Is the market being manipulated by the political powers that are presently in office by "leitmotiv' or Houdini? With election day just around the corner there have been "smoke and mirrors" levitation of stocks in the market for no good reason. And there is no end to this kind of political chicanery. Ask yourselves why the feds stopped the confession of John Muhammad by Maryland prosecutors? Both Maryland and Virginia have rights to prosecute because their citizens were gunned down. But Maryland has the stronger claim because the first sniping incident occurred in that state. And even stronger since the defendants were taken into custody at a rest stop in Maryland. But mark my words, the feds will give the case to Virgnia because that state has always been out for blood for the death penalty. Just look at the stats. Since 1976, Maryland has executed three people and Virginia 86. And guess who's our Attorney General, none other than that rabid eye for an eye, self righteous death penalty advocate, Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft. I know this message board frowns on political pronouncements. But there are times when the bar should be raised. The republicans are quaking in their boots because the realists know Mondale is going to win hands down in that progressive, farmer-labor hidebound state by a landside.