Shame on you both, Hillary and Barack!

NAFTA was good back when President Clinton accepted the applause from everyone ... Republicans and Democrats alike!

And free trade in the North American continent is still good for us all ... Mexicans, Americans and Canadians.

Don't pander to the temporary loss of jobs and income! Rather, realize that free trade is the backbone of all of our economies in the long run and deserves support from Democrats as well as Senator McCain. If you want to diss Presidents Bush and Clinton, there are plenty of other issues to attack--the unending aggressive wars among others and ... well, you get the idea.

And if you want to find blame for the loss of jobs, don't be looking towards Mexico ... or any other country! It's called "technology," folks, and as nearly everyone on this planet knows, we are going through a major revolution as the information age and nanotechnology have been sweeping over nearly every continent for the past two decades. In the long run, the benefits of that technology and yes, free trade, will overwhelm the short run "growing pains" that we are currently feeling.

Leave NAFTA alone!

William F. Buckley Jr. will never really pass from our scene ...

William F. Buckley Jr., a Founder of the 20th Century's Conservative Movement

His son, novelist Christopher Buckley, summed his life up very nicely:

"He founded a magazine [The National Review ... which he ran for about forever], wrote over 50 books, influenced the course of political history, had a son, had two grandchildren and sailed across the Atlantic Ocean three times. ... He really didn't leave any stone unturned."

More recently, he turned against the neo-Conservatives by pretty much damning the Iraq War which he saw as a "failure" more than a year ago in a CBS interview.

To my knowledge, he remained among the 0.00314592% of the American people who had not yet endorsed Barack Obama for President as of yesterday when he passed on to a better place.

I wonder if I would ever be able to find and blow the dust off of my ancient copy of God and Man at Yale: The Superstitions of Academic Freedom. It was one of my first really good reads ... in what seems like another lifetime.

Mr. Buckley was as intense then (roughly 1950) as he has been for better than a half century!

I wouldn't exactly state emphatically that the previous posting was a hoax ... but ...

It is deflating to have one of the principal witnesses state that the photo shown in the previous posting was of two satellite dishes welded together and attached to the trees and foliage in the picture. Until we receive actual additional photos taken from the guide who navigated the craft on the river, I would only state today that the "UFO" was/is a true "UFO"--meaning it surely was unidentified (to UFOs Northwest) ... yesterday.

Sorry folks, but that's the way it is in this business ...

Killer sighting reported by Northwest's #1 UFOlogist, William Puckett!!

UFO sighted (and photographed) in southern Oregon

I'll let Bill Puckett, the senior (and best!) investigator associated with the "UFOS Northwest" website describe the correspondence he's had with at least two of three witnesses to what I believe to be the killer sighting of the 21st Century--thus far. It suffices only for me to state that from all that Bill has told me ... and all of the evidence (photos, phone calls, e-mails and FAXes) ... there is no doubt that Bill has a tiger by the tail and this may be bigger than all of my concerns about the 2008 Presidential elections.

From exploding thermos bottles to a "traditional" saucer-shaped UFO to clear, untouched and carefully examined (bit-by-bit) digital photos, this may be the most significant sighting of a UFO since the documented examination of a landed UFO at Bentwaters, England in 1980. (That sighting was the reason my own interest was heightened 25 years ago--a long story in and of itself.)

Anyway, go to http://www/ufosnw.com/ and see for yourself what has me excited and Bill ... well if anxiety had wings, Bill would be circling the moon about now. Let me know what you think ... and let Bill know too through the e-mail "contact us" button on the UFOs Northwest website.

As a previous Chief Scientist for one of USAF's tactical MAJCOMs and a careful, relatively conservative multi-disciplined scientist--for the most part, I feel qualified to state that this appears to be the genuine article ... and Bill's analysis deserves a hearty applause.

Three cheers to Barack ... for being human! And three cheers to Hillary for considering the whole thing stupid and mildly hillarious

I agree with Hillary's campaign manager, Maggie Williams, who after denying any involvement with the "release" of a public domain photo, remarked, "Enough! If Barack Obama’s campaign wants to suggest that a photo of him wearing traditional Somali clothing is divisive, they should be ashamed."

And that's Mediawingnut's take on the entire episode too. He was in Kenya on a Congressional junket--his father was Kenyan, remember?--and he was simply wearing a traditional Somali elder's robe and turban--at the request of his hosts.

