Quote Of The Day

"Only In America can you see sheep onstage"---A female audience member of THE JERRY SPRINGER SHOW

General Petraeus Begins Media Effort To Clear Way For Bombing Iran

General David Petraeus is apparently becoming part of a joint political effort by both the military and the Bush White House to politically demonize Iran and help to justify the way for the bombing of IED factories or other military targets in Iran. Petraeus was part of an unusual political message attempt Sunday to claim that the Iranian UN Ambassador is part of the Iranian paramilitary involved with the arms smuggling of IEDs into Iraq. This is highly unusual to use the military in this political manner, yet the Bush White House is likely trying to manipulate American opinion enough so that a bombing campaign against Iran can soon be justified.

In the coming week, it is likely that more attempts will be made to manipulate American public opinion to justify a bombing campaign against Iran including the political use of the military. After the successful raid on a suspected North Korean weapons sites in Syria, by Israel, the Bush White House may have become enboldened to attack Iran in a limited bombing campaign against some military sites in Iran and see whether there is any significant political or foreign policy fallout damage. Once the Bush Administration feels that their case has been laid out, a sudden surprise limited bombing mission in Iran, probably using stealth aircraft, will likely take place, and then the Bush Administration will assess the political fallout and decide whether to plan for larger attacks in Iran.

The advantages to the U.S. would be less deaths of U.S. forces from IEDs and arms smuggling. However, the political fallout from Iran is unpredictable and could even trigger Iranian sponsored terrorism against U.S. civilians and landmarks similiar to 9/11 as it has been long suspected that Iran may be using their UN mission to help organize U.S. cells of proIranian terrorists. This could all trigger a cycle of revenge and killings that could soon drag both the U.S. and Iran into an all-out war situattion and become unpredictable as to the impact on the world oil supply as well shipped from the MidEast.

It clearly appears that both the Bush Administration and the military have far more in mind than merely laying out a complaint case against Iran over the IED matter, and seem to be laying out a clear path for some military action against Iran that could take place within days.

New Study Proves That Immigrants Are Less Likely To Commit Crimes Than Native-Born Americans

A new study from University of California-Irvine sociologist Ruben G. Rumbaut and Immigration Policy Center researcher Walter A. Ewing found that the figures for incarceration rates are lower for all immigrant groups, both legal and illegal, and for all ethnic gtroups and nationalities than for native-born Americans. Yet the American political right continues to misrepresent some isolated cases of criminals from foreign lands who entered the U.S. illegally and were arrested for some crime here as the norm.

It has become popular for programs ranging from right wing talk radio all the way to CNN's populist anti-illegal immigration host Lou Dobbs to highlight many isolated stories of an illegal alien who was arrested for some crime as typical of the conduct of many if not most illegal immigrants, yet this authoritive new study disproves the wrong premise of these right wing leaning hosts. Even right winger Laura Ingram has hit #`1 on the book charts last week with her absurd new book, POWER TO THE PEOPLE, which offers silly premises on issues ranging from media to immmigration, glued together with wrong facts.

The political right is so desperate to promote their racist line against illegal immigrants, most of which merely came to the U.S. as economic refugees to escape poverty in their own land to work hard at some low paying American job, often in agriculture or food processing, that they continue to promote racist myths to smear immigrants with stories that are the exception, not the rule involving immigrants.

U.S. May Be Planning To Bomb IED Factories In Iran

New news reports are out today that indicate that the U.S. military is putting together plans to bomb factories in Iran that have been producing the IEDs that have been so lethal to U.S. troops in Iraq. While such plans are intended to save American lives, there are huge political and foreign policy problems with such a limited bombing campaign in Iran.

Israel proved that modern radar blinding technology was able to allow the successful bombing missions in Syria recently with no aircraft losses and only limited political fallout in the region. The U.S. may have become emboldened by the success of this mission and be apt to disregard any political fallout over a similiar limited bombing mission in Iran. However, with so much public concern over the Iraq policy in the U.S., the American public may be angry over any act that appears to be an expansion of that war to now include Iran as well.

Iran could respond in unpredictable ways. At least two Iranian UN diplomats were thrown out of the U.S. after 9/11 for taking photographs of U.S. landmarks that were likely to be handed off to proIranian terrorist cells in the U.S. Iran may have terrorist cells that could attack U.S. citizens and landmarks in response to any limited bombings in Iran, creating a cycle of revenge that result in a much wider U.S.-Iranian war.

Any limited bombings in Iran would not stop the Iranian nuclear weapons program, which is protected in 75foot deep bunkers. Iran could really speed up any WMD type programs in response to any limmited U.S. attacks, or even spur Iran to choke off the world oil supply by using antiship missiles to sink oil tankers that service the U.S. market for oil. And any prodemocratic or reform elements in Iran would suffer a huge political setback in the wake of any attacks on Iran, and the role of the hardliners only improved in their tight grip over Iranian political and religious life.

The first instinct of the White House and U.S. military is to stop the flow of Iranian IEDs into Iraq to save American lives. However, the possible heavy political costs also need serious consideration as well. But the fact of the matter is that this IED issue gives the Bush White House their strongest possible case to justify a bombing campaign in Iran, but also is full of huge unpredictable dangers as well. The U.S. certainly does not need to miscalculate and fall into a big war with Iran at this time. But if Iran one day develops nuclear weapons, then the future danger only grows as well. The choice is a difficult one.

Giuliani Left NYC In "Ratty" Condition

Rudolph Giuliani may like to proclaim about how much he supposedly improved New York City, yet a new study funded by d-Con proves that New York City continues to remain the most rat infested city in America. Apparently Giuliani did little to improve the health and sanitation of the city that still struggles under current Mayor Bloomberg with this serious health problem.

Even comics like David Letterman regularly joke about the rat problems in New York and the filthy conditions in many restaurants, including major name companies. Some businesses are virtually taken over by rats at closing time who get into food and create serious sanitation problems.

In 2003, one of NYC's firehouses had to be closed due to a serious rat problem where these pests virtually took over an entire fire station. At the time, City Councilwoman Christine Quinn noted that Mayor Bloomberg "inherited the problem" from Mayor Rudolph Giuliani.

Giuliani may offer great promises if elected President, but the fact of the matter is that he left NYC in "ratty" condition.

New 2008 Motor Scooters Using Big 16inch Wheels

A new trend in some 2008 motor scooters is the use of big 16inch wheels. With the bigger tires, these scooters are less prone to street potholes and likely far safer than models with only 10 or 12inch wheels. There are also some very modern hightechlike styling cues in some 2008 motor scooters as well. This seems to build on the popularity of the "Euro" styling of many scooters in the recent past model years.

While from a technical standpoint, many scooters seem very similiar to the current models, the quality of the construction seems to keep improving. The Chinese made scooters for example continue to vastly improve in quality and are worthy to consider against higher priced models from Europe due to the low prices, good quality, and great gas mileage. One new model scooter from China now claims as many as 142mpg fuel economy.

Motor scooters continue to climb in popularity as fuel prices continue to climb and many find scooters a fun alternative to the large automobile. One of the biggest growth is buyers over 45 who find motor scooters to be an excellent form of reliable, low cost and fun transportation.

Government could also help to promote the extreme fuel economy of motor scooters by allowing all motor scooters with 150cc and below engine size to be registered as mopeds. Currently only those scooters under 50cc are usually allowed to be registered as mopeds. All motor scooters generally require a valid driver's license as well as motorcycle insurance, however the added cost for a motorcycle endorsement to legally drive motor scooters over 50cc adds $40 or more to driver's license costs as well as involves additional tests that usually have more costs involved as well. All of this only limits the number of high mileage motor scooters that could be sold and reduce fuel consumption for the U.S. and result in big reductions in pollution. More liberal licensing could be a big boost for a wider market for high mileage motor scooters and really benefit American society, and only leave motorcycle licensing for high performance type vehicles capable of very high speeds where great skills are required for safe operation. Many 50cc mopeds only have about 1.9-4hp. Allowing motor scooters up to 150cc to be registered as mopeds would allow many 8-14hp models to be included, giving a little more power for carrying groceries or books from school, or the ability to use roads rated over 30mph to drive to work.

Hillary Clinton Achieves The Magic "50%" Mark In A New Poll

A fresh new CNN poll out just yesterday has put Hillary Clinton in a position in which she is virtually assured of winning the Democratic nomination in the next few weeks when the January primary events begin. In the new poll, Clinton now commands a huge 53% to 20% advantage over Senator Barack Obama. Former Senator John Edwards lags at just 13%. Others like Richardson, Dodd, Biden, Kucinich and Gravel are much farther behind and barely register any measurable support.

In recent election history, any candidate that registers over 50% in any CNN polling has always gone on to win their party nomination.

While Giuliani continues to lead with 33% support in the CNN polling, Rasmussen's polling which uses a different method of only using likely voters finds a much tighter race with Fed Thompson at 22%, Giuliani at 20%, Romney at 17% and McCain at just 11%, which is slightly better than the 9% floor he hit a few days ago. 27% of Republican voters were also inclined to support a third party prolife candidate if Rudolph Giuliani gets the nomination, which is certainly a bad omen for Republicans going into the 2008 election. Thompson would almost certainly lose the election, while Giuliani is more electable but internal problems in support hurt his chances at being elected.

Overall, the track record of Rasmussen reports and Scott Elliot's Election Projection websites rate as the two most accurate polling or election analysis websites and seem to most accurately predict the actual mood of the voters at any given snapshot point.

