Something's Gotta Give

The United States will sponsor a Middle East peace conference next week in the hopes that it could resolve what former President Bill Clinton failed to achieve with all his trips to Camp David.

I never thought a day will come in the Middle East peace talks, and no one mentions Yasser Arafat. That tells you how long I have been around.

The peace talks will be the first stern effort to resurrect Israeli-Palestinian talks in seven years; and discerning people still question how high the stakes are on either side to accomplish anything ‘meaningful’. Personally, anything on the path to a permanent peace in the region is good news, but how probable this really is to change anything, your guess is as good as mine.

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice is trying to use the last year in office of the Bush administration to create a Palestinian state settle a conflict that started around a century ago. Good luck Condi. Saudi Arabia and the Arab League states will send their delegates to make a deal, if anything economically, politically or historically sound is thrown around in Annapolis. Pardon my skeptism, but names like ‘conference’, ‘summit’ or even ‘peace talks’ have come to signify days of meaningless conversations and fruitless pacts leading to no where. God knows how many presidents have attempted to fix the Middle Easter glitch, but to no avail. Lets face it, stakes are high this time, but expectations are relatively low, not surprising though.My buddy Joe(the vegetarian) will say, ‘if you want to be right about the Middle East, it usually pays to be pessimistic.’

Israelis and Palestinians have many differences to iron out, the biggest of them being the so-called "final status issues". They include the futures of Jerusalem, Jewish settlements and Palestinian refugees, as well as borders, security and relations with their neighbors. Both sides will bring their ‘A’ game but I am afraid that the same factors that control any other negotiation turf will stall the progress that could be achieved in Annapolis. The considerations, conditions, concessions and the agreements will all hinge on some weird gambits. I will love to be the fly on the wall to listen to opening statements from either side.

However (and this is a big however) it looks like the only way to stop more generations of bloodshed is to set up a Palestinian state alongside Israel. Then there will be a country called Palestine in the near future, and Israel will have to deal with a any margin of security it can harvest. But that is a big problem;- imagine United States telling the world that we will mind our own business even in the face of global tensions and threats against our security;- not in this lifetime.

Talk is always the cheapest of all, but for this peace process to work, someone will have to win, and the other side will have to lose;- and that is the other problem. For instance, Israel would have to leave most of the land it has occupied in the West Bank since the 1967 Middle East war. And I hate to burst Condoleezza’s bubble, but that is not happening anytime soon. Palestinians will have to accept that the vast majority of the refugees who lost their homes when Israel was created in 1948 are not going to get them back.
Israelis who believe that the entire land between the Dead Sea, the river Jordan and the Mediterranean is Jewish land, vital to their security and given by God, are going to have to give up their dreams too.

Of course the concessions and conditions are much more complicated than I make it sound, but the bottom-line is something is got to give. This is not Vegas, and whatever happens in Annapolis, cannot stay in Annapolis. All we can do is to give peace a chance. . .
Just a thought.

Pull Over Buddy. . . . see you in court!

I am inclined to believe that a legal genius invented the US court system so I dare not assume something is seriously wrong with any aspect of it. This is a glimpse into the fraction of our judicial system I can't stand. .(from a completely personal perspective.)

On any given weekday morning, hundreds of law-abiding citizens are summoned to converge in crowded courtrooms for different offences largely related to traffic tickets. Of course for any society to function properly, every tenet of the law should be upheld, regulations seriously enforced by some legal perimeter to avoid human society from plunging into chaos. I get it. But when the process is so mundane, notoriously dull and ridiculously routine, someone needs to ask the relevant questions, and perhaps even question the relevance of such ‘due processes’.
For many of the hundred of defendants on any given morning (for which I am sure every sane person in Houston has been at some point in their life), you wonder what genius planned this in the first place.

The likely sequence is, you wake up before dawn to get ready for your day in court (actually your 1 minute in court); you set all your alarms and reminders to avoid you from earning an arrest warrant just in case you oversleep. Then you start your adventure through the traffic on any highway in Houston until you get to the crowded downtown streets only to end up in a parking lot a hundred miles away from the courthouse. Sorry to add that there are no formally assigned parking spaces, which means that you pay another “fine” just to park your car. Good luck on this one.

Then you spend the rest of the morning running along the pavements, hurry towards the municipal courthouse, and by this time you are looking forward to seeing the officer who pulled you over 2 months ago for some ‘lame’ reason. It is very likely that your transgression is anything from ‘over-speeding’, to ‘running a stop sign’ or my archetypal offense, ‘failure to make a complete stop’. The deja-vu moment hits you, “Do you know how fast you were going?” Yes I know; slow enough for you to pull me over. Duh! You never question the officer’s psychology (just take my advice and don’t try that), and so you end up in court anyway because that is our legal system, and you are a law abiding order-loving citizen.

