When A Christian Can Reach Out to Muslims - America Wins

While there is a possibility that someone in the Clinton camp may have deliberately circulated a photo of Obama to make people think he is a Muslim when he is in fact a Christian, I think it shows that Mr. Obama is a Christian who can reach out to Muslims and other faiths.

This ability by an American leader – to reach across religious lines - is something incredibly valuable in our future domestic and foreign policy. Our country was founded on the principle of treating all religions equally.

Recent polls confirm the need for this. Researchers say that many Americans change religions just as we change spouses and jobs. America needs a leader that can reach out to all religions worldwide, including Muslims. That is what that photo means to me. Even Bush has “gone tribal” in dress, and gotten into the cultural swing when on the world Presidential tour.

On the international front, it turns out that Pakistan blocked the Internet over YouTube–and shut down YouTube on the Global Net over something they deemed offensive that most of us didn’t even know existed. It raises the issue of internet control when any country can shut down a website for a country (and the world) over one item out of billions someone doesn’t like. Imagine if the Internet was shut down every time someone posted something stupid about the Pope. A change is needed in the Global Internet Protocol to prevent future “YouTube” and other website censorship by governments.

Finally, and important, it turns out that high Mideast Oil prices are also hurting the Middle Class and poor in the Mideast – causing riots and more instability in an already unstable region. People feel their governments are corrupt and the oil wealth is not “trickling down” to them. It’s true. Part of the problem is that countries like Syria allows Monopolies on imports—one company/family controls oil; one controls food, etc.

This poses major trouble ahead for the U.S. But it is also a major opportunity for economic changes that need to be addressed to eliminate the import monopolies that make people pay too much for basics like food, clothing, etc. The next American President must seize this challenge and opportunity.

I believe Mr. Obama does have the unique credentials and broad appeal to meet these global challenges and find solutions. The ability to reach out across religious as well as racial lines instead of “my way or the highway” will be the next President’s greatest strength.

The DARK Oscars - and America at its Best

What a contrast between America at its worst and best. Our movies are so dark the directors should be submitting to psyche tests. Yet our Presidential race involving the first woman and African American making history is America at its best.

Over the weekend I saw "Vantage Point," a sort of "Groundhog Day from the View of Everyone including the Groundhog" about a Presidential assassination attempt, with a twist. Before the movie I saw all the previews. Every one was DARK, violent and downright vapid.

It's no wonder Osama bin laden thinks we are a soulless bunch (now our movies are just as mindless and violent as he is). Even the theater's ad "not to be rude in the theater" was rude, strange and violent. It started with a scene of a woman putting her kid to bed, then "famous" director Martin Scorsese (sp?) walks on the set and starts talking trash that was violent, twisted nothingness. It would be enough to get him handcuffed for being verbally abusive towards a woman and child. It wasn't smart. It wasn't clever. It was just total crap. It was not anything brilliant or remotely intelligent.

Maybe it is just like the times we have been living in, neither brilliant nor intelligent. I saw "There will Be Blood" and saw nothing deserving of an Oscar other than the Marfa countryside - but that wasn't worth 3 hours of watching a greedy jerk cheat and kill people. It was a total waste of a beautiful weekend afternoon. So, forget the Oscars - until Hollywood starts making films worth watching. The only one people seem to like is "JUNO" but I'm about 40 years too old to relate to it.

So I have been making phone calls for Mr. Obama and have discovered some fascinating things. I'm finding Republican ladies voting Democratic. I called a lady last night who told me she was a Christian Republican -- and she was trying to choose between Hillary and Obama!

She did say that she didn't think any candidate was addressing her on a religious basis, not even McCain (she didn't even mention Huckabee). After our call, she's now going to vote for Obama. Hispanics are starting to swing the same way.

I'm trying to figure out Hillary. One day its nice Jekyll. The next its the raging Hyde. Then its back to Jekyll. It's making folks dizzy.

What a weird, fascinating and wonderful Presidential year. The race is the only "movie" worth watching.

Mistreating Vets - and Voters

Bush world has always claimed to support vets but the neglect at Walter Reed in DC has now been joined with another broken promise - vets who hoped to earn citizenship are kept waiting for months while some bureaucrat worries about their name being potentially similar to someone on a terror list.

How insane is that - thinking an American vet might really be a terrorist from that list!?

While the Bushies mistreat vets who believed their sacrifice on the front lines in Afghanistan and Iraq, Ralph Nader is about to do the same to voters. Talk about insanity - he got less vote in the last race (0.3%) than Ron Paul is polling today!

Its all about narcissist Ralph, who I predict will get even less vote this time. This is not 2000 when Ralph's run cost Al Gore Florida by siphoning enough votes to give Bush the 200 vote lead he used to claim Florida, and the White House.

Mr. Obama and even Mr. McCain both attract independents, so this is not a race that favors any independent, be it Mr. Bloomberg, Ron Paul or Nader.

Even the independents in Texas, who worked for Nader (and me) in 2004, have come out in favor of Mr. Obama. They learned that it is better to pick one of the major candidates to support instead of lining up behind a lost cause like Ralph Nader, who has become a sad joke, just like the Bush support for our troops.

Another sad joke is the YouTube video of two Serb girls shoplifting in Belgrade after the U.S. Embassy was torched after being broken into, along with nearby shops, during the protests over Kosovo's independence. Makes me glad Kosovo is now independent of such jerks.

Star Wars has Arrived - & Two Telling Questions No One Asked President candidates - yet

Star Wars is now operational. The Pentagon successfully shot down a dead satellite 100 miles up which had gone dead after its launch still filled with deadly hydrazine and spy stuff.

My question is this: Can they match the Chinese, who shot down one of their weather satellites at 500 miles in orbit? There is a big difference between hitting something at 100 miles and 500 miles. The problem with that is the danger from debris from a 500 mile explosion would jeopardize the safety of future Shuttle flights and space station missions since that debris is not likely to fall back into earth and burn up.

Another question: Does Russia also have the ability to knock out orbiting satellites or incoming missiles? Our future is dependent on the answer.

Other big changes. I just saw on the Today show the blocks of condos in Miami that are in foreclosure. They are calling it the "foreclosure district." Europeans with Euros are snapping them up at 50 cents on the dollar. With it taking $1.50 to buy 1 euro that means are prices are so low for the Europeans that we have become their "Mexico" in terms of purchasing power.

The fiscal mismanagement of our government, mortgage scams and trade imbalance have become a financial bonanza for international investors who can now buy up American assets on the cheap --basically 75% off with our currency devaluation. Meanwhile, while your American kids and grand kids are stuck with paying off trillions in war debt, with nothing in return.

So, we can shoot down satellites at the same time we have shot ourselves in the head financially and are selling billions of assets at fire sale prices to offshore investors.

You can thank our leadership the last 7 years for allowing this situation to develop. It's time for a big change.

But which candidates represent real change?

But which candidates who want to replace Mr. Bush represent real change?

No one in the press or at one of the debates has asked Hillary Clinton about the news reports of her husband getting a $30 million contribution to his foundation from the man who flew the former President to Kazakhstan on a private jet to be introduced to the Kazakhstan dictator - and getting a contract despite his lack of experience.

Question 1: If Hillary is President, what kind of million dollar deals will Bill be doing for hire with other dictators globally? How can she champion democracy and fairness when Bill has been doing crony deals globally for hire, just like the Bush clan?

