Sweeps Month Brings Out Crummy Journalism Like NBC's Affiliate In Portland, KGW

As sure as clockwork you can expect downright crummy, if not openly libelous journalism during May sweeps, where journalistic integrity takes a back seat to sensationalism. Tonight on the 11pm Portland, Oregon news by NBC affiliate, KGW, you have an excellent example of that.

KGW is running a trashy and sensationalistic story on nude dancing in strip clubs, complete with an outrageous character assasination of the club owner responsible for opening this bar in a neighborhood. One local resident is interviewed who claims that it will bring "drugs and prostitution back in the neighborhood". Wait a minute. Anyone who opens a tavern must pass a criminal background check by the Oregon Liqour Control Commission. No one with arrests or convictions for serious crimes such as drugs or prostitution could even be given a liquor license. How can KGW honestly air a false witness such as this who is clearly making up information, when they know this testimony is false? And KGW is willing to look the other way with possible libel, character assasination ot even FCC violations for knowingly offfering phony news like this simply because of the ratings benefits of airing such phony news, even if the news is pure trash, false and merely sensationalistic.

Has there ever been a history of strip clubs in Oregon profitting from prostitution? In only one case that dates back about 15 years, one dancer got a little drunk at one club and engaged in oral sex with a customer. The club was busted for prostitution, and even a carpenter who worked at the club was sent to jail over this one incident. No club would want to risk jail or prison for the management or the seizure of the company assets over prostitution. These businesses may not be welcome news by many residents in a neighborhood. Yet there is not any real evidence to say that as a whole they are any worse magnet for some illegal activity than any other type of tavern or bar. Police crime statistics prove this point.

KGW has no more business claiming that some bar owner who opens a bar will cause serious crimes in a neighborhood like drugs or prostitution if there is no reasonable evidence or facts to support that this club owner was ever involved in such criminal activity, or has any history of related crimes. Where is the proof of KGW to justify such a smear attack on the character of a tavern or bar owner? At this rate, KGW could present some false witness who claims that any businessman is a drug dealer, a pimp, a serial killer, or any other nonsense, with no proof.

The management of KGW is smart enough to know when someone is a crank, a bad witness, or even mentally ill. Yet to present a terrible witness like this as a credible source is simply bad journalism of the very worst variety. KGW is also a major hypocrite on the topic of adult businesses. Not that long ago they were running late night ads for Taboo Video, an adult video store. And only recently have been airing ads for a business for women to sell sex aids, that are actually illegal to sell in a number of Southern states and Texas. In Houston, a housewife was arrested for offering for sale products from this company that violated local obscene device laws.

As a whole I don't like taverns or bars. I hate both smoking and drinking. I wish there were less bars in general. But KGW has no legal grounds to falsely attack the character of some bar owner suggesting that he will be involved in serious crimes if no proof exists to back up this outrageous character attack. This is purely libel.

But KGW is not alone. Other stations will throw together quick sleazy stories just to draw in May sweeps ratings. Such is the type of journalism you can expect during May sweeps. Some things that are absolutely false and pure libel will be aired just for the sake of ratings.

Does Condoleezaa Rice Ever Tell The Truth?

Condoleezaa Rice now claims that it is untrue that the Bush Administration was absolutely obsessed from day one with invading Iraq. Well Condoleezaa, here's the facts:

On the Project For The New American Century website, all of the Bush Administration nucleus of his foreign and military policy team can be found with a paper trail that proves that starting the war in Iraq was designed as far back as 1997. John Bolton posted a document to restart the old 1991 war with Iraq on December 15, 1997, entitled, "UN Rewards Saddam". Then on January 19,1998, Bolton posted another feature justifying a new Iraq war entitled, "Congress Versus Iraq".

On January 26, 1998, Donald Rumsfeld, Paul Wolfowitz, John Bolton and 15 other future Bush Administration supporters wrote a "Letter To President Clinton On Iraq" urging U.S. military intervention in Iraq.

On March 23, 1998, John Bolton posted yet another feature on the PNAC website entitled, "Adrift In The Gulf", once again to justify a new war in Iraq.

On May 29,1998, Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton, Paul Wolfowitz and 15 other PNAC members wrote to Newt Gingrich and Trent Lott in an effort to move the Republican majority to go beyond President Clinton, and somehow restart the old 1991 Iraq War.

On September 18, 1998, Paul Wolfowitz was able to get a platform in the U.S. House before the House National Security Committee, offering testimony to justify a new war with Iraq with the Republican majority Congress. Wolfowitz claimed that placed the oil assets of Iraq under "international supervision" was a major goal for this new war.

On November 16, 1998, Wiliam Kristol's Weekly Standard published a Iraq war plan feature entitled, "How To attack Iraq".

Between all of this and the November election in 2000, seven more documents and features beating a drumbeat to war appear on the PNAC website.

Oil companies and defense contractors were the main backers of this war because of the huge profits both could make from the war, the reconstruction, and the "international supervision" of the suspected 229 billion barrels of undiscovered oil in Iraq. Dr. Condoleezaa Rice was a former board member of Chevron oil. 43 members of the Bush Administration were oil company executives, advisors or major stockholders, and 33 were from the defense industry.

Rice may claim that there was no run up to the Iraq War in the early days of the Bush Administration. But the proof clearly proves that she is once again not telling the truth and flatout lying to the American public. The entire Bush presidential bid in 2000 was organized by oil company and defense contractor profiteers who intended to take control of the government any way that they could, even if they lost the popular vote like they did, and restart the old 1991 war with Iraq solely to line their own pockets, using American lives as tool for their greedy interests. And Condoleezaa Rice is a main figure in this corrupt culture.

April Bloody April

It's unknown at this point how those who claim that the "surge" is working in in Iraq will explain or spin this unsettling fact, that April lost 104 American lives, and was the most deadly month yet this year, and the fourth worst month in Iraq so far in the four year old war. So far 3,351 Americans have lost their lives.

And at a time that the Bush Administration proposes cutting food stamp benefits for 189,000 hugry and underfed Americans, the same administration has spent at least $30 on Iraqi reconstruction efforts, with much of the work not completed, or the projects yet not functional. Both clean water and electrical service remain spotty. Garbage continues to buildup in Baghdad streets with many garbage men simply afraid to lose their lives because of the high danger.

Those who want to believe that somehow the Bush war in Iraq is suddenly some success will have real problems explaining all of these dire facts.

George "Slam Dunk" Tenet Seeks To "Salvage" His Reputation

Former CIA Director, George "Slam Dunk" Tenet is spending this weekend on 60 MINUTES and with a new book to somehow "salvage" his reputation when the facts are he was nearly as wrong as anyone else in the Bush Administration about WMDs in Saddam Hussein's Iraq. Tenet may have offered some caution for Bush and especially, Cheney, not to overstate some intelligence about Iraq. But beyond that, Tenet did little to stand in the way of the Bush Administration's steady drumbeat for war. Tenet even helped Gen. Colin Powell, then Secretary Of State, in the compilation of information to present at the U.N. that Saddam Hussein supposedly had WMDs. Now to hear the revisionist Tenet speak, he was taken advantage of and made the scapegoat by the Bush Administration. Amazing.

Tenet was the second longest serving CIA Director in American history. And no doubt, each and everyday he provided invaluable service to the nation, protecting our nation from external threats of all types. But his personal anguish over Iraq, which probably played a key role in his 2004 exit from the CIA in June, can't really completely erase his role in the steady drumbeat to war from this administration.

Tenet did long warn of threats from Al Qaeda prior to 9/11 besides providing invaluable intelligence about the North Korean nuclear weapons program. But the Bush Administration appeared to be out to lunch on both issues, and much more focused on Iraq. Tenet does make a credible case that he long warned of the threat from Al Qaeda, which fell on mostly death ears for an administration completely obsessed with starting a new war in Iraq, and not with the small Al Qaeda organization.

From day one, this administration which was heavily comprised of oil and defense industry interests had actively sought some plan to get the U.S. involved in Iraq, according to fomer Treasury Secretary Paul O'Neill. As far back as January of 2001, O'Neill was suprised at the absolute obsession with Iraq among the new Bush Administration members. But this was hardly surprising. This administration was basicly a coup by big oil and defense cotractor interests involving members of the Project For The New American Century, a neoconservative organization including Halliburton CEO Dick Cheney, Jeb Bush, Paul Wolfowitz, Donald Rumsfeld, John Bolton, and others from this organization who comprised the nucleus of the Bush Administration's foreign and military policy organization. A full 43 members of this administration were allied with the oil industry as either executives or major stockholders, and 33 were similiarly aligned with the defense contractor industry. Defense contractors wanted this war because they couldsell plenty of arms and a new Iraq war would be a huge cash bonanza. It was the ultimate in insider trading to appreciate their own corporate profits and stock values. Big oil wanted this war because Iraq has perhaps the world's largest undiscovered oil supplies, estimated to be as much as 229 billion barrels, or a 98 year supply for the U.S.

Tenet may indeed have a minor point in that Cheney and others in the Bush Administration ran with whatever intelligence existed about Iraq. But under Tenet, the CIA did actively pay some like convicted criminal , Ahmed Chalabi, for monthly "intelligence" reports about Iraq, which turned out to be mostly nonsense and wrong facts simply to collect a monthly payment. Chalabi had previously been convicted in Jordan for his role in the nation's worst banking fraud scandal, yet the CIA continued to pay this refugee from justice in Jordan for his monthly nonsense reports.

There may be about a dime's worth of difference between the gung ho drumbeat to war from the Bush Administration's neocons and Tenet's aid that he offered Secretary Of State Colin Powell for his grossly wrong intelligence report before the UN about Saddam Hussein's WMDs that helped to justify this war. But somehow Tenet will act angry enough on Sunday's 60 MINUTES, claiming he was completely taken advantage of. But when intelligence mistakes were at least partially his fault, then it's hard to be suddenly seen as somehow not part of the problem that got the U.S. involved in Iraq.

