Sarah Palin and Iraq... and God

No one issue will have more impact on the next president than the Iraq war.

The most stunning aspect of Sarah Palin's vice-presidential candidacy is the absolute dearth of information about her views of the Iraq war.  Google produces nothing substantive, and no, merely visiting the Alaska Guard troops in Kuwait does not win foreign policy points.

By her own admission, she had not paid much attention to the Iraq war until her son showed intent to join the infantry.  In 2006,  when asked about the troop "surge" as proposed by President Bush,  she told Alaska Business Monthly:

I've been so focused on state government, I haven't really focused much on the war in Iraq. I heard on the news about the new deployments, and while I support our president, Condoleezza Rice and the administration, I want to know that we have an exit plan in place...

Huh?  Even those of us who have no child or other family member in the military have been keeping up with the issues especially in regard to such a massive military operation, and we all know there is no "exit plan in place."  That's called responsible citizenship.  Her lack of curiosity reminds me of the current inhabitant of the White House.  To this day Sarah Palin has yet to give an opinion about the Iraq war except some fatuous intonation that "victory is in sight", but then fails to elaborate on her definition of "victory."

Apparently Sarah Palin's religion informs much of the motive of the United States' involvement in Iraq.  The war is prescribed by her God and, regarding the troops, "Our national leaders are sending them out on a task that is from God."  I did not know that!  I wish someone would tell the evil terr'ists so they would stop trying to kill us!

Furthermore, it turns out that God wants Alaskans to drill and transport fossilized dinosaur by-products to put into our gas tanks and furnaces. 

God's will has to be done in unifying people and companies to get that gas line built, so pray for that... I can do my job there in developing our natural resources and doing things like getting the roads paved and making sure our troopers have their cop cars and their uniforms and their guns, and making sure our public schools are funded... But really all of that stuff doesn't do any good if the people of Alaska's heart isn't right with God.

I'm not sure which language Governor Palin used to uttered those sage words, however, because for a couple decades she was a member of the Assembly Pentecostal Church, which is famous for its members having the ability to speak in tongues.

To say that understanding Iraq is important for a vice-presidential candidate is like saying that understanding the double-play is important for a potential shortstop.    Palin simply does not evoke confidence that she gets all the nuance of conducting a war in a theater such as Iraq, and I doubt the Muslim world will be impressed with her theology.

Seriously, this person wants to be my president?   So, again, Ms. Palin, stop feeding red meat to right wing nutjobs and start giving us substantive information about your world view.  

Sixty-five days.... and counting.

The Rhetoric of Sarah Palin

The electorate has a mere 66 days to figure out whether Sarah Palin has the ability to lead this nation, which is a shorter time than any other V.P. candidate in my memory.  She has emerged from a political backwater by the selection of one man who had met her once before making a decision.  This man, John McCain, hopes to become the oldest person inaugurated President, at an age in which his father and both grandfathers were already deceased.

Every other candidate on the national tickets have been in federal office, penned memoirs and been campaigning for years.  Only Palin is unknown, which is why her speech this week was an important introduction to her candidacy and was the most watched spectacle of its kind.

And how did Gov. Palin greet her would-be loyal minions?  Answer: With all the typical Rovian half-truths and outright lies to which we have become accustomed these past several years.

To wit: She began by bragging that she stopped the federal funding for the "bridge to nowhere" which gained international acclaim as the most egregious example or pork barrel spending.  Palin smirked that if Alaskans needed a bridge, they'd fund it themselves, thus portraying her state as the self-sufficient stalwarts who eschew handouts from the feds.  Unfortunately, Ms. Palin failed to divulge that she backed the funding until it was publicized, i.e., she was for it until she was against it, and then even when the bridge project was cancelled Alaska kept the money anyway. 

The second falsehood involved Palin's snarky rejoinder about Senator Obama "writing two memoirs but not a single major law or reform, even as a state senator."  Unfortuantely, again, the good governor failed to learn that Senator Obama has infact co-sponsored several bills in both the US Senate and Illinois Senate on a host of issues including disclosure for federal funding, ethics reform, police brutality, and democracy promotion in Africa. 

