Living Reflections from a Dream

because Tim Russert has died, a crushing loss to journalism in the United States.

My Sunday mornings will never be the same. I can't believe I'll turn on Meet the Press tomorrow and not hear his booming voice saying "our issues this morning.." The man I've watched cover every major news item and election in my adult life. The man who got me through one of the worst nights of my life, the 2000 election, with a mere white board.

King of the gotcha, he could also be extremely funny:

He could put together shows combining the best guests, from James Carville and Mary Matalin to Andrew Sullivan and Christopher Hitchens. I could schedule my whole day around watching shows such as these.

A Springsteen fan, moderator of presidential debates (including for the candidacy of Red Sox Nation), and family man...

I'll miss you , Tim. Go Bills

Previous:
http://www.livingreflections.com/blog/2003/12/hypocricy_central.php
http://www.livingreflections.com/blog/2004/02/bush_on_meet_the_press.php
http://www.livingreflections.com/blog/2004/02/if_its_sunday_its_meet_the_pre.php
http://www.livingreflections.com/blog/2004/11/bring_it_on_3.php
http://www.livingreflections.com/blog/2004/10/i_live_for_this.php
http://www.livingreflections.com/blog/2005/01/political_double_speak.php
http://www.livingreflections.com/blog/2007/07/the_country_has_woken_up.php
http://www.livingreflections.com/blog/2007/10/meet_the_press_on_comedian_tea.php

Romney suspends campaign

Thank goodness, because I couldn't stand looking at his smug mug one more minute.

40 minutes til the polls open on the east coast.

Weeeeee...................

Yesterday a co-worker told me her kids were lobbying her to vote for Obama. It seems the word around the playground is Hillary wants to extend the school day by 2 hours, so the kids have joined together to fight the power. Obama has the elementary school vote locked up. I LOVE this. I love that kids are paying attention to what is happening and realizing they can get involved, they can influence (and not just to buy sugary cereals). Of course they are 1 issue voters only concerned about what makes them happy, not looking out for society at large.. but why should they be different than 90% of the adults in this country.

Wow ...can McCain get under Romney's skin on the topic of Iraq, and then he just sits back and smirks while Mitt flails around.

And what is up with Anderson Cooper's hair? Did he cut that with a flowbee?

The very last Bush State of the Union... oh, I'm so happy. I've got a big glass of wine to celebrate. Of course, I'd forgotten he was still out there, he's become so irrelevant. And someone let Cheney out of the bunker.

Here are some of my favorite quotes so far (I've stricken out those things that might have been added in my head:

We must make the debt passed on to our children and grandchildren so Republicans can continue to be elected tax cuts permanent

No one can deny the results of No Child Left Behind except teachers

Reduce green house gasses yes, I admit they exist

To keep America competive, we must trust in the skill of our scientists and engineers and empower them to persue the breakthroughs of tomorrow yeah, the same future scientists and engineers growing up in a No Child Left Behind educational system - he he he! I'll be dead by then

On the matters of justice, we must trust in the wisdom of our founders, and empower judges who understand that the Constitution means what it says so I'm cancelling FISA and reinstating all civil liberties I've ripped away from the American people in my endless power grab

Tonight the armies of compassion continue to march to a new day in the gulf coast no thanks to me. I'm scheduling a conference there - isn't that enough?

Spending on entitlement programs, like Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid see how I threw Medicaid in there. I know it's for poor people, not an entitlement. I just don't like poor people. Get a job. are growing faster than we can afford. We all know the painful choices ahead if America stays on this path. Massive tax increases, sudden and drastic cuts in benefits and crippling deficits so let's make my ridiculous tax cuts for the wealthy permanent! Who's with me, rich folk in the room? I've laid out proposals for reforms to these programs, now I ask members of Congress to lay out their proposals punt! See how well you do telling people bad news! he he he

ok, I've sort of stopped listening now. He's just babbling about Iraq. I can't take any more.

From NYT :

Financial instruments like adjustable-rate and subprime mortgages have allowed millions of people to get homes they could not otherwise purchase, and research shows that most of these tools have been used intelligently.

Um... define "most". How about the billions in loans that are being defaulted on? And... the reason these folks couldn't otherwise buy these houses is because they couldn't afford them. and they are in danger of losing them. But the banks didn't care because they were going to package up the loans and sell them so they didn't actually take on the risk.