Tenet's segment on 60 MINUTES will prove to be newsworthy television. But it also needs to be taken with a huge grain of salt that Tenet may have meant well for the nation, but was just as wrong as anybody else about the WMDs. But Tenet was also used by the Bush Administration neocons as well, and whether this is enough grounds to offer him some forgiveness in the history books is sort of a very thin premise to argue. Wrong by 90%, rather than by 100% isn't too strong of a premise to seek public and historical forgiveness from. But with his 60 MINUTES interview and undoubtably other interviews, and his new book, Tenet will certainly try to rescue his place in American history and "salvage" his name.

Phantom Zero Pollution Electric Moped - The World's Best $439 Green Vehicle

West Coast Products, a California importer offers what can only be described as the perhaps the world's best zero pollution vehicle for a mere $439 including shipping. The Phantom electric moped is able to travel up to 37 miles on a single 3-6 hour charge. And can travel at 19 miles per hour on electric power, but also includes bicycle petals that also allow you to pedal as well, and you can probably boost the speed up to 25mph or so.

The vehicle actually retails for $1,200. However West Coast Products directly imports these excellent vehicles in huge lots, and is able to pass on the great prices allowing them to offer the vehicles for $439 on Ebay and just $10 more on their company website.

These electric mopeds not only feature excellent and long lasting construction quality. But they also come with a free tool kit for any maintence or repair work ever required. The vehicles even feature a locking trunk compartment big enough for some groceries or water bottle. And there is even a second storage area under the seat of the vehicle as well. There is a key starter for security, although a bicyle chain is probably wise to carry to secure these relatively lightweight vehicles which any strong man could probably lift. These vehicles could probably be mounted on a rack of a truck for transportation as well.

Power is supplied a powerful 290 rpm electric motor powered by 3 12 volt batteries for 36 volts of power. The vehicles can even be operated in rainy conditions because the motor and electrical parts are sealed and protected. A chain drive is used. And with the added feature of pedal power, these are a street legal electrically assisted bicycle in virtually any American city, and these vehicles can be used virtually anywhere with no license or insurance required unlike most other vehicles on the road, especially gas powered ones.

With their range of up to 37 miles on a single charge, these green zero pollution vehicles might just be an answer to the high pollution in congested cities. These well built and low priced green vehicles are perfect for little trips to the grocery store, school or work.

West Coast products probably offers the absolute best deal for a 100% green vehicle in America. The price is affordable and the build quality and features of this vehicle make it one of America's best bargains. An excellent green product in every regard.

Russia Suspends CFE Treaty Obligations

In yet another sudden act that signals a growing new Cold War with Russia and the West, Russia has halted their obligations under the CFE Treaty(Conventional Forces in Europe Treaty) to withdrawal their military forces and military bases in Moldova and Georgia. This signals a new serious conflict with NATO.

Also adding to the problems is a conflict with Russia over NATO and U.S. plans to install antimissile bases in former Eastern European states. Russia has responded with loud warnings and new military programs to develop a hypersonic cruise missile and work on a new 10 year project for building a new bomber. Such weapons seem far from normal defensive needs for Russia and are really counter weapons to NATO and U.S. weapons and forces.

While China's relations with the U.S. are very good, despite a huge Chinese buildup of their military fueled by the huge growth of their economy, Russia's hostility with the U.S. and NATO are becoming serious open areas of concern, and are just short of fueling a new open Cold War.

Democratic Debate In South Carolina Certainly Short On Viable Solutions For Iraq Mess

The eight Democratic candidates for president who debated in South Carolina were certainly united in their opposition to the terrible mess in Iraq that Bush brought on. Yet viable solutions were short in supply.

The Democrats seemed to merely mirror the wide public popular will to exit Iraq as a worsening quagmire, a type of civil war between sectarian segments where a political solution is scarce. Yet little was offered other than an exit strategy for U.S. forces. No real solutions were offered to prevent the worsening sectarian conflict in Iraq from becoming a dangerous regional war if Iran and Saudi Arabia should enter the vacuum left if American forces leave.

The fact of the matter is that someone needs to police Iraq. The Iraqi government's own police and military forces are woefully inadequate, unreliable or flawed. UN peacekeepers or an Arab regional peacekeeping force are some of the best solutions if they could be brought on board for such a mission.

The situation in Iraq has already created as many as two million refugees in the region, either living in tent cities within Iraq, or else flooding into both Jordan and Syria, overloading their ability to find housing or other services.

The U.S. is really going to achieve very little if they simply withdrawal forces from Iraq because the situation was such a terrible mistake to get involved in, and now has unleashed a terrible wave of sectarian killings that threatens the peace of the entire region. It is strange that some who are upset at the human carnage in Darfur for example, feel that any atempt to control the violence problem that we created in Iraq should now be simply walked away from . There's an obligation somewhere out there for someone to police Iraq and restore order. If the U.S. mission has so badly failed, then someone needs to volunteer some other solution, not just echo that we got involved in Iraq for the wrong reasons and should not offer some solution to the mess that we created in Iraq.

American forces could leave Iraq if we really leave some viable peacekeeping mission in the place of our exit. Without that we only risk a huge regional mess that will not only threaten the entire oil supply to the U.S., but also could result in a serious war in that region. When you create a power vacuum you need to fill it with something.

Marie-Segolene Royal; Socialism UltraLight

The working class of France certainly has little good place to turn in the upcoming runoff election on May 6. Nicolas Sarkozy certainly represents fringe right wing politics, while the politics of Socialist Marie-Segolene Royal seems to be socialist in name only. Neither seem to seriously address issues of poverty or the working class of France.

Royal could use her party to rally working class and studeny voters if only she were a far better candidate. Instead her main issues have been "nanny state" issues such as concerns over TV violence and other petty little concerns while poverty in France grows among the poor of France, especially among the huge growing Muslim immigrant population, creating a fresh breeding ground for alienation and a growing appetite for some to embrace Muslim fundamentalism or other religious radicalism.

Instead of Royal voicing support for economics that working people can embrace, her past issues seemed to involve an abnormal drive to attack Japanese animated cartoons for children, and her own nonsense conclusions supposedly linking both pornography and violence on TV to violence in society. Her wacky moralist views are some of the most absurd since Madame De Gaulle in the 1950's. Postwar 1950's France was dominated by Madame De Gaulle's screwy morality crackdowns on seemy culture.

Royal has barely even bothered to construct many viable opinions on most foreign policy matters. Sarkozy will have little difficulty making that clear in the May 2, national debate.

On the other hand. her right wing opponent, Nicolas Sarkozy does represent a whole other set of goofy "not ready for primetime" values as well. Sarkosky is your typical "law and order" type politician, who prefers not to comprehend why problems exist, but just thinks that more laws or crackdowns are the answer to any problem. Again this fails to address the serious growing alienation problems among Muslim youths in France that are a breeding ground for future terrorism problems.

Sarkozy is seen as a highly skilled politician by both his supporters as well as left leaning opponents. And he is seen as far more proU.S. than most French politicians, even supporting the 2003 George Bush war in Iraq as well at one time.

Reasonable persons might find it hard to find the lesser of the two evils. And that is of course very difficult. No lesser of the two evils seems to really exist in this runoff race. Normally the Socialists would be a good choice, but under the leadership of Royal they just don't represent very much for the working class of France this time around.

This choice is so bad that sitting out the May 6 runoff may prove to be the best choice. France won't be well served by either party. The Socialist Party has lost their sense of class identity and is no longer worthy of a vote this year. But then again, the working class are sure to suffer under Sarkozy, a George Bushlike demagogue politician who represents nothing good for France either.

French voters cetainly have little choice in this runoff, and no choice is good. Both promise few answers to the real problems within French society.

Tonight's First Democratic Debate Puts Huge Pressures On Clinton, Obama And Edwards

Tonight's first 2008 Democratic debate broadcast on MSNBC puts huge pressures on Clinton, Obama and Edwards. Each faces their own challenges tonight.

For Clinton her job is maintain her steadily slipping status as the frontrunner with the steady surge of Barack Obama. Clinton is certainly intelligent enough to be President. But her cold style hardly warms the hearts of many, and she has recently appeared to be a panderer with absurd appeals to African American voters in a phony accent or even comparing herself to antislavery champion, Harriet Tubman. Clinton seems to bear the brunt of baggage from her husband's term in office, plus brings her own questions up as well. Whether she can manage to maintain her narrow frontrunner status depends greatly on tonight's performance.

Barack Obama also has a great challenge tonight. Is he up to all the hype? Can he manage to prove to be the best and most electable of the Democrats and continue to bring in the recent big contributions? Some polls like Rasmuussen now place him even with Clinton.

John Edwards also has much to gain. Right now he stands as the only traditional style Democratic candidate, a White male, with a decent chance of electability. But he lags behind both Clinton and Obama, and his only hope is that both would somehow fail, which certainly seems unlikely.

At this point Obama looks like the one candidate who may be able to sew up a great deal of support tonight. He may have the most to gain or lose tonight of anyone. And the other five also ran Democrats have little hope, but tonight is their best shot to sell themselves. These candidates who are really on the bubble also have a big stake in tonight's debate.

Tonight's debate will entertaining to say the least.

Conservative Radio Host Michael Smerconish Replaces Don Imus On MSNBC

Responsible conservative Philadelphia lawyer, turned talk show host, Michael Smerconish, has replaced THE DON IMUS SHOW on MSNBC. While Smerconish is decidedly more conservative politically than Don Imus, he is a respectful man, with none of the thug appeal of many right wing radio hosts who specialize in rudeness and abrasive on-air styles.

Smerconish also is a dry and nearly humorless man compared to the immensely funny content on THE DON IMUS SHOW it replaced. Smerconish does manage to attract many of the important and newsworthy guests that Don Imus would attract. And Smerconish's discussion is always civil and polite, but certainly lacks to comedy value of Don Imus.

Smerconish also attracts others much like himself. nearly colorless, but respectful and decent people. Even though Smerconish has sometimes filled in for the likes of Bill O'Reilly, nothing in his character is anything like the bullylike O'Reilly in any way.

Will the public warm to this who used to be fans of Don Imus. I personally doubt it. But Smerconish and other civil persons like this do elevate the airwaves. But I miss Don Imus myself. But at 4 or 5 in the morning, with little good on, even Smerconish looks pretty good.

