Help Wanted

This posting for an internship at the Bill Clinton Foundation (sometimes commentary isn't needed).

We Can Make a World of Difference

Upon leaving office, President Clinton established the William J. Clinton Foundation with the dual missions of constructing and endowing the Clinton Presidential Center and Park in Little Rock, Arkansas and continuing the work of his presidency to strengthen the capacity of people in the United States and throughout the world to meet the challenges of global interdependence. The Clinton Foundation advances its mission by using President Clinton’s public and private networks to initiate research, dialogue, and action, and is currently focusing its work in four critical areas:

• Health Security
• Economic Empowerment
• Leadership Development and Citizen Service
• Racial, Ethnic and Religious Reconciliation

If you are an undergraduate, graduate or professional student or a recent graduate with your own strong interest in crucial issues of our day, the Clinton Foundation Intern Program offers a unique opportunity for growth, learning and meaningful service. We are looking for people who are dependable, enthusiastic, professional, and intelligent.

Hands-on experience: Interns have the responsibility of interacting directly with staff, volunteers and Foundation stakeholders, in such activities as communications, development, and scheduling. Through firsthand experience you learn how the Clinton Foundation functions on a daily basis, and assist with this process directly.

Joke Time

Uncle Ed sent this to me. I just love jokes like this :).....

The Moles

A mama mole, a papa mole, and a baby mole all live in a little mole hole.

One day the papa mole sticks his head out of the hole, sniffs the air and says,"Yum! I smell maple syrup!"

The mama mole sticks her head out of the hole, sniffs the air and says "Yum! I smell honey!"

The baby mole tries to stick his head out of the hole to sniff the air, but can't because the bigger moles are in the way so he says, "Geez, all I can smell is....MOLASSES"

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Coffee Dilemma

A man and his wife were having an argument about who should brew the coffee each morning.

The wife said, "You should do it, because you get up first, and then we don't have to wait as long to get our coffee".

The husband said, " You are in charge of the cooking around here and you should do it, because that is your job, and I can just wait for my coffee."

Wife replies, "No you should do it, and besides it is in the Bible that the man should do the coffee."

Husband replies, " I can't believe that, show me."

So she fetched the Bible, and opened the New Testament and shows him at the top of several pages, that it indeed says:

"HEBREWS"

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What did the fish say when he swam into a wall?

Dam!

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Two Peanuts went to the Police Station to file a complaint that they were a salted.


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One day there was these three tomatoes walking down the street, a mama tomato, a daddy tomato and a baby tomato. the baby tomato was walking too slow, so the daddy tomato went back, stepped on him and said ketchup!

Shani Davis, A Smile Can Go A Long Way.

It seems that the biggest story coming from the Winter Games in Torin, Italy is the lack of viewers. Well, there are some very good reasons why Americans are choosing to watch alternative programming. The first being that we really do have a choice these days, 200 plus channels of choice. So whatever NBC execs decide to broadcast better be compelling enough to sit through. Sorry to say, but men wearing crush velvet and rhinestones, who float on and off the ice just doesn't cut it.

You also have to fault NBC for not having enough of a build up leading into the games. When ABC had the games they used their Wide World of Sports to introduce us to the leading characters in the events. When Franz Klammer came up on the hill we already knew who he was and were ready to root for him. These insipid human interest stories designed to get me to have some type of emotional response to the athletes should be delegated to a segment on Oprah not cluttering up your prime time coverage. Not to mention that it helps to get the story right, many Chicagoans were surprised to find out that Hyde Park and Evanston are in the ghetto. Believe me, if Hyde Park was part of the ghetto the Rev. Jessie Jackson wouldn't be living there.

Does anyone at NBC realize there is a 5 hour delay? How about editing some of the events so we can get straight to the action! Do I really need to see a hockey match between Latvia and Kazakhstan? I barely need to know the score, yet alone seeing every power play. But I have to admit I am falling in love with Curling, what a fun sport. Almost makes me want to go to Minnesota just to have a beer with those guys.

