“Today marks the start of direct negotiations between someone who has no right to represent the Palestinian people and the brutal occupier, to provide a cover for Judaizing Jerusalem and stealing the land,” Zahar said.

While refrigerator filters may be rare in Israel, straight talk is even rarer, so let me ask the Obama Administration a straight question: Do you STILL think Israel’s the roadblock to peace, here?

Give me a break…

The GOP has a solid conservative in Tom Emmer, but he’s a two-time loser when it comes to DWI charges, and that’s one time too many in my book. You can have all the “right values” in the world, and if you don’t live by them, who cares? It’s going to be hard to cast a vote for Emmer as things stand now.

Trouble is, who else is there? The Dem’s best candidate, Matt Entenza, might have won me over, but finished a distant third. The winner, Mark Dayton, is and always will be a 9-11 coward in my book. He embarrassed the state enough by serving a term as US Senator; he’s done nothing to earn a reprieve from me… and he’d raise taxes uncontrollably.

Then there’s Independence Party candidate Tom Horner… a former speechwriter for GOP Senator Dave Durenburger back in the Reagan Era. Ehh. So what? He supports gay marriage and huge tax hikes, so he’s still a non-starter for me, as well as a nobody.

I’m really tempted to sit this election cycle out. With Entenza gone, there’s just no one to feel good about voting for.

While stations posted digital camcorder reviews of the night’s election results, mand Sony Handycams were in use as reporters rushed to track down the latest poll counts. Certain there were also many camcorders crowding the halls of all three Minnesota political parties, hoping to get that golden soundbyte that could encapsulate the night.

In fact, it is WonderfulPessimist.com’s belief that the DFL blew it tonight. Party nominee Margaret Anderson Kelliher held a narrow, 41-to-40.9 percent lead over veteran Democrat Mark Dayton for the nod, and either one is certain to be less appealing to mainstream Minnesota voters than Matt Entenza, who was running with former Fox 9 News co-anchor, Robyn Robinson.

Entenza is just as leftist as Kelliher and Dayton, but he has the advantage of a great “small town Minnesota kid made good” back-story that is unlike anything Kelliher or Dayton bring to the table.

Kelliher is a polarizing figure unlikely to appeal to tweener voters; her anti-Bush-centric primary campaign showed her to be out of step and out-of-tune with voters in a year when most voters no longer blame the current economy on Bush and Bush alone, but are disillusioned with Barak Obama. She played attack-style politics from the word “go” without ever stopping to make a strong, ideas-and-issues-based argument for why she would make a good governor.

By contrast, Dayton is an equally polarizing figure, but for different reasons; Minnesotans remember him as the cowardly Senator who fled Washington over a terrorist threat about an anthrax attack that never materialized; he retired after one term, in disgrace, and is hoping Minnesota voters have a short memory when it comes to his cowardice.

Both will be vulnerable to an effective campaign by Emmer, especially if he focused as much on ideas as he does on his opponents. Entenza would have been another story; he is the one candidate Emmer would have no chance against… basically because he’s likable.

Too bad he won’t get the chance. He looks great on any digital camcorde.

If there is a sea-change in Congress, however, the GOP should be aware that it is not necessarily a shift toward conservatism that is fueling the current unrest, but a vast disillusionment with the Obama campaign promises versus the delivered results. While the GOP could turn the electorate toward conservatism, they will have to do more to accomplish that than ride the current wave of anti-incumbent discontent.

To turn this into a pro-GOP movement, the Republicans must sell their alternative ideas the the electorate as a solution to the current Carter-like national malaise, all the way up and down the socio-economic ladder from the blue collar worker to the wholesaler to the CEOs.

Otherwise, any re-taking of the reigns in Washington will be purely temporary and could easily shift against them a couple election cycles down the line; heck, it could even ensure the re-election of Barak Obama, if they play their cards unwisely. Make it about ideas, not ethics.

That’s a tough, tough sell. Even if he were wearing some sharp-looking Ugg boots, it’d be a tough sell.

When Reagan faced a tough transition in 1982, his message was notably different and summed up by the phrase, “Stay the course.” It was a theme that said, “What we’re doing is working… Just give us a little longer.” And it worked.

That’s not the same message at all as “It’d be worse without us.” Could this be 1994 all over again? Let’s hope so!

In whining about the challenges for getting his upcoming documentary, The Secret History of America, made, Stone hauled out the old, racist, anti-Semitic slur about “Jewish domination of the media.”

