Padilla Verfict: Padilla was tried by a jury who saw the evidence. I have not seen the evidence but if it looks like a duck, etc. etc. His name was on an Al Quaeda application for goodness sake. I suspect our jury system prevails. If he was conspiring in any way shape or form with Islamic fanatics then I believe he got what he deserved. It has nothing to do with what George Bush does or doesn't do. If it were up to George Bush Padilla would have been jailed without a trial or without counsel. I think this proves that our system works and should not be abandoned. Everyone is owed their right to counsel and defense. He got his and was found guilty. End of story!

Patriotism, Iraq, and Mine Safety: It is AMAZING that all Republicans (the etiology of which returns to Nixon and his "moral majority") have to say is that the "liberals" will sell out America, will retreat, and do a host of other things that supposedly show how patriotic the Republican party is compared to the Democrats. They have captured that phony mantra and made it work because people love flag waving. Well, flag waiving also means one doesn't wage wars that get people killed, spend trillions of bucks and put us in debt over false pretenses.

Patriotism ALSO means PROTECTING workers...MINE WORKERS who really, in tandem with owners, make this country run. It means not cozying up to corporate drug and pharmaceutical crony lobbyists who do not give a wit about people but care about their profits. It is indeed genius to co-opt the word patriotism to make people think the Democrats and liberals are the ones who are unpatriotic. The reality, of course, is the reverse. Murray, the mine owner, paid off the Republican party to ensure the fact he would not be monitored for numerous safety violations some serious so he could rake in more millions on the backs of the miners without having to pay for mine safety corrections. Now those miners are, IF alive -- which I doubt -- and their families in a hellish nightmare once again caused by these oh so patriotic Republican sleaze bags who care about ONE thing and one thing only MONEY and don't give a hoot as to who gets hurt or killed in the process of their acquiring it! Just who is the patriot and who is the subversive?

Don't be fooled America. From Katrina to Iraq from unequivocal global warming to mine safety, Republicans do NOT care about the majority of you. They care about their money. Their hollow meaningless so called patriotic words are a ruse to bate, hook and trap you into a nightmare from which you will have no way of waking up when and IF they are ever through. We MUST make sure in 2008 all of this NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN. Democrats care more about keeping the majority of us safe and less about giving huge tax breaks to the top 1% money earners. Democrats are not perfect but they are most DEFINITELY patriots!

Democrats, SEIZE this opportunity to bring these criminal treasonous vipers to justice. You have been given a mandate by the people. Now USE it. Rove, Bush, Cheney, Gonzales should be taken to task for the lies, LIVES and hard earned taxpayer money that they have squandered. From Katrina to Iraq they have cost lives!! Do you hear me, LIVES. They, the ones who are supposed to be the party of life ruined and squandered it as if they were playing with pieces on a game board. How many dead, how many SERIOUSLY hurt with brain injuries, lost limbs and eyes? All this for a man who it is said loved to win but hated governing. They have hurt this country beyond reason immeasurably. One hopes it can be repaired. It will take genius to do it but first those who have committed treason and many many high crimes need to be held accountable for them.

Do NOT shirk your duty. Justice must prevail and the Democrats must not pay lip service to it. They must enact it and do so FAST!

Karl Rove is quoted saying that he expects Hillary Clinton to win the Democratic nomination but that she is a "totally flawed candidate." Now, really, for Mr. Rove to talk about a totally flawed former candidate who got handed the presidency by the skin of his teeth, he need only look at the guy he served for 14 years except I might call him a flawed candidate who became a catastrophic president!

Both George W. Bush and Karl Rove have seen to it that the next president and generations of Americans face disasters on every front. I pray every day and this country will, indeed, elect someone as brilliant as Hillary to take the helm and figure how on God's earth she is going to clean up the mess!

Insecure about Security: The recent passage of the “Protect America Act of 2007” expands the power of our government to Olympian heights. Both Republicans and Democrats alike passed a bill which gives a permission slip to the government to conduct warrantless wiretaps and other spying activities on its own people, without court approval, thereby possibly subrogating the First, Fourth, Fifth and Sixth Amendments to our Constitution. To say the very least, this is problematic and requires considerable thought and care because it speaks to the very essence of who we are as a nation and to the very nature of what our republic has been about for over two hundred years.