Giuliani's Terrorism Trashtalk

Rudolph Giuliani is apparently in full over compensation mode and wants the Republic primary voters to overlook his support for abortion rights or gun control among his Republican Party voters, so what does he decide to do? Trashtalk.

Giuliani claims that if a Democrat is elected that another 9/11 is likely. Well 9/11 happened during a Republican president didn't it? There isn't a great deal of logic in claiming that one party is less able to protect the nation than the other. It's merely trashtalk politics. And it will draw an angry response from many Democrats which may or may not help Giuliani in the Republican primary campaign to harden up his image. But in the general election such trashtalk is merely ignorant and intellectually unsulting.

Bush has been ther master of ignorant trashtalk in the last few years. Whether Giuliani acting more like Bush is a good thing or not certainly remains to be seen. This is going to be a very long two year campaign for the 2008 election.

John McCain Officially Kicks Off His Losing Presidential Bid Today

As John McCain continues to sag in the polls, despite some serious doubts about Rudolph Giuliani, he officially kicks off his campaign which is nearly certain to go nowhere and be his last campaign for president. McCain has recently done very poorly in fund raising as well, and even fired his campaign finance manager.

John McCain is indeed a very nice and respected man. But by his recent hawkish views on the war in Iraq, his public support only seems to be sagging. And at times the former "plain talk" personality seems to be lost to McCain's views blowing in the wind.

John McCain will unfortunately only go down as some footnote in presidential politics, much like Morris Udall, Birch Bayh or other also rans who were also good men, but just never made it to the White House.

Rosie Quits The View

Who could have sen it coming? Rosie O'Donnell's recent erratic behavior on THE VIEW couldn't have been a clearer sign that she was looking for something else to do. It was likely a sign that she wasn't really happy with her role there, although she certainly helped to drive up the ratings by quite a job. Today, O'Donnell makes it official that she's leaving.

But Rosie O'Donnell won't go away very soon. She's seriously looking at a season long gig on FX's NIP TUCK or even a stint as a gameshow host, but it's unlikely to be on THE PRICE IS RIGHT replacing retiring host Bob Barker.

Rosie is likely to pop up on your TV again very soon somewhere. Like a bad penny she just won't go away. But she's always entertaining, and a has a great knowledge of TV trivia, making her actually very likable if she avoids her recent oddball 9/11 conspiracy tales and other strange opinions.

Rosie is actually a pretty good celebrity. But too many controversial opinions could always change the public's goodwill towards someone once known as "The Queen Of Nice".

Boris Yeltsin: The Imperfect Democrat

Russian democracy leader, Boris Yeltsin, will soon be laid to rest. On one hand he was a bold yet very imperfect politician. He brought democracy to his nation including freedom of speech and religion, and would stand up to major foes with great self confidence, yet seemed to be plagued with many weaknesses at the same time. The economy was a real disaster under Yeltsin where the conforts of the familiar Communist, although very spartan in available goods or luxury, was replaced with uncertainty and poverty for many Russians. The economy is certainly stronger under Putin now, but his commitment to democrastic ideals are far weaker than those of Yeltsin.

Yeltsin will be best remembered as a deeply flawed leader, a real mix of success and failures both. Yet both the Russian people and world community owe him a great deal of respect. He was really in way over head in difficulties and decision making, and his purported use of alcohol didn't help either, yet he gave his very best. And what he did was indeed remarkable. Perhaps not as trully great man. But a remarkable one.

Critics Of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's Iraq Comments Sure Miss Out On Reality

A growing chorus of Republican partisans who are condemning the comments of Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sure seem to missing out on reality. While Reid's comments were perhaps not helpful to the morale of the U.S. troops caught in the dire Iraq mess, and were probably better kept to himself. But the war isn't being lost because of Reid. The war is being lost because centuries of sectarian conflict between the Sunni and Shiite sects has once again been unleashed. It's also being lost because the war was a terrible idea from the beginning. And it's being lost because the Bush Administration war planners sent way too small of a poorly equiped force of U.s. troops in; in fact just enough soldiers to fail.

At the peak of the Vietnam War more than 600,000 American soldiers were in South Vietnam with a population of 19 million and could not win. Iraq is even larger at 26.7 million persons, and yhe even smaller 140,000+ American forces are stretched even farther in an peacekeeping role to prevent car bombings or other acts of violence. There was a complete failure to secure the huge supply of arms at the beginning of the war, a failure to establish effective policing in the days after the fall of Saddam Hussein, and now the genie is out of the bottle and the violence way too widespread for such a small U.S. force.

It would be a great notion for the U.S. to encourage the UN to takeover security duties in Iraq or even a regional force comprised of Arab nations to act as peacekeepers. But the U.S. role has clearly failed and cannot succeed. The UN currently has more than 83,000 soldiers in 15 world trouble spots including Lebanon, with even nations such as China, Russia, Denmark, El Salvador and many others providing peacekeepers.

The U.S. cannot leave Iraq without some other peacekeping force involved to prevent further bloodshed or a larger regional sectarian conflict. But the U.S. cannot succeed in Iraq either. Handing this conflict over to a new group of peacekeepers with new ideas is the only viable way. The current order is cetainly not working.

Kirk Kerkorian Would Like To Form A Worker Owned Chrysler

Billionaire businessman Kirk Kerkorian is interested in holding talks with current Chrysler employees who want to keep their jobs by possiby forming some sort of employee owned company in which Kerkorian may play the role of a major investor or even CEO. If Daimler, the German company which owns Chrysler agrees to such talks, then Chrysler could become the single largest employee owned company in the U.S. and spur a new sense of business based off socialist models of worker owned workplaces in order to protect their jobs.

With the huge growth in outsourcing and job cuts to cut costs, this socialist model of worker owned workplaces is growing in attraction. It might well be one of the only real ways in which workers can really protect themselves from the majority form of corporate management in which workers are but mere pawns to the management, and only exist to assist profits for the management, while the worker owned model spurs more respect for the company by the workers as well pride in the products they produce.

Whether this new Americanized version of a classic socialist model for business operation really takes hold in the U.S. yet remains to be seen. But Kerkorian has owned as much as 9.9% of General Motors stock at one point, but then sold 14 million shares to increase his ownership of MGM up to 61% by 2006. For an eighth grade dropout, Kerkorian has proven to be one of the greatest American business leaders ever. Kerkorian once made a failed bid to purchase Chrysler, but Daimler won out. Now the company has lost probably 50% or more of it's value, and Daimler will take a huge loss regardless of who buys the company.

While Capitalism Grows In China, So Does Communist Party Membership

While China continues to grow by the day as a major force in world commerce, the Communist Party Of China also continues growth with 70 million members, or up by six million members from 2002 when the party held it's last national Communist Party Conference. But there is a growing sense of representatives to be responsible to local concerns of voters, and efforts to make the one party nation more Democratic within the single party model system that also are growing. And the government continues to battle both corruption of government officials as well as ineffiencient business practices which slow the growth of vital industry such the growing automobile industry in China, which now is the third largest producer of automobiles and ahead of Germany in production figures.

China is also adding to the number of elected representatives and increasing their numbers to the new 17th Communist Party Conference to increase the sense of "democracy' as well. While some serious world community concerns about human right certainly continue, the growth of capitalism in China seems to evolving the nature of the Communist Party Of China in a slow, yet steady direction.

China is nowhere likely to have multiparty elections in the near future. Yet within the one party context, some baby steps towards democracy seem to influenced by the huge growth of business in China and it's open contact with the world community openly encouraged by the government and the widespread use of the internet. If anything, the Chinese interest in technology which fuels intense internet interest is bring new ideas to the nation, and making it appear more Western by the day. Also greatly spurring strong Western ties to China for trade are not just low priced products and wages, but also a very friendly and polite nature by Chinese businesses who are excellent to do business with.

Russia Pushes Ahead For New Reactor In Iran

Despite world community concerns about the nuclear program in Iran, and Russia even signing on a U.N. position that Iran should comply with the IAEA standards, Russia continues moving ahead with the building of the Bushehr reactor, although nonpayment by Iran has slowed the shipment of nuclear fuel from Russia by months.

Iran seems to want to push ahead with it's nuclear ambitions on one hand, but is also difficult to deal with and unreliable on payments on the other hand. And in a futher sign of the erratic Tehran government, Iran ran air force live fire tests very close to the reator under construction, and completely failed to inform Russian workers about this.

In every possible way Iran continues to prove why nuclear power plants present a grave danger to the region, if not the world community. Yet Russia continues to enable Russia, despite all evidence that Iran is both erratic and unreliable as a client.

If the world community is really serious about keeping Iran from the development and possible misuse of nuclear sites, then Russia is only enabling Iran's bizarre and erratic ambitions.

Russia Aids Indian Development Of Supersonic Cruise Missile

Russia continues a major role in supplying or helping to develop fearsome weapons in developing world nations. Russian technolgy aided the development and the successful test this weekend of the BrahMos cruise missile with can carry a warhead 300km at an amazing speed of 2.8mach.

As more and more high technology weapons become traded with developing nations, then these nations often sell the technology to other nations and the cycle of arms proliferation only spreads through the world including nations so poor that many persons have little to eat, yet the government maintains a huge military.

Many high speed or high tech missiles really exceed normal defensive capabilities such as the new Indian missile, and only encourage a dangerous arms race with rival state Pakistan. And with the government of Pakistan really without widespread public support, the possibility that this government could loose power and nuclear or high tech weapons could fall into terrorist hands only greatly increases.

One thing is for certain; the genie is out of the bottle. With too many high tech weapons already existing between Pakistan and India, the possibility of these falling into bad hands grows as a danger.

Attorney General Gonzales Will Hold News Conference On Identity Theft In Attempt To Change The Subject And Keep His Job

After an absolutely terrible testimony last week before the U.S. Senate committee holding hearings on the firing of some U.S. attorneys by the Alberto Gonzales Justice Department, in which Gonzales claimed "I don't recall" more than 70 times, Gonzales will attempt to change the subject again on Monday with a newsconference on identity theft.