In case this is hard to believe, you spend the next two hours watching the lawyers walk around the courtroom, flaunting their 2 for $99 – shiny Suitmart suit-looking jackets as if in a Friday happy hour at a Cajun Restaurant; casually chatting about their dogs and cats (and occasionally how long they hope to be in court). All this while you sit at the back of the room, staring at your watch and counting the minutes you are missing away from school or work, or even both. If you are like most people, you have paid a television advertising-mailbox bombarding-law firm $75 to represent you, but count yourself lucky if they show up. There is the possibility that they may not show up and believe it or not, one of their lawyer-friends will step in for them (that’s just the nature of the system).

The amusing part is, even if your lawyer shows up, he calls your name and makes sure you exist, (together with a long list of clients’ name he picked up 20 minutes ago) never says another word to you, and you pray that this attorney has a clue why you are there in the first place. Call me cynical but an image of a stranger showing up with a pink shirt, blue tie and a weird-colored suit with a clipboard is not my idea of legal representation. Your day is court started at 8am and if you are lucky, the judge calls your name three hours later to inform you that ‘your case is dismissed.’ My best guess is that sometimes the only reason why they are forced to let you go, is to make room for the next group of anarchic and unruly citizens destined for a date with a judge.
I am sure if youve read the article carefully thus far, you have already assumed that I am a peeved, chaos-loving, law-breaking, and court-hating American. Far from it, I actually admire the system; I just am not particularly fond of its efficiency and the thought that a taxpayer’s hard-earned fines could be appropriated with a little more caution.

Regardless of how incorrect the assertion is, the longstanding public perception that police officers hand out tickets like bologna sandwiches to meet their quota makes for a demoralizing catalyst. The long list of city and government bureaucrats do not help the cause either, all of whom have secretaries, who in turn have administrative assistants. Pardon my observations, but you stay in the courtroom long enough you notice everything and everyone picking their teeth while they check emails on their ‘myspace’ pages. Then there is one the thing you can’t miss, the rude ‘bad-weave-wearing and bad-mannered’ security guards with the huge flashlights and the nasty attitudes. Good gracious, they are rude.

For comic relief, the genius put up a life-size notice on the wall that reads “No cell phone” and “No Newspapers”. Just perfect, - sit in court for three hours and I can’t read anything, I can’t send a text message and I cant even stare at my own watch? What will you rather suggest I do, stare at the brown walls and daydream? That is what makes the experience awful; - all you can do it to sit back, look up and shut up.

I have been in court so many times that I can recite the entire process, even in my sleep;- it usually ends the same way. Case dismissed. Reason? Officer not present! (And it took you three hours to find that out?) Of course, the officer never shows up, I could have told you that. And this honestly is the basis for the attorneys adequate defense on your behalf, because the police officer who pulled you over six months ago and ruined half of your day is delayed in Shipley’s Doughnuts and stuck in the drive-through at Crispy Creme. I always wondered how different it will be if the officer actually showed up one day, simply because the attorneys don’t know anything about me or the case. What will their argument for my defense be? The answer, I don’t know. I will have to give lawyers some credit nonetheless; they always know the case number. Of course, this is America, hundreds of lawyers graduate from law school every weekend eager to jump in the action. It is for this very reason that I chose to go to Law school, Ill defend myself from there on; thank you very much.

This is my concern, - is this really what our legal system is disintegrated into? Of course, I am not in the business of constitutional reevaluations but perhaps the judicial interpretations of American society should be seriously re-assessed. A typical day in court, with the financial implications on the state budget makes the roles of the police, the lawyers or even to a lesser extent the judges, seem somewhat of a circus. Our legal system obviously is not broke, and I am not suggesting that we fix it, but at least tweak it.

Maybe traffic tickets should be paid at the post office or even Wal-Mart. (That’s only a suggestion). Let us save the courthouse for offenses that necessitate the appropriate legal attention. I admire the judges and the respect the courtroom for what it is intended for, I rather not devalue it for some bonehead offense.

Gracias mis amigos y familia por un gran año.

Aprecio su ayuda y le deseo un año muy acertado. Ruegue para la paz del mundo y de la gente que no tienen todos que usted tenga.

Feliz dia de las Gracias.

Just who are we Thanking? Fried Turkey or God?

Everyone I know is either stuffing turkey or getting ready to stuff themselves up over the weekend, and for good reasons. Tomorrow is Thanksgiving Day and all across America, even my buddy Joe (the vegetarian), will be in a festive mood enjoying the holiday season.

That takes us into a tradition that stretches back hundreds of years to the day the Pilgrims set aside to offer thanksgiving to God for their ability to survive in a strange new land devoid of the comforts they had left behind when they ventured across the vast Atlantic to begin a harsh new life in a new world.