Hillary herself said that she found questions about whether her campaign leaked the photo to be "really laughable."

I agree!

And oh yes, lest we forget, the picture below is of the two primary leaders of the entire world! Wearing traditional garb while abroad is an everyday thing.

Hmm ... Vladimir Putin actually looks cute, don't you think?

Maybe I'm not too old to run for President after all ...

We're both nearing 74 years of age--although his birthday is later this week and mine isn't until November ... but well, what do you think? I'm at least as good looking, I think ...

Whatever, Ralph Nader's announcement yesterday (surprise, surprise, yawn) has the Democrats running for fear into the nearest pubs and has the Republicans cheering him on. My own take is that the very worst that he can do to the Democrats is to cost them maybe 150 electoral votes and a slight [a.k.a. four-year] delay, but little more. Even Hillary doesn't see it as entirely impossible for the Democrats to win at least enough states even with Nader in the race to at least put the election into the House of Representatives now. If the Dems can hold onto the House, they will likely elect one of their own (Kucinich maybe?) to the Oval Office. Of course, my brother from Connecticut is hoping it will be a chance for Ron Paul to shock everyone.

Go, Ralph ... go!

For Barack Obama, Nicorettes are a gigantic leap forward!

From This only One Year Ago

To This (although on Nicorettes) Today!

A very close friend of mine (and a fellow UFOs-and-Government-coverup junkie) was concerned when he learned (from me) that Barack Obama had been a smoker at the outset of the Presidential Campaign. He worried aloud whether this was a good image for a president and also whether his health should be an issue--the implication being that smoking is bad for your health, etc., etc., etc.

Well, it's been about exactly a year since Barack put down his last Marlboro--or so we are told--and in that time, he has taken up Nicorettes and admits (as of last week) that he's still chewing Nicorettes after a year. He's hoping to be able to come "down" off of Nicorettes, but the grueling campaign has made that difficult for now.

My prayers are with Obama in this effort. I've been there (in my case it was worse than cigarettes) and know how difficult "cold turkey" can be under the duress of stress, so to speak. His children and lovely wife will be the real beneficiaries if he is able to kick the dirty little habit for good.

It would also be good for the country if Bill Clinton and John McCain were able to kick their habits also. We need no "dirty little secrets" in the White House, that's for sure!

Just for the record, smoking is an "acceptable" habit in my books.

You mean the Democratic party's Superdelegates can't vote for me at the Republican National Convention?

Seth Myers and Mike Huckabee on Saturday Night Live

I haven't laughed out loud in an empty room (other than my cats) in a really long time. But Mike Huckabee's deadpan humor and willingness to laugh at himself was the funniest piece of television that I've seen in years. His disbelief that the Democratic [sic] Party's Superdelegates couldn't vote for him at the Republican National Convention and his staying on stage through three "goodbyes" from Seth Myers--with accompanying applause--with increasing laughter and noise each time--was ... well, just simply hilarious.

We need the likes of him in the White House, I believe.

Obama versus Clinton? McCain versus Huckabee? No! The real fight tonight was Klitschko versus Ibragimov!!

Wladimir Klitschko (left) IBF Champion before outlasting Sultan Ibragimov (right) WBO Champion at Madison Square Garden this evening

I personally never doubted who would win -- those long arms and his incredible endurance were enough for me to predict the outcome. One commentator simply said, "far too strong and much too long" to describe the 12-round "fight" that was scored 117-111 and 118-110. The AP scored it 119-109. Ibragimov barely landed a punch while Klitschko simply jabbed at him round after round.

Of interest to me is the little noted fact that Klitschko, a Ukrainian--and national icon, is also a Ph.D. who plays chess--probably (ha ha) better at both than I am! Ibragimov, a Russian, was favored by Vladmir Putin, of course, but ...

More to the point of tonight's fight is that Klitschko is 6' 7" tall and outweighed Ibragimov by 20 pounds--a lot to overcome in the art [sic] of heavyweight boxing. Tonight's fight was called the "Unifying Championship Fight," but the splintered heavyweight ranks are worse than than the early Republican Presidential Debates.

Lest anyone doubt the power of the media ... this Time Magazine cover from more than 16 months ago!

This, before the Rasmussen Daily Tracking Poll even had him listed!

I'm not even certain that I knew from which state he came at that time ...

Let's crown him now and get it over with ...