Thirdly, Gov. Palin used the same tired scare tactics about taxes that Republicans have been abusing for decades.  If current taxes need to be raised it's only because the current GOP administration, backed by GOP congresses until 2006, have spent us into an economic coma.  But the fact is that when Palin says that Obama will "raise income taxes", she is speaking only to the top 2% of wage earners.  In fact, for the vast majority of taxpayers, the taxes paid under the McCain and Obama plans are almost identical.  Those making over $250,000 will pay more under Obama, but everyone else pays less.   Under McCain, everyone pays less tax, but the high earners pay a lot less.

The other interesting factoid about the two tax plans is that the McCains stand to save almost $400,000 in taxes under his tax scheme and only $6000 under Obama's, so how come nothing is made of this apparent vested interest?

Sure, the convention is a time of raucus partisan sparring and all is meant in good fun.  The problem I have as a voter is that Sarah Palin has very little time to present herself as a serious chief executive.  Senator Obama has run a stellar campaign, held a US Senate seat and penned those pesky memoirs, so his introduction is considerable.  The other two Senators have been in national spotlight for decades and their records and histories are a matter of record.  

Perhaps the McCain/Palin ticket is not interested in pursuing my vote, and I'm okay with that, but if they do feel a need to appeal to me, then I would suggest that Governor Palin dispense with the cute rhetoric and start a serious discussion about the manner in which she would govern.  

Sixty-five days...  and counting.

 

McCain as the change agent?

John McCain, if elected, would likely govern in a much different manner than the current administration, but would it be different enough? His speech tonight was effective in portraying him as a reasonable and pragmatic thinker who talked about education, energy and terrorism to rousing applause.

McCain's life of service is admirable, but the question for today is whether he would make a good president with the current problems we face. I can see his points on a number of issues, and I can be magnanimous enough to recognize his references such as "legislating from the bench" as a wink to the right wing nutjobs that he needs in his camp.

At the end of the day, I would trust that McCain would use common sense in governing, choosing judges and dealing with our allies. He's not stupid and while he may have a slightly different world view than I have and he may be a bit too beholden to the anti-choice conservatives than I would prefer, I still maintain that, if elected, McCain would serve us well.... assuming one thing.

The issue bearing down on McCain's candidacy is his age and health. This may sound cliche, but it is a question that cannot go away. Up until yesterday, I would have said that worse for the country than a President McCain dying or leaving office would be McCain becoming invalid and leaving governance to some nameless bureaucrats. But after hearing Sarah Palin last night, I realize that a President McCain dying in office would be an unmitigated disaster*.

I voted for McCain in two primary elections over the past eight years. The 64 year-old John McCain was the far better candidate for the Republican party in 2000 and I proudly cast my ballot for him. The 72 year-old McCain is the same man, but a far different candidate. The Republican party is far different now than it was in 2000. The damage done to this nation under the watch of George W. Bush cannot be calculated and I'm not sure that McCain represents enough change for my liking.

John McCain's reiteration of his POW captivity was, as always, inspirational, but I have heard this story or read accounts of this saga at least a dozen times. Does it ever get old? McCain had to remind the cheering throng that Obama had no military experience. Where was this throng when George W. Bush, the draft dodger, was insinuating our military into an illegal war and abrogating our international treaties while the rest of us have been screaming? I find this disingenuous.

McCain used the term "change" ten times tonight in an attempt to usurp the meme from Obama, the true change agent. John McCain is the General fighting the last war in more ways than one. The nation is a lot different than it was 8 years ago, as is the world, and we need new leadership for a new world.

Nobody will buy him as a change from Bush.

I know I don't.





*Palin's speech last night was breathtaking. Honestly, I sat down to bang out my take on it, but nausea overtook me and I thought it would just be better to leave it all unsaid. Not in a million years could I imagine her as my president. What's next? Barney Fife as Attorney General? Seriously.

Sarah Palin and American History

A few years ago I asked a friend how many times the word "God" appeared in the Constitution. The reply was somewhat cryptic, but the gist was that he did indeed think that the Constitution was based on some version of "God's law."

Now, we have another instance of the failure of our public education system. On her questionaire for the Alaska gubernatorial * race in the 1990's, Sarah Palin responded thusly:

Question: Are you offended by the phrase “Under God” in the Pledge of
Allegiance? Why or why not?

Sarah Palin: Not on your life. If it was good enough for the founding fathers, its good enough for me and I’ll fight in defense of our Pledge of Allegiance.

Yikes. The Pledge of Allegiance was not written until 1892, and furthermore, the words, "under God" were not added until 1954, during the Cold War fervor against those godless Communists.

