Back when Reagan was running for governor of California he said that Pat Brown had “looted” the state. This was a lie. But the Bush administration according to the Thom Hartman show today has looted a lot of people. First all the government has looted the social security fund. It was agreed 25 years ago under Reagan that this would be the first generation to not only pay for their parents’ retirement but their own as well so rates were jacked up to thirteen percent. But of course that fund has been routinely looted by Bush and the Republicans despite strident promises on both sides of the aisle in the campaign of 2000 that this money would be kept safe. This “lock box” line was a major issue in the campaign of 2000. Next our children are being robbed. The tax cuts of the rich are ballooning the federal deficit, which is something our grand children will have to pay back at God knows what interest rates. Of course GATT and NAFTA have enabled rich corporations to loot underdeveloped countries such as Mexico, which contrary to the promises people like Gore and Clinton made, is not better off today but worse off under NAFTA. The only difference is that Ford plants have been moved from Flint, Michigan down to Mexico, where the people work for peanuts. Back in the Eisenhaur administration is was a common belief that the highest paid CEO should not make more than twenty, or at most thirty times the pay of the lowest worker. This ethic went out the window under Reagan. Under GATT and NAFTA the percentage of wealth in America owned by foreigners has gone from 12% to 24%. And that’s just since 1995 when these two treaties had already been in place two years. China may decide to pull the plug on us because if they ever discover the former American virtue of “self reliance” they will stop buying our goods or anything else we trade with them. They will stop investing in this country. Bush has now secretly begun to inflate the US dollar and we’re apparently trying to duplicate the fate of post WW I Germany who thought it could pay back its creditors with inflated currency. If that happens there will come a point where China and Asia at large will refuse to accept our dollars as payment. Bush has stopped publishing the M 3 money indicator, which shows how much money is being printed without any backing. The savings rate in this country is now at a negative 2% because people are using their homes as an ATM machine borrowing on homes with little or no equity in them. The Federal Reserve wants to increase interest rates but there are fears that if they do so that the housing market will collapse and housing at this point is the only thing that’s keeping this economy afloat. I suppose at this point “It’s not a question of Whether but When”. People keep saying that the Feds manage our money growth so well that we have in our economy “outgrown” the idea of recurring recessions. The thing is about recessions is that they happen when you’re not expecting them, and you can’t always predict how bad they will be before they hit. It would be a pity for the Republicans if the next election hit right at the heighth of the 2008 election campaign season.

Stacy Taylor took a caller that questioned whether today’s conservatives are really conservatives, because they don’t take responsibility for the consequences of their own actions. Tony Snow in 1998 said that Clinton Aids should testify and that executive priveledge was a bogus concept that is often abused. I imagine Tony feels different about that today. This same caller said that John Edwards is already up for abuse by Rush Limbaugh calling this Edwards press conference this morning a political stunt to get votes and sympathy. Most of the time I hear Rush Limbaugh now it’s not directly but it’s from some report of something outrageous that he has stated. Listening to his show straight through must be really trippy these days. I guess Thom Hartman has it right when he said that liberals believe in the people, plural, first. But the Republicans believe in isolated individual person-s first. We thought the corporations were taking over the Media and the Nation thirty years ago when “Network” came out. Just think how much worse it is now. I guess the American Dream used to be having a confortable house to live in and raise your kids and have enough money to retire and get medical benefits. Now it seems the American Dream is to win the Lottery. And as we know there aren’t many lottery winners. Rush Limbaugh is one. Perhaps Larry Elder is another. But we know there aren’t that many filthy rich people out there. I suppose there are some who view liberals the same way that those Hippies were portrayed on yesterday’s King of the Hill episode, as lying, manipulative, thieving leeches. But we know where all the biggest corporate walfare goes. The drug companies are the only segments of society that don’t have to bid competitively for pricing. If capitalism is good for anything it’s to get the lowest price on something for your money. And when Government is spending the peoples’ money this should be doubly true, but sadly it too often isn’t.