Hedge funds have proliferated to help investors manage risk. These things exist precisely because investors want to smooth out volatility. In the old days, a blow to, say, the Texas economy could have dried up lending in Texas, but now funds flow globally, and money from one part of the world can shore up weakness in another.

oh.. please.

He dared to dream. And nearly 45 years after this speech his dreams have not been completely fulfilled. Yes, 45 years later we have, for the first time, a black man and a woman as serious candidates for President. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy, indeed.

Change is difficult and will be fought at every turn by those routed in the status quo, but take his example that if you dare to dream it and will work hard for it.. things can change.

Maybe I should change the name of the this blog to Living Reflections of Doom and Gloom...

Since seeing Mort Zuckerman yesterday, I've been thinking about his credit default swap comment. I knew what a credit default swap was, but I hadn't really thought about. Well I've thought about it and then my eyes got big and then I went online.

First, if you don't know, read what aCredit Default Swap is.

What does this mean? In laymen's terms (Washington Post):

Because these contracts trade on unregulated derivatives markets, no one knows who holds the losing side. But it's a good guess that if defaults rise to historically normal levels, highly leveraged hedge funds will take a big hit.

The credit-default swap has become so central to global finance that its size is estimated at $43-trillion. If the losing side is unable to make good on even a fraction of a percent of those contracts, it could set in motion a chain reaction that could easily rival the subprime debacle.

Yeah, that's 43 Trillion. For comparison purposes, US GDP in 2006 was 13 Trillion.

Let's move on to the Wall Street Journal:

Bill Gross, chief investment officer at Allianz SE's Pacific Investment Management Co, or Pimco, recently told investors that if defaults in investment-grade and junk corporate bonds this year approach historical norms of 1.25% (versus a mere 0.5% in 2007), sellers of default insurance on such bonds could face losses of $250 billion on the contracts. That, he said, would equal the losses some expect in the subprime-mortgage arena.

And even more:

This isn't like life insurance or homeowners' insurance, which states regulate closely. It consists of financial contracts called credit-default swaps, in which one party, for a price, assumes the risk that a bond or loan will go bad. This market is vast: about $45 trillion, a number comparable to all of the deposits in banks around the world...

This market poses challenges for would-be regulators. It isn't clear, for instance, how securities laws on fraud and insider trading would apply to credit-default swaps, because it's not clear in what way they are even securities; they are private contracts...

The market for swaps has grown fivefold just since 2004. It has no publicly posted prices; the contracts are sold privately among dealers. The market began 12 years ago with insurance against defaults on corporate bonds, expanding in 2005 to mortgage securities...

And I really enjoyed this comparison to Katrina from The Coming Disaster in the Derivatives Market:

In truth, many experts believe the derivatives market rests on a number of very precarious assumptions that have yet to be tested.

And even then, the history of the derivatives market is replete with high-profile disasters. These include the 1994 bankruptcy of Orange County, one of California's richest, due to naïve investments in exotic derivatives; the 1995 failure of the 200-year old Barings Bank as a result of unauthorized futures and options trading by a rogue employee; the 1998 collapse of hedge fund Long Term Capital Management on the heels of ultra-leveraged bets gone wrong; and, the ongoing implosion at Fannie Mae, the nation's largest mortgage lender, because of derivative, accounting and other irregularities.

Up until now, none of these derivative-related hurricanes has breached the high-water levees of the U.S. and global financial systems. But as was the case with earlier, less destructive storms in the American Gulf Coast region, rather than decreasing the odds of a disaster, the relative calm of the past seemed to have inspired a false sense of security.

The more new stories I encounter about the economy, the more terrified I become.

I just watched my Tivo-ed copy of the McLaughlin Group where Mort Zuckerman said:

I think we are facing the worst financial crunch or crisis since the Great Depression. You have the entire banking system virtually frozen and not just the sub-prime mortgage thing, there are other things called credit default swaps where they are going to lose as much money - $250 billion - banks are frozen, they're not making loans because they have such huge debts that they have to take onto their balance sheets and nobody knows how to deal with that because you have a dramatic - you have 2 bubbles that have burst at the same time, the housing bubble, which has collapsed in this country, the first time since the great depression that housing values have gone down for a year and it's going to go down even more next year. The credit crunch - you've just exploded the whole credit system in this country. We were way over leveraged, the banking system was over leveraged. People didn't even know about it. The bankers didn't even know about it. They didn't assess the risk. Now the risk is piling in and everyone is going to pay the price. It's going to destimulate the economy. Nobody has money to lend. They are saving all their money to pay off their debts. They're borrowing money or looking at the rest of the world to enhance their capital and it's still not going to solve their problem.