I won't belabor the point too much, but this is the exact reason non-theists shudder when approached with candidates such as this who have little understanding of the purposes of the establishment of this great union, one of which was to protect the citizens from the tyranny of a religious majority. This is pretty basic nuts-and-bolts American history, so it begs the question, what else doesn't she know?

She's only been on the ticket a few days, and we're already finding a target rich environment for opinion pieces. Who the hell vetted her? Methinks this is looking more like John McCain's "Harriet Miers moment" with each passing hour.

And we haven't even heard her stance on foreign policy yet, so definitely stay tuned.

*N.B.: The link to the original questionaire has been mysteriously deleted and replaced with a link to the McCain campaign website-- which indicates that the deletion was done very recently and for a specific purpose. Shame.





(If someone has evidence that this characterization of Ms. Palin's ignorance is inaccurate, please let me know and I will gladly publish a retraction. The wording of the question sounds a little contrived but I have seen this referenced in several locations so I'll let it ride here until I have evidence to the contrary. Good lord, I hope I'm wrong about this.)

"Bristol's decision"

The official statement from the Palin family regarding their 17-year-old unwed daughter's pregnancy:

"We have been blessed with five wonderful children who we love with all our
heart and mean everything to us. Our beautiful daughter Bristol came to us with
news that as parents we knew would make her grow up faster than we had ever
planned. We're proud of Bristol's decision to have her baby and
even prouder to become grandparents. As Bristol faces the
responsibilities of adulthood, she knows she has our unconditional love and
support.

"Bristol and the young man she will marry are going to realize very
quickly the difficulties of raising a child, which is why they will have the
love and support of our entire family. We ask the media to respect our daughter
and Levi's privacy as has always been the tradition of children of
candidates." [emphasis mine-- Tony]

For all the other Bristol's out there, let's keep it their decision. (Oh yeah, how 'bout something more than abstinence-only education, too. Duh.) That's the last you'll hear from me on this girl's personal life.

My Initial Reaction to VP Pick Sarah Palin

I admire McCain for the curve ball he's thrown into the election. After all, he's a maverick.

My initial reaction to Sarah Palin as the potential Vice President to the oldest inaugurated President in hisory is...

...[drum roll]...

Well, to be honest, I got nothing.

Sorry about the suspense and all, but really, how can I form an opinion about someone who is absolutely unknown?

I'll make a few points about the issues so far:

1. McCain's VP is extremely important to his candidacy. His father and both grandfathers were dead by the time they were 72, which is the birthday McCain just celebrated. He has a malignancy that may recur at any time.

2. We can compare the [lack of] experience between Palin and Obama and some may conclude that neither have very extensive foreign policy chops. I'll accept that, but I have heard Obama speak over and over about the way he would govern, I have seen him run a stellar national campaign for the last 18 months, he has surrounded himself with top-notch advisers. I'm confident in his educational background and his tenor.

3. I do not accept that being governor of a state with the same population as Kent County Michigan gives her any type of valuable experience as "Commander in Chief" of the Alaska Guard, as she has proposed. Please.

4. I can fill pages on what I do not know about Sarah Palin. What are her exact views on social programs, health care, abortion laws versus personal choice, education, the environment, role of the military in the world, etc, etc.

5. I do know that the authoritarian pro-life people are overjoyed with Palin even though they know nothing more than I do about the manner in which she would govern on a whole host of important issues. These one-issue voters are dangerous because they have shown in the past that they are willing to elect any random fool as long as he or she recites the proper mantra.

My initial reaction to Sarah Palin is... nothing. She seems nice, is easier on the eyes than Joe Biden, and is passionate about Alaska. But can she be president? We have 9 weeks to form an opinion, so stay tuned.

Market Update: No reason for short term bets

On August 20th, we noticed that support had been broken and the nice run from the July 15th capitulation was nearing an end. We recommended to sell into strength at that time, and the time is now.

Sure this week has been low volume with the end of summer, but the technical analysis of the market is not reassuring. The future is impossible to predict and now is a good time for risk management and hedging all your long positions with corresponding shorts.

Oil price has been the wild card and now we are seeing renewed strength in that sector with the narrative assigning weather considerations to the recent rise in the barrel price of oil.



The sentiment indicator we are looking at in the above figure is the "% of NYSE stocks above their 50-day moving average." While this is not as bearish as we had seen in October, the pattern certainly is not contradicting the bearishness of the price movement in the first figure.

