The sickening views or -- LACK OF THEM -- of Sarah Palin are astounding. Even I, an amateur, formed political opinions after honing them over decades. The opinions I maintain have been determined after much study, much interest and a HUGE amount of continuous reasoning. I did much study in college but continued that study life long. My opinions, too, required standing on the shoulders of many giants who make up authoritative thought on different sides of the political debate. How a Vice Presidential candidate could be SO ignorant and so unable to enunciate a complexity of thought or of any thought is incredible to me.

Some of the questions she was asked could have been finessed easily. She was asked what Supreme Court cases she considers important BESIDES Roe v. Wade. She could not answer. I would have thought the FIRST Supreme Court case for her could have been Bush v. Gore. This case is probably the rationale that she is running on the McCain ticket today.

How about Marbury v. Madison? Any student of government knows this was THE landmark case during the nascent years of our nation in 1803 which made possible the right of judicial review and established the Supreme Court as an interpreter of our Constitution. There are, of course, EASY ones known to high school students such as the Dred Scott Decision reinforcing our most long-lasting racial divide which lead eventually to the Civil War, one of our country's most defining moments.

I thought of the 1962 decision of Baker v. Carr which began the judicial mandate of one person one vote. I also thought of Griswold v. Connecticut establishing a right to privacy not specifically enumerated in the Constitution. Of course, one of the MOST important landmark cases Brown v. Board of Education which overturned the long standing separate but equal decision of Plessy v. Fergusson she SURELY should have known. These cases are basic to the foundation of our Republic. CERTAINLY a vice presidential candidate should know them and it is nothing less than staggering that she knew none.

MOST unbelievably, though, she could NOT name MAGAZINES when Couric asked her which ones she read. At least she COULD have said Time Magazine or Newsweek. Okay, maybe the New Yorker or the Atlantic would be too liberal or Reason Magazine, Foreign Affairs or Le Monde would be a bit cerebral. HOWEVER, Sarah Palin is a Vice Presidential candidate one heart beat away! Perhaps she could have said the conservative National Review reflecting her own alleged point of view. Maybe she does read Field and Stream. What does that magazine have to do with being a Vice Presidential candidate? It has as much to do with being a VP candidate as the foreign policy experience she said Alaska's geographical proximity to Russia gave her. I rest my case.

The following is a post written by my cousin. It says it all. I wholeheartedly concur and hope she is correct. Sarah Palin/Joe Biden debate here we come. I cannot wait!

Taking Back America: Over the last eight years, Bush/Cheney and their Republican cohorts have stolen this country from us. Last night we got a piece of it back.

The first Presidential debate of 2008 showed an urgent need for a forward-looking, future-oriented America. Obama is our future, knows it and will win the fight to take back our country for the benefit of our own people. As part and parcel of this process, America will have a renaissance at home in areas of its economy, heath care benefits and ethics reform. Once we take care of ourselves here at home, out international viability will automatically regrow in stature. Strength on the home front is an absolute prerequisite to strength abroad.

As far as content went last night at the debate, both men did well. One’s opinion hinges on whether or nor not one is backward looking or forward looking. This “tie” is a win for Obama, because many people thought he would not be able to hold a candle to McCain’s foreign affairs experience. Obama did a whole lot more than just hold a candle; he wiped up the floor with McCain’s outdated vision of world events. And for the record, Henry Kissinger DID say that we should have a sit-down with Iran:

http://www.democracyarsenal.org/2008/09/iran.html

War is outmoded. War not only destroys globally, but also decimates the aggressor domestically. The time has come to use our brains, our reasoning capacities, to effect changes for peace. THAT is our future. Barack Obama demonstrated last night the capacity to LEARN, to use his incredibly evolved intellect to soak up the facts and then apply them to affect change. McCain is of the old school. a student of the past. He refused to even look at Obama directly last night. McCain did not say Obama’s name once. An issue can not be solved by ignoring it, by making believe that it does not exist. That is isolationist, not peace-fostering. These actions are indicative of a philosophy of the past, not of the future.

As for the follow-up festivities to the debate, they too were representative of the old versus the new, the past versus the future. Biden was a participant in many post-debate interviews; Palin was nowhere to be found and yet, people still believe that she is qualified to be a heartbeat away from the Presidency. In her stead, the Republicans offered up Guiliani, the hatchet man, reminiscent of Bob Dole when he ran for the Presidency (his antics didn’t get him very far either in that run). The past versus the future.

So good job, Obama. Keep on studying, speaking and laying down the foundation for our future. Your reasoning ability, coolness in the face of adversity and realistic conciliatory demeanor will lead the way . You are a man of the future, not of the past.

The time has come to TAKE BACK AMERICA!

A Question of Heroism: John McCain cares about one thing...John McCain. Is he a hero? I am not so quick to accept propaganda that comes out of extreme nationalism. Our country, as most all nations do, commits certain atrocities which cannot be denied. American exceptionalism in many cases is illusory. Vietnam was one such instance. How wonderful, how heroic was it to drop a ton of explosives on a people killing about a million, defoliating their country to save them from what was a civil dispute? Now they trade with us. So what was that war for?It was for nothing and got nearly 60,000 Americans and one million Vietnamese killed as well. I do NOT see dropping tons of bombs on people who cannot defend themselves as heroic. I see it as unnecessarily risky as well as immoral and I see it as putting us in the mess internationally we are in today. We MUST control our power. Our military power kills. As we go to Starbucks, Wall Mart or a movie we do not see the mess we make. John McCain refused to refuse to drop bombs in Vietnam in that era and voted in this era to fund the Iraq War our nation's present day Vietnam quagmire. The probable perpetual war as the US stays in Iraq, as McCain would have it, a thousand years will cost trillions and millions of ruined lives.

Our actions have consequences. While I understand McCain's suffering and loath anyone suffer what he did, our nation cannot call the proverbial kettle black. In my opinion, it would have been more heroic had John McCain come out in vehement opposition, as John Kerry did, to a war that cost so much, killed so many and was ultimately waged for no damn good reason. Just my opinion.

Postpone the Debate? Phooey: I emphatically state my unequivocal opposition to the utter brazenness of the McCain campaign to postpone the debate. Postpone the debate are you kidding me? To when exactly should we postpone it? Perhaps the debate will ultimately take the place of a SarahPalin/Joe Biden debate since Sarah Palin is so stunningly unqualified for the presidency. The fear, of course, is that she would be demolished in a debate with a seasoned Joe Biden. We do not need a fast learner we need a knower now of the issues?

Obviously, it does not take genius to realize what John McCain is doing as his poll numbers sink. Yet again and again and again John McCain's decisions show just why John McCain does not put country first. From his decision to put Sarah Palin, a colossally, incompetent choice for the number 2 presidential spot to John McCain's suspension of his campaign under the guise of national emergency, John McCain shows he puts country last. May I remind John McCain he is NOT the president. Barack Obama so eloquently enunciated the truth yesterday. He said this is PRECISELY the time in which Americans should and, indeed, MUST see the stuff of which their presidential candidates are made. It is EXACTLY in times of upheaval or crisis that the American public should know exactly who they are getting. This country has gone through many crises during presidential campaigns and the country's agenda continued. May I remind Senator McCain of the Lincoln/Douglas debates. Lincoln danced to the music despite our country's cacophonous discord.

Shame on John McCain as he yet again must think that the American public is utterly ignorant. Yesterday, as Barack Obama spoke of our country's economic woes and as he stood steadfast that he would be there to debate, I truly saw him as presidential. If I had any doubts before they are erased now. The final vote, for me, will be cast after the University of Mississippi debate. I have no doubt who is the better more presidential of the two candidates especially if the Republican candidate's chair is empty!

The Mad Men of Wall Street: "Mad Men" is a popular television series which takes place in the early 1960s'. It is about the people in the New York City Madison Ave. advertising firm fictionally called Sterling Cooper. I love this series for many reasons not the least of which is that I experienced the early 60's and understand the cultural context of that era. There is, in the beginning of each episode, foreboding and ominously sad introductory music. Its sad and haunting melody shows with it a business-suited man in cartoon form falling out of a skyscraper. The song has something musicologists call "chromatic descent" that is it contains notes which move from high notes to low notes a half step at a time. This is indicative, some say, of death.

The song of Mad Men, therefore, is a metaphor for a kind of internal death the characters feel in their me-first, empty, back-biting world. I thought, though, this metaphor applied to the death Wall Street today as it melts down in its own toxic stew. The concept of rugged individualism, the bricks upon which our economic culture is built stirred into a pot where government allows business a free hand without regulatory restraint may be, incredulously enough, the cause of our system's own demise. In a laissez faire system the individual is paramount and the group is cared about only in so far as it can help the individual achieve his ends of money and power. Business regulation by government is to be crushed at all costs. When big business is in trouble, though, now it seems it counts on those whom it does not care a wit about to help restore its confidence. Truly, though, if someone does not care about me why should I care about him? In the wonderful F. Scott Fitzgerald novel which spoke so much to the culture pre the Great Depression with its tremendous material excesses and economic anarchy relevant today, the narrator says of Daisy Buchanan and the 20's rapacious culture in which she lives -- "they smash things and then leave others to clean it up." Yet again, history repeats.

