We all have issues, right? Some have many, others, too many to count. I fall in the later category. Never an isolationist, all my issues are interrelated in one way or another. Like the layers of an onion, issues have a way of building up with time. Consider me an onion farmer.

Like onions, issues must have a place to root. My issues have always rooted in what could only be described is an ecological panic. Overpopulation was my first issue, endangered species the second, and pollution third. Twenty-five years later nothing has changed, other than getting worse, and my list of issues infinitely longer. Being Green, political disappointment comes easy.

You could say I started connecting the dots during the Carter Administration's "Oil Crisis, and it's problems with Iranian diplomacy. In high school lines at the gas pump, and yellow ribbon hysteria shaped my political awareness. The prompt release of the American hostages during the inauguration Ronald Reagan and George Herbert Walker Bush in 1981 was my first clue that we the people were being played for fools.

It seems we have come full circle, Bush Jr. is playing the Iran and Energy Cards in defense of the Carter Doctrine, the world is being held hostage with threats of terrorism, and I'm afraid the dude in the White House is a puppet of the Evil Trade Federation.

The United States of America are in a bad place. We all know it, and no amount of patriotic posturing or Pollyanna promises are going to fix our eroding democracy. The failure of leadership is surpassed only by the complete disregard for honesty, integrity, and personal responsibility at all branches of government. Randy Duke Cunningham was only the tip of the iceberg.

After 16 years of the Randy duke show, voters are less trusting, more aware, and less likely to vote for a white guy defending the status quo with vague promises of pragmatic pandering.

The question before voters of the 50th district is how best to right the wrongs perpetuated by 12 years of a Republican dominated congress. Cunningham did not work alone, nor will his replacement. With so many pressing ecological issues undermining quality of life in the 50th, who voters send to Washington has never been so important.

The political piñata of illegal immigration is only an issue is because the status quo wants to hide behind the theatrics of angry Americans demanding the federal government enforce laws long established. Californians care more about the health of their family than who is picking their family's organic produce.

As we all know Brian Bilbray has long been associated promising to reform immigration policy. You could say he has built his political career promising to get tough on those entering or staying in the country illegally and those who would hire them. Brian Bilbray has been making those promises for decades.

Instead of talking about the ecological reality show constituting life in California's 50th district, the Republican National Committee wants to talk about a form of immigration that is as American as apple pie. Republicans specialize in wedge issues and fear mongering, and combine the two whenever possible. Like abortion and gay marriage, the current dust up over securing the border and the Bush Administration's call for amnesty (Aka earned citizenship) is meant to be a Pavlovian distraction for the masses.

Why is it the issues that affect all of us equally; air pollution, water pollution, global warming, water scarcity, toxic waste, ecocide, and species extinction, are given little attention, by elected official and those running for office? As a culture why do we permit this?

Monitoring the campaign website of Francine Busby, I am pleased to report she has clearly established her environment agenda. All other candidates trying to replace Randy Duke Cunningham couldn't be bothered to provide even the lamest of lip service regarding the conservation, preservation, and restoration of the biological processes that making our very existence possible.

Talking to friends and neighbors I learned their issues are prompting them to vote for Francine Busby as the candidate of change. Rudy, a veteran of George W. Bush's war on terror, with a stint in Afghanistan, and two in Iraq under his belt, is voting for Busby out of respect for her support of the troops, veterans and their families. Mike, a fiscal conservative, and coastal republican, sees Busby as the right candidate at the right time to bring integrity back to the political process. Donna just wants to impeach Bush

Like I said we all have issues.