More Proof That The Fat Lady Has Sung For Britney

As if any more proof that the life of Britney Spears is not in a final meltdown, her new single, GIMME MORE barely moved on the pop charts from #56 to #54 this week, proving that airplay is declining and that Spears is no longer even a top 40 music act any longer. This is vitual proof that her musical career is over.

With all of her personal problems including her losing child custody, the fact that her music comeback appears to be crashing is a huge new bad omen for the once popular singer. She no longer makes headlines for her music, but for all the "trainwreck" problems in her life. Today the main subject on DR. PHIL is the crash of Britney Spears for example. Dr. Phil's message to Spears, "Get help" before it's too late and things get even worse.

With all of the serious news that could be reported, the tragic decline of Britney Spears somehow continues to fascinate the public.
(Photo is under Creative Commons ShareAlike license by copyright holder, BUDSMR, who has licensed this photo for use by any news source provided that the copyright owner is given this legal attribution).

Dueling Washington Clowns

At first the Republican clowns in Congress hoped to change the discussion about Iraq by bringing up the phony MoveOn.org crusade involving the General Patraeus ad. It wasted a good week back in Washington. Now clown Democrats are making a similiar absurd cause against overweight drug addict, Rush Limbaugh, and his "phony soldiers" comment to describe U.S. soldiers critical of the Iraq War.

Unfortunately both wacko crusades only divert time from serious matters in Washington, where many Americans still go without health care, more jobs are lost to low wage nations, many lose their homes to foreclosure and fuel prices and home heating oil break new price records.

Two wrong still do not make a right. And the continued phony crusades for purely political reasons only serve to undermine the credibility of Congress and turn off voters. This is not the government that the public expects.

Putin Nearly Certain To Hang On To Power

Russian President Vladimir Putin now states that he will head the slate of United Russia parliamentary candidates by his party in the December elections. This will almost certainly keep Putin as in power as the Prime Minister of Russia, and his hand picked successor for president will also continue his grip on power.

Who couldn't have seen this coming all the way up Broadway?

Dallas Oil Company With White House Ties Complicates Peace In Iraq With Oil Deal

Dallas oilman Ray L. Hunt, who is closely related to figures in the Bush White House, has made a huge new oil deal with the Kurds in Northern Iraq, complicating any efforts by the Iraqi government to establish a oil revenue sharing plan. It is also another sign that this Iraq War was always about oil, and further evidence of the Bush White House opening up Iraq with the war and loss of life to allow friends of the Bush White House to profit from the Iraq War.

It was also recently disclosed that Saddam Hussein offered to leave Iraq and go into exile if he was paid $1 billion dollars which could have prevented the 2003 war. If such a plan was actually open to discussion, then the huge loss of life could have been potentially avoided, but huge defense contractors would not have profitted from the war by selling arms.

On Friday, defense contractor stocks were up sharply on Wall Street as news of a Bush White House additional $200 billion dollars for the Iraq War were requested.

The big boys get the profits from war. The little people get the bodybags it seems.

Paul Newman Supporting New Effort To Electing A Democratic Senate

Former liberal Republican actor, Paul Newman, is sending out a new appeal letter this weekend via Email to Democratic Party supporters to help elect a majority Democratic Senate. The new appeal is on behalf of the Democratic Senatoral Campaign Committee.

Newman notes that Richard Nixon added him on to his "enemies list" because of his then support for Sen. Eugene McCarthy. Newman goes on to assert that, "I was proud to stand against an imperial president back then. And I am proud to stand with a new generation of Democrats against a president who poses what I believe to be the biggest internal threat to American democracy in my lifetime".

Newman notes that the tiny Democratic margin of just 51-49 votes is highly subject to both Republican vetoes and filibusters to prevent the Democrats from moving ahead with their policies.

When former liberal Republicans like Paul Newman no longer find themselves at home in the Republican Party, it is a sign that the party has drifted too far to the right to be inclusive like it once was. Even the support for an absurd and unqualified candidate like Fred Thompson is another sign that the party is heavily controlled by the political right only concerned with ideology and not more moderate or decent leadership.

John McCain Declines Down To Single Digit Support Level

A new daily tracking poll from the reputable Rasmussen Reports organization has the support of John McCain dclining down to single digits of just 9% support. This is not only a weak 4th place finish in this poll, but is also only two scant points better than Mike Huckabee, the leader among the second tier candidates. If anything this terrible showing in the poll should only help to depress any new financial support for the McCain campaign and signal that the McCain campaign is on life support.

McCain will likely drop out right after the first primaries, now just 13 weeks away, when he badly loses the primaries forever ending his dream of becominmg president. McCain could have become the nation's oldest president if he had been successful.

The unraveling of John McCain came in stages among many Republican voters. He was once wrongly viewed as a liberal because of his maverick positions, then lost his reputation for "straight talk" after becoming a defender of the Bush White House, and finally destroyed himself by his overhawkish views on the Iraq War, wanting even more troops for the war than the White House. Now there is no return for the steady damage to his reputation as a viable Republican candidate. His dream is effectively over.

Senate Votes For Plan For Eventual Breakup Of Iraq

Yesterday a bill from normally controversial Senator Sam Brownback passed on a vote of 75-23 that will likely lead to the eventual breakup of Iraq. The plan calls for a loosely confederated central government with three semi-autonomous states that are Kurdish, Sunni and Shiite. While this certainly seems like a step forward to resolving the difficult sectarian frictions in Iraq, sharing the oil revenues could remain a major problem as in the main Shiite state, almost all of the oil assets of Iraq remain.

In 1922, after the defeat of the Turkish Ottoman Empire, Winston Churchill called in British troops to occupy the land now know as Iraq when Britain discovered that large oil reserves existed in Iraq and three ethnic groups with nothing in common, Kurds, Shiites and Sunnis were grouped together. Britain sided with the Sunni minority at the time, but despite the destruction of entire villages by the British with bombings or mustard gas attacks, the violence continued until the 1958 rebellion in Iraq which forced the British out. The 1950's winessed the growth of the Baathist movement and Arab Socialism in Egypt, Syria and Iraq. Egyptian strongman Gamal Nasser was able to lose the Suez Canal dispute in 1956 to combined British, French and Israeli forces, yet was able to advance the Arab Socialist movement and strengthen Baathist parties all throughout the MidEast.

The history of the conflict between the Sunni and Shiite sects of Islam started soon after the death of Muhammad in 632AD. Rival groups of followers joined two different visions of Islam, with the father-in-law of Muhammad largely involved in the formation of the Shiite sect and only followers of Muhammad involved in the formation of the Sunni sect. Shiites tend to view the Sunni sect as not legitimate as it does not involve the formation by relatives of Muhammad and makes reconciliation by the two sects difficult.

Given the complexities of the sectarian riff between the Sunni and Shiite sects, it is only likely that Iraq will face a breakup only too similiar to that of Yugoslavia into several states.

Democrats Continue High Approval Numbers For Leadership On Issues

New polling data from Rasmussen as well as other sources continues to note more voter trust in the Democrats on various issues ranging from the economy to health care, and recent historic Republican advantages on isues such as dealing with the War On Terror steadily declining to a near draw. All of this is certainly a good omen for the Democrats, where low approval numbers for Congress don't seem to be translating into disapproval for their party going in to 2008.

Perhaps much of the disapproval with Congress relates to their inability to be able to end the war in Iraq. Voters probably see the Democrats as the only party likely to do that compared to so much known public Republican support for the war.

Saturn Automobile Ads Bring Back Sad Episode Of Rock And Roll History

New ads for the Saturn automobiles are bringing back a deeply sad episode of history with a remake of a song by the ill-fated Wales group, Badfinger's COME AND GET IT. The sad history of this group is indeed heartbreaking.

Since 1959, Pete Ham and the other talented musicians who eventually formed the late 60's group, Badfinger were trying hard to break into music. By 1969, their song, COME AND GET IT, which was from the film THE MAGIC CHRISTIAN became a big hit, and the band was signed to The Beatles label, Apple Records. Badfinger was good fit for Apple with a Beatleslike sound, but a bad manager, with a questionable reputation for negotiations and possible ties to organized crime left the band in a complete mess. The contract with Apple was terminated in favor of a contract with Warner Bros. and the last Apple album by the group, ASS, was held up in legal limbo, and the newer albums by the group were poorly received by the critics.

In later years, with a sharply declined income, and deep dispair, band leader Pete Ham killed himself. Another band member killed himself some years later and another died in his sleep.

Indeed the song, COME AND GET IT, should be a joyful bit of rock and roll history. But the sad history of Badfinger casts a giant shadow over any works by this band.

Antiship Missiles Are Not Covered Under Arms Transfer Agreements

Unfortunately the transfer of antiship missiles are not covered under international arms limitations agreements, which has allowed China, North Korea and Russia to provide nations like Iran with some dangerous antiship weapons such as the Chinese and North Korean versions of C-802 and the Russian Sunburn antiship missiles. These weapons have given Iran's small navy a potent weapon to stop a far larger navy or the power to bring oil shipping out of the Gulf to a complete stop in the event of war.

Iran proved the power of the C-802 when the Israeli Saar 5-class missile ship, Spear, was badly damaged during the battle with Hezbollah in Lebanon last year, despite some very complex anticruise missile technology. During the Clinton Administration in 1996, the U.S. China to stop any further exports of the C-802 antiship cruise missiles to Iran, however North Korea has continued to aid Iran in developing better guidance systems. Iran has also become very good at reverse engineering weapons by purchasing some examples, taking them apart and building their own copies or making improvements. With GPS technology, Iran could make these antiship cruise missiles very lethal.

