Hillary makes sense.....again!

(This is turning out to be a disturbing trend for me.)

Hillary Clinton Defends Pro-War Vote

By DEVLIN BARRETT, Associated Press WriterTue Nov 29,10:54 PM ET

Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton on Tuesday defended her vote to authorize war in Iraq amid growing unease among liberal Democrats who could determine the potential 2008 presidential candidate's future.

"I take responsibility for my vote, and I, along with a majority of Americans, expect the president and his administration to take responsibility for the false assurances, faulty evidence and mismanagement of the war," the New York senator said in a lengthy letter to thousands of people who have written her about the war.

At the same time, she said the United States must "finish what it started" in Iraq.

Clinton and other hawkish Democrats have come under criticism from liberal anti-war activists, many of whom will hold sway over presidential primary contests. The former first lady, who is up for re-election in 2006, would likely be an early front-runner for the Democratic presidential nomination should she decide to seek it. The debate has also put Clinton in a tight spot: generally viewed as pro-military, the former first lady is the most-watched member of a party that is increasingly turning against the war. In her letter to voters, the senator cited prewar assurances from the White House that the United States would use the United Nations to resolve the issue of Iraq's purported weapons of mass destruction.

"Based on the information that we have today, Congress never would have been asked to give the president authority to use force against Iraq," she said. Clinton stopped short of saying her vote was a mistake, the political path chosen by two other potential Democratic candidates — former vice presidential candidate John Edwards and Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del. "Given years of assurances that the war was nearly over and that the insurgents were in their 'last throes," this administration was either not being honest with the American people or did not know what was going on in Iraq," she wrote.

Clinton's allies billed the letter as her most comprehensive statement on the war to date.

"It is time for the president to stop serving up platitudes and present us with a plan for finishing this war with success and honor," she wrote. Clinton, who sits on the Senate Armed Services Committee, said earlier this month it would be a "big mistake" for U.S. troops to pull out immediately. She stuck with that line Tuesday. "America has a big job to do now. We must set reasonable goals to finish what we started and successfully turn over Iraqi security to Iraqis," she wrote.

Cindy Sheehan must be having puppies by now.

I think I've been hyperventilating about the impact of Cindy Sheehan on American politics. I got that feeling after seeing an Associated Press picture of her being woefully ignored by the throngs of people supposedly against the war.

I think she realizes that she has reached the 19th minute of fame afterall.

Label me whatever your heart desires, but this is why I am being a bit more "in your face" these days with those who talk about "Happy Holidays" and why I am openly boyotting stores (aren't they going to tremble!) that don't have the balls to say "Merry Christmas." As an individual with a pretty diverse background myself, as far as I'm concerned, if any Jew, Buddhist, Hindu or any other religious minority has a problem with "Christmas" and live in the United States or Canada (they know that Christians are in the majority), all I can say is that they are nutballs who obviously have serious mental problems (not the handy dandy politically correct "issues") who don't have anything better in their hollow minds to complain about. If it is such a problem, they can go pound sand, as far as I'm concerned. "Christmas" is a traditional world holiday .

Boston "holiday tree" stirs controversy
Fri Nov 25, 2005 5:53 PM ET

By Jason Szep

BOSTON (Reuters) - Boston set off a furor this week when it officially renamed a giant tree erected in a city park a "holiday tree" instead of a "Christmas tree." The move drew an angry response from Christian conservatives, including evangelist Jerry Falwell who heckled Boston officials and pressed the city to change the name back. "There's been a concerted effort to steal Christmas," Falwell told Fox Television.

The Nova Scotia logger who cut down the 48-foot (14-meter) tree was indignant and said he would not have donated the tree if he had known of the name change.
"I'd have cut it down and put it through the chipper," Donnie Hatt told a Canadian newspaper. "If they decide it should be a holiday tree, I'll tell them to send it back. If it was a holiday tree, you might as well put it up at Easter." Falwell and the conservative Liberty Counsel led a campaign that threatened to sue anyone who spreads what they see as misinformation about Christmas celebrations in public spaces.

The controversy reflects the legal vulnerability of city and state governments over taxpayer-funded displays of religious icons and concern over crossing the line in the separation between church and state.

Last year, California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger lit what he called a "Christmas tree" at a state ceremony. The year before, he and former California Gov. Gray Davis presided over ceremonies for the more secular "holiday trees."

In Boston, many residents voiced their dismay over the Web site that promotes a December 1 ceremony for "Boston's Official Holiday Tree Lighting."
Christmas has become too politically correct, said 64 percent of people who responded to an online poll by a CBS television affiliate in Boston.