This huge expansion of executive power, bestowed by the Congress and pushed down its throat by an unrelenting and often untrustworthy Executive branch, abridges the most cherished pieces and fundamental rights that have made our form of government the showpiece of the world. This would be unthinkable at nearly any other time.

This, however, is, indeed, no ordinary time. After 9/11 it is imaginable this would occur. More than imaginable it is now possible that the Executive branch of our government would be given unilateral and unprecedented power by Congress in view of the threat of another even more unthinkable attack. Those of us who value deeply that marvelous document our Founders so presciently constructed in 1789, are heart sick that the cornerstone of our culture is weakened. Like the stress fractures of the 35W Bridge in Minnesota, I sincerely hope our republic does not come crashing down and that this weakening of our very foundation is not perpetrated as a partisan political maneuver but is rather enacted for a very very good reason at this extraordinary time to ensure the safety of us all.

The Jews of Poland: Joseph Polak's July 28, 2007 editorial "The Silence Lifts on Poland's Jews" lauding formal acknowledgment by Polish leadership of its country's long held anti-Semitism and its attendant murder of Jews, I wax thoughtful about a phenomenon that has been called the world's longest hatred. After reading this article I did not know whether to shout bravo or shake my head in utter disbelief as to why, after so long, it is still necessary that the acknowledgment of a pervasive, rancid and unyielding Jewish hatred still needs to be acknowledged and an apology rendered by those who throughout the centuries were the perpetrators.

The hatred of the Jew is certainly not unique to Poland or to its past. It has been and still is a world wide pandemic with no permanent vaccine in sight. It has existed and still does in nearly every land, on every continent, among most all the world and there is no end in view. Where anti-Semitism allegedly no longer exists it rises from the dead. In countries which have no Jews the age old caustic canards of Jewish hatred can be heard. You don't even need Jews to have anti-Semitism.

A hatred born of early Christianity and certain New Testament texts progresses to the modern age and dogs the Jewish people nearly everywhere. The Middle East, an explosive tinderbox, uses anti-Semitism as one excuse to perpetrate its horrors. Jews there are threatened with yet another extinction. When will the malignancy end? When will these acknowledgments not be necessary? A tiny fraction of the world's population, the Jewish people have suffered far beyond what their small numbers might dictate. Anti-Semitism is a plague. I am waiting patiently for a cure.

Keith Olbermann, whom I watch faithfully on MSNBC and usually love, delivered an apology to Senator Vitter's wife for comments about her appearance he thought were unjustly made on his program while he was on vacation. I thought the apology was not warranted and said so. Senator Vitter (family value's Republican from Florida) stands accused of placing calls to known prostitutes.

I love Keith Olberman. He was a mench for apologizing to Mrs. Vitter but I do think his apology was not warranted. Mrs. Vitter was just as hypocritical as her husband. She was oh-so-accusatory toward Hillary Clinton during the Lewinsky issue. I think Mrs. Vitter is fair game and I thought she looked 150% ridiculous and humorous in that leopard skin outfit when she appeared at an apologetic speech delivered by her husband who stands accused of frequenting or at least placing calls to prostitutes. What was she, in fact, saying? Whether we like it or not we live in a media age and people do not usually dress without some projective motive. It's often calculated by men AND women alike.

I am glad people like Vitter (Republican from Florida), et al get themselves knee deep in excrement because the hypocrisy they espouse is responsible for a GREAT deal of misery and suffering. They, their party and the thousands of right wing religious fanatics who have held political sway about, for example, the glories of heterosexual marriage and the family, have led some who cannot conform to that standard to even consider suicide because they saw no way out of what they felt. For years the echelons of power dictated they go to the back of the bus. Those dictates still, in some places, prevail.

The Vitters are not innocent. Mrs. Vitter shared those views and stated as such. I believe any indictment of her or even the way she presents herself is richly deserved. Hypocrites must be taken to task any way we can not so much for their behavior but because they expect conduct of others which they do not expect of themselves. So many on the right have not practiced what they so abhorrently but effectively have preached. I applaud those comments against the Vitters and all those like them. They are well deserved!