Regarding the surprise revelation about Mr. McCain, a question. (1) How come none of the press have asked him if he (a) had or (b) had not flown to meetings on private jets with the female lobbyist onboard? That's a lot different than just bumping into someone at a public meeting. Where is the change if McCain also has a "Monica" problem?

These questions have yet to be asked or answered by those who want to be our President under the banner of "change."

Pakistan, Cuba, Iran - Reformers are Starting to Win

The good news is that free and fair elections were held in nuclear Pakistan -- and the religious parties lost big-time, as did President Musharraf whose party received less than half of Mr. Sharif's party.

While the Bush administration pinned all their hopes on Mr. Musharraf winning, they should instead be happy that democracy happened -- and the extremists lost, despite reports of the tribal areas preventing women from voting. Pakistanis are sick of the extremists coming out of the hills and killing people for no reason.

To their great credit, Pakistani's chose the more liberal and progressive voices. That means that the nuclear issue has improved considerably from what could have happened had extremists been the vote of choice.

The other good news is that Fidel Castro is "out" (he looks like a walking ghost,) and even his brother Raul is an improvement that could begin the process of taking Cuba out of the 1950's. Young people in Cuba want "change" (meaning the Internet, opportunity, jobs, choices, etc.)
Raul Castro is more open to reforms than Fidel would ever allow. When Raul put economic reforms in motion, Fidel withdrew them. Those days are over.

Finally, a third good thing is that Iran is actually allowing reformist candidates on the ballot this time (after knocking them off last time). So, progress is possible even in Iran.

An American friend who does business in Pakistan and travels there often tells me that Bhutto's killing sparked a huge sympathy vote, yet her party only got 20 more seats than Mr. Sharif. So, our guys should be happy to let democracy take its place.

After all, it would look hypocritical for the President, as he has done, to demand "Free and Fair Elections" in Cuba, and yet ignore the free and fair people's choice of new leadership in Pakistan (or Gaza and Venezuela, even when you don't like who the people pick)...

Pakistan's Mr. Musharraf is not as indispensable as the administration thinks. He is expendable and has had his turn at the wheel since 1999.

It is democracy that is indispensable...

Is America Really Getting “Dumber”?

Are you smarter than a 5^th grader? Is America really getting “dumber” as some claim?

Are some of us “proud” of being uninformed about things like the “smarter than a 5^th grader” contestant who has written books yet thought Europe was a country?

Should we be proud that our people are experts on eating fatty foods and the details of Britney’s latest meltdown, Rush hour rage, trivia on Harry Potter and sports figures who did or did not use the latest performance-enhancing illegal drugs, but haven’t got a clue about the countries where billions of our dollars go every year to buy gas, toys with lead paint and tainted drugs?

What does this portend for our future as a superpower?

Within the past two years we have had Congressional leaders who did not know that Muslims are split between Shiite and Sunnis and who hate each other as much or more than the Irish Catholics and Protestants did in their time. We elected a President in 2000 who had been in only three countries and whose administration under John Ashcroft actually cut millions from counter-terrorism funding before 9/11 on the assumption that it wasn’t a priority.

To have future leaders with real world knowledge and strategy we will have to have an American public more attuned to the world than pictures of Princess Di in Paris. We don’t have to read 600 page novels but reading The Economist from London would be informative and a good start.

When 5^th graders know more about the world than adults writing books, and our leadership, we are in trouble. Our ignorance will not help us maintain our superior standard of living.

The proof is that imprudent decisions are coming home to roost. Our trillions in petro-dollars have made it easier for Dubai to buy Wall Street than get a contract to manage our ports. The Euro has gained so much against the dollar that U.S. stores now take Euros as payment (a first) and the Taj Mahal tourist mecca in India no longer takes dollars (also a first). Our dollar has sunk along with the housing bust, the sub-prime mess, and as the Iraq conflict has yielded a $1 trillion IOU to the folks in China, Dubai, etc. At the minimum we’ll need to learn to say “Thank you” in Chinese and Arabic.

The silver lining is that our exports are now cheaper – but that requires a people with global knowledge and skills. Not too many negotiations in Europe will hinge on your details of baseball history – but could on European soccer and the latest technology available.

Big changes are happening around us, America. Castro is out as “President” of Cuba, Musharraf just lost his party base in nuclear Pakistan, Russia has become rich and aggressive and the even richer Chinese are allowing Darfur killing to happen as they take Sudan's oil -- while our leadership cuts $200 million from the African Peacekeeping forces just before the President’s trip. So, Africans are increasingly more likely to die from rebel bullets in Sudan or ethnic knives in Kenya than AIDS. All of this will affect our American future. Our oil comes from these areas, and so does potential terrorism.

All of us better know more than the 5^th graders to keep from losing any more of our superpower status. Personally, I’m hoping the Pentagon folks have enough math and science to shoot down hazardous space satellites – instead of our international space station!

Who Should Gov Perry Pick as Next DA?

Yesterday Houston District Attorney Chuck Rosenthal finally did the right thing and resigned. The question now is: "Who should Governor Perry Pick as Interim DA?"

He should pick someone who is NOT running as a candidate, so that the choice will be between the Republican and Democrat voters in the primaries which are merely a couple weeks away. We don't need one candidate getting a "leg up" on the others. We need to see what the true voters choices are.

So, Governor Perry should respect that democratic virtue and pick an interim District Attorney who is not from that office and who is not a 2008 candidate. He should pick someone with known ethical values who will restore to the DA's office a public perception of fairness, equality, and justice --and pursued by that important criminal justice office in the same way.

But then, I'm beginning to wonder if leaders are more focused on their own ambitions and "win at any cost" than the perception of fairness and moral authority in their actions. It's time for them to let the people make this call since the election date is upon us.

It's time for people to demand responsiveness from their representatives - "or they will be removed." If they don't, then voters should "Just DO IT --remove the dead wood who are not paying attention to the pubic instead of their own pocket or ego. Voters need to show the resolve to remove non-responsive reps (and not elect more like them). Californians have done it, surely Texans can.

We'll see what Governor Perry chooses in his replacement District Attorney for a city that has suffered major damage to its criminal justice system -- and that's not just a perception when belonging to a particular Church can get you barred from jury duty.

Changing the Rules in the 3rd Quarter

A bug hit me last night so I've had time to lie in bed and read too much news for my own good.

The Pentagon is going to try to shoot down the dead satellite that never worked and therefore is fully fueled with a half ton of deadly hydrazine. Since the Chinese shot down one of their satellites with a missile, this looks like a good reason to test the U.S. system. Let's just hope they can do it on the first try, instead of having to outsource it to the Chinese!

I see that Hillary wants to change the rules in the 3rd quarter of the ballgame. Now that she's behind in delegates she wants to "count" the votes in Florida and Michigan (where she won), which had changed their primary dates against party rules and so their votes weren't counted as a penalty.

If this is how the Clinton's do business, it is yet another reason to break the Bush-Clinton- Bush-Clinton lock on the White House and get someone totally new as President.

It looks like a McCain-Obama duel in the fall - which definitely breaks the Bush-Clinton endless loop and offers a clear choice on our future. Neither one of them has called for a rule change in the 3rd quarter.

Personally, I'm going with Mr. Obama, since the thought of another "100 years" in Iraq doesn't make sense to me. In a recent poll. nearly 50% of the American voters said the best way to save billions would be to exit Iraq - that's a $170 billion savings in just one year.

Odd political questions in District 22

Today at lunch a friend of mine told me that she had received a phone call from someone polling for the Republican Party of Ft. Bend for the District 22 race, formerly Tom DeLay's seat now held by Nick Lampson.

