Bailout Who?

Ben Bernanke, the Chairman of the Federal Reserve Board, has lowered interest rates and has signaled that he will continue to do so, to keep the stock market liquid. This action has the effect of propping up the practice of making highly leveraged and unsound investments by Wall Street fatcats. It also drives pension funds and more modest private investors into riskier areas of investment, in an effort to meet their obligations. It causes inflation, so that people who have spent their lives saving, end up with nothing. It is a bail out of the wealthy, at the expense of those of more modest means.

President Bush has announced that he will relax the standards that the Federal Housing Administration uses to insure mortgages. This does not so much mean that the homeowners who have been enticed to borrow too much easy money from Wall Street, will be able to keep their homes. It means that when they finally lose their homes, It will be you and I, Joe Taxpayer, who takes the loss.

It's clear that the Bush Administration is worried about the wellbeing of it's constituents an is taking action to protect them. Unfortunately you and I are not members of that constituency.

Two strokes is about as much as an old man like me can handle

I drive a 1986 Honda Spree. It looks like an old Vespa, only smaller. The body is made out of cheap, pliable plastic. It has a 49cc 2-stroke engine. The transmission has no gears. It has essentially two speeds, stop and 26 mph. It gets around 90 mpg. I use a gallon of gas a week or less. It costs $40 a year to insure and $40 dollars a year to register. If you tried to ride it in traffic, you'd be dead in a week. Where I live, all the streets have bike lanes. Nobody much uses them, so I do. It's illegal but the cops don't bother me. Works out well for both of us. It has a little rack on the back. When I go to the store, I bungee a plastic milk crate to the rack. That and the little backpack I habitually wear, holds everything I'm ever likely to purchase. I paid $300 for it. In three years, it's never given me any mechanical problems and doesn't seem like it's likely to soon.

For the size of the engine, it's not fuel efficient, or low emission. I don't care. Honda currently makes some really nice small urban motorbikes in Southeast Asia. They are fuel efficient, 4-stroke, water cooled, fuel injected. They are clean burning and FAST! I'd love to buy one of them. They won't sell them here. They would certainly cut into the sales of the larger bikes that they do sell here. You can't even pay to have one shipped over, it's illegal. You wouldn't want to anyway, no parts, no service would be available. When government and corporations tell us that they are working hard to provide clean, fuel efficient vehicles for us, they are lying through their teeth.

I don't care about global warming or the depletion of fossil fuels. Why should I? I'll be dead in 20 years or 76 years old, which, let's face it, is the same as. I just want to get around town in the cheapest most fun way possible. I'll just keep ridin' the Spree.

The Republicans can always win

We generally think of the Republicans as a political party and technically, that is what they are. They are more than that, however. They are a coalition. A construct of several groups, each with a specific area of concern. They are apathetic to areas of policy outside their specific concerns but are willing to support the agendas of others, as long as those others reciprocate.

The first group is composed of those people with high net worth and actively involved in consolidating and increasing their wealth. Their primary interest is to be able to engage in their commercial activities without regulation, intervention or oversight. As a voting block, their numbers are insignificant. The contributions that they make are purely financial. They hedge their bets and will support anyone in power but prefer the Republican party because of it's greater pliability.

The second group are the neocons. They are highly educated and extremely intelligent. They are well represented in the most respected, admired and productive segments of society. Their sole concern is that the State of Israel be preserved, nurtured and protected, at all costs. The tremendous respect they command makes them invaluable as molders of public opinion. Their intelligence, knowledge and skill allow them to generate coherent policy and direct it's implementation.

The third group are the xenophobes. These people feel discriminated against and threatened by, their peers in society who may not share their same set of beliefs or origins. Their primary motivator is fear. They fear the known. They fear the unknown. They fear what will happen. They fear what will not happen. Their fear makes them easily led. They want, above all else to preserve what they have, no matter how little or insignificant it may be. This is a constantly shifting group. If they lose their fear, they fall away. If they become more afraid, their numbers swell. They are an easy group to manipulate, because the worse you make it for them, the stronger they believe.

Something's Wrong With The Beaver

My wife and I have lived in our place for twenty years. At this point, we've been here longer than anybody else in the neighborhood. It's a beautiful place, quiet, spacious, nicely landscaped. Nobody thinks of our town as luxurious, partly because it's next to Newport Beach, which, on a per square foot basis, is as expensive a place to live as you can find anywhere in the country. It's pretty nice, though. I don't care how much my place is worth. I don't care if property values plummet, though I suspect they won't stray too far down. I'd never move.

Next door I have a retired Air Force O-6 who used to fly B-47s for Curt Le May. He and his wife have 5 or 6 children, all grown up and out a generation ago. He and his wife are the children of Mexican immigrants. Next to him is an old Marine Gunny, 30 years in and 30 more as a civilian DOD contractor, all in the Far East. His wife is Korean. They have kids almost as old as me. Next to them is a young, 2nd generation, longshoreman. His wife is Vietnamese. They have a 2 y/o daughter.

On the other side, the house is shared by 4 very nice young men, attending beauty college, over in Costa Mesa. Hardly even know they're there. Next to them are 4 more nice young men, only not quite so young. Kind of super-annuated skater boys. No drugs but I'm pretty sure they're filming porno in there on the weekends. We have to keep on them about parking violations and the beer bottles and cigarette butts get a little thick out front sometimes. They police them up the next morning, usually.

Across the street is a lesbian lady of color. Big corporate exec. Travels the World on business. Very down to earth. Never flaunts her material success. Next to her is an older gentleman and his wife. They are almost never there. Their children are all police officers in local communities. They spend most of their time up in Idaho, in a place with no phone or mail service, so they say. I suspect he has a military title but that it isn't used outside the compound. He and the corporate lady next door are thick as thieves. She watches his place for him when he's gone.

Just another SoCal neighborhood in the 21st Century. We all pretty much get along, just like Rodney wanted. I'm sure glad I don't live somewhere out in the middle of America, in the middle of all those Baptists and Pentecostals, with all their trashy, hateful, behaviour. I know it makes me a bigot but a person has got to maintain some standards and a little peace of mind is important when you get older. I guess what I mean is, a person reaches a stage of life when they want to be with their "own kind".

Geniuses, Hard At Work

This doesn't have to be a long post at all. It's pretty self explanatory.

Capital One, the credit card giant, is closing down it's mortgage business, because it's too risky.

They would rather concentrate on their much safer core business, holding huge amounts of completely unsecured consumer debt.

Smart move.

I think I'll take my life savings and load up on their stock.

Gee! I'm Glad Those Nice Policemen Didn't Get In Trouble

About a year ago, I posted about the police force in my town and how they have a habit of using unnecessary lethal force, notably when witnesses are not present. In this case they gunned down a high school girl, distraught from a sexual assault, earlier in the night. The ER doctor who examined the corpse documented 23 bullet holes in her body.

The "impartial" investigation of the case, by the county sheriff, found the shooting to be justified and no disciplinary action was taken against the officers involved. There were several officers on the scene, with two discharging their weapons. She was, at the time, menacing them with a 3" paring knife, from her Mother's kitchen.

I recently read in the paper, that to avoid going to court, to defend the officers actions, in a lawsuit brought by the girl's family, the city has offered a $2,000,000 settlement. Seems like a lot, for a justified shooting, although it does work out to less than $100,000 a hole.

Gee. I'm glad those nice policemen didn't get in trouble.

Thailand Remains Our Friend.

Elections were held Sunday in Thailand, to ratify a new constitution, authored by the military junta, which seized control from the democratically elected government earlier this year. The new constitution calls for a nominally democratic government, while actually leaving it in control of officials appointed by the judiciary, drawn from the same pool of hereditary elite as the military officers who make up the junta. The vote on the new constitution passed with ease, considering that the previously elected majority party has been outlawed and it's leaders muzzled by threats of detention and retaliation against their families.

Thailand is and remains America's staunchest political ally in Southeast Asia. The military coupe transitioned the country into autocracy without a peep from the Bush administration and virtually no coverage in the American media. Thailand has a strong economy and a rapidly developing industrial base, though they still rely on their traditional mainstays, smuggling, piracy and the slave trade for most of their economic strength.

Bangkok, the capital, is where the junta draws its strength from. Bangkok is the shipping point for opium distillates from the fields of the Golden Triangle. It is the clearing house of pirate booty from all over Asia. It is a Mecca for sex tourists and pedophiles, the World over. It is, in short, the preferred recreational destination for American military personnel, corporate executives and especially clergy, now that they cannot rape young American boys and girls with impunity.

It is good to know that Thailand remains our friend.

We Certainly Deserve Whatever Terrible Times Lie Ahead.

We don't have much of a savings rate in this country. Most families just get by. They have a car and a house that they owe money on. They pay a lot of taxes. Property taxes. Sales taxes. Income taxes. Gas taxes. Social Security and Unemployment withholding come out of their checks every week, right off the top. Those are taxes too. By the time they get down to the money they have left to feed their families, it isn't very much. Not enough. It isn't that they don't want to save. They do. Save to give the kids a good education and a decent start in life. Save for their old age, so they won't be a burden. Those things are important. The money is just not there. Ya do the best with what you can, today. You hope maybe there will be a little left over to save tomorrow.

There are people in this country whose lives aren't like this. Percentage wise, they aren't many but there are a lot of people in this country. There are hundreds of thousands of them, maybe even a million or two. They have real nice houses, more than one. They have shiny, expensive cars, more than a few. Boats, nice ones. They travel, a lot, 1st class. Golf, twice a week. Pick up the tab for lunch with the guys, more than I make all week. Their kids go to Name schools. Their shoes aren't made in Bangladesh. It's all about percentages. Percentage wise, they don't pay many taxes. Percentage wise, they don't spend that much on their very comfortable lifestyles.

