Thespis Review: The Drowsy Chaperone

Here is something all too rarely said about Broadway shows any more: The Drowsy Chaperone is laugh-out-loud funny! It seemed like everyone in the theater was having a great time, and there were lots of stops for rolling audience laughter. I was left with the distinct impression that the audiences for this show vary widely, and we were not one of the liveliest groups Bob Martin has witnessed in the last few weeks. Mr. Martin, co-author of the book, and Tony nominee for his performance in this tribute to old-fashioned musicals, keeps the audience in the game from the moment the curtain goes up and the lights go dim-and stay dim as he launches into his opening monologue.

This breezy night at the theater blows by before you have time to think about where you might stop after the show. Bob Martin is at ease chatting with the audience as if those people gathered in the Marquis Theatre were a single, close friend; the Man decides to share with us one of his favorite bubbly-as-champagne musical comedies of the 1920's: The Drowsy Chaperone. As he pulls out the record (yes, a record album) and sets it on the turntable, he sighs that its scratchy sound is like a time machine starting up -- and, just like that, the refrigerator doors become a magic portal through which the madcap characters of the old musical enter one by one. They introduce themselves and set up the story of the show in the effervescent opening number, "Fancy Dress."

The show within the show is light as air; the characters and relationships have the density of cotton candy, the plot twists are ridiculously simple and easily spotted from the top row of the mezzanine, and there is (of course) a happy ending. It's all about being whisked away to another time and place that is more joyous and full of color than everyday life in the present.

We see the entire show through the eyes of Bob Martin (portraying the man in the chair) as he colorfully narrates and comments as the story unfolds. His rollicking commentary on the singing, plot twists, and song lyrics keep this Tony nominated show moving at a frenzied pace.
Unfortunately, as an audience member, I am two-for-two in missing Tony Award winning performers. Beth Leavel, who won the Tony for featured actress in a musical, was absent on this steaming July night and her stand-in was adequate. You can tell that someone, and something, else is needed in this pivotal role.

Sutton Foster is divine, and she was there (unlike other "stars") singing and dancing in her own heavenly manner. It is worth it to see this show just to see Ms. Foster in the stunning number, “Show Off.” Her physicality and choreographed staging in this “star” number is career making almost on its’ own. Sutton Foster possesses a captivating voice and style that is unmatched in its timbre on the Broadway stage of 2006.

Other notable performances are given by Georgia Engle of The Mary Tyler Moore show as Mrs. Tottendale, and Danny Burstein as Aldolpho. These two are comedic geniuses at work! Their slapstick comedy is totally unique on Broadway today.

But, it’s the laughter which captures the essence of this show. The Drowsy Chaperone provides more than ninety minutes of full, frolic, and escape time from anything realistic, and it does so in a sophisticated method. While there are undertones of bawdy humor, these undercurrents remain understated and it is apparent that the authors make no attempt at sending any lame, socialist, liberal commentary to our political leaders. The creators, designers and performers provide us with old-fashioned show-stopping numbers, great Ensemble acting, and a quality product free from political statements and Disney scams.

Thespis Review: Jersey Boys

Attending The Jersey Boys at the August Wilson on Tuesday night was an exhilarating, if not enthralling experience. This winner of the 2006 Tony Award for best new musical has been derided as another just another link in the chain of jukebox musicals. Starting with Smokey Joe’s Café in 1995, a great Broadway show, it’s been quite a ride for these formularized, fabricated inventions camouflaged as Broadway musicals.

With no new music composed for this production, and a seemingly endless succession of 1960’s pop tunes laced together with a partially fictionalized story Jersey Boys has a surface appearance of everything wrong with the Disneyfied wasteland that has become too routine on the boards over the last decade. Mama Mia had to be the greatest tragedy of the genre, with Good Vibrations being the greatest commercial failure. There’s little doubt that all of these shows have on things in common: high wattage is too often substituted for a good book with sing-able plot-rich melodies, and Jersey Boys is no exception in this category. The sound wattage revs up at just the right moments and repeatedly elicits thunderous applause from the mostly fifty-something’s who comprise the audience.

But, like Dreamgirls before it, there is a story in Jersey Boys, and along with riveting choreography and vintage costuming, The Boys will keep you entertained and even mesmerized for the full two hours and thirty minutes.

The story goes something like this: Frankie Castelluccio is a fifteen year old who sings like an angel. He's living in the suburbs in New Jersey, destined to be a barber, until he meets Tommy DeVito, a savvy hustler with a guitar and a vision. Tommy's the guy who can get Frankie out of Jersey. Nick Massi, another guy with a musical gift, joins up with them, but trios are out, quartets are in. Where's the fourth man for the group? Little Joey Fishes (that's Pesci—yeah, that Joe Pesci) finds him, a prodigy named Bob Gaudio; Frankie's wife Mary tells him to spell his stage name with an "i" at the end instead of a "y" (that would be: Valli); and the neon sign of the Four Seasons Lounge gives them their new name. Gaudio writes songs and he comes up with the smash hit that will give Frankie and the boys their own distinctive sound and turn them into superstars.

After several false starts, Gaudio pens a thing that goes something like this:
She - e - e-e-e-e-ry baby (Sherry baby) She - e - rry, can you come out tonight?
The song, Sherry, produces the first thunder-clapping explosion in the house for the evening-especially for the majority of the audience who came prepared to sing along with anything that sounded remotely familiar to them.

And the rest, as they say, is history.

Especially when, in Act Two, creators Marshall Brickman and Rick Elice (who wrote the astonishingly strong book) and Des McAnuff (director, providing the most consistently exciting and effective staging of a Broadway musical since Bennett's Dreamgirls) somehow work the miracle again. The group has broken up, and Frankie's family has broken up too. Frankie's working hard to pay off Tommy's gambling debts, but the Four Seasons just aren't generating the hits like they used to. Gaudio's written him a solo number, but nobody'll record it, nobody'll play it, nobody wants it. But Bob and Frankie BELIEVE in it and so, wham, they finally finally get it on the radio and it goes like this”

“You're just too good to be true. Can't take my eyes off you…”
The crowd roars as soon as they hear the familiar melody of Can’t Take My Eyes Off of You. And when those horns come in for the chorus (just before "I love you, baby, / And if it's quite alright, / I need you, baby, / To warm a lonely night")—because Gaudio had promised Frankie a whole horn section back in Act One, when they were kids, dreaming of success; and now here are the horns live on stage! Well, when those horns come in, the palpable electricity in the house reaches a rolling boil.

Michael Longoria, future household name and current under-study for Tony-Award winner John Lloyd Young, was marvelous in the dazzling role of Franki Valli. Longoria barely left the stage the entire night which might explain the high absence rate of J.L. Young. Longoria sings and sings, and has to really act during the more extended book scenes in Act II. He is charming and innocent, yet believable in the tragic scenes where his daughter dies. Longoria demonstrates a full range of vivid emotions, and keeps singing and dancing with magnetic enegryfor more than two hours.

The real stars of this production however, are the other members of the four seasons. Tony Award Winner Christian Hoff, J. Robert Spencer, and Daniel Reichard give stupendous performances in roles that demand greatness. They are polished, engaging actors who sing and truly dance! WOW! These performers made the entire evening worth it. The crisp movements so highly identified with the early sounds of the 1960’s are executed to perfection by these singing actors.

With sets moving everywhere and continuously on the stage, and characters entering and exiting at a break-neck pace, there is not one dull moment in this show.

There is something about the profile of a majority of the audience members in this show. Too many of them know the songs and came to sing along. When cell phones were banned in New York, it is unfortunate that singing along was banned as well. No one paid to hear you sing the songs-Buy the CD, and sing them at home.

Finally, I must mention that Jersey Boys is a picture perfect show. Enhanced by dynamic lighting (another Tony Award for this show), there are more than a dozen moments when the stage pictures freeze for just a few fleeting moments in order to allow some much needed reflection in this fast paced show reminiscent of the jarring, flashing from scene to scene TV shows developed in the 1990’s.

Jersey Boys warrants a trip the August Wilson Theater-just don’t count on seeing the Tony Award winning actor, John Lloyd Young. Michael Longoria is great, and if you go expecting to see him, you will have a pleasant evening.

Update: You'll love this blog!

Ann Coulter Clips

Any fan of Ann Coulter will enjoy these video clips. YouTube can be wonderful.

Ann Coulter with Matt Lauer on Today discussing her wonderful book:GODLESS. The Best of Ann Coulter

Ann Coulter Strikes Back, Ann Coulter on HardBall, Michelle Malkin with her original video: Coultermania.

All of these video links are great! And for your weekend reading pleasure, here are some timeless quotes by the ever creative, original, and colorful Ann:

By 1973, John Kerry had already accused American soldiers of committing war crimes in Vietnam, thrown someone else's medals to the ground in an anti-war demonstration, and married his first heiress.

Democrats couldn't care less if people in Indiana hate them. But if Europeans curl their lips, liberals can't look at themselves in the mirror.

If John Kerry had a dollar for every time he bragged about serving in Vietnam - oh wait, he does. If we're so cruel to minorities, why do they keep coming here? Why aren't they sneaking across the Mexican border to make their way to the Taliban?

We should invade their countries, kill their leaders and convert them to Christianity. We weren't punctilious about locating and punishing only Hitler and his top officers. We carpet-bombed German cities; we killed civilians. That's war. And this is war.

The great one: Ann Coulter. Go buy your copy of GODLESS today. It's worth it!

We're not for Blackwell, but...

I'm not supporting Ken Blackwell for Ohio Governor, but ridiculous attacks from Hilary Clinton and Chuck Schumer don't make it more likley that Strickland will be elected. In fact, these divisive voices will bring out the rural and suburban republican voters likely to stay home at this moment. Clinton and Schumer need to stay out of Ohio-they aren't going to help Ohio's Schools by interfering, and raising the liberal profile of Ted Strickland. Belive it or not, the Dayton Daily Democrat has it right this time.

For one thing, secretary of state is an elective office. If Democrats didn't want Mr. Blackwell to have it, they needed to beat him. They can't lose an election and then demand that their vanquisher curtail his own responsibilities. At least they can't without looking absurd.

Second, the secretary of state doesn't really run elections. That's the job of county elections boards — which have equal numbers of Democrats and Republicans. They decide how many voting machines will go where. They count the ballots.

Furthermore, Project Logic has a factual word or two to say about the latest Ohio Polls. Also, a reminder from earlier this week, the Keeler Report flushes out the Dispatch Poll.

A message to Hilary and Chuckie: Ohio has real Red State Credentials!

Ghost Light

Ben Magnusun of Kettering, Ohio is currently playing Sweeney Todd on Broadway at The Eugene O'Neill Theater on 49th Street. He is wonderful in this imaginative re-creation of Stephen Sondheim's masterpiece. You will enjoy reading more about him at Broadway.com. Anyone up for a trip to the city this weekend to see Ben, Patti, Michael and the enitre cast of Sweeney? When I saw the show in June it was absolutely marvelous!