Death is the one thing we will all do alone but in our marketplace filled with other beings we are not units and, indeed, should not be loners. All of us, including the very leaders of our ecoomic opulence, should be in this together. Now, at the moguls' greatest hour of need they rely on us, everyman, to bail them out. Who will bail the everyman out? Will Washington bail us out? No, Bush, with John McCain's consent, remember made bankruptcy even harder for individuals but easier for the corporation. The ones who have most all the money depend on those who do not to free them from debt. We all know, too, these company CEO's will have their golden parachutes to create for them a soft landing. Millions upon millions of dollars have been given to them when they leave the company before and after the company fails and then they simply walk away. Where is our paracute though? Where is our safety net? What happens to us the little guy when his home is foreclosed or his retirement is non-existent? What happens when he takes to the street, lives out of his car in a flop house or even a tent? Where will his children go? Unfortunatelly, not many moguls or those in the seats of government power seem to care.

No matter who is in power, when the state or the corporation does not consider the needs of its people who help create its success it is doomed. Wall Street needs, above all, ethics, regulatory guardians and the will to care about more than just themselves. A partner at a large business for which I once worked many years ago said to me that the other partners in the business resented having to pay the support staff they depended on to make their company run. They, he said, hated to pay them because they were their company's biggest expense. I never forgot that. It mattered not that without these necessary cogs in the wheel of their car their car would not run. That, is the problem. The culture of our business philosophy from the very beginning of our country's history makes the worker feel utterly devalued while his hard efforts make the moguls of that company very very rich. Where is the fairness in that? There is none and there will be no smooth sailing in the ship of state that does not care equally about the group as much as it does about the individuals who possess most of the money and power.

When it's dog eat dog every man for himself world, one dog will eat the bone and leave nothing for the rest of the pack. If this country does not change its logo and care about whether the masses live or die and not simply pay transparent lip service during a presidential campaign it just may end up causing our country's death as well. I greet next week with fear and trepidation as I wonder who will care about me.

A Disaster Waiting to Happen: Placing John McCain and Sarah Palin into office is utterly impossible to comprehend. The qualification of the Democratic ticket is so far and above what the Republican party can offer it extends into the stratosphere. The Republican party has shown its true face over and over again. Some part of the American public fails to see. Voting Republican, for all but a tiny few of the very wealthy, is national suicide. Here is a party who has maintained power over the last eight years, touting the glories of a free market economy but has created one of the worst financial debacles in the modern history. Now all of a sudden they are willing to suspend the cerebral high of its free market philosophy and happily take what could be a trillion bucks from us, the taxpayer, to bail out Wall Street. The blunderings of the financial sector with a nod from a Republican Washington could now, if left unregulated, lead to not only systemic recession but to a worldwide Depression as well. Keep electing those men behind the curtain. They want us to THINK they are country first but they are really themselves first and country last.

Phil Gramm, one of John McCain's dearest friends and advisers and possible Treasury Secretary if McCain should win, has been advocate and architect supreme for the deregulation of the financial industry. According to journalist David Corn in the July/August edition of Mother Jones magazine "in 1999, Gramm pushed through a historic banking deregulation bill that decimated Depression-era firewalls between commercial banks, investment banks, insurance companies, and securities firms. ... But Gramm's most cunning coup on behalf of his friends in the financial services industry was slipping in a 262-page measure called the Commodity Futures Modernization Act, written with the help of financial industry lobbyists." This has been a huge factor in our current financial mess. In addition, as McCain has said many times he "doesn't really understand economics." He would probably rely on those foxes who guard our very vulnerable chicken coop to monitor our money. McCain is about people like McCain and people who would advise him are a mirror reflection of him.

Stir into this toxic brew the extraordinarily unqualified Sarah Palin one heart beat away from this elder presidential hopeful, well, the ramifications are more than catastrophic. This No. 2 woman on the ticket touts openness but she and her cronies, including her husband, refuse subpoenas, go against the law and do not testify before the Alaska legislature on a subject matter about which she heretofore said she would have no problem openly discussing. What does openly mean? It means have Washington high power Republican attorneys shut down the information before the presidential election because ethics and other violations possibly committed in Alaska by Governor Palin might prove dangerous to the McCain/Palin ticket. Why won't they testify if they have nothing to fear on a so called-by-them trivial matter. How many times do we need to see the flagrant abuse of the law? How many times can a party get away with illegalities? How many times will it pull the wool over the eyes of a public not wanting to see? There are no appropriate words in our English language to describe the disaster of the Bush years and yet more years to follow if the McCain/Palin ticket succeeds.

If the McCain/Palin incompetents are elected we will shake our heads in dismay once again and think how on earth did we get into this same mess yet another time. Now the lives at stake, though, may be our very own.

The following is an opinion on our potential if not already occurring economic near collapse and the disastrous Bush/McCain policies. It was written by a relative of mine whose particular specialty is economics and knows FAR more than I on the subject. Feel free to forward to whomever you choose especially if they are on the fence or live in states of Ohio, Florida, Michigan, New Hampshire. Her analysis:


Buckle Up:

It will be a wild ride to day when the financial markets open.

The last eight years, the Bush Administration, has “led” our country with irresponsible abandon both abroad and at home. The war in Iraq was entered into based on a lie and then carried out without forethought or management as to rebuilding and withdrawal. All of this with government experts and appointees who were going to guide us correctly. [McCain voted with Bush on the war] The President has no taste for details and his judgment of personnel was atrocious. All of this AND we have the loss of almost 4500 of our troops. Then, when injured and maimed soldiers arrive home, they are faced with a lack of medical care and mental counseling. Fact: the National Guard forces, who enlisted thinking that their service would be in this country in times of domestic emergencies, have NO MEDICAL COVERAGE for their sustained injuries in Iraq once they arrive home. So Bush, do not talk to me about the patriotism and honor of our troops. Put your money where your mouth is and get these kids better.Furthermore, our international reputation, in the past coming from a real position of strength, is in shambles. Not only is out reputation shot, but our actual standing and influence has dwindled to a slow drip. [McCain voted with Bush 90% of the time including on health aid for our troops]

On the home front, what a disaster! I have written in the past how the Republican’s policies of deregulation will be the downfall of our economy. Buckle up. By reckless policies starting in the lending industry, we have seen repercussions in the real estate market, the banking industry, the investment industry ad infinitum. The lack of oversight, described by Republicans as “capitalism” at work, has hit America in its heartland and will take years to reverse.

Bush, and now McCain, like to use catchwords such as “patriotism” and “honor” as the basis for all their policies, both international and domestic. They never speak of the necessary DETAILS that must underlie possible solutions. Is that because they just have a distaste for any thinking, or are they not at all concerned about finding solutions?

Even those that tutored Palin for her interview with Charlie Gibson taught her big girl words, but as for real details of America’s problems and possible antidotes, well, that seems to be below those who are seeking office. The attainment of office appears to be the end goal.

The Bush administration has essentially raped our foreign policy of any meaning, and is now, through its ignorance of any real economic policy, dismantling our national economy. There has been no oversight, no forethought of what our current deregulation might bring, and then a denial of disaster once the bottom fell out of the markets. Once again, as long as Bush and now McCain get to keep their high office, once Big Oil gets to keep their obscene profits, and once the arms corporations get to make their trillions based on a trumped up war, then and only then is this country described as “the best”.

It is all a facade, a masquerade. Our foreign allies realize this now and our educated masses are aware of this greedy winner-take-all government. However, irony of ironies, it is the downtrodden in this country who are bucking the facts. They think “patriotism” and “honor” will put food on their tables, get them jobs, provide them with heath insurance and put gas in their cars.

Barack Obama, in a sad statement for this country’s present standing, might just have the opportunity of the ages to put back together out international standing and out national economy. What might be needed is a complete overhaul, just like FDR did with the New Deal. I know one thing for sure: that the “old deal” has come apart at the seams. For the life of me, I can not imagine why Obama wants this job. But I believe that he is up to it. I believe he can reinstate out international strength and our domestic viability.

One small example of the conning of Americans by Republicans: McCain came out today and said that his lack of knowledge of computers and technology is due to his disability in his hand stemming from injuries suffered while he was a POW. Isn’t it a fact that senators receive quite a number of administrative assistants who actually do the typing? McCain has taken a hand injury and elevated it into a philosophy of technological stupidity and ignorance. A useless hand has turned into an even more useless brain.

I am going to check on the financial markets now. Buckle up. It is going to be a bumpy ride.

The Perils of Palin: Sarah Palin's ear-piercing but insufficient responses to Charles Gibson's introduction to foreign policy questions were astounding. What astounds me, however, is not the fact that she did not know what was meant by the Bush Doctrine, the foundation of the Bush administration's foreign policy fiascoes for the last eight years. I am astounded that John McCain's first most important decision especially due to his age and bouts with cancer, was the choice of Sarah Palin for the number two spot on the Republican ticket. I am stunned how a man whose campaign motto is "Country First" could put his country last. I understand how the average person might not know the answer to the Bush Doctrine question but I do not understand how a vice-presidential candidate running with a man whose actuarial chances of dying in office are fairly high does not know the answer to that question. It is further indication of my belief, that she knows absolutely nothing about foreign policy issues.

She would, no less, if she felt it justified, go to war with Russia over Georgia. Is she kidding me? Given George Bush's debacle in Iraq and Afghanistan, our forays now into the Pakistan border, compounded by our current economic crises this country does not have the army, the manpower, the money nor the national will to invade yet another country and court a massive confrontational war with a gargantuan Russia. Sarah Palin would take us to war at the bat of her blinking eyelashes and have her fingers on the nuclear button to boot.

Further, it would be laughable, if it were not so devastatingly important to the security of our nation, to think that both John McCain and Sarah Palin think that geographical proximity to Russia entitles them to say Sarah Palin has foreign policy experience. That is like saying I have medical experience because I can see Metrowest Hospital through my window.