We have had a large number of stocks cross above their 50-day MA in the last 5 weeks and that should act as a short term ceiling to price movement. Be careful establishing any new long positions in this environment.

Having said that, the regional banks (KRE) have been pummeled and will likely be the first to emerge from the financial doldrums when that time comes. Many of these companies have solid balance sheets and their retail businesses should continue to to do well as the economy chugs along. The question remains how long it will take, but KRE basket of regional bank stocks boasts a 5.2% dividend, which would pay one to wait while taking little risk for the long term.

Is Dark Knight a political allegory?

Walking out of the latest Batman movie, my politically aware compatriot immediately remarked that he thought the Joker was a representation of Dick Cheney, an agent of chaos battling the rule of order.

I disagreed. In fact, if Dark Knight is a political allegory, then I would argue that Batman himself is supposed to be Dick Cheney, the secretive complex protagonist who grunts in monosyllables, an ersatz hero with a billionaire alter ego who has benefited immensely from the status quo and will go to great lengths in order to preserve it. Who are we to know what the political tendencies of the filmmaker are, if there are any indeed?

Cheney, like Bruce Wayne, and unlike the Joker, has lived within the crucible of the power structure of our culture and has done well financially and politically. Bruce Wayne is a self-assured and connected player within the Gotham society; he owns buildings, escorts dignitaries and influences the opinion of the mucky-mucks. That’s our beloved Dick Cheney.

The Joker is the disconnected agent of chaos, sowing destruction for no other reason than to do it. The better political analogy would be the Joker representing Osama bin laden or perhaps global terrorism itself. While some of us may see a bit more order to the roots of real world terrorism, for the purpose of the movie’s plot, this would suffice. The Joker recruits the dregs of society to do his bidding and act as fodder.

Continuing the analogy, Commissioner Gordon is akin to George W. Bush, the maligned leader who is caught between forces that he cannot control or even understand. Batman, while attempting to serve as the force for good, engages in destructive activities that lead to a host of unintended consequences that endanger the populace. The Commissioner bears the brunt of the mayhem as he wishes to bring the Joker to justice but must also navigate the mixed sentiments surrounding Batman’s violent vigilantism. In the end, Commissioner Gordon is hurt and his family (read: Bush’s legacy) is injured, as he muddles through the out-of-control situation.

Of course, the filmmaker may have had none of this in mind when he penned the screenplay. All comic book characters play with the notion of good versus evil, control versus chaos, and the Bush administration’s “with us or against us” ideology plays into the comic book analogy very well.

I suppose we can see political analogy in much of culture if we were to use our imagination. Was “Jaws” a metaphor for the Nixon administration’s wanton predation upon our civic structure? Maybe “The Exorcist” was meant to be a simile for the Vietnam War or the evil of war inhabiting the being of even the most innocent of our culture.

A couple years ago I read Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein and I could not help but see the similarities between the monster and George W. Bush, but then my senses were deeply affected at the time by the rapidly degenerating situations of the Iraq war and the economy. Bush, I truly believe, has always meant well by his intent, but he is flawed by infantilism, much like Dr. Frankenstein’s creation. Bush lacks the intellectual prowess, the cerebral horsepower, to navigate complex situations, he is a creation of our modern social structure, and seems truly surprised by the failures that he has encountered-- all ripped from the pages of Shelley's classic.

Of course some literature has been expressly intended as political allegory, as every high school student learns when studying Gulliver’s Travels, Jonathan Swift’s satire on European politics. Other fictional works merely play on eternal truths which can then be applied to many situations, political or personal. Ernest Hemingway’s Old Man and the Sea could also be seen in the Bush presidency, and certainly Herman Melville’s Moby Dick.

With any of these possible metaphors, we start to paint a picture of George W. Bush as a pathetic character, a flawed hero who is put into an unwinnable situation, or eschews warnings to the detriment of himself and his charges.

The Dark Knight: Dick Cheney kicking ass and taking names.

Counting Houses for Sen McCain

Besides, I like the song:



Maybe someone should do a version to Cougar's Little Pink Houses?

Market Update: Support is broken

Ugly end to the 27-day rally. It was fun while it lasted, but alas, it is time to sell into strength. My horizontal line could be a bit lower than depicted on the above graph, but you get the picture. Violation! With such an oversold condition, however, look for a bid today or tomorrow to take some profits.

