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.

An individual in a political action group I occasionally participate in started to flame a San Diego politician who has truly served the district I live in very well. Everytime I have had contact with her as a constituent, this county supervisor, Dianne Jacobs, my problems have been resolved. I issued the following comment on the list-serv:

This is not intended as a personal flame, but I would urge everyone to step back from the incendiary rhetoric. Instead of attacking Mrs. Jacobs, we should be happy that she put in the order to have the camp closed down in Alpine. I have only met Mrs. Jacobs once, but I think there is little argument that over the years she has been a great county supervisor "stepping up to the plate" when there has been a need to "step up to the plate" in our neck of the woods called East San Diego County.

No individual -- nor politician -- likes to be embarrassed in front of their constituents -- no matter their party affiliation. Believe me, as much as I hate to break the news, even Senators Boxer or Feinstein (with their big personal fortunes) or House Speaker Pelosi (not someone who collects food stamps or works at minimum wage, either) have their "handlers" to "spin the spin" to make sure they are always looking all shiny and pristine and purer than the driven snow. In my opinion, it is infantile and myopic to take issue with an individual just because of their political affiliation.

Whether it is in business or handling the nation's business, I look at what an individual has accomplished or not accomplished -- that's the real litmus test. Both sides of the political aisle have let the American people down. The brazen fact is that politicians on both sides of the aisle are beholden to lobbyists representing special interests. It is our responsibility as citizens to make sure that our elected representatives represent us and our views. We should let them know when they are wrong, but at the same time show them our praise and gratitude when they do right -- just as Supervisor Jacobs has done in this case.

Furthermore, I think cooler heads should prevail in our opposition to Blackwater. Just because Supervisor Jacobs doesn't come ranting and raving on our position doesn't mean she is against us. We need to show our respect and tolerance to the process rather than jumping to conclusions....just as we ask for respect and tolerance to our viewpoint on the matter. As a relative of mine in Latvia said, as they go down the road of being a young democracy after being under the Russian boot for over 50 years said to me (an observation made by many Balts), "You know, in the United States with there being so much democracy and so many voices, in the end, nobody seems to be listening."

Let's listen to each other, let's learn from each other, but let us do so in a respectful and civil manner rather than resorting to lobbing pejoratives at an individual just because their political ideologies may be different than ours. Neither side should be claiming that their are "right." Let us hope and pray that we are given the strength to follow "common sense."

I think the national news media is on a campaign trying to make Vice President Gore the new Ellen DeGeneres. While the TV and print outlets totally ignore how the oil companies are screwing the American public, they are breathlessly contemplating whether former VP Gore will run or not for President in 2008. Personally, I hope he does, so he can once again taste the bitterness of defeat and just perhaps normalize the hot air of his ego with the gaseous hot hair of his overgrown Sen. Ted Kennedy gut.

One of the most important lessons I learned as a pup was to accept graciously defeat and to go on to the next mission. But oh no...Gore has to go around badmouthing President Bush like a stubbornly ill-behaved kid. A real statesman graciously accepts the tribulations of defeat. But like someone who is so consumed with sour grapes, Gore goes on television (when he is not boring everybody with his roadshow of questionable science) badmouthing the administration. I need to say at this point I'm no great supporter of President Bush. I'm uncomfortable with the situation in Iraq and am VERY disappointed that the Iraqi people have not shown enough gumption to start to take control of their own country more passionately. But while Gore questions our incursion into Iraq, I ask myself -- don't the Iraqi people deserve to taste freedom from the tyrant of Saddam Hussein and his regime....just as the people of the Baltics wanted to so badly throw out the rule of the tyrannical Russians? Clearly miscalculations were made by Pres. Bush....but hindsight is also 20/20 (or so we hope). I do believe the news media in this country are not telling the truth about what is going on in Iraq. My heart cries for the 3,000 deaths of allied forces over four years in Iraq. But I also cry for when the Allied air forces lost nearly 12,000 men and over 2,000 aircraft in operations which paved the way for D-Day in April and May 1944, and the total Allied casualties on D-Day estimated of 10,000, including 2500 dead....

So instead of going around bitching and moaning about his loss, Al Gore needs to go stick another donut in his mouth and start conserving energy at his Tennessee palace....or convert the gas which emanates from his humongous fat body into electricity...but isn't methane also contributing to the so-called "global warming"?

I finally launched my new website, www.ivarslive.com, today. It features information and pictures relating to my acting work.

Everybody says it "looks great." I'm going to take a page from my Romanian/Turkish grandfather's play book and say the it will "look great" when it gets me more acting work!

Takes one to know one?

The ever increasingly senile and demented Pres. Jimmy Carter whose true colors as a anti-Semitic David Duke-like character and is universally acknowledged as the worst president this country ever, is now calling Pres. Bush "The worst president ever." Isn't this like the pot calling the kettle black? I'm no lover of President Bush, but heck, what about the entire board of the Carter Center in Atlanta, Georgia resigning en masse on the release of his last sleeper of a book accusing Israel of perpetuating the middle east crisis? This guy deserves to be one day told to shut the f*** up. Hasn't someone recently reminded him how he was literally booted out of office by the electorate after four years of the antics of Carter's militant Muslim terrorist brother, Billy, the scariest mother alive, Miss Lillian? Of course what about the time when Pres. Carter expressed his carnal love for the Polish people? There has to be a reason why even Pres. Clinton and Bush ignored him during the worldwide efforts to raise funds for the victims of Katrina and the Indonesian Tsunami.

LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (AP) - Former President Carter says President Bush's administration is "the worst in history" in international relations, taking aim at the White House's policy of pre-emptive war and its Middle East diplomacy.

The criticism from Carter, which a biographer says is unprecedented for the 39th president, also took aim at Bush's environmental policies and the administration's "quite disturbing" faith-based initiative funding.

"I think as far as the adverse impact on the nation around the world, this administration has been the worst in history," Carter told the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette in a story that appeared in the newspaper's Saturday editions. "The overt reversal of America's basic values as expressed by previous administrations, including those of George H.W. Bush and Ronald Reagan and Richard Nixon and others, has been the most disturbing to me."

I couldn't say it any better...

"A lie can get halfway around the world before the truth even gets its boots on..." -- Mark Twain

People often remark now that I shave my head every day that I have a remarkable appearance to wrestler Stone Cold Steve Austin. A friend of mine cut this picture out from the San Diego Union-Tribune thinking it was Ivars in a new flick that I hadn't told him about (now that I'm doing a fair bit of movie acting). Unfortunately, Stone Cold is not exactly up for an Academy Award for his most recent movie, "The Condemned." Here's a review:

I love posturing soooo much....just like the latest news out of the World Wildlife Fund accusing the United States of being the biggest caused of alleged global warming. Hey folks, what about CHINA with their billion people population? What about THEIR factories which belch out God knows what into the atmosphere without mandated emission scrubbers? Huh? What about the widely known story that Bejing may be prohibiting car traffic in the city for a month before the Beijing Olympics because of all of the pollutants? And what about the city which is the world's garbage repository of computer parts whose main waterway is chock full of arsenic?

Puhleeze....

The United States, the world's top belcher of greenhouse gas emissions, is "the biggest culprit" of climate change, the WWF said Thursday, urging Washington to take swift action against global warming.

"They are the biggest culprit and they are the biggest offender of climate," said Stephan Singer, head of the environmental group WWF's climate change policy unit.

"The United States should take climate change seriously," Singer told reporters in Bangkok, where scientists around the world are attending the week-long session of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), the UN's leading authority on global warming.

While accusing the US of "ignoring science" on global warming, the WWF still urged Washington to lead the world in combating climate change.

"What's happening in the United States is important because it is still the largest emitter" of greenhouse gas, said Hans Verolme, director of WWF's global climate change program.