But even more serious is the prospect that Iran has some Russian Sunburn SS-22-N antiship cruise missiles in their small navy. These are frightening enough for oil tankers or smaller navy ships, but if Iran would develop nuclear warheads for these cruise missiles, then American aircraft carriers could be in grave danger in the event of any armed conflict with Iran.

War with Iran needs to be avoided at all costs. However, Iran must not be allowed to develop nuclear weapons. The world community must continue to pressure Iran to be transparent about the depth of it's nuclear program. However dangerous transfers of arms such as antiship cruise missiles only weaken the ability of the responsible world community to pressure Iran not to develop nuclear arms. Iran doesn't need the ability to sink oil tankers and bring the world demand for oil to it's knees or the ability to be able to damage the American Navy. Iran only is encouraged to act more recklessly with the continued transfer of dangerous antiship cruise missiles to this renegade state.

Arms sales to irresponsible states often ends up with bad consequences. Look at the Reagan Administration's efforts to arm Saddam Hussein's Iraq or Osama Bin Laden's Mujahedeen in Afghanistan during the 1980's as excellent examples. Arms transfers by Russia, China or North Korea to Iran Can only lead to more deadly consequences as well. The export or arms around the world only leads to many deaths. There are better things to export such as food or medicine.

Bush Uses "Divide And Conquer" Politics With Diversion Over MoveOn.org Ad

Mr. Bush and his Senate Republican allies are once again using "divide and conquer" politics to attempt to rally their base in their diversionary attacks on the recent MoveOn.org ad that attacked the testimony of General David Petraeus. The fact of the matter is that the large majority of the American electorate is so angry at the Iraq War that they don't care about the MoveOn.org ad. The ad has no impact on their feeling about the war. And MoveOn.org is not part of the Democratic Party or should have their patriotism questioned. Public disgust with the war fueled the MoveOn.org ad, nothing more, nothing less. But the recent political efforts of Bush and his Republican supporters in the Senate are little more than some pathetic attempt to rally support by old fashioned "red baiting" type politics, a blow-back to the 1950's Joe McCarthyism.

Mr. Bush may hope to buy a little more time to "run out the clock" and leave the Iraq mess up to the next president. But the efforts to attack MoveOn.org are just plain desperate. MoveOn.org, for right or wrong, had the right to question whether the testimony of General Petraeus wasn't strongly designed to put a good face on a bad policy in Iraq, much like the Bush Administration has done for the last four years.

Mr. Bush actually watched his support drop after his speech on Iraq. There is no widespread support for the Iraq War policy left among most Americans. Mr. Bush may hope to rally some support by the attack on MoveOn.org, but where was Mr. Bush when some like Rush Limbaugh played a racist song on his show among Senator Barack Obama, or Ann Coulter suggests that some officials should die or face violence. MoveOn.org only questioned the independence of the statements of General Patraeus, while right wing commentators sush as Rush Limbaugh or Ann Coulter suggested far worse in their material. There was no outcry from Bush back then. It's purely old fashioned "divide and conquer" politics. It's also more complete nonsense from this White House.

Israeli Attack On Syrian Weapons Site May Signal An Imminent Attack On Iran

Israel's recent attack on a suspected North Korean weapons site in Syria could signal that an attack on the Iranian nuclear program by Israel is imminent. This could become the biggest news story for late 2007 or 2008.

The attack by Israel seems to prove that they will not tolerate a serious military threat to their nations's security, which seems to strongly suggest that by under the same line of reasoning, Iran could well be next.

Oil is currently at all time record levels. This week it peaked at at over $83.50 in one day of international trading and is now resulting record home heating oil prices with gasoline likely to soon follow. It is estimated that it may cost up to 20% more to heat their homes this year.

Thompson Is Quickly Rallying Republican Party Conservatives

Fred Thompson appears to be quickly rallying the support from Republican Party conservatives who make up the majority of Republican Party members according to evidence found in a new Rasmussen Poll out just today. Thompson now commands 28% support in the preference poll, followed by Giuliani at 19%, McCain at 13%, and Romney at just 11%. It appears that both Giuliani and Romney seem to be suffering the most in this latest polling, with Giuliani losing support as the previous front-runner and Romney losing his conservatuve base of support to Fred Thompson, who many Republican voters now views as either a conservative or the most conservative candidate among the 2008 GOP hopefuls.

Hillary Clinton also continues to improve her strengths as the leading Democratic candidate and is leaning polls in critical early primary states such as New Hampshire as well proves important general election strengths in some normally GOP leaning states such as Florida, Virginia and Arkansas in possible 2008 matchups.

Thompson tends to run a weaker race than Giuliani which has to be good news for the Hillary Clinton campaign and enhances her prospects for winning the 2008 election. Hillary Clinton appears to be eroding her negative rating among many Democratic voters as well. This also has to be a good sign for her campaign that she could win the general election by constantly improving her image as an extremely intelligent and competant leader. It also appears that the Norman Hsu scandal has had little impact on the Clinton campaign so far as well, as evidenced from polling data from various outlets.

Hypocrite Mitt Romney Attacks Hillary Clinton For Her Health Care Proposal, Nearly Identical To The One He Supported In Massachusetts

Former Massachusetts Governor Mitt Romney is one big hypocrite. He is now attacking the health care proposal from Hillary Clinton that would help to bring uninsured persons health insurance. There is virtualy no difference between the health care proposal that Romney supported as Governor for Massachusetts or the Clinton plan. Both plans require uninsured persons to get health insurance or provides a path such as tax breaks to fund insuring uninsured persons. The only diffrence is that because Romney is running for President, then he must take an opportunity to attack the Clinton plan.

Just like the abortion issue, Gay rights, and many other issues, Romney is on all sides of many issues. This continued hypocrite status as being on all sides of many issues has been one factor that has really hurt Romney. And Romney leaves himself open to more critical attacks with his latest hypocrisy on the health care issue.

Romney looks presidential and is a successful businessman. However his continued issue hypocrisy is indeed hurtful to his image and definately a huge negative to his 2008 presidential efforts.

Global Satellite Company That Broadcasts From Israel Carries Hateful AntiIsrael Programming Throughout The Arab World

Business makes for strange bedfellows, and no business arrangement can be much more strange than an Israeli based global communications company, RRST GLOBAL COMMUNICATIONS, which has a quarterly income of $14.7 milion, which accepts all sorts of hateful antiIsraeli programming from Arab networks and broadcasts these programs all throughout the MidEast via satellite.

As many as 48 communications satellites receive programming from RRST, which even includes translation services among the the products it markets. Some Arab networks such al Jazeera purchase services from the Israeli based company as well.

Many in Israel would be deeply surprised that one of their own companies provides many hateful Arab world programs broadcasting space on their satellite network system, and equally many in the Arab world be unhappy to find that an Israeli network is carrying their signal of their favorite antiIsraeli program. Strange world, heh?

This Feature Can Save You Hundreds Of Dollars!

While telemarketers and other businesses such as satellite TV and credit card companies full well know the power of the telephone to both annoy and profit from the public, consumers can use the full power of the telephone to put hundreds of dollars in their pockets in the next year.

The power of the telephone could well be your greatest money saving power tool if used correctly. Here's how:

Buying A Used Car: One of the worst ways to buy a used car is to put yourself at the mercy of the car dealership, and have them wear you down by holding your keys, deposit money, or wasting hours in some waiting room while supposed negotiations with the "manager" are supposedly going on. Put the car dealership at your mercy instead. Walk around a lot and offer a very low price offer on a car you want and give the salesman your home phone number and go home. In most cases the car dealership will call you within an hour and tell you that the car is yours for your low offer. In many cases keeping a trade-in out of the negotiations is better to do and only complicates the "horse-trading". Sell your old car from your home or donate it to charity instead if it isn't worth much. Your home telephone just saved you hundreds on the price of a used car.

Better Credit Card Interest Rates: So many companies are offering credit deals these days that you can call your own credit card companies and tell them about some better offer you can get from another company and ask them to match the deal or you will transfer your account to this other card. Call your credit card companies and do this and you are likely to save big on interest rate cuts to your existing credit cards. You just put hundreds of dollars in your pocket.

Lower Cable TV Rates: There is so much competition from satellite TV these days that you can call your local cable TV provider and tell them about the better deal you can get from them and you will switch unless they reduce your cable TV rates. These companies charge all sorts of different rates for the same service to different customers all the time including free premotions to some. Likely you can cut your cable TV bill from about $60-70 a month down to just about $39 for the very same service that you're now getting. You just saved yorself big money on your cable TV bill.

Your telephone is not only a device to call your friends, but it's also a money saving device when used correctly. It may even be possible to cut your mortgage rates or rent or other savings by using similiar methods as I described above. Your possibility to save big money by using your telephone is nearly limitless.

Big Tobacco Seeks To Topple Republican Lawmakers Who Don't Vote Their Way

While Philip Morris was forced to fund educational ads meant to curb smoking, the same company is also now targeting Republican lawmakers who don't vote their way for the 2008 election in some new attack ads sent by mail to select voters. Senator Gordon Smith(R-OR) has proven a flexible record in the U.S. Senate, voting with a small group of Republican Party moderates to rescue the Food Stamp Program from a $40 million dollar cut package and displayed some opposition to the Iraq War. Smith may be facing a difficult re-election in 2008. Now even more so now that Philip Morris is targeting him in their outrageous mailing campaign meant to weaken him and set him up for defeat in 2008.

