....at the same time there is this VERY cool song which I think really represents the so-called reason for Christian celebration of Christmas.

"Nassiri" is an Iranian singer who I had never heard of until I saw this...this...this...obnoxious...(noxious) video on CNN. As far as
I'm concerned this song was put into circulation by Al Queda in order
to boost recruiting converts into Islam.

Ohhhh Jesus.....protect us from your followers!

Mahmoud Ahmadinejhad...where are you when we REALLY need you?

"Probably my worst quality is that I get very passionate about what I think is right." - H. R. Clinton


I often don't agree with Hillary, but I can say a loud "AMEN" to this when it comes to describing myself.

Another interpretation....

Another selection by composer Karl Jenkins...

Here is a really nice upbeat tune for the day of wrath -- Dies Irae. This piece was written by Karl Jenkins who composed the string orchestra music that accompanies the commercials for Debeers diamonds.

This Leann Rimes song rocks!

CLICK HERE to view a wonderful video about how the United Airlines commercial was created....AMAZING!

An amazing and CUTE commercial for Canon Powershot Cameras.

An amazing commercial for United Airlines.

James Lipton of TV's "In The Actor's Studio" asks his guests questions that can reveal a lot about their personalities. If I was a guest, these would be my answers:

1. What is your favorite word?
"Cool" "Thank you"


2. What is your least favorite word?
"Awwww-uh"


3. What turns you on creatively, spiritually or emotionally?
Nature/The Ocean


4. What turns you off?
People fighting


5. What turns you on?
Orchestral music


6. What sound or noise do you love?
The Ocean


7. What sound or noise do you hate?
People arguing/fighting and emergency vehicle sirens


8. What profession other than your own would you like to attempt?
Police officer or Alaska oil worker


9. What profession would you not like to do?
Medical doctor/veterinarian/nurse


10. Your favorite pet
Cats


11. Your favorite swear word?
Fuck!


12. If Heaven exists, what would you like to hear God say when you arrive at the Pearly Gates?
"You did good. You always tried your best."

I'm really getting convinced that the so called "Global Warming" is nothing but moonshine brewed up by Al Gore and his band of loonies. Since Gore was and is no longer relevant on the political scene, he has found "Global Warming" and now is out to convert the world to his new religion.

Global Warming is a device of the left to deprive people of their rights and freedoms under the phony guise of "Saving the Planet". While businesses are more than ready to pander to the green crowd by promoting so-called green products, they are just as phony as Gore.

Take Free Advanced Global Personality Test
personality tests by similarminds.com

---

Stability results were medium which suggests you are moderately relaxed, calm, secure, and optimistic.

Orderliness results were moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly organized, reliable, neat, and hard working at the expense of flexibility, efficiency, spontaneity, and fun.

Extraversion results were moderately high which suggests you are, at times, overly talkative, outgoing, sociable and interacting at the expense of developing your own individual interests and internally based identity.

---

clean, self revealing, open, organized, outgoing, social, enjoys leadership and managing others, dominant, makes friends easily, does not like to be alone, assertive, hard working, finisher, optimistic, positive, likes to stand out, likes large parties, respects authority, practical, high self esteem, perfectionist, dislikes chaos, busy, not familiar with the dark side of life, controlling, high self control, traditional, tough, likes to fit in, conforming, brutally honest, takes precautions

MY "PROBLEM" with "ISSUES"

It would seem lately that for the same reason as "misinformed" or "untrue" has replaced "lied to" or "lie," or how "detention center" is the new word for "concentration camp" or "prison" or "jail," or even how "person of interest" is the new term for "suspect," I have no idea why so many people are increasingly using the term "issue" instead of "problem"? Perhaps I guess it means the anonymous corporate cubicle lizards get to talk about things going badly, without a negative word leaving their mouth or keyboard.

I have latelynoticed this particular instance of sanitized language twisting and it seems to be becoming more commonplace. If this continues, then I imagine the word "problem" will seem unusual and alarming, and the word "issue" will no longer be able to be used in its usual sense of not implying "good" or "bad," because it will be understood to mean that something is "wrong." No matter how you look at it, if you are having an "issue" with your car or computer -- it is more honestly a "problem" with and you can't get where you need to go and you can't get your intended work done.

While similar, in a sense, these linguistic dominoes have fallen in the past, I'm happy to see that the word "handicapped" is becoming again more commonplace after being dethroned by "disabled" has taken its place. The emphasis is "disabled" is on not having something, rather than being held back.

I understand that all sorts of words have fallen into disrepute due to politically correct pressures and people's desire to to whatever they can at the time to slip out of causing a fuss or sidestep being honest about what they are talking about. One can hardly say that someone "died" without it seeming a bit harsh or callous. Apparently "passed away" or now "passed" is thought to be less jarring. But then, this makes the ordinary use of "passed" difficult by the its own.

A saving grace is that all of these euphemisms enables the creation of pleasant sounding insults, such as "cognitively challenged" rather than "stupid".

Twice lately when I have addressed someone of African descent as an "African American" versus "black" and have been loudly redressed by those as "I'm not directly from Africa nor is my family." "My family has been in American for many generations and I am 'black.'"

Part of the problem is the pressures on people, particularly in the litigious workplace and in public discourse, not to cause offense and walking on linguistic eggshells is more appropriate. Therefore, they tone everything down. Instead of the manager telling someone they did a bad job of some task, they tend to come up with a string of weasel words such as "You know, you 'could' have done a little better..."

Perhaps it is the culture of political correctness and the overabundance of lawyers -- or should I say "legal professionals" -- that is changing language so right when you come down to it one ends up uttering a bunch of words that really don't mean anything.

Tonight on HBO I watched the movie "Borat: Cultural Learnings of America for Make Benefit Glorious Nation of Kazakhstan."

When the movie was in the theaters I decided I would boycott it in that I thought it would be a slam on the former Soviet republic of Kazakhstan, and being of Latvian/Estonian descent (part of the mix) I tend to be a little more sensitive on those kinds of things. The movie was on DirecTV pay-per-view several months ago and figured I would still boycott it until it showed up on HBO which I already pay for every month.

While the movie has some crude humor and situations, comic Sacha Baron Cohen juxtaposes it to illustrate a way more serious, bigger and deeper meaning and subtext. Just like the movie "Crash" -- the movie illustrates how people these days love to be "politically correct" in public, but when you get right down to it, Americans are still just as suspicious and racist/xenophobic/homophobic as they always have been. The recent debacle of radio shock jock Don Imus is just another example of that. (Not only that it honestly reflects what I have always felt when trying to get a job in my field of interest. People often are very friendly with me and tell me how talented I am, yet I know behind my back that they will NEVER hire anyone simply on the basis of my unusual name.)

7 stars out of 10 stars.

A friend of mine this evening suggested that he swears that some "born again Christians" grind up Bibles and snort it up their nose. "It affects their brains."

He continued to say, "Hell of a visual huh? I dont get it...Ive read the Bible...studied the Bible...consider myself Christian...am comfortable in my relationship with God and Jesus Christ...and those people...I think Jesus would be giving them all noogies if he was down here..."

"Read the New Testament...Jesus was not the hate filled freak they paint."

GREAT Video! The song could be a little better...but I get you can't ask for everything......

Who came up with this saccharin slobbery verse inside of my just opened tub of sour cream?

YECH!

"You don't drop a piranha in the kiddie pool and stick around to watch the bubbles!"

