KING OF DEMOCRACY.

EARTHQUAKES

MATTHEW 24:7-8
7 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom: and there shall be famines, and pestilences, and earthquakes, in divers places.
8 All these are the beginning of sorrows.

MARK 13:8
8 For nation shall rise against nation, and kingdom against kingdom:(ETHNIC GROUP AGAINST ETHNIC GROUP) and there shall be earthquakes in divers places, and there shall be famines and troubles: these are the beginnings of sorrows.

LUKE 21:11
11 And great earthquakes shall be in divers places, and famines, and pestilences; and fearful sights and great signs shall there be from heaven.

By Nathaniel Cary STAFF WRITER
The Greenville News

A magnitude 3.1 earthquake struck Western North Carolina at about 6a.m. Friday morning, according to the U.S. Geological Survey.It sounds like there was a small tremor of some sort, said Meteorologist Larry Lee.Calls have been pouring in from the Spartanburg area, Lee said.Boyd Harrison, who lives on Callahan Mountain Road near Piedmont Highway in northern Greenville County, said he felt the tremors at 6:05 a.m.It sounded more like an explosion, Harrison said. My windows were vibrating and the floor was shaking. it was pretty strong this time.The U.S.G.S. Web site shows the quake hitting east northeast of Columbia, N.C. above Spartanburg and Greenville counties.The National Weather Service has been in contact with U.S.G.S. this morning, Lee said.A magnitude 3.8 earthquake that struck northwest of Asheville in August 2005 rattled dishes but did little damage. The largest earthquake to strike South Carolina hit Charleston on Aug. 31, 1886and killed 60 people.

Earthquake jolts India's northeastern states
Posted : Fri, 07 Dec 2007 13:40:01 GMT
IANS

Guwahati, Dec 7 - An earthquake measuring 5.0 on the Richter scale shook India's northeast and parts of Myanmar Friday, triggering panic among residents here, officials said.A scientist at the Regional Seismological Centre in Shillong, capital of of Meghalaya, said the tremor took place at 12.36 p.m. and had its epicentre along Manipur's border with Myanmar.The quake jolted the residents of Assam and other northeastern states. People ran out of their homes and offices.The office building was shaking and it was all chaos with people running of buildings to open spaces, said Luit Neil Don, a local journalist, in Assam's main city of Guwahati.There has been no immediate report of damage caused by the quake, police officials said.The seismologists consider the seven northeastern states - Assam, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Tripura, Nagaland, Arunachal Pradesh and Manipur - as the sixth most earthquake-prone belt in the world.Assam has experienced some of India's worst earthquakes including one measuring 8.7 on the Richter scale in 1897 that killed 1,600 people and another measuring 8.6 on the Richter scale in 1950 that left 1,500 people dead.

Earthquake rocks eastern Java, Indonesia
December 07, 2007

An earthquake with magnitude of 5.9 on the Richter scale struck eastern part of Java Island of centralIndonesia on Friday afternoon, no immediate report of damages or casualty, Meteorology and Geophysics Agency said. The quake jolted at 17:45 Jakarta time (1045 GMT) with the epicenter at 247 km southwest Jember town of East Java province and at 10 km under sea bed, an official of the agency named Ajad Sudrajat told Xinhua. The quake intensity was felt at 2 to 3 MMI (modified mercally intensity), a scale that can crack building at Denpasar the capital of Bali province, the center of Indonesian tourist industry which is conducting an international climate change talks. The official said that the quake has no potential to trigger tsunami. In 2004, over 170,000 people were dead in Aceh province in northern tip of Sumatra Island after a tsunami triggered by a powerful quake devastated coastal areas of the province and other countries in southeast Asia. Indonesia is laid at a vulnerable zone so called the Pacific Ring of Fire where two continental plates, stretching from the Western Hemisphere through Japan and Southeast Asia, meet that cause frequent volcanic movements. Source: Xinhua

David's Comment: The Main Issues of Annapolis

Now that the dust has settled after the Annapolis Pease Summit, here is a very good assessment of the four main issues taken from a report published by Honest Reporting.com. These are the main issues that we need to continue to pray into ............