Senator Smith voted to support an increase in federal taxes on cigarettes that would help to cut demand for cigarettes as well as to help fund children's health care programs at the federal level.

The fact of the matter is that Senator Smith has made a really decent effort to honorably represent Oregon and vote his conscience on issues. He's much more a true statesman than a politician. His vote against big tobacco was a clear vote for the health of America and the right vote. Many of the largest tobacco companies were named in a racketeering lawsuit before and cannot really be considered as concerned with anything more than their profits and selling more and more of their poisonous cigarettes. Big tobacco is concerned that increased taxes will cut into demand and hurt their product sales. That's their bottom line, not the welfare of America or a Senate comprised of independent minded Republicans like Gordon Smith who often supports the right sort of things.

Bicycles Continue To Top Single Vehicle Accident Rates

Most bicyclists seem to be unaware that single vehicle accidents involving bicyclists are the most common from of accidents for these vehicles. By comparison motorcycle single accident rates are about 25% and automobile less yet.

Many bicylists fail to wear safety helmets, fail to use lights or reflectors for night driving, or run stop signs or red lights, or drive excessively fast with racing type bikes, sometimes capable of speeds exceeding 40mph.

There is a myth among many bicyle riders that automobiles represent the greatest road danger to bicyclists, but it is often the bicycle rider themselves who acount for 67% of all bicycle accidents in which no motor vehicle was involved. In only 33% of all bicycle accidents was a motor vehicle involved.

Better skills riding bicycles are needed by many of the riders including obeying stop signs and red lights, not riding at night, not riding in a dangerous manner where control or balance can be lost.

Bicycles are unlicensed vehicles with no insurance or skills testing required for operation compared to any motorized vehicles which require both testing and insurance. However drivers must carefully follow all the rules of the road to prevent becoming the greatest danger to themselves on the road.

The End Of The Conventional Light Bulb May Be In Sight

A new bill introduced into Congress this week may help to spell the eventual end of the old Thomas Edison designed conventional light Bulb, and require the use of the energy saving compact fluorescent models. The new bill proposes to phase-out the use of the conventional light Bulb by the year 2020 in the U.S.

While the compact fluorescent is not the favorite of all users, partly because it puts out slightly different light than conventional light bulbs, still the advantages of these advanced light bulbs cannot be ignored, including sharply reduced energy costs and much longer life. Sometimes they can be found on sale for as little as 99cents each at some dealers.

With much of the electricity produced by coal fired means, Congress may have finally seen the light to the advantages of the compact fluorescent light bulbs. They have my vote.

Laura Ingraham's Latest Money Making Crusade

Self-righteous and self appointed right wing moral crusader, Laura Ingraham has a new cause and a new book, POWER TO THE PEOPLE, now claiming to see "pornography" all over American culture, citing laughable figures such as Britney Spears or Paris Hilton to somehow prove her convoluted point. Now Laura, come on. Britney Spears and Paris Hilton are both laughable figures, popular only because both are such "trainwrecks". Few in the public really admire either figure. Britney Spears Cds hardly even sell any longer. She hasn't had a new Cd out in years because she refuses to get into the studio and actually record some new songs. An original November 2006 release date for a new Cd keeps getting pushed back farther, due to Britney Spears' nonstop string of personal newsworthy nonsense rather than recording. Britney Spears is unlike other washed up music performers in that she's absurdly funny only because her antics are so awful as well as funny. It's like trailor park trash gone wild watching her. Other one-hit washed up music acts are hardly half as much fun to watch. Britney Spears is hardly the mainstream of American culture, but a major unintentional comedy figure. Her overweight, out of shape, out of sync, lip sync MTV event this past week gave the public a fresh new truckload of laughs and the comics new jokes. It was probably more funny than comic performance that evening, and certainly more talked about by the public.

But the more sexually raunchy the entertainment, the less appeal it also has. There is a point where something goes beyond sexy to being just obnoxious or offensive and the sales drop to all but just fringe markets of buyers. Laura Imgraham claims that Larry Flynt must be pleased with modern entertainment. But isn't Larry Flynt part of an old 1980's controversy and hardly very relevant these days with Hustler Magaine long replaced by internet websites and DVDs featuring adult entertainment.

Rather than actually understanding popular culture, Ingraham only really displays her major ignorance of it. Raunchy entertainment is not the mainstream of popular entertainment as Ingraham seems to claim, but still only just a fringe portion of the market. Most popular culture is really pretty mainstream in nature.

It is also ironic that Ingraham chooses to hijack the title of John Lennon's radical POWER TO THE PEOPLE song for her book. Lennon and Ingraham could not be more different. Lennon was a left wing progressive and a near revolutionary who recorded songs with the radical if not openly Marxist Elephant's Memory Band for example. Ingraham is as establishment as you can get, a former speech writer for Ronald Reagan, and a lawyer who defended white collar criminals. Ingraham didn't attempt to keep the public safe from bad people, but worked hard to keep them out of jail for screwing people. Ingraham condemns "liberal elitism" in entertainment and academia, yet has represented nothing other than the elites in business and power for her part. And while being a journalist of sorts, she also condemns the profession and attacks the Iraq War coverage.

While Ingraham is at least less caustic than some like Ann Coulter or Michelle Malkin, her absurd attacks on culture and journalism are no less wrong.

The bottom line is that Laura Ingraham empire is all about the almighty dollar; selling books, selling $49.95 subscriptions to website services, earing big money with a talk show on 306 U.S. radio stations. Creating a phony crisis in order to get a little attention is always good for bottom line. It's as establishment and white collar as you can possiby get. There's no people power to be found here.

Clinton Has Surprising Strength In Some Southern States

One surprising feature of some reliable early state polls is that Hillary Clinton has an excellent chance at being able to capture the electoral votes of some Southern states which is sure to confound the conventional GOP plans to win the presidency by capturing the solid electoral votes from the South as they have done since the 2000 election.

Clinton currently holds a wide double digit lead in Arkansas, a small but healthy lead in Florida, and a narrow lead in the border state of Missouri. On the other hand, Clinton is having a little difficulty nailing down the electoral votes of normally "blue" Oregon,Pennsylvania and Wisconsin due to high voter negative ratings.

And Clinton is lagging behind slightly in Ohio, which has pretty much determined the winner of every election in recent times.

On one hand, Clinton seems poised to knock out her opponents like Barack Obama and John Edwards in an esy fashion, however her strategy to win the November election is a little shaky due to uneven levels of support in some normally Democratic strongholds as well as her high negative ratings. However with her support in some Southern states, Clinton could also be in a good position to win the national election over Fred Thompson who is the current leading GOP candidate despite the failure to participate in even one single debate so far. Thompson currently leads Giuliani by a 28-21% margin in a new Rasmussen poll out just this week. The polls from Rasmussen and Election Projection tend to be the most accurate available anywhere and offer the best possible snapshots of the mood of the electorate at any given point.

Right Wing Organization Awarded Huge DOJ Grants For Zero Achievement

Even though the religious right wing political organization, Morality In Media, promotes a purely political agenda of imposing it's self-righteous "Talibanlike" values and will on the general public, under the Department Of Justice this screwball political organization has received huge government cash grants in 2005 and 2006 of $150,000 to operate a website, www.ObscenityCrimes.org, where right wing cranks can make complaints about a display of Cosmopolitan Magazine at the local grocery store and other wacky issues. Out of 67,000 so-called "obscenity crime" complaints made to this DOJ funded right wing organization, not a single federal conviction for any obscenity offense has resulted so far as of August 2007 from this organization's work.

There are many issues to consider here. This right wing organization has been attacked in scathing features in both THE NEW YORK TIMES and WASHINGTON POST in more recent times, and the organization's head, Robert W. Peters forced to defend the organization that collects funds from the Department Of Justice, despite zero achievement for much of anything other than setting up a couple of poorly maintained websites and getting government checks from the Ashcroft/Gonzales DOJ. But organizations collecting government funds who accomplish nothing is nothing new for government. Massive spending bills in Congress are often loaded with huge pork spending measures that send money to worthless causes all the time. Far right Republican Representative Frank Wolf(R-VA) added the funding for Morality In Media to various bills over the years. So far Wolf has proposed at least 70 bills since 1997, but so many were so far out of the political mainstream that 46 failed to even make it out of committee and only 12 of the more general bills ever became law. Wolf features a "grant" link on his website, making it far easier for anyone who wants money from government to get it with Wolf's help.

Morality In Media just about summed up their political philosophy when in a recent interview a spokesman for the organization proclaimed that this is a "Christian Nation" in a radio interview. Meanwhile this organization gets big funds from government to worry about banning the latest cover of Cosmopolitan from the local grocery store or some salty language on TV thanks to friends in Congress like Representative Wolf only too willing to fund such a wacky organization of right wing screwballs looking for a government handout.

More Cities Competing With Internet And Cable TV Providers, But Serious Civil Liberty Concerns Exist

The cities of Seattle and San Francisco have both stepped into providing high speed internet service, competing with big private providers such as Comcast. Now the city of Portland Oregon could enter into a huge $500 million dollar project in the near future to provide both high speed internet service and well cable TV that directly competes against the largest local provider, Comcast.

All of this raises some interesting questions. Is government competing with private industry intended to offer better prices for a needed public service or is it overreaching the normal bounds of business? Could government control of both the internet and cable TV possiby lead to some form of government censorship of the content or of the newsreporting itself at some point.

