It used to be called Flat Tax (Steve Forbes). The latest avatar of this idea is being hawked as the Fair Tax. Watch out for U.S. Representative John Linder who is trying to introduce it in congress. Neil Boortz has a book out advocating it and perhaps you already know he has a lunatic fringe following. Neil is making a lot of money by stirring this pot. Neil is a capitalist without scruples. He makes the world work to his own benefit. He does tend to shout down anyone who disagrees with him. I mention this because Jay Bookman has a second column on the Fair Tax in the paper today. Of all the editors of the AJC, I find that Jay says what I'm thinking the most, only he says it with his facts all checked out and in a more logical order than I would say it.

Jay was eviscerated by Boortz for the first column and makes a point by point response to Boortz's complaints, showing Boortz wrong in every case. Bookman brings to light that he has let it be known that he'll come on air and debate Boortz on this issue. Squawk, squawk, squawk . . . the sound you hear is the Boortz response. He's afraid to do that. He'll get his clock cleaned before a national audience, which wouldn't be that good for him.

Since I wrote about those nasty percentages yesterday, I loved that one of the issues between Boortz and Bookman is how big a percentage is the Fair Tax proposal. Boortz says that a $130 item would be 23 % tax under the Fair Tax. And he is correct. 77% of 130 is . . . Do the math. You were not expecting that the original cost without tax was $100. When you add on $30 in tax to a $100 item, that is a 30% tax, not a 23% tax, Neil. If the fair tax plan was so good, why did Neil feel the need to lie about it?

A final comment on radical tax reform: Were we foolish enough to try something this radical, the unintendended consequences, spread over our nation would undoubtably cause many disasters. Lives would be ruined. You can't take 80 years of tax codes and dump them and create a one page replacement that works. No one has any idea of how fair tax would work. It would take 80 years to make it work as well as what we have now, and then the tax code would be 2000 pages again. Forgetaboutit and pay you taxes.

Worse than this, I heard both Boortz and Newt Gingrich say that the Virginia Tech shootings were the direct result of the teachings of liberalism. Newt thought the students in the classroom should have been armed and so Cho could have been stopped. (He doesn't mention that if you armed all the students there would be 100 times as many shootings during the year, but fewer killed in the massacres. It would be better for the country if the students were killed one at a time in random school shootings?) Boortz said that students have been taught not to fight in public school so they cowered away from the gunman instead of rushing him and stopping the killing. Is this the same Boortz who is afraid to debate Jay Bookman on the radio? I see in today's paper that Cho got off 170 rounds while killing the 30 victims in the second shooting. He had two guns so he could reload when one was empty and the other full, thus protecting himself at all times. In the face of overwhelming fire armies dig in, or retreat. They do not advance. You must have fire superiority to advance. Boortz has forgotten Pickett's charge. 1863, Neil. Rushing into a hail of bullets gets everyone killed. There was no viable strategy for the students.

I can't figure out if the mouthpieces for this kind of nonsense are bad people or just stupid. I'm thinking that they are not stupid though.

Whoa baby! Cheney has been messing with George McGovern and he has taken umbrage about it. McGovern pulls no punches in blasting Cheny and calling for the resignation of Cheny and George Bush. Read it in the L.A. Times.

Watching your money is troublesome. I have a little money invested in mutual funds and I can call up the accounts online and see how they do each day. I've been watching the business channel on cable, CNBC and listening to the experts. They usually put on two experts at a time. The first one says the economy is going great and you should buy, buy, buy. The second one says the econmy is going to crash tomorrow, all the signs are there, and you should hide your money in a mattress. The next experts say housing is crashing or about to turn around--then, foreign markets are the way to go, or be careful in foreign markets. Perhaps people on the inside know which of the balanced reports is the true one. I love it when they spew out of paragraph of enlightenment and I realize that I have understood every word that was spoken but I have no idea what they are talking about. (I used to feel the same way around operaphiles when I was in music school. They'd say this or that singer was the one for this particular role and the person we heard was a dog. To my ear the singer I just heard did wonderfully well. So I must be stupid and they must know everything). The other talking heads all nod in cogent agreement with the speaker and the TV flashes on to the next thing.

