The Top Ten Very Worst Halloween Costumes

Every year you see a few Halloween costumes so cheap and so bad, that you cannot help but laugh at the haste it took to throw these costumes together at the very last minute made out of a few homemade items.

Here's the top ten to avoid:

10. Costumes Involving A Noose. Not a good idea at all, and could be construed as racist in some cases. Even Halloween displays involving hanging witches are coming under fire this year. Not smart at all.

9.Shoe Polish Black Face Costumes. Not at all politically correct and potentially the source of some real problems. Avoid at all cost

8. Cold Cream On The Face, Towel On Head, Just Out Of The Shower Look Costume. Not much fun as it dries, and not that good of costume to even begin with.

7. "I Like Turtles" Zombie Kid Costume. Easy to make, but simply a bad idea following the 15 minutes of fame of a kid who had his face painted for a fair like a zombie, then nervously told a reporter that "I like Turtles". Now all over the videowebsties for some crazy reason.

6. Women's Clothing Drag Costumes. Seems fine and funny until you realize that the neighbors will start to talk about you. Leave your wife's clothes alone and think about a different costume.

5. Mom's Lipstick Frankenstein. Not only is this not scary, but it's a total mess to clean up those lipstick fake scar stains on the skin. Not smart.

4. Kitchen Flour Zombie Face Makeup. Not good at all if it rains. a real potential mess.

3. Toilet Paper Mummy. Fine if it doesn't rain. The minute it does your costume lays at your feet like shedded snake skin.

2. Kitchen Aluminum Foil Robot Costume. Could be effective if it didn't look so darn cheap nd laughable. Only a step above the cheap costumes often used for space aliens in the campy 1960's SciFi series, LOST IN SPACE.

1. Lovely Floral Pattern Ghost Bed sheet Costume. A bed sheet using a lovely floral pattern is simply laughable and not scary at all compared to using a white sheet. Use a white sheet or forget it.

There you have it kids, ten terrible last minute Halloween costumes to avoid at all costs.

Gilbert Gottfried's Halloween Laughs

The great comic Gilbert Gottfried is sharing some Halloween laughs in his Emails to his fans today. Here's his Halloween laughs for this year:

Why does Dracula always carry a pack of mints?

He's Afraid he might have bat breath.


What's a monster's favorite play?

Romeo and Ghouliet.


Imagine Gilbert doing these, and believe me, they're funnier! You can't beat his onstage delivery of jokes. Look at his great performance that highlights THE ARISTOCRATS for example. Take my wife please!

(Thanks to Creative Commons Sharealike for the loaned great Halloween pumpkin image).

Eileen Hooson 1928-2007- Innocent Victim Of Secondhand Smoking

My beloved mother died at home yesterday after suffering from years of respiratory problems mainly as a result of the secondhand smoking at her workplace. My mother never smoked a day in her life, but the tobacco industry and the rudeness of smokers caused her first acute asthma and finally severe emphysema, where she suffered for years with only a reduced to 30% lung capacity. A smoker with a lung cancer that has a lung removed has at least 50% lung capacity by comparison.

After her retirement from work, my mother's lung problems continued to eat more and more into her retirement finances and enjoyment both. Most recently it cost her $800 a month in just medicine costs alone just to remain alive in uncomfortable condition.

Tobacco companies who promote serious health problems and deaths of nonusers of their products are nothing short of being cold-blooded murderers. Their greed for the almighty dollar and the rudeness of those who choose to smoke in public places and inflict serious harm on nonusers of cigarettes all deserve to share much blame.

Nonuser victims of the tobacco industry need to continue to push government for protection from secondhand smoke and demand that normal EPA clean air rules apply to the illegal and toxic air pollution from cigarettes, and nonuser victims should also consider efforts to sue both the tobacco companies and retailers of cigarettes to pressure them to clean up their act and stop this illegal air pollution business that kills many nonsmokers each and every day.