Government competition in both high speed intenet service and cable TV could pressure big private providers like Comcast to improve variable quality of their services such as cable TV, where the quality is often spotty, as well as to push these private providers to offer improved prices that are more competitive. But the question is still raised whether the proper role of government should be in control of so much of the flow of information. And could so much government control of the flow of information such as the internet lead to more easy government examinations of what websites that individual surf or government or police investigations into either critics of the government or who are politically involved in ways not popularly pleasing.

Government control of so much of the media could easily be a dangerous thing as well. Look at the history of many countries with government control of TV, newspapers or other media for example.

Citizens will need some serious limits to the power of government to delve into their private lives or use information about web use to collect data on customers if government becomes involved in so many areas. Serious concerns about civil liberties should lead to some serious protections for citizens who use such government controlled services with the possibility to reveal so much about the perivate lives of the users to government data collection banks.

Reynolds Tobacco Bankrolling Campaign Against Children's Health Care

In Oregon, Reynolds American, the big tobacco company that produces as much as 1/3 of all cigarettes sold in the U.S., is bankrolling an effort to prevent voters from passing a constitutional change ballot measure intended to increase cigarette taxes to make companies like Reynolds pay for part of the huge public health crisis and costs that they create with their secondhand cigarette smoke.

Medical documentation clearly implicates cigarettes as responsible for causing Sudden Infant Death in small infants, Otitis Media(middle ear infection) in children, often resulting in ear tube surgery, and epidemic of childhood asthma. or even cancer and emphysema. Yet Reynolds American doesn't believe that they should pay the bill for any of this public health problem that they create.

In their propaganda TV ads, Reynolds claims that HMOs will profit from any increase in cigarette taxes meant to pay for some of the medical problems that they creaste. Wait a minute. Because children require a doctor's visit or a trip to the hospital emergency room due to a potentially fatal asthma attack caused by the secondhand smoke from from a Reynolds American produced cigarette, then Reynolds should not pay the bill? That makes a lot of sense, doesn't it. Reynolds fails to post any warning on their cigarettes about the threat of secondhand smoke to children including death to infants by SIDS. Isn't this pure product negligence and grounds for injury and wrongful death suits by nonsmokers?

Cigarette makers have been accused for years of manipulating the nicotine levels and adding products into their cigaretes to make them more addictive so that people would find it very difficult to stop smoking. Nicotine is just as addictive as heroin according to medical experts. Reynolds does everything possible to create a demand for their product by selling something with a highly addictive drug in it.

The executives at Reynolds also profit by preying on some vulnerable persons to make profits. An estimated 80% of persons with diagnosed mental illness are smokers according to some experts. And among alcohol or other drug addicts, cigarette smoking is very high. Smoking becomes a chain around some of poorest of Americans, trapping them into further poverty and serious health related issues and costs. An estimated 50% of all smokers will eventually die from their drug addiction. And many nonsmokers have their quality of life destroyed from secondhand smoke as well.

While toymakers withdraw toys from the marketplace because of some lead content in the paint, Reynolds and other cigarette manufacturers continue to market cigarettes that put lead into the bodies of smokers and nonusers alike through secondhand smoke air pollution. Secondhand cigarette smoke involves as many as 4,000 pollutants including heavy metals such as lead, nickel and cadmium.

Reynolds is also concerned that any increase in cigarette taxes will cut their sales and demand for their deadly products. Good, it should. Any way to discourage persons from becoming nicotine drug addicts is good for society.

Reynolds needs to be held reponsible for at least part of outrageous medical costs to health insurance and society from the deadly products that they produce. These death merchants need to pay part of the huge cost to society that they create. And children are some of the most victimized by these drug pushers from big tobacco.

Dr. D. James Kennedy Dead At 76

Far right televangelist, Dr. D. James Kennedy has died at his home from the complications from his December heart attack. Certainly any right thinking person feels for his family at this time out of respect, however the future impact on his ministry which made extensive political use of religion is not known.

A son of an alcoholic mother, and a former college dropout who admitted to living a life of sin in the early 50's, Kennedy turned his life around while working as a dance instructor for Arthur Murray studios in 1953 and became influenced with God after hearing a radio broadcast.

But his heavy use of politics in his radio and TV programs such as THE CORAL RIDGE HOUR and attacks on the Gay community and the ACLU made him the subject of much distain in the progressive community. Kennedy seemed to abuse his gifts as a great communicator and preacher to promote his own brand of politics when he could have been more effective as a genuine preacher of the Gospel.

At one time, Kennedy was known for always talking to other passengers on his airline flights about God. But his witness was often hampered by his heavy handed use of right wing politics. His real promise as a great preacher was never really realized for this reason, and he will never be considered as a great like Billy Graham for this reason. Kennedy often used religion as a bait to lure viewers, but then switched the conversation quickly to promotion of his personal ultraconservative and usually highly partisan Republican Party politics. Kennedy's influence never seemed to extend far in his own community. Broward County, Florida tended to vote Democratic and Gay owned businesses flourish in the community. But part of the Kennedy myth was to bait gullible persons to donate millions to his organization with the claims from Kennedy that he could make some difference on issues of concern to social conservatives.

In more ways than not, Kennedy was merely a political huckster who found that using God was a path to promotion of his personal politics and gaining a personal fortune and living the high life. But he was also a uptight and angry man at many times, bragging about walking out of PG rated movie one time in disgust over some language used.

Kennedy also made some wild undocumented claims such as claiming that as many as 10,000 American university professors were Communists for example. And he claimed that the U.S. was a "Christian nation" and strongly opposed the accepted legal standards for seperation of church and state. Kennedy leaves behind a wife, adopted daughter and a $24.5 million dollar a year televangelist empire.

Despite Being An Awful Candidate, Thompson Is Surging Again

As incredible as it sounds, Fred Thompson is again surging amony many GOP voters and is now within one point of threatening the national lead of Rudolph Giuliani, who is now barely ahead. If anything, this proves that Republican Party conservatives are beginning to gravitate to Thompson despite his late entry into the race and his avoidance of every single Republican debate so far. NEWSWEEK even described this lazy style of Thompson as "Lazy Like A Fox" in this week's issue.

For Rudolph Giuliani, it may also prove that so few moderates now exist in his party that it may be difficult to capture the nomination when the conservatives rally around a single candidate like Thompson.

But it also proves a type of deep shallowness among some voters in the Republican Party, when a flimsy candidate like Thompson who has so far not bothered to put up any real effort could be rewarded with the party nomination. While it still seems likely that Thompson's real lack of effort will fall short to win the GOP nomination, it sill should send shudders up the Giuliani campaign that his position in the party is so weak that he barely has a good grasp on a true frontrunner status.

At one time moderate conservatives such as Dwight Eisenhower or Richard Nixon could win the GOP nomination. But since the election of Ronald Reagan, the party seems to have drifted farther to the right, where a tradional centist like Giuliani finds it more difficult to win than ever. Many conservatives even refer to such candidates as a RINO(Republican in name only) to describe such party moderates to represent their distain.

John Edwards Hopes For A Second Look After Gaining Two Big Labor Endorsements

After Democratic candidate for president John Edwards gained two big endorsements from the United Steelworkers Union and from the United Mine Workers Union, his campaign which has been largely listing recently, is hoping for a second look by voters. Edwards is still counting on voter's concerns about Hillary Clinton's ability to win the general election as being accepted as the traditional candidate for Democrats. But so far this has not happened.

Edwards comes the closest to a traditional nominee. However his campaign has failed to really rally that many voters. But the labor backing should help somewhat, however Rep. Richard Gephardt which had strong labor backing fell far short in 2004 and quickly exited the race after a poor showing in the early primary states. Whether Edwards really gets the second look that he wants remains to be seen.

Bush Surprise Visit To Iraq Proves Weakening Support For Iraqi Government

If anything, the surprise visit to Iraq by President Bush has only illustrated the weakening of American support for the Iraqi government. The surprise meeting made only incidental contact with the main government officials in Iraq, and instead spent much of the time with American soldiers or more moderate Sunni leaders in the Anbar Providence who have only formed a temporary "marriage of convenience" with the Americans to oppose their more radical Sunni Al Qaeda political rivals.

This weakening of support for the Iraqi government only proves that the important job of political change and reconciliation is unlikely to result from the current Shiite dominated government of Shiite Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.

Just like the British withdrawal from Basra, which is little more than Britain declaring a political victory in the face of ongoing problems, and has only led to fighting by rival Shiite militias who are jockeying for power, the U.S. is likely to claim some sort of "political victory" in Iraq and then largely leave at some point, only to allow some fighting between rival armed radicals and militias.

So far, neither the U.S. or Britain seem to display the real will to install a government in Iraq that is required to make the real difficult political choices needed, or to really put the nation back together in the condition it once was in, with far less violence and more social order. We broke it, but we haven't fixed it as of yet.

Right To Work Laws Crush The American Dream For Working People

More than anything, right to work laws which have spread like a deadly cancer throughout many states in the United States have crushed the American dream for many working people and condemned workers to a low living wage basement with hard work and little to show for their efforts. Many nonunion workers will never be able to afford a home, while some union workers may own more than one home by comparison.

Nothing better illustrates this the huge wage gap between those who work in free states where workers are free to join a labor union if they wish and the low wages of the right to work states. Mississippi, a right to work state is #49 in median income with just $33,659 compared to a free state like Maryland where the median income is $65,144 by comparison. The only nonright to work state with a very low median income is West Virginia because of the severe poverty in many areas and the fact that not every worker is a unionized member of the United Mine Workers Union for example.

