Ian Thorpe

Do you know how much Ian Thorpe trains every day? Here is what the official website of 2004 Olympics says about his training regime:

He does 10 sessions a week, five in the morning and five in the afternoon. His day starts with his alarm going off at 4:17 am and he is in the pool by 5:00 am. He also does two weight training and two boxing sessions each week.

Iranian judoka vs Israeli athlete

An Iranian judoka who won 2001 and 2003 championship withdrew from 2004 Olympics before participating in even a single competition, because he was supposed to fight against an Israeli athlete. The general policy of Iranian government is not to fight against any Israeli athlete since Iran doesn't recognize Israel as a country. In other words Iran doesn't recognize Israel's right to exist. But the interesting point is that if the Iranian judoka refuses to fight against Israeli athlete for political reasons he will face very tough sanctions. To resolve this problem the official reason reported to the International Judo Federation was that he is overweight!!

Filp Flopper

As you know Bush accuses Kerry of being flip flopper. Once Bush said "Thank God that every issue has just 2 sides, otherwise Kerry would take the third side as well!". I was wondering if Bush supporters managed a google bomb or not but actually I faced with Flip-Flopper-in-Chief!! However I'm not sure that is a google bomb since it should be check in different times. You have probably heard of various google bombs in the past. Let me mention some of them: WMD, Worst President, Miserable Failure, Unelectable.

Tom Ridge's Salary!

Although Tom Ridge, Homeland Security Secretary, earns $175700 a year he is not satisfied. He says he needs more money in order to send his children to college. He is considering resignation after the upcoming election. He is going to earn more money in private sector. If he can't afford to send his children to college how can the rest of Americans put their children through college. Your thoughts??

Al Sharpton in DNC

Democracy Now! reports "Sharpton Ignores Bush-Bashing Ban And Slams President For Waging Iraq War". Well, if you still can't believe that just watch his speech and compare that to what he was supposed to say!

Michael Anthony Peroutka

Michael Anthony Peroutka is the candidate of Constitution Party for president. In my opinion he is very right conservative. I don't want to explain his ideas just have a look at his opinions on different issues and see if I'm wrong!

Gun control

I believe that the Second Amendment means what it says. If elected President, I will do everything within my power to ensure that the right of the people to keep and bear arms shall not be infringed.

It is no coincidence that those jurisdictions which have implemented significant gun control have become cesspools of crime- cesspools which now, sadly, try to blame their problems on freer low-crime pro-gun jurisdictions.

Abortion

I am 100% pro-life, all nine months, no exceptions. In fact, I am so pro-life, that if elected I promise that abortion will end my first day in office.

It is, by the way, within the power of the President to end abortion tomorrow, as I would do my first day in office. Don't let alleged "pro-life" Presidents tell you differently.

Education

Members of the Constitution Party know that the federal government has no business directing the education of children. The United States Constitution, the supreme law of the land, provides no authority for the Department of Education or any of its programs. That's right! The whole thing is unauthorized and ought to be disbanded!

As president of the United States, I promise to do what the Republican Party promised but never delivered – close down the unconstitutional federal Department of Education. Count on it!

As President, I would obey the law, in this case our Constitution. I would immediately move to abolish the Department Of Education and stop all Federal involvement in education. Under my Administration, this illegal Department and the “No Child Left Behind Act” would be left behind. That’s a promise!

Same-Sex Marriage Amendment

First, we do not support any sodomy-based policy, let alone marriage, but the Federal Marriage Amendment is wholly unnecessary, dangerous and inappropriate.

Finally, ask yourself, who is the definer of marriage? Certainly it is not the United States government, nor even the State government. The author and perfector of Marriage is none other than the LORD Almighty.

Immigration

As President, one of my top priorities would be to really secure our borders and deport all individuals who are here illegally.

Law and Government

The very first presupposition of American government is that there exists a Creator God, yet our taxpayer-funded schools teach our children that He either doesn't exist or that they can't mention His name. This attack against the right of the people to acknowledge God is disgraceful and it is un-American. The Constitution Party is committed to an American understanding of law and government- that rights come from God and that it is the purpose of government to secure and defend them.

Taxation

So, if you want the biggest tax cut in history, then I ask you to vote for me. I am the only Presidential candidate who means it when I say: I will obey the Constitution, so help me God...

As President, I would work to repeal the Sixteenth Amendment, abolish the IRS, eliminate the income tax and other Godless forms of taxation such as the property tax and the inheritance tax.

War in Iraq

I, like President Bush, hope that the Iraqi people, and all people, will be free from tyranny. But, unlike President Bush, I realize that, Constitutionally, as President, it would not be my job to use our military to spread 'freedom' everywhere in the world. Unlike President Bush, I, as President, would realize that I had been elected President of the United States, not President of the World.

