Prosecution of George W. Bush For Murder

by Vincent Bugliosi (who has never lost a murder trial)

I really like this plan!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uH40oSzdvYc&feature=email

Hold Tight by Harlan Coben

Photo from Harlan Coben's camera phone at a recent book signing.

I finished Hold Tight, the new Harlan Coben novel a little after 1:00 this morning and it was really good! Mr. Coben never fails me!!

I do enjoy how his plots all entwine and you're never quite sure what's coming or how it's all gonna end.

His character development is great. I find that if I don't like or understand a character, the book just doesn't do it for me. Harlan Coben's characters are so well developed that it makes reading his books such a pleasure.

His Myron Bolitar series is second only to Robert B. Parker's Spenser, which, again, has great character development and a certain wittiness.

I highly recommend both of these authors, you will not be disappointed.

A Good Read

I got back from the library a couple of hours ago and I'm excited to say that I have the newest Harlan Coben novel Hold Tight!

I was going to start it earlier, but first I had to call Faith to see if she wanted it after I was done. Dontcha know, she already read it! When we finally got off the phone about 7:15 I was ready to start, but then I realized that I hadn't eaten since my waffles this morning. So I heated up some taco meat and made a delicious taco salad. Then, of course, I had to finish the leftover piece of chocolate cake that Veronica brought home a couple of days ago. She didn't want it so I've been taking a bite or two each day.

Hannibal wanted to go out, so after I brought him back in the house, I had to turn the TV on to see how the West Virginia primary went. NBC projects that Clinton will win by a 2 to 1 margin! That's great news for those of us who are continuing to support Hillary. I think it's right that she sees this through right to the end.

So, now at 8:15, I think I'm ready to put on my pj's and jump into bed to start (and probably finish) this book that I've been waiting months for. Faith liked it a lot and said she thought I would too.

Can't wait another minute.....

Before You Make Another Purchase

BETTER WORLD SHOPPER is a site dedicated to providing people with a comprehensive, up-to-date, reliable account of the social and environmental responsibility of every company on the planet AND making it available in practical forms that individuals can use in their everyday lives. Coming out of more than 5 years of intensive research, this work is based on a comprehensive database of over 1000 companies and utilizes 25+ reliable sources of data to cover everything from the environment to human rights, community development to animal protection.

http://www.betterworldshopper.org/


5 key issues

HUMAN RIGHTS: sweatshops, 3rd world community exploitation, international health issues, divestment, child labor, code of conduct.

THE ENVIRONMENT: global warming, rainforest destruction, pollution, recycling, renewable energy, greenwashing, toxic waste, eco-innovations, illegal dumping, sustainable farming.

ANIMAL PROTECTION: factory farming, animal testing, humane treatment, wild animal habitat.

COMMUNITY INVOLVEMENT: family farms, local business support, volunteer efforts,
sustainable growth, philanthropic donations, nonprofit alliances, establishing foundations.

SOCIAL JUSTICE : fair wages, fatalities, union busting efforts, health & safety records, discrimination based on: race, gender, age, ability, religion, sexuality, ethnicity.

A Smart Man Makes Even More Sense Today

I remember Lee Iacocca from his days of pretty much single-handily saving Chrysler. I would see him in commercials and even at a young(er) age, I was struck by some of the things that he said. Today I received this in an email and, again, his words resonated with me. This is what I've been talking about, but he says it so much more eloquently than I.

This is a wonderful piece of writing and thinking. I wonder who he is going to vote for? I don't see any of the current candidates who would fit into this profile of a leader.

Excerpts from Lee Iacocca's new book "Where Have All The Leaders Gone?"

"Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage? We should be screaming bloody murder. We've got a gang of clueless bozos steering our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even clean up after a hurricane much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, 'Stay the course.'

Stay the course? You've got to be kidding. This is America, not the damned Titanic. I'll give you a sound bite: 'Throw all the bums out!'

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore. The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs.

While we're fiddling in Iraq, the Middle East is burning and nobody seems to know what to do. And the press is waving 'pompoms' instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of the America my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. The Biggest C is Crisis!