Check out the DreamGirls movie fan site for video of the upcoming movie. The anticipation for this movie is reaching fever pitch.

This review of SHOUT:The Mod Musical will make you want to laugh! Shout doesn't seem to be worth the price of the ticker. Also, check out the New York Daily News.

The Education Wonk blasts the Department of Education for another flawed, big government intervention into the schools.

Ian brings us the latest on the nut-house also known as Cindy Sheehan.

Don Surber brings us the latest on the Cynthia McKinney run-off. Neal Boortz wants Cindy to win-let's keep her around to kick around!

Dr. Sanity brings her particular brand of sanity to the current WAR going on in the Middle East. The Doctor really knows her stuff!

Sister Toldjah has a reminder about Jimmy Carter: Kook former President.

Stop the ACLU is relentless in pursuing the Senator Santorum, weapons of mass destruction in Iraq story! I wish that I had the expertise of Oak Leaf at Stop The ACLU.

Enjoy this hot July weekend, and remember to keep the Ghost Light on!

Ghost Light : Thespis' Glow

A Ghost Light: a light left on the stage overnight, or when the stage is not in use for safety. Also to fit with a superstition - to prevent the theatre from 'going dark' also known as the closing of a show.

Proof that men should be banned from going shirtless! Be certain to look at the Gallery.

Dick Morris has it right again:

While Clinton said he embraced the need for Israeli security, when the going got rough, he bowed to world opinion and called for a cease-fire. When the United States asks Israel to stop fighting, it is like a boxer’s manager throwing in the towel. The bottom line is that true friends of Israel cannot afford to let the Democrats take power in Washington.

The Keeler Political Report has come clarifying information on those disturbing polls that came out of the Columbus Dispatch the past weekend. We are looking for some clarification on the true state of the polls in Ohio. Blackwell is certainly in trouble, but nothing is certain at this point.

I think it is a true reflection of Ohio Politics when grassroots voters in the largely suburgan and rural counties say that they are here to stay! Somehow, these voters tend to get left out in the polls.

Joanne Jacobs tells about the new high school in Dayton which will be technology based. Dayton can TRY anything. Let's hope it works for them!

The Daily Grind has an excellent post on the lack of ability in today's students to educated choices. Sometimes, our stduents are simply babyied too much.

Scheiss Weekly cites some home-shooling parent characterisitics that we have noticed too.

We are hoping to make Ghost Light a regular feature around here-to keep the show from closing.

CNN's Anderson Cooper: Looking for all the good in Hezbollah

I'm in the middle of reading Ann Coulter's latest best-selling book, GODLESS. It may be her best book yet, and is useful for everyone who gets too busy to follow up on all of the foolish, fabricated stories that the drive-by media generates in the course of two-three months. A review of her book will be forth-coming.

This post by Anderson Cooper will probably be in the first chapter of Ann's next book, CLUELESS. Poor CNN, they can't get a grip on reality and realize why their ratings are so terribly low.

Wizbang has so much more.
Jack Kingston of Georgia started it all

Two Legendary Shows Coming to Broadway

It looks as if the long awaited Broadway revival of THE WIZ will finally make it to New York in the Spring of 2007. THE WIZ is simply one of the best Broadway musicals written in the last sixty years. It is highly entertaining, has infectuous even contagious music, and is beloved by audiences all across the United States. Try to forget the abhorent movie-it was a phenomenal disaster. Film makers forgot the the formula of THE WIZ was the story and the music. They altered the script to the point of it being unrecognizable, and mangled the score with interpolations and mascinations.

Here's looking forward to a great production of THE WIZ on broadway sometime in 2007.

The coverage over at Broadway World, Check out Broadway.com, Playbill

Message Board at Broadway World with lots of comments.

George Gershwin's Porgy and Bess is the greatest American Opera of the 20th Century. We reported earlier on an innovative production being staged in London. The soaring melodies of Progy and Bess along with the compellling storyline make this a classic of Opera Houses all over the world. Many people tend to forget that Porgy first appeared on Broadway in 1935. This fascinating production should be a not-to-be-missed moment on Broadway whenever it may arrive. The glorious tunes of Porgy and Bess include, "Summertime," "My Man's Gone Now," "Bess, You Is My Woman Now," "A Woman is a Sometime Thing," and "Oh Lord, I'm On My Way." WOW! What a show! If the production is a really strong one, I hope it runs for ten years!

The New York Times article on the production, Playbill,

DREAMGIRLS: The Movie

I sincerely hope that the Director and the Producers of the upcoming film of DREAMGIRLS did not ruin the great integrated storyline, music, and legacy of house quaking, show-stopping moments produced by this awe-inspiring Broadway show. There is a great deal of publicity available, and everywhere I turn lately, there is a revival of interest in DREAMGIRLS and the upcoming movie. There is a lot of pre-show buzz about an academy award. Without a doubt, this buzz is generated by a well-oiled public relations machine trying to cultivate an image for DREAMGIRLS as unstoppable.

DREAMGIRLS is a dream of a show. The essence of the vintage music and costumes, the overtones of the great struggle for civil rights, and the powerful, often fiery affecting outbursts are rounded out with the evocation of the vivid range of human emotion.

I saw DREAMGIRLS once on Broadway at The Imperial Theater in August, 1984. Roz Ryan portrayed Effie Melody White in the production at that time! WOW! What a show! The audience was able to stop the show several times, but the reaction to “And I Am Tellin’ You I’m Not Goin’” was one of the most spontaneous explosions that I have ever witnessed in the live theater.

With much trepidation, I look forward to the movie. It is exciting to see the trailers, read the publicity, and hope for a great movie of this rarely produced musical. Enjoy all of the links.

The Offical Web Site of the DREAMGIRLS Movie
This is the DREAMGIRLS Fan Blog
Jennifer Holliday singing "I Am Changing" on stage at the Imperial Theater/OBC
Holliday once again, this time at the 1982 Tony Awards singing her signature piece, And I Am Telllin' You..
The Making of DREAMGIRLS
This 1988 Theater Works rendition of MOVE is wonderful. Watch the Effie in the center-she can really move! This is a MUST SEE!!!

Fabulous Sunday Reading

Here's a list of the things we are reading today, ENJOY!

The Carnival of the Insanities-Special Middle East Edition. Dr. Sanity has done it again! There's lots of laughs, and other great posts!

Michelle Malkin has the Black-out in Queens covered! Forget the Daily News and the Post. Just read Michelle!

The Fair Tax passed by 85% in the three counties surrounding Atlanta! WOW!

Darren at Right on the Left Coast has a response for the Sacremento Bee editorial that blasts the NEA. Even a cursory reading demonstrates that the Newspaper, and Darren don't quite get it! Accountability is a great idea! Accountability measures must be fair to students, teachers, and communities. There is a lot more to this issue than the Newspaper or Darren take time admit!

I have looked over at The Conservative Outpost for the third time to see this posting: Hell Hath No Fury... It is must read, you'll love it!

Michelle Malkin blasts the Treason Times for their latest disclosure. The reference to Japan, 1945 is proceless!

I think that MsUnderestimated speaks for many Americans when she says, "Did I Ask You To Vacation in Beruit? She speaks my thoughts exactly!!

The Education Wonk has another take on the public vs. private school discussion. Like most people, The Wonk tends to view the situation simplistically, and fails to properly acknowledge the fundamental apples/oranges issues which plauge most of this debate!

LaShawn Barber has up a great post: Big Blue Balls and Other Stuff. LaShawn espouses strongly Christian values in this wonderful post. Take time to read it, especially if you did not go to church today.

You have to see this news story, courtesy of YouTube that profiles Jennifer Hudson. Hudson will portray Effie Melody White in the upcoming movie of the legendary Broadway musical, DREAMGIRLS!

Jonathon Larson's Tick, Tick...Boom will appear at the Schuster Center

The Dayton Daily News is reporting on an upcoming production of Jonathon Larson's (RENT) other musical, Tick, Tick...Boom that will be presented Mathile Theater in the Schuster Center for the performing arts.
Tick, Tick . . . Boom!, Jonathan Larson's "other" musical, opens tonight in the Mathile Theatre of the Schuster Center, where a 6-year-old, but little known group called the Encore Theater Company is launching plans to present an annual season of new and underexposed musicals.

Tick, Tick is definitely in the latter category. Larson wrote it in 1990 as a one-character show called 30/90 as he was nearing 30. He is, of course, best known for Rent, which opened on Broadway in 1996 hours after he died.

At 31, which includes several years of trying to write musicals himself, Encore artistic director David Brush can relate.

He and managing director Jim Farley came tantalizingly close to a breakthrough a few years ago with their show Summer of My German Soldier, which was a finalist in the Chicago Stages Festival and was presented in a Washington, D.C., workshop.

"Rent-heads will love it. Those who are drawn to off-Broadway avant-garde material will want to see it. Plus, it's just a great rock show," Brush said.

Tick, Tick....Boom had a very successful off-broadway run, and should be most enjoyable to audiences. It seems that there are only two performances. Look for tickets online at Ticket Center Stage. Anyone attending the show who would like to write a review, please submit it, and I would be thrilled to post it!

Let me know your thoughts on this regional premiere.

You Gotta Be Kiddin' Me....

This story just in courtesy of the Xenia Daily Gazette and WHIO-TV Channel 7:

XENIA -- Local children gathered at the Xenia branch of the Greene County Library on Thursday morning to showcase their reading abilities to a very captive audience -- dogs.

As part of the library's summer reading program, children were invited to spend the morning reading books to local therapy dogs who spend their time with children, visiting hospitals and helping with physical therapy.

"Children from kindergarten to sixth grade are able to take part in the summer reading program," Children's Librarian Lindy MorganMoore said.

"Children who come to the library regularly in the months of June, July and August can earn free books."

The therapy dogs trained through the Miami Valley Pet Therapy program.

Sophie, a 6-year-old Great Pyrenees has been coming to the library for three years and laid down on the couch while 7-year-old Ethan Manley read her a story.

"My favorite book is Green Eggs and Ham," Manley said.

St. Brigid sixth grader Margaret Lehmankular first read to a 3-year-old pug named Dixie before moving on to read "Show and Tell Sam" to Sophie.

"Dixie is new to pet therapy but loves it! Kids are her forte and she has taken really easy to the program," owner Melody McCallister said.

"She is really a people dog."

The library's summer reading program will continue into August with upcoming events being "Party till the Cows Come Home Family Night" on Monday and a Children's book sale for all ages on Aug. 2.

Maybe I'm loosing it. After a long day of blogging and other intensive activities on Thursday, I am partially watching the eleven o'clock news WHIO TV Channel 7 in Dayton. A story comes on about children reading to therapy dogs at the library as part of the summer reading program. My friend the pyschologist happens to be watching the news with me. I ask him, was that a real news story? Almost Dr. Kevin replies by throwing his hands in the air and saying that he couldn't speak for the validity of such a counseling technique?

