The Blog of toussaint

Sorry for not blogging for so long. (for those who care)  It just seems to me that everything is in a holding pattern in politics.  My sister would probably say,  "well, what about Pakistan?", to which i would say what about it.  i know a lot of people are worried about the situation but they really have no need for concern.  Even if Musharif falls, radicals will not take over and give the bomb to Osama.  The people who are trying to take down the general are their supreme court and a lady that was previously elected and excepted by the west.  Who ever wins this power struggle will be a moderate who will work to take out the terrorist because the terrorist don't like them just as much as they don't like us, maybe more, because they think their gov. has sold out to us.

What about American politics?  Clinton has taken a few hits but if you think Obama is going to take over the lead, you just don't understand how this game works.  Once a politician gains support they don't lose it unless they do or say something that is a deal breaker.  Example, some people liked Rudy before they found out he was for abortion, that was a deal breaker for some but most stayed with him for other reasons so he is still leading nation wide.  This little flap about licenses for illegals is not a big enough deal breaker for most people. 

The white house and the congress are at a stalemate and neither will budge.  Bush has no support to lose and congress figures that opposing Bush is a safe bet on just about every issue ( except not funding the war for some reason)  Also, for some reason America seems content to lose 50 soldiers and 15 billion dollars a month.

It seems like every one is waiting for this horrible year to be over, including me.  But rest assured that if something interesting happens i will be right here waiting to ridicule the hypocrites and scoundrels.

People who know me and where i am from keep asking me why i have not blogged about the Jena six.  They ask that because they know that i grew up right down the road from Jena in Monroe,La  and that i am black/indian.  We used to play Jena in football and i bet you that most of the protesters that are down there today will be staying in hotels in Monroe because Jena is a no horse, dying cotton town with very few rooms for rent. 

i did not want to write about this story partly because i did not want to divulge my race and gender on this blog because i feared that people would read my words through the lens of race and would conclude that i think a certain way because of my race.  But then i thought that most of the people that think that way probably would not be reading this blog anyway. But ask yourself, what did you think my race was before i told you?

Let me set the mood for a second so you will know where i am coming from on this story before i lay out what i think.  My first crush on a teacher was a lady that i thought was white and she was from Jena.  She is beautiful, she has the whitest skin i had ever seen, like porcelain, piercing blue eyes and fire red hair.  She is more than six feet tall and had a butt like a black woman and breasts that made you just want to lay on them and take a nap.  She was also one of the smartest women i have ever met to this day.  She has her doctorate in special education, a masters in biology, a masters in economics and her b.s. in math.  But for some reason she was teaching the gifted and talented class at Jefferson Jr. High in Monroe,La.  i did not want to be in the gifted class because everyone teases the smart kids so i gave her hell every chance i got to try to get kicked out, but she would never get upset or send me to the Principal's office.  She just kept being sweet as punch and working with me.  One day we had an assignment to write a poem, and me being the radical that i am, wrote one about being black in the south and how racist i thought all white people were at the time (i now know that most people are decent and don't care what your race is but at the time i was very bitter because of the treatment i had received after moving to Monroe from Los Angeles).  After she read my poem she called me in to talk to me about it.  She told me something that made my jaw hit the floor, she said "Toussaint, believe it or not, but I know how you feel because where I am from I am considered black." She explained that she had a great great grandmother that was black and in Jena that made you black because they believed that if you had one drop of black blood in you that you were contaminated.  She told me that at school she was made to check the black box on the forms for free lunch and when the other kids found out about it they teased her relentlessly and she had never had a date until she got to college because all the boys were afraid that they would be called a "nigger lover", the fate that befell any white boy that so much as looked at a black girl in Jena.  She told me that she was beat up several times just because her great great grandfather had nerve enough to have kids with a black woman and actually give them his last name.  Well, as you might imagine that story broke my heart and made me love her even more and explained why she taught at a school on the black side of town and why i later found out that she married a black man.  i love her to this day and on the very, very rare occasion that i go home to Monroe, i always stop by to she her.  She teaches at the university in town now but she still teaches at my former school too.

 Just one more thing on background,  up until a few years ago Jena still had separate proms for black and white students and when they had elections for student presidents, if a black candidate won he/she would only be allowed to be vice-president.  Now that i have given you a little flavor of Jena, let us get back to the matter at hand. 

This whole mess started because a black student had nerve enough to sit under the "white people's tree".  There is an old tree on the campus that the white kids call their own and they hang out there during lunch and during a period called t.a.(this is a 15 min. break, and to this day i don't know what t.a. stands for).  The next day someone thought it would be funny or a warning to hang some hangman's nooses on the tree.  Well, times they are a changing and when 6 football players found out who did it they kicked his butt.  The story should end here with suspensions or being kicked off the football team or something along those lines, but the racist prosecutor in town charged the 6 with attempted murder.  Come on, if you don't think that is racist, you should at least think that it is going over board.  Kids have fights at school every day and most of the time no one is arrested.  While this type of behavior should not be tolerated, this is a part of growing up and should be dealt with by teachers and parents.  If this had happened when i was in school the asst. principal would have waited until you were dressed out in gym class in those thin little shorts, called you to the office, and paddled your behind until you understood what you did was not such a good idea.  Now, the asst. principal would be facing charges himself if he did such a thing.

