For those who don't know anything about Maharashtra or MNS. I give you just brief idea.

Maharashtra is one of the states of India. Its capital is Mumbai. The native of Maharashtra are called Marathi. MNS is a regional political party of Maharashtra whose head is Raj Thackeray.

For cheap publicity among the people, MNS was involved in riots all over Maharashtra forcing the North Indians to leave their state. Their claim was that Mumbai is being ruined by North Indians. They were beating the innocent North Indians mercilessly to an extent of killing them. Innocent students who came to give their exams from all over India were mercilessly slaughtered.

But, our great central and state governments were least bothered and were mere spectators when the whole Mumbai was covered with the clouds of riots. They were just giving hollow speeches of unity and were condemning such attacks.

During that time if anyone says any thing to a Marathi, a full fledged riot will break out. But, now when terrorist attacked Mumbai and when so many Marathi people died, MNS was no where to seen.

My question is:

What happened to MNS? Who was shouting at the top of its voice to save Marathi people, where have they gone?

Why don't they now go and fight against those terrorist who have killed several innocent terrorist?

Why are they quite now?

Don't they realize that many of the military men are North Indians?

Why are they allowing them to enter into state?

ANSWER:

The answer is that it very easy to beat and kill simple, unarmed, innocent people. But, it really needs guts to fight terrorists. MNS is nothing more than the coward whose only aim is to get votes by targeting innocent people. It is a dog who barks when it sees a catbut runaway even from his own home when it sees another dog.

For more information, refer following article: Mumbai Terror Attacks: Emergency Numbers by Amit Goyal

For similar articles refer, following links:

1)            Mumbai Under Attack: What is main reason that terrorist attacked. Who are behind all these attacks? Which political parties are behind this? All things are disclosed in this article.

2)            Rioters of Maharastra: For what purpose is these rioters are doing riots? When the very purpose for which they are fighting is getting failed.

3)            Quota: The New Modus Operandi to Divide India: The reason why India is not growing the way it should have grown despite having the world’s best manpower.

Whatever is claimed or said, the fact is that now Mumbai is suffering from another terrorist attack. This time around the targets were mainly foreigners.

There are various theories going behind the accomplishment of their plans.

But, I believe that this is just a diversion which is used by the political parties of India. The reason I say it is a diversion because of the following reason:

1. How can an armed terrorist just land on gateway of India without being noticed by anyone?

This is not possible without the help of political party and the party which I strongly believe to be behind this is Congress. They are the worst party, which India has ever got. They are always busy to woo the minorities of India to fill their vote banks while torturing the Hindus for the very same.

They made a hell lot of issue on Malegaon Blast and torturing the Hindu priests and naming them as Hindu Militants. While, on the other hand, they are busy in suppressing the terrorist attacks which were held in Delhi. This clearly shows their support to the Muslim militants.

I don't deny the fact that it is very much possible that Hindu militancy might be their but then the way it is being handled is wrong. All these things show the inability of the current government to run the country effectively. By just giving condemning speeches won't do well, that thing could be done by me also.

So, it must be with help of Congress that these militants managed to enter inside Mumbai.

Now, the question is:

What is the main goal of congress in all this procedure?

Their main goal was to divert whole India to this issue so that they can do all kinds of illegal work necessary for their vote collection in Delhi and Madhya Pradesh.

So, don't think that it is just the end of the attacks, rather it is the beginning. It won't be too long when something worse will really happen.

For more information, refer following article: Mumbai Terror Attacks: Emergency Numbers by Amit Goyal

For similar articles refer, following links:

 1)      Rioters of Maharastra: For what purpose is these rioters are doing riots? When the very purpose for which they are fighting is getting failed.

 2)      Quota: The New Modus Operandi to Divide India: The reason why India is not growing the way it should have grown despite having the world’s best manpower.

 3)      Local Train of Mumbai: The pride of Mumbai without which Mumbai can’t survive. Check in to give a brief detail on the Mumbai local so that as a traveler you don’t have to face any problem.