I am still thinking, is this story for real? Is their really value in having the children read to dogs? DOGS??! I am certain that there are plenty of adults of all ages: brothers, sisters, aunts, uncles, and maybe even a lowly public school teacher willing to listen to these young people read a story. And, am I correct in thinking that an appropriate human response would enrich and enoble the experience of reading aloud? I read aloud to many people when I was in firstm second, third, and fourth grades, but I NEVER was invited to read for a dog!

Surely this story is of sufficient merit to qualify for this weeks Carnival of the Insanities over at Dr. Sanity!

Environmental Republican
Another Insanity over at Hot Air

Liberals: Born To Run!

Ann Coulter is precisely on target with her column this week! There is good reason why her new book "Godless" has been in the top three on the New York Times bestseller list since its' debut last month.

Some have argued that Israel's response is disproportionate, which is actually correct: It wasn't nearly strong enough. I know this because there are parts of South Lebanon still standing.
The fact that Israel is able to launch an attack on Hezbollah today without instantly inciting a multination conflagration in the Middle East is proof of what Bush has accomplished. He has begun to create a moderate block of Arab leaders who are apparently not interested in becoming the next Saddam Hussein.
There's been no stock market crash, showing that the markets have confidence that Israel will deal appropriately with the problem and that it won't expand into World War III.
But liberals can never abandon the idea that we must soothe savage beasts with appeasement — whether they're dealing with murderers like Willie Horton or Islamic terrorists. Then the beast eats you!

Ann Coulter remains the strongest voice of common sense conservatives in America today.

While Fox News is reporting with substantial documentation that the American evacuation is the envy of the world, the liberals are out there blaming America first for all the problems of the Middle East.

Faulty News Templates for the Middle East

Kofi Annan, Secretary General of the United Nations July 20, 2006: “I repeat, hostilities must stop!”

If Kofi Annan had been speaking for the United Nations in 1944 as the tide of World War II turned strongly in favor of the allies, he no doubt would have insisted that the allies cease hostilities and permit Adolf Hitler time to re-arm his nation and murder more of his people. In fact, had the United Nations been around in 1940, there would have been voices insisting that the world take more time to truly understand the motivations of Japan and Germany. Applying today’s paradigm of thought to the 1940’s would have allowed America’s freethinking, socialist sophists to construct an elaborate, nuanced response that would have left Hirohito and Hitler in power well into the 1960’s. Fortunately for all of us, the prevailing thinking of the 1940’s demanded that we fight and win wars in the quickest manner possible. The constant equivocating of good and evil, which hangs like a musty scrim over today’s liberals, took a backseat to the world-wide struggle of good versus evil in World War II. The grayish miasma of leftist quibbling with the strong articulation the values of liberty, freedom, capitalism, and equality by our President and military apparatus had no place in the total victory for the allied powers in the great wars of the twentieth century.

Unfortunately for those of us present at the dawn of World War III, essential lessons of World War II are being ignored in favor of political posturing on the part of nearly every elected democrat public official. Domestically, we are experiencing a trivial political debate full of daily dogmatic drivel. A calculated strategy that is regularly employed by the liberals is to insist that the United States work with the United Nations. This notion of deference for the views of the United Nations is not a part of the autonomy that has served the United States throughout our history. Strident voices of the left are crying out in accord led by Jack Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Joe Biden, Chris Dodd, and others blaming the Bush administration for failing at diplomacy for these past five years. These so-called leaders of the opposition seem to have diplomacy confused with appeasement, and along with Madeleine Albright, they seem to have all of the administrations flaws at their finger tips at any moment.

I am sorry that the United States of America must continue to participate in the charade at the so-called United Nations. The UN has become completely irrelevant, corrupt and useless. The mainstream media in our country has a glaring and unmet obligation to inform citizens of the culture of corruption which exploded at the UN under Mr. Anann’s leadership. The oil for food scandal and the correlating nepotism have not made their way into our national consciousness. Anyone who has any abiding faith in the ability of the United Nations to positively impact events in the Middle East is a fool!

There is some general concurrence on the useless nature of the United Nations in the 21st Century.

The gyrations of the United Nations on the terrorism raging in the middle east is all part of the great schematic template of thought being force fed to the American people by a mainstream media that has never been more treasonous. As if to please these voices of an imagined world unity, the American media cries for restraint on the part of Israel. These voices call strenuously for a proportionate response on the part of Israel. They say this as if another Israeli concession with bring a different result than those allowances that Israel has made in the past.

Despite the lessons of history, and the facts of the current conflict, the media uses its own predetermined model to tell their fictions from the Middle East.

The most pronounced example of a failed news template is the reporting emanating out of Lebanon, Israel and Iran this week. The reckless, tabloid, and adolescent reporting of the mainstream media is a dubious unison being sung by liberals in a prescribed, counterfeit harmony that pierces the realm of the harsh realities faced by the United States, Israel, and the world. Generally, the television networks and the work of their so-called reporters borders on an illusory sedition.

Whether you may watch CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS, or MSNBC the plotline is the same with the only variation being the order of the talking points to be used against President Bush.

A short list of the most egregious and flawed viewpoints overused by the mainstream media would include the following:

• Israel must have a proportionate response

The shrill, piercing, and constant cry for a “proportionate response” from Israel from disjointed voices across the networks is redundant and demonstrates a profound ignorance of the circumstances that led to this war. Countless stories are based on the misguided premise that Israel somehow owes the world a proportionate response for being repeatedly and randomly attacked.

• Condolezza Rice should travel immediately to the Middle East

Madeleine Albright, Anderson Cooper and others in the media have promulgated a superfluity of stories making it appear that Condoleeza Rice should immediately go to the Middle East. Their desire for immediate gratification in the arena of cosmetic diplomacy has nothing to do with winning the war. This convoluted strategy is fraught with failure, and President Bush is not going to accept advice from the enemies of his doctrine. Albright and others need to apply their proportionality mechanism to their constant cries for Condi to intervene immediately. Like children throwing a earsplitting tantrum, the repetitive call for Condi to travel to the region has no logical purpose or conclusion. Condi, ever the mature adult, has called for a framework to be in place that would alter the broken structure of a strained peace between Israel and her neighbors. Condi and the United Sates must pursue the policy that terrorists must be eliminated not pacified, soothed, and placated!

• The evacuation of US Citizens from Lebanon is a replay of the Katrina evacuation

Using narrow prism of faux caring, meticulously polished with a shining veneer of feigned concern, Nancy Pelosi and her willing accomplices in the elite media have generated countless stories this week regarding the evacuation of US citizens from Lebanon. In a politically motivated effort designed to manipulate the thinking of unsuspecting viewers, this evacuation has been repetitively compared to the Katrina victims stranded at the Superdome. Rush Limbaugh created a montage of statements by several media personalities documenting this obsession on the part of the media.

The answer will not come from me, will not come from you,. It won't even come from the New York Times. The answer will come from polls and focus groups. As Bob Dylan once sang, ladies and gentlemen, the answer, my friend, is blowing in the polls. (laughing) The Democrats, I'm sure they're out focus-grouping this right now. Now, they may have already had their answer handed to them by the Drive-By Media. Dingy Harry and Nancy Pelosi have returned to the scene of the original drive-by, which is Katrina. The Lebanon evacuation is just like that now. Here's a montage of various leftists.
JACK CAFFERTY: Remember Katrina? France has gotten more than 700 of their people out!

CHRIS JANSING: Sort of brought back, you know, the whole Katrina thing.

ANDERSON COOPER: It's like Katrina all over again.

NANCY PELOSI: Just another manifestation of the Katrina mentality.

HARRY REID: It is too bad that this is being treated as a mini Katrina.

ANDREA KOPPEL: The slow response that the Bush administration had after Katrina...

MILES O'BRIEN: One of the people we talked to earlier today equated it to...Katrina!

KATE SNOW: Some in Capitol Hill are bringing up memories of Hurricane Katrina.

DAVID SHUSTER: The image of Americans terrified has burned the Bush administration before following Hurricane Katrina.

PAULA ZAHN: You have heard Katrina, calling it "a mini-Katrina."

These robots in the media seem to expect the American people to lap up their version of the news like thirsty dogs on a hot July day. There are obvious comparisons to Katrina: these comparisons are so obvious that the elite, arrogant, liberal media chooses to ignore these real stories while they invent other tales in order to twist the reality that is so painfully obvious.

The failure of the state and local governments in New Orleans is a direct parallel to the failure of the United Nations. The local and state government agencies and officials are well matched with the incompetent and ineffective officials of the United Nations.

The citizens of New Orleans and the US citizens in Lebanon have individual accountability for their circumstances that is ignored by the mainstream media. Neither the situation in New Orleans or Lebanon was entirely unexpected. Therefore, the threshold of personal responsibility trumps government culpability in our system of government.

Our media will never provide it, but we need a dose of reality on the networks and in the newspapers. Let’s see a rash of news stories exposing the evils of Iran, Syria, Hezbolah, Hammas, and the United Nations. Let’s review the fundamental lessons of history when it comes to appeasing terrorists and dictators.

Peggy Noonan makes the point stronger than I ever could in her Wall Street Journal column of July 20:

The other day ABC News's Internet political report, The Note, argued that President Bush, in his then-upcoming veto statement and other presentations, had better be at the top of his game if he wants his party to hold on to Congress in 2006. "[Mr. Bush] is going to need to be focused and impressive, not easy pickings for the Rich-Krugman-Dowd-Stewart axis."

As I read I nodded: That's exactly true. What was significant is that The Note did not designate as Mr. Bush's main and most effective foes Pelosi, Dodd, Reid, Biden, et al. Mr. Bush's mightiest competitors are columnists and a comedian with a fake-news show.

This is one reason the media is important. (It's not "the media are" it's "the media is." People see the media as one big thing.)

One big reason the media is important is that they change things. And they lead. On 9/11 itself it was the media--anchors, reporters, crews sent to the scene, analysts--that functioned, for roughly 10 hours, as the most visible leaders of the United States. The president was on a plane; the vice president was in the bunker and on the phone. It was on-air journalists who informed, created a seeming order, and reassured the public by their presence and personas and professionalism.

So they're important. But very recently it seems to me they're important because it is from the media that Mr. Bush's most effective opposition--attacks on his nature and leadership, attacks on his policies--comes. Among the Democrats an op-ed columnist has more impact than a minority leader.

It is common wisdom that newspapers are over. But when the most powerful voices against a powerful president at a crucial time are op-ed jockeys, newspapers are not over. Or perhaps one should say paper may be over, but news is not.

Hear, Hear!

Supporting Evidence can be found: Wudrick Blog, Captain's Quarters, The New York Sun, The Wonderful Peggy Noonan, Hard AstarBoard, Perish The Thought-This is exactly what I have been thinking and saying!!, The marvelous Neal Boortz, Rush Limbaugh, The Mudville Gazette
Expose The Left, News Busters, Michelle Malkin,

New York City, Some Education Left-overs, and a Potpourri of Interesting Reading

"Crossing Over, Step by Step" an intriguing article in the New York Times about walking the gorgeous bridges that span the waterways leading to Manhattan from the East. It would be thrilling to take each of these walks. I have personally walked only the 59th Street Bridge of the Bridges described here. This walk was on the evening of the black out in August, 2003.