Percentages can be confusing when looking at the market. If you have $100 and you lose 50%, then you have to make 100% on your money to get back to zero! If you lost 67%, you'd have to make 200% to get back to zero. So money lost in the early days of the Bush administration has been difficult to replace. It was about a six-year swing for me to get back to zero. During that time I had been hoping to double my nest egg, but instead, made nothing. When you lose a doubling of your money you might think it might not be that much, but in reality the doubling that you lose is the last doubling before you cash out, and you were hoping that would be huge. An example: $100 invested in the market, if the market makes its historic average of 12%, doubles every 5.5 years or so. $100 in 1970 becomes:

$200 in 1975.5

$400 in 1981

$800 in 1986.5

$1600 in 1992

$3200 in 1997.5

$6400 in 2003

$12,800 in 2008.5 and

$25,600 in 2014 when you retire.

But if you lose the doubling in the 2001-2006 years you come up with only

$12,800 and you are $12,800 short of where your expected to be. It's tricky business. The DOW Jones would have to have a 100% year instead of its usual 12% to help you. But don't worry. If you live 100 years or so, it should even out.

The DOW is over 13,000.

The preznut and gonzo, wolfie, karl and plamegate, brownie and katrina. Don't forget Dick (I don't work for Haliburton) and Iraq. Same strategy everytime. Hunker down and stonewall it. The media will get tired and go away.

Ready to impeach the preznut? You can. Yes you. I didn't realize that was possible, but it is within congressional guidelines since Thomas Jefferson, and it has been done before!

Paul Krugman has a blog on Welcome to Pottersville and I like how it closes.

"Confronting Mr. Bush on Iraq has become a patriotic duty. The fact is that Mr. Bush’s refusal to face up to the failure of his Iraq adventure, his apparent determination to spend the rest of his term in denial, has become a clear and present danger to national security."

You can read it all here.

You have to love the premise of this blog page. Welcome to Pottersville. He is saying that "Potter" from the old movie "It's a wonderful life" is none other than Dick Cheney (there is a remarkable resemblence, however coincidental). Remember the part of the movie when George Bailey had never been born? The town changed to Pottersville, a sleazy place completely controlled by the old villian himself. All in all it was a bad place. Cheney now runs Pottersville, formerly called the U.S.A.

We are building walls around ethnic groups in a foreign county. So they will be safer.

All I can think of is Jews in Poland.

"General Secretary Gorbachev, if you seek peace, if you seek prosperity for the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe, if you seek liberalization: Come here to this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, open this gate! Mr. Gorbachev, tear down this wall!
I understand the fear of war and the pain of division that afflict this continent-- and I pledge to you my country's efforts to help overcome these burdens. "
6/12/87
RR

It's a busy day. The mowermen are mowing, blowing, edging and the dog running from the front of the house to the back to look out windows. The birds are fluttering around the feeder. A couple of families of gold finches with many mottled fledglings, plus a group of purple finches and one beautiful eastern blue bird, who seems like a big fellow in this crowd. When not feeding they take turns sitting in the crepe myrtles, looking like God's Easter eggs hung in a tree. There are cardinals too.

It's good to know that the VT shooter bought his guns legally. Our laws really work to protect us from crazies. Reported to the police, taken to a mental health facility, no matter. He was released because he hadn't broken any laws. Someone questioned, "Where were his parents." I'll tell you. After 23 years, they were hiding from him.

It now appears that the justice department pursued a political trial last year, imprisoning a woman for political reasons. She has been freed on appeal because of the flimsy evidence that was used against her. We have an administration with a totalitarian mindset. Time to take them all down.

It's a busy day. The mowermen are mowing, blowing, edging and the dog running from the front of the house to the back to look out windows. The birds are fluttering around the feeder. A couple of families of gold finches with many mottled fledglings, plus a group of purple finches and one beautiful eastern blue bird, who seems like a big fellow in this crowd. When not feeding they take turns sitting in the crepe myrtles, looking like God's Easter eggs hung in a tree. There are cardinals too.

It's good to know that the VT shooter bought his guns legally. Our laws really work to protect us from crazies. Reported to the police, taken to a mental health facility, no matter. He was released because he hadn't broken any laws. Someone questioned, "Where were his parents." I'll tell you. After 23 years, they were hiding from him.