The Jewish State One of Israel’s most fundamental demands is Palestinian recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. The Jewish people have a right to self-determination in their ancient homeland – the only state in the world with a Jewish majority. That right is recognized implicitly for every nation on Earth, and should not be denied to the Jewish nation. Israel’s Jewish identity has been recognized internationaly. The 1947 UN Partition Plan divided the area under the British Mandate into a Jewish state and an Arab state. The Jews accepted this plan. However, the Arabs rejected it and launched a war to capture the entire territory.

The Palestinians continue to reject Israel’s most basic self-identity to this day. As Boston Globe columnist Jeff Jacoby wrote, the Palestinian refusal to meet Israel’s basic demand creates deep suspicions about their real motives. The refusal of the Palestinian Authority to acknowledge Israel as a legitimate Jewish state isn't a denial of reality; it is a sign of their determination to change that reality, he wrote. Like Arab leaders going back a century, they seek not to live in peace with the Jewish state, but in place of the Jewish state. Real peace between Israel and the Palestinians can only come only after the Palestinians abandon their dream of Israel’s destruction and reconcile themselves to Israel’s identity as a Jewish state.

Jerusalem No place on Earth cuts to the soul of the Jewish people as deeply as Jerusalem. Ancient Zion - conquered by King David 3,000 years ago and the site of the two holy Temples – continues to serve as the emotional and spiritual home for the Jewish people. Not surprisingly, questions regarding the status of Jerusalem are among the most contentious core issues dividing Palestinians and Israelis. The Palestinians want the eastern half of the city­where many holy sites are located­as the capital of their future state. Despite centuries of exile, the Jews maintained a continuous presence in Jerusalem. What the media often call Arab East Jerusalem usually refers to areas temporarily under Jordanian rule from 1948 to 1967 and restored after the Six Day War. Those areas include the Old City and Judaism's holiest sites, the Temple Mount and Western Wall.

Eastern Jerusalem also includes numerous Jewish neighborhoods outside the Old City walls. Any division of the city along ethnic lines is far more complex than it appears on the surface. Moreover, reports indicate that Arabs living in Jerusalem already enjoy Israeli social benefits like health care and don't necessarily want to live under PA jurisdiction. In addition, Israel has a proven track record of ensuring full access to the city's holy sites. Can the Palestinian Authority be trusted to safeguard these sites for all religions?

Borders For many Israelis, final borders are ultimately a question of security. Dore Gold, the former Israeli Ambassador to the UN, has argued for Defensible Borders because any Palestinian effort to dismantle the terrorist infrastructure is destined to be incomplete. This approach rejects any return to the 1948 armistice line (the Green Line) on the grounds that it leaves Israel vulnerable and calls for retaining parts of the West Bank vital to security, such as the Jordan River Valley. In contrast, the Palestinians demand an independent state in the entire West Bank and Gaza Strip. After the 2000 Camp David talks broke down, former PA Chairman Yasser Arafat claimed then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered the Palestinians nothing more than West Bank Bantustans – islands of independent territory without viable contiguity. This claim has been completely rejected by the chief US negotiator at Camp David.

Contiguity raises a host of practical questions. Can borders be adjusted for demographics, leaving Jewish-populated areas in Israel’s hands? Will Israel have to trade territory inside Israel in order to keep the settlements? Can Israel retain highly populated settlement areas such as Ma’ale Adumim and the Gush Etzion bloc?

