A DATE WITH DESTINY: Franklin Roosevelt talked about the Day of Infamy which was, of course, December 7, 1941, the attack on Pearl Harbor. This event galvanized a nation. Barak Obama and we the people have A DATE WITH DESTINY on January 20, 2009 as Barak Obama will be sworn in as this nation's 44th president to galvanize a nation once again.

It is inconceivable to me given the utter corruption, lies, failed policy and even treason which so many within the Republican party have committed that once again this nation could deliver itself into the uncaring arms of yet another chaotic and despotic rule. John McCain tells you he is for change but that is a ruse. He is not for change he is for more of the same. The Republican party has lied to such an extent and committed our country to such disastrously failed policies that, I believe, THEY BELIEVE their own lies to be true. $135.00 dollar a gallon oil is proof positive that a war which was supposed to have produced cheap oil did anything but and we the people are suffering its terrible consequences.

Alas, as Joseph Welch said to Joseph McCarthy during the Army/McCarthy hearings as Joseph McCarthy sought to ruin lives based on lies: "Have you no sense of decency sir, at long last? Have you left no sense of decency?" I say the same thing to Senator McCain. At long last, sir have you no sense of decency? Have you not the decency to admit your party is rife with corruption, saturated with lies and you cannot and will not break away from that course. The lies of Senator McCain's party and its corruptions have cost this nation dearly in lives and treasure. John McCain acquiesced to it all. We MUST have a DATE WITH DESTINY to reverse this disastrous course, to change policy and to make Barak Obama our 44th President of the United States. Our hour and our date with destiny is now. YES WE CAN, YES WE WILL AND YES WE MUST!

Do I Dare Hope?: So many times Barak Obama has moved me to tears through his verbal eloquence. So many times I wondered in comparison to the uninspiring opposition, how Obama can lose. I need look to a grain in the sands of yesteryear’s time to see how. The brilliance of our Founders extraordinary experiment over two centuries ago to hammer out a more just political process, despite the nation’s obvious inequities, cannot be denied. Will, though, the seemingly indelible, indefatigable and haunting historical stain of slavery still not be washed clean?

At our country’s most perilous moments, great leaders have emerged. Washington, arguably the greatest of our presidents, for our nascent nation, chose not to claim the mantle of monarchy. Lincoln was determined, by any means necessary, to keep the nation united despite its intractable differences over slavery and its legal underpinning of “states rights.” When the Great Depression enveloped our land and the cacophonous discords of war in Europe could be heard, Franklin Roosevelt breathed into us new national life with his melodious tones of hope and faith in our country that encouraged us to prevail.

Now, in our own time, we face, perhaps, an equally dangerous shift in the historical sands. Our nation desperately needs hope, it needs unity and it needs to chart a new course. A new leader in the Democratic party now can give us this new course to chart to ensure our nation survives to see a new day. Do I dare have the audacity to hope?

Scotty the Brave: I think Scott McClellan is incredibly brave. Finally, one lonely man in an administration of ethical refuse that is brave enough to want to offer an explanation for the unending lies, utter corruption and gross incompetence which led to the invasion of a country which did not attack us. One man out of so many who cares about the disastrous Bush policies which have murdered so many and cost so much. His book is stunning in its daring veracity. Whatever money he stands to make I say good for him. He deserves it.

The press and people of all political persuasions who possess an ethical compass need to keep this on the media map. It is huge. This is the important smoking gun amid many smoking guns. This administration needs to be held accountable for the egregiously illegal and unscrupulous things they have done. I simply hope somewhere, sometime, somehow they pay the price for their egregious behavior that none of us who does not posses big money and power would ever get away with. They have cost this country thousands of lives and incalculable treasure. They have uprooted and imbalanced the entire Middle East. Moreover, they have given Iran the keys to the kingdom.

Kudos to Scott McClellan who is one near solitary important voice in the wilderness. He occupied a position of gravitas in a corrupt, immoral, and self-serving administration. This is his day of atonement. He restores my faith in the American system. Hang in there, Scott, there are many out there of all political stripes who are with you!

A Shakesperian Tragedy: I have loved both Hillary and Barak. I do not, however, understand how a candidate could even think her assassination comment would not engender scrutiny. Exhaustion is no excuse. I would say it was a gaffe, bad phraseology or that she COULD CERTAINLY have described it differently BUT she had said it three times previously using the word assassination at least once before. She could have said one can never tell anything can happen during a campaign and left it at that.

