Lake Tahoe Blog

Welcome to a view from Lake Tahoe. Whether due to the abundant fresh air, or the high altitude, sometimes things seem much simpler in the laid back mountain life I have come to love. I am often perplexed by how complicated life can become, and I know this is but a taste of things to come.

Perhaps it is just my mid-life crisis, but, I know I am not alone when I state that many of the major events and policies I encounter, simply do not make sense. Some friends tell me that trying to understand how the world works will drive me crazy. I agree. But unlike some of my friends, I cannot simply watch and ignore. Hence my blog.

I touch on a variety of subjects in this blog, ranging from current events, to not so current events, diatribe when needed, and on life here in the mountains. Dates posted of are those of the original post, editing occurs as necessary.

(11/01/2008): It seems every election cycle we hear the same old saw about how this election is the most important election ever. While that makes for a great motivator to the party bases it appears that this time that old saw ripped right through those logs.

Our choice is clear. We can vote for the republican ideology, or we can vote for the Constitution...

In the beginning it was thought that the ideology won the cold war while promising tax cuts, smaller government, less governmental regulation, and personal responsibility. Worthy conservative goals. Back then, I was a republican. And it was difficult not to believe in the party spin for it was far too time consuming and expensive not to take our limited network news at face value.

Then came Bush 41 with talk of the importance of ideology and something called the new world order. Little did we realize what all that really meant. The party faithful were too busy battling the "walls of jericho", an infamous democratic plan to spend our so called peace dividend from winning the cold war. Bush 41, like Reagan (despite John McCain's claims), ran up huge federal deficits and was eventually forced to go back on his famous promise of 'read my lips, no new taxes' proclamation in an effort to balance the budget and eventually end Bush 41's presidency.

The broken promises caused me to leave the republican party to support someone who would balance the budget, that infamous third party candidate that garnered 20% of the popular vote and helped propel President Clinton into office. And president Clinton did very little to stop that giant sucking sound we were warned about, and the ideology of the new world order continued with NAFTA and other trade deals that were sold to the American public as the way to open up a billion Chinese to our exports. A promise that nearly two decades later has yet to come true. Who knew the Chinese prefered saving?

What we witnessed was a huge outsourcing of our manufacturing base overseas, not as John McCain would have us believe was due to our high corporate tax rates, but because the cost of labor overseas was one or two cents on the dollar. The ideology became very clear, that is, what is this new world order. The new world order is not compatible with a government by the people, for the people, it is a world run by huge multi-national corporations that have but one concern, maximizing share holder value.

And the result? The rich got richer and the poor got poorer. Not since the 1920's has American experienced such a divide, a divide that eventually led to FDR's new deal and the birth of the conservative movement.

Along with Bush 43 came the neocons, a band of disgruntled democrats turned republican that were determined that all the peoples of the world would bow down to and respect our so called hegemony, else face the wrath of our military. Their charter declared that they would need a new Pearl Harbor to advance their agenda, and they got one. 9/11.

What followed was a man draped in a flag and carrying a cross. Our enemies hated our freedoms. So just go shopping. The danger was so great that it was claimed that it was impossible to honor our Constitution, for our Constitution is not a suicide pact. So while republicans decried activist judges on the Supreme Court, republicans embraced unitary executive theory in a time of undeclared war and promoted the idea that our president is above the law, that our president decides what laws are to be obeyed or not obeyed. And just to make sure everyone knows who the decider really is, the administration politicized our judicial system to enforce these notions.

Loyal republicans fell in line, eager to put a tight lock on K Street with the likes of Jack Ambramoff (in jail) and Tom Delay (forced resignation) to better serve the ideologies' true masters, large multinational corporations. Insurance providers wrote our health care laws. Big oil wrote our energy policies. Credit card companies wrote our bankruptcy laws, and at every corner laws were enacted by hook or crook to promote our free market system's ultimate wisdom. And that market system created nearly $50 trillion of exotic securities with nary a dollar of assets supporting them. And let us not forget that same market artificially ran up the price of oil in a grandiose scheme that made Enron look like child's play.

For six years we witnessed the deliberate destruction of our constitution. Torture, secret renditions, NSA wiretapping of our citizens, fraudulent justification of war, presidential signing statements, secret executive orders, the Patriot Act, the Military Commisions Act, the Protect America Act and much more that willl not be revealed until our generation is dead and gone. It is well known in congress, that the weakest tool in the toolbox aimed at defeating legislation, is the argument of constitutionality.

We all heard it. Brownie, you're doing a heck of a job! Then we all saw it. A city buried under water and Americans suffering. Eventually, Air Force One was spotted flying low overhead, but quickly climbed, it did not land.

And true American patriots listened. We can no longer hear the man drapped in a flag and carrying the cross.

We agree, our Constitution is not a suicide pact. The suicide pact lies in our Constitution's abandonment. Our country is great because of 'We The People'. It is because of 'We The People' that our Constitution exists. The Constitution protects 'We The People'.

So when you hear Sarah the Governor claim that one of the roles of our Vice President is to control the Senate, or when you hear Sarah the Governor declare that our first amendment prohibits the press from criticizing her, or when you hear Sarah the Governor define patriotism as the exclusive property of those whom follow the man draped in a flag and carrying a cross, pause and remember, 'We The People'.

When you hear John the Senator rallying the base with calls to fight on and finish strong, pause, and go read John the Senator's account of his ill fated bombing run that led to his capture in Vietnam. Did he ignore his plane's SAM warnings and go for glory? Or did he honor experience and take defensive actions designed to save his life and the life of his plane? Actions that would allow him to live to fight another day.

So it is with John the Senator, he is the new leader of the republican ideology, despite some of John the Senator's previous honorable negative reactions to the ideology. Sarah the Governor believes in the man draped in a flag who carries the cross. Together, I don't think so.

So, John the Senator, fight on. 'We The People' will. If through some strange miracle your ideology survives this election, 'We The People' will be there.

(10/15/2008): What is a dollar worth? After all, it is just a piece of paper. The physical attributes of a dollar are actually worth very little. There was a time when you could actually exchange your dollars for gold, or more accurately, the value of a dollar was fixed to gold. The last vestiges of a gold standard that were established by the Bretton Woods Agreements were swept away by the Nixon administration, in essence to allow our currency and money supply to expand through increased leverage offered by credit and deficit spending. Wars are expensive.

Since a dollar has no real physical worth, why is it that we can exchange dollars for products and services? Basically, because we believe a dollar is worth something. It is the belief that makes our currency valuable in our business transactions.

Throughout history, it has been fear that has triggered bank runs, the term used to describe the mob mentality whereby hoards of individuals assault their banks by demanding that the banks hand their money back to them.

And it was fear that triggered the recent run on money market funds, fear caused when Paulson failed to bail out Lehman, a competitor to Paulson's former employer Goldman Sachs.

It is really puzzling, knowing this fundamental property of money, that our administration and secretary Paulson went to congress to justify their so called investment plans with fear, stating that if we don't act that we could be facing the next great depression. Even a novice economist such as myself could have predicted the results. With the basic faith destroyed, nothing good was to follow.

And in fact, several trillions dollars worth of wealth has been destroyed in the very short several weeks since Paulson's three page demand letter to congress.

Of course, it is not unusual for our current administration to use fear to justify their proposals. But this time, their naivety was beyond belief. The fear they instilled has lead to a world wide crises, not because economic conditions justify them, but because of fear, fear that destroyed confidence.

While is difficult to believe that these folks are really dumb, it is also difficult to believe that these folks are really smart. These folks are driven by ideology, the ideology that started with the Reagan years and came with a fundamental belief that all markets are self correcting. This fundamental assumption of markets has now been proven to be absolutely false if one appreciates moral hazard.