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with your feet up on the desk and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes.

We're immersed in a bloody war with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the country.

We're losing the manufacturing edge to Asia, while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs.

Gas prices are skyrocketing, and nobody in power has a coherent energy policy.

Our schools are in trouble.

Our borders are like sieves.

The middle class is being squeezed every which way.

These are times that cry out for leadership. But when you look around, you've got to ask: Where have all the leaders gone? Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo? We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Name me one leader who emerged from the crisis of Hurricane Katrina. Congress has yet to spend a single day evaluating the response to the hurricane, or demanding accountability for the decisions that were made in the crucial hours after the storm.

Every one's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping it doesn't happen again. Now, that's just crazy. Storms happen. Deal with it. Make a plan. Figure out what you're going to do the next time.

Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when The Big Three referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, what are we going to do about it?

Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debit, or solving the energy crisis, or managing the health care problem.The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the gang in Congress. We didn't elect you to sit on your asses and do nothing and remain silent while our democracy is being hijacked and our greatness is being replaced with mediocrity.

What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on Fox News will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show so me spine for a change? Had Enough?

Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope. I believe in America. In my lifetime I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises: the Great Depression, World War II, the Korean War, the Kennedy Assassination, the Vietnam War, the 1970's oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years culminating with 9/11.

If I've learned one thing, it's this: You don't get anywhere by standing on the sidelines waiting for somebody else to take action. Whether it's building a better car or building a better future for our children, we all have a role to play. That's the challenge I'm raising in this book. It's a call to action for people who, like me, believe in America . It's not too late, but it's getting pretty close. So let's shake off the crap and go to work.

Let's tell 'em all we've had enough."

You might want to check this out, http://www.mrschneidergoestowashington.com/

endorsed by Lee Iacocca, on his website http://www.leeiacocca.net/

Duma Key by Stephen King

Brice Leclert , whose entry is shown above, was chosen by Stephen King as the winner of the DUMA KEY poster competition.

I have been a fan of Stephen King's books since the beginning. Each book is like a gift - to be cherished and enjoyed. To me, there's no feeling that matches how I feel when I get his newest book, so full of promise. And they never fail me. Well, except for The Dark Tower series. I just never got into them, they're fantasy, though I have a bit of a crush on Roland, the main character.

Back in the 80's and early 90's my favorite thing to do was to head (alone) to the cottage in Maine and start reading his latest book about 10:30 at night. I would read all night and not go to sleep until the sun came up. It would scare me to death, well not completely to death, but pretty damn close. I loved it.

Last year I reread all of my Stephen King books. With all of the spare time that I had I thought it would be fun to revisit them all together. There were, however, two books that I just couldn't get the energy to read; Misery and Cujo. They are too close to real life and I just couldn't go there. It was great to read the books all at once as I was able to see the thread of characters he has woven into his books much more clearly than I had previously when the books were released a year or more apart from each other. Once I finished, I boxed all the books and gave them to my friend Jason to enjoy.

I don't buy his books anymore. I figure he's made enough money off me with the 30 or so books I've bought, so I get his books from the library now. And my habit of just leaving the newest King book out for a few days (or weeks) to build anticipation isn't so great with a 3 week return date. When he released Desperation and The Regulators at the same time in 1996 it took me 2 years to start to read them. I just didn't know which one to read first!

So I just this morning finished reading Duma Key, the latest (and possibly one of the best) of Stephen King's dozens of books. It's a story of a man who loses his right arm in a freak accident, then loses his wife to divorce. He moves to a tiny island on the west coast of Florida and becomes a prolific painter and strange things begin to happen. Here's a synopsis I found from his site:

Edgar Freemantle reaches a T-junction in his life's journey when a freak accident costs him his arm... and his marriage. He takes the turning marked Florida - home, as they say, of the newly wed, or nearly dead.

But rather than choosing a typical holiday location, Freemantle is drawn to a beautiful, eerily remote stretch of land off Florida's West Coast: Duma Key, a tangle of banyans, palms and pines next to a deserted beach - uninhabited bar a few houses owned by an old lady named Elizabeth, once a famous patron of the arts.