Makes me want to just hide in the house and bunker down.

Chris Matthews makes an apology somehow seem like he's doing a good deed.

From the NYT

First hard-pressed Wall Street banks turned to rich foreign governments for help. Now, they are seeking aid from the likes of New Jersey and big mutual funds to bolster their weakened finances.

Citigroup and Merrill Lynch said on Tuesday that they were raising a combined $19.1 billion from parties that range from government-backed funds in Korea and Kuwait to New Jersey’s public pension fund and T. Rowe Price, the big mutual fund company. Other investors include a large bank in Japan, a hedge fund in New York and private investors in the Middle East.

While so-called sovereign wealth funds are investing the most, the emergence of new investors like New Jersey underscores the rising aversion on the part of United States banks to being seen as beholden to foreign governments. In recent months Citigroup, Merrill and several other banks have sold multibillion-dollar stakes to foreign government funds.

I don't know about you, but I don't think having our financial institutions being owned by foreign governments is a good thing. Won't that give them an immense amount of influence on our policy?

From mass.gov:

The Massachusetts Presidential Primary will be held on Tuesday, February 5, 2008.

Wednesday, January 16, 2008 is the last date to register to vote and change party enrollment for this primary.

As the excitement builds, if you wish to participate, you'll need to be registered to vote in the city or town where you live. (If you've moved to a different community recently, you'll need to re-register).

You can register in person, by mail, or even at the Registry of Motor Vehicles when you renew your driver's license:

How to register

Jim Rice: robbed again!

Republicans: McCain wins NH The Mac is back, indeed (and his speech was not that bad). Mitt is 0-2 and I couldn't be more pleased.

Democrats: Clinton and Obama, too close to call. Considering the Obamamania of the last 5 days, isn't being this close really a win for Hillary?
** Update ** Hillary wins and it looks like the ladies put her over the top.

p.s. can you tell one of my new years resolutions is to blog again rather than just think: I should blog this, and then not bother.

Interviewed on ABC's "Good Morning America," Clinton pointed out that Obama has portrayed himself as being outside the influence of special interests yet picked a New Hampshire lobbyist to co-chair his campaign in the state. She also accused him of changing positions on issues, even though he criticizes other candidates for the same thing.

"All of a sudden you start to ask yourself, Wait a minute. I mean, what is the substance here?" she said. "What, as famously was said years ago, where's the beef? You know, where is the reality?"

Hilary is proving she is the candidate of change by quoting the "where's the beef?" ad? When were those out, like 1983??

It's going to be a barnburner:

2 Boston Killers: Roga Clemens and Whitey henchman, John Martorano and Musharraf will be blaming Benazir Bhutto for her own death.

I can't wait.

And I'm also eagerly anticipating Clemens' testimony before Congress, should he decide to appear. Unless he really, really never did anything, he's fucked. If he appears, he's under oath. If he doesn't appear, he looks he's hiding something. Tee hee heee.. I'm sick, sick girl because I enjoy this so much.

Obama and Huckabee Triumph in Iowa

How much do I love that Romney didn't win? SO much. I can't stand that faker. My co-worker said yesterday: I feel like if he thought people liked pirates, he'd become a pirate to be elected.
And if the Republicans actually nominate Huckabee.. oh, what a gift - because, of the front runners, he is the biggest buffoon.

Too exciting.

Obama and Huckabee Triumph in Iowa

How much do I love that Romney didn't win? SO much. I can't stand that faker. My co-worker said yesterday: I feel like if he thought people liked pirates, he'd become a pirate to be elected.
And if the Republicans actually nominate Huckabee.. oh, what a gift - because, of the front runners, he is the biggest buffoon.

Interesting that young people were strongly for Obama. The kids wants change. I say almost anyone is better than what we've got, but maybe I'm just getting older and cynical.

Too exciting.

and so they face the final curtain.

