Wouldn’t it be nice if both the Republicans and the Democrats could somehow grow up and stop with all of the childish name calling? Recently John Edwards has come under attack for not firing two campaign employees who'd criticized Roman Catholics and religious conservatives, on there blog. As I understand it, this was there personal blog but they are being paid by the Edwards camp. I’d rather not repeat what it was they said because it was just too stupid to mention. I guess with all of the angry words being said on blogs, it should be of no surprise. I think the surprise to me is that these two were not fired right away. It seems as if his camp would like to start a religious civil war here at home like with what we’re seeing in Iraq today. Let me just state that I am not a Catholic or a member of any organized religion. I do however believe that Jesus was a brilliant person for seeing the importance of being good and doing good things. To me all religions that fall under this category are to be respected even if I don’t believe in everything they may say. Whenever I hear one of these ignorant comments coming from whoever’s mouth, it make me upset to think that we still have people out there that think in this hateful way. As you can imagine, I get upset a lot. I have to admit that I listen to the talk radio shows of the left and right whenever I drive around my town. I enjoy listening to the good points being made by reasonable people. I also have to admit that whenever I hear someone start with the name calling I feel the need to switch the channel. Being a centrist, I find myself agreeing and disagreeing with both sides on many subjects. I have to wonder if there are other people like myself listening to these talk shows. To me it seems that whoever wins the centrist usually wins the election. Of course I understand that these talk show wouldn’t be as entertaining if they were centrist and not so far left and far right. The thing that has always turned me off is when the name calling starts. If only we could have a debate without having to stoop so low. Many times I would be listening to a point being made with interest when all of a sudden the whole point was lost because a name was called by one side to the other. Not only name calling but outrages claims being sold as fact. Like with the Edwards camp calling Catholics and religious conservatives fascist. I’m sure there are a few Catholics and religious conservatives’ fascist types out there, but to call everyone that is Catholic or religious conservative’s fascist is just ignorant. It’s this very same kind of ignorance that we can clearly see happening in Iraq and many other parts of the world. Like when we hear that in many parts of the Middle East children are taught that all Israelis are pigs. If you have studied your history then you know that this is what Hitler did to dehumanize a whole population as to make it easier to hate and even kill them. Only an idiot would believe that the Israelis were literally pigs. What I hate about the Edwards affair is that when some Democrat calls a whole group of people fascist then you can almost hear millions of Catholics and religious conservatives moving over to the Republicans side. How can you blame them? I wish Democrats could remember when John Kerry was running and all we needed was a few votes to beat Bush. So many thought at that time that he was too much to the right so they wasted there votes on the Green Party. If only they were able to remember that far back then perhaps they would have learned an important lesson and we wouldn’t have to repeat it again. To think that Gore was too far right may seem hard to believe today but that’s what happens when the name calling begins. Can you imagine how different things would have been if only a few of those wasted votes were given to Gore? I blame those people that deserted the Democrats for all of the problems that we have today more so than some loyal Republicans. So here we go again. Democrats should easily win the next presidential race, it would seem, but how can we win when a few people can insult a whole religion in the name of our party, and nothing be done about it. Sure there are a few people out there that will get there rocks off by attacking the Catholics and religious right, but you can’t win races with only a few. We need to start thinking like a party that wants to win the centrist population. When Bush was governor here in Texas, many people, like myself, wanted to dislike him but couldn’t because he showed respect to our side. I have to give him credit for that. Perhaps behind closed doors he may have called us names, but that doesn’t matter when you show respect in public. How much I wish the Democrats could treat the Republicans with respect in this way. Say whatever you like behind closed doors but in public, show some respect. That’s called being smart. When the Edwards camp insults millions then it’s not only they who must pay, but all of us Democrats. I would hope that the Edwards camp would distance themselves from anyone who insults our brothers and sisters no matter what they may believe. After all it’s not the few loud groups that will get us elected but the majority of centrist that can go either way at this point. You can almost never get the far right to move to the far left. You can almost never get the far left to move the far right. But you can get them to move to the center. That’s how you win an election. I understand that we are bombarded with insults by the right but we shouldn’t want to be like them. We are Democrats and should act like it. Let’s let them make the mistakes this time unless you don’t mine having another eight years of another Bush to deal with.