Hypocrisy Fest 2008

Condoleezza Rice on Russia:

"Russia is a state that is unfortunately using the one tool that it has always used whenever it wishes to deliver a message and that's its military power...that's not the way to deal in the 21st century."

But that rule does not apply to the US:

The US must continue to engage in "kinetic warfare" - which [David Kilcullen, adviser to Condoleezza Rice,] defines as "killing the enemy and breaking their stuff" - in order to demonstrate to the Iraqi population that it has the upper hand.

Revenge of the Old Lady

Sure, this might be staged, but it's still hilarious.

Biotech Index: Don't do anything [Updates 1 & 2 below]

This is scary stuff. If someone held a gun to my head to make a decision today, I guess I'd buy it before I'd sell it. But let's just leave it alone.

If it breaks below $67.70, the next support is $58, but that's a big "If."



Update 1
[Aug 17 at 2316hrs]:

Eric at Buy the Top is giving this index an 80-95% chance of breaking down in the next three days due to its overbought condition. I view him as a savant of sorts with a superbly developed right brain, which makes him uniquely qualified to see the spatial relationships necessary for technical analysis. My intellect can detect the overbought condition, but my brain cannot process such a high likelihood of XBI "breaking down to $60-62 over the next month." We'll see.

Update 2
[Aug 19 at 0400hrs]:

XBI closed at $67.37, which is indeed below support of $67.70. Eric's thesis looks good. The entire market closed down today, but the losses in XBI were greater than the market indices. All broad averages tested support levels (again) and while it may not be time to panic, this counter-trend rally is getting long in the tooth. Oil dropped after hours which may perk up the stock market today. Also the low volume trading yesterday tends to mitigate the worry we are learning to embrace. Looking for exits overall, and if XBI rallies back up to support (now resistance), maybe I'll open a short.

One Batshit Crazy Christian:

Are These Examples of Irony or Hypocrisy?

"I think this president has shown a remarkable disrespect for his office, for the moral dimensions of leadership, for his friends, for his wife, for his precious daughter. It is breathtaking to me the level to which that disrespect has risen."-- John Edwards, on Bill Clinton, 1999

"Georgia is a sovereign nation, and its territorial integrity must be respected. We have urged an immediate halt to the violence and a stand-down by all troops. We call for an end to the Russian bombings. The attacks are occurring in regions of Georgia far from the zone of conflict. They mark a dangerous escalation of the conflict."-- George W. Bush, on Russia, 2008 (at left, Mr. Bush's own example of "respect for a sovereign nation", circa 2003)

Answer: Hypocrisy. But one is just the expedient blather of a smarmy ambulance chaser, and the other is your country's foreign policy. One matters and the other does not. You pick.

Whither Conservatism

A meme that I broach on a regular basis is the anti-conservatism of George W. Bush's fiscal policy. It cannot be called liberalism, but it certainly is not conservatism. Charles Wheelan, PhD, a University of Chicago Economics professor, discusses the characterization of Bush's fiscal policies with the appellation Neo-neoconservatism. (I still prefer anti-conservatism.)

Wheelan:

Conservatives are supposed to be about balancing the budget and limiting the size of government, not about adding new entitlement programs and borrowing money from China to pay for them...

...So what is George W. Bush? He's certainly no liberal, either. In fact, we're left with the worst of all worlds: liberal-style spending without the stuff it usually buys...

...Seven years of fiscal recklessness hasn't solidified a tattered safety net, or fixed a broken health care system, or upgraded the skills base of America's working class, or improved our crumbling infrastructure, or updated our outmoded international institutions... We're spending like drunken sailors, but we're not even getting the hookers and booze...

...Republicans are starting to distance themselves from Bush. There's something pathetic and unprincipled about that, given that they were complicit in the policies that have made him unpopular. If the Republicans truly stood for sensible conservative policies, they would have ditched him six or seven years ago -- and we'd be better off for it...

I know conservatives. Conservatives are friends of mine. You, George Bush, are no conservative. And shame on the Republicans for not recognizing that sooner.

I would add that the Democrats have been complicit as well to some (albeit lesser) degree. Upon gaining leadership in the House and Senate in January 2007, I would liked to have seen a barage of subpoenas and testimony about the various alleged illegalities perpetrated by the Bush administration. Sure, Conyers, Feingold and a few others have been vocal in this regard, but the Congressional majority leaders have been almost giddy in their silence.