For the next games lets hope that the network and corporate sponsors put their money on the right horse and not one that just looks like a horse. The Bode Miller hype has been a complete disaster! No matter how hard you try, you can't get away from the Nike commercials. Though you have to smile when you hear him say "...You can either learn from me or not learn from me." Really? I think we all learned that it's not the best training practice to close the bars the night before your competition. And 'Be a Bodeist', that's on the fringe of being offensive. Let's just hope the Muslim radicals don't see that commercial, they will be rioting for the next month and I might just join them.

And finally, someone at NBC needs to learn that a bitter rivalry is not necessarily good TV. The Chad Hedrick - Shani Davis drama is more disturbing than interesting and the media just wants to fuel the fires. What's not being understood is that both men came to the games wanting to make history. Hedrick wanted to be the first speed skater to win five medals in one games since Eric Hieden did it in 1980, and Davis wanted to become the first black man to win a gold medal ever at the Winter Games. Lofty ambitions are good for anyone to aspire and inspire. But Hedrick doesn't comprehend that his ambitions are his ambitions and it's not right for someone to have to sacrifice reaching their goals just for his interests. The fact of the matter is that Davis trained for years for this opportunity, the relay race was the day before 1000 meter event, the best chance for Davis to medal in these games. Why should anyone risk fatigue or potential injury when they are so close to reaching the pinnacle of their career? Don't go saying "There is no I in Team", heard it all before. Speed skating has never been a team event. In fact, this relay race is a relatively new event. What Shani Davis needs is a good PR man to change the angry way he is handling the controversy. He is making Leon look like the most sensitive man in America since Alan Alda.

It's Morning in America Mr. Gumbel!

You don't hear very much from Bryant Gumbel since his exile (banishment) from morning television. But apparently at least one person viewed his Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel on HBO, where Gumbel's remarks on the Winter Olympics is quoted as saying:

"...try not to be incredulous when someone attempts to link these games to those of the ancient Greeks who never heard of skating or skiing. So try not to laugh when someone says these are the world's greatest athletes, despite a paucity of blacks that makes the Winter Games look like a GOP convention."

Even more surprising than Gumbel’s correct usage of the word "paucity", is his comparison of the "white" winter games to a GOP Convention. It seems that Bryant has been out of "real news" reporting a bit too long. While you can make the case that "paucity of blacks" exists among the athletes at the Winter Games, you would be hard press to make that argument in the big tent called the Republican Party. Three of the highest profile election races this year features African Americans who are all Republicans. Early polls shows Lynn Swan and Ken Blackwell leading in their race to be become Governors of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and Michael Steele is making a strong case for victory in his U.S. Senate race in Maryland. What is even more amazing is that these men are running as conservatives in the tradition of Ronald Reagan!

Let’s look at what has happened since Bryant Gumbel stopped giving Americans their first look at the daily news. The 2004 Presidential Elections showed a 4% evaporation of the nationwide black support of Democratic candidate John Kerry. In the state of Ohio, George Bush won 17% of the African American vote thanks in large part to Ken Blackwell. A recent AP-AOL Black Voices poll showed Condoleezza Rice and Collin Powell finishing right behind Jessie Jackson as the "most important" black leader in America today. These are not just "token" voices; In addition to Powell and Rice, President Bush has brought to his administration J.C. Watts, Rod Paige, Claude Allen and Michael Powell. At the same time we have seen the emergence of outspoken social commentators like Armstrong Williams, Joseph C. Phillips, Walter Williams, Thomas Sowell and TV's Good Times star Jimmy "JJ" Walker.

Yes Mr. Gumbel, whether you want to admit it or not, as the average African-American combats the daily threats to their community caused by a poor educational system, crime and moral decadence, they turn more and more to conservatism to provide much needed solutions.

This is not lost on the Democratic Party leadership, which explains why Michael Steele is pelted with Oreo cookies at every rally and Hillary Clinton's "plantation" remark to a black audience in Harlem. But if claims of "Uncle Tom-ism" and race-baiting are the only answers the Democratic Party has to solve the problems facing African-Americans then they will continue to lose elections in November.

News from the H'Wood

Just when you thought Hollywood couldn't get loonier, along comes this story reported on http://www.imdb.com/news/wenn/2006-02-16/.


Hilton To Play Mother Teresa?

