It's quite an experience to listen to America Left on XM radio. This is the station that features Al Franken, who is improving by inviting guests who drive the program more to issues and discussion than his attempt at humor and over-the-edge comments.

Currently America Left is covering the parades and demonstrations of many professional as well as amateur demonstrations in New York City. The radio personalities say 82 percent of the registered voters in New York City are Democrats, but they don't mention why the last two mayors were Republican: Rudy Giuliani and Michael Bloomberg.

While spinning their side of the glass half full-half empty economic picture in this country, it would be good to have them agree (or disagree) on the radio with Commerce Secretary Don Evans' half full summary of the U.S. economy as reported in this Sunday's St. Louis Post Dispatch.

Evans pointed out the Republicans in 2001 "were handed a recession, an economy that was collapsing ... and then we were hit by 9-11, corporate scandals, the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq. ... It's quite remarkable, given those challenges, that we have an economy that over the last 12 months has grown as fast as at any time in the last 20 years."

Evans notes that the current unemployment rate, 5.5 percent, matches the performance in Bill Clinton's re-election year of 1996. Housing starts are running at a 20-year high, and economic growth is currently running higher than the average in the boom decade of the 1980s and 1990s.

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Everyone who wants to hear the Republican case for the re-election of President Bush (featuring his speech Thursday night) will have the opportunity this week as the media will be saturated with the Republican National Convention in New York.

I took that opportunity during the Democratic National Convention and by listening to America Left radio. I've always believed that a well-informed public will make the right decisions in their political choices, but being well-informed is an important responsibility that should not be left up to the filters of either party alone.

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Last Thursday, Missouri Senate President Pro Tem Peter Kinder outlined a four-point plan to improve Missouri's homeland security to enhance citizens' protection against potential terrorist threats.

In a presentation before a meeting of the Joint Committee on Terrorism, Bioterrorism and Homeland Security in Kirkwood, Kinder outlined a plan based on a model developed in Florida. Officials from Florida as well as Missouri's director of homeland security also testified.

Kinder's plan calls for Missouri to establish a statewide office of counterterrorism intelligence. This agency would serve as a centralized intelligence repository and information-sharing system, providing improved communications and database systems. The office would divide the state into regions, with officials in each region responsible for cooperative intelligence gathering from all emergency personnel in that region.

"This proposal would allow for critical security information to be immediately shared and accessed by all security personnel," Kinder said. "The plan also complements the Missouri Shared Information System discussed earlier this week by Sen. Kit Bond and Missouri Homeland Security director Tim Daniel."

Kinder also called for the establishment of a Domestic Security Oversight Board as a unit of the office of Missouri's lieutenant governor. This board would be based on a similar board currently functioning in Florida. The lieutenant governor would serve as chairman of this panel, which would be charged with long-term planning and terrorism prevention. It would meet quarterly with state department heads and officials from appropriate law enforcement agencies as part of its mission to make strategic recommendations to the governor.

Currently, Missouri's Office of Homeland Security exists only on the basis of an executive order issued by the governor. As the third point in his plan, Kinder called for legislation to codify the Department of Homeland Security to give a statutory basis to this agency.

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"Computers are useless. They only give you answers."

-- Pablo Picasso

Which proves he was a painter, not a predictor.

--Gary Rust is chairman of Rust Communications, parent company of the Daily Dunklin Democrat.