Well, as Hillary continues to lose primaries and caucuses ... and even superdelegates now, the deification (see the halo above) and election-cum-November continues unabated. Her performance in the debate was quite superb--as was Barack's--but the bleeding to the frenzy of the media continued. Even her excellent closing remarks were taken as a surrender to her [you-plug-in-the-adjective; any thesaurus will do] surging opponent.

It appears all over now but for the final tallies to come in from Texas and Ohio.

"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is[eman]' is"

Years from now, when we look back on John McCain's failed run for the presidency, its defining moment may well be McCain's rationalization to the press at a Toledo press conference about why he wasn't lying, but that the New York Times was:

"It depends on what the meaning of the word 'is[eman]' is. If the--if he--if 'is[eman]' means is[eman] and never has been-a-man, that is not--that is one thing. If it means there is none, that was a completely true statement....Now, if someone had asked me on that day, are you having any kind of sexual relations with Ms. Iseman, that is, asked me a question in the present tense, I would have said no. And it would have been completely true."

Mediawingnuts thinketh that he doth protesteth too much! A full-blown press conference? Hiring Bob Bennett? Bringing his second wife--not necessarily his first dalliance--onto the stage to defend him? Something about all of this doesn't quite compute.

I did not have sex with that woman!

In all honesty, I don't see the gigantic stir that McCain's [possible] former love life might be causing, but my brother Richard in Connecticut seems to think that this is the BIG ONE!

My personal take on Vicki Iseman is that she is a whole lot more of a catch than Monica Lewinsky ever was and McCain's having dumped his first wife for the money (a.k.a. his second wife, the beer heiress) to get into politics should have been ample warning to Republicans anyway.

The long and short of it all is that he certainly doesn't need a good-looking telecommunications lobbyist (Vicki Iseman, above right) when he has the whole enchelada (below).

Media has canonized "Saint Barack, Patron Saint of Strength, Hope and all Things Good"

Saint Barack -- Patron Saint of Strength, Hope and all Things Good

Admittedly, Obama is an inspirational speaker--although vacuous at times--and surely he has caught the imagination of young progressives throughout America.

But the media?

It is totally irresponsible that CNN, Fox News and nearly every other major network have decided that it will be the media and not the American voters (a.k.a. the unwashed masses) who will choose our next President. Even the so-called liberal talk show hosts (e.g., Ed Schultz on Air America) have turned against the one voice of reason among the leading Democrats--down now to only the Evil Witch Hillary and Good Saint Barack after this evening's "second Super Tuesday."

While Hillary is pilloried at every turn, her opponent in these waning weeks of the primary season is given a free ride. He can plagiarize recent speeches and his wife can "discover" that she is now proud to be an American for the first time in her life ... and yet the media is entirely preoccupied with telling us how it is impossible for Hillary to come back from the hole she has dugged [sic] for herself (actually dug with an earth mover by the media) as we approach the third (count 'em!) Super Tuesday on March 4.

Just a little personal note and then I'll get out of your face.

I watched Hillary on television during the early days of Bill's presidency debating with medical doctors, HMO lawyers and pharmaceutical company execs on her Health Care Reform program--long before it became the "in" thing to defend. She was articulate, courageous and focused on the need. And it struck me even then--she was so totally alone!

I wondered then how long it would take for the American people to "discover" her.

Well, they did--fifteen years later ... and then the media stepped in and decided they had another candidate who would better tune up their ratings.

Now, we have Saint Barack (Obama) whose smugness is so obvious to the average American that the media are having to bend over backwards to blind the American people … staring blankly at their screens ... from noticing his smug, sometimes arrogant demeanor.

And I think they are succeeding.

But I'm a stubbborn old fart; I doubled my $5 bet on Hillary this evening in spite of everything!

As Mike Huckabee said when they suggested he step down and out of the Republican race, "Why? Do we live in Russia?"

Well, Pandora's Box has been opened! Kosovo has properly declared its independence from Serbia ... but, what next?

As most of you heard or read in the news today, Kosovo's regional parliament declared Kosovo's independence. Although this has been anticipated for some time now, it quickly triggered an emergency meeting of the U.N. Security Council. (We'll have to wait and see as regards that!)

Still, the streets of Kosovo's main cities are filled with joy, singing and and dancing as I write this and wonder a little ... what next?

And it's not only Serbia that worries me this evening ... what about Mr. Putin and Russia?

