ust a few days from now the population of the United States will pass the 300 million mark. We are a very different nation from the US of 200 million, and that was less than 40 years ago. I expect that the future will show us to be at least equally changed. By almost every measurement most of the work force is better off now than they were when the population passed 200 million. As the Christian Science Monitor pointed out, it took 126 years to reach the first 100 million; 52 years to reach 200 million, but only less than 40 years to reach 300 million. Actually, the 40 year rate of growth was far higher during the early 19th and 20th centuries than it is today. They pointed out that "moderation is the key. A nation's population can grow too fast and overwhelm its resources. In the United States, by contrast, the rate of growth is slowing. But the nation is adding more people than ever before in absolute numbers because the population base is so much bigger than it was". It certainly feels more crowded.

Prime Minister Tony Blair will soon be out of office having lead his party to three election victories. Once he was seemingly an unstoppable politician. Certainly abroad he is the best known and most appreciated British prime minister since Winston Churchill. His support for the Iraq war and President George Bush have been his undoing. Both the war and our President are most unpopular in Britain. When will he step down? He has refused to set an exact date, which infuriates many of his Labor party colleagues. It will be interesting to see whether this problem-plagued party can regain its following once they have ousted the PM from 10 Downing Street. Most recent polls place the support for the Labor Party at 32% and that's its worst showing in a couple of decades.

Baghdad: since the US invasion in 2003 a loaf of bread has tripled in price; gas and electricity, when they're available, are up 400% and hard to find meat has more than doubled in cost. Nothing and no one is safe. The death toll mounts by the day. Some put the unemployment rate at as much as 60%.
And as well we all know, instead of going after Osama bin Laden we invaded Iraq. Now our president states that we must stay in Iraq, or it will be run by other Osamas. Last weekend the Vice President warned, on Meet The Press, that we cannot let our adversaries "break our will" and Cheney stressed that "it was the right thing to do, and if we had it to do all over again, we would do exactly the same thing." In response to the administration I'd like to turn to New York Times columnist Maureen Dowd who wrote, with that thought in mind, "After all the miscalculations and billions wasted, projects screwed up, lives and limbs lost, foreign enemies made, U.S. stature squandered, Taliban resurgence, North Korean bombs and Iran-Iraq alliances built, Cheney wouldn't do anything differently." Then she adds, hopefully, "part of leadership has to be retooling, saying: 'You know what? This hasn't worked. This is making things worse. What else can we do?'

We know that Sen. John Kerry served the United States with valor and distinction in Vietnam. The Bushies managed to twist and distort the facts so horrendously during the campaign, that you'd swear he was a traitor, quisling, coward and someone not to be entrusted with high office. They are most likely going to be able to take the brave record of suffering and service of the Arizona Senator, John McCain and do the same to him, should it suit their interests. He was, of course, held for years in solitary confinement in North Vietnam as a prisoner of war and he strongly opposes the Bush administration legislation that he claims would redefine our obligations under the Geneva conventions. He's the frontrunner for the 2008 Republican candidacy. He's fighting with the White House over interrogation techniques permitted for use at secret CIA prisons by saying that he won't back down on the issue, even if it should ruin his chance of becoming president. His attitude is principled and sane and would save the lives of many Americans who might be taken prisoner.