She should know there are going to be cameras, microphones and tape recordings EVERYWHERE so she damn well better be careful what she says and to whom she says it. Candidates cannot blame the media, even if the media report to excess. They know the climate before they run for the presidency or they CERTAINLY should.

Because this was said so many times before I think she knew EXACTLY what she was saying and that it was not a gaffe. That is EXTRAORDINARILY disturbing even to one who appreciates Hillary Clinton's phenomenal abilities.

God forbid a trillion times if anything were ever to happen to ANY of the candidates there would be hell to pay; the country so many of us love would, this time, I fear be unrecognizable. To say something repeatedly that would even touch upon this horrific thought is more than absurd it is sick. In Shakespearian fashion this fatal flaw of ambition gone wild should sink her ambition but good!

Raging Religion: The latest flap over the gross faux pas of a variety of religious pastors is reflection extraordinaire of the folly of religion. The good religion sometimes reflects is eclipsed over millennia by the discord is has sewn. Our own oft reactionary century does, indeed, seem to be going backwards. Although we deem ourselves technologically advanced and the heirs to the Age of Enlightenment, we are soaked in religiously futile unprovable argument the irrational tenets and truth of which no one can effectively argue. The Bible, a 5000 year old document, loaded with divergence of thought, historical and scientific error, is used by the three major monotheistic faiths as allegedly provable justification for nearly any philosophy one may want to adopt and any behavior, no matter how extreme, one may want to justify.

Pastor Hegee claims to know exactly what God had in mind for the Jews. He uses an ancient Jewish text to make the unmitigatedly insulting postulation that God used Hitler for the purpose of creating the contemporary Jewish state. The utter absurdity of a comment that suggests a God would slaughter 6 million innocents including 1 million children to create a nation state stands on its own.

Pastor Parsley suggests he knows just what our Founding Fathers had in mind and that was to destroy Islam. The absurdity of that, yet again, is not only self evident it is historically ridiculous and blatantly untrue. The pastoral indictments go on and on. Yet there are many in our country who believe preposterous things and question nothing. There are others, still, who care nothing about religion usurping a place in the halls of power. They stand silent. Our candidates for the highest office in the land feel, sadly, they need to court those who hold these inane beliefs and pay homage to those who want to translate those beliefs into public policy. This is chilling. Science in its quest to alleviate human suffering and its bedfellow critical thought are at risk.

To the contrary of what these utterly ridiculous pastors aver, our Founding Fathers knew religion could be dangerous because they witnessed its onslaught. They tried by constitutionally enshrining the wall of church state separation to prevent the barbarity religious argument can impose. Our country depends upon recapturing their sanity. Our very survival hangs in the balance.

A Man for This Season: I vacillated many times between Barak and Hillary. I think she would have made a great president. Barak Obama, if elected, will be great too. Those of us in the Democratic party can be proud. We have made history times two.

Some may say an African American cannot win. I say it is about time an African American DID win. A people has been much sinned against throughout American history. I think in our country's long contentious soulful debate about race we should not deny an African American what he so rightfully deserves because his message is correct and his message is true. Let us, as Martin Luther King so correctly said, judge a man not by the color of his skin but by the content of his character. I think our country deserves a return to the greatness Barak Obama can provide.

Let us, finally, pull this country together because the time is right and the time is now. Yes we can and yes we will show the world our country's greatness has returned. We will proclaim liberty from that mountaintop Martin Luther King did not get to see. I am praying fervently, through the long and difficult night that Barak Obama and we will reap the benefits of what Martin Luther King and others gave their lives to sew. A return to greatness is within our reach. I implore our nation not let it slip away.

The Wizadry of Oz: Oprah had on a Dr. Weiss who took willing subjects back to a so called previous life. She also had on Dr. Oz who, in my opinion, reduced himself to Oprah's lap dog by allowing himself to be pulled into this junk science by giving it a nod. Naturally, not only am I skeptical I surely don't buy what they had to say. In fact, I believe, although I did not say, that it is really all about the money. People love to hear what makes them feel good. Those like Dr. Oz, of course, make a carload of money IF they verbally pay homage to those whom Oprah gives credence. Willing subjects spend oodles of cash to make other people, who make them feel better about the sadness and difficulty of life, very very rich. It does NOT make what they say true. I wrote the following to her show:


Dr. Oz. I love, listen to and sometimes implement your advice on medical issues. When you, however, leap into things metaphysical, you lose me. The show on past life regression, in my opinion, was snake oil. Keeping an open mind is one thing but science is not metaphysics. You could say you believe and have seen fairies in the clouds but unless and until you show me the proof there are fairies in clouds you jump most likely into the realm of personal desire or dreams which do not make good science and which proves nothing.