One of the questions asked was: "Do you consider yourself in Evangelical Christian, OR a Catholic?"

What? My friend immediately informed the caller that Catholics are also Christians, since the pollsters seemed to think otherwise.

What is going on?

When my friend, who had voted in prior GOP primaries, was then asked to choose which of the 10 people running for Texas District 22 as a Republican she didn't name anyone. Before the young lady calling hung up, my friend asked her: "How are you going to label me?"

The answer was: "Undecided." At that point my friend (a "woman of a certain age") said: "Oh, to the contrary, I HAVE decided who to vote for."

Apparently she is voting for the only candidate left who knows that a Catholic is also a Christian. That would be Nick Lampson.

Stay tuned. It can only get weirder.

First GLOBAL Primary in U.S. Election history

For the first time ever, we are having a GLOBAL primary, at least among Democrats who live overseas and are getting a chance to vote in over 33 countries. Te turnout has been off the charts from London to New Delhi, mirroring the unusually high turnout in the U.S.

Good - with the dollar sinking to new lows so that it is no longer accepted by the Taj Mahal tourist attraction in India and U.S. stores now accepting the higher value Euro, it is good that we have voters with international viewpoints weighing in on this important election.

No word on why Republicans aren't doing the same thing.

Amsterdam to Shut Down Red Light District - After 500 years in business

Since the 15th century, Amsterdam has had a legal "red light" district and legal drugs. But now there is a move to shut down the sex trade, replacing sex shops with designer clothes shops. Two thirds of the city's residents approve of the plan.

Meanwhile, Rowan Williams, the archbishop of Canterbury can't figure out why everyone went ballistic over his statement that Islamic "Sharia Law" should apply in England. I guess he figures we needed some reality therapy about "casting the first stone" (as in stoning to death adulterers, etc.).

Now if someone in Europe decides to get "stoned," it may be a whole new experience...(the only good pun is a bad pun).

Not to be left out, the Pope has issued a new prayer calling on Jews "to recognize Jesus." Perhaps because Muslims recognize Jesus as a prophet the Jews should do the same - never mind that it contradicts the foundations of Judaism.

I guess he missed the interfaith meetings.

So we now a combination of too much tolerance and too much intolerance -- existing in the same planet at the same time.

The world is changing...stay tuned.

Texas Vote Finally Counts - The Choice is Clear

The Texas vote finally counts for once. Our March 4 primary will help pick a Presidential nominee. Instead of being a "rubber stamp" or "protest vote," it will really count this time.

Our primary will help decide where we stand on the candidate best suited to represent America on the world stage. Our image around the world has no where to go but up. The choice is clear.

For years, I thought that the Clinton's were unfairly treated by extremist Republicans like Tom DeLay.

But then I saw them use the same tactics on a fellow Democrat who had taken the lead. You see the real person -- not when they are ahead of the game -- but when they are falling short or caught off guard. When I first ran as a surprise to the powerful, wealthy Mr. DeLay in 2000, he didn't even have campaign signs since no one had opposed him in years. So his people stole mine -- despite the fact I had little money and little chance. If you have to cheat even when you would win without it, that tells you something about a person.

The Clinton's tactics against Mr. Obama showed me how absolutely absolute power can corrupt "absolutely." Hillary has put $5 million "of her own money" into her campaign. How does a civil servant for 35 years have $5 million? Then we discover former President Clinton pulled in over $30 million to a foundation from a guy he flew with on a private jet to Kazakhstan -- to praise a dictator and get a big contract. Having $30 million in the bank is like Mr. Romney and his $250 million trying to buy an election. It doesn't work that way.

We need someone who knows what the average Americans' budget is like.

America should not be a third world country that passes the Presidency from family elite to family elite: from Bush/Clinton/BushII/ClintonII/BushIII, etc.

Bush's flaw was that loyalty was more important than competence. Clintons' flaw is that power has distorted their moral compass. When a former President praises a dictator to secure contracts for people who then put $30 plus million into his foundation, well, it doesn't pass the smell test.

Do we really need MORE of this the next four years? I would think 8 years of this same stuff happening in the Bush world would be enough for Americans to stomach.

Even Mr. McCain would be a break from that. (It shows how bizarre the Limbaughs and Coulters have made the GOP when they attack and reject a POW veteran --McCain-- as "not being conservative enough." Even weirder, they do the same to religious conservative Mike Huckabee. How strange is that? Who are these people? How dare they condemn a guy who actually went to war, unlike their critics. Perhaps Mr. Limbaugh is still having withdrawal from the Oxycontin. Ms. Coutler proves that you can be pretty ugly and repugnant despite your looks. Their extremism drives decent people away from the Republican party. It certainly has driven me away.

I have decided that the best break is to go with TOTAL CHANGE. I have decided to endorse Barack Obama.

No more Bush holdovers in a McCain administration. No more Clinton II administrations that add up to over 20 years of two families running our White House. No more spouses or kids of former Presidents passing the oval office as if it were a baton. No Jeb Bush running against a Clinton four years from now.

Stop!

Only Mr. Obama gives us "something completely different" for our future. It is best for our country. It is best for our future as a fresh democracy with new faces and new ideas...

Shoot-out at the (Super Tuesday) OK Corral - Making Prez history

Photos: Grandma Schneider, center, 100 years old. Flanked by daughters Ardella (L) and Ardeen. Snow covered aircraft at Minn-St. Paul Airport

Made it back from frigid Minnesota, after moving fast to avoid an incoming ice/freezing rain/snow storm front. They had to de-ice our plane but it was only an hour late taking off.

It's 50 degrees warmer here. Yes! Thank God I DIDN'T have to drive on ice or freezing rain in the dark from Mason City to Minneapolis at 6 am yesterday. Those who stayed found the Mason airport shut down due to fog and had to drive the 120 miles to Minneapolis-St. Paul airport in falling ice/snow to get out.

But the storm hit the airport before the flight left. Snow began falling hard. One guy saw me film a plane loading passengers that was covered with snow, and asked if I'd never seen an airplane before. LOL.

As a pilot, you are trained to know that snow and ice can kill you when taking off. I told him that seeing a dozen snow plows disappearing in a white-out was an unusual sight for someone living in Houston, which hit the high 70's on the same day a Minnesota airport worker stood perched in 25 degree weather in a crane basket hoisted on a truck sprayed de-icing chemicals on aircraft just before take off.

Remembering the Weather channel special about the Florida 90 aircraft that crashed into the Potomac in DC in 1982 due to pilot error and failure to de-ice the aircraft properly, I was quite happy to be delayed an hour while they de-iced our aircraft.

On the other side of the planet, the Chinese are still freezing and running out of food on trains stuck in the worst snow in over 50 years. Their entire power grid went down because power poles were placed so far apart that the weight of the ice and snow easily brought them down. Penny wise and pound foolish - and now millions are without power in extreme temperatures.

In Iraq, Al Qaida has stooped so low as to use mentally disabled women -- with someone else pulling the trigger remotely -- as human bombs. No wonder that even the extreme Sunnis became disgusted by Al Qaida's low regard for even Muslim life.

Meanwhile, Africa from Chad to Kenya is starting to burn with ethnic killings, and worldwide there is a "surge" in extremism in religions, including Hindus, etc. The Economist wrote a fine article on the extreme intolerance that is growing everywhere.