The Venality of Michael Vick--dogfighting: What kind of person, what quality and content of a human being's character would allow one to participate in the utter animal abuse of dog fighting? What kind of an organization would let a person, if Vick is found guilty, continue to play for its team? Is it only about the lousy buck, is it only about how many Mercedes one drives, or how many things one can buy with all the millions? Is that the only value in this American life?

I am not a believer but I wish so there were a God because, in this instance, I would take solace that someone who could be involved in the gambling and animal slaughter of dog fighting would get their just reward from a higher power since their soul would be so putrid, feted and ugly the only place for humanity like that would be hell.

Whether one believes in a higher power or not, Michael Vick, in my opinion, has committed, if found guilty, a sin comparable only to the sin of child molestation. I cannot think of a worse milieu than that of dog fighting or a worse thing to perpetrate than that unconscionable act. If guilty he should be fined millions and thrown out of the Atlanta Falcons. That is the only just reward mere mortals can exact for this utterly despicable act. If true, and found guilty, Vick is a despicable excuse for humanity and the Atlanta Falcons organization should act accordingly!!

The Masterpiece of Moyers: If you haven't seen Bill Moyers's PBS discussion with conservative constitutional scholar Bruce Fein and liberal writer from The Nation, John Nichols you ought to. "Tough Talk About Impeachment" was a thrilling discussion and one everyone ought to review.

I find it a rare instance, indeed, when I am at a loss for words. Bill Moyers is the absolute best in broadcasting. I love him like I love my country. I love it, as his guest Bruce Fein brilliant conservative tonight conveyed, to the very core of my being, to the depths of my soul. I have never in my years of television and news viewing seen or heard a more wonderful broadcast than I did this evening. It made me so proud of my country because he and his guests this evening -- Democrat and Republican alike; conservative and liberal alike were united and one in their understanding of exactly what we are about as a people, what the genius of the Founders knew about monarchical tyranny and what is at risk in this country now as we face a Constitutional crisis. You would do well to listen to and study the discussion about impeachment and the glory of our Constitution's fathers for iterating it six times within that document. It was more than superb. It was beyond the ability of my meager words to convey. Listen to it and heed as our very Republic is at stake. I attach the link below!

http://www.pbs.org/moyers/journal/index-flash.html











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Get a sneak peak of the all-new AOL.com.

The case for impeachment: David Boies, you probably know, was counsel for Al Gore in the famous 2000 election debacle and case arising from that i.e. "Bush v. Gore". He is a prominent Washington attorney and was on MSNBC's Scarborough Country last evening. Curiously he along with Pat Buchanan were against impeachment. I was surprised at Boies's opinion. I wrote him a letter.

Dear Mr. Boies: I listened to the interesting interview and debate between Pat Buchanan, Elizabeth Holtzman and you conducted by Dan Abrams on Joe Scarborough Country last evening about the issue of presidential and vice presidential impeachment. It was an excellent debate moderated superbly by Dan Abrams. It is refreshing to listen to people who are experts and who were not screaming at each other. It was an intelligent discussion and that was unique.

I do, however, question your view. I believe Ms. Holtzman was eminently correct. You are right impeachment should not be used frivolously as it was, in my opinion, used in the case of President Clinton. His offense, while disturbing, I believe, did not rise to the level of "high crimes" as instructed in our Constitution.

That clause in our Constitution is, however, open to interpretation. That was, I believe, the genius of our Founders. The ambiguity they left made room for interpretive debate. In so far as one accepts that as true, presidential foreign policy decisions, while clearly left by our Founders to the Chief Executive to make, still require an honest justification ESPECIALLY if those decisions mean leading a population to war.

We are not talking about policy decisions which will be forgotten after a president leaves office or even before. We are talking about the actual invasion of a country which did not attack us, killing thousands of human beings, upending American families and uprooting millions of Iraqis. We are talking about monetary costs to our people in the trillions. Moreover, the long term regional effect in one of the most volatile parts of the world is immense. I believe we were deceived into a war which has had catastrophic implications.

I supported the decision to go to war initially only to be most chagrined and angered to see that all the justifications for war were not true and, in fact, were probable lies or at least cherry picked evidence to initiate a policy long desired by many in the Bush administration including the President and Vice-President. George Bush iterated those lies to Congress and to the American people which has resulted in extraordinary death, destruction, crushed bodies and spirits. I think that rises to EXACTLY what our Founding Fathers meant when they used the words "high crimes."