Speaking of Black-Outs, there was "Dark Warning" in Manhattan on Tuesday. I hope I am never in the city when there is a black out again!

Downsizing at the New York Times is one of the best pieces ever written at The American Thinker. Here's how the article begins:

A profitable company is to shutter a factory it built in 1992 as part of a much-hailed visionary strategy to take advantage of technology. But now it is just a cost to be cut. Eight hundred jobs, many of them well-paying blue collar positions (supposedly an endangered species) will disappear, while managerial and professional jobs are being protected.

Normally, this would be a juicy target for series of articles on the front and business pages of the New York Times. You know the drill: a parade of blue collar people victimized by the Bush administration, and now facing a bleak future. Meanwhile the insiders make out fine. There’s even a fat cat CEO whose compensation package has done a whole lot better than its profits or stock. If Howell Raines still were editor, he’d get at least 40 stories out of it.

But today, the company in question is the New York Times Company. So don’t expect the same rules to apply.

Nothing personal – it’s just business.

WOW! The New York Times has big issues!

The Sun Shines in "No Child" a new and compelling off-Broadway play. This sounds like a show for teachers to see this summer.

Speaking of "No Child Left Behind," Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings claims ignorance of a report out of HER OFFICE that demonstrates the relative parity to be found among achievements of public school and private school students. She also feigns ignorance as to why this report was released late on a Friday in summer. In fact, she says she prefers not to release information in this time honored manner of hiding a news story. Who is running your office anyway, Secretary Spellings?

The New York Daily News has the story on a new week-day morning program on the Fox Network coming this Fall. There won't be time for watching TV this autumn at 148 Home Avenue.

For anyone who attends or directs student instrumentalists, actors, dancers, or singers, you must see this wonderful post that speaks for all of us. Audience behavior at student performances has been on a steady decline for many years. Scheiss Weekly has this topic covered.

AJ Strata makes a point we've been making for a couple of weeks: let's hope Joe Lieberman loses the primary and wins the race! It punctuates the fringe, kook element that is alive and well in the democrat party!

Check Out The Party at TMH's Bacon Bits
Open Post at Stuck on Stupid

Public Vs. Private Schools

There is a very interesting editorial in the New york Times today regarding the quality of education at public and private schools. Here is the most revealing analysis:

The public, private, charter and religious realms all contain schools that range from good to not so good to downright horrendous.
This point was underscored last week when the United States Education Department released a controversial and long-awaited report comparing public and private schools in terms of student achievement as measured on the federal math and reading tests known as the National Assessment of Educational Progress. As with previous studies, this one debunked the widely held belief that public schools were inferior to their private and religious counterparts. The private schools appeared to have an achievement advantage when the raw scores of students were considered alone. But those perceived advantages melted away when the researchers took into account variables like race, gender and parents’ education and income.

Wow! Finally, a study that demonstrates what we have ALL known to be true: there is quality in the public school system. In fact, public schools sometimes out-perform the so-called champion schools, those darlings of the right wing: private schools! The hollow arguements made repeatedly as the false mantras for the anti-public school alliance are permanently undermined.

We have school choice within America. It is simply the unfulfilled responsibility of the political class to properly fund and oversee and educational program for all children K-12. Now, there are studies which demonstrate the success of public schools in direct comparsion with private education!

The study seems to begin the process of comparing apples to apples in this on-going and fervrent debate about public education.Let us compare apples to apples in comparing the academic achievement of students in all school systems. Let’s compare several students from several schools with two parents at home who are engaged in rearing the students. Let us compare and contrast the portfolio assessments of students whose parents have a middle class income. Let us compare the students who have one parent or no parent, or who are never fed properly at home, or who may be lacking in appropriate health care. Let us use a rubric or assessment measurement that quantifies the value of an involved parent or two, or put all of these requisite factors into the overused and confusing set of propaganda that is so often misused to bash the public schools!

The prevailing conservative “news” paradigm relative to public education allows only pessimistic stories promulgated by the mainstream media to constitute the entire vocabulary of news reporting. Conservatives use this one-sided reporting to further their thesis of bad “government schools.” I am glad that I did not stop reading columns and blogs because there are a few blogs out there that certainly are irresponsible, inaccurate, and unprofessional. There are bad bloggers, bad teachers, bad superintendents, bad politicians and bad journalists to be found throughout the United States. Because all public schools are supported by state, local, and federal tax dollars, every incidence of poor behavior is magnified beyond its breadth and scope and each overblown occurrence makes an easy and ready-made target for the anti-public school alliance which always seems to be lurking in the wings.

A real, meaningful, and authentic discussion of reform in the public school must begin with a discussion of all things done well in the public schools and those things that are obvious failures.

Finally, there is one more issue that I have raised that is never addressed by the critics. This comprehensive philosophy should provide a basis for reform, and promote a scholarly, essential, and consequential topic for further discussion.

While I am a strong advocate of portfolio accountability and comprehensive assessment for public school students and teachers, and I believe that as a nation we should aspire to the ideal of allowing competitive market forces to assist us in creating stronger public schools, I will also vigorously support strong public schools as the foundation of our republic and the hope of future generations. As with many institutions in our society, there is room for significant improvements in the public schools.



Even more revealing are the low math scores of the students in conservative christian schools.

Here are the NAEP scores and analysis on which all of the commentary is based.

Here's some more information from the Washington Monthly.
The Education Wonks have further information from January

It's Carnival Time

Check out today's Carnival of Education over at Education in Texas! The host made the first link to Thespis Journal, and it has generated the largest single one day traffic in our almost eleven month history. This weekly carnival is always full of interesting education articles and fascinating topics. None of the education bloggers allow CNN to determine news topics for them, their readers, or their friends and family.

The photo is from the production of Neil Simon's Rumors performed at our High School in November, 2005. This is theater education at its' finest!

The Great One: Tony Snow

Tony Snow, the White House Press Secretary, blasted foolish Helen Thomas today. Tony has to be one of the finest Press Secretaries of my lifetime. Check out the video at Outside the Beltway. Everyone on the right side of the blogosphere has linked over there. The entire three minutes and twenty-eight seconds is well worth watching!

Tony's daily briefing before the C-Span camera is informative and great entertainment. Tony uses the same unassuming style that worked for him so well at Fox News and on the radio-especially when he used to subsitute for Rush Limbaugh. Tony is very comfortable and is in his element while working with the hostile, socialist, Palestinian loving White House Press corps.

Speaking of the unhinged media, by the time Amderson Cooper came on tonight, he was in a total lather about getting all of the Americans out of Lebanon. In shrill tones not heard since Katrina, Anderson insisted that, "the French had done it, Sweden has done it, why can't the United States get it citizens out of Lebanon? This is just a guess from an amateur: these nations probably had far less people in Lebanon. We wish all US citizens the best of everything who are located throughout the Middle East, but we have to ask the question why so many people are there, and how President Bush can be held responsible for the safety and evacuation of our citizens in such a volitle place in our world. Surely, most of the citizens knew of the risk of being there. We pray for their safe return, but it can not be the only priority of our government, and it should go beyond a partisan obession of the news media.

More at Stop the ACLU
4TheLittleGuy
Citizen Journal

Whats' Going on With The Fair Tax

Wouldn't you love to abolish the IRS. . . . Keep all the money in your paycheck. . . . Pay taxes on what you spend, not what you earn. . . .
And eliminate all the fraud, hassle, and waste of our current system?

Looking back over two-hundred years, the founding fathers of this country kept petitioning the King of England with redress of grievances brought upon this nation by the Crown. King George stopped listening, and even went so far as to enact a tax on tea. Eventually the colonists had enough and in 1773, they snuck aboard three British ships in the Boston Harbor and dumped several hundred chests of tea into the water as an act of grievance against unfair taxation of the colonies by Britain. The Boston Tea Party became a symbol of the American Revolution and the determination of the American people.

The campaign for the "Fair Tax continues. The grass-roots movement is alive and well. Almost one year after the release of The Fair Tax Book, the effort continues. Check out all of these relevant links, and keep talking the talk. Thanks to Neal Boortz and Congressman John Linder for leading the charge, and keeping the effort alive.

For the fabric of our society to hold together, we must all have an investment in our government. The FairTax, while providing a rebate to protect those trying to climb up, requires absolutely everyone to pay taxes absolutely every time they buy a new good or service. The FairTax requires this investment, and in plain text on every receipt the FairTax will show you exactly how large the investment is. Every taxpayer--from the smallest to the largest--should be confronted with exactly how much their government is taking from them and spending on their behalf. The FairTax provides this confrontation with its completely transparent tax calculation. If the voters vote for more spending, they will see that spending reflected in a higher sales tax rate that all will pay. If the voters want less spending, they will reap the benefits of that with every purchase as well.

It's time for a tea party again!

Here is the official Fair Tax Blog

Here's more information on the upcoming Fair Tax Rally in Orlando, Florida on July 29
This is the address for the Fair Tax Organization
A Great Synopsis of the Fair Tax
The Ohio Fair Tax Site

Hilary, Dan Quayle, and War

Frank Luntz, a widely respected Republican Pollster, has a great article detailing how Hilary can become President of the United States in 2008. The column, which appears in today's New York Daily News, is useful for all those interested in well-founded analysis and common sense.

For all those Republicans and a few Democrats who think Hillary Clinton can't possibly be elected President, I have two words for you: Ronald Reagan.

I remember it well. He was too old. He was too conservative. He was too scary. And he was elected in two landslides. The exact same kinds of assumptions about electability 25 years ago are alive and well in 2006, and they are just as wrong for Hillary Clinton today as they were for Reagan in 1979.

She's too divisive. Too calculating. Too marred by the Clinton years. Oh, - and she's a woman.Never mind the chatter. Hillary Clinton sits atop many polls for President with good reason and, if she plays her cards right, she could remain there right through November 2008.

Bush stated further: " … We will starve terrorists of funding, turn them one against another, drive them from place to place, until there is no refuge or no rest. Every nation, in every region, now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists. From this day forward, any nation that continues to harbor or support terrorism will be regarded by the United States as a hostile regime."

Ms. Underestimated reports on Dan Quayle walking out of a concert due to a political statement by the "artist" Jonh Mellencamp. Mellencamp dedicated a song to all those hurt by the administration of President Bush! Please! Where do all of these so-called artists get their political education...CNN?

Rush Limbaugh writes clearly in an editorial of September 7, 2001 that Israel must be unleashed to deal forcefully and finally with all of its terrorist enemies.
The only way some form of quiet will ever exist in the Middle East is if Israel is given the latitude to totally defeat its declared enemies. Only then will the terrorist attacks on Israel's civilians come to an end. Perpetual negotiations, diplomatic half measures, or land for peace deals will not bring peace to the Middle East. For those who believe this is an irresponsible notion, I use history as my guide.


