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Congradulations to Matt for setting the Guinness World record for Longest Handcuffed Swim on Nov 21 2006 of the beachs of Sihanoukville Cambodia. Matts swim besides setting a record also raised over $10,ooo USD to help Khmer Kids go to school thanks to a rather large and generous contribution from GoldenPalace.com

Party will be on Wednesday at Ana Internet and Club Sandwhich here in Beautiful Sihanoukville

9-12 America & Our 2006 National ElectionsI have very little interest in the 9-11 conspiracies as they distract us and disempower us to the greatest conspiracy of all - 9-12: The Hijacking of America by the neo-cons and the religious right, rapture-based Christian Zionists. When we get all emotional on how 9-11 was an inside job by the Bushistas, we take our eye off the ball of who the greatest threat to our country is, and it is not Islamic terrorists, but those running our country into massive debt and privatizing our government to the highest bidder, foreign and domestic. Our greatest terrorists are home-grown and speak Amerikan.We need to reinstitute our founding fathers two greatest ideas to protect our country – separation of church and state and separation of corporation and state. Religion and corporations are the greatest corrupting powers on American republican democracy. While having different agendas, it is their massive ideological influence on domestic and foreign policy that have brought, or should I say “bought,” America to where it is today.We should be furious over issues of* pre-emptive war,* unilateral international invasions and occupations,* 14 permanent military bases built in Iraq for staging further invasions and occupations around the Mid-East,* going from the largest surplus to the largest deficit in American history all done in the first two and a half years of GW’s presidency,* the privatizing of the American military to outside contractors,* the massive corruption in Washington,* the Christian Reconstructionists guiding domestic policy,* the Neo-Cons determining foreign policy,* the shrinking middle class,* an economy that benefits the wealthy and is screwing the working person,* the promotion of cheap labor for corporate profits through illegal immigration and unregulated corporate globalization,* the stopping of stem cell research,* the demonizing of gays,* the demonizing of women who want to have an abortion,* dismissing global warming as “junk science” when it is scientific fact,* the opening up of protected forests and national parks to corporations, and* the continual parading of the politics of fear. If we get absorbed in the conspiracies of 9-11, we let these same guys off the hook for all that I these really important issues and more.I like libertarian values, but libertarian candidates are really bad representations of those values for general American consumption with the exception of Congressman Ron Paul of Texas, whom I really resonate with. While I voted Republican proudly for Nixon and Reagan, that party no longer exists. With the Religious Right takeover of the GOP in 1992 I could no longer associate with them. I am a Green at heart, a Libertarian in my mind, a Natural Law Party in my soul, and a pragmatist/idealist in reality, which is why I will support the Democrats in the upcoming next two elections. I am very aligned with traditional democratic values of championing the middle and working class, improving public education, protecting Social Security, and promoting civil, women and gay rights as human rights issues. I do not align with the Democratic Party of the last twenty five years, even though Clinton was a very good “Republican” president. He balanced the budget, created the largest surplus in American history, and cut welfare drastically. I am also very aligned with traditional republican values, which are no longer championed by the Republicans - fiscal conservatism, paying down the debt, balancing the budget, conservation of nature and the environment, promotion of small businesses over monopolistic corporations, minimal foreign involvement, use of our military for defense purposes only (not for offensive invasions and occupations), and personal responsibility. I don’t believe in big government, but rather efficient government. We must always have enough government to protect the small from being exploited or marginalized by the large and to provide equal education and opportunity for all. The Republicans and the Religious Right have both prostituted themselves by preying on each other for votes and moralistic political initiatives respectively. In the end both will lose out with the American people. The new “moral Republicans” have become the party of hypocrites, whether it is from corruption of Jack Abramoff, Tom Delay, Randy “Duke” Cunningham, and Bob Ney ilk or the corruption of Christianity by politicians as exposed by David Kuo, or the hypocrisy of Mark Foley and Ted Haggard. In short, I am a fiscal conservative and a social progressive.Both parties have lost their way. Both parties have betrayed their principles. Both parties are bought and paid for through special interests and corporate pimps in Washington. The Democrats are just as responsible for the mess we have in Iraq since they did nothing to oppose it, instead caving into to fear or they would appear weak on defense. I would love for the corpocrats or corporaticians (corporate bought politicians), the Liebermans, the John Kerrys, and all other Democrats and Republicans who supported Bush and the Iraq War to be thrown out of office this November. So why do I support the Democrats right now? Two reasons. There are no change agents in the Republican Party right now, and none on the horizon. Just the opposite is true of the Democrats. Howard Dean, the greatest change agent of American politics this country has had in 40 years, is trying to revive and restore the Democrats. He performed a temporary spinal transplant on them while he was running for president in 2004. The Democrats have Russ Feingold, Barack Obama, Dennis Kucinich, Barbara Lee, Maxine Waters, John Conyers, Barbara Boxer, Carl Levin and now a resurrected passionate Al Gore. Plus there is some really good new blood entering the political arena with 37 military veterans running on the Democratic ticket this fall and over 40 new women. If we want some real change we need more women in Washington and around the country in politics.It is the middle and working class and women, if and when they get involved in voting, that will change America’s political direction. They will come from and align with Democratic candidates more than any other party. Until we institute “clean elections” with all candidates having equal access to the media and being able to run for any office, we are spitting in the wind by voting outside the two traditional parties. If we fracture off according to our cherished political stances we ensure the Republicans to be re-elected. To me, that is the worst thing that could happen for America. Just look at what they have done! George W. has been infinitely worse by himself (of course, you have to count in Co-President Cheney, and Vice-Presidents Rove and Rumsfeld, too) than any combinations of Democratic presidents and Congresses of the twentieth century.Realistically, the Democrats are the only ones who can make the change we need in America. But then we must elect changemaker, progressive, fiscally and militarily responsible Democrats.