That’s the whole spin on Thanksgiving. The keywords here are ‘God’, ‘survive’, ‘strange land’, ‘harsh new life’ and ‘new world’. Unless any combination of these words have any relevance to your life, eating all the fried turkey and exchanging all the hugs and pleasantries will be just that;- you will be better off believing in Santa Claus.

Americas public display of Thanksgiving is become more of a tradition than it having any significance in our meaningless feasts. Do we really stop to wonder just who it is we are thanking? And for what?

If people had any idea that in celebrating Thanksgiving as a national holiday most Americans are thanking God for their blessings, they'd be going after it the same way their are seeking to convert Christmas day into a pagan holiday celebrating winter, or snowmen, or mass worship at the altar of commerce, or some other such pagan nonsense. I doubt that any sizeable number of those sitting down at Thanksgiving tables across the nation realize their primary purpose in joining together is to express their gratitude to God for the gifts he has given them over the past year. It's not God who is the centerpiece — IT'S THE TURKEY ON THE PLATTER.

A little history lesson here, in his Thanksgiving proclamation, Washington wrote: 'It is the duty of all Nations to acknowledge the providence of Almighty God, to obey His will, to be grateful for His benefits and humbly to implore His protection and favor.' Later, during the very heart of the Civil War, in October 1863, President Abraham Lincoln created an annual day of thanksgiving. That is what brought us to where we are today.

Tony ‘Romeo’ and the Dallas Cowboys taking on the Mangini Jets at 4:15EST on ABC is only a sideshow. I thought Ill mention it for good measure;- expect a good game to be thankful for, but nothing Patriots-esque. Sorry.

So while you eat, stuff yourselves with all the fried turkey, mashed potatoes and dressings; while you make conscious decisions to gain 20lbs in a weekend and feel guilty about it, find one more reason to be thanking God.

Happy Thanksgiving.

A random thought.

The Inconvenience of the Imminent

Surprise, surprise; our global climate is serious trouble.
If you get the logic behind the sarcasm, you’re alive; if not, my best guess is you live on Mars, in which case this subject don’t affect you anyway. For the rest of your humanity, I’m glad to have your attention. When Al Gore talked about global environmental crisis, not even the Nobel Peace Prize was enough to convince the world that the man wasn’t delirious. I am watching a news report about climate change, and some genius made a definitive discovery that climate changes could bring "abrupt and irreversible" impacts. Wow!

Delegates to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) have agreed a summary of its landmark report. Among its main conclusions are that climate change is "unequivocal", that humankind's emissions of greenhouse gases are more than 90% likely to be the main cause, and that impacts can be reduced at reasonable cost. Of course its not too late for any corrective action, but it is astounding to observe human indifference to the most obvious problems.

United Nations Secretary General Ban Ki-Moon is calling governments to embark on a proactive journey to fix the glitch. Whether or not Al Gore over exaggerates his ideas on Global Warming, what matters most is the fine prints in the sand and a collective initiative to rectify the actions. There are of course the skeptics who care-less what happens and the blind optimists who believe someone else will clean the mess. The rest of us belong to the large segment, somewhere between the two.

In the final analysis, with the world economies built on making things, we are undeniably a consumer society. It is our demand for everything under the sun, and our determination to stockpile everything we do not need that has brought us to this point in human life. It is fair to assert that we may not readily alter this setup without bringing about total global economic collapse. I can almost read Congress’ response to Bai Ki-Moon;- do whatever you want, reduce all the greenhouse gases or even open a recycling plant in Bangladesh, but whatever you do, don’t send us back into the dark ages.

PS: ‘Inconvenient Truth’ is still playing at a cinema near you.

A Dynamo Dynasty in the Making

Two years in a row, the Houston Dynamo have crushed the New England Revolution and won the MLS Cup in style. For the nay-sayers who claim the MLS is miles away from the European leagues, believe what you want. The admirable come from behind win by a very impressive Houston team is no different from the excellent skills and performances by the likes of Chelsea, Milan or Bayern Munich. I watched all 90 minutes, and loved every bit of it, notwithstanding the fact that a Houston win was all I prayed for.


The Dynamo finds a way to win, even without leading marksman Brian Ching, they out their stamp on American soccer. The birth of a dynasty for a very impressive team who finds a way to win at every turn of big stage competition. Dwayne Del Rosario reminds me of every bit of Italian superstar Alesandro Del Piero, and no wonder I am mesmerized by his skill and sense for goal. Ngwenya brought the Dynamo even at 1 in the 61st minute. De Rosario came up with a huge header in the 74th minute for the go-ahead goal.

The hardest thing to do in sports is to win back-to-back championships and the Dynamo knows exactly how to pull it off. For New England, perhaps the curse of the Bambino left the Red Sox and landed on the Revolution. The New England Revolution, playing in their third straight final, lost in the championship game for the fourth time in six years but for some strange reason, I don’t have any sympathy for Mr. Kraft, after all the Patriots will make up for all the heartbreak of the Revolution.

