You KNOW things are tough for this division of Safeway grocery stores when their spaghetti sauce has only one mushroom.......
Posted by Hello

I wish Alameda and Marin Counties in California (San Francisco Bay Area) would just declare independence from California and the United States so they can drown in their own socialistic ideology and leave the rest of the country to themselves. So called "progressives" complain that supporters of President Bush want to impose their ideology on the unwitting, stupid, right-wing population.....and these people don't? I guess maybe teaching the Qu'Ran would be more appropriate. This is the same area (City of San Francisco) that gives individuals working for over a year insurance benefits so they can have transgender surgery at no cost......

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A California teacher has been barred by his school from giving students documents from American history that refer to God -- including the Declaration of Independence. Steven Williams, a fifth-grade teacher at Stevens Creek School in the San Francisco Bay area suburb of Cupertino, sued for discrimination on Monday, claiming he had been singled out for censorship by principal Patricia Vidmar because he is a Christian.

"It's a fact of American history that our founders were religious men, and to hide this fact from young fifth-graders in the name of political correctness is outrageous and shameful," said Williams' attorney, Terry Thompson. "Williams wants to teach his students the true history of our country," he said. "There is nothing in the Establishment Clause (of the U.S. Constitution) that prohibits a teacher from showing students the Declaration of Independence."

Vidmar could not be reached for comment on the lawsuit, which was filed on Monday in U.S. District Court in San Jose and claims violations of Williams rights to free speech under the First Amendment. Phyllis Vogel, assistant superintendent for Cupertino Unified School District, said the lawsuit had been forwarded to a staff attorney. She declined to comment further.

Williams asserts in the lawsuit that since May he has been required to submit all of his lesson plans and supplemental handouts to Vidmar for approval, and that the principal will not permit him to use any that contain references to God or Christianity. Among the materials she has rejected, according to Williams, are excerpts from the Declaration of Independence, George Washington's journal, John Adams' diary, Samuel Adams' "The Rights of the Colonists" and William Penn's "The Frame of Government of Pennsylvania."

"He hands out a lot of material and perhaps 5 to 10 percent refers to God and Christianity because that's what the founders wrote," said Thompson, a lawyer for the Alliance Defense Fund, which advocates for religious freedom. "The principal seems to be systematically censoring material that refers to Christianity and it is pure discrimination." In June, the U.S. Supreme Court refused to hear the case of a California atheist who wanted the words "under God" struck from the Pledge of Allegiance as recited by school children. The appeals court in California had found that the phrase amounted to a violation of church and state separation.

* * * * *

I did a bit of internet research and found this explanation of the "Establishment Clause." :

"At an absolute minimum, the Establishment Clause was intended to prohibit the federal government from declaring and financially supporting a national religion, such as existed in many other countries at the time of the nation's founding. It is far less clear whether the Establishment Clause was also intended to prevent the federal government from supporting Christianity in general. Proponents of a narrow interpretation of the clause point out that the same First Congress that proposed the Bill of Rights also opened its legislative day with prayer and voted to apportion federal dollars to establish Christian missions in the Indian lands. On the other hand, persons seeing a far broader meaning in the clause point to writings by Thomas Jefferson and James Madison suggesting the need to establish "a wall of separation" between church and state."

I'm getting so tired dealing with flakes... I whined to a friend of mine and he gave me a good quote back...

"I want an individual that has the balls to say what is on his mind, considerate enough to respectfully word it, and backs their words with action."

SINCE WE'RE NEIGHBORS, LET'S BE FRIENDS!!!!

Poooooor babies....let's just totally forget 50 years of brutal and oppressive occupation, genocide, and the deportations and killings, and the Russification of the Baltic cultures... Hey, if you Russkies don't like it...just get your butts back into your vast wasteland where Papa Putin will embrace you with open arms.......