Some people were a little surprised when I supported the notion of the Napolean-like Iranian dictator visiting the United States last week to speak in front of students at Columbia University and at the United Nations. In the United States we still more-or-less have a concept of freedom of speech, but with it comes the right to practice of freedom to be considered an idiot and asshole.

Apparently this idea was not alien to the producers and actors at Saturday Night Live last night...

This was a great dialogue tonight on Showtime's mini-series, "Weeds."

Reservist: I clearly am not fit to serve.

Recruiter: In case you haven't noticed, this country is at war. Actually technically authorization has been given by an act of Congress. That's enough to activate you.

Reservist: I'm clearly am not fit to serve.

Recruiter: Can you walk?

Reservist: Not in long step. I tend to weave.

Recruiter: I didn't notice.

Reservist: I'm a drug addict.

Recruiter: We'll clean you up.

Reservist: I'm gay.

Recruiter: We have a unit for that.

I LOVE SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA!

The other morning I was traveling down Highway 94 to Downtown San Diego when I spotted a most responsible fellow driver in her news Prius listening to her IPOD. Of course, you could say that I was just as responsible taking the picture from my cell phone with my right hand while holding the steering wheel with my left hand.

THis has been celebrity with his botched nose and face job has been so fortunate that any one is interested in his has been fame and career and that he is not performing in an airport bar in Poughkeepsie.

Barry to Elisabeth: Your "View" is Dangerous

Posted Sep 17th 2007 1:16PM by TMZ Staff
Filed under: TV, Celebrity Feuds
UPDATE: A source tells TMZ that it's not Barry who's writing this song -- in fact, "View" producers pulled the plug on Manilow's performance when his people demanded that he appear on the show without Elisabeth. Manilow has in fact performed on the show twice before -- both last year -- when Hasselbeck's been co-hosting.

TMZ has learned that legendary singer Barry Manilow has pulled out of his scheduled appearance on "The View" tomorrow -- because he strongly disagrees with host Elisabeth Hasselbeck's conservative view! Paging Rosie O'Donnell!

In an exclusive statement to TMZ, Barry says, "I strongly disagree with her views. I think she's dangerous and offensive. I will not be on the same stage as her." Barry, taking a stand!

Manilow is currently on a press tour promoting the release of his new album, "Greatest Songs of the Seventies."

A network spokesman had no comment.

After having my terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day last Monday, tomorrow could just be the reverse, as I'm going to be able to get into another media performance class. Albeit that it is not focusing on television as the original class, it will be a good opportunity to get where I potentially want to be.

Update on Monday afternoon......

Like I said to someone recently...the current batch of politicians in Congress and Senate will NEVER get health care reform resolved because they are not motivated to do so (except out of political expediency and to get brownie points for the drive-by "I care" quotient and be able to say "I tried" and be done with it). The millionaires on both sides of the political aisle are taken care of by their own privileged system and simply don't care.

The latest antic comes from the vile and putrid mouth of Hillary Clinton, who in her pursuit to be crowned "Queen Hillary" and continue the Clinton dynasty, does not have the political savvy or ability to get things done without antagonizing everybody.

(AP) Democratic presidential candidate Hillary Rodham Clinton is unveiling a sweeping health care reform proposal Monday that would require every American to carry health insurance and offer federal subsidies to help reduce the cost of coverage. With a price tag of about $110 billion per year, Clinton's "American Health Choices Plan" represents her first major effort to achieve universal health coverage since 1994, when the plan she authored during her husband's first term collapsed.

The former first lady says she has learned from that experience, which almost derailed Bill Clinton's presidency and helped put Republicans in control of Congress for years to come. Aides say she has jettisoned the complexity and uncertainty of the last effort in favor of a plan that stresses simplicity, cost control and consumer choice. The centerpiece of Clinton's plan is the so-called "individual mandate," requiring everyone to have health insurance — just as most states require drivers to purchase auto insurance. Rival John Edwards has also offered a plan that includes an individual mandate, while the proposal outlined by Barack Obama does not.

Hey, Brainiac Hillary...what about the people who can't AFFORD it, hon?

Information Week magazine reports that...

In a mobile phone variation of the "shop 'til you drop" phenomenon, Sprint Nextel (S) has launched a free shopping service for its subscribers.

Announced Thursday, the Mobile Shopper service enables subscribers to purchase products from more than 30 retailers including Target and Wal-Mart. The service, powered by mShopper, is the company's first mobile shopping service to be offered in the U.S., Sprint said.

Sprint said the service is offered free-of-charge, although subscribers will be charged for Internet access. Mobile Shopper will enable users to instantly compare online prices with in-store prices, enabling them to find the lowest prices for products. Mobile Shopper accounts can be established directly on mobile phones or on subscribers' PC. A secure PIN protects shipping addresses and credit card information.

Sprint's demo of mShopper notes that the browser interface allows the shopper to send the information to a friend's phone, e-mail the information for future reference, talk to a live sales agent, or purchase the item. The shopper must have a Web-enabled phone for the service to work.

How about a phone that doesn't drop calls while I stand still, works in most rooms of my house, etc. Huh?

Monday was a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day. Although I had some reservations about it, my class in TV Media Performance (TV Newscasting) was cancelled by some eunuch administrator at San Diego College because of "low enrollment." We had ten people in the workshop class and even that was too many because of the one hour allotted by the college for us to utilize the college television studio.

I was taking the class in order to brush up on my media presenting skills in anticipation of finally getting a job in the San Diego media which I would actually enjoy doing, instead of sitting for hours on end doing graphic design which I really don't doing anyway. It was really my first chance to get out of the house and be productive, meet new people, etc., since mom's passing over a year ago. I really felt like I had the rug pulled out from under me AGAIN when I'm trying to do something constructive.

I returned home really downcast, and even dinner didn't seem to go down right. I did go to the gym and benched 310 lbs. which got my mind off of things. I went to bed, woke up crying, etc. It was actually the first time I had the gall about doing something extraordinarily stupid....not that I would do it because I'm such a coward on such things...and that's a good thing.

I got up and went online and was in touch with an old online friend who has gone through a horrible hell himself. I shared what was in my heart and brain when he told me:

One: when we reach the end of all the light that we can see and walk into the unknown... either one of two things will happen there will be something solid for us to stand on, or we will be taught to fly.

Two: life isn't a journey into the grave with the intention of arriving in a pretty and well preserved body, but rather to skid in broadside, thoroughly used up and loudly proclaiming... "WOW! What a ride!"

Definitely another perspective.

SYDNEY, Australia - President Bush had a terrible, horrible, no good, very bad day at the Sydney Opera House.

He'd only reached the third sentence of Friday's speech to business leaders, on the sidelines of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum, when he committed his first gaffe. "Thank you for being such a fine host for the OPEC summit," Bush said to Australian Prime Minister John Howard. Oops. That would be APEC, the annual meeting of leaders from 21 Pacific Rim nations, not OPEC, the cartel of 12 major oil producers. Bush quickly corrected himself. "APEC summit," he said forcefully, joking that Howard had invited him to the OPEC summit next year (for the record, an impossibility, since neither Australia nor the U.S. are OPEC members).

The president's next goof went uncorrected — by him anyway. Talking about Howard's visit to Iraq last year to thank his country's soldiers serving there, Bush called them "Austrian troops." That one was fixed for him. Though tapes of the speech clearly show Bush saying "Austrian," the official text released by the White House switched it to "Australian."

Then, speech done, Bush confidently headed out — the wrong way. He strode away from the lectern on a path that would have sent him over a steep drop. Howard and others redirected the president to center stage, where there were steps leading down to the floor of the theater.