I couldn't say it any better:

John Billett, former chairman of Billett Consultancy (from the UK) who tried to make a name in advertising in the US said it best when talking about the lessons he learned working in the US:

"There is a division in America -- which I haven't seen elsewhere -- between entrepreneurial, creative, imaginative, not afraid to investigate change, looking for the next opportunity, dynamic and rigorous companies, and the disturbingly large number of companies who aren't that. They seem to be covered in bureaucracy, those who seem to be reluctant to change ... driven by process where everything is taken by committee. If I had one criticism of America, it would be that some decisions take an unseemly amount of time to be made. It is as though Sarbanes-Oxley, Enron, all of this corporate governance, has gripped the flare of certain companies so the prize of getting it wrong is larger than the prize of getting it right."

A CLASSIC QUOTE!

A Clear Channel Radio Station (Clear Channel is a media conglomerate) is now going to be testing a new way to broadcast commercials. Rather than a whole bunch of 30-60 or 90 second commercials they will do hour sponsorships. The station is also changing music formats. Said the general manager of the station to the New York Times:

"The Dallas station is also overhauling its format, switching from classic rock to a Texas-inflected rock-country hybrid. An average hour will include the likes of Lynyrd Skynyrd, Bob Dylan, Johnny Cash and Drive-By Truckers. That, too, is raising eyebrows.

“In a major market, for a classic rock station to change formats is really an anomaly,” said Fred Jacobs, a radio industry consultant from Detroit who helped popularize the classic rock format in the mid-1980s. “You could make a nice, long, healthy list of top five stations that are classic rock,” and several would be No. 1 or No. 2 in their markets, he said.

But Mr. Freeman, the Dallas station manager, says he has had his fill of classic-rock bands like Led Zeppelin. “A friend of mine said, ‘They’ve been climbing that stairway to heaven for 30 years, you’d think they’d be there by now,’ ” he said."

This is what wears me down about liberals. Or maybe should I say "progressives." They so love to make outward expressions about their concerns but do nothing in reality to bring about solutions to the problems they are complaining about. But darn it, "they care." Never mind that after their rallys complaining -- or "raising awareness" -- about the supposed issue of global warming they leave behind tons and tons of garbage waiting to be picked up by a backhoe.

Al Gore still uses 30% more electricity to run his mansion in Tennessee than the average state resident. Patrick Kennedy and the rest of the big bellied Kennedy entourage protest about putting about electricity generating windmills near their Hyannisport compound. Sen. John Kerrey doesn't drive a SUV....but "his family does."

Today being "Earth Day" the search engine Google put on their website their logo portrayed as a melting glacier, yet their founders flit around the world on their custom Boeing 737.

Fakers.

Albeit I'm a registered Republican (more like a law and order Democrat), for all intents and purposes I'm an independent voter.

Just as I had my mind made up in an instant about Sen. Kerry when he was asked at a news conference bashing President Bush in the last campaign, "Don't you drive a Lincoln Escalade" to which he answered "No, I don't drive one but my family does," the Dems wunderkind Barack Obama in one short passage has showed what a moron HE is.

In a campaign swing in Milwaukie, he gave a 23-minute interview, which, among things, he compared the Don Imus rant with the horrific massacre at Virginia Tech. Between Hillary saying that she is afraid of a new Republican conservative conspiracy and Mrs. Edwards' statement that she is terrified of her "rabid, gun toting, Republican next door neighbor" shows that the latest crop of Dem candidates are as weak as the last. They will pander and say anything just to stir up the political lemmings.

All said, however, comparing Don Imus with the murder of 32 and severe injuring of 28 students just shows that this guy is no different from the rest of crowd of political Washington politicians. What has Barack Obama -- his real name is "Barry" -- done to make our lives better as a Senator. The answer is NOTHING. He is just another windbag.

So far Rudy Guiliani is the only viable candidate with at least some brains and who wouldn't be going around making moronic abstractions.

My letter submitted to the San Diego Union-Tribune (or sometimes referred to the Soviet Union-Tribune):

I have always regarded myself to be a political centrist/moderate whose opinions are motivated by specific issues rather than ideology. During the last election season the Democrats went around promising a “new dawn” in America after a long period of Republican “darkness.” They went around criticizing President Bush for everything and accusing him of every heinous crime against society just short of kidnapping the Lindbergh baby. Despite their hubris and slim majorities in both Houses of Congress, it would seem that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and our beloved Senator Barbara Boxer and the rest of the cabal of usual suspects are leading their party into the same “gotcha” politics as the Republicans are renowned for. Not only that, in order to appeal to the “Hate Bush”/anti-war movement crowd and get appear to finally get a chomp out of President Bush’s hide, Pelosi exploded our monstrous federal budget deficit even further by succumbing to the tried-and-true technique of buying votes by engaging in pork barrel politics to her fellow Democrats in order to pass the Iraq cutoff funding bill by slimmest of margins. Meanwhile, to fulfill our “we care” quotient, former Vice-President cum highly-credentialed climatologist Al Gore is trotted out to blather on about global warming – the media’s latest “crisis du jour” (which already seems to be fading). The way that both the Congress and Senate are acting it is as though they have nothing better to do with their time these days, and most citizen’s concerns about rampant illegal immigration, equitable and sustainable universal healthcare for the working poor of our country, and the future stable funding of social security have all been solved and put to bed. Gasoline prices are going through the roof unabated as the mega-profiting oil companies take economic hostage of the American people, yet our elected representatives keep chomping at the microphones to have their the last 15-seconds of soundbite fame. Beautiful scenario, ain’t it?

In most employment situations an employee is given a three-month probation period during which their performance is judged. Seeing how the Democrats and Republicans have been acting in the past three months, I, and the legions of Americans who always seem to be on the short end of the stick would give them a resounding “F.” The unfortunate part is that we can only terminate our current employees in both houses of congress in Washington DC every two years.

Democrats are such a gas....I love them and their dog and pony shows that they love to put on "in the search of truth." Of course, while I'm an independent, you will NEVER see the Democratic party investigate one of their own, especially Sen. Edward Kennedy whose little incident at Chappaquidick which resulted in the death of a young female campaign worker has NEVER been resolved.

And plus we won't talk about Sen. Diane Feinstein's husband's benefiting from U.S. Government Defense contracts. (Specifically, SEN. Dianne Feinstein has resigned from the Military Construction Appropriations subcommittee. As previously and extensively reviewed in these pages, Feinstein was chairperson and ranking member of MILCON for six years, during which time she had a conflict of interest due to her husband Richard C. Blum's ownership of two major defense contractors, who were awarded billions of dollars for military construction projects approved by Feinstein. /Metroactive, http://www.metroactive.com/metro/03.21.07/dianne-feinstein-resigns-0712.html)

The latest Democratic dog-and-pony show is going to be happening in San Diego at the California State Democratic COnvention to be held in a month or so. Despite all of the voluminous testimony that has occurred on this subject, these small timing lefties are now going to have THEIR OWN 9/11 panel discussion where they are going to have a "grand jury" determine "what really happened" on September 11, 2001. Of course, mark my words: they will find Pres. Bush guilty of having direct complicity with the 18 Muslim terrorist hijackers who were actually hired by Israel (who was a subcontractor) of Haliburton because they are being secretly controlled by Vice President Cheney.

