hannel surfing from station to station yesterday I heard a market analyst giving the most appropriate answer to an e-mail or twitter that had come his way from a man in Wheeling, West Virginia. The story, simply put, the market had surged by a figure of 150 on the DOW. The first rise in a week. The question posed was, "is this the bottom, at last, and how do you explain the rise of that session. The less than enthused analyst responded saying, "This is probably the last bounce of a dead cat from a tall building." An ugly picture with some truth to it. Today was another downer.

ere's a mini bailout suggestion for the United States auto industry. See all those enormous SUVs on the dealer lots? Why don't they pack up and send all those unwanted vehicles to Iraq?. It appears that, coincident with the diminishing appeal in the domestic SUV market, there is an apparent yearning in Iraq for the kids of wealthy families (and they do exist), to own one of our behemoths. I'm told that many of the adults favor large GMC Yukons, Jeep, Grand Cherokee as well.

ussia is not the Soviet Union and its "managed democracy" is surely not what we know and experience here as democracy. With that in mind I suggest the new administration remember the Ronald Reagan approach. "Trust but verify" was RR's mantra to the Soviets. Even as Washington seeks a fresh start with Moscow now, four presidents later, the Obama team deserves encouragement for it's new openness but must remain fully aware about the possibilities. The Russian Foreign Minister, Sergey Lavrov, meets with the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton, their talks will be conducted while the two nations are at the lowest point in US-Russian relations since the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, To put it another way, as Vice President Joe Biden said, "It's time to press the reset button "

f, as a nation, we send men and women in uniform to fight our wars we must do an ever better job of repairing the damage done to the U.S. troops, whatever the cost and for however long it takes. The number of U.S. troops who have suffered wartime brain injuries is hard to pin down with accuracy, but according to the Defense Department doctors the figure ranges between 180,000 and 360,000. That could be approaching 20% of the roughly 1.8 million men and women who have served in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Traumatic brain injury can range from a mild form such as concussions to severe forms with penetrating head wounds. It is generally believed that the majority of troop injuries were the milder forms.

t has been fully six years since the outset of the rebellion in Darfur. The Sudanese army and its militia allies have committed the most horrendous and murderous war crimes on a horrific scale . Hundreds of thousands of people have been slaughtered. Millions have been driven from their homes. They have used rape as a weapon to systematically dehumanize women.
At last the International Criminal Court has issued an arrest warrant for Omar al-Bashir, the man who has presided over this carnage. It shows that, no matter how high the office you hold, no one is beyond the reach of International law. This is, I believe, the very first time the court has indicted the sitting head of state of any nation. It shouldn't be the last.
To be frank the arrest of the Sudanese leader is unlikely in the near future. The onus now is on all those nations which supported the court's creation to redouble efforts to end Sudan's agonies, bring the accused to trial and to ensure that the interests of peace are served.

couple of days ago the Democratic congressional committee sent out a letter for Republican lawmakers to apologize to Rush Limbaugh. It reads "Dear Rush, I'm sorry I called you an

a) Opportunistic brick thrower
b) Ugly
c) an idiot

...what I meant to say is that you are

a) Inspiring
b) Thought provoking
c) Worthy of enormous respect.

My thanks to James Carville for giving the idea to the Obama team, last October.
The interchange between Limbaugh and the administration will likely increase the size of the Rush radio audience, but it surely confuses and must concern many a republican. Limbaugh has challenged the President to a debate. It won't happen. The likes of Limbaugh are a bunch of crybabies who make accusations against the administration and claim that they are at risk of losing their jobs because they are conservatives. They are convinced that there is a concerted effort in the White House to get them off the airwaves. Such bull!
I agree with David Gergen who has served in more Republican than Democratic administrations when he assessed the current storm-in-a-teacup this way; "What the White House has done is to expose the fact that the Republican party has a leadership vacuum. The Republicans should have just kept quiet. Now they are in a very embarrassing position." Limbaugh is having a good time at the expense of his fellow Republicans.
It all began when, prior to the election, the broadcaster stated very clearly that he wanted President Obama to fail.

More soon,