4)      Roads and Stations of Gujarat: This gives the reality behind the condition of roads and stations of Gujarat.   

Another person also said that Sara Palin would have been a really great candidate for Presidency in the year 2012 if she wasn't such a supporter of Senator McClain.  Almost every one that stood in line to vote had agreed that Sara Palin wouldn't even run because she feels discouraged about this pass election.

No one wants to take responsibility any more for their mistakes. It always has to be someone else's fault. We all must recognize that a country divided against itself cannot stand, just like a house cannot stand.

This state of affairs has got to stop, and only the American electorate can make that happen. Otherwise, we are headed for a serious fall.

The American electorate has foolishly given its power away to our politicians, some of whom are corrupt and many of whom are plain avaricious. We expect that they somehow know what is best for us. Why would anyone expect such wisdom from a bunch of self-serving people? They are there by our permission to serve our needs, but they too often behave as if they have some divine right to do as they please and ignore us.

We nervously pray that these same politicians are really looking out for us, or at the least, not harming us. With each election, we pray that the one we choose to send to Congress or to the White House will honestly work on our behalf. And you know what? Your elected officials by and large are praying, too … praying that you won't notice his or her outright betrayal of your best interests; that you will continue on remaining ignorant and inattentive.

We are the people, and the American government is charged with representing our interests, not anyone else's. The Constitution does not start out by stating, “[w]e the wealthy corporations of the United States, in order to form a more perfect Union, …”. Rather, it states: “[w]e the People of the United States, in order to …”. We have every right to expect that our interests are being served, not the interests of others that work to our detriment, or the interests of illegal people who should not be here.

But many of our elected representatives do harm us. Witness the recent economic debacle. First off, we are suffering because of deregulation, the worst idea ever dreamt up by negligent politicians. No one is watching the banking industry, the airline industry, or Wall Street. And for sure, under these circumstances, no one is watching out for you and me.

On top of that open wound, Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, told us just two short months ago that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were financially sound. Nothing to worry about from that quarter. We all now know the truth.

What about Christopher Dodd, chairman of the Senate finance committee, who accepted a sweetheart deal from Countrywide Credit before that entity sunk into a black hole?

When executives at big investment houses such as Merrill Lynch and Lehman Bros. badly mismanage their companies and walk off with golden parachutes, leaving their stockholders and investors to suffer, and Congress votes to throw more billions of dollars at them, as if rewarding them for bad management, is that not misuse and abuse of our tax dollars, the dollars we work hard for to send to the government? And to add insult to injury, the President and the Congress want to give those same executives our tax dollars without any oversight, and without putting into place stricter rules and regulations as to the management of those companies. Does betrayal get any more egregious than that?

How about our government allowing the importation of foreigners in order to take our jobs away? Not only that, our government gives more rights and privileges to illegal persons in this country than to us. They can go and get free medical services at our hospitals, take our jobs away, and burden our school systems and social services. If you and I walk into any hospital and ask for free medical attention, guess what happens?

And we have to pay for all those services.

When the President of the United States has the gall to look right into the tv camera and say that there is nothing he can do about the people streaming illegally into this country, he is lying to you. And when he goes on to state that they are only working at jobs Americans refuse to do, he is pouring salt into your open wound.

If we do not demand our rights and exercise our power, as we have a right to do, then we have no one to blame but ourselves when we sink down into third-world status, or possibly even get taken over by some foreign government.

Democracy is dying in this country, and attention needs to be paid. One reason it is dying, although not the only one, is because of well-funded, very powerful lobbyists who have easy access to our elected officials. They ply these officials with money and gifts while you and I go unheard and unheeded. Such a situation amounts to bribery, and when legislation is enacted on that basis, democracy dies. And helping to shovel it into an early grave are corrupt politicians, dishonest politicians, avaricious politicians; along with too many children graduating from school who do not even know how to read and write properly, and who do not know our history or how our government operates; and very definitely too many of us who sit on our hands and grumble.