Get with the times, dudes! Work on bettering the future...not retreading past history.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Contact: Mike Copass
Phone: 619.665.9415 or 619.222.2120
Email: San_Diego_CGJ@yahoo.com

Event Date: Saturday, April 14, 2007, Noon to 8:00 PM
Location: Aztec Center, San Diego State University
* *
*Experts to Testify at 9/11 Investigation Hearing*

*San Diego, California* ? On Saturday, April 14, 2007 San Diegans for
9/11 Truth, a local citizens activist group, will conduct a citizens?
grand jury investigation into the wrongful deaths that occurred at the
World Trade Center in New York City on September 11, 2001.
From noon to 8:00 PM, grand jurors will assemble in the
Aztec Center Council Chambers at San Diego State University to hear
testimony from expert witnesses, including architect Richard Gage,
physicist Steven Jones, and engineer Kevin Ryan. Don Paul and Jim
Hoffman, coauthors of /The //9/11/01// Crimes in //New York City//:
Waking Up from Our Nightmare/, will lead the investigation.
The event has been endorsed by Pilots for 9/11 Truth,
Republicans for 9/11 Truth, Scholars for 9/11 Truth and Justice, /The
Progressive Post/ and retired USAF Lt. Col. Dr. Robert Bowman, a former
director of the ?Star Wars? programs under Presidents Ford and Carter.
The public is welcome to attend. The common-law grand jury of 23
citizens will be impaneled to review the evidence and the grand jury?s
findings will be announced the following week.
For more information see
http://sd911truth.org/SD-Grand-Jury.html, www.SDCGJ.NetRootz.com
<http://www.sdcgj.netrootz.com/>, or contact Mike Copass at
San_Diego_CGJ@yahoo.com .

###

Founded in September 2005, San Diegans for 9/11 Truth is one of many
citizen activist organizations across the country dedicated to
uncovering the truth behind the wrongful deaths that took place on
September 11, 2001. Concerned about evidence that contradicts the
official account published in /The 9/11 Commission Report/, the group is
calling for a reopening of the case and an unbiased investigation into
the events of 9/11.

A well-intentioned friend sent me an e-mail link to a video on Google about the latest conspiracy theory being bounced around the Internet (Al Gore's invention) about the destruction of the World Trade Center. I sent him this reply:

I look at things this way: having been trained as a journalist "in the good old days" there was a certain censoring of whacky ideas. When i worked in the newsroom of a TV station in the early 80's I saw the stuff that was sent in by viewers -- some of it was legit, but some of it were concocted by whack jobs. Then came the king of crackpots, Art Bell, who would just put anyone on the air. Then came the Internet which democratized information flow and which allows every kook to post their whacked out theories, and now with camcorders available to everyone, individuals have to become their own censors.

As I experienced there are so many people out there with their own agendas and theories which have been legitimized. Heck, the grandaddys of them all are those who believe that we never landed on the moon and that it was all staged in a Hollywood movie studio. While I give a quarter of a listen to the crackpots just because I'm always in what other people think and these days I need a good laugh, I believe in the true experts, the true engineers. As for 9/11, I put my weight in the study which was published by Popular Mechanics. The link to the site is here
and well worth looking at. In my opinion most of these myths are being distributed by 300 lb. guys with long hair and don't regularly bathe who live in a single room apartment with dirty terry cloth material hanged on thumbtacks and a manegy cat.

Like my mom always said, just because something is printed on paper doesn't make it true.

It feels good when I hear outrageous things in the news media and others have the same reaction. The latest involves the Kool Aid drinking left-wing Democrats who were yelling and screaming this past week that Fox News Channel would be sponsoring a debate in Reno, Nevada in August amongst the candidates. "Sacre bleu," screamed the whacked out left-wingnuts. Well, the Las Vegas Journal Review has spoken out on the idiocy of the Democrats...which turns out to be the very reason why I will NEVER be a registered Democrat, although many of my views are extremely liberal. It is funny how conservative Republicans don't scream and yell and piss in their pants over the left-leaning MSNBC (very low rated third cable news network).

The newspaper couldn't say it anymore aptly when they say, "What better way for the party to reach conservative and "values" voters who might consider changing allegiances?"

And when you get right down to it, the Dems just don't have an awe-inspiring bunch of candidates. Hillary, Obama, John Edwards, Dennis Kucinich, and Bill Richardson just don't cut it. They love to posture and criticize and VERY criticizable Pres. Bush and they are promising everything under the sun, yet I have yet to hear any plausible campaign rhetoric that would make me want to vote for any of them.

Honestly, party labels don't interest me one iota and from what I'm seeing are not interesting the American public at large. Just as I predicted after the November elections, you either have the Republicrats or the Demipublicans. Same people who have exchanged the same ties. Despite promising a major shift, the Democratic controlled U.S. Congress and U.S. Senate (albeit with very slim margins) have not put President Bush in what they hoped to gridlock him. The truth is, even with chief yappers Nancy Pelosi and her old worn out attack dog (in his mind), John Murtha (and on occasion the Democrats Bitch-In-Chief, Sen. Barbara Boxer), they have gridlocked themselves. Gridlocked bad.

At this point, I'm putting my own money on Rudy Guiliani.

Las Vegas Journal Review, March 11, 2007.

EDITORIAL: Meltdown over Fox

Network co-sponsors state Democratic debate -- oh my!

Hard-core liberals can't stand the Fox News Channel. Passing a television that's tuned to the conservative favorite forces many of them to close their eyes, cover their ears and scream, "La la la la la la la la la!" Then they dash to their computers and fire off 2,500 e-mails condemning the outlet, none of which are ever read.

But liberals' aversion to Fox News has finally gone over the top. The Nevada Democratic Party had agreed to let the right-tilting network co-sponsor, of all things, an August debate in Reno between Democratic presidential candidates. Party officials were serious about drawing national attention to the state's January presidential caucus, the country's second in the 2008 nominating process.

What better way for the party to reach conservative and "values" voters who might consider changing allegiances? But the socialist, Web-addicted wing of the Democratic Party was apoplectic. The prospect of having to watch Fox News to see their own candidates would have been torture in itself. So they set the blogosphere aflame with efforts to kill the broadcast arrangement, or at least have all the candidates pull out of the event. Before Friday, the opportunistic John Edwards was the only candidate to jump on that bandwagon.

You'd think the deal called for having Sean Hannity and Ann Coulter mock the candidates between comments. No, even unfiltered, unedited, live debate between loyal Democrats couldn't be entrusted to Fox News.

The approach of outfits such as MoveOn.org is so juvenile it's laughable. Imagine if every political organization created litmus tests for news organizations before agreeing to appear on their programming. Republicans would have boycotted PBS, CBS, NBC, ABC, National Public Radio and The Associated Press decades ago.

This hyperventilation results from the fact that far-left Democrats have no comparable media outlet, nor any widespread national appeal, for their radical views in favor of heavy-handed regulation, wealth redistribution, diplomatic capitulation and economic protectionism. So they attack their rivals' messenger with a reckless barrage of rhetoric that cuts down their own allies with friendly fire.

By Friday, the Nevada Democratic Party caved in to the lunatic fringe and began seeking a more "appropriate" television partner.

Comedy Central, perhaps?

It is very comforting to read when politicians speak honestly about things. My favorite thing is that everytime there is some kind of public rally or rock concert "for the environment" that it usually results in tons and tons of garage thrown away on the grounds nearby. It is not much different a new study which released today that only 1 in 3 people who considered themselves to be "highly religious" could recite the 10 commandments!

Czech Pres: Environmentalism is a religion
WASHINGTON, March 9 (UPI) -- Environmentalism is a religion that is based more on political ambitions than science, the president of the Czech Republic warned Friday. Speaking at the Cato Institute, a public policy think-tank, President Vaclav Klaus said that environmentalists who clamor for policy change to combat global warming "only pretend" to be promoting environmental protection, and are actually being driven by a political agenda.

"Environmentalism should belong in the social sciences," much like the idea of communism or other "-isms" such as , Klaus said, adding that "environmentalism is a religion" that seeks to reorganize the world order as well as social behavior and value systems worldwide. As for government spending on global warming studies, the former finance minister and of the Eastern European nation and trained economist said that such efforts were a "waste of money," adding that there was already sufficient scientific evidence for those seeking policy change to back up their proposals.

Meanwhile, he pointed out that those seeking to protect the environment could do a great deal under the existing political framework and with existing technologies, such as importing less goods from far-flung regions that require enormous jet fuel use.

