Something Cool...

Mendelssohn, Solti and an exceptional violinist...

On Jimmy Carter...

This article in the Nation summarizes the case well. They should leave Carter alone. He is a good man who simply wants peace. As he puts it:

"If I have had one burning desire in my heart and mind for the last thirty years, I would put peace for Israel at the top of the list".

Carter's ideas deserve to be discussed and debated, not vilified and targeted.

Der Geburtstag von Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Ja, in Wien.

Old, ugly and obnoxious

Apparently, Joe Lieberman does not want to leave the democratic party. Why not? Please Mr. Lieberman, get out of the democratic party. We dont like you. You are old, ugly, and obnoxious.

I think it will be good if Lieberman left the democratic party and joined the republican party. It may in fact be better for the democrats if they lose the senate majority. Better in the minority without Lieberman than in the majority with Lieberman.

Franz Liszt Hall. University of Vienna.

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Amazing.

And, of course, Mozart is always cool.

Will he be the first US president to win an Oscar?

Or will he simply be the first winner of the US presidential elections whose victory was stolen to win an Oscar?

And one more...

A very dramatic one.

Various

Here is something truly inspired.

And here is something truly brilliant.

And here is something real powerful.

Elected President

Funny or tragic?. Will our congressmen and senators finally do their job? Please listen to this man.

An incompetent ex-mayor who wants to be president

Rudy Giuliani.

Dick Cheney’s Honor

I have been too busy and did not have much time to post. It should get better by this weekend. In the mean time, here is an excellent post at Firedoglake.

Crimes

Dispeakable crimes. Shocking and unbelievable.

Even Blair is Abandoning Bush, McCain and Giuliani

The announcement of Blair that he will be withdrawing 1600 troops from Iraq is stunning. It shows that one of the originals liars (Tony Blair) that started that disastrous war is breaking up from Bush, McCain, Giuliani and the rest of the desperate republican warmongers.

Of course, the official position from the white house was that the withdrawal of British troops reflects "progress". I am wondering how stupid does Karl Rove, Cheney and the rest think that the American people are? I have news for them. They are much much smarter than George W. and they can see the obvious. Bush sends more troops to Iraq, but Blair withdraws his troops. If there is real progress in the south and british troops can really leave, then they should go to Baghdad to help the American troops instead of leaving. Simple, basic observations. Of course, the obvious reality is that the British are simply abandoning Bush and Cheney at this time and they want out. And they are not the only ones. Dennmark just announced that they will withdraw all their troops from Iraq by the end of August.

Of course, Bush can count still on the support of strong allies like El Salvador (380 troops), Bulgaria (150), Romania, and even the country of Georgia. He still runs the "coalition of the willing". Except that the willing one by one are not willing any longer. Bush and Cheney are responsible for this catastrophy, but the delusional warmongers candidates for president that still want the continuation of this bizzare war (i.e. Giuliani and McCain) are even worse.

1909

Well, as you may already know, I am a fan of classic music. And, in fact, I am a big fan of the romantic period. I like to listen to classic music when I work out. Yesterday, I was working out listening to the 7 th symphony of this composer. I am sure you recognize him. Right? He is one of the most ingenius classic composers of all times. My favorite pieces of his are the 1st, 3rd, and 7th symphonies...

Still did not recognize him? Here are some tips:
1. The year this picture was taken was 1909.
2. He was Jewish but converted to christianity, because under the law of his country those days he could not get a prestigious position (director of a very famous opera) if he were jewish. Apparently there was big-time antisemitism then in his country.
3. He attended a University where my favorite composer of all times (Anton Bruckner) was lecturing.
4. His was eventually married to a very sexy woman who, unfortunately for him, became famous for her affairs. She was actually 20 years younger than him.

Still did not recognize him? Hmmm..Thats an easy one. If you dont, you probably dont know much about classic music....

A pathological liar

Reading this diary in Daily Kos reminded me what a pathological liar Lieberman is. The extent of his lies during the 2006 campaign to be re-elected were so outrageous that he would have been fired from any job other than his elected seat.

