Somehow I would be remiss on this blog if I didn't say something about Martin Luther King, Jr. on his Birthday.

Many of you readers find it strange that I could be a "liberal" and yet believe in the free market system of investments and stocks and the like.  Yet is a fact.  

We are facing a major decline in the stock market tomorrow.  So 'What does this have to do with Reverend King?' I can hear you asking.  Why should being a liberal or a conservative have anything to do with the stock market?  And 'aren't liberals for more government and more taxes?' and 'wouldn't they be bad for the economy?'

But I would like to assert that what we have in Washington today is 'capitalism gone wild'.  It is a wild west sort of place that has less to do with free markets and more to do with cronyism and incompetence.

Instead of dreaming about the possibilities of brotherhood and justice, this Administration turns back the clock on progress appointing 'originalist' Justices who threaten the basic rulings that the Civil Rights Movement itself is based on---rulings like 'Brown v. Board of Education' that outlawed 'separate but equal schools'.  They claim to support education but then pass 'No Child Left Behind' that raises the requirements of students endlessly and when eventually those schools fail to meet those standards money is removed from them leaving them worse than ever.

And poor minority children are hurt by these policies.

Worrying more about the taxes paid by heirs and heiresses and hollering about "Death Taxes" they have worked to concentrate wealth into fewer and fewer hands decimating the ranks of the middle class and leaving the poor to fend for themselves.

Martin Luther King would still be dreaming.

When Katrina struck New Orleans, hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost, homes and businesses were destroyed, and schools were shut down.

Instead of lifting up those people, giving them hope for the possibility of the future, they bussed them out of the city with a modern form of ethnic cleansing of New Orleans with poor minorities sent to Houston and elsewhere to find new homes.

When hundreds of thousands of jobs were lost, this Administration failed America and failed the African-Americans who depended on them for help from the simplest assistance of water to the complex needs of rebuilding.  Instead of telling this nation that thousands of jobs were lost but good news, 'there were thousands of jobs to be done.', this Administration failed us and created a 'tax incentive zone' and provided contracts to Blackwater instead.

Martin Luther King would still be dreaming.

When America was challenged by those who would destroy us, this Administration lifted its hand from the steady leadership that was required and went into the mud with our enemy, utilizing torture, rendition and 'shock and awe' starting a war that wasn't a just war, wasn't a war on someone who attacked us, but a pre-emptive war that has drained our Treasury's coffers.

Martin Luther King would ask us to dream of a better world.

So when we face the market tomorrow and watch the Dow dip by the 100's of points, let us remember what could be in America.  What could happen with leadership that kept a responsible hand on the fiscal budget, leadership that provided education for those needing to learn, help to those who have suffered from the hardships of nature or the hardships of mankind, leadership that embraced science and knowledge instead of banning research, leadership that led the world in fighting the scourge of climate change instead of editing the very climate report with lobbyists in charge, and leadership that removed regulation from our banks and work place and now we find that the fox is eating the hens in the hen house.

And we don't have a chicken in every pot because we let the fox in.

So being liberal isn't contrary to being an investor.

An investor believes in the possible accomplishment of every person regardless of race, religion, creed, or sexual orientation.  Investors believe in growth both in earnings and individual knowledge.  Investors believe in value, whether it be of a stock or of a person.  Investors believe in momentum, the momentum of history that challenges us to move ahead and not be left behind with outdated ideas and outdated policies that hold us back.

So yes I am an investor.  I am a liberal.  I love America.  And I believe that so many of the things being done today are simply wrong.  Simply un-American.  Simply need to stop.  Because I am a long-term investor in America.  I am holding on to this nation for the long haul.  I believe in what America can be and shall become.  I am going to be there to reap the dividends of liberty for me and my posterity.

Bob