Today marks the 60th anniversary of Imperial Japan's unprovoked attack on Pearl Harbor, in which 2,500 Americans were killed. There are lessons to be learned from our victory in that war.

In his April 16, 1945 address before a Joint Session of Congress, President Harry Truman stated: "Sothere can be no possible misunderstanding, both Germany and Japan can be certain, beyond any shadow of doubt, that America will continue the fight for freedom until no vestige of resistance remains. We are deeply conscious of the fact that much hard fighting is still ahead of us. Having to pay such a heavy price to make complete victory certain, America will never become a party to any plan for partial victory. To settle for merely another temporary respite would surely jeopardize the future security of the world. Our demand has been, and it remains, unconditional surrender."

On August 6, 1945, just 16-hours after the United States dropped an atomic bomb on Hiroshima, Japan, Truman issued a statement which said, in part: "The Japanese began the war from the air at Pearl Harbor. They have been repaid many fold. … We are now prepared to obliterate more rapidly and completely every productive enterprise the Japanese have above ground in any city. We shall destroy their docks, their factories, and their communications. Let there be no mistake: we shall completely destroy Japan's power to make war."

Truman understood that there could be no peace without total victory. This lesson has not been lost on President George Bush. On September 20, 2001, Bush also addressed a Joint Session of Congress and announced America's policy - "the Bush Doctrine" - in responding to the atrocities of September 11. He stated: " … Our war on terror begins with al Qaeda, but it does not end there. It will not end until every terrorist group of global reach has been found, stopped and defeated."

"The Reagan Myth" is a A Fabulous article by Fred Barnes in the Wall Street Opinion Journal.

It is amazing how many liberal politicians will try to make points against President Bush by distorting Ronald Reagan's record.


Check out more about the Treason Times at Perish The Thought

Get Your Laugh of the Day at The Nose on Your Face

Just Another Fable in the Educational Landscape

As much as I respect the views of values of host/author Karen Braun, she has posted an outlandish and unverified statement as the notion of a recent posting at Spunky Home School. Her first error is placing faith in statement by former justice Sandra Day O’Connor who until the recent term of the Supreme Court was President Reagan’s biggest mistake. After the recent, abominable Hamdan decision, Anthony Kennedy now holds this distinction. Regardless of the pathetic judicial decisions handed down by O’Conner or Kennedy, the statement of justice O’Connor endorsed without academic citation or proof by Karen Braun is absurd on its’ face.

Sandra Day O'Connor believes we have a civics crisis in America due to a lack of teaching in the public schools,
"Public schools have pretty much stopped teaching government, civics and American history. ... I truly don't know how long we can survive as a strong nation if our younger citizens don't understand the nature of our government. ... That is something you have to learn. It just isn't handed down in the genetic pool."


Karen Braun says, "How true that is."

One would think that a responsible teacher, parent, adult, let-alone a former supreme court justice might consult actual research and produce some empirical data that is directly and indisputably correlated to the teaching of civics, history, and government in the public schools when making such a broad indictment of public schools and public school teachers. This attack on public education and public school teachers is symptomatic of the type of irresponsible criticism leveled by those in the anti-public school alliance on a non-stop basis. We at Thespis Journal have found these common threads among home schooling advocates: a prevailing and constant need to bash public education while failing to acknowledge any good in any professionals in the public school, and the shameless and unrestrained desire to over generalize flaws in our culture and society and make the indirect and unproven connection to public education. There is also a failure to acknowledge the widely varying degrees of success and achievement between large urban public schools and the largely successful and highly functioning suburban local school districts across our nation. It is embarrassingly inconvenient and weakens the arguments of the public school opponents significantly when one begins to discuss the portfolio of success developed in suburban and rural schools across America.

At any rate, let’s look at the one article cited by Karen Braun when she takes her latest swipe at public education. First of all the citation comes from the tabloid USA Today, and quotes not only former Justice O’Conner but also Justice Kennedy. The article quotes research that shows the alleged ignorance of the public on one basic constitutional and civics question. The remaining data in the article loosely and rather disingenuously tie together snippets of documentation which show the lack of constitutional expertise in the public at large. Spunky Home School makes a broad intellectual long-jump (something we caution against in the public school) and simply joins the other strident voices in our society which seek to make the public schools the scapegoat for failed parenting, lack of family values, lack of a strong work ethic, and all the ills which can be hung in a wreath around the neck of the crucified public school system. This line of logic rivals for idiot of the week Madeleine Albright and her cohorts in the liberal media who seek to make President Bush singularly responsible for the behaviors of Hamas, Hezbolah, and Kim Jung Il.

O’Conner, Braun, and the author of the article, Nat Hentoff, take the research and attribute this ignorance to a poor public education in a sweeping and unfounded statement that does not meet the rigorous guidelines of a junior research paper at our high school. Our budding authors are schooled in the basis of properly proving a point. The use of spurious surveys to prove an unrelated point is a considerable deduction of points on any research assignment. The survey cited in the USA Today article asked only one question of public high school students, and while the responses were unsatisfactory, the method and question used could have reflected any number of emotions, knowledge, views, and background. The survey does not specify the grade level of the students interviewed. The response s are typical of ninth grade students, but very atypical of seniors who have completed their high school curriculum. Simply knowing about the first amendment does not correlate to having an opinion about it. Assuming that all students are interested in a discussion of the first amendment with someone they don’t even know demonstrates the sheltered assumptions, and general lack of knowledge that people who never set foot inside a public school would use to bash public education.

The remaining research in the article has nothing to do with public education, and demonstrates only the complexion of society today. If suburban and rural public school districts are so terrible, Karen Braun, or no author should need to stoop to such levels to illustrate a point about the quality of public schools and public school teachers.

All of the suburban and rural school districts in the this region of Ohio require two years of American History, some form of a civics course (designed to meet the unending battery of high stakes tests that prove almost nothing), and a year of American Government. While it is a difficult topic for many of the teenagers produced by our culture and society today, the public school can not determine for parents, a child, or their extended family what values to live. If many students and their parents do not hold the constitution in high enough esteem to make truly learning and internalizing by providing the requisite answer demanded by former Justice O’Conner, the public schools can do little besides repeatedly presenting and assessing the material.

Knowing about our history, our political processes, and the relevance of our constitution to our daily lives are basic issues in a quality education. Karen Braun, Sandra Day O’Conner, and all of the rest of the anti-public school alliance can forget blaming all their ills on public education. Conservative Americans still value the role of individual freedom and responsibility. You can’t go on blaming the public school for everything much longer. Your credibility is stretched beyond the limits of believability now. Implying, by association, that the public school educators think that the popular site MySpace can teach a civics lesson is proof that Karen Braun and Sandra Day O'Conner must not know one real, live, breathing teacher. None of us would ever think something so inanane! We'll leave that type of thinking for those who lack the faith in a fair, fully funded educational opportunity for every child.

The USA Today article that set off this latest fiasco!
SpunkyHomeSchool's fantasy of civics in the public school
Read About Betsy's Summer Vacation, and she teaches history!

Thespis Journal Exclusive Essay: On the Brink of World War III

Menacing threats are on the near horizon for the United States of America. The storm clouds are gathering, the forces of evil are conspiring against the American people and Western civilization, and we the American voters, and our leaders need to be prepared to deal with this military and geo-political conflagration.

Many voices in the elite, intellectual venues of power in the major media circles of New York City and Washington DC are trapped by the limits of a narrow view of history. If these frothy thinkers had been in charge in 1941, they would have wanted to provide Hirohito, Mussolini, and Hitler endless opportunities to rehabilitate themselves and return to the peaceful community of nations. After Pearl Harbor, no reasonable leader in America believed, even superficially, that there should be more time for negotiations and stronger attempts made for a ramshackle appeasement. The United States of America and the leaders found a unity of purpose in defeating a clear enemy, and in all of the righteous might of a determined people who love freedom; an undivided America fought back and won.

The forces at work in World War I and World War II were no more black and white than the circumstances that we Americans are facing today. The struggle of good versus evil, the clash of cultures, and the manifest envy of tyrannical rulers with an identity crisis was no less pronounced. The differences in our current circumstance with the great World Wars of the 20th century have nothing to do with the struggle of the United States and other nations. The differences are in the dominant political philosophy controlling the mainstream media in these early years of the 21st century, and the disproportionate time the self-flagellating media pays to the out of power liberals and their insatiable appetite for power.

Last week saw an outbreak of stories in the dominant liberal press regarding a change of direction in the Bush doctrine. While there may have been a pause in the Bush doctrine of pre-emptive strikes against the axis of evil, and a momentary roll-back in the unwavering pursuit of freedom and democracy around the world, anyone who believes that President Bush and Condoleeza Rice have abandoned the core principals guiding their decisions since September 11, 2001 simply does not have sensible or appropriate context for their wandering remarks and sensationalist commentary. In the days ahead, Bush, Cheney, and Rice will once again demonstrate their hallmark decisiveness. These highly skilled world diplomats will no doubt surprise the unimaginative deadbeats in the liberal hierarchy and their allies in the mainstream press with strategies and methods developed while these elite editorial writers and lugubrious latte-drinkers were still trying to convince the public that Saddam Hussein could have been a friend to the United States if only Albert Gore were our President today.

The reality of today is that the United States is on the brink of World War III. It doesn’t look that much different than the last World War, and the list of similarities suggests that eerie sense of a path that must be followed: Fanatical dictators hate the West and the United States. Socialist Europe attempts appeasement while we lunatic Americans carry on with the true spirit of 1776. The acts of aggression are breath-taking and shake the world economy. An Asian mad-man wants to dominate his region. Many Americans want to avoid war at all cost. Americans lead the World in many of the critical indicators of success, including, but not limited to the most prosperous economy and living standard known to mankind.

While President Bush and his team must move carefully forward, we must never conduct our foreign policy and our global relationships from a retiring, apologetic tone. The United States, despite the dissonant voices arrayed against us from without and within, must provide the glittering beacon of liberty’s light in all of the dark days ahead. With a clarion voice, the chanticleer must sing out the song of sovereignty, autonomy, and basic human freedoms.

No one can predict the future, but if you ask me: the days and months ahead will prove to be a dire time our nation’s history, and sometime in the near future, it will be universally recognized by renaming this War on Terror as World War III.

Read more on these pressing topics at Hot Air, Hard Astarboard, Captain's Quarters,Stop The ACLU, Expose The Left, TMH Bacon Bits,Instapundit, 4thelittleguy, Check Out Basil's Blog
The Strata-Sphere
Perish The Thought, Here's an Outrage at Michelle Malkin, Powerline, MsUnderestimated

Robert Novak Round-Up

Update: Valerie Plame and Joe Wilson (aka Clown Wilson) met with some in the democrat leadership on Capital Hill today. That's rich!