Even the Chinese government has decreed that the Dalai Lama "shall not reincarnate without State permission." Yikes, I guess that in China, with a rapidly growing religious body searching for something more then atheism, that "no second coming" is allowed without State permission.

But is that any more crazy then the people supporting our administration that wanted Iraq to set up a biblical Armageddon? All of this sets the stage for difficult days ahead unless we have fresh leadership with the ability to tone things down -- because instability in other parts of the world does impact our economy, as when wars slow oil production and people kill each other at the cost of their own tourism and trade. Who wants to tour Kenya to see people being cut with knives?

All of this brings us to this "Super Tuesday." The next President will have to deal with all of these messes on January 20, 2009 -- not just part of it. All of it. I think any of the remaining three potential Presidents (Obama/Clinton/McCain) would be more skilled than what we have had for the last 7 years. We can do better than the guy on vacation more focused on chopping wood and his agents more focused on how their shirts looked on TV than the people drowning in New Orleans during Katrina.

This year, the Democrat nominee will still be up in the air in our Texas March 4 primary, while the GOP nod looks wrapped up by McCain, so no big mystery there.

The real history is going to be made by Democrats -- either the first Presidential candidate nominee who happens to be a woman, or the first Presidential nominee who happens to be black. Versus the seven or so white guys on the GOP side -- not even a woman among them. That is the great thing about America in a world where it is usually the same elites trading seats.

It's exciting to have a real election for a change. Turnout is immense. It's great -- unlike what is happening in Kenya, Chad, Russia, China, etc.

Our next President will have to deal with all of this -- as well as fix our economic disaster from years of running a war on borrowed money and a corrupt housing financing system that got out of hand. Like the Titanic, our leaders pushed the limits despite reports of icebergs ahead.

This is America at its BEST. Stay tuned world.

The $20 Million License Plate

Want to know where your gas money is going? In Dubai, someone just bought a vanity license plate for $20 million. Congratulate yourself for that the next time you are filling up that giant SUV (which may or may not have vanity plates, purchased for peanuts in comparison).

The President's suggestion? He told the Saudi's "Pump more." That was his strategy.

OK. That strategy means that the next Dubai guy may raid his petty cash drawer and pay $40 million for his vanity plate, no problem! At $100 barrel oil, with China and India's energy demands growing, it's a sellers market. The prices are staying up even with a U.S. recession, which used to drop the price in the days of old.

The "bust" part of the old "boom-and-bust" cycle has gone out of the oil business in this energy-short world. And supplies won't improve with political chaos in oil countries like Iraq and Nigeria shutting down production -- and emerging ones in the Sudan, Chad, etc. In Nigeria, kidnapping oil workers has become a business in itself. It provides income in an oil rich area where people have none.

Outside this hotel room in Iowa it is 18 degrees. But our lack of a national, rational energy strategy to increase efficiencies could make us feel that bone-chilling weather even more. Our wallets will be feeling it, and feeding the vanity license market in the Middle East for decades to come.

On the personal front, Grandmother's 100th birthday party was held in a little VFW hall in a place called Garner. She was feeling well and looked great in her red sweater. Over 100 descendants were present.

One son said last night that she was so fired up that she wanted to keep talking even when her own kids were worn out and dragging (as I was after a big dinner and hours of catching up with other relative not seen in years). Grandma was the energizer bunny yesterday, wearing out her own kids! LOL.

Snow is piled up everywhere. Ethanol plants, Casinos that pay $4,500 for each student who graduates from high school, and new "windmill farms" have sprouted a countryside that had only corn when I was a kid living here decades ago. Switchgrass might be the new crop of the 21st century, since it provides 4 times more energy than Ethanol made with corn. Brazil does it with sugarcane.

We need more windmills and other alternatives to compete with $20 million vanity license plates.

The weather is going down, 3 inches of snow is predicted, so its time to bail out for a 2 hour drive in deteriorating conditions, or I'll miss the early morning flight tomorrow...

Peacekeeping Failure -Crisis. America lacks global strategy - China doesn't

All hell is breaking out in Chad and Americans are being told to leave as soon as possible. What is so crazy is the statement: "the fighting is keeping Peacekeeping forces from being deployed."

What? Peacekeeping forces can't be deployed because of fighting in the area? How useless is that? That is what peacekeeping forces should be doing - DEPLOYING and shooting if necessary to stop the madness as these countries break down.

In this case, we have rebel forces from Sudan (which has OIL the Chinese are buying up bigtime) going into Chad - which is newly discovered OIL and a dictator who was taking bribes for his oil.

It's a power struggle and our government is not a player because we have never had a global strategy, unlike the leadership in China, which is buying up chunks of natural resources in Africa and South America. Our guys are again sleeping at the wheel while leaders in emerging giants China and India are harvesting the world's energy resources to grow in the 21st century.

And we can't even get an American administration with an energy strategy much less a world energy strategy! It's overdue.

P.S. Granny made it to 100 yesterday. It's 23 degrees and will be "13" tonight. I may turn into a statue. The Happy Birthday 100 Party for her is later today...And on the Ground Hog's are frozen stiff in Iowa today.

###

The Day the Earth Stood Still - from Midwest to China

Photo: Travel nightmare in China - Millions stuck outside in rain/snow

Imagine being stranded on vacation -- with over a MILLION of other people, and all of you are stuck in the rain because the trains and cars can't move because of snow. It makes the cold snap in the U.S. Midwest look civilized in comparison.

More than 1 million. Over 180 million Chinese are trying to travel over the Chinese New Year (the only chance for some couples to see each other in 2-3 years) - were shown on TV last night packed like sardines at train terminals, stuck in the rain with only umbrellas for protection -- and no where to go. They have to somehow stand in the cold and rain (or snow) for several more days since there is 'no room at the inn.'

It's so bad that even the Chinese premier, fearing chaos, showed up on a platform to apologize in person. Riots have started breaking out. It's like half of the U.S. population left out in the elements. The worst snow in 50 years has locked down the entire transport system at the worse possible time with millions of people trying to travel and caught in the weather with nothing moving, and little shelter. For these people, it is "the day the earth stood still." And its expected to last another 3 days.

It makes our problems with gas prices, picking a President and dealing with corrupt local officials look small in comparison! New York City is reporting the first "no snow" January in 75 years! At least none of us are having to stand for hours in the rain/snow with 100 million other people.

Personally, I will be braving the U.S. Midwest cold over the weekend - my surviving Grandmother is turning 100 Feb. 1. It's not everyday that you turn 100 so its worth the weather. Yesterday I found out granny has caught the flu, so who knows how this will play out. The flu shot apparently hasn't cover a nasty strain that came out of Australia.

It also happens to be "Buddy Holly" weekend (along with Chinese new year) - Holly died near Clear Lake (Iowa) in a plane accident. Costs a whole $5 to get in!

With the politicians gone, at least there are some rooms at the inns. Too bad none of them at the GOP debate last night even commented on the plight of the Chinese. It would have shown a leader that can see beyond our borders...

Looks like it's MCCAIN vs ?? A Prediction (or two)

Since this has a worldwide readership, I thought I'd give another "prediction" --not on the potential of 9/11 but on the Presidential potential leadership we will have next term.

Believe me, the entire world is watching this one. After the last 7 years they feel like they have been through a hedge backwards. As one TV Brit said: "If America catches cold, we get the flu."

Or a war. So everyone is watching this.

It appears to shake down to Mr. McCain vs. either Ms. Clinton or Mr. Obama. That makes the Democrat decision even more significant. If you have a north-south lineup of Mr. McCain with perhaps Mr. Guiliani, they would be the winners. Then it becomes a question of which potential candidate can overwhelm (or edge past) that powerful combo.