My mother was a very loving and decent woman. I'm happy to share much of her looks and much of her intelligence instincts. When my loving father, who passed away in late July from a massive stroke, and my loving mother conceived me, they shared some great traits with me that I'm very grateful to both of them. God bless both of my parents who are now residents of God's kingdom. I'll miss you both terriby.

Great Halloween Zombie Movies To Own Or Rent

It's getting to be that time again to hunt up some creepy Halloween videos, and you can never go wrong with Zombie flicks.

Perhaps the very best Zombie flick out this season is PLANET TERROR, the first half of the Quentin Tarantino-Robert Rodriguez GRINDHOUSE DOUBLE FEATURE. This Robert Rodriquez film is a violent, artistic and trashy instant classic. A virus creates wierd zombielike creatures who battle with a one-legged stripper and other flawed human characters. A real gem.

NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD 3D isn't a masterpiece by any means, or even the best zombie film ever made. But the decent 1950's type 3D effect is certainly good enough to more than make up for any shortcomings of this film. Character actor Sid Haig is no Vincent Price, but certainly makes a creepy unsettling character who takes over a funeral home business from his deceased father, and fails to bury the bodies or medical waste experiments as he should. Body parts and bodies start coming back to life and threatening the living. Ghoulishly good fun overall.

FLIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is certainly a ripoff idea that that robs the filmmaking graves of NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD, AIRPORT and cult favorite, SNAKES ON A PLANE. Once again a virus is responsible for raising the dead. Great overall fun and certainly recommended viewing.

FIDO is a very good funny zombie flick, where humans keep zombies as housepets like a dog or cat, and expectedly with bad results. Real crazy concept, but great fun. A must-see film!

Some older zombie film honorable mentions: REVENGE OF THE LIVING DEAD GIRLS is an older French Euro-shock zombie film that is a must see for adult viewers due to very tough content. The Italian flick, ZOMBIE 2 is another must-see. Very tough content and NC-17 rating may keep some viewers away, but one of the very best zombie movies ever made. Ed Wood's laughable trash 1950's masterpiece, PLAN NINE FROM OUTER SPACE is also another zombie themed movie that is so bad that it's actually good. This troubled film is so awful that you'll howl with laughter all through it. It's been considered by some critics to be the CITIZEN KANE of awful movies.

Certainly George Romero is the king of zombie filmmakers. And you can't go wrong on any of his films. His 1969 black and white, original NIGHT OF THE LIVING DEAD is excellent in every way. But his later films such as DAWN OF THE DEAD and other films are very good as well. In terms of zombie films, nobody does it better than Romero, although the Italian ZOMBIES 2 is as close to Romero in sheer terror quality as you can possiby get.

Have a happy and ghoulish Halloween and enjoy a great Zombie flick. Brains....

94mpg Coolster F5 - Beat High Gas Prices For Just $899

With the price of a barrel of oil currently flirting with $100, up sharply from the $2 price in 1973, you need this great 94 mile per gallon moped motor scooter from the ChuanL Motorcycle Manufacturing Co.

The Coolster F5 features fully automatic CVT fuel saving transmission, rear storage trunk, glovebox, locking steering for security, underseat storage, front disc brake, cast 10inch wheels, dual starting with either key push button or kickstart backup, self-charging 12volt motorcycle battery, rear drum brake, 2 sets of keys, stylish looks, large 71inch total length & more. All for just $899 delivered anywhere in the greater 48 states brand new on a shipping pallet. Some minor assembly required such as installing the battery and assembly of the front cowl with dual headlights and front handlebar assembly. Powerful 1cylinder 4 stroke clean burning gas engine with one gallon fuel tank is fully tuned and ready for use right after gassing up this beauty.

EPA and DOT approved. For sale for street or off-road use in all states but California. Be sure to wear a DOT approved motorcycle helmet or other safety clothing while driving this motor scooter. This is not a toy, but a sturdy replacement for the fuel hungry automobile.