The event had inauspicious beginnings. Bush started 10 minutes late, so that APEC workers could hustle people out of the theater's balcony seating to fill the many empty portions of the main orchestra section below — which is most visible on camera. Even resettled, the audience remained quiet throughout the president's remarks, applauding only when he was finished.

A logistical glitch added to the woes. APEC security workers would not allow the members of the media who travel in Bush's motorcade to enter the Opera House along with him. This even though the journalists allowed into the president's entourage are extensively screened and guarded by the Secret Service, which has more stringent security standards than about any operation in the world. And even though they always accompany him into public events. As a result, while Bush spoke, the traveling media cooled its heels outside the landmark Opera House, shooting pictures and watching boats in the harbor.

I'm not President Bush's biggest fan, but I think he's just plain emotionally and physically exhausted and burned out. The guy can't escape anywhere without being constantly hounded.

Of course it is kind of fun for me to watch the Democrats fighting each other and being obviously disappointed that things may be going a bit better in Iraq (as it would seem). Al Gore has failed to be able to sustain the propaganda about global warming...a ploy which I think the Democrats tried to use to hang their hat on in the coming election as an issue, but has gotten very limited traction. Gore turned out to be his own worst enemy in trying to beat the drum on the subject. He was found to be consuming 40% more electricity in Tennessee than the average Tennessee resident, and now there is the video that someone took of him boarding a jet fuel hogging Gulfstream after he said that he would only use commercial airliners. You have Patrick Kennedy yelling and screaming about the Republicans being non-ecoconscious, yet the Kennedys of Hyannisport have spent millions in attorneys fees fighting the erection (oops...why don't I say "building") of wind generators in their neck of the woods.

Just as Gov. Dukakis said several weeks ago, the Democrats attempt to recapture the White House is not going to be the cakewalk they had anticipated and hoped it to be. Just as we were talking the other night, even mainstream Democrats have grown very weary of the superhyperbole of the left wingers in the party.

The American people are beginning to figure out and spit on the hypocritical nature of the whacked out right wing whacko Bible thumping Jesus freaks, as they have figured out the hypocritical nature of the the left wing whacko Kumbaya singing Cindy Sheehan adoring unwashed masses.

Am I opinionated?

Tonight on HBO I watched the blockbuster horror film "Snakes On A Plane" starring Samuel Jackson... I can see why it was such a success...it is one great movie! A good and well written plot, great acting, and the effects are superb.

Movies are supposed to be entertaining....and "Snakes On A Plane" fills the bill!

I don't expect though this movie to be shown on a transcontinental airliner....along with ConAir, Turbulence, the Airport movies, etc.

What's funny is that I've learned not to go camping because of the movie, "The Hills Have Eyes" (the latest version), and now..."Snakes On A Plane."

The video for the movie is great as well.

Here's a parody of the movie trailer for "Snakes On A Plane."

This has to be one of my most fav-oh-rhyte videos...

OK...I found it tonight.....

The letter I received directed to "LIRIS".....

Oh boy....

Newest batch of examples of my name being butchered....

Then there was the envelope and letter addressed to "Liris"....

Reports are circulating in the popular press that dramatic actor extraordinaire Leonardo "I'm the king of the world" DiCaprio has admitted that he does not feel "inspired" by the 2008 US presidential candidates. (Oh what to do!)

Apparently the actor wasted time and energy campaigning for the haunted tree, Senator John Kerry in 2004, travelling to 14 different states to support the Democratic hopeful. However, he will not be doing the same for any of the 2008 candidates until they make their environmental policies clear. Oh crummm!

"I'm still on the fence about it, to tell you the truth. I have yet to hear a candidate that has clearly laid out their environmental policy in a way that is inspiring to me," DiCaprio told WENN.

Speaking about Kerry, Leonardo added: "I thought he had an amazing environmental policy. But I have yet to hear a candidate that has compared in that regard. I'm waiting for the right questions to be asked, and for these candidates to give really clear responses to what they're going to do in a tangible way - not a lot of rhetoric. I want to hear hardcore facts."

The hardcore fact, Lenny, is: 1) nobody really gives a damn what you think, and 2) we all know that you couldn't act your way out of paper bag (however, you don't seem to know it or realize it). So go back and go hawk a DVD release of "Growing Pains" at Walmart in an Alabama backwater strip mall and go visit Al "The earth is melting" Gore or some other Hollywood fraud.

(God, I'm feeling catty today.)

holy cats!

An acquaintance from Singapore asked me a few questions trying to understand the so-called "American mentality."

His questions:

1) Why would neighbors have so much to say about the new house getting built? They can literally stop a project just because they don't like it aesthetically.

2) Why are there so many Judge Mathis/Greg type of shows. "What not to wear", "10 years younger."

3) How come the TV can go on on on on on on on for days about Lindsay Lohan getting arrested, Anna Nicole Smith, (Princess Diana, now??) etc.

4) How come they can have so many engraved nominations of liberty and democracy when prejudice and restrictions are everywhere

5) WHy do americans talk so much? I was at a social function and was amazed how can they talk among themselves and not yawn?

6) They seem to constantly search for trivia knowledge to share. This trend is VERY American.


My observations/answers:

1. Americans like order...and I do kind of agree with that philosophy.

2. Because the American people love to convince themselves they have "justice for all" -- yet justice is only for the rich/privileged.

3. They are ASSUMING that the American public is interested in the lifestyles of the rich and the famous. It also is a distraction from dealing with what really ails American society.

4. Because they are hypocrites.

5. They get nervous when there is quiet...like they have to fill air. The average American has no use for quiet, solitude.

6. It is pseudo-intellectualism on their part. By spouting of this type of info they self gratify themselves into think that they are educated.

While channel surfing I caught former Vice President Al (B)ore on Oprah winfrey where he was touting "Five ways to fight global warming."

The suggestions:

1) Use fluorescent bulbs
2) Use solar-energized outdoor lighting
3) Use computer-activated "smart" heating/cooling thermostats
4) Use a blanket on your water heater
5) Regularly change out the filter on your heating/cooling system.

While three of the suggestions are valid, AlGore hasn't thought about the unintended consequences of the first two suggestions.

Fluorescent bulbs and the solar-energized outdoor LED lighting contain dangerous levels of mercury. When disposed of incorrectly pose a threat to human beings and muck up landfills with these trace elements. Not only that, like tube-based fluorescent lights, the bulbs emit radio frequency which interfere with hearing aids. This goes to prove that there is no "free lunch," and that this really poses another good argument that we as human beings should stop using fossil-based energy resources in our daily lives, and that we should resort to returning to caves and mudhuts and campfires.... But don't campfires emit smoke which goes up into the atmosphere causing more pollution?

Which leads me to suggest the only way out of this whole cunundrum: we need to regress to pre-fire discovering cavemen living, and regress back to the evolution of humans so that we are carbon-emitting negative specie.

Sounds logical to me..... (Tongue firmly in cheek)

and the story behind this video which has now gotten nearly three million posts...

My Christian neighbor really made me laugh today when i needed it the most. I was complaining how so many Christians go around being the ultimate hypocrites on one hand shoving a Bible in your chest while they stab you in the back or lie, cheat, or steal. On one hand they impose a very legalistic view on how you should live while they literally get away with murder, but use the excuse and justification that because they are "born again" they will be forgiven for whatever transgression they commit.

Out of the blue he said to me, "Going to McDonald's doesn't make you any more a hamburger than going to Church makes you a Christian."