Boston Mayor Thomas Menino said he would keep calling the Nova Scotia spruce a "Christmas tree" regardless of what it said on the city's official Web site. "I grew up with a Christmas tree, I'm going to stay with a Christmas tree," Menino told reporters on Thursday. But the controversy cast a pall over a long-standing tradition between Boston and Canada. Nova Scotia donates a tree each year to Boston in gratitude for the city's help after an explosion killed about 1,900 people and injured 4,000 others in Halifax in 1917.

Well it would seem that the hyperventilating whack job Cindy Sheehan is sooooo trying to turn in a few chits so she would turn back the clock so she would only be at the 13 minute mark of fame....after already getting to the 17 minute mark of the usual 15 minutes of fame allowed for most amateur celebrities/amateur politicians.

Starting to re-realize that Al Queda needs to be DECIMATED so they are not allowed to continue to spread and practice their Fasci-Islamic doctrine (nothing to do with traditional Islamic beliefs -- just as some right-wing Fasci-Christians clearly pervert the belief system expounded by the Bible), I support the war in Iraq. Just as Adolf Hitler and the Nazis had to be decimated as they tried to spread their evilness, we must do the same in the Middle East. If Americans would be more environmentally conscious and not put such a pressure on oil production with their Hummers and other fuel-inefficient automobiles and unnecessary use of electricity, chances are this war would not be necessary. If the Fasci-Islamics are allowed to prevail, Americans and the western world will surely reap the result and end up paying $10 a gallon for gasoline. These Muslims will not have won the war with old gun powder methods of war, but will have won an economic war.

Cindy Sheehan and her brand of merry lemmings are political amateurs who are intoxicated with the lights, camera and action of the media. They have clearly become quite enamored with themselves and their faulty logic. They have taken a few facts, screwed them to fit their ideology, and want to make it the truth.

These whack jobs are screaming and yelling about 2,100+ soldier deaths in Iraq, but they say nothing about the 16,137 people murdered in the U.S. in 2004, 94,635 incidents of rape, and 854,911 incidents of aggravated assault, or the 16,652 people killed on U.S. Highways because of drunk drivers? Huh? Or maybe the nearly 59,000 soldiers killed in Viet Nam. War is Hell. The soldiers who have given their life in the pursuit of freedom volunteered to serve their country...just as Casey Sheehan did...voluntarily.

Sheehan Back in Texas for War Protest

By ANGELA K. BROWN, Associated Press Writer

Fri Nov 25, 1:41 AM ET

The fallen soldier's mother whose August vigil near President Bush's ranch reinvigorated the anti-war movement returned to Texas to resume her protest Thursday as the president celebrated Thanksgiving a few miles away. "I feel happy to be back here with all my friends ... but I'm heartbroken that we have to be here again," Cindy Sheehan said as she arrived at an airport in nearby Waco. "We will keep pressing and we won't give up until our troops are brought home."

Sheehan was largely unknown when she set up camp outside Bush's ranch during the president's August vacation. It became a 26-day vigil that drew supporters from across the country and national attention. Sheehan, who has continued encouraging anti-war demonstrations, asked protesters to return to Crawford this week during Bush's family Thanksgiving gathering. The protesters' camp is on the same 1-acre private lot that a sympathetic landowner let them use in August.

For the holiday Thursday, more than 100 war protesters ate a traditional Iraqi meal — salmon, lentils and rice with almonds — saying they wanted to call attention to the civilians killed in the war. More than 2,100 U.S. soldiers have also died since the war began in March 2003. "It's significant because the people of Iraq are suffering under our occupation, and for people in America it's business as usual stuffing themselves on fat turkeys," said Tammara Rosenleaf, whose husband is an Army soldier to be deployed in a few weeks. "We in good conscience cannot behave that way while our troops are over there."

Dear Diary,

I'm feeling very alone tonight. A sense of ennui* seem to be overwhelming me tonight. I'm glad I got out to the chiropractor this afternoon...still...I just am going through some traditional holiday blues.

It is almost as though would so love to be able to "check out" or be put in some sort of drug-induced coma for the next seven weeks while American consumerism goes on "tilt." This is the time of year when we are belted left-and-right by shallow Christmas ads with their "Merry Christmas" and the very politically correct adulations of "Happy Holidays" accompanied by worn out Christmas tunes...ooops "holiday" music.

