March 27, 2006 - The American economic engine is hoist on the horns of a dilemma.  On the one hand employment opportunities upon which Middle America once depended have been outsourced serving the false economy of cheap labor in Asia and elsewhere.  On the other hand employment opportunities on which Americans relied as entry points to the dream of economic security are increasingly taken by what the politicians are calling illegal immigrants.  When the politician says, "illegal immigrant" what is usually meant is Mexican and it is usually said in the context of enhancing the punishment of those who are caught crossing the border.  As a practical matter we can't afford effective enforcement of immigration restrictions.  Our land borders are too long and remote and we don't have the wherewithal to provide for effective border security aimed at the desperate men and women who surreptitiously cross them in search of a better tomorrow.  Our economy is too dependent on the underground labor market of coerced employment and substandard pay.  Remove the immigrant worker and the economy would immediately stagnate.

Both labor outsourcing and illegal immigration have their genesis in the same economic disparity between the American labor market and that of our global neighbors.  So long as a Mexican worker can look north to a labor market in which he can earn in one hour even at substandard wage what he can make in a day at home the magnet pulling him north will overcome any program of  enforcement or guest worker scheme.  So long as American manufacturers can multiply their profit on products by making them overseas then America will continue to lose the jobs that created the great American middle class...click here for entire article

Have you ever heard of Hutchinson – Whampoa Limited? It is the Hong Kong based Chinese company that raised such a furor in 1998 when it entered into a deal with the government of Panama to operate the container ports at both ends of the Panama Canal. President Clinton was excoriated by the Congressional Republicans for not having stopped the deal. Among the concerns the Republicans expressed was that control of the ports could facilitate smuggling of secret technology to China and smuggling arms and worse into the United States...click here for entire article

March 21, 2006 - "All we've ever really asked for from the countries we liberated or defend is enough real estate to bury our dead .", said Secretary of State Colon Powell. It was a restatement of principles by which America conducted its foreign policy throughout the twentieth century even in the face of accusations that America was an imperialist nation. When Halliburton started building what looked like permanent military installations in Iraq and the Neo-Con hawks started talking about Iraq as a democratic outpost in the Middle East some commenced to doubt that Powell's sentiment was widely shared in the Bush Administration.

Today those doubts seem to have been well taken. It looks like American troops are in Iraq to stay. At least for so long as George W. Bush has anything to say about it they will remain. When asked if he was prepared to set a time table for the compete withdrawal of US forces from Iraq he said that decision was one for "future President and future Iraqi Governments" to make. He left no doubt that he intends the American occupation of Iraq to extend beyond his own Presidency and the creation of a stable Iraqi democratic regime....click here for entire article

March 15, 2006 - One thing we know. Zacarias Moussaoui will spend the rest of his life in prison. The only question is whether that life of confinement will extend to the number of days allotted to him by Allah or be cut mercifully short by a jury’s decision. The trial is not about guilt or innocence. Moussaoui removed that decision from the jury when he pled guilty. It is not about terrorism or the events of September 11, 2001. Moussaoui loudly proclaimed his membership in Al Qaeda and despite the passage of four and a half years the government with all of its investigatory resources has not been able to turn up any evidence that ties the defendant to the 9-11 attacks or that he had knowledge when he was arrested that the attack was to be launched a month later. In its case to qualify Moussaoui for the death penalty the government has relied upon the proposition that had he spilled his guts on the day of his arrest the FAA might have been able to save lives on September 11th. It was a case of showing the jury what might have been. Now even that thin reed has been broken by the blatant but inept violation of the Court’s orders by one or more government lawyers.

In a larger sense this trial is not about Zacarias Moussaoui or whether he lives in prison or is put to death. It is really about us, you and me and whether we really believe in the principles we claim to be defending in Iraq and around the world. Do we really believe that even the most vile of our fellows is entitled to a fair trail before our government can exact a punishment? Do we really believe that the most mighty are equally restrained with the meanest by the rule of law? Is our government appealing to justice in that courtroom or does it pander to a blind and unreasoning thirst for vengeance frustrated because the perpetrators are beyond the reach of earthly justice and author of the crime has eluded capture for more than four years? Is America really dedicated to the rule of law or are we governed by the power of the fang and of the claw? That is what the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui is really about. It is about US...click here for entire article

March 13, 2006 - “If America pulls out of Iraq it will descend into chaos!”  Well, it is hard to see how the country we invaded could become more chaotic than it already is with the occupation troops remaining in place.  “If America pulls out of Iraq it will be wracked by Civil War!”  How do you describe what is going on in that country as anything other than a sectarian Civil War far more deadly than that with which Britain dealt in Northern Ireland?   Americans are being killed and maimed at the accustomed rate but those casualties have been pushed off the front pages by the mounting Iraqi toll as the Sunnis and Shiites sort out their differences.  Secretary Rumsfeld says that he expects the Iraqi armed services will be able to deal with the existing civil turmoil in their country.  He said so as he asked Congress to borrow another $92B to spend on the war in Iraq. 

He asked for the money even as Secretary Snow of the Treasury announced that he was going to dip into the retirement funds of Federal employees in order to stay below the government’s credit limit.  Secretary Rice was right there along side the Defense Secretary endorsing the spending request.  Meanwhile the President of the United States is asking the Republican Congress for the line item veto - declared unconstitutional by the Supreme Court when a Democratic Congress gave it to President Clinton.  He says he needs it to rein in runaway Government spending authorized by a runaway Republican Congress...click here for entire article

The ads are designed to engender a bellicose spirit in the viewer; to indicate that somehow the civil war that has plagued Iraq since the mission was declared accomplished is between the righteous forces of good and the despicable evildoers that brought us 9/11, Madrid, and the London Underground. They are intended to make us love the war; to sell us on the idea that we should send our young people to die and spend our borrowed dollars with Halliburton because it is the right thing to do...click here for entire article