No motorcycle license required in most states. This beauty can travel up to 30mph and can be licensed as a moped for everyday use. Only a driver's license is required in most states. Even your best hybrid automobile cannot come close to the 94mpg city mileage of this great fun to drive moped motor scooter.(94mpg is actual tested city mileage in stop-and-go city traffic use with new AMSOIL 4Stroke Motor Oil and 75w-90 in the gearbox. Your actual mileage with normal motor oil will likely be 83mpg. Some owners report mileage in the 70-117mpg range).

To purchase one of these for just $899(available in several colors), contact us at radiotvpartz@juno.com or check out www.radiotvpartz.net for more information.

As U.S. Dollar Crashes, U.S. Oil Prices Expected To Soar

A perfect storm of problems is rapidly building that will almost certainly create sharply higher gas and heating oil prices for American consumers. The value of the U.S. dollar is crashing on world markets as the huge Bush war spending balloons which could total $2.4 trillion dollars or $8,000 for every American within 10 years, is causing a huge federal budget deficit that continues to be funded by foreign bonds held by nations such as China, Japan, South Korea and Britain. This huge war deficit spending is causing a rapid world free-fall of the value of the U.S. dollar. During the Clinton Administration years the Euro was worth around 80cents compared to the dollar. Today the Euro is worth around $1.43 compared to the dollar.

Another further complication is recent dramatic rise of the value if a barrel of oil to around $92 a barrel, but certainly headed towards $100 a barrel. In 1973, a barrel of oil was valued at just $2. Certainly conditions are building for terrible U.S. motorist sticker shock and terrible increases of the price of heating oil furnace homes.

Turkey continues to mass around 60,000 troops at the Northern border of Iraq, and could soon launch a full-scale invasion of the normally more peaceful Kurdish area of Iraq and will harm U.S. and foreign investment in the area. Hunt Oil of Texas recently signed a billion dollar deal to explore for oil in the Northern Kurdish region of Iraq, and this part of Iraq often referred to as "Kurdistan" advertises on business related cable TV channels for U.S. business investment.

The U.S. war for oil in Iraq has terribly failed and instead has only helped to tighten world oil supplies and raise prices. Iraq was thought to have the largest reserves of undiscoved oil in the world, estimated at 220 billion barrels, or a 98 year supply for the U.S. However the continued violence in Iraq has made any new exploration for such oil assets difficult. And the continued cost of the war to the U.S. consumer only helps to drive up world oil prices as the value of the dollar falls.

Mr. Bush is the first business degree MBA to become president. However if any CEO of a corporation would so badly manage affairs as Bush has, then certainly the stockholders would fire that CEO.

The Public Psychology: The House That Didn't Burn Down

A popular myth in conservative political circles is that the U.S. mainstream media never has any good news about Iraq, or some recent improvements in some violence reduction is not reported. The reality is that good news from Iraq including some reductions in some violence levels has been clearly reported by the media, however because of several factors, good news never gets a higher publicity level.

On one hand, the public impressions about Iraq have been pretty well set with the public, and the public has decided that do not like the war and would like to see the American role end there. The public is beginning to tune out all news from there and simply accept that violence continues to plague that land, and little in the way of any positive news seems to want to change that established impression. If the war had been more successful early on, then the public impression of the war would be different now.

And another important factor is that in the media the house that didn't burn down last night is never as interesting as the one that did. Bad news sells papers or drives news coverage interest, public interest stories never sell much. It is not so much that the media wants bad news, but bad news sells well, and the public has a strong appetite for such news, but at the same time trashy news like the latest Britney Spears or Paris Hilton outrage provides some needed laughs, although at their expense.

The public psychology and apetite is the ultimate driver of the news, not the other way around, as conservatives may wrongly assume. The media is not out to educate the public as much as it exists to reflect the public's news apetite for bad news headlines. The California fires story is perfect news. It's all about the house that burned down last night.

U.S. Gets Turkey To Restrain For The Moment

The U.S. has apparently urged Turkey to avoid an invasion of Northern Iraq for a few days despite a fresh attack Sunday that left 12 Turkish soldiers dead by Kurdish radicals. The current high oil prices on the world markets is heavily driven by the tensions with Turkey and Northern Iraq and other world turmoil even more so than supply problems with oil.