These people serve an important purpose. They hold America in trust for us. They own the land. They hold the stock in the companies where we work, of the banks that loan us money, the companies that sell us gas, the hospitals where we go when we're sick, the cemeteries where we're buried when we die. These people control the Capital that make our way of life possible. They take the risk. They need to be protected. Like the whales. Like the redwoods. Like the spotted owls. They are the foundation of our social ecology. Think green. Green is the color of life. Green is the color of money. Same thing.

We have done the Capitalists an insult. We have borrowed too much, for too long. More than we can pay. More than we are worth. We have lived our lives and fed our children with their money and now we can't pay them back. They are left holding worthless paper. An empty promise, from those for whom they have held America in trust, for so long. I feel so ashamed. We certainly deserve whatever terrible times lie ahead,

Tiny Bubbles in the Wine, Tiny Bubbles Make Me Feel Fine

Just taking a break from cleaning my neighbor's pool, lounging on my deck, enjoying a cold drink. I wonder if there really is anything to this whole real estate bubble theory some people are talking about? My condo is pretty nice. Good neighborhood. Nice weather. Couple miles from the blue Pacific. They have been going for $600,000-$650,000. Still, It's nowhere near as nice as the house I grew up in a few miles away. I wonder how much that's worth now? My parents paid $17,000, late in 1959.

It seems to me that the Japanese had a situation like this in the eighties. Yeah, I remember now, they were selling each other urban real estate, generating inflated equity, and leveraging the equity to buy more inflated real estate. I remember a Japanese real estate investor saying, with a straight face, that a several square block area in the center of Tokyo, was worth more than the entire state of California. It all came unraveled in 1990. Real estate values dropped like a shot. They had some problems with bad real estate loans, too. Not really a stock market problem. All the economic fundamentals were good. They did have to lower interest rates to Zero, where they pretty much are to this day and the Nikkei 225, almost two decades later, is still less than half what it was then.

It's not the same though. The Japanese economy is not the same as ours here in America. Do you want to know why?

THEY STILL ACTUALLY MAKE STUFF IN JAPAN AND SELL IT TO OTHER COUNTRIES! FOR A PROFIT!

News from the Western Front

Unless you have perfect credit and you want to borrow less than $400,000 you ain't going to get no mortgage, baby. You can find a few houses in the LA basin for less than half a mil but you better be ready to invest in body armour and pittbulls. Not many houses are going to be changing hands any time soon. New construction for less than $500,000, forget about it. Housing starts may look good for the last couple of months, housing finishes are going to be another story.

Three more months, tops, a whole lot of real estate professionals are going to be out of a job. Escrow officers, loan officers, and a raft of related workers, ditto. The construction trades are shutting down. Lumberyards and building supply houses will go into moth balls. When the construction trades come to a halt, so do the remittances to Mexico and Central America. Instant recession for our neighbors to the south. The sale of the durable goods that go into the domiciles that change hands? Nope. And on, and on, and on.

Unemployment is going to start going up. Money is tight. There's going to be less of it around. SoCal is a service economy. Mostly, we make a living out here cleaning each others pools. Can everybody say, domino effect?

There's nothing to worry about. We've had this kind of thing happen before. We just need to generate some liquidity. No problem.

I've got just two words to say to you.

PYRAMID SCHEMES!!!

Summer Song

It's summertime. The best time of the year. you can keep your winter sleigh rides, autumn leaves and spring wildflowers. Summer is long days and warm nights, the beach, no school, first loves and last freedoms.

Back in the days of AM radio, they used to play little pop songs especially suited for summer. Usually, by the end of the season they began to wear on you. Sometimes a lot earlier than that. Some of them, you cherish all your life. It may be the song. It may have more to do with the memorability of the summer during which it was popular.

My all-time favorite is "Brown Eyed Girl", by Van Morrison. I don't even remember what year they first started playing it. Sometime in the late sixties, I think. I wouldn't want to be 35 again, or 25. If it could be 1969 again and I could be 17, that's a different story.

What's your favorite summer song?

Karl, we hardly knew ye

A lot of left wingers are going to be real happy that Karl Rove is going back to Texas to "spend time with his family". I'm not one of them. Karl doesn't make political policy or decisions. I don't think he's personally political at all. He works with public relations and advertising. He didn't have anything to do with the war. he got involved with Plamegate only after it became a public relations problem. He is a master of dirty tricks and personal smears but that is the meat and potatoes of partisan politics today, on both sides of the fence. You can't criticize him because he's better at it than anybody else.

Karl was responsible for the perception that GWB was a regular guy, down to earth, self depreciating, with a wry sense of humor. I think that in coaching the President to show these traits to the public, some of them might actually have rubbed off on the unfortunate dolt. It might have at least, temporarily, made him a better, more reflective and empathetic person. Who will do that for him now?

In his public life, Karl has been positively shy. He does not make bellicose, doctrinaire, pronouncements. He doesn't respond to personal attacks. He is not afraid of innocent sponaneity. I thought his pogo dance, on the podium of the recent Washington annual press dinner, did more for the image of the administration, than a hundred "mission accomplished" speeches ever could.

He doesn't cultivate that macho, "chickenhawk", schtick. He doesn't gild his image with phony academic degrees. He doesn't make a beeline for the spotlight at every opportunity. He never portrays himself as the long suffering martyr. In short, he never does for himself, the things he is so good at doing for others.

Karl, we hardly knew ye.

A little too stable

Max Weber postulated well over a century ago that the State is defined as the monopoly of force within defined territorial boundaries. Nobody has come up with a better definition yet.

As long as they have plenty of force, dictatorial states have no problem maintaining power. Democratic states have a harder time but since they are operating under a consensus, need less force. When consensus is no longer possible, democratic states have two options. Find a new consensus or become dictatorial states. We have frequent elections, here in America. This is our mechanism for maintaining consensus.

The left is afraid that the right will foment a military coupe or subvert the electoral process and thereby remain in power indefinitely. The right is afraid that the left will make voting mandatory among the general population, knowing that the larger percentage of the non-voting underclass will support the left's more liberal social entitlements.

What's going to happen, instead, is that the governmental establishment will co-opt the political establishment, of the right and left, so that it doesn't really matter who gets elected. Things will pretty much continue on, the same.

Voila, dictatorial state. Take a close look at your elected representatives in Washington and tell me it isn't true. Look at the front runners for the next Presidential election. If they were any more dumbed down they'd need feeding tubes. Can you think of one real change in policy thats happened in the last several years? The only thing that's changed about our government is more.

More power. More money. More control. MORE FORCE.

The last thing we need to worry about is the stability of our government. Unless you think it's a little too stable.

Buddy, can you spare a dime.

The administration has been wheeling out George W. Bush the last couple of days to tout the strength of the US economy. At least they say it's Bush. I personally think it may be some kind of Max Headroom/Meet Mr. Lincoln video enhanced robot.

He says that the US can handle the current market volatility. He says that the US economy is the envy of the World. He says that inflation is under control. He says we should lower corporate taxes and leave corporate CEO and big player compensation alone. What a maroon.

The US doesn't produce anything. Home ownership is beyond the reach of the working family. Those that do own homes have been leveraging them for years to finance a lifestyle they can't afford. We import most of our fuel, durable goods, consumables and even an increasing percentage of food stuffs from foreign markets. The top 1% of the population controls all of the countrie's wealth and resources. The rest of us actually owe more than we're worth. Most people have virtually nothing put away for retirement and expect that the Government will take care of them.

The dollar, increasingly, is worth garbage opposed to foreign currencies. Market strategists continue to expect strong consumer spending, even in the face of evidence that the American consumer is tapped out. The American consumer will continue to spend, as long as credit is extended and payment is delayed.

The mortgage market is in shambles. Credit card debt will be next. Consumer spending will follow. The American economy is not the envy of the World.

Hey, don't you remember, they called me Al. It was Al, all the time. Say, don't you remember, I'm your pal. Buddy can you spare a dime.

Someone is in for a surprise ,soon

I was reading an article on market analysis on the Fox News site today. The gist of it was that there is no real threat to the markets or economy from the sub-prime meltdown. The default of sub-prime mortgages, they say, is manageable. The problem is psychological. Earnings are high, as is employment. Corporate balance sheets are flush. They are missing something, I think. They aren't looking at the way people are living. They aren't listening to what they are saying.

A lot of people say they are worse off than previously. Even though employment is high and income is up, a lot of people say the economy is already in a recession. What's going on? Are they dim?

The truth is, people can't afford their lives. Even though they have income and benefits, they can't afford the things they need. They need a car, so they go into debt to buy it. They need a house, so they go into debt to buy it. The house and car note, as well as the attendant costs of operation and ownership, eat up most of their income. To obtain the other necessities of life, they use their credit cards. When the credit card debt becomes unmanageable, they refinance their home and pull out equity to defray costs. Their already unmanageable mortgage becomes more unmanageable. They get promotions and raises at work, they moonlight. These people don't golf, don't dine out, take vacations, buy nice clothes, or send their children to private schools.

Fast forward 20 years. They are making more than twice what they used to make but the house that they paid $150,000 for is now in hock for $500,000. Something went wrong with the last car before the 72 month payment schedule was over and now they owe $20,000 on a car that cost $14,000 and is worth $6,000, maybe, at 13%. The credit card debt is worse than ever. What can you do? The money always runs out before the end of the pay period, way before. The oldest boy is married now, with two kids and lives in an apartment. He's a good boy. He and his wife live like church mice but it's soccer season. The kids need shin guards, shoes and uniforms. They also need dental work. What are you going to do?

What's going on here is a lot more than psychological. George Bush and his rich friends are driving along in the beautiful, barge-like, SUV of State. The stereo is playing some sweet sounds. The cell phones are out. The air conditioning is blasting. There's a case of cold ones in the cooler. The engine is running sweet and the fuel line is still full but the tank is empty.