It now appears that the justice department pursued a political trial last year, imprisoning a woman for political reasons. She has been freed on appeal because of the flimsy evidence that was used against her. We have an administration with a totalitarian mindset. Time to take them all down.

Once again we have proven the wisdom of our "Wild West" American society. I saw the half page essays on the editorial pages saying that if every student had been armed not so many would have died. Their shangri la is a place where everyone is a trained killer.

We live in innocence, hoping that no one will fly a plane into our building, nor shoot our sons and daughters in their school classroom. When these things happen, mystified, we look for someone to blame. University officials? Gun makers and sellers. Did anyone ever have the nerve to blame the preznit for the 9/11 tragedy. Cain killed Abel. It is a part of us. Hundreds of thousands dead in Iraq.

Essentially, we live in innocence because we choose to do so. The alternative of living in an armed camp is too troublesome. I remember the pioneers, pictured never far from their guns. Mothers and daughters had better know how to raise a shotgun or rifle to their shoulders. Honestly, that did them no good. When the bad people come to get you, they ususally get you regardless of your cache of weapons. They are monsters inured to killing by something wired horribly wrong in their brains.

Answers? There are none. There are lots of questions with no answers. The living must try to continue living. The sadness is that we cannot touch every person with kindness, no matter how hard we try. One student even said in an interview, "When I heard of the shooting, I thought it was Cho."

The most annoying part of the coverage of the event was the media's need to proclaim it the American record for massacres. Hearing that once was too often. We have a winner! I hope our media is not damaged beyond being usful.

Lee Iococa has something to say and has put it in a new book. I've always thought the guy was mesmerizing. At 82 he still thinks clearly and can put two words together. He also isn't afraid to call a spade a spade. Almost everything he has to say here has come out of my own mouth in some incoherent way. Since he has gathered his toughts (and mine) so cogently, I want to place them here on my blog and challenge you to read them. Here is an excerpt from his book that is out on the web already. I hope it is okay to copy it here. I couldn't stop reading it once I started.

"Where Have All the Leaders Gone?

From Chapter 1: Had Enough?

Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, "Stay the course."

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: Throw the bums out!

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The President of the United States is given a free pass to ignore the Constitution, tap our phones, and lead us to war on a pack of lies. Congress responds to record deficits by passing a huge tax cut for the wealthy (thanks, but I don't need it). The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs. While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving pom-poms instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have.

My friends tell me to calm down. They say, "Lee, you're eighty-two years old. Leave the rage to the young people." I'd love to -- as soon as I can pry them away from their iPods for five seconds and get them to pay attention. I'm going to speak up because it's my patriotic duty. I think people will listen to me. They say I have a reputation as a straight shooter. So I'll tell you how I see it, and it's not pretty, but at least it's real. I'm hoping to strike a nerve in those young folks who say they don't vote because they don't trust politicians to represent their interests. Hey, America, wake up. These guys work for us.

WHO ARE THESE GUYS, ANYWAY?

Why are we in this mess? How did we end up with this crowd in Washington? Well, we voted for them -- or at least some of us did. But I'll tell you what we didn't do. We didn't agree to suspend the Constitution. We didn't agree to stop asking questions or demanding answers. Some of us are sick and tired of people who call free speech treason. Where I come from that's a dictatorship, not a democracy.

And don't tell me it's all the fault of right-wing Republicans or liberal Democrats. That's an intellectually lazy argument, and it's part of the reason we're in this stew. We're not just a nation of factions. We're a people. We share common principles and ideals. And we rise and fall together. Where are the voices of leaders who can inspire us to action and make us stand taller? What happened to the strong and resolute party of Lincoln? What happened to the courageous, populist party of FDR and Truman? There was a time in this country when the voices of great leaders lifted us up and made us want to do better. Where have all the leaders gone?

THE TEST OF A LEADER

I've never been Commander in Chief, but I've been a CEO. I understand a few things about leadership at the top. I've figured out nine points -- not ten (I don't want people accusing me of thinking I'm Moses). I call them the "Nine Cs of Leadership." They're not fancy or complicated. Just clear, obvious qualities that every true leader should have. We should look at how the current administration stacks up. Like it or not, this crew is going to be around until January 2009. Maybe we can learn something before we go to the polls in 2008. Then let's be sure we use the leadership test to screen the candidates who say they want to run the country. It's up to us to choose wisely.