Turkey expects the U.S. to get a handle on the Kurdish extremists. But in reality, there is little that the U.S. can probably do about the Kurdish violence, and an invasion of Northern Iraq by Turkey by at least part of the 60,000 Turkish troops amassed at the border is still highly likely within days as the U.S. standa nearly helpless to prevent the violence. Once Turkey actually invades Northern Iraq, expect world oil prices to again go wild.

No Noose Is Good Noose?

Since the ugly incidents in the "Jena 6" Louisiana examples of mounting violence and racism, the noose has one again emerged as an ugly image of racial intimidation. However, seemingly innocent examples of Halloween decorations including a hanging witch in one community and a White doll faced figure hanging in a yard outside of Vancouver, Washington, seem to have gotten caught up in the Jena aftermath.

A practicing witch attempted to claim that the obvious Halloween display of a hanging witch was a "hate crime". And in the Washington state case a dark haired wig was replaced by a red haired wig so as to make the hanging doll look more White.

Hair trigger nerves about the Jena case have spurrred silly attacks on meaningless silly Halloween displays and have spurred a new political correctness battle. A few years ago I saw a "head wound" Abraham Lincoln costume. You can probably get away with that sort of tastelessness this year. But hanging dolls from your trees just isn't going over big this year unless they're a flying ghost.

And Some Claim That Global Warming & Climate Change Are A Myth

Conservative "doubting Thomases" will no doubt attempt to continue to cast pseudo-scientifuc doubt on the impact of global warming and climate change until the problem lands square on their doorsteps. However there is good evidence that is beginning to happen here in the U.S.

Governors from states as far away as Michigan are concerned by any mention of regional or national water plans coming from New Mexico Governor Bill Richardson, who attempts to plan for the worsening water shortage in his state. In Douglas County, Georgia, which neighbors Atlanta, Georgia, there is a terrible problem of the lakes and water supply drying up, creating severe water use restrictions for homeowners including fines that can cost $350 for a first violation, and $1,000 for the second violation. Water wasters could also have their water shut-off as well.

The number of bees that help to pollenate crops continue to decline for some unknown reason, and agriculture in the U.S. could eventually become very expensive or even threatened.

In Australia, the wheat harvest has steadily declined for the sixth year in a row due to climate change. In African nations such as Mozambique, it has simply stopped raining over 50 years ago in many areas, and great river beds and lakes simply dried up, and farmers could no longer grow crops, cattle died, and then the people died.

Of course the unscientific conservatives will continue to deny the fact that serious climate changes are taking place and impacting both the water and food supply of mankind and creating famine in many parts of the world where as many as 50,000 children die each day from starvation.

The "doubting Thomases" will need to actually put their fingers into the wounds in the Earth before they realize that creation itself is under a serious assault by climate change, drought and starvation conditions.

Another Tough Day On Wall Street

20 years to the day of the infamous 508 point Wall Street "Black Monday" crash of 1987, today witnessed a huge 366 point downturn. A "perfect storm' of bad earning reports and oil prices still hovering close to $90 a barrel only served to send out an early Halloween spooking of Wall Street investors and ruin the market today.

However, there is good reason to be concerned about the overall health of the economy. Oil was just $2 a barrel in 1973 compared to nearly $90 a barrel again today. 9 out of 10 times in the last 50 years when there was huge oil inflation, there was a recession that soon followed.

Many more factors are yet to fall into line that will spook consumers and dry up spending and create a cycle of job layoffs to create a recession. But high oil prices will certainly only hurt and could lay the groundwork for more coming problems and a chain reaction of less consumer spending, more job losses.

Sam Brownback To Drop Out

Far right Republican, Sam Brownback, who largely defined his campaign for president as an intolerant attack on the Mormon faith of his rival, Mitt Romney, and a right wing cultural crusade against gay rights, pornography and any other form of cultural liberalism is likely to soon drop out of the Republican race for president.