Robert Novak has given great testimony the last couple of days, and the coverages are extensive in the blogosphere. This news story, is of interest only to news junkies and people who follow the political scene in Washington very closely. This sotry should win an award for the biggest non-story of 2005-2006.

And now word comes that Ms. Plame will file suit. Good Luck sister! There is very little, if any evidence that any crime was committed. Apparently, so many people in Washington knew of Plame's identity it was an open secret. Furthermore, she had no been a covert agent for more than five years. She is, therefore, not a subject for being "outed" under the law.

Plame and her husband, Clown Wilson, must be starved for media attention. Clearly they are hoping that their suit will bring Tim Russert and the other talking heads in the media running in their direction once again. Perhaps these people will finally be undisputably shown to be the unhinged pair of the decade!

Ms. Underestimated has wonderful and extensive coverage
After the Bob Novak interview, lightening struck Mara Liason and the panel
Valerie Plame is going to sue...
Conservative OutPost has a great summary
A Primer on Karl Rove, Scooter Libby, and the Valerie Plame Mess
Check out Outside The Beltway
AJ Strata appears to have the definative Post on this matter
You have to see all the musings at Wizbang!
Check out our friends at Stop The ACLU
Stuck on Stupid has never been more appropriate for a particular moment

Dan Rather and Ted Koppel: "Old School Journalists"

These two will have to be considered for idiot of the week, and definately for the carnival of the insansities. First of all, Dan Rather is out there in the mainstream media trying to rehabilitate his damaged career, and now Ted Koppel rallies to his defense and declares himself and Rather to be "old school." Rather and Koppel just dont' get it!

If old school means bias, slant, rant, socialist, communist, leftist, low-ratings kings, Koppel is right. When the Iranians took hostages in Novemebr 1979, Koppel seemed so genuine, and his legendary nightline broadcasts of 1979-1981 so patriotic and American. These broadcasts were truly a public service.

Too bad Koppel became an unhinged bomb-thrower and champion of the esoteric, eltisit school of thought so popular in Manhattan and throughout the North East.

Read the entire article. It's just more from the liberal bubble of unreality.
Check Out Basil's Picnic
Check out TMH's Bacon Bits
The Mudville Gazette is as wonderful as always

Gunga Dan: See More at Michelle Malkin

Here's What We're Reading Today

Jack Murtha isn't all he is made out to be by the mainstream media! The information continues to leak out regarding his involvement in the abscam scandal of 1980. The American Spectator has the latest, and they keep on digging. By putting himself so far out in front on the Iraqi War issue, Murtha placed himself under intense national scrunity. This is well worth readuing!

Why don't We Learn From History: A Great Article at MsUnderestimated
They made fun of Ronald Reagan when he announced SDI, but don't we all wish we had it now?

Bob Novak explains his role in the Valerie Plame revelation scandal. This is the biggest non-story to waste news time in my life time.

Previously in Thespis Journal: A Tribute to Robert Novak

"Honey I Blew Up The House:" Coverage in the New York Post regarding the explosion on Monday of an office/townhouse combination at 62nd Street and Madison Avenue between Madison and Park. This story seems like a script for a made for television movie based in Manhattan. What a plotline!

The New York Post keeps us updated on the saga going on over at The View since Star Jones Reynolds departed. This liberal, all-female, daily gabfest is undergoing a huge makeover with Rosie O'Donell joining the women on September 5.

The Conservative OutPost has more on the Bob Novak Story.
More at Blogs For Bush

The Pajama Game, Les Miserables, and Another Look at Ethel Merman

It seems that most of us will not get to see the revisal of “The Pajama Game” recently presented by the Round About Theater Company at The American Airlines Theater on 42nd Street. The production mounted this Spring was to have re-appeared on Broadway this Autumn. Although a National Tour is promised, these tours often do not materialize, or suffer in quality compared with the New York productions. The Pajama Game revisal was apparently well received in New York, and the production won the 2006 Tony Award for best musical revival. Here’s wishing we had the opportunity to enjoy this Harry Connick dominated show. It is really too bad that this show had to close so soon.

Read the review at Broadway.com, and by Clive Barnes in The New York Post The complete cast for the Broadway Revival of Les Miserables has been announced, and excitement is building for this production. Check out the links for further information. A trip to New York for this show at The Broadhurst should be in order for all of us.
Details on the 2003 closing of Les Miz, the offcial Les Miz web site, At Thespis Journal: Autumn in New York

Check out this great review of Ethel Merman in the movie of “Call Me Madam” originally printed in the New York Times in March, 1953. I just watched this movie for the first time, and it is almost as good as going to theater. At the very least it is a throw back to a time when true singing and dancing were the essence of the Broadway musical. Irving Berlin wrote a score that was matched in every line and lyric to the talents of the great Merman.

Read more about Ethel Merman

Lieberman's Race: All Outcomes Equal a Win for Bush

Check out the collaboration article over at Red State. Click on the title above this statement for the link. We are currently the lead story at Red State. This seems to be an accomplishment. Go over to Red State and comment.

Check out Basil's Picnic today.

Lieberman's Race: A Win For Bush

It seems that the Yellow Springs Crowd is in charge of the democrat party in Connecticut. As we at Thespis Journal described this past Sunday, the Cindy Sheehan wing of the liberal party is a gift that keeps on giving to Republicans, and the Primary battle between Senator Joe Lieberman and moon-bat Ned Lamont is the most beneficial debate of the political season for conservatives of every degree.

In today’s New York Sun, writer Seth Gitell presents a balanced and realistic view of this upcoming vote in Connecticut. Gitell makes the case that the passionate followers of Mr. Lamont may not have the turn out to defeat Senator Lieberman. Remember President Howard Dean? The internet savvy, liberal bloggers and activists were bound to bring us Howard Dean who was anointed by the New York Times, The Washington Post, the even luminaries like Jimmy Carter. Speaking of the “loon of the left” Jimmy Carter, Ned Lamont cites Carter and his National Security Advisor to supplant his adopted view of the way in Iraq.

“On the substance of his issues, Mr. Lamont continued his attempt to broaden his campaign appeal beyond his opposition to the Iraq War to such issues as universal health care (he supports it), the proliferation of lobbyists in Washington with "63 lobbyists for every congressman" (he opposes that), and campaign finance reform (again, supports it). To reinforce his position on the central issue of the campaign, Iraq, he pointed to the position of President Carter's national security adviser, Zbigniew Brezinski, who advocates withdrawing military forces from Iraq so as to alleviate sectarian violence there.

"As Brezinski said the other day, just the very foreign military occupation in Iraq is delegitimizing the belief in government," said Mr. Lamont, coupling this assertion with red meat for his supporters: "It's very important to take the American face off this occupation and start bringing our troops home now." He went on to say that "leaving our troops there in the middle of this bloody civil war is making the situation worse every day." He was not asked about and did not volunteer on his own Mr. Brezinski's recent defense of the authors of the "Israel Lobby" thesis, John Mearsheimer and Stephen Walt, in the journal Foreign Policy.”

Gitell concludes with this rather powerful statement regarding this notable primary race: “It might be the case that primary day will be the time Connecticut voters overlook the solid work a senator has done on their behalf to punish him for being too close to a president they don't like. But it doesn't mean it makes any sense.”

There is no outcome of this closely watched race that will fail to benefit President Bush and the current common sense, conservative view of the War in Iraq. In the most like scenario that has Lieberman winning, a demonstration of support by moderates for President Bush’s view will sharply strengthen the conservative position. Should Lieberman lose, it will dramatically illustrate and illuminate an intricate debate raging within the democrat party. It will show that the liberal party is extreme, and willing to purge any elected official from their party who fails to endorse the “cut and run” strategy so regularly endorsed by Jack Murtha, Barbara Boxer, John Kerry, and all other liberal voices of note within the party at this moment.

And what will this civil war on the left mean for Chris Matthews and the leading liberal talking heads of the mainstream media? Well, if the “cut and run” crowd continues to lose elections, these clattering voices of the chatting class will no doubt continue to embrace a view that blames America, and George Bush, for every failure in world-wide problems with the Axis of Evil. These shrill voices of the left will continue to panic while raising their level of Bush-bashing criticism to bolster the leftist core supporters of code-pink, the netroots collection of liberal bloggers, and moveon.org.

A win for Lamont will convince the liberal paparazzi media to continue measuring the draperies for Speaker Pelosi’s office. In the meantime, President Bush, Karl Rove, Vice-President Cheney, and qualified candidates all over the nation will continue their march toward victory on November 7, 2006.

Check out the coverage at WIZBANG
Also, Read AJ Strata on the paranoid left
The Beltway Traffic Jam

President Bush: I'm In The People's House to Talk About The People's Money

Imagine this headline: Tax Cuts for the Rich Result in Increased Revenues

President Bush strode into the East Room this morning to proudly announce the good economic news released yesterday: revenues to the federal government are up significantly. The revenues are up enough to reduce the federal deficit by an additional $100 million dollars plus. Bush reminds us all of the false debate in which proponents of higher taxes repeatedly asserted that Americans must choose between cutting the deficit and tax cuts. Like the nuclear freeze advocates of the 1980's: politicians who railed against tax cuts have demonstrated terrible judgment and engaged in hollow and shrill debates.


In 1961, 1981, and 2001, Presidents Kennedy, Reagan, and Bush led the fight to significantly cut taxes, and each tax cut produced the same result: a robust economy and increased revenues for the federal government. Let's hope that we do not have to relearn this lesson again in my lifetime.


Here's How The New York Times covers it.....
The President is Speaking...
More At The Times...

Better Than Breakfast With The Arts

It's Tuesday, it's July, and it's time for a break from everything. Take some time for Breakfast with the Arts. Enjoy a Banana Crunch Muffin courtesy of The Barefoot Contessa or Paula Deen's Oven-Baked Dutch Apple Pancake, take a tatse of Europe in a cup of freshly brewed Gevalia Breakfast Blend with cream and sugar to taste, and prepare for some videos that are better than Breakfast With The Arts.

We at Thespis Journal are hoping that all of you will enjoy these rare videos with your morning coffee. It's time to take time for the arts. Breathe in that fresh, cool air from you air-conditioning source of choice, relax and refresh in these historic videos.
Leontyne Price sings a glorious "What I Did For Love" from A Chorus Line in a rarely seen performance from 1980. This is truly thrilling.
Dolly Parton and Broadway's Christine Ebersole perform Sittin' On the Front Porch Swing from Dolly's TV Show in 1987. Anyone remember this show?
"Till We Reach That Day" from the Original Broadway Cast. This is a moving, chilling, earth-quaking moment in Broadway History. Enjoy! WOW!

How About The 2001 DreamGirls One-Night-Only concert Act II Opening-You'll love it.

You have to see "My Body Is My Business" from the 1997 Tony Awards. This number from THE LIFE gives me chills just remembering seeing it in the theater three times. Lillias White, Sharon Wilkins and the girls shook the house down! Cy Coleman is a genius!!
This is a must see: Speaking of Lillias White, she sings the definative "I Am Changing" from DreamGirls at the 2001 Benefit Concert at the Ford Center. You Go Girl!

