Thanksgiving is around the corner ... what are you thankful for?

I have a dream, a dream that may never come true as long as I hold this job.

The current economic situation is unlike any other America has experienced in the last 70 years. In essence, it’s the perfect storm: a combination of the housing crisis, investment bank turmoil and an economic downturn that together are creating an incredibly challenging environment. Government action to create a $700 billion stabilization program and increased Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation coverage signify landmark changes to the financial services industry.

I'm sitting here watching the CEO's of the big three auto makers testify to Congress, interviewing for their bail outs. I have to say that they really come off as arrogant, having flown in on their private jets and appearing to have difficulty knowing some of the basic financial numbers of their own companies.

I just don't like Hillary Clinton, I admit. What I don't like about her is the same thing that I don't like about the Wall Street companies that are taking bail out money and giving multi-billion dollar Christmas bonuses to the same guys that threatened to take down the economy, or the average Americans who have 13 credit cards and expect to be bailed out with their own bankruptcies.

Last night I attended a dinner for a local organization known as The Family Trust. The Family Trust is an informal group of local businessmen started up 17 years ago to help out families in need in Napa. It was organized by Tom Lowenstein, Gary Garaventa, Steve Silva and Jim Asbury, in response to a need from the county Human Services department, to provide quick assistance to those who need it in situations where the time to go through government bureaucracy would not work or simply not be available.

The Napa Pipe project is about to hit the headlines again in Napa, and I have been hearing rumblings in the background at big changes that are possible. Meetings have been going on behind closed doors for several months now and one of the strong possibilities emerging is that the city of Napa may take over the project in exchange for taking on the housing requirements of the county.

Every so often, we California voters do something that reverberates far beyond the state’s borders.

Dear editor, Kevin Courtney mused at the apparent apathy of voters coerced into voting by mail, himself included, by our Napa County Registrar of Voters, John Tuteur (“Voting with cats,” Nov. 2).

Dear editor, What an amazing site to see last at the Lincoln Theater: dozens of Napa County nonprofit agencies cheering each other on as we received our grant awards, proceeds from this year’s Auction Napa Valley. Vintners, volunteers and grantees gathered to celebrate another hugely successful auction, the extraordinary generosity of our community and beyond and the excellent work our local nonprofits accomplish every year.

Dear editor, The Napa Valley Vintners’ commitment “to the preservation and enhancement of the valley’s land, wine and community for future generations” was magnificently demonstrated in the generous grants awarded from the proceeds of the 2008 Auction Napa Valley to various local nonprofit organizations and agencies.

The Bush Administration had a bad habit of not thinking through the consequences of many of its actions, or not caring, and one of them was what is the eventual outcome going to be of torturing prisoners of war? It was inflicted on many of them, many of whom have turned out to be innocent, at least of terrorism.

Would you ever eat Thanksgiving dinner at a restaurant? Or is this a holiday that must be celebrated at home?

Do you start your holiday shopping early?

The race is over, Barack Obama will be the next president, so now is the time for the next question.

Barack Obama is the your next President of the United States.