Encouraged by his youngest daughter, Freemantle discovers a unique talent for painting, starting with the fabulous sunsets. But soon he finds himself experiencing weird phantom pains in his missing arm. And something strange and disturbing is happening with his pictures: they are becoming predictive, even dangerous to those who buy them.

Freemantle must team up with his fellow resident, Wireman, to chart his way through the increasingly disturbing mystery of Duma Key, where out-of-season hurricanes tear lives apart and a powerful undertow lures lost and tormented souls. Eventually, they will have to discover what really happened to Elizabeth's twin sisters, who disappeared in the 1920s - and the haunting secret to which this strange old lady holds the key.

Duma Key is a mesmerizing and compelling story about friendship, and the bond between a father and his daughter. It is also about the power of memory and truth, art and nature.

Here's a link to the first 30 pages of 611 total pages.
http://www.stephenking.co.uk/downloads/duma_key_extract.pdf

I recommend it highly - even for folks that don't think they would enjoy his books. You just might!

Freaking Fantastic Freakonomics

I've always considered myself to be a reader. As a kid I would read under the covers with a flashlight. Through school I always enjoyed the books we were assigned to read; 1984, The Grapes of Wrath, The Scarlet Letter, Jonathan Livingston Seagull among many others.

Mostly I read mysteries, detective stories and the occasional biography. I've been a fan of Stephen King since I picked up Carrie, his first book. I have lots of other favorite authors and, of course, my favorite characters in their books.

I always go to my library's website and request any books that sound interesting or has been recommended to me. A few weeks ago, Lillian gave me (as she often does) the names of a couple of books that she had heard of. I'm probably the only person who has their library card number (all 14 digits) memorized. I've no idea what my license number is, or my bank account number, but I do know my library card number by heart.

The books that Lil recommended were Freakonomics by Steven Levitt and Stephen Dubner and The Tipping Point by Malcolm Gladwell. I haven't even gotten to the second book yet, I am so fascinated by the first. Both books are somewhat similar; they give you a different way to look at the world around you.

Freakonomics is absolutely fascinating. The chapters have titles like;
What do Schoolteachers and Sumo Wrestlers have in common?
How is the Ku Klux Klan like a group of real estate agents?
Why do drug dealers still live with their moms?

I was hooked just reading the introduction, part of which is:

Anyone living in the United States in the early 1990s and paying even a whisper of attention to the nightly news or a daily paper could be forgiven for having been scared out of his skin.

The culprit was crime. It had been rising relentlessly-a graph plotting the crime rate in any American city over recent decades looked like a ski slope in profile-and it seemed now to herald the end of the world as we knew it. Death by gunfire, intentional and otherwise, had become commonplace. So too had carjacking and crack dealing, robbery and rape. Violent crime was a gruesome, constant companion. And things were about to get even worse. Much worse. All of the experts were saying so.

The cause was the so called superpredator. For a time, he was everywhere. Glowering from the cover of newsweeklies. Swaggering his way through foot-thick government reports. He was a scrawny, big-city teenager with a cheap gun in his hand and nothing in his heart but ruthlessness. There were thousands out there just like him, we were told, a generation of killers about to hurl the country into deepest chaos.

In 1995 the criminologist James Alan Fox wrote a report for the US attorney general that grimly detailed the coming spike in murders by teenagers. Fox proposed optimistic and pessimistic scenarios. In the optimistic scenario, he believed, the rate of teen homicides would rise another 15 percent over the next decade; in the pessimistic scenario, it would more than double. "The next crime wave will get so bad," he said, "that it will make 1995 look like the good old days."

Other criminologists, political scientists, and similarly learned forecasters laid out the same horrible future, as did President Clinton. "We know we've got about six years to turn this juvenile crime thing around," Clinton said, "or our country is going to be living with chaos. And my successors will not be giving speeches about the wonderful opportunities of the global economy; they'll be trying to keep body and soul together for people on the streets of these cities." The smart money was plainly on the criminals.