My prediction is that if Hillary wins the Democrat nomination, McCain will win the White House.

Why? Because as much as I prefer women professionals, a visible character flaw has appeared on the Clinton side - the proof? The announced desire to change the rules in Florida etc. when it turned to their advantage -- after initially agreeing to not count those delegates for violating party rules.

And the Clinton personal attacks on Mr. Obama even turned off people like Caroline Kennedy, who could prove to be a political Joan of Arc. It was her decision that turned her Uncle Ted from neutral. (The TV talking heads seemed to overlook Caroline's key role in this as they focused on the war-horse Senator).

Another prediction: The only leading Democratic President candidate that would have any hope of beating Mr. McCain (a former POW) would be Mr. Obama. It won't be easy but only someone who has shown the ability to bring in new voters, especially the young--as he has--has a chance. His VP pick will be crucial. Otherwise, 2009 will start business with a Republican President and a Democratic Congress.

The good news is that even the usually sound-asleep voters have been jarred awake by global and economic harsh realities. These were created on the Bush watch. They will have to be addressed and fixed in the next Presidential administration.

And it will be American voters making a decision that the whole world is holding its collective breath over...

International Justice and the Death Penalty

While it appears that a leading candidate to replace the District Attorney in Houston has a bias problem when putting people on juries, there is also an international legal problem.

The Houston DA scratched a black man from a jury who believed in the death penalty; yet the same DA allowed on the panel two potential jurors who had arrest records, who happened to be Hispanic. All were members of Lakewood Church.

This new fact leads one to the conclusion that it was race, not church membership, that the DA was screening for.

Meanwhile, the guy who killed a pregnant soldier has skipped to Mexico. The hitch? Mexico won't pick him up and return him if he will be subject to the death penalty. So the DA (not Houston's) in that case has the choice of getting him extradicted to the U.S. only if reducing the charge to (1) life without parole or (2) seeing him live free in Mexico. The choice is obvious.

This won't be the last time that the death penalty will spill into the international administration of justice. We will need to deal with it in order to bring people to justice when they cross borders in flight.

No European country has the death penalty. The other countries that permit the death penalty (along with the U.S.) include North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, China, Nigeria, Cuba and Syria.

In Iran, several women have been sentenced to die (by stoning) for adultery.

That means the current Houston DA's girlfriend could potentially be subject to death by stoning if she lived in Saudi! I wonder if he would be so pro-death penalty in that case? I wonder how he would treat an extradition request from Saudi to arrest a woman so she could be sent to Saudi for stoning for the crime of adultery?

As the world shrinks, we will have to reconcile our standards with those in the world.

While a U.S. District Attorney may want to subject a Mexican citizen to the death penalty for a heinous crime committed in the U.S., some other countries will want to do the same thing for lesser offenses.

In Iran and China, people are routinely executed for taking bribes. Texas has attempted to execute the mentally retarded.

Surely, we can obtain justice that is better than that without discriminating against a class of people -- many of whom have been found by DNA test to be wrongly given the death penalty for crimes they did not commit.

What Makes a "Foreign Policy Expert" ?

Photo: Author in Damascus on a child kidnapping case, 1996-97

What makes a 'foreign policy expert' these days? Prior experience?

Or just a dad in high office who gets you a job in the State department with no prior international experience in a world of 200 countries, each with a different culture and legal system?

Does family connections qualify that person to be the "foreign policy expert" for a Presidential campaign? What does that say about the campaign? Is it about having the best international expertise -- or just courting votes?

After what Mr. McCain has called "a series of blunders in international policy" do we want another administration where the chief qualification to any office is to be connected and loyal, not competent with prior experience?

I'm sure that Liz Cheney is a nice person and means well, but if her background qualifies her to lead State Department missions and be a "senior foreign policy adviser" for a serious Presidential campaign, then my 30 years spent negotiating real deals on behalf of American companies (selling U.S.-made products) in over 50 countries makes me feel like...Henry Kissinger? Dead meat? LOL.

No. But something is wrong when connections mean more than real experience in our highest levels of government - and in campaigns. Being the kid of a doctor or staying at a Holiday Inn Express doesn't make you a surgeon (would you want them cutting on you?). Being the wife or kid of a President, or VP, is not international experience either.

McCain is right. That type of thinking, if continued by the next administration, will end up generating more "blunders" that hurt America's future...

The Sky is Falling - Candidates Rising?

Photo: Falling somewhere to earth, hopefully not near you (or me)

Don't look now but one of our spy satellites is coming down and no one knows where it will land.

What is amazing is that we still do not have a system for dealing with dead satellites, which have the potential of striking a populated area with potentially hazardous materials. So, why hasn't the government given NASA the job of producing some kind of "space tug" that could snag these objects - and have a controlled release where it can plunge into the ocean instead of New York, Moscow or London.

Imagine the "fallout" if one of our dead spy satellites (or any satellite) landed on Moscow? Or, ironically, on Washington DC? With an estimated 60,000 tons of space junk falling out of orbit every YEAR, it is only a matter of time. Do we failure to plan ahead and wait for a disaster to act? Probably.

Since this occurs on a regular basis and our strategy so far is to "cross fingers and hope for the best" how about some of that multi-billion Pentagon budget go to creating a device to keep satellites from falling on our heads.

On the political front, it is shaking out to be either Obama/Clinton vs. McCain/somebody. Some have fallen out of orbit, while others like Edwards and Paul seem to be in regardless of vote totals. Others appear to be rising and the potential of an independent run by someone like Blommberg appears possible. It won't be a dull year, for sure.

February 5 hopefully will provide some clarity. What's evident is the extraordinary high number of voters turning out, on both sides. It's getting ugly and its only January! Stay tuned.

The next falling object may be either a satellite or a Presidential campaign...The first we can fix if we had a plan. The second is up to the voters...

Memo to Europe: Next Fraud Please Call the Fed!

Photo: Meet the French Rogue Trader Who Whiplashed Wall Street $70 billion and panicked the Fed - (Note: Facial image is replaceable with the next idiot until our system is fixed)

Memo to Europe: Next Fraud Please Call the Fed! (Hint: Their number is in the DC phonebook).

(Or Fraud by a Single French Trader Proves that Markets need a mandatory international advisory connection to Minimize Future Global Meltdowns to protect American/International investors).

Memo to Europe’s financial markets: The next time you discover a billion dollar fraud in the middle of a falling market, please call the U.S. Fed. Knowing that could have averted a global stock market panic. Their number is in the phone book!

It has come out that some of our wild 600-point “Whiplash on Wall Street” was the result of one trader in France who was hiding a multi-billion shortfall that was discovered in the recent meltdown, and covered by his employer, France’s Societe General, which made a bad situation into a global near disaster, and prompted the Fed to make its largest one day interest rate cut in one day on an emergency basis.

No one in the European markets, who went into free fall after the Dow Jones, bothered to call the U.S. Federal reserve to advise them of the discovery of either the fraud or the panic dumping of the trader’s bad paper during that period.

That information would have given the U.S. Fed a clue that not all of the meltdown was real. They were left flying blind, like pilots without all their instruments working.

Had the Fed and U.S. financial media known that SG was dumping $7 billion (or more) in write-off’s that day would have made a significant difference in calming the panic. It would have made a big difference in the acts needed to be taken by the Fed to calm Wall Street and keep investors from panicking and making matters worse.