Klaus concluded Friday his week-long tour of the United States, having met with a number of senior Bush administration officials, including Vice President Dick Cheney.

What a crazy bitch.

Today an acquaintance set me straight why I can't stand the so-called "Born Again Christians."

He said, "Born Again Christians are the worst KIND of Christians, because their outward attitude is one of, "I know the truth and I am going to heaven. They lie, cheat, and steal, yet they will look in your eyes with a glazed looked and say, 'Jesus Loves You, he really does.'"

Yeah, in their hypocritical world they hate gays, Jews, anyone who doesn't agree with their point of view. In fact, I know of someone who (thank God!) that despite espousing "high Christian values" molested his step-daughter (the victim related this to me several times in her hate for this person and I believe her), yet, they are so in love with their "goodness" and themselves that even Narcissus would hold his head in horror.

I have no problem and respect a lot of good Christians who don't go around being intolerant and bigoted....what I call the "quiet" Christians who emphasize doing goodworks very peacefully. But the others...like the much exulted right-wing pastor Rev. Ted Haggard who was "cured" of his homosexuality and demonstrated such (how did he do it?) after three weeks.

I've said it many times, "Jesus, Protect Me From Your Followers."

YUM!

(Recipe improved by Ivars)

CAJUN STYLE SPICED PORK CHOPS

4 center cut bone-in pork chops (about 2-2 ½ pounds)
1 tablespoon paprika
2 ½ teaspoons salt

1 teaspoon each: onion powder, garlic powder, cayenne
¾ teaspoon each: white pepper, black pepper, dried thyme, oregano

Mix all ingredients and store in an airtight container. Rub chops with mixture. On medium-hot skillet on stove, add butter and grill chops over indirect heat for 10-12 minutes on changing sides until done. Pour remaining sauce from skillet on meat. Servings: 4.

Serve with apple sauce, rice, vegetables.

While it is certainly sad that Kentucky Derby winning horse "Barbaro" was euthanized on Monday after complications from a gruesome breakdown at last year's Preakness horse race (something which I have problems with as well).

According to the Associated Press, a series of ailments — including laminitis in the left rear hoof, an abscess in the right rear hoof, as well as new laminitis in both front feet — proved too much for the horse. Barbaro battled in his ICU stall for eight months. The 4-year-old colt underwent several procedures and was fitted with fiberglass casts. He spent time in a sling to ease pressure on his legs, had pins inserted and was fitted at the end with an external brace. These were all extraordinary measures for a horse with such injuries.

Now I know there are too many people in the world who have way too much time and have a pretty screwed up view of things when they leave "cards and goodies" for the horse. You see this all the time, a kind of false sense of emotion seemingly brought on by such ridiculous shows as "Extreme Home Makeover" where ABC-TV finds a family with the most heart rending story and gets them to to humiliate themselves with big tears come to national TV, much to the delight of the show's sponsors like Sears.

Well-wishers young and old showed up at the New Bolton Center with cards, flowers, gifts, goodies and even religious medals for the champ, and thousands of e-mails poured into the hospital's Web site just for him.

"I just can't explain why everyone is so caught up in this horse," Roy Jackson, who owned the colt with his wife, Gretchen, has said time and again. "Everything is so negative now in the world, people love animals and I think they just happen to latch onto him."

Devoted fans even wrote Christmas carols for him, sent a wreath made of baby organic carrots and gave him a Christmas stocking.

Today I was unanimously elected along with a friend of mine to a citizen's oversight committee sponsored by the East County Democratic Club to scrutinize the takeover of a public performing arts facility by a group of far right Christian "evangiunethicals" in El Cajon, CA., as appointed by a cabal of "evangiunethicals" on the El Cajon City Council. This is going to be interesting.

California's official hag U.S. Senator Barbara Boxer in an her constant attempt to accomodate her insatiable need to have her constant 15-seconds of fame today went on record saying that the Iraq policy "is a dangerous policy." So I guess the men who liberated Europe, went through such harrowing experiences as the Battle of the Bulge, were not a part of something dangerous? What has gotten us killed in Iraq is that we have been WAY too namby pamby as well as not considering the national character of the tyrants we're dealing with.

An infobabe climatologist at THe Weather Channel, Dr. Heidi Cullent, published an opinion piece on the subject of global warming claiming that after more than a century of research -- "based on healthy skepticism -- scientists have learned something very important about our planet." "It's warming up -- glaciers are melting, sea level is rising and the weather is changing. The primary explanation for this warming is the carbon dioxide released from -- among other things -- the burning of fossil fuels, she says." This has generated a lot of debate, and of course, I had to leave a comment on The Weather Channel's regarding her remarks, which included her suggestion that if an American Meteorological Society TV meteorologist agree with the theory of global warming that they be stripped of their certification. (Sounds like Hillary's failed health insurance plan where she mentioned jail time for doctors if they didn't follow certain provisions of her health plan which ultimately led to its demise.)


"First of all, The Weather Channel is not the great information resource it used to be. Happy talking meterologists and weather babes don't cut it. It has undermined the credibility of your channel. That's why you now have competition from NBC WeatherPlus and other outlets. And we're not talking here about the incessant number of commercials which interrupt your programming.

Second, the fact is that the world's weather is dynamic. That's the nature of the beast. Your stance and the vitriol which you have spouted to the American Society of Meterologists is typical of the Kool Aid left wingers (and I'm not so conservative myself) diatribe in order to try to get your way. Your politicians for public office have been so weak that you have to find some other way to try to influence policy. You seem to take the position (like so many) that if all people were to stop driving cars that the reputed problem of global warming would be reversed tomorrow. Nature doesn't work that way. Climeatologists have never "gotten it right" on the number or intensity of hurricanes hitting the SE coast. So instead of spouting reputed theories as fact, please go back to giving us more accurate weather reports. In the words of Mark Twain, "Everybody talks about the weather but does nothing to about it." "

This is why right-wing whacked out Christian Bible bangers will NEVER have credibility in American society.

I was in line at Trader Joe's earlier this evening and besides coffee I bought three bottles of wine. There were two PraiseTheLorders behind me...complaining to me that I was buying "Devil's Juice." What freakin' business did they have to criticize me for buying some wine? For heaven sakes, during communion Christians love to do their tribute to cannibalism by "eating the skin of Christ and drinking his blood." My problem is that so many Christians are "holier than thou" and love having the spectacle of being a "Christian," yet they drop the ball when it comes to actually acting out the words of their Holy Book. The cheerleader of the whacked out right-wing Christians, Newt Gingrich, reportedly had a nice little affair while his wife was dying in the hospital of cancer. Then got her to sign the divorce decree right before she passed away. WONDERFUL! I'll always remember a fairly interesting and good preacher, Dr. David Jeremiah, who reminds his flock regularly that some of the most evil people are behind the pulpit preaching.

Real Christians "do" their good works quietly and don't call attention to themselves. Their beliefs should be in their deeds, and not what they speak.

Please note that I'm now will make future reference to these psychologically ill people as "Praisethelorders."

Jesus, PLEASE protect us from your followers!

U.S. Senator Ted "Gimme A Bottle" Kennedy says Iraq is President Bush's "Viet Nam."

U.S. Senator Ted "Gimme a Bottle" Kennedy's Viet Nam is "Chappaquidick."

The second coming of my Christmas Cactus (Schlumbergera bridgesii)!

This would be a great addition to the website www.engrish.com

I was looking at purchasing a digital stereo microphone on Ebay when I ran across a seller in China. Everything was pretty normal in the auction offering, when I ran across this caveat at the bottom, literally written in "Engrish." (The rest of the spelling mistakes have been left intact for posterity.)

We suggest you categorically think about the total than onefold cost such as postage.In order to save the bilateral time, please do not have to discuss the transport expense and the insurance question with me.If you cann't accept my quoted price,also do not have to bid nor contact me for these questions, please bid for other.