While republicans still rail against taxes and regulation, it seems clear that neither stance has legs. If it were not for a continued stance against regulation, many of our states could have minimized the mortgage meltdown had they been allowed to pursue sub prime mortgage predators. And while no one likes to pay more taxes, republicans still cling to the notion that you can increase the size of government with deficit spending while brow beating the notion that such actions also require increases in taxes.

It is abundantly clear after 7 years, that our administration's adherence to their ideology cannot be justified with pragmatic reason and that our administration's leadership is entirely based on fear. This time, their fear card backfired with a vengeance and as is normal, it is you and I who are paying for these mistakes.

The fear card has had another effect, on politics as this falls' election looks like it will bring an end to the republican party as we now know it. Couldn't happen to a bunch of nicer guys. Will their economic fear card be the final nail in the coffin, or have we yet to see an even nastier October surprise?

(10/05/2008): Some say if you live long enough you will see it all. I will admit, I never expected to see a veep candidate that knew less about current events and foreign policy than I do. Welcome to the aw shucks, you betcha debate.

(09/29/2008): All ponzi schemes end at some point, that point is when no more players can be found. It would seem that the american public has figured out that they are the last players in our current financial breakdown as they have been told little and asked to believe the worst. How is it that our economy's fundamentals remain strong and in one or two short weeks have been declared to be the worst conditions since the great depression?

Why is it that none of our leaders will tell the american public what they were told two weeks ago that made them all turn pale and immediately declare a clear and present danger? Even when asked, they refuse to repeat those words.

The current outrage and backlash of many americans is easily understood as our current administration has told us one too many times that the sky is falling. It is with great respect that I see the public calling out those leaders and their plans as those leaders are the ones that are responsible for leading us to financial crises.

The justifications for the current bailout scheme are completely unbelievable. We are told that the bailout is actually an investment and that the tax payer will not lose any money on their investment. These are the same investments that none in the investment world want to touch with a 10 foot pole. We are told that if the american tax payer buys the toxic investments that somehow those investments will loose their toxin.

The sight, as reports indicate, of secretary Paulson getting on one knee to beg Pelosi and the democrats not to derail his proposal says it all. Paulson has failed to justify his plan, clearly stating that he is not sure that it will work but he is sure that if his plan is not passed, that disaster looms.

Democrats assure us oversight, even as many of them complain bitterly about our administration's continued refusal to cooperate with their current oversight demands. Do we expect that to change?

Proponents of the plan also claim that the plan is designed with main street in mind, that this bitter pill is for our own good. That main street cannot survive unless we prop up those large financial institutions that are just too big to fail. Of course, they are claiming to protect us from what many of us already know has already happened. It is also a stretch to believe that those dealing with macro economic issues, the markets, have any compassion for micro economic ramifications. These folks after all, tout the benefits to the market of moving manufacturing overseas with little if any thought of those whose's jobs left the country.

I have had little reason to be thankful with republicans in the house, but this is one case where I am thankful for their opposition despite the political cries of unpatriotic efforts. I guess blackmail is patriotic. Today's stock market drops of 6-9 percent after the proposal failed to pass in the house is probably the best prescription for all of us. Come up ins, if you will.

It is time that those responsible for this mess stand up and take ownership. The american public has already endured more pain than we deserve, it is time for the markets to self correct by spreading the pain around. I am tired of having the middle class suffer because of the excesses of the wealthy in our country. The wealthy will only cease their excesses if they get their well deserved haircut in their wallets. That is afterall, why the credit markets are frozen, no one wants to take that long overdue haircut.

(09/22/2008): Does the air around the current financial crisis smell familiar? It should. The hallmark of leadership during the last 7+ years has been to scare the bejesus out of law makers and then demand immediate action. The first example of this was the infamous mushroom clouds we were all told were a strong possibility if we did not invade Iraq. We later saw more of the same with the anthrax attacks prior to the passing of the patriot act. FBI explanations of these attacks was severely criticized by both sides of the aisle during last week's judiciary committee meetings. More recently, we observed this tactic once again with the passage of the latest version of FISA.

These are all examples of failures of leadership, or leadership with plans that the public would never swallow, plans that could never be justified in the court of public opinion. How many of our patriotic country first, flag lapel wearing citizens actually bothered to dig into the details of the policies of our current administration? Are you still content to make political judgments based on weighing various political talking points? Your lack of effort to truly become informed is perhaps the most damaging lack of patriotism imaginable.

Today we are told that if we do not take drastic action that our citizens will be unduly harmed as credit markets will dry up and business expansion will come to a screaching halt. Excuse me, but hasn't the credit market already dried up? Where have these people been? It now takes a credit score in excess of 720 to just get a car loan. Others with great credit and cash, cannot obtain new mortgages. And yet we still hear pundits claim how fortunate we all are to have such great leaders, in particular treasury secretry Paulson.

No, we didn't hear the clarion call until the wall street titans could no longer hide the fact that their brighter than bright contrived financial instruments, which were bascially ponzi schemes, came crashing down. Yet we continue to be asured, that if we don't act, to transfer their acidic instruments of wealth, to the general public, that it is we the people that will suffer.

How is it that the miraculous legislation deemed to save us, came into being so quickly? Was it just dusted of the shelf, or retrieved from a secret Cheney white house safe, or did thousands of lawyers work overtime during the weekend to formulate the new legislation? I wish I knew.

What is clear is that the plan calls for some $700 billion to be used at the sole discretion of the treasury secretary to buy up the bad debt. We are told, that perhaps this debt may be worth something, that perhaps it is just the current financial climate that makes these instruments worthless, all the while absolutely no one can really tell what these instruments are worth. This is precisely why the big boys are in trouble, lack of visibility.

The plan also calls for immunity from our judicial system to Paulson's decisions. And hang on to your wallet. Buried in there somewhere, mixed in with the long list of actions, is a plan to allow your portfolio to be subject to bankruptcy proceedings if your financial institution goes under.

I think the validity of plan has a simple answer. Would any of the banks lend money under the same circumstances that Paulson is demanding? No equity? Don't make me laugh.

So once again congress is asked to pass new legislation, which will probably go unread and will contain protection for the big boys and will be passed off as concern for all the rest of us. I am not sure what to make of this fascist brand of socialism.

But I am sure, I am not thankful for our leaders. Once again, they have dived off of the deep end, for the good of we the people. I think the administration's end game is obvious, they want to drain every last dime from our economy to prevent their successors from making any changes from their current policies.

(09/17/2008): For decades republicans have told us time and time again, recently re-enumerated by Mitt Romney at the republican convention, that the business world suffers from too much regulation. To this end, back in 1990, the father of the mental recession, Phil Graham, added one of those midnight editions to legislation that enabled investment banks to enter financial markets once reserved for commercial banks with one important exception. They would be free of the regulation that was claimed to be the root of all evil in the banking and financial sectors.

In the best of irony series, a well regulated commercial bank, The Bank of America, has purchased one of those unregulated entities, Merrill Lynch, for pennies on the dollar.

And while many republican pundits fear that an Obama administration would signal that our country would plunge into socialism, there seems to be no limit to extending socialism to large corporate players with bailouts on the tax payers wallet. The Bear Stearns deal came as close to illegal as you can get and now AIG has also been bailed out. Apparently Paulson was on the tax payers side but for a day. The phrase 'privatizing profits and socializing losses' is heard time and time again, of course, I believe that the predominance of our corporate state is more a mark of fascism, than of socialism. Some economist argue that we don't have free markets, as republicans are fond of exclaiming, because our treasury secretaries usually hail from wall street.

