politics...Canada

An election has been called and sometime next month Canada will have a new Government.
I suspect that the Progressive Conservatives will have a slight majority or at the very least be back with a minority government.
For many years I've supported the Liberal Party, but I think it would be premature to have them back to run this country.
Canada is a very difficult country to govern ( what country isn't?).
The west feels detached from the rest of the land. Oil rich Alberta is in a boom state and has the attitude "let the eastern bastards freeze in the dark".
Saskatchewan and Manitoba don't appear to matter much. Liberal Ontario with the loss of manufacturing jobs claims to be a have not province no longer willing to support the other regions. Quebec with the separatist party making up the opposition as well as being elected federally is a joke. The eastern Provinces are still in have not mode, and, finally, Newfoundland with the offshore oil development would like to keep it all, never mind the many years of substantial support by Canada..
At this time I believe our best hope is a slight majority government of the PC Party. My choice, Steven Harper.

About the clover

....Diana keeps finding 4 leaf and sometime 5 leafclovers in the backyard...I've never found one in my lifetime.....

politics...USA

With the financial meltdown, (Fanny May & Freddy Mac)...Banks in troubles and failures, the departure of large brokerage firms etc., the USA has reached a point which at least in some ways reminds me of the great depression.
A quick fix appears almost impossible a few weeks prior to the election and unless the two parties get together to seriously bail out the country with workable solutions, the next few years spell serious trouble.
It was only the involvement in WWII that got the the states out of the depression and into a whole new world scene .
This will be a turning point in history and it is almost impossible to guess what the next few months will bring us.
It is truly unfortunate that we ended up with an individual in the White house who is clueless, has no sense of history, does not have the brains or talent to deal with either the American or World problems. A president who started this quagmire scene in the middle east, lost touch with the Americas and Europe and totally lost touch with the domestic scene. His go shopping attitude in the face of the 9/11 disaster has dragged us down to where we are today.
Yes...I have some solutions:-

World Scene; Georgia

....it's been much in the news lately and it could well be the spark to a new world crisis, no kidding..We are talking about Georgia..former component of the Soviet Union, of late under the influence of the USA..

It must be noted here that the USA should be extremely careful as to how to approach this scene, the movers and shakers of the Russian Federation have found their backbone thanks to the oil billions and the improved standard of living of their people.

At this time they appear to be firmly in control of the country.
While they admit that their controlled satellite states are gone from their direct influence to days Russians are having another look at the Soviet union components which have split off to become separate republics or countries if you will.
(Satellite states would be Poland, East Germany, Tchekoslovakia, Hungary,Yugoslavia and a host of others Romania-Albania, including the three Baltic states).

The two former components of the Soviet Union the Russians want to get back under their control would be The Ukraine and Georgia.

We must remember that the last foreign minister of the Soviets was a fellow named Edvard Shevardnadze born and educated in Georgia. The most Super soviet ever, Josef Stalin was a Georgian...in fact he refused to speak his native language and because his son never learned to speak Russian, Stalin refused to communicate with him.
It will be interesting how this flash point scene develops in the next few weeks but the point is that the Russians
have taken a stand and are in no way willing to bend to efforts of American Imperialism.

Two provinces of the Geogian Republic attempted to separate...

August 8/08 after Georgian troops tried to reclaim the breakaway province and launched an offensive involving heavy bombing of Tskhinvali,( wik link) Russian troops entered South Ossetia. Russian Troops also entered into Abkhazia. On August 10th, 2008 Russia entered Georgian territorial waters. Russia also entered into Georgian cities, and captured the main east west highway, effectively cutting the country in two. Both sides agreed to a cease-fire on August 12th, 2008, but on August 13th, 2008 Russia "violated " that cease-fire and sent troops and paramilitaries into the Georgian city of Gori.