Someone is in for a surprise, soon.

Slue Foot

There is a trick that rich boys learn when gambling and GWB has apparently learned it well. Double down when you lose and go for broke. It doesn't matter how much you lose or how bad things get, If your pockets are deep enough and you've got the guts, you will eventually win and come out ahead. That's what he's doing in Iraq. It's a strategy that will certainly work. The only question is, are his pockets deep enough and does he have enough time.

Bush is betting everything he has left on David Petreaus and the surge. William Kristol, the quintessential neocon, has crowed, that in Petreaus, Bush has found his Ulysses S. Grant. I think that Petreaus is cast more in the role of Eisenhower than Grant. As Eisenhower was able to unite the diverse and antagonistic Allied factions to subdue fortress Europe, Petreaus must convince the Iraqis that it is in their interest to unite and form a stable and democratic society. Petreaus is a good choice. He is smart, confident and a hard worker. Whether he will succeed is still in question.

The question is not whether Petreaus is up to the job but whether the Iraqis are ready to lay down their arms and work together. All of this talk by the administration, about Al Qaeda terrorists being the real threat in Iraq, is not helpful. It should be clear to everyone who is in the least informed, that the Iraqis themselves are the real roadblock to resolution of the current chaos. Even if Al Qaeda is responsible for significant disruption in Iraq, they could not function without at least the tacit support of the majority of the populace. I see no indication that the Iraqis are ready for peaceful coexistence, not the man on the street, not the religious leaders, not the army or police, not the civil service or elected leaders. Petreaus can lead them into a secure and prosperous future, of this there is no doubt. I don't think that's where they want to go. I don't think Petreaus has the tools to make them want to go there. I truly wish that he did.

Pollsters seem to agree that less than 30% of Americans still believe that Bush is doing a good job. There are still slightly more than 40% who don't believe we should we should precipitously withdraw from Iraq. I don't believe that the President's personal popularity can go any lower. Those who are with him now will be with him til the end. If Petreaus fails though, I think it's probable that the war fails with him. Support for the war will continue to erode if he fails.

I do not expect that Bush will give up. He has shown that his resolve transcends mere stupidity. He is the John Henry, the Paul Bunyan, the Joe Magerak of retards. He is the Pecos Bill of the thirty percenters, although he may have more in common with Slue Foot Sue.

While Bush may have nothing more to lose and everything to gain by his current Iraq stand, this is not true of the Republican Party. If we are still embroiled in an unsuccessful foreign war in November of 2008, the election will be a decided on that one issue. Hilliary Clinton will be President and the Democratic majority in Congress will go from marginal to overwhelming. What a waste.

I Think We Probably Just Die

The Pope says that the Roman Catholic Church is the only real church because the papal succession leads directly back to Peter. He says it's OK to say the mass in Latin again. I got no problems with this but do you really think it's the kind of thing Jesus would be interested in?

I don't think Jesus cares about the church much. Whether he gets worshiped and sung to. Whether he gets recognized as the Lord and Savior. I guess the question is, do we do the right thing so we can get eternal life or because that voice that's inside each of us tells us it's the right thing to do? A lot of the time the things the Church says to do conflict with the voice inside. A lot of the time what I know is the right thing to do conflicts with how I've chosen to live my life. The bottom line is, I don't do the right thing all that much of the time and I know it.

I worry about myself too much. I save money because I don't want to be old and poor but there are poor people all around me.I should be helping them but I don't. I get bored in church and think it's stupid. I never meet clergy that I like and respect and very few Christians but I'm no better than they are. Jesus taught good things but set a standard that none can achieve. It's like we have to pay for that by accepting him as a God and then we get to be saved, even though we're bad. That seems nasty and mean, not like something Jesus would come up with.

I don't really believe in God the way most Christians do. No omniscient being could ever come up with that holy trinity thing. I believe in positive and negative, good and bad, Ying and yang. The problem with that is, since you can't have one without the other, good can never triumph over evil. Another big problem is the promise of eternal life. Believe and you get it, deny and you don't. Even Jesus had doubts though, so you know there's got to be some kind of continuum, one too many wrong moves and you go to hell. It's too much like a spelling bee. I think we probably just die.

You Don't Need A Weatherman

The Bush administration says now that our main enemy in Iraq is Al Qeada and that the surge is working. Maybe this is true. The violence has not decreased. The IEDs continue to blow in the streets of Bagdad. The rocket attacks on the Green Zone are unabated. American soldiers continue to die. As the Iraqi Pariment goes on summer recess, they have no support among the people, no control of their own military. It isn't that they need more training to be effective. They need more loyalty. Bush's press people say the surge is working. Maybe it is.

The Bush administration says that Al Queda is more powerful now than at any time since 9/11. Al Queda has it's stronghold in the tribal areas in the mountainous border regions of Afganistan and Pakistan. Bush administration spokesmen call these areas semi-autonomous. I don't see what's so damned semi about it. There is no military or civil presence there. There wasn't when the British lost an army there 200 years ago. There wasn't when Alexander decided not to fight them 2000 years ago. There isn't any now and there's not likely to be for the next 1000 years. Al Queda doesn't control these areas, the tribesman that live there do but they welcome Al Queda, for now. Why shouldn't they? Al Queda brings money and guns and strong men to fight beside them. Together they can slaughter the Afgan warlords that would take the poppy fields for their own and make the Pakky dog soldiers pee down their legs in fear.

Three years ago, The Bush administration told us that Al Queda was isolated and insulated from the rest of the world in these mountainous wastes, no threat to anyone, impotent. Today the Bush administration tells us that Al Queda has rebuilt it's leadership, recruited and trained new hosts of fighters, re-established effective communications, and refilled their coffers. How could this have happened?

George Bush has always told us that it's better to fight them over there, than over here. The Secretary of the Department of Homeland Security tells us this week, to expect major acts of terrorism, in this country, this summer. Since we're not fighting them over there, in the semi-autonomous border regions, I guess now we'll have to fight them over here.

Maybe we can get these damn California gun laws relaxed a little now. Anybody know where I can get an AK and a couple hundred thousand rounds? How about some RPGs? I'd like some of them too.

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows.

I Guess My Check Got Lost In The Mail

I noticed that one of the benchmarks that the Iraqi government is deficient in is insuring an equitable distribution of oil revenues among the population regardless of racial or religious origin. It doesn't surprise me that they are unable to achieve this lofty goal. What surprises me is that they feel any need to share it with the people at all.

In this great nation, the government is all too eager to lease or sell our natural resources to corporate interests at fire sale prices, or just give them away outright. The profits can then be reaped by those lucky enough to be in the investor class. The investor class are those that take the admonition to work smarter not harder to the ultimate extreme.

In my family we have birthed many types of people. There have been doctors, nurses, school teachers, clergymen, farmers, small business owners, factory workers, just about every type of person you can name. We never had any investor class types though, no criminals either, come to think of it. I guess they just blew all that money they made working themselves to death all those years. Yep, I bet uncle Ernest used to neglect the morning milking in the dairy barn, to whisk aunt Pearl off to Monte Carlo, where they would engage in wild gambling sprees and he would sip champagne from her orthopedic shoe, thus ruining forever our chances of entering the investor class.

George Bush is from the investor class. I feel so bad, like I've let him down. I wasted my life working. I worked harder, not smarter. I never had the time to get rich. I got a rickety, cardboard condo and a couple of motorscooters to my name. My savings are of very un-Warren Buffet like proportions. I probably will be able to afford all the cheap Chinese crap I will ever need, at Walmart and the 99 cent only store. I guess I don't need any of that resource revenue sharing crap. I guess the investor class needs it and deserves it more than I do. After all they risked their capital so that stupid work harders not smarters like me could have a job at all and I'm damn grateful.

Thanks George, enjoy the money. It warms my heart to know that capitalists like you are looking out for my welfare, even though I don;t deserve it.

La Migra

Let me tell you about my friend. She was born a half century ago in a little highland village in a Latin American country far away. Her family wasn't poor. They had a roof over their head and a little garden plot. Fruit grew in the trees and was free for the taking in the surrounding hill sides. Water came from the stream that ran by the village. There were no schools, no healthcare. The only government service provided were the squads of militia that came in the night and took away the politicos and social activists. The villagers were Roman Catholic. Holidays were celebrated. Everybody walked to mass at the church in the nearest town. It was the life she was born to. The only life she knew. A good life.

When she was fifteen she became a woman by local standards. She got pregnant, as young girls sometimes do everywhere. There was no one who would marry her. In the local culture, unmarried girls are allowed to have their babies. They are allowed to nurse them but they receive no food from the family table. Babies without fathers are not members of the family. After a while the babies usually disappear. Some mothers will nurse a child for years and feed them what they can. In the end, the child is on it's own, feral, a denizen of the street. It is the way of things. Some of them survive for years, some don't. Left alone, feral children become feral adults. Such a thing is prejudicial to good order. The local militia takes time each year to round up what feral children they can and shoot them. They do the same with wild dogs.

My friends heart was broken but not her spirit. There was no help for her, not from friends, family or church. She left her village in the night, with the clothes on her back and sandals on her feet. Like millions before and after her she had begun the migration to the North. It was months later that she swam the river, with the baby boy tied high on her back. A baby born far away and in another country from the one she left. To get to the fabled North, she had worked, begged and stolen to make her way. She had sold what she had to sell, her body, and that helped too.