Simply because the president has the Constitutional authority to conduct foreign policy and wage war does NOT give him the entitlement to lie us into a preconceived war which has catastrophically affected this nation and albeit the world. It does not give him the license to make a huge foreign policy blunder based on lies resulting in the deaths of thousands. If the high crimes and misdemeanors impeachment clause in our Constitution is not for the many egregious illegalities conducted by this administration to take our country to war and even expose a CIA agent then that clause, it seems to me, should be written out of the Constitution because it has no meaning for our time and place.

Many within the Axis powers of the 20th century were found guilty by a Nuremberg court which said their policies were out of bounds and, indeed, immoral. Had those heads of state lived they would have been subject to the jurisdiction of a court and undoubtedly convicted and rightfully so. Even though they were chief executives they did NOT have the right nor the moral gravity to unilaterally assault so much of humanity unjustifiably. Some human behaviors by especially those in power cannot and should not stand. I believe the parallel is apt.
George Bush and Richard Cheney were at the eye of the storm conducting those policies which have caused so much death and destruction to not only the American public but, indeed, the world. The cost has been huge. Although, it is unlikely George Bush and Richard Cheney will have to answer for their decisions or their lies and deceptions, I support the impeachment and conviction of both.

The Legacy of Libby: It is astoundingly difficult to fathom the extent to which this administration has gone to perpetrate clearly unconstitutional behavior in order to secure their elements of power. What is more surprising, though, than power trying to secure its place, is how removed the American public is to the tremendous illegalities and the systemic constitutional affronts which have taken place. From lying to go to war costing thousands of lives and billions of wasted dollars to suspending habeas corpus, perpetrating warrant-less wiretaps and now, commuting and probably ultimately pardoning a political crony, I. Scooter Libby, to save its own posterior, this administration has been guilty of some of the most heinous and corrupt behavior in the history of this country. Why are only the few incensed? How can truly treasonous illegal activity in the highest levels of our government be ignored by the masses and impeachment of both Cheney and Bush by the Congress be off the table?

I do keep reminding myself that all of these usurpations of power have as their bulwark the attacks of 9/11 and the fact that there are forces who, no doubt, want to do us great harm and would, in fact, consider using unthinkable methods to do so. The nuclear age sometimes, I suspect, makes behavior, otherwise considered impossible, possible. Still, with that in mind, I believe wise leadership could have carved out a much more credible and intellectually astute response to 9/11. It could have captured global hearts and minds by instituting significantly more prescient leadership. It could have saved lives. Instead it lost those hearts and minds it had in the palm of its hand and alienated the world in the process. It created an Al Qaeda in Iraq which never existed before, threatened the stability of the entire Middle East and dismantled those liberties at home which once were sewn into the very fabric of the American system by those sagacious men of the 18th century.

The legacy of Scooter Libby, I believe, is this: We are a different nation than we were a moment ago and the fact that a Scooter Libby can get away with his heinous crimes without a national uproar is reflective of that difference. At the conclusion of the Constitutional Convention in 1787, Benjamin Franklin was asked "Well Doctor, what have we got, a republic or a monarchy?" He said "A republic if you can keep it." I certainly hope we can.

The perplexity of Paris: I surfed the channels last evening and slid past Larry King's interview of Paris Hilton thinking I was not going to watch the insipid immersion into all things Paris which has overtaken this country. I decided, however, to focus on the interview to see if an intelligible sentence could be uttered by her glossy lips. I thought that, despite my skepticism of Paris's motives and knowledge that zebras cannot and, most likely, do not want to change their stripes, Paris Hilton's appearance and interview on Larry King helped her image if that is, in fact, what she was trying to do.

I don't have a clue and do not care what her motives really are. Who can tell? I do not claim mind reader status. She did, to me, appear controlled, articulate and much smarter than I thought she was. I was surprised at how decent she sounded.

I changed my thought about all things Paris and decided she represented more than originally met the eye. I thought, perhaps, I would wax philosophical about her as I think she was given gifts by nature, God, accident of birth, chance or whatever controls our destiny. She has beauty, her health, money and intelligence. What more could one ask? At her age I had to struggle and did so all of my life. She, though, I perceive, is a lucky woman. Fate has shown brightly on her and I hoped she realized that.

