Words I live by....

Promise Yourself

Promise yourself to be so strong that nothing can
disturb your peace of mind. To talk health, happiness
and prosperity to every person you meet. To make all
your friends feel that there is something in them.
To look at the sunny side of everything and make
your optimism come true. To think only of the best,
to work only for the best, and expect only the best.
To be just as enthusiastic about the success of others
as you are about your own. To forget the mistakes of
the past and press on to greater achievements of the
future. To wear a cheerful countenance at all times
and give every living creature you meet a smile. To
give so much time to the improvement of yourself
that you have no time to criticize others. To be too
large for worry, too noble for anger, too strong for fear
and too happy to permit the presence of trouble.
- Christian D. Larson

Court: fence violates int'l law, must be dismantled

By Aluf Benn, Haaretz Correspondent

"The International Court of Justice will rule on Friday that the separation fence contravenes international law, that it must be dismantled, and that compensation must be paid to the Palestinian owners of property confiscated for its construction, according to documents obtained by Haaretz.

"The International Court of Justice will rule on Friday that the separation fence contravenes international law, that it must be dismantled, and that compensation must be paid to the Palestinian owners of property confiscated for its construction, according to documents obtained by Haaretz.

"Most of the justices believed that in building the fence, Israel violated international humanitarian law, by infringing on Palestinians' freedom of movement, freedom to seek employment, education and health. Israel violated international treaties it had signed which deal with these topics, the ruling states."

Israel has a right to exist and has the right to do whatever it has to do to protect itself from the crazy Palestinians. An integral part of the Israel/Palestinian peace process is for the Palestinians to behave themselves in accordance to world norms and go beyond throwing rocks at the Israelis....and not actively recruiting homicide bombers. Israel has done everything to employ Palestinians...and Israel is constantly having its security being threatened.

The situation is no difference in Latvia where the former Russian occupiers continue to harrangue and interfere in the affairs of the legitimate Latvian (Baltic) republics.

Isn't this called income redistribution??? Isn't this called SOCIALISM???

All this while Mrs. Kerry....eh....Maria Teresa Thierstein Simoes-Ferreira Heinz Kerry...trots out her 1 BILLION dollar fortune.

(The wife of Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry is widely reported to have assets of $500 million, but her fortune has doubled that amount since 1995 despite large living expenses and charitable contributions, the Los Angeles Times reported, citing Securities and Exchange Commission filings, financial disclosure reports and other public records. A precise valuation of Heinz Kerry's net worth was difficult because key details about her investments are not contained in the public record. The newspaper said its estimates ranged from $900 million to $3.2 billion but cited financial experts as saying $1 billion was a "fair and conservative" valuation.) (Lancaster Online, June 27, 2004).

Government always does a good job of spending the taxpayers money. The taxpayers THEMSELVES know where their dollars should be spent...



San Francisco rolls out the red carpet for the Clintons

(AP) "The leftiest big city on the Left Coast was Clinton country on Monday, with former President Clinton continuing his blockbuster book tour and Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton headlining a Democratic fund-raiser where she vowed to defeat the Republicans' 'extraordinarily ruthless machine.'

Headlining an appearance with other Democratic women senators on behalf of Sen. Barbara Boxer, who is up for re-election this year, Hillary Clinton told several hundred supporters -- some of whom had ponied up as much as $10,000 to attend -- to expect to lose some of the tax cuts passed by President Bush if Democrats win the White House and control of Congress.

'Many of you are well enough off that ... the tax cuts may have helped you,' Sen. Clinton said. 'We're saying that for America to get back on track, we're probably going to cut that short and not give it to you. We're going to take things away from you on behalf of the common good.' "

I find it amusing how a preachy washed up politician will do anything trying to get news headlines... So sad. Why can't he go help Jimmy Carter to build houses and do something socially progressive. He might even lose some weight in the process!

Washington, DC-- In a major Washington policy address this Thursday, former Vice President Al Gore will accuse the Bush Administration of intentionally misleading the American people by continuing to falsely claim a connection between Saddam Hussein and Al Qaeda.

He will charge that Bush and Cheney have 'institutionalized dishonesty as an essential element of their policy process.' "

Lawyer says Saddam tortured

AP - A Jordanian lawyer who claims he represents Saddam Hussein said he believes the ousted Iraqi leader was subjected to torture, although a copy of a letter reportedly sent to his daughters seems to show the ex-president in good spirits.
Mohammed Rashdan said he had a copy of a January 21 report by the International Committee of the Red Cross that said the detainee's health was good but that he was 'slightly wounded.' It gave no details on the injury.
'This is blatant proof that the Iraqi president was subjected to physical and moral torture and violence,' said Rashdan, who says Saddam's wife appointed him as lawyer shortly after the ex-leader's December 13 capture."

Ohhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh....poor baby...

What about the people he mutilated and killed?

What about 100,000+ gassed Kurds?

IRAQI JUSTICE NOW!

Good manners do not cost you anything to exercise, but the lack of them may cost you dearly further down the road.

One tequilla, two tequilla, three tequilla, floor.

I had my first getaway in a long time to Las Vegas with a super duper buddy from Tuesday through Thursday night.

What did I get out of the experience?

Well, this resulted in a major personal epiphany today...realizing my true self worth, realizing how much I don't appreciate myself for the person I am and my capabilities, refusing to be a victim and/or allow myself to be victimized by others, refusing to agonize over things and deal with them straight on...

The big news yesterday was that President Bush (just like Sen. John Kerry) had a spill from his bike while in Crawford, TX. Upon learning this, Sen. Kerry in front of reporters and cameras "Did the training wheels fall off?"

This type of politicking really disappoints me and shows that John Kerry is not ready for prime time. It is in bad taste, doesn't advance political debate, and shows that Sen. Kerry is a vile, petty, sniveling, politician with a big ego.

We need to find a viable and intelligent third party candidate QUICK!

Unfortunately, House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi is not too far from the truth!


WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) delivered an attack aimed at President Bush both in a Capitol Hill news conference and in an interview given to her hometown newspaper Thursday afternoon.

Pelosi's remarks stood in sharp contrast with those of the president who made a trip to Capitol Hill yesterday to deliver a message meant to rally Republican lawmakers.

"I believe that the president's leadership and the actions taken in Iraq demonstrate an incompetence in terms of knowledge, judgment, and experience," Pelosi told reporters gathered to hear her remarks.

"This president should have known ... when you decide to go to war you have to know what the consequences of your action are and how you can accomplish the mission," Pelosi said.

The House Democratic leader added, "There was plenty of intelligence to say there would be chaos in Iraq following the fall of Baghdad."

"The results of his action are what undermine his leadership, not my statements," she said. "The emperor has no clothes. When are people going to face the reality?"
In a separate interview granted to the San Francisco Chronicle, Rep. Pelosi went even further, saying, "Bush is an incompetent leader. In fact, he's not a leader. He's a person who has no judgment, no experience and no knowledge of the subjects that he has to decide upon."

"Not to get personal about it, but the president's capacity to lead has never been there," Pelosi said.

"In order to lead, you have to have judgment. In order to have judgment, you have to have knowledge and experience. He has none," she added.

Unfortunately, House Minority leader Nancy Pelosi is not too far from the truth!


WASHINGTON (Talon News) -- House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) delivered an attack aimed at President Bush both in a Capitol Hill news conference and in an interview given to her hometown newspaper Thursday afternoon.

Pelosi's remarks stood in sharp contrast with those of the president who made a trip to Capitol Hill yesterday to deliver a message meant to rally Republican lawmakers.

"I believe that the president's leadership and the actions taken in Iraq demonstrate an incompetence in terms of knowledge, judgment, and experience," Pelosi told reporters gathered to hear her remarks.

"This president should have known ... when you decide to go to war you have to know what the consequences of your action are and how you can accomplish the mission," Pelosi said.

The House Democratic leader added, "There was plenty of intelligence to say there would be chaos in Iraq following the fall of Baghdad."

"The results of his action are what undermine his leadership, not my statements," she said. "The emperor has no clothes. When are people going to face the reality?"
In a separate interview granted to the San Francisco Chronicle, Rep. Pelosi went even further, saying, "Bush is an incompetent leader. In fact, he's not a leader. He's a person who has no judgment, no experience and no knowledge of the subjects that he has to decide upon."

"Not to get personal about it, but the president's capacity to lead has never been there," Pelosi said.

"In order to lead, you have to have judgment. In order to have judgment, you have to have knowledge and experience. He has none," she added.

Awwwwwwwwwww..........poor baby.....

I wonder how Nicholas Berg is feeling this morning...

LONDON (Reuters) - A third Briton detained at Guantanamo Bay told a newspaper he was mistreated by his U.S. captors and said guards at the camp in Cuba filmed his beatings.
Tarek Dergoul, 26, from London, was one of five Britons released from the camp in March. Four others, said by Washington to be more dangerous, remain captive.
He told The Observer newspaper Sunday he had been repeatedly assaulted by Camp Delta's punishment squad, the Extreme Reaction Force, during his 22-month imprisonment.
'They pepper-sprayed me in the face and I started vomiting,' he was quoted as saying. 'They pinned me down and attacked me, poking their fingers in my eyes, and forced my head into the toilet and flushed.
'They tied me up like a beast and then they were kneeling on me, kicking and punching.
'Finally they dragged me out of the cell in chains...and shaved my beard, my hair and my eyebrows,' he said.
'There was always this guy behind the squad, filming everything that happened,' he added.
Last week, two other British inmates wrote an open letter to President Bush, saying they were beaten and accusing U.S. military officials of deliberately misleading the public about interrogation techniques used at Guantanamo."