Hallelujah!

Praise The Lord!

From Crackle: FISSION

If the Democratic party could have a few more Senators like Joe Lieberman...

Lieberman escalates attack on Iraq critics

By Manu Raju
The Hill
July 31, 2007

Ever since Connecticut Democrats refused to back him for a fourth term in Congress, Joe Lieberman has been burnishing his independent credentials in the narrowly divided Senate while becoming increasingly critical of the Democratic Party on the war in Iraq.

Lieberman, the Democrats’ 2000 vice presidential nominee, insists he is not actively considering joining the Republican Party. But he is keeping that possibility wide open as his disenchantment grows with Democratic leaders. The main sticking points are their attempts to end the war in Iraq and their hesitation to take a harder line against Iran.

“I think either [Democrats] are, in my opinion, respectfully, naïve in thinking we can somehow defeat this enemy with talk, or they’re simply hesitant to use American power, including military power,” Lieberman said in a wide-ranging interview with The Hill.

“There is a very strong group within the party that I think doesn’t take the threat of Islamist terrorism seriously enough.”

Lieberman says he is annoyed by the mudslinging on Capitol Hill and Democrats’ unwillingness to work with President Bush. But his critics say he has contributed to that polarization by his rhetoric and refusal to compel Bush to find a new way forward in Iraq.

As Lieberman sees it, however, the Democratic Party has slipped away from its “most important and successful times” of the middle of last century, where it was tough on Communism and progressive on domestic policy.

“I fear that some people take this position also because anything President Bush is for, they’ll be against, and that’s wrong,” said Lieberman, a staunch advocate of the war. “There’s a great tradition in our history of partisanship generally receding when it comes to foreign policy. But for the moment we’ve lost that.”

Even though he did not reclaim his Senate seat as a Democrat, Lieberman has been instrumental in two bills this Congress central to the 2006 Democratic campaign platform: an ethics and lobbying overhaul bill and a measure to implement recommendations of the bipartisan 9/11 Commission. The 9/11 bill cleared Congress last week, and the ethics bill could win final approval this week before lawmakers adjourn for August recess.

But if Lieberman seems blunt about the direction of the Democratic Party, it may stem from his loss last August in the primaries to businessman Ned Lamont, who wooed Democratic voters with his anti-war platform. Lieberman calls his ensuing victory in the general election as an independent “inspiring.” And remaining an independent has freed him to repeatedly buck the Democratic leadership on foreign policy and other legislative issues.

“Now that he knows he can win as an independent, he doesn’t need the Democrats at all,” said Kenneth Dautrich, a professor of public policy at the University of Connecticut. “I think it’s absolutely emboldened him.”

Lieberman was the only non-Republican in June to vote against Democratic efforts to pass a resolution expressing no confidence on embattled Attorney General Alberto Gonzales. He has no plans to endorse a Democrat for president, including the senior senator from his home state, Christopher Dodd, and is open to backing a Republican candidate for president. Lieberman also startled Democrats when he lent his support to the re-election bid of Republican Sen. Susan Collins of Maine, a top target of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee.

During this month’s Iraq debate, Lieberman was working behind the scenes strategizing with Republicans and was front-and-center in several GOP press conferences denouncing Democratic tactics to push for an end to the war.

Lieberman was the lone non-Republican to vote against Majority Leader Harry Reid’s (D-Nev.) efforts to shut down debate on an amendment to bring troops home by next April. (Reid voted against the cloture motion to file a similar motion at a later time.) Lieberman was also alone when he joined 40 Republicans in voting to kill an amendment by Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) to extend the time between troop deployments in Iraq.

“I’m disappointed that I am in so small a minority among Senate Democrats in taking the position that I have,” Lieberman said.

But even as he has played a key role on some of their top domestic initiatives, Democrats have at times kept their distance from Lieberman. Last week, for instance, Reid held a press conference with several Democrats to tout their efforts to pass the 9/11 Commission bill and a homeland-security spending plan. Lieberman, the lead Senate negotiator on the measure and chairman of the Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, was conspicuously absent.

Reid said it was not intentional to leave Lieberman out of the press conference, but Lieberman said not being invited was “surprising.”

The distance that Democratic leaders appear to be keeping from Lieberman could result from the animosity that the Democrats’ anti-war base has directed toward him. That criticism intensified even more last month, when he suggested military intervention against the Iranian government.

“He used to have a heart and soul, and he used to care about people,” said Leslie Angeline, an activist with the anti-war group Code Pink, who held a 24-day hunger strike until she could meet with Lieberman about his position on Iran.
Angeline is facing an unlawful entry charge after she refused to leave Lieberman’s office during her strike.

Even though Lieberman has become a lightning rod on the left, his prominent chairmanship and influence within the Democratic caucus is safe, for now, given the Democrats’ razor-thin majority. Analysts say if Democrats increase their Senate majority from the 2008 elections, Lieberman’s influence and role could be marginalized within the caucus.

Still, Lieberman is unfazed and says he has no intention of formally rejoining the Democratic Party.

“For now, I find being an independent more fun,” Lieberman said. “The partisanship in this place is out of control. As an independent I’ve got the opportunity to speak out against that.”

In response to a nasty liberal website, DailyKos, where a Photoshopped picture was posted depicting Sen. Lieberman on his knees engaging President Bush in oral sex. The same site is promoting a conference which has been endorsed by the airline JetBlue, and will be featuring Hillary Clinton and John Edwards....to which I wrote in to The O'Reilly Factor...

Bill, thank you for exposing the real merchants of hate and intolerance as the DailyKos. As an independent voter (like many Americans even though they may be affiliated with a particular mainstream party), I can't help but feel that while any of the Democratic presidential candidates feel that it is a fait accompli that one of them may be occupying the residence at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue come Tuesday, January 20, 2009, nothing is set in stone. Remember the Aesop's fable of the tortoise and the hare? Nothing prevents the Dems to be drubbed out again.

The other night Tammy Faye (Bakker) Messner appeared on what has been regarded in some circles as her final television interview on CNN's Larry King Show. She is a "stage 4" cancer victim. I couldn't watch more than a minute of the interview given that I recently lost my mom to cancer.

From what I saw of it this is sooo what I would call "ratingsploitation." It is both funny and sad how one of the great innovators of cable news, CNN, has turned into a bad parody of FOX News without the gaudy graphics.

I swear that when Larry King dies (unless perhaps that he is a present day reincarnation of God and is immortal) CNN is going to have him taxidermied and turn on a camera on him every night at 6 p.m. till the end of time (or be the last live host) and run a tape loop of his standard questions to which the guest sitting there answers.

What a piece of modern artwork.


Here is a sample of the interview.

CNN interview, part 1 of 3
CNN interview, part 2 of 3
CNN interview, part 3 of 3

The most shocking part of the interview is how Mr. Praise The Lord, Tammy's ex-husband and televangelist, Jim Bakker, has not contacted or given support to his former wife.

This just shows how fucked up "born again" Christians are....

Totally not figuring out what TOLERANCE means, three Christian activist audience members were arrested Thursday after staging a noisy protest as a Hindu chaplain read the opening prayer at the US Senate, branding his appearance an "abomination."
They were ejected from the chamber and charged with an unlawful disruption of Congress.

As Hindu chaplain Rajan Zed started to recite his prayer, one protestor was heard chanting "Lord Jesus, forgive us father for allowing a prayer which is an abomination in your sight. "You are the one, true living God."

