proud that the President decided to give a major speech in my hometown.

I would be, except he picked it as an example of what’s gone wrong with the housing market and our national economy. Millionaires are becoming farmers again and people who believed they deserved a half-million dollar home on a $75,000 a year income are feeling the stress. So the President came to Mesa with a plan to help us get through this mess.

I feel sorry for President Obama and the train wreck he’s inherited from the previous

blind engineer. His inaugural address was clearly the speech of someone who had been fully briefed on how bad things are. He didn’t have time to have a dream; he had to get to work to snap us out of a nightmare. He signed the stimulus bill in Denver on Tuesday

to try to get the government spending since nobody else is. It was bloated with the Democrats pent-up needs, but it does take an initial step in getting something going. His

Treasury Secretary struggles to define a plan to straighten out the nation’s financial institutions, mainly because nobody want to use the word nationalization and that’s precisely what we will end up doing with the biggest banks. And to put a roadblock up against a runaway housing crisis, the President came to Mesa, Arizona, with a plan.

I like the plan. I think it is reasonable and practical and can be done fairly easily even with the intervention of the generally inept federal government. The President pointed out that home prices have fallen 43% in the Phoenix area and that a foreclosure in the neighborhood drives down prices even further of all the houses in the area. We can’t afford another 150,000 homes in the Valley going into foreclosure this year. With this plan, interest rates and payment plans can be renegotiated and people can stay in their homes. Sub-prime loans---accounting for only 12% of all mortgages, but half of all foreclosures---will be substantially reined in under this plan and made more reasonable.

I truly wish that we were back in those different times when our families in Mesa lived out those traditional American values. We didn’t need anybody to remind us about what was really important in life. But that was then. President Obama came to town with a good plan and an even better reminder. “Individuals must take responsibility for their own actions,” he said, “and all of us must learn to live within our means again.”

If this message is taken to heart by the American people and we do begin to turn this country around, then I guess I’m glad that this part started in my hometown.

The First Time Ever I Saw His Fleece

Tue, 17 Feb 2009 04:43:00 GMT

      It was March of 1991, I was 36 years old and the new Attorney General from Arizona, and this was my first time at the United States Supreme Court. There was a huge gathering of dignitaries in the large marble foyer outside the courtroom and I was dividing my time between eating as many jumbo shrimp as possible without getting busted for bad manners and trying to spot one of the Justices. Just as I spotted Justice Breyer piling on some taquitos with his won tons, I felt somebody tug my sleeve. I looked over to see that it was Roland Burris, the also newly-elected Attorney General from the grating state of Illinois.
     We exchanged introductions and small talk for a few minutes. Roland looks and acts very similar to George Jefferson of “Movin’ On Up” fame. I found him to be pleasant and sort of endearing like George, but also not someone you would entrust your pet to for the weekend. I told him that I was from Mesa, Arizona, and that since my childhood we had been the Spring Training home of the Chicago Cubs. I said that there were a ton of Illinois people living in Arizona and that sometime he should come out to my hometown and we would take in a couple of games. He could work the crowd and see some constituents while cheering on the Cubs. He got very excited and asked if I was serious. I said yes and he thanked me profusely again and shook my hand.
   I walked away thinking that he was awfully happy about an offhand suggestion, but that my new colleague seemed very nice. About forty-five minutes later I had managed to get into a conversation with our own hometown hero, Sandra Day O’Connor, when I felt that tug at my arm again. It was Roland. He insisted that he needed to talk to me immediately in private over in the corner of the room. I excused myself from the Justice and followed him to the corner.
   “What’s up?” I asked innocently. “You know that trip you offered me earlier?” he asked. My suggestion to come to a ballgame sometime was now a full-blown trip, but I nodded my head and said, “Yeah.” “Well,” he said, grabbing my arm again, “I would like an honorarium!”
    I didn’t know what to say and mumbled something and got out of there quickly. I of course thought of our first meeting when I saw that he had been nominated by the crook to be United States Senator. I thought of it again today when people already were calling for his resignation. I don’t think he’s a bad guy. To the contrary, I think he is basically a good guy. But he is a politician, and a Chicago politician to boot, and that says a lot. All in all, I’ve come to terms with him being in the Congress. I think he will fit right in.

Grant

PASSPORT AGENCY RIPS OFF AMERICAN CONSUMERS

Tue, 03 Feb 2009 08:02:00 GMT

Why is the US government continuing to systematically rip off consumers who are trying to get expedited passports? This is nothing but a scam: promise something you know you can’t deliver and then hope that nobody calls you on it. But allegations in a motion for summary judgment in a lawsuit filed in the federal court in Northern California (Chattler v The United States of America and the United States Department of State; No. 07-ev-04040MMC EMC) exposes the scam and now the federal government needs to come clean.