The two TV commercials I was in last fall have now a home on the Internet....

Commercial 1

Commercial 2


http://www.ucan.org/drupal/node/34/play (Extreme Debates)

http://www.ucan.org/telenforcers/node/491/play (Ugly Baby)

My wonderful friends Serge and Hugh have published another one of their great songs....CHECK IT OUT!

A thought came across today:

Why is it that those who always want you to "Find and Accept Jesus" are really the ones who need to find Him?

Hypocrites.

"The he-man pose is as much of a pose as that of sissified refinement. We think of hypocrites as pretending to be doves. But they also pretend to be eagles and lions." --Brenda Ueland (she wrote that in the 1930s I think)

I love it...somehow I think there is almost a sense of justice with the news how President Clinton's national security Sandy Berger stole classified national security papers from the National Archives in his pants and socks. Hahahha....liberals keep smugly saying that President Bush "lied" about the intentions to war with Iraq. I guess Sandy Berger didn't "lie" about stealing the documents? I wonder if the new "Queen Lear" of the U.S. Congress, Nancy Pelosi, will bestow Sandy Berger with a National Honor of Freedom medal to him.

It is interesting thing though that the national press didn't pick up on this latest chapter in this shocking saga. My God...if Condi Rice would have done something like this the Dems would have her lynched, cooked and fried Southern Style.

Document-Theft Probe Is Criticized
Justice Dept., Archives Cited in Report

By R. Jeffrey Smith
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, January 10, 2007; A04

The Justice Department and the National Archives improperly assured the Sept. 11 commission that its members had access to all relevant materials about the Clinton administration's terrorism policies, without knowing if original, uncopied documents had been removed from the archives by former national security adviser Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger, a Republican congressional report said yesterday.

The report, issued by Rep. Thomas M. Davis III (R-Va.), accused both agencies of inadequately investigating the theft Berger admitted had occurred on two occasions in 2003. It quoted two Archives officials as saying that they had no way of knowing whether Berger took other documents from the files during two earlier visits.

Davis is the former chairman of the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform. He issued the report after Republican staff members conducted interviews with Archives and Justice Department officials and gained access to unredacted material from a probe by the National Archives inspector general.

His report includes new details of what Berger did, and how the Archives staff, the Justice Department and the FBI reacted to the discovery of missing documents. It depicts Berger as aggressively insisting during his visits to the Archives that he be left alone with the documents, giving him what he later admitted was a calculated opportunity to hide the papers in his clothing.

The report also depicts Berger as lying to Archives staff about thefts that an unnamed senior Archives official said had made her and her staff feel "almost physically ill." It said Berger knowingly made false statements to the media after word of the FBI probe surfaced and improperly allowed a spokesman, Joe Lockhart, to depict him as a victim in the affair.

Berger's attorney, Lanny Breuer, responded yesterday with a statement that Republicans had politicized and distorted "a matter that has been thoroughly investigated by the Justice Department for more than two years and effectively closed for more than a year. It is particularly troubling that they have chosen to attack not only Mr. Berger but also the dedicated professionals at the Department of Justice who handled this case."

Breuer added: "The principal allegations in this report are based on pure conjecture; not a single fact is offered to support them." He said Berger had cooperated with the Justice Department and had moved on.

The Justice Department said yesterday that it had no evidence Berger's actions had deprived the commission of any documents.

The report called the FBI and Justice Department's lack of interest in Berger's first two visits to the Archives, in May and June 2003, "disturbing" and "inexplicable," particularly in light of his eventual admission to having improperly removed classified notes he took during one of those visits. It said Berger was never given a polygraph test despite having agreed to it as part of his plea bargain with the Justice Department in 2005.

The report also provided a more vivid account of what an unnamed Archives staff member described as Berger's apparent attempt to take some material out in his pants, an allegation Berger has repeatedly denied. The staff member, one of only four Archives employees cleared to see all the documents that Berger came to review, wrote that "there was clearly something there more than his pants and socks."

The report said Berger took a special interest during his early visits in files from the office of former White House counterterrorism official Richard A. Clarke, which included uninventoried draft documents, memos, e-mail messages and handwritten notes. "Had Berger removed papers . . . it would be almost impossible for Archives staff to know," the report stated.

The report quoted a lawyer at the Archives, Jason R. Baron, as acknowledging that as a result "it is conceivable that the 9/11 commission may not have received" all the requested documents.

A spokeswoman for the Archives, Susan Cooper, said "at the time, the National Archives was confident that the 9/11 commission received all the materials. . . . You can't ever guarantee anything."

This is another bona fide reason for cigarettes to be banned from the face of the earth.

It is another bona fide reason why some people need to take chill pills.

ORANGE COUNTY, Fla. -- A dispute over spare change may have inspired a woman to set a Walgreens store on fire and she did the deed using a lit cigarette. Store employees said their night turned from frustrating to scary, Monday. One moment, the customer was angry. The next, she was going up and down the aisles lighting merchandise on fire.

For workers at the Walgreens on South Orange Blossom Trail, Tuesday morning, it was back to business. But after what happened Monday night, business will never quite be the same. "You see flames all over the store, smoke all over the store, it was crazy," said store employee Harry Ambriose. The fire started around ten o'clock and it was no accident.

"I smelled smoke in the cooler and I was like, 'What's going on? What’s going on?' Ran out and I see big black smoke all over the store, black on the ceiling, black everywhere," Ambriose said. Employees said an angry customer was to blame. "She just came into the store and she got pissed off because the change was incorrect or something," Ambriose explained.

That's when the anger turned into action. The woman started going down the aisles, employees said, with a lit cigarette and started setting merchandise on fire. Fire crews swarmed the scene, knocking out the flames and snuffing out the smoke. But before they could get there, the woman ran out the door. For employees, it was like nothing they'd ever seen. "She just started the fire, arson basically, that's all it was, was arson," Ambriose said.

For fire investigators, it leaves them sorting through evidence and working to track down the woman responsible. A Walgreens spokesperson said store managers have been meeting with fire investigators all morning and looking at surveillance video of the incident.

Despite all the smoke, the fire did very little damage inside.

Copyright 2007 by wftv.com. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

To AMB and AMB, and MAD...


If I Had Only Known
Sung by Reba McIntyre (Words by Jana Stanfield, Music by Craig Morris)


If I had only known
It was the last walk in the rain
I'd keep you out for hours in the storm
I would hold your hand
Like a lifeline to my heart
Underneath the thunder we'd be warm
If I had only known
It was our last walk in the rain

If I had only known
I'd never hear your voice again
I'd memorize each thing you ever said
And on those lonely nights
I could think of them once more
Keep your words alive inside my head
If I had only know
I'd never hear your voice again

You were the treasure in my hand
You were the one who always stood beside me
So unaware I foolishly believed
That you would always be there
But then there came a day
And I turned my head and you slipped away

If I had only known
It was my last night by your side
I'd pray a miracle would stop the dawn
And when you'd smile at me
I would look into your eyes
And make sure you knew my love
For you goes on and on
If I had only known
If I had only known
The love I would've shown
If I had only known

In the famous quote attributed to Mae West, "Baby, I'm more man than you'll ever be and more woman than you'll ever get!"

This is what I would call a situation when someone "assumes" (makes an ass out of you and me) when they cull a mailing list name from dubious sources.

I'm sorry folks, Vogue may be a significant magazine in our popular culture, but I certainly don't go around being "that kind of guy"!!

On her radio show recently, Dr. Laura Schlesinger said that, as an observant Orthodox Jew, homosexuality is an abomination according to Leviticus 18:22, and cannot be condoned under any circumstance. The following response is an open letter to Dr. Laura which was posted on the Internet. It's funny, as well as informative.