Certainly identity theft is a vital issue just like the safety of children on the internet is. But this marks the second high profile issue for Gonzales to promote while having serious problems over his handling of the attorney firings. Every high profile effort by Gonzales is now viewed as an act of political theatre to save his endangered job.

Gonzales now finds himself in a a no win situation where any new high profile effort launched by the Justice Department is now under some clout of skeptical opinion. At some point Mr. Gonzales needs to realize that his role as Attorney General is simply too damaged, and the huge loss of support among Republican senators is a major indication that it's really been all over for Gonzales for weeks now, yet he attempts to hang on. When Bush only draws public approval numbers in the 30's, the continued drag of the Gonzales affair along with the growing public disgust with the Iraq War leave this administration with neither a viable political future or a decent historic legacy. At some point, friend or no friend, the Bush Administration needs to cut Gonzales loose.

Robert "Evel" Knieval Inspires Mass Baptism At Crystal Cathedral

Robert "Evel" Knieval, long known as the tough as nails motorcycle stunt driver inspired an awesome display of faith and a move of the Holy Spirit when hundreds sought to be baptised on the spot after a deeply inspiring talk and his request for a public baptism by the founder of the Crystal Cathedral, the senior Rev. Robert Schuller. This awesome chuch service airs this weekend on a number of channels, and is perhaps the most powerful episode ever aired of this popular religious program.

The move of the Holy Spirit was so great in this church, that the younger Rev. Robert Schuller actually shelved his sermon, where he felt that he had nothing more to add to this awesome display of faith inspired by Robert "Evel" Knieval. Many persons simply attended the service for the music or other reasons, but were so moved by the powerful testimony of the nearly 69 year old retired motorcycle stuntman that hundreds responded to his call be baptised for the first time in their lives.

There are unfortunately few times that the awesome power of the Holy Spirit seems to manifest itself today in many churches. For such a powerful event to takle place in the Crystal Cathedral which draws together a large, but very general audience that includes many nonChristians and nonbelievers as well, is simply powerful to say the least.

This is an episode of The Hour Of Power you will want to record and watch again and again. Watching the sheer power of the Holy Spirit at work is an awesome event. An absolutely amazing episode of this very fine religious program.

Poverty In Israel Worsens

For years, the mayors of the cities in Israel long ignored that any problem with hunger, poverty or homelessness existed in Israel. But now with influx of so many poor refugees from around the world with very little but the clothes on their back, cities in Israel are experiencing large influxes of very poor persons. Since some problems that started in the economy of Israel back in 2004, soup kitchens in cities like Tel Aviv are now crowded to the point of overflowing compacity.

Many of the persons who need the help of the soup kitchens of Israel in Israel are elderly Russian speaking persons, mentally ill, unemployed or facing other difficulties. There are many religious organizations including the one that is run by Pastor John Hagee of San Antonio Texas who feel that God has only opened the window for a short time for the jews of the world to return to Israel and resettle their ancient homeland. Unfortunately this often includes little more thana plane ticket to Israel.

The problem is growing so serious of so many in poverty settling into Israel and not able to find work or housing that it is straining local government to build low cost shelter or housing for the poor. Often outside help is needed from both Jewish and Christian charities, especially those located in the U.S. to pitch in. Some organizatins such as The Daughters Of Hadassah raise funds for absolutely free of charge medical care to anyone regardless of whether they be Israeli or Palestinian.

And the growing population of Israel also creates conflicts with those who want to start new settlements or those who are on land with sensitive political value. Whether Israel can get a handle on all of these serious problems remains to be seen. But much help is needed to resolve these serious challenges for Israel and the serious problem of poverty that many new immigrants bring to Israel with them.

Last Week's Gun Violence Only Inspires Wacky Gun Advocates

It is deeply unfortunate the way that last week's outrageous episodes of gun violence, first at Virginia Tech, then at the Johnson Space Center in Houston only seem to be inspiring wacky and irresponsible thoughts by right wing gun advocates which seem to only prove why some persons should not own guns. Some of these wackos are now promoting the reckless notion that guns should be allowed on college campuses, claiming this would have prevented the situation.

First of all, the situation in Virginia was extremely rare and the college missed many critical opportunities to call police and get Cho the mental health help that he required, and even professors in the English department in which Cho majored were given little more than a little help from campus security in response to the weird and violent leanings of Cho, instead of expulsion as a dangerous and unfit person from the campus.

Now some tough talking chicken-hawks, who worship guns like some religious item are arguing that more guns on campus would have prevented the Cho incident. But the Cho incident was a total breakdown of both community and college responsibility to use legal resources to provide community security. Increasing the number of guns around young people whose brains are often not completely matured who may use a gun in an argument, fight, or in a fit of depression or in suicide are simply too great to ignore. And more guns on campus could be even used in conflicts with a professor or a bad grade for example. The absurd Pandora's Box of problems that this notion to put more guns on college campuses would create should be obvious to anyone with any common sense.

If anything expulsion from school of anyone who brings a gun is a good notion. Possiby some gun detection devices if a campus feels that this is necessary, with permanent expulsion from school the result of those who defy such a common safety goal.

College life often is the first experience of many young people with binge drinking or serious drug use at parties or in the dorm rooms. Adding guns to this mixture wouldn't serve any good purposes.

Many gun advocates also call into question their own mental health or judgement to own a gun. There are many minor incidents of property theft in which using a gun would only land the person in prison, sometimes for up to life. In the Oregon prison system a 84 year old man is serving a life sentence because he pushed the abusive husband of his daughter down a flight of steps, killing him, instead of calling the police. A gun could have just as well played a role in this incident. Many gun owners are currently in jail or prison all across the U.S. for firing off bullets when the situation did not call for it, and their lives were not in any real danger, only some item of property was at risk, and the far safer and legal option of calling the police was ignored.

If anything the Virginia Tech incident should inspire new calls to better fund local mental health services and to more seriously take campus security threats with either expulsion or police involvement. But more guns on the street would no better provide more safety than putting more cars on the street would not result in more accidents.

Each year, guns account for 33,000 deaths in the U.S. including suicide, domestic violence or more rarely murder by some stranger. In fact, guns are far more likely to take the life of persons known to each other than some violence from a stranger, because once a gun is in the house, it is often pulled out during some episiode of family turmoil or conflict, or else small children find these guns and accidently kill themselves or the other children. In the African-American community guns are the major and leading cause of death among 18-34 year old males, where instead of resolving problems, guns only hurt this community and cause many long prison sentences for some argument they should have simply walked away from.

Dr. Ben Carson, is the leading surgeon who has expertise in seperating siamese twins who are joined at the head. Dr. Carson is an African American who flies all over the world to perform complex 18 hour operations that often end in great success. But he nearly threw this all away as a young man when in a fight he stabbed a man with knife that fortunately did not go in because of a big metal belt buckle his opponent was wearing. Carson got a second chance to become one of the world's greatest surgeons.

Using your head, not pulling for some gun or knife will often leave you with far less regrets. Once you pull some trigger you can't call those bullets back if you are on the firm legal grounds to fire them in the first place. As a general rule, guns will cause more more problems than they will ever resolve.

The Most Ridiculous Political Blog Of The week Award

This week's most ridiculous political blog of the week award goes to Portland Oregon's only openly Gay city commissioner, Sam Adams, who proclaimed on his blog that "Last saturday, I visited 4 porn stores, 5 strip clubs and bars in five hours...".

Not only was the statement on it's face a clear slap in face of the First Amendment and the right to freedom of speech for controversial speech in a free society, but the sheer credibility of the bold statement was challenged by a reader named John V. who noted that only two long time downtown Portland, Oregon strip clubs exist, Mary's Club and Magic Gardens, both probably far older than the age of the young city commissioner. Instead of answering this credibility question with some proof to support his claim, Adams instead chose to cut off comments on the post.

In psychology there is something known as reaction fromation, where a person seeks to justify their own views or lifestyle by finding something else to create a controversy with. Voters in Portland have decided to judge Mr. Adams solely on the basis of qualifications and skills and not his Gay lifestyle when they elected him to office, but instead of offering the same tolerance to others, Adams atempts to create a controversy by his attack on some businesses that largely cater to a heterosexual male clientale. And some of the businesses such as Mary's Club are located very close to the Heathman Hotel that the President of the United States, and top businessmen usually choose to stay at, with many of these businessmen the clientale of this club to discuss business deals over some cocktail. There is no real evidence of problems with the businesses that Adams blasts, nor does Adams offer any proof that local livability is impacted by these businesses, it is only a typical vague "reaction formation" smear attack.

Despite whatever moral concerns that can be raised about entertainment establishments such as Mary's Club, men will continue to support them because it is only a natural part of their human nature to have a visually stimulated natural sex drive. You can't change human nature.

On the other hand it might be asked why Adams would walk around for five hours to search out adult entertainment just so that he can make some political point when most men nowadays no doubt sit in front of their computer, sometimes in their bathrobe, surfing the Internet for porn. Adams could have saved his shoe leather and day long walk if he realized this modern point. Walk-in adult entertainment businesses all over America are closing down not from local laws or other government actions, but the ease of searching out the sleazy entertainment of almost any man's hidden desires on the Internet. This natural law of supply and demand closed most adults only movie theatres in the United States some years ago when video tapes and then DVDs provided too much competition. Now many men can simply pay some download fees with their credit card and download outrageous films from all over the world if they so desire and avoid having to even leave their office or house.

Adams paints himself in a political corner by being a controversial elected official who picks a controversial fight with a deeply held American value, freedom of speech. Voters had three attempts to weaken the First Amendment over about the last 10 years, and turned down all three. Voters just don't share his wacky antiAmerican values views regarding free expression. Adams' latest crusade is to follow a San Francisco ban on plastic bags from stores, not bothering to consider that Portland is a wet and rainy city where plastic bags will resist rain compared to paper bags which get wet and break apart within minutes if you have to walk with in the rain. Too many wacky crusades and Adams may be painting himself out of a job as a city commissioner. A wise politician knows when to pick their battles, but Adams appears to be either too young or too inexperienced to understand this critical point of political survival.

