To blame the disaster on loans to poor people, many of them minorities, is disingenuous at best. The problem started after the .com bubble bust when people with loose money looked for another easy way to make money. They pounced on the real estate market which very soon became a heaven for speculators. But instead of paying for a house in the hope of reselling it later at a profit they spread the money to buying ten and more houses, borrowing the rest. Banks further exasperated the problem by offering mortgages where only interest had to be paid for the first two years. Buy a 200,000 Dollar house, put down 10,000 dollars or less, pay interest for two years and sell it for 300,00 two years later. Bingo, 12,000 Dollars or so miraculously made a 88,000 Dollar profit. This pyramid scheme drove up real estate prices all over the country. Poor people, many of them minorities, who needed a place to live, now had to buy a house for three times what it cost before speculators got hold of the real estate market.

To now blame the current dilemma on policies designed to help the less affluent to own a home at a time of a normal real estate market is cynical.

After six years fighting in Afghanistan we are farther away from achieving our goals than ever before.

Wait a minute, why are we fighting in Afghanistan? What are pour goals there? Unless memory fails me, we asked the Taliban to turn Osama bin Laden over to us. They refused, so we went into Afghanistan with the help of Pakistan and the Northern Alliance. Osama bin Laden is still a free man but we did free the Afghanistan people from the oppressive Taliban regime. That was a noble achievement but we should also remember that we helped the Taliban and Osama bin Laden in their fight against the Soviets. We empowered both when it suited us.

So what do we do now? In our obsession to kill Taliban fighters we kill and maim countless innocent Afghanis. And for every Taliban fighter we kill we create a dozen who are willing to fight against us - who rescued them from the Taliban.

Other NATO countries are doing a better job by concentrating on making life easier for the Afghan people.

The New Republic has over several decades criticized dictatorships for suppressing divergent opinion in their countries. How sad that the paper now is doing the same thing to one of their own. And that even though many thoughtful Conservatives are now recommending Obama. Who knows William Buckley might do the same were he still alive. Don't Conservatives realize that the GOP no longer is the Conservative Party it was until a few years ago? What happened to fiscal responsibility, what happened to tolerance, what happened to support for the middle class? To watch Republican election rallies reminds me of Hitler's Germany, or at best a Roman circus.

In actuality, Obama now is closer to a Conservative than the official GOP party line.

McCain used the term "pro-abortion" at least twice. That's a vicious lie. No person in his right mind is in favor of abortion. It's an awful thing and pity the woman who has to decide whether or not to abort a pregnancy. Pro-choice people are exactly that: They want to make abortion legally possible. To accuse them to be in favor of abortion is disingenuous at best and cynical at worst. The best system would be one where any woman can get an abortion after counseling and after offering her an opportunity to give birth at special clinics where children are immediately given up for adoption. This would also help couples who now go abroad to find children to adopt in the USA.

When Secretary of State Powell allowed the warmongers in the Administration to brief their fictional WMD story to the United Nations, he disappointed those who have always held him in high esteem. I did ever since I met him so many years ago when he assumed command of Fifth Corps in Germany. he was the only member of the Bush Administration who had any common sense and ethics. But he was a good soldier and, as soldiers are conditioned to do, once the decision was made he saluted the flag and did as he was told.

He has now redeemed himself.

I love it! Author has shown just how ridiculous the argument against tax increases for high wage earners is. What in the world is wrong with the American people? They act as if the idea of taxation comes straight from hell. How in the world do they expect the government to provide the services everybody expects and demands? OK, we the tax payer have a right to expect that the government uses the tax money wisely. There indeed is much room for improvement. I would start with less subsidies to industries and agriculture who don't really need it and stop procuring needless weapons systems and stop fighting wars that are against America's best interests.

I get it, it's better to borrow money from our adversaries rather than facing an inconvenient truth: We have been living beyond our means for a long time.

The olive fruit fly undoubtedly switched to olive trees from Dinosaurs when these failed to get on Noah's Arc. God created them 6000 years ago together with dinosaurs, olive trees and humans. It is therefore not up to us humans to find ways to worry about fruit flies.