This nation is in serious existential trouble if McCain/Palin prevail in November. Think about the fact of more war and the necessity that that would ultimately mean for the re-institution of the draft. Your sons AND daughters would have to go to war. If the aged and infirm McCain is unable to fulfill his role as president, would YOU want a Sarah Palin foreign policy novice extraordinaire to determine the life or death of your child? Sarah Palin is outrageously unqualified to be Vice President much less President if the situation should arise.

Truly when I see Sarah Palin and hear that piercing and sharp horrific-to-listen-to voice of hers, I am outraged. That is what those unpatriotic excuses for humanity who SUPPOSEDLY put country first WANT me to feel. They are gloating at my anger. So a cooler head MUST prevail and examine things rationally.

Sarah Palin is OUTRAGEOUSLY unqualified for the position of Vice President much less for President if the situation arises.

In her Gibson interview, Palin CLEARLY did not know what the Bush Doctrine was. Admittedly, I am a politically absorbed and pay particular attention to our larger foreign policy issues so it is not surprising that I knew, OF COURSE, what the Bush Doctrine was. HOWEVER, THIS IS A VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate running with a man who has had cancer FOUR times. I understand if the average Joe on the street doesn't know the Bush Doctrine BUT I SURELY SURELY do not understand a VICE PRESIDENTIAL candidate not knowing that. It is FURTHER indication of my belief, that she knows NOTHING absolutely NOTHING about foreign affairs issues.

Moreover, SHE WOULD TAKE US TO ANOTHER WAR AND WITH RUSSIA NO LESS if Russia does something she doesn't like or PERCEIVES it does something she doesn't like. These people who support someone like she not only WANT war they LOVE war as much as they would deny that fact. I wish Gibson had been a little more pressing on the issue of Russia. Russia DID invade Georgia BUT Charlie Gibson should have asked her if Russia was in any way provoked by Georgia invading South Osessia which some allege was prodded by team Bush for it to do. The US then said to Georgia don't worry we'll assist you if anything happens. WE DIDN'T ASSIST BECAUSE WE CANNOT ASSIST. We DO NOT have the army manpower, the money or the national will to help with a flood much less another massive confrontational war with Russia no less.

Here is a woman who would take us to war at the bat of her blinking eyelashes and would have her fingers on our nuclear arsenal. We are in SERIOUS SERIOUS trouble if the McCain ticket wins. We are in EXISTENTIAL trouble. A better articulated more well thought out piece will follow for my local papers. Pass this around if you like. Everyone who has an inkling of love for this country and who cares about the safety and security of it, of ourselves and our posterity should do EVERYTHING they possibly can to get this word out to stop this outrageous woman from having a shot at the presidency. Think about the fact of more war and the necessity of the institution of the draft. Your sons AND daughters would HAVE to go to war. If you have contacts in states such as New Hampshire, Florida, Colorado, Virginia, Ohio, and Michigan -- all swing states -- I URGE you to contact them and spread this word. Feel free to use this email or anything I have written on my blog below. This is a SERIOUS SERIOUS thing and these are, indeed, no ordinary times.

Natalie Rosen
www.natalierosen.blogspot.com

I must say that if I had a shred of doubt about how brilliant, articulate and inspiring Barack Obama is his appearance at Columbia talking about national service convinced me beyond a shadow of a doubt. It was a pleasure to listen to him. John McCain too presented his case, but clearly, Senator Obama has the youthful enthusiasm, phenomenal command and grasp of just what he wants to do and the ability to convey it. I can compare him to JFK. He was in his element and showed how moving and how succinctly and forceful with great knowledge aforethought he can be.

I think he that, as even Pat Buchanan admitted, it was good for McCain BUT AN ESPECIALLY great night for Barack Obama.

YES IT WAS!

This is a bit of prose/poetry that I created at 12 midnight when I could not sleep. I usually do not wax poetical at all as it is not my forte but I was responding to a relative's blog which contained rather ominous thoughts. Things, at that hour, seemed frightening as events are unfolding in a way that, as I see it, may bring man-made Apocalypse. My relative's link is: http://yomamaforobama.wordpress.com/ and my stream of thoughts at midnight were:

Into the Night: It is midnight and yet again, night two I cannot sleep because electoral insanity captures and holds prisoner my thoughts. The injustice of the last eight years presents a mountain which I cannot climb. Another mountain is placed in the way. Yet again incompetent leadership awaits. Will we ever climb the heights this nation can reach? I know we can, yes we can as we have climbed it before but not in a very long time.

When will sleep come? Perhaps, after McCain/Palin are empowered the country still besieged by insurmountable debt, war endless war, and a collapse of markets, our adversaries will try ever so hard to find the bulls eyes on our back, take aim and fire because our leadership will be, so rancid, so corrupt and so uncaring of the masses they feign to care about that the sleep I fear will be the sleep of death. Maybe it will only be then that I will get the rest I need.

This country is, I worry, about to take a turn to an eternity it did not foresee but, perhaps, subliminally some want. The Revelation they yearn for so longingly they just may obtain. They will surely not encounter the myth of heaven, nor Jesus nor anything but the still of death. I am death says the Hindu Bagavad Gita, the destroyer of worlds and through our unfathomable stupidity we are heading in that direction presciently seen and said by yesteryear's nuclear bomb creator Oppenheimer as our ultimate life destroying weapon was trotted out for all the world to see. Our adversaries know no mercy now and we are at the mercy of the utterly unqualified yet again.

Go ahead, America, eight years of sick, putrid policy is not enough. Yet again the abyss awaits. It beckons you to the rim of eternity. This time 9/11 may not be the only gift your policies bestow. This time it could indeed be worse. You could choose life or death, it’s up to you. What you sew is surely what you will reap.

It is an alarming time to breath the night. The night turns not into dawn but to eternal night. Beware, the end times could surely be at hand but you and you alone create the nightmare. You alone have the power to reverse the night to day but will you? The master of man, time, will tell. The night now grows short and I am so very tired but I cannot sleep. I am afraid.

Palin charges oodles: Sarah Palin charged HUGE amounts of money for family travel all over the state of Alaska but the most egregious fee she charged to the state was PER DIEM to STAY AT HER HOME! According to the Washington Post "in two dozen undated amendments to the reports, the governor deleted the reference to staying in her home but still charged the per diem." This CANNOT be ignored as so many other unethical behaviors of the Republican party have been. She will say, of course, this is all in a day's work for the state. Every day is another revelation that she needs and I HOPE will have to explain IF -- big IF -- the media will ask it. Republican operatives, though, keep her cloistered and unavailable for interview except by one specially selected journalist.

I have no doubt, there is more to learn about Sarah Palin which will show her to be and has already shown her to be of questionable character. Why was state money going to her church? The separation clause is, in my opinion, one of the most important Constitutional mandate. Without it we are no better than those countries we criticize for being a theocracy. The Founders did not mean that clause to be blurred and church FUSED with our government. Why was the state according to the Washington Post "giving her fundamentalist Evangelical center $25,000, according to a May 2008 memo?" These questions are important. Our people's form of government is at stake.

For Jewish people church state separation is particularly vital. Jews ALWAYS suffer and die when a state is melded with religion. That is why this country has been a haven for the Jewish people because it has kept those two institutions separate.

The nature of who the Republican party is, given more power, will ultimately compromise if not end our nation's leadership in the world. The safety of our country is at stake. We MUST not allow this rancid, lying, immoral, unethical, existential threat to our country go unchallenged. Do you want to allow these unethical, devious, war-like, yearning for Armageddon, trigger happy Cretans to have their proverbial finger on the nuclear button with the ability to launch a nuclear attack?

I attach the link below and urge you to read and forward this to anyone you know who are fence sitters, women and independents. This regime would be Bush PLUS. Today, the polls are ominous and Barack has lost some ground. It is still, though, very close and the election could turn. The time is now. We cannot wait.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/09/08/AR2008090803088_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2008090900325&s_pos=

This is a stream of conscious opinion. I have NOT refined it and checked for proper syntax and grammar because the time is short and it takes a long long time to get things perfect. I send it for you to read, if you chose or send it off to someone else. Here are my very roughly honed thoughts. This word MUST be spread now as the time is short. Forgive the less than excellent prose.

Those alleged crowds gushing enthusiasm for McCain/Palin? Don't believe it. Republicans lie about EVERYTHING. They most likely rounded up all they could, probably paid them to appear as they did in the 2000 election as IF Republicans were so adored. Lies,lies,lies, lies nothing but lies. They lie about EVERYTHING and I would bet that this is NO exception. McCain does not give a damn about this country. If he did he would NEVER NEVER NEVER knowing his age and health issues ever want an utterly inexperienced troll who did not even share most of his views (except that oh so important to the safety and security of this country issue abortion) to share the ticket and get kicked and brow beaten by an anti-intellectual ridiculous base of religious zealots. He is NOT even religious! He NEVER would if he truly loved this country and wanted to unite it place on his ticket someone who will only divide. The anger AND the fear of this woman from the other side is HUGE. Good, John Country First McCain, good going...four more years of the same ole same ole anger driven division.