H-Town is jumping and the Dynamo has given a city a reason to celebrate sports again, until the Astros, Rockets or Texans do anything meaningful.
Houston is home for the Dynamo, and CHAMPIONSHIP LIVES HERE.

Imus?

He is relatively cranky, opinionated and intelligent; - that much credit, I give Don Imus. What made him call the Rutgers University women's basketball team "nappy-headed hos" is what has landed him in more trouble than he imagined. It's been 8 months after the incident, so why now?

It wasn’t yesterday but I definitely remember the day MSNBC decided it will no longer simulcast the "Imus in the Morning" radio program.Of course I wasn’t naïve enough to assume that he will be gone forever, I admit, I didn’t even think he will be gone at all. Call me delirious but I live in America and my eyes are wide open (usually).

NBC Universal had to take a stand for their own cultural integrity(whatever that means), which is understandable but if you ever thought for once that Don Imus was ostracized permanently from the media world, wake up dude. Don Imus returns to the airwaves December 3 on WABC-AM, thanks to the Rural Media Group Inc., after he signed a five-year agreement. Tow weeks ago, I was convinced (almost at least), that Citadel Broadcasting Corp. was bringing Imus back to host a New York-based morning drive time show.

Backtrack; - the Rev. Al Sharpton piled a lot of heat on Imus about the racial slur against the Rutgers ladies and 271 days later, my predictions are coming true. Dom Imus admitted that it was an insensitive and ill-conceived remark, completely inappropriate and stupid. Even then, there is website www.blacksupport4imus.com (still active) which sought to draw perpendicular lines between Imus’ statements to comedians like Chris Rock who talks about racial issues from their comedic angle. The similarity however is that comedians have an extra insulation against libel or slander, just as much as Imus probably has. That is where the similarities end, and the differences begin. What is at stake for comedians and shock jocks determine how far they can push the envelope. Frankly, I am strongly opposed to comedians who deliberately or even subconsciously defame other people’s image, character or even lifestyle. Chris Rock and Dave Chappelle know the limits of their game. For instance, you can choose to hate and bash President Bush’s policies and government all you want, but the problem starts immediately you start attacking Bush the person. Along these lines, occasionally Carlos Mencia had gone overboard with his skits and monologues on George Bush, and I have no excuses for him, much like I don’t have for Don Imus. Of course it is the free market forces of demand and supply that kicked Imus off the airwaves, and just in case you are wondering is calling someone a "nappy-headed ho" is funny, no it isn’t. I watch and listen to comedians for a simple reason, to laugh. Don Imus is not a funny guy and there is not enough sense of humor to condone racial slurs.

Fast forward;- sooner or later, I knew the saga will die down, lose all the heat and momentum and someone will come calling. There was Citadel Broadcasting, which owns WABC-AM in New York, Clear Channel and WHTZ-FM, better known as Z-100. These are all possibilities in a business packed with tight ropes. It either is or isn’t. You either have a job or don’t. It was even likely that Buckley Broadcasting could jump in the resurrection circus for Don Imus. Thjose were all speculations, but now we know the answer;- Rural Media Group Inc. There is lawsuit somewhere in the pipeline including names like Imus’s former co-host, Bernard McGuirk, along with CBS, CBS Radio and MSNBC. The bottomline,Don Imus has a new gig.

Let's face it, the extent or effect of this drama has not even settled yet, may not even settle for a while. The Rev. Al Sharpton, a sharp critic of Mr. Imus(in fact the sharpest), said last month that he did not oppose Mr. Imus returning to radio. The man has a right to earn a living.

I am considering applying for a job as the ‘racial sensor for ambiguous words’ on Imus’ new show, trust me he will need one.

Where is Al Sharpton anyway?

Let’s Go To War . . . . Bill Me Later

God bless America, home of the brave, land of the free and the home to an ever-increasing global economic disaster. Six years ago, at the birth of the Afghanistan war, we knew the budget and trade deficits were up in the trillions; thanks to Al Gore and John Kerry, we learned also that social security had been squandered already, technically. All this wasn’t a surprise, because much like anything in life, emergencies occur, accidents happen, and like the cliché puts it, ‘you’ve got to do what you’ve got to do.’
BUT you don’t pump trillions of dollars into an investment strategy that is not yielding any sound return on investment. This is fundamental economic theory, except if you are GWB.

In any business model, there is something called ‘hidden cost’, which often include the preventive costs, appraisal cost and the failure cost (the most expensive of all three). Thanks to Dr. Sherrill, I had a first hand experience of economic repercussions of the ‘cost of quality’ in our country’s heavy investment of labor and capital resources into Afghanistan and Iraq.