Socialite Paris Hilton has reportedly been asked to play celebrated humanitarian Mother Teresa in a movie biopic. Indian director T. Rajeevnath has contacted the hotel heiress about taking the lead role in his new film, which will chronicle the late nun's life. He tells MTV.co.uk, "My agents in California have contacted Paris Hilton. Although there are several actresses willing to play the role of Mother Teresa, the most widely respected and loved person, the history of the actress who is finally chosen for the role would have to be analyzed thoroughly before she is chosen."

The Media and the Story They Want To Tell

The press, out of tradition, has always taken great joy in tearing down larger than life characters and great institutions of society. However, over the past decade the mainstream media has gotten incredibly lazy. Rather than researching and reporting the facts of the story, they seem to take their cue directly from the talking points of the mouth piece of the left wing political machine. Two stories of the day illustrate this perfectly; Dick Cheney's hunting accident and the British Soldiers apparent beating of Iraqi protestors.

Despite the Texas Parks and Wildlife Department report, finding no alcohol at the scene and no obvious intent, meaning they ruled it an accident. And despite witness accounts that describe the accident as an error in hunters' judgment, the liberal left immediately(Paul Begala and Joshua Michan Marshall) began to cast suspicion on Cheney and the White House because of an 18 hour delay in the announcement of the accident. Naturally, the media picked up on this, prompting the White House Press Corps to ask no less than 25 questions and follow-ups on the subject. Apparently Iraq, Iran, Energy Policy, unemployment numbers, the upcoming Katrina Report and the most severe winter storm in years, all take a back seat to the hunting accident and possible conspiracy. Hells bells, even Helen Thomas didn't get a chance to do her daily diatribe on how President Bush lied about weapons of mass destruction in Iraq. One has to ask what was the press hunting for after the same question was asked over and over? Even after White House Spokesperson, Scott Mclellan reasonably explained that the immediate focus and concern was getting Mr. Whittington the medical attention he obviously needed, the pursuit of the cover up continued. If the press thinks there was some type of conspiracy here they should go out and get the story. The truth is that there is no conspiracy. Cheney and Whittington, both, had valid hunting licenses and was up to date on hunting fees. The Vice President was given a warning because he failed to have a $7 stamp affixed to the license, a new requirement (within the last five months) in the state of Texas. Instead, it's so much easier to speculate on unfounded suspicions and premature allegations. Lazy, lazy, lazy.

The second instance of the slothful media is the overly repeated broadcast of the video apparently showing British soldiers beating Iraqi protestors. While the video appears to be brutal, the press glosses over the fact that the video begins at the start of the beating, and offered no account of what occurred before British soldiers took it out on the protestors. From viewing the video on the news networks, it's obvious to me that there was at least 4 edits on the tape. No one mentions how much time has passed in between the cuts. Why not? And no one knows when the incident actually occurred (it was sometime in 2004). You would think that any respected journalist would want to know this. Could it be that the mainstream media doesn't want the facts to get in the way of the story they want to tell?

Grammy Watchers...

At 2:54 am on Sunday morning the Grammy Awards presented the last prize of the year when the Best American Folk Music with String Orchestration by a Female Solo Clogger Artist Named Martha was presented to Barbra Lotton for her work on Clog-In: 10 Cents a Dance. This was the second award of the ceremony presented to Ms. Lotton, she also won for Best Album Cover Featuring the Seduction of a Minor, beating out Grammy favorites R. Kelly and Michael Jackson.


Ms. Lotton accepted her awards in a stunning wet tee shirt designed by Armani, inspiring co-presenters Courtney Love and Dennis Rodman to urinate on each other.

Alternative Fuels Links

You may notice on the navigation bar there are now links so you can gather information on alternative fuels. My goal here that people get information they need to apply pressure to those policy makers to make a change in our energy policy strategy. Strategy is the correct word because we need to tie the energy policy to winning the War on Terror. Day after day this region's leadership continues to demonstrate their unreasonableness. And day after day it becomes all the more clear that now is the time to eliminate the world-wide dependence on their oil.

Moving on up.....

Not many people can take being called a "honkey" or a "cracker" but Tom Willis, George Jefferson's neighbor, took it all with a smile.