Still, we all should be glad for this final step towards freedom for the Albanians in Kosovo. Such a multi-ethnic (largely Islamic) democratic state in Europe might provide some hope for the Iraqis as their Sunni and Shia populations look with mistrust on what democracy might bring to Iraq as time passes.

Congratulations, Kosovo! And thank you, Mr. Bush, for staying the course in the troublesome Kosovo-Serbia arena.

Hoo dat masked man dehr? He be a sooperdelegate, man! And dehr be 796 a'dem peeples ...

While chatting with my brother Richard from Connecticut this afternoon, we began to touch on that "untouchable" subject, the Democratic Party's superdelegates who are expected to throw the convention and the nomination Hillary's way later in the year--no matter what happened on "super" [sic] Tuesday, or what might happen in Wisconsin, Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania, plus other states and ... oh yes ... Puerto Rico later in the spring and summer.

Is this really a one-person, one-vote process or will the above masked men (maybe a woman or two) really step in and sweep the nomination away from Barack Obama even if he amasses the majority of actual votes and "pledged" delegates?

Hopefully, the superdelegates themselves will step in and insure that the democratic (lower case "d") process will win out sometime before 20% of the delegates at the convention (more than California and New York's combined) step forward as "unpledged" but then go ahead like pompous know-it-alls and decide who the nominee will be after almost a year of primaries and caucuses countrywide.

Mind you, I am a "Hillary delegate" myself here in Washington, having won that distinction in a fair ballot at the local caucus ... but I'll be the first person to cry "FOUL" if the nomination is stolen from Barack or anyone else at the National Convention.

And oh yes, while we're at it, let's do away with this antiquated "superdelegate" status in future primary seasons--and at future conventions.

But, OWOTO super-D's: at least agree to cast your votes unanimously for whoever is the winner of this year's entire primary season not counting the superdelegate numbers.

And while you're at it, all delegates: find an equitable way to seat delegations from Michigan and Florida. Why should Iowa, New Hampshire and South Carolina have a built-in advantage at the starting gate?

Why I just might break ranks with the Democrats and go with proven DNA ... if I live to be 100 or so!

Admiral John S. McCain Sr.

Admiral John S. McCain II

John McCain's grandfather, John Sidney McCain, Sr. (top photo) was a full Admiral in the United States Navy, and was notable as a commander of the Fast Carrier Task Force in World War II. His son John S. McCain, Jr. (second photo above) was also a full admiral (the only father-son pair of full admirals in US history), and my boss while I was at CINCPAC back in the late 60's. He was the one who arranged for me to serve him (and CINCPAC) at Tan Son Nhut Airbase in Saigon (69-70) as part of the SEEK DATA II group--who counted and analyzed [sic] the BDA "blips and dots" from reconnaissance photos taken from hundreds of reconnaissance flights as part of Commando Hunt and other notable air campaigns in support of our overall efforts.

I would ultimately retire as a civilian with the US Air Force--largely thanks to the Old Man's bringing me into the Government at that time. Senator McCain's father was affectionately known as "the Old Man" by his staff for my full stint with CINCPAC.

The original John S. McCain's grandson, Senator John McCain III, was also a naval officer, (retired Navy Captain)--and was in the Hanoi Hilton (sadly, that was when he was a POW) for the full time that I worked for his father and I well remember how his son's name was never to be mentioned in the Old Man's presence. Of course, young "Johnny" is now the self-same U.S. Senator from Arizona who is hoping to ... well, you know the rest of that story all too well, don't you?

But anyway, to bring it full cycle, all three of those John McCains attended the United States Naval Academy, where Admiral John McCain the First's great-grandson, John S. (Jack) McCain IV, continued the tradition as the fourth in the line of John Sidney McCains.

Maybe the time will be ready for a McCain in the White House in another twenty-five years when John S. McCain IV has reached the age of maturity.

Do you think ...? Yes, I might well vote for a McCain in my lifetime ... sometime after President Michelle Obama and a couple of her predecessors have solved the deplorable poverty situation in America and even possibly extricated us from Iraq ... uhhh ... maybe!

Romance is in the air ...

Romance is in the air for two GOP elephants--really one elephant and one wannabee ...

Valentine's Day appropriately falls during the heart of the elephant mating season (in Thailand at least) and John McCain receives the "kiss of death" from his former debate rival, Mitt Romney. [See Blaine's comment on my most recent previous posting.]