Let me conclude this ugly episode with this message: there is a reason why i don't live in Monroe anymore. (By the way if you ever find yourself in Monroe, it is pronounced Munroe). i decided long ago to let the racists have their little dying towns.  There is nothing going on in these towns worth fighting for, and i suggest any non-white people who live in them to move and join us in the real world.  i would never let my children grow up in such an ignorant, backwards environment for fear that they would think that this is how the world operates and that it is acceptable to treat people different from you as being less than you.  These decaying towns should be left to there own vices and the people should be left to inbreed with each other until their genes become so recessive as to go extinct.  In short, it may surprise you to know that i have little sympathy for people who put themselves and their children through this nightmare of an experience.   It is only ignorance and the fear of the unknown that makes black people stay in these places and they have only themselves to blame when this kind of crap happens.  The parents of these kids undoubtedly grew up in Jena and know what kind of people they are dealing with, and have no one to blame but themselves for helping to perpetuate this atmosphere.  And, the protesters that are down there now should know that they are wasting time and money fighting a situation that is never going to change.  While you are there the Mayor and people on the street that get interviewed by the media will undoubtedly say this is a terrible situation and does not represent what they are all about.  They will say we get along down here and nothing like this ever happens, just like they said in Jasper,Tx.  But as soon as the lights are turned off things will go right back to the way things have always been.  Whites on one side, blacks on the other, and never the twain shall meet.  And as long as whites feel like they have the power and are in control, life will move along at its usual snail's pace until someone else gets the bright idea they are going to change something.

What the effin filth flarnen filth?  Bush must be back on the sauce.  i come home from work and turn on the news to see what the pres. said in his address, thinking i already knew what he was going to say: that the surge is working and we must stay the course.  i also knew he would try to sell the return to pre-surge levels of troops as his decision and not the mandatory move that it is because of troop deployment schedules; throwing his republican congressmen a bone to take back to their districts to give him time to keep this mess going until he leaves office.  But lo and behold! He slips this noise in about signing a permanent security pact with Iraq, a government that barely exists, that would keep us there permanently like we are in S. Korea or Germany.  Wow! i have got to hand it to him: just when you think he has done all the dumb, politically tone deaf things he can do he pulls another one out his ass. i have got to get me some of what he has been smoking.  Back in high school (and boy did we used to get high) we used to call really good weed our "presidential stash".  i had no idea the actual presidential stash could make you so loopy.

i thought that he had won this round, making Patraeus' report look like his own and buying some time from the nervous republicans, but he might have just squandered all the political capital he might have had if people pay attention to what he said and he actually goes through with this plan.  Make no mistake:  most republicans want to be done with this war.  They want to go on to new issues that they can contort into some national emergency but this move all but guarantees that the next election will be about Iraq and not immigration, healthcare, or global terrorism like Rudyfred Romney want to talk about.  Ron Paul might just have a heart attack!  If Bush tries to push this through, he is going to hear the din from his own party calling for an end to this war. The Democrats won't even have to make a peep.

This prospect would not be so frightening if Bush had some regard for the Constitution, because this plan is a treaty he is proposing and as such, it would have to be ratified by congress by a super majority. But we all know how little he regards that quaint little document so he will probably try to do it by executive order.  i have been reluctant before to call for this nut's removal from office but he is leaving the American people no choice. He won't listen to reason.  He and his neo-nuts have lost it and have to go.

But on the positive side, he has restored my rage against the machine and has all but guaranteed that a democrat or someone who promises to end this war will win the White House.  At least you can't say his term in office has been boring: it has been a Civics lesson run amuck.  Thanks for all the memories.  And i leave you with the immortal words of that great American, Bugs Bunny:  "Toot-a-loo, I'll miss y'all, and I can't say it hasn't been a little slice of heaven... cause it hasn't!"  

i said that i was not going to write about the Petraeus report because it is a sham and everyone on earth knew what he was going to say before he said it.  In fact, i wrote on June 19th about this magical time and the conclusions that would come from it: "We must stay the course."  But i must say i thought more of the general because i knew he would say we are making marginal progress in Iraq but i never thought he would try to sell me this used car of a war and try to dress it up as some big success.  i was very disappointed to hear his testimony sound like that of a politician. i thought he would leave that to Amb. Croker, but it was like listening to Georgie himself.  Bush has dragged so many good generals down in this mess (Powell, Shinsecy, Pace etc.),  and i had hoped that Peterus would just " stick to the facts ma'am.  But, he used misleading charts that did not include all the data so that you would think that the surge was going better than expected.  He followed the Bush line about An Barr province so that you would forget that we did this surge to stop the violence in Baghdad, so that were the parliament meets would be free enough to do the business of trying to bring the country together without the threat of dying in the process.  But i guess i expected too much from a Bush appointee.  The only one not shoveling this shit is the Sec. of Defense. Have you noticed that he has not publicly commented on this report? 