Franklin Cover
1928-2006

You're mad? Tell Me Something I Don't Know

A few months ago Muslims ran rampant in the streets of Paris, now it's world wide protests over editorial cartoons that appeared in a Danish newspaper. Story after story the press reports on how angry the Muslims are. All I can say is that I don't care anymore. It seems that the Muslims have been mad about someone or something my entire life. After 40 plus years of seeing these people ticked off I think it's about time someone tell these people that if you are constantly angry it looses it impact. I am no longer surprised to see flag burnings. In fact, I'm kind of tickled to see the Danish flag in flames along with the American and Israeli flags.

Now I know there those that are going to tell me that it's not fair to stereotype all Muslims, not all Muslims riot and burn cars. Fair enough and probably true, but that's real the problem. Where are the moderate Muslims that will show me a balance view of what it means to be a Muslim? Don't they see their religion being hijacked, or are they just scared to have a target put on their head by thugs posing as spiritual leaders? The day that I will be shocked is the day I hear the voices of Muslims angered at Muslims for allowing what the radicals did to their religion. Until then I'm not listening any more.

Sit Down President Carter!

When former President Jimmy Carter left the White House he was a disgraced man, a failure, the nightly butt of Carson's monologues. After today's remarks at Mrs. King's funeral, 25 years later, I have come to the conclusion that the only thing that has changed is that Johnny Carson is now dead.

Who can forget the "Misery Index" of the Carter economy, the idiotic Olympic Boycott and the disastrous foreign policy decision that allowed Ayatollah Khomieni to hold America hostage? No one can, except those at the New York Times, CNN and today's Democratic Party. For decades the far left has made it their mission to rehabilitate Carter's image. This is the elder statesman that brought peace to Haiti and stopped North Korea from being a nuclear power. Let's give him the Nobel Peace Prize and maybe the world will buy into his advice on national security matters given at a funeral. It's got to be a joke! After all, here is a man whose solution to airplane hijackings was to send a secret letter to Kaddahfi telling him to stop or else! Then brags about its success in a 1991 speech to the Chicago Economic Club. That's three years after Pan-Am Flight 103 exploded over Scotland! Who was responsible for that? You guessed it Kaddahfi.

It was just last week President Carter advocated to continue giving the Hamas run Palestinian Government financial aid. This opinion based on Hamas leadership telling Carter they want a peaceful administration. Carter noted, Hamas has adhered to a cease fire, which "indicates what they may do in the future..... Hamas is highly disciplined and capable of keeping any promise of nonviolent it might make." Really? Did it ever occurred to Carter to demand that they promise to renounce their party platform calling for the destruction of Israel?

Lets not forget last year's Venezuelan re-call election of Hugo Chavez. The European Union determined that the election was so rigged and the observers rules were so absurd, that they declined to send representatives in the "interest of honesty". Reports of voter intimidation was so wide spread that opposition parties refused to participate in the elections. Yet this did nothing to stop Carter from monitoring and certifying Chavez's victory. Carter didn't even feel the need to investigate the fact that independent organizations reported a 40 point swing between the vote tabulation and exit poll data. Don't blame Jimmy, he probably had to run off to give another speech in Europe where he calls President Bush and Tony Blair liars.

This brings us to Coretta Scott King's funeral. Carter thought it appropriate to politicized the event and like so many other times in the past he was proven to be foolish and wrong.

Congratulations to the Squeelers

The Payoff?

No Picture Is Worth A Thousand Words......

I've been reading CNN's coverage of the Mohammed cartoon scandal in Europe. At the end of the article there is the following note:

"CNN has chosen not to show the cartoons out of respect to Islam."

I don't remember CNN having the same editorial concerns when they were reporting on the New York gallery exhibition of the Crucifix in a jar of urine.

Super Bowl Overload PSA

If you just can't bear one more minute of the Super Bowl hype and the commercials aren't enough to get you through watching the game, keep in mind of the following TV counter programming:

In what could be the biggest reunion since New Edition, Joey Buttafuco and Amy Fisher will participate in the ceremonial coin toss at Lingerie Bowl III, pitting the Los Angeles Temptation against the New York Euphoria. Lets hope Amy doesn't go for heads again!