Brownback was only a recent convert to the Catholic faith, however his campaign has combined the Catholic opposition to abortion with his own strange far right views supporting guns and a tough line on the immigration issue.

Brownback would have presented perhaps the most serious threat to freedom of speech and civil liberties of any Republican if elected president. His dropping out of the race is great news for all progressives.

The Verizon-Afni Collections Grave Robbing Scam

It's nearly Halloween time, but a billing scam operation is already putting an early scare on the season with their own creepy tale of grave robbing abuse. A collections agency located in Illinois, Afni Collections which claims a 70 year history in the debt shakedown business is getting more negative publicity by sending out bogus Verizon bills in the name of deceased persons, maybe by culling through obituary ads to add new pain to grieving families.

Our family was a victim of this Afni scam this week, when a bogus Verizon bill from Afni was sent to our home asking for $1,852.86 for a Verizon bill my deceased father never owed to begin with. My deceased father was never a customer of Verizon or Verizon Wireless according to their records. And according to Verizon records by father was never a customer, never had an account, and Verizon never authorized Afni to send out any demand for cash letter in the name of my father. Afni took it on themself to make up the request for money, claiming that we could agree to a "settlement offer" of $926.43 and that the "good folks" at Afni would consider that "once paid, this account will be closed and you will no longer have to worry about this obligation". And our family is not the only victims of the Afni bogus Verizon billing scam.

According to one posted complaint to a consumer website, one person would have been just eight years old when Afni claimed that they ran up a Verizon bill. Many of the persons targeted by Afni, have never had accounts with Verizon. And some persons who do have current accounts with Verizon, found out that their accounts are current, and Afni was never authorized by Verizon to seek payment for bills sometimes as much as $3,000 that the current account holders do not owe.

Interestingly, Afni avoids legal problems by a status as a dues paying member of the Better Business Bureau. And despite well over 800 consumer complaints against Afni in the last 36 months to the BBB, the BBB somehow has the nerve to claim that Afni has a "satisfactory record". The BBB is a business organization, and not a consumer organization, however for the BBB to give Afni a "satisfactory record" in light of numerous consumer complaints, some citing clearly unethical or even criminal conduct on the part of Afni highlights what a big business farce the BBB has become. In Oregon, the Oregon Consumer League's former President, Lee Lacy, has cited evidence of the BBB standing in the way of consumer justice in some cases involving clear fraud by a business.

Under George Bush, federal consumer protection has grown very lax. Corporate officers were appointed by Bush to head agencies and weaken consumer protection. White collar crime of all types has flourished under George Bush; subprime home loan scams, payday loan scams, phone sales scams, Email scams, website scams and bogus billing scams. The growth of white collar crime under Bush has unfortunately become his greatest achievement so far. The unauthorized bogus Verozon bills sent out by Afni are just another symptom of how much Bush has hurt the American consumer.

"Dirty Bomb" Drill Becomes Largest Homeland Security Test Ever

In Portland, Oregon the largest Homeland Security Office test ever for a "dirty bomb" attack is currently underway at a cost of $25 million. Homeland Security Head, Michael Chertoff and other federal officials are in attendance. Smaller tests are currenting taking place in Guam and Arizona as well, but the Portland, Oregon test is the largest mock test of emergency responses ever held.

The Portland, Oregon drill started with a "terrorist" attack on a public transportation bus with a staged explosion and actors with a variety of makeup to simulate burns oe other injuries to test emergency response and to improve the response to any real incidents of a similiar type.

The Portland drill should improve the emergency response of all agencies. it's probably $25 million well worth spending.

Oil Closes In On $87 Dollars A Barrel

Oil is at another record high today, closing in at $87 a barrel. This is certain to put severe strains on working families and fuel record prices to heat homes this Winter. It is already sure that oil heated homes will cost hundreds of dollars more to heat this year. The average oil heated home may cost up to $1,700 for smaller homes to heat, and $300 a month for larger homes.