Stone cited this ghost-foe as the main reason it was such a struggle to get the documentary, in which he alleges secret US support of Adolph Hitler, made. Stone, who defended not only Hitler, but his modern protege, Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinijad, as well in an interview with the Sunday Times.

Among his more outrageous comments?

“Hitler did far more damage to the Russians than the Jewish people, 25 or 30 [million killed],” Stone said. “The Jewish domination of the media [explains the focus on the Holocaust]. There’s a major lobby in the United States. They are hard workers. They stay on top of every comment, the most powerful lobby in Washington. Israel has f***** up United States foreign policy for years.”

The Anti-Defamation League’s Abe Foxman called Stone on the carpet in a press release, in which he said, “Oliver Stone has once again shown his conspiratorial colors with his comments about “Jewish domination of the media” and control over U.S. foreign policy. His words conjure up some of the most stereotypical and conspiratorial notions of undue Jewish power and influence.”

Of course, by Monday Stone had issued the typical, by-rote obligatory non-apology apology, but hopefully it’s too little, too late and Stone will soon be sharing a lake cabin and a Canon camera with folks like Mel Gibson.

Repealing health care reform? Sounds good to me! Someone needs to staunch the bleeding of our nation’s pocketbooks by President Obama, and Franken has made it clear he and his Democrat allies simply aren’t interested in, let alone up to, the job. So I say, fire up the electric fireplaces and let’s roast us some incumbents. Incumbent s’mores, anyone?

Australia had its coldest day in 100 years this weekend, while the City of Angels recorded a temp of 69 degrees in mid-July… one of the coldest on record, with a day from 10 years ago coming closest to being that chilly.

So while Algore fights off sex charges and cries about global warming, it’s pretty clear that the evidence keeps piling up that either there is no consensus anymore, or it was premature at best to claim there is one.

It’s getting cooler of late, folks, not warmer. Global warming theory’s about as useful as broken fitness equipment.

Just because a guy makes a movie about Jesus doesn’t make him a saint; Gibson got in trouble a few years ago for an anti-Semitic rant, and now Gibson’s proving his heart’s still in the same place: unrepentant.

The latest target of his hate-speech are blacks, as Gibson was recorded using the N-word frequently. I wonder if Danny Glover’s been told? After four Lethal Weapon movies, you’d think he might have something to say on the matter.

Anyway, even the best weight loss pills in the world won’t make Gibson attractive around Hollywood after this; William Morris Agency has dropped him as a client, and it’s all downhill from there, Mel.

And it essentially completes Limbaugh’s move to Florida, breaking ties with the state that launched him to national stardom. Limbaugh has spent most of his time in Florida for the past several years, but the sale of his Manhattan apartment completes the severing of his Big Apple ties.

NBA superstar LeBron James chose Miami over New York when he decided to move from Cleveland in free agency, and the choice is estimated to keep an additional $12-$20 million in James’ pockets over the next five seasons. That’s not chump change, even for LeBron. It could even pay for a lot of much-needed adult acne treatments.

When will New York learn that raising taxes pushes people away and lowering them draws people in, creating a larger tax base pool to draw from?

Well, probably never; the state’s eternally Blue…

Democratic governors are concerned primarily on the basis of how it could cost the party seats in this fall’s mid-term elections; they may not disagree with the challenge… they just want to win re-election first. Meanwhile, the GOP is warning how Obama’s bullying is basically an attempt by the Fed to grow its power even further beyond its Constitutionally-defined powers to make basically every law as something to be defined and decided at the Federal level.

That’s not a Constitutional Republic, folks; it’s socialism, and it’s about as useful as a 10-year-old taking prenatal vitamins.

Although he later claimed to have been involved for only a year or so, documents have surfaced showing his fascination with the KKK lasted for perhaps as much as a decade. Also, his public voting record of opposing black nominees while in officer certainly does little to ameliorate his claims to a changed heart.

As the politics of the nation shifted, Byrd made public claims to changing with them, but as recently as 2001 had made public comments in which the “N-word” was uttered by him, though in that case it was uttered in reference to white people. Despite the Democratic party’s modern image as the party of racial diversity, they tolerated Byrd and his record of bigotry right up until his death, throwing out every possible defense to protect him, including Kohler kitchen sinks.

While WonderfulPessimist.com appreciates the grief of those who will miss Byrd as an individual – a father, grandfather and so forth – it would be disingenuous to pretend this site mourns his passing. His membership in the U.S. Senate was a stain on this nation’s history, and only as time goes by can it ever be expected to fade from memory.

That being said, we do hope he made peace with his creator and found truth and forgiveness with him prior to his passing.