I think part of my "Scrooge" attitude is coming about that this is the culmination of a totally crappy year. While there were a few good things (can't be totally negative here), it has been a year of lost personal friendships, lost professional opportunities, lost family relationships, and mostly the serious illness of a very very close family member whom I have been caregiving now for six months. (I guess one positive thing is that although a personal friendship blew up into a billion pieces and I still don't know why -- at least now I have out of my life a very sick and twisted individual with their untreated bi-polar illness.) It would seem that some of the links to my past keep disappearing one by one. My attitude is also because I'm feeling exhausted from six months of constant caregiving. I'm not complaining about doing the caregiving...I'm just a bit burned out with the cleaning, driving, calling docs, cooking, regular household chores, trying to run the semblence of a business and career, trying to take a little bit of time for myself from all of the above.

The whole adage of it being pointless to cry over spilled milk is so true. But I guess my whole negativity is fueled by the ominous responsibility of being a caregiver, but realizing that I'm going to be -- for all intents and purposes -- totally alone and kind of forgotten over Thanksgiving and Christmas for the very first time...kind of rekindling some childhood imagined fears. Thoughts and memories of happy holidays past resonating in my head could very well become deafeningly overwhelming.

It's not necessarily that I have a real choice (my conscience sometimes can get deafeningly loud)...but I'll have to survive...I have no choice....and at least I once again get to keep in practice of maintaining my chronic stiff upper lip as the world goes by. As usual.

"She had gone back to Tara once in fear and defeat and she had emerged from its sheltering walls strong and armed for victory..."

"With the spirit of her people who would not know defeat, even when it stared them in the face, she raised her chin..."

"I'll think of it all tomorrow, at Tara. I can stand it then. After all, tomorrow is another day."

(Liberally paraphrased from Margaret Mitchell's "Gone With The Wind.")

* ennui: a feeling of overwhelming weariness, listlessness and dissatisfaction.

This jst proves my point that there is no different if someone is an alcoholic, or is hooked on smoking a marijuana joint.........or is hooked on cigarettes.....

Smoker tried to open airliner door

Monday, November 21, 2005; Posted: 11:52 a.m. EST (16:52 GMT)

BRISBANE, Australia (AP) -- A French woman who is terrified of flying admitted in an Australian court Monday that she drunkenly tried to open an airplane door mid-flight to smoke a cigarette. Sadrine Helene Sellies, 34, was placed on a good behavior bond after pleading guilty in Brisbane Magistrates Court to endangering the safety of an aircraft. Sellies was traveling on a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong to the east coast city of Brisbane on Saturday when the incident occurred at the start of a three-week Australian vacation with her husband, the court heard. She walked toward one of the aircraft's emergency exits with an unlit cigarette and a lighter in her hand and began tampering with the door, prosecutors said. But a flight attendant intervened and took Sellies back to her seat. Sellies was arrested and charged by police on arrival at Brisbane airport.

Defense lawyer Helen Shilton told the court Sellies was terrified of flying and had taken sleeping tablets with alcohol before takeoff. Shilton said Sellies has no memory of what happened on the flight and that she has a history of sleepwalking. But Magistrate Gordon Dean sternly warned the woman: "You must understand, if you are on a plane you must behave yourself."

Sellies, who did not speak in court and was aided by a translator, was placed on a 1,000 Australian dollar (US$734; euro623) bond -- meaning she will have to pay that amount if she commits another offense in the next 12 months.

QUOTE OF THE DAY!

George Bush is single handedly to blame for the condition of the world today! He is solely responsible for the worlds suffering and oppression. He is the cause of all hatred and war and not since Hitler has the world seen such a face of evil. (Saddam Hussein)

I couldn't say it any better....

WMD not only reason

By J.D. CrouchWed Nov 16, 6:44 AM ET

Some administration critics believe Operation Iraqi Freedom was strictly about weapons of mass destruction. The reality is that Saddam Hussein's WMD programs were only one reason for the liberation of Iraq. (Related: Our view)

We went to war for several reasons:

• Addressing Congress after 9/11, President Bush declared that those who harbor terrorists are as guilty as the terrorists themselves. Iraq was a state sponsor of terror and openly supported suicide bombers.

• In 2002, the U.N. Security Council unanimously found Iraq in violation of 16 prior resolutions about disarming. Iraq repeatedly fired on U.S. and coalition planes patrolling the "No Fly Zones" that protected Iraqis from Saddam. The president acted only when it became clear that the U.N. would not pass another resolution or take action to enforce previous resolutions supported by the past three U.S. presidents.