In the real world, your boss does your performance review, not yourself.  How would you like to work for a company who tells you to do your own evaluation of your job performance?  We would all be getting raises this year.  In my industry we have "secret shoppers" that do not work for our company that do our reviews so that no one can say they have a dog in this hunt and they can give an honest assessment of my and my staff's performance.  The "secret shopper" of the U.S. gov. used to be the GAO.  But no one pays any attention to them when they say that, while security is a little better, the original goal of the surge (to provide political reconciliation) is not being met.

There is something rotten in D.C.  The pres. is trying to grab all the power he can and do whatever he wants, no matter what the voters think.  The Congress refuses to stop him because it is more politically advantageous to let the war go on so they can win the next election.  And the Courts. . . please! They are too worried about the issues of 20 years ago (i.e., abortion and affirmative action) to do anything to stop this mess.  i am afraid it is up to you and me to fix this jalopy but i am not sure we want to do the hard work of getting under the hood of this used car.  It is hot messy work and we might get our fingers dirty. 

P.S.  God rest the souls of all those who lost thier lives 6 years ago just trying to go to work or visit grandma.

There is something deeply wrong in this country and i can't think of what is going to change it.  i was watching P.O.V., a show that highlights excellent independent films and documentaries on P.B.S.  This week they told the incredibly sad story of Libby, Montana.  In the '40's they discovered a mineral there that was great for insulation dubbed Zonolite.  It is actually a composite of many minerals, the largest part being Asbestos.  You might think great, small town corners market on a great product, plenty of jobs and a dying little rural town will now survive, as long as they take precautions.  But what actually happened is an old story of greed and selfishness that we have all heard before.  In short, this is what happened.

In '45 the mine was started and the company and the town had the glory days.  Then the workers started getting sick with black lung.  There was so much asbestos dust in the air at the mine that it would clog a mask in 10 min. So, the workers stop wearing them because the company told them that the dust was just as safe as the farm dust these cow pokes were used to breathing all there lives.  Only problem is they had internal and state studies that told them otherwise.  They even started keeping records of how many people had black lung and how many were dying starting in the late 50's.  The Union found out in '79 and started the ball rolling on trying to get safety concerns met but everyone fought them, including the miners who believed that the company would never lie to them.  The US gov put pressure on the union to shut up, starting under Reagan, but all the other Presidents since him have known about the problem and did nothing. Republican and Democrat.  You see, if they were to admit the problem with this insulation they would have a serious problem on there hands because the stuff was in an estimated 70 million homes at its height.   In fact the home you are sitting in right now may still have that crap in it because of some EPA wrangling under the current president that did not allow for clean up outside of Libby. Would you believe the company was saying this stuff was so safe that you could make cookies out of it and add vitamins to your diet? Turns out it was safer to eat those cookies that they gave to children than to work in the mine for a week.  The town finally wakes up and fights to get the mine shut down and to get the gov. to make Grace mines clean up its mess.  But the mine files bankruptcy and we get stuck with the bill for clean up even though the Feds caught them funneling 5 billion dollars to dummy corporations.  The Gonzales Justice Dept. settled the case out of court for 1 billion,  and the people still lost there health insurance, pensions and any chance t sue those bastards.  The only good part of this story is that the man running the mine died of black lung along with 3 other members of his family because the dust on his clothes killed them.  There are still an est. 35 million homes in this great country with that crap in their roofs slowly leaking out and killing you and me.  There are a bunch more awful facts about this story i could tell you, like how the Governor of Montana tried to stop the clean up process, but it would take too long and break your heart. This story never hit the national news.

And this week, we mark the anniversary of another death of a great American city, New Orleans.  Bush says we don't need new taxes to pay for our crumbling bridges, we just need to change our priorities.  So, he goes down for a photo op. knowing that most of the money allocated for Katrina relief (150 billion) has yet to be spent were it is needed most.  Some people in New Orleans have gone 2 years without electricity.  In America!!!! Sounds more like Iraq.  And in the next few weeks the Democrats are going to give this pres. another free pass on Iraq and allocate another 50 billion for the war, bringing this year's total to just over 300 billion.  Change our priorities indeed.

The saddest thing of all for me is that these few outrageous things i have mentioned don't seem to be outraging anyone but a few dedicated bloggers and activists that know one listens to. About 10-15 people a day will read this blog and i truly do appreciate you.  You all keep me from losing my mind.  But lately, i gotta tell you, i don't know if i am outraged or just out of rage.

