By essentially saying “If you didn’t bleed in Iraq, don’t bid.” Before you go crying about this being all about payoffs and cronyism, note that

1. Iraqis are eligible for reconstruction contracts; and
2. It’s not like there isn’t ample evidence that France, Russia, and Germany were violating the “Oil for Food” program before the war, including selling arms to Iraq as recently as 2002.

BTW – I’ve been digging on Australian wines lately. Taste like French, ‘cept less jingoism and more dingo-ism. AND the labels are all in English.

1. Campaign Finance Reform: Remember back when he signed McCain-Finegold and all the talking heads said “Hey, this’ll get overturned in the courts”? Well, GWB was an idiot – the SCOTUS upheld this monstrosity. I’m losing much sleep over the ban on soft money – what I do think is a travesty is that they upheld the limitation on non-campaign sponsored issue ads within 60 days of an election. So, say I wanted to take cash out of my savings, go over to Iowa and buy an ad to say “Hey, Cornholios – Joe Lieberman has got the right idea on foreign policy, and he’s a great dancer. Sponsored by the Beer Drinkers for America and Lieberman”, well Justice O’Connor says that that’s not protected speech.

Massive anti-terrorism rally in Iraq yesterday. Featuring slogans like “NO NO to terrorism, YES YES for peace” and people telling Al-Arabiyah network reporters “For once, speak the truth”.

Aziz Al-Yassiri secretary of the Iraqi Democratic Trend described the daily attacks in Iraq as acts of terrorism and that any attempt to legitimize or justify these acts as ‘resistance’ are ridiculous.
…

Protestors carried signs and banners that said ‘No to terrorism’, ‘Yes for peace’, ‘Iraqis stand united against terror and violence’, ‘Thanks to CPA soldiers’, ‘We thank the coalition for our FREEDOM’.

We all have images we associate with Norman Rockwell that tend to evoke a Currier and Ives or Saturday Evening Post quiet American family image. I saw a PBS special on Rockwell a couple Christmases ago and was enthralled with some of his lesser know civil rights paintings. I asked for a print of Southern Justice for my birthday and the next Christmas, but it was hard to find even a mention of it in most places. It looks like the Rockwell copyright holders have loosened the reigns a bit on Rockwell’s image and are starting to authorize his darker paintings for release. Here’s a nice article about Rockwell on a Finnish site.

It has been said that Norman Rockwell was a conservative with a small ‘c’ in his love for small-town and rural America, but liberal with a capital ‘L’ when it came to the crunch. Whenever he felt the cause was right, he was ready to fight for it. World War II had inspired Rockwell to paint with a purpose: the civil rights movement, astronauts, the Peace Corps, and poverty programs. This phase of artistic activism produced some of Rockwell’s finest works. “Look” magazine published two of his most famous civil-rights pictures.

This site features summaries/reviews and pictures of book covers of the Choose Your Own Adventure books. At one time I had collected over 20 consecutive episodes starting at #1. I wonder where those books are now…

Then came “Look three.” This “Look” I liked. I liked it A LOT. This was the look that came right after she said the simple words, “My parents are going away for the weekened with the rest of the family.” Oh, really?

The whole story can be found here.

Cynthia’s favorite church has a review for “Return of the King”.

Three hours into the movie, after patiently waiting for a 300-foot Jesus to descend from the clouds and begin dismembering and Kung-Fu kicking the living hell out of unsaved people, the shocking truth that the devout audience had been hoodwinked into watching pagan, Christ-hating propaganda was finally revealed.

If you work retail, I’m so sorry. If you don’t, remind yourself how lucky you are by reading this list of book store stories by a Barnes&Noble employee.

I finished my review of The Passion of the Christ over at WW(Worth Watching – An Alamo Drafthouse Fansite).

I know Tom Jones has some fans on the porch. Don’t much care for him, myself, but thought you guys would want to know about this.