She is utterly incompetent and ill equipped to assume the mantle if McCain gets sick and is unable to finish his term. So you want this trigger happy harpy to have her happy trigger finger on the nuclear bombs. She lies. She wanted the bridge to nowhere until it became unpopular, she WANTED books banned from a library, she has NEVER ordered anything of the National Guard, she removed employees from the State Police because she had a personal vendetta, she LOVED government handouts and proclaimed on a memo how COOL it was Alaska was getting millions from the Feds, she belongs to a church who thinks Jews are eternally damned because they do not accept Jesus, she wants to tell YOU that if you get raped by your father and are pregnant with your father's baby TOO bad you gotta have that unnatural child, or if you have a deformed or very sick baby you GOTTA have it and PAY for it too. She's not gonna help you pay though and neither is anyone else.

Folks, it's about MONEY. That's ALL it's about. When does middle America get that Republicans are NOT about you they are about BIG money and keeping it ALL for themselves. Forget you, you don't matter but their genius is they have captured that religious illiterate sad segment of our population that THINKS Republicans are about them. THEY ARE NOT about them and never have been.

As your bank accounts dwindle in this rancid economy, as your jobs disappear, as you can't get medical attention because you have NO insurance, as this country becomes a second rate power because our educational system is in the tank or because the Harvards, Yales and those of intellect are put down and made fun of, as our planet dies maybe then and ONLY then will Americans vote prescient, INTELLIGENT people into office and not court the possibility of having a vice president who is as qualified to be president if McCain is ill as my local dog catcher!! Palin is a foreign affairs expert says John McCain and Cindy McCain because her state is near Russia is comical if it weren't such madness. Wake up America before the time is too late and our country is in deeper trouble then it already is. Get rid of these rancid Republicans in leadership who are lying vile excuses for humanity and who hold immense power over your life or your death. GET OUT DEMOCRATS AND INDEPENDENTS TOO AND VOTE VOTE VOTE AND SEND MCAIN AND PALIN THE MESSAGE THAT WERE MAD AS HELL AND WE'RE NOT GOING TO TAKE THEIR LIES ANY MORE!!!!! We WILL do it. YES WE CAN!!

Why it matters -- Palin's unmarried 17 year old pregnant daughter. Ordinarily I couldn't care less about someone's personal sexual life. I did not care about Bill Clinton's escapade nor did I care about John Edward's liaison. I DID care about Larry Craig's indiscretion as I did care about representative Vitter's relationship with prostitutes and I did care about Representative Foley's emails to House pages and I did care about Ted Haggard's liaison with a male hooker. Why? Obviously, because these Republican right wing religious extremists are HYPOCRITES of a huge order. They are the ones to deny rights to others whose sexual morality they do not approve. It's not the act that they commit it's the utter HYPOCRISY it establishes. When one's political party, especially a major party in a national election, has party platforms that are extraordinarily judgmental, restrictive and punishing of those who do not conform to their sexual moral religious commands then they open themselves up for intense scrutiny and criticism when they do not live up to their own beliefs. It is as I call it, the Scarlet Letter syndrome.

Sara Palin's daughter is of interest because her mother touted home schooling, because her mother is anti-abortion and anti-science, most probably against sexual education in schools, pro abstinence and against a whole host of other moral behaviors to which her OWN family obviously did not conform. If her advocacies are so effective then how come a young 17 year old was having sex as an unmarried high schooler?

When these people demand the utmost sexual purity by religious order for other's lives, inscribe it into public policy, force it down everyone's throats but do NOT live up to their own proscriptions then they are up for condemnation and intense scrutiny. Sarah Palin is not running for dog catcher or town council or even governor. She is running for an office a heart beat away from a 72 year old cancer victim's presidency. Democrats do not suffer from those moral hammers which want to create policy by forcing people to conform to a religious sexual moral code. That is the huge difference between the two parties and that is why I believe Sarah Palin's family's personal lives are fair game to place under the microscope of public scrutiny.

The Unrecognizable Republican Party-the Palin Pariah : The staggeringly morphed Republican party is a poor relative of the once cerebrally adept party of Barry Goldwater and Nelson Rockefeller. At least that party stood for something -- the mantra of smaller government whether in the bedroom, the boardroom or the international arena. The ghosts of that party's former leadership must be doing some six feet under revolvings. If they phantasmagorically returned to life they would not recognize their party. It has been taken over by religious fanatics who threaten the Constitutionally vital separation of church state doctrine, the very phenomenon our Founders, men of the Enlightenment, feared.

George Bush is the pariah now of his own party so much so that many think Hurricane Gustav a blessing as it forced the cancellation of his appearance at the Republican Convention. McCain/Palin now his improbable heirs are an outrage to many sagacious Republicans of intellectual credence. It is obvious that McCain cares about McCain and used a hail Mary pass as a last ditch effort to win the presidency for himself by choosing the extremist of extremists, Sarah Palin, to appeal to Hillary's supporters and/or his Republican fanatically religious base. To heck with national security and the country if a 72 year old man with two cancer bouts dies and this presidentially unqualified Sara Palin, science denying soccer mom and procreator supreme, is catapulted to the throne.

It is a sad commentary, indeed, if Republicans think that Hillary's supporters, most especially, are that stupid that they would flock to McCain because of his choice of Palin as VP. Palin is the 360 degree opposite of everything for which Hillary Clinton stands. Palin is an anti-feminist who capitalizes on the dogged determination of feminists who preceded her first in the suffrage movement of the 19th and early 20th centuries to achieve the vote and then in the late 1960's to throw off the final yokes of male supremacy in other cultural venues. Without those leftist progressive movements Palin would be knitting in her living room today. To think that women who supported Hillary and who occupy positions of great influence in the Democratic party, would vote for an anti-choice, pro gun, anti-science, creationist promoting religious extremist is utterly insulting to the intelligence of Hillary's supporters.

The fact that Palin has breasts has nothing absolutely nothing to do with the 18 million cracks hewed by the Hillary Clinton campaign. Those who think Palin represents those cracks have cracks in their own ceiling. The choice of Palin is an outrage to thinking women and men everywhere. I hope the only ceiling Sarah Palin sees is the one in her own living room!

An Unconventional Convention: The 2008 Democratic convention has, I believe, captured the American mind and spirit in a way that no other single event in modern political history ever has. It has been a mirror of our country and a yardstick for our time. America has been called to greatness once again and once again America can, if it wants to, respond. Once in a lifetime a leader crosses our path who can lift us up, inspire us, give us courage, provide us hope that better days are ahead. I believe Barack Obama is no ordinary man for our no ordinary time.

Great leadership has been, I believe, illusive. Perhaps it took the systemically foul leadership of a George W. Bush presiding over the most corrupt political machine in US history for a leader to emerge who can provide a new way. George Bush's egregiously inept leadership has been well documented. He was a leader who took this nation to war based on lies, imbued himself with unconstitutional powers; he was a man who did not protect us from the onslaught of 9/11, and a man who botched badly the ensuing war on terrorism soon to cost trillions catapulting us into recession or worse. He sanctioned torture, squashed science and committed other immoral acts. George Bush, too, provided us with a Justice Department by unethically stuffing its ballot box with political cronies so that allegiance to George Bush was the only qualification for admittance into his restricted club of extremist Republican politics. His oligarchic love of unregulated crony capitalism and a loathing of government regulation has made George Bush into arguably the worst president in US history. He has run the ship of state aground. His leadership was not about the many. It was about the few. John McCain voted with George W. Bush 95% of the time.

Instead of basking in the sunlight of great leadership George Bush squandered that leadership and relegated it to the darkness of a secret presidency conducted behind closed doors and out of the people's view so that his secret meetings with the minions of millionaires could never be seen. Perhaps, though, his presidency existed so that finally this nation can undergo systemic transformation.

I have always yearned for the FDR experience that my parents adored. I have heard it said as Franklin Delano Roosevelt's casket rolled past tearful onlookers one black man who shed tears for FDR was asked if he knew him. His answer was "I did not know him but he knew me." I hope in the coming few months this country sees that Barack Obama knows us so that we propel him into the great leadership I know, if given a chance, he can provide.

"That's a negative": I could not agree with the Boston Globe more in its August 27, 2008 editorial. Jim Leach, the Iowa Republican, who spoke at the Democratic convention was one of the best most informative speakers of the night. It was well worth listening to him as he articulated so well the rationale for why Republicans ought to eschew their party. His reasons for abandoning his party were exactly correct. The Republican party, as it exists today, bears absolutely no resemblance to the ideals it once articulated. Unfortunately, it is sometimes testament, I believe, to the nature of the American public who needs fiery speeches, heavy on platitudes, which say little, to capture its attention. Jim Leach said so much albeit with not too much pizazz. Everyone could have learned something if they only listened!

Herculean Hypocritical Heights: Jeff Jacoby had me right up until the last sentence of his op editorial "China's totalitarian games" in the August 24, 2008 Boston Sunday Globe. His last sentence in that editorial reads "As in 1936 and 1980, the 2008 Games were a showcase for a dictatorship. In such a travesty, Americans should have played no part." China's human rights abuses and its many behavioral crosses into unethical territory are no doubt worthy of intense criticism. The US with its eight years of a Bush presidency which has crossed so many ethical boundaries unpunished make us a paragon of hypocrisy when we criticize other nations for their abuses of power. It is a black pot calling another black pot blacker. Where does the US get off holding its head in the clouds of the moral high ground when it has taken a country to war based on lies and caused the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people? Where was the US moral compass as it created 2 million refugees, blew apart infrastructures and destabilized an entire Middle East under false pretenses?