Think about it. Would you want a pathological liar working for you? Would you trust him to run your business? Your finances? Well, congratulations to the politically illiterate democratic voters in Connecticut who voted for this pathetic figure. I am talking about the 30% of the democrats there that voted for him, along with the ignorant republicans in that state. They should be all ashamed for bringing back one for the worst liars in the history of the US senate.

Italy Indicts Americans

This is an extremely important development that the US media chose to essentially ignore. The fact that Italian courts ordered 26 Americans to stand trial in connection with possibly illegal activities in europe, while they were apparenly working under the "frame" established by the Bush administration says a lot.

Of course, it is highly unlikely that the 26 will be extradited to Italy for their trial. But the fact that european allies have started to indict Americans that may have violated international laws under the direction of the Bush administration is a stunning development. I am waiting to see when they will indict Rusmfeld. It may be interesting to see him traveling to the Hague.

Madonna wants to be like Gandhi

Yep. Well, I think that she is much cooler than Gandhi.

Back

I cant believe I made it back through this winter storm, but I did. I was in Washington and early this morning I noticed online that my afternoon flight back was cancelled due to the winter-storm. And so were all afternoon flights. After I realized that, I decided to leave my meeting and just go to the airport and try to get to an early morning flight. I caught the only flight back to Chicago that was not cancelled. I was able to get in easy, because nobody was going to the airport assuming that all flights are cancelled. The flight was almost empty with a lot of space. All of us that were there thought that it will be cancelled the last moment, but it did not. Hard to believe.

Landing in a very white Chicago airport with snow all over was interesting. Chicago looks like the capital of hell with all that snow today, but somehow I was able to make it back....Pfew...

An Ugly Man

This ugly (inside and outside) guy is trying to interfere in the American Presidential elections. I am talking about the insane John Howard, who, unfortunately, is the prime minister of Australia. This nauseating figure made a remarkable statement. He said that the terrorists and Al-Qaeda will "be praying as many times as possible for a victory for not only Obama but also for the Democrats".

After this, it is now obvious that John Howard is a lunatic that is trying to interfere in the politics of our country and he is indirectly threatening the American voters not to vote for Obama or other democrats. His approach is fascist-like and reflects his desperation, as it is likely that he will lose the elections in Australia later in the year. I have a few of Aussie friends and when I talk to them sometimes about politics, it is obvious that they are all embarassed having that lunatic as their prime minister. Well, he does not have the right to interfere in that way in our country, with our candidates. He is not American.

And the Obama camp responded appropriately: "If Prime Minister Howard truly believes what he says, perhaps his country should find its way to contribute more than just 1,400 troops so some American troops can come home," [Obama spokesman Robert Gibbs] said. "It's easy to talk tough when it's not your country or your troops making the sacrifices."

Educated Voters

....that elect presidents. Whom do you think these people voted for?


The link was first seen in Jill's blog.

Barack Obama For President

I think I finally made up my mind and I will support Barack Obama for president. Why? For a few reasons:

1. He is a fresh voice in Washington and he is, most definitely, an outsider.
2. He does not seem to be as bound and controlled by corporate interests as some other democratic candidates (i.e. Hillary).
3. He has a good vision about a United Country.
4. He is liberal enough for me.
5. He has been consistently against the Iraq war.
6. He is the democratic candidate with the best chance to win the general elections.
7. He does not have experience, and that is a good thing. JFK did not have experience either.

Today he will be making his anouncement that can be seen live here.

I have to say that I am still not completely over the fact that Obama campaigned for Lieberman in the democratic primaries. That was a very negative thing for me. However, despite that, Obama has been consistently opposing the war. Also, I really like the fact that most Hollywood actors support Obama now and raise money for him. I really like the leftist Hollywood actors and their leftist positions, and I trust their "left-wing" instincts. The fact that most of them are endorsing Obama is another reassurance that Obama is principled.