Refugees Another core issue is the Palestinian demand for a right of return for refugees into areas inside Israel. These refugees are Palestinians and their descendents who fled the territory following the outbreak of war in 1948. According to UN figures there are currently more than 4.4 million refugees. Any discussion of Palestinian refugees should also note that Israel absorbed 865,000 Jewish refugees from Arab countries with little to no international assistance, while 711,000 Palestinians left Israel-controlled territory in 1948 and 1949. An influx of millions of Palestinians would threaten Israel’s Jewish identity and, in time, could lead to a Palestinian majority in the Jewish state. At the same time, Palestinian negotiators also demand the creation of an independent Palestinian state alongside Israel. Not surprisingly, Israel rejects Palestinian return as non-starter. The Israeli Foreign Ministry calls the demand a threat to the two sate solution. Any workable return for refugees must be limited to the Palestinian territories. And any reparations must include a contribution from the Arab world. Had the Arabs accepted the 1947 UN resolution, not a single Palestinian would have become a refugee and an independent Arab state would now exist beside Israel.

The negotiations will certainly take time. But as meaningful talks on these contentious issues move forward, increased media debate is inevitable. Given the complexity of these issues, news reports may contain inaccurate information. For additional resources, see our Brief History of the Region as well as our media critique archives.

And we urge readers to monitor their local coverage and make their voices heard.( David adds: AND PRAY )

The Lord bless you as you bless Israel by standing in defense of her right to exist on the land given to the Jewish people by the God of Israel . Lets pray that Israel will turn back to their God. Do not be silent, but share this with your fellow Christians, share it with your pastors, and with anyone you have a chance to speak to. Lets also pray for that breakthrough to the Muslims, and please remember to pray for our son Jordan, and all of his fellow soldiers in the IDF.

Shabbat Shalom ... David & Josie Silver.

Giving the EU more coherence and weight on the international stage Javier Solana welcomes the Lisbon Treaty

How do you assess the fact that the leaders of 27 EU Member States have agreed on the Reform Treaty to be signed on 13 December in the Portuguese capital?

The agreement on the text of the new treaty is very good news for the European Union. After two years of doubt and scepticism, the EU is once again looking to the future with confidence and determination. The world in which we are living today is changing faster than ever before. Globalization is raising new challenges. New actors are emerging on the international stage. The EU must be able to continually adapt to this quickly changing environment. We needed new working methods for an enlarged EU and I am very satisfied with the agreement we have reached.

If the Lisbon Treaty is ratified, what will be its impact on the Council of the EU? What role will the new President of the European Council play?

The ratification of the Lisbon Treaty will introduce a number of significant changes in our institution. One of those is the change of the six-month presidency system. Under the new arrangements, the European Council will elect its President for a term of two and a half years, renewable once. The External Relations Council will be chaired by the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy. For the other configurations of the Council there will be a rotating system, guaranteeing both continuity and a smooth transition between succeeding Member States.

What opportunities will the Treaty offer the Common Foreign and Security Policy and the European Security and Defence Policy? What possibilities will the new High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy have to develop the CFSP and the ESDP?

With the new Treaty we will work much better in the field of CFSP/ESDP. We should not underestimate what we have managed to accomplish until now, but the Lisbon Treaty will enable us to work much more consistently and efficiently. In future, the High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy will not only chair the External Relations Council but he will also be one of the vice-presidents of the Commission. In carrying out his tasks he will be supported by an External Action Service. All that will make it possible for the High Representative to mobilize all existing resources and instruments - which are now managed by several institutions and departments - in order to give the EU more coherence and weight on the international stage. This is very important since the EU has become a major political player in the world and must be able to play a commensurate role.

Peace deal realistic says Blair
5:00AM Saturday December 08, 2007
By Tony Blair

Middle East envoy Tony Blair said yesterday a deal on Palestinian statehood by the end of next year is realistic as life on the Gaza Strip gets more desperate under Israeli sanctions.Gas stations across Gaza have shut their pumps. Tens of thousands of people have no fresh water.Hospitals have grounded ambulances, and bicycles are the favoured form of transport a month after Israel restricted fuel shipments to Gaza.However, former British Prime Minister Blair said in an interview with France24 television: I think a negotiated settlement is possible in 2008. But it will take some time for that negotiated settlement to be put in place fully.Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas agreed in Annapolis, Maryland, last week to try to reach a peace treaty creating a Palestinian state by the end of next year, although doubts remain over the plan's viability.Gaza, though, is a problem for negotiators and under the rule of Hamas, which Israel considers a terrorist group.