Finally, upon us... the Iowa Caucuses. Thank the Lord because there are far too many lunatic candidates still taking up valuable news cycles. Huckabee digging on Romney. Romney and McCain digging on each other. Hillary and Obama: round 5,235. Poor John Edwards gets squished out of the headlines. So he stays up for 36 hours in a row to campaign? What does that prove? Guilianni takes a call from his wife during a speech. Does Joe Biden think that anyone believes that is his real hair? Ron Paul says the civil war was unnecessary. Did Huckabee really say people should hijack their church bus, if necessary, to get to the caucus (what is it about him that makes me think he never really thought he'd get this far and now he just wants the farce to end. Wasn't this a Robin Williams movie?) Can someone just put Fred Thompson out of his misery? The sad thing is, there are extremely serious issues facing the country and to me this process is farcical. This has got to stop! Somebody has to voted off the island and now, finally, some of them will go, if not tomorrow, then by Tues. ABC and Fox have decided to narrow the field already, only inviting candidates who poll above 5% or finish in the top 4 in Iowa, to Saturday night at the fights the Presidential Debates (Democratic and Republican: back to back on 1 night! Get the Tivo cranking - it's better than Melrose Place). Perhaps after all this buffoonery, after the dust settles a bit next Weds., we'll get down to serious business. But I'm not optimistic.

There is one thing that is exciting in all this: I heard on the radio that they expect approximately 2/3 of caucus goers to be new to the process. Now that warms my heart.

The First Annual Golden Duke awards, named in honor or iconic political crook Randy "Duke" Cunningham and awarded to the biggest political crooks, scoundrels and bamboozlers in six separate categories.

clap, clap, clap.

Also check out their List of Scandalized Administration Officials. Note: settle in for awhile. It's not a short list.

Trent Lott is resigning. Am I the only one thinking: what horrific scandal is he trying to avoid being discovered. This is a man who didn't resign over the Thurmond nonsense.

AND

Al Gore is going to the Whitehouse. Seems there is a little ceremony to congratulate Nobel Prize winners. I so want to see Bush's expression.

Last week Bill Cosby, this week Stephen Colbert.. where there was a pretense of Colbert's candidacy for the presidency being serious and it was laugh out loud funny (if you can put aside that it's supposed to be a news program, not satirical mockery - even if the mockery is well deserved)

I'm sure it's coming soon to You Tube, but you can catch it now at Crooks & Liars

Here is a preview:

Russert: The press reaction to your announcement has been mixed. Here is one headline. This was on Thursday. Electile disfunction. Colbert running for President.

Colbert: That's good work

Russert: Are they questioning, shall we say, your stamina?

Colbert: I don't know. I think a lot of people are asking whether.. they say: is this real? You know. To which I would say to everybody: This is not a dream. Ok. You're not going to wake up from this. I'm far realer than Sam Brownback. Let me put it that way.

Russert: Authenticity is important to the voter

Colbert: Absolutely. You've got to convey to them that you mean what you say, and you put some thought into what you do.

Russert: Many people in your family and you used to be: Col-bert. You are now Col-bear.

Colbert: Yeah

Russert: I would be Rus-sair?

Colbert: Ru-sair.. Ru-Sair, yup

Russert: Ok. Seasame Street. There are 2 characters. Ernie and... { brings out an Bert doll }

Colbert: Bert. Ernie and Bert

Russert: So why aren't you Colbert?

Colbert: Are you saying that I don't have the right to drop the T in my name? Are you saying that? Last time I checked this was America. Or does that not mean anything to you anymore?

Russert: Why not call him Bear?

Colbert: Because that is his choice, you have to ask him. I dare you ask him. Right now.

If you'd ask me if I thought I'd ever see an Ernie doll on the Meet the Press, I would have gone with no and I would never have thought Russert had comedy in him.

but the view was all fogged up.

is WILLARD?!

I read it in the Economist, so it must be true. Seriously, how did I not know this? How hilarious.

In November 2000, I spent a torturous night.. watching Tim Russert and his white board, calculating votes in the electoral college. It was almost beyond my comprehension that this election could be close. George W. Bush was so clearly out of his league (literally! He should have stayed in the league whose initials are MLB), it was inconceivable the election could go against Gore. I was distraught, devestated, and dismayed with my fellow Americans and scared for our future.

Bush has been 1000 times worse than anything I could ever have imagined. I would list the fiascos, but it would take too long.

And today, I heard on This Week that a majority of people have finally had it with these baffoons.. according to a survey by the American Research Group

46% of voters believe impeachment proceedings should begin against Bush

50% of voters believe impeachment proceedings should begin against Cheney!
{can someone who won't admit being part of the executive branch (while claiming executive priviledge to avoid turning over documents, no less - even be impeached?? ha!}

These numbers strike me as extremely high. It's one thing to not approve of the guy, but full on impeachment? Were the polls on Nixon this high? And while I would love nothing more than to send this crew packing... and they certainly deserve the boot, but didn't we just do that to the last president? Doesn't anyone remember how disruptive that was? Don't you know it will take the rest of the time he's here? Though I guess we'd have a President Pelosi if we got both impeached. Hmmm... Go Nancy!