Idina performs "The Wizard and I" This will send you off into a great day!

Check Out A Similar Post at the Anchoress Online

A Message to Hilary: Stay Out of Ohio

Hilary Clinton was in Columbus, Ohio this past Saturday, but most of us around the state didn't know it. Apparently, she was here to trumpet two year old baseless charges that Ohio's Secretary of State Ken Blackwell, and the voters in the state of Ohio don't know how to run our elections any better than the state of Florida in November, 2000. Hilary simply regurgitated and spread the totally fabricated elections fraud charges that have become the calling card of failed, almost-a-winner liberal campaigns. Although Hilary has carpet-bagged her way through a political career in New York and Arkansas, she does not know Ohio, does not understand the political complexion of Ohio, and favors strident rhetoric over stubborn electoral reality.

In Ohio, the Bi-Partisan County Boards of Election operate the election, and in spite of paid, liberal staffers attempts to invade and invalidate the 2004 election, Ken Blackwell, and the honest polling workers of Ohio, guaranteed and insured that the process is and was above reproach. There is a process in place that requires voter resposbility, and that gives Ohio's elections validity and integrity beyond that of many other states. The liberals in the media wanted an overblown plotline that used that tired script from Florida, 2000. Ohio can manage their own elections.

While Hilary was trying to cue up the media for their latest round of stories questioning the validity of elections in Ohio, the savy political watchers know that these liberals are simply laying the groundwork for excuse making, spinning and subject changing when they are defeated again this November.

Ohio voters have one message for Hilary: Stay out of Ohio.

News Max: Hilary to Ohio: Watch Election like a Hawk
More Evidence of this Tired, Recycled, Liberal Template

Previously in Thespis Journal:
Ohio Strengthens Its' Red State Credentials
Removing Republicans is Reforms Real Goal
Liberal Reforms In Ohio: Trick or Treat (Part I)
Liberal Reforms in Ohio Trick or Treat (Part II)
Myths About the 2004 Election in Ohio
Liberal Reforms in Ohio: Trick or Treat (Part II)

Check out Basil's Picnic Today,You Have To Read About The NY Times Protest! Great work by Michelle Malkin
Read everything at Perish The Thought, Check Out TMH's Bacon Bits

Enjoy these Theater Links

There are some excellent things to be read on the internet regarding the New York theater scene this Sunday in July. Enjoy the links and please offer comments and discussion starters (article ideas) if you find any specific item of particular interest to you.

HAIRSPRAY: The Musical Movie Blog provides updated information and links regarding the upcoming movie version of this wildly popular Broadway musical. Broadway and musical movie fans have this potentially wonderful movie to look forward to sometime in the summer or autumn in 2007.

BEST SONGS to Blow out Your Car Stereo is a wonderful discussion thread over at Broadway World. Join the discussion and look for comments by Chanticleer and TRav0708.

The New York Times gives us a wonderful tribute and memory to the musical ANNIE and to the girls who made up the orphan ensemble of this beloved Broadway show. This article coincides with the thirtieth anniversary of the premiere of this show on the great white way.

This interesting New York Times article details the marketing strategies currently being used by Producers to maximize the earning potential of their Broadway and Off-Broadway offerings. No one can beat the in depth and well-researched staff at the Times in their coverage of theater.

Patrick Swayze will make his delayed West End debut in the oft-revived 1950 Tony Award Winning Best Musical: Guys and Dolls. I’m sure that this is fabulous production.

You must read this profile of Michael Berresse who will portray Zach in the upcoming Broadway revival of “A Chorus Line.” I have seen Berresse perform in several shows, and he is always outstanding.

It is always interesting to look at ticket sales to Broadway shows. Last week marked the final performances of DOUBT and THE LIGHT IN THE PIAZZA.

Broadway.yahoo.com has wonderful video from Jersey Boys the 2006 winner for best musical. Watch and enjoy!

Sunday Reading

There are some great reads in the politcal/blogopshere/eduction side of the internet this weekend. Here is a sampling of some of the things I am reading today:

Msunderestimated has a wonderful article with audio regarding Congressman John Linder. Msunderestimated is a strong supporter of “The Fair Tax” for which John Linder is so widely known. Linder is also the author, along with Neal Boortz of the Fair Tax Book. This wonderful article is full of links and information.

Dr. Sanity has posted her weekly column “The Carnival of the Insanities." Dr. Pat Santy continues her marvelous work, and you will find an entry this week from Thespis Journal. This wonderful blog should be a daily read for all.

The Education Wonks have a wonderful article and links regarding the NEA Representative Assembly which concluded in Orlando, Florida this past weekend. Thespis Journal may have a further report from the NEA meeting later this week. We at Thespis Journal have received several first hand accounts of this year’s annual farce. Practically speaking, NEA does much good for many individual members; however, the far leftist agenda promoted in the media makes most regular folks shake with the jitters when they read about the NEA.

Ian Schwartz at Expose The Left has posted a video of Paul Hackett debating Robert Watada, father of Ehran Watada who refuses to meet the obligations of his oath to the military. It should be noted that Ehren joined the military after the beginning of the Iraqi war, and voluntarily took an oath to follow orders. Even the Bush-bashing Hackett could not side with this moon-bat father and his misguided son.

The American Spectator has a fabulous essay on “What the New York Times has Wrought.” All of the leaking, combined with the article in Friday’s edition of The New York Daily News has our citizens at risk directly in the midst of World War III. If the Times had covered the Revolutionary War, it might look something like this article.

The New York Post has a marvelous article detailing the great successes of Tony Snow as the President’s Press secretary. For anyone watching Tony, you know the stupendous job he is doing at The White House on an every day basis. Congratulations Tony,President Bush obviously needed you.

Russert Fails Again

Unfortunately, Tim Russert assembled a lopsided panel of liberal voices to bash the Bush administration on Meet The Press this morning. It sounded like an out of tune echo chamber as the lofty liberals discussed in their nuanced positions in shrill and strident tones slamming the President and his foreign policy team. These so-called intellectual heavy weights set aside the goals of statesmanship and productive dialogue to make ridiculous attempts to exasperate the Bush administration, and espouse a political strategy that they believe will rewrite history and benefit the democrats in the Fall elections. NBC and Tim Russert need to seriously consider the rich and storied history of Meet The Press, and engage expert guests who can engage in meaningful and genuine debate. Instead of furthering an authentic, deliberative forum, Russert is permitting the long running program to become a platform for the pious that are lost in cerebral gymnastics designed to demean the Bush administration.

Robert Gallucci, Dean, School of Foreign Service, Georgetown University and Chief Negotiator for the 1994 North Korea Nuclear Agreement, sang the tune prescribed by Madeleine Albright and Wendy Sherman who believe that the 1994 framework prevented further weapons development. Gallucci was the designated excuse-maker in chief for the failed policies of the Clinton administration. Their buddy, former President Jimmy Carter, injected himself into the 1994 situation, and is once again partially responsible for the United States having a failed appeasement strategy.

In the world of Sunday Morning News, and in the scope of the main stream media, Meet The Press has become nothing more than a propaganda tool for the leftists who control the paradigm of thinking in New York city and Washington DC. They probably never met anyone in their circle of contacts who voted for or supports President Bush, Vice-President Cheney, or Condolizza Rice. Probably all of these experts on Russert’s program this morning supported the Nuclear Freeze movement in the middle 1980’s. Enough said.

Read the transcript and nominate your idiot of the week!

Check out Basil's Picnic today
You won't want to miss the Sunday Funnies at Stop The ACLU
Check out Ian at Expose The Left

Plagiarism by Ann Coulter...I Don't Think So!

It seems like all of the hot air emanating from the liberal press heralding that Ann Coulter is a plagiarist turns out to be another case of deficient reporting feeding upon deficient reporting. This non-story has been developing for days with MSNC’s Keith Olberman (didn't he lose his show) and other so-called journalists acting like poltical glitterati downing too many double esspressos.Today however, several major indicators signaled the end of this charade with its’ genesis in the radical left-wing blogosphere. These liberals tried to convict Ann with screaming mantras, fabricated headlines, vicious innuendo, and the requisite lack of substance. Apparently, the efforts of the liberals and their co-conspirators at the New York Post to discredit Ms. Coulter have drowned in a sea of research and factual data.

Firstly, Crown Publishers issued a firm statement today supporting Ms. Coulter and disputing the plagiarism charges being leveled at Ann Coulter from a variety of sources:

"We have reviewed the allegations of plagiarism surrounding Godless and found them to be as trivial and meritless as they are irresponsible. Any author is entitled to do what Ann Coulter has done in the three snippets cited: research and report facts. The number of words used by our author in these snippets is so minimal that there is no requirement for attribution. As an experienced author and attorney, Ms. Coulter knows when attribution is appropriate, as underscored by the nineteen pages of hundreds of endnotes contained in Godless."

--Steve Ross, Senior Vice President and Publisher, Crown Publishing Group and Publisher, Crown Forum imprint

The Crown Publishing group, world renowned for publishing great authors across the political spectrum including Jimmy and Rosalyn Carter, would surely not risk their professional reputation, superb business model, and unlimited potential profits on an author like Ann. Doubtless, they are standing solidly behind Ann because they conducted research, triple checked their facts, and are anxious to dispel this counterfeit “news story” promoted by Ann’s detractors in the media.

Three outstanding sources have rejected the charges brought forth by the New York Post in their article attacking Ann as an alleged plagiarist on July 2.

• TPM Muckraker has article that provides excruciating detail of all the alleged charges to date of Ann’s plagiarism. While the author of this research draws no conclusions, liberals and conservatives alike are in agreement that the charges against Ann are based upon exaggerations, overtones, and allusions. Joshua Micah Marshall provides the following comment, “To me personally, some of the examples/accusations seem strained -- simply similar statements of the same basic facts. And sometimes there are only so many ways to describe one set of facts. In other cases the similarities of the wording strike me as hard to see as a coincidence. Especially when there seem to be multiple instances of similarities in the same column coming from the same source.”

• The Daily Kos, the most well-known liberal Blog sides with Ann in this particular set of circumstances. Kos says, “Coulter is a lot of things, but it doesn't look like plagiarism is one of them.”

• Thorley Winston provides a detailed analysis of one charge against Ms. Coulter in his article at Red State. His article clearly demonstrates that if someone were to ask the enduring, repetitive question from 1984, “where’s the beef,” the answer would have to be, “there ain't none!”

Ann is the conservative that liberals love to hate. Her indisputable collection of facts, her imaginative and provocative debating points, her unassailable logic, and her blunt expression of intellect do not fit neatly into the rigid mold of the mainstream media. Ann is a foot soldier in the war on liberalism. She is an unwavering advocate for the accountability, common sense, and nourishing values on which our nation was founded.

