I'm talking about the photos of him as apparently the KEYNOTE SPEAKER of a conference that appears to be called "The World Without Zionism." Photos here:

http://tinyurl.com/2psu75

I'm non-religious and I'm a liberal and I am certainly sympathetic to the Palestinian cause - but "The World Without Zionism" makes me physically ill.

I find it very difficult to take Ahmadinejad seriously when he appears to be so far off base on this particular very serious issue.

I don't believe that he is looking to exterminate the world's remaining Jews en masse, but one doesn't have to stretch their imagination too far to worry about him causing innocent Hews harm in whatever capacity he could exploit for the purpose.

Makes me want to beat off and move to Vermont!

The irony here is that once again, a behavior the right has aggressively accused the left of participating in, despite that fact that it is truly fringe-left behavior, has now been embraced by MAINSTREAM conservatives.

Yes - an anonymous MoveOn.org member compared Bush to Hitler and yes Ward (Who?) Churchill wrote about "Little Eichmanns" working in the WTC. Beyond those two examples - and the comments by Durbin dutifully noted by GG in this post - I can't think of any MAINSTREAM Liberal or Dem politician or pundit who maintains the Nazi smear as part of their regular rhetorical bag-of-tricks.

Bill O'Reilly tossing this smear around is of far greater weight and consequence than that progressive titan Ward Churchill.

I can buy that Mitt Romney is a true "believer" in his faith, but John McCain? Does John McCain really believe?

I suppose that in a way by referring to McCain's "religious pander" in the name of this post, you are asking a similar question.

One wonders how much time politicians like McCain spend participating in religious ceremonies pretending that they believe in god.

One also wonders how effective a "pander" false piety really is. Anecdotally, it would seem that it is pretty effective. Anonymous Christian to GW Bush in 2001, paraphrased: "I finally feel like we've got God in the White House."

I would imagine that McCain's belief in god, if he ever had one, was snuffed out at some point during his torturous multi-year captivity in Hanoi.

I was going to talk about the concept of "Eurabia" - the conservative meme that Europe has already fallen to the Muslim scourge and that god-fearing Christians are regularly dispatched with prejudice in every public square through the exercise of sharia law. Anyone who has ever been to Europe must realize how silly these ideas are. I would hope that even those who haven't visited Europe realize that this is pure fantasy. I think most do.

I was about to say that anyone who has been to Europe will tell you that it bears no resemblance to... To what? To the fantasy visions of genuine Muslim countries that these people carry around in their heads?

We must remember that for many Muslim-hating conservatives, the entire Muslim world consists of a series of giant, open-air prison camps where violence is everywhere and the sun never shines. Muslim culture can only produce abject shitholes where women are locked up and men behead one-another in the streets. This is the case everywhere - except in Free Iraq where GW has sowed the seeds of freedom and in Gaza, where Israel has catered to every Palestinian need.

Remember the OUTRAGE at Michael Moore for his depiction of pre-invasion Iraq in Fahrenheit 9/11? Children playing with kites, people smiling, families enjoying meals in restaurants - THAT'S NOT WHAT LIFE IS LIKE IN A MUSLIM COUNTRY.

That's so good!

Romney really disappointed his constituency in Massachusetts by effectively doing NOTHING. He's difficult to criticize as governor because he really didn't do anything WRONG - but he didn't really accomplish anything, either.

I think he revealed his true colors during the 2004 presidential campaign when he arguably abused his "bully pulpit" as governor to shit on John Kerry. Not nice, Mr. Romney. We remember.

I hope the Repubs nominate Giuliani so he can disassembled into oblivion through scrutiny in the course of a week or two, like what happened to Bernard Kerik. One hopes that there are dozens of secrets about Rudy that people are biting their tongues to tell unless/until he gets the nomination.

I poked around her website:

http://www.marlaolmstead.com/mainwork.html

In the Gallery there are a handful of exceptionally beautiful paintings. It looks like they are largely listed best to worst... The top three, Sunflower, Burning Ball and Fairy Map are riveting.

*Somebody* is creating these beautiful pieces of art.

I wonder who?

After what "we" did to Al Gore in 2000, we don't deserve him.

Al Gore will live happier and longer traveling the world and doing the things that he wants to do - the things that would be impossible for a President to do in this day and age.

At this point in his life, the Presidency would probably serve to leech the lifeforce out of Gore, and he deserves better than that.

He is a true American hero. Those of us who appreciate him need to protect him from the evil he'd be in for from these fundamentally MEAN people on the right whose currency is hate and slander. Can anyone imagine Rush Limbaugh or Michelle Malkin giving ANY Gore initiative a fair shake?

Live long and happy, Al. Stay away from Washington.