• President Bush often cited Saddam's murder of hundreds of thousands. Saddam used WMD against Iraq's Kurds and invaded Kuwait.

In February 2003, before troops set foot in Iraq, the president stated: "A liberated Iraq can show the power of freedom to transform that vital region, by bringing hope and progress into the lives of millions."

Moreover, the joint resolution authorizing the use of force against Iraq - which 77 senators of both parties voted for - explicitly cited Saddam's support for terrorism, his repeated violation of U.N. Security Council resolutions, his brutality against his own people, and the promotion of democracy as justifications for the use of military force.

Coalition forces did not find WMD. That in no way minimizes the threat Saddam posed. Weapons inspector David Kay testified that Iraq "certainly had the intentions at a point to resume their programs." As his successor, Charles Duelfer, later explained, Saddam was purposefully gaming the sanctions system with the intent of restarting his weapons programs when the world looked away.

The WMD intelligence was wrong, and the president has acknowledged that. But it is equally wrong to ignore the threat Saddam posed. The world is safer today because Saddam is no longer in power.

J.D. Crouch is deputy national security adviser to the president.

It just occurred to me and just bolsters my point that Republicans are no worse (or better) than Democrats. On one hand you have someone like Alaska Republican Senator Ted Stevens as the pork barrel meister (he got a $500,000 federal subsidy for his son who is chairman of the Alaska Fish Marketing board -- in a U.S. Homeland Security budget bill to paint the image of a fish on an Alaska Airlines jet), who, in order to bring temporary prosperity to Alaska is so intent on drilling holes in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge so Alaska looks like Swiss cheese, to Democrats like Sen. Robert Kennedy who keeps harping and bitches Republican on the subject of global warming yet drives a Lincoln Navigator.

Those in power who make righteous pronouncements need to practice what they preach.

Oh my...so nice to see when Sen. Hillary Clinton becomes a fence sitter between the Republicans and Democrats to make herself appeal to a larger possible electorate.
Haarez-Israel News reports that Sen. Clinton supports the building of a tall fence on the West Bank, and the plight of the Palestinians:

Sen. Clinton: I support W. Bank fence, PA must fight terrorism
By Lily Galili and Roni Singer, Haaretz Correspondents, and Haaretz Service

U.S. Sen. Hillary Clinton said Sunday that she supports the separation fence Israel is building along the edges of the West Bank, and that the onus is on the Palestinian Authority to fight terrorism.

"This is not against the Palestinian people," Clinton, a New York Democrat, said during a tour of a section of the barrier being built around Jerusalem.

"This is against the terrorists. The Palestinian people have to help to prevent terrorism. They have to change the attitudes about terrorism."

This is when Sen. Clinton was "First Lady" Hillary Clinton and practiced diplomacy "without a license" when she attended a dinner with Mrs. Arafat and didn't rebuke comments how the "Israeli's were practicing infanticide" against Palestinians.

Typical Democrat!

While former vice president Al Gore drives around in his beefed up Lincoln Navigator SUV (or what political satirist Bill Maher refers as a "FUV") and Sen. John Kerry's family (he I guess wouldn't never drive it) drives around in a soccer mom SUV, he makes self-righteous great pronouncements about global warming:

"What changed in the US with hurricane Katrina was a feeling that we have entered a period of consequences and that bitter cup will be offered to us again and again until we exert our moral authority and respond appropriately," he says. "I don't want to diminish the threat of terrorism at all, it is extremely serious, but on a long-term global basis, global warming is the most serious problem we are facing."

www.theage.com.au, November 14, 2005.

I find it so inconceivable that the one president who is considered by many as one of the most incompetent presidents ever -- and rousingly and ignominiously thrown out of office after four years DARES to speak up. Not only that, I think it is quite telling that he was so ignored during the worldwide fundraising effort for the South Pacific Tsunami disaster with Presidents Clinton and Bush (the elder), and the fundraising efforts by the two former presidents in the aftermaths of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita.

While his efforts with Habitat for Humanity project is laudable, he really should shut up. This man just wants some headlines before he kicks the bucket. Honestly it would seem that nobody has had the guts to tell Jimmy Carter that he is not inline with America and is constantly being reminded in so many ways that his time is over in the public limelight, and the HE IS, "the weakest link."