Seeking to punish Gaza's Hamas rulers further, Israel is waiting for court approval to reduce the electricity supply as well.The tough measures are the latest in a series of sanctions Israel has imposed since the Islamic militant group violently seized control of Gaza last June.Israel has declared Gaza a hostile entity and closed its borders, halting almost all trade.Gaza's woes pose a major challenge to Hamas as it clings to power amid renewed peacemaking between Israel and the moderate Palestinian leadership now in charge of the West Bank.While still firmly in control of Gaza, Hamas is casting a long shadow over next week's scheduled launch of formal peace talks following seven years of violence. Olmert and Abbas are expected to meet on December 12 for the first round of talks since they agreed last week to try to broker a deal on Palestinian statehood.Gaza relies on Israel for all of its fuel and 60 per cent of its electricity.The fuel reductions, ranging between 15 per cent and 75 per cent of normal supplies, have already affected Gaza's water system. The shortages have been compounded by Gaza's 30 private fuel companies, which halted deliveries this week to protest at the Israeli shortages.

Fed up with the finger-pointing, Gaza's gas station owners this week stopped serving the public, saying they were caught in the middle of political battles involving Israel and the rival Palestinian governments.We are the ones who are suffering the beating and the losses, said Mahmoud al-Shawa, a member of Gaza's association of station owners.We have lost everything we gained, Hassan Abu Eissa said earlier after a lack of fuel brought the seven-year-old water pump in this central Gaza village of 6000 people to a standstill.Sabha al-Sawarka, 64, said she sends her grandsons to fill containers with water for domestic chores from a nearby agricultural well because the village pump has stopped operating.It is a bit salty, but what can we do? she said. One time there is no electricity. Then no water, or no wheat. It can't get more unjust.The fuel shortage has only amplified the problems caused by the sanctions, which Israel says are in response to near-daily rocket and mortar attacks by Palestinian militants.With exports and most imports halted, factories have closed, construction has halted and store shelves are empty. Hospitals have drastically cut back ambulance services and transport for medical staff.Israel blames Hamas for bringing hardship to Gaza.

MUSLIM NATIONS

EZEKIEL 38:1-12
1 And the word of the LORD came unto me, saying,
2 Son of man, set thy face against Gog,(RULER) the land of Magog,(RUSSIA) the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW)and Tubal,(TOBOLSK) and prophesy against him,
3 And say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech(MOSCOW) and Tubal:
4 And I will turn thee back, and put hooks into thy jaws,(GOD FORCES THE MUSLIMS TO MARCH) and I will bring thee forth, and all thine army, horses and horsemen, all of them clothed with all sorts of armour, even a great company with bucklers and shields, all of them handling swords:
5 Persia,(IRAN,IRAQ) Ethiopia, and Libya with them; all of them with shield and helmet:
6 Gomer,(GERMANY) and all his bands; the house of Togarmah (TURKEY)of the north quarters, and all his bands:(SUDAN,AFRICA) and many people with thee.
7 Be thou prepared, and prepare for thyself, thou, and all thy company that are assembled unto thee, and be thou a guard unto them.
8 After many days thou shalt be visited: in the latter years thou shalt come into the land that is brought back from the sword, and is gathered out of many people, against the mountains of Israel, which have been always waste: but it is brought forth out of the nations, and they shall dwell safely all of them.
9 Thou shalt ascend and come like a storm, thou shalt be like a cloud to cover the land, thou, and all thy bands, and many people with thee.(RUSSIA-EGYPT AND MUSLIMS)
10 Thus saith the Lord GOD; It shall also come to pass, that at the same time shall things come into thy mind, and thou shalt think an evil thought:
11 And thou shalt say, I will go up to the land of unwalled villages; I will go to them that are at rest, that dwell safely, all of them dwelling without walls, and having neither bars nor gates,
12 To take a spoil, and to take a prey; to turn thine hand upon the desolate places that are now inhabited, and upon the people that are gathered out of the nations, which have gotten cattle and goods, that dwell in the midst of the land.