What will happen when (not if) this event occurs again – by another fraud by another institution anywhere in Europe? We need a solution and there is only one.

To avoid making future global meltdowns worse, Congress and the President should insist on implementing an international mandatory reporting system between Wall Street and the markets in Europe -- and Asia. Remember their meltdown and its impact on Wall Street, the DAX, etc?

Requiring each market to formally advise Wall Street (and vice versa) when a major fraud or other event is discovered -- like a rogue trader who has broken through the safeguards –will provide the accurate financial instrument readings that our Fed and markets need for stability decision-making.

Without a mandatory global reporting system, we are in jeopardy of a future market crash that could cost investors trillions in lost equity.

Like a malfunctioning car, it won't fix itself. The longer you wait to fix it means only one result will occur -- an eventual total breakdown; and unnecessary equity losses for millions of investors in the U.S. and worldwide.

"Canadians" and Blowing Up Walls

NASA's Photo on Mars - No Stranger Than Events in Houstons DA's office...

Now we find out that another attorney in our local DA's office used the term "Canadians on the jury" to refer to African Americans. Bigotry now uses code words and extends beyond the DA himself.

In face of all this, and at the same time, the news reports that the DA has given an $11,000 year raise to the woman in his office he writes love notes to about nibbling on her ear (or whatever.)

Rosenthal's DA's office bigotry and questionable behavior has reached a new low --institutional bigotry which is sanctioned by its leadership. Giving a raise to someone you are approaching romantically raises ethical (even legal) issues of impropriety. Attorneys are supposed to act professionally. District Attorney's with criminal jurisdiction are supposed to go beyond that - to be like Caesar's wife.

I feel like I've stepped into a 21st century version of "To Kill a Mockingbird." And people think the NASA photo from Mars was strange!

On the world scene, the TV scenes of Palestinians pouring through the Isaeli-built wall that separated Gaza from Egypt, proves that no wall can overpower human needs. They were desperate for daily necessities like food and water, stuff we take for granted everyday.

It proves that the spending of billions to build a wall between the U.S. and Mexico will end the same way. It took very little explosives, in a world awash with explosives, to undo a wall of steel. I've been on the Chinese-built Great Wall; it was defeated by bribing the border guards.

I can't believe that in the 21st century we have people with such great power who think in such twisted ways. That mindset alone is an abuse of power.

So is refusing to let go of that office that controls the power, whether it is a hypocrit racist District Attorney in Houston, or a twisted Mr. Chavez in Venezuela who tried to rewrite the rules to remain in power for life.

But Chavez' power grab is no different than what we have right here, when power elites refuse to let go. That's why we limit Presidents to two terms -- eight years of intoxicating power is long enough. Recall that FDR was into his 4th term when he died.

We need local and national leadership that respects all and treats people equally, including women who deserve the right not to get idiot bosses emailing them about their personal parts.

We need leaders focused on finding reasonable solutions to major issues. We cannot be great if we leave in power self-absorbed bigots that reflect poorly on the freedom and equality America is supposed to be all about.

Global Meltdown: Logical Reason for it

Wall Street is taking a dive. That isn't new. What is new is that now the global markets are diving with it. It could be a worldwide freefall.

There is a logical reason for it.

Our government has borrowed up to $1 trillion for the Iraq war and our deficit spending has ballooned while we exported jobs and imported all our consumer goods, manufactured fuel hog cars with zero energy policy, and failed to take action to correct the subprime fiasco. Now our major corporations are owned by the Mideast countries we send our billions to drive F-350's.

Maureen Dowd says it best when she says:
"Tom Toles summed it up best: “Great to be home,” W. enthuses on Air Force One, heading toward the East Coast. “Anything interesting happen while I was gone?” Hanging on the skyline of New York is a sign reading: “U.S.A. Now a Wholly Owned Subsidiary of Foreign Investors.”

Dumb moves by our government and business have cost us a generation of ownership and future control over our own destiny. Bush's government has given the next generation a $1 trillion dollar IOU on Iraq -- while our corporate financial giants were playing with bizarre, risky scams that were not subject to any oversight by the administration. Then everyone was surprised when the ship of bizarre financial instruments hit the (melting) iceberg.

We need stability. And someone paying attention in the Captain's wheelhouse.

The lack of rational fiscal leadership has put us in a strange new world of global instability and worldwide financial uncertainty. The markets from Tokyo to Europe took the biggest hit since 9/11 - without a terrorist attack.

Unfortunately, none of this seemed in people's minds at the Democratic debate in South Carolina last night which was shocking in its intensity. It sounded as if all were running against John McCain, which can't be good news for the rest of the pack. It was great TV but not a good sign.

All this won't matter if we hit the iceberg and the fiscal irresponsibility sets off a global meltdown. It definitely matters who we pick to be an adult and lead us out of this dangerous mess.

We need some adults focused on real solutions. We need real long-term fixes instead of more voodoo economics and half-baked, band-aid solutions.

MLK on Israel Palestinians and The Dem/GOP Prez Race

What would MLK think about the Israeli-Palestinian situation and the Democrat/GOP Presidential race?

Today is MLK Day - and it was announced that the Israelis had cut power to all of Gaza, with the temperatures in the 50’s, when they stopped diesel fuel that runs their power plant from going into Gaza. Everyone in Gaza is being punished for the acts of a few extremists, including women, babies and little kids with no heat or light. Food shipments have been cut as well.

As I sit looking out at a blustery, cloudy sky whipping over the lake, thinking how miserable it would be without power, and think about the recent Presidential debate on MLK, LBJ and civil rights, it is an appropriate time to wonder what Martin Luther King would think about the Israeli-Palestinian situation.

Like blacks in the south in the 60’s, I think MLK would feel a common bond with Palestinians who have no rights and no votes, no rights to travel, no chance to recover land taken by Israeli settlers. I think MLK would see that they have no control over shipments of fuel for their power plant or food for their tables, and would identify with their struggle for respect and equality.

Even President Bush was taken aback on a recent trip to Israel when weather forced him to travel by motorcade instead of helicopter. He commented publicly at the overwhelming number of checkpoints along the short trip – he felt it was excessive and was concerned about its impact on Palestinian life. That is quite an admission from a President who has always been loyal backer of Israel.

MLK Day should not just be a day for Democrat Presidential hopefuls, but GOP ones as well. One day we will all be in the minority and will want the respect and equal rights that Martin Luther King wanted, that women have wanted (and still want), as well as Palestinians , Shiites and Sunnis in Iraq, tribes in Kenya, etc.

All want the American dream of freedom and equality. We should be acting to make that dream a reality as the President has in Israel, trying to broker a peace deal in his last year. Kenya needs the same attention.

As MLK would probably feel, it is better for change to come late, then never at all. But he would also feel, as many of us do, that: "Justice delayed is justice denied."

A Hero Named Coward - And Cowards Who are Not Heroes

Engine failure on a Boeing 777 in London led to a miracle crash landing in which no one died. The pilot, named Coward, has been declared a hero. I think we also have to praise Boeing for a craft that did not burn up, although the loss of power makes one wonder if violating the gameboy rule or a software glitch led to the loss of engine power at the most critical part of the flight – low and slow just before landing.

It needs to be checked out. As a pilot, I congratulate the pilot. As a passenger, I would be thanking God and Boeing's structural engineers -- and hoping this time the luggage missed the flight.