If I were she I would take advantage of every gift. She should, I believe,complete her education, become proficient in her interests including achieving academic excellence for its own sake. I thought, she should, too, attain a degree and use it. Then, I thought she should give back to those who were not bestowed that kind of good fortune. She appears to have it all and I would like to see her use it wisely. Is she what she appeared to be on Larry King? Only time will tell.

Although I am not religious, Biblical thought can, I think, sometimes be very rich. She was asked by Larry King what her favorite Bible verse was since she has made statements that she was, while in prison, reading the Bible and to some extent became religious. To my surprise, she could not formulate an answer. To Paris I would say: I think good New Testament passages include: "If you have done something unto the least of these my brethren you have done it unto me." I have always liked the Beatitudes as well. In the Hebrew Bible a/k/a The Old Testament, Ecclesiastes has been a favorite of mine: "There is a time for every purpose under heaven -- a time to be born and a time to die." If I could talk to her I would say to her use now what you have so fortunately been given by a sometimes benevolent universe. As the poet John Donne iterated so eloquently in 1624: "Any man's death diminishes me, because I am involved in mankind; and therefore never send to know for whom the bell tolls; it tolls for thee."

The Paralysis of Polio: I read a review in the Boston Globe by Gail Caldwell of what appears to be an interesting book about a memoir of a polio survivor entitled "Warm Springs: Traces of a Childhood at FDR's Polio Haven" by Susan Shreve. I am a polio survivor.

I caught the virus in 1954 at age five. What seemed like the flu at the time turned out to be a life long affliction. I was one of -- as they at Children's Hospital in Boston called me at the time -- "lucky" ones because I had polio in only one leg. It did, however, completely paralyze my right leg and I wear a long leg brace even to this day.

You are right when you say polio was not a simple virus because it struck for life. It was and remains today, for those who are unlucky enough to be born in third world nations which still have not entirely eradicated the disease, a fantastically expensive and orthopedically catastrophic disease especially if one did not or does not get the proper care and even if one does. Luckily, I received the best care that was available at the time to treat the after-effects of polio. After I contracted it I spent one year in bed confinement, wore casts, crutches, braces, corsets, orthopedic shoes, had continuous x-rays, skin temperature tests, spent, it seemed, half of my life at clinic visits and had two childhood surgeries all in an attempt to ward off the orthopedic deformative effects of the disease. I was not free of Children's Hospital visits until age 16.

As a child I had few complaints. As a teenager and then as an adult I had plenty. The psychological ramifications of polio never deserted me. I obviously did not die from it but I did not begin life at the same starting gate as my able-bodied friends. Yes, I know, life is not fair but I still resented my plight. Polio, in my experience, mattered in life's game and it still matters to me today.

No one told me that when I reached middle age, my leg bones would be thinner than normal or that my fatigue level would be increased or that I would be much more prone to falling or that I would fracture my femur bone of my polio leg THREE times and have my occupational life turned upside down. No one told me as a child that the nature of attraction between the sexes is physical first. A person may love you for your brain but as a youth it is one's body first that attracts. I believe that is our DNA dictate and a woman's legs are a big part of her sexual package. Our Madison Avenue culture does not help the situation either. I had a hard time as a teenager because, although I was fairly bright and perhaps better than average looking, my leg was not the least bit sexy. Blind dates would turn around and walk away when they saw me walking toward them. I was not what they expected! In addition, I was as physically active as I could be and loved sports but I was limited because a seemingly innocent microscopic virus took the goodies of life as a young adult away from me. That vacuum was never filled for me no matter how intelligent I was or am, no matter how much I love to write or how talented I may be at it. I still, when I go into a shopping center, avoid looking at long-length mirrors or my reflection in a window.

I wanted to write to you because I get tired of hearing all the rosy Oprah-like stories about so many people who think that their disease is the "best thing" that ever happened to them. I do not. I never overcame its damaging psychological effects. Polio impacted my life and left its paralysis in more ways than one. I am still angry about it and have resented its onslaught. I have accepted the fact that, as long as I live, I will never accept what it did to my life. I wanted to present to you another side of the story. I suspect there are more who feel as I do but it is simply not the politically correct way of being in our sugar coated, reality denying, sometimes stupidly optimistic culture. It is, though, the way I feel and I am not ashamed to admit it.

