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Since Mrs. JimRed has an opportunity to attend