Ann's Latest Column-Wow! The sparks are flying here.
The Godless Godess
Ann Coulter Faces Charges of Plagiarism-NewsBusters.Org
The Huffington Post-This is true liberalism
Coulter on The Carpet-More in The New York Post
Clearly, Ann Coulter is no plagiarist!
Ann Coulter No Plagiarist-Youll love it!
More From Expose The Left

There is so much to read over at Stop The ACLU
Ian has some more coverage of Ann over at Expose The Left
Our Friends at TMH's Bacon Bit Always Have Lots To Read
The Carnival Of the TrackBacks is wonderful over at WiZbang
Check Out Basil's Blog today
Check out the LinkFest at Outside The Beltway

Joe Lieberman Keeps on Giving

There is a fascinating political primary race going on in Connecticut for the US Senate seat currently held by Joe Lieberman, and Lieberman seems to be the gift that keeps on giving for Republicans looking to change the subject. This primary battle is rich in political drama as the democrats play out all of their frustrations on the stage in Connecticut. For those of you who may have missed it, Senator Lieberman announced this week that he would run as an independent should he happen to lose the democrat primary.

Just like their multiplicity of tortured views on the Iraqi War, the National Democrats have no well matched unison on all things Lieberman, and appear to be in total chaos as the mid-term elections grow near. Hilary Clinton and John Kerry have typically nuanced positions in this primary race scheduled for August 8. Hilary supports old Joe now, but will support Ned Lamont if he wins the democrat primary. Kerry says he doesn’t get involved in primary races, but has actively selected and supported candidates in primaries in the past. In other words, Kerry voted for Joe before he voted against him.

On Hardball tonight, Bob Schrum, the master of failed democrat presidential campaigns, made a great case for Ned Lamont when Schrum should know that Lieberman will still be in the senate either as an independent or as a democrat in January, 2007. Schrum is a true northeastern liberal, and fights the fight as a liberal, constantly dispensing poor advice and erroneous commentary regardless of the impact of his words.

Although the gap between Lieberman and LaMont has narrowed greatly, Lieberman is still ahead by twenty-five percentage points in the latest Quinnipiac poll. We at Thespis Journal are no great admirers of Joe Lieberman, however, he represents a great gift to the conservatives in his current ability to pit liberal against liberal in a much publicized senate race that is getting more and more attention each day. Should Ned LaMont upset Lieberman on election day, the democrat party will be moved further towards the extremist base on the left and the plotline will produce a new round of stories bound to benefit the Republicans this Fall.

More in the New York Observer
News Max Coverage of the LaMont/Lieberman Debate

The Latest from the Clinton Apologists........

Wendy Sherman, former Ambassador to North Korea and Clinton defender extraordinaire, was just on Fox and Friends making the most elaborate (cya) defense yet for the failed United States policy of the 1990's. In her bubble of unreality, President George HW Bush and President George W. Bush are exclusively repsonsible for everything that has gone wrong with North Korea; Bill Clinton had no responsibility for any of this becasue Clinton, Madam Albright, and Wendy Sherman made personally certain that no plutonium was created during their terms of office.

Wendy Sherman's comments are outrageous, and blatantly false! She and Madam Albright spent time in North Korea spympathizing and boozing with with Kim Jung IL while he was producing nuclear weapons right underneath their noses. As far as I can tell, Sherman and Albright are the only ones who believe that Kim is stable! Both Albright and Sherman continually repeat their mantra that Kim is not crazy! Both of these women have been omnipresent in the media trying to rewrite history. It seems that they have convinced themselves of their dillusional thoughts! Let's wait and see what Bill Clinton himself has to say about all of this.

Read what Nancy Pelosi has to say about North Korea! She must have had dinner with Wendy Sherman.
Captain Ed relates Cindy Sheehan's latest debacle on Harball last night. Cindy is NUTS!
Cindy Sheehan Shows She's Nuts (Again)...from November 2005
You have to see this: TMH Bacon Bits Joins the Effort to Stop the ACLU
Dr. Sanity has much more on the mess that is North Korea
Rockets Red Glare-A great editorial in the Wall Street Journal
There is always something interesting at Basil's Blog

A Liberal Love-In on Larry King and other Links

Apparently, North Korea decided to help the United States celebrate our 230th Birthday with a temper tantrum worthy of accredidation by The Supreme Soviet or Nazi Germany. Last night, there was a liberal love-in on Larry King Live with former Secretary of State Madeline Albright leading the leftist charge. The former ambassador to North Korea, Wendy Sherman, and former National Security Advisor Sandy Bergler were also all the all-Clinton, all-liberal panel with Larry. What an outrageous group of biased commentators to assemble for this so-called discussion. It should have been flashing across the screen that these are the people who parented the Clinton-era appeasement of Kim Jung il which created this set of circumstances for our nation today.

Madam Albright led her comments with an immediate attack on the Bush administration: "And frankly, Larry, I think the problem here is that we are watching the failure of five years worth of American diplomacy. I'm very worried about it and I hope very much that we do have a review of our North Korean policy." Again, she makes every effort to distract from her failures with this mad-man dictator.

Former Ambassador Sherman continues with an apology for Kim Jung Il:"Well, when Secretary Albright and I went to North Korea, we spent about 12 hours with Kim Jong-il and he's not crazy in the way that we think of crazy. He's more like the leader of a national cult where the people think that everything good comes from the leader, from the dear leader as he is known."

Mike Chinoy, former correspondant for CNN makes further excuses for this brutal regime: "Well, Larry, I think there's a certain amount of history here over the last few years. The North Koreans have sat and they've watched the Bush administration come into office, reverse the Clinton administration's policy of engagement with North Korea.

They saw President Bush label Pyongyang as part of the Axis of Evil. They saw what happened to Saddam Hussein. They saw the whole strategic approach of the Bush administration saying that it was proper for the United States under certain circumstances to take preemptive action against rogue states that might have weapons of mass destruction.

And so they -- when you go to North Korea they're scared. They're worried that the United States and the Bush administration in particular wants to do them in and wants to see them go the way of all the other communist governments around the world in the last 15 years.

And so, I think their game has consistently been regime survival and the key to that in Pyongyang's view, my sense is, is to have a direct deal, direct negotiations with the United States and they've tried consistently to get that. Most recently in May they invited Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill to come to Pyongyang, an offer the Bush administration rejected."

WOW! Are these people living in a make-believe world or what!!!

Congressman Duncan Hunter gave the only sensible response to the whole mess: "I think the North Koreans, Larry, understand that having tantrums now and again is I think instinctively they feel that that's a way to get things and to get the attention of the world.
The real message here for us is that we have to have missile defense and to those ends this president has been building with Congress a missile defense and we now have what I would call a limited capability at our testing ranges in Alaska and California.

But we have to move ahead with missile defense because at some point if diplomacy doesn't work it's all physics. If you have a missile in the air and it's coming toward one of your cities, the only way to stop it at that point is not with words but with interceptors.

We're spending about $9.2 billion a year to develop that system and that's one place where the president has been leading very strongly. Congress has been following."
The liberal, drive-by media has a non-stop, 24/7 pattern of manipulating news with the elitist, liberal view of investing emotionally in tryants and crazed man-men who could destroy the world! This teen-aged mentality I am glad that the mature adults are the ones currently in charge of our forgein policy.

Captain Ed at Captain's Quarters has more on today's developments.
Pat Santy explains "Why The Left Hates America"
Michelle Malkin updates us on the Unhinged left and Cindy Sheehan
Some people celegrated the 4th with an Anti-War Rally

Fourth of July Reading

Update: You must see the entirely redesigned site at Townhall.com. It all looks wonderful-especially this timely and well-written article by Bruce Bartlett!

Poor Jimmy Carter, he can't help it: he keeps reminding us that he is an idiot! ! Take a look at this editorial printed on July 3, 2006. Mr. Carter's comments are rambling, ineffective, impractical, and untimely. It sounds a lot like his failed presidency in the late 1970's.

The New York Times provides its' usual biased coverage, however, they give the basic details of the story surrounding Senator Lieberman's possible bid as an independant for US Senate. The Times fails to mention that left-wing extremists control the party in Conneticut.

They Risked Everything: This is a must read authored by Rush Limbaugh's Father. It reminds us all of the great story and the great men who founded this marvelous nation.

The Star Jones Reynolds fiasco continues everywhere in the Press-especially in New York City.
Barbara blasts Star in the Post The Claws Come Out in the Daily News....
Catfight reveals Muddy Walters, The Daily News discusses the negative image of women
You have to read the latest in the Star Jones mess,,,,from the New York Post

Meet the Press continues to sink in quality. The once proud program of integrity featured the incompetant Dana Priest pontificating about laws topics which she does not understand. The incomparable Ian Schwartz has a round-up at his marvelous site, Expose the Left.

The Ed Wonks have great information on the latest schools to face total restructuring under NLCB. Xenia Schools may face his challenge next Spring. Many of our teachers are not at all aware of this upcoming, potentially dire circumstance.

Happy Fourth of July everyone! If you have time today, watch the movie/musical 1776. It can remind us of all of the great events that occurred in July, 1776 in Philedelphia.

United We Stand-a great column in the New York Daily News.

Broadway Shows

I have been thinking for some time about making a list of all the shows that I have seen in New York. Here is the list, subject to editing as more information comes available.

Shows seen on Broadway…

A Funny Thing Happened on the Way To The Forum
Annie Get Your Gun
Annie
Bells Are Ringing
Big River
Caroline or Change
Cats
Chicago
Contact
Dream Girls
Fiddler on the Roof
Footloose
Forty-Second Street
Fosse
Gypsy
Hairspray
It Ain’t Nothin’ But the Blues
Kiss Me Kate
La Boheme
La Cage Aux Folles (1984 and 2004)
Little Shop of Horrors
Man of LaMancha
Mama Mia
Miss Saigon
Nunsense A-Men
Oklahoma!
Ragtime
Smokey Joe’s Café
Sweeney Todd
Sweet Charity
The Full Monty
The King And I
The Life
The Light In The Piazza
The Music Man
The Phantom of the Opera
The Producers
The Rocky Horror Show
The Sound of Music
The Thing About Men
The Twenty-Fifth Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee
The Wild Party
Thoroughly Modern Millie
Thunder Knockin’ At The Door
Titanic
Rent
1776
Urinetown
Wicked
Wonderful Town
You’re A Good Man, Charlie Brown


A Raisin in the Sun
A Thousand Clowns
After The Fall
Copenhagen
Doubt
Enchanted April
Frankie and Johnny in the Clair De Lune
Glengarry Glen Ross
Golda’s Balcony
I’m Not Rappaport
King Headley II
Long Days Journey Into Night
Mornings at Seven
One Flew Over The Cuckoo’s Nest
On Golden Pond
Private Lives
Proof
Sly Fox
Steel Magnolias
Take Me Out
The Lieutenant of Inishmore
The Man Who Came To Dinner
The Real Thing
Side Man
Who’s Afraid of Virginia Woolf

I have seen Rent twelve times, Cats ten, Hairspray six, Chicago and Les Miz five, and several other shows three times.