Please read this while humming to yourself Queen's classic song, "We Are The Champions."


Bremer says U.S. will leave Iraq if new government asks

The Associated Press
Updated: 8:36 p.m. ET May 14, 2004
BAGHDAD, Iraq - The U.S. administrator of Iraq told regional officials Friday that the United States would leave Iraq if requested to do so by the new Iraqi government although he thinks such a move is unlikely.

L. Paul Bremer told a delegation from Iraq's Diyala province that American forces would not stay where they were unwelcome.
If the provisional government asks us to leave we will leave," Bremer said, referring to an Iraqi administration due to take power June 30. "I don't think that will happen, but obviously we don't stay in countries where we're not welcome."

The United States plans to keep substantial military forces here after the June 30 handover, prompting critics to question whether Iraqis will gain genuine sovereignty."

This is so wonderful. We go in...have 700+ soldiers kill, get everyone to shoot at each other.

Way to go, Shrub!

An online acqaintance tonight said something so right about the situation in Iraq:

I'm a simple person, but it just really pisses me off when the government we elect can't fulfill it's job to protect it's citizens. I understand troops and war and the deaths that result from that. But senseless murder is just to much for me. I'm getting my life on track, feeling good about myself after 40 something years of feeling like crap and now this. I'm ready to cry.

On the other hand...what in the hell was Nicholas Berg doing in a country whose inhabitants pervert the philosophy of Islam? I wish more people would figure out that we're dealing here with whacked out fanatics who only understand strong arming and showing who is boss. So many people around the world have no comprehension about the indiscriminate, violent nature of Islamic extremism and the threat it poses to the civilized world.

As an editorial in the Dallas Morning News so accurately said, "This is who the enemy is. This is what our nation is up against.... But it is important that our readers see in as much detail as reasonably possible what the Islamists have done to an innocent American civilian. It's important because this is the fate al-Qaeda and its allies intend for every one of us in the West, and for the many Muslims who oppose their plans. (Though Arab media have generally downplayed this atrocity, it's actually more important for the world's Muslims to see what is being done in their name.) ... It is meant to bring perspective to events in Iraq, to refocus the nation's eyes on the larger picture of the war against radical Islam, and its stakes.

Nick Berg was but the latest victim in the terrorist war on civilization. Al-Qaeda doesn't intend him to be their last. To paraphrase British Prime Minister Tony Blair, al-Qaeda members killed one, but if they could have killed 100,000, they would have rejoiced in it. Look what they did to this young Pennsylvanian, and understand that this is why we Americans fight, however imperfectly, and that this is why we dare not lose faith in the justice and necessity of our cause. (Emphasis by Ivars)

I guess that Catholic priests abusing countless of children doesn't count...nor does the Spanish inquisitions. (see emphasized text).


Vatican Says Prison Abuse Said Bigger to U.S. Than 9/11

ROME - The scandal of prisoner abuses by U.S. soldiers in Iraq (news - web sites) has dealt a bigger blow to the United States than the Sept. 11 attacks, the Vatican (news - web sites) foreign minister told an Italian newspaper.

In an interview published Wednesday in the Rome daily La Repubblica, Archbishop Giovanni Lajolo described the abuses as "a tragic episode in the relationship with Islam" and said the scandal would fuel hatred for the West and for Christianity. "The torture? A more serious blow to the United States than Sept. 11. Except that the blow was not inflicted by terrorists but by Americans against themselves," Lajolo was quoted as saying in La Repubblica.

Lajolo said that "intelligent people in Arab countries understand that in a democracy such episodes are not hidden and are punished ... Still the vast mass of people — under the influence of Arab media — cannot but feel aversion and hate for the West growing inside themselves." And, he added, "the West is often identified with Christianity." The remarks were not the first by Lajolo on the abuses at the Abu Ghraib prison in Iraq. In the wake of the scandal, he had said that a democracy should punish those responsible and their direct superiors. The Vatican paper, L'Osservatore Romano, has also run some harsh comments in the past days. On Monday, it criticized what it called a Pentagon cover-up and took sharp aim at the photograph of a soldier holding a prisoner by a leash. In Wednesday's interview, Lajolo said the coalition's priority should be "putting as soon as possible at the head of the Iraqi executive an Iraqi leader who speaks to the Iraqis in Arabic and not in English."