The fact of the matter is when workers only earn half of the wages of their counterparts in more wealthy unionized states, then it is much harder to pay for housing, health care, or provide for their family. For the many union workers, union dues, usually around $20-30 a month include pension plans with as much as $1,700 or more in monthly retirement payments, health care programs, the ability to borrow money at very low interest rates from the credit union, job security and increased worker safety protections against injury or loss of life on the job in addiition to wages often 27% or more higher than their nonunionized counterparts. There is no better bargain for the mere $20-30 a month in union dues than this for the American working class.

If American workers would all like to share in the American dream, then getting rid of the oppressive right to work laws in every state is an important starting point. Right to work laws are wage and worker oppression. They must all go if all American workers want any hope to eventually share in the American dream.

Motor Scooters Are Great Fun And Good For The Environment As Well

Although gas prices have declined as of late, motor scooters offer a great form of alternatve transportation that has no equal for fun as well as environmental reasons. My Coolster F5 gets 94 miles a gallon. Your average hybrid automobile can do no better than barely half than that. And because of the light weight of scooters, smaller engines can keep right up with traffic with no struggle without the waste of hauling around 3,000 pounds of metal down the street with a much larger engine, often for only one person in the car. For most normal commuting to the grocery store, a motor scooter can carry back two big bags of groceries in the two trunks and with a field pack by the driver.

Motor scooters make a lot of sense in efforts to limit greenhouse gases and improving the environment. The only way to cut down on our own carbon profile is find ways such as motor scooters to cut down on pollution. Motor scooters offer an alternative to automobiles and SUVs which should only be used for longer commutes, or bicycles, which are limited by slow speed and limited by the amount of cargo they can carry.

In Asia, Europe, and many parts of the world, the motor scooter is an important form of transportation, saving both gas and the environment. Many newer scooters feature highly advanced four stroke engines with very little air pollution compared to the old two stroke models which burn a lot of oil with the gas due to this less advanced engine design.

The Coolster F5 is a good example of great Chinese mechanical engineering. This company located in Taizhou City, China builds around 37 models of motorcycles, motor scooters and ATVs, producing around 300,000 units each year. Their products sell for extremely reasonable prices, yet are a durable product and a great value. The fact of the matter is that China builds some very good products for a low price, and the motor scooters they produce often rate as a fantastic bargain when compared against the much higher priced models from Italy or other places.

I'm glad to limit my automobile use and use the motor scooter as much as I can. I put over 600km on this bike since this summer, and find it a very enjoyable form of transportation to run daily errands with. If you feel so inclined, then I invite every motorist to consider giving motor scooters a try. They're not for everyone. But they're great for fuel economy, the environment, and just plain way cool.

Clinton Leads Giuliani By 25 Points In New York State Poll

The choice of New York voters among the two most likely party nominees is Hillary Clinton over Rudolph Giuliani by a wide 25 point margin. The huge lead was noted in a new Rasmussen poll that shows support for Senator Clinton at a landslide 58 to 33% margin.

The good news in this is that once voters get to know Clinton, her negative rating falls and voters feel better about her. But the news seems to run just the oppposite for Giuliani, who appears to wear less well when voters know more about him. In national polls, Giuliani holds a narrow lead over Clinton by about 3 points. And the high negative rating by many voters towards Clinton seems a drag on her support currently. However, the New York results seem to indicate that Clinton might well be able to reverse this problem.

The heavy odds so far seem to indicate a highly likely Giuliani-Clinton race in 2008, with the main work for Clinton established to improve her image with voters and make herself marketable enough to win. However last week's small scandal involving a fugitive donor to the Clinton campaign only reminded some voters of the type of problems that plagued her husband while in office. Clinton may be able to weather this single event, however if any drip-drip of new donor scandals develops, then Clinton could well become damaged. However, so far neither Obama or Edwards have convinced most Democratic voters that they represent a viable alternative should Clinton falter.

In the general election campaign, Clinton will likely face a tough "Swift Boats_ type campaign that will attempt to derail her. She certainly has the toughness to beat back on such attacks. However, if too many new scandals involving donors develop, then the Clinton campaign could certainly falter. And Giuliani is hardly without his shortcomings as well, leaving him wide open to similiar character attacks on his personal life or his leadership and priorities as mayor, including his strongarm tactics as mayor. Both candidates have the real possibility to be rerailed by their own problems with character and the voters problems with both of them. But in the end, Clinton likely still wins. But her administration will likely be under some scrutiny, something like Richard Nixon was. You knew that he was smart enough and competant enough to do the job, but his character was his undoing. And Clinton could be similiarly plagued.

Republican Candidates And Lawmakers Largely Ignoring Working People On Labor Day

On the Rudolph Giuliani website, which is down for repairs, there is merely a generic "Happy Labor Day" posted. On the Fred Thompson website, Labor Day is not even mentioned by name, only that Thompson may enter the race after "Thursday" is noted. By contrast, Labor Day is important to John Edwards and others. And in labor publications all over America, messages from Republicans to working people and labor unions are nearly completely missing, while Democratic lawmakers all over the country took out paid ads to offer their best wishes to the working people of America on Labor Day.

Who do the Republicans count on to vote for them if they choose to ignore working people on an important day like Labor Day?

At one time, Republican candidates would nearly always accept an invitation to speak to labor and made a decent attempt to compete for votes among working people and seek endorsements from labor unions. But as the party has drifted farther to the right, and more and more Republican lawmakers fight against minimum wage increases and other legislation for the working people of America, it has become clear that many Republicans running for office are not interested in the votes of working people and do not represent the interests of working people when elected. This is ahame. There should be a broad consensus of support for working people among both parties, and it is a huge mistake for Republicans to turn their back on the working people of America and ignore their best interests.

It seems that not everyone really offers their best wishes to working people on Labor Day. But they really should.

Bicyclists Endanger Their Lives With Poor Driving Skills

As a motor scooterist who is required to obey all the motorized vehicle rules of the road, as well as being licensed and insured, I respect that these rules help to make driving orderly and safe. Driving motor scooters and motorcycles require many careful skills far beyond that required to drive a car. A motorcyclist must always pay attention. All of these advanced driving skills as well as the increased safety regulations are for the good and are life saving. But by comparison, bicycles which have compleltely unregulated drivers, have a huge share of poor drivers who endanger their lives through very poor driving skills and adherence to safety precautions.

Many choose to ride bicycles for health, enjoyment or for environmental reasons. But a very poor commitment to goo driving skills or basic safety precautions are daily endangering the lives of bicyclists. Yesterday, I nearly witnesed a serious accident near my home when yet another bicyclist ran a stop sign and was nearly hit by a oncoming car through the intersection. From my experience, far more than 95% of bicyclists fail to obey the basic rules of the road such as respecting stop signs or red lights. This failure to obey the basic rules of the road directly contributes to more than 500,000 injuries to bicyclists each year and more than 700 deaths. Whether bicyclists think that it is too much work to slow down and stop for a stop sign or to procede with caution through any intersection, regardless, this is a dangerous and potentially deadly poor driving practice. Police in some communities are beginning to crack down on this illegal and potentially deadly habit of most bicyclists who run stop signs or red lights with fines that can easily excede $200 or more. It is a potentially dealy practice for bicyclists not to abide by the same rules of the road as motorists do, and creates an unnecessary hazzard for motorists who begin to expect that most bicyclists will not obey the rules of road and grow to expect stupid behavior on their part on the road. This becomes a potentially deadly distraction in congested traffic.

Another big contribution to bicyclist injury or death is failure to wear a safety helmet. Although bicycle helmets are made up of lightweight materials such as foam and plastic, this is a vital thin line of protection that can mean the difference between life or death in a fall or accident. The human brain is very sensitive, and when it splashes against the skull like Jello in an accident, brain surgery to remove the resulting blood clot or to prevent brain swelling is vital to saving a life. Often simply bothering to wear a bicycle helmet can make all the difference and avoid this possible emergency brain surgery.

On Monday, I witnessed an adult female bicyclist who attempted to pass traffic in a congested dangerous intersection on the wrong side, and nearly lost her balance and fell off. She was of course not wearing helmet as well. A bicyclist with such poor driving skills is a real danger to herself, and it is only a matter of time before she causes herself a serious accident unless her driving skills soon improve.


Another big problem is bicyclists driving at night. Small battery-operated bicycle lights are hardly noticeable by many motorists. In addition, the poor general repair of many streets and roads, as well as the thin tires on bicycles make any pothole or road imperfection that could be easily seen during daylight a real danger at night. Many deadly accidents with bicyclists take place after dark. A bicycle should really only be operated during daylight hours for safety reasons. Small bicycle lights or reflectors are hardly a good line of safety at night compared to faster moving motorized vehicles, some of which may even be exceeding the legal speed limits by poorer motorists.

Many bicyclists either try to pass on the wrong side of traffic, ride the wrong way in traffic, or impede faster motorized traffic by riding too far out in traffic and endanger their lives with these dangerous and poor driving skills. Any of these poor driving skills could prove deadly if a bicyclist should run into a motorist not paying attention or who is not as highly skilled such as motorcyclists generally are.

Many bicyclists simply endanger their lives with their poor driving skills. If they cannot begin to show some improvement very soon and begin to reduce their high yearly death and injury rates, then lawmakers might have to consider some sort of licensing system which would not only improve rider safety through education, but will provide some tax revenue for the roads that bicyclists now use for free and do not contribute to the basic repair of.

Bicycling can be a fun form of transportation, or it can be dangerous and potentially deadly. If bicyclists would simply wear a helmet and follow the basic road rules, they can make a huge difference in their own safety and make their use of a bicycle less annoying to many motorists. Bicyclists need to start taking some real action to reduce their role as the worst hazzard on the road and the worst danger to themselves on the road.