The fact that Dr. Weiss brought his subjects to a hypnotic state, perhaps a dream like state, and they had visions of a past life does not prove there is in fact something more to this life and less proof yet that one was indeed another person before taking their present form. I submit, if an ice cube were a sentient being and it melted it would surely still be composed of water but would not be an ice cube in its original form and would not have that sentient quality. I am not disputing that our cells after death morph into another state. That can be proven. What I do take issue with is the belief that the morphing of those cells is into a different being or that we will meet those we loved after our death and theirs. What those people saw probably is explained as the synaptic consequence of their own dream like state and nothing more.

The criticism I have of Oprah when she waxes spiritual is that she never has anyone on to present an adversarial position. I suggest when she does these "spiritual" shows with you she have someone on like a Christopher Hitchens, a scholar or a Richard Dawkins a preeminent scientist from Oxford University who could present cogent scientific arguments questioning things spiritual through arguments based on science and rational thought. Further, when YOU take that so called “leap of faith” you are no longer a scientist. You are simply a speculator like everyone else. People should not be sheep and accept things simply because they want it to be so, miss their loved ones or fear death. They should, after listening to expert alternative thoughts, consider all the options including that after death there is nothing unless and until someone actually proves otherwise.

A Triumph of Life: Jeff Jacoby's article "A triumph of life and hope" about the 60th birthday of the State of Israel was so beautifully written. I had tears rolling down my cheeks throughout as he expressively states "The ovens of Treblinka and Auschwitz had barely cooled, and Jews were again being threatened with annihilation." A thriving Jewish homeland born from the ashes of Auschwitz, hewed by muscle and shear will has morphed the desert into life itself. The emergence of Israel as a Jewish state is testament to man's ability for rebirth in the face of overwhelming death. Am Yisrael Chai. The Jewish people live. On that we can agree.

Yet again, Bill Moyers brings excellence in journalism to the airwaves through the revelatory interview of Phillippe Sands whose book "Torture Team" I hope to read. Who would have thought in 2000 the failure-in-life person of George W. Bush would give us reading material about the plethora of illegalities and debacles of his administration which will be enough to take us into the next century to read and internalize?

In view of ALL that has occurred -- including, I submit, the treasonous activity of the outing of a CIA agent, beginning a war based on lies which has taken 4000 lives and counting costing this country soon-to-be trillions with no end in sight -- it will be astounding if this country does not change the tenor and nature of its power by overthrowing Republican politics then I completely throw up my hands. When a populous has an utterly shortsighted unaware understanding of things political which allow it to continue to vote fools into the highest most powerful office in the world, then it gets what it deserves.

Mr. Sands was passionate, verbally eloquent and academically credentialed. He offers up for examination what most of us already suspect. Our country, to its own peril, has been involved in the overthrow of the Geneva Conventions, has illegally employed torture techniques and brazenly flouted the law. Too bad more people like Mr. Sands do not occupy positions of power most especially within this most inept, corrupt, oblivious, cruel and murderous administration in US history.

The New York Times article today (link below) "Hezbollah has taken control of the streets of Beruit" is chilling.

We can lay the horrific expansion of radical Islamic factional insanity gaining strength every day at the feet of George W. Bush's inept Iraq policy. The factional violence between Sunni and Shia is spreading to Lebanon. I fear it will spread to Egypt , to Saudi Arabia and worst of all to nuclear armed Pakistan. It is not only as simple as Shia on Sunni. It is extraordinarily complex with factions within factions within armed thuggish groups fighting against each other. Oil is in the mix. It is mind numbing.

The US can bail out no one. We have no army, money left or will to do anything more. Iraq was supposed to provide real peace and security in that prone-to-violence neck of the woods -- some peace and some security. George W. Bush's failed international policies have provided psychological impetus to Hamas, Hezbollah and many other radical and terrorist groups.

