Where have I and the nation been for the last fourteen years since the fall of the Soviets? — our heads have been in the sands of the Middle East. Joby Warrick, a Washington Post staff writer, alerts us to the tiny rogue Transdniester Moldovan Republic “no bigger than R.I.” but a massive dumping ground for Soviet arms during the Soviet Army’s withdrawal. Its chief reason for its existence is a pipeline of arms to fellow rogues and terrorists. “For terrorists this is [Transdniester] the best...
Until such unlikely time that the sinister chemical of crime is removed from the brain, or the DNA of criminal orientation is discovered, society is plagued with the high cost of penal codes in carrying them out. What with the fiscal crunch of the fifty states, the trend has been “early release” without little back up insuring against recidivism, including drug and alcohol related behavior. Though shortsighted the trend does free up crowded prisons and reduces state budgets on an average of...
With the toppling of all the icons and statues of Saddam it is ironic that the right wing is determined to delete FDR from the dime and to replace with the Gipper as vengeance that CBS dared make an irreverent film about the Right’s icon. They are not even satisfied with the wide-spread renaming of countless structures in which Reagan had no part, but have an organization dedicated to have each state in the union to have a minimum of one state landmark named after him in addition to one in al...
GW Bush: Resolves to trade in his big stick for a sledge hammer. Cheney: Redeems his “blind” Halliburton stock to rebuild Iraq. Dean: Promises to speak softly in the South. Clark: As President-elect will go to Iraq and end the insurgency — echo of Eisenhower. Michael Jackson: Resolves to metamorphose back to black if acquitted. Women of Iraq: Resolve to be equal. Arnold: To Balance budget by saddling California with a huge bond. Powell: Pledges to remain in office ...
Widespread gambling is the ultimate roll of the dice turning up snake eyes of addiction. Nationwide there are some eight million compulsive gamblers disrupting their lives and their loved ones. Recreational gambling is not unlike the risk of dependence in illicit drug-use originally socially motivated. The nation has enough problems without every greedy state opening its borders or rivers for the sake of revenue and risking —particularly among the young— a national crisis of compulsiv...
Why does a political party compete internally for the buck? Why should Joe or Jill Average who are rare breed Democrats from Wyoming care about contributing to Daschle’s re-election? Hillary sends a letter asking for money to support the senate re-election committee and in the same day mail her husband is asking for a contribution to the DNC. At the same time e-mail is overloaded requesting contributions to the presidential candidates or to contribute to preserving social security. It goes on ...
Don’t feel guilty because you enjoyed the holidays watching an array of playoffs and bowl games as though Iraq were on another planet. The so-called greatest generation listened to championship and bowl games even though a much larger war raged and everyone having a volatile good time had husbands, fathers, brothers, sisters, daughters and sons in the service. The big exception, of course, was that radio commercials always reminded the listeners to continue buying War Bonds and Stamps and ofte...
We all had it wrong, says Kay. So what? It matters little since the intent was never to scrape up WMD from Saddam’s junk pile left behind by the original weapons inspectors. The Rove plan was to perpetuate the highly successful perception of a wartime president — he learned that from FDR. Everybody loves a commander-in-chief who kicks ass, the hell with the presidency of peace. The nation is supposed to accept the inevitability of lousy Intelligence, despite the billions of dollars poured i...
Great sighs of relief wafted across the audience from the other candidates when Brokaw asked Sharpton about the confederate flag still on state property, even though the interim solution in effect removed it from prominence. Al was blunt about it; it’s an insult and should be removed permanently even from private property. Only Kucinich offered he was not staying over night in South Carolina because of it and it was great that he was peeved and stated that it was time to get over divisiveness ...
It does not take a bleeding heart Massachusetts' liberal to perceive that the greatest defense a nation has is in its health and enlightenment. To cast a shadow over millions of its citizens in fear of not only its health but of the economic disaster for their loved ones is monstrous. To abandon the severely addictive and the mortally inflicted is callousness unbefitting a government of good will, and in callous economic terms more costly even in the short run. Insurance, not just medical, sho...
The current ruckus before the Supreme Court concerning the Pledge of Allegiance is absurd. Newdow , a professed atheist, is on a cantankerous Nader-like ego trip signifying personal frustration and vindictiveness against his daughter’s mother who is Christian and has custody of the daughter, who doesn’t mind stating “under God.” Aside from this, it sets a precedent for too many other frivolous issues to be brought before the court, such as “In God We Trust” on the currency, school prayer,...
As a superpower, thereby always on the world’s stage — if for no other reason — is it too much to ask that we clean up our image? It is time — ancient history in other industrial nations — for us to follow the lead of Canada’s Supreme Court’s long-delayed decision to spare the rod in their schools. While we squabble over foolishness like gay marriage, the US continues to paddle 350,000 school children in public schools each year, not counting private and religious schools, according the “Washin...
The proposition that it is somehow logical to lure illegal immigrants to do the “dirty and dangerous” jobs that Americans don’t want, strikes me as disingenuous. Picking grapes at a vineyard is not dangerous, nor half that dirty either, neither is landscaping or cleaning up litter. The most dangerous job is arguably coal-mining and is not about to be taken over by immigrants because the poor souls of West Virginia and Pennsylvania — and without fear of outsourcing — have no other means of liv...
Is it worth a $ million out of the taxpayers’ hides to prosecute Martha Stewart? Apparently her crime boiled down to attitude — she’s not likable and to some degree exhibited arrogance during pre-trial questioning in which she was trapped in her own lies. It would seem that this is not enough to convict, yet polls show that she got what she deserved. The underlying motive for conviction by the jury, in spite of this “petty” cash conspiracy with her broker, is that she nevertheless cap...
Let me at the outset make it clear that Rosie O’Donnell and the mayor of San Fran are definitely not liberal; they are defiant radicals, coming neither from the left nor the right but simply dredged from dark illusions of the ego, and in the Shakespearean definition meaning gross or licentious. The term liberal as political, originated in 19 th Century England and ironically by Tory opponents and used as a pejorative — sound familiar? — that suggested “un-English.” Later the term foun...