For someone like myself, the problem in Darfur is hard to understand what we should do because of the “dammed if you do, dammed if you don’t,” reality of American politics. Again we are seeing the merciless tactics of the evil terrorist spreading like wildfire. Once again the world looks to us to solve the world’s problem. (i.e. police of the world.) We have yet to hear all of the objection that will surly follow if we were to take more action. Again the world has there head in the sand while they practice there “we hate America because they are doing what we should have, speech,” like with the Europeans with Bosnia. Once again we are heading toward saving millions who will surly come to hate us for it. I remember about ten years ago I was telling someone that I understood that as Americans our purpose was to save people that will repay us by hating us. One need only pick up an American history book to see this. The sooner we can come to see this, the sooner we can understand just what it is to be an American, I believe. As with Iraq, people here are reading and seeing about the unthinkable things being done to people over there. The same people that endlessly complain about being in Iraq are the same ones that are asking why we are not fighting there. They will say that it’s because the people there are black or there’s no oil interest. Because they do have oil, these same people will be saying that we are over there because of the oil if we were to attack. Mark my words. The only thing they hate worst than seeing innocent people being killed is seeing Americans being killed. The ideal thing would be if the U.N. were to take the lead. If only other countries would form a large force like they are hoping we will do. But of course, like with Bosnia, they will only give lip service. If they wouldn’t do anything to stop ethnic cleansing in there own backyard then how can we ever hope that they would do anything in Darfur? If anyone doesn’t care about black people, it’s the Europeans or other parts of the world. So the question is, what should we do. This is a time when we look for a leader that will make the tough decisions. To me that leader is Hilary Clinton because she has shown to be someone that can take a beating from all the critics and keep on fighting. You can already hear the right and even the left beginning to start there attacks on her. Like myself, she is a centrist which is the enemy of the far left and far right. You can hear them criticizing her for being too tough. I’ve heard people from the left say that they hate her but love her husband. You get the feeling that they are barley tolerating her because of her husband or maybe because she could be the first woman president. People on the right hate her for all kinds of reasons including because she’s a woman. When Bill Clinton was president she was attacked almost daily by the right like no first lady that I can recall. I remember how they would even go after there daughter like with our current president and there daughters. I remember how sick this made me, like today when I hear people go after Bush’s daughters. There used to be a time when a president’s family was off limits and people understood this going back as far as F.D.R. They went after F.D.R.’s wife Eleanor because she had a true desire to make things better for all Americans which made may Americans hate her. Sound familiar? From what I’ve heard from the right, Hilary’s worst crime seems to be her trying to bring universal health care for everyone in America while Bill Clinton was in office. The same people that call themselves Christians hate her the most for trying to help the poor and helpless. Say what? Maybe they should go back and read the Bible and how Christ wished to help the poor. Somehow I don’t think that that would make any difference to them. I can’t say that I understand it because I believed in what Christ wanted others to see. I don’t believe that he walked on water and all that, but I do believe in his message that changed the world regarding the poor and the weak. So how is Hilary any different? Ask yourself, what would Jesus do. Would he want to help the poor or would he say that that’s there tough luck? The answer is clear. I’m not saying that you should give money to everyone with there hand out. That’s like feeding the bears. That may make you feel good but that really only makes things worst in the long run. What I’m talking about is as with myself, when you go buy a prescription and only one of your many refills cost more than a hundred dollars if you didn’t have insurance, or the cost of a hospital visit. I’m lucky because I have insurance so I can only imagine if I did not. I think most of you know what I’m talking about. Health care costs are way out of control. So how in the world can we expect the poor and old to deal with this reality? The right may say that universal health care would only bring up the cost as if we weren’t paying way too much for all of the uninsured already. If you’re in a boat and you have a leak you can either keep bailing out the water forever while you slowly sink or you can plug the hole. We need to plug the hole because our country is sinking. For this reason and many more, I believe Hilary is the real deal, or the new New Deal of our time. Just like with Eleanor, so many hated her for doing what had to be done. What kind of country would we have if people like herself hadn’t given us the New Deal? How long would the soup lines be today? I’m glad we don’t have to know the answer to that thanks to people like her. To me Hilary has shown herself to be a leader that knows what needs to be done more so than others. Like her, I believe that we need to now start to begin to withdraw from Iraq because we have done almost all that can be expected of us there. Hopefully in better shape than when we found it. Of course that’s up to the Iraqis now. Or fine men and woman in the military have done more than anyone could expect them to under the condition. No one understands this more than they. They are the ones