In addition, team Bush demolished Constitutional rights here at home, neutralized habeas corpus, spied on Americans without warrant, exposed a US CIA agent, countenanced and, indeed, created so many other illegalities and abuses of power which question commitment to our own democracy that we have zero -- I repeat zero -- credibility with which to criticize other breaches of democratic values by other countries. It is possible (perhaps not probable) that because of the Bush administration's various Protect America Acts that even Jeff Jacoby could be plucked from behind his computer, whisked off to a place unknown, and, perhaps, even tortured simply on the whim of one single man. To me that is tyranny. Because that is possible in the heretofore world's greatest democracy makes any criticism of any other state on those grounds absurd.

Another Man for Our Time: What a marvelous VP choice Joe Biden is. The family values crowd should be so pleased. I cannot think of one individual who is more representative of that. Joe Biden, as most know, lost his wife and daughter in a terrible automobile accident. His sons were badly injured. He went home from Washington on Amtrak every single day to be with his sons.

Most importantly he is a man of great ability and foreign policy experience. He balances the ticket beautifully. I hope with all my heart they prevail in November. It will be a tough road because the other side is employing Rovian tactics which sucker punch without conscience. This ticket though, will withstand the onslaught and can play, I know, the same game. Moreover, they can play a better game. I am extraordinarily hopeful. Perhaps it is morning in America again!

The Case of the Missing Mail: The news reports today about the 225 days of missing White House email which just happens to have begun in 2003. How odd that just happens to be when the Iraq War began. How surprised am I? I am not surprised by anything surreptitious this administration has done. The press, in general, seems to have forgotten all about that curious coincidental lost email. Will it forget about the phony letter to justify the Iraq War, or the dubious Anthrax investigation, or the bogus aluminum tubes, or the non-connection between Al Qaeda and Sadam Hussein, or the lack of WMD in Iraq? The list of trumped up reasons the Bush administration used to justify taking a country to war and the illegalities attendant to that goes on and on and on and on. I won't extrapolate, too, about the exposure of a CIA agent because her husband had the audacity to say Bush's war was phony from the beginning and there was, in fact, no uranium sent from Africa. Ah, those16 infamous words George Bush, with his suspiciously shifting eyes, used to lie to Congress to commit US troops and so many others to die in a fraudulently perpetrated war. Does this administration know how to do anything else but lie? Have they ever in eight years told the truth? If so about what? I have yet to find the truth except the few times those within that corrupt White House, at great cost to their own well being, braved administration retribution to tell it like it really was.

From the day George Bush began campaigning for the presidency lying about challengers within his own party, when he used a listening device to cheat at a debate explaining a bulge in the back of his suit as a wardrobe malfunction, when he fixed the 2004 election with machines that were rigged, stole Florida in 2000 and Ohio in 2004 by perpetrating irregularities, George Bush knew how to win only by lying.

When he first set foot into the White House not heeding warnings about an Al Qaeda impending attack up through and including all the lies about the war when on God's earth has this Republican administration told the truth? From 2000 to 2006 there were nothing but lies from an immoral president assisted by an utterly corrupt Republican Congress with the help of a few Democrats too. Hasn't the American public had enough? How many more lies, how many more deaths, how much more money will be spent on fraudulently concocted policies to support political cronies who pay lots and lots of cash to ensure things remain the same and never change. It is up to the American public to not just ask for honesty but demand it by demanding an accounting of those we the people place in office for the egregious lies they tell and the illegal things they do. If not now when?

The Truth: Jeff Jacoby, I really do try to see your point of view. Sometimes, though, I wonder if we are living on the same planet or if our eyes are biologically constructed of completely different stuff. With all that has happened in Iraq, all that has been written, all the corruption, lies, half-truths and murderous behavior that has been exposed how you can write what you do I will never understand. How you can write in support of a policy that has wrought one of the greatest human disasters in modern history, with the exception of the Hitlerian era, is beyond me. Do you even realize the hundreds of thousands of human beings who have been decimated, how many millions have been uprooted not to mention the trillions spent and wasted?

There is often not one Iraqi family to be found who has not lost someone as a direct result of George Bush's Iraq war. While the insurgency is probably temporarily squelched, water, sewer facilities, electricity, hospitals and other modern constructs in Iraq are often non existent or spasmodic at best. Buildings are ruined, bodies are ruined and there is still the killing and still the death. Of course, as you put it, success is now measured by "just five Americans killed in combat in July 08." Just five -- mmm -- I wonder who those five are. Are they members of YOUR family? Are they YOUR son or YOUR daughter or YOUR wife or YOUR cousin? Who are those "just five?" How easy it is for you to talk about those "just five" as if those statistics were representative of merely lines on a graph. Moreover, and maybe more disturbing to our security is that US occupation of Iraq has destabilized the entire region including Pakistan, a nuclear armed country. It is evidenced today with yet another bombing there. Our preoccupation with Iraq and the reemergence of the Taliban in Afghanistan has even emboldened Russia as it knows the US can do nothing. We have no army left with which to do anything. The border of Georgia, a thoroughfare for possible nuclear enriched uranium contraband, is closed to US monitoring of possible terrorist smuggling. A dirty bomb, because of that, could find its way into the US. I am more than frightened I am horror stricken.

What is there in the conservative brain that is the missing link to a concern for humanity -- ALL humanity not simply American humanity. I would love to know where the missing synapse is located in the conservative cerebral hemisphere that sees only American life as valuable life or thinks it can bamboozle an uninformed public to think our country is benevolently spreading democracy all over the world. If there were no oil in Iraq we would not have cared a wit about democracy there. To the contrary at a different time in the history of Iraq and when the US found it convenient, Saddam Hussein was our friend even as he gassed his own people. I would love to know how you can eradicate truth so easily. How can you deny all the deceit? How can you not see all the evidence showing documentation of events -- letters fabricated, dubious anthrax investigations, cover ups galore, not to mention exposing a CIA operative and thereby compromising the efforts to uncover terror? There is, too, the ever-present advocacy and implementation of torture. Under different circumstances the perpetrators of these fabrications, lies and illegalities would be apprehended and tried by an international criminal court. I do not know how anyone, after so much that has been shown to be false, horrendously executed, woefully wrong about the nature of Iraq its real threat and the cultural realities of its people, could offer a rationale for this war and say if they could they would do it all over again. I am staggered by your utterly imperviousness to truth.

I have watched Generation Kill -- an excellent HBO documentary which follows a company of marines as they invade Iraq during the first phase of the war. I am struck dumb by the stark difference between the two peoples who face each other in combat. The US military and the Iraqi citizen look like two different species from different planets. Each has no idea who the hell the other is. I think this captures the essence of why this war is utterly futile. The insurgent enemy is nameless, faceless, endless and alien. When one dies another is replaced. Life is cheap. Fighting terrorism, as Gore Vidal has quite rightly said, is like fighting dandruff. To wage a war against it requires continuous maintenance and can never be curtailed no matter how much professional military might is used. It needs prescient national and international localized police vigilance to capture or kill those few who would do great harm to this country and to others all over the world. It also needs, most importantly, insightful foreign policy behaviors which do not antagonize people but try to win them over -- hearts and minds and all. War does not do that. Winning a military victory or the glorious fight in Iraq is an ILLUSION. It will never happen. You are duped. The cruel immorality is you dupe others into believing up is down and wrong is right. I don't mind if you and your ilk sacrifice your own lives but the frightful thing to me is you will sacrifice my life and others I love for your blinded vision which does not see the truth.

The Pastor's Question: The media’s handling of Pastor Rick Warren’s exchange between Barack Obama and John McCain about abortion was obviously biased. The question that Pastor Warren posed: When does a human being get human rights is a TRAP question. The answer Barack gave "it is above my pay grade" meant, I believe, that he is not God, therefore, he cannot answer that question. Perhaps he could have answered that question more completely BUT I believe he meant that when life begins is a profound determination which each person has to make for herself. He could, and perhaps should, have said that decision is between her and God not her and the state or the president.

The media editorialized and called his answer flip. It was not flip. The media holds Obama to a different standard from McCain. Every word Barack Obama utters is parsed to try to "get" something on him. The news media made McCain, during that exchange, look direct and sure. That audience which is from, generally, the religious right, liked McCain's answer and, of course, as described, appreciated it.

Perhaps, Senator Obama should have said if abortion is made illegal many women, probably mostly poor women because the rich always find a way to do what they want, will seek abortions often times from a person who is not a doctor carrying the obvious risk of a full term human being dying from infection and other toxic occurrences. This was the fate of many women when abortion was illegal.

In addition, possibly, he SHOULD have said there are other very complex factors where the mother's life is threatened, other fetal complications occur, or when a pregnancy is conceived through rape or incest which MUST be taken into account when determining the fate of a pregnancy and the answer to that question.
The moral question should be: Do we want full term human beings being killed by abortions performed by unqualified persons in filthy settings for money?

I suspect most media moguls want McCain to win for their own avaricious reasons. If John McCain wins we will get a presidency which not only will attempt to sink Roe v. Wade but, most importantly, will sink this country with respect to the other grave life threatening issues we all face.

The audience in this decidedly biased arena espouses, generally, its well known view. One should try asking that same question at Boston University, Harvard, MIT or Yale and see the response one gets. I suspect it would be quite the opposite. Perhaps, John McCain should give his answer there?

The Victims of Victory: The horrific the consequences of Bush's Iraq War are evident. Nearly every single problem of magnitude we now suffer both domestically and in foreign affairs can be laid at the foot of the Iraq War. This quagmire has had extenuating consequences which include a trillion buck war responsible in pertinent part for an economy gone sour, nearly 5000 dead, thousands wounded, and yet thousands more returning home with significant psychological disorders. What victory have we won? I submit, victory in Iraq is an illusion.