So, here's my C list: A leader has to show CURIOSITY. He has to listen to people outside of the "Yes, sir" crowd in his inner circle. He has to read voraciously, because the world is a big, complicated place. George W. Bush brags about never reading a newspaper. "I just scan the headlines," he says. Am I hearing this right? He's the President of the United States and he never reads a newspaper? Thomas Jefferson once said, "Were it left to me to decide whether we should have a government without newspapers, or newspapers without a government, I should not hesitate for a moment to prefer the latter." Bush disagrees. As long as he gets his daily hour in the gym, with Fox News piped through the sound system, he's ready to go.

If a leader never steps outside his comfort zone to hear different ideas, he grows stale. If he doesn't put his beliefs to the test, how does he know he's right? The inability to listen is a form of arrogance. It means either you think you already know it all, or you just don't care. Before the 2006 election, George Bush made a big point of saying he didn't listen to the polls. Yeah, that's what they all say when the polls stink. But maybe he should have listened, because 70 percent of the people were saying he was on the wrong track. It took a "thumping" on election day to wake him up, but even then you got the feeling he wasn't listening so much as he was calculating how to do a better job of convincing everyone he was right.

A leader has to be CREATIVE, go out on a limb, be willing to try something different. You know, think outside the box. George Bush prides himself on never changing, even as the world around him is spinning out of control. God forbid someone should accuse him of flip-flopping. There's a disturbingly messianic fervor to his certainty. Senator Joe Biden recalled a conversation he had with Bush a few months after our troops marched into Baghdad. Joe was in the Oval Office outlining his concerns to the President -- the explosive mix of Shiite and Sunni, the disbanded Iraqi army, the problems securing the oil fields. "The President was serene," Joe recalled. "He told me he was sure that we were on the right course and that all would be well. 'Mr. President,' I finally said, 'how can you be so sure when you don't yet know all the facts?'" Bush then reached over and put a steadying hand on Joe's shoulder. "My instincts," he said. "My instincts." Joe was flabbergasted. He told Bush, "Mr. President, your instincts aren't good enough." Joe Biden sure didn't think the matter was settled. And, as we all know now, it wasn't.

Leadership is all about managing change -- whether you're leading a company or leading a country. Things change, and you get creative. You adapt. Maybe Bush was absent the day they covered that at Harvard Business School.

A leader has to COMMUNICATE. I'm not talking about running off at the mouth or spouting sound bites. I'm talking about facing reality and telling the truth. Nobody in the current administration seems to know how to talk straight anymore. Instead, they spend most of their time trying to convince us that things are not really as bad as they seem. I don't know if it's denial or dishonesty, but it can start to drive you crazy after a while. Communication has to start with telling the truth, even when it's painful. The war in Iraq has been, among other things, a grand failure of communication. Bush is like the boy who didn't cry wolf when the wolf was at the door. After years of being told that all is well, even as the casualties and chaos mount, we've stopped listening to him.

A leader has to be a person of CHARACTER. That means knowing the difference between right and wrong and having the guts to do the right thing. Abraham Lincoln once said, "If you want to test a man's character, give him power." George Bush has a lot of power. What does it say about his character? Bush has shown a willingness to take bold action on the world stage because he has the power, but he shows little regard for the grievous consequences. He has sent our troops (not to mention hundreds of thousands of innocent Iraqi citizens) to their deaths -- for what? To build our oil reserves? To avenge his daddy because Saddam Hussein once tried to have him killed? To show his daddy he's tougher? The motivations behind the war in Iraq are questionable, and the execution of the war has been a disaster. A man of character does not ask a single soldier to die for a failed policy.

A leader must have COURAGE. I'm talking about balls. (That even goes for female leaders.) Swagger isn't courage. Tough talk isn't courage. George Bush comes from a blue-blooded Connecticut family, but he likes to talk like a cowboy. You know, My gun is bigger than your gun. Courage in the twenty-first century doesn't mean posturing and bravado. Courage is a commitment to sit down at the negotiating table and talk.

If you're a politician, courage means taking a position even when you know it will cost you votes. Bush can't even make a public appearance unless the audience has been handpicked and sanitized. He did a series of so-called town hall meetings last year, in auditoriums packed with his most devoted fans. The questions were all softballs.