ISAIAH 17:1
1 The burden of Damascus. Behold, Damascus is taken away from being a city, and it shall be a ruinous heap.

PSALMS 83:3-7
3 They (ARABS,MUSLIMS) have taken crafty counsel against thy people,(ISRAEL) and consulted against thy hidden ones.
4 They have said, Come, and let us cut them off from being a nation; that the name of Israel may be no more in remembrance.
5 For they have consulted together with one consent: they are confederate against thee:(TREATIES)
6 The tabernacles of Edom,and the Ishmaelites;(ARABS) of Moab, and the Hagarenes;
7 Gebal, and Ammon,(JORDAN) and Amalek;(SYRIA) the Philistines (PALESTINIANS) with the inhabitants of Tyre;(LEBANON)

EZEKIEL 39:1-8
1 Therefore, thou son of man, prophesy against Gog,(LEADER OF RUSSIA) and say, Thus saith the Lord GOD; Behold, I am against thee, O Gog, the chief prince of Meshech (MOSCOW) and Tubal: (TUBOLSK)
2 And I will turn thee back, and leave but the sixth part of thee, and will cause thee to come up from the north parts,(RUSSIA) and will bring thee upon the mountains of Israel:
3 And I will smite thy bow out of thy left hand, and will cause thine arrows to fall out of thy right hand.
4 Thou shalt fall upon the mountains of Israel, thou, and all thy bands,( ARABS) and the people that is with thee: I will give thee unto the ravenous birds of every sort, and to the beasts of the field to be devoured.
5 Thou shalt fall upon the open field: for I have spoken it, saith the Lord GOD.
6 And I will send a fire on Magog,(NUCLEAR BOMB) and among them that dwell carelessly in the isles: and they shall know that I am the LORD.
7 So will I make my holy name known in the midst of my people Israel; and I will not let them pollute my holy name any more: and the heathen shall know that I am the LORD, the Holy One in Israel.
8 Behold, it is come, and it is done, saith the Lord GOD; this is the day whereof I have spoken.

JOEL 2:3,20,30-31
3 A fire(NUCLEAR BOMB) devoureth before them;(RUSSIA-ARABS) and behind them a flame burneth: the land is as the garden of Eden before them, and behind them a desolate wilderness; yea, and nothing shall escape them.
20 But I will remove far off from you the northern army,(RUSSIA,MUSLIMS) and will drive him into a land barren and desolate, with his face toward the east sea, and his hinder part toward the utmost sea, and his stink shall come up, and his ill savour shall come up, because he hath done great things.(SIBERIAN DESERT)
30 And I will shew wonders in the heavens and in the earth, blood, and fire, and pillars of smoke.(NUCLEAR BOMB)
31 The sun shall be turned into darkness, and the moon into blood, before the great and the terrible day of the LORD come.