It would be expected that John McCain, whose top economic advisor is Phil Graham, would decry greed and corruption as the cause of the financial turmoil. If John really believes that, than he has not far to go to discover that his campaign harbors the very same greed and corruption. Both Phil and his wife have profited handsomely for their promotion of the so called Enron loophole.

The Bush administration has added to their legacy, not only are they worse than Watergate, they are now worse than Hoover. If republicans won't listen to reason, perhaps they will listen to the financial markets that are now brutally punishing their economic policies. But then again, it is the fox that is guarding the hen house.

(09/12/2008): Republicans, not content with their parties' faithful demanding 'Drill Baby Drill' during their convention, have taken to the house floor and claimed that if we only open up more drilling that the price of gas at the pump will drop back to $2 per gallon. These folks should be embarrassed, but rather than admit the truth, they cling to their fantasies about the energy market and in the process have made fools of themselves.

During the last several weeks the price of oil has dropped from an all time high of $147 per barrel to just under $100 per barrel. Are we to assume that significant changes in the supply and demand for oil are responsible for this dramatic bursting of the oil bubble?

Financial observers like Bloomberg are reporting that over $35 billion has left the speculative market during this time frame. This confirms congressional testimonial that claimed that speculators are responsible for one third to one half of this year's run up in the price of oil. All of this enabled by eliminating regulation with respect to the trading of oil futures.

And what did OPEC do when the price dipped below $100? The announced that they would be cutting back production to the tune of 500,000 barrels per day. Yet republicans continue to tell us that we only need to increase production despite the long track record of OPEC, who has always cut back production in response to falling oil prices and increases in supply.

And according to congressional testimonial this morning by oil executives, there are only 30 offshore drilling rigs available in the world, and they are all accounted for. In fact, Brazil, who has discovered perhaps the largest oil reserves in the world off of their coast, cannot fully exploit their asset precisely because of the lack of offshore drilling rigs.

Republicans are found about talking about how large the Alaskan reserves are, around 10 billion barrels. Keep in mind that Saudi Arabia currently pumps 3 times that amount each and every year. Republicans are also fond of declaring that this is American oil, they seem to forget that our American oil is sold on the world markets. Some republicans even criticize Pelosi for suggesting that we change that fact.

Following the fine tradition that Bush 43 has established, the republicans, led by John McCain, are banking on a series of lies to win re-election this fall. And we are seeing an increased propensity for politicians and the media to forgo the political taboo of calling a lie a lie as many are becoming adverse to allowing the lies to flourish.

If republicans really believe in country first, then they all need to step up to the tradition of George Washington who we have all been taught, could never tell a lie. Republicans should take their lumps this November and allow us all to face our future's challenges with dignity and honor.

(09/06/2008): If the past week's republican convention and its aftermath proved anything, it is that republicans are pretty good at dishing it out and pretty poor on taking it. At what resembled a high school pep rally, the republican faithful were relieved to learn that overnight they had become the party of change and reform, despite the record of the last eight years. It is wonderful to learn that the party base is so adept and able to turn on a dime and that they will finally become the party of country.

It seems fitting that their new leader, John McCain, would help them along and define patriotism for them, declaring Country first! I hope the marine corp is happy with their new motto which under a McCain administration would be 'Country, God, Corp'. John seems to believe that only he is able to define what patriotism is and that he expects us all to salute sharply and take that hill with nary a question or thought of anything but his own words and views.

Nowhere is this more evident than in the presentation of his formally little known selection for VP Sarah Palin. John and the party would have us take their word that Palin is up to the challenge and just to make sure that the media does not try to vet her, set out on a campaign to bash that liberal news media. Republicans like Marsha Blackburn and Carly Foirina threw hissy fits at what they thought was over the top reporting on the new VP nominee and just to drive the point home, John cancelled an appearance on Larry King because he believed that having a CNN reporter asking his campaign chairman a question about Palin's command experience with the Alaska National Guard was, ... over the top.

And it didn't help to have our current president deliver a video speech in which it didn't take long for him to mention 9/11. Or that his wife, Laura, declared that we had brought freedom to over 50 million people in Iraq and Afganistan and that minorities were finally getting a good education. Freedom? Education? Somehow forced segration enforced by concrete walls and numerous military checkpoints, as is the situation in Bagdad, doesn't sound much like freedom to me. And if minorities are getting such a good education, why is their high school drop out rate over 50%?

And just so show us how John was a man of the people, his wife Cindy took the stage adorned in an outfit valued at over $300.000! A real barbie doll, that Cindy. The rocks on Cindy's ears cost more than an average joe makes in 5 years.

And Sarah Palin's very first claims of accomplishments included her claims of rejecting the famed bridge to nowhere even though when asked during her 1996 gubernatorial race debate she clearly stated that she would not cancel the contract.

And how can we forget John Boehner's appearance where he declared that congress held such a low approval rating because the democrats were do nothings. I didn't hear him mention that the republicans have filibustered more than 70 times. Country first!

The republican sheep were fond of chanting 'drill baby drill' as if somehow we could actually impact the world price of oil by drilling our way out. And while Romney declared that we needed to take a broom to sweep away the last of business stifling regulation (or was that a weed-wacker?), he failed to mention that oil prices are currently dropping because speculators trading paper barrels have been getting out of the market (Bloomberg). Right on cue for the election, just like 2 years ago. There is little doubt that our pain at the pump was enabled by removing regulation. Country first!

And if John is really his own man as Fred Thompson declared, then why did John after leading a fight to pass an anti-torture bill, remain silent after a meeting at the white house when our president attached another of those signing statements? And why is John the campaigner, so different than John the maverick senator?

(08/31/2008): It was not that long ago that some far right religious pundits were urging their sheep to pray to god for rain on the night of Obama's address to the Democratic Convention. I think God may be angry at those prayers, as God has deployed a string of hurricanes in the gulf that have disrupted this week's republican convention.

Perhaps God is angry at republicans, and he has every reason to be, as the non sensical ideology of today's republicans, morphed from the original conservative agenda, has brought our country to the brink of corporate facism, decreasing the world's freedoms, and led to the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in Iraq and elsewhere.

Not that I was looking forward to hearing republican claims of superiority and infallibility cast in an endless string of non sequiturs and outright lies.

CSPAN has been running past presidential nominee addresses and speeches, in a pre super bowl week fashion, and several addresses were very illuminating in hind sight. In particular, was the address by Barry Goldwater who declared that we should do everything in our power to stop those who seek power for powers sake, declaring that they would first established their version of heaven on earth by establishing conformity followed by the worst in tyranny.

Sounds exactly like our current administration who has by every measure established their own tyrannical version of their ideology. What every happened to those Goldwater republicans?

Then there was Bush 41's speech where he declared that process and procedures were worthless without ideology, comparing the notion to the idea of having the trains run on time, but not knowing where the trains were going. We now know where the current republican trains are heading, off the tracks leaving behind an American I no longer recognize.

Truman's speech could have been delivered today as he railed against the lack of health care for all. Ann Richards delivered a speech where she declared that Bush was not responsible for all his faults, he was born with a silver foot in his mouth. If you substitute Iran contra for Iraq, the same speech perfectly describes Bush 43, a man who was born on third base and celebrates the fact that he stole second base.

Then there was Nixon, who ran on a platform of populism and law and order. Ironic for the man who brought us the notion that if the president does it, it is not illegal. Lyndon Johnson's speech was remarkable in that every unremarkable sentence he uttered was followed by great applause.