Many families will be forced with the difficult choice of paying the mortgage or heating their homes this year, and these record oil prices will only worsen the national foreclosure crisis in the coming months.

Military Recruiters Continue To Target Minority Youth

Military recruiters continue to disportionately target youths in the Hispanic community according to ongoing complaint's by parents and others in this community. Historically there is a strong sense of both patriotism and national pride for America in the Hispanic community, compared to a weaker national identity of Americanism in the general high school age population, and this has spurred military to recruiters to show up at the same mainly Hispanic high schools on a daily basis compared to schools to wealthier districts where military recruiters are seldom ever seen.

Unfortunately economic, race and ehnic factors figure largely into the military recruiters goals to find the manpower to continue the Iraq War as it continues to take American lives.

Big Tobacco Spends $10 Million To Defeat Children's Care

Big tobacco and other big business allies have already spent $10 million dollars in a propaganda campaign to defeat a proposal on the Oregon ballot that would increase taxes on cigarettes to pay for children's health care.

Philip Morris and Reynolds American have been the main pursestrings to flood the Oregon airwaves with ads that the OREGONIAN newspaper and other sources have attacked for misleading information or otherwise skirting the real issues at hand.

The ads paid for by Reynolds American for example attempted to reframe the debate on Measure 50 by misleadingly attempt to make the proposal look like some grand scheme of the health care industry and doctors to profit from children's illnesses, when it is in fact cigarettes that cause children many serious and life-threatening health problems including SIDS, respiratory problems such as asthma, and painful and unnecessary ear infections in children, often requiring painful and expensive ear tube surgery. It is an outrageous lie of the tobacco industry to attempt to blame doctors who treat a child dying of a serious asthma attack in a hospital emergency room when it is the products produced by Reynolds American or Philip Morris that caused the life-threatening health crisis for the child to begin with.

But this type of gutter politics is nothing new for this industry which has been accused of manipulating nicotine levels to make their cigarettes more addictive and the refusal to remove lead, nickel, cadmium or 4,000 toxins from their products, or the refusal to make their products not harmful to nonusers.

Taxes against big tobacco to discourage cigarette use are only a timid first step. Full regulation of cigarettes by the FDA and the EPA to regulate the illegal air pollution created by cigarettes are the next step. Victim nonusers of cigarettes also need to sue this industry out of business for wrongful death and personal injury lawsuits all across the U.S. Nonsmokers need to sue this industry to clean up the health problems caused them that the tobacco industry will not address because government regulators are way too slow to act. Almost immediuately children's toys with lead in the paint are pulled off the market, and the oil industry long removed lead from gasoiline as a valve lubricant, but the tobacco industry has never made any attempt to remove lead or other toxins from their cigarettes. The time has come for a government crackdown on these illegal air pullution devices that clearly violate hundreds of EPA rules regarding industrial air pollution.

High Human Cost Of "Bling" In New Documentary

A new documentary by director Raquel Cepada, "Bling: A Planet Rock", is a serious journey of three hip hop performers into Sierre Leone, the 2nd poorest nation of the world, and is an unsettling vision of the exploitation and poverty of the diamond market in this nation where virtual slavery, poor working conditions, and very low wages victimize those working in the diamond mining industry.

In fact the kind of inhumane conditions that surround the diamond industry in Africa often fuel corrupt authoritarian governments, wars, or perpetuate virtual slavery in the African continent.

If the documentary by Raquel Cepada makes persons living in the industrialized nations like the U.S. feel guilty about their appetite for diamonds at a high human cost to the poor of Africa including children, then it certainly should. Only some diamonds from Africa come from something called the "Kimberley Process" which is an agreement to prevent conflict diamonds between some governments and diamonds mining companies to limit the exploitation of workers or to prevent diamonds from fueling more wars in the African continent.