Planets resolve Putin succession mystery: astrologer by Sebastian Smith Thu Dec 6, 12:57 PM ET

MOSCOW (AFP) - While the world holds its breath to know who will succeed President Vladimir Putin, Russia's most famous astrologist says the answer already lies in the planets. Gazing into a Sony laptop computer, rather than a crystal ball, Pavel Globa predicted that Putin would pick either First Deputy Prime Minister Dmitry Medvedev or Prime Minister Viktor Zubkov to replace him in an election on March 2.Why? Because 2008 is the year of the rat in the Chinese zodiac, which historically favours uncharismatic figures like the grey Medvedev and even more grey Zubkov, Globa said at a Moscow hotel.They don't stand out. No one really knows what they're saying, but they seem to be doing something. That's the rat.Putin's intentions remain one of world politics' great enigmas. Most analysts think the former KGB officer will handpick a close ally to fill his Kremlin seat -- with Medvedev and Zubkov believed to be high on the secret list of candidates.But few analysts would dare show the confidence of Globa, a small and dapper man of 54 whose often rambling performance appeared to mesmerise an entourage of half a dozen female acolytes, aides and astrologers.

Globa claims an 85 percent success rate, including predictions of the Soviet collapse, the Chernobyl nuclear disaster, and the September 11, 2001 attacks in New York and Washington.Not for him, or his followers, the veiled magicians and mediums crowding Russia's tabloid newspaper small ads.Astrology is not about crystal balls and cards, sniffed Globa fan Tatyana Dadasheva. Well, there is a branch of astrology that deals with palms.... In fact you can also read legs, birthmarks, anything. But we don't look in crystal balls.Certainly Globa's special computer programme, combining birth dates with terrestrial and celestial data into a zodiac circle crossed by intersecting lines, left no doubt about the Kremlin riddle.It's either Zubkov or Medvedev, he said. The winner will be a puppet to our president who will step down but retain a huge role.The real uncertainty for Russia comes after, he warned, since the year of the rat always brings hope for change, followed by disillusion.1936 was the year of the rat and it seemed a quiet year. Hitler was still rising to power, Stalin hadn't launched into his excesses, said Globa, a dapper man of 54, now living in Berlin.2008 will be the illusion of hope and change. We will put our hopes in the year (but) Russia needs to prepare for crisis in 2012, he said.

The good news, according to Globa, is that if Russia can hang on another few decades, a future heaven awaits.Russia is the country that will profit the most from global warming because it's the coldest country in the world, he said. We will enter a rather comfortable situation with a better climate, a population explosion, and a country where you can grow lemons, pineapples, champagne.Globa has been popular in Russia since the early 1990s when the country shook off decades of stifling Soviet social mores.
However, the pendulum has swung back and although Globa still has a five-minute slot early in the morning on the TNT cable channel here, he's lived in Germany for the last nine years. There, people are more relaxed. They see us astrologists in the same way as psychologists who help people sort out problems, he said. Here, people are absolutely polarised: they either love us or they hate us, saying astrology is nonsense, charlatanism, or the devil's work.

No talks planned for Spanish prince and Chavez
Fri Dec 7, 2007 1:10pm

MADRID (Reuters) - Spain's Crown Prince Felipe has no plans to hold a meeting with Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez after King Juan Carlos publicly told the Venezuelan leader to shut up, Spain's deputy prime minister said on Friday.Spain's foreign ministry had said on Wednesday there might be an informal encounter between Chavez and the prince when the two attend a swearing-in ceremony for Argentina's new president this weekend.

Chavez has demanded the Spanish king apologise for his outburst and on Wednesday said Prince Felipe would deliver a personal message from his father when they met in Buenos Aires.Spanish Deputy Prime Minister Maria Teresa de la Vega said there had been no request for a meeting nor would there be any special encounter between the prince and Chavez.There may be a protocol greeting, nothing more. There is no request, De la Vega said after a cabinet meeting, when asked by a reporter if the prince had asked to meet Chavez.King Juan Carlos's outburst against Chavez came after the populist leader repeatedly called former Spanish Prime Minister Jose Maria Aznar a fascist at a summit in Chile last month.Chavez, who has often insulted world leaders in public, responded by saying he would review the Venezuelan holdings of Spanish businesses.In a sign the dispute was easing, Chavez on Wednesday said he welcomed a message the king had sent congratulating him for Sunday's peaceful constitutional reform referendum.Chavez lost the referendum by a narrow margin.(Reporting by Andrew Hay; Editing by Stephen Weeks)