And then, instead of going up and up and up, crime began to fall. And fall and fall and fall some more. The crime drop was startling in several respects. It was ubiquitous, with every category of crime falling in every part of the country. It was persistent, with incremental decreases year after year. And it was entirely unanticipated - especially by the very experts who had been predicting the opposite.

The magnitude of the reversal was astounding. The teenage murder rate, instead of rising 100 percent or even 15 percent as James Alan Fox had warned, fell more than 50 percent within five years. By 2000 the overall murder rate in the United States had dropped to it's lowest level in thirty-five years. So had the rate of just about every other sort of crime, from assault to car theft.

Even though the experts had failed to anticipate the crime drop - which was in fact well under way even as they made their horrifying predictions - they now hurried to explain it. Most of their theories sounded perfectly logical. It was the roaring 1990s economy, they said, that helped turn back crime. It was the proliferation of gun control laws, they said. It was the sort of innovative policing strategies put into place in New York City, where murder rates would fall from 2,245 in 1990 to 596 in 2003.

These theories were not only logical; they were also encouraging for they attributed the crime drop to specific and recent human initiatives. If it was gun control and clever police strategies and better paying jobs that quelled crime - well then, the power to stop criminals had been within our reach all along. As it would be the next time, God forbid, that crime got so bad.

These theories made their way, seemingly without question, from the experts' mouths to journalists' ears to the public's mind. In short, they became conventional wisdom.

There was only one problem: they weren't true.

There was another factor, meanwhile, that had greatly contributed to the massive crime drop of the 1990s. It had taken shape more than twenty years earlier and concerned a young woman in Dallas named Norma McCorvey.

Like the proverbial butterfly that flaps it wings on one continent and eventually causes a hurricane on another, Norma McCorvey dramatically altered the course of events without intending to. All she had wanted was an abortion. She was a poor, uneducated, unskilled, alcoholic, drug-using twenty-one-year-old woman who had already given up two children for adoption and now, in 1970, found herself pregnant again. But in Texas, as in all but a few states at that time, abortion was illegal. McCorvey's cause came to be adopted by people far more powerful than she. They made her the lead plaintiff in a class-action lawsuit seeking to legalize abortion. The defendant was Henry Wade, the Dallas County district attorney. The case ultimately made it to the US Supreme Court, by which time McCorvey's name had been disguised as Jane Roe. On January 22, 1973, the court ruled in favor of Ms. Roe, allowing legalized abortion throughout the country. By this time, of course, it was far too late for Ms. McCorvey/Roe to have her abortion. She had given birth and put the child up for adoption. (Years later she would renounce her allegiance to legalized abortion and become a pro-life activist.)

So how did Roe v. Wade help trigger, a generation later, the greatest crime drop in recorded history?

As far as crime is concerned, it turns out that not all children are born equal. Not even close. Decades of studies have show that a child born into an adverse family environment is far more likely than other children to become a criminal. And the millions of women most likely to have an abortion in the wake of Roe v. Wade - poor, unmarried, and teenage mothers for whom illegal abortions had been too expensive or too hard to get - were often models of adversity. They were the very women whose children, if born, would have been much more likely than average to become criminals. But because of Roe v. Wade, these children weren't being born. This powerful cause would have a drastic, distant effect: years later, just as these unborn children would have entered their criminal primes, the rate of crime began to plummet.

It wasn't gun control or a strong economy or new police strategies that finally blunted the American crime wave. It was, among other factors, the reality that the pool of potential criminals had dramatically shrunk.

Now, as the crime-drop experts (the former crime doomsayers) spun their theories to the media, how many times did they cite legalized abortion as a cause? Zero.

I hope you found that part of their introduction as fascinating as I did. (The authors revisited this in a later chapter.) The book just gets better and really makes you look at things in a new and different way.

I'm sure you're tired of reading by now, so I'll leave you with this one thought. Get this book! Whether you borrow it from the library or you buy it from Amazon ($16.77) it is a MUST READ!