Well, well, well. Alberto Gonzales finally gets the ax.  i am sure that this will make a lot of people happy.  Republicans will be happy that they no longer have to defend this lying idiot.  Democrats can claim a victory on their oversight crusade,  and claim that they have actually been doing something up there on Capitol Hill.  But you need to ask yourself 2 questions: Why fire him when Bush has repeatedly said he has done nothing wrong? And Why now?

i am afraid that a very dirty deal has been done. Did you notice Bush's absence from Gonzo's announcement?  No words of praise from the Rose Garden for him.  Bush has only one issue that he cares about more and that is Iraq.  i believe that the moderate Republicans that were embarrassed by Gonzo are also the same people most likely to vote to stop this war.  Was the deal, "Get rid of Gonzo and we'll back your war"? i am sure that this is not the only part of the deal but it is probably the only part that the public will hear about.  Bush has probably also promised to support a bunch of earmarks to specific people but it will be next to impossible to tie this all together.

i know one thing: it is tough having a boss that tells you and the whole world that "you're doing a great job, Brownie" up until the very moment that he fires you (i.e. Rumsfeld)  That is one dirty deal.

There seems to be a rash of people popping off their mouth when they don't know what they are talking about.  Have you heard the latest stupid thing the Iraqi P.M. said?  A month ago he said America could leave at any time because he was ready to secure his own country.  Yesterday he said, responding to Carl Levine's quote that we need a new gov. in Iraq, that he doesn't care what we think, he doesn't need us and he will look for some new friends.  What an arrogant jerk, where does he think he is going to find someone dumb enough to spend a trillion dollars to defend his ass while he takes a nice long vacation?  Who is going to put on 40 lbs. of gear and patrol the mean streets of Baghdad to fight for his right to be so dumb? He is going to get a rude awakening whenever we pull out and he has to start doing some of the heavy lifting.  500,000+ Iraq's were willing to fight in Saddam's army with no help from us but he can't even get 300,000 to be able to fight if we don't hold their hands.

The problem is he knows that we are so dumb that no matter what he says or does, we will keep bailing his ass out.  But, if he doesn't start delivering for his people the are going to run him out on a rail.  i'm mad but i'm not sitting in 120 degree heat with no a.c. and no electricity to run it.  i am so disappointed with Congress, Democrats especially.  If they don't make him eat those words i don't think i can ever vote for them again.  i won't vote Republican either because they are so dumb they are actually defending this jerk. Congress must not renew funding for this disaster, but they are only thinking of the next election.  They think that they will get they blame for this failure if they do that, but when the history of this is written they are going to get just as much blame as Bush. It is well past time for the Dems to put up or shut up!

There is a great documentary called " The F Word" that i would recommend for all the politically minded out there.  It is very thought provoking.  It is about the protest in New York leading up to the Republican convention to re-nominate Bush.  Did you know that a million people came out to protest all that week?  i am guessing not because the mainstream media did not cover it.  Most of the people out there were protesting Bush and his war but there were people supporting Bush as well.  The guy interviewing people was a radio talk show host who was being shut down by the FCC for violations of the new obscenity laws that come with fines that most small broadcasters can't afford to pay.  This has the affect of putting people out of business for their first violation.  Obviously, he said the "F" word once and was being shut down.  The movie takes place on his last day on air so he was really letting the powers that be have it.

In one interview, a guy on the street said, "In this country we are taught to vote against people instead of for people because our choice is usually between bad and worse."  He is so right and it made me think back to all the votes i ever cast and i realized just how right he was.  It seems as though every time i go vote it is to stop some heinous proposition or to stop Bush.  Tell the truth, how many of you were voting in the last election to stop either Bush or Kerry?  i voted for Kerry but i assure you that i was holding my nose at the same time.  In that election, he was bad and Bush was worse.  i wonder who will fill the bill this time, Hillary and Rudy?  With the Democrats (or masochists),  and the Republicans (or sadists), one would think that the average voter must be into bondage. Unfortunately i get no pleasure from either one.  Maybe one day we will get candidates that we can really believe in and feel good about our votes but i would not bet on it because we keep accepting this crap.

An even more disturbing thought hit me while watching this flick:  it is getting more and more difficult to affect change in this country unless you have a boat load of cash to give a candidate or use some form of violence.  Did you know that the largest protest in human history happened just before the war?  Millions of people all over the world peacefully protested against the war in Iraq and nobody paid any attention to it.  The media at least mentioned it, but they did not cover it extensively as you might think they should. It seems as though the only way to force the media to cover something is to own the media, or to blow things up, have a riot, and kill people.  This is a very dangerous precedent we are establishing.  If we don't start paying attention to peaceful protests, the disenfranchised among us will be forced to take more drastic action.  Do we really want more planes crashing into things or have car bombs going off in our major cities?  We had better take heed before it is too late.

12 Billion Dollars

438,000,000 Barrels of Oil

760,000 Pounds of Explosives

190,000 Guns

3600+ American Soldiers

If found please contact U.S. Government c/o George Bush

When i started watching the debate, i expected more of the same one line sound bites that we are all used to that don't help us figure out where these people stand.  i must say i was pleasantly surprised.  Keith O actually let them mix it up a bit so that they could answer back and forth like normal people talk, especially on the issue of Pakistan.  Of the three major candidates, i feel that Obama won in that he finally threw some punches and landed a few on political correctness and lobbyist money.  Hill held her own, like she always does, making sure not to go to far out on a limb.  Edwards on the other hand sounded like vanilla ice cream that has been in the freezer to long and has lost the little bit of flavor it started with.  He has been trying to get to the left of everyone, but standing next to Kuchinich he sounded boring.  It is also a shame that Joe Biden can't win because he sure knows his stuff. 