King of democracy By Barry Casselman December 7, 2007

It seems like a contradiction in terms to be called The King of Democracy, but the epithet fits the role of King Juan Carlos of Spain uniquely and aptly.Descended from the various royal families of Europe and imperial Spain, Juan Carlos has, in a single generation, created a new kind of monarchy, a modern institution which acts as the protector of the contemporary democratic republic, in direct contrast to the autocratic ways of his forbears.Juan Carlos would have been recorded positively in the history books just for his extraordinary and courageous defense of Spanish democracy in 1981 when he almost singlehandedly stood in the way of a right-wing coup d'etat in Madrid that would have returned Spain to the Phalangist totalitarian state which existed under caudillo (dictator) Francisco Franco from 1939 to 1975. A constitutional monarch, Juan Carlos has not ever had any specific political power in his country, but because of his leadership in 1981 and his subsequent dignified and mature presence overlooking the Spanish political environment, he has not only acquired moral power in Spain the old-fashioned way, but he has become a leading figure throughout the Spanish-speaking world (more than 400 million persons).

As I say, this would have been enough, but Juan Carlos apparently is not one to rest on his crown. Recently, in Chile for a conference of Spanish-speaking countries, the king confronted the latest version of caudillo, socialist President Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. After Mr. Chavez continually and rudely harangued Spain and the United States, Juan Carlos told him in the most memorable line of the new century so far, Por que no te callas? (Why don't you shut up?).Although most of the credit for the defeat of Mr. Chavez's constitutional power grab this past Sunday should go to the Venezuelan people themselves, it was a close vote, and I think that Juan Carlos's remarks were a vital turning point in the referendum campaign.So, now the king of Spain has twice thwarted enemies of democracy, and he has done it against totalitarian forces of the extreme right and the extreme left. Jose Ortega y Gasset, Spain's great philosopher of the 20th century (whose most famous book, The Revolt of the Masses, diagnosed and predicted the early fascist and communist totalitarian regimes under Hitler and Stalin), would be very proud of the Spanish king today.Coming from a nation which threw off a king and his colonial rule in 1776, I have not ever been particularly sympathetic to royal families and monarchs. I think it is fortunate that we have fewer and fewer of them today. The British heir to the throne, Prince Charles, has used his protracted waiting period to become king to take up the causes of organic farming and architecture, two positive matters, but not ones which create significant moral authority. (Fortunately, a Conservative prime minister, Margaret Thatcher, and a Labor prime minister, Tony Blair, were recent heads of the British government. Following the great Winston Churchill, they have kept Great Britain as a leading moral force in the world today even as its military and political power has receded.)

There are a few remaining kings in the world today, but the only other head of state who has earned worldwide respect is the Dalai Lama. He also descends from a line of autocratic rulers of Tibet, but since his exile 50 years ago, he has become a champion of Tibetan democracy, something which now does not exist. The Dalai Lama is not only a courageous political figure as he travels over the planet, but as the reigning philosopher of Tibetan Buddhism, he has brought a welcome message of compassion and tolerance to a world which is in great need of both.The totalitarian threats to democracy do not ever seem to go away. Like viruses, they adapt to the medicines and vaccines we have made to defeat them in the past, and they reappear in new forms and with new caudillos. Affluent and successful republics such as the United States tend to let down their guard and permit these threats sometimes to grow and thrive.There are hopeful signs, such as the recent victory of President Nicolas Sarkozy in France, but there are many more worrisome ones. I wish that the American presidential campaign would address these threats more directly, and perhaps as the winnowing process of candidates continues, it will.We have no king here, constitutional or otherwise. It is the president of the United States who holds the bully pulpit, and who must be the one to explain to the country and to the world why political freedom is the only innoculation against encroaching tyranny.Barry Casselman writes about national politics for Preludium News Service.