Those who know me know that i am an old timer. In fact, the expression "old timer" is an understatement. I have witnessed 14 presidential elections and i can say that i have never seen a month of July this negative. Moreover, i can safely say that i have never witnessed the presumptive nominee of either parties going this negative this early and behaving in a thuggish way like Senator McCain has been behaving this last month. Usually, thuggish behavior is left to the surrogates, but Senator McCain decided that he will fulfill this role himself. I wrote about this in my previous diary

Can Senator Obama afford to stay silent and play nice? No. Does he have to answer each every attack? Absolutely. Why?

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In two weeks, i will be 67 years old. I can remember 14 presidential elections. The first one which is still seared in my memory was the 1952 presidential election. My poor father, an Irish Catholic, a WWII veteran and an FDR-fanatic, was about the only person in the country who strongly believed that Adlai E. Stevenson could beat IKE...poor Dad. On election day, he kept telling me , "Son, the people cannot turn their backs on Mister Roosevelt's party." Of course, i was 10 years old and i did not really appreciate the magnitude of those words. And yes  Dad called FDR, "Mister Roosevelt" and no one dared to criticize or say a bad word about Mister Roosevelt when my father was around because the consequences where too harsh and bloody-painful to contemplate.

When J.F. Kennedy won in 1960, my dad went to the campaign quarter in our neighborhood, asked them for a picture of JFK, went to Sears and framed it, and then came home all proud and put John's picture next to Mister Roosevelt's on the mantle  of our living room fireplace. Growing up, i really thought that FDR was part of my family. And in some ways he was.

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My wife left for her all-female yearly vacation and retreat (this is something that i highly recommend to every couple out there). Good for her, she really deserves some down time without me. So, i was left lonesome roaming the house and bored. At my age (66 years old) nothing usually good comes from being lonesome and bored in a house full of electronics.

After my golf session this morning, i got home, watched "There will be Blood"--excellent movie by the way-- ate something and i got bored again. Foolishly, i had the not-so-brilliant idea of watching some news, which i don't do or haven't done since 1984. Oh boy, that's gonna be interesting. So, i unblocked CNN, FOXNews, CNBC, MSNBC and sat passively in front of the tube as if i was lobotomized.

The rest is in the body...there are a couple of funny clips that i added to illustrate my diary.

This is going to be a very short diary. This afternoon, i am leaving for Egypt where i am going to spend 10 days. I haven't been there since December 2002 (disclaimer: lived in Egypt for more than year in early 1980s and lived in the Middle East/Muslim world for several years). It will be interesting to go back and talk to friends and folks about their opinions and interests and their views on some specific issues. The reason (as if i needed a reason to go to the Middle East really) i am going is that I will be attending a wedding, a traditional Egyptian wedding of my best friend grandson. And also i will be taking the temperature of the region, brushing up on my Arabic, checking up on the Islamist movement(s), and just vacationing although it is going be hot as hell, literally and figuratively. After my 10 days in Egypt, on my way back i will make a short stop in Jordan and probably (if time permits) visit Jerusalem.

A lot to do in 10 days for a 66 years old guy, but it is going to be fun.

This afternoon, I went to see Senator Obama talk to the Jewish community of Florida at the B'nai Torah Congregation (Synagogue) in Boca Raton. This is the second time that I saw Senator Obama talk (first one was back in November 2007 in a private fundraiser). The speech was an attempt--whether successful or not we will see that in a few months—to increase his support among the Jewish community in Florida specifically and in the country in general. What did he say? Well, these are the notes I took during his speech. They are not verbatim.

PS: I don’t know if this speech was broadcasted on TV, but I am sure if you look around the web you can find a transcript.

I got a call the other day from a dear friend of mine telling me that he went to drop some canned goods in a food bank in our community and it was pretty much empty.

So, we spent the whole week calling people left and right and raising money and buying large amount of food from Costco and Sam's Club. Although this food bank is okay and will be okay, i just can't help it to think and worry about how other food banks are doing.