Brian William's interview of an Iraq war widow: Brian, really your dewy eyed basset hound look when interviewing the wife of a soldier killed in Iraq is simply media staged. If the news conglomerates can make a buck especially off a women's tears and sadness they'll do the story. What on this earth would someone who has lost a loved one in Iraq say about Iraq? Would she/he say that they died for nothing? How many times do we the public have to hear those meaningless explanations that freedom is not free? I get that BUT Iraq had NOTHING I repeat NOTHING to do with our freedom. The invasion and occupation of Iraq was based on lies, misplaced revenge, the attainment of power, corporate money, delusional neocon politics and pure hubris. The Iraqis never attacked us or our freedom. Osama bin Laden did. Where is he? Why wasn't there an all out effort by the hugest, strongest military on planet earth used to get the REAL perpetrator? Iraq got in the way of Afghanistan where the real culprits lie. I might add the preponderance of the 9/11 attackers came from Saudi Arabia. Why didn't we attack them?

Guess what? Reality speaks. Iraq was an epic mistake and all nearly 3600 and counting have indeed died for not a thing except to put this country and the world in an even greater danger. If there was no Al Quaeda in Iraq before the war there certainly is now. I feel great empathy for that woman but if one wants to, in fact, do the right thing by all our soldiers and to show true empathy get them out of that dastardly hell called Iraq immediately. Our soldiers were commanded to invade a country which did nothing to us. They are in that country to kill because that is the military's purpose. It is NOT nation building.

My freedom feels to me to be more at risk now than directly after 9/11 when the world was with us. We now stand alone and are considered by many to be a rogue nation. What happened between 9/11 and now? George Bush took us to an unnecessary war and our soldiers went voluntarily. Our 3000 lost on 9/11 have NOT been avenged. Bin Laden is still alive crawling around a mountain somewhere with kidney dialysis machine in tow on the Pakistan border and the strongest nation on earth has done nothing about it. According to George Bush in one of his speeches he does not care!

When Bin Laden is captured or killed I could say THAT was a rational response. With all due respect to that woman who lost her husband in Iraq, so called freedom was not the rationale for going there in the first place. It was to allegedly find WMD and for other vacuous reasons. When we found no WMD all of a sudden it was about some trumped up platitude called Iraqi freedom. Attacking a nation that did not attack us is CERTAINLY not free it is damn expensive!

Thoughts on War: I saw one picture of graphic violence with respect to the latest insane Iraq mosque bombings. How can anyone steal the beauty of those mosques? They were simply gorgeous edifices constructed by the mind of man. The destruction of them is so sad and the annihilation of people even sadder. The carnage is unimaginable. It simply staggers me. I think with all the glory, all the parades and all the hoopla about war this is what war really is. It's not glory and it's not flag waiving. It is bodies ripped apart so one can barely identify that the corpse was once a human being. The man on a stretcher in an Iraqi "emergency room," the remnants of whose body I saw, was somebody's son, somebody's brother, husband or friend. The love of him has been drowned in a river of blood. His identity covered soon by the dust. Most of us who live here are lucky. We are not used to this kind of violence except if you were so unlucky to have been at Ground Zero on 9/11 or in the Oklahoma City Murrah Federal Building on April 19, 1995. Generally speaking, we do not know the carnage that exists in Iraq except for the few who were so unlucky to be sent to that God forsaken place and are among our dead or wounded.

Then, of course, I think of Hiroshima or Nagasaki as recently I had the misfortune of seeing the graphic pictures of that too. It is unimaginable. Every day I think of the Holocaust and the ovens, the torture and death. I search for meaning where there is none. How can we do this to one another? Why? It is such a waste of humanity. Somewhere among the dead of recent wars perhaps lies a scientist, an artist, a playwright, a mathematician or a biologist who cures disease. Why do we waste life with such ease? What religion tells human beings to do this to one another? It is beyond my understanding. I simply do not know. I have been told history is written by the victors and that I believe is so. Really, though, in the end we are ALL the losers. War today, I believe, has no winners. I shake my head in disbelief and wonder if I will ever live to see the senseless violence end.

