How many times have we heard legislators use the term "plugging loopholes"? Surely, everyone has heard people in Congress and the Administration mention that the leaders of public corporations who lied to and cheated investors should be sent to prison.

Some in government went so far as to recommend a "perp walk" -- the agreement between police and the media to produce photo opportunities of the accused in handcuffs -- of lawbreakers.

We agree. It's time to plug a few loopholes so that all who lie to the public, cheat the public and do not operate within the letter of the law, can be prosecuted and sent to prison. Those who aide and abet these lawbreakers through accepting fraudulent bookkeeping and looking the other way when fraud is practiced and bribes are given should go to prison, too. And, those who do not keep their word should be summarily dismissed, with a complete loss of all benefits.

Some in government have already suggested the proper penalties: a first-time, nonviolent offender who committed a fraud that harmed 50 or more would face a prison sentence of 5 to 6.5 years. Those who harmed 100 or more people, or defrauded the American people in such a way that it costs them to lose $100 million or more, would receive 8 to 20 years in prison. If an American was physically harmed in the process, the perpetrator would receive 10 to 30 years in prison.

That sounds like taking a very hard line on the problem. But, that is what is necessary.

The federal government is the worst, most fraudulent bookkeeper in the world. Negligence, misappropriation and fraud there is in the hundreds of billions of dollars. Annual theft is thought to be a few hundred-million.

In the federal government, it would be very difficult to find someone who even attempts to honor their Oath of Office to "support and defend" our Constitution. Because, if federal officials did, half the federal law books and most of the regulation books would instantly disappear.

The Senate had a major lawbreaker and perjurer in their sights, but did nothing. Which means, they actually aided and abetted crime in public office. Why? Because the White House held all of their FBI background-check files and no one in the Senate wanted information on them getting out to the American people. In letting Clinton walk free, they violated both the Constitution and their Oath of Office.

It's time that We the People made a major decision: Either the Constitution is the law of the land, or it is not. If it is, we need to start taking many public officials before a citizen's commission and then a grand jury when they break the law. If the Constitution is no longer used -- and is no longer the supreme law of the land -- then we should stop calling those legislators on Capitol Hill "The Congress." If they can pass any law they wish, they are a Parliament, not a Congress. There can be no in-between.

If the Constitution is our supreme law of the land, we must also have laws penalizing those outwardly working against the Constitution. Which means, the Democratic Party would them become an illegal organization and some members of the Republican Party would not fair any better. If we do not punish these scofflaws, socialism will soon become our way of life.

As we have shown here many times, many in the Democratic Party outwardly work in support of socialism. That is simply not compatible with their solemn promise to God and the American people to "support and defend" our Constitution. Supporting socialism is just the opposite, in fact.

Joe Lieberman started three Capitol Hill groups to both encourage socialism and funnel money to those in their membership who vote correctly. Even worse, another forty-some members of the House belong to the Progressive Caucus, which is a rabidly socialist group.

Democratic National Committee Chairman Terry McAuliffe is closely aligned with the leaders of Global Crossing, who are probably headed for prison. McAuliffe "invested" $100K in Global Crossing and received back an $18 million pay-off. Now he blabbers out stuff like, "These scandals represent a stunning betrayal."

Sure. Except, when one checks the list of major campaign fund donors of Lieberman's and Hillary's PACs, many of the familiar names of those involved in corporate fraud can be found. It's interesting that 90% of them tend to be large contributors to the Democratic Party.

Just as with the Clintons, many members of Congress are selling their services to corporate concerns. And, like the Clintons, they get away with it because that style of bribery and graft is their normal way of conducting business.

They even admit it. For instance, back in 1997, McAuliffe admitted to reporters: "Did I ever ring anyone and say that for $50K you can have lunch with the President? Or, for whatever, you can fly on Air Force One? Yes, I did! Thousands of times! And so what?"

Right. "So what?" It's illegal, but so what? No one cares. Hundreds of campaign finance felonies were identified by the various Congressional committees looking into that. But, so what? No one cares, so nothing was ever done about it. Except, that is, that two committees classified the most damning information so the American people would not learn of it. Then, everyone went back to business as usual.