Jimmy Carter: Bush not in line with American Values

Kansas City, MO - President Jimmy Carter says President Bush's policies conflict with American values. More than a thousand people packed into Unity Temple on the Plaza for the former president to sign a copy of his new book "Our Endangered Values." Reviews call the book biting political commentary, despite the fact that there's an unwritten rule in American politics that former presidents do not criticize current ones. Carter says he wrote this book reluctantly, but did so because he just couldn't stay silent anymore. "In the last 5 years there's been a dramatic and disturbing and radical change in the values of this country," Carter said. For example, he says peace is an American value, not pre-emptive war: "we don't wait until our country is threatened," Carter said, "we publicly announced our new policy is to attack a county, invade a country, bomb a county." He says another American value is human rights. For decades the US has supported the Geneva convention saying we won't torture prisoners, but he says now "our senators are voting to keep torture. It's inconceivable this would happen in the United States of America."

I admit it...I'm addicted... Addicted to talking on my cell phone when I'm driving.

Today the car charger broke and I ended up turning on the radio, etc (not that there was anything really on). It felt so strange having both hands on the steering wheel.

I cringe everytime Christians put themselves up for ridicule when buffoons like Pat Robertson and others start to go public. It makes you want to never admit that you're a Believer.

Pat Robertson Warns Pa. Town of Disaster

VIRGINIA BEACH, VA (AP) - Religious broadcaster Pat Robertson warned residents of a rural Pennsylvania town Thursday that disaster may strike there because they "voted God out of your city" by ousting school board members who favored teaching intelligent design. All eight Dover, Pa., school board members up for re-election were defeated Tuesday after trying to introduce "intelligent design" — the belief that the universe is so complex that it must have been created by a higher power — as an alternative to the theory of evolution.

"I'd like to say to the good citizens of Dover: If there is a disaster in your area, don't turn to God. You just rejected him from your city," Robertson said on the Christian Broadcasting Network's "700 Club." Eight families had sued the district, claiming the policy violates the constitutional separation of church and state. The federal trial concluded days before Tuesday's election, but no ruling has been issued.

Later Thursday, Robertson issued a statement saying he was simply trying to point out that "our spiritual actions have consequences." "God is tolerant and loving, but we can't keep sticking our finger in his eye forever," Robertson said. "If they have future problems in Dover, I recommend they call on Charles Darwin. Maybe he can help them."

Robertson made headlines this summer when he called on his daily show for the assassination of Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez.

In October 2003, he suggested that the State Department be blown up with a nuclear device. He has also said that feminism encourages women to "kill their children, practice witchcraft, destroy capitalism and become lesbians."

I'm just all skippy happy seeing how normal words are having their meanings being changed out of political correctness or out of trying to be saccharine tutti-fruity "positive."

These days, everybody is a FRIEND....but never an acquaintance...

FRIEND (noun)
1. A person whom one knows, likes, and trusts.
2. A person whom one knows
3. A person with whom one is allied in a struggle or cause; a comrade.
4. One who supports, sympathizes with, or patronizes a group, cause, or movement: friends of the clean air movement.

ACQUAINTANCE (noun)
1. Knowledge of a person acquired by a relationship less intimate than friendship.
2. A relationship based on such knowledge: struck up an acquaintance with our new neighbor.
3. A person whom one knows.
4. Knowledge or information about something or someone: has a passing acquaintance with Chinese history.


Or everything is an "issue" -- not a "problem." A computer doesn't start or crashes -- then it is always an "issue." A person has cancer and then it becomes somehow lessened when the idiom "health issue" is used. Or maybe it should be a "health situation." Or maybe when you have flat tire things suddenly become an "issue" with the car as though getting stuck on the side of a freeway is being made somewhat more pleasant.

ISSUE (noun)
1. A point or matter of discussion, debate, or dispute: legal and moral issues.
2. A matter of public concern: debated economic issues.
3. A misgiving, objection, or complaint: had issues with the plan to change the curriculum.
4. The essential point; crux: the issue of how to provide adequate child care.
5. A culminating point leading to a decision: bring a case to an issue.

PROBLEM (noun)
1. A question to be considered, solved, or answered: math problems; the problem of how to arrange transportation.
2. A situation, matter, or person that presents perplexity or difficulty: was having problems breathing; considered the main problem to be his boss. See Usage Note at
3. A misgiving, objection, or complaint: I have a problem with his cynicism.

(adjective)
1. Difficult to deal with or control: a problem child.
2. Dealing with a moral or social problem: a problem play.


The funniest thing was when a person of "African American" descent got mad at me when I didn't refer to him as a "black" American. Or how supposedly one can't use the word "oriental" in referring to a person from Asia without getting their knickers all bloodied.