Rolling Stone Magazine Turns 40

ROLLING STONE magazine turns 40 this week, and will begin a three issue celebration of their long history of reporting important music and music lifestyle news.

ROLLING STONE has featured many important features in recent years as well as memorable cover photography. These new special issues are likely to involve a sort of retrospective of some highlights as well as the usual features of new news on the artists. ROLLING STONE has set itself aside as the major consumer publication for music lovers, whereas BILLBOARD remains the industry side's major journal.

More reporting on this later as details emerge.

High School Student Arrested For Threats & Building Homemade Hand Grenades

At Clackamas High School in Clackamas, Oregon, a student was arrested after a tip that he planned to kill more students than the Virginia Tech incident using homemade hand grenade type bombs. With a search warrant police recovered bomb making materials that were being used in split open tennis balls to create explosive devices and recipe information for producing explosives.

Police explosives experts destroyed any assembled devices in a controlled explosion in the backyard to avoid any danger, but the other materials remain as evidence for the explosives and bomb threat charges that this student faces.

There is evidence that the student may have tried to bomb a moving car in another community to test the devices. If this can be proven, then more serious charges will follow.

Unlike the system that completely broke down that allowed the Virginia Tech gunman to avoid either mental health help or expulsion, the system in this Oregon school district may have avoided a serious incident that could have been potentially far worse than this week's tragedy at Virginia Tech.

Houston, We Have A Problem

Only days after the tragic situation at Virginia, Tech, another crazed gunman about to lose his job was involved in another murder-suicide incident at the Johnson Space Center. A four hour hostage incident took the life of one hostage and the gunman.

After all of the very negative publicity that the Virginia gunman brought on himself why anyone would want to be remembered as a disgrace to their relatives who share their family name should be an important reason not to commit outrageous acts. If a person cannot be stopped by the knowledge of what would God or their relatives would think, then they are really beyond much hope. Not disgracing either God or your relatives good name should be an important reason to pause and think about anger at any time.

Both the Virginia Tech gunman and the Houston gunman have left their relatives feeling deeply disgraced by their conduct.

The Kennesaw, Georgia Gun Violence Reduction Myth

Gun lobbyists and their supporters are once again parading a deeply misleading myth that claims greatly improved public safety in the rural community of Kennesaw, Georgia after in 1982 the City Council passed a law requiring every head of a household to own a gun, while the community of Morton Grove, Illinois passed a handgun ban in their community earlier in 1982.

Gun supporters misleadingly claim that Kennesaw is now much safer than Morton Grove by the use of some select use of statistical percentages of claimed crime reductions. However an honest comparison of the actual crime figures of the two communities certainly fail to prove the case of the gun advocates that more guns in a comunity improve the public safety compared to less guns. In general, guns do correlate with 33,000 national incidents that result in death each year including teen and adult suicide, accidents, domestic violence and murders.

Morton Grove, Illinois is a suburb of the huge city of Chicago, where no doubt, some Chicago residents will travel by car for the purpose of armed robbery and other crimes. Kennesaw is a far more rural community, much farther from a larger community, where most crime will be by local residents.

FBI crime statistics for 2003 provide the most recent equal models for comparison of the two cities which are roughly comparable in population. Morton Grove has 22, 966 and Kennesaw 25, 183 for the purposes of this 2003 actual crime figures comparison.

In 2003, Morton Grove had 2 murders and Kennesaw just 1. But both figures are subject to yearly fluctuations, where some years neither community will have an incident classified as a murder.

In 2003, Morton Grove had 4 robberies compared to 7 in Kennesaw. The Kennesaw figures are much higher than Morton Grove's for that year, and guns are often the weapon of choice in a robbery.

In 2003, Morton Grove had 12 aggravated assaults compared to the higher number of 15 in Kennesaw.

In 2003, Morton Grove had 70 burglaries compared to the much higher number of 89 in Kennesaw. Many burglars may carry a gun in case of being surprised by security or a property owner.

In 2003, Morton Grove had 390 incidents of larcency and theft compared 455 examples in Kennesaw.

No good statistics on suicide in the two communities can be easily found, but in general more guns do correlate with higher suicide rates just the same as more automobiles will correlate with higher accident figures. But with higher actual crime figures in Kennesaw compared to Morton Grove, that may include the use of guns, why gun supporters use Kennesaw as any shining example to support their claims yhay more guns improve community safety is simply absurd. No good evidence is to be found in the actual number of crimes which are higher in Kennesaw than Morton Grove that the law requiring gun ownership has made the community are more safe or crime free at all.

Also has the average person had their own life impacted by gun? My grandmother's brother was killed in a hunting gun accident. Careless hunters nearly hit the farm house I was raised in as a child when they illegally hunted pheasants on our farm property. My own mother was held up at gunpoint at her workplace. I lived in a community where gangs of young men with rifles and pistols were stalking pedestrians in automobiles with the windows blacked out and the license plates removed during a 1968 race riot. In this same community gun incidents still are somewhat common at two local high schools and at two area shopping malls. A Korean man was recently shot in the neck and paralyzed from the neck down during an armed robbery for a carton of cigarettes and cash while he only watched the store for a short time so the owner could attend a church service. A very nice man I know was shot during a robbery at his business and left him to spend the rest of his life as a disabled worker at the local St. Vincent De Paul. I ran a bookstore on Foster street, and another shopowner only a few doors down was shot and killed during a robbery. More guns failed to improve any of these incidents. Guns only correlated with all of these problems. And these are only the examples from my own life that I have personal knowledge of, many persons know of even worse personal examples.

Some gun advocates are now also claiming that students, teachers and security at Virginia Tech should all be allowed to bring guns to school to somehow enhance "security". Yet during the early college years of 18-25 higher problems with suicide, mental illness, alcohol, drug abuse or depression are the most likely to manifest itself according to all good scientific evidence, and putting guns in the hands of young people whose brains are not yet fully developed would only likely invite many incidents of gun violence or tragedy and is a highly irresponsible and reckless proposal.

Gun advocates may use misleading statistics to support their wholly absurd claims that more guns in a community improve the public safety. But no good statistics have ever proven this absurd premise. More guns always correlate with a higher number of unfortunate incidents of some type.

Critics Of The Virginia Tech Gunman Videos Miss Many Vital Points

By a narrow edge, the public is turning critical of the decision of MSM outlets to air the disturbing videos by the Virginia Tech gunman.

There were many reasons that the videos gained such airplay by the MSM. The event in Virginia was major news and there was major interest in the story. The MSM saw the unique opportunity of the videos as a rare item from the killer to explain his actions. Just like the intense interest in Lee Harvey Oswalt in 1963 after the Kennedy assasination, the videos by Cho were an item that public interest really wanted to see, at least for while. Even the newfound critics of these videos no doubt wondered why Cho murdered, and watched these videos for at least a day before turning to critics.

But for those wanting to understand the moltivations of Cho, the videos probably provided important closure that the killer was indeed moltivated by severe mental illness, while for the educational, police, courts and psychiatric community serious questions need to be raised why the local system broke down so badly and a mentally ill person who was a danger to himself and others was not forced by court order into psychiatric treatment.

Many communities provide for police to bring suspected mentally ill persons in for some sort of psychiatric observation, and avoid some of the problems of mentally ill persons in their community. In this Virginia community, many warning signs long existed about Cho, yet either lax laws or poor funding really put no teeth into forcing treatment for Cho despite many building incidents. Amazingly enough, even professors and students in the English department, in which Cho majored, seemed to fail at any attempts for campus security or administration to take serious steps to either get Cho the professional help that he needed or even expell him.

Part of the reason that Cho may have resisted treatment was his South Korean culture which may have seen seeking helping as unmanly in this culture. Many South Korean males will resist needed medical treatment for example, because for them it may be interpreted as some sign of personal weakness. This cultural issue may have explained why Cho continued to slid into even worse emotional pain and mental suffering rather than seek professional help. Many communities provide free or low cost treatment for medical and mental health issues including low cost or free medications.

Instead of critics focusing on the videos of Cho, there needs to be stronger efforts to improve funding of mental health programs and some stronger process for a court to enforce treatment of persons who may constitute a danger to themselves or others. If only Cho would have been receiving some sort antipsychotic medications this entire violent episode could have been completely avoided. If the public wants to complain about anything, it's a lack of funding and real teeth in the court's response to mental health issues in the Virginia community.

China May Soon Purchase An Additional 12 Billion In U.S. Imports To Help Cut Trade Deficit

Chinese officials, sensitive to concerns in the United States about the huge trade deficit that stands between the two nations is expected to sign a mega trade deal with the U.S. very soon, allowing for far more imports of American products such as soybean, cotton, automobiles, electronics and other goods. Right now current problems such as trafiffs that slap a 25% fee on American imported automobiles into China and only a 2.5% tariff of Chinese made automobiles into the U.S. are prime examples of this type of disparity in trade that only help to widen the trade deficit.

China is also under pressure to not peg their currency to the American dollar, and instead let it float on world currency markets.

Whether China's moves to help satisfy some American concerns about trade with China will really help to better equalize trade certainly remains to be seen. Smart money would probably say not. But any temporary attempts to increase American exports will cetainly make some Americans at least feel better while the United States only tends to lose more jobs to China and the trade deficit only worsens.

South Korean Community Deeply Ashamed Of Virginia Tech Gunman

Deep sorrow and sadness is running all through the South Korean community, both in the U.S. and in South Korea that one of their very own committed such a terrible act at Virginia Tech. In Seoul, many persons are participating in public memorials to the Virginia Tech victims including a shrine at the American Embassy, including statements of sorrow from the nation's president, Roh Moo-Hyun. Roh expressed hopes that this terrible "incident would not come between the two countries in any way".

The parents of Cho have been hospitalized for the extreme shock and shame that their mentally disturbed son caused them. Even the ongoing protests over the free trade agreement with the U.S. have been impacted, with calls from many in South Korea to suspend them for now.

However in the perspective of over 93, 700 Korean students in education within the U.S. on student visas, which is equal to about 15% of the total of all exchange students, the fact that only one single individual carried out the terrible acts over at Virginia Tech is quite small and solely the act of one individual only.