Homosexuality -- a Biological Imperative and Biblical Fallacy: In my opinion, there is no question that homosexuality, generally speaking, is biologically determined in-utero probably due to a combination of hormonal and other genetic factors. It is impossible to think that most would choose a life which is fraught with difficulty if there were not an overwhelmingly compelling nature-driven dictate orchestrating man's sexual symphony.

As man's knowledge increases I hope there will be a time when the issue of gay marriage will be moot. I trust some day the Biblical edicts which some interpret to frown upon and exact brutal punishments for homosexuality will be understood in the same context as the Biblically fallacious ideas that once believed the earth was the center of the universe. Through science and observation we absolutely know the earth is just a small part of huge universe and that it lives because it revolves around the sun. We can, therefore reject much of which is undeniably scientifically and fundamentally untrue about the Bible. Likewise, I hope, someday science will verify the fact that biology itself determines sexuality. When this happens it would be nice if the murderous behavior of all those religious fanatics who base their cruelty against homosexuals on Biblical veracity would finally see the error of their ways.

Our Prescient Founders: Of all the enemies to public liberty war is, perhaps, the most to be dreaded, because it comprises and develops the germ of every other. War is the parent of armies; from these proceed debts and taxes; and armies, and debts, and taxes are the known instruments for bringing the many under the domination of the few. In war, too, the discretionary power of the Executive is extended; its influence in dealing out offices, honors, and emoluments is multiplied; and all the means of seducing the minds, are added to those of subduing the force of the people.... No nation could preserve its freedom in the midst of continual warfare.
— James Madison

Iraq the Continuing Debacle: The Bush administration has committed a foreign policy blunder of epic proportions. It has brought our country to an abyss. It is staggering how any one administration could have done so much damage to our country which was once the envy of the world. Our, country, the beacon of liberty's light where so many came to enjoy its endless possibilities seems to be on the precipice of a disaster from which we may never recover. Our enemies are now salivating at our weakness and unlike WWII we have very few allies in Europe and elsewhere we can count on for true support. The Bush administration, its cronies and political hacks have forfeited the credibility we once enjoyed.

Iraq has been an unmitigated failure promulgated by lies to the Congress and to the American people. This adventure has dismembered our military, spent our treasure and has mired us in foreign entanglements about which our prescient Founding Fathers warned. This administration has opened up a hornets nest and, in the process, squandered our best opportunity to dismantle Al Qaeda when the world was with us. How could they have done this to our nation? They have fractured the Middle East by opening up a war which could set the entire region on fire. The president has compromised our own civil liberties by dismembering our rights one by one.

President George Bush ignored the warnings before 9/11 which appeared on his desk. The Bush administration, with Cheney at the helm and Rove in the background, have committed endless illegalities and have taken this nation possibly to the brink of destruction. I really do hope prayer works because I am saying one for our nation. This is a grave and extraordinarily serious time, perhaps, even worse than the rise of the European tyrannies of the 20th century. I hope our president sleeps well. I can assure you I am not.

Movies-- "Gidget": I LOVE watching films of the 1950's which say so much. Well, they say so much about the 1950's. What a ridiculous bunch of substantively nothing some of these films were. The plots are so thin as are the women. I think when one looks at these films ... really looks at them ... one can see why there had to be a feminist movement. All the cliches apply. The women surely do not seem to have a brain in their head.

In this film Gidget's friends simply do not know what on earth will happen to poor Gidget if she doesn't have a successful summer which means getting a steady boyfriend. She cannot even return to school if that doesn't happen. Gidget, well, she just ruminates and hand wrings wondering why oh why she just does not have the right stuff. Maybe there is something "wrong" with her that she simply does not care about men. She's such a cutsey tomboy. Uh oh..Nope, not to worry, gay is not an issue. Gay is an impossibility in that era and not even eluded to even though one of her friends seems ever so lesbian to me. Worry not though, her friend who helps her dress for the loowow and listens while Gidget worries about men but says nothing, is pinned, to a guy of course. Gidget's mother reassuringly stands by and tells her everything is AOK and she will know that man when she meets him. Whew, I was SO worried.