Please, if you are doing fine financially, please buy 20 or 30 dollars (or write a check and donate 20 or 30 to a food bank) worth of food and drop it in the nearest food bank in your community

You can buy the following items: canned goods (any kind), rice, flour, cereal, Parmalat milk, soap, toothpaste, toothbrush, etc. If you are in doubt of what you can buy, please call a food bank and ask them, they will tell you what they need the most.

Everyone who has read my diaries or comments knows that I have not watched the news on TV since 1984. Except for a day on 9/11, I have boycotted all news programs on TV since 1984 because I do not care much for shallowness, sensationalism, spurious relationships, weak analyses, and mishandling of facts and figures. However, I have been reading this blog for a while now (about a moth of so) and I felt, sometimes, that I was out of the loop when one blogger references one journalist or another or one shows or another. To stop asking stupid questions to my fellow bloggers and diarists, I decided to watch the news again. About two weeks ago, I unblocked CNN, programmed Foxnews, CNBC, MSNBC, and Tivoed ABCNews, CBSBNews, and NBCNews.

Well, I watched all these channels for about 5 or 6 hours, and let me tell you what I saw.

3 weeks or so ago, the central government of Iraq, led by the Prime Minister, Nouri al-Malaki, engaged militarily the militia forces of Muqtada al-Sadr, al-Mahdi Army, in southern Iraq. The ultimate goal sought from those military operations was political more than militaristic. By engaging the al-Mahdi militia, the Prime Minster wanted to weaken the military power of al-Sadr, thus diminishing his political clout. However, an early reading (emphasis on early) of the fall out of this engagement indicates the opposite might have happened. In this short dairy, I explore those results, and analyze them in terms of winners, losers and their impact on the U.S. presence in Iraq.

PS: It is important to keep in mind that this situation is fluid and consistently evolving. Thus, what is constant today will most likely change tomorrow

NOTE: Please read the whole diary before you post a comment. I am not interested in a shouting match. I am interested in promoting a serious debate about the most serious foreign policy crisis in the history of our republic.

It has been five years since we invaded and occupied Iraq. Sure, we can always debate whether the initial decision to go in was right or wrong, but what good could we derive from such a debate now? It would only lead to more shouting and yelling with no concrete solutions. So, where do we go from here?  The answer to such a question should have been given by our candidates. However, all the candidates—Senator Clinton, Senator Obama and Senator McCain—are misleading the American people and making promises they cannot keep.

This is my second diary on the topic of Iraq since I joined the DailyKos. Between this diary and the first one, there are some differences and some commonalities.  I will try to keep this diary short and to the point, which is a touch challenge due to the complexity of the topic.

PS: Please read the whole diary before you post a comment. I am not interested in the blame game; I am interested in fostering and promoting a serious debate about the most serious foreign policy crisis in the history of our republic.

Today Senator Obama gave what i would call the first honest speech about race and race relations in the United State since LBJ speech prior to the voting right act/civil rights act. I did not watch the speech--since i have been boycotted watching TV news since 1984--but i read it. It is a courageous speech; however, from a strategic viewpoint, was it a good speech? Here is why i do not think it was a good strategy.

Each one of you is either carrying the water for Obama or Clinton or McCain (not so much McCain). No one exhibits rationality. Strike that, I rephrase it. Very few exhibit some rational and independent thinking. If you are for Obama, you have got to be adamantly and obsessively against Clinton and McCain (I am going to forget about McCain because no one really supports him here). And if you are for Clinton you have got to be adamantly and obsessively against Obama. But in this fight, it is fair to say that in this place the adamant opposition and obsession against Clinton and her supporters have reached a dangerous point. It has reached a point where every idea and thought that does not fit the conventional wisdom of the day has to be derided, mocked, insulted and eventually eliminated.

If there is something that must be learned from all the primaries so far, it is that Senator Clinton and Senator Obama no longer have the luxury to snub each other when the time comes to choose a running-mate. The ticket Obama/Clinton or Clinton/Obama has become a necessity and the safest way for either of them to win in the fall.

This is an election year, and questions that require reflective and rationally thought out answers are the first victims of political expediency and empty well-crafted pentagram replies.