We are not paying attention as we should, but are too involved with our own lives and problems to be bothered. But we need to be bothered, to wake up and take notice, because otherwise, for sure, we are going to lose this wonderful country.

You may ask, "What am I suppose to do?" You could send faxes and e-mails, and better yet, call your Congressperson and Senator at least once a week and voice your opinions.

A better suggestion would be for groups of Americans to get together in their own neighborhoods and meet every couple of weeks. Each person would have spent the past two weeks watching the Congress and their local representatives, and how they propose or vote on issues, as well as watching what the President is doing. Then a vote would be taken at the meeting as to whether the President and representatives are acting in your best interests. If something is disliked, telephone, fax and call these people and let them know. If something is liked, let them know about that, too.

The point is to inundate your elected representatives with e-mails, faxes and telephone calls. Let them know they are being watched by an observant electorate who will no longer tolerate inefficiency and insensitivity. Believe me, I think it will have a powerful effect. When they know that their re-election is in jeopardy, they may well straighten up and start acting like the servants they really are.

Further, I maintain it would not hurt if large numbers of us marched on Washington from time to time, voicing our demands. Also, for sure, any representative who you feel has failed you should be voted out of office.

We need to pay much more attention to what is going on in government, and to seek redress when we are being harmed. Democracy only works when the people remain involved. You've heard it said that the price of freedom is eternal vigilance. It's a mistake to believe that your representatives are sitting in Washington, doing the right thing on your behalf, while you are looking the other way. Too many of them are so obviously not doing the right thing, and have to be held accountable.

But as things stand now, they are counting on you to remain apathetic and ignorant, and so far, they are right.

Forget about politicians looking out for you, as they should. Forget about them coming to your town to tell you what they promise to do, which promises are too often quickly forgotten once they get into office. They instead need to hear what we expect them to do. Remember, they represent us, not the other way around.

Stop giving your power away to them. Politicians are not royalty. They do not automatically have any kind of divine right to anything. I believe that if enough Americans stood up to them, they would back down in a hurry.

It is true that one person alone cannot accomplish much, if anything at all. Power is in the numbers. Enough people have to stand up and make their voices heard. I know there are many angry people out there, angry about the loss of jobs in this country, angry about the debacle on Wall Street, angry about the price of oil, angry about the onward march of illegals into our country, angry about the bailout, angry about the war in Iraq, and angry about a host of other issues as well. We all need to get together and communicate our feelings to a president and Congress that right now is so out of touch.

So here we go again! Another election over a bunch of politicians telling you whatever you want to hear, and ignoring issues that really need open discussion, such as the loss of jobs and the downfall of the middle class, not to mention a few other pressing issues. They're at it again, promising way too much and unlikely to deliver even a modicum. And you are listening and getting sucked in just as they want, when, in truth, you have the power at any time to turn the tables and make them listen to you.

When are you going to raise your voice?

We are all at fault here not just the political leaders. The greedy CEO's all the way down to gas guzzling car and the person driving it. America has become a country of instant gratification, over indulgence and greed. We are all guilty and now we blame politicians for not regulating or over regulating the fact is the only way out of this is if we regulate ourselves.

We all need to do our part. If President Bush is to do anything right in his term in office I feel he should at least consider the following steps. First he should call a halt to all trading on Wall St for one day. Give everyone a chance to stop look and re-evaluate their positions and see where we need to go instead of where we are afraid the economy is going to go. Banks should also close that day to keep money stable while the government on that day put party affiliation aside to see what needs to change and I am not talking they do the usual double talk but really work our something that will help and not put us further into debt. There has to be other solution that will benefit in the long term that can get investors back into the market without costing tax payers another 700 billion dollars.

