With the election coming up next Tuesday, I am going out on a limb and predict that the Democrats will win control of the House and the Republicans will still retain the control of the Senate by the slimmest of margins, ie one seat. You would think that with the situation in Iraq, the multiple scandals in Congress, the large deficit and poor approval ratings of the President as well as the Congress; that the party in control of Congress would get slammed. In reality, even though the Democrats will gain during this election it would not be as big of a defeat for the Republicans as you would imagine given the problems they have had in the past two years.

The truth is most Congressional seats are in safe districts. While most people believe that the government is doing a poor job, they have better feelings about their own Congressman. With all the pork that the incumbents bring back to their states, it is hard for challengers to unseat them. Add to the polarization between liberals and conservatives who would not vote for the other side even if their own candidate is poor, many seats are safe for both sides. Even the seat vacated by Duke Cunningham in San Diego went back to a Republican after he resigned because of bribes. Even though all 435 seats in the House are up for reelection, less than 10% are competitive. This makes it difficult for the minority party to win back control. In the Senate it is even more difficult because only one third of the seats are up for reelection every two years. It looks like the best the Democrats can hope for is that they end up having to win two out of three between the seats in Missouri, Virginia and Tennessee to get the six turnovers they need to get control of the senate. I don't think they can get two out those three.

If the two houses are split we will have more logjam in Congress. Nancy Pelosi will be Speaker and with her ultra-left credentials, there will be no agreements between the two sides. In the long run it will help the Republicans because the Democrats will have to share more of the blame for the lack of ability of Congress to get anything done. Losing the House will also force the Republicans to work harder for 2008. Basically the Democrats have no good ideas of their own, they are just gaining because the Republican scandals and incompetence of th Bush administration in the Iraq war. Unfortunately I don't see more centrist politicians with common sense taking control of the government no matter which side wins.

Usually I find it refreshing for an immigrant to go into politics. Often he or she brings in different perspectives. It also shows the working of our melting pot. But recent events in Orange County makes me shake my head.

Tan Nguyen is a Vietnamese immigrant who is running for congress in a heavily Hispanic district against incumbent Loretta Sanchez. I don't know why he is running in the first place as he had no chance of winning. Then he decided to mail out a letter to people with Hispanic surnames telling them in Spanish that it is illegal to vote if you are an immigrant and that you can get arrested. The clusmsiness of this attempt to win an election is almost hilarious. It is at least unethical to intimidate people but for an immigrant to try to do that to fellow immigrants is deplorable. I am sure he would be upset if someone does the same thing to the Vietnamese community. He is also an idiot because there was no way he was going to get away with this stupid scheme. I have no idea why he thought he would not be caught.

Of course Nguyen is not the only idiot. Immediately after this came to light people were calling this a hate crime. And these were the Republicans, Nguyen's own party. Angelides, who has no chance of winning the governor's race, goes ballistic and says this is the way the Republican operates. The state attorney general is investigating and officers have searched Nguyen's home and took his computer. While Nguyen's action cannot be defended, this is not the KKK at work here. It is not a sure thing that a crime is committed as I don't see victims here. For illegal immigrants, they shouldn't be voting anyway. And if you are a citizen, why would you be frightened by this nonsense anyway? Having studied for your citizen exam, you would know that you are entitled to vote, so why would you be intimidated?

Yes, Nguyen is a fool and should never hold political office. But all those people who are making a big deal out of it are just as foolish. As the midterm election draws closer there are a lot more important things to debate. This is just about an unethical person doing a foolish thing. Unfortunately it is an embarrassing setback for immigrants trying to enter the politcal mainstream. Well, on second thought may be Nguyen has learned too well from the political mainstream!

Looks like North Korea may be testing a second nuclear device soon. This would be no surprise considering all signs point to a less than overwhelming sucessful first attempt. Even such a feeble effort prompted angry reaction from the U.S. and Japan. This was exactly what Kim wanted. This is an ego maniac who wants attention from the world powers. Of course we already believed that Kim has several nuclear devices before this so why should we show any worry over this. Only the South Koreans should worry because they are so close and can be hit easily. Even Japan is too far for North Korea to hit accurately with the missles they have now. The U.S. is in no danger from this in the near future.

There is the argument that North Korea can sell its weapons to terrorists which can then be used against us by way of a dirty bomb. This is possible but not likely. As I said before, Kim is a secular dictator who wants to stay in power and live. He maybe crazy but he is not stupid. Going to bed will Muslim terrorists will mean death to him. The most likely place where terrorists can get nuclear material is still from the former USSR countries and Pakistan. Nothing has changed in these few weeks.

One problem that arise from North Korea thumbing its nose at the world is that Iran will be encouraged to continue its nuclear program. Bush made a terrible mistake by lumping Iraq, Iran and North Korea as the axis of evil and then invaded Iraq. Turns out as expected Hussein had no nuclear weapons and was taken out of power. North Korea has nuclear weapon for sure and there is nothing the U.S. can do about it. Bush had said the world will not tolerate a nuclear North Korea. But all Bush call for now is sanctions. There is no talk of invading North Korea. Iran sees this and figures that the best defense is offense and that having nuclear weapons maybe a deterrent against attack. Since nothing happened to India, Pakistan and now North Korea after they tested nuclear weapons, why wouldn't Iran pursue its program? There is no turning back now. Preemptive strikes and threats that cannot be back up will leave a more unstable world in the future.