Recently we learned how the Senate "ethics committee" protected Senator Torricelli (D-NJ). The guy who bribed him is in prison. All Senators know that. But, they allow Torricelli to stay seated in the Senate. That's aiding and abetting. Dereliction of duty and negligence, too.

That's because they have no ethics there. Not only do they not support and defend the Constitution, they also allow perjury, fraud, graft and bribery. And, they did not make any type of justification for aiding and abetting in any of the above matters -- not even when the scams were published in every major newspaper in the nation. Instead, they hid the facts of the investigations from the public.

Truly, it is time for a few changes in the law. Many, many loopholes in the law need plugging. Otherwise, there will never be much in the way of honor or ethics in government again.

One would think that someone smart enough to run for president of the United States would also be smart enough to never believe anything a Clinton says. Not this time, though. A Democratic governor asked Hillary for a straight answer and thinks he got one.

How silly. The only thing anyone gets from Hillary is used. All they need to do is ask Senator Chuck Schumer. Hillary used Schumer to introduce her to New York. Now that she doesn't need him anymore, she tossed him out like a used disposable diaper.

So it's interesting that newspapers in New York and Vermont reported that Vermont Governor Howard Dean says that he asked Hillary if she planned to run for president in 2004. ''Senator Clinton is not going to be running, and she told me so,'' Dean said.

Howard Dean is term limited as Governor of Vermont. This is his last term and he has his eye on the presidency. Then we learn that Dean just barely squeaked by in the last election, winning just 50% of the vote. No matter, he'll be needing a new job and, unless Hillary runs, the Democrats need a liberal to run for president. Washington will not run out of liberal fools anytime soon. It's just that the Democratic Party's problem is that too many voters already know they don't want any of the better known Democrats. The better the Democrats are known around the country, the less chance they have to be elected president.

So, it stands to reason they will have to find another relatively unknown candidate, like Clinton was the first time. And Howard Dean, M.D. fills that prescription perfectly. He's young enough to survive a campaign, far left enough to attract money from the wealthy socialists and those willing to buy a quid pro quo and he would probably be willing to pay off the Clintons somehow.

Assuming Hillary will not stab Dean in the back and suck up all the liberal campaign funds so he cannot run, we should take a look to see just who this Howard Dean really is.

There is not really a lot available about Dean, but what we found tells quite enough. As Governor, Dean signed into law tougher penalties for hate crimes and tighter restrictions against discrimination in the workplace, housing, and public accommodations. And, under the Dean administration, Vermont became the first state to legally recognize unions between gay and lesbian couples.

Like Hillary, Dean supports socialized medicine. Therefore, he started something called the Fund for a Healthy America "to support the principles of fiscal stability, universal health insurance, better environmental protection, and equality for all Americans. The fund will also assist candidates who are supportive of these issues."(1)

As governor, Dean expanded Vermont's Dr. Dynasaur program to guarantee health coverage for virtually every child age 18 and under. The State reports that: "Over 92 percent of all Vermonters have coverage -- one of the highest rates in the country -- and 96 percent of all children under 18 are covered. Dean believes the United States needs a health care system which results in coverage for every American."

Also under Dean, Vermont adopted a system of sharing educational dollars across the state, "so schools in poor communities have the same financial backing as those in wealthy communities." Last week, Dean told a teachers union meeting that, "We have to be very, very careful not to destroy the public school system with harebrained ideas like vouchers" -- even though Vermont has successfully used a type of voucher system for 133 years.

In 1997, Dean signed into law a very costly mental health and substance abuse parity bill, "ending discriminatory insurance practices against these major diseases." Dean also pushes community-based treatment, as well as comprehensive services for children with mental health problems.

Dean also lobbied Congress to ensure that affordable generic drugs are increasingly available. He proposes tying hospital budgets to their certificate of need process, which he says is "essential to curb the skyrocketing costs of health care."

Strict central control over education, support for homosexuals and socialized medicine tell enough of the story. Then, add in the typical liberal environmentalism and Howard Dean turns out to be just your typical socialist activist.