Having said all that, most of the candidates all agreed with each other on almost everything and spouted a lot of platitudes.  They all did it, some more than others. Here are a few i wrote down.

"I'm a union man; let's stop the race to the bottom; we are safer but not yet safe; put Americans back to work; this will be my highest priority; I will lead on this; this has fanned the flames of anti US sentiment;  lets fight on the right battlefield; let's help working families; we need a change; but lets not exchange one group of insiders for another; give the power back to the people; the system is broken/rigged; we need a new direction;  I will cut pork barrel spending and corporate welfare; we need broad reform; smart trade; fair trade that maximizes the benefit but minimize the impact; this is not just good for wall street but for main street; I am not a Washington insider; China is a strategic competitor; in Iraq we only have bad options and worse options; phased redeployment; we need to get out smarter than we got in; we should not engage in hypotheticals; (every one of the questions is a hypothetical!); we have to look at where we have been to see where we are going"

There were more but my hand got tired.  The reason why these are platitudes is that you can't really argue against them, yet you really don't know what the speaker means when they say them.  We need to put some meat on these very meager bones.  i hope very soon that half of the field drops out so we will have the time to make these people tell us what the really mean.  Somehow i doubt this will happen because the front runners like it just the way it is, most of all Hill and Obama.  They don't really have to dig that deep and they can continue their platitudes and popularity contest.

Sorry i haven't blogged in a while, but it is hot in Houston where i live.  What? That excuse worked for the Iraqi Parliament.  Seriously though, everything going on right now seems so stupid.   i mean, what do you need to write about the political theater the Senate put on a while ago.  Ohhh, were going to have a slumber party but nothing will change. 

The Democratic debate was more of the same, even though CNN swears that it was revolutionary because Youtube was involved.  When ordinary citizens ask questions of candidates, it is usually called a town hall meeting, but when those questions are sifted by the media you lose what little element of surprise that format provides.  Only one new question got through and that was the one about Reparations.  And, because of the usual 30 second answers the candidates did not have to elaborate on that answer or any other.

What needs to be said of Alberto going up to Congress and lying?  He has done it so much, i would only be shocked if he went up there and told the truth.  i do have to hand it to him for changing it up a little by answering any question he did not want to lie about by saying i am recused instead of i can't recall.

The Iraqi Prime Minister said that the US could leave at any time because he is ready to secure his own country.  To which Senator Dick Lugar(R) said ,"That is a strange assertion."  You got that right!  There are a lot of those going around nowadays.  Like Iraq being the central front on terror because Al Qaeda says it is.  Umm, umm good old Bush logic.  If i were in a fight with Muhammad Ali, i might think it was the fight of the century and the biggest moment in my life.  Ali would probably think otherwise.  He would not even train for it.

Another strange assertion came from the White House about Osama bin Laden.  They said they are doing everything they can to catch him.  So, why did you close the office in the CIA that was in charge of the hunt?  And then it comes out that we were going to hit Pakistan were we know he is but Rumsfeld called it off.  His excuse was that he did not want to do that because it would lead to the over throw of Musharaf, our pal.  Now when Clinton had a chance to do the exact same thing but called it off for the same reason, the talking heads said he had shirked his responsibility.  The Pres. used to say will will stop at nothing to capture or kill Osama, but i guess he will stop at one thing: the Pakistani border.

Are all these people mad? i know i am.  i think i'll follow Gonzo's lead and just recuse myself from this mess and hope it goes away.