On the local scene, today’s Houston paper has an article by a criminal attorney, now a city councilmember, who describes the unequal treatment in the Houston DA’s office she witnessed in the past 10 years of her practice. If you are Britney Spears, or just a young white girl, you get a slap on the wrist. If you are black or Hispanic (unless you are a Texas Supreme Court judge), you get 35 years.

It confirms we have a rotten apple in the system, or worse yet a rotten system that needs a major clean up. When bigots run our legal system, we have un-American cowards -- and no heroes.

Houston DA's office -- and Islamic Law on Divorce. divorce by text and punish for 1 pill

The rise of technology has put old ways to the test - such as the Islamic law provision that a man can divorce his wife simply by saying: "You are divorced" three times. But does putting it in a text message count the same? That's the issue before an Egyptian court when a man issued his cell phone to send the message via text.

Ah, modern technology, making life so much easier and more "efficient." Or confusing. No one knows if the text message was legally binding. Liberal divorce rules in a ultra-conservative society has resulted in 99% of the children of divorce being on the streets of places like Cairo.

Things aren't much better on the local scene. The attorney for the indicted judge now wants to punish the Grand Jury members who indicted him against the DA's wishes. The smell from this case keeps getting stronger. It appears that the Grand Jury reviewed hours of evidence and felt there was enough to indict. If it had been a truck driver or other ordinary soul, none of this would have happened -- he or she would have been indicted and prosecuted.

I once had to defend a woman from the Houston DA's office. She was arrested for having 1 prescription pill in her purse without a prescription (a muscle relaxant - she had been in an accident and her back had been broken). The DA's office made it sound like she had done something horrible like having a ton of heroin, before finally dismissing it. All of this over one ordinary pill. I never handled another criminal case after that strange experience.

But if it is a judge from the Supreme Court, then the DA --who loves the death penalty even when the defendant is mentally disabled (that one was reversed by the conservative US Supreme Court) and videos of women getting their tops ripped off -- got riled up and dismissed the indictment.

Meanwhile, another case just turned up where prosecutor misconduct lead to a death penalty conviction that was contrived - and an "ethics" ruling kept the attorney from talking about it for 10 years. Apparently, putting the wrong man to death did not bother the prosecutors in that case.

In Houston, the same mentality exists. Harris County leads the country in death cases. But that fervor for the maximum punishment apparently doesn't apply to high level members of the DA's own party. We don't know if the Judge and Mr. Rosenthal used to trade email "jokes" --but turning on the Grand Jury and holding them in contempt is an abuse of the system.

Contempt is what the DA has shown for women, minorities, equal justice by his actions, including contempt for his own Grand Jury. None of his actions pass the smell test.

News Getting Bizarre in Texas (Don't Lose Your Head Over This)

Photo: Blame it on the (Full) Moon over Houston

The local news in Texas is getting so bizarre where does one begin?

The Houston DA, Chuck Rosenthal, who has a fondness for racist and sexist jokes and whose staff rejects jurors from Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church as if they were Scientologists, now is rejecting the Grand Jury indictment of a Texas Supreme Court judge and his wife on arson-related charges. And it turns out that the Grand Jury is mainly Republicans from the DA’s party. How strange is that? A runaway Grand Jury?

Then it is revealed that a candidate for Congress had an ad featuring his head and someone else’s (thinner) body. Missing on his list of accomplishments was “3^rd Place Winner of Weight Watchers Award.” Since he is running for Tom DeLay’s old seat in CD22, I’m sure we can look forward to the highest form of ethics and honest new photos of the candidate’s head on top of Laura Bush’s body and other amazing achievements.

All this comes on the heels of revelations that the Texas Attorney General did his best to deny returning veterans out of their benefits while doing a legal review of Texas law that failed to include consideration of the U.S. Constitution.

And –keep counting--the County Sheriff, panicked by the Rosenthal email scandal, and aware that some of Chuck’s "funny" jokes might be on his computers, wiped out their system’s emails over the weekend. Preemptive war is now replaced by preemptive deletion of evidence.

The moral of this story is that you can avoid indictment in Houston for burning your house (or worse) as long as your job is a “biggie” like sitting on the Supreme Court and you are member of the same party as the DA. Otherwise, you’ll get the death penalty for being politically unconnected and tossed off the jury panel for going to the wrong church (e.g. Lakewood), or whatever they come with next.

Imagine the image this gives Houston and Texas to the outside world? How is this going to draw businesses and conventions to our area?

Our new slogan could become: “What Happens Here, Stays Here, Because We Delete it From the Computers!”

Fighting for Democracy? Two Presidents of the League of Women Voters

Left: Ms. Odinga from Kenya (L) and Laura Blackburn, President of the League of Women Voters

I was watching TV last night (BBC at 5 pm because i wanted some real news instead of a long series of shootings and traffic wrecks), including footage of citizens shot while protesting an election fraud in Kenya when I realized that I had met the wife of the Kenya Presidential candidate who was defrauded from winning -- Mr. Odinga. I met her at a dinner (which lasted for hours) in Houston last fall.

Mrs. Odinga was speaking at an event and she wanted to meet the President of the Houston League of Women Voters since Mrs. Odinga is the President of the League of Women Voters in Kenya. The Houston President invited me and I enjoyed listening to her talk about issues in Kenya that sounded a lot like our own. She had said something her husband running for office but I forgot about it until I saw TV footage of soldiers shooting civilians in the streets of Nairobi on BBC TV.

Our President has said that he is committed to a strategy of supporting the spread of democracy as a basis for our continued presence in Iraq, etc. Yet I have heard nothing from him about supporting fair elections in Kenya.

How can people trust us as the world leader for democracy when we do so little to see that elections are not frauds, and that police are not used to shoot peaceful protesters? The U.S. Ambassador was quoted as saying "Another election would be too expensive." Apparently, cost is more important than fraud.

We need some action by our leadership to resolve this issues even in countries that don't have huge oil reserves, if our statements are to have any true meaning.

On the local scene, it has come out that the Texas Attorney General (Greg Abbott) does not review the U.S. Constitution when reviewing our laws for legality. Whoa! (That Lisa is on a roll!) What are they drinking in office these days? From the Harris County District Attorney's office to the Attorney General, our legal officers seem to have a strange view of the world of "rule of law" and such things as "equality" and "discrimination." How is this a good role model for Iraq and places like Kenya? Standby for more strange headlines.

The breath of fresh air was hearing new Harris County Judge Ed Emmett at the lunch yesterday, where he called for an ethics taskforce. He struck me as real - and the fact that he spent the last 20 years as a small business owner instead of a paid bureaucrat or politician is refreshing. He even applauded Mayor Bill White. We need more like him in office (and fewer of the others before-mentioned)!

In the meantime let's do something for democracy in Kenya - the election was widely regarded as fraudulent, designed to keep the incumbent in power.

How to Look Self Centered and Foolish

The United States is the biggest guzzler of fuel in the world. We have 5% of the world's population and consume over 1/3 of oil, gas, you name it.

Then the President turns up in the vast oil pool otherwise known as Saudi Arabia, and says something like: "Hey, how about you guys open up those big pumps even more!" So the King says "no way" and they go off to look at all the King's horses -- and hang with the men-only crowd.

It was a Britney Spears moment. We are the hogs at the trough in energy consumption. Instead of the President embarking us on a crash program to set up alternative energy sources and improve our efficiencies (so we can do the same using less fuel), he wants even more oil pumped.

It makes us look selfish and even foolish. And it is.