Remarkable...

diary in Daily Kos. This guy is not afraid and he speaks out.

Certified Lunatic Tax?

I think that Lieberman is out of his mind!! He now wants to tax the American people to pay for neoconservative wars and the incompetence of the Bush administration.

It appears, more and more, that Lieberman and the rest of the gang of 6 are degenerating to a bunch of certified lunatics. Not only have they started a war for no reason (that resulted in an obvious catastrophy), not only do they want to continue and maybe expand such wars (see Iran), but they also want to tax the American people and make them pay for their lies and incompetence!

I think that such tax would be good if it is specifically applied to all members of the senate and house that voted for the Iraq war and want to continue such an insanity. But, Mr. Lieberman, please leave the rest of the country alone. We pay enough taxes as it is.

Wow

Why I do NOT support John Edwards

Watching Meet The Press today helped me finalize my decision NOT to support John Edwards or vote for him in the primaries. I have to say that a couple of months ago I thought that he could be the best nominee, but I have changed my mind completely.

So why would n't I support him? Simply because I dont believe that he is sincere and I certainly dont trust him. I always felt uncomfortable with him and now I feel more than ever. He is most certainly an exceptionally smart man and an excellent speaker. But I really dont believe him when he says that he realized that he made an error voting for the Iraq war in 2002. His argument that he made a mistake and he wants to correct it now does not work with me. Why?

Because of the list below:
Akaka (D-HI)
Bingaman (D-NM)
Boxer (D-CA)
Byrd (D-WV)
Chafee (R-RI)
Conrad (D-ND)
Corzine (D-NJ)
Dayton (D-MN)
Durbin (D-IL)
Feingold (D-WI)
Graham (D-FL)
Inouye (D-HI)
Jeffords (I-VT)
Kennedy (D-MA)
Leahy (D-VT)
Levin (D-MI)
Mikulski (D-MD)
Murray (D-WA)
Reed (D-RI)
Sarbanes (D-MD)
Stabenow (D-MI)
Wellstone (D-MN)
Wyden (D-OR)

These were all the senators who voted against the joint resolution on 10/11/2002. There were 22 democrats and one republican (Chaffee). Were these people smarter than Edwards (and also Clinton, Kerry and others who voted for the war then)? Or were they simply more honest?
To me the answer is easy. They were more honest. It was very obvious to me then that the whole thing was a hoax and that the Bush-Cheney duo was looking for an excuse to start a war in Iraq. The whole world could see it. Thats why the Europeans were trying desperately to stop it. In my opinion the US senators who voted to authorize that war voted having in mind either their own interests or the interests of oil companies and corporations. Some neoconservative republicans were also voting to start a war because of their bizzare theory that they can bring "democracy" to the middle east.

In the case of Edwards (and also Kerry), I believe that he voted for the war because he thought it would be the right thing to do politically if he were to run for president in 2004. Like many others, he thought that we will win easily the war and that anyone who voted against it would have no chance if he/she run for president. Thats where he was wrong. And I believe that the only thing he really regrets is that did not pick the side that called it right. If he really wants my respect and my vote, he should admit the real reasons that he voted for the war and convince me that he would not do again something similar in the future.

I decided that I will not vote for anyone who supported the war then. I think that I will end up voting for Barack Obama. Although I was critical of him in the past, the more I hear from him, the more I like him. And he was smart and honest to take a position against the war in 2002.

Lets Hope.....

......that this guy plays well today. A good performance from him is a must for us to win today.

Worse than Satan...

...in the polls. Wow... I could not had predicted that. But the results of this AP poll among Americans are clear and shocking...

What are Pat Robertson, James Dobson and the other certified lunatics doing? They are religious men and they helped elect someone who polls worse than Satan??

P.S. In the same poll , although not shown in the table above, Donald Rumsfeld was 2%, while Dick Cheney tied with Satan at 1%. Cheney should not feel left out. Being tied to Satan is not a bad position at all.

George Soros

Makes some excellent points.