HOLIDAY FOR STRINGS

(Refrain)
When I see you smile at me,
I hear a haunting melody,
And I surrender to the tender thrill it brings,
A holiday for strings,
Sweet music all around me,

Softly as the song begins,
I hear a host of violins,
Or can it only be my lonely heart that sings,
A holiday for strings,
Because your love has found me,

Through the night,
A love song fills the air,
I hear it everywhere,
So sweetly telling me
I’m yours completely,

Breezes sigh,
A new born rhapsody,
When you are close to me,
There’s music,
Never heard such lovely music,

When you’re gone it fades away,
But when we meet i hear it play,
As from above, a song of love comes sweet and clear,
Whenever you are near,
The angels play a holiday for strings.

Lawmakers Say New Abuse Photos Even Worse

(AP) The abuse of Iraqi prisoners by U.S. troops went beyond the photos seen by most Americans, shaken lawmakers said Wednesday after viewing fresh pictures and video that they said depicted forced sex, brutality and dogs snarling at cowed prisoners."

Hearing some of the sexual fetishes of some people there might be some people who would love to exchange places with the prisoners who didn't appreciate it!

I agree wholeheartedly...

Hey, hey...ho, ho, Rumsfeld's gotta go!
Hey, hey...ho, ho, Rumsfeld's gotta go!

Or something like that....I'm not going to be a good future rap star.



Kerry Suggests Replacements for Rumsfeld

"WASHINGTON - Democratic presidential candidate John Kerry said Wednesday any number of people, including Republican Sens. John McCain and John Warner, could replace Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, rejecting concerns that a change in Pentagon leadership could hurt the war effort.

'If America has reached a point where only one person has the ability in our great democracy to manage the Pentagon and to continue or to put in place a better policy even, we're in deeper trouble than you think,' Kerry told broadcaster Don Imus. 'I don't accept that. I just don't accept that. I think that's an excuse. The fact is that we need a change in policy.' "

When will this guy just do like the rest of U.S. Presidents...serve and just fade away? Problem is his ego will not allow him to... Pres. Clinton was not bad, but still will be always overshadowed for his horrific and terribly failed "Don't Ask Don't Tell" policy towards gays in the military and his shenanigans with Monica.

America needs a REAL leader....neither President Bush or Sen. Kerry have the mettle, in my opinion, to provide real leadership.


Clinton Lends Support to Anti-Bush Groups
NEW YORK - Former President Clinton lent his support Tuesday to two interest groups that have sharply criticized President Bush while raising money to help Democrat John Kerry White House bid.
Clinton, along with AFL-CIO president John Sweeney, spoke at an Apollo Theater event held by the MoveOn.org voter fund and Voices for Working Families.
Clinton criticized Bush on his economic policies, particularly his tax cuts, and said the president had reduced after-school programs and the number of police on streets.
'You have to believe that your children and grandchildren will live in an America that will be shaped by whether we ratify the course for wrong, or go back to the one that's worked for eight years.' "

I rarely agree with Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle. But he has really made sense in his comments about "political meanness."

Senate minority leader sees 'startling meanness' in politics

JOHN HANNA
Associated Press

MANHATTAN, Kan. - Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle decried Monday what he called the 'startling meanness' of American politics.
The South Dakotan, who has been Senate Democratic leader for nine years and is seeking re-election in November, said campaigns were especially ugly in 2002 and that the ugliness continues.
'Today, enormous new challenges confront each and every one of us,' he said. 'We will not meet those challenges or seize those opportunities if we indulge in the brutal politics of division, if we attempt to silence those who have other ideas.'
Daschle spoke to about 500 people at Kansas State University as part of the Landon Lecture series. The series is named for former Kansas Gov. Alf Landon, who was the Republican presidential nominee in 1936, when Franklin D. Roosevelt won the second of his four terms.
Daschle noted that Landon's daughter, former Sen. Nancy Kassebaum Baker, while a proud Republican, worked with Democrats in 1996 to pass health insurance legislation.
'There are things that matter more than political parties,' Daschle said. 'There are lines we should not cross regardless of the advantage we think it may give our party at times.'
He continued: 'Demonizing those with whom we disagree politically does not serve the interests of democracy. It does not resolve differences.'
As examples of the meanness in politics, Daschle noted that two Democratic senators, South Dakota's Tim Johnson and Georgia's Max Cleland, were compared in television ads during the 2002 campaign to terrorist Osama bin Laden. Cleland, a decorated veteran who lost three of his limbs in Vietnam, was defeated in his bid for re-election.

Daschle said the political left is responsible for some attacks, too. He cited a recent ad on the Web site Moveon.org that compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler.

"America has real enemies in the world," he said. "Creating false enemies among us to score political points does not make us safer, it makes us more vulnerable. And trying to bully and intimidate others into silence or compliance does not lead to progress. It leads to increased polarization and eventually paralysis."