If you listen to CSPAN's telephone forums you will quickly learn that there are still many sheep in this country. One caller declared that if elect Obama our country would turn to socialism, she apparently likes fascism better. Others mindlessly repeat party spin, all too eager to trust those words rather than gain responsible research.

While John McCain believes your patriotism is based on your believing his ideology, it is disappointing that more folks don't do their homework to find the facts. Becoming informed is a fundamental patriotic duty and I am afraid most americans have neither the time nor inclination to perform this time consuming task.

By any standards, John McCain is running the worst presidential campaign in history. His selection of a VP is in the mold of Monica Goodling, a candidate that seems right at home in the republican party demonstrated by investigations that she has used her political office to fire one of her relatives, and the nomination is directly aimed as a pander to the religious right.

Is God mad at republicans? I hope so. I couldn't agree more with Barrack's declaration in his acceptance speech.

(08/22/2008): Yesterday The National Institute for Standards and Technology (NIST) held a news conference to report on their nearly 3 year long multi-million dollar investigation of the collapse of WTC7, the third steel framed building in history to collapse due to fire. Their conclusion is that a magic support column identified as No. 79 buckled, triggering an "upward progression of floor system failure,". The magic column failed due to thermal expansion and this single column triggered the world's first (sic) and only steel framed building collapse due to fire.

NIST ruled out explosives stating that it would take one hundred pounds of explosives to cause the magic column to fail, that such an explosion would have been readily heard, and that it was highly unlikely that anyone could have planted the explosives. Sunder went to great lengths to dismiss that a hundred pounds of explosives could, as required, be held tightly enough to the support column long enough, without an external force holding them in place, and therefore it was not possible to take out the single column with the amount of explosives required.

Those comments confirm that NIST has zero expertise in demolitions as even I understand that demolition experts do not plant but a single charge.

Why go there just to ask whether god can make an object so big that he can't move it?

While Shyam Sunder opened up his rather un-impressive presentation stressing that great care had been used to make sure that their theory correctly depicted observed events, Sunder unmistakably ignored the free fall collapse time of the event, even when politely asked. Thus NIST's house of cards theory holds that not only did a single support column cause the total collapse, but that the failure caused instantaneous failure of all support columns. The fact that the entire structure failed simultaneously cannot be disputed without assuming a violation of a fundamental law of physics, conservation of momentum, since the collapse occurred at near free fall speeds.

While engineers may have failed to fully account for failures due to thermal expansion, anyone that has watched a building burn to the ground realizes that the building does not collapse uniformly, but randomly. There is little doubt that NIST faced a significant challenge.

The collapse of WTC7 was anything but random. And indeed, the design of the steel frame is deliberately redundant and quite capable of enduring shifting loads caused by but a single point of failure. The notion of a progressive collapse in a steel frame building has never before been demonstrated but is alleged to have happened 3 times on 9/11.

Even NIST stresses that this is a highly unlikely event. Yet it happened three times in a single day. The likelihood of that happening is so remotely small, so unimaginable, and so contrived that Franciscan friar, William of Ockham is spinning in his grave.

And let us not forget one of the reasons we build steel framed buildings, they are highly resistant to fire! The only examples in history of a steel framed building collapse due to fire was on 9/11. On that unique day, three buildings collapsed.

Sunder uttered a few other comments that had me shaking my head. For example, he stated that the twin towers were not designed to withstand an airliner impact, despite testimony by the design engineers to the contrary. Sunder also dismissed several questions by stating that until someone else spent several million dollars to research other alternatives, that he was highly dubious of any other cause. And as in the case with the report on the twin towers, Sunder insisted that anyone who questions him should first read the hundreds of pages of the report. If the report is anything like the first, those hundreds of pages are filled with straw men and unproven assumptions.

One other issue bothered me. Sunder went to great lengths to tout their simulation model stating that the model was so complex that it took 8 months to run once even with the help of a state of the art super computer. So during the 3 year long investigation, the simulation was run 4, maybe 5 times? Hardly an exhaustive simulation. In the real world, when money or life is on the line, simulations are run dozens, if not hundreds of times to gain confidence in the model.

And if like the first simulations, are outrageous assumptions about how hot it was, assumptions that have never been proven to be true, used?

If NIST's simulations prove anything, it is that a steel framed building progressive collapse is not possible unless you heat the steel to temperatures well above those obtained by crashing jetliners and the burning of office furniture and equipment.

One has to wonder why NIST went to all the trouble and expense. After all, Bush's ideology allows him to quote Osama Bin Ladin as to truth. For example, Bush states that Iraq is the central battlefront for the war on terror because Osama said it was. Osama told us years ago that he had already calculated that crashing of jet liners into the twin towers would bring them down and he didn't even have a super computer.

NIST's magic column theory is just one more sad legacy of the Bush administration that has proven itself time and time again, promoting its political ideology over scientific facts and engineering reality. It would seem wise to ditch using that wood burning stove or fireplace, before their use causes your whole house to collapse around you.

But only for a while. I suspect that come next January 21st it will be safe to use them again.

(08/07/2008): Over a year ago I wrote about the world's most confused blackman, Ron Christie. While I still believe Ron holds this honorary title, there is another black man nipping at his heels. That man is Joe Watkins. This republican pundit emits a non stop stream of non sequiturs trying to defend his candidate John McCain.

Last week Joe defended one of his positions by declaring that our president was commander in chief of the american people. Poor Joe, he seems to have forgotten his grade school education. Our constitution declares, for all to read, the president is commander in chief of our armed forces. Although it is clear, that our current president has also forgotten his grade school education on this topic.

And today, Joe declared on MSNBC that Barrack had received more money from big oil than had John McCain. Joe repeated this claim even after David Shuster corrected the record. And Joe definitely has trouble hiding his facial expressions when spouting his lies, Joe is one of those folks who cannot control talking out of the side of his mouth, indicating that he knows he is lying.

Watch him as he interrupts his opponents, see for yourself. Joe really does talk out of the side of his mouth. In Joe's case, it is the right side of his mouth, go figure.

(08/05/2008): This has to be the best come back ad I have seen. For some reason Paris' energy policy sounds a bit more thoughtful than the current republican fixation on drilling. Take that wrinkly white haired guy! How does it feel to get drilled?

(08/04/2008) Last week the republicans and John McCain, with the help of our corporate news media demonstrated they knew who buttered their bread as they led a week of the most embarrassing political banter seen in quite some time. From caricatures of Barrack Obama as nothing more than a black male version of Paris Hilton or Britney Spears, to a depiction of Barrack as Moses, to a concentrated efforts from network news anchors to try to pry from Barrack's mouth that "the surge" has cured, and can cure, all of our nation's problems.

And republicans are scheduled to push their drill our way out of high gas prices policy by staging a week long spectacle in the halls of Congress which is in August recess. A policy that even a cursory examination of, will do nothing to change the price of oil, or of gasoline. A popular misconception narrative by pundits suggest, see, the president rescinded the executive ban on offshore drilling and the price of oil dropped! This non sequitur, ridiculous on its face, is more appropriately a reason to repeal the "Enron Loophole" because it goes to show that speculators have taken over the price discovery mechanism for the price of oil using paper barrels. These folks also ignore that demand is falling.

Not covered by the major media were some important oversight meetings including a meeting held by the by the House Judiciary committee on "Executive Power and Its Constitutional Limitations". This 5 hour plus meeting aired on CSPAN provided an in depth discussion of the many ways that our current administration has violated fundamental principles of the structure of our republic and discussed the ramifications and possible solutions to reclaim our Constitution.

