Mark,

Hey long time. Sorry, my travel schedule has been a bear. Lots going on.

Let’s go back a ways:

How good was Laura Bush’s roast of Dubya? I mean, yeah it was set up and she had good writers, but the jokes were funny, even if somewhat obvious. Her delivery was pretty good for a phlegmatic personality. And now we got some in the Christian Coalition complaining about some of the jokes. “Desperate Housewives?” Give me a break. It was funny. I am a Christian, and I thought she was funny. If you can’t poke fun at yourself, your spouse, your life, what can you do? Were these folks shocked by this beautiful, quiet woman talking up “Desperate Housewives?” And just imagine, Laura and George have children. Oh, my! (Hope no children are reading this).

** “It's always very interesting to see how the ranch air invigorates people when they come down from Washington. Recently, when Vice President Cheney was down, he got up early one morning, he put on his hiking boots, and he went on a brisk, 20- to 30-foot walk.” ** What a great line!

** “But George and I are complete opposites — I'm quiet, he's talkative, I'm introverted, he's extroverted, I can pronounce nuclear.” ** Another hammer. Come on folks get over it and smile and laugh. It won’t hurt, even if you are a Christian.

How bad was Sherwood? Don, you’ve been baaa..aaaad!!! What is up with that? A backrub to a 29 year old, midweek? That ain’t no can of tuna I smell-maybe its Bubba Gump shrimp. Perhaps that was all it was, but it sounds like it could be more and it is lining up as one of those “he said-she said” deals. What does that mean? Those that like him will believe him and those that don’t will believe her. He’ll lose some votes, but folks will pick the lesser of two evils, and if folk vote with their pocket books, expect him to get re-elected. But what a dummy. I’m not a huge fan of his, didn’t vote for him, and any respect I had is now gone. He gets what he deserves.

I do find it funny that our buddy Kevin wants to keep this story alive, while reminding us that Clinton’s exploits were between him and Hillary and his family, while bashing every media outlet that talked about Clinton’s affair, which was actually proven to be true. Sherwood’s might be true as well and time will tell. But what gives Kev? Oh wait. Sherwood is a Republican. Enough said.

Life goes on. I recently turned 40. Did it hurt? No. My girlfriend took me to Villa Virella out in Blakeslee. Wow, what a place. Her whole family was there and we had a blast. Folks, you gotta get there. I guess the age thing hasn’t bothered me, but where I really see it the most in my kids. My oldest will be 10, double digits. I remember when she was a baby. Gosh, time flies. Right, Mark? Anyway Tam, I’ll never forget it. You are very special to me and have added so much to my life. Thank-you with all my heart.

How about them Phillies? Not yet. How about them Red Sox? Not yet, Sue. It is still way too early. Although, no doubt I will lose another lunch bet with you this year.

Save us:

And once again, our illustrious political leaders are going to save us from ourselves. Hey you just can’t go and exercise your free speech and burn a flag. But we need an amendment? Say what?

** The proposed one-line amendment to the Constitution reads, "The Congress shall have power to prohibit the physical desecration of the flag of the United States." **

Now I am no supporter of flag burning. I think it is wrong. But we do not need an amendment, especially one as completely vague as this one liner. I wonder, what this law actually means. “The power to prohibit…” How? When? Who? What? Where? Why? ** “If the flag needs protection at all, it needs protection from members of Congress who value the symbol more than the freedoms that the flag represents." said Rep. Jerrold Nadler, D-N.Y., whose district includes the site of the former World Trade Center.

Well said. And isn’t this what it means to be an American?

Heavy weight fight:

In this corner, the Senator form Illinois, Dick Durban. And in this corner, the Senator from Mississippi, Trent Lott.

Lott: "I want to say this about my state: When Strom Thurmond ran for president, we voted for him. We're proud of it. And if the rest of the country had followed our lead, we wouldn't have had all these problems over all these years, either," Lott said at last week's party.

What folks were in an uproar about were the words “all these problems.” These words were explained nine million different ways-race riots, segregation, affirmative action, and on and on, and it is true that there have been many racial problems in this country over the years.

** Earlier Monday, Lott issued a statement, saying, "My comments were not an endorsement of his positions of over 50 years ago, but of the man and his life."

Issuing one of the harshest rebukes Lott has received to date, even from Democrats, Gore said Monday in an interview on CNN's "Inside Politics" that Lott should apologize for his comments or face censure by the Senate.

Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle, D-South Dakota, said Monday he believes Lott did not intend for his comments to be interpreted as racist. "There are a lot of times when he and I go to the mike and would like to say things we meant to say differently, and I'm sure this is one of those cases for him as well," Daschle said.

Gore offered no criticism of Thurmond, saying the retiring senator has since "repudiated" those views. But he said Lott's remarks were "divisive" and fit the "definition of a racist comment."

During the campaign, he (Thurmond) said, "All the laws of Washington and all the bayonets of the Army cannot force the Negro into our homes, our schools, our churches." Thurmond's party (Dixie Party) ran under a platform that declared in part, "We stand for the segregation of the races and the racial integrity of each race." **

Amazing that Gore finds no fault with Thurmond’s comments, which by the way, were supported by his segregationalist father, who once proposed an amendment to the Civil Rights Amendment that would still allow for segregated schools. Nor does Gore find fault with the many, many racist comments of Senator Byrd, one time KKK member. These were “repudiated”-Lott’s were “divisive.”

DURBIN: If I read this to you and didn't tell you that it was an FBI agent describing what Americans had done to prisoners in their control, you would most certainly believe this must have happened by Nazis, Soviets in their gulags, or some mad regime, Pol Pot or others that had no concern for human beings. Sadly, that's not the case. This was the action of Americans in the treatment of their own prisoners.

Let’s see, six million dead at the hands of the Nazi’s, twelve to twenty million dead at the hands of the Soviets, and two to four million dead at the hands of Pol Pot. Gitmo, none dead, Rap music (and I might agree that this is inhumane), no AC or lots of AC. Yep, I can see the similarities from a mile away.

And it is amazing that somehow, with the support from folks like Kevin, Gitmo has become Abu Ghraib. What happened there by a few was way wrong and action was needed. But after 29 hearings, 1700 interviews, and 16000 documents reviewed, it seems that Gitmo is being run well. These folks are prisoners of war. They will be treated with respect and returned when the war is over, as has been the case throughout history (at least for the US part). They will be subject to questioning, sleep depravation, loud music, hot and cold, and information will be gathered. But they will get to keep their heads, and no absolutely shocking videos will be made of them screaming in pain and terror as their heads are cut from their bodies for their families to see.

Compare the US treatment of prisoners with the rest of the world throughout history. Germany-gas chambers. Russia-forced marches to Siberia and death by the tens of thousands. Cambodia and Vietnam-we still have men missing. Even during our own civil war, when times were hard and winters worse, prisoners were often exchanged during the war, let alone after.

So Durbin gets a pass. He almost apologizes. There is a difference in being sorry for your words, like Lott was, and for being sorry that you upset other people, like Durbin. Durbin’s comparison was way out of bounds.

The winner-Durbin, by a media mile.

Lastly, WILK’s hypocrisy morning machine, other wise known as hmm. Nancy Lynn is bashing Rush and Fox and others for talking about Durban over and over, while she and Kevin have been talking about Gitmo and bashing Bush for much, much longer. Nancy Lynn. Has a nice ring to it, heyna?

Keep the faith.
Private Sector Dude.