During the election campaign last fall I thought Barack Obama was a person who could be understood and one could expect certain outcomes for his presidency. A this point, he is  riddle wrapped in a puzzle which has no solution, only an ongoing path of confusion as to his ultimate goals. His eloquence invades hearts, lifts spirits, arouses emotions of hope and expectation only to vanish like a bubble pinched that disintegrates into nothing. I constantly pose the question to myself-who is he?

It is sometimes difficult to ascertain whether Arabs of Jews are the most inept when it comes to securing peace for their people. For half a century, there have been numerous times when peace was possible between the state of Israel and most of its Arab neighbors, but lack of leadership prevented attainment of peace. For example, as recently as 2001 just before Clinton left the presidency he secured agreement from Israel to give Palestinians about 94% of the West Bank in exchange for peace. Yasser Arafat, the leader of Palestinians could not accept the idea of not securing 100% of the West Bank so he turned down the offer. Eventually, Arabs decided to resort to violence in organizing the second intifada to fight against Israel. We know the result of the intifada, the people who most suffered were Palestinians. 

This past weekend I was reading several books dealing with early American history and once again I am reminded a major problem in this nation is failure to teach American history. The result is Republicans, gun control fanatics and whoever continually repeat slogans they believe relate to the past despite any semblance of knowledge about what happened in the history of this nation. Robert Leckie's wonderful military history, "From Sea To Shining Sea" depicts the complete incompetence of the militia that contemporary gun supporters cite as a reason why ordinary Americans must possess guns in order to protect our liberties. I can not go into detail, but Leckie rips apart the incompetent militia during the Revolution and the War of 1812, let alone their cowardly behavior in so many 

A half century ago, historian Richard Hofstadter wrote a seminal book entitled, "The Paranoid Style in American Politics' which traced the ongoing examples in our nation's history of paranoia engulfing public opinion and leading to the Tea Party outbursts we currently are witnessing. Sarah Palin is simply a new example of frightening the population with tales of "those people" trying to take over "our country." Palin plays to the rustic mythology of America which functions on the proposition that those raised in rural areas of the nation have not been contaminated by the large city "foreign influences" that corrupt our youth and destroy the moral fabric of our nation. If Sarah had been around in the sixties she would be leading the fight to cut hair of any boy who had the audacity to wear his hair long or in a pony tail. Of course, today, the rustic male folk wander around high on marijuana and twirling their pony tails. Isn't it quaint that a woman who wants childen to "just say no" to sex prior to marriage has a young mother on her hand and Mom Sarah has banned the father from seeing his child. I assume this is simply upholding moral standards.

The story of Hillary Clinton has gotten lost in the madness which has swept the right wing of America,  but, believe it or not, she is the Secretary of State. One moment she is hopping over to Turkey to persuade the Armenians and Turks to settle differences, the next day she is in some place in Africa supporting the rights of women to equity. She is on the airplane so often one can only wonder what Bill does in his lonely nights alone with his body and no warmth in the house. In one sense, Hillary Clinton is an activist Secretary of State, but, in another sense, she some times comes across as a sacrificial lamb for Barack Obama. Until about three weeks ago, Hillary stood up to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by making clear she wanted an end to further housing on the West Bank, then, out of the blue, ten days ago, she praised him to high heaven for "slowing down." NOT ENDING, settlement building on the West Bank. The Israel right wing praised her-- until the next day when she realized her blunder had infuriated Arab nations and she retracted her statement. But, lost in this goof was the fact that President Obama had been opposed to further West Bank construction until he backed away from that strong stand. In other words, Hillary supported the boss man, he came out smelling like a rose while she came across as incompetent. Is it any surprise he gets the prize and she gets the short end of the stick.

The story of Hillary Clinton has gotten lost in the madness which has swept the right wing of America,  but, believe it or not, she is the Secretary of State. One moment she is hopping over to Turkey to persuade the Armenians and Turks to settle differences, the next day she is in some place in Africa supporting the rights of women to equity. She is on the airplane so often one can only wonder what Bill does in his lonely nights alone with his body and no warmth in the house. In one sense, Hillary Clinton is an activist Secretary of State, but, in another sense, she some times comes across as a sacrificial lamb for Barack Obama. Until about three weeks ago, Hillary stood up to Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu by making clear she wanted an end to further housing on the West Bank, then, out of the blue, ten days ago, she praised him to high heaven for "slowing down." NOT ENDING, settlement building on the West Bank. The Israel right wing praised her-- until the next day when she realized her blunder had infuriated Arab nations and she retracted her statement. But, lost in this goof was the fact that President Obama had been opposed to further West Bank construction until he backed away from that strong stand. In other words, Hillary supported the boss man, he came out smelling like a rose while she came across as incompetent. Is it any surprise he gets the prize and she gets the short end of the stick.

I teach several classes in education for those entering the teaching profession which puts me in daily contact with many young people in their twenties. They are intelligent, nice, hard working individuals who wish to become good teachers. In some respects they are a well educated generation and have access through Internet to the entire planet. However, this is a  Dreamless Generation willing to accept what is without any thought of what could be. 

