ROFL! Strike a nerve, did I??????

Healthcare reform is a much debated subject. We, the great people of the United States, should adopt the attitude that we can set higher benchmarks in the area of healthcare. Wouldn't that be something to be proud of? The great difference between the liberal and conservative stance on healthcare is that we liberals view it as a human issue whereas the conservatives view it as a business. Who is right and who is wrong? Depends on your personal point of view. I am certainly not trying to change anyone's fundamental way of thinking, I only want to people to start talking about, researching it, talking to your friends, your neighbors, your family, your doctor, your representatives, and make up your own mind about to make a reality. I am not endorsing any particular or single proposal that is currently on the table and I am certainly not attacking anyone in particular.

(CNN) -- Television evangelist Pat Robertson suggested Thursday that Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon's stroke was divine retribution for the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, which Robertson opposed.

He was dividing God's land, and I would say, 'Woe unto any prime minister of Israel who takes a similar course to appease the [European Union], the United Nations or the United States of America,' Robertson told viewers of his long-running television show, The 700 Club.

Robertson's show airs on the ABC Family cable network and claims about 1 million viewers daily.

Sharon, 77, clung to life in a Jerusalem hospital Thursday after surgery to treat a severe stroke, his doctors said.

The prime minister, who withdrew Israeli settlers and troops from Gaza and parts of the West Bank last summer over heated objections from his own Likud Party, was breathing with the aid of a ventilator after doctors operated to stop the bleeding in his brain.

In Washington, President Bush offered praise for Sharon in a speech on Thursday.

We pray for his recovery, Bush said. He's a good man, a strong man. A man who cared deeply about the security of the Israeli people, and a man who had a vision for peace. May God bless him.

Daniel Ayalon, Israel's ambassador to the United States, compared Robertson's remarks to the overheated rhetoric of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. (Full story)

He called the comments outrageous and said they were not something to expect from any of our friends.

He is a great friend of Israel and a great friend of Prime Minister Sharon himself, so I am very surprised, Ayalon told CNN.

Robertson, 75, founded the Christian Coalition and in 1988 failed in a bid for the Republican presidential nomination. He last stirred controversy in August, when he called for the assassination of Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez. (Full story)

Robertson later apologized, but still compared Chavez to Hitler and former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein in the process.

The same month, the Anti-Defamation League criticized Robertson for warning that God would bring judgment against Israel for its withdrawal from Gaza, which it had occupied since the 1967 Mideast war.

Robertson said Thursday that Sharon was a very likable person, and I am sad to see him in this condition.

He linked Sharon's health problems to the 1995 assassination of Israeli leader Yitzhak Rabin, who signed the Oslo peace accords that granted limited self-rule to Palestinians.

It was a terrible thing that happened, but nevertheless, now he's dead, Robertson said.

Rabin was gunned down by a religious student opposed to the Oslo accords. The killer, Yigal Amir, admitted to the crime and was sentenced to life in prison.

Rev. Barry Lynn, executive director of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, criticized Robertson's comments Thursday, saying the televangelist has a political agenda for the entire world.

He seems to think God is ready to take out any world leader who stands in the way of that agenda, Lynn said in a written statement.

A religious leader should not be making callous political points while a man is struggling for his life, he said. I'm appalled.

Ralph Neas, president of liberal advocacy group People for the American Way, said it is astonishing that Pat Robertson still wields substantial influence in the Republican Party.

Once again, Pat Robertson leaves us speechless with his insensitivity and arrogance, Neas said in a written statement.

According to The Associated Press, Robertson spokeswoman Angell Watts said of people who criticized the comments: What they're basically saying is, 'How dare Pat Robertson quote the Bible?'

This is what the word of God says, Watts told the AP. This is nothing new to the Christian community.

right down to the fruit trees and the garden.

I will have to admit though that gardening is a huge hobby of mine, so it wasn't all about the coming depression.

They report on stories other networks ignore -- would that be the real ones or the ones they make up?

It's a sad day in America, and I hope we can hold out and hold on through the next stormy four years. -- I guess the last 8 years were a peach (the results of which we are seeing now).

I was thinking just a little more casual. Alcohol and dancing will be involved, so the heels are out. Love the halters, but I do believe polka dots are in order. -- Maybe a simple polka dot poodle skirt, plain tailored top, a scarf (of course), and some cat-eye glasses.

Joe the Plumber, Now Joe the War Correspondent in Israel, Is Still Joe the Clown

By Robert Schlesinger, Thomas Jefferson Street blog

Samuel J. Wurzelbacher, aka Joe the Plumber, aka Joe the War Correspondent, has been in the Middle East on his new covering-the-war-as-a-reporter gig long enough to conclude that reporters should not be permitted to cover wars. Alas, I think he was referring to reporters not named Samuel J. Wurzelbacher.

To be honest with you, I don't think journalists should be anywhere allowed war [sic]. . . . I liked back in World War I and World War II, when you'd go to the theater and you'd see your troops on the screen and everyone would be real excited and happy for them. Now everyone's got an opinion and wants to down soldiers�our American soldiers, our Israeli soldiers. I think media should be abolished from reporting.

Memo to Joe the Propagandist: That's been tried. Do you remember Baghdad Bob? He was certainly good for entertainment, though I can't speak to troop morale. It's been tried by people in other countries as well, some of whom were the villains in those newsreels Joe the Historian recalls so fondly.

Let's skip the basic civics lesson about the role of a free press in a free society; and let's skip slippery-slope questions like: If Joe the Philosopher is right, then when engaged in a "war" without front lines, should independent media be abolished entirely? (Could we keep sports reporting?)

And while it may not occur to Joe the Television Consumer that people might have ever gotten their news in any fashion other than from a screen, war correspondents existed well before either of the World Wars. Reporters like Edward R. Murrow and Ernie Pyle were revered and beloved by not only the soldiers but by families back home anxious for news�not propaganda�about what was going on at the front. The military worked to keep Pyle at the front lines for morale reasons during World War II�and he was killed there by sniper fire.

I covered the Pentagon�which is not to suggest that I was a war correspondent�for a couple of years for the Boston Globe. I once had the opportunity to see retired Gen. Harold Moore speak about military-media relations. Moore fought in Korea and Vietnam. Joe the Film Critic might remember Moore as having been played by Mel Gibson in the 2002 movie We Were Soldiers about the famous IA Drang battle in Vietnam. The movie was based on a book Moore cowrote with�wait for it�a reporter who was there with the troops.

Moore told us that he had welcomed reporters in Vietnam. "I just loved for my troops to get bragged about and for the press to write up my troops," Moore told us. "I was so darn proud of my troops for what they were doing in that tragic war."

When we asked Moore about the notion that the media lost the Vietnam War by ginning up criticism at home, he replied: "That didn't bother me. People in America have a freedom to do that. I fought in a couple of wars for that freedom."

But I'm sure Joe the Military Strategist knows more about such things than does Hal the General.

http://www.usnews.com/blogs/robert-schlesinger/2009/01/13/joe-the-plumber-now-joe-the-war-correspondent-in-israel-is-still-joe-the-clown.html