Three most vocal republicans, Congressman Dan Lungren of California, Congressman Steve King of Iowa, and Congressman Trent Franks of Arizona all made fools of themselves in a vain attempt at partisanship by incorrectly calling the hearing an impeachment proceeding and asking questions and offering rebuttals clearly based on false premises, mainly that our administration is acting within the law and our constitution and that somehow all of this is sour grapes about policies, which even the three congressman seemed to acknowledged, are failures.

Despite repeated republican attempts to have the meeting adjourned due to public clapping and cheering during testimony, the hearing confirmed what everyone is taught in grade school about our Constitution, but is somehow easily forgotten by republican pundits still clinging to failed policies.

"Witnesses led by Dennis Kucinich, Elliot Adams, Rocky Anderson, Bob Barr, Vincent Bugliosi, Bruce Fein, Maurice Hinchey, and Elizabeth Holtzman presented an overwhelming case for impeachment."

The testimony confirmed many abuses including the fact that cherry picking intelligence and presenting that information to Congress to make the case for war in Iraq constitutes fraud, that there are no provisions in our Constitution for cherry picking which laws are to be enforced by the administration by issuing signing statements, that the blanket wiretapping of our citizens by the NSA is illegal, and that it is illegal to torture even if you try to redefine the act.

Two of my favorite comments were from Rep. Hinchey who stated the obvious, that we had not captured Bin Ladin because we needed a bogie man for the continuance of the 'war on terror' and by Rep. Scott who lamented that if the administration is protecting us against terrorists, who is protecting our citizens from the administration?

So why did the major news media fail to report on the meeting? Some insight can be gleaned from David Rothkopf's new book "Superclass: The Global Power Elite and the World They Are Making," wherein David makes the case that one person in every million are the true wielders of power and policy, that our government is ill prepared to implement policies that go against the grain of the "superclass" whom are legally bound by generating profits to share holders irregardless of the good and the will of the people.

And how will this all end? With history as a guide, by grass roots revolt by the people. Congress could help, as testimony revealed, that despite political banter to the contrary, impeachment can be accomplished very quickly based on the administrations own admissions and that impeachment can rally our country to a more positive leaning rather than divide it.

(07/14/2008): Fresh off his ex post facto law (in itself illegal) FISA scam that guts our 4th amendment, today Mr. energy policy himself rescinded the executive ban on offshore drilling claiming that every extra dollar American consumers pay at the gas pump for a gallon of gas is one less dollar for food on our tables. Duh.

Equally clear is the fact that our president lacks any shred of integrity, any shred of honor, and over 99% of every word he has uttered to the American people is a fabricated lie that is eagerly supported by the sheep in our country who are too lazy to learn the truth. It doesn't help that our spineless congress places partisanship above the good of the people and has failed to call our president out on his ridiculous claims of unitary executive power and his felonious behavior.

I am embarrassed, not only by our president, but by the sheep that foolishly follow and carry the water, deliberately deceiving the general population with the unbridled support of our president's misguided policies.

The biggest fallacy is referring to the oil markets in the traditional sense of supply and demand in the free market. Even a novice economist understands that both the supply and demand curves for oil are inelastic. This means that as the price goes up, demand does not fall and that the supply does not go up. Demand does not fall because it is difficult to fill up your car with anything but gas. The supply does not increase because the oil oligopolies do not have an incentive to start new production which will increase their costs and reduce their profits. By anyone's definition, oil oligopolies do not operate as a free market.

It is not that hard to connect the dots. Despite all the rhetoric, we did not go into Iraq because we face an imminent danger, we went there to reverse the nationalization of Iraq's oil reserves. The initial cost of this adventure was pegged around $50 billion and while Saddam was easily disposed we were prevented from appropriating Iraq's oil reserves for years, resulting in more and more billions of dollars 'borrowed' by congress appropriating the funds for the so called 'war effort' which the federal reserve then printed up and sold. Understandably, this led to a decrease in the value of the dollar which decreased the value of many investments. Then some very smart investment brokers figured out that they could hedge the decline of their assets by speculating in oil futures. This trick, the deregulation of oil futures, occurred when investment banks were freed to act like commercial banks minus the regulation. The so called "Enron Loophole".

The American public has been sold the Brooklyn bridge and conditioned to love it. By any definition, profits are being privatized and the losses are being socialized. And while republicans are fond of the old mantra about democrats raising your taxes, republicans are too dense to realize that their policies cost the average American much more than any tax savings they have provided.

I have long written that the only way to get out of this never ending mess is to end our energy dependence on oil. Opening up off shore drilling does not guarantee that big oil will drill, after all, they have over 64 million acres of land available for new drilling and they have not to date placed many new drill bits into the ground.

We need to convert our transportation system. This could happen much more quickly than any efforts at off shore drilling. We could be on our way toward energy independence long before a single drop of new oil from offshore comes to the marketplace. We converted our electricity grid off of oil in less than a decade.

It seems ironic, that our only hope is that Iraq kicks us out of their country and that the world court pursues Bush and his cronies for war crimes. Then our congress and the American people would be forced to understand the truth and our great American spirit will be unleashed to forge forward, into the new century with new ideas and new hope.

So while inside the beltway, where there is immense fear of truth, where everyone is afraid to implement new proposals that will take this great country into the next century, one person from the oil patch is talking and making sense. His name is T. Boone Pickens.

Perhaps you have seen his commercials. I urge all to visit his web site and learn how we together, can solve our crises.

(07/08/2008): There is a man on the campaign trail that is attempting to use humor. He always starts his jokes by laughing, relates what is suppose to be funny, and finishes the joke with more laughter. Often times laughing harder than anyone in the audience, a singular wit.

John McCain's speech writers don't seem to include anyone familiar with humor. At the basis of all humor is some element of truth. John's problem is, that as a presidential candidate truth seems to be something to be shunned. While he might have been a man of integrity previous to his campaign, his current reliance on old, long discredited political talking points are at best distasteful.

I'd be laughing too, if any of the current republican policies had actually borne fruit. But I have learned, that many of the policies practiced by the republicans only ring true if you are at the top of the heap, that upper 5%. For 95% of us these policies are ruining our lives and our country.

There is something about John that does make me laugh and that is the sight of John wearing those sunglasses. It is puzzling to me why John's wife, a woman of wealth, has not purchased a more fashionable pair. And that's not too mention the belly rolls when I hear John speak on policy.

Perhaps John should consider insurance sales. There is a company that will guarantee your child's right to buy a policy at age 28 if you purchase a policy while they are young. Seems to me, that most of John's policies are based on that premise, proposing solutions today that may bear fruit in the year 2046.

(06/30/2008): It is indeed a sad time for our Republic. The Senate voted 80-15 on cloture for The Real FISA bill and declared once and for all that despite our Constitution that we really are a nation ruled by men and that we are not a nation ruled by law.

I would like to deeply thank Senator Barbara Boxer for her vote against cloture. And I would also like to thank Senator Feinstein for her effort to communicate with me on her decision. I remain deeply disappointed over her efforts to limit the role of a co-equal branch of government, the judiciary, with her vote for cloture. Unfortunately I will need to spend an additional few hours to respond to her latest attempt to justify her vote.

And let there remain no doubt, that Senator Clinton was lying about her support and fight for the little guy as she could not even be bothered to cast a vote or to actually lead a meaningful fight for our constitutional rights to be secure in our right against unreasonable search and seizures in our own homes.