I have never seen this country or the world on the most extreme precipice of disaster in the history I have witnessed or known. The US has no allies of substance to show muscle to these ideological totalitarian movements except Israel which has its own survival at stake. Europe will only sit back this time and watch the movie. The beat goes on. More reasons we need Barak Obama and not more of the same McCain.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/05/10/world/middleeast/10lebanon.html?hp

"Where's the Outrage?" See blog www.yomamaforobama.worldpress.com
This is my response:This is my response:Generally I agree with you. I wish the American public were interested in things gravitas too. Alas, they are not. Because of that, I am a political Machiavellian. Uphill I believe we must do what we must do to get elected. It is downhill after that.

It has been part of our illustrious history that even our ever-so-cerebral Founding Fathers concocted the damnable electoral college so that they might better ensure that the selection of the president reside with more intellectually able electors instead of by a popular vote of ruffians. Jefferson, of course, had to endure the scandalous writings of James Calendar, a muckraker and yellow journalist of his era, when he exposed Jefferson’s sexual liaison with Sally Hemmings, Jefferson’s black house slave and concubine.

Even de Tocqueville when he visited America of the 1830’s called much of American culture “a middling mediocrity.” During his inauguration, Andrew Jackson’s picturesque White House sported ducks, geese, chickens and other assorted barnyard fun. He invited gun toting, coonskin cap wearing, and whiskey drinking Tennesseans into the White House or, perhaps, they just barged in. Worse, Jackson had to endure the accusations about his beloved wife Rachel who was said to be a bigamist. Jackson never forgot it, was devastated by it and thought his wife’s death was because of it.

A century later H.L. Mencken uttered the truth of his famous phrase: “You will never go broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public.” This still rings true today.

Barak Obama should have known when he first had thoughts of running for the presidency that before any skeletons in his closet were opened for inspection he should have opened them first and rectified the problem. Now it is a bit late to eschew a Reverend Wright. Obama either looks politically expedient or unfaithful to his former good friend or both.

Had he done what I suggest, we would possibly be talking about the real issues of 4000 plus dead in Iraq, five dollar plus gallon of gasoline, eight dollar a gallon of milk and an economy tilting toward another Great Depression. Instead, we are talking about whether a candidate should wear a flag pin and why he belonged to the church he did for over twenty years. I agree it is utterly insane. Some things, though, never change. I’m sure Andrew Jackson would agree.

Nuclear Strike -- NO: I just read Steve Weisman's article in Truthout in which he thinks the US strike of Iran is imminent. There are others who have predicated the same such as Seymour Hersh in the April, 2006 edition of The New Yorker. It has not come to pass yet.

I do not on this earth know how the US could mount a strike against a country twice the size of Iraq, with a sophisticated army EVEN with the help of the Israelis given the fact that our military is stretched so thin. Striking Iran assumes that the Iranians would not strike back. I suspect that is fallacious and utterly ridiculous to assume. Furthermore, as has been said many times, the Iranian program IF they have a program is probably hidden deep within mountainous regions of that country. It's not that easy to get to, find and strike their targets. It would pose an infinitely greater problem than the precise strike of Israel on Sadam Hussein's Osirik nuclear facility in 1981 and the one recently bombed by the Israelis in Syria.

In addition, assuming the Iranians would strike back we would be fighting on three fronts -- Iraq, Afghanistan, and in Iran. This is an unlikely scenario without the imposition of a military draft. A military draft would encounter further a HUGE opposition probably unlike and bigger than the opposition to the Vietnam War. To begin a war with Iran I believe would need the approval of the Congress and given this administration's utterly insane prosecution of the War with Iraq, Congress sanctioning an additional war on a much larger scale, I believe, would be next to impossible. To use our inept commander in chief own gift for verbiage -- "Fool me once...you can't get fooled again."

There is no question Mr. Weisman is correct. There is much bluster and it is, indeed, unsettling. I think this bluster is rhetoric backed up with thin air. The Bush administration has put this country at great national security risk by its unnecessary and incompetent prosecution of Iraq and its disastrous failure to capture or kill Bin Laden allowing the reemergence of the Taliban and the increase of Al Queda's prestige in the Arab world. If the US is at risk then the State of Israel at great risk. I believe we at this moment in time have lost Iraq. Four soldiers were killed today in the sandstorms of Iraq which make them defenseless. Every day we are in Iraq more are at risk and more will die. I cannot personally watch the count of our dead. It hurts too much for a war which has been beyond ineffectually prosecuted. There is no doubt there are many things I do not know about US capability. I hope that is true because adding Iran to the mix, in my opinion, would be suicide. The US is not quite at the suicidal point yet. I hope I am right. Time will tell.