And the reason why TIVO was invented....On Bravo, James Lipton will interview Liza Minnelli in a special 2 hour live broadcast on Inside the Actors Studio. The network will be using a 5 second delay to ease fears of any possible wardrobe malfunctions. There really is a God!

Frailty: Thy Name is Addict

Keeping America competitive requires affordable energy. And here we have a serious problem: America is addicted to oil, which is often imported from unstable parts of the world. The best way to break this addiction is through technology. - Pres. Bush, State of the Union -2006

Yes, America is addicted to oil, and now is the time to take seriously President Bush's call to "move beyond a petroleum-based economy and make our dependence on Middle Eastern oil a thing of the past." Unless the American people demand that their government officials, power companies and auto industry join the President in this agenda, then we, as a society, are nothing more than 300 hundred million enablers! If we fail to act we can consider ourselves to be no better than the corner thug pushing drugs at the neighborhood crack house.

Are Americans ready for a serious energy policy? You bet. Today we import 10 million barrels of oil per day. Of this, 2.2 million barrels day of this comes directly from the Middle East. At today's prices that's more than 140 million dollars every day leaving our economy. Over the course of the year that's nearly $5 billion. Imagine the effects of taking $140 million a day and putting it back into American's pockets. Mind you, this is just Middle East oil and not including monies going into the Venezuelan, Mexican and Canadian economies.

How to get started. The Democrats were quick to criticize President Bush because he failed to include conservationism as a means to lower our dependence on foreign fuels. Well, this country has been obsessed with conservation for over 30 years now. In fact, the use of reusable fuels have increase more than 10% each year since 1999 and has had no effect on reducing the amount of foreign fuel we consume on a daily basis. Conservation efforts, though they mean well, has not work, nor will they ever work. The only way to get the public to reduce foriegn fuel consumption is to get it to accept alternative fuels. To help in this effort Gov. George Pataki of New York has proposed the elimination of state taxes on homegrown alternative fuels such as ethanol and biomast. In addition, he wants to initiate a grant program to make it easier for owners of gas stations to install ethanol pumps. Great steps! Make alternative energies cheaper and make it available. Trust me this will play well in Iowa, how does President Pataki sound to you?

If there is a positive in the failing of the American automobile industry is the fact that Ford, General Motors and Dalhmer-Chrysler all admit radical changes are needed to be more competitive. Now is the time that to convince the car makers to change their focus from being competitive to changing the entire industry. Trying to be competitive results in $5 billion in loses per year! Look what happens in the Information Technology industry, sure Asians can make the silicon chip cheaper, but who cares? "We'll make a better chip that will make that one obsolete." The lesson - Don't compete with them, make them have to change to meet your new standards. Detroit needs to adopt this philosophy. What better standard would there be than creating alternative powered vehicles.

Perhaps the most important factor is for President Bush to get the heart and soul of the American people to follow his lead. The economic value of new policies are obvious and the "Buy American" slogan always has high mpg, but think what could happen if the President links the new policies as another tool to win the War on Terror. You may call it a shameless use of propaganda, but what would be a better way to put pressure on the Arab run OPEC cartel. The longer these countries protect terrorists, like Bin-Laden and Al-Zawahari, the more we will be resolved to develop alternative fuels. The Mullahs in Iran wants the western world to leave them alone, lets create an environment where we can help them out.

Social Security Reforms and Outrage!

It's hard to take seriously anything that is said during State of Union Addresses. After all it wasn't that long ago that President Clinton proclaimed that "....The era of big government is over." No one believed it when it was said, it was even viewed as silliness. Again last evening the Democratic side of the aisle attempted to be silly when they stood and cheered that no progress was made on Social Security reform. This moment was lost on me! In fact it's absolutely insulting to think that our representatives would take such a serious issue, one could even say crisis, so lightly. It's one thing not to agree with the President's reform proposals, it's another stop debate because your party is lacking the talent to come up with alternative solutions! The President deserves credit for keeping this issue at the forefront and was 100 % correct last night when he said that the problem was not going to go away.