When I go to the gym, my viewing selections are limited to the stations the gym choses to display. One of these stations is MSNBC, a suppossed 24 hours news channel. For a few minutes, they did discuss news. There was a segment on the immigration bill and analysis from republican and democratic strategists. So far so good. Toward the end of the segment the host cuts off the discussion, but leaves it with one final comment: we have only a few seconds, do either of you have something profound to say? To which one replies: at least we aren't talking about Paris Hilton. Both strategists laugh and there is a pause, then we hear the host say: well, that will be the last word because we've run out of time and we need to move on to talk about you know who. When we return from commerical, there she is, the tearful Paris. I can not contain my eye roll. I sort of laugh at the irony of this event, until I realize that this is not going to be a 30 second Paris update. No.. this is going to be a 20 minute segment on Paris returning to jail, with guests to debate both sides of the issue. Was the judge right? Does the sherriff have a history of being easy on celebrities? Is this is JOKE? This is not news! This is a spoiled brat who broke the law, then broke her probation, and drove with a suspended license. The next segment is about a school who sent a note home to parents requesting that no limos be used to bring kids to their 6th grade graduation. My mouth hangs open. In what universe is it normal for a limo to be involved in a 6th grade graduation? Then we have an interview with a parent of one of the students. He says at first he was amused, but then when he thought about it, he didn't see a big problem with a limo: "after all, it could provide some quality, game boy free, family time and where else are you going to get that"? In my head I'm continuing his statement: other than the back of a limo? Is this guy hearing himself? Clearly not because he adds on to his thought by saying: "unless there is an Xbox in the limo".
Al this on a news channel. Are these people aware there is a war going on? That global warming is a real threat? That 40 million people in this country don't have health care? There are real issues to be aware of and discuss and we peddle in this garbage.

Recently someone forwarded me this email:

Would not hurt to give it a try, right...?!!

>> NO GAS...On May 15th 2007

>> Everybody: Don't pump gas on may 15th

>> Everybody: ..in April 1997, there was a 'gas out' conducted nationwide in protest of gas prices. Gasoline prices dropped 30 cents a gallon overnight.>>

>> On May 15th 2007, all internet users are to not go to a gas station in>> protest of high gas prices. Gas is now over $3.00 a gallon in most places.>>

>> There are 73,000,000+ American members currently on the internet network, and the average car takes about 30 to 50 dollars to fill up.>

>> If all users did not go to the pump on the 15th, it would take $2,292,000,000.00 (that's almost 3 BILLION) out of the oil companys' pockets for just one day, so please do not go to the gas station on May 15th and lets try to put a dent in the Middle Eastern oil industry for at least one day.>>

>> If you agree (which I cant see why you wouldnt) resend this to all your contact list. With it saying, ''Don't pump gas on May 15th'

So we should not buy gas on 1 day to protest high gas prices? Ahem, this concept makes no sense. It just means people will buy gas the day before or day after instead and somehow feel good about themselves.

We should each be making a permanent commitment to driving the smallest, most fuel efficient car we possibly can, to not driving when we can walk or bike, to sharing rides when we can, to taking public transportation as much as possible, to supporting the development of alternative fuel sources that makes sense (NOT corn based ethanol). Only long term behavior change will get us out of the environmental and geo-political mess we've created. It's starts with you... today.

and their friends, family, faculty members and staff of Virginia Tech: my heart hurts for you and I can't even begin to express my sorrow and horror at what you have experienced and for what remains for you to go through.

In case you've been under a rock (or just watching the marathon or the Red Sox) all day:

Thirty-three people were killed and at least 30 injured during a shooting rampage this morning at Virginia Tech, making it the deadliest mass shooting in U.S. history.

Let's just say I don't ever want to hear the words "student" and "execution style" used in the same sentence again. Nor do I wish to hear students describe watching out a window, police go into a building and bring out what they assumed were bodies.

Somewhere out there someone knows who this shooter was. Someone out there must have seen some signs of the planning. That someone out there should come forward and give these poor parents some concept of what happened to their child.