A Letter to Pastor Wright: A Letter to Reverend Wright: I am a 59 year old white Jewish American and an ardent supporter of the State of Israel. I think the interview by Bill Moyers of Pastor Wright was a wonderful and the speech that Rev. Wright delivered before the NAACP yesterday was more than wonderful it was riveting. His speeches moved me to tears on several occasions. He is an extraordinarily charismatic man. I kept thinking that maybe what Pastor Wright says is true. Good sometimes comes out of difficulty. This past month has been extraordinarily difficult for all of us, especially those in our culture who consider ourselves unashamedly Democrat and unabashedly liberal who are yearning albeit begging for change.

I hope that Rev. Wright's enunciations of fairness and justice will have an impact even on those in our society who not only have been deaf to the suffering of so many but those who have contributed to that suffering as well. If people can be moved in some small way to defeat the lesser angels of their nature so that, at the very least, we understand the idea of treating each other as we would want to be treated ourselves, than all this controversy and all of the explosive multi-media rhetoric will have not been in vain. That is my hope. That is my dream. That is what I have tried to do in my own life but, have, at times probably fallen short.

If I were in Chicago I would visit your church and find the inspiration I so desperately, all my life, have sought. Never falter and never fail to preach your golden rule of inclusiveness. That is what America is all about. That is why so many risk their lives to get here. I believe the torch which was lit over two hundred years ago still burns brightly. Now, however, hopefully, it lights the way for more.

A letter to Reverend Wright: I am a 59 year old white Jewish American and an ardent supporter of the State of Israel. I think the interview by Bill Moyers of Pastor Wright was a wonderful AND the speech that Rev. Wright delivered before the NAACP yesterday was more than wonderful it was riveting. His speeches moved me to tears on several occasions. He is an extraordinarily charismatic man. I kept thinking that maybe what Pastor Wright says is true. Good sometimes comes out of difficulty. This past month has been extraordinarily difficult for all of us, especially those in our culture who consider ourselves unashamedly Democrat and unabashedly liberal who are yearning albeit begging for change.

I hope that Rev. Wright's enunciations of fairness and justice will have an impact even on those in our society who not only have been deaf to the suffering of so many but those who have contributed to that suffering as well. If people can be moved in some small way to defeat the lesser angels of their nature so that, at the very least, we understand the idea of treating each other as we would want to be treated ourselves, than all this controversy and all of the explosive multi-media rhetoric will have not been in vain. That is my hope. That is my dream. That is what I have tried to do in my own life but, have, at times probably fallen short.

If I were in Chicago I would attend your church and find the inspiration I so desperately, all my life, have sought. Never falter and never fail to preach your golden rule of inclusiveness. That is what America is all about. That is why so many risk their lives to get here. I believe the torch which was lit over two hundred years ago still burns brightly. Now, however, it lights the way for more.

I read Todd Domke's op editorial about the two candidates gaffs and thought it was ridiculous so I sent a response.

Todd Domke in his Thursday, April 24 op ed opinion entitled "Rate those political goofs" made me angry. I looked at his alleged analysis of the two Democratic candidates on his so called supposed humorous "Gaffo-O-Meter. I wondered why there were no gaffs listed for McCain and only one for Bush. For example, I wondered why he did not rate McCain's blunder statement about the 100 years war in Iraq, McCain's ignorance of the historical reality of Iraq by not knowing the difference between Shia and Sunni not once but multiple times or McCain's admitted ignorance of things economic not to mention his many utterances of profanity and violence against his own Republican colleagues or even his utterly profane comments against his own wife when she asked an innocent question.

Listing the gaffs of the current president too would take a bound edition of the Encyclopedia Britannica to enumerate. The gaffs of team Bush are, as we all know, many and staggering. I'd like to rename Mr. Domke's Gaff-O-Meter to the GOP Gaff-O-Meter. Of course, as I read further in Mr. Domke's editorial I saw at the end it describes what he does. As stated, he is a "Boston-area Republican political analyst and public-relations strategist." Now I get it.