Surprise, surprise! Iraq did not meet any of the 18 benchmarks they had agreed to work on with the people who are fighting and dying for their country.   And, they are still planning to take a one month vacation.  Seven Republicans have split from the President and have decided enough is enough on Iraq.  So, what is a president to do to divert attention back to his war?  Well, for one we get the Homeland Security Director to say He has a gut feeling that something bad is going to happen; and we say, The surge just started 2 weeks ago, even though it started in January.  They used to raise the threat level and issue some old tape of Bin Laden to scare us back into place.  Now they have to resort to Chertoff getting gas.  How weak their arguments have become, especially in light of a new report that came out yesterday that says Al Qaeda is back at full pre-9/11 strength.  So, you're not worried enough to want to stay in Iraq?  OK, we'll ground a plane to make you remember that horrible day and then release later that it was nothing, oops.  Wakey, wakey... these are just old tricks done with no flair.  But sadly, we are still 10 Republican votes away from stopping this mess.
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Totally off the subject,  if there are any of you who trade the stock market on a regular basis i have another warning for you.  First my credentials: i'm an econ/finance major who used to day trade the market for 3 years.  i watched the market from open to close everyday, taking copious notes to try to figure out trends.  i studied the markets history from the beginning; i even had a chart of the market's complete history taped to my wall so that i could see the big picture.  i'll tell you a few things i learned.  One, don't day trade!  While it is possible to call the markets next move it is almost impossible to do so on a day to day basis without being lucky.  But you can see the next move coming if you keep track of all the data and put that data into a historical light.  One trend that never fails is that the markets don't like uncertainty and usually go into a holding pattern before Presidential elections.  You take that plus the trouble in the housing market, plus the weak retail sales, plus weak GDP and high oil prices and you get a market that should be moving sideways or down.  Currently the market is moving on a big up swing,  too big to be maintained.  They will soon reach a top of 14,000-14,300 and then the market will be forced to test the lows.  If this happens, the market will slowly go down to 12,500-12,000 (this is about a 15-20% drop and that would be serious).  The market usually does not regain its footing until 6 months into the next presidential term.  So if i am right, we are looking at a 2 year slump in the market.  But of course all this could change if some major unforeseeable event happens, but those kind of events usually hit the market and make it go down.  The market has a way of seeing the good stuff coming a mile away but has a blind spot for the bad. i suggest you put your money into bonds and money market funds that are currently underperfoming.  Warning !  

Well, King George has done it again.  By pardoning Scooter Libby he has shown his utter lack of regard for the legal process and for accountability.  He does not feel he should be accountable to Congress, the Judiciary, or the People.  His arrogance should not surprise any one: if i were him, i would probably do the same, because Scooter knows were all the bodies are buried in the Vice President's office. Would you want him stewing in jail for 2 years, getting more and more bitter, and then start writing his tell-all book?  So let's be grown up about this situation: to keep those skeletons buried is why he got the pardon.

My only complaint is that if you are going to pardon Scooter, why not pardon the Marine or the 2 border agents that asked you for one?  If you have not heard of their cases, i will tell you about them in brief. 

There is a Marine who has served our country by putting his life on the line during 2 tours of duty in Iraq.  Now that his time in the military is up, he would like to serve his community yet again by becoming a state trooper.  Unfortunately when he was 13 yrs. old, he shot someone with a b. b. gun.  Although he did not even break the skin of this person, some over zealous prosecutor charged and convicted him of aggravated assault.  This charge makes him ineligible to become a police officer in his state because they have a rule that no one convicted of a crime can enter the police academy.  If any one deserves a pardon, it is this man.

The other case of the 2 border agents involves a convicted drug smuggler that the 2 agents were trying to stop from crossing the border again with hundreds of pounds of drugs.  They ended up shooting him in the butt and were charged with using excessive force.  They say he had a gun but one was not recovered during a search of the desert.  They chased this suspect for miles even after being shot, so it is possible he had a gun but they just could not find it.  The 2 agents are now serving 12 years for their crime.  i think we should have given them the benefit of the doubt and maybe suspended these guys who did not have any prior adverse reports on their records.  In fact, they had several commendations for outstanding service.

i'm sure there are other cases that we don't know about that deserve pardons, but those people will have to wait to get theirs, if they ever do, until the end of the King's reign.  Libby's pardon has convinced me of one thing:  Bush no longer cares what any one thinks about what he does, if he ever did.  He will now do even more of whatever he likes, public opinion be damned.  Thank God that in this country you only have 8 yrs. max to act this way. But for 1 and 1/2 more years, it's good to be the king.

You have heard it said many times before, Elections have consequences.  Never has that truism been illustrated more clearly than with the election of Bush.  The 2 Justices that he appointed to the court are clear examples.  i hate to admit what a true political junkie i am, but i watched every second of the conformation hearings of Roberts and Alito.  Alito made it clear that he was a far right-leaning conservative so it has not been a surprise the way he has voted every time with the 2 fools of the court, Thomas and Scalia.  But Roberts, i must say, has been a shocker.  He sat before the American people and lied his butt off.  i was sure that he would be a true replacement of O'Connor;  voting about 60/40 for the right but being fair to the left.  He promised me and you that he would not seek to overturn long standing precedents that have become cornerstones of law taught all across this land in law schools.  Boy, how wrong i was to believe him. 

It states clearly in the Constitution that the Supreme Court is not to be the finder of facts; that duty would be left to the lower courts and that the Supreme Court's job would be interpreting the law for constitutionality.  In the "Partial Birth" Abortion case they found that the procedure was never a medical necessity so the law did not have to have an exception for the health of the mother.  Sounds like finding facts to me.  The lower courts found the exact opposite facts and the high court threw out their findings to substitute their own.  This abuse is exactly what the founding fathers were trying to prevent.  They wanted jurisdictions around the country to be independent and to pass whatever laws they wanted as long as they were constitutional.  That is the only job of the court. 