Today my friend, like me, is beginning to grow old. She is still strong and quick. She laughs often. She lives in the present and talks of the future, never the past. She has a little house, in a good neighborhood. The yard is full of flowers and fruit trees. There is food and water and a place to rest for the birds as they migrate through. She is always attending a college class. She has hundreds of semester hours in every imaginable discipline. She speaks four languages but still has trouble with reading and writing, they are skills it is better to learn young. She writes and plays music. Always, there is work, 60, 70, 80 hours a week, if it is available. It is the way it has always been for her. It is the way it will always be. It is not low paid work. That the house is paid for and there is money put away makes no difference. Work is not to be turned down.

She sends money home to her family in the little village, in a country far away. She sends money to the church in the nearby town. She has it to give and they need it. She takes her family for visits there. She cannot take her oldest son, the child of la migra. He has no father, he is not welcome in the family. He can receive no food at the table.

My friend has a passport, a Social Security number. She is for all intents and purposes a citizen. Same thing with her oldest son. They are not citizens though. All their documentation is fraudulent. Even when amnesty was available they didn't come forward. Government entities are not something they put their trust in. I guess the Republifundimentalists would like to send them back where they came from. Yeah, they'd like a lot of things. Fuck'em. This country is a better place because of my friend and the millions like her.

Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses, yearning to be free.

Don't Say I Didn't Tell You So.

The administration already knows we've lost in Iraq. The Iraqis know this also. The Iraqis who aid and abet our cause, from the highest officials to the lowliest clerk and driver, know that when we leave, their lives won't be worth shit. That's why they are cutting deals now with their American masters for when the inevitable happens.

It can't be helped. It can't be stopped. When we leave Iraq, we will be taking them with us. We have already promised, in order to secure their dubious loyalty. Their parents too. Wives and families, of course. Siblings, cousins, aunts and uncles can't be forgotten. Maybe a few other countries will take in a token population. Most of them will come to America. Hundreds of thousands, perhaps a million or more Iraqis will be resettled here in America. You think we have problems with the muslim population now, just wait.

Most of them will want to come to Southern California. It can't be helped. We are the Zona Libre of the nation. They'll probably be worth it for the food alone. Then there will be the girls. We'll raise them up on protein, rock and roll, and good dental care. In 15 or 20 years they should be something to see. I hope my eyesight holds up.

The world turns. Hope springs eternal.

But He Does Got A Purty Mouth

I saw Tom DeLay on Meet the Press this morning. He was his usual smug, smarmy, bullying self. He said he had to question the patriotism of anyone who voiced opposition to the war in Iraq. Once embarked upon a war, he said, it is incumbant upon us all to pull together. He implies that anyone who doesn't is a traitor. Simple as that.

I'm hearing this kind of sentiment more and more from voices on the Right. That there is no room for dissent on the issue of the war in Iraq. That anything less than unqualified support does insult and injury to the troops in the field and aids and abets the enemy.

I've never liked Tom DeLay. He's all bluster and hair oil. A failed rat killer and dirty politican. That Republicans see him as a leader and spokesman says reams about the state of partisan politics in the country today.

Patriotism is about the esteem and love which we hold for the country which has nurtured us so well. It's fair to assume that this love manifests itself in different ways, in different people. While I personally dispise Tom Delay and believe he is a felon and should do hard time, I do not question his patriotism. That he questions mine does not trouble me. He is a redneck mutant. Kind of like that little boy in Deliverance, only without the banjo.

Fr. Robert F. Drinan

I've been waiting a week to see what the Conservo-Fascists would have to say about the passing of Father Drinan. It seems it's not a subject they have much to say about.

Father Drinan served 5 terms in the House of Representatives, with the blessing of Pope Paul II. Pope John Paul II forced him to choose between the preisthood and Congressional membership. This was at the time when Pope John Paul also dismantled the autonomy of the Jesuit Order, as part of his efforts to re-totalitarianize the Church. Father Drinan chose the priesthood.

Father Drinian was the antithesis of the religious leaders we see on the political scene today. He owned a single suit of clothes and lived in a room at Georgetown University. He did what was right. He said what was true.

Hear me Conservo-fascist scum! You can keep the likes of James Dobson, Pat Robertson and Paul Crouch. Men of God who steal from widows and orphans to amass huge personal fortunes. Men who dress in the finest clothes and personal accoutrements. Men who feel the need for professional bodyguards, when they travel in their bullet proof motorcades and private jets. Men who seek to gild their temples with offerings extorted from the poor and suffering. Men such as these are not worthy to shine the single pair of worn brogans owned by Father Drinan.

Abortion? Yes Ma'am

The conservatives, the fundamentalists, the corporate fat cats, the Bushies never tire of telling us that the government should keep their nose out of the individuals life and beliefs.

Don't teach evolution or the facts of sexual reproduction in schools. Don't regulate environmental pollution. Don't tell us what size of cars we can drive or how much gas milage they have to get. They say that personal property should be respected at all costs. Personal religious choices and philosophies should also be respected, they tell us. The man is the head of the family and household. Spare the rod and spoil the child. There is no global warming and if there is, it's not caused by greenhouse gases and if it is, it's not that bad and if it is, it shouldn't be dealt with, lest we interfere with the sacred free market economy.

The control of the children that they demand and recieve is total. They go to church whether they like it or not. They are home schooled. Their sexuality is controlled to conform to the standards of the religious and moral community, until they are no longer of minor age, or run away. They have the right, they say. America is a free country. You can raise your family like you want. Right?

Then you mention a woman's right to control her own body, or death with dignity and they start screaming murderer. What a bunch of sanctimonious witchburners.

God Damn You All

We're told by the President that a "surge" of troop strength in Bagdad will accomplish what the last 4 years of occupation has not. That the warring factions will be "pacified" and the Iraqi Government can then gain a foothold of control.

Our military can destroy other military forces. They can gain physical control of territory. That's what they do. They cannot force the populace of a fractured and oppressed society to modify their behavior. If we try to make them do this, the military itself will break, no matter what the troop strength we maintain. It's like trying to use a hammer to bake bread.

President Bush has made huge blunders in Iraq. He continues to make them. He thinks that he can somehow "force" the populace to behave the way he wants. He has not been able to and now they have nothing more to lose. Family and civil authority are irrepairably broken. Millions of Iraqis are dead, displaced or refugees in foreign lands, only time will tell how many are which. The only functioning societal fabric left are the tribal affiliations that have existed for a thousand years. The tribal imparitives ae timeless and immutable, ethnocentric violence, wanton destruction and ethnic cleansing. Now it will play out, nothing will stop it. Saddam himself played a final, important role in this process. He died well. Surrounded by a legion of partisan thugs hurling insults and catcalls, he stepped up to the gibbet with a natural grace and dignity that erased the decades of atrocity and dictatorial rule. The cell phone videos of the event swept around the World, immortalizing him and making him a martyr for large segments of the worlds population. Giving him over to such rabble for execution, on the eve of Eid, may be Bush's biggest blunder yet.

Just as he feels he can force the Iraqis to behave the way he wants them to, Bush believes he can force the American people to support his actions in Iraq. Once again, he has made a huge blunder. The American people are repulsed by the War in Iraq. They see no justification for it and no way to salvage the situation. What we have done to the Iraqi people, through our support of Bush's policies, amounts to a crime against humanity, done for no rational reason, by an administration that lied to a trusting people in the hope that once they got in deep enough, they would follow unquestioningly. The American people are better than that, bigger than that. They will not be lied to by their elected leaders and will not tolerate it. Bush's time is up. The bunker awaits. Will Laura and the little terrier follow him down? Well, maybe the terrier.

Bush still has supporters. The neocans, who have sold out their country for the wet dream of Zionism. The fundamentalists, who have seen the country move away from the values they cherish. The military, kicked to the curb by successive Democratic administrations. They will go down with him. There will be no place at the table for them in the coming years. There will be only the censure and loathing of their countrymen, for leading us, like the judas goat, down to the killing floor.

I do not delude myself into believing that the times ahead will be good or that the leaders that emerge will be worthy. Damage has been done. We will be scarred and ugly and disabled. It need not have been.

God Damn You All!

No Running on the Pool Deck!

1) Donald Trump must not have anything to do with regulating the morals of young women. It's just not right.

2) Hilliary must not run for President. Nobody wants it.

3) The deployment of a "surge" of troops to Bagdad is not a good idea. Bush says we're winning. He lies like a craven, yellow dog.

4) Giving money to televangelists doesn't help the poor or make Jesus like you.

Seasons Greetings

I just watched a Presidential news conference on Iraq. It is clear President Bush has no real understanding of the country, not it's history, not it's demographic make up, not it's current reality or what we are doing there. After four years of war in the country, the idea that the architect of the conflict, really hasn't taken much of an interest, is discouraging. The Fundies think these are the end times. One can only hope so. If Jesus comes down from Heaven, to lead the forces of the righteous, perhaps he will take a personal interest in what is happening and provide a little informed leadership. Revelate me, Baby!

Tom DeLay started a blog yesterday, for about 45 minutes. He had to shut it down, due to a deluge of harshly critical comments. I just wish I could get a level of traffic like that. Some people get all the luck. They'll probably have free wireless access at that prison he's going to.

The Environmental Protection Agency, which Bush packed with corporate polluters, has exempted the worst of the atmospheric mercury polluters, to ease the strain of increased urban development. The EPA has also signalled it is ready to declassify lead as an atmospheric pollutant, at the behest of Big Oil and the lead acid battery producers. Atmospheric lead has been strictly controlled since the Carter Administration, levels have decreased by 90% in the last thirty years.. Mercury and lead are known causative agents of neurological malfunction in the young. Wher's all that Culture of Life, Save the Children crap, when you need it.

They've sent Ted Haggard to Tucson, to cure him of being Gay. I understand there's something in the water, there, that does it. Good luck, Ted. After they cure that homo thing, you can work on the methamphetamine problem. That will help with all those religious delusions.