We have almost no credibility throughout the world and no way of defending ourselves against anything as our military is stretched so thin. The Taliban have reemerged stronger than ever in the tribal areas of Pakistan and Afghanistan, probably harboring Bin Laden, and are out anyone's control. Iraq is a direct cause of the unrest in Pakistan (a country which actually has the bomb) and our guy Musharaf will either be gone, exiled or worse. The entire region is unstable with millions of Iraqi refugees having fled to Jordan and Syria, two countries which cannot support them. The refugees languish. Can you imagine the social consequences of that? Families have been ruined probably for generations.

Most importantly, Bush's war is directly responsible for the rise of Iran, a threatening country, which now has hegemony and great influence in the region and beyond. Iraq, too, is responsible for Russia's brazenness in the Caucuses i.e. Georgia and probably in other Baltic states soon. After the unilateral unprovoked invasion of Iraq, George Bush calling the Russian advance in Georgia aggression is laughable if it were not so utterly hypocritical and consequential. The Decider-in-Chief thinking he can flex his muscles with a "defense" system in Poland in response to that is idiocy. Russia will not stand idly by. It understands American weakness. The United States cannot, because of Iraq, devote its necessary attention elsewhere where it needs to.

The fact that bellicose McCain can even be thought of as a possibility for the continuation of the George Bush presidency is testament to the lack of the American public's understanding, foresight and lack of caring about issues which threaten all of us. If we elect the same as usual we will have only ourselves to blame if the usual remains the same. When times were tough our country often was blessed with great leadership. That needs to happen now. If we do not experience systemic change we may not have a country left to change. Potential war with Russia is serious business ... VERY serious. There needs to be someone in charge who has a degree of intellect and a penchant for systemic change if our nation is to survive. We have no time left.

No Time Left: John Turman "What Counts as Success in Iraq" see link below, was right on the money. He is EXACTLY correct in EVERYTHING he says about the so called "victory" in Iraq.

The AWFUL the consequences of Bush's horrific execution of the Iraq War are evident. Every single problem we now encounter can be laid at the foot of the Iraq DEBACLE. A trillion buck war, an economy gone sour, 5000 dead, hundreds of thousands wounded, not to mention hundreds of thousands with psychological disorders. We have NO credibility and no way of defending ourselves against anything as our military is stretched SO thin. Worse the Taliban have reemerged stronger than ever in the tribal areas of Pakistan which will be OUT of Musharf's control very very soon. Iraq is a direct cause of the discombobulating of Pakistan (which actually HAS the bomb) and our guy Mussharf will either be gone, exiled or killed shortly. The WHOLE region is unstable with MILLIONS of Iraqi refugees in Jordan and Syria languishing. Can you imagine the social consequences of that? Families have been ruined.

MOST importantly Bush's war is directly responsible for the rise of Iran, and responsible for Russia's brazenness in the Caucuses i.e. Georgia and probably other Baltic states soon. The Decider in Chief thinking he can flex his muscles with a "defense" system in Poland in response to that is IDIOCY. SURE, the United States has as much credibility as NOTHING. The fact that bellicose McCain can even be thought of as a possibility is testament to the insipidness of the American thought OR lack of it. If we do elect the same as usual we will have only ourselves to blame for the coming catastrophe. When times were tough for our country often great leaders came to the our rescue. It better happen now. If we do NOT change our ENTIRE system, Republican AND Democrat alike, we will not have a country left. We may not even have our life. Potential war with Russia is serious business ... VERY serious. There needs to be someone in office who has a DEGREE of intellect. We have no time left.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2008/08/15/what_counts_as_success_in_iraq/

The Love of My Life: Is there some kind of eternity life pill that we could give to Bill Moyers? What would we do without him? I have no idea. He is priceless. Bill, you are not just loved you are adored. Every time I tune in I learn something new. Every time I tune in what I learn new is yet another scurrilous episode of the rich and powerful or big business, big money or big media going wild at the expense of those who cannot fight back. Money always wins except when Bill Moyers and a few righteous others point their spears. Where, indeed, is the America that I knew as a child? Gone to graveyards everyone. It is no longer. Without Bill us little Americans would NEVER know how big America is ruining our lives. Long may you live, Bill. You are justice's only hope.

No time to waste:

A relative of mine asked me what I hoped to gain by an Obama presidency. I gave it a lot of thought. What did I really feel would change for our country through an Obama presidency? Often people say that it really does not mater who occupies the seats of power as things usually stay the same. George Bush has shown that to be false but will the Obama presidency really change anything?

I concluded after much thought that an Obama presidency WILL significantly alter the course of our nation. I believe the very core -- the very essence -- of Senator Obama is different from all others who have occupied or attempted to occupy the most powerful position on planet earth. I am HOPING and believing not only for a change to occur, I am hoping for an about face in the course of our ship of state.

I believe Barack Obama does not have to use, as George Bush and the Republican Party did, the word “compassionate” modifying a word conservative. The Democrat Barack Obama is ABOUT compassion. His party does not need a modifier explaining it as such. I believe compassion sits in the circumference and depth of Barack Obama’s heart because he has known difficulty, he has known disappointment, he has known loneliness and he has known rejection. Barack Obama has risen above the vicissitudes of life to create a movement unparalleled in US history and perhaps unparalleled in the world. The character of the man comes not from privilege or from marrying into great wealth but from appreciating what it feels like to be relegated to the back of the bus. He is an example to all.

I believe Barack Obama is about intellect. He has a LOT of it. He is about reading and searching for truth. He is about using science over ignorance to fight disease and to fight the melting of our planet. I believe he will not simply TALK about reversing global warming, stem cell research or alternative sources of energy he will DO something to create these life saving remedies. I believe in his heart he is about we the people those who gave a lot of money BUT more for those who gave five, ten or even two dollars to his campaign. There are reasons his presence brings so many adoring crowds and his campaign coffers are full.

He will change the course of this nation. I believe he will enact a new foreign policy. He will rely on not bombs, the superficialities of swagger and the bellicosity of war first but understanding, dialogue and negotiation with our adversaries. He will not be afraid to use our nation’s awesome force BUT only as a last resort. He will never relegate our country, its resources and its blood to a preemptive war based on lies with no end in sight.

By redirecting the course of our nation we could use its abundant resources to improve our human condition. Roads could be built, bridges could be repaired, a crumbling infrastructure could be renewed and healthcare, most of all, could be afforded to everyone and not to simply the few who were blessed with either money or good health. Never to have to worry about the onslaughts of disease mixed with the reality of poverty which seals a person’s fate will, I believe, truly be one of his greatest legacies.

I believe he will turn this country around. I believe he will bring hope but more than hope I believe he will bring that hope to reality. He must do that as the time is short and our burden is heavy. I believe by changing the course of our ship of state, Barack Obama can deliver a NEW New Deal and keep our Titanic ship of state from its impending disaster. We have no time to waste.

George Bush's China Syndrome: It is the height of hypocrisy that George Bush is lecturing China on the birthright of freedom. This coming from a man that pushed for anything but in his own country with the Patriot Act, the Military Commissions Act, signing statements galore, torture and executive orders stripping one of the bedrocks of our republic, habeas corpus. It is utterly ridiculous for him to preach to anyone. While China has a lot of improvement to go incorporating a Bill of Rights and changing its policy toward most especially Tibet and Darfur, China has made ENORMOUS economic and cultural strides in their nation. They are PROgressing not regressing. The US is going backwards -- our economy in the tank, our infrastructure crumbling, our Constitution shredded, quagmired in a war for over five years based on lies for no reason which it cannot end.

The only thing positive taken from the failed presidency of George W. Bush is that presently Barack Obama is ahead in the polls and may win in November. I surely hope so. I am looking forward to a new day in my country I love. It will be a day without George W. Bush or one like him and a day which I hope sees to it that another president with an utterly corrupt agenda and savage bullying soul never crosses the threshold of our beautiful White House again. He never deserved the honor in the first place and has proven that over and over again. Go home from China, George, and take the speck out of your own eye before you criticize the one in anyone else!

What ME Worry?: I enjoyed Jeff Jacoby's editorial "What them worry?" in the August 6 Globe. I cannot argue with any of it. It was well written, as usual . There is truth to this one. Conservatives, though, start worrying me when they begin to wax on and on about the horrendous deficit and what they perceive are its causes. The similarities between I as a progressive and Jeff Jacoby as a conservative are that we both agree the Bush deficits are absolutely humongous and will be a horrific burden for future generations to undo. The difference between the two of us, though, is what government expenditures we would love to trim. When conservatives decry all the "entitlement programs" they are speaking about the various humanitarian programs government since the New Deal has employed. I then start to get nervous as those so called entitlements save my and the whole country's life. When conservatives want to cut entitlements they mean they want to cut programs for the poor, the sick, the elderly, the handicapped, the retired or the dispossessed. When I talk about balancing the budget I mean cutting huge wasted expenditures on a military and now a war industrial complex gone haywire. The operative word here, I believe, is humanitarian. I know, of course, a military is necessary so please do not think I am stupidly naive and want to cut out military spending to the degree it would put our country at great risk. Even Dwight Eisenhower, president and five star general, though, talked about the dangers of a bloated military and I believe Dwight Eisenhower was no liberal. If the cuts come anywhere, I believe, they should start trimming our military budget and revisiting nature of our foreign policy which gets us into purposeless no-end-in-sight wars which cost a fortune. That is the real culprit which puts this nation at great risk.