It has been a Congress tradition to bring in Faith leaders from various belief systems to give the Senate's daily opening prayer, though it is normally offered by the Congress's Christian (sometimes Jewish) chaplain.

An article on the Internet quotes a group calling itself "Americans United for Separation of Church and State" as condemning the protest. According to a dispatch from AFP, "This shows the intolerance of many Religious Right activists," said the group's executive director, Reverend Barry Lynn. "They say they want more religion in the public square, but it's clear they mean only their religion." The conservative American Family Association had been campaigning against the use of a Hindu prayer in the chamber, asking members to send emails and letters to Senators in protest.

Praise The Lord! Praise The Lord! Live the life that leads you to eternal life!

This is the very reason I think so-called "born again" Christians are such fakers.

I had to make a short trip from my house via Interstate 8 -- which is one of the most busy freeways in San Diego which goes from the Pacific Ocean through to central Arizona.

But I digress.

I was going west in the number 3 lane and eventually had to pass through to the number 4 to exit. I'm watching the traffic and see a Nissan truck just lingering behind in that lane. I signal, and while I move into the lane the jerk decides he has to overtake me. I'm already 90% into the lane that he decides to speed up and while honking like a moron, gives me a most expressive performance of the third finger salute which continued as he passed me to the left. I was not going to lower myself to his level....and as he zooms away I see the classic Christian symbol of a fish and numerous right-wing Bible thumper bumper sticker (and a George Bush for President bumper sticker).

I'm not going to use a broad paintbrush on my impressions of these so-called "Born Again" Christians, but it does show that these people VERY OFTEN don't live the life they want to impose on others.

Ohhhh my day certainly wouldn't be complete without some news about America's real nut bag, Cindy Sheehan, who recently announced she was ending her invovlement with the "peace movement." Cindy who obviously has never had an original thought in her brain uttered today....

Sheehan, who will turn 50 on Tuesday, said Bush should be impeached because she believes he misled the public about the reasons for going to war,

I guess 17 United Nations resolutions against Saddam Hussein and his torture of Iraqis and gassing of Kurds doesn't mean anything.


violated the Geneva Convention by torturing detainees,

Those poor, poor, poor people who with their intolerance to women would soooo quickly put a burhka on Cindy Sheehan and tell her regularly with the true gentlemanliness of a lot of Arab/Muslim men, "Shut up ugly bitch."

and crossed the line by commuting the prison sentence of former vice presidential aide I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby.

I guess President Clinton didn't cross the line by pardoning known drug dealer and Clinton campaign fundraiser Marc Rich.

She said other grounds for impeachment are the domestic spying program

Never mind that all Presidents have authorized domestic spying programs.

and the "inadequate and tragic" response to Hurricane Katrina.

Look at the all of the devastating flooding in Texas and you don't hear anybody whining and carrying on.

She is planning to run against House Speaker Nancy Pelosi "if she doesn't do what I tell her to do" in Pelosi's San Francisco district. I really hope she does get elected so they REALLY get fantastic representation...and be yet again the laughing stock of the nation.

I couldn't say it any better.

I was listening tonight to a debate on television about the Democrat's latest whine trying to reestablish the famous "Fairness Doctrine." (The Fairness Doctrine, which, until 1987, was a regulation of the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) which required broadcasters to present controversial issues of public importance, and to present such issues in what was deemed an honest, equal and balanced manner.)

THe Democrats complain it was "detrimental" to the passage of the shamnesty bill. After the usual blathering and blathering I turned it off. Conservative talk radio is entertaining. The Dems (a lot of people who take things WAY too seriously) can get DEADLY boring. And the reason that liberal talk radio has failed is that you have all of these raving "hate Bush" (he is hateable!) left wingers....which does not reflect the true nature of American society. Most Americans these days are more "anti-moron" and into a renaissance of common sense....the Dems have not figured it out. Anyway, I digress. They complain about the concentration of media outlets owned by major media conglomerates. The fact is it is PRESIDENT CLINTON who signed the Telecommunications Act of 1996 which allowed the creation of the broadcasting conglomerates who have made a success of conservative talk radio. Of course, nobody dares among the Democrats criticize President Clinton lest it will somehow rub off on Hillary......and THAT"s the untold story! It is almost as ridiculous as when I was working in sales for a magazine that I was not allowed to design the ads for my clients "because it isn't fair that you have the ability and equipment and the other sales people don't have that talent and ability."

To get more radio stations broadcasting liberal talk formats on the air, all that needs to happen is for entrepreneurs with deep pockets who support liberal talk radio to acquire more station licenses. Forget about getting liberal talk radio programs syndicated. Concentrate on acquiring licenses and buying stations.

There is a category of radio stations whose licenses are excellent candidates for challenging on the grounds that they don't serve the interest of their communities of license. That category is stations that broadcast in Spanish. A solid case can be made that the term the word "public" in the phrase "the public interest" means only those people who are in the country legally -- citizens or legal aliens. Any station that serves the needs of the illegal alien community is not serving the public interest, any more than a station that airs programs of service to any other criminal group in the country.

If a station specifically targeted the needs of the drug trafficking community, it would be at risk of losing a license challenge. If a station specifically targeted the needs of the welfare fraud community, it would be at risk of losing a license challenge. So, any station that targets the needs of the illegal alien community should also be at risk of losing a license challenge.

By challenging those station licenses, and winning the challenges, operations like Air America could stop having to worry about convincing broadcasters to carry their programs. They'd own enough stations of their own that they would not have to worry about ratings ever again.

Ohhhhh, Hillary, be careful what you ask for!

1. With that exuberance are we going to find more of Bill's used condoms?
2. Aren't we being a bit sexist resorting to asking women to do the cleaning? This sure doesn't sound the woman who said that she was not the type to sit back and "bake cookies" while she "stands by her man"!
3. What a blowhard

Seriously, Hill -- can I call you that? -- stop talking about the past and tell us what YOU plan to do. How are YOU going to conclusively fight terrorism? Hindsight is 20/20, Hill, and you better do a better job than your Democratically run Congress and Senate!

Like the saying goes, Hill, new brooms always sweep well.

Clinton: White House Needs 'Clean Sweep'


Jun 30, 12:18 PM (ET)

By BRENDAN FARRINGTON

(AP) Democratic Presidential hopeful, Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., answers questions during the...
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MIAMI (AP) - "A clean sweep" is needed at the White House because President Bush has fostered "a culture of cronyism, corruption and incompetence," Hillary Rodham Clinton said Saturday.

The Democratic presidential candidate told nearly 1,000 women at a fundraiser that she would have much work to do at the White House if she won election in 2008.

"After eight years of the Bush administration, we are going to be shocked by what we find," the New York senator and former first lady said. "Somebody said to me the other day if there was ever a time for a woman president it's now because we're going to have to do a lot of cleaning."

The women, many of who brought their daughters to the $100 per plate "Women for Hillary" breakfast, applauded wildly.

"Grab your buckets, grab your brooms," Clinton said. "We're going to have to do a clean sweep because there has been a culture of cronyism, corruption and incompetence."