who truly understand the importance of there mission there. That’s why they are upset with all of the critics over here. They have seen the faces of the all the people who have fallen into too many years of hopelessness. They know only too well the senselessness of ignorant hate which is like a monster that needs to be killed once and for all. The same monster that the people of the world wonder what should be done with in Darfur. The same monster that looks at America as it’s most feared enemy. The same monster that sees ethnic cleansing as a good thing. Today’s Hitler’s make no secret of there ethnic cleansing wishes toward the good Jewish people. It is they and not us who wish to start a new world war. As with Hitler, they see now as the time when we have no stomach for war and so they see now as being the time to make there move. They never learn. Too bad. They truly have no idea of what they are headed for. War mongers rarely do. I just hope that when all hell breaks loose, people here can remember that it was us who would have preferred a peaceful solution. I just hope that they can remember that it was the Americans that couldn’t stand by while the helpless were being slaughtered again. I believe we will be the ones to have to rescue the helpless again because I just can’t see how we can ignore this problem when even the left cry out for something to be done there. Of course the same left that will be calling us warmongers and many other hateful names like today. That’s just to be expected. It just couldn’t be any other way. If you were to read our history books about our own American revolution you would think that everyone in the states sided with the Americans but it was the British who had most of the support by our own people. I’m very sure some two hundred years from now, people will think that all Americans supported our side. Today we know better because we are living in an important time in history. Only we can see that those of us who are fighting to do the right thing have to battle here at home as well. Battling people who claim to be for peace but can’t understand that if they win that there will never be peace on this planet. I’m like you, I don’t have all the answers and that’s why I will be supporting the best person for the job which I believe is Hilary Clinton. I’m sure she doesn’t have all the answers as well which is why it’s so important that we pick the best person for the job. A person that’s more of a true Christian than all of the haters that pretend to be.

Maybe some of you saw Meet the Press on 2-4-07 with John Edwards like I did this last weekend. I voted for John Kerry and John Edwards as many of you may have. As with all the Democrat front runners, he is opposed to the surge of troops to Iraq. There are some differences that seem interesting. First we have Barack Obama who was clearly always against sending troops to Iraq. As of now he is still not officially in the race but seems to be heading in that direction. Then we have Hilary Clinton and John Edwards who were for sending troops as most were back then. Even a year and a half into the war when we knew that there were no weapons of mass destruction that have been found, John Edwards still supported his vote for going there. Now that he is trying to become the Democrats choose for President, he has made it clear that he now wishes that he had voted against going there. Then we have Hilary Clinton who as of yet has not stated that she regretted her vote which the Edwards camp seems to wish to point out in hopes of being more appealing to the left. There’s something distasteful to me about someone who wants to tell people that he now wishes he had voted differently and that everyone else that voted to give the President the power to deal with Saddam, should do the same as he has. To me it seems that most people would have voted differently if they had known the truth. That’s just the nature of politics. That’s the reason we elect people to make the tough decisions. If they should vote to do something that later turns out to have been a mistake then they should be able to explain why they voted that way without sounding like a flip flopper. Like some like to say, a politician who holds up a wet finger to see which way the wind is blowing today. I believe that Barack Obama is showing a great deal of class because he doesn’t seem to be acting like Edwards in this way. His message seems to be that both parties should stop attacking each other and come together for the good of the country. If you have been reading my blog then you may have seen that this is also my message. Like Hilary and Edwards I too believed that Saddam was too dangerous and needed to be dealt with. In this way I was not like Obama. I believe that Hilary is also showing a great deal of class as well. Perhaps it would be smart of her to distance herself from her decision like Edwards has. By seeing her not making excuses, she seems to be a stronger leader. It’s easy to now look back and see that so much information from our intelligence was very wrong. It’s a much different thing to have listened to all of that bad information and been able to somehow have known what nobody did. I believe that Edwards and Hilary had more information with regards to Iraq but still they were wrong. The one thing that does bother me about Obama is that even though most of us believed that Saddam had WMD’s, this didn’t seem to be a problem with him. I understand that he may have been right but he had no way of knowing what the truth really was back then. This tells me that he must be a very anti all kinds of wars kind of guy compared to most of us. It’s harder to tell if this is true because he hasn’t been around as long as the other two. If I were an anti war person of today then Obama would most likely be my choose because he was right and very anti war. I hate wars like most people, but not so much as the kind of people that hate almost all wars for whatever reason. When the host asked Edwards about the predictions from our intelligents of the blood