Just back from New Hampshire and Boston over the weekend. My wife and I ended up in New England on one of the COLDEST days since 1875 in some places. Not much snow but the biting cold was like ice cubes stuck to your face.

Attended a conference sponsored by Independents and gave a 3 minute speech. Really a great group of people and very diverse. We'll see what comes from it.

News from Iraq continues to be helicopters shot down and soldiers killed. Big controversy on whether former treasury secretary O'Neill said Bush planned the war from the beginning. Apparently he wrote something about Bush acting like a blind man in a room full of deaf people. Not sure what that is all about but something is up to hear that from a former treasury official.

I'm having to refile my papers for Congress - it will be the 3rd boundary for the district since I started this quest in 2000.  It's supposed to change only once every 10 years. We fought a war against a one party state in Iraq and now some would have one man rule here by certain members of Congress. Is this a role model for the Iraqis.

Boston and Manchester were a great change of pace as we begin a new year. More later...

A new year already

New Year's day in Houston was foggy. Then the temps went into the 60's and 70's for a few days. Is this winter? Then suddenly a couple days ago the COLD hit. It started raining last night, a wet, cold rain that makes you glad you are inside instead of camped out by a fire with only a horse and a blanket.

It's been too busy to write the last week. The court just upheld Tom DeLay's GOP redistricting plan that knocks out more Democrat Congressmen in Texas. At the same time, a GOP friend of mine running for Constable in DeLay's home district of Ft. Bend - was told he was being dropped from the ballot because he has to go to Iraq on active duty during the primary. He is running against another Republican incumbent who DeLay uses for security when in town.

So is this how DeLay & Co. treats military guys serving their country - by denying them access to the ballot as a candidate?  So this DeLay's example of Democracy-at-work for the Iraqis? 

It stinks - which is another confirmation I did the right thing when I filed papers at the end of 2003 to become an Independent candidate for Congress in this district. There's no way to get past DeLay in the GOP primary and the Democrat candidate has no global experience and always loses this district (with 35%) anyway. However, if I keep the GOP 21% and can somehow add the Dems 35%, I win and the District gets its first Globally experienced Congressman with expertise as a TV terrorism analyst..

Meanwhile it is as if we have to fight our own power abusing Saddams right here in America - a one man dictator who has just engineered the third boundary change I've had to navigate in this Congressional district since 2000. I know this personally because I ran in the GOP primary in 2000 and 2002 (and got 21% of the GOP without funding and no mailings or TV) -- and in 2004 I face yet a 3rd configuration of District 22.  Redistricting is supposed to be once a decade, not 3. Democrats abused it --and it's no better when Republicans do the same. It should include swing voters and minorities, not cut them out like DeLay's plan does.

It should be an interesting year.

Oh yes, my initial website is at:

www.FjetlandForFairElections.Bigstep.com

then it will become www.FjetlandForFairElections.Org

New Years Eve

New Years eve. Checked the Iraqi blogs to see what is really happening there. They describe long days and a series of explosions, but no news of the events is reaching them on the news. We don't seem to be getting much either. It's as if Iraq has gone into mirage mode - it's hard to tell what's real or not.

I do not want to get out on the freeways tonight and risk getting hit by a drunk, so it's a low key night at home - maybe one of the last for awhile. Traveling to New Hampshire in January for a conference. I'm told several Prez candidates would come by since our group of 200 plus is 10 times the usual 20 a candidate for President usuallly has in New Hampshire. If W were running he'd probably drop in also.

I released another newsletter, focusing on what I think is happening -- Osama's attempt to kill the Pakistan President and get control of their nukes. The guy is ruthless and smart enough to go for the ultimate prize. Regime change is a global game anyone can play, even terrorists.  Osama with Pakistan's nukes will make the chaos in Iraq look like a tiny problem in comparison. Very possible.

I would not be surprised by anything happening in the days ahead. 2004 could hold many surprises - good, bad and ugly.

Weather has turned gray and overcast after days of gorgeous clear, cool blue. We had some wild weather move in but I was so busy there was no time to notice it --just stay focused on getting things done.

Better Times Ahead - April Fool?

Christmas 2003

We've been having beautiful blue days lately, but it started clouding up and sprinkling as Christmas Day wore on.