RIGA, November 16 (Itar-Tass) -- Relations between Latvia and Russia must be built anew, from scratch, Russian ambassador in Riga told the first news conference in his new capacity.“What do we really need – mourning for the past or a decent future?” Kalyuzhny said. He believes that relations between Latvia and Russia must be pragmatic and firmly rely on the principle of mutual benefit.

“After meetings with Latvian businessmen I developed the firm conviction that everybody wants good relations. The Russian market can give a powerful boost to any business,” Kalyuzhny said. In establishing relations one should be keen to sidestep sensitive issues, but never forget about them. The position of the Russian minority in Latvia and the place of the Russian language and Russian schools are one of the most complicated issues. “These problems have spilled over the Latvian borders to have become problems of the European Union, too. Regrettably, the EU has not found a solution to this day, thereby following a policy of double standards,” Kalyuzhny said.

I came across a new veteran's organization on MSNBC and on NBC News called "Operation Truth." While their cause is noble, the way they are promoting themselves is, at best, suspect....


Dear Friends,


Like probably millions of Americans I read about Operation Truth online, and was actually considering linking it to my own website which gets a lot of hits.


But after seeing the television ad with Robert Acosta, the vet who regrettably lost his arm in combat, I'm sure that I reflect the opinions of a lot of Americans that the ad shoots your cause into the foot. While Robert's injury is horrible, I can help but think aobut the vets who don't go on television whining about their injuries. The commercial begs the question why did Robert Acosta go into the military in the first place...did he expect it to be Club Med or just an opportunity to win the right to wear a uniform (which in his case would be more like a costume). This armchair politics doesn't wear well, very honestly, and really sounds like partisan politics, which is against federal rules for a so-called non-profit/non-partisan organization. Acosta's words are more of those of a someone whining and trying gain our sympathy because of his injury to push a political agenda rather than "educat(ing) the American public about the truth of the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan from the perspective of the soldiers who have experienced them first-hand."


Why are you also taking advantage of the persona of former Gov. Jesse Ventura? His own military career is suspect...something the media has tried ot get the straight truth about but hasn't been able to. He is universally hated as a political figure because of the mess he created in Minnesota which he eventually ran away from...and he now appears in ads here in California denegrating our very popular Governor who has accomplished more in one year that former Gov. Ventura did during his term as governor.


Your organization has valid concerns as it involves the current war situation and a noble cause in your stated mission statement which I agree with...but as someone in public relations and marketing...I can professionally say you are shooting yourself in the foot by representing yourself in the media as you have.I will be placing a copy of this note on my personal blog so that others may see it.


Ivars Bezdechi
San Diego, CA

(AP) - Margaret Hassan, a kidnapped aid worker who spent decades bringing food and medicine to Iraqis, was believed murdered after Al-Jazeera television said Tuesday it received a video showing a hooded militant shooting a blindfolded woman in the head. Hassan's family in London said the longtime director of CARE in Iraq was likely the victim, and British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw said analysis of the video showed Hassan has "probably been murdered, although we cannot conclude this with complete certainty

Watching the masses of Palestinians beesech the helicopter carrying the body of PLO chief Yasser Arafat while the Palestinian henchman shoot their machine guns in the air killing several people, Palestinian children compelled to be homicide bombers in Israel, the beheadings of American, British, and Turkish contractors in Iraq, the blowing up of the ancient Buddhas in Afghanistan just shows what the world is up against in dealing with the worldwide Muslim plague.

There are good Muslims who truly practice their faith in accordance with Qu'Ran and don't endorse the tactics and behaviors of these fanatics, but my question is...WHY AREN'T THEY SPEAKING OUT and DOING SOMETHING? These Muslim terrorists are no different than the right-wing Christian fanatics who have hijacked the Christian faith in the United States and Canada, and have acted like no different by going around holding placards with pictures of aborted fetuses and practicing intolerance and hate and bombing women's health clinics.

What a definite loss to the world of music, and to the world at large....