Then as during the depression of the 1930's and WWII the president called for Americans to conserve on everything. I am not in any means suggesting we go to a system of rationing anything. I think President Bush needs to come out and ask Americans to give and conserve and be very specific in what this country needs its people to do. President Roosevelt as far as I know was the last President to actually ask the American public to make such sacrifices for the good of the country. Well maybe we need to be Americans and do again what we were once expected to do for the good of our country and stop being selfish and only worry about what makes us comfortable.

We have seen many times since the great depression of the 30's that Americans can come together when called in times of crisis and tragedy to support each other. Well since we know we can do this then my next question is since I know the president is not going to listen to me alone, why can't we do it without him asking.

We all know we need to conserve energy, save fuel, and work together for the greater good and not just for the good of ourselves.

I know there are those who will disagree with me and others may agree with me I don't really know here. I am sure some will find flaws in my plan and will gladly point them out that is okay to. The fact is this is only my opinion and I am only putting it out in an effort to spark discussion among Americans to see what we can do to help ourselves out of this crisis before congress puts us in the poor house.

Thanks for listening.

If you think that Congress is doing any better think again. With the Democratic and Republican congressional leaders disapproval rating at 64% and 71% respectively they aren't faring any better. No wonder they were more concerned about campaigning to save their jobs than solving the economic crisis. Here's a thought, maybe you guys should have been doing your jobs in the first place rather than staying in session just long enough to give yourselves a pay raise and then adjourning so you could go get in those rounds of golf with the your defense contractor buddies who are making a bundle off the war in Iraq.

It's no secret that the economy is the number one thing on American's minds right now. Of course the big news is the $700 billion dollar bailout plan and this is what some polls have to say about that brilliant piece of legislation. A CBS news poll on Oct 3-5, 2008 says that 51% disapprove the bill passed by congress. In the same poll, 52% disapprove of the government giving money to financial institutions. In a CNN poll, 76% oppose the government providing more money to financial institutions beyond the $700 billion should that measure fail.

As final food for thought I think it is high time we revive the Bayh-Celler Amendment. This amendment called for an end to the electoral college process for electing the president and a shift to a direct popular vote system (you know, the way a democracy is suppose to be). This amendment passed the Full House of representatives in 1969 with bi-partisan support with a vote of 339-70. Of course it died in a filibuster by some southern senators and some conservatives form small states whining about how they would lose their political power. I don't know about you, but if less people live in a certain state shouldn't they have less influence on politics? After all, isn't democracy about what the majority wants?

The move to set Hillary as the head of the task force for health reform was a shocker to many within Clinton's administration and was already a fumble by the administration in the way it handled the presentation of this new initiative. Then this truly went downhill after litigations and the way she tried to push the bill forward in Congress.  But looking back, we can see the plan that was proposed was one of the best solutions to the rising costs and ineffective health care system our country has today. Not only was her plan designed to help bring in the 47 million Americans without health care insurance into the manifold, it would have also guaranteed that Americans have a cost controlled health care service. Currently Americans who think they have insurance do not find out until they are burdened with unfortunate situations that their company does not cover their needs because of certain conditions or terms of service. But the failure of Clinton's policy due to certain misunderstandings, dislike of her approach in dealing with people and campaigns by various corporations established Health Care reform as a topic on mainstream agenda. It also helped to clarify and fix our approach to the issue. From learning the lessons of the past, California and Massachusetts have implemented something very similar to universal health care - at least their own version of it. And at this point, anything is better than nothing. But the biggest blunder to the problem is how to manage the cost.

It is easy to say that we will set up a free nation wide health care system and control the costs of health services but how can we practically fund such programs? I think that question severely made companies realize that they would have to contribute to the system more - another reason why lobbyists successfully made sure Congress did not pass her bill. But the question still remains to this day, how we can implement this system. Unless we find better ways of reducing administrative costs - like implementing electronic record keeping instead of leaving a paper trail - can free up more money to be used in order to slowly reform our system. Even if the bill was passed, I doubt that it would have been immediately effective and any such reform - especially in the US with the largest health related costs and budget, would have produced any significant results in short time. Rather, by slowly implementing changes in how we do things and better management of the money in existence being used towards these health programs, we can implement a universal health care system (or a version of it) with little to no dramatic rise in taxes. But in order to achieve any accomplishments in revamping our system, we need to make American public and corporate America realize the need for such reforms and how it would be beneficial for all parties involved and only then can we make a strive with a bill like Hillary's to change our system dramatically.