I tried to email benfurw as he asked me to respond to his comment about the Anthrax investigation and the alleged perpetrator's suicide. The email did not for some reason go through. So I will do it on my blog itself. Thank you for your comment.

If you read well what I said I never make a statement saying that there is proof positive that something conspiratorial occurred. I would NEVER do that without having absolute proof positive that it did. All I am saying is there are questions. I am NOT absolutely NOT a conspiracy theorist advocate usually ever. I am one of the few who believe Oswald actually acted alone. In the Bush's administration's case though the corruption -- documented corruption -- has been SO systemic and so part of this administration's modus operandi, I really said the thing about THINKING this government -- the Bush government -- complicit in the Antrax attack to push its insane war was that it really did NOT seem totally kooky. THAT is what I find surprising.

In Ron Suskind's new book, "The Way of the World", this administration, to drum up advocacy for the war, allegedly did impeachable and very illegal things. Yet more questioning occurs about this rancid administration's proclivity to, by any means necessary, do what they have to do to support their cause INCLUDING, according to Suskind's taped reliable sources, constructing a fake letter stating the connection between Mohammad Atta and Sadam Hussein. Of course, there was none.

This administration EVEN has US attorneys fired because they are not political enough in the right direction (Pardon the pun). Really, sir, there is ample proof of a thousand different scandals of corruption and manipulation of facts whether it's Anthrax or global warming or justification for Iraq. They even fudge science. This administration promulgated a war which we now know UNEQUIVOCALLY was falsely based on lies. Sir, we are talking LIVES. 4000 of them plus hundreds of thousands of others and horrendously wounded and a Middle East discombobulated like it needed to be discombobulated any more. Now Iran is a huge player and top dog and could gain hegemony in the worst of all possible areas, the Middle East.

The funniest part is that I, an ardent Democrat and more often than not a progressive, actually supported the Iraq war initially because I really thought in my stupidity that my president was telling the truth. I thought, what if what our government told us was true. Others more savvy and in-the-know than certainly I said it could be true based on the "proof" of what the government said. I even once entertained the idea that maybe it was divine purpose, even though I never supported Bush for the presidency, that he with his cowboy bully mentality was in there for a reason. I was so utterly angry and aggrieved by 9/11, I forgot to question everything this government said. I should have known better. Truth be told I suppose I am SO angry now that what I believed initially was so categorically false in every way. I look like an idiot to all my very smart friends and am constantly having to defend the indefensible.

So to recap..it's not that I see the truth of an Anthrax government conspiracy staring me in the face. I don't -- not yet. There are questions though and more today in The Boston Globe as the FBI tried to PAY Iven's daughter to turn in her father. What is that about? So it's that it really does NOT seem preposterous that an attempt was made by this White House to either perpetrate the Anthrax attack or USE the Anthrax attack to sell its agenda. That I can even entertain the possibility of that is what is startling to me and says so much about this administration. They surely verbally tried to link the attacks to Iraq and Iraq to all things terrorist but surprise they were wrong. Iraq had nothing to do with anything. How could a government go SO wrong and the people let it happen?

My point is this government is capable (as probably all governments are) of anything and does, in fact, do unethical and even illegal things. True they do not do much well so it probably was not a conspiracy. I just thought this country was above going to the sewer or as Cheney characterizes it "the dark side". I'm all for "going to the dark side" IF there is some light shed on truth. MY mistake. That is what I am really so angry about.

Rakan's War: I have never read a more poignant overwhelmingly emotional story than the Sunday, August 3 Boston Globe front page story "Rakan's War". It is absolutely beautifully written and, I believe, says so much. It says much about man's kindness and abilities to do good. The sadness, too, was piercing. I read it with tears streaming down my face. It says all people Christian, Muslim and Jew are capable of such good. It is an incredible story that should, I think, be memorialized in film.

It is about most especially, too, our country's staggering Iraq invasion which after all is directly related to the young boy Rakan's ultimate fate. Although I do not often wax Biblical there are some things said within it that, I believe are true. I thought of two: Hosea 8:7 "For they have sown the wind, and they shall reap the whirlwind"; I might add: Father, forgive us for we know not what we have done! I paste the link below.

http://www.boston.com/bostonglobe/

Suicide? What do YOU think? The suicide of the Bruce Ivans the alleged perpetrator of the Anthrax attacks is problematic at best. Could our own government have had any knowledge of the 2001 Anthrax attacks before they even occurred? Could our government have been involved in the perpetration of these Anthrax attacks or in any way used these horrendous attacks which killed five people and sickened 17 others to help push its war in Iraq? Ask Valerie Pflame how far this government will go to silence its critics of the war. It is seemingly ridiculous to think our government could, in any way, be linked to the knowledge of the Anthrax attacks of 2001. Yet it is not ridiculous. It is believable. John McCain in 2001 said on the David Letterman Show that the Anthrax attacks COULD have been perpetrated by Sadam Hussein. Tell me another lie. For eight long years our government has lied, cajoled, corrupted, destroyed peremptorily and without cause a sovereign nation, destroyed our constitution and our nation has become the closest thing to a fascist state that I would ever imagine in my wildest dreams possible in this our once democratic country.

There are too many questions that are unresolved about the Antrax attacks. Who knew what and when did they know it? Why did it take so long and why did they harass and accuse initially the wrong man when the "right" man was in the same locale and cameras were always rolling in this top secret US government facility? Why were only liberals like Tom Dashle and Senator Patrick Leahy targets as well as Tom Brokaw of NBC News? Could the CIA and NOT the FBI have been involved in the Anthrax debacle so that the Iraq war would be wholeheartedly accepted by the American public in 2001? These are questions now that do not seem outrageous. They do not seem nutty. That is what is outrageous.

A government which can conduct a Bay of Pigs, remove an Iranian democratically elected leader and place in power the puppet Shah of Iran which led to the current Islamic fanatical regime, fib about the Gulf of Tonkin in Vietnam ultimately getting nearly 60,000 troops killed in a futile war, help defeat Allende of Chile who was ultimately assassinated putting the fascist Pinochet, then more to US liking, in power, try to poison Castro, conduct a war in Iraq based on lies, talk about dressing up Americans to look Iranian to shoot on American ships to provoke an incident, and the list of unthinkable documented behavior or considerations of behavior by our government against other governments as well as our own people which come back to haunt us, goes on and on and on and on.

Can we REALLY believe someone somewhere in highest echelons of the government knew about the Anthrax attacks? I ask YOU.

A Local Candidate for our times: While attending a couple of the Framingham-on-the-green concerts and attending a political event for a reception for Senator John Kerry, I had the distinct pleasure of meeting Dawn Harkness, a candidate for the office of State Representative from the Town of Framingham. I had seen her name around the area but never encountered her personally before then. I spoke with her about her candidacy and some of the issues facing the Town of Framingham, our state and even our nation. I was distinctly impressed by the depth of her knowledge of the issues, her verbal excellence and her humanitarian concern for our people.

She is a Wellesley College graduate, an attorney and the expertise of her background, indeed, shows. In addition, I tuned in to the Audrey Hall Show and the David Hutchinson Political Discussion on local Framingham cable programming where she was interviewed. Yet again, I was significantly impressed by Dawn Harkness's command of the issues. She has a refreshing and, I think, unique way of addressing those issues absolutely on point without political evasion understanding the detailed intracies and nuiances of everything about which she was asked. I told her I thought her abilities were so impressive she should go far in the political arena. Because of my perceived excellence of her candidacy, I have decided to give her my vote. I urge the people of Framingham who care about the issues facing our town and state to give her your consideration. If you want more information about her go to her web page (www.dawnharkness.com) and I hope, ultimately, you will decide, as I have, to give her your vote. I think it will be a vote well spent. She is, I believe, a credit to our town, understands the issues extraordinary well, is independent of thought and would do her best to serve. I believe she is the choice for our times.

I attach a link -- http://www.metrowestdailynews.com/opinion/letters/x2109423246/Rosen-Hope-for-the-futurel
to the Metro West News where there are some oppositions to my opinion letters supporting Obama. I inclusively responded to them the following:

It is impossible to talk about THIS election without mentioning George W. Bush or John McCain. This election is, after all, ABOUT electing either John McCain or Barack Obama. This election is in RESPONSE to the presidency of George W. Bush and Republican party policies. Unfortunately, to court the religious right, McCain whom I admired in 2000, is an anathema to me now because he tries very hard to reflect that less-than-thoughtful mostly religious base of the Republican party. It is impossible to address issues without mentioning both George Bush and John McCain. They are nearly mirror images of one another. In my opinion, George Bush has ushered in the most corrupt and utterly tyrannical administration in this history of this country. He has put all of us at great risk. The policies one spoke of (including 9/11) that were so disastrous happened on his watch. Pelosi, et al while admittedly APPEARING weak in some ways did not have the numbers to overrule the Bush disaster.

Moreover, I am, after 59 years, most assuredly not so naive as to think Barack Obama is the savior for everything. Of course, I know that. I regret if I gave that impression. I do not think that. I do not believe in messiahs. However, last civics book I viewed mentioned that third parties were rather ineffective in this country. In view of that, the choice now is between two candidates. I do believe of those two that Barack Obama is by far the better choice. He is, of course, younger and, in my opinion, more intellectually astute. He will support not only a foreign policy I agree with more but a social policy that is more acceptable to me as well.