Republicans often talk about activist judges and how much they don't like them, that is until the are advocating something they agree with.  They have tried to kill free speech. . . unless you are a corporation with lots of money , then you can speak as freely as you like.  In the Bong hits for Jesus case they said that the speech was illegal because it advocated something illegal at a school function.  What exactly was that?  i can't tell, because many people use bongs to smoke legal tobacco.  Also, much of free speech is about advocating illegal things, like when desegregation was illegal in the south, people were arguing that it should become legal.   Under this court, Martin L King would have been breaking the law if he spoke about this social injustice at a school instead of in front of the Capitol. 

So what do we do about it?  i suggest that he next President, if it is a Democrat, should do what F.D.R did when the Justices he didn't like were running the good name of the court into the ground. It was called "Court Packing", he appointed 2 more Justices to the Court that tilted the balance in a way he would agree with.  This is totally legal because the Constitution does not specify how many Justices there should be one the court; that is left up to the President.  Now, some of you might not like this idea but to you i say tough.  Elections have consequences.

So , the Immigration bill is dead. As i predicted about 10 Democrats joined the Republicans to kill it, and good riddance.  Now, the Republicans said they killed the bill because it did not close the border first.  Let us see if they make moves to close the border before the election or just use the issue as a red herring.  i will predict that they don't and won't before or after the next election.  They will do what they always do: get the base whipped up over a controversial issue like abortion or gay marriage and then just forget about doing anything on that issue until it is time to repeat the process before the next election.  Wake up!!!

i consider myself a Constitutionalist.  i believe that it is one of the greatest documents ever written - if we only had a President that would follow it.  Whenever the Supreme Court issues rulings, i find myself re-reading them to see where they get the authority or lack thereof, to make such rulings.  As i was doing this yesterday, i noticed a lot of laws that Bush was breaking or ignoring.

  Although i think that there are plenty of grounds for impeachment, i am not calling for that to be done because Cheney would take over.  The smartest decision "the decider"  ever made was to pick Cheney as V.P. because no one would want to have him as president.  He can't even figure out if he is a member of the Executive branch or if he is part of the Legislative branch unless he is claiming Executive Privilege not to tell us which one of his big oil friends was in the room when the first energy bill was written. 

 Which laws has Bush broken you ask?  Let us start with the Preamble and work our way through to see if you agree with me.

We the people of the United States, in order to form a more perfect union, establish justice, insure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare, and secure the blessings of liberty to ourselves and our posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America.

Establish Justice? He believes he can lock up any one forever as long as he calls them "enemy combatants".  This country feels a lot less tranquil since he has been in office.  By not securing our ports, he has not provided for our common defense.

Article I

Section 1. All legislative powers herein granted shall be vested in a Congress of the United States, which shall consist of a Senate and House of Representatives.

Bush has tried to legislate by the use of "signing statements".  Like on the anti-torture law, he used some pretty tortured logic to say that, yeah no torture unless i deem it necessary.  He can not do that unless he vetoes a law, then the Constitution says he may send it back to fix his objections; he can't fix them himself and carve out exceptions for himself.  The laws of this land apply to everyone, including King George!

Section 9. 

The privilege of the writ of habeas corpus shall not be suspended, unless when in cases of rebellion or invasion the public safety may require it.

No bill of attainder or ex post facto Law shall be passed.

In the Terry Schivo case, he convened Congress to make them pass a bill of attainder(this section means that you can't pass a law that only applies to one person). And we all remember Senator Spector going crazy on the floor of the Senate when Bush wanted to say that enemy combatants have no standing to challenge their incarceration.  To those who might say, what about the exclusion of invasion?  Well, these people were mostly captured on foreign soil so that does not apply.

Article 2- Section 1. 

Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:--"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States, and will to the best of my ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."

i submit that by breaking the above and below sections of the Constitution he has violated this oath, unless the best of his ability is pretty low (which, i have to say, the best of his ability usually is).

Section 3. He shall from time to time give to the Congress information of the state of the union, and recommend to their consideration such measures as he shall judge necessary and expedient; he may, on extraordinary occasions, convene both Houses, or either of them, and in case of disagreement between them, with respect to the time of adjournment, he may adjourn them to such time as he shall think proper; he shall receive ambassadors and other public ministers; he shall take care that the laws be faithfully executed, and shall commission all the officers of the United States.

He refused to receive Arafat, who was the ambassador to the Palestinian people, as well as the president of Iran when he came to the U.N.  He has not seen to it that the laws are executed or we would not be hearing from the right everyday to enforce the immigration laws and protect the border.

Article 3- Section 2. 

The trial of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury; and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed.

The detainees in Guantanamo have never and probably will never get a trail by jury as long as he is president.  The term jury is a precise legal word and the military tribunals he and Congress have proposed don't fit the bill which is why even this coservative court struck down the first military tribunal system he had put into place.

Article 4-Section 4. The United States shall guarantee to every state in this union a republican form of government, and shall protect each of them against invasion; and on application of the legislature, or of the executive (when the legislature cannot be convened) against domestic violence.

A lot of our Republican friends like Buchanan and Rush would argue that the border states have been invaded by illegal immigrants and Bush has done nothing to stop it.

