he story which has brought the most cheer in the news this week is summed up in a few simple words; On Monday the second richest man in the world gave his multi-billions to the richest. Warren Buffet's brilliance at making money has been matched in an instant by the wisdom he has shown in his giving it away to the Gates Foundation. He has called himself "A member of the lucky sperm club," having been born at the right time in the right country. One of his many astute and appropriate aphorisms is that a person should leave the kids enough money to be able to do anything, but not enough to do nothing. It appears each of the off-spring will inherit a billion dollars. Not a bad start.
Fascinating man who does not believe that anyone has the right to be as rich as he is. His opinion about the Republican effort to abolish the estate tax certainly runs counter to the Bush administration's view. Mr.Buffett was quoted in the Financial Times saying "I would argue that when your kids have all the advantages anyway, in terms of how they grow up...it's neither right nor rational to be flooding them with money." He also had the funniest line of the week. The 75 year-old Mr.Buffett said that he thought it best to act before reaching an age where he might sign a letter that began: "Dear Anna Nicole Smith."

On Thursday Vice President Dick Cheney stated that if we were to re deploy our troops in Iraq it would amount to "the worst possible thing we could do...No matter how you carve it - you can call it anything you want - but basically it is packing it in, going home, persuading and convincing and validating the theory that the Americans don't have the stomach for this fight."
This leadership is certainly projecting a confusing message, because a day later, the top American commander in Iraq, Gen.George W.Casey jr., held a briefing at the Pentagon at which he revealed his plan to reduce the 14 combat brigades now in Iraq to either 5 or 6. He wants to start moving the troops out in September. (Of course, that would have nothing to do with the November elections!). Columnist Molly Ivins when pondering the story had this to add in deciphering the logic of the conflicting statements, "One has to admit the party never ends with the Bush administration. The only question about "Cut'n'Run Week is whether they meant to punctuate a weeklong festival of referring to Democrats as the party of "retreat" and "the white flag" with this abrupt announcement of their own cut'n'run program" I agree with the savvy Miss Molly, this was no error of timing. Karl Rove doesn't make timing mistakes. Watch for the next episode.

Going to miss this Congress when they get into their long, summer , out-of-the-Capitol break. I mean, they deserve a long rest after all they have achieved for us...an impeccable record on Healthcare reform, Immigration reform, Social Security reform and Lobbying reform. But they did try and knuckle down to the big issues like Flag Burning and Gay Marriage.

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