I can assure one insulting blogger that when taking 'civics', I did NOT 'look out the window'. My minor in college was political science. That most assuredly does not make me an expert. It does though, I would like to think, make for opinion that, hopefully, has a background of expertise which cultivated it. Over decades I have given my opinions much thought as I waxed throughout the years from the left to the right and back again.

We define differently what we think is good policy for our nation. I want a more just, more humane, and less belligerently bellicose country. I think that Barack Obama and the Democratic party can best provide more of what I want than can John McCain and the Republican party. Barack Obama certainly, though, cannot and will not do it all. George Bush and his cronies have assured us of that.

I added another comment addressing a point I omitted.

Calling Obama Osama is not only insulting to the senator it is juvenile. It reminds me of children on a third grade playground. If I said More of the Same Pain McCain, for example, people would criticize me and quite rightly so.

In addition, Biblical quotations are ineffective when arguing politics. For every quotation one can find and equal and opposite Biblical phrase. The Bible is filled with contradictions. As stated in my previous response, I do not think Senator Obama is a savior and I do not believe human beings messiahs. Rather, Senator Obama promulgates policy and belongs to a party that is more in accord with my political beliefs. He has voted, by my standard, correctly on most issues.

I do realize that both the Republican and the Democratic parties are guilty for the mess our nation is in. However, it is clear, and has been for decades, that there is a DECIDED difference between the two parties although both admittedly depend inordinately on monied interests for their survival. Despite that, I submit, for example, the Iraq invasion and occupation would NEVER have occurred if Gore had been the victor in the Supreme Court presidential choice of 2000. We would have four thousand men, who are now dead, alive. Moreover, we probably would have captured Bin Laden, the REAL perpetrator of the 9/11 tragedy. I even postulate that 9/11 may NOT have happened since a President Gore would most likely have heeded the myriad of clues and one prescient memo which said 'Osama Bin Laden to attack the US.' Bush smugly and stupidly ignored that crucial memo and a number of other warnings from outgoing Clinton administration officials regarding the danger of Al Qaeda.

I can point, too, to other social issues which might have been different had a Democrat held the reins of power. A relative of mine, a former Harvard College, Harvard Medical graduate, a physician and person of professional/personal excellence has a debilitating disease similar to Lou Gherig's disease which shortened his career, placed him in a wheelchair, and relegated him to a life of much suffering. A Gore presidency might have helped, through stem cell research, cure his tragic malady. Our nation could have been, for the past eight years, at the forefront of research and cures for hideous diseases through the use of stem cells. Can you imagine, too, the effort a Gore administration would have devoted to the environment and reversing global warming? Instead of life AFFIRMING policies the Bush administration has been responsible for the unnecessary death of thousands many of whom are children and other innocents. For ALL these things and so much more, I believe the Democratic and Republican parties are more than SIGNIFICANTLY different. They are LIFE SAVING different.

I disagree with you. All politicians are NOT the same despite many being placed into office by corporate interests. The common people like you and I (as you put it), do occasionally get a vote.

The Audacity of Joan Vennochi: For those of you who do not know Joan Vennochi is a very popular Boston Globe columnist. Often I agree with her sentiments but it seems the times I disagree with her I do so with great ire. Her article in the Sunday, July 20, 2008 Boston Globe entitled "The Audacity of Ego" was such a time. She brazenly stated, among many other unflattering things, that "Obama has a crush on Obama." She goes on to give her irrational rationales. I stated the following in an email to her:

Try as I might not to be paranoid about the real mission of the corporate media to defend its own corporate interests and keep things Republican, I cannot. Although many articles you write are well done yet again I find myself enraged by your Sunday editorial The Audacity of Ego, concentrating on the alleged uber ego of Barack Obama.

Now, really Ms. Venocchi, I do not know of a political candidate, now or in history who does not or did not have an abundance of ego. In fact, I might aver that a certain amount of ego is necessary. I cannot in all of US history find the meek among our presidents. I am quite sure Senator Obama has ego but I am MORE than sure John McCain has a substantial amount of that as well. In addition, if what I read in the news and from what people I meet say who actually have had contact with John McCain is true, not only does he have ego but he has an abundant supply of profanity and insults toward most especially women. In addition, I have heard from some reputable sources that he treats his support staff abysmally and generally has a mean temper-filled temperament.

We know, too, that he has not done much to ensure the sanctity of marriage as he divorced his first wife and married his second turning in his first wife for a healthier and younger specimen. His oft-told vituperative profane comment to his current wife is well known and a recent horrific joke he does not deny saying but has conveniently forgotten is up for discussion and allegedly verfied by some. This truly says something about John McCain.

John Mccain has MUCH to answer for that Senator Obama does not. Whether its his constant flip flops on policy, lack of knowledge of international events and facts, lack of understanding on things economic or his profane behavior towards women I'd say John McCain has audacious ego and PLENTY of it!! How about commenting on that?

The Joke is on us: I am no apologist for John McCain. I am an ardent Democrat and support the Democratic presumptive nominee Barack Obama. However, whether it is McCain's bad joke or the New Yorker Magazine's bad cover page, we must eschew the media's attempt at sensationalizing and pop culturizing absolutely EVERYTHING a candidate says and every movement he makes. It is the media's attempt to get viewers to watch and by doing so it is their attempt to make themselves very very rich.

Ad infinitum commentary on a joke, a fist bump, a turban picture, a minister's utterances have no importance in relation to the desperate issues facing our country and the world today. We are a nation facing an abyss. Wasting time talking about things ridiculous will be tragic for our nation. We face a probable recession if not depression, we face eternal war, we face killing and dying, we face a planet melting, we face systemic corruption and an erosion of the essence of what makes us free. In short, we face a tyrannical Orwellian world. The American public must take an interest in the forces of history and understand just what it will mean if a particular candidate takes office. We must recognize what is important and concentrate on the nuance of policy not the insanity of superficiality. We must discuss the issues and the issues alone. Our lives, our planet's life and our country's life depend upon it. Wake up, America, before it is too late.

Our Only Hope: I had polio in 1954 which left one leg completely paralyzed. I, through, my father's work with the March of Dimes and his love for Franklin Roosevelt, saw the wonder of the profound changes one man could bring. The changes Franklin Roosevelt initiated affect my life today. Because of three fractures of my polio affected leg and complications of post polio syndrome I no longer could work at a job I did for nearly 30 years. I can see how one man influenced for the better the lives of millions as his work walked from generation to generation. Without social security I would be lost.

We live, I believe, in a mirror image of that catastrophic time where looming war fused with disastrous economic conditions is born out of corrupt Republican policies and philosophies which do not work. Those policies did not work in 1929 and they do not work now. Government is not the ONLY answer but it is ONE IMPORTANT answer to profound difficulties which are beyond the ability of the suffering many to improve. We have an economic system because of the disastrous policies of George W. Bush which has run wild and we have a war which will cost trillions. Recession if not depression is looming and horrendous debt emanating from a war which should not have been waged is the reality. Barack Obama truly is our hope. The hope in me was born from a man with polio whom I never knew. He lifted this nation up, restored its vitality and GAVE us a reason to hope.

I never thought I would see again the hope my father saw in FDR those many years ago. I was wrong. I DO see hope again. Hope is here. Hope is now. I can only pray the country sees it is here too by electing Barack Obama its next president. Lives are at stake, our country is at stake and the world awaits a better day.

A Killer: HBO's "Generation Kill" is phenomenal. It is a dramatization of an embed experience with US soldiers while en route in 2003 to Iraq. As the series progresses it is supposed to reflect the milieu of the US soldier as they slog through the Iraq War experience. I do not know how the film crew got the logistics together so expertly or how they acquired such a perfect cast but they did. It is probably one of the best if not THE best docudrama ever shown.

The violence, at least in the first episode, was NOT an issue for me as the episode concentrated on the relationships and the character of the group more than what they were there to do i.e. kill. Despite the possibility of watching violence as the war unfolds, I believe this drama is a must see.

I have very mixed emotions. I am a realist. I know the realities of an often brutal world. Our soldiers, I believe, are the only ones standing between us and world assault against us. However, their culture as depicted in the film, and often their views, are hard for me to take. This film presents an image of our military which while showing its incredible strength and phenomenal professionalism also shows a condescending cruelty, some extreme right wing political philosophies, love for the fight and love for killing to which I cannot relate. There is plenty of white supremacism thrown into the mix with the verbal constancy of crude vicious hatred of all things homosexual and insults spewed often towards women.

Their views toward Iraqis are often ones of indifference and a lack of cultural understanding. They are incredulous by what they see. The military hierarchy in its ineptness sees fit to give them but one Iraqi translator. Didn’t someone in the Pentagon think that our soldiers just might want to communicate with those they confront, capture or wound? I cannot even imagine how an Iraqi felt as they cowed their head in fear of the alien American assault. The two humanities saw each other but did not understand what they saw. It seemed as if the two peoples were from different planets.

Perhaps underneath all of the crudity, profanity, significant racism and sexist comments lies a profound fear for what the Marines are about to encounter. Perhaps, in the final analysis, our soldiers are more than Marines. They are human beings and young boys with incredible energy, Herculean bodies and brute strength playing the war games they loved as a child. This time though the stakes are higher. They cannot end the game when they want and go home to mom. War transcends the macho machismo that feels and looks so good. War means death, it means disability, it means fear and it means tragedy. It means making the once invincible vincible. It means encountering things made only of nightmares. No war can avoid that. I think these Marines despite their bravado know that deep down underneath. These soldiers are in the military because they WANT to be. Why they do is beyond me. This program is riveting. It is, uniquely, television at its very best.