…was around the exact time that I began traveling internationally for
business. I traveled to Africa, Europe and Asia and I saw that my
country, while not loved, was at least respected. The government of the
United States was seen as all-powerful, but mainly benevolent and
President Clinton was loved as much for his faults as for his talents.

During that time this nation was rich, it seemed like everyone who
wanted a job had one and the possibilities of the future seemed endless.

Now I go overseas and see my nation not respected nor loved but instead
feared. I see nation after nation looking at the United States as a
country to be avoided and not emulated. I see President Bush loathed,
hated, not respected and most of all, feared. Feared as a reckless,
messianic man who claims kinship with God but instead knows only God’s
opposite: war and death. Who claimed when running for office he wanted
to lead a “humble America” but instead has led the nation as if he’s an
emperor. He and his cohorts pretend they know the way and don’t
question them.

A terrifying thing, little noticed by the media, happened this August.
For the first time in living memory the Treasury Department held an
auction of US Treasury bills and no one bought. For the first time in
history foreigners are refusing to invest in what was previously the
safest investment around, US T-bills.

Now you make think this matters little. I can hear the Republicans now:
“Who cares if foreigners buy our T-bills, we can do without them!”
Wrong. The US depends on the largess of foreign governments to
subsidize the massive budget deficit created by Bush’s reckless fiscal
policies and if they don’t… well, the consequences are too terrible
to ponder.I’d guess the likeliest is a deflationary spiral
leading to the collapse of the stock market and a new depression.

Where I’m going with all this is that one again tonight I leave for
Asia on business and I’ll be gone until November 20. I leave behind a
country heading towards ruin if it continues to be led by George W.
Bush. Every person I know has said if the election is stolen again
they’ll take to the streets and use the last method available to us to
enforce the will of the people, violence. As American citizens we’re
taught very early that violence to change the government is the last
option, but a viable one if other methods have been exhausted. When
your vote counts for little and the courts back up the thieves then
what choice do the people have left?

I don’t know what’s going to happen but my gut says Kerry will win. If
he doesn’t and the election is again tainted by fraud and thievery used
by the Republicans then we’re in for some rough, rough times. I leave
here an American who still has faith in the system I believe is the
best in the world. I hope to God I return feeling the same way.

Now I don’t wish for the death of anyone, no matter how much I hate
them. That kind of karma is just too much for me to have to deal with.

Still,
there is an inescapable truth that sometimes the death of a single
person can improve the lives of an enormous number of people. It is
fact that certain people stand in the way of peace, or development or
justice and the only way these things can occur is with their demise.

Jonas Savimbi - Angola

Jonas
Savimbi was the leader of Unita, a group dedicated to fighting the
Marxist-Leninist government of Angola since Angola’s independence in
the 1970’s. Supported for a time by the United States he signed a peace
treaty in 1990 with the Angolan government mandating free elections and
his participation in a government of unity. Except it didn’t work out
that way. When UNITA lost the elections it went back to war, led by
Savimbi.

Devastating the entire country, UNITA degenerated into
a rag-tag group of gangsters. They terrorized and raped their way
through Angola, depopulating huge swathes of the countryside and
dealing in stolen diamonds.

All of this ceased with Savimbi’s
death in 2002 when Israeli-trained Angolan troops burst in on Savimbi’s
hideout and shot him 17 times. Two days a cease-fire was declared. Six
weeks later a permanent peace treaty was signed.

I could go on
and on with the deaths of those (Hitler, Ceausescu) but I won’t.
Suffice to say that sometimes the death of an ineffective and corrupt
leader can lead to wonderful things for a nation and its people. If you
have doubts just ask any Romanian or Angolan today.

We’re having a party tonight for our new supervisor
who was appointed in August and is now running for re-election. Tuesday
night we walked out neighborhood passing out invites and then a
volunteer passed out more. We printed 150 and we’ll see how many
attendees we get.

Tomorrow night I’ll be on this airline going here and staying at this hotel. It seems like just a while ago I was in India, and I guess that’s accurate because it was less than a month.

Isn’t it ironic? Three months ago the insane Pat Robertson was
asking members of the 700 Club to pray for God to remove members of the
Supreme Court who were “opposing his laws.” Well, it looks like God has
answered their prayers but they probably weren’t thinking the Chief
Justice was one that God was going to remove.

He certainly works in mysterious ways, now doesn’t he?

Yes, I know I’ve been posting less and less. It’s really a combination
of work and other events that leave me with so little time I just can’t
fit blogging in. As I’m leaving for India the 30th of October I’m going
to try and figure out how to blog remotely.

This
weekend a friend of mine from Seattle and his friend came into San
Francisco. I met them with a shaker full of Appletini mix and a car and
driver for the night. We took off and had drinks at Absinthe and then a
club down in the financial district. After that we ended up at the
End-Up (no pun intended) and then came home at around 3:30 AM.

Saturday
the Good Doc, myself, my friend and a couple of other people went to
Napa for the day. Now let me get one thing clear about Napa and Sonoma.
I think they’re boring. I mean, how many wineries can one see before
you go insane? It’s like “Oh, let’s stop and taste wine (for the
thousandth time). So my boyfriend and I took our time and stopped in
Berkeley at an Indian place for lunch.

Big mistake. I thought
that buffet looked a little old and I woke in the middle of the night,
Saturday night/Sunday morning, with terrible stomach cramps and then I
threw up, twice. Needless to say that put to rest any plans we had for
breakfast and we headed back to San Francisco.

Now I’m getting ready for my trip. Gone for three weeks to India and then back for 4 days and then to Portland for Thanksgiving.