While I expected that Senator McCain would support our police state policies, it is disappointing that Senator Obama stated that security concerns trump our 4th amendment rights. That these folks believe that it is alright to gather up the private communications of all americans for over 5 years with zero accountability with the notion that we will not let it happen again completely misses the point that the information was obtained and still exists to be data mined to the NSA's content in their effort to find the terrorists, apparently everyone is a suspect, to be treated as guilty and having to face the notion that we can never be absolved from this guilt.

And if you really want to know how far down the rabbit hole we've crawled, consider this, it is now considered far left wing to fight for our 4th amendment rights.

(06/24/2008): A little history never hurt anyone! Was this the start of Senator Hunter's statement of our long and successful tradition of overthrowing governments? So why did Democrats authorize $400 million for covert operations in Iran?

(06/20/2008): Last Sunday, Father's Day, Senator Barack Obama gave a speech, that was widely reported as getting tough with the black community over family issues, where he stated that he was amused over parents who went over the top, throwing a celebration party for their children after they graduated eighth grade.

Celebration? For the eighth grade? Graduating eighth grade is hardly an accomplishment. Barack went on to ask what about ninth grade, tenth grade, what about college, what about a PHD? His point was that parents who were celebrating their kids graduating from eighth grade were setting the bar of expectations far too low. You're suppose to graduate from eighth grade.

It is the setting of low expectations that has me worried as this phenomenon certainly permeates our society today, especially when you consider the banter of many of our politicians. Hillary Clinton and John McCain are perfect examples as they both explain and justify their positions with political talking points that are only believable if you had not graduated the eighth grade.

You don't have to look very hard or deep to find examples of low expectations. Numerous recent examples of this surround the high price of gas at the pump as more than a few republicans have taken to the house floor and declared that the democrats are responsible for the high price, calling it the Pelosi Premium. This low flying political banter seems intended to back a policy of drilling our way out of the problem (which we have attempted for the last 30 years), a justification for turning over more public and offshore lands to the big oil companies, a band of corporate misfits that won't even drill on the 64 million acres of already available oil leases and to date have shown absolutely no willingness to increase their R&D budgets in light of the record breaking profits they are currently posting.

I am not sure who these republicans are speaking to, for it would take a limitation of an eighth grade education to believe this political argument in light of the overwhelming testimony that the 'Enron Loophole' shares most of the responsibility for consumers getting gouged at the pump. This notion, that big oil must strike to open more oil leases while consumers have fear in their hearts over the price of gas is typical of the low expectations that these folks exhibit toward consumers.

This morning, in a frightful speech, Steny Hower, the house majority leader, stood on the floor and announced that a compromise had been reached on the issue of warrant less wiretapping of American citizens declaring that neither side was happy. He is referring to HR6304 which passed the house today by a vote of 293-129. The bill is claimed to be a victory for the liberty of all Americans by strengthening our constitutional rights.

Strengthening of our constitution rights? Who was the nitwit that altered our inalienable constitutional rights? And under what legal authority? After all, no federal statute law can alter the Constitution.

Those of us who graduated from eighth grade know who these nitwits are and they include members of both parties who were informed of the illegal NSA programs instigated by the Bush administration and sat by too afraid to defend the constitutional rights of all Americans.

It is the members of both parties, whose only expectations are those of being either democrats or republicans instead of the much more honorable and lofty goal of being American leaders. That HR6304 offers the telecom companies immunity from past aggressions can only be viewed as a contemptible effort to cover their rear ends and the rear end of our illustrious president.

They all knew it was illegal and now that we know all about it our politicians are more concerned over facing accountability and saving their seats, than they are about the transgression. In fact, the democrats will not hold our president accountable for his illegal and impeachable behavior because they want Bush in office as a campaign issue as demonstrated by democratic leaders last week in a ready for prime time press conference only aired by CSPAN.

This notion, that we face danger, a danger so great that we must abandon our constitution, can only come from folks who failed eighth grade civic classes or those who can't grasp the illogical argument that we must abandon what we are fighting to save, in order to save it.

I look forward to a day when our leaders inspire us to achieve and lay down the gauntlet to those with minimal expectations, denying liberty at every corner, who think that Americans need to be needlessly spied upon to ensure that we are indeed good Americans.

HR6304 is an outrage and I will certainly not be voting for anybody that supports it in our upcoming elections. There is a reason that I have a visceral reaction after listening to politicians that seem to believe we are too stupid to understand the truth.

(06/09/2008): Since I last wrote last year about the false notion that free world markets controlled the price of gas, the price at the pump has jumped another $1 per gallon. On May 26 I paid $4.399. And as of late, more congressional hearings were held to discuss this topic.

Multi-millionaire oil executives continued to swear under oath that the oil oligopolies indeed exhibited characteristics of open and free markets. It would appear that these fine gentlemen need to take a refresher course in economics. Testimony was also given that it was demand from emerging economies of China, India, and others that are driving up the demand while it was our refusal to open drilling in Anwar and off of our continental shelves that is stifling supply.

Oh really? In fact we still hear the old republican saw, today repeated today by Congressman Marsha Blackburn, that we need to increase the supply of that dirty old fuel that supplies the majority of energy to our transportation industry. In fact, clueless republicans are blaming liberal environmentalists for the problem rather than admit that the oil oligopolies are raping the wallets of all Americans at the pump.

Marsha, why are only 20% of the oil exploration leases available pursued? Why is the R&D budget of big oil less than half of that of Microsoft?

Follow up testimony painted quite a different picture as some in congress were trying to get a handle of the effect of speculation on price. While I have refrained from writing about the effect, it became clear prior to the last election that speculation was indeed a primary culprit when one of our largest financial institutions changed their mix of futures contracts and the price of gas at the pump dropped just in time for the elections.

And if you take a quick look at the daily supply of crude and compare it to consumption, you will find that supply does exceed demand. The notion that world wide demand is the culprit for dramatic prices increases is not supported by factual data.

Growing congressional testimony points toward speculation and outright greed as the major reasons for the dramatic rise at the pump. While the oil executives guess that the actual cost of this resource should be in the $60/barrel range, and some suggested that future replacement costs of oil reserves demanded a price closer to $90/barrel, none of these suggestions comes close to today's prices in excess of $130/barrel.

In fact, there are those that believe that the price of a barrel of oil is divided neatly into thirds, one third of the price is the actual economic cost, one third of the price is the premium that oil producers have greedily demanded be paid, and a full third of the cost is due to speculation.

Let's be clear, futures contracts are intended to smooth the fluctuations of price in market prices. But today, it appears that speculators are using this financial instrument to rake in millions of dollars of windfall profits from the market place. The start of the phenomenon has been traced back to Senator Phil Gramm, who back in 1990 slipped in a provision to a bill, in the middle of the night, that shifted the burden of proof requiring regulation to the consumers, commonly called the Enron Loophole. One of the major fallouts of this legislation was to reduce margin requirements in so-called dark markets, to an unprecedented and historically unproven unsound level of around 3-5%.

Speculators, free to run rampart, took out major future contracts that depended on the price of oil going up and up. When these contacts became due, the dramatic fall of the dollar made these contracts worthless. Their answer? They bought up more of the same hoping to control the market and to continue to drive the price up. In fact, it was testified that Goldman Sachs is one of the largest holders of home heating oil in New England and they are deliberately withholding product to artificially limit supply.

Is it any wonder, that Goldman Sachs is predicting that the price of crude will reach $150/barrel? Why does a contract for crude oil need to change hands 30 or more times before the product gets delivered to the consumer? It would appear that the deregulation policy started in the Reagan years has reached a tipping point and it has become abundantly clear that capital markets, when allowed to operate without regulation, shed their moral compasses in their quest for the almighty dollar. Oddly enough, we were warned of this during the Carter administration.

The nearest analogy for this corporate greed is that of a virus which will eat away at it's host until the host dies. The artificial price of oil is affecting nearly every aspect of our economy, raising the cost of food (of course we have a food shortage), raising the cost of air fair, and in general, limiting our freedoms and productivity by restricting our mobility.

If old hacks like Senator Clinton, really lived up to their hype of fighting for the little guy, then she, and others, should return to their jobs and demand and pass new regulator authority to clamp down on the rampart speculation. The price of a gallon of gas would immediately fall to sound levels below $3/gallon.

(05/23/2008): Over the past decade we have witness some remarkable un-American events unfold in our political system epitomized by the Republican efforts to turn our two party system into a single party system as exemplified by the now disgraced Tom DeLay and by the continual practice of the politics of personal destruction practiced by the Bush administration.

Even today, both the Clinton and McCain campaigns seem to believe that the people of this great nation would be lost without them, as they and the old party establishment believes that our democratic system is only meant to dole out scraps of wealth to the vast majority of our population. We are constantly told that issues are just to complicated, that real progress is unattainable, because that is just the way it is.

Large corporations add to this nonsense by telling us that Americans just make too much money and that is imperative that everyone take a drastic cut in our standard of living because in the new global economy the majority of folks in the world work very long hours for often times pennies per hour. Of course, the executives of these corporation cannot be paid enough, often times millions of dollars per year, to dole out their wisdom that Americans are just too fat and stupid to compete globally. Witness Steve Balmer of Microsoft, who stated that they would not need to go overseas to hire if only those arrogant Americans did not expect to make more than $50K per year. These corporate heads fail to see the larger picture. Take one look at the controversy surrounding Vista, an operating system that 1 year after it's release still doesn't work worth a damn. You get what you pay for, if you want cheap software labor you end up with buggy software.

I'll admit even as a child, I never did take to the notion of you can't do this, or you can't do that. It wasn't until I reached high school that I met someone that preached that you could reach any goal and while I was there we won three state championships in a row. And while it was President Kennedy's race to the moon that fueled my early ambition to become an engineer, it was George Lucas who stirred my imagination when he combined the philosophy of Joseph Campbell into a 3 decade long trilogy of the epic story in space, Star Wars.

While politics and history are but a recent interest of study, mainly brought on by my instincts for self preservation, it is becoming more evident that perhaps politics has always been about personal power and wealth. Only today, with tools like the Internet, can we finally shed the blinders of trust our politicians demand and work toward real solutions that move our country back to the greatness we all believe it deserves.

So it is fitting, that I post a tribute to those who have stirred my spirit and soul and provided the truth for all of us to see, even if it is through the tears of joy. May I present 'The Empire Strikes Barack'.

(05/17/2008): A remarkable event occurred in the House of Representatives this week, an event that went largely unnoticed by most major news outlets. The House failed to approve the latest request for funding for the war in Iraq. The measure failed because a large number of republicans voted 'present' rather than cast votes of yes or no. The unusual event was prompted by republican demands that the house pass a clean bill, a bill that only contained funding for the war. The bill as presented on the house floor also included funding for more important domestic issues like $5 Billion to fix the levies in New Orleans.

Afterwards house republicans gathered around C-SPAN cameras to conflate the English language with meaningless talking points that any American that has pursued their patriotic duty to become informed about the issues would find insulting.

And just when everyone thought that our lame duck president was out of the picture, news coverage and outrage became extreme when our president, in a speech given in Israel, claimed that anyone that did not support his ideology were the equivalent of Nazi appeasers of the late 1930s. The outrage came to a head on Chris Matthew's Hardball when a conservative 'bafoon' Kevin James failed to enumerate exactly what the word appeasement meant.

Afterwards, Chris appeared on both Countdown and Verdict and declared and stated the obvious. Since the Bush administration came to power there has been a determined effort to discredit anyone that has questioned policy. Regardless of the motivation, it is clear that this type of behavior is not a characteristic of democracy, rather a tool used by those to thwart democracy.

Chris' comment was long overdue and refreshing. I would like to thank Chris for his definitive statement.

The comments of our president mirrored the republican tactics prior to the last midterm elections when Donald Rumsfeld gave a speech declaring that anyone who questioned the administration's policy was also guilty of nazi fascism. It is little wonder that republican representative Tom Davis exclaimed that if the GOP name was dog food, it would be taken off the shelf. These folks need to stop conflating the English language with meaningless talking points. And it doesn't help, that John McCain takes our president at his word.

The republicans have a lot to answer for as their so called 'war on terror' has preempted their sworn duties to uphold and defend our constitution. The have turned this country into something I do not recognize. It will be many, many years before I trust them again.

I would also like to thank Barack Obama, both for defeating the woman who believes that words are important except when she speaks them, and for immediately calling out our president for his shameful performance in front of the Israel Knesset.

If appeasement exists, then it is clear that our own administration is guilty as they have failed to capture Osama Bin Ladin and they have effectively given him safe harbor in western Pakistan.

(04/22/2008): While it has been many years since I watched any of the programming at ABC, the recent Democratic debate sponsored by ABC wholly justified my never returning to this network channel for any type of reasonable news reporting. The first hour of debate epitomized exactly what is wrong with our great country, it is run by folks that only seem to have but one tool in their toolbox, that of politics.

Not that all politics is bad, but the fundamental premise of politicians is not to speak the truth, but to speak in ways that they guess will move you the voter into a certain course of action. It does not matter that a politician's words often contradict earlier spoken words, or that the words are spoken in Rovian style, that is to say, I deny that I use the Rovian playbook, but watch as I use every play contained within. And I have watched as the presumptive nominee of the Democratic party has squandered her lead and continues to deny that she has lost. She has gone from a debate point of encouraging her opponents to not pile on, for fear of giving the Republicans ammunition, to giving the Republicans everything in the kitchen sink to use against her own party. Shame on you Hillary.

Rather than pontificate on and on for millions of words, Hillary's first excuse for her story about sniper fire, and never mind that no one could actually speak a million words in one day, I prefer to leave you with Baracky, The Movie, which states in a few short minutes what this election is all about.

(02/14/2008): In a disgraceful action today, republicans in the House of Representatives walked off the floor in an unbelievable attempt to make fascism the rule of the land. The temper tantrum began when the house considered contempt of congress citations for previous individuals of our current administration (Josh Bolten & Harriet Miers) rather than bringing up the Senate passed FISA bill that grants immunity to the telecom companies. Falling in line with the continued fear mongering of our president yesterday, the republicans continued to issue propaganda about why giving telecom companies immunity from judicial challenges to wide spread wiretapping of all Americans, for actions that they claim were not illegal, are critical to protect us in the never ending war on terror.

Lie after lie. The need to monitor all the communications of all Americans is claimed to be the radar of the future by Michael Chertoff, Secretary of Homeland Security, an invaluable tool to combat terrorism. To hell with our fourth amendment! Yet we are told that wide spread monitoring of our private communications are not occurring, despite clear evidence that such activity is occurring and has been occurring since before 9/11.

Let us be clear, our government has always had and continues to have the legal authority to spy on the bad guys. What they don't have and want, is the ability to spy on all Americans. They say that all Americans must be considered guilty in the light of the war on terror and that all Americans can never be absolved of this guilt. We must be continually monitored to prove our allegiance.

Every argument I have heard to date for the need for telecom immunity is a blatant lie. Our president and the republicans would raise up the white flag and surrender centuries of freedoms that are the rule of the land and enumerated in our Constitution. All in an effort to hide and conceal illegal activities instigated by our administration that believes that a country at war cannot and must not remain true to our most sacred freedoms. That the president must remain above the law and accountable to no one in our so called time of war, a war that is scheduled to last for the remainder of this century.