There should be no collective sense of shame among the South Korean community. South Korean's are very decent, honest and hardworking persons, and are many of the very best of citizens in the United States. There is absolutely no way in which this entire community should share any shame for the acts of a single individual who had serious mental health problems that went largely untreated. South Koreans are largely and overwelmingly excellent law abiding citizens, and in no way should feel shame for a horrible event that they share no absolutely no responsibility for. But their heartfelt sentiments of sorrow are deeply appreciated by all Americans, which prove the great friendship that those in the South Korea share with all Americans. And all Americans can be very grateful for this expression of solidarity with their very good South Korean friends.

"The Long National Nightmare Is Over"; Sanjaya Voted Off AMERICAN IDOL

For many the famous postWatergate words of President Gerald Ford have never ringed more true. Yet the Sanjaya phenomenon on AMERICA IDOL provided endless material for comics, laughs from the public, as well as no doubt spurred more interest in the program.

For whatever Sanjaya lacked in the way of talent, which was indeed considerable, he seemed to make up for in the way of showmanship and reinvention of himself each week out with new looks or other gimmicks to pump up his appeal. Sanjaya will actually be missed in a perverse sort of way. He was indeed a far better showman than a performer, which always opens up the possibility of that lucrative contract playing Holiday Inns. "Hey you folks in here from Phoenix. Nice city. I know a litle song about Phoenix, and it goes a little like this...."

If Sanjaya plays his cards right he could become a crummy Las Vegas singer or even land a recording contract. Witness the new wave label, Stiff Records, back in the late 70's who used to round up every kook and weirdo almost like the way Third World nations induct new soldiers by graping young men off the street with a truck, with Stiff giving them a recording contract instead. Ian Dury, Wreckless Eric and others really had just two options in those days, either collecting a disability check or else getting a recording contract from Stiff Records.

For comics, Sanjaya was like a gift that just kept on giving. For the likes of Jay Leno and others, Sanjaya proved himself to be a gift left right on their front porch each day. Leno will no doubt have a sendoff fit for royalty for Sanjaya when he appears tonight on the show. Leno owes him eternal thanks for many great laughs.

But on a serious side, Sanjaya was sort of inspirational. He seemed to better display a famous thought from Rev. Robert Schuller that passion will trump talent every time. And 17 year old Sanjaya displayed plenty of heart and passion regardless if his talent as a singer lagged behind somewhere.

Sanjaya will actually be sorely missed from the competition now. His quirky phenomenon offered not only some some laughs and punchlines for jokes, but also was an inspirational journey as well. God bless you Sanjaya, and good luck finding your way with your unique skills and sense of showmanship.

Virginia Tech Gunman Left Many Disturbing Clues In Play

In a play written by Virginia Tech gunman, Seung Cho, entitled, "Richard McBeef", Cho wrote a disturbing portrait of pedophilia and the chaiwsaw murder of the play's fictional father by a stepchild. This and other bizarre aspects became a great concern of both students and teaching staff within the Virginia Tech English department, of which Cho was a majoring.

Many of the paranoid aspects of Cho's play remind persons in the psychology community of the paranoid writings of a paranoid schizophrenic. Paranoid schizophrenics tend to be the most dangerous of any mentally personality type.

The play involves an angry exchange between a father and a stepson, and involves strange references to Marilyln Monroe, John Lennon and government conspiracies.

This and other unsettling images from the life of Cho are beginning to emerge. New reports also claim some previous contact between Cho and police over some events including concern by a mental health agency.

Russian Media Claims That Don Imus Was Destroyed By American Government To Suppress War Secrets After 9/11

In yet another bizarre twist to the Don Imus Affair, PRAVDA(Russian for "The Truth"), claims that the U.S. government was behind a conspiracy to silence shock jock Don Imus because he was about to reveal U.S. military secrets after 9/11.

With growing antiAmericanism running rampant in Russia, and much of it with some support from the Putin government, PRAVDA's intent seemed to be to paint a growing clamp-down on political dissent within the U.S, as a possible response to the heavy handed suppression of a political demonstration within Russia last weekend. But little evidence of any growing clamp-down on American free speech other than the known efforts of the Bush Administration within the Patroit Act or other already known activites exists. Demonstrators are already well known to local police agencies, but this is usually meant for violence suppression and little more. PRAVDA's claims seem to be with little real solid documentation support.

PRAVDA further claimed that the U.S. government cannot directly take down a popular figure such as Don Imus, so instead uses the media and an excuse such as the claimed "racial slur" to do the dirty work. However, the U.S. government has no real control over the media, and if anything, often find themselves at great odds.

Maybe the claimed conspiracy by U.S. war leaders that PRAVDA claims is for mainly domestic consumption. But it hardly seems like an accurate analysis of the events surrounding the Don Imus affair. Sometimes maybe a writer just needs to pen something, even if it's sheer nonsense just to justify their job as a writer. But the PRAVDA analysis is indeed a strange one.

Where's The Don Imus Story Today?

Only before yesterday's major outrageous murder-suicide at VirginiaTech, the Don Imus story dominated the airwaves with a few loud cultural extremists claiming the women of the Rutgers basketball teram were somehow "scarred for life", because they heard by the way of secondhand news from the likes of Al Sharpton or Jesse Jackson that radio shock jock, Don Imus, made them the butt of some ill-conceived joke. Well, the terrible massacre are at Virginia Tech clearly proves that becoming a victim of violence is indeed far worse than becoming the butt of a joke by some insult comic.

Before yesterday, the Rutgers' team felt that they deserved a face-to-face apology for the claimed pain they felt. What about the deep anguish and emotional suffering among the victims and their families from Virgina Tech? What do they deserve in proportion to help with their genuine loss and suffering?

Last week's cultural correctness hysteria failed to take into account relative degrees of seriousness. Being the butt of some insult comic's joke certainly did not merit the level of hysteria by some thin-skinned critics of popular cultutre who seemed to lose all normal sense or relativity for events. It is too bad that the cold blooded reality of Monday's violence at Virginia Tech had to hit the American debate squarely on the head like a two by four, and remind persons that some genuinely bad things can actually happen to people, not just that someone told some joke about them.

People In Iraq Face Murder-Suicide Attacks Like The Rare One In Virginia Monday

As depressing as the violence in Virginia is, the fact of the matter is that violence on this level is rare for the United States, while civilians in Iraq face murder-suicide attacks each and every single day. An ethnocentric outlook on the part of many Americans that somehow ignores the grieving and intense anguished faces of relatives after learning that their loved one's were killed in some Baghdad marketplace seems to fall on uncaring hearts here in the U.S.

The supporters of Bush brought on this day to day violence in Iraq with their 2003 war, while the Democrats would merely like to ignore this cycle of killing, claiming they are supporting the U.S. troops by wanting the troops out as soon as possible despite whatever further deaths and violence it causes many more civilians inIraq every single day like some ghoulish clockwork.

The fact of the matter is that individuals, for whatever individual reasons will only continue to target persons with murder-suicide type violence both in the U.S. and in Iraq in the future. But the event should make Americans more concerned about how to actually stem this violence somewhat, as lives of humans no matter where they live are precious and a gift from God.

Will the day to day violence in Iraq help to stop it soon? Not likely. Can anything be done to stop senseless violence here? Not likely. A depressing reality check.

Karl Rove's Quiet Tour Of America To Shore Up Support For The War & GOP Politics

White House political guru, Karl Rove has been on a quiet nationwide speaking tour across the U.S., including his visit to a packed Tigard, Oregon hotel with wealthy GOP business and political leaders this past Friday. Rove is hoping to shore up support for the war, raise GOP campaign funds and moltivate GOP faithful to go on the political attack against the Democrats.

Rove is a very controversial figure among the public, but still pure gold to the GOP faithful, whose hardcore take-no-prisoners sytle still inspires political moltivation as well as large political donations, despite a rising tide of public concerns about missing White House emails, documents with missing sections, and many Nixonsque Watergate inspired features about this administration. Both Cheney and Rove remain the top cash draws to fill crowded hotel conference rooms with wealthy donors willing to open up their wallets for policies that run far counter to the public's taste or will.

Rove hits all the popular high notes when preaching to a largely White male choir of wealthy business and political personalities who attend Rove's traveling political show. Rove ranting how Democrats will raise the taxes the wealthy corporate types pay is always a popular audience applause getter. And while support for the Iraq War probably wanes by the day among the general public, the Rove crowd can't get enough of his gung ho tough talk. Rove is typical of the tough talking Bush White House gang, where military service is actually very rare. Rove managed to skillfully make use of college deferments to avoid service in Vietnam. In December 1969, he drew a high #84 in the first ever draft for the war and managed other ways to avoid service, but to hear Rove on the political stump, you'd think that he was some hardened Marine or Special Forces soldier.

It doesn't really matter very much that Rove is yet another phony "chicken hawk" from the Bush White House, or always just about two steps away from some new controversary, or that his first marriage ended when his wife cited infidelity in the divorce papers. Rove may not have an upstanding reputation, but many GOP faithful still love his preaching to choir style, even if much of it is a pure crock. Rove is expected to remain a major component for the 2008 GOP politics, barring some career ending scandal that finally makes him radioactive.

Rove's traveling hokey medicine show is only expected to roll on from town to town, collecting funds from true believer's who think that Rove is still the cure to all ills, and not convinced that he's only another snakeoil salesman for stuff that simply doesn't work.

Is Marc Bolan's Star Finally Dimming?

Marc Bolan, the late musical genius behind both T.Rex and the earlier Tyrannosaurus Rex, who died in a 1977 automobile accident has been a popular cult fan figure for years since his death. Millions worshipped Bolan in an unheard of devotion for years since his death, with tons of posthumous record and Cd releases of unreleased songs of which Bolan seemed to have saved by the tons on tapes, both professional and more homemade. In 2005, Bolan last hit #1 on worldwide DVD music charts with the expanded DVD version his great BORN TO BOOGIE film of which Ringo Starr was heavily involved. But recently there are signs that the Bolan star is once again dimming.