Idaho's Larry Craig The Latest Chapter In Right Wing Hypocrisy

The latest situation involving Idaho's very conservative Republican Senator Larry Craig is another good example of right wing hypocrisy. For years, Craig was known as a sharp critic of Gay rights and other "family issue" morality issues in the U.S. Senate. But a damning police report as well as Craig pleading guilty to the equivalent of lewd acts in a public place seem to indicate that Craig is yet another of conservative moral shortcomings and hypocrisy.

Why any man would engage in weird conduct in a public men's room is outrageous and simply not the place to express homosexual conduct. Most Gay men express their sexuality in much more normal ways than Craig chose to use according to the damning police report which sounded downright "creepy" according to former GOP Congressman Joe Scarborough in a news interview.

Once again another member of Congress has disgraced the institution with awful personal conduct.

FOX's ANCHORWOMAN Joins The TV Hall Of Shame As Only Airing Once Before Cancellation

FOX made history this past week, when the simply awful new reality series, ANCHORWOMAN, about a blonde bikini model who became a news anchor at a Tyler, Texas TV station was cancelled after only one airing. Very few TV shows have ever been so bad as to face a one airing cancellation. The ratings were simply awful for this show compared to other FOX programs which have proven much wider popularity in recent years to establish FOX as a major contender.

As far as the performance of this model, she was friendly enough, but a fellow female newscaster felt that she was unqualified to anchor the news. As a whole, she wasn't completely awful, but the show certainly had no audience appeal.

During the 1950's, of all persons, Jackie Gleason who used to call himself "the great one", faced a one show cancellation after a game show of his failed. But his later shows all proved to be major hits by comparison.

Maybe the worst TV show of all time that was cancelled after just one showing was a terrible British comedy where Hitler and Eva Braun move in next door to a Jewish couple. This disgusting premise both angered the public as well as drew only a few viewers. It was perhaps the worst idea ever for a TV show.

ANCHORWOMAN is proof positive that not every TV show goes on to become a big hit or can even draw an audience. Some shows simply lack the magic required to click with viewers.

Senator Warner's Plan To Pressure Iraqi Government Probably Won't Work

After his latest visit to Iraq, veteran Republican Senator John Warner is proposing a token cutback of 5,000 U.S. tropps by December to pressure the Shitte dominated government which is on a month long vacation in August to make the needed political reforms and changes. But likely this will not work.

Iran likely has made enough political overatures towards Iraq that Tehran can provide any military or financial aid to the Sunni dominated Iraqi government that even if the U.S. was gone, would make little difference. Iran has proven the ability to reverse engineer a wide variety of arms, and may be able to provide the Shiites with arms far beyond what the U.S. provides to crush the Sunni minority if the U.S. was gone.

What is really needed in Iraq is a secular and inclusive government, much like what Iraq had under the past leadership of Dr. Ayad Allawi. A lobby and law fim headed by Haley Barbour, former GOP head, is hoping to bring Allawi back into power for example.

Senator John Warner, like most Americans is disgusted with Iraq. But there needs to be a wholesale change in the government there. Iran still waits in the wings to take advantage of the situation and pick up the pieces in the absence of any international forces there to police matters.

The American role in Iraq cannot be openended for sure. But on the other hand, Iran should not be allowed to exploit the nation's weaknesses and fuel more sectarian war between the Shiite and Sunni community either.

Camel Even Names Their New Cigarette For Women After A Murder Weapon: The Stiletto

Leave it up to a R.J. Reynolds, the producer of Camel cigarettes to choose to name their new slim cigarette for women after a weapon historically used to commit murders; the stiletto. Already, U.S. Rep. Lois Capps(D-CA) and 40 members of Congress have voiced their concerns to 11 magazines for women urging them to discontine running ads for Camel No.9 cigarettes and other new cigarettes that hope to hook women on the deadly drug addiction to nicotine. Some women believe that smoking keeps them slim, but especially so when their bodies are eaten alive by cancer and they are reduced down to just a few pound before dying a horrible and painful death that cigarettes create.

R.J. Reynolds and similiar death merchants have no desire to stop marketing deadly new products to create new drug addicts to buy their products. In cases where the settlement with tobacco bans advertising attached to a publication that many young readers read, some tobacco companies beat this settlement by enclosing colorful printed material on card stock thaty is not actually affixed to the publication. This is nothing but playing lawyer tricks with the intent of the tobacco settlement in limitations on advertising.

Some medical evidence suggests that women may even be more likely to develop certain cancers than men, which makes it especially insidous that this new demographic is being targeted by the tobacco death merchants. Despite all of the serious evidence of cigarette injury and damage to both users and nonusers alike, this industry has no intent to stop finding new markets to increase their sales. This industry often owns other products such as food, and should really concentrate on those more healthy markets instead of the promotion of death through nicotine drug addiction.

Bush Makes An Absurd Comparison With Iraq And Vietnam

Today Bush offered an absurd comparison with Iraq and Vietnam if the U.S. withdrawals too quickly. Besides no one from from the Bush family serving in either Iraq or Vietnam, the comparison is absurd based on the threat. Both are a form of civil war, except that the Shiite dominated government of Nouri al-Maliki that the U.S. supports is the problem.

If a bloodbath takes place after the U.S. withdrawals from Iraq, then it will be from this government that the U.S. is supporting that fails to stop the sectarian violence against the Sunni community and fails to prevent the ongoing Sunni violence as well is the problem. If the uncooperative government in Iraq is the roadblock to peace in Iraq, then maybe the U.S. should have prevented such a government from taking power in a nation not yet ready for democracy.

The "Surge" Continues To Fail For Those In Iraq

While American deaths have dropped somewhat since March in Iraq as a result of the "surge" and supporters of the "surge" cling on to this as some sign of the "surge" working, the honest fact is that the deaths of those in Iraq only continues to worsen. Last month, 1,641 Iraqi deaths were noted by the official count by the Iraqi Interior Ministry, which often understates the number of Sunni deaths.

If the role of the U.S. in Iraq is for the people of Iraq, then shouldn't any sign of progress be a reduction in the deaths of those living in Iraq. Any claims that the "surge" is working that don't include the increasing deaths of those living in Iraq is clearly not an honest evaluation.

New AMC Gremlin Diecast From Johnny Lightning

A hot brand AMC Gremlin diecast is just now appearing on Ebay and soon at dealers across America. One Ebay dealer Diecast-713, a specialist is fine diecast automobiles on Ebay is one of the very first dealers in the U.S. to offer this great new AMC Gremlin collectable. This model is of a 1972 prostock drag racing Gremlin. Some of the 1970's prostocks like the one from Wally Booth were able to do crowd pleasing wheelstands back in those days.

In recent times, the unusual little Gremlin from AMC has seen a revival as one of the great unique cars from the 1970's and has seen a steady rise in collector's price values. The car was first launched on April Fool's Day in 1970 as a 1971 model. It was created by cutting a foot and a half from the compact Hornet cars. The little Gremlin was the first modern Volkswagon sized automobile from Detroit, predating the Pinto by Ford and Vega by Chevrolet by months, and lower in price than either car at just $1,879 for the basic model. But while both the Pinto and Vega were mainly four cylinder cars, except for those modified with a V8, the little Gremlins were strangely overpowered by AMC with much bigger 6 cylinder and V8 engines. This endeared these cars to those who like a little car with plenty of power. Both the unusual "chopper" half wagon body design and overpowered engines made Gremlins a draw with fans.

In the last few years an explosion of new diecast Gremlins from Johnny Lightning as well as Motor Max have hit the market and delighted Gremlin fans. The Fresh Cherries line from Motor Max has revived a whole number of great 1970's cars including the Pinto, Vega, AMC Matador, Ford Maverick, AMC Hornet and many more classic Detroit iron. Motor Max even revived the dying tradition of model car building with some excellent 1/24th scale diecast metal model kits of the Gremlin. For any guy around 50 or older, model car building is something of a lost art from their childhood during the 1960's. Model car building took a huge turn for the better when AMT began to add engines to their 1/25th scale line of cars and "3 in 1" kits soon followed, where the builder could build the car either stock, custom or racing. Usually the custom or racing extras were just too good to ignore, and probably most of the cars ended up being built this way. The Motor Max metal model kits can only be built as stock, and are more similiar to the old pre60's models from AMT.

As the kids from the 50's, 60's and 70's age, they can't help but be impressed with the small market revival of some model kits and diecasts of the cars they loved as kids. Sometimes being an aging babyboomer is not half bad.

Obama Plans To Cut Back On Democratic Debate Appearances

The campaign of Democrat Senator Barack Obama may claim that it's only a move meant to free up more time for campaign appearances, yet for other political analyists, it may spell real trouble in the Obama campaign that there are plans to cut back on his Democratic debate appearances. The fact of the matter is that the youth and inexperience of the young senator has shown up in every debate performance so far with Hillary Clinton, and Obama's numbers only seem to have tumbled with each performance. Obama's handlers may feel that exposure by only himself to audiences to prevent comparative analysis by the voters may be a new strategy, but it is also a possible bad sign that the Obama campaign is running into serious problems appealing to enough voters to realisticly win the nomination.

