Headline reads: Pakistan election office blast kills 37

I don't know the people of Pakistan, I don't even know if I know any Pakistani living in the U.S., but from what I am witnessing in the lead up to Pakistan's Parliamentary election, I have come to admire the courage of these people fighting to retain democracy in their country. They understand what the loss of personal freedoms costs them, as individuals and as a country, and they want to end the Military leadership that had gained power through a coup under General Musharraf's lead. The elections are important, if the people have any hopes of replacing Musharraf, as it will take a 2/3rd's majority to impeach him and restore democracy again.

It is difficult to watch all the violence and it is easy to turn away from it and get absorbed in our own elections and the day-to-day comforts we enjoy. But today's headline from Pakistan gave me an understanding of the things worth fighting for, and yes, some dying for. These brave people are willing to risk their lives to vote and do take that responsibility seriously, because they have learned what it's like without the rule of law. Maybe we will wake up as a nation and vote in numbers that will shake up the current state of apathy here in America and the process that allowed George Bush to be elected by less than half the population. The cost of that apathy has been enormous to our freedom and to our well being, since we are almost totally bankrupt now and are facing a bleak future for our children and grandchildren unless we wake up. My hat is tipped for the Pakistani people. Good luck to you in battle to restore democracy and the rule of law. And to the rest of us I say, Wake up America!

Read the Pakistan headlines article by clicking here.

Bring back tar and feathering

Many Americans are frustrated with this Administration and want us to leave Iraq within one year. maybe it is time to bring back an ancient method of punishment, tar and feathering. If we do it fast enough it could be used at the next phase of the Libby trial, the sentencing phase. According to Answers.com, “this expression alludes to a former brutal punishment in which a person was smeared with tar and covered with feathers, which then stuck. It was first used as a punishment for theft in the English navy, recorded in the Ordinance of Richard I in 1189, and by the mid-1700s had become mob practice. The figurative usage dates from the mid-1800s.”

I get more and more frustrated over the multitude of manipulations and outright lies from both President Bush and VP Cheney. Cheney's obsession with silencing those who disagreed with his pronouncements and those who challenged his assertions have come to roost on a loyal soldier, Scooter Libby. Neither this VP nor this President have even a tiny speck of the courage of the people they have led on the battlefield nor in their Administration. They are a disgrace and others in the world have known what we know. It is high time this Congress starts showing some spine too. Follow-up on the conviction of Libby with a subpoena of VP Cheney. Congress and the Democrats now own the problem.