He Really is the President

It has become increasingly clear over the last couple of weeks that George W. Bush is not a figurehead. I had always assumed that there was some kind of cabal behind him, pulling the strings. I no longer believe this to be true. We now have ample proof that he has received council from the Vice President, Cabinet members, and Congressional leaders, advising him in the strongest terms as to advantageous courses of action to be taken in any number of areas, the mid-term elections, homeland security, Iraq and the bipartisan nature of the upcoming Congress, to name a few.

We know that he has disregarded this advice and continued blindly on with his previous course, with disasterous results in each case. The liberal conspiracy theories have been proved wrong. There is no secret government. There are only the masterbatory fantasies of a closeted, gay, frat boy, left too long alone, in a big, white, house.

My direst fears have been proved wrong but I am not relieved.

Traitor, Coward, Treasonous Dog

Iraq has ceased to exist, drowned in a sea of sectarian violence. Uncounted Iraqis have died. More than a million of it's citizens have left, gone for refugees to countries likely to prove only marginally more safe, in the long run. It's a sure bet that hundreds of thousands more will leave in the months to come, as the blood runs and the bodies rot in the streets. The coalition government and their families and friends may survive, but if they do so, it will be in the United States, along with the survivors of South Vietnam, Nigeragua, Cuba, and the Peacock Throne of Persia. If they have not yet stolen enough money to make a new start, in a new world, never fear, we will give them more.

George W. Bush, the Commander in Chief, says we will stay the course, until victory is won. There is no course to stay, no victory to be won. We still have money, lives and international respect to lose. He is determined to lose all he can. The American people have no one to blame but themselves for this failed adventurism. They delivered to George Bush and his evil cronies the baton of power and the keys to the treasury. Nothing short of impeachment will stop this madman from running our country onto the rocks and shoals of ignomy.

I do not gloat over these events. Iraq bleeds. My countrymen die to no purpose. My country is disgraced. It's resources squandered. I despair. I look for leadership that is not there.

I curse George Bush. I call him traitor. I call him coward. I call him a treasonous dog.

Can Do, Can Do. The Guy Says the Horse Can Do.

With the '08 elections staring us in the face, it would seem like a good time to make sure that we don't elect another President that falls into the Evil Robot category.

The Democrats don't seem to have much available to put into the race. It's been pretty well established that nobody is going to vote for Hillary and nobody really trusts her to be President. Edwards looks and acts the part, but he has very little experience, and the guy is, when all is said and done, an ambulance chaser. Barak Obama is the dark horse but nobody knows anything about him. They may go with him if he doesn't self destruct during primary season. The likelihood is that they will wheel out some old warhorse. I'd recommend Sam Nunn, myself, but there are a bunch of them out there and being President is every pol's secret dream.

The Republicans have a bunch of guys who could win easily but the base won't go for them. In a general election, Rudy could easily prevail, but his social liberalism is the kiss of death. Colin Powell has always had a big Democratic following and probably could win on either ticket. I have no idea how he'd play in the Republican primaries but it would be worth a shot. Lindsey Graham is a Red State dream but his repeated principled stands against the Bush administration and his ability to work in a bipartisan manner doom his primary prospects.

Who do you like and why?

The Jobs Not Finished Until The Paperwork's Done

In the aftermath of the midterm elections, we have been barraged by the media, internet gurus, and the politicians on both sides of the political fence with interpretations of the significance of the Democratic takeover of the House and Senate. These interpretations are often extremely complicated, not very comprehensible and clearly wrong. These guys weren't right before the election, why would they be right afterward? Let's start out by defining what the election was not about.

It was not about social issues. People feel the same way about race, sexual preference, immigration, reproductive rights, Social Security, healthcare, and all the other myriad social dilemmas our society faces, as they did when they elected Bush and the Republicans, two and six years ago.

It's not about corruption in government. Nobody really cares about corporate lobbyists with deep pockets or government contracts awarded to companies that take the money and give blue sky and bull shit in return. Nobody begrudges a congressman, or any other politician a Swiss bank account or a beach house in the Bahamas. It's as American as apple pie.

It's not about a mandate for Liberal government. Many of the most high profile Democratic candidates were as conservative, or more so, than their Republican opponents. Nancy Pelosi's battlecry is "Rule from the Center". I didn't notice anyone out there campaigning with Cindy Sheehan, Jane Fonda or Micheal Moore at their side.

It's not about the War in Iraq. Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman are still standing tall amidst the ruble of the American political landscape. What does that tell ya?

This election was all about George W. Bush. A Nero, who fiddled while New Orleans lost half it's population. A Josef Stalin, who instituted a system of secret prisons, torture, warrantless wiretapping, and indefinite imprisonment without criminal charges or trial. The man who invented the signing statement, whereby he may ignore any law he doesn't like. A Commander in Chief who spends the lives and resources of our military establishment, like a drunken sailor squanders his paycheck on a Hotel Street parlor girl. He is a liar, a cheat, a degenerate, a scoundrel. We have suffered bad Presidents, partisan Presidents, more than our share in the last half century. We have never had a President who worked so actively to subvert the very foundations of the Republic. He thinks now, that by scapegoating various members of his administration, he can buy time to continue his evil predations on the people of America. This must not be allowed.

In January of 2007, when the new Congress convenes, a carefully chosen, bipartisan, Speaker of the House must be appointed. Someone within the ranks of Congress with the respect of both sides. The President and Vice President must then be forced, under threat of impeachment and imprisonment, if necessary, to summarily resign their offices. The Speaker will then assume the Presidency for the next two years. It is an unprecedented move, but necessary. If it is not done, the cancer that is eating away at the guts of the American body politic, will continue, and more damage will be done.

No, it's not Mary Poppins.

The four or five regular readers of this blog will know that I have weighed in on Donald Rumsfeld before. He is one of the only members of the Bush cabinet with the intelligence and experience to play in the big leagues. That he has been able to hold the efforts of our armed forces in Iraq together this long, is a feat right up there with the loaves and fishes. He has been a responsible adult presence in an administration that has not been governing, as much as they have been dressing up in their mother's old gowns and playing tea party.

The new nanny has arrived, to take the children in hand. Her name is Nancy.

Old Donald has been asked to leave. It's probably the best thing, for him. For us? We'll soon see.

Farewell, old Donald. That crofter's cottage on the wintry moor awaits. I'm sure you will soon have it in good repair.

How big is that tent, really?

What, exactly, is the significance of Ted Haggard, founder of an evangelical megachurch in Colorado, snorting methamphetamine and purchasing the services of a gay prostitute? None, really, but it might be a good time to talk a little about the state of evangelical religion in this country.

These high profile evangelists, often leading huge, cult of personality, organizations, should not be confused with what they are not. They are not theologians, despite the fact that Doctor often appears before their name. They are not charitable, despite the fact that they are always asking for charitable donations. They are not good role models for people seeking to lead a better life, although they often present themselves as such. It is doubtful that many of them are even Christians at all. These people are salesman. It is apparent from their carefully crafted images, tailored to appeal to their target audiences. It is apparent from the structure of their organizations, and the way all available resources are directed to public relations and media exposure. It is apparent by the constant quest for new members, and the emphasis on donation of money, as the means to join and maintain status, within the group. It is apparent by the material rewards they reserve for themselves.

They are not selling religion. Religion is free. You can borrow it from friends or family. Try it out, keep it if you want. Modify it in any way you like or combine it with other religions. If all else fails, you can just make up your own religion. What these guys are selling is community. A place where people share beliefs and values. A place of comfort and security. A place where they help you up, if you fall down and help you along, if you fall behind. A place where you belong and where you're proud to belong. This is the product they sell. In a world where families and societies are increasingly diverse, it is a valuable commodity to have on offer. If this is what you want, put your money down and seal the deal. Just don't confuse it with religion.

When evaluating the intrusion of these evangelical Christian organizations, into the political system, it may behoove all of us to evaluate whether it has occurred because the members of these organizations really feel it is appropriate to imprint their particular beliefs into the law of the land and the actions of our national leaders, or whether the salesman who run these organizations, feel that combining their product with political power make it more salable, to larger numbers of people. I don't think there is any question that it does but is it the right thing to do? The concerns of the evangelical Christian community in America are populist. Getting into bed with the corporate interests that really control the Republican party may not be that good of an idea.

There should be no constraint on religious freedom in this country. There should be no constraint on personal freedom in this country by religious institutions that disagree with the political, moral or lifestyle decisions of citizens. I'm not saying it's easy but it is what we should all strive for. The key is mutual respect or at least acceptance.

The Emperor Has New Clothes

A troubling turn of events in Blogland. Anybody surfing around the internet is familiar with the phenomena of military blogs. Members of the Armed Forces, often stationed far from home, are able to communicate with family and friends, in real time, at low cost. They also use blogs as sounding boards to relate their experiences and to voice their opinions on a wide range of issues. Now comes word that the upper reaches of the military establishment is keeping tabs on these instruments, citing concerns of National Security.

It turns out that each of the branches of the service have agencies that monitor blogs. There is also a DOD agency which does this. Service members are now required to register their blogs with their commanding officer. Commanding officers are required to evaluate these blogs quarterly. There are apparently guidelines that the service member must adhere to, facing disciplinary action if these guidelines are violated. Anybody that knows anything about military rules and regs, knows that there is inevitably a catch all rule that translates as, " anything we don't like is prohibited".

There are already complaints from service members that they have been required to remove their blogs from the internet, that they have been disciplined or even reduced in rank, over publication of blogs. Anyone contemplating a career in the military knows how seriously these kinds of actions can effect the recipient.

The fact of the matter is that military bloggers take their responsibility to protect National Security very seriously. I have not seen anything that even approaches the inappropriate on a Milblog. Another sad fact is, that someone who wants to purposefully release sensitive material can all to easily find an effective and anonymous way to do it.