To be a leader you've got to have CONVICTION -- a fire in your belly. You've got to have passion. You've got to really want to get something done. How do you measure fire in the belly? Bush has set the all-time record for number of vacation days taken by a U.S. President -- four hundred and counting. He'd rather clear brush on his ranch than immerse himself in the business of governing. He even told an interviewer that the high point of his presidency so far was catching a seven-and-a-half-pound perch in his hand-stocked lake.

It's no better on Capitol Hill. Congress was in session only ninety-seven days in 2006. That's eleven days less than the record set in 1948, when President Harry Truman coined the term do-nothing Congress. Most people would expect to be fired if they worked so little and had nothing to show for it. But Congress managed to find the time to vote itself a raise. Now, that's not leadership.

A leader should have CHARISMA. I'm not talking about being flashy. Charisma is the quality that makes people want to follow you. It's the ability to inspire. People follow a leader because they trust him. That's my definition of charisma. Maybe George Bush is a great guy to hang out with at a barbecue or a ball game. But put him at a global summit where the future of our planet is at stake, and he doesn't look very presidential. Those frat-boy pranks and the kidding around he enjoys so much don't go over that well with world leaders. Just ask German Chancellor Angela Merkel, who received an unwelcome shoulder massage from our President at a G-8 Summit. When he came up behind her and started squeezing, I thought she was going to go right through the roof.

A leader has to be COMPETENT. That seems obvious, doesn't it? You've got to know what you're doing. More important than that, you've got to surround yourself with people who know what they're doing. Bush brags about being our first MBA President. Does that make him competent? Well, let's see. Thanks to our first MBA President, we've got the largest deficit in history, Social Security is on life support, and we've run up a half-a-trillion-dollar price tag (so far) in Iraq. And that's just for starters. A leader has to be a problem solver, and the biggest problems we face as a nation seem to be on the back burner.

You can't be a leader if you don't have COMMON SENSE. I call this Charlie Beacham's rule. When I was a young guy just starting out in the car business, one of my first jobs was as Ford's zone manager in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. My boss was a guy named Charlie Beacham, who was the East Coast regional manager. Charlie was a big Southerner, with a warm drawl, a huge smile, and a core of steel. Charlie used to tell me, "Remember, Lee, the only thing you've got going for you as a human being is your ability to reason and your common sense. If you don't know a dip of horseshit from a dip of vanilla ice cream, you'll never make it." George Bush doesn't have common sense. He just has a lot of sound bites. You know -- Mr.they'll-welcome-us-as-liberators -no-child-left-behind-heck-of-a-job -Brownie-mission-accomplished Bush.

Former President Bill Clinton once said, "I grew up in an alcoholic home. I spent half my childhood trying to get into the reality-based world -- and I like it here."

I think our current President should visit the real world once in a while.

THE BIGGEST C IS CRISIS

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. Where was George Bush? He was reading a story about a pet goat to kids in Florida when he heard about the attacks. He kept sitting there for twenty minutes with a baffled look on his face. It's all on tape. You can see it for yourself. Then, instead of taking the quickest route back to Washington and immediately going on the air to reassure the panicked people of this country, he decided it wasn't safe to return to the White House. He basically went into hiding for the day -- and he told Vice President Dick Cheney to stay put in his bunker. We were all frozen in front of our TVs, scared out of our wits, waiting for our leaders to tell us that we were going to be okay, and there was nobody home. It took Bush a couple of days to get his bearings and devise the right photo op at Ground Zero.

That was George Bush's moment of truth, and he was paralyzed. And what did he do when he'd regained his composure? He led us down the road to Iraq -- a road his own father had considered disastrous when he was President. But Bush didn't listen to Daddy. He listened to a higher father. He prides himself on being faith based, not reality based. If that doesn't scare the crap out of you, I don't know what will.

A HELL OF A MESS

So here's where we stand. We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country. We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs. Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy. Our schools are in trouble. Our borders are like sieves. The middle class is being squeezed every which way. These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask: "Where have all the leaders gone?" Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, competence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm. Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when "the Big Three" referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen -- and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debt, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bobblehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?

HAD ENOUGH?

Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises -- the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970s oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11. If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America. It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the horseshit and go to work. Let's tell 'em all we've had enough.

Copyright © 2007 by Lee Iacocca & Associates, Inc., a California Corporation

All Animals Are Equal. Some animals are more equal than other animals.

The World Bank is an establishment of the world. Countries make contributions and the 25-member board, made up of representatives of the world, governs the distribution of loans to nations with need. It is a great idea. The United States generously contributes 16 % of the funds, more than any other country. Because of our generosity, the president of the bank is traditionally appointed by the President of the United States. Our preznit appointed his pal, Paul "architect of the Iraq war before they were even elected to office" Wolfowitz to be president. Wolfowitz's autocratic style of leadership, (he has begun suspending aid to people he doesn't like, little places like India and Kenya, bypassing the board with his decisions, a sort of "who needs congress" attitude) has alienated board members and countries. He came into office saying he was going to clean up the place and do away with corruption, you know, stop Ali from loaning money to Ali when he knew it was not going to be repaid. What's a few million lost between friends. As it turns out, Wolfowitz himself is now embroiled in a scandal of lying and promoting his live in "companion" (geez, Louise, couldn't he just call her his girlfriend? Or why not marry the woman if he's been shacked up with her for three plus years?) in order to remove her from his direct supervision. The move to the state department came with a salary increase for Shaha Ali Riza from 132K to 193K, tax free because of her status as a diplomat, to a level higher than cabinet members, with the provision that when he leaves office she be returned to the world bank with her improved salary. Apparently some procedures have been shall we say "violated."

Wolfowitz originally said he had nothing to do with the transfer or the salary, but it now comes to light that he was instrumental in the process. So yesterday he held a little meeting at the bank to annouce his error to them and apologize for his lapse in judgement. I would imagine the World Bank would be a calm group of reasonable people, but in this case they became enraged and shouted boos and catcalls and demands for his resignation. You can read the breaking story in today's New York Times.

The Christian right is responsible for putting these guys in charge of everything. It's time that they stand up for the behavior and begin asking them to stand down. Forget about Obama, Clinton, Giuliani, and Romney. Nancy Pelosi should be the next president because Bush and Cheney need to be removed or imprisoned for high crimes. Forget misdemeanors.

We don't answer to anyone.

It now appears that the White House has deleted emails related to the firing of federal district attorneys. It is against the law for the White House to delete emails. They have no intention of allowing any oversight by the congress. The totalitarian presidency answers to no one.

We're number 1. People shouting. Thrusting signs upward. Painted, bare-chested men. Everyone showing their colors. Signing our names with colored ink that represents our side. This is our national psyche. Most of us or at least many of us love it. As big as college allegiances are, and many pull for a big college team, even though they never attended college or even visited the campus. The emotions are closer to the surface in high school games. Everyone there knows the players off the field as well. No way that team could beat us. The refs threw the game. We have extended winning to our national persona. America is the best. We are the most innovative. We are the pioneers. We have the work ethic. We have the best soldiers, the fiercest weapons. Likewise, we know what is best, for ourselves and for everyone else. Do it like I do it and say it like I say it. We believe that soon every country on earth will be filled with English speaking people, practicing capitalism and democracy.

"What if this is as good as it gets?" The striking question from the movie of the same title. The people in the psychiatrist's office were shocked. The very idea that their lives might not be getting better, that they might not be destined for normalcy, that everything might not be all right, sent a shiver through each person in the room.

What if we aren't the best? What if we've been the luckiest? What if we live in the best, the safest, the richest place for natural resources, most temperate climate, etc? What if we are good and they are good too? What if our wealth really has come at their expense?

We should get out of Iraq. SSG Shane R. Becker, from Helena, Montana, age 35, died in Iraq last week. Pretty remote area, Montana. Easy to ignore in New York, California, and Georgia. He was 35. A career man. This wasn't the end he hoped for. An agony for his family and friends. I salute you, sir. We grieve for your loss.

So on the same day that the Pentagon releases more de-classified documents which state that there is no credible evidence of a Saddam/al Qaida link, the vice preznit comes out with a diatribe "Oh yes there was! Oh yes there was!" If he has some super secret documents that the Pentagon is not privy to, now would be a good time to release them. Rather, he is depending on the repub tactic called "say it often, repeat it loudly, and people will believe it."