The purpose of immunity is clear. It is an attempt to prevent the proper functioning of our judicial system. If there has been no wrong doing, then you would expect our administration and the republicans to welcome the judicial oversight. If you have done no wrong, then what is there to fear?

But the fear does exist. And it is clear that the truth about what has happened to our country will be devastating to all politicians that can be shown to have known what was going on and failed to act to defend our constitution. Acts of treason, each and everyone of them.

So instead, we see an attempt to pass the buck on fear, to blame the fear on the terrorists. I know I am not alone when I say that I do not fear the terrorists. What I fear is the deliberate tearing down of our sacred rights granted to all Americans, the destruction that those whom believe we are really in a war never before faced would bestow on America, and claim that the surrender of our freedoms is required.

The real enemy is not abroad in a far way land on the opposite side of the world, the real enemy is contained right here at home, within our borders. To see their faces, you only need to listen to their rhetoric of lies. They are the ones claiming that we need to be afraid.

Take Action: House Must Stop Unconstitutional Senate FISA Bill


	Call your representative: No warrantless spying, no telecom immunity.

The Senate has capitulated to President Bush by passing a dangerous and unconstitutional FISA bill that allows warrantless government eavesdropping on Americans and grants immunity to giant phone companies that handed consumer data over to the government without a warrant.

"Though many questions still remain unanswered about years of domestic spying, the Senate has effectively sealed the vault by handing over immunity to the phone companies,” said Caroline Fredrickson, Director of the Washington Legislative Office. “The over forty legitimate lawsuits currently pending against them may end before they have begun. It’s a fact that Americans had their rights violated and now, by closing the courtroom door, they may be left with no recourse.”

Stopping the awful Senate bill -- which the House can do -- is vital to protecting your constitutional right to make a phone call, send an email or search the Internet without the government monitoring your activity.

Your representatives in the House need to hear from you. Whether you have called already or this is your first time, a quick phone call today will send a clear message that Americans don’t want the House to send an unconstitutional bill with telecom immunity to the President.

>> Take action: Call your representative: No warrantless spying, no telecom immunity.

(02/05/2008): For the last several days Republicans in the Senate have been delaying any action of revisions to the fascist Protect American Act (FISA) because they want to grant immunity to the telecom companies. Telecom companies that we are told over and over again, have done nothing wrong in their efforts to wiretap all communications of all American citizens.

Since the instigation of wide drag net style wiretapping of all phone conversations, email, and other Internet communications, not a single case nor a single terrorist has been arrested, or captured, nor has a single terrorist plot been uncovered. After 7 years!

There are those that believe the war footing strategy of preemptive monitoring of US citizens is absolutely required, as they hope, and it is clear that is all it is, that they can prevent a future attack on our country and that it is necessary to violate our Constitutional rights in order to protect us.

And now we have learned that the republicans in the house have passed retroactive immunity for president Bush for possible felony war crimes as defined by the Geneva Convention for any and all actions they have taken since 9/11.

The notion that our constitution is not a death wish or that an actual ticking time bomb scenario actually exists is fantasy and will never justify stripping our freedoms away. The delusion that the executive branch of government has the right to deny the functioning of both the legislature and the judicially branches signals a clear victory for the terrorists. This preemptive doctrine needs to be silenced, permanently.

Until and unless we get a declaration of war from our congress, the Republicans should just shut the hell up, less follow the war monger McCain down to defeat in the upcoming elections.

Senator McCain believes we can just win this war, if only the American people would let us win. McCain should go talk to the players of the New York Giants and ask them if they won the Super Bowl because the Patriots let them win. In fact, I know of no contest that was fought and won, because someone let them win. Perhaps this is why McCain lost 4 fighter jets in Vietnam, perhaps he thought the enemy was just going to let him bomb his targets uncontested.

If we are truly at war, with the greatest threat we have ever faced, then lets act like it. Declare war, mobilize this country, initiate the draft, raise taxes, and send a few million boots over there along with a few navy battle groups. Get the job over with and done. Victory is not measured by the side with the fewest casualties, as proponents of the success of 'the surge' would have us believe, our greatest victories have come with the heaviest casualties, just read the history books.

Until then, don't pretend to tell the American public that we are at war and that all we have to do to win is let our government restrict our constitutional rights and tell us all to just go shopping.

(02/04/2008): I would have gone to Reno and placed a huge bet on the NY Giants. When Bush was elected I would have sold everything I own and purchased oil stocks. I would have never moved in with that woman. If all us knew yesterday what we all know today, we would all be very wealthy. The fact that we all cannot see the future is why we all are still alive.

It should be obvious that this defense that Hillary and her supporters keep using to try to defend her war votes is basically an admission that no one can see the future. Rather than admit that the vote was a mistake, either because she is a woman who needs to look strong or because of the fear of political fallout, Hillary has refused to admit the truth. Hillary has further compounded the issue with her explanation on her vote on the Levin Amendment, again, failing to relate the truth with yet another revisionist view of history. The amendment did not propose that our country hand over decisions of our national security to the United Nations as she claimed during the last debate.

Does this woman have no shame? Or is she just continuing the Clinton tradition of saying what ever she believes will get her elected? From my perspective, she is just another Bush dressed up in woman's clothing, unable to tell the truth because she believes we will not know the difference or perhaps, the most likely, she cannot handle the truth about herself and her candidacy.

These are the traits of our leaders that have many wanting change. This is America, and yes, we can handle the truth. Hopefully this nation of sheep will blindly follow no more and boldly reach for a new version of politics.

(01/22/2008): Last night's Democratic debate was indeed interesting. I often wonder and worry about Hillary's neck, her head bobs up and down constantly while she is supposedly listening and along with her air brushed head shot used in most media clips, she makes a perfect rendition for a perpetual motion bobble head doll. And she has practiced her eye exercises so often, to combat the natural aging process around her eyes, that I am sure she does not realize she can no longer control the tendency of her eyes to appear to bug out of their sockets.

The most disappointing, and most predictable part of the debate came early as the Clinton dirty political strategies, right from the Carl Rove playbook, were displayed in full force. Yes, as soon as the race got close the infamous Clinton political attack machine was kicked into high gear. The primary attack strategy, made famous during the Bush administration, is to take your most serious weakness and accuse your opponents of it.

Yes, I had listened to some of the quotes from Obama, and then listened to the Clinton's attacks. How Hillary and her husband come up with the re-fabrication of Obama's comments is sheer outright shame. Never in a million years would I have confused Obama's comments about the Reagan administration with even a tacit endorsement of Reagan's policies, yet there she was, claiming with a smirk on her face that her democratic rival had actually endorsed the Republican agenda.

And the notion that Hillary had trouble debating Obama, because somehow she felt that Obama always had some sort of excuse for why his actions did not follow his statements, claiming that Obama's record was important, pointing out that Obama had voted for appropriations for the Iraq war after he initially voiced strong objections to the war, completely dismisses that Hillary also voted for those appropriations. The difference was, Hillary supported the war effort. She has quickly forgotten how in a nation in shock was easily coaxed into the war, hell, even I initially supported the effort in Iraq even though I did not believe a word about the connection to 9/11 or WMD.

Hillary has also seemed to have forgotten, that it was only a few short debates ago, that she was demanding that her opponents not attack her for fear of giving the Republicans ammunition for the general election.

Obama is to be congratulated, for taking on the tired and false accusations of Hillary and her husband. Bill has been waving his finger around i