Yup. The Democrats got themselves a candidate for president. That is, they do if Hillary keeps her word -- which has never happened before.

1. http://www.fundforahealthyamerica.com

Some folks think that because I drive a little 4WD vehicle I do not care about good transportation. That is not exactly true, of course. Within the past couple weeks, I have ridden in two greatly different styled electric vehicles. However, I was also in an older GTO and a Plymouth Roadrunner -- both muscle-cars with four on the floor and duel quads.

Fact is, I grew up drag racing. Today, I am more interested in other things.

For instance, a couple years ago I reported a little about my visit with a Jeep Commander all electric fuel cell vehicle.(1) That's a very interesting vehicle. Problem is, it needed a hydrogen station to refuel and there just are not any of those around yet. It did, however, "move out" with surprising vigor.

Still, it ran on hydrogen. And hydrogen is a lot more dangerous than gasoline. Chrysler is working on that, of course, and recently unveiled its third generation fuel cell concept vehicle, the Chrysler Town & Country Natrium.(2) That vehicle also has zero emissions and uses a device to convert sodium boro-hydride to hydrogen fuel to power the fuel cell. That's borax, which can be found laying around on the ground in many areas of the country. Still, there are no borax fuel stations available either.

The newest iteration of the Jeep Commander has an onboard reformer to produce hydrogen from gasoline for the fuel cell stacks. That type of technology is probably what all electric fuel cell vehicles will use for the foreseeable future. All vehicle manufactures are working on that and most expect to have vehicles available for sale within the next three years.

Meanwhile, Ed Garsten (now with AP) writes that General Motors is announcing their "skateboard" fuel cell powered vehicle. We have no idea which bright light at GM came up with that tag. This is a full sized automobile.

The GM concept vehicle seems to have two names: Hy-wire and Autonomy. The vehicle is a bit "sporty" for my taste. But, it seems that they wanted it to look futuristic and that's what came out of the engineering shop. Those who like Corvettes will love it. Those of us who do not wish to act like a contortionist to get in and out of a vehicle will not.

Apparently they call it a "skateboard" design because most of the working parts are in the a 6-inch thick chassis, stuffed with electronic components. That chassis, in this case, is also a platform frame and apparently holds most of the vehicle's weight. Also, apparently, Ed Garsten was a bit early with his report. Because, when I called GM, I learned there is an embargo on that news.

But, this is the Internet, after all. So, some information can be found.(3) What I could not learn are some important little incidentals, like what fuel is used to produce the hydrogen to run the fuel cell. The flat chassis, however, seems to be the design key.

"There's no engine to see over," says Wayne Cherry, GM Vice President of Design. "Drivers wouldn't have to sit in the traditional location. They could move to the center of the vehicle or closer to the front bumper or further back. It will take a little getting used to, but it's maximum freedom, maximum space for people and their stuff. There wouldn't be foot pedals or a steering column. The body shape could be anything you want it to be. We've chosen this futuristic two-seater, but next, we might do a mobility body that allows a wheelchair user to roll into the driving position, or a 10-seat transit bus. We've even talked about a seating position that puts the driver up front, like a helicopter pilot."

One important change is that the vehicle uses "by-wire" technology. That is, everything -- the brake and accelerator controls and the steering -- operates with a hand - held unit called an X-Drive, which is moved from side to side like a video game joystick. So, if there is no electrical power, absolutely nothing will work. Which means, when the electrical power goes down, the vehicle cannot even be steered to push it to the side of the road.

Electric vehicles are certainly the wave of the future. But, for the moment . . . well . . . some mechanical mechanisms may be very hard to replace effectively.

Still, anyone paying attention while traveling around Southeastern Michigan will probably notice a number of different styled electric vehicles on the road. They seem to be very dependable and most obviously have rather good pickup.

1. http://209.15.142.23/reports/headsup/fron211.htm

2. http://www.kfmb.com/misc/cool_cars/details.php?storyID=8132

3. http://www.gizmo.com.au/public/News/news.asp?articleid=1166

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