This Is What I Have Been Saying!

I gave a speech in my rhetoric class a year ago on why illegal immigrants are not really all that bad, and that they are not really as big a strain on our economy as as some people say. I found this op-ed on the Opinion Journal's website. They make the same arguments that I made in my speech, so of course my ego is doing quite well now.

Great way to listen to music!

I found this site and thought I would pass it along. It allows you to put in any artist and then through a unique sequencing it finds other musicians out there that have similar sounds. Pretty cool.

clipped from computershopper.com Pandora Pandora acts like your personal DJ. Just name an artist you like, and this free Internet radio service instantly starts streaming music. You'll hear not only from your selected artist, but also from others with a similar sound. It's a great way to discover new music, and Pandora is uncannily accurate in suggesting songs with comparable musical qualities. As you listen, you can rate each song with a thumbs up or thumbs down so Pandora can better tailor the station to your preferences. Of course, you also have the option of buying songs and albums from Amazon.com or Apple's iTunes Music Store. A recently added bookmark feature lets you replay your favorite songs later on. This is one Pandora's box you'll be glad you opened.

Maybe THE best Web 2.0 Tool

Here is a great tool for clipping the best of the web and converting it to a blog, email or other applications. I think it will revolutionize the blogging world.

http://clipmarks.com/

clipped from computershopper.com Ever wish you could "clip" a piece of a Web page the way you'd tear an article from a magazine? Clipmarks lets you do exactly that, then tag, store, organize, and share your clips. The site's simple toolbar is available for both Firefox and Internet Explorer; once it's installed, click the Clip icon on the toolbar, then mouse over the area of the page you wish to clip. Clicking on the toolbar again allows you to name, tag, and save that clip. Clipmarks is better than bookmarking because it saves only the data you want, not the entire page. Students, researchers, and even online shoppers are sure to find it invaluable.

The Good with the Bad

Its letters like this one that give me hope that there really are thoughtful, intelligent people out there. Hopefully this trend will continue; with every bad, disrespectful and uninformed article about Romney posted on the web, a good one will match it.

Romney's Religion and the Media

There was a great piece in the LA Times recently about the media attacking Romney's Mormonism. The elections are far, far away, but this discussion will dominate as long as Romney is a candidate. I wonder if Romney will ever get to talk issues?

Mormons on PBS

A four-hour documentary on Mormons will air on PBS this spring. "Award-winning filmmaker Helen Whitney has one over-arching goal for her four-hour production "The Mormons," I hope that most of the stereotypes — ideally, all of them — will be blown away." It will air April 30 and May 1st. "The Mormons" is not a film about Utah. Whitney traveled across the country, from New York to California; she sent a film crew to Ghana. Mormons are everywhere, and I wanted to make that point." It sounds like it will be very good, and fair. I look forward to seeing this on TV. PBS has aired a lot of things about the church. Recently, there was a documentary about the Willie and Martin handcart companies. Over the Christmas holiday season, PBS aired a christmas concert that was taped at the confrence center several times--I actually got tired of seeing it it was on so much.

The First of Many

Another Step Closer

It's going to be for real this week: "Gov. Mitt Romney this week will submit the necessary paperwork to form a presidential exploratory committee, but not until funeral services for former President Gerald R. Ford have concluded, according to a top aide familiar with his plans. While the committee filing will be labeled "exploratory," it will declare Romney as an official presidential candidate and commit him to the same fundraising and reporting rules he will have to follow when, as is expected, he transitions to a formal presidential campaign committee."
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070102/ap_on_el_pr/romney2008

They Made A Funny!

Al Gore Caught Warming Globe To Increase Box Office Profits

Al Gore Caught Warming Globe To Increase Box-Office Profits

Frank Caliendo on Letterman

Many of you may have seen this already, but if you haven't, enjoy! Caliendo's impression of Bush is perfect!

Views on the War

We as civilians have to rely on the media to give us our information. We trust them to give us accurate, unbiased information. We aren't on the ground in Iraq, so we don't personally know what is going on there. Our elected officials also tell us what is going on in Iraq, but it is hard to get good information out of them due to their desire to hang on to power; they tell us what we want to hear, as opposed to the truth.