Dear Dr. Laura:

Thank you for doing so much to educate people regarding God's Law. I have learned a great deal from your show, and try to share that knowledge with as many people as I can. When someone tries to defend the homosexual lifestyle, for example, I simply remind them that Leviticus 18:22 clearly states it to be an abomination. End of debate.

I do need some advice from you, however, regarding some other elements of God's Law and how to follow them.


1. When I burn a bull on the altar as a sacrifice, I know it creates a pleasing odor for the Lord - Lev.1:9. The problem is my neighbors. They claim the odor is not pleasing to them. Should I smite them?

2. I would like to sell my daughter into slavery, as sanctioned in Exodus 21:7. In this day and age, what do you think would be a fair price for her?

3. I know that I am allowed no contact with a woman while she is in her period of menstrual uncleanliness - Lev.15: 19-24. The problem is how do I tell? I have tried asking, but most women take offense.

4. Lev. 25:44 states that I may indeed possess slaves, both male and female, provided they are purchased from neighboring nations. A friend of mine claims that this applies to Mexicans, but not Canadians. Can you clarify? Why can't I own Canadians?

5. I have a neighbor who insists on working on the Sabbath. Exodus 35:2. The passage clearly states he should be put to death. Am I morally obligated to kill him myself?

6. A friend of mine feels that even though eating shellfish is an abomination - Lev. 11:10, it is a lesser abomination than homosexuality. I don't agree. Can you settle this? Are there 'degrees' of abomination?

7. Lev. 21:20 states that I may not approach the altar of God if I have a defect in my sight. I have to admit that I wear reading glasses. Does my vision have to be 20/20, or is there some wiggle room here?

8. Most of my male friends get their hair trimmed, including the hair around their temples, even though this is expressly forbidden by Lev.19:27. How should they die?

9. I know from Lev. 11:6-8 that touching the skin of a dead pig makes me unclean, but may I still play football if I wear gloves?

10. My uncle has a farm. He violates Lev. 19:19 by planting two differentcrops in the same field, as does his wife by wearing garments made of two different kinds of thread (cotton/polyester blend). He also tends to curse and blaspheme a lot. Is it really necessary that we go to all the trouble of getting the whole town together to stone them? - Lev.24:10-16. Couldn't we just burn them to death at a private family affair like we do with people who sleep with their in-laws? (Lev. 20:14)

I know you have studied these things extensively and thus enjoy considerable expertise in such matters, so I am confident you can help. Thank you again for reminding us that God's word is eternal and unchanging.

Your adoring fan,
James M. Kauffman, Ed.D.
Professor Emeritus"

It's nothing like the fall colors on trees one might see in the Northeast, but here in San Diego it actually happens on a much smaller scale...and it is still beautiful!

It really is bothering me these days watching different minority group in the United States working so hard to marginalize and Balkanize themselves from the rest of American society. This country was built on the sweat and brow of peoples from all around the world who decided to "get along" because they had to for a common economic good. Now, you have a small group of blacks continually screaming "racism, racism, racism" at every tip of the hat, which has now encouraged Muslims -- and now even Jews -- to force themselves on to what I call "professional victimization" in their quest to get their 15 minutes of fame.

Recent cases in point:

* The 6 Muslim clerics who tried to board a US Airways jetliner bound for Minneapolis who started acting up like would-be terrorists ready to commandeer the airliner. When the authorities took control of the situation, they immediately screamed "rational profiling." (Let's face it, Muslims these days don't exactly have a glowing reputation since 911.)

* A Muslim woman in Michigan who went to her gym and in the middle of the facility started doing Muslim prayers -- and when someone complained that doing Muslim chants and prayers next to the freeweights and Lifecycle -- she immediately trotted out a cadre of attorneys claiming "religious intolerance."

* All 15 Christmas trees inside the terminal at Sea-Tac have been removed in response to a complaint by a Seattle rabbi wanted to install an 8-foot menorah and have a public lighting ceremony. He threatened to sue if the menorah wasn’t put up, and gave a two-day deadline to remove the trees which had been a ten year long tradition at the international airport. All that this resulted in all of the holiday trees being removed.

She said that since this is their busiest time of year and they don't have time to add a fair representation of all cultures, her department decided to take down all of the decorations, review their policies, and decide if they need to make a change for next year. A spokesman for the Sea-Tac airport said in a KING-TV5 report, "Our focus is on customer service, getting our passengers through the airport, and we thought if we could take the trees down and avoid litigation because we don't want to litigate with this individual, we want to reach some kind of solution."

My solution for all of the naysayers and professional victims:

SHUT UP and SHOW SOME TOLERANCE FOR OTHERS, JUST AS YOU WOULD WANT PEOPLE TO TOLERATE YOU.

CAPICE?

My water broke.

Details and film at 11....

Nigger.

OK...I said it. I didn't say the "'n' word." Comedian and actor Michael Richards made remarks that were bigoted, shocking, repellent, and deeply offensive. I'm offended by that word and tirade, but why is the Caucasian public-at-large trembling in its boots at the so-called "n-word," when blacks can openly use the word in their public speech and so-called hip-hop culture? When did black Americans get a license they been given a license to use the word? Perhaps while I have had my back turned?

Michael Richards hired a damage control publicist and he met with "leaders of the black community" to make nice. But as Jay Leno asked the other day on his show, what "leaders of the White community" do we have when black people say offensive things about whites?

Despite all of the contrition and the obligatory trip to "rehabilition," the most irrelevant Reverend Jesse Jackson is now calling for a boycott of the Seinfeld box set involving Michael Richards who played "Kramer." I say, let's call on the media and general public to boycott Jesse Jackson, who often exploits these situations to shake down celebrities and major corporations for his own needs and coffers. And then you have the goofy Rev. Al Sharpton -- the same Reverend who associated himself in making false claims about white bigotry in the famous case of Tawana Brawley -- going around making his own tirades in an effort to get his own 15 seconds.

How about asking comedian (in his mind and marketed) Dave Chappelle and his tirades to stop his use of the word and offensive racial references? I know it will never happen, because the situation is different. "Different" at least in the mind of the most irrelevant Jesse Jackson.

"Sometimes with all I have gone through in my life leaves me wondering if this life is truly worth all the pain which is contained within it."

A friend of mine said that to me....and I couldn't agree more.

It is interesting how one gets left behind after everybody tells you how much they are sorry for your loss.... Everybody got all gushy "let me know if you need anything" yet I haven't received one invitation to join anyone for Thanksgiving dinner.... After all of that no wonder I have gotten so cynical about people and relationships.

Thank God for Denny's.

I will never forget one time a friend of my mom's told her about the Dr. Phil Show and how she would drop everything and watch the show religiously. So one day, mom asked me if I knew about the show and it happened to be on. After about 10-15 minutes I looked over to my mom who had a look of disgust on her face. She nodded her head and in her usual laser straight-to-the-point attitude referred to the show as "emotional masturbation." She then took the TV remote and changed the channel.

The same thought when I had the (mis)fortune of turning on ABC-TV's "Extreme Makeover: Home Edition" with Ty Pennington. The show is nothing but emotional masturbation with the recipients of the home makeover talking looking off camera and balling and sobbing on cue. Then you have Ty Pennington's crew doing the same. Then by the end of the show everybody is miserable and sobbing uncontrollably on cue while Ty Pennington slips in a plug to all of the show's sponsors as he shows the made over house to the miserable family. The only people this show can appeal to are those who are devoid of personal emotion from within and have a need externalize their expression of emotions.

One thing I didn't know about Ty Pennington is that he is a victim of ADHD or Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder, and is a spokesman/spokesmodel for Adderall which is used to chemically treat the disease.

There really are a few dumbshits walking around. They have NEVER experienced what a person goes through when they lose someone who has been a part of their history, their life.