While I consider myself a political moderate, and while I am DEFINITELY no fan of our incompetent commander in chief, George W, I think it is coming to pass that the Democrats are really no better than the Republicans, and are not great saviors of these great United States. While the President has tried to gain votes by his "shamnesty" plan and by referring to the Minutemen Civil Defense Corps as vigilantes, the Democrats honestly do not have a core issue to run on that would make them an alternative to the Republican administration of the past eight years....especially now that there is interestingly more evidence that the Dem's have tried to take the whole so-called global warming issue as their compelling issue with what is coming out as "junk science" and suspect and erroneous conclusions -- disguised as a real campaign issue. And seeing how the Dem's never denounced Sen. Ted Kennedy's drunken singing tirade.....now wasn't THAT a great representative of his cause during the "shamnesty" debate. (What I am looking forward to see if the news media DARES to show the tons and tons of litter which is inevitably going to be left behind at the great Al Gore Global Warming/Awareness concerts next weekend. I really doubt it.) Of course, true to the Democratic way of thinking (also Republican), they'll find some way to spin the situation just like they seemingly seem to not take responsibility for denouncing the senior Senator's words and actions.

Anyway, here is a very interesting piece from the Chicago Sun-Times about the whole question of "global warming."

Alarmist global warming claims melt under scientific scrutiny
(http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/450392,CST-EDT-REF30b.article)

June 30, 2007

BY JAMES M. TAYLOR

In his new book, The Assault on Reason, Al Gore pleads, "We must stop tolerating the rejection and distortion of science. We must insist on an end to the cynical use of pseudo-studies known to be false for the purpose of intentionally clouding the public's ability to discern the truth." Gore repeatedly asks that science and reason displace cynical political posturing as the central focus of public discourse.

If Gore really means what he writes, he has an opportunity to make a difference by leading by example on the issue of global warming.

A cooperative and productive discussion of global warming must be open and honest regarding the science. Global warming threats ought to be studied and mitigated, and they should not be deliberately exaggerated as a means of building support for a desired political position.

Many of the assertions Gore makes in his movie, ''An Inconvenient Truth,'' have been refuted by science, both before and after he made them. Gore can show sincerity in his plea for scientific honesty by publicly acknowledging where science has rebutted his claims.

For example, Gore claims that Himalayan glaciers are shrinking and global warming is to blame. Yet the September 2006 issue of the American Meteorological Society's Journal of Climate reported, "Glaciers are growing in the Himalayan Mountains, confounding global warming alarmists who recently claimed the glaciers were shrinking and that global warming was to blame."

Gore claims the snowcap atop Africa's Mt. Kilimanjaro is shrinking and that global warming is to blame. Yet according to the November 23, 2003, issue of Nature magazine, "Although it's tempting to blame the ice loss on global warming, researchers think that deforestation of the mountain's foothills is the more likely culprit. Without the forests' humidity, previously moisture-laden winds blew dry. No longer replenished with water, the ice is evaporating in the strong equatorial sunshine."

Gore claims global warming is causing more tornadoes. Yet the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change stated in February that there has been no scientific link established between global warming and tornadoes.

Gore claims global warming is causing more frequent and severe hurricanes. However, hurricane expert Chris Landsea published a study on May 1 documenting that hurricane activity is no higher now than in decades past. Hurricane expert William Gray reported just a few days earlier, on April 27, that the number of major hurricanes making landfall on the U.S. Atlantic coast has declined in the past 40 years. Hurricane scientists reported in the April 18 Geophysical Research Letters that global warming enhances wind shear, which will prevent a significant increase in future hurricane activity.

Gore claims global warming is causing an expansion of African deserts. However, the Sept. 16, 2002, issue of New Scientist reports, "Africa's deserts are in 'spectacular' retreat . . . making farming viable again in what were some of the most arid parts of Africa."

Gore argues Greenland is in rapid meltdown, and that this threatens to raise sea levels by 20 feet. But according to a 2005 study in the Journal of Glaciology, "the Greenland ice sheet is thinning at the margins and growing inland, with a small overall mass gain." In late 2006, researchers at the Danish Meteorological Institute reported that the past two decades were the coldest for Greenland since the 1910s.

Gore claims the Antarctic ice sheet is melting because of global warming. Yet the Jan. 14, 2002, issue of Nature magazine reported Antarctica as a whole has been dramatically cooling for decades. More recently, scientists reported in the September 2006 issue of the British journal Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society Series A: Mathematical, Physical, and Engineering Sciences, that satellite measurements of the Antarctic ice sheet showed significant growth between 1992 and 2003. And the U.N. Climate Change panel reported in February 2007 that Antarctica is unlikely to lose any ice mass during the remainder of the century.

Each of these cases provides an opportunity for Gore to lead by example in his call for an end to the distortion of science. Will he rise to the occasion? Only time will tell.

James M. Taylor is senior fellow for environment policy at the Heartland Institute.

I had a thought hit me hard today.

There are terrible floods going on now in Central Texas. Property is being washed away. Numbers of people are dead. Yet you don't hear some so called rap star like Kanye West going around saying "President Bush hates black people." Texans are taking care of themselves. They are doing what they can to revive and rebuild their businesses and communities even in the face of more torrential rains.

Flash back to New Orleans two years ago. They still can't get their act together. In order to save face the politicians keep on deflecting criticism of their own lack of leadership by blasting and criticizing others. Last night the cadre of Democratic presidential candidates had another love-in where they took aim on the U.S. Supreme Court decision to end forced integration of schools through busing. These white boys decried (and of course Hillary went into her classic bad Southern accent) the old refrain how the road to total civil rights was still long, etc. Yes, the discrimination against black Americans is a pimple on the face of our great nation. But can't more black people be part of the effort to helping themselves? You don't hear about the water-logged Texans whimpering about their situation. Yet two years later blacks are still complaining how school buses in New Orleans were not utilized to rescue their citizens? And of course we don't DARE talk about the mayhem at the New Orleans Superdome....almost to the point of disrepair. And boy does the Democratic party like to exploit these situations to win a few votes.

Instead of coddling the black community, we need to give blacks who are below the socio-economic mainstream the impetus to get things done for themselves....like our Texas brethren. Instead of "giving fish" to the so-called disadvantaged blacks in our country, they need to be actively given the motivation to "fish for themselves." So many people of different cultures have come out of worse situations from around the world to the United States and have been stunning successes.

Black Americans who have made it....like Oprah, Gen. Powell, Ted Johnson, Jr., and others need to start looking at productively lifting their communities to defeat the growing "economic racism" the black community is now experiencing on an ever-increasing basis. Hillary, John, Richard...the problem is not the white community, the problem are the self-appointed Al Sharptons and Jesse Jacksons who love the glare of the media lights and have made millions through their position, yet do everything to keep impoverished blacks impoverished so they can maintain the status they have become accustomed to.

So typical of Democrats trying to SHOW that they want to make a difference, but don't necessarily follow through...




THe folks at "Current," Al "Watch Me Try To Get Look As Fat As the Goodyear Blimp" Gore generally failed cable TV network had a more humorous take on the above ad.

This is the man!

Couldn't say it any better.

I was on online chat with a friend when he told me that he hated split pea soup...to which I said....



IVARS
You racist! You hate split peas! Call the Split Pea Anti Defamation League!

FRIEND OF IVARS
Now, now, what have poor innocent peas done to you that you'd want to split them??? And think of all those poor LeSeur baby peas that would become orphans! They could go down the path of ruination and do anti-social behaviors like pea peeing in public!

OK.....NOW I've totally lost it.....





"Nessun dorma" ("Nobody Sleep") from Puccini's Turandot


(Prince)
Nessun dorma! Nessun dorma! Tu pure, o Principessa,
nella tua fredda stanza
guardi le stelle
che tremano d'amore e di speranza...
Ma il mio mistero è chiuso in me,
il nome mio nessun saprà!
No, no, sulla tua bocca lo dirò,
quando la luce splenderà!
Ed il mio bacio scioglierà il silenzio
che ti fa mia.