Rapper O.D.B. Collapses, Dies in Studio

By NEKESA MUMBI MOODY, AP Music Writer

NEW YORK - The rap artist O.D.B., whose utterly unique rhymes, wild lifestyle and incessant legal troubles made him one of the most vivid characters in hip-hop, collapsed and died inside a recording studio Saturday. He was 35.

AP Photo

O.D.B. had complained of chest pains before collapsing at the Manhattan studio, and was dead by the time paramedics arrived, said Gabe Tesoriero, a spokesman for O.D.B.'s record label, Roc-a-Fella.

The cause of death was not immediately clear, but O.D.B. had recently finished a prison sentence for drug possession and escaping a rehab clinic. He would have turned 36 on Monday.

O.D.B. — also known as Ol' Dirty Bastard, Dirt McGirt, Big Baby Jesus or his legal name of Russell Jones — was a founding member of the seminal rap group the Wu-Tang Clan in the early 1990s. With his unorthodox delivery — alternately slurred, hyper and nonsensical — O.D.B. stood out even in the nine-man Clan, which featured such future stars as Method Man, RZA and Ghostface Killah.

I did a lot of soul-searching today trying to figure why I ultimately supported President Bush in his reelection bid....and it FINALLY hit me why...

Make no mistake I am no major supporter of Pres. Bush. It concerns me that he is preoccupying himself with the issue of gay marriages and abortion when his main focus should be tightening up the border with Mexico and the illegal alien problem, the Iraq mess, and focusing his efforts on the so-called "war on terrorism" and not just reducing it to the level of a nuisance that Sen. Kerry proposed.

But when it came down to it, I had no idea what Kerry stood for. That was after all the hard campaigning, three successful debates, and a month of Sen. Kerry's attacks on Bush's handling of the war in Iraq. And like many, many Americans, I didn't see that it was a good time to be changing the guard at 1600 Pennsylvania in the midst of a war...nor did I see it right to turn the president out just because I didn't like him for whatever reason like so many of Sen. Kerry's supporters.

It would seem that Howard "I Have A Scream" Dean is wanting to become chairman of the Dems. He says that the Dems have to establish a identity separate from the Republicans. Continue a super left wing identity so they can lose more elections????? Nonononononononoo....

MONTPELIER, Vt. (AP) Former presidential candidate Howard Dean is considering a bid to become chairman of the national Democratic Party. Steve Grossman, himself a former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, said Dean had told him he was thinking about it.
Dean was traveling today in New York and unavailable for comment. His spokeswoman, Laura Gross, said ``it was far too early to be speculating on that.''

The 240 members of the Democratic National Convention will elect a new chair early next year. Several names are already being mentioned, including former Clinton aide Harold Ickes; Donna Brazile, who ran Al Gore's presidential campaign, and Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack. Dean has been outspoken since the beginning of his presidential bid in saying that the Democratic Party must establish a separate and unique identity from Republicans. The next chairman will replace Terry McAuliffe, whose term is ending.

I love those who are on the left side of the street going around accusing President Bush of being a warmonger.... Now United Press International reports that declassified documents show that President Clinton was ready to drop nuclear weapons on North Korea if they made an incursion into South Korea. This is the same president, who, according to Newsweek magazine, was urging Sen. Kerry to openly go out and back the anti-gay marriage initiatives decided by several states last week.

Seoul, South Korea, Nov. 7 (UPI) -- Newly declassified documents revealed the United States planned as recently as 1998 to drop nuclear bombs on North Korea if the country attacked South Korea. As part of "scenario 5027," 24 F15-E bombers flew simulation missions at Seymour Johnson Air Force Base in North Carolina to drop mock nuclear bombs on a firing range between January and June 1998, the Korea Times reported Sunday. The revelation followed claims by a South Korean lawmaker that the U.S. drew up plans to launch preemptive strikes on key targets in North Korea in 1994.

The report also came amid concerns that President George Bush will take a tougher stance with North Korea during his second term.