Nitpicky censorship of Milblogs stifles a much needed outlet for personal expression by the troops. It deprives the American public of a valuable source of information about the military. It makes the high command appear petty and mean. It does no good, for anyone.

Happy Birthday, Gracie!

Grace Slick is 67 years old today.

She gave us courage. She made us believe.

Good Job, Grace.

Democratic Sweep? Not in my neighborhood.

I live in Northern Coastal Orange County, California. It's part of the California 46th Congressional District, one of the most gerrymandered and Republican dominated districts in the country. Our Congressman is Dana Rohrabaker, currently running for his 10th consecutive term but you'd never know it.

There are no campaign signs on the streets. No adds on TV. There are no news stories or editorials in the local papers concerning the candidates or their positions on the issues. The Democratic candidate is a throwaway, has raised no money and received none from the DNC. Dana has plenty of money but prefers to let the non campaign continue. His last personal appearance, at a large public venue, that I am aware of, was last 4th of July.

Dana votes pretty much like you would expect a conservative Republican to vote. His only divergence from the Bush agenda is that he is strongly anti-immigration, but he has been strangely silent during the recent populist anti-immigration uprising.

He was Jack Abramoff's closest personal friend in Congress, or anywhere, as far as I know.

He has accepted massive contributions from CAIR, and virtually every other Islamic lobbyist group with money to spend. Several of his Arab American contributers are awaiting trial in Federal courts on charges of aiding terrorists. In 2002, he went to Afghanistan, for extensive private meetings with Taliban leaders, and travel throughout the country. He was not critical of the Taliban following this episode. He is not a friend of Israel.

He supports punitive prison terms for drug users and low level traffickers, while freely admitting a youthful background of drug use.

He is anti-abortion, anti-feminist and anti-gay rights. He is strongly supported by the Focus on the Family organization, led by the feminine acting, but, we are told, strongly heterosexual clergyman, James Dobson. Dana, himself a batchelor, never previously linked to a feminine companion, married precipitously, after a short courtship, in his fiftieth year, to a young, Republican staffer. Several years later, he became the father of triplets, which in this day and age, usually is the result of in vitro fertilization. He has not weighed in on the Foley scandal. Like they used to say in Florida, this a man with strong, thespian leanings.

Seems to me like the Democrats are throwing away a good opportunity here. Democratic sweep of the House? I'll believe it when I see it.

Vote early, vote often. Just not in the same election

A lot of people on the internet are putting up posts about the upcoming elections. They all have some kind of voting "strategy" that they are pushing. Vote the party line. Vote against incumbents. Vote anti-war. Vote moral issues. Vote immigration stance. Don't vote at all, in protest. They all have a "system". They all have an ax to grind.

I have always thought voting is a more or less private matter but since everyone is being so vocal, I guess I'll throw my 2 cents in.

What I say is this. Vote for candidates who love our country and who are interested in making life better for all of us here. Vote for people who are interested in building consensus, rather than accentuating differences. Where consensus cannot be reached, look for office seekers who want to allow people to follow their individual preferences to the greatest extent without impinging on the lives of others. Politicians who tout entitlement programs or budget earmarks that benefit one group at the expense of others are to be suspect. Politicians who play on our fears and stoop to name calling are not qualified to serve. Vote for candidates who believe freedom, democracy and the rule of law need to be fostered at all costs, here, at home, in our own country, now.

Minding your own business is not isolationism. Pensions that allow anyone to live at a level above genteel poverty are too high. Government funded healthcare coverage that provides unlimited services without regard to cost are foolish. A business climate free of oversight or accountability is not in our best interest. An educational system which attempts to force education on those apathetic or actively antagonistic to learning is criminal. The rich, the poor, the young, the old, the sick and disabled all cry out for special treatment but special treatment is special interest and special interest is the slipperiest of slippery slopes. Government is a framework, within which, we may strive for life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is not an uber-nanny which provides us with protection from the realities of life and the fulfillment of all of our perceived needs.

Liberal/conservative, religious/secular, race, gender, sexual preference, economic status, drug use, age, disability, all of these things and others, we have allowed to divide and fragment us as a society. It is not necessary to like another person, or respect the choices they make, or believe they are morally correct in their beliefs, to coexist. We need to begin, among ourselves, and through our elected representatives, a national discourse on establishing rules that allow us, as a society, freedom to live as we choose and are able and for others to do the same.

There have to be laws. Some behaviors have to be proscribed. Enforcement and punishment for violators have to be implemented. Nobody gets a free pass in a free society. We need to elect people who are willing to honestly approach the problems, from the standpoint of the good of all.

Look for prospective office holders who are insightful, empathetic, humble. Don't worry about a lot of the other "important" stuff, at least not so much.

Execution/Poor-Degree of Difficulty/Extreme

Whitehouse Press Secretary Tony Snow yesterday announced that the term "Stay the Course", will no longer be used to describe the Bush administration's policy on the Iraq War.

This can best be described in their own terms as a "flip/flop", preparatory to a policy of "cut and run".

It's a Nguyen, Nguyen Situation

This a local story, I don't know how much national exposure it's getting. If you want to read about it, the Orange County Register is giving it good coverage.

The 47th Congressional District in California is composed primarily of the City of Garden Grove, plus adjacent sections of surrounding cities. The incumbent, Loretta Sanchez, changed her party affiliation a decade ago from lifelong Republican to Democrat to unseat the notorious B-1 Bob Dornan. She is being challenged this term by Tan Nguyen, a Republican candidate who hopes to become the first Vietnamese-American member of Congress.

Nguyen's staffers, with his approval, sent out to the 14,000 households in the district, in which reside registered voters with Hispanic surnames, a notice. This notice stated that immigrants are not allowed to vote. Further, it stated that immigrants who voted would be guilty of a felony and would be fined, imprisoned and deported. It conspicuously does not mention the citizenship requirement for voting, a clear attempt to frighten qualified voters from exercising their franchise. I am unable to stop myself, at this point, from mentioning that Mr Nguyen, is himself, an immigrant, while Ms Sanchez is not.

The Orange County Registrar of Voters, upon discovery that this mailing had taken place, moved to immediately send out a clarification, to these 14,000 households, as to the actual status required to vote, in unambiguous terms. He was constrained from doing so, by the Orange County Board of Supervisors, who voted, with the exception of one, that it was not appropriate. The Orange County Board Of Supervisors are, of course, with the exception of one, Republicans.

The Register printed a copy of this notice. It is very, very slick. It is very likely not a product of Nguyen's staff, but from an outside source. There will, of course, be an investigation. The publicity will probably counter any damage that was done and may in fact mobilize enraged Democratic voters in the district. It will also no doubt cause disgusted Republicans to either not vote, or to vote for Sanchez.

The real problem with this type of behavior, on either side of the political fence, is that it further polarizes a political landscape, in which both sides see the other as criminals, bent on winning at any cost, even that of subverting the democratic tradition that is our proudest possession. This is not a productive course for our nation to take. The kind of political tactics that are more and more being used in this country, while effective, come at a cost we cannot afford.

Who America's Politicians Must Answer To

The people that America's politicians must answer to are not the power elites. They are not the fundamentalist base. They are not the poor and disadvantaged. They are not the new immigrants.

The people that America's politicians must answer to go to work every day. They own homes. They are raising families. Every year, their dollars are worth a little less. Every year, their jobs become closer to being jobs Americans won't do. The question is never about getting out of debt. It's about how not to get too much deeper in. The house gets refinanced, again. The 401K gets cashed out, again. It isn't about luxuries. It costs to raise kids. It costs to get to work. The neighborhood where you can afford to live is not the neighborhood where you can afford to let your kids grow up.

They have cute names for it. Globalization. The New World Order. It Takes a Village. It doesn't hide the reality. The reality is that it's cheaper to produce goods in countries where people will work for $1.20 a day, and there are no safety or environmental regulations. The reality is that it's cheaper to hire immigrant labor and lower the wages to the point where you can claim it's a job Americans won't do. Don't kid yourself, it's not just fast food and farm work. It's construction, road work, assembly, clerking, truckdriving and on and on and on. The Auto industry is dying in this country, just as steel died 30 years ago. There haven't been American merchant seaman manning American flagged ships since the early '60s. Government is increasingly contracting out services to private industry, who use immigrant labor. They point to the millions it saves in salaries, benefits, and deferred pension costs. For the first time this year the Forbes Magazine list of the 400 richest Americans were all billionaires.

Where does this end? Have you been to Third World countries, where most of the people live in sprawling feral cities that look more like garbage dumps than habitats? Where the rich live up on hills far away, where the air is clear, the water is clean and the fields of fire are unobstructed. Is this the future of America?

I don't think so. The only choice we have is, will the government work with the people to fix things, or will the people have to do it on their own.

If we do it on our own, we won't need the government.

"When you talk terroristic to me Baby, it makes me uulate with desire"

As far as the Global War on Terror goes, I get the concept. Militant Islamic Jihadis, out to humiliate our culture and disrupt our way of life. We have to stop them. It's the execution that I have some problems with.

I keep getting visions of the Disney adaptation of the Tales of Uncle Remus. Osama is Brer Rabbit. We and our allies are the pursuing Brer Fox and Brer Bear. The mountains of Afghanistan are the briar patch and Iraq is the tar baby. Are you getting the picture? If one of the participants in a conflict, is able to gain control of the conflict, they have a huge advantage. Osama is all about control. It doesn't matter that he has almost no military resources or strength. He can keep us expending huge amounts of effort and resources, virtually indefinitely, and it costs him nothing.

While we are flailing around, we exhaust ourselves. We alienate large portions of the worlds population. Best of all, for Osama, we give him credence. He is the one, who has reduced the Great Shaitan to impotency. It is a terrorist recruiters dream come true. It is not necessary to promise the young terrorist boys virgins in heaven. They have become a very romantic and sexy commodity here on earth, to the emancipated, Islamic girls of today.