It's even better than just this clip. Read the whole transcript

Standing the kitchen at work today with a few co-workers, CNN was on in the background: Wolf Blitzer, In the Situation Room. They began a report on the 5 million (5 million!) missing White House emails. People stared at the television, then in unison burst out laughing. Comments came fast and furious:

Who do these baffoons think they are fooling?
Why do they think anyone believe anything they say on any topic?
Is Bush's middle name Nixon?
Don't they have any redundency? Wouldn't these emails be on more than one server? {we are a software company after all}
No, they are out back having a massive bonfire of the servers...

But I won't soon forget that initial burst of laughter at the report because it was so telling.. this administration has no credibility, none!

According to this anyway: Imus Fired: NBC Couldn't Maintain An "Inclusive Work Environment" With Imus On The Payroll

A later post says he's fired from MSNBC, but not CBS. Not sure what that means.. that he won't be on tv, but remains on the radio? Blech..

And shame, shame, shame on all the mainstream media sticking up for him. Imus is on when I'm at the gym in the am. I see these journalists coming on his show to shill for their programs or magazines. I'm sure they also get paid for their appearences. Sick, sick, sick to put themselves ahead of what is right. Can you believe I just wrote that? You'd think I was unaware of how the world worked, but still.. I'm filled with happiness that he has gotten the boot.

Bush Choice for Family-Planning Post Criticized

The Bush administration has appointed a new chief of family-planning programs at the Department of Health and Human Services who worked at a Christian pregnancy-counseling organization that regards the distribution of contraceptives as "demeaning to women."

Keroack, an obstetrician-gynecologist, will advise Secretary Mike Leavitt on matters such as reproductive health and adolescent pregnancy. He will oversee $283 million in annual family-planning grants that, according to HHS, are "designed to provide access to contraceptive supplies and information to all who want and need them with priority given to low-income persons."

Jeez Louise... giving women contraceptives isn't demeaning, it's empowering and that is what conservatives are really afraid of.

Yeeeeeeehaaaaawwwwww.... because if Americans voted GOP this year I would have seriously feared for their sanity (ok, I actually do have that fear because how else can you explain 2004?). Le

Let's Review the outcome

Democrats run the House

Democrats are currently in a tie in the Senate with 2 races still undecided (in VA: Macaca Finkelstein vs. the Misogynist - of course that had to come down to the wire. I don't think I could vote for either of them if I lived there)

There will be a female Speaker of the House (No matter what you think of her personally or her politics... you go girl, break up that old boys club!)

South Dakota abortion ban defeated (a ban that had no exceptions, even for the life of the mother. Thank you citizens of South Dakota for not making a bunch of cells more important than the fully grown female that houses them)

I feel like it's 1992 and there is hope once again. Now let's hope the Democrats can get some sort of coherent platform together.. and for God's sake, don't let John Kerry run for President. Tie him down if you have to!

I am SO excited about this election! I voted at 7:15 am and can't wait for the rest of the results.

Here we go...
it's 8:30 and already MA has it's first black governor and the first Democrat in 16 years. wo-ho! And I'm proud to say we're breaking voting records for turnout..

I had a coughing fit while watching Bush last Sunday on This Week. Does he not understand how many times he said stay the course on tape?

Kristian Menchaca and Thomas Tucker

Two American patriots who died doing what they believed in. They were 23 and 25 years old, I repeat 23 and 25.. their entire lives lay before them. Instead their lives ended brutally, so brutally that their remains have to be flown back to the US to be DNA tested. All I can think is it didn't need to be that way and when is enough enough?

A commenter left me a comment on the rational behind the war. First it was Saddam was in with Al Quida (false), then it was Saddam had WMD's (big fat lie) and now it's that we're spreading democracy to the region. Right. Tell me why anyone should do what we say they should. Check us out on any criteria: democracy (bought off by big business and special interests), care of it's citizens (20% of us don't have health insurance, we couldn't take care of the citizens of New Orleans before, during or after the storm), adherance to standards of good behavior (genova convention is "quaint"), taking care of the planet (we are 5% of the worlds population, yet we use 35 -30% of the natural resource). And people wonder why they hate us. We need to change direction dramatically.

Open Net

Most important, as Stanford Law Professor Lawrence Lessig has argued, the Internet is not only a tool for economic growth, it is also a public commons for the exchange of ideas. It is where Americans can not only search for the best deal on a new digital camera, but also debate the country's future. Unlike t