Patriotism and Pennsylvania: It is clear to me that the vitriol spewed against this country by a Reverend Wright and others like him did and does exactly the opposite of what we on the left want. Anti-American rhetoric has spawned the likes of Nixon, the Moral Majority, the so called Reagan revolution, extreme religious fanaticism and, worst of all, to me, a George W. Bush. All of those years the left verbally assaulted this country, the Republicans became dedicated to equating patriotism with Republican politics and successfully lured the electorate to vote often against their own economic interest. In the end the majority of Americans, especially post 9/11, love their flag and flag pins and hate the desecrators of them.

I have always said a party and a candidate in this country that eschews those things, in my opinion, cannot get elected. Damning America or an association with that comment simply will not get what we on the left, however morally well-meaning, want. Unfortunately, it achieves quite the opposite.

Barak Obama must appear patriotic and must be a unifier. In my opinion, he should have absolutely done more to distance himself from Reverend Wright, said the pledge of alliance and he should have worn a flag pin at least at times. It would not have hurt and indeed might have helped to close the gap Senator Clinton achieved in Pennsylvania.

The Profundity of Patriotism: Joan Vennochi's article "Obama's Patriotism" in Sunday's Globe was exactly correct. I have been saying the same thing about the American left in general for a long time. As a former sympathizer with the New Left of the late sixties, I was captivated by its hope for change and ultimately for the better, more just and more humane world it promised. For the first time then, too, because of the Left's fervent criticism of the Vietnam War, I absorbed the critical thinking about this country's foreign entanglements and, domestically, its racist past. It was a rude awakening then not to think of my country as historically exceptional.

As I aged though, I began to see the world in more grayish tones. It was clear to me that the vitriol spewed against this country did exactly the opposite of what I thought we on the left wanted. The burning of draft cards, the throwing away of war medals, the burning of the American flag did not usher in a more egalitarian society. To the contrary, it spawned Nixon, the Moral Majority, the so called Reagan revolution, extreme religious fanaticism and, worst of all, to me, a George W. Bush. All of those years the left verbally assaulted this country, the Republicans became dedicated to equating patriotism with Republican politics. In the end the majority of Americans, especially post 9/11, love their flag and flag pins and hate the desecrations of them.

A party and a candidate in this country that eschews those things, in my opinion, cannot get elected. Damning America or an association with that comment simply will not get what we on the left want. Unfortunately, it achieves quite the opposite.

McCain's Madness: Finally a big news story appeared about John McCain's well known temper and obscene outbursts of anger. It is documented that he has said angry, cruel, and profane things to his wife, senate members, colleagues and even the public when they annoy him. If elected president, this man's hand will be on the nuclear button?

Since the media is so intent to focus on small gaffs that the Democratic candidates make why doesn't the press focus intently on McCain's more important issues like his temper, his all-too-cozy relationship with the corrupt and ultimately jailed Charles H. Keating, Jr., which threatened McCain's career and Senator McCain's peccadilloes with women not only his recent raised eyebrow relationship with a lobbyist but also his affair with a woman, now his wife, WHILE he was married to his first wife?

How about focusing on Senator McCain's playing footsie with a Reverend Hege who does not like Catholics or anyone who does not see Biblical interpretation as he does and worse wants to bomb the Middle East to create a Revelationist rapture? How about more talk surrounding McCain's visit to Liberty University to pay a social call on Jerry Falwell, a religious extremist who espoused vitriol and hate? McCain's relationship with THESE religious extremists is far more damaging than Obama's relationship with Reverend Wright. These religious extremists McCain courts have managed to weasel their way into the echelons of power creating an explosive brew and risk to our country. They make egregious comments which have absolutely no validity and yet a presidential candidate has decided to share a bed with them now that he perceived he needed them to get nominated. How about the media talking about that?

McCain has many sins. How about the media devoting equal time to pounding the American public over the head about them?