Article 6. The Senators and Representatives before mentioned, and the members of the several state legislatures, and all executive and judicial officers, both of the United States and of the several states, shall be bound by oath or affirmation, to support this Constitution; but no religious test shall ever be required as a qualification to any office or public trust under the United States.

i can't prove that he has done that personally, although i have my suspicions, but his representatives like Monica Goodling have testified to Congress that she had a religious test when she was hiring immigration judges.

  Amendment IV

The right of the people to be secure in their persons, houses, papers, and effects, against unreasonable searches and seizures, shall not be violated, and no warrants shall issue, but upon probable cause, supported by oath or affirmation, and particularly describing the place to be searched, and the persons or things to be seized.

By approving the tapping of our phones and e-mails without going through the FISA court,  we were subject to searches that had no probable cause, and even if they did have cause, they @#$! sure did not have a warrant.

Amendment V 

No person shall be held to answer for a capital, or otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment or indictment of a grand jury, except in cases arising in the land or naval forces, or in the militia, when in actual service in time of war or public danger; nor shall any person be subject for the same offense to be twice put in jeopardy of life or limb; nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself, nor be deprived of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.

There has been no due process for those in our "secret" prisons or for those held as enemy combatants.

Amendment VI 

In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, which district shall have been previously ascertained by law, and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense.

The few enemy combatants who have had a trial have not had a  speedy or public one,  the jury was partial at best because they were held by military officers, some of whom have friends who have died in Iraq or Afghanistan(God rest their souls).  Most of the people have never been charged let alone known what they are being held for; they can't confront witnesses that don't exist; and since they are not allowed to speak to anyone, they can't provided witnesses in their defense.   And until the Supreme Court mandated it, they were denied lawyers.

Amendment VIII 

Excessive bail shall not be required, nor excessive fines imposed, nor cruel and unusual punishments inflicted.

i don't know what you call water boarding but it is at the very least unusual.

Amendment XIV 

Section 1. All persons born or naturalized in the United States, and subject to the jurisdiction thereof, are citizens of the United States and of the state wherein they reside. No state shall make or enforce any law which shall abridge the privileges or immunities of citizens of the United States; nor shall any state deprive any person of life, liberty, or property, without due process of law; nor deny to any person within its jurisdiction the equal protection of the laws. 

Do i really have to say again what he is doing in Guantanamo Bay is wrong?

Well, that is a lot of stuff, toussaint, but most of your charges hinge on the illegality of what he is doing to the detainees. You are right, but i would say that what he is doing violates so many of our laws and core American values that it is undeniably weakening our democracy and threatening our way of life. 

i try to get my news from a lot of different sources so that i can get a complete as possible picture of the story but it is getting increasingly hard to watch the major cable "news" outlets.  If they are not wasting half the day on some stupid story about what the starlets are up to, then they are focused on the latest missing white women. (It is a good thing that black, asian, and latina women don't go missing!)

Fox is the worst but CNN is right behind, or should i say left behind.  Yesterday, Fox put out a story that said, of the 144 journalist that they could identify that gave money to politicians, 125 of them gave to Democrats or "liberal causes".  i wonder what the real numbers are who actually gave to Democrats exclusively but we will never know from them because they lumped in extraneous material.  They are probably right that most news people are left leaning but they damage the case they are trying to make by confusing the issue.  What is a "liberal" cause anyway?  You give me an issue and i can show you people on both sides of the aisle that are for or against it.

 Let's see: i tried to think of the most liberal issues to test my theory.  Gay Marriage is thought to be a pretty liberal idea but i bet the Log Cabin Republicans would be hopping mad if you told them that they are liberal because they support that idea.  Can't be abortion rights because the leading Republican candidate is pro-choice.  Gays in the military?  No.  Ron Paul and Barry Goldwater both support the idea of them serving openly.  Environmental issues?  Hardly a liberal cause because the whole movement was started by Teddy Roosevelt, a very conservative Republican.  Furthermore, Ronald Reagan signed the Clean Air and Water Act and loved to go camping and ridding horses in the wilds of California.  Immigration. . .  now there's a liberal cause. Oh, except good old Ronny signed the first so called Amnesty bill in '86 and Bush is leading the charge this time.  About 33 Senators are going to vote against the current bill and, by my count, at least 10-12 of them will be Democrats.  i got one: raising taxes.  Read my lips, Bush Sr. raised taxes when he had to, knowing it could cost him half his support.  "Big government" perhaps?  That is definitely one that only liberals support, except the largest increase in government spending happened when we had a Repulbican House, Senate, and President.  i know! Liberals hate religion and are against mixing church and state. No, that doesn't work either unless you believe that the founders of our great country were a bunch of liberals; or if you scroll down to my May 26th entry to read what Barry Goldwater said about what religion is doing to the democratic process; or if you look at the Supreme Court's decision on prayer in schools. You will find that a few Republican-appointed Justices said No, you can't pray in school or have a big concrete version of the 10 Commandments in front of the court house. 

i could go on and on but i think you get th