In a recent study, congressional Democrats claim that "hidden costs" have driven the price of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan to about $1.5 trillion. If indeed that is true, I bet a chunk of it falls within the ‘failure cost’ category. We are fixing the mess that we ignored at the preventive stage, simple as that. ‘That figure is nearly double the $804 billion the White House has spent or requested’ and estimates that the wars have cost the average U.S. family of four more than $20,000.

The average family’s share of the cost could more than double, to $46,300, over the next decade, with estimated economic costs to the United States reaching $3.5 trillion if the conflicts continue at their current pace. Some estimates conclude that war injuries could add more than $30 billion in future disability and medical care costs, including billions in lost earnings for veterans who cannot work because of post-traumatic stress disorder.

If the implications of the trillions and billions are hard to relate to, let me break it down for you; its worse than you think. War is expensive and dirty, but without war, Charles Darwin will probably have a hard time proving his point. So here we are, November 2007, in debt to our eyeballs. Now more than ever, the impact of the international market and international events means more to America. The impact of the Iraq war on global oil prices is just one of our worries. What direction we go next is the immediate concern; - obviously, we took the wrong exit.

God bless the next generation of Americans, the generation before them may leave a giant mess for them to inherit.

What’s Up with Pervez

Islamabad doesn’t seem like the nicest place to be hanging out for Christmas. It is actually the hottest spot in the world; and for different reasons.
Last week General Pervez Musharraf imposed a national state of emergency in Pakistan. Fair to assume, he didn’t win any friends from the West, neither are the ‘bad boys’ hardliners too concerned byhis well being. Recall that in the wake of the global operations to fight terrorism, Gen Musharraf pledged allegiance to any George Bush’s agenda. As noble an act as that may appear, Pakistan became a ‘stand alone’, a ‘spoke’ to United States ‘hub’.

Fast forward to November 2007, Commonwealth foreign ministers meeting in London gave Pakistan until 22 November to lift its emergency rule or face suspension from the body. In a nutshell, that requires Gen Musharraf stepping down as army chief , releasing all detained political party activists and lifting all media restrictions. If I didn’t know any better, I wil assume that Pervez is not the happiest man on planet earth today.

Benazir Bhutto returned to Pakistan from self-imposed exile last month and she is already planning a "Long March" from Lahore to Islamabad to put pressure on Gen Musharraf. Maybe parliamentary elections will indeed happen in January but the next two months will define the Pakistani vision, resolve and reality.

My guess is Gen Musharraf is not particularly intimidated by the Commonwealth. After all when he seized power in 1999, Pakistan was suspended from the Commonwealth for five years. The Commonwealth's initial demand that he take off his army uniform, he wears it every day. Gen Musharraf claims he is not anti democracy, instead the clampdown on pro-democracy activists is necessary fo the safety of Pakistan; a fine misinterpretation of ‘creative destruction’.

Pakistan is at the crossroads of peace, and only Pervez Musharraf can make the right turn. Unfortunately, he can’t read the STOP sign.

‘Lion for Lambs’. . .

There is usually a big difference between a pointless movie and a propaganda-laden and an agenda-pushing film that puts you to sleep almost immediately. I usually leave the critique to Ebert and Roper, in spite of how off the mark they often are. I saw ‘Lion for Lambs’ last night and ten scenes into the movie I knew I should have stayed home and watched the rest of College Football in ESPN instead. Films of this nature talk about a ‘whole lot of nothing’; and this did just that.

‘Lion for Lambs’ is a film with three different, semi-connected but related stories woven into one. ‘Crash’ was exceptional and splendid but almost very other movie that tried that stunt, crashed and burned. The bouncing back and forth between the stories of Tom Cruise the Senator, Meryll Streep the veteran reporter, Robert Redford the Vietnam vet Professor Stephen Malley leads to no-where. Then there is Derek Luke and Michael Pena as two bright young students who enlist in the marines to ‘change the world’ and their story of courage is designed to inspire a rich kid(Andrew Garfield) who knows all the answers about nothing.

The story in itself had every recipe for excellence, much like the jumbled timelines of Babel and Crash. But unlike Babel and Crash, the cliché lectures of Tom Cruise and Robert Redford sends you to sleep right away, much like any political sermon on C-SPAN. My guess is, play this movie in any high school and you should get one out of every ten children signing their lives to war. Try the same stunt with any mature intelligent mind who have heard this story a million times, and they will walk away even before the opening credit rolls on the screen.

The domino effect in ‘Lion for Lambs’ is to show one decision affects another, and that is the essence of the movie. This movie could have been shrunk into a five-minute documentary and I still will not find it any more engaging. I know that most politicians in the air-conditioned rooms in Washington do not care about what happens on the ground in Tikrit; I know the soldiers fighting in Iraq wished they knew what they were really fighting for; and I know that the media spins the war. I know all these, so what else is new in this film? Nothing. As Meryll Streep puts it, ‘it’s a movie about holding a mirror, not pointing a finger’. Now I know why I hate mirrors just as much as I hate pointing fingers.