With the release of an 8 Cd series a few years back of mainly homemade tapes entitled, UNCHAINED, many fans found few real gems among this series, and many weak performances that were probably far better left unreleased. This might have turned some fans off who felt like the Bolan magic was missing and he looked all too mortal and not the rock and rooll god that they believed in. But some far superior later releases of rough mixes and alternate versions on many more Cds were far more magic and fulfilling to Bolan's many fans, especially some from Japan.

But recently it seems like less new Bolan items have hit the market, and whether less good unreleased material or simply some measure of fan fatgue is at hand is not entirely clear, but perhaps a mix of both is what's happening . And even on Ebay, a pretty good barometer of the popularity of Bolan, both the number of listings for his Cds and the final selling price seem to be rapidly declining. It was not uncommon to find many Bolan products selling for close to $20 or more dollars only a couple years ago, but today some Cds went unsold at just 99cents each, which was once absolutely unheard of. Bolan stuff used to never hardly ever be very cheap on Ebay until very recently.

An attempt to revive the Bolan magic ended badly when former Tyrannosaurus Rex and early T.Rex bongo player and drummer, Mickey Finn, attempted to revive the band back in 1997 as Mickey Finn's T.Rex with a Marc Bolan sound-alike singer, Rob Benson, but Mickey Finn eventually fell ill with cancer and died. The band still plays gigs today, but has never really charted like the original Marc Bolan lead bands once did. The band's Cd, RENAISSANCE was puntuated with very good percussion and drum work provided by both Mickey Finn on congas and former 1970's T.Rex session drummer, Paul Fenton. And the vocal work was great as well, with Rob Benson a particularlly good Marc Bolanlike replacement singer. But the guitar work and the musical interpretations of many of the 13 Bolan classics seem to really lack the proper guitar stylings or musical punches that made the Bolan songs the real classics they were. With Bolan's unique guitar signature missing, as well as his songs often unBolanlike in their execution by this new band, this band is good, but just not as fulfilling as it could be to true Bolan fans.

It was not only the unique vocals of Marc Bolan that made him a fan favorite and classic. It was also his unique guitar style as well as his ability to quickly pen great, but often largely disposable songs, that often had huge chart appeal such as GET IT ON, JEEPSTER, TELEGRAM SAM, THE GROOVER, CHILDREN OF THE REVOLUTION and 20th CENTURY BOY. Bolan could range from a pop king with a popular rock sound, to a being sort of like a British Jimi Hendrix, and a true guitar superman. Bolan was the perfect front man for a band, a great rock and roll image, and a musical genuis in every regard of the word.

Can the Bolan star start to shine again. Probably. It only needs another great product to repackage his talents and begin to resale himself to public once again, reminding old fans to return and new ones to start to listen for the first time. But for now, it looks like the Bolan star is starting to dim somewhat, with declining interest in this 1960's and 1970's British musical superstar.

Fans Of Jim Morrison Urging A Pardon For Miami Concert Conviction

Some fans of The Doors, have written to the governor of Florida urging him to issue a pardon for the Florida convictions of lead singer Jim Morrison who was convicted of using profanity and exposing himself during a 1969 Miami concert. Back in 1969 this controversial concert performance created a national backlash against the hugely popular rock group, ruining their record sales when many stores refused to stock albums by The Doors and other resulting actions.

Jim Morrison's growing problems with alcohol and drugs, as well as his rebel personality likely were to blame for the Miami episode. More alcohol problems with Morrison caused The Doors longtime record producer to quit right in the middle of recording their classic 1971 LA WOMAN album, ewhen the producer had just gone through problems with Janis Joplin, and could hardly tolerate Morrison showing up drunk for recording sessions, where recording work drug out for weeks, rather than a few days.

Whether the excellent contributions to music by Jim Morrison are now considered enough to warrant a pardon remain to be seen, but some like controversial NY comic, Lenny Bruce, where eventually offered a pardon for his obscenity arrests. But others such as Larry Flynt, HUSTLER magazine publisher and others remain to be pardoned for testing the limits of entertainment. How soon before radio shock jock Don Imus finds his way back to the public arena, and a measurable enough level of public forgiveness, remains to be seen. But still for some entertainers, one step too far that violates the public's sense of taste seems to invite near career suicide.

PRAVDA Takes The Safe Way Out In Putin's Russia

As Vladimir Putin grows increasingly tightfisted with his power in Russia, PRAVDA takes a safe course with a largely tabloid style.

This weekend former world champion chess player and critic of the Putin regime, Gary Kasparov was arrested. It is yet another reminder to critics of the Putin regime not to question the government which has centralized more power in Putin's hands and eliminated many lower level elective offices since he assumed control in Russia. The press operates in fear, and thusly focuses on many things that will not cause problems with the government.

PRAVDA was once the Soviet government's official propaganda mouthpiece, but is now run by independent journalists. But these journalists often avoid most hard news and instead focus on a largely tabloid format, with a feature last week including nude photos of popular Russian TV and film actresses. This isn't your father's PRAVDA. But then again PRAVDA is taking the safe way out by avoiding conflict and possible arrest from the Putin regime. And nothing better avoids hard news than a format rich with "cheesecake" journalism.

It is unfortunate that a free press does not really exist to check the government in Russia. It is also unfortunate when many conservatives despise the free press in the United States, especially given where the lack of a free press has brought Russia so far.

Maybe the Bush regime is somewhat pleased when the American press becomes obsessed with Britney Spears, Anna Nicole Smith, Paris Hilton or even Don Imus, as it takes pressure off their policies including Iraq and their attempts to grab power in this country, virtually mirroring the strongarm efforts of Putin in some ways.

Forget Radio, The Church Remains The Most Segregated Area Of America

For as much as the public was drawn to a discussion of race relations due to the Don Imus matter last week, it still is the church that remains the most segregated area of America. What should an area where all of mankind are brought together in peace and brotherhood to worship God, still only about 7% of the nations churches are considered to be multicultural or multracial in membership.

As much as Americans should be brought together to support fairness and justice for all, it is still the vitally important area of the church that lags far behind other areas of society that have long since accepted a multicultural diverse population.

Both Martin Luther King and Billy Graham expressed deep concerns about this dating back as far as the 1950's and 60's, yet little has changed in many American churches, where largely single cultures worship by themselves.

It is not enough to worry about multiculturalism in many areas, when the church yet remains the single worst holdout to multiculturalism. When this important area of American life remains the single worst holdout to change, then it can only be expected that the rest of American society lags in better race relations than it really should. Changing the church is vital to changing society. Change begins at the church door.

Both Obama And Edwards Surging Past Possible GOP Choices Among Voters

New polls out this week from Rasmussen Reports find both John Edwards and Barack Obama opening up leads over possible GOP rivals. Both Obama and Edwards hold wide favorable to unfavorable ratings as well among possible voters, however Hillary Clinton has a 50-48% negative rating, and matches up the worst among the top three Democrats. Clinton continues to hold a lead among possible voters for the Democratic nomination at 34%, with Obama close at 29% and Edwards lagging at 15%.

The new polling now finds Obama running six points ahead of John McCain, compared to the statistical tie in the last poll, and 14 points ahead of Romney. For the first time, Edwards now outpolls Giuliani, and by 6 points. A big turnaround from all previous polls in which no leading Democrat was able to outpoll the popular Giuliani.

Don Imus Still Rates As More Popular Than Britney Spears Or Paris Hilton Among Americans

The caustic style of dethroned radio shock jock may not make him the favorite of every American, but Don Imus still remains more favorably viewed among Americans than either Britney Spears or Paris Hilton.

A new poll posted on the Rasmussen reports website finds that Don Imus still commands a favorable rating of 24% among Americans compared to just a 13% favorable rating for Britney Spears or just 12% for Paris Hilton. Don Imus has a combined unfavorable rating of 52% according to the poll.

Another new poll for CNN about Don Imus finds that just 31% of Whites, and 52% of African Americans believe that he is a racist, proving that there is not an overwelming consensus against the controversial radio talk show host among even the African American community, where many believe it has not been proven that he is a racist, but just outspoken and controversial.

51% of the public in the new Rasmussen poll also accepted that the Imus apology to the Rutgers' Wonen's Basketball Team was sincere as well.

China Embarks On Amazing Program To Put Over 500 High Speed Trains Into Operation This Year

While many nation's railroads such as those in the U.S. continue to struggle, China is embarking on an amazing plan to add 280 high spped trains on April 18, with a total of 514 total high speed trains to be put into operation by year's end. Never in human history has the world ever seen the building and completion of so many trains and so much track in a single year. This is an amazing production schedule.

These high speed trains should run at average speeds of about 250kph compared to the current speed of 115kph of most trains. This should shorten the commute time between Chinese cities by over 50%. An amazing reduction in commuting time, increasing the productivity of Chinese society greatly.

This may be perhaps be the greatest leap forward for China ever.

New Harry Potter Movie Being Edited For Running Time

With the producers of the new Harry Potter movie deeply fearful that the long three hour running time of GRINDHOUSE, which was a flop at over 3 hours with two complete movies, decided that the new Harry Potter film should be edited for running time. The film might be a little over two hours rather than closer to three hours. But the DVD version will likely include either the longer version, or else the deleted scenes, so they will not be lost for collectors who wish to view or own them.

Senators Edward Kennedy And Gordon Smith CoSponsor Bill Opposing Hate Crimes Against The Gay Community

A bipartisan bill sponsored by Senators Edward Kennedy(D-MA) and Gordon Smith(R-OR) seeks to set criminal penalties for the extreme violence against the Gay community by some. The bill, which is called the Matthew Shepard bill by some, cracks down on the extreme violence sometimes associated with hate crimes. Whether the bill can pass the Senate or will be signed into law by the White House are matters that remain to be seen. But if the bill is seen as a tough on crime bill that cracks down on illegal violence, then the chances are very good.

The bill is named after a young college student who was lured by a group of thugs to a violent death involving extreme violence.

Why Shouldn't McDonalds Pull Their Sponsorship Of The Al Sharpton Show On Radio?