The former Massachusetts governor, Mitt Romney, made a Valentine's Day endorsement of Sen. John McCain on Thursday, ending what we all saw as a bitter, year-long rivalry and handing over almost enough delegates to guarantee McCain the Republican presidential nomination.

John McCain was heard to be muttering "whoopee!" after Romney released the 280 delegates he had won from their pledge to support him and urged them to back McCain. He called McCain a "true American hero" and said the party needs to unify behind him.

Yeh ... in 10,000,000 years maybe!

Of course, Romney is hoping to do exactly what McCain did eight years after dropping out in 2000 and endorsing George W. Bush.

What next in this crazy POTUS 08 season?

Notice the big hug that McCain is giving Romney for his "Valentine's day gift"?

Hillary's sunset ... beautiful, but ... well, a sunset nonetheless ...

What accounts for Hillary's relentless slide into the political sunset? It isn’t the woman herself; she is still the audacious and "mind over the moment" woman she has always been ... but ... it just might be over for her ... at least as regards her run for the Presidency. The "Potomac Primaries" were pretty much the death knell, I think.

Hopefully, she will continue to fight for causes that matter to us all such as health care and the elderly ... but maybe it is time to turn our attention to the younger, more energetic crowd.

Yeh, I suppose that it's time that the Clintons stood aside and allowed the newest generation of leadership to have its chance at making this earth a better place for us all.

Here's hoping anyway ... and as Barack says time and again, "at least there won't be a Bush or Cheney on the ballot in November."

They didn't count Democtats' votes in 2000; now, they don't count Republican votes!

Washington State GOP chairman, Luke Esser

I was one of the few silly souls who actually wondered why the state declared McCain the winner of our state caucuses with only a couple of hundred votes between McCain and Huckabee ... and 13% of the ballots yet to be counted--or so I thought!

The truth was leaked out to everyone the next morning: They had no intention of counting the remaining ballots, including those from the western counties (where I live!) because ... there seemed to be no point in doing so--after all, anyone could see that McCain was ahead with almost all of the votes counted.

After Mike Huckabee sent his lawyers to our fair state to investigate, the Republican State Chairman, Luke Esser, said that he would try to get as close to 100% of the ballots counted as possible.

"almost"? "as close to 100% as possible"? What country do we live in anyway? Kenya? Russia in the 1950s?

At least the donnybrook in which I participated counted us all and phoned in the results post haste. Democrats (upper case "D") seem to believe in the democratic (lower case "d") process a bit more than do the Republicans on this side of the Rocky Mountains."

I picked up the following (from Huckabee's campaign staff via the Associated press):

[quote] By yesterday afternoon, the campaign issued a statement insisting that it "will be exploring all available legal options regarding the dubious final results for the state of Washington State Republican precinct caucuses." It added that the campaign is "deeply disturbed by the obvious irregularities," and argued that the state GOP "disenfranchised" more than one in eight Republican voters in Washington.

Asked for an explanation, state Republican Party Chairman Luke Esser said he just felt confident that the other 13% of the votes didn’t need to be counted. He told reporters, "Maybe it would have been safer if I hadn’t said anything. But it was an exciting and historic day for the state and I thought if I was confident about what the outcome would be I should share that with the people who had gone out to their caucuses."

It gets worse.

It seems that Washington State GOP chair Luke Esser spent most of the day avoiding calls from the Huckabee campaign. And when he finally got back to them he told a lawyer for Huckabee's campaign that they’d probably count the rest of the votes some time next week. When the lawyer, Lauren Huckabee, the candidate’s daughter-in-law, requested that a Huckabee lawyer be present when the remaining votes were counted, Esser hung up on her. [unquote]

I repeat, "Lord love a duck!"

It may be several years before the Huckabee caucus voters come to the finish line ahead of the McCain voters and the Washington State GOP leadership's hurry (shown in photo to the right) to have every vote actually counted.

Caucusing in Ocean Shores was an experience and a half ...

And from this caucus (click on above image captured in the midst of the confusion), I was "elected" to go to the Convention in mid-April. Lord love a duck!! After clicking on the image, note the blue clock carefully; it, more than any other item in the Lion's Club meeting room epitomized the entire affair.

Final Four come to the State of Washington ... oops ... gotta run ... promised to caucus today!