So the story runs, a few people are mentioned; perhaps you hear the candidate interviewed – once – on NPR (as if they dropped out of the race the day after). And then we forget about this Third Party nonsense until the next election cycle when someone dusts off the old, worn scripts, and the Libertarians make their return appearance as a useful, quirky space filler on a slow news day.

This morning I decided to vote for Bob Barr, the Libertarian Party candidate for President. I did it because I decided that a vote for either of the “major” candidates would be the real waste of my time. Let me tell you why:

I have voted for Democrats in every election since the first year I was allowed to vote, which was 1984. If the candidate was the Democrat, I automatically picked them. If there was more than one Democrat involved, I researched which was likely to cause the least damage and I voted for them. If there were no Democrats, I wrote in something derogatory about the Republican who was about to re-inherit his power without a challenger.

Why did I vote for Democrats? The reasoning shifted around a bit, but in the end it always boiled down to the same thing: The Democrat was not a Republican.

So far as I was concerned, the Republicans’ swing to the far right involved an idea of government I found morally intrusive. Without fail, the Republicans were openly espousing a frightening brand of intolerance born of pandering to the extreme conservatism of the so-called Religious Right.

Nothing of cultural value was safe from these people – they demanded the ability to legislate what art I could see (or make), which books were fit for sharing in a public setting, what ideas were “dangerous” and “un-American.”

They wanted to tell women what they can and cannot do with their bodies. They wanted to tell men and women whom they could love and how, and imprison them if they disobeyed or discriminate against them if they did not adequately conform.

They demanded that the land be remade in the image of some vague thing they came to call “Wholesome Family Values.” And they had no wish to bring in this reform by using rational arguments and evidence – they simply wanted to put people into office who would rewrite the laws to suit their tastes and place judges on the bench who would enforce their interpretation of the laws.

In short, they wanted to legislate their personal morality without offering so much as a good explanation as to why I was supposed to think their ethical code made more sense than any competitor’s – that is, aside from the baseless claim they infallibly understand the mind of the Deity.

And the Republicans had this habit of making certain their cronies were served, that their wealthy contributors’ pockets were well-lined with government assistance of all sorts. No, they would not spend money on the poor; instead they redistributed taxes to the rich instead of having an open, honest discussion about just what the responsibilities of a good government might be and the proper use of taxes. Just as many see the Democrats as the party of irresponsible social welfare, I saw the Republicans become the party of equally irresponsible corporate welfare.

To my mind, the Republicans, with the advent of Ronald Reagan, were the more dangerous of the two parties – dangerous to the spirit of The Constitution and the hopes of the Founders. So I always threw my vote to the Democrat – as a protest against everything the Republicans stood for.

I also had a certain conviction: That the Democrats tended to cause less damage when in office than the Right Wing Republicans. My thinking went, since the Democratic Party was an umbrella party, they had a certain incapacity to easily agree about anything or readily cooperate. The outcome was (I thought) government that worked very slowly with little that was very extreme, one way or another, emerging at the end of the day. Liberalism in our country had gone out of favor, so this limited the power of anyone who leaned to the left so far as to be dangerous.

The point is, I saw the Democrats as a “safe” choice. I didn’t vote for their candidates because I liked any of them – I have yet to vote for a politician with whom I feel wholly comfortable or a platform with which I wholly agree. I never picked my candidates on the basis of personality – it was always with a hope that he or she would cause less damage than the Republicans seemed capable of inflicting.