Welcome To Grant Woods.com

Mon, 26 Jan 2009 06:23:00 GMT

I hope this is a fun and informative way for us to communicate about the current issues of the day and to have some a few laughs along the way. I encourage interaction and hope you will feel free to communicate with everyone at DNP about what you like and dislike about the site and its content. Also, we need to hear what else you would like to see on the page each day along with your own input on other cool sites or articles or videos that we should share. I will be writing on the site in one form or another every week. You can check every day for links to articles or videos that I think are worth seeing. Karie and Mark will be blogging each week as well, and I encourage you to communicate with them. We will be taping our radio show each week and uploading it for your enjoyment as a podcast. You can also check out the archives and check in for show you may have missed. Our pilot was with Charles Barkley in the house and then he ran out, or drove out, and made news himself a few days later. Charles is our friend and always will be and will be involved in future broadcasts as well.

I will try to keep you up to date periodically on the legal cases I am working on. We got the ninth largest U.S. jury verdict of 2008 a few months ago and there are a lot of interesting cases in the works. I will fill you in as I can. If you want to talk to me about representing you or your family or business, there is a legal link that will give you more information.

This will be a challenging year for our state and country. We have a new President and a new Governor and both face enormous immediate challenges. I can promise you that each week we will examine the issues and talk about life in America and Arizona in an informative and entertaining way. I hope you will listen to the podcasts when you can and check in on the website often. And I hope to get your input on how we can make things---at the site, on the show, and in this country---even better. Robert Louis Stevenson advised that we should ride loosely in the saddle of life. We will, and it will continue to be an exciting ride.

Grant

A real change this time

Tue, 20 Jan 2009 21:37:00 GMT

It is a new day in America and a new day in Arizona. Leadership at the top has changed and gone in a different direction. Our country chose its new direction and our state did not, but either way change is here. What I would really like to see now is change in the way we treat our leaders as they try their best to solve very difficult problems. We need to change as well.

During this past campaign, I worked for my old friend and boss John McCain. We go way back and it was fun to relive our old times. There were special moments for me along the way: seeing him win in New Hampshire and salvage his campaign; watching him walk onto the stage in St. Paul as a nation finally understood the depth of the sacrifices he had made for his country; and watching him on the lawn of the Biltmore, so gracious in defeat, reminding many of us of what attracted us to him so long ago.

But there was never any doubt that something big was building on the other side and that the Democrats had nominated a very special person. Brilliant in his speechmaking and campaign strategy and calm and cool under fire, Barack Obama built a wave of support and hope that could not be stopped. I told the campaign that I would never speak negatively of Obama because that wasn’t why I supported McCain. I was quoted in several east coast newspapers as saying I thought he could make an excellent President. None of this was too popular with some of the smart guys who were running the campaign. But you don’t have to dislike or demean the other guy to support your guy.

I received a letter this week from the Chairman of the Arizona Republican Party asking for money. In it is this line: “Public opinion here is already hardening against the Barack Obama-Harry Reid-Nancy Pelosi agenda and that tells me Republicans are poised to WIN BIG the next time.” Besides it delusional nature, I thought the letter important because it represents the same old tired politics as usual that has strangled this country. The President had yet to be sworn in and these folks were campaigning against him in the next election. By so doing, they actually hurt the country they would like to represent.

When I was Attorney General, I was interviewed on KFYI radio right before going over to the White House to meet with Bill Clinton on hate crimes. The interviewer asked me why I was going over to the enemy. I told him that I was working with the President of the United States and hung up. We only have one President at a time in this country. There is plenty of time to campaign. But for just a little while, the losing party needs to put down its arms and work with the winner to try to move the country forward.

As I said, I campaigned across the country for John McCain. But I want Barack Obama to be the greatest President in the history of our country. And I will work as hard as I can to help him do great things. I’m not saying we shouldn’t debate the issues. I’m not saying that we have to accept all of his proposals. I am saying that we should be rooting for him to succeed, not working to see him fail. We should come together as Americans first behind a President, our President, who has the chance to do fantastic things.

Now before you Democrats get too excited, you have your own challenge ahead. As the country turns left, Arizona will turn right with the ascension of Governor Jan Brewer. The same thoughts apply here at home. Rather than attacking her as insensitive to the needs of the poor, the aged, the young, and the infirm, you need to get on board and try to help our state through one of the worst budget crises it has ever faced. Don’t root for her to fail. Try to help her succeed. If she does well, our state does well.

I am deeply worried about these public issues. I am fearful of our country becoming France while our state becomes Russia. But it is no time to sit and worry. It is time to come together as Americans and start solving problems. If we dropped the partisanship and the tired ways of our political past and truly came together, that would be change that really mattered.