Depending on how partisan you are, you might think that either we are not hearing enough "good news" coming out of Iraq, or you don't want to hear any good news because you want President Bush to fail in "his" war. This may be an over simplistic view, but it seems like the hard right complain that we don't hear the good news (which the media say they cannot find due to how dangerous it is on the ground) and the hard left give us only the bad and perhaps don't want to find any good coming out of this war. Where does that leave the majority of us in the middle who just want to know what the hell is going on? Because of technology, we have soldiers on the ground, who can update us in real-time on their experiences over there. What I have found though, is that depending on the soldier, some have only positive things to say (you have probably gotten the email forwarded to you, where a soldier emails home to let his family know how he is doing, and that the "media don't tell you the good things that are happening over here") while others post on blogs how miserable they are, and how the Iraqis don't want them there, etc. Whom do we believe?

I ran across this essay posted today on the web by a guy who has done one tour already, and is deploying for another one next April. I also found this blog from a contractor, who is LDS who is back in Iraq for a second time and just loves it over there. He says it has been one of the best experiences of his life. Why the disparity? What causes some people over there to only see the good, and others with such low moral? My brother-in-law has done one tour which lasted a year, and he has to go back for another one next year, which will be 18 months. Obviously, he is not excited. He has a family that he does not want to leave, but of course will since it is his duty to serve. He told me that there is no tangible enemy--there is no one to shoot at! He said bombs just go off every day. All of our men are getting blown up because you can't shoot at a bomb. Moral is very low, and they are all very excited about Rumsfeld retiring. Now, I must note that my brother-in-law is not political at all. He is not a partisan left or right winger, so I trust his explanation on what is going on on the ground. He is a moderate independent who doesn't really care who is in the White House, since no matter who is there is still the commander-in-chief. The bottom line is, I just find it interesting how so many people in the same situation seeing the sames things, actually see them differently. I suspect that partisan politics has something to do with that, but I don't know for sure.

Gingrich and his foul mouth -- and his foul head

Shame on Mr. Gingrich. I was starting to like him and think that he was on his way back to sealing a new contract with America. Like a recovering alcoholic on a lonely Saturday night, I have changed my tune. I have posted multiple times that I like what Keith Olbermann has occassionaly said and this rant is no different. I'm not sure how many things I have to agree with him to actually give him credit, but so far I haven't been able to go that far. Anyways, here is a rant, typical of what Olbermann has become, and I love it.

My favorite quote is the below,

"It is in those groups where you would have found your kindred spirits, Mr. Gingrich.
Those who had no faith in freedom, no faith in this country, and, ultimately, no faith even in the strength of their own ideas, to stand up on their own legs, without having the playing-field tilted entirely to their benefit."

Here is the link ... http://www.crooksandliars.com/2006/11/30/olbermanns-special-comment-on-gingrich-we-fight-for-liberty-by-having-more-liberty-and-not-less/

A Positive Move by Evangelicals

Good article on Mitt winning the Evangelical vote. http://www.ajc.com/metro/content/shared-blogs/ajc/politicalinsider/entries/2006/11/27/mitt_romney_and_whether_a_morm.html

Brace Yourselves Mitt's "Mormonism" Is Getting Personal

Wow...Here we are 2 years before the next presidential election. Mitt Romney hasn't even declared his presidency but yet the "real" attacks against what Mitt is all about are beginning. I have copied an email that maybe some of you have seen. It is patently offensive and I post it only to show the horror of what the opposition is not afraid to do or say about Mitt and his fellow LDS. This is only the beginning, I imagine that the questions will become more difficult, the attacks more personal and the faith of our fathers more questioned. I see this as an opportunity to stand and be heard.

-----Below is the article -----

RunMittRun Progress Report, November 27, 2006

Garments on the Internet:
A Type and Shadow of Things to Come

If any of us had any doubt that someone would stoop so low as to attack Mitt Romney’s candidacy by attacking his religion, events of the last few days should have erased them.

In a matter of days, Andrew Sullivan, a prominent blogger and writer for “Time” magazine, posted a photograph of a man and woman in temple garments, an article highlighting the Mormon Church’s “racist past,” and a link to the ”South Park” episode ridiculing Joseph Smith.

Two things that should give us all pause: 1) Mitt isn’t even a declared candidate yet, and 2) Andrew Sullivan is a conservative who claims to be a fan of Romney on many issues. It’s just that Romney’s religion isn’t one of them.