Earlier this evening, paraphrasing what was said to me about the extreme grief I've been going through in the past couple of weeks in anticipation of the holiday season, I had someone tell me with such exuberance -- mind you that this individual has his sisters, a close relationship with his mother, God only knows how many relatives...

"I know you are grieving. But you are letting it consume you...grieve and let it go...keep your mother's memory a happy one and close in your heart, but don't let your grief destroy your ability to be part of this world...if you sit and wollow in that big house alone, you will not be a person anyone will want in their life. Bitterness and sorrow will not bring your mother back, let it go."

I had kind of an upset today which came out of something that initially made me happy. Mom's Christmas cactus started blooming and I brought it into the kitchen so I could enjoy it when I would be sitting at my laptop which seems to have found a semi-permanent home on my kitchen table.

"What an interesting time for it to bloom," I thought to myself. Then I realized that in a month it is going to be Christmas. :-(

It was a real blow. I don't know how much more I can take before I fold.

SOME OBSERVATIONS ABOUT ELECTION DAY 2006...

All of the political ads have been broadcast a million times on radio and television and the voters have supposedly spoken -- vox populi vox dei (the voice of the people is the voice of God). For at least a week now we will be subject to a lot of Monday morning quarterbacking by the television political commentators and the radio talk show hosts. It is interesting though how I hear from liberal friends and acquaintances that their nemesis President George Bush "got a whacking" and how a new political day will be rising....the Republican dark ages are finally over! Happy days are here again! While the Democrats have taken over both houses of congress, the reality is that really nothing has changed, nor will their supposed work in Washington DC will change. The Congressmen and Senators elected to office this round are the same people who have merely exchanged their ties with one another.

The Kool Aid-Cindy Sheehan liberals are the ones who are really deluding themselves as they dance to "Happy Days Are Here Again." They have convinced themselves that just because a new shop sign has been installed in front of the U.S. Capitol Building, their newly elected coalitions are sure follow an anti-war pull out the troops from Iraq strategy. It ain't gonna happen. The Democrats have two years to prove they can improve the situation, and must do so following a centrist position if they are to be kept in office beyond 2008 simply because the Democrat majorities elected this time around does not constitute a mandate. Democrats have 229 seats in the House, 11 more than the number necessary to hold the barest of majorities in the 435-member chamber...last session the Republicans held a similar majority. In the Senate, they hold only 51 seats, with Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman -- now an independent -- with the ability to go either way. And seeing how his fellow Democrats loudly took a political gamble by abandoning him during his run as an independent against bagillionaire Ned Lamont, chances are that Lieberman can very well use a trump card on many issues and is no longer beholden to those who abandoned him. (The best thing for these former Lieberman allies would have been for them to simply not get involved and stay neutral during the Lamont/Lieberman campaign in case Lieberman won.)

Lieberman's win was due in part to Republican support in Connecticut, but also reflects normal thinking centrist Democrats who have not bought into the Kool Aid-Anti War politics of whackjob Cindy Shehaan funded by Gagillionaire-cum-philanthropist Hungarian leftist American politics meddler George Soros.

The only mandate which may have been communicated by the American electorate is this: While the United States clearly accomplished its goal of toppling the modern day Hitler Saddam Hussein who repeatedly violated United Nations resolutions, has established and help encourage the formation of a democratic coalition government in Iraq, the bottom line is that it must withdraw its troops and allow the Iraqis to defend their newly found democracy as soon as possible and grow it. The only role is for United States and NATO to continue to try to keep the peace between the fighting Shiite, Sunni, and Kurdish factions.

(Image of the 1st Brigade Combat Team of the 34th Infantry Division of the Minnesota National Guard stolen from The Drudge Report)

I really think the Republican party should thank bagillionaire Sen. John Kerry (D-Taxachusetts) for his utterance in Los Angeles on Monday that if a person doesn't get a good education "you'll be stuck in Iraq." (Thing is this, as a political party fence sitter I am issue oriented and who I feel will follow through on my beliefs in Washington DC will be the person I ultimately cast my vote for. I'm no friend of President Bush, yet how I see the Democrats scrambling in every direction just to influence a popular vote and advance the party makes me sick. Republicans do it to, but lately one sees how the Democrats are panicing in that they have now lost several elections.)

Sen. Kerry claims he misspoke, botched a joke. Just to complete the usual ways how politics works in this country, he will probably now claim he's addicted to alcohol or drugs and will go into rehab. And then pledge after that he will go help build houses poverty stricken people in Katrina-ravaged New Orleans.

The best part of this whole mess is watching all of the Democrats cancelling their upcoming campaign appearances with Sen. Kerry and Hillary saying "no wonder we lost in 2004" and referring to the comments as "downright stupid." It was Pres. Reagan who always reminded his Republicans when things didn't go right to follow what he called the "11th Commandment": Thou Shalt Not Eat They Fellow Republicans. Just when you thought the Democrats may have their house in order with absolute unity, you realize that they are just as fragmented as the Republicans, which only lends credence to new non-partisan political groups as "UNITY 08" who are representing millions and millions of Americans such as myself who are SICK of the partisan infighting/lack of leadership which is so pervasive now in Washington.

The following article just proves my point that we're leading up to a society where finally nobody will be able to say anything to anyone because of the fear of being offended, harrased, harangued, etc.

Police officers need to be fit and trim...because they are a liability in terms of health problems (note I didn't use the latest corporate pinhead numbskullspeak word, "issue."). Then there is the other question...what about the rights of the suspect not to be pummeled and have more damage inflicted on them when they are hit and pounced on by a 300 pound police officer...cruel and unusual punishment? Having a person arrested is one thing, but having a 5'6" 100 lb. suspect being thrown to the ground and have a 300 lb. police officer fall on them and being pulverized leaving innerds behind no different than a large juicy bug? Now that could be considered cruel and unusual punishment???? (Heh....Although I know at least of one person who would enjoy it!....don't ask for details as none will be given.)

I'm sure we'll see "part deux" of this story being carried and played out...strained backs and all.

WINTER HAVEN, Fla. – Police Chief Paul Goward was tired of looking around his department and seeing blubber hanging over the belts of some of his officers. So he sent out a memo exhorting the “jelly bellies” to shape up.

In the end, the department lost 190 pounds – all of them belonging to Goward. He was forced out as chief because some of his officers took offense at the memo. The Oct. 11 memo bruised feelings on the 80-member force, drew at least one anonymous letter of complaint from officers about the chief's management style and made his department the butt of jokes about fat cops and doughnuts. “If they got their feelings hurt to the extent of 'Do something about it,' then I did what I was intending to do,” said an unapologetic Goward, a trim 6-footer who was forced to resign his $92,000-a-year post last week.

Some of the chief's defenders said his ouster was a big overreaction. “He offered tremendously good advice, yet he was sacked,” wrote Thomas Roe Oldt, a columnist for The Ledger of Lakeland. In his memo, titled “Are You a Jelly Belly,” the chief never singled anyone out, and apart from the title, didn't call anyone names.

Instead, he provided a list of 10 reasons police officers should be in shape. He said overweight police poorly represent the profession, poop out when chasing suspects and might have to resort to “a higher level of force” if a criminal got the upper hand in a fight. He said out-of-shape cops are a liability to the city and their families.

“Take a good look at yourself,” he wrote. “If you are unfit, do yourself and everyone else a favor. See a professional about a proper diet and a fitness training program, quit smoking, limit alcohol intake and start thinking self-pride, confidence and respectability. And stop making excuses for delaying what you know you should have been doing years ago. We didn't hire you unfit and we don't want you working unfit. Don't mean to offend, this is just straight talk. I owe it to you.”

Winter Haven cops must pass physical examinations to be hired but are not regularly tested for fitness thereafter.

Goward, 60, said he is not a fitness freak, was not “asking for a department full of Arnold Schwarzeneggers here” and did not order his officers to stay away from fast-food restaurants or doughnut shops. In fact, the 36-year police veteran, who has also worked in Kansas and South Carolina, said Winter Haven's force is no less fit than the others he has served on.