I can hear those Islamic girls now, " When you talk terroristic to me baby, it makes me uulate with desire."

It's not your father's Bill of Rights

Suspension of the writ of habeas corpus. Suspension of the right to a fair and speedy trial. Interrogation with torture. Evidence obtained by coercion allowed at trial. Wiretapping without a warrant. Nobody is naive enough to believe that a certain amount of this kind of thing has not always gone on. Now, it's legal, out in the open. Thanks to the Bush administration and the Republican Congress.

I'm not sure it's a bad thing. Polls tell us the public largely accepts this. It's not news to our enemies. It reminds us to be careful, because you never know. The Bill of Rights is still the same, just a little more aerodynamic. These changes will no doubt prove useful, after the elections, when the Democrats take over, and the investigations start.

Coalition Crumbling, British Grumbling

General Sir Richard Dannatt, the Chief of Staff of the British Army, called for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, soon. He stated that the original plan, to establish a liberal democracy, was not going to be possible and we should decide on a lower ambition. He stated that foreign intervention was no longer welcome within Iraqi society and the consequences of continued presence in Iraq, by British troops, would not improve the situation within the country. He was not as negative in his outlook for continued British presence in Afghanistan. He also had some pretty grim opinions on the effects of the Iraq War on British domestic society.

Will this, do you think, cause George Bush and his advisers to rethink their position of staying in Iraq,"As long as it takes"?

How will this effect the status of the "Coalition Forces", that, George Bush tells us, are fighting with us in Iraq?

Will even more Republican politicians break with Bush's Iraq policy?

Will Bush's poll numbers go even lower, signifying the erosion of his heretofore impervious "fundamentalist" base?

Will the active duty military community, which has, up until this point, maintained solidarity with the President, begin to splinter?

Will he be able to refocus the countries attention on the GWOT, as an extranational, rather than a State to State, conflict?

Will this effect Bush's ability to deal effectively with Iran and North Korea, the other two hubs on his tricycle of evil?

Will he now focus his efforts on transforming Afghanistan into a liberal democracy in the Western style?

I am breathless in anticipation.

Next Liberal Anti-Bush Rant

Bush has a hundred and fifty thousand troops in Iraq and will send no more. If you add up the number of troops in the theater, Afghanistan, Kuwait, UAE, it's more like two hundred and fifty thousand. If you add the troops in support roles at home and around the world, then throw in the civilian contract personnel, it's probably closer to a half million. He has no more to send.

At home, he has a base that won't send their sons and don't want to pay. The politicians that have supported him in the past, being politicians, are deserting his camp in the night. The opposition is gaining strength and boldness as they see him weakening. The press perch like vultures in the Rose Garden, they know they will feed soon. Corporate interests can give him money but not the legitimacy he has lost in the eyes of the American people. George Bush forgot the first rule of the schoolyard bully. Never pick a fight you don't KNOW you can win. Now he will have to pay the price. The weakling who gets picked on and puts up a good fight, is admired, even if he gets beat up, even if nobody likes him. Nobody commiserates with a bully when his nose is bloodied.

Did you see him in the Rose Garden yesterday? No fighter jock in a multi-zippered flight suit. No mission accomplished braggadocio. No crowds of cheering sycophants. More like a cowering denizen of death row, just told by the warden that his appeals are exhausted and the date has been set.

He's going to try and cut and run. You can tell by the furtive darting of his eyes. The involuntary twitching of his upper lip. The fine sheen of sweat on his forehead. The rambling and disjointed answers, completely lacking their normal pugnacious snap. There is no place to cut. There is nowhere to run. There is only the ticking of the clock. The sound of time, running out.

And when he's gone, crawled away in disgrace, as he has in every other endeavor of his pathetic life, there she will be, Hillary Clinton, standing tough, ready to pick up the pieces.

I think I'm gonna puke.

Americans

Forty years ago, the War in Vietnam permeated American life. Journalists and cameramen were in the warzone, with the troops. Huge amounts of network and local news time was devoted to footage of war news, often narrated by those who were on the scene. With the draft in full swing, large numbers of young Americans did their two year hitch, cycling through South East Asia. Veterans were everywhere. They were glad to talk and they did just that, in churches, college dorms, construction sites, bars, everywhere you went. By the mid to late 60s, the American public had a pretty good idea what was going on in Vietnam, on a daily basis.

It's not the same with the war in Iraq. News footage and content is carefully censored. Access to the troops and the warzone is carefully controlled. The troops talk about doing their jobs. They don't speculate on the value of their presence, the quality of their leadership, or if the war was even a good idea, because they are professionals, just doing the job assigned to them.

It's a different war. It's playing out in a different way. I'm not sure the American public needs to be shielded from the reality of the war by the government. What I do know is that in the end, it won't make any difference.

American intervention in Vietnam started at the end of the siege of Dien Bien Phu. It started out very secret. The average American didn't even know we had troops there until 1959 and even then the government was careful to qualify our presence as advisory only. Things escalated quickly after that. What is important to remember is that the government enjoyed more or less unqualified public support for the war in Vietnam until 1966. There was a lot of civil unrest in the country in the early 60s. There were race riots, the free speech movement, and the great right wing backlash but none of it was about Vietnam.

When Vietnam became hopeless, the American public knew. Knew it had gone on long enough. Knew it was time to put a stop to it. The government was not responsive and that's when the trouble began.

You can't fool the American public. They don't like to be lied to. They won't be misled. Leadership that tries to are severely dealt with.

The Policeman is Your Friend

Let me tell you about an incident that happened in my town a couple months ago. An 18 year old girl was arguing with her mother in the early morning hours. By all accounts, this was a quiet, well behaved, young person. Did Ok in school. No problem with substance abuse. She was 5 foot 4 or 5 inches tall and weighed one hundred and twenty pounds. I am not sure what the altercation between mother and daughter was about, but she had told friends that night, that she had been sexually assaulted. She had not been to a hospital or reported this to the police, perhaps this was a date rape situation. For whatever reason, the situation with the mother escalated and the daughter cut the mother, on the forearm, with a knife of some kind. Following this, she left the house. A neighbor observed her as she left the house, still holding the knife and called the police.

The police confronted the girl in an otherwise deserted public park at dawn. The medical report by the MD on duty at the local ER where her body was taken afterward, stated that there were 23 bullet wounds in her body. The city police spokesman said afterward that the officers (plural), that fired on her, were in fear for their lives, and that no less than lethal methods of subduing this young girl were available. Whether or not the girl actually threatened the officers with the knife was not mentioned, nor was the length of the blade.

The information released about this incident was very limited and the mother is not talking. I suspect a settlement will follow. The officers involved have not been suspended, nor are they facing disciplinary action. A hold on the release of any additional information, continues, pending something, I'm not sure what.

I wish I could say that this is an unusual occurrence in my town, but it's not. There is a pattern of the use of lethal force, by the police, against suspects who pose a minimal threat, when witnesses are not present.

Denny Hastert, A Great American

I have not been posting because events have been too depressing to dwell on. It is simply easier to stay away. Better for the sanity and the stomach. Today though, I think I will post. I want to talk about Dennis Hastert.

Newt resigned as Speaker of the House. He resigned because he was a liar, a braggart, a thief, and because he has weenie control problems that eclipse those of Bill Clinton. The Republicans needed to replace Newt with someone who wasn't like him in any way. That was not an easy thing. The Congress is reflective of those they represent and I don't mean the voters. Most of it's denizens are involved in activities and have proclivities that would make a sewer rat gag. They got Dennis Hastert to do the job. He 's not a great communicator. He's old, fat and ugly. He's not an original thinker. He has not healed the rifts between the two parties. On the other hand, he's not a corrupt , money grubbing, sexual degenerate. He does OK, I like him.

Mark Foley is a closeted Gay man in the public eye. If he had been allowed to be who he is, it's likely that he wouldn't have titillated himself with dirty text messages to underage pageboys. Whatever he did, however is not Hasterts responsibility. He is not the arbiter of Congressional morals. If he called for the ouster of every congressperson engaged in some kind of nauseating, bestial, sexual perversion, no one would be left to make the law. Sometimes there just isn't an appropriate scapegoat on which to blame whatever inconvenient information that reaches the public eye.

Ultimately, the voting public is responsible for the behavior of the people they send to Congress. If they want to keep voting for the freak show specimens their parties put before them, they have no one to blame but themselves when these very same elected representatives despoil their children. Don't blame Denny Hastert.

The Congress is a terrible, disgusting place. It is peopled by drug abusing, sex obsessed, thieving, sociopaths,who, because of their position, are largely above the law. Denny Hastert runs it for us. It is not a job any honest man would covet.

I ask you this. If you oust Denny Hastert from the Speakership, the first honest man to hold the job in living memory, who will you get to do it then?

New Revelation by Legislative Leader

Senator Bill "Fillibusterer" Frist, this week blamed the ineffectiveness of the current session of congress on the Democrats, who he says are guilty of, " all kinds of underhanded, obstructionist tactics". Somebody should tell him that the Democrats chair no commitees and the Republicans need no democratic votes to pass legislation.

Next, he'll be telling us he's on the same Al- Quieda "Hit List" that Bill O'Rielly claims the FBI told him he is on.

What are these guys smoking?

Another Bush Diatribe

For six years, Bush has gotten everything he wanted. He has been the decider. He has control of both houses of Congress and has been able to pack the Supreme Court. That's the way it should be, because he's a uniter, not a divider. I'm not whining, boss. More power to him, I say. The only thing I ask is that you don't go blaming the evil moonbats when everything turns to shit.