Final Four -- and yes, they are the "Fantastic Four" too, in their own unique ways

For Obama, it's momentum; for McCain, it's mathematics; for Hillary, it's mind over the moment; for Huckabee it's clearly miracles. Four candidates, four "M"'s, four entirely different mindsets ... but only one vote for Mediawingnuts. I'll likely caucus for one today and vote for another in November. How's that for being strong in one's convictions?

I liked Huckabee's analogy of his campaign to a NASCAR race. Will one of the frontrunners in the races (McCain driving the car miles ahead of Huck, or Obama driving the car only a nose ahead of Hillary today) blow a tire and slide off the track? Will a moment occur that we will all remember for the rest of our lives, be it a miracle, a minor misfortune or a massive mind-blower?

Stay tuned.

What's this crap about Chelsea being forced to p*** for Hillary?

Chelsea Clinton

The following exchange has been played and replayed on the radio for two days. It originally was on MSNBC cable television on Thursday:

DAVID SHUSTER: Bill, there's just something a little bit unseemly to me that Chelsea's out there calling up celebrities, saying support my mom, and she's apparently also calling these super delegates.

BILL PRESS: Hey, she's working for her mom. What's unseemly about that? During the last campaign, the Bush twins were out working for their dad. I think it's great, I think she's grown up in a political family, she's got politics in her blood, she loves her mom, she thinks she'd make a great president...

DAVID SHUSTER: But doesn't it seem like Chelsea's sort of being pimped out in some weird sort of way?

Yow!

I guess we have to look at Roberta McCain (95 years old), Michelle Obama and ... well, why not Caroline Kennedy? in the same ugly way that David Shuster looks at Chelsea Clinton.

I heard that he was fired from MSNBC. Fine by me. Free speech can be taken to the extremes of irreponsibility, I believe, and we have four very fine men and women still standing and very much alive in one of the greatest primary campaigns (maybe the greatest!) in my (getting longer by the minute) lifetime.

Go get 'em, Chelsea!

Mr. "Rope-a-dope" eliminates one of the last of the singly-wed candidates left standing ...

Ann and Mitt Romney say "goodbye" to his tailspinning campaign

John "Muhammad Ali" McCain (see previous posting) effectively put the the Republican presidential nomination into his left pants pocket earlier today when his co-chief rival Mitt Romney suspended his 50 million dollar campaign. "I must now stand aside, for our party and our country," Romney told the conservatives at their CPAC shindig today--but leaving out of his farewell address, "... and for my wallet which is tightly in my wife, Anne's, fist."

Mitt, Ann and their remaining hundreds of millions of dollars walk off into the sunset

John McCain continues to rope-a-dope his way towards ... I won't say it!

A close friend of mine reminded me of the staying power of Muhammad Ali

Does that remind you a little of John McCain?

I worked for his father, Admiral John McCain, while young Johnny waited for six years to be released from the Hanoi Hilton. He waited again for years for President Bush to change course in Iraq--not a strategy that I necesarilly agree with but ... well, you get the point! He's still waiting to fix the immigration policies of the U.S. and oh yes, campaign finance reform ... as are we all! We all watched while he patiently plodded on through Mitt Romney's insults (and millions of dollars worth of TV ads and other expensive campaigning) towards what now appears to be the Republican nomination. Is it possioble that his staying power will make my New Year's Day prediction backwards and upside down?

Will John McCain rope-a-dope his way through the campaign ahead against either Hillary Clinton or Barack Obama?

I might have predicted otherwise, but I wouldn't bet against John "Muhammad Ali" McCain at this stage of the game.

Hint as to why I wouldn't put money on the table: Watch Michael Bloomberg--especially if Hillary survives her own rope-a-dope against Barack in the weeks and months ahead!

Heh, heh, heh! You say you're ... uhh ... elderly? Umm, well ... heh, heh, heh ...

Most of you have undoubtedly heard that Mr. Bush's $3.1 trillion ("tr" as in "tricycle") budget, besides putting us into new record debt territory as a nation, manages to cut 7% from the Centers for Didease Control and Prevention, as well as cutting funds for Medicare (down by $12.8 billion) and medicaid (down by $18.2 billion)--health insurance programs for the poor and elderly.

I wonder what he's telling the poor and elderly patient whom he is visiting in the above photo-op ...

The best I can get from trhe sound clip is, "heh, heh, heh ..."

Obama's secret weapon!