There is a strange hypocrisy on the part of corporate America, because of a single poorly botched joke over on The Don IMUS SHOW, both MSNBC and CBS cancelled the show after major sponsors like GM and Procter and Gamble pulled their ads. But given the long history of one of the major accusers of Imus, Al Sharpton, why doesn't McDonalds pull their ads from his radio program? Why hasn't Sharpton's radio show removed from the public airwaves long before now?

Al Sharpton was ordered by a court to pay for his portion of a $345,000 judgement for his slander during the 1987 Tawana Brawley hoax.

In December of 2005, the Federal Election Commission ordered Sharpton to repay $100, 000 in federal campaign financing funds that were overspent for personal expeditures.

A 1983 episode of HBO's REAL SPORTS, which was host by Bryant Gumbel featured a FBI tape of Al Sharpton discussing laundering drug money with a former Columbo crime familly associate turned FBI informant, Michael Franzese. Sharpton also had a long association with boxing promoter Don King, who also had some close connections to organized crime figures. King once served nearly four years for the manslaughter death of a man while running an illegal bookmaking business, but was acquited by a jury of a second death.

In 1991, Sharpton helped to inspire antiJewish sentiments that likely played a role in the fatal Crown Heights Riot, where Sharpton referred to Hasidic Jews as "Diamond merchants", and an angry crowd chanting "Kill the Jew" murdered a visiting Australian 29 year old Hasidic student.

In 1995, Sharpton once again inspired hate against the Jewish community, when he protested a new store owned by Jewish persons from opening up shop in a largely African American neighborhood called Freddy's Fashion Mart. The resulting anger in the community likely inspired a violent protestor to kill himself and seven others in an arson attack on the store.

Sharpton and Michael Jackson once staged an outrageous press conference blaming Sony Records for "racism" for the poor sales of his musically very weak album, INVINCIBLE, when building concerns about Jackson among the public as well as weak songs and poor material were really at issue.

In 2001, Sharpton serves a three month prison sentence for an illegal protest on U.S. military property the same year that 90% of the public supported the White House efforts against the 9/11 terrorist attacks.

Sharpton has betrayed both poor persons and the African American community by doing ads for a car title loan company, Loanmax. Many car title loan companies charge interest rates similiar to loan sharks with ultrahigh interest rates of 300% or more. For any self proclaimed champion of the poor, this is a huge conflict of interest for Sharpton.

Sharpton took it on himself to make the transportation arrangements for the body of singer James Brown to lie in state at the Apollo Theatre. But these arrangements wee so botched-up that Sharpton had to transport the body himself in the back of a borrowed van. And other problems made it over 70 days before the body of James Brown was laid to rest in a temporary grave, while a permanent grave is still yet to be built.

In 2007, Sharpton begins what one reporter described as a "big time effort" to destroy the reputation of Senator Barack Obama. Likely inspired by a desire of Sharpton to become the main spokesman in the African American community, Sharpton seems to want to destroy the reputation of any African American who proves to be more popular than him.

Why advertisers ran from Don Imus after one single tasteless joke that miserably failed, and Al Sharpton continues his radio show on the public airwaves with the corporate support of McDonalds is a very good question considering his long historyof conflict and close connection to some fatal violent incidents? There is no radio talk show host with such a history on the public airwaves who continues to receive major corporate support from a major firm like McDonalds. Sharpton continues to get a pass no matter how bad his conduct is.

CBS Radio Cancels Don Imus, Effectively Ending His 40 Year Broadcasting Career

As a final death blow to the great 40 year career of Don Imus, CBS Radio cancelled his radio program just on the last day of his annual fundraising efffort for sick children with cancer. How CBS could cancel Imus when he said nothing untoward during this two-day annual charity for children is simply ghoulish. But so far CBS has not volunteered to replace any of the lost charity funds. If anything, kindhearted Don Imus probably feels far worse about this loss of charity funds to sick children than his loss of his career to cultural extremists.

The shabby treatment for Don Imus, an inducted member of The Broadcasting Hall Of Fame, is considered to be one of America's greatest living broadcasters along with Walter Cronkite and other landmark personalities.

Whether 66 year old Don Imus will seek a return to broadcasting via satellite like Howard Stern was forced to due to heavy FCC pressure and network censorship is not known yet. It is also not known whether Imus can seek a lawsuit against CBS or MSNBC for breach of contract or wrongful termination, it really depends the wording of each contract. But Imus had both contracts terminated by both networks although no violation of FCC, libel, indecency or obscenity standards occurred. This may leave room for attorneys for Imus to pursue some legal action against his former employers for unlawful breach of contract for bowing to political pressures from the likes of Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson in the absense of any legitimate legal grounds to terminate his contracts.

The CBS contract is rumored to be worth about $15 million alone, however Imus has nearly matched this figure in charitable giving in the last 12 months alone. Don Imus helped to raise $6 million for the Texas Center For The Intrepid, which offers aid to wounded veterans, with actress Sandra Bullock raising another $1 million, and CNN's Lou Dobbs and others making major contributions as well. Imus' charity efforts including a brand of ecofriendly detergents in which he donates all profits as well as annual fundraising efforts to fund his summer camp for children with cancer are also well known.

The Fact That Don Imus Raised Nearly $1 For Charity In The First 5 Hours Of His Annual Telethon Lost In Smear Attacks On His Reputation

The important fact that embattled shock jock radio host Don Imus raised nearly $1 million for children's charity on this Thursday morning was ignored by nearly every critic out to destroy his reputation and career. Each year, Imus holds an annual telethon on this date, which is why CBS owned radio allowed his suspension to start next week. Interestingly, MSNBC allows Imus to do his show at their studios, but did not offer the broadcast on TV. So far MSNBC hasn't offered to replace any funds lost in this annual charity event.

But a major critic of Imus, Rev. Jesse Jackson is now put under a new spotlight since the Duke Lacrosse Team players had all charges dropped by the North Carolina Attorney General yesterday. When the claimed rape incident took place a little over a year ago, Jackson had pledged that, "I can't wait...to talk with her and have prayer with her, because our organization is committed, when she's physically and emotionally able...to provide her scholarship money to finish school so she will never... again have to stoop low to survive". Unlike Imus who actually delivers funds to children, Jackson never even met with the woman who claimed that she was raped, nor has he pledged her any funds to complete her education as promised, or refunded any funds made by donors to her education that were collected. Jackson wants to be taken seriously as a critic of Imus, out to destroy the reputation of the shock jock, yet it is Jackson who made a phony public show out of raising funds for the woman and not delivering.

In the Bible an important story of Jesus warns those who are not without fault, not to find fault in others. More and more, the serious shortcomings of both Al Sharpton and Jesse Jackson are coming up to the surface. Both are devoted to ruining the right of Don Imus to even earn a living, yet both Sharpton and Jackson seriously have failed their followers time after time and have a real long way to go to catch up with the character of Don Imus who actually helps children with his charity events unlike others who seem best at merely helping themselves first.

Russian Media Admits Huge Mistake Selling Alaska To U.S.

This seems to be the season for mistakes and regrets, and the Russian media outlet, PRAVDA ran a feature today claiming what a huge mistake the 1867 sale of Alaska to the U.S. for $7.2 million dollars was.

Looking back always seems easy. Russia would certainly enjoy the oil revenues from this area, although oil from Alaska suffers from seriously high levels of benzene contamination compared to most other oil from the world.

John McCain Hopes To Whitewash His Absurd Iraq Marketplace Photo-opt With A Smear Of Democrats Who Oppose The War

Senator John McCain is now backtracking on his blantantly wrong claims of greatly improved security conditions in Iraq, and instead now going after Democrats who favor a deadline for U.S. troop withdrawals.

McCain who has invested his entire presidential ambitions on his Iraq War policies, is quickly finding his polling standings slipping away. With Fred Thompson added to the race, McCain runs third, and is increasingly unlikely to win the GOP nomination in 2008.

Lagging badly in fundraising, with credibility problems due to his Iraqi marketplace photo-opt, McCain's campaign is reeling from problems and sinking very fast. The McCain campaign would like to shakeup the campasign staff, however it is both the candidate and his prowar platform that are at issue and the real cause of his woes.

Rev. Jesse Jackson Is Yet To Offer An Apology For His Strong Attacks On The Duke LaCrosse Students Who Had Charges Dropped

Rev. Jesse Jackson certainly made his mind clear on the Don Imus matter the last few days, and yet has made no real public apology for his strong and racially moltivated statements about the Duke students who were falsely accused in this phony rape scandal.

Rev. Jackson tried to downplay any real involvement that he had in the story, and his rush to judgement, but stopped well short of any public apology to the falsely accused students this evening on CNN's ANDERSON COOPER. Jackson once made a major issue of the minor brushes with the law of some of the students such as the public urination of one student, while ignoring the arrest record of the accusing African American stripper.

Rev. Jackson's sentiments are typical of someone who is so self-righteous that they get their facts wrong, and helped to fuel a public trial of the accused students before they were even allowed to present their side of the case. In the case of the Don Imus situation, Jackson was quick to jump on the bandwagon, causing MSNBC to cancel the show after 11 years despite no real violations of any FCC rule or a libel law while Imus told his botched Rutgers joke. Yet Jackson won't be banned from the public airwaves like Don Imus will be.

Don Imus Violated No FCC Or Libel Standards, Yet Is Cancelled By MSNBC

MSNBC stepped up the ante by cancelling THE DON IMUS SHOW telecast despite the fact that his badly botched joke about the Rutgers women's basketball team violated no FCC standards or even libel laws. MSNBC was way too quick to cower to some extremists such as Al Sharpton who forced this 40 year veteran of broadcasting from the public airwaves.

66 year old Don Imus has had a long and full life once working as a miner, a U.S. Marine, and recorded a comedy album for Bang Records. Imus is a vegetarian who markets a line of ecofriendly detergents and donates the profits to charity. Imus also runs a cancer camp for children suffering from this terrible illness. This past year Imus raised over $6 million for the Texas, Center For The Intrepid, where seriously wounded U.S. soldiers can seek rehabilitation services. Most of the critics of Imus cannot match his charitable giving or selfless nature of seeking respect for others, and instead only focused on his off-color humor.