We know, all's well that ends well and Gidget does finally get a man (Moon Doggy)in the hunky form of James Daren and, of course, remains virginal to boot. She realizes there is nothing "wrong" with her at all. She simply did not meet the "right" one. Thank God. She's saved OR thank God she saved IT! How could this ever-so bleached blond with an 18 inch waist, those platinum looks and pancake makeup whiter than white skin not meet anyone? One could never mistake her for a black woman that's for sure. Of course, in the 50's there were no blacks right? Did anyone of that era really have Gidget's hair and skin that color? If one cared to notice Gidget's eyebrows were brown! No one notices as blond, whiter than white skin, and an 18 inch waist, especially for women, are what America in the 50's wanted everyone to be.

What was her character all about? If one expects her to discuss War and Peace, Dickens, Steinbeck or even Louisa May Alcott forget it. How about she discusses James Baldwin, Alan Ginsberg or Lenny Bruce? No way. Will she talk about Jim Crow laws in the south, the Brown v. Board of Eduction Supreme Court decision or American foreign policy post WWII? I don't think so. Gidget is about worrying though. It is worrying about learning how to surf, attending loowows in the right clothes, hunky guys and Gidget's lack of attraction to men err lack of attraction to the RIGHT man. After all, this is serious stuff.

Perhaps, the film is about innocence. Innocence, though, without some reality is simply trash. That is what the Gidget films are. They are pure and simply ridiculous trash. Sandra Dee had talent however as evidenced by movies such as "Imitation of Life" and "A Summer Place." It's too bad her talent was wasted on the Gidget genre of film. Obviously, those films made money and THAT was what the Gidget films were all about. They made money because America wanted women to be like Sandra Dee. If you weren't like that then too bad--life is tough.

Oh well, I will admit watching those films is like taking a drink. It's utter escape into a life of pure fantasy and into the innocent life of a 1950's that really never was all that innocent. No, Gidget is surely not reality. For a moment, though, when I watch it, I can pretend, indeed, it is.

The Terror of TB: Everyone connected with Mr. Speaker's extreme drug resistant TB is at fault. In my opinion, the very first time Mr. Speaker was aware, initially in January after a rib injury, that he had a case of extreme drug resistant TB, a prohibitive no travel possibly quarantine order should IMMEDIATELY have been issued by our government. It should NEVER have been suggested he not travel but it should have been DEMANDED AND LEGALLY ORDERED he not travel. Where was our much touted Homeland Security? After all biological risk is said to be on their agenda. Being a lawyer, he certainly should have known he should not assume the legal (not to mention moral) risk of travel harboring a contagious disease. I don't care if he was marrying the Queen of England. He should not have traveled legally and he should not have traveled morally. Who the hell does the moral thing these days? It's every man for himself. He fits right in to our right wing leadership which does not REALLY care a wit about society as a whole but loves non-governmental intervention especially in cases of public need (but not in cases of unnecessarily bombing the hell out of other countries which did not attack us.)

This shows one, I believe, that the individual cannot be trusted to do the right thing because many care only for themselves. It is the law of self preservation. The initial medical establishment who treated Mr. Speaker is at fault and the CDC is at fault when both became informed that the TB was drug resistant. Mr. Speaker himself is culpable for not having a shred of decency to consider the other guy. Of course the border inspector in Canada who knew and thought Speaker looked "well" and let him back into the US should, without question, be fired.

Speaker failed and, most especially, our system failed. Welcome to the Age of Katrina and the Bush administration's DEemphasis of governmental responsibility. God help us. I say get this accursed administration out of our nation's highest offices fast and elect a human being with intelligence as the chief executive who will hire people of expertise to control the critical arenas of public protection. Elect a chief executive who does not simply spout platitudes about morality but one who REALLY does something to ensure the nation survives.

This president has appointed moronic cronies to the most sensitive positions caring for the public welfare. Whether it's the security of this country compromised by disease, disaster, or terrorism we need INTELLIGENT leadership in offices which have dictates over public safety. We need ACTION and not rote cranked out speeches that tout feigned action. Most especially we need this administration to be held accountable.

This TB episode, in my view, is a reflection of a higher reality just as the Katrina response was. Our country's leadership at every juncture is an utter and abominable failure. It is the WORST in history and it is humiliating that the world sees a complete nincompoop and his cronies control the nation's highest echelons of power catapulting this nation over a cliff.

Natalie Rosen
www.natalierosen.blogspot.com