When your fan base is down to 30 percent of the public you are down to hard core people on your side. They need someone to stir them up once in awhile so the base doesn't slip any lower. They need Cheney's reassurance to be able to say "See, if Cheney says it, that's good enough for me. He is in a position to know and he won't cover up the truth." The same people believe the moon landings were filmed in the desert and that UFO's land regularly in Area 54 (if that is the right number). They think Bush and Cheney are Bible believing leaders, chosen by God. About the only Bible believing politician I ever met was Jimmy Carter and man does he stick in their craw. He's way too much like Jesus, all that concern for the poor and needy. If you get a chance to go to Plains on Sunday and hear him teach Sunday School, I recommend it. Arrive early.

The preznit continues his spirit of cooperation by the recess appointment of a 77 year old swift boater for "truth" who was bottled up in committee and an advocate of social security privatization who has already been rejected by the congress. So the king stays in town to pay back more cronies during Easter recess just so he can use that emergency provision. Not to mention that he has the media to himself. They have nothing to cover with congress out of town so we are getting these almost daily appearances by his sourpussness to whine his "give me a clean bill and give it to me now" speechification. What ever happened to the president's appointments are subject to the advice and consent of the senate? Notice that he had his republican congress pass a way around this provision for the appointment of attorneys general as well. Otherwise we wouldn't have the current flap because he couldn't have gotten Rove's buddies past the senate.

You may call me a liberal to read my blog, but I think I'm a moderate. I'm tolerant of other people's opinions (if I don't have to listen to them constantly). There is room in my world for people to be "gay" or ethnic or muslim. I think we can learn from one another. But I have a conservative streak. I think the government could do better with our tax money. I think the budget could balance most of the time. They could run the government like a fledgling business, in a butler building instead of in the finest office space. And we are busy building bridges to nowhere, and roads to nowhere to show how important our representatives are. Think about it. Alaska and Wyoming combined have 4 senators and 4 representatives and 1/5th the number of people that are in Atlanta. Should they really be states instead of territories? It is questionable. The designers of the constitution did not have them in mind. Too much power in the hands of too few. Yes, I know there is Rhode Island as a precedent.

I think the government should help people. We haven't helped Katrina victims very well. I think the government should stay out of foreign conflicts whenever possible. Lying to get into a conflict so you can strut up and down in a flight jacket and puff "mission accomplished" is treasonous and should get you hanged.

I think the FBI and the CIA shouldn't be using illegal means to eavesdrop on Americans. I expect that before long the government will be using devices to read out "irises" to track our every movement. 1984 in 2010. It seems that we are slipping toward totalitarianism with this hard turn to the right that occurred in 1994. They said we were turning back to the good old days of American might and American godliness. But it looks like to me we've turned back toward intolerance, hate speech, name calling, bitterness, and bludgeoning weak nations that oppose us and our allies if they don't support us.

I thought the preznit might try to work with the congress after the last election. He has no intention of doing anything but following his own direction down paths that are now proven to be roads to catastrophe. The congress must stop him.

How's the rebuilding going in Iraq?

". . . of nearly 180 medical facilities promised by the U.S., contracts were awarded for 142. Only six have been completed and turned over to the Iraqis and those "are not even fully complete."

"This comes as a sharp contrast to the Japanese," Ali said. "They have promised and delivered 13 hospitals around the country, including three cutting-edge cancer centers. The Japanese have been very faithful to us, unfortunately, the Americans aren't like that."

It is exciting to see your students go on and flourish. I am still astonished at hearing one of my Mezzos in her junior recital last week. I pulled her parents aside when she was 15 to tell them that this was a special voice. Her current teacher spoke with me afterward to say "Everyone say's she's going to have a major career." I believe she will.

There is also a joy in witnessing the week to week changes of those who are still in my charge. At times there are pauses where not much progress is made, but at other time the break the bonds of tension and find their voices.

I've sent 35 students out to be college voice majors. Some have turned away from the program, but others are now professionals in Nashville, New Orleans, Chicago, Baton Rouge. Bravo.

I like my fantasy baseball team but they are certainly not fast starters! We are out of the gate in 6th place. : (