bath that would follow if we were to leave at this time, Edwards didn’t seem to care about the Iraq people as much as I would have liked. To me, if you made a mistake then you should be more responsible for your actions. (i.e. You break it, you buy it.) If we had found WMD’s like we had hoped, then maybe it would be alright to say, “To hell with these people, there on there own.” I just can’t see how we can go into there country and cause so much damage and find nothing and then say, “To hell with them,” and leave. We all understand that we can’t be in the middle of a civil war but we should also not do anything else to make things there any worse. If we can do something for the government there to help bring order than we should do whatever we can. Of course it breaks my heart to see all of the good men and women that have sacrificed so much so far, but how will we feel when we start seeing the pictures of thousands of deaths after we leave. Maybe you could look the other way and say that at least it’s not our problem any more. I have a much harder time doing this because I supported the mission and I can’t forget that. I believe that today we put too much important in the WMD factor when truly much of the importance was to overthrow Saddam because he was so bad to the Iraq’s in general. I think that not finding WMD’s was more of a surprise to most of us. (i.e. Slam dunk) The fact that he used WMD’s on his enemies and his own people is something many seem to be over looking today. The message would seem to be that as long as we didn’t have any WMD’s to worry about, then others didn’t matter. I have no doubt that if Saddam had thought that he could have used WMD’s against us and had any chance of winning then he would have used them. I don’t believe that he somehow had a change of heart and disposed of any WMD’s because he knew it was wrong to have them. It would seem more likely that he saw that using WMD’s against us would have been suicide and therefore a bad idea. He must have also felt that having people wonder if he had them would prevent them from attacking. If this was his thinking then it didn’t work. Unless there are still some WMD’s that have yet to be found, then this would seem to be his logic. When you play poker and you call someone’s hand, then it’s because you believe they may be bluffing or you have the better hand. Knowing Saddam’s history, we had no reason to believe he was bluffing. He clearly seemed to be someone who never bluffed so why should we think that he was now? Surly Saddam must have felt that we would never believe he was bluffing and so we would never attack. From statements I’ve heard coming from him, he did feel that we would never attack. This seems hard to believe after we ran him out of Kuwait, but that’s what he said later. Whatever his thinking was, I can’t see how we should feel bad because we didn’t find any. Would it have been better to have lost 3000 lives in one attack and then have moved in? Just because he wasn’t suicidal and he got rid of the weapons that we all knew he had at one time, doesn’t make him the innocent victim. If we had decided to not attack, one things for sure, Saddam would still hate Israel and anyone in the West that didn’t play his get rich with the money from the oil for food program. He’d still be laughing at us and our weak allies. Thousand would still be filling the mass graves. To believe that everything would be wonderful if only we had not attacked seems very naïve at best. We are just now beginning to understand just how complicated the problems are that we face in the Middle East. Saddam was just one of many problems that we will need to deal with sooner or later. The later we wait, the worst the problem will become. We should listen to Obama and stop fighting each other and start facing the true problem. Like it or not, we are at war which started before 9-11.

Recently the British broke up a terror cell whose plan was to capture a Muslim British military person and film him being tortured and beheaded. This may be a clue to how the terrorist will attack us next here in America. After seeing how afraid people are to even draw a comic of Mohamed, it’s not hard to see why they may wish to attack us this way next. Most people here are literally afraid to stick there neck out in any way that may upset the Muslim masses. They truly have a powerful weapon by using fear to intimidate millions and nobody understands this more than the terrorist. In the Middle East it’s common to attack the Christens and Jews in ways that would never be tolerated by the Muslims. They are told that the Jews will kill there young in order to make there traditional food. This is believed by many of there followers without question. It may be hard for people in the West to understand that so many people could believe something so silly, but just look at how many people here believe in Big Foot or the Lock Ness Monster. Just look at how many people believed Hitler and all of the claims he made about the Jewish people. Just look at how many of the Japanese would kill themselves instead of being captured by the Americans because they believed some lie told to them by there government during WWII. People will believe almost anything you want them to. By using technology they can bring fear to millions in seconds now. As with 9-11, they can do this by using only knifes instead of bombs or guns. No need for large armies either. By killing a Muslim military person they can also bring fear to the Muslims that are on our side. I’m sure they are hoping to get some Muslims on our side to switch over to there side out of fear. Now we must spend millions for our army’s equipment, like smart bombs so we can kill the enemy without killing innocent civilians while they can do there job with a knife and camera. This is the problem that we face with this new kind of war. The enemy can import bigger better bombs from places like Iran while we do nothing to stop them. We keep hoping that we can somehow avoid an all out war with places like Iran while they