It was a cultural mistake that made the President himself look silly to the Saudis, who didn't hesitate to blow him off. They immediately brushed off the idea of pumping more oil. With historically high oil prices and increased demand from another 5 billion people in the world (including rapidly growing India and China), why drain your Saudi reserves for a few dollars more?

Until we have a full scale energy plan, which both cuts our use and ramps up our efficiencies, the world's oil producers (not just the Saudis) can blow us off as well as this and the next President. They are holding the trump cards with their exclusive sources of the world's primary fuel.

You can do things like changing to the new energy bulbs that last 10 times longer and use a fraction of power from conventional bulbs. You can also add tint and security window film on your home or office. My recommend is adding a film that both cuts energy use and provides security, like ours at Armor Glass International.

But we also need that from our leadership at the top. I am embarrassed that the President made himself look weak to the Saudis while leaving Americans vulnerable to energy shortages. The sooner we start the sooner we can get away from this madness of being over 60% dependent on foreign oil.

To ask others to pump more for us without prudent efforts to cut energy waste and improve efficiencies and alternatives makes us look self-centered. Worse, it is foolish.

It's the (World) Economy Dummies

The silver lining in the bleak economic news is international sales by U.S. companies into the global market sales are keeping companies afloat. Without these sales, layoffs and the economic downdraft would be even greater.

U.S. domestic markets are shrinking due to dropping demand as consumer confidence and the housing meltdown has put the domestic economic brakes on. Each $1 billion in U.S. exports creates about 25,000 jobs according to the Dept. of Commerce stats. We can compete, especially as the dollar as sunk to new low's against the Euro, making our stuff dirty cheap for Europeans, it just takes a commitment to do it. U.S. companies have been slow off the mark, but now its often their only hope of either growth or even survival. Only a fraction of our companies who could export products or services actually do.

There is tremendous room for growth. We just need to sell and make things people overseas want, like cars that get better gas mileage, and solar/wind technology instead of just JDAMS and military machines to places like Saudi. Young Saudis account for 41% of the fighters going into Iraq to attack our troops. Their women can't even go to the doctor without permission from a man. If you go to Dubai, things cost three to five times what they do here (like they would with Mr. Huckabee's 23% national sales tax. Don't believe me? Go to Europe and see how theirs runs up costs twice ours).

And don't forget, our big companies (and government) is living on money borrowed from our global neighbors. Our banks are getting bailed out by Saudis and the Chinese are buying our IOU's for the billion-dollar budget/war deficits.

On the local scene, a new article with startling details on the real facts written by a Chronicle columnist shows that the next DA has a racial problem --not just an issue with a particular Church (Lakewood). Seigler knocked off a guy who even said he had no problem with the death penalty --and said so in several places on their "You gotta Be Willing To Kill Them" DA form -- because he was a member of Lakewood and the NAACP.

The next title may be from that song: "Meet the New Boss. Same as the Old Boss"....

World is Watching U.S. Election

The American election 2008 is shaping up to be a worldwide event.

From taxi drivers in Africa to folks "down under" in Australia, people realize that who we pick as President makes a huge difference -- from preemptive wars to trade policy -- and they are glued to their sets as our primaries unfold.

In other words, our actions can be like an elephant in a China shop, so it matters who is in charge.

Our global reputation is impacting even us ordinary folks. For the first time in my life, I have received negative emails from foreigners who apparently think that all Americans are like the current leadership. (No big deal, I've received even nastier ones from local political types, but I don't like being tarred by someone else's brush).

Whoever we pick to be our face for the next term as President is extremely important -- not only to us, but the rest of the world as well.

The good news is that we have a promising group to choose from - whether its McCain/Huckabee or Obama/Clinton. Either would be a major improvement. Either could boost our reputation in the world. It matters to the 6 billion folks who live outside the U.S. whose hand is on our power levers and military machine.

Equal Justice in Houston? Religious prejudice in DA's office While DA Sends Friends Videos of Women Being Stripped

Photo: Lakewood church members: Houston DA's office says they are "Not acceptable" as jurors. If ordinary Christians aren't safe from such nonsense, who is?

America is supposed to be about EQUAL Justice. Our founding fathers wrote a Constitution based on "All men are created equal" based on "the rule of law" instead of a monarch's whim.

Our District Attorney's office is in charge of applying the rule of law equally, no matter if the defendant is an Asian, Hispanic, African American or White, man or woman, an atheist or church-attending person charged with an offense.

But if the person in charge of that department has finds photos that degrade women or minorities humorous, it casts a huge shadow of doubt on the legitimacy justice received by nearly 4 million people in the Houston area.

If it is also common policy by that same DA department to strike potential jurors on the basis that they attend a particular church, even an ordinary one like Lakewood Church, all verdicts in those cases also come into question.

On what basis is church membership a legitimate reason to strike jurors in capital cases? Do you want to be a defendant in a criminal justice system in which the District Attorney who thinks pictures of people laying on the street in dire straits are funny?

How many females who have been raped are going to appreciate their case being served by system in which the chief legal officer thinks it would be funny to see their blouses ripped off by some stranger?

The integrity of the Houston District Attorney's office has been destroyed by the revelations of the type of "joke" emails and videos Chuck Rosenthal likes. If the DA likes to watch porn, how can his office bust others for doing the same? Where is the equal justice in that?

Replacing him with a prosecutor who saw nothing wrong with cutting Lakewood Church members from juries would do nothing to enhance their current image.

Until then, we cannot hold ourselves up to the world in places like Iraq as a true American model of providing unbiased equal justice for our citizens.

Now its Religious Discrimination in DA's office

The situation in Houston's District Attorney's office just got more weird.

It was revealed that a woman candidate to replace Chuck Rosenthal (who likes sending videos of people pulling off women's clothes) routinely knocked off potential jurors who were members of a particular church...

NO, not Scientology, but just regular Lakewood Church! I didn't know that Joel Osteen was a cult leader! Apparently Mrs. Seigler (whose husband liked trading those videos with Chuck) feels that Lakewood church members aren't Christian enough to vote for the death penalty when a black man is photoed laying on the street next to boxes of chicken and watermelon (another Rosenthal favorite).

What the heck is going on in Harris County's DA's office?

After my post on Rosenthal yesterday, I got an email from a GOP Precinct Chair who thought I was the problem, and said: "You should join the Party of Obama, Clinton and Lampson." He didn't have any concern with Rosenthal's activity. His point? A non-sexist, non-racist like me doesn't "fit in" to the local GOP mode. He's right. I am not a bigot and don't "fit" in to that kind of Taliban thinking. I respect women and people regardless of color.

If the local GOP favors racism and sexism -- and now has candidates for DA who believe that a feel good nice Christian church like Lakewood Church is a threat to society (maybe because Joel Osteen thinks we ought to feel better about ourselves instead of preaching fire and brimstone), then that makes it a simple choice. What's next? "We don't need no stinking peaceful Buhhists on juries!" Is that next?

I am an American first, party member second. Despite the talk, apparently the local GOP does not represent respect for other cultures, races and religions -- in a world of many cultures, colors and religions.

I don't find these "jokes" by Rosenthal funny. DA's who cut out people from one church today can cut others tomorrow - maybe Episcopalians who favor gay bishops will be the next group to drop from their juries (not to mention Mosques, Synagogues, etc.)

I also oppose taxpayers having to fund defense attorney for Mr. Rosenthal - no one in the public gets a free lawyer, so why should a c DA who likes porn on his county computer get one?

Time for a complete change in our DA's office - the public are not being served.