Down in Loooz-iana, a good ol boy told me we went to war in Iraq cause "we had to liberate the Iraqi people. It ain't right lettin 'em set under dictators like 'at." He had forgotten about the non-existent weapons of mass destruction and Saddam Hussein's non-existent ties to Al Qaeda. And what did he think of Barack Obama? "Ah think he's a Communist," he said. Although he admitted, "I lost $30,000 in the stock market. They're gonna have to do somethin' about 'at."

Down in Loooz-iana, I saw a truck with an emblem that said "The Real Boyz In Da Hood"—under a silhouette of sheet-wearing Klansmen. Such sentiments do exist out there in America; but I think they're very much in the minority. The illusion of their majority was bolstered by stolen elections in 2000 and 2004. Whatever happened to election reform? What's happening with the campaign to get rid of Diebold machines—which are owned by friends of the Bush administration, and can never be checked, as their owners say the voting people do on them is "proprietary." Now I wonder what the Founding Fathers would say about that. Election reform isn't as sexy a story as the catfights between candidates, but it seems to me it's the most important story of our time; and the basis for everything that's going to happen in the future. How can we make sure this election is honest?

Meanwhile, the 2008 budget for the Department of Defense is $635 billion dollars.
$635 billion dollars.
$635 BILLION DOLLARS!
How come nobody's talking about that?

I saw two smart, Arab professor-types on Charlie Rose talking about the perception many Americans seem to have of the Arab world—a misperception helped along by the media. Terrorism, Al Qaeda, indeed Islamic fundamentalism represents just a minute fraction of the Muslim world, where most people just want to make money and watch TV like the rest of us, raise their kids, have enough to eat.

"We gotta do somethin' about Islamic fundamentalism or it's gonna come ruin our way of life," the good ol boy in Louisiana told me. Then he got into his big ol truck, complaining about the price of gas.