The declassified documents also said the U.S. had kept nuclear weaponry in South Korea until at least 1998, despite officially claiming it had withdrawn all nuclear warheads in 1991.

I'm getting really sick and tired of the imbeciles who go around spouting and spitting who seem to think the world will explode into space soon as a result of President Bush being reelected. Here's the text of the e-mail someone sent me last week:

Subject: I AM TAKING THE NEXT 4 YEARS OFF.

America is surrounded by Bushites. Bush "DID NOT WIN". KERRY CONCEDED.
This makes TWICE that BUSH went into office WITHOUT being ELECTED!!!!
Now, let's all sit back and watch as each PROGRAM goes UNDER, programs designed to help those in NEED. ( all HIV/AIDS Patients will be dropping like flies, There is no money to pay for the expensive medications)
Let's watch our military dwindle in a foriegn country for one family's greed, and let's watch our forests and wildlife areas be raped for yet even more greed, and let's watch our enviroment become polluted and our people become sick as a result.
But, by god let's make sure DUBYA stays in office because he waves the flag higher and buys whatever he wants.

Very little separates Pres. Bush and Sen. Kerry. They are both Washington insiders, they are both rich men...Sen. Kerry having even more money behind him.... But let's get ourselves together....how can this individual say that Pres. Bush didn't win when he received 59,634,378 votes (53% of the electoral vote/51% of the popular vote) to Sen. Kerry's 56,084,352 votes (48.01% of the electoral vote/46.84% of the popular vote).

(From Yahoo News)




I lifted this very interesting computer generated electoral map of the US from http://uselectionatlas.org showing how the nation voted county by county.




The time has come for all Americans...no matter what political persuasion...to come together and celebrate the diversity of political views...and support our president. We are not a country of one political view....we are a country of political views. With Pres. Bush's convincing win, it behooves Democrats to simply get a better candidate who can convincingly communicate his vision, rather than participating in gutter partisanship and carping.



Tonight out of the blue I decided to go volunteer to man a phone bank at the local Republican office. It was interesting... I was given a list of 100 names to call of people who had recently registered to vote. Most of the people who had registered to vote were at home and had to listen to my spiel which went basically like, "Good evening...may I please speak to . My name is Ivars and I'm calling from La Mesa on behalf of President Bush reminding you to vote tomorrow. The polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Do you know where your polling place is?" More likely they would not so I would give them the address which was printed on the sheet by their name. I would then end the call by saying, "Thank you again for your support of President Bush...." Most of the people answered their phone, I left a few messages on a few people's voice mail as I was instructed. Everything went well until I got one name which some how erroneously got put on the list as a Republican. I swore the person answering had lit the fuse on their tampon and started cussing at me with ever swear word in the dictionary...and he wouldn't stop. I remained calm and wished the person a good evening.

Why are registered Democrats such blow hards? At best I identify myself a VERY liberal Republican/law and order Democrat...but sheesh...you say the word "President Bush" and they go crazy...just like my doddering 95% deaf old 90-year old neighbor who called for me to bring over his mail which I had been saving while he and his doddering 75% deaf crazy Italian wife were gone on a cruise to Mexico for 10 days. I really have avoided discussing politics with people since you don't know how they are going to react...anyway, this crusty old guy somehow engaged me into asking who I voted for...I told him...and he blew up to the point of almost making his dentures into a dangerous projectile which he would aim at my house to blow a hole in the siding.... Here, a guy who worked directly with Robert Oppenheimer to build the first atomic bomb, was disrespecting my point of view and my overall opinion.... Was my opinion worth any less than his? Sheesh...and I've had the same reaction from other so-called patriotic registered Democrats...huffing and puffing like a steam locomotive if you disagree with them.... I have no more right to criticize and pass judgements on one person's beliefs and ideology than they have the right to criticize and pass judgements on my beliefs.

Imbeciles. And you know, they can find someone else to pick up their damn mail in the future...