Secretary Of State Further Fuels Iran Situation

In some new comments this morning from Ireland, Secretary Of State Condoleezza Rice only further fueled the war of words between Iran and the U.S., by claiming that Iran is lying about their nuclear program. This certainly may be true, but with the war of words mainly between the U.S. ans Iran, rather than by the international community or a nuclear regular program such as the IAEA, then the conflict becomes a U.S. vs. Iran situation and only adds more fuel to a possible military confrontation.

The U.N. and IAEA need to quickly step up and bring Iran into some compliance with international community concerns about their nuclear program and defuse a situation that could result in a serious shooting war between the two nations if allowed to fester and worsen.

"I Like Turtles" Zombie Kid 15 Minutes Of Fame Only Continues

In Portland, Oregon a new commercial for a local sports program only continues the "15 minutes" of fame for a 10 year old boy who had his face painted like a zombie for a neighborhood fair, and when a local reporter interviewed him he nervously said, "I like turtles". Some enterprising companies are even marketing "I LIKE TURTLES" T-shirts and other products. Such is the strange world of YouTube and other video posting sites that are making unlikely stars from strange little video bits.

Sometimes it seems that the threshold for fame gets very low when someone like a Paris Hilton, famous for really doing nothing, can become a star. But the "Turtle Boy" phenomenon only proves that the threshold keeps getting lower and lower for fame.

Has KFC Stereotyped The African American Family

Some new ads by Kentucky Fried Chicken(KFC) present an interesting vision of an African American family at the dinner table. While the family is by all means loving and close, one important thing is missing: a father. All of this raises the issue of whether KFC has wrongly decided to stereotype the African American family or is simply seeking to strengthen sales by an appeal to single parent households.

The American family is a vital part of American society, and why KFC does not portray the family as also including a father is an interesting choice. Maybe the new KFC ads speak to the reality of many single parent households. But maybe there is also some responsibility for advertisers to portray the family as also including both parents an ideal, although not always the real world reality.

It is interesting to critically view advertising and see what sort of signals it is sending out. And the new KFC ads seem to say a great deal more than merely selling fried chicken.

Robert Novak Gives Fred Thompson A Bad Review

Fred Thompson's performance in his first Republican presidential debate certainly didn't get very good marks from fellow conservative, Robert Novak, who is sending out an Email to subscribers today calling Thompson's performance a "let-down for conservatives".

The performance of the bit actor from NBC's LAW & ORDER failed to really project much strength or self confidence, and was considerably weak compared to stronger performances from the other eight candidates including very good performances from Mitt Romney. Rudolph Giuliani and John McCain.

For whatever John McCain lacks in strength in the polls, he made up for by having a little fire in his belly and projecting self-confident strength. And Mitt Romney and Giuliani were in excellent form as well, although Romney only continues to surprise many on just how much he is able to waffle on the issues and tell "conservatives" what they want to hear and run away from his more centrist record as governor. Giuliani also continues to put a good face on his uneven role as mayor of NY as well.

All of this only leaves Fred Thompson as the odd man out, and his slow sag in the polls as noted by Ramussen should likely only accelerate after his lackluster performance yesterday.

Bush Veto On Children's Health Care May Be Further Sagging Any Support

A new poll by Rasmussen puts the job approval for President Bush at a mere 35%, a four point decline over the last few days since his veto of the tobacco tax to help fund a $7 billion dollar a year expansion of children's health care, the SCHIP program. Another Rasmussen poll puts 57% of the public opposed to the Bush veto and another 54% majority of Americans are in support of raising tobacco taxes to fund children's health care.

The Bush veto was more likely a huge political payoff to Philip Morris and other large tobacco lobby contibutions to the 2004 Bush campaign and his inaugural committee. Philip Morris gave Bush about $39,000 in his 2004 run against Democrat John Kerry and then made an additional gift of nearly $250,000 to his inauguration planning committee, not to mention numerous large donations to other Republicans seeking office and the national party organization.

It's simply "cigarette smoke" and mirrors for Bush to hide behind any nonsensical claims that he is opposed to expanding children's health care on philosophical grounds. He's simply opposed to getting tough on tobacco like anyone concerned about the public health should be, and merely a stooge for his big tobacco donors.