It was Saturday night and believe me, there were many other things I could have done besides staring at a pointless movie for 2 hours. Robert Redford is my favorite actor but this movie was every bit as disappointing as it was boring. Movie trailers have an excellent way to wooing you to sign up for new releases (I thought I knew better). If you ever thought of watching ‘Lion for Lambs’, save your $9.99. . . .it will be on TNT pretty soon.

If this movie was intended to be the 'wake up call for Americans' about the interwoven intricacies of politics, foreign policy and agenda-setting propaganda, try again Bubba.

‘Lion for Lambs’. . . trust me you are not missing a thing.

A Picture Worth a Thousand Words

The Mother of a Nation?

There are many reasons why most people are piling so much heat on Hillary Rodham Clinton lately; let’s face it, it’s not her fault she was preceded by Barbara Bush and succeeded by Laura Bush. It’s not her fault that she made the cover of Time Magazine. The very fact that everyone is busy proving why she is not ‘good enough’, has led me to this dramatic enlightenment that she is perhaps the most qualified candidate among the long list of presidential hopefuls.

Match her against the rest of the crowd, and it looks like only my boy Joe Biden comes close (I have my bias, sorry). Six months ago, I was nowhere near the Hillary campaign and in fact I joined her fan club out of sheer curiosity. Of course, the ‘win a dinner date with Hillary’ emails was just as annoying as any other junk email but I am sure her ‘marketing approach’ wont be that technologically intimidating once she wins office in 2008. The more I think of it, the more I like her chances; she is simple, cute and famous.
. . . And her other middle name is Diane, who would have guessed (that’s as Southern as it gets.)

I have always been one of the few Americans who toyed with the notion of a female president having to deal with the occasional ‘emotional’ mood swings. I objectively thought it was risky business, instead of any presumed chauvinistic perception. Imagine Hillary loosing her cool in a conversation with Vladimir Putin, or even worse Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of the Islamic Republic of Iran.

According to quasi-reliable sources(my buddy Joe is not the smartest researcher), she has always been the first at many things;- the first student to speak at commencement exercises for Wellesley College, back in 1969; the first female partner at Rose Law Firm in 1979 and the first First Lady to be subpoenaed, testifying before a Federal grand jury as a consequence of the Whitewater scandal in 1996. Disregard the Lewinsky scandal in 1998 for a second, I’m coming to it.

America has endured tumultous times over the years, and this has no direct reflection on G.W. Bush(neither am I being sarcastic); perhaps the only way forward is the maternal angle;- someone to scold and to nurture, to love and to inspire. My best guess is, America can use "a mind conservative and a heart liberal." Will she fight for Children's Health Insurance Program and all the social programs she so-passionately fought for? Perhaps not, especially not when she is preoccupied with nuclear talks in North Korea, tensions in Kashmir and Islamabad, and Americas ‘original’war in Afghanistan.

Will she press for personal tax cuts? Don’t count on it. Will she bring our troops home? Now that is a grey line;- not that simple folks. In late 2005, Hillary Clinton said that while immediate withdrawal from Iraq would be a mistake, Bush's pledge to stay "until the job is done" is also misguided, as it gives Iraqis "an open-ended invitation not to take care of themselves." Therein lies your answer.
On the homefront, Hillary is not too fond of Chief Justice John Roberts , neither is she particularly interested in Samuel Alito’s ideas; but I am sure she can co-exist. Left to her, perhaps Harriet Myers would have the nations top gig.

As a country, we have ‘bigger fishes to fry’, and I can only hope that Hillary won’t be wasting precious time proposing constitutional amendments to prohibit same-sex marriage. Just in case she needs a reminder, gays and homsexuals are not fading off the planet anytime soon. Just this May, everyone who saw the economic and social dynamic of immigration listened carefully to President Bush on his comprehensive immigration reform bill ( Secure Borders, Economic Opportunity and Immigration Reform Act of 2007), Hillary actually supported the bill. Smart woman,- she figured out also that the Mexicans are not going anywhere south, anytime soon.

Question anything you want, her credibility, elegibility or even her ability; she made her point clear, "I'm in. And I'm in to win." Norman Hsu had chipped in $850,000 in bundled donations to Clinton's campaign until he was busted as a 5-years-long fugitive in an investment fraud case; that didn’t look too good for HDRC’s image but show me one ‘straight-up politician’ and Ill show you one liar on a full-scholarship to hell. Morever, that’s why people like Donna Brazile has a job, she uses unfortunate events to recreate a campaign strategies. Hillary is in it to win it, at all cost.
Not even Monica Lewinsky will keep her eye off the prize (and I’m refering to the Oval Office.) Call me delirious but it could be nightmarish to sit in the same chair your husband had. . . . . . . . . (you know the that story). How will she even concentrate? Many Americans will vote for Hillary, simply because of Bill, no surprise there.