To Torture or Not -- Fundamental Questions :

This administration will always claim 9/11 as its rationale to do anything it wishes. My anger against them is harsh because I love the ideals of the Enlightenment upon which our prescient Founders formed our American experiment. I do, though, of course, want this country protected from harm in a post 9/11 world. I want to know if the extensions of executive power are keeping us safe. I do not know who our government is capturing, what their charges are, or what methods of "enhanced interrogation techniques" are being used. Because there is no habeas corpus for those apprehended, they languish in jail, without trial, many of them probably tortured for nothing. Some, it seems, if one believes documentaries such as "Taxi to the Dark Side", simply found themselves in the wrong place at the wrong time and end up dead. I ask the question: is the abridging of the guarantees of habeas corpus, fair trial by jury, and prohibitions of cruel and unusual punishment justified?

If the government is throwing a dragnet over many who pose absolutely no real threat to anyone, that is problematic. It is a colossal waste of time, money and manpower to coordinate a Herculean effort to house people in jails without trial or without charges and to torture them forever. It has been shown that torture, indeed, does not work giving us faulty intelligence. In addition, it makes some who are subjected to this inhuman behavior very angry. So why torture? Our government has not shown sufficiently to me that because of these internationally unlawful tactics we are safer.

I want to know if there is justification for our government's controversial practices. The public is inured to the erosion of so many hard-won principles which have been the bedrock upon which western culture rests. Our nation's reputation in the world is severely compromised. Somehow I do not feel safer. Do you?

This was a response to someone who commented on my blog. It's a stream of conscious so it's not that well written but it gets my thoughts and philosophy across.

I perused your blog rather quickly. I am true to my zodiac sign although I surely do not believe in astrology. I am, if I were to characterize myself, a true Libra. I weigh everything and look at things from different angles.

Having said that I consider myself on most issues a progressive. At times, I do support the WISE use of military action. I do not, however, believe in American exceptional ism. I think our country does things usually for its own interests and, has occasionally fought the noble war. I believe the noble wars driven by men of great wisdom and ideals were the Revolutionary War, perhaps the War of 1812, the Civil War and World War II. Wars post World War II, in my opinion, were sheer folly and have led to countless unnecessary deaths of thousands. This latest Iraq War has been a tragedy which is still playing its hand. The consequences could be catastrophic and already have been disastrous because we took our eye off the ball which was, of course, Al Quaeda in Afghanistan, the real perpetrators of 9/11.

The Iraq invasion and occupation has been prosecuted with phenomenally inept leadership and begun by sheer hubris. In my opinion, although I supported the war in the beginning because I did not know that the "facts" used to justify the war were lies, much to my constant embarrassment, this war rises to the level of a war crime. The stupidity of it is staggering. The preparation for it was non existent. Our soldiers were put at great risk and our nation has paid out soon to be trillions. Our blood and our treasure has been squanderd. Billions have been lost and unaccounted for. Unsupervised cronies such as KBR and Blackwater steal our money, perform abysmally and get away with anything they choose. I believe, Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld and others are war criminals.

Military conflict should be exercised ONLY when absolutely necessary and with great precision examining every angle and possible truth. Bush made up his own truth to fit a war.

I would never vote and never have voted Republican. I am an ardent Democrat. In my opinion, if you are not part of the top 10 percent in wealth then you have been duped by the Republican party to support a cause which is not in your interest. Patriotism is not only wrapped in symbols and phony utterances, it truly is a commitment to the ideals of those men of the Enlightenment who knew what it meant to curtail the power of government, who knew the risk of unbridled power and who, most especially, knew the dangers of a marriage of church and state. We have come a long way since that date but we have at least within the past few decades become lost. Bush II has been, in my opinion, an American tragedy and possibly the worst president in US history bar none.

I am hoping that the Democratic party will prevail this time and, although I was initially a Hillary Clinton supporter, I do support Obama because I believe he is the best possibility we have to utterly revamp American foreign policy and its constant penchant for war. I believe he can help change the course of this nation to one that cares about its own people and less about its own imperial power. I believe he can reintroduce to the world the America I knew and loved as a young child.

One thing I know no matter who wins, the inept, unqualified, corrupt, ludicrous, unconstitutional excuse for a leader George W. Bush or anyone like him will, hopefully, never darken the White House corridors again. He cannot shine the boots of the real giants of American history who, I believe, were Washington because he eschewed never ending power, Adams because he wrote our exemplary Constitution, Jefferson because he wrote the Declaration of Independence and expanded our country via the Louisiana Purchase, Lincoln and FDR for obvious reasons. These men truly saved our nation and made this country the envy of the world. Just my opinion.