Sullivan, it turns out, is a fiscal conservative and a social progressive. He accurately points out in his thoughtful article in “The London Times” that Romney is really the only shot “theoconservatives” have of installing a president friendly to their values in 2008. But he then makes clear that most of those theoconservatives are evangelical Christians, who frequently loathe Mormons for the many reasons he has been detailing in his blog the last few days.

Garments on the internet two years before the general election, served up by a supposedly conservative fan of Mitt Romney?
Brace yourselves.

Mitch

P.S. Please forward this email to everyone you know! Please donate financially to our effort to fight the misinformation!

Link to donate: http://runmittrun.org/website/index_contribute.html

Link to website: http://runmittrun.org/

Link to volunteer: http://www.runmittrun.org/volunteer.php

13 Things We Don't Know...

Geesh, from what I understood scientists knew everything about everything. I guess not, here are a mere 13 things that we just don't know or can't explain. Some were way over my head but nevertheless, very interesting. Take a look...

http://space.newscientist.com/article.ns?id=mg18524911.600

Interesting article from other pundits

I think there are a lot of perspectives here. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15917591/

I like what Carter said, "It’s no wonder we’re in denial on Iraq: the reality is unbelievably painful. But the denial will wear off in ways that could re-shape our politics, favoring more change, newer faces, and a political watershed."

We are in total denial I think right now on what we can reasonably expect in Iraq. With Cheney, Rice and the presidential dog going to the Mid East, I commend them for their efforts but I hope a bit of reality soon kicks in.

Also, 3rd party? Hopefully, I think it's about time.

Darfur

African Children Given 30,000 Unused 'Save Darfur' T-Shirts

SAN FRANCISCO—Citing poor U.S. sales, San Francisco-based Me Tees T-shirts announced Tuesday that nearly 30,000 of their cream-colored,...

Muslim-American Speaks Out

Islamic Society of Nevada director Aslam Abdullah wrote an open letter to Al-Qaida criticizing them. A lot of people have been calling on Muslim leaders to speak out against the terrorists--lets just hope that more Muslim leaders actually in the middle-east start doing this more.

One of my favorite parts of his letter is this excerpt:
"Many among us American Muslims have differences with our administration on domestic and foreign issues, just like many other Americans do. But the plurality of opinions does not mean that we deprive ourselves of the civility that God demands from us. America is our home and will always be our home. Its interests are ours, and its people are ours. When you talk of killing Americans, you first have to kill 6 million or so Muslims who will stand for every American's right to live and enjoy the life as commanded by God."

If we can convince more Muslims of this, especially the very poor ones in the middle east who feel like killing westerners is their only option, then we will be far better off in this "war on terror." Convincing them of this is a lot harder when their houses are being destroyed and their family members are being killed by our bombs. Diplomacy at gunpoint can only take us so far. This is obviously a very complicated issue, and it is not going away any time soon. I am glad I am not the one making all the decisions, and I don't envy our leaders who do, but I want the correct ones to be made. I think education is key, and the more education those people have, the less belligerent they will be. Is it any coincidence that the American Muslims are not blowing themselves up? They are educated, and they have everything they need to sustain life and live comfortably. This is something that the poor Muslims elsewhere in the world do not have, and their ignorance is killing themselves and other innocent people. Killing one fanatical leader only leads to another one taking his place.

This is surely a debate that can and will go on for a long time.

A follow up to my Rush Limbaugh post

A little backing to my Rush Limbaugh party being bad for the Republicans in the last election. It seems like many Democrats agreed with my posting on how Rush Limbaugh was bad for the republican party. It just goes to show that the smallest miscalculation can destory momentum on the field of political elections.

http://www.kansascity.com/mld/kansascity/news/15965553.htm

A quote from the Nazi Hermann Goring

I stumbled on this quote from the Nazi war criminal Hermann Goring. His observation on power and leadership are eerily familiar. I am not equating anyone in our government to Nazi's, I only am drawing a similarity of philosophy between the things we do to protect ourselves (i.e. Patriot Act) and all out war on civil rights.

Göring spoke about war and extreme nationalism during the Nuremberg trials in an interview with Gustave Gilbert, a Jewish German-speaking intelligence officer and psychologist who was granted free access by the Allies to all the prisoners held in the Nuremberg jail:
"Naturally the common people don't want war; neither in Russia, nor in England, nor in America, nor in Germany. That is understood. But after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. ...Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is to tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country."