If elected President, however, I would move immediately to end our involvement in Iraq. I am not one who believes that when you are in a hole you should not be in, you should keep digging.

Except for his opinion on war in Iraq his other ideas are far more conservative than that of Mr. Bush. Am I right?! Hmm... maybe he is just Constitutional. I don't know.

Michael Moore's Open Letter to George Bush

Michael Moore invited George Bush to a screening of Fahrenheit 9/11 in a place near Bush's Ranch. None of cinemas in Crawford, TX allowed Moore to screen his movie, however he decided to screen it at the Crawford Peace House. The screening will be in the parking lot of a football stadium.

Just have a look at the last statement of the letter. It's sooo funny.

Thank you for considering this invitation, and enjoy your vacation, for however long it may last.

Commission on Presidential Debates

CPD is a nonpartisan and nonprofit organization. Its main purpose is to organize presidential and vice presidential debates. It sponsored all presidential debates since 1988. Obviously it is impossible to have every presidential candidate in a debate. CPD has a criteria for selecting candidates for the presidential debates.

Here are their selection criteria:(source)

1. Evidence of Constitutional Eligibility

The CPD's first criterion requires satisfaction of the eligibility requirements of Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution. The requirements are satisfied if the candidate:

a. is at least 35 years of age;

b. is a Natural Born Citizen of the United States and a resident of the United States for fourteen years.

c. is otherwise eligible under the Constitution.

2. Evidence of Ballot Access

The CPD's second criterion requires that the candidate qualify to have his/her name appear on enough state ballots to have at least a mathematical chance of securing an Electoral College majority in the 2004 general election. Under the Constitution, the candidate who receives a majority of votes in the Electoral College, at least 270 votes, is elected President regardless of the popular vote.

3. Indicators of Electoral Support

The CPD's third criterion requires that the candidate have a level of support of at least 15% (fifteen percent) of the national electorate as determined by five selected national public opinion polling organizations, using the average of those organizations' most recent publicly reported results at the time of the determination

There are some organizations trying to put 3rd party candidates into presidential debates. They offer alternative criteria which seem more reasonable.

Their alternatives are:

1. Ask people who they want to see in the presidential debates and see who gets support of 50% or more, OR Having 5% of votes in a national poll.(source)

2. Let every candidate who is on enough state ballots that mathematically can win the election be in the debates. (source)

It seems that their alternatives are more reasonable than what CPD does right now! However CPD says that presidential debates are where the people get to know candidates who have logical chance for being elected. They argue that a presidential debate is not a place that candidates start launching their campaigns.

By the way, here are the sponsors of CPD's previous debates.

Did you know that Lance Armstrong actually opposed the war in Iraq?

Fox advertises its news as "fair and balanced". MoveOn.org put together this piece of movie to show how "fair and balanced" Fox News' Bill O'Reilly is. Check it out it's interesting.

Michael Badnarik

Michael Badnarik is a Candidate for US President from the Libertarian party. I don't know much about him and this party, however I saw his views on C-SPAN. Just have a look at the following paragraphs that he said in response to a question about America's role in Iraq.

First, allow me to dispel a myth. People in the Middle East do not hate us for our freedom. They do not hate us for our lifestyle. They hate us because we have spent many years attempting to force them to emulate our lifestyle.

The U.S. government has meddled in the affairs of the Middle East far too long, always with horrendous results. It overthrew the democratically elected leader of Iran[i.e., Dr. Mohammad Mosaddeq] and replaced him with the Shah. After making Iranians the enemies of Americans, the U.S. government gave weapons, intelligence and money to Iran's mortal adversary, Saddam Hussein. The U.S. government also helped Libyan Col. Qaddafi come to power, propped up the Saudi monarchy and the Egyptian regime, and gave assistance to Osama bin Laden.

Most Americans have forgotten these events. But the people of the Middle East will always remember.

It was because of American troops in Saudi Arabia, lethal sanctions on Iraq, support for states in serious violation of International Law, and siding with Israel in its dispute with the Palestinians to the tune of more than $3 billion per year in taxpayers' funds that terrorist leaders were able to recruit those individuals who caused 3,000 innocent Americans paid the ultimate price on September 11, 2001.

Here you can find his views on other issues.

Senators' Voting Record

You can find the archive of Senators' votes here or here. By having a look at their records one finds out that 3 Democrats and 45 Republicans voted in favor of the constitutional amendment banning same-sex marriage, however 43 Democrats and 6 Republicans including Senator McCain of AR voted against the amendment. The only Independent Senator -Sen. Jeffords from Vermont- voted against the amendment. At the moment there are 48 Democrats, 51 Republicans and just a single Independent in the US Senate.