He has started a war he can't finish. He could have raised taxes to pay for it. He could have instituted a draft to fight it. He doesn't because his base won't stand for it. They don't want to pay. They don't want their children to fight. What do I think? I didn't like this war from the first. That being said, once we're in it, it behooves us to kick the shit out of the enemy. First rule of the playground, every boy learns it by the first grade. Nobody respects a loser.

He has lost us every ally we had and damaged our position in the international community. There is no organized left wing establishment, undermining his position here at home. Cindy Sheehan is so far out there on the fringe that during her "March on Washington" last year, not one mainstream political figure stood up with her. The most damning criticism of Bush has come from the Right. William F. Buckley, David Broder, George Will, Pat Buchanan, Lindsey Graham, John Warner, John McCain, Colin Powell, The list keeps getting longer. The Democrats have no organized resistance to the Bush trail of tears and no one listens to them anyway. Bill Clinton and Laura Bush are sharing top billing at a conference for African relief. Hmmm, I wonder if that's all they're sharing?

George Bush has been a failure all his life, at school, at work, at play. There are no old friends telling anecdotes about Georges younger days, he has no old friends. There are no old girlfriends coming out of the woodwork, there are no old girlfriends. No past business associates talk of his savvy or acumen, he has neither. The truth is, his parents have smoothed the way for him and pulled his chestnuts out of the fire all his life. They can't help him now. He's way out of his depth and all I feel for him is sorry. All I ask is, when it all comes apart, don't point your finger at me and call me less than a patriot for not adequately supporting him. It's true I dispise George Bush but I'm just one old man. I mind my own business. I pay my taxes, all of them. I go to work. I give my time to causes I believe in, none of them political. I served my country in my time and will again when they start to take 55 year olds. I vote in every election, just not for George Bush.

I don't know what's coming up for the USA in the next cycle and to tell you the truth I'm fast coming to the conclusion that we deserve whatever we get. I don't think it's too much to ask of our leaders to act like responsible adults. I don't think it's too much to ask of the American people to treat each other with civility and respect but apparently I'm wrong. The warm fuzzy feeling that we get from blaming our problems on the other guy is just too good to pass up. Gee, I'm getting a warm , fuzzy feeling from all this Bush Bashing. Please disregard this post and resume bashing away at those nasty moonbats.

I Guess These Things Are Relative

Bill Frist, the Senate Majority Leader, is threatening to filibuster, in order to block the passage of an anti-torture bill that will be pushed through next week by Senators Graham, McCain and Warner. Does anyone but me think this is more than a little ironic?

If they do filibuster, does this mean we can go back and kick that bed wetting mamma's boy, Samuel Alito, off the Supreme Court?

All Saints Episcopal Church in Pasadena, CA

This may be kind of a local story, so I don't know if all of you have heard about it. There is a church about 40 miles from where I live. It is a church attended primarily by people who tend to be politically liberal and has been for most of the last century. Shortly before the last presidential election, the minister gave a sermon in which he contrasted the views expressed by Bush and Kerry at a recent televised debate.

One of the points he brought up was that the US going to war against Iraq, a country that had not attacked us or posed a threat to us, was not a war that Jesus would have signed off on. He didn't go so far as to suggest that the congregation vote against Bush but I don't imagine that GW was presented in a very flattering light.

The interesting part is that now the IRS is seeking to remove the churches tax exempt status. I am not aware of the IRS seeking to remove the tax exempt status of any other religious institution on these grounds. If this is successful, the church will have to report all contributions for the last 2 years and in the future and pay taxes on them. They would also have to pay property taxes to the state and this would be a substantial amount. This will almost certainly drive the church out of business.

It seems to me that it isn't that unusual for churches to get pretty political. Jesus apparently told Pat Robertson that GW would win the last election and Pat passed the news along to the faithful. I heard some guy named Hagee on TV saying that the War in Iraq was ordained by God and we should do everything we could to support Israel and thwart Islam. There are Islamic mosques in this country where seditious activities are planned in the name of religion, nobody is lifting their tax exempt status.

I think the IRS may have tainted motives here. What do you think?

Time for a Warchief

We are into the 5th year of the Global War on Terror. By this time I would expect to see some changes in America. I would expect that by this time we would have identified the enemy and developed a strategy to fight them. I would expect that our borders would be secured. I would expect that through conservation, rationing and alternative technologies, we would be at or near energy independence. I would expect a whole new generation of weapons and strategies for their use, with which to fight this new type of war. I would expect to see a universal draft in place and the majority of the nations military age citizens under arms. I would expect that entire campaigns would have been fought and won, that the capabilities of the enemy would have been gauged, and our efforts adjusted accordingly. I would have expected that the world would have polarized into functional alliances.

I would have expected that the Islamic Jihadist population of the world would be much diminished.

I would have expected that the war would be over.

Why we have illegal immigration.

The problem with Americans today is that they want to live like, well, Americans. To do that costs money. Money that you can't make doing the jobs Americans won't do. Let's see how much it costs to live in my area.

Housing. A room with kitchen privileges and a shared bath. $800. That's the cheapest you can get. A car, insurance, and the gas to drive it around, $500 a month. We're talking 10 year old Ford escort. Food $200 a month. That's peanut butter, processed cheese food, beans and rice in bulk. No Micky Ds. Let's just stop right there.

To support this princely lifestyle you've got to have a full time job that nets you $9 an hour. With the standard payroll deduction package, your job needs to gross you $12 an hour. If you want the clothes, cell phone, the computer with the DSL connection, Friday night out on the town, whatever, then you're looking at another 20-40 hours a week of work, and most people do just that. The bottom line though is $12 dollars an hour. The problem is, of course, that 30-40% of the jobs in the economy pay less than $12 an hour. This is why we have illegal aliens.

The big fence won't stop them. Legislation won't make them go away. Anger will not make them afraid.

Crazy Moonbats are at it again

AHA! Just as I've always thought.

Lindsey Graham is a dangerous liberal.

John McCain is a loose cannon.

John Warner doesn't understand the need for a strong national defense.

We must listen to the voices of sanity in our government who support President Bush in the war on terror, like Hillary Clinton and Joe Lieberman.

Babylon is Dying

Vera Cruz-Warren Zevon-1978

I heard Woodrow Wilson's guns
I heard Maria crying
Late last night I heard the news
That Vera Cruz was dying
Vera Cruz is dying

Someone called Maria's name
I swear it was my father's voice
Saying "If you stay you'll all be slain
You must leave now, you have no choice
Take the servants and ride west
Keep the child close to your chest
When the American troops withdraw
Let Zapata take the rest"

I heard Woodrow Wilson's guns
I heard Maria calling
Saying "Vera Cruz is dying
And Cuernavaca's fallen"

Aquel dia yo jure - On that day I swore
Hacia el puerto volvere - To the port I will return
Aunque el destino cambio mi vida - Even though destiny changed my life
En Vera Cruz morire - In Vera Cruz I shall die
Aquel dia yo jure - On that day I swore

I heard Woodrow Wilson's guns
I heard Maria calling
Saying "Vera Cruz is dying
and Cuernavaca's fallen"

Some things never change, do they?

Donald Rumsfeld- A Great American

It is very popular right now for political pundits on the right and left to call for the ouster of Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld. This points out the failure of the American public to understand the workings of our government. No one should allow frustration with American policy to mask the fact that Donald Rumsfeld is doing an outstanding job. He is an appointee of the President of the United States. His job is to support the Administration policy and to implement that policy with the Armed Forces. He has done exactly that and better than anybody else could have done. The invasion of Iraq went like clockwork. The occupation of Iraq, while not going well, is being carried out with skill and finesse. American casualties have been suprisingly and blessedly small. Morale in the Armed Forces remains high. These are things that he can influence in his position and he has done so. Everything else is political.

Donald Rumsfeld supports the Bush whitewash. Of course he does. That's part of his job. He's a political appointee. Solidarity with the administration is an absolute requirement. Anything less would require his resignation. His resignation would damage the military and military morale. This is something he would never do. He does the best he can every day, with what he's got. He doesn't quit. He doesn't try and make himself look good. He doesn't worry about what his historical legacy will be.

If you are looking for a hero in America today, you can look to the right or left, depending on your point of view. Screw the right and the left. I'll just go with Donald Rumsfeld.

Do we need more latch key kids?

America has changed. I don't think anyone will argue that point. The questions we need to ask are how and why? Can we or should we do anything about it? There are so many variables that have changed in the life of the American people over the last couple of generations. Let's just look at one.

For an old guy, I get out and about in my community. The streets, parks, stores, beaches, riverbeds of my community are places I traverse regularly. People are out recreating and going about their business. It's a pretty nice place, clean, orderly, well maintained. The weather is usually perfect. One thing you notice after a while though. There aren't any children.

There are children and you can see them if you look. You can see them in cars and vans, the younger ones ensconced in their safety seats and the older ones securely strapped in with seat belts. You see them in the school yards. On weekends you see them on the athletic fields engaging in organized activities. There are children in my little subdivision. They don't play in the streets or prowl the neighborhood. Their moms herd them out of the house and drive them away, eventually bring them back and herd them back into the house. You almost never see kids out and about on their own or in small groups, anywhere. They don't walk to school, someone drives them. The parents are just doing what they think they need to do to protect and nurture their offspring. This is not new, it has been going on for the last couple of generations. It is becoming more extreme. During the last fifteen or so years, more and more parents don't even trust the public school systems with the education, socialization and supervision of their children. They network with likeminded others and homeschool their children. These kids are not like Huck, Tom or Becky, living in a children's world but interfacing in a real and independent way with the environment and society. This has got to influence the kind of adults these children will become and the kind of nation America will become. The question is how?

Will children raised in this manner be likely to join the military, become mining engineers, seek opportunities in the developing world? It's something to think about.