Next year by this time, Hillary Rodham Clinton would be president of the United States of America, and that would be largely because Barack Obama couldn’t sustain the momentum and because Rudy Gulliani wore America out with the same picture of him during the 9/11 attacks. Furthermore Kucinich and Richardson really didn’t plan on surviving the primaries and John Edwards couldn’t convince Americans that he was more than just a pretty boy(in political standards).

Hillary for president? Not a bad idea, what I am having a hard time pondering over is the possiblity of William Jefferson Clinton as the ‘First Gentleman’.

Just a thought.

Mark Twain

Twenty years from now you will be more disappointed by the things you didn't do than by the ones you did do.

So throw off the bowlines. Sail away from the safe harbor. Catch the trade winds in your sails.

Explore. Dream. Discover.

American Gangster

Whoever designed the cover art for this movie must have had only one thing in mind; - Scarface. BUT I am not complaining because if ‘American Gangster’ is anything like Scarface, (promises to be even better) you got my vote for the Best Picture. It almost a week since ‘American Gangster’ hit the streets, and I am yet to see why Frank Lucas is flaunting his macho skills with his mean posse in the trailers.

I am yet to see it yet; mind you I am as denzelfan-esque as it gets. Frankly, it’s because just about anyone else in America floods the theaters on opening night so I prefer the next weekend to allow me the calm and the quite of a relatively empty AMC Studio 13. I prefer a night without the obnoxious, unbearable, annoying and ridiculous movies goers who still haven’t figured out the adage that silence is indeed golden.

‘As Frank Lucas, the brutal Harlem drug lord of American Gangster, Denzel Washington has a gaze as steady as a statue's, and he wanders through the vibrantly messy, pre-Giuliani-time streets in an overcoat that accentuates his wide shoulders and coiled, urban-king swagger. There's no doubt that Frank communicates strength — in fact, he communicates little else. Denzel Washington might be playing a senator, or Malcolm X all over again; his performance is smooth, confident, and more than a little familiar.

Even as a gangster, he doesn't transform — he doesn't release his inner thug. He's still every inch Denzel, all dour nobility.’ The rest of the crew Ill have to pay attention to Common , RZA , TI , Roger Bart, Chiwetel Ejiofor, Cuba Gooding Jr., Carla Gugino, John Hawkes and Ted Levine. My boy Russel Crowe is believed to be ‘big time’ in this film opposite Denzel.

Maybe I am getting tired of the barefaced angle of most celebrated directors, thus I am gradually sliding away from the Spielberg effect. If it is indeed true, maybe director Ridley Scott will hit a home run with me in ‘American Gangster’. From what I hear from people who know a thing or two about film, ‘it is meticulous and detailed, a drug-world epic that holds you from moment to moment, immersing you in the intricate and logistics of crime.’ I am hoping it is as enthralling as I hoped a real '70s classic would be.

My expectations; - some hideous cold-blooded execution and good old-fashioned melodramatic intrigue from Frank Lucas.
And if its anything like The Godfather, Scarface, and The French Connection all mashed in a blender, along with a heavy helping of synthetic cocktail mix, Ill be a happy camper.

Oh and I am not watching a bootlegged copy for $4.99. Give me the real deal; the real ‘American Gangster’.

Unhappy Oprah; - Her Enemy Within

The media headlines have a way of misconstruing the most trivial of circumstances. Except that sometimes they are right on point; like a case of sexual assault in an all-girl’s school in Johannesburg. Oprah had lots of questions to answer about the alleged charges of abuse at her girls' academy in South Africa.

The scoop: a lady named Virginia Mokgobo worked at the Oprah Leadership Academy was slapped with an indecent assault charge. She worked as a dormitory matron at the school and was arrested on charges including assault, indecent assault and soliciting under-age girls to perform indecent acts.

This is definitely not my idea of good news for Oprah in her ‘world saving’ assignment but lets face it, there is so much one woman can do. Of course Oprah is as close as humanity will get to a ‘Wonder Woman’ and one thing I know is that conducting background checks in South Africa is not exactly the most fascinating gig.

The irony of life is hitting home to South Africa in the past month; - first a Lucky Dube spend all his life fighting for peace and harmony and against crime and violence, only to be gunned down in the middle of a street. And now my girl Oprah Winfrey spends ‘muchos muchos dollares’ to educate innocent girls in a ‘safe’ environment; and Virginia Mokgobo shows up.

The enemy within is usually much more potent than we give them credit for. Child predators show up in all shapes and sizes, and especially the alarming rates of rape and sexual abuse in South Africa makes the issue a little more pertinent than a local news feature.

Of course, Oprah will have to do some serious house cleaning to protect her $40 million investment and maybe adopt some Russian KGB employment procedures along the way.
But even then, there are no guarantees.


What’s my point? Irrespective of life’s dynamic, all we have is the illusion of safety.