PREVIEW OF SOME COMING NEWS

Well I don't have any ideas myself about the future. That's why I consulted the stars. I haven't made really good use of astrology in some time. Here's what's going to happen. The US is going to strike a peace deal with Iran that will also help to scale the Iraq war way back such that troops will be sent home in the next few months surprizing many and relieving everyone and also bolstering Republican's chances for President. But in the long run it will prove to be the wrong decision because Iran right now is in a state of extreme astrological weakness and if we kept the pressure on their government just might topple, but it won't happen that way. As a result of this and also astrologically based, the security right wing of the Republican party will be bolstered in their egoes and become more bold and demanding. I see either Giuliani or Romney benefitting the most. As for George Bush there will be a rash of announcements from the White House but playing the probabilities they'll be a week later than we said before. It should be sometime the Saturday before Easter and the headlines will fill the Sunday morning news. It looks as if not only Alberto Gonsolez will resign (which the right wing will bitterly resent and Rush Limbaugh will attack Bush for doing it) but also Dick Chaney will resign the Vice Presidency for health reasons, possibly that blood clot thing. Even after Dick Chaney resigns his health will be in jeopardy and he may just end up dying soon anyhow, suddenly.

I'd like to clarify a thing or two from the last Blog after talking to the Federation. That bit about two people with the same "soul" not knowing each other- - can't happen. To clarify your soul is defined as pure consciousness as limited by the engrams you came into the world with, plus the ones you develop afterward that aren't cleared. Some see the soul as some liquid substance that's shot into the cell at the time of conception with a hypodermic needle or something, and at death this same substance just vaporizes into the ether looking for a new home. Just so you pro abortionists don't get upset it doesn't have to be at conception. It could be after forty days or at the time of birth or even after birth, believe it or not. The reason why your soul could not be in two places at once is because even with a hetrogenious body (two different people) the souls or spirits can criss cross and swap places mutually volentarily, if there are similar engrams between the two people prompting it. Some of you may ask about identical twins. These two are homogenious in body but can be highly hetrogenious in the make up of their souls and they might be quite incompatable for a swap and incompatable in engrams. The question remains "Can a spirit have consciousness out of the body, and if so how?" The soul would seem tied to the body biologically. I have speculated in the past whether the population explosion might cause a "shortage of souls" so that one soul would have to be used for several incarnations. And do they have to be consecutive or can they be concurrent? The Bible teaches reincarnation, believe it or not. I'm not lying to you. In corinthians 15 it talks about a "seed" being planted. This is the soul of your former life "planted" in a new body and as the Apostle states, what grows up may not resemble what the soul was before, physically. Keep in mind this business of judgement upon death and going to heaven when you die is virtually unbiblical, and don't quote me Hebrews, a book with no Author. Pastor Bob Hawland, who pastored in my church nearly thirty years ago states, correctly that when you die your body turns to ashes. It decomposes. At a later date (12 Billion years from now when the Universe ends) God "remembers" you. The soul is said to "sleep" between lives because if there is another life you have no conception of the passage of time, not to mention no memory. Whether this "body" is a naturally or test tube "conceived" body or one that is "A New Creation" by God on "The Last Day" really doesn't matter. The soul is being reincarnated none the less. So don't say it doesn't happen. As to any "judgement" I know of no "dialog" between a subject and God after they die that isn't part of a metaphorical parable like Luke 16. We know the damned are judged and inialated, with no report of any "dialog with God" or "review of your life". As to the saved, we know the first thing that happens to them is they go to a Wedding Feast. "Dinner and a tournament". You have to ballance the whole reward - punishment idea against the "pass - fail" system also alluded to.

I had one of those "Ah ha!" light bulb moments this afternoon. Remember that Next Generation Startrek episode "The Price" where they are negotiating for a business contract and the one guy is partially psychic and "cheating" and he invented this incident with the Forengi of a hostile nature to scare this one party into doing business with him rather than a rival. But the incident was faked because they made Peace so quickly. Don't you think the Church and Rome made peace awfully quickly? Constantine went from persecutor to head of the church and giving orders virtually overnight even though some say he believed in "Sol Invictus" more than he did Jesus. Yet Constantine became almost titular head of the Church. How? Romans 13 says that all government is instituted by God and is to be cooporated with. The biggest secret that will be revealed is that Donetian was a closet Christian as the Catholic Encyclopedia hints at and one ancient historian brings up an incident of.

If someone were asking me what my belief about the Constitution was say if I were applying for Supreme Court Justice or something I'd say I was a strict constructionist with the constitution, just like Thom Hartman seems to be. But with one exception. Where is says "be secure in your persons, papers and effects" I'd take "papers" to mean anything on computer or I pod or disk. It's only logical to assume this. There is a mention in "reefer madness" that formerly they said that because of the interstate commerce restriction in the constitution, the federal govt. could not go after drug traffic. I would take a look at their logic and if it passed muster, then I'd end all Federal drug laws.