Over the past 8 years, I have found myself increasingly faced with the probability my assumptions about the Democrats were wrong. I watched them roll over and give away our personal freedoms to the Bush Administration in the name of some illusory thing they called “safety”; I watched them help expand the power of the executive branch while surrendering the responsibilities of the legislative branch.

I heard the Democrats complain about the president and his policies, but at the end of the day I watched many of them bow down, unwilling to take a consistently principled stand of any sort on any issue, unable to ask any of the questions that needed to be asked about The Bush Doctrine, about The Patriot Act, about the National ID, about torture. They were pragmatists; their sole objective was to remain in office.

I have just watched a Democratic Congress sit around while the nation’s economy went into a slow motion train wreck over the past couple of years. They took no meaningful action, did nothing worthwhile, seem to have exercised no more oversight on this issue than they have with other issues of national importance.

And then the Bush Administration shoved the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (The Bailout) across their collective Congressional desk and demanded they get out the rubber stamp one more time and sign off on a huge shift of power and a tremendous redistribution of wealth to… a gang of irresponsible wealthy people.

As of today, both Houses of Congress approved this bill and President Bush immediately signed it into law.

I have just witnessed the Democrats and the Republicans cooperate to re-make our government, spend our tax money, lard up the bill with very questionable tax breaks, all without adequate time to examine the proposals in the bill or clearly think out the ramifications that will only become apparent as the months pass.

Certainly we civilians did not have an opportunity to educate ourselves and properly perform our role as holding the first office in a Democracy: Citizen.

Both candidates for president from both of the major parties, being senators, voted exactly the same way on this bill and never questioned it in any meaningful fashion… other than half-hearted swipes against President Bush to score a few points.

So I have had to re-think my vote, which was solidly for Obama. At this point, I have asked myself a serious question: Is my strategy of supporting Democrats against Republicans really doing much more than perpetuating the very situation I oppose?

After this episode in which both parties cooperated to expand the power of the executive branch in unimaginable and unknown ways one more time, I am afraid I have decided the answer to my question is, “My votes have done little more than contribute to the loss of the possibility of any real change in our country’s perilous situation.”

The Republicans and Democrats have written the rules to favor themselves, concentrate all institutional power in their hands. As long as no one opposes them in the name of ideas that vaguely resemble the values that inspired the Founding Fathers, voting for one of them is nearly the same as voting for the other.

Each is more than happy, when hard choices must be made, when crises must be faced, to attempt to legislate their way out of the difficulty. And there will always be hard choices and crises – that is why we have government. But as long as the two parties can count on getting my vote, neither has to radically re-think its motives or really consider anything as impractical as ideas and principles.

They are wasting my time.

So I have decided to vote for the Third Party candidate, the Libertarian, Bob Barr. Again and as usual, it has nothing to do with his personality and charisma. But this time it does have to do with principles. I do not wholly agree with the Libertarian Party platform – but, then again, I’ll never wholly agree with many groups in this world.

But I absolutely agree with them that the Founders created a country based on the idea that no one in government should be allowed to have very much power, because politicians can’t be trusted to use power wisely outside a system of strict checks and balances, and outside The Constitution and the laws. I firmly agree that, ultimately, the most important force in a nation is its citizens, and that it is only by the citizenry choosing to be responsible, educated, and ethical that a just government and a proper society can be created for future generations.

I agree that it is not the government’s business to tell me how to live beyond a certain minimal level necessary to keep peace and promote a proper sort of tolerance. I agree that many things need to be re-examined in our nation, our values, our beliefs – and that politics cannot achieve this. If this is to be done at all, it must be done as free people thinking for themselves, using social, not governmental, institutions to achieve as many of their aims as is possible and reasonable.

Will my vote be wasted? Quite the contrary; I am voting for a better future. I have decided to cast a vote to show I am through playing the rigged game the two major parties have set up for me, the one in which I surrender my will and my judgment and slave away to provide the tax money for whatever “project” or whatever restrictive “law” these people decide to concoct. All while ignoring my letters and phone calls… and yours too, perhaps.