There are 12 million unemployed people in the United States but to Glenn Beck, Rush, and Bill Bennett the real issue confronting the nation is should our president bow when meeting the emperor of Japan! According to Dr. Bill Bennett, author of books on history and philosophy, "we don't defer to emperors. We don't defer to kings or emperors." No sirre, we are God fearing Americans and we stand up to any king or emperor and let them know that America may be having an economic collapse, but that is certainly not the most important issue facing this nation. William Kristol of the Weekly Standard believes the reason for America's economic decline is due to our president who has  become  overly-deferential to foreign leaders. This is the same Bill Kristol who hailed George Bush for invading Iraq despite UN reports there were no WMD in Iraq. Kristol hailed Bush for standing tall in the face of a bunch of foreigners who wanted to take the coward's way out and conduct more investigations of the supposed WMD. 

During his initial several months as president, Barack Obama sent a message to the Muslim world and people of the Middle East that he wanted a fair peace that both respected rights of Israel to security and the right of Palestinians to have their own country. Who can forget Obama's famous speech in Cairo which was welcomed by Arabs throughout the region as the harbinger of a new American policy of fairness. Since then, what has happened? Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyaju has refused to engage in any meaningful negotiations even though for the first time in the history of Israel the Arab people want peace and a new venture in cooperation. In reality, Netanyahu has  called every bluff by Obama for an end to housing settlements in the West Bank and everytime he refuses to do anything,  Clinton and Obama try to placate this man. Two weeks ago, Clinton even praised Netanyahu for agreeing to slow down housing settlements and hailed this as an historic step toward peace! Hu! He is going to slow down, not end the illegal construction of settlements and our Secretary of State and president hail his courage. 

Having nothing better to do with my life, I set about exploring several sites which provide evidence that Barack Obama and Nidal Hasan are collaborators in the plot to destroy America. My initial reaction was, "not another conspiracy theory," but upon reflection, it increasingly became clear where there is smoke there must be fire. I decided to use my analytical mind and set about discovering if there was any truth to the claim that Hasan and Obama were conspirators. Let me submit my evidence to the world and allow intelligent beings to reach their own conclusion as to whether or not Nidal Hasan and Barack Obama are allies in the fight by terrorists to destroy America.

Yesterday's column by Paul Krugman in The New York Times discussed the remarkably successful German plan to avoid job losses by having programs in place that focus on working with employers to avoid having men and women fired. For example, there is the "short-time work scheme" in which the government provides subsidies to businesses which will reduce work hours for workers in order to avoid having people fired. The result is there has been no mass lay-offs in Germany and most people continue working. When Larry Summers, the Obama administration's top economist was asked about using a similar approach in America, he responded; "It may be desirable to have a given amount of work shared among more people. But., that's not as desirable as expanding  the total amount of work." In other words, I'm a Harvard economist and we have nothing to learn from other countries. The only solution is expanding the economy and creating more jobs. However, every indicator suggests this is the first economic recovery which is NOT PRODUCING NEW JOBS! Perhaps, the great Larry Summers is WRONG AND WE MAY WITNESS THE ECONOMY EXPAND WITHOUT EXPANDING THE NUMBER OF JOBS.

Raquel Rolnik, the special UN rapporteur on the right of people to have decent housing just completed her report on the state of homeless people in America. She accused the American government of pouring billions of dollars into rescuing banks and financial institutions while completely ignoring the right of people to decent housing in this country. "The housing crisis is invisible for many in the US. I learned through this visit that real affordable housing and  poverty is something that hasn't been dealt with  as an issue. Even if we talk about the financial crisis and government stepping in in order to promote economic recovery, there is no such help for the homeless." Of course, she could have added there is no help for the unemployed or the under-employed except for vague comments from the Obama administration that once business and banks are OK, the unemployment situation will somehow work itself out. I read Rolnik's report and wondered -- we just elected a man to the presidency who  promised to focus the nation's attention on the economic needs of most Americans instead of worrying about tax cuts for the wealthy and what is the result-- not a damn thing is being done for the unemployed!

In all honesty, the news is so depressing, who the heck wants to discuss it.  Twelve million unemployed and we are bogged down for a year discussing health care. Heck, iif you don't have a job, how the hell can you afford health care, either by government or by private insurance companies. So, with nothing better to discuss, how about dealing with the pudgy schmuck from southern Missouri- Rush Limbaugh.

Now that President Obama has loused up the Democratic party by failing to develop a job program, the likelihood of a Republican victory in the coming years is more likely. In anticipation of the probability, we provide an insight into the new America.

When the topic of Israel and Palestinians is raised, I often feel like a Chicago Cub fan who would have to go back to World War I to  find the last time his beloved Cubs were in a world series. The use of the word, "negotiation" is an oxymoron when it comes to discussing Israel and Palestinians. Israel Prime Minister benjamin Netanyahu made statements yesterday which caused me to wonder if I was on a planet containing intelligent life. Let me present his actual words that he expressed to Palestinian leader, President Abbas: