And a Very Merry Christmas to Joe Users In the madness of current times When seems the world’s religions Instead of heralding peace with chimes Pound the drums of war’s abominations; In the chaos of hypocritic scripts When faiths are usurped by demagogues Who shovel falsity from musty crypts To bury truth’s inspired dialogues— Christmas, despite its secular marketplace, On solemn eve dwells in peaceful interface.   ...

 The new darling of the internet has broken his own record of raising over $4mil in a day over the internet by $6mil yesterday. It just goes to show that donations by credit card is a hell of a lot easier than checks in the mail. It doesn't seem to matter what the candidate Ron Paul stands for when the Libertarians and the Birch Society are in accord! How do you figure?   

Ridiculous! Huckabee a frontrunner in Iowa—give me a break. Rather, he is a product of born-again zeal. The Christian Right is determined to keep alive its proselytizing the nation to messianic politics: even to the point of making Romney, who heretofore kept his Mormonism to himself, announce, as it were, his faith a close second to evangelism and modestly but consistently growing here and globally. Welcome to the automat of religious twists and turns. This shows the danger of Iowa’s...

Unlike Bill Clinton I did oppose the war in Iraq as proposed “from the beginning.” But like Bill Clinton I acknowledged that the Gulf War was ongoing. It was in a state of continual truce interrupted by numerous Saddam infringes such as Kuwait border troop movement and repeated offensives on the no-fly zones. To be sure Saddam was a blundering strategist, having had to agree to a truce, not to mention the truce with Iran debacle, and being a damnable nuisance. On the strength of its being ...

Hillary’s flipflop—undermining her governor’s stand on driver’s license for illegal immigrants—is a disappointment beyond belief. Her befuddled circumlocution was more than enough to defeat Spitzer’s proposal, which, granted needed pragmatic tweaking but at least it was an effort to face up to this insurmountable issue of what to do about the undocumented already here to stay.

Snowflake[Rumsfeld]: “Make sure the American people realize that they are surrounded by violent extremists.” This same useless propaganda is the basis once more for a presidential election as perceived by the prominent candidates of both parties, though the Republicans will relentlessly pursue it—particularly Giuliani if he wins the nomination. This same rhetoric was played out during the Korean and Vietnam wars in the guise of the domino theory and before then the McCarthy era to whip up a fr...

  Happy Veterans' Day in Honor of those of the Greatest Generation and all that followed Vol I: An Odyssey of Childhood & Early Youth is a fictional account, together with personal, dramatic license, of the era of the Great Depression and the beginning of World War II. In the main it focuses on the joys and fears of children and families in desperate times. The novel portrays the character of several families and develops the search for identity among the children. Through this ...

Another pock on US leadership is the escapist mess in Afghanistan. Though we and major allies—European, Australian and Canadian—make up the bulk of NATO there, the forces are underfunded as a the stepchild of the Iraqi skirmish and unable to contain the resurgence. To make the matter worse, the remainder of NATO refuses to consider itself a combat force but rather there to do nation building. Moreover, the battle of the poppy fields are doing as poorly, not a surprise, as our own domestic war on...

Overreaction to global warming is the same tactics of exploitative fear as was the carried on, and still is, in the rush to Iraq. These piecemeal inconvenient truths do not forge a systemic strategy—on the contrary, it generates greater negatives. Who among the poor would not resent a lecture on the good graces of organic foods originated from the elite holier-than-thou image-seekers who can afford them? No one of moderate means would pay triple the price for a head of cabbage. Who among us shav...

 Despite Hillary Bashing by not only Republicans but Democrat candidates, I pragmatically but ambivalently lean toward her as the next president. Unquestionably the perception is that she has high negatives by both sides and the pundit myth-makers—all of whom still think she should stay home and bake cookies—and I too feel low vibes but not for her personality—at least she has one which has been lacking in the White House—rather, I dislike her ties with shady fund-raisers and her cosy relat...

Why do we continue the desperation of clinging to the frayed rope of private health insurance? Even Hillary wants the upper middle class to keep their existing employment related policies. This is in face of an accelerated belief in the business realm that private insurance is wrecking its global competitiveness. Essentially she wants to return to the same old “regional” concept under the guise of generating greater competitive health insurance industry. The whole point of “insurance” competitio...

 On this site several years ago when California was as usual on fire, I asked the same question as above. Where is the Air force now? Why aren’t hundreds of B 52s opening the bomb bays and dropping flame-retardants, along with fitting fighter jets with retardants,and why doesn't the state impound some private planes in order to strategically and massively control the rage? The reliance on fatigued ground firefighters cannot really do the job effectively.  

Frustration over illegal immigration is a kind of Catch 22. The Washington Post points out that even though funds for border patrol and its technology increased 1000 percent from 1986-2002; that is, from $150 million to $1.6 billion. Manpower increased threefold over the period. What once was three million illegals has increased to 12 million and still counting. The Post estimates $7.6 billion will be the projected cost by 2011 and some say as much as $30 billion. While immigrants keep coming ov...

Tax Change A tax commission established to determine the best and fairest method of revenue to replace the current unwieldy tax system.Payroll tax shall be reduced 2% divided equally by employee and employer but the maximum cap will be increased to $400k with the modification to opt out over $250k. Medicare deduction, however, shall be increased by 1%. Trade All nations that trade with the USA must undergo strict standards that not only protect consumers here but the right of worker...

Federal Reserve A Federal Reserve more attuned to the economic welfare of ordinary citizens in lieu of checking the pulse of the captains of Wall Street. For instance, the Reserve’s action on the current subprime disaster was more concerned over the lenders’ losses than the thousands of foreclosures. Healthcare Unquestionably there should be healthcare for everyone—why, even the Republicans are trying to compete, though still timid—including immigrants, illegal or otherwise who c...