Washington Post-ABC Poll shows that Kerry leads, however slim, in issues that matter to the people. Kerry leads 50% to Bush’s 44% if the election were now with 4% undecided and 2% for Nader. They trust Kerry 52% to 44% as commander in chief and only 2% undecided. In handling the economy Kerry leads by eleven points but with seven points undecided. In understanding the problems of ordinary people Kerry leads 51% to 37% but with 12% undecided. As a strong leader, however, he loses by six po...

It has been my experience that the award of the Purple Heart is as a rule honorable. I know that my marine outfit used to joke around that the best way to take a break from the front-line was to shoot yourself in the foot or cut your finger opening a C-ration and to boot maybe get a Purple Heart for the folks at home to brag about. Yet no one in our platoon ever seriously considered it, much less did it — Pride of the Marines, you know. To suggest that Kerry was awarded three Purple Hea...

It has been my experience that the award of the Purple Heart is as a rule honorable. I know that my marine outfit used to joke around that the best way to take a break from the front-line was to shoot yourself in the foot or cut your finger opening a C-ration and to boot maybe get a Purple Heart for the folks at home to brag about. Yet no one in our platoon ever seriously considered it, much less did it — Pride of the Marines, you know. To suggest that Kerry was awarded three Purple H...

When will the Republican Party cross over to the millennium on economic issues? The Party is extremely defensive by connoting labor rights with entitlements. This is in the face of no apology whatever in the hierarchy of the corporate world bestowing outrageous and unearned executive salaries, gauche perks and top of the line health plans. The word “unearned” is seldom used in the hierarchy — other than the internal revenue nomenclature — because of the symbiotic rise to power deemed as a wel...

Why is it whenever one — Kucinich in particular — mentions single payer universal health care the red flag goes up? Isn’t Medicare single payer health care? I don’t hear seniors objecting to it. In the good old days when Blue Cross-Blue Shield was predominant and the cost of health care was still reasonable, millions of workers were either generously covered by large companies, or through small businesses offered a group plan at a cost that would not take bread off the table. But that was in t...

I think it is time to begin withdrawing troops from Iraq, but redeploying some of them to Afghanistan where they are needed to protect the women voters in their coming election and to rout the warlords. This move would send a dual message to Al Qaeda and the Iraqis. The latter will intuit that the U.S. is not going to babysit them much longer and the former will grow wary that the U.S. is intent on crushing its sanctuaries. Pakistan, as well, will be put on notice that they can no longer dilly...

The dominant Al Sistani power group list will not lead to radical fundamentalism as in Iran, despite both have in common democratic elections. For centuries the Shi’ites have been a minority splinter group in the Muslim world, ironically because the Sunnis were more adaptable to historical trends, willing to bend to limited modernity, though painfully slow, provided it did not seriously conflict with Islamic law. However, Sunni has its own radical fundamentalists such as Zarqawi and bin Laden w...

  Explain How Conservatives and Liberals would answer the following: 1> Is it fair that the office cleaner to get to work uses the same value subway token as a middle manager? 2> Should earned income credit be abolished in favor of a tax table set at 1% of taxable income for the first $5,000 and 2% up to $10,000, and 3% up to whatever the poverty line is? Keep in mind that taxable income accounts for the number of dependents. The point is that everyone should pay taxes r...

Whatever happened to zero budgeting? Shouldn’t there be $2.7 trillion in revenue to match the budget? Of course in the past there was the massive surplus of social security to bail out the shortfall; now there are Saudi Arabia, China and Japan are more recent Santa and elves. Had social security not been the bank for extended expenditures, the fear would be that the account would sit in a bank account gathering meager interest, whereas treasury bonds would yield twofold. In the early days had...

May I be so bold as to suggest the following? Unless we intend to nuke the Middle East, we must end the dream of democratizing the Arab/Muslim world by force. Aside from the glaring fact that we cannot afford to continue wasting our human and material treasures, the tribal and nationalist obstinacy of other countries resents our meddling and, as in Iraq, only lead to insurgency and radical terrorism — a tragic price to pay. In lieu of this, the president should offer a Marshall Plan with stri...

In itself there is nothing wrong with free trade provided it stays on target of mutual benefit for participating nations as a whole . Unfortunately, actual practice loses sight of this. Canada, for instance, does benefit in its importation at bargain prices — but at our expense — of pharmaceutical products from its neighbor, while it exports “American” cars. Trade with China benefits a hungry consuming nation via — Wal-Mart, et al — but does little for the Chinese people working at sub par wag...

In spite of the impression that liberals wish Bush ill-will, I must say I was happy he finally had some good news in Iraq with the spectacular courage of the people there. More importantly the good news could mean that our troops may at long last get a breathing spell and events will wind down, meaning hopefully that they will be home sooner. Of course, the thugs will continue their destructive ways but eventually they will be forced to give in to the reality that the general populace is deter...

Must I stand accused of feminine hysteria in reacting to the chauvinist George Will who cynically attacked the MIT biology professor Nancy Hopkins for her “hysterical” reaction to Harvard’s president suggesting that genetics — “a gender difference in cognition” — helps explain the lack of women’s proclivity to science? Will promptly attributes the professor’s hysterics to the “solecism” on the part of Harvard’s Summers daring to offend “progressive sensibilities.” Not unlike the infamous Thomas...

The penetrating question asked thirty-five years ago and came back to haunt Kerry in the election is that you don’t ask a military man to die for his country for a mistake. “Country right or wrong” was invented for just such occasions. To be sure Vietnam was a war of vainglory, but it was not in vain despite the manner in which it was terminated. The US had heroically fought for ten years in behalf of another people who, we believed, was worthy of assistance in forging a democracy under thre...

For social security to be under attack is nothing new — conservatives have for seventy years viewed it as nothing but an anti-poverty program. Poverty to conservatives is a matter of bad choices made in one’s lifetime of incompetence. Being low on the economic scale is no excuse for not putting aside a nickel or dime on every dollar made or going to night school to upgrade one’s pathetic existence. As for those truly incapable — orphans and disabled — there are abundant private charitable instit...