(Chorus)
Il nome suo nessun saprà...
E noi dovrem, ahimè, morir, morir!

(Prince)
Dilegua, o notte! Tramontate, stelle!
Tramontate, stelle! All'alba vincerò!
Vincerò! Vincerò!

Translation
(Prince)
Nobody shall sleep!... Nobody shall sleep!
Even you, o Princess, in your cold room, watch the stars, that tremble with love and with hope.
But my secret is hidden within me, my name no one shall know...
No!...No!... On your mouth I will tell it when the light shines.
And my kiss will dissolve the silence that makes you mine!...

(Chorus) No one will know his name and we must, alas, die.

(Prince)
Vanish, o night! Set, stars! Set, stars! At dawn, I will win! I will win! I will win!

While I do have progressive viewpoints, this is the reason I WILL NEVER be a registered Democrat...the party of the drunken womanizing murderer Sen. Ted "Gimme A Drink and a Car" Kennedy (D-Mass.)

This is a statesman? No, this is Ted Kennedy after he OBVIOUSLY has had a nip...

So embarrassing....

THis is ONE amazing commercial!

Here's the tale about the Democratic party's own buffoon, Jimmy Carter.

I could not have written this opinion piece any better. On the positive side, at least we are now getting to know the real Jimmy Carter who is the anti-semite, and starting to see how the real Bill Clinton is in actuality very anti-gay in his political beliefs....yet loves gay money for the Clinton campaign war chest.

Father of the Iranian revolution
michael d. evans, THE JERUSALEM POST Jun. 20, 2007

We just don't get it. The Left in America is screaming to high heaven that the mess we are in in Iraq and the war on terrorism has been caused by the right-wing and that George W. Bush, the so-called "dim-witted cowboy," has created the entire mess.

The truth is the entire nightmare can be traced back to the liberal democratic policies of the leftist Jimmy Carter, who created a firestorm that destabilized our greatest ally in the Muslim world, the shah of Iran, in favor of a religious fanatic, the ayatollah Khomeini.

Carter viewed Khomeini as more of a religious holy man in a grassroots revolution than a founding father of modern terrorism. Carter's ambassador to the UN, Andrew Young, said "Khomeini will eventually be hailed as a saint." Carter's Iranian ambassador, William Sullivan, said, "Khomeini is a Gandhi-like figure." Carter adviser James Bill proclaimed in a Newsweek interview on February 12, 1979 that Khomeini was not a mad mujahid, but a man of "impeccable integrity and honesty."

The shah was terrified of Carter. He told his personal confidant, "Who knows what sort of calamity he [Carter] may unleash on the world?"

Let's look at the results of Carter's misguided liberal policies: the Islamic Revolution in Iran; the Soviet invasion of Afghanistan (Carter's response was to boycott the 1980 Moscow Olympics); the birth of Osama bin Laden's terrorist organization; the Iran-Iraq War, which cost the lives of millions dead and wounded; and yes, the present war on terrorism and the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

WHEN CARTER entered the political fray in 1976, America was still riding the liberal wave of anti-Vietnam War emotion. Carter asked for an in-depth report on Iran even before he assumed the reins of government and was persuaded that the shah was not fit to rule Iran. 1976 was a banner year for pacifism: Carter was elected president, Bill Clinton became attorney-general of Arkansas, and Albert Gore won a place in the Tennessee House of Representatives.

In his anti-war pacifism, Carter never got it that Khomeini, a cleric exiled to Najaf in Iraq from 1965-1978, was preparing Iran for revolution. Proclaiming "the West killed God and wants us to bury him," Khomeini's weapon of choice was not the sword but the media. Using tape cassettes smuggled by Iranian pilgrims returning from the holy city of Najaf, he fueled disdain for what he called gharbzadegi ("the plague of Western culture").

Carter pressured the shah to make what he termed human rights concessions by releasing political prisoners and relaxing press censorship. Khomeini could never have succeeded without Carter. The Islamic Revolution would have been stillborn.

Gen. Robert Huyser, Carter's military liaison to Iran, once told me in tears: "The president could have publicly condemned Khomeini and even kidnapped him and then bartered for an exchange with the [American Embassy] hostages, but the president was indignant. 'One cannot do that to a holy man,' he said."

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has donned the mantle of Ayatollah Khomeini, taken up bin Laden's call, and is fostering an Islamic apocalyptic revolution in Iraq with the intent of taking over the Middle East and the world.

Jimmy Carter became the poster boy for the ideological revolution of the 1960s in the West, hell bent on killing the soul of America. The bottom line: Carter believed then and still does now is that evil really does not exist; people are basically good; America should embrace the perpetrators and castigate the victims.

IN THE '60S it was mass rebellion after the assassinations of Robert Kennedy and Martin Luther King. When humanity confronts eternity, the response is always rebellion or repentance. The same ideologues who fought to destroy the soul of America with the "God is dead" movement in the 1960s are now running the arts, the universities, the media, the State Department, Congress, and Senate, determined more then ever to kill the soul of America while the East attempts to kill the body. Carter's world view defines the core ideology of the Democratic Party.

What is going on in Iraq is no mystery to those of us who have had our fingers on the pulse of both Iran and Iraq for decades. The Iran-Iraq war was a war of ideologies. Saddam Hussein saw himself as an Arab leader who would defeat the non-Arab Persians. Khomeini saw it as an opportunity to export his Islamic Revolution across the borders to the Shi'ites in Iraq and then beyond to the Arab countries.

Throughout the war both leaders did everything possible to incite the inhabitants of each country to rebel - precisely what Iran is doing in Iraq today. Khomeini encouraged the Shi'ites across the border to remove Saddam from power and establish an Islamic republic like in Iran.

Carter's belief that every crisis can be resolved with diplomacy - and nothing but diplomacy - now permeates the Democratic Party. Unfortunately, Carter is wrong.

There are times when evil must be openly confronted and defeated.

KHOMEINI HAD the help of the PLO in Iran. They supplied weapons and terrorists to murder Iranians and incite mobs in the streets. No wonder Yasser Arafat was hailed as a friend of Khomeini after he seized control of Iran and was given the Israeli Embassy in Teheran with the PLO flag flying overhead.

The Carter administration scrambled to assure the new regime that the United States would maintain diplomatic ties with Iran. But on April 1, 1979 the greatest April Fools' joke of all time was played, as Khomeini proclaimed it the first day of the government of God.

In February 1979 Khomeini had boarded an Air France flight to return to Teheran with the blessing of Jimmy Carter. The moment he arrived, he proclaimed: "I will kick his teeth in" - referring to then prime minister Shapour Bakhtiar, who was left in power with a US pledge of support. He was assassinated in Paris by Iranian agents in 1991.

I sat in the home of Gen. Huyser, who told me the shah feared he would lose the country if he implemented Carter's polices. Carter had no desire to see the shah remain in power. He really believed that a cleric - whose Islamist fanaticism he did not understand in the least - would be better for human rights and Iran.

He could have changed history by condemning Khomeini and getting the support of our allies to keep him out of Iran.

The writer is a New York Times best-selling author. His newest book is The Final Move Beyond Iraq. www.beyondiraq.com

Will the REAL "Fat" Albert Gore stand up?

This is why I don't buy liberal Democrats when they go around wailing against this or that.