Meanwhile, my New England Patriots crushed the Colts in the RCA dome. Just thought Ill mention that.

'State of Emergency'. . . inside Pakistan

I am perhaps not the genius I once thought I was. Two weeks ago I wrote about Bhutto’s return to the Kirachi; little did I anticipate nor predict how much the political tensions could escalate. Today, Pakistan's President Musharraf announced a state of emergency amid growing political tensions.

General Pervez Musharraf addressed his country yesterday(my Comcast subscription is useless in this regard),maybe he managed to make some sense of the jigsaw puzzle. The country is in transition to a full-fledged democracy but military ‘interventions’ of this nature seems to my like Pakistan is heading for a serious issue. Lets face it, the General is under a huge pressure from all opposing sides, not only to deliver on his leadership promise, but to share power(something Generals don’t usually find amusing). During previous emergencies in Pakistan, a provisional constitutional order has led to the suspension of some basic rights of citizens and for judges to take a fresh oath of office.

The country is due to hold Parliamentary elections in January, and President Musharraf is waiting for a Supreme Court ruling on whether he is eligible to run for re-election while remaining army chief. Fears have been growing in the government that the Supreme Court ruling can go against Musharraf.

Since Pakistan's army chief took power in a coup in Pakistan in 1999, the country has seen dramatic upheavals. A little-known-fact; Gen Pervez Musharraf seized power from Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif promising to bring "true" democracy, law and order and economic revival to Pakistan.

The early years of his rule were also dominated by questions of foreign policy, particularly tensions with India over Kashmir. Then came the events of 11 September 2001 that became the defining feature of his presidency, leading to a dramatic change in Pakistan's relations with the rest of the world. It became a country in the forefront of President George W Bush's "war on terror".

What I know for a fact, I’d rather be anywhere than In Islamabad today.

Soccer Reigns Supreme. . . until tommorow

Once upon a time, I loved soccer. I lived it. Back in London, it was called football, and Ill assume it had something to do with the geographic interpretation of what hands and feet actually mean in the definition of a sport. Fast forward;- from where I’m standing, it is soccer but it still is beautiful as it is exhilarating.
Thanks to my Chelsea ‘fanatic’ friend, I couldn’t help but watch the DVR version of Arsenal’s 2-2 draw with Manchester United. A loss at the Emirates Stadium would be borderline sacrilegious, for a team who are dying to preserve their unbeaten record this season and keep them top of the Premier League.

I miss London on days like this. William Gallas is not your go-to guy for goals, but strange things happen. Gallas had scored an own goal at the end of the first half to give United the lead, only to score another one to give his side the refreshing tie. For the rest of us that missed the game, the statistics may not mean much after all;- Arsenal's 25th match in all competitions without defeat, a club record and Man United's run of eight successive league wins come to a halt.
There is a reason why soccer is the world’s most popular sport, thrilling matches like this. A game that every minute has dramatic implications in a high stakes league, the only thing missing is the beautiful dancing girls usually called cheerleaders.

Either way, I am saving my energy for the most important event in history thus far, Patriots/Colts tomorrow. It’s a ‘battle of the bulge’, and I will trade my left arm for a lower section in the RCA dome tomorrow.

SuperBowl 42 and a half. . . Patriots prevail

In less than 24 hours, the world will witness the excellence of my New England Patriots. I'll save the details for the curious sports fans;Indie has a chance give the rest of the NFL hope that the Patriots won't be racking up the score cards on every opponent. But to beat the Patriots;- not in this lifetime.
RCA dome or snowy Foxborough, it is just ridiculous to assume that the Patriots will lose to anyone. By Sunday evening, Myesha J. you'll finally understand why New England is as perfect as they are. The stage is set for SuperBowl 42.5, get ready to see an Indie crush in their own RCA.

Trick or Treat? NATO sending troops to Afghanistan

I know one person who calls this a ‘deliberate sidelining of the Afghan Intervention’ before it was finished in order to pursue the Bush family's private vendetta against Saddam. I am not a politician or foreign policy strategist so Ill leave Dr. Phil and Dr. Oz to outline what is apparently wrong with the picture.

Of course the invasion of Iraq was a major distraction in more ways than one, and whatever took NATO this long to move swiftly, only God and George Bush will know.
This will be the first real NATO's test in the post-Soviet era which will allow to establish which of its member states are ready to commit troops to combat and whether those troops can actually fight or merely bear arms and parade.

If my calculations are right, the USA currently provide about half the 35,000 NATO soldiers in Afghanistan and the resurgent Taliban militants are stil a force to reckon with.

Recently our defense secretary Robert Gates called it ‘unsatisfactory that an alliance with two million service personnel has failed to muster the additional resources it had promised’; I could have told you that buddy. If it turns out that NATO's become largely a coalition of the unwilling, the willing should withdraw from it sometime before later.

You get my drift.