Wikipedia

Wikipedia is an encyclopedia that is developed by its visitors. Therefore sometimes the information that you see there is not absolutely correct. However in some degree it is helpful. The interesting point is that it is in over 40 different languages! It also covers current events. So its a source of news as well as an encyclopedia. You can also reflect your own views in the discussion section attached to every article. However I don't know who manages it. Since people could come and delete or destroy articles there must be someone to take care of changes that are made by people.

US Territories

There are 12 US territories. They are Puerto Rico, Guam, U.S. Virgin Islands, American Samoa, Northern Mariana Islands, Midway Islands, Wake Island, Johnston Atoll, Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands, Kingman Reef, Navassa Island, Palmyra Atoll.


Palmyra Atoll, Navassa Island, Kingman Reef, "Baker, Howland, and Jarvis Islands", Johnston Atoll, Wake Island, and Midway Islands have virtually no inhabitants and the others have. Puerto Rico with population of 3,897,960 and area of 9,104 sq km is the largest one. What is interesting about Puerto Rico is that Puerto Ricans do not have right to vote. In fact Puerto Rico is a sort of self-ruled commonwealth. It seems to me that Puerto Ricans should have the right to vote at least in presidential elections, since this right is apparently clarified in Amendments XV, XIX, XXIV, XXVI of the US constitution. However the residents of Puerto Rico voted for Commonwealth system in 1993 and as a result they don't have any voting delegates in the Congress and they do not have right to vote in presidential elections. I will talk more about that later.

Homosexuality

A lot of people still think that homosexuality is a disease. In 1973 American Psychological Association removed homosexuality from its list of mental and emotional disorders. According to APA, studies showed that gays and bisexuals can be good parents. Here you can find other some other information about homosexuality.

Peloton

Peloton is the main group of riders in a cycling road race. They try to save energy by riding behind each other.

OLN

It seems to me that OLN(Outdoor Life Network) is officially affiliated to Lance Armstrong. Since the ONLY cyclist that they talk about and interview is Lance!

Amy Goodman vs. President Clinton

The story that I'm going to tell you is based on what I watched on Democracy Now!. This channel is not that popular and to the best of my knowledge it has a one-hour TV program most of the days. Amy Goodman is the host of this channel. On the day of Election 2000 just a few minutes before Amy Goodman starts her daily show at 9 a.m. she gets a call. The caller says "I'm calling from the White House"!! The caller says that President is going to talk to Amy. She replies "President of what?!". The caller says "The President of the United States"! President Clinton is going to talk to Amy. He wants to encourage people to vote. Since this channel is a sort of independent which, I assume, supported Nader it seems to me that Clinton wanted to highlight the differences between Republicans and Democrats and encourage independent voters to vote for Al-Gore. Of course they knew that this would be a tight election. Amy rushes to the studio and starts the program. She interviews President Clinton. She asks tough questions. She asks variety of questions from him. At some point Clinton accuses her of being "combative and hostile". In return she calls her questions critical. The day after that show someone from White House calls Amy and tells her why she broke "the ground rules" of the interview! "What ground rules?" Amy says. She says that they didn't agree on any sort of ground rules and she wouldn't agree on any. Amy says that she believes she shouldn't trade her principles for access and this is the only ground rule she accepts. The caller threatens her of banning her from the White House! Amy says that she didn't have any that she could lose it! The caller says she was supposed to interview Clinton just for a few minutes and he was just willing to take out the votes. Amy says that Clinton is the most powerful man in the world, he can hang up if he wants!

You can watch the interview and read the transcript of the interview here.

Outfoxed

Outfoxed is the title of a new movie made by MoveOne.org. It is said to be a documentary that lashes out at Fox News. MoveOn asks his supporters to screen the movie on July 18th. You can watch a trailer of this movie here and here. Since I haven't watched the movie I can't comment on that! What do you think of Fox News and Outfoxed?

An Interesting TV Advertisement

An American organization called faithfulamerica.org is going to air a TV ad on Arab televisions condemning the abuse of Iraqi prisoners. In this ad 4 American religious leaders speak. They are Donald Shriver (Protestant), Imam Feisal Abdur Rauf (Muslim), Sister Betty Obal (Roman Catholic) and Rabbi Arthur Waskow (Jewish). They apologize from Iraqis for the crimes committed in their names. I know almost nothing about this organization but they made a beautiful decision. Running this ad shows to Arab world what real American values are, and reduces anti-American views in the Arab world. I hope they can air this ad. Here is the transcript of this advertisement (taken from faithfulamerica.org):

A Salaam A'alaykum ["Peace be with you" in Arabic]. As Americans of faith, we express our deep sorrow at abuses committed in Iraqi prisons. We stand in solidarity with all those in Iraq and everywhere who demand justice and human dignity. We condemn the sinful and systemic abuses committed in our name, and pledge to work to right these wrongs.

At the end of the ad the following sentence appears on screen:

This message was endorsed and paid for by thousands of Americans. www.faithfulamerica.org