As a proud American citizen who is also proud to be a proud Latvian citizen, the following article really upset me and disappointed me. It is interesting when the formerly opressed (the Latvian people) become the opressors:

Latvian Gay Pride Parade Marches on Amid Tight Security
06.03.07

By Anthony Cuesta

An estimated 500 European gay rights supporters gathered in Riga, Latvia Sunday to march in a pride parade, an event that has stirred much controversy in the conservative nation.

Latvia, like many other countries in Eastern Europe, has a conservative and often hostile attitude towards homosexuality. Last year, officials banned a Gay Pride march and anti-gay protesters targeted participants at other events.

Marchers gathered in the park in the center of Riga, the capital. Police were stationed on the park's perimeter.

Small groups of anti-gay protesters shouted insults but there was no violence, Reuters reports. Police said two people were arrested over the insults.

Inside the park bursts of The Beatles' song "All You Need Is Love" could be heard.

On Saturday, Linda Freimane, a board member of Mozaika, Latvia's leading gay rights group, stressed the importance of this year's gathering for sexual minorities' rights in the Baltic states, which joined the European Union in 2004.

"If we don't do it again this year then we give in to the illegal, violent forces who can limit other people's rights just by smothering them,' she said, reports the Associated Press.

Politicians from Sweden, Norway, Denmark and the European parliament joined the march. They included Swedish Immigration Minister Tobias Billstrom.

"The fact we can organize this march this year shows there has been an improvement even if we have to do it in a park," said Spanish European parliament member Raul Romeva to Reuters.

The European Union criticized Latvia for banning last year's gay parade.

CNN this afternoon had a segment about the growing hostilities with Russia and invited comment....and so I opined...

Peoples of the world, wake up! Oh, please. It isn't that Comrade Putin has been any different since he entered office. The world is finally waking up to the fact that a leopard doesn't change his spots. While President Bush may have "looked deeply into the eyes of Putin and seen a trustworthy man," the Balts and every other Eastern European country oppressed by Mother Russia for over fifty years in the past century have known what he really is: a real cold war Communist bent on domination. While North America is transfixed on Paris Hilton and Britney Spears, Putin has continually threatened its neighbors and waged war, such as the recent cyberattacks aimed at Estonia when they dared to remove another remnant of the Soviet Russian era out of their daily lives. Russia has never had a democracy nor will it ever.

Ivars Bezdechi
San Diego, CA

As I've written before, it is nice when I read my views on different political issues being echoed by public political leaders:

German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt called for an end to the "hysteria" over global warming in the lead-up to the summit. The topic is "hysterical, overheated, and that is especially because of the media," Schmidt told Germany's Bild daily.

There has always been climate change on earth, Schmidt said.

"We've had warm- and ice-ages for hundreds of thousands of years," he said, and added that the reasons behind the multiple climate changes have been "inadequately researched for the time being."

To assume that global climate change can be altered by any plans made at the Heiligendamm summit is "idiotic," he said.

OK....here is my current take on the crop of Presidential candidates now taking up space on the mediasphere.... The list here is in no particular order.

JOHN EDWARDS
An opportunist who comes off as used car salesman. How can a man who pockets $55,000 to speak on the subject of poverty, spends $400 on haircuts, lives in a large mansion across from a shanty trailer park relate to the American people and their hopes and concerns? Not only that he shirks questions when he sends campaign contribution e-mails to those who have expressed their concern about his wife Elizabeth bout with terminal cancer. Then he backpedals his vote on the Iraq war to appeal to the Hate Bush/Anti-War folks.

HILLARY CLINTON
She really is the best candidate amongst the Democrats. But totally lost my respect tonight when she too backpedals on her support of the Iraq war to appeal to the Hate Bush/Anti-War folks. People like to say that she is "so intelligent," yet what has she specifically accomplished in her years in the Senate? Her health care initiative didn't fly. I don't see her as someone who would unite the American people much as President Reagan did. Then she does her own political mambo when she tonight has faint praise for President Bush for opening the door to negotiating with Iran's tyrant president Ahmadnejad saying that "it should have happened a long time ago." So does that mean Bill was wrong on his stance with Iran? Of course, my favorite Shrillery (Hitlery or Bitchery) quote is how she was poised to "pull up the carpets in the Oval Office and clean it up." I guess that she is confident that she wouldn't find some of Bill's used condoms left somehow behind.

JOHN McCAIN
Weak all around. I used to respect him but his weak stance on illegal aliens and illegal immigration shows that he is just another politician. He has gone through a lot in his life with being held captive by the Vietnamese, but he has allowed himself to be captured and be brainwashed by the Washington lobbyists and other special interests. His alliance with Senator Ted "hiccup" Kennedy is troublesome.....the very reason I will NEVER join the Democratic party. While I hold many liberal beliefs (pro labor, pro choice, pro environment), I would NEVER want to be associated with the same party as this fat, pompous, drunken murderer.

BARACK OBAMA
Another windbag whose message changes with whichever crowd he wants to appeal to at the moment. With whites, he acts "very white." Then when he has a predominantly black audience, then he suddenly becomes "black." How can anyone find this guy intelligent and other qualities which have been attached to him? What has he legislatively accomplished? Are gasoline prices under control? What about health care? He loves to listen to himself, but in the end doesn't really say anything of substance.

RUDY GUILIANI
For me he is liberal enough and is conservative enough, yet his liberal stance on illegal immigration is bothersome. He showed true leadership during the 9/11 tragedy. In fact, he makes a lot of sense in his views of how government is invasive in our lives. He deserves consideration.

BILL RICHARDSON
He shows a lot of promise. A centrist, Richardson’s many experiences in public service, including his roles as governor, energy secretary and congressman, makes him squarely qualified to be president.

RON PAUL
Ugh. Plus his name is monosyllabic. Bad.

My letter finally got printed in the San Diego Union-Tribune!!

Someone had a kind of a bad start to their evening when they hit a fire hydrant near an intersection by my house yesterday at about 6:40 p.m. on Jamacha Road. I have to say, however, the hydrant was kind of an interesting water feature...if not temporary!

National talk show host Jerry Doyle has come up with the 10 Commandments of Illegal Immigration.... This guy makes sense!

JERRY DOYLE”S

LEGAL IMMIGRATION

10 COMMANDMENTS

1. If you enter the United States of America illegally or overstay your visa, you will never be eligible to become a citizen of the U.S. No exceptions.

2. If you hire someone who is illegal, you and / or your business will be fined $50,000.00 per employee. “Strict Liability” will be the legal standard.

3. The policy of “anchor babies” is no longer the law. You are only eligible to be a citizen of the United States if you are born “of” a citizen of the United States of America.

4. “Sanctuary Cities and / or states” will receive no federal tax dollar revenue sharing or matching. Federal highway speed limit standards will be the template.

5. “Sanctuary Houses of Worship”, in direct violation of U.S. law, will lose their tax exempt status.

6. Financial institutions, doing business in the United States, will be prohibited from offering and providing any incentive program(s), any discount loan(s), subsidized checking and / or savings account(s) or any “special” offer(s) to anyone in this country illegally.

7. Public education, medical and dental services, housing, social services, food stamps, social security, Medicare, SSDI and any other us government program will be for the benefit of legal residents of the United States only.

8. Any person(s), charitable organization(s), or business entity that harbors any illegal alien(s) will be automatically be charged with a federal offense and lose their citizenship.

9. Guest worker visas will be issued on a 5 year trailing average of the aggregate number of visas issued with adjustments for projected GDP growth and / or contraction.

10. English will be the only language used in the public workplace, public education, Federal government offices and facilities, hospitals and related medical facilities and the federal court system. All voting for federal offices will be done in English only.