The next president will inherit the worst situational maladies since Carter took office in 1977. Obama or McCain, upon being sworn in, will need to confront two stagnant theaters of war, a worldwide recession of our making, poor relations with our allies, record budget deficits, spiraling health care entitlements, lack of confidence in US capital markets, palpable governmental incompetence-- all of which have been either unaddressed or mismanaged during a lame duck presidency.

The opposing party of whoever wins in November will be quick to tag the next president with the culpability for these problems as they percolate and explode in the next 18 months.

The anti-conservatism of George W. Bush.

Salim Hamdan (finally) Gets Justice

The shrill voices of the authoritarian right will echo for a few weeks on this one. Osama bin Laden's driver was sentenced to 66 months, of which he has already served 61 months.

Is this the proper sentence? That's what a military tribunal and judge have determined. The prosecutors had asked for 30 years and that request was summarily rebuffed and changed to a shade over time served.

As the Rude Pundit put it:

"...when the judge in the trial, Captain Keith Allred, told Hamdan, "I hope the day comes when you return to your wife and your daughters and your country," and joined him in speaking, "God willing" in Arabic, it was a direct "fuck you" to the civilian leadership at the Pentagon and the Bush administration as a whole. It was a way of acting as an example and asserting that, even against the inhumane, one can still behave humanely."

He speaks the truth rudely.

Alexander Solzhenitsyn, R.I.P.

I remember reading the Gulag Archipelago when I was a kid at the advice of my grandfather who I revered deeply. At the age of 14 the size and scope of the book was daunting, but the result was a stark realization that the freedoms we enjoy in this country are worth the constant vigilance of an informed citizenry. Tyranny lurks around every corner.

The world would be a much more dreary place if dissidents like Solzhenitsyn did not feel safe coming forth with their revelations. We would not have won the Cold War, or even World War II for that matter, without the complicity of former enemies who viewed our free society as something special.

What damage is being wrought by the continued disrespect we are showing for the rule of law?

Market Update: Big Purple Crayons

A couple weeks ago the market was in steady decline, making consistently lower lows and showing a drip drip indicative of a lack of confidence. The narrative was rife with talk of the weak dollar, expensive gasoline, banking and mortgage crises, brokerage write-downs, etc, etc. With all the negative sentiment I took out the big purple crayons and did some multi-decade technical analysis-- Eric reminds it's always a sobering idea-- warning to consider taking cover for a prolonged downtrend with the SPY trading below a declining 200-day moving average.

At the end of the blog entry on July 26th I concluded, however, that the following few trading days would be important:

I truly feel the next five days will determine the market posture for several weeks. I am an inveterate market timer and it has served me well for a number of years. The 200-day moving average cross-over has me spooked, no question, but I am not out of the market as I type this missive.

The last days of July and now early August have shown exceptional strength in the market indices. Higher lows and now a critical breakout above significant resistance at SPY $128.80. The small cap and tech indices are even stronger. This bodes well and I am fortunate that I did not pile out of the market on July 26th.



Yes, many hurdles exist to further upward movement in the stock market, but stocks are often the leading indicator out of recessions and while unemployment may continue to rise for another quarter, the market indices could continue to show strength. The added narrative is the demand destruction of oil coupled with a bottomed out dollar now gaining strength, which should bring commodity prices down at least in the short term and this will act to support stocks.

The risk in the market is still significant and bears very close observation, but I'll stay net long for now. Big purple crayons are fun to play with, but trading and investing often need a finer point.

This information is for entertainment purposes only. Anybody who takes investment advice (or any advice for that matter) from strangers on the internet needs their meds adjusted.

Pssst... Barack... Jim Webb for Veep

Dear Senator Obama,

I know that you have been logging onto The Kalamazoo Post almost daily for the choice buzz, and while I've entertained the idea that you may be here for my take on Ozzie Guillen's latest rant/ ejection/ fine/ controversy/ call for firing from Jay Mariotti... I realize now that you have been looking for my pick for your running mate.

Sorry for the delay, but here it is: Jim Webb. If you are the The One, then I suppose he is the The Two. Besides, if he's okay with Fred, then he's okay with me. This election is about salvaging whatever credibility as a nation we have left so don't encumber your ticket with some slick politician. We are counting on you to make a good first decision, unlike Al Gore's in 2000-- gag.

See you at the Convention,
Tony