Michelle Obama

Whoever thought that Hillary Clinton was the most politically active First Lady since Eleanor Roosevelt was absolutely correct ... BUT ... if Barack Obama should pull this Democratic nomination out of the hat (he won't!), Michelle Obama would certainly be the most politically akamai First Lady ... ever !!! [Look up "akamai"!]

I happened to hear her speech yesterday on TV and well, she was absolutely GREAT!! No, I would certainly choose Hillary over Barack at this stage for the Democrats, but at the same time, I recognize genuine brilliance when I see it. She is an absolutely spellbinding orator and, like her husband, is a graduate of Harvard Law School and a true political force in her own right.

Her description of the underclass in America during the speech I heard yesterday was even more poignant than anything that John Edwards ever said and the spoken truth that came from her lips from her having lived the life of a little black girl in America during the second half of the Twentieth Century was ... well ... I already said it -- spellbinding!

Although I am certain (in my own mind) that Hillary is probably better for the Democratic Party at this time in the country's history, as is Huckabee for the Republicans, I now see a little more clearly why so many Americans are endorsing/backing Barack Obama ...

It's Michelle's spirit they are feeling and her voice that they are hearing!

With Super Tuesday almost upon us, I'd suggest that we get used to these two ...

Senator John McCain (R., Ariz.) and Senator Hillary Clinton (D., N.Y.)

My New Year's Day prediction is about to be seen in headlines across the nation, I believe. Although I would have preferred Mike Huckabee to be the next President, I see either one of these two persons as very capable of leading us out of the mess we're in ... economically, internationally and domestically.

Let me congratulate both a full day before they wrap up (for all practical purposes) their respective party nominations.

Best to you both! Good sailing in the days, weeks and months ahead. Don't become too fatigued; it will all unfold as God wills.

Screw politics today! Besides the Super Bowl beginning (kick-off) in another three hours, it was Tiger Woods in an amazing finish (again) in Dubai!!

There is probably no more beautiful city in the world than Dubai--the city from which I came to return to America after what seemed like a century in the Middle East.

This time Tiger came from four strokes behind to beat Ernie Els (again and again and again!) and keep his current streak of tournament wins (four now) alive.

The hotel below was under construction across the water from where a group of us had breakfast every Friday (like your Sunday in America). We ate at the Jumeira Beach Hotel (same large resort complex as the picture below, but a separate--equally beautiful--building on the mainland which was (at that time) called the "Chicago Hotel" (long story) by those of us who were, of course, "furriners" to the UAE. I looked at both buildings long and hard before heading to the airport the next day ... knowing I would likely never live in, work in or even visit Dubai--or the American University in Dubai (AUD)--ever again. Damn being in my seventies!

Thanks, Tiger Woods, for reminding me of that period of my life and the life of some of the kitties who returned to America with me.

The Burj Al Arab is located over the water from its "partner" hotel, the Jumeirah Beach Hotel, to which it's connected by a walking bridge/tunnel in the Jumeira Beach area (quite close to my former apartment building's location) in Dubai

Having endorsed Hillary for the Democratic Party nomination ... I have one other small endorsement to make before Tsunami Tuesday ...

Yeh ... you-know-who for you-know-what!!

Mike Huckabee is truly heads and shoulders above all of the others ... yesterday, right now at almost midnight on Saturday, on this coming Tuesday ... and (hopefully) in November of 2008!

Exxon Mobil breaks new profit record today!

Sung to the tune of "Where have all the young men gone?"

The Exxon Mobil refinery shown above is but one small part of the giant conglomerate soaking up the spoils of war. Exxon Mobil reported today that it beat its own record for the highest profits ever recorded by any company, with net income rising 3 percent to $40.6 billion, thanks to surging oil prices. The company’s sales, more than $404 billion, exceeded the gross domestic product of 120 countries.

John McCain is right! The surge is working!

Like almost all of the world's oil companies, Exxon benefited from a near doubling of oil prices, as well as higher demand for gasoline last year. Crude oil prices rose from a low of around $50 a barrel in early 2007 to almost $100 by the end of the year — the biggest jump in oil prices in any one year.

Compare the graph below with the one I posted a day or so ago. If you click on it to see it more clearly, you will literally "feel" the blood red of the spikes as they climb. They represent our sons and daughters who are being blown up each month in Iraq to keep the spikes ever climbing.

Do you see a rather noticeable negative correlation with the Consumer Comfort [sic] index?