I've been so busy the past few days I've had no time to write. There's been a 2nd assassination attempt on Pakistan's President. It tells me Osama is after the Paki Nukes - and that Osama is out to do some regime change of is own.

News here is how well things are going in Iraq. Yet I read the Iraqi blogs and it sounds a lot different in Baghdad.

A lot will happen next week. Later...

Wife Laura and I were driving to church early yesterday morning when my cell rang--something it normally doesn't do early on a Sunday --

It was a TV station wanting me to talk about the capture of Saddam. They ended up taking a cell phone tape that they were going to use with some kind of picture --to run until I was able to go in and make a tape after noon.

Amazing, Saddam caught in a rat hole with (literally) rats. I had always said that he was too much of a coward to go out shooting. He had a pistol.
With Iraq now the wild west and every global criminal pouring in to add to the mess, Saddam's trial will add a new ring to the circus.
Ended up going back in to News24 this morning to make a follow up tape. To my amazement there are no plans to put troops and intelligence back on Osama bin laden after they were shifted from Afghanistan to Iraq. Nuts. Bin laden is the real global killer;

FULL COLD MOON

FULL COLD MOON today, a Monday. It's the full Moon in winter, hence full cold moon - vastly different from Harvest Moon in the fall or the blazing summer moon. It was blue skies and Cool in Houston, not like the frozen northeast which just caught a huge Nor'easter (sp?).

Reports from Iraq that U.S. troops are surrounding villages with razor wire. I think it will cause great anger and will create more backlash, from citizens who feel imprisoned in their own country. I fear that we will increasingly look to them like Saddam -- who also imprisoned them at will and was quick to shoot anyone who got out of line. We are cutting ourselves off from Iraqis instead of engaging them.

In Afghanistan, 9 kids were killed in one of our bomb attacks against a terrorist, who was not killed. It's the forgotten war but its the real war against bin laden who is near there - but it doesn't seem to be getting any attention and not enough troops. A military friend sent me a memo about an operation - and the planners forgot to consider that Al Qaeda would already have people on the same mountain pass. They shot down a couple helicopters and the small team was shot to hell - one guy fell out and was surrounded, but they never got him out. Warlords are running the place and Opium harvest is back to boom, so things aren't as great as the politicians here keep claiming...and people are so preoccupied with their lives that the politicians can get by with it. Amazing.

So it is indeed, a Cold Full Moon, in many parts of the world tonight...

Whirlwind Days

It has been a whirlwind since last entry, so I'm behind. Even Iraq became a distant blur for a time. Weather has been wild - East coast getting buried under snow while Texas has been getting some fierce COLD air and stiff winds from the North. BRRRR. And I grew up on a farm as a kid, trudging thru snowbanks. Texas has nothing in cold compared to the frozen North, but even this is too cold for comfort for this warm-climate guy.

Iraq looks strange, still, even after a break. Go check out the Iraqi blogs I referenced in an earlier blog--to see how Iraqi citizens feel about what is happening.

 It appears our U.S. picked GC (Governing Council) are making business deals for their personal gain and showing Iraqis that they aren't paying attention - when they claim they didn't know about a Iraq census plan for 2 months. It gives the Iraqis people the impression its a puppet government, and a corrupt one too. This is not what the U.S. needs.

Friday I was asked to be moderator at a Vietnam protest for religious freedom at Houston's City Hall. Their faces aren't as well known as Saddam's but their cause is the same - Viet gov't even tried to block the Vatican from appointing a Viet bishop as a Cardinal in Rome - talk about paranoid. They have the Buddhist leaders under house arrest, turning pagodas (their church) into jails.

Not cool. I think Americans are getting complacent, thinking Iraq is fixing itself - when bin laden, the real threat, is still open for business. Saddam sightings by Iraqis are common - one newspaper even showed a dual photo of Saddam with Bush during Bush's quick stop at the Baghdad Airport. Frankly, my opinion is that even if Saddam is captured or killed, the insurgents will continue - you have 20% with nothing to lose. It takes few killers to wreck a peace. You got to give them something to lose to bring peace to Iraq - or else this hundred billion dollar experiment will end in failure.

I imagine US TV jokersters Letterman or Leno would say something like: "Find the turkeys in this picture." Here's a link to it: http://healingiraq.blogspot.com/b.JPG