I am casting a vote for a different game – the one the Founders agreed on, the one that respects my value as a rational human, the one that limits, not expands government, the one that keeps theocrats and tyrants of all sorts from improperly affecting the laws. I’m going to vote for the Libertarian Bob Barr, not because I like him, but because I cherish these ideas, and because the Republicans and Democrats don’t care about these things at all in practice, regardless of what they may preach.

Evidently, the Libertarians are asking for an opportunity to show me they will act on these principles. I’m going to support them till they show me otherwise.

There are worse ways to spend your time and vote.

Richard Van Ingram

3 October 2008

Nobel Ideas All

• Health Care for all
• Tax the rich and lower taxes for the rest of us
• Regulate those thieves in the Markets
• I’ll get Osama
• I’ll stand up to the Iranians
• And on and on and on ………

It really doesn’t matter what they say, they have no idea how to implement any of it without shooting the rest of us in the foot! And besides, the President doesn’t make law, the congress does. Did you ever notice that every time congress acts something breaks. The only time the country seems to operate smoothly is when they are not in session. 

But I digress. The loosing party will block the Presidents party at every turn. In order to pass anything (unless it’s a Pork-belly) the opposition will insist on adding or subtracting their special interests from the bill. The result is something totally ineffective and therefore semi-safe for the rest of us.

I apologize for the stereotypes but just think about the consequences of un-tethered rule:

• The Democrats will reward the Health Care Industry with all the tax dollars they need to provide over-priced, substandard Health Care to you and every Illegal Alien in the country and maybe those who return to Mexico.
• Not to be out done, the Republicans would provide the Industrial War Complex with enough tax dollars to arm every man, woman, and child in the U.S. and Canada with a personal Cruise Missile.

We Must Be Thankful

Our real concern in this election is that no single party wins both the White House and a large enough majority in congress to pass any darn fool idea without it being watered down by the minority. If your guy wins or the other guy wins, be of good cheer. You can be sure that his lunacy will be redirected to a remedial course of action by the opposition. So let’s hear it for the loosing party folks. They are our one true hope. 

On A More Serious Note

Have no doubt that the Russian Bear has returned to the world scene. They will find a new name for it but for all intent and purpose the Cold War is on again. NATO threatens Russian Interest’s in the eastern block and U.S. interests are at risk from Russian influence in the Middle East. The conflict is well underway and whoever is elected must have courage and fortitude to stand in difficult times. The first contest turned out to be an economic war of the fittest, so will this new conflict be decided the same way. No body is going to push the proverbial button. But you can be sure this will turn into a “mine is bigger than yours” contest and it is going to be expensive. We must prevail or we will suffer the fate of Russia in the 90’s but I doubt they will be as benevolent as we were.

This is a winner take all game. We either dominate the world, or are dominated by it. If you feel guilty about domination just think how the Georgians are feeling right now. As Theodore Roosevelt said, “the world will never like us but they will respect us.” May it continue to be that way. The next Administration and the Congress better get this economy going and neither one of them can afford to blink in the eye of the Russian Bear (read KGB). 

If McDonald's has the loan, then it would not make any sense to launch a hot drink in the middle of summer. So, again it may say roses, but it smells like chicken poo. According to Advertising Age, 14,000 franchises have been struggling to get the capital to fund the $100,000 for the expansion. Advertising Age, Bloomberg, and several reputable news sources claim that a memo was sent from McDonald's Corporation to distribution franchises. The memo supposedly contained instructions for the 80% of franchises, that have not completed their coffee expansion, to seek alternative funding means. Essentially, the sender admits McDonalds was having a hard time getting the loan and would have to use summer revenues to proceed with the project.

All this coming from a company that reported an 8.5% sales rise in August . McDonalds ranked number one in Fortune magazines “ Most Admired Food Service Companies in 2008.” It is a Fortune 500 company. So, if they are rumored to not be able to get a loan, who can?