Will Fred Thompson Be Ready For Prime Time Today?

Today at the 1pm Eastern time Republican debate to be aired live on CNBC, LAW & ORDER bit actor, Fred Thompson gets his first real matchup against the other 8 Republican hopefuls, most of which are far more informed on the issues than Thompson. In the last few days, a crew of Thompson handlers which included the son-in-law of Dick Cheney hoped that they could prepare Thompson enough that he won't make a complete fool of himself onstage by being poorly informed on the issues.

Today's debate is on economics, and could provide for some very humorous answers from Thompson unless his handlers crash course in issues pays off. It was only a few days ago, for example, that Thompson refered to Russia as "the Soviet Union" and lumped our huge trade partner and national bond holder, China, into a silly Cold War era answer that only someone living in a cave would have thought of. If Thompson's answers are of similiar comedy quality, then he could begin the process of being laughed away as any serious choice by many Republicans. Already both James Dobson and Donald Trump have been highly critical of Thompson, viewing him as wholly unqualified to be president.

Certainly the strong debate performances of Hillary Clinton have lifted her into position as the definate front runner, and have especially hurt Barack Obama's hopes to stop her as his inexperience has become clear to many voters. In the same way, Fred Thompson may break himself with a bad performance with today's debate as well and undo his stake as the hope of many conservatives, some of which mistakingly think that he is like Ronald Reagan.

More than any GOP candidate, Thompson has a great lot riding on today's debate performance. If he gets bad reviews, then the unraveling process starts.

Iranian President Faces Tough Crowd In Tehran

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad faced a jeering and angry crowd at a Tehran university today with a chorus of shouts of "Deaths to Ahmadinejad" against a backdrop of worsening relations with much of the world community, rising unemployment and increased inflation. This puts Ahmadinejad and his very conservative religious cleric supporters in a tough position. Should they get rid of Ahmadinejad and bring a more acceptable person into power?

Another danger is that since Ahmadinejad holds bizarre end-time religious views, he could foolishly attempt to rally Iranian support among the poor and uneducated religious conservatives of the nation by actually triggering a dangerous military conflict with the U.S. or Israel.

Dictators often prove themselves most dangerous when boxed in like a wild animal, and could show their teeth in a dangerous way. Rather than iran being on the verge of democracy due to the actions of the crowd at the Tehran university, the leadership of Iran could act in a very dangerous way.

Hamas Government In Gaza Doing Little To Protect Christian Minority

There is more evidence of the failure of the Hamas government of Gaza completely failing to protect the safety of the Christian minority among the Palestinian population. Only days after a terrorist bombing just outside of Bible Society bookstore, a clerk from the store was followed home and abducted and murdered by a hail of bullets and knife wounds. While the Hamas government officially condemned the murder, it has done little to stop a growing pattern of violence against Arab Christians.

While Lebanon and Iraq have the largest populations of Arab Chistians in the region, many Palestinian Christians also exist. And often the Palestinian police have been used by government authorites to arrest Christians and authorize torture or other abuse by claiming that their Christian faith makes them enemies of Islam.

Officially the Palestinian governments of Hamas and Fatah claim to respect the right of the Arab Chistian minority, especially in the Jerusalem area, but the continued use of the Palestinian police to act as religious police for Islam or allowing continued terrorism against Christians is a very troubling.

Britain Will Cut It's Military Presense In Iraq By 50%

Under Labor Leader Gordon Brown, Britain will cut it's role in Iraq from 5,000 to 2,500 troops very soon despite the fact that Iraq is far from peaceful. More and more the U.S. is being left alone in Iraq to police and manage the entire state of nearly 27.5 million persons and little real progress to show on a political settlement between the ruling Shiite and Sunni religious sects.

Mr. Bush likes to claim a coalition of 36 nations involved in Iraq peacekeeping, however some only comprise contingents of as little as one or two peacekeepers.