I had a somewhat interesting experience this evening going to my local VONS (Safeway) store. There was a white middle class guy who could have been 18 or 19 years old, was expanding his earlobes with some rather large earlobe plugs, wore a pair of black/white low cut Chuck Taylor basketball shoes, and a pair of Dickies shorts which he was precariously trying to keep up wearing them so one could see a potential "plumbers crack." He was also wearing a baseball cap cocked to the side. He was trying to be so ghetto. Yet I could only think here he was trying to do a so-called "hip=hop" style

All I could think was....."sheesh, he's so early 2004."

Meanwhile the Republicans go around saying that Americans have a right to drive their behemoth SUVs...or what political pundit Bill Maher aptly called, "FUVs."

Senate Backs Drilling in Alaska Refuge

By H. JOSEF HEBERT
Associated Press Writer

WASHINGTON

Senate opponents to drilling in an Alaska wildlife refuge failed Thursday to strip the measure from a massive budget package as supporters of exploration argued that the oil is needed to help break America of its import habit.

Environmentalists, who believe strongly the refuge should continue to be off limits to oil companies to protect the area's wildlife, had acknowledged that it was a long shot to get the provision killed and now are concentrating on defeating the overall
budget bill.

A vote on the budget measure, which includes a myriad of spending cuts from food stamps to welfare funds, was expected later in the day.

An amendment offered by Sen. Maria Cantwell, D-Wash., that would have removed drilling authority for the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR), was defeated 51-48. She called the drilling proposal a gimmick that will have little impact on oil or gasoline prices, or U.S. energy security.

Later the Senate in an 86-13 vote, required that none of the oil from ANWR can be exported. Otherwise "there is no assurance that even one drop of Alaskan oil will get to hurting Americans," said Sen. Ron Wyden, D-Ore., a drilling opponent who nevertheless sponsored the no- export provision.

It is really nice to hear when politicians "cut to the chase" on a particular issue ailing a society. Las Vegas mayor Oscar Goodman (a democrat) has gone on the record suggesting that grafitti "artists" should have their thumbs cut off on television. Of course some university academic got their tampon stuck in the wrong direction at this rather "cutting" suggestion by Mayor Goodman. These academics are typically people who when you ask them what time it is will tell you how to build a clock.

Mayor: Sever Thumbs of Graffiti Artists



RENO, Nev. (AP) - Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has suggested that those who deface freeways with graffiti should have their thumbs cut off on television. Goodman, appearing Wednesday on the ``Nevada Newsmakers'' television show, said, ``In the old days in France, they had beheading of people who commit heinous crimes.``You know, we have a beautiful highway landscaping redevelopment in our downtown. We have desert tortoises and beautiful paintings of flora and fauna. These punks come along and deface it. ``I'm saying maybe you put them on TV and cut off a thumb,'' the mayor added. ``That may be the right thing to do.''

Goodman also suggested that whippings or canings should be brought back for children who get into trouble. ``I also believe in a little bit of corporal punishment going back to the days of yore, where examples have to be shown,'' Goodman said. ``I'm dead serious,'' said Goodman, adding, ``Some of these (children) don't learn. You have got to teach them a lesson, and this is coming from a criminal defense lawyer.'' ``They would get a trial first,'' he added.

Another panelist on the show, Howard Rosenberg, a state university system regent, responded by saying that cutting off the thumbs of taggers won't solve the problem and Goodman should ``use his head for something other than a hat rack.''

As someone whose car veers slightly to the right of center, it is kind of fun for me to watch Cindy Sheehan bitch slap Hillary, and now rap star 50 cent bitch slap fellow rapper Kanye West. Someone has to start speaking out when stupid people make stupid comments, such as Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan saying that George Bush intentionally had the flood levees blown up so that the inhabitants of New Orleans would be killed.

50 CENT SLAMS KANYE'S 'BUSH IS RACIST' COMMENT

Rapper 50 CENT has lashed out at fellow hip-hop star KANYE WEST for accusing US President GEORGE W BUSH of racism in the wake of Hurricane Katrina.

The IN DA CLUB star believes human intervention could not have prevented the effects of the hurricane, which killed over a thousand people in the US gulf states in August (05), and sees no point in reprimanding the President for something which was beyond his control.

He says, "The New Orleans disaster was meant to happen. It was an act of God.

"I think people responded to it the best way they can.

"What KANYE WEST was saying, I don't know where that came from."