David Greene, manager of the central Florida city of 30,000, said through a spokeswoman that he was too busy for an interview, but told the local newspapers the anonymous complaint letters made it clear the police department had a morale problem because of Goward's abrasive management style during his 2½ years there. “Emotions within the police department and the relationship with the police chief became raw,” he told The Ledger. Winter Haven officers contacted by The Associated Press said they were told not to talk to reporters about Goward's departure.

One of the anonymous complaint letters described the force as “upset to say the least” about the chief and called the “Jelly Belly” memo “the icing on the cake.”
“This letter shows the type of harassment and hostile work environment we have. The chief of police is constantly 'bad talking' us in every way possible and we have had enough of his arrogance,” the letter read.

Mandy Rohrbaugh, a 40-year-old nursing student and Winter Haven resident, said Goward had the right message, but perhaps could have delivered it differently. “I think honestly our police force needs a lot of shaping up, and I think they should be fit not just when they're hired but through their time,” she said.

I'm so really done with doctors and hospitals and clinics this year, especially after an intensive emergency surgical procedure which I had to undergo this morning.

While the pain and after effects of the procedure are really affecting me tonight, I can't get over the outpouring of love and devotion from my friends N, M, C, S, and a new friend in Los Angeles, D, who was prepared to come down from Los Angeles to take care of me on a moment's notice. "I can be down there in two (hours)," this individual insisted. Of course, those were the words of the afore mentioned friends, as well. And then there was the moral support of my friend S in Reno, Nevada.

Out of my experience today, yes, it is true that what comes around, literally does go around. I took care of an individual in the same manner for five years in so many ways, and most recently, when Last May, I took care of someone who has meant the total world to me. This individual who was a part of my active life was very sick...severe chills, stuff coming out of every conceivable orifice to the point of scaring the bejesus out of me, which had me rousting the individual's doctors with the thought that the individual who have to be taken to the hospital to be rehydrated and have tests done, etc., etc. It was only one instance of all the things I did for the individual to make them happy. Yet this individual, with no regard to my extreme sorrow over the passing of my mother and the constant 7/24 caring I gave to for seven months, made a conscious decision to consciously kick me emotionally in the stomach, so they could pursue their own agenda of trying to find their nirvana paved with the psychobabble so tolerated these days by society. Not only have I had to endure my own extreme grief, but the emotional strain of this Judas-like act by this individual.

But you know, I find solace and satisfaction that with their pursuit of Nirvana, ultimately what they have metted out, will "come around" for them. Karma keeps very accurate books.

Woohoo!

I have joined the growing legions of DirecTV satellite whores!

Tired of being monkeyed around by Cox Cable (an evil company, in my opinion), I took advantage of DirecTV's superduper offer of all Showtime channels + Sundance and The Movie Channel and all Starz channel for $59 a month in perpetuity. THere were some problems with completing my order online necessitating me to call in, so they bonused me all the HBO channels and a DVR unit for $4.99. It is fun to record and watch all the movies I've always wanted to see! In the midst of it I get IFC and the Fox Movie Channel which also show movies uninteruppted.

Woohoo!

Barbra Streisand doesn't have a bad voice....but I hate her politics...and her lack of class. During her fourth final farewell concert she confronted a heckler in the audience by saying "Shut The Fuck Up." Well now a New York DJ has come up with a new dance song based on her tirade.... It DEFINITELY is very creative and good and shows Badaboom Babs at her "best." Click here to go to the song link Warning: You will have to expend mouse clicking energy by having to click on the media player on the page.

Here's the original article about Badaboom Babs:

ashington, Oct 27: Barbra Streisand is best known for her love ballads such as ‘The way we were’ and themes from movies such as ‘Hello Dolly’, but now she is set to conquer the music charts with a song that samples her four-letter-word abuse she made at a recent concert .

A few weeks back, the 64-year-old ardent Democrat, used the opportunity of her first U.S. tour in 12 years to take a dig at President Bush, by employing a Bush impersonator to sing a duet with her while blasting his policies.

Not all members of her audience appreciated her performance, and one concertgoer yelled out asking if the concert was a fundraiser.

After first imploring to the heckler to be polite and be quiet, Barbara reportedly lost her temper and yelled out; "Why don't you shut the f**k up! If you can't take a joke, why don't you leave and get your money back."

Now, Lucian Piane, a New York songwriter/producer, has turned Barbara’s four-letter-word tirade into a thumping club track entitled, "STFU."

The track is currently doing the rounds on the Internet and, is expected to be quite a hit considering Streisand’s loyal following.

"It portrays her in a positive light, making her into a champion," TMZ quoted Lucian as saying.

And if she doesn't like the track, Lucian jokingly adds he would tell her, "Shut up if you can't take a joke!" (ANI)

I saw a great bumper sticker today:

THE WORLD IS GOING TO HELL
I'M DRIVING THE BUS

It reminded me of what a friend said to me several months ago when I admonished him that something he had just said to me was going to cause him to "go to hell." "Ivars," he said, "I'm in training to be a supervisor in hell."

I really doubt that this person is going to go to hell...a real friend in comparison to the Judas' that have had roles and places in my life in the past year.

It is interesting to watch liberals spin what they can in order to make the Iraq war as ugly as possible when they put out a controversial new study contends nearly 655,000 Iraqis have died because of the war, suggesting a far higher death toll than other estimates. In a dispatch released by the Associated Press, the timing of the survey's release, just a few weeks before the U.S. congressional elections, led one expert to call it "politics." I couldn't agree more.

In the new study, researchers attempted to calculate how many more Iraqis have died since March 2003 than one would expect without the war. Their conclusion, based on interviews of households and not a body count, is that about 600,000 died from violence, mostly gunfire. They also found a small increase in deaths from other causes like heart disease and cancer.

But of course, we ignore the fact that World War II ultimately killed more people, involved more nations, and cost more money than any other war in history. Altogether, 70 million people served in the armed forces during the war and 17 million combatants died. Civilian deaths were ever greater. At least 19 million Soviet civilians, 10 million Chinese, and 6 million European Jews lost their lives during the war.

World War II was truly a global war. Some 70 nations took part in the conflict, and fighting took place on the continents of Africa, Asia, and Europe, as well as on the high seas. Entire societies participated, as soldiers, war workers, or victims of occupation and mass murder.

Of course, the way liberals love to argue they will simply dismiss facts such as these and repeat their diatribe.

I made an interesting observation today....and think I finally understand why America so appealed to my father. It came about after chatting with my 36-year old cousin in Latvia, and a chat friend in London...as well as others along the way. My father was a very outgoing/outward looking man who appreciated that potential of things. On the other hand, you have a real European mentality of people who are willing to accept their poorer lot in life. When I asked my cousin in Latvia if he would be interested in coming to the U.S., he said to me, "I'm too old to adapt to change of a new place," while my acquaintance in England would love to visit the U.S. and live here, "but it is so difficult to get a landed immmigrant visa and be able be able to work."

My dad always said, where there is a will, there is a way....and that's what made my dad so different from the old world view of so many in Europe.

What bunch of lunatic scum -- both Republicans and Democrats -- are we sending to Washington DC to the point that we need to protect the House pages...and establish a 1-800 abuse hotline for them????

The time has come to dissolve both houses of congress and start again...no more Hasterts, no more Kennedys, Foleys, Murthas, Pelosies....

WASHINGTON Rep. Dennis Hastert, the man in charge of the House of Representatives, is defending his office's handling of questions raised about Rep. Mark Foley last year, saying the parents of a male former page were bothered by an e-mail Foley sent their son but did not want the matter pursued.

Hastert said neither he nor other Republican leaders were aware until last Friday of far more lurid computer exchanges two years earlier between the Florida Republican and another page.