promise to wipe Israel off the map. Maybe an all out war could be prevented if there were more people in the Middle East that would stand up against the war mongers, but these people also would like to keep there heads. Some of you may remember when we obtained a letter sent to Al Zawahiri by Osama Bin Laden in which he asks him to stop beheading people. It seems to me that this latest cell shows us that Bin Laden is not calling the shots as many believe. There side seems to be doing whatever they please and using his name only. More proof that Bin Laden is powerless and in hiding somewhere, if he’s even still alive. Zawahiri didn’t listen to him so why should we expect some other terror cell to listen. I’m sure that there reasoning would be that they believe that Mohammad said that if someone didn’t convert then they should have there head cut off. They would say that they are obeying Mohammad instead of Bin Laden. This may be true if they were to ask there prisoner to convert and give them this chose, but they are not. In this latest case they were hoping to capture a Muslim and behead him. This is clearly against what Mohammad himself was allegedly to have said. So it seems clear that the terrorist are going against the orders of Mohammad and Bin Laden. They seem to have no leader but the Devil himself. What I can’t understand is why can’t the Muslims see this. Are they truly Muslims or are they Muslims in name only? When it comes to having your head removed they should be pro choice. There is clearly no choice being given here so this has nothing to do with Mohammad. They clearly are going against the wishes of Bin Laden so this has nothing to do with him either. As sick and twisted as it may be, I can see how a Muslim may believe that they are doing something that Mohammad wished, but this is clearly going against his wishes. So we seem to be facing an enemy who has no soul and no respect for even the religion they pretend to be a part of. This is truly a sign of the times and what we are now facing. This wouldn’t be the first time we faced a soulless enemy. Too bad that they can’t understand that when you go against God that you can never win. Maybe you can win for a short time but in the end you can never win. That’s why so many people are counting on us to save them from the darkness of dictators and bring them freedom. Lennon and Marx were almost right when they said that all governments will fall and should be replaced by Socialism. What they didn't see is that even Socialism will fall and can only be replaced by a mix of Capitalism and Socialism, as proven by Russia. I’m sure that if Lennon and Marx were still alive today that even they would have to admit this. Socialism may have been a noble idea but we can now see that we need a mix of Capitalism and Socialism like we have here in the U.S. today. The problem with the Middle East is that they haven’t yet learned that the government should be above all religions if they are to survive and prosper. Also they need to learn that people should have respect for all religions. Like I stated before, I believe no religion has a monopoly. Like our Golden Rule states, “do unto others as you would have them do unto you.” Or in this case, respect other religions as you would have them respect yours. I remember the other day when my wife, who is from mainland China, was shocked to learn that we have a Communist party here in America. She was even in more shocked when I told her that we even have a Nazi Party here as well. Seeing how this was such an unbelievable thing to someone outside of the States, it made me think about how different some other countries are compared to us. Free speech is something that should be respected if you are to truly consider yourself free. I recall one time when I was in China and a couple asked me how China could be as successful as the U.S. Being a little too honest, I told them that they could never be as successful until they had a right to vote and a free press. I told them that in the U.S. we tell the government what to do where as in China it’s the government that tells the people what to do. I could tell that they understood what I was saying was the truth. I remember when I was saying this that a crowd began to from around me. You could tell that they had never heard anyone talk like this in public. I think it gave them hope that maybe one day they could be as free. As an American we could never even imagine how quickly change is spreading over there. To me one way to look at it is if a country were a garden. If you want your garden to flourish then you need both Socialism and Capitalism with a good respect for the laws of the land. We like to say here that we are a country of laws. No one should be above the law. Just imagine if you owned a billion dollar company. Would you rather have your company in a country where no one is above the law or in a country where your company could be taken away by someone because they feel they can take it for whatever reason? Of course you would want to be in a land where you have some protection from the powerful. If China were to somehow become like us in this way, I believe that we would find ourselves falling behind them. Of course many here believe that we are already falling behind them because we import so much from there. What I’m saying is what if even the poorest man in China had equal protection under the law as we have here. Then we would truly find ourselves falling behind like we can’t even imagine. Imagine if you would feel safer having your billion dollar company in China because you could see that they had better laws in protection of your company. If that were the case then China would be ten times the country it is today. The only thing keeping this from happening is the greed and ignorance of the people in power there now. The good of the people comes second to the good of the powerful. That’s not to say that we are perfect over here, only fairer. If only the people in the Middle East could come out of the dark ages that they seem to be stuck in.