Obama continues to draw big cash donation members, but simply has fallen short in every debate performance compared to Hillary Clinton each time when the two were matched up onstage. Reality must be setting into the Obama campaign that he is unlikely to win the nomination with the current strategy. Yet giving up on some debates hardly seems like a good strategy. This seems like a blowback to 1968 when Richard Nixon refused to debate Hubert Humphrey, remembering how his bad performance in 1960 narrowly cost him the election. But this hardly seems like good news for the Obama campaign. So far neither Obama or John Edwards seem to have made much inroads into the lead of Hillary Clinton other than in the area of fundraising. In polling numbers, every new debate seems to only strengthen Clinton's lead as most likely Democratic nominee. And with two quick victories in Iowa and New Hampshire early in 2008, she can easily cement the nomination for herself and eliminate her challengers.

Here's Some Way Cool Diecast From Ebay

One of my favorite sellers on Ebay just added some unusual diecast that is certainly worth bidding on. Mashinski, a Michigan dealer in fine diecast is offering this excellent replica of the 1958 Messershmitt Figer TG500 Sun Star at auction #190142119586 and is certainly worth the opening $9.95 bid asking price.

After WWII, Messershmitt slowly climbed back into production by building strange little automobiles while BMW was involved in the strange Isetta cars, where the only door was on the front of the car and you had to connect the steering to drive the car. I once rode in one of these cars. A strange but enjoyable experience.

For post WWII, Germany it was some stumbling attempts to rebuild their war damaged imdustrial base of the nation with these strange experiments in automobile design. Both cars had some real shortcomings, but are interesting curious history vehicles. The Messershmitt is especially an interesting design and this diecast replica is more than worthwhile to bid on and claim for your very own. You could do worse things today.

The Problems At The Utah Nonunion Mine Only Grow Worse

Unknown to many persons was that among the dead from last week's doomed rescue attempt was a federal mine safety inspector. I can't think of any worse way to impress federal mine safety officials then to have an inspector killed while observing safety conditions at the mine.

There are also some unconfirmed rumors that possiby the mine did not file plans with the federal safety agency for some of the "retreat" mining activity from someone with close knowledge of this mining company. However, this is not public information yet, and has not been confirmed by the federal mining regulators yet, and is only a potential news tip to me.

For legal reasons, I will not name this company by specific name, as the official federal report has not yet been issued as to the causes of the accident. But I will report any authoritive rumors and information from unnamed sources with close knowledge of the mining company and management and only speak in generic terms about the accident as taking place in a nonunion Utah mine. But once the official federal report is out, I will offer more open commentary on this subject. Since this involves sensitive issues such as worker deaths or potential major issues for management, I feel that this is the most responsible way to handle this tragic matter.

Elvis Is Still Dead

Yesterday, marked 30 years since the death of Elvis Presley at the young age of 42. Yet it was a wholly preventable death as he overused prescription drugs as well as engaged in a highly destructive diet. At some point, family members have an obligation to prevent a family member from killing themselves with an unhealthy lifestyle. The alternative is what happened to Elvis; an untimely death at an early age. Think about it.

Is Dr. D. James Kennedy The AntiChrist?

A new outrageous spam Email is circulating worldwide by a self=proclaimed 27 yesr old prophet from Zambia claiming among other things, that right wing televangelist, Dr. D. James Kennedy is the AntiChrist. But is there ant truth to this?

Certainly in the text of the Bible some references to the Devil or Satan involved mere wrong interpretation of God's Word in Scripture, not a proposal of evil of some sort. But is mere wrong interpretation of Scripture grounds to claim that some preacher is the AntiChrist? Not likely.

Dr. D. James Kennedy, a former dance instructor turned head of a $37 million dollar a year "nonprofit" religious organization that heavily involves itself in right wing politics certainly uses a form of "bait and switch" Christianity to lure persons to his organization and then diverts them into his own brand of personal politics. But this is merely spiritual deception. Members of his church or other political ganizations should be concerned if their level of spiritual discernment is so low that they cannot tell the differnce between learning about God or learning about politics.

Certainly D. James Kennedy advances some disturbing opinons as well, most notably that the U.S. is "Christian nation", when the nation was in fact founded on the concept of religious freedom for all, but largely by a group of early Christians known as the Pilgrims.

And D. James Kennedy often raises funds by appeals to right wing passions when he has not proven the ability to even impact his own neighborhood. For example, he continues to rail against homosexuality and pornography, yet one of the nation's largest mail-order Gay adult video businesses operates right in his own community, as well as many other Gay or adult entertainment oriented businesses. And on abortion, Kennedy has hardly had much impact on slowing the availability of legal abortion in his community either. At some point, contributors to Kennedy must realize that he is merely a huckster who makes broad claims about being able to impact social concerns of his contributors if you send him milions of dollars in donations, but has little proven track record of any success, even in his own community.

So Kennedy is certainly not any AntiChrist by any means, but just some politico huckster who uses religion to advance his fundraising and political ambitions. Just another bad figure on the religious right who use God for their own fundraising purposes and will have to answer to God someday for all of this.

More Don Imus Fallout

Reportedly, CBS has agreed to pay radio shock jock, Don Imus, $20 million dollars to settle his breach of contract and wrongful termination case against CBS after they bent over to the demands of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson after he made a joke about the tough, competitive appearance of the Rutgers's Women's Basketball Team. In the contract with CBS, Imus was encouraged to be edgy and make outrageous and controversial comments for comedy value, but was then wrongfully terminated for doing his job.

In another development, a member of the Rutger's Women's Basketball Team has filed a lawsuit against Don Imus claiming her reputation was damaged by his controversial on-air joke. However since a U.S. Supreme Court decision involving the Rev. Jerry Falwell and Hustler Magazine, the court expanded the legal protections of free expression to offer wider protections against libel and other claims for material classified as comedy or satire. Further, since the plaintiff was not specifically named in the Imus joke, then it is very difficult to contend damage to her reputation as well. With no real legal grounds for this lawsuit to proceed, it likely faces a very quick dismissal by a judge. And the plaintiff may even be forced to pay the court costs of Imus if the suit is ruled to be highly frivolous enough in nature by a judge in some court districts as well. Any lawsuit should be well reasoned before being filed or could backfire on the plaintiff.

Conservatives Fear Any Revival Of The Fairness Doctrine

In 1987, President Ronald Reagan ended a principle known as the Fairness Doctrine which meant that any opinions presented over the public airwaves were subject to offering time to counter opinions. Since that time there has been a growth of right wing radio such as Rush Limbaugh that often presents half-truths, misrepresentations and outright falsehoods without any real counter opinions to set the record straight.

All of this has helped to spur calls to bring back the Fairness Docrine to give a fair opportunity to other sides of arguments to respond to some unfair and one-sided opinions that paint liberals, progressives and others in a unfair negative light with gross misrepresentations of their views or records if they are elected officials.


Today, HUMAN EVENTS is sending out Emails from Edwin J. Feulner, Ph.d, President of The Heritage Foundation claiming that any return to the Fairness Doctrine could bring about the death of conservative talk radio and comparing fairness in allowing any side to respond to censorship with a graphic. This is nonsense. Is any opinion is a good one, built on good facts, then it can withstand a factual challenge.

If some opinions can only stand on their own by eliminating opposing opinions, then it should be quickly assumed that these opinions were not all that good and sturdy to begin with. Any return of the Fairness Doctrine should be no threat to reasonable and good opinions founded on solid fact.

China's Distain For Taiwan Independence Cements Ties To A Former Soviet Republic

The government of China's strong antiTaiwan independence sentiments seem to drive the new cooperative relationship of China and the former Soviet republic of Kyrgyzstan. The president of this largely Muslim state issued some strongly worded statements that echo China's oppposition to a two China's policy, and Kyrgyzstan promised international support in blocking any entry of Taiwan into international organizations that reflect stateship by nations as members.

Little Kyrgzstan can use the economic support for it's small 5.2 milion person nation that a relationship with China will bring. But buying this friendship by helping to foster an ongoing conflict with China and Taiwan is not a good path. Both countries should be free to manage their own affairs as independent entities with their own economies and government.

Kyrgzstan's government has been plagued with political assasinations and connections to competing organized crime organizations among many of the goverment members, and is hardly any role model of an effectively run nation. Like other former Soviet republics, little Kyrgzstan struggles to find it's own identity as a nation and to effectively manmage both their own government and build a successful economy. Whether this new, closer relationship to China will bring the needed improvements to this nation is yet to be seen.

Tommy Thompson's Exit From GOP Race Has Some Important Messages

Certainly Tommy Thompson lacked charisma as far as potential presidential candidates go. But he was also a serious mainstream conservative with decent credentials who sought to offer some serious and workable proposals on issues such as health care compared to the single issue fringe candidates of the far right who ran almost solely against abortion or illegal immigration. The Republican Party candidates for president will have to seriously look at where they want to bring their party this year. Do they want to foster a group of single issue candidates and spur and harvest these type of voters and prove that they are incapable of being serious candidates for president, or do they want to prove that they could actually rule the country if elected?

Certainly the major candidates such Giuliani, McCain and Romney are running better quality campaigns that the smaller fringe issue candidates such as Huckabee, Brownback or others who seem to be running only issue pro-life campaigns, antiGay marriage, or others with anti-illegal immigration campaigns. But the message to the larger group of all voters is that many of the candidates in the GOP race are not really ready for prime time and make the average lower tier Democratic campaign by even the likes of Dennis Kucinich look like a professional and broadbased issue effort by comparison.

The GOP must seriously consider where they want to define their party by appealing largely to fringe single issue voters this year. But some are not well serving their party very well at this point by attracting the wrong type of voters to the party. And Tommy Thompson's exit is that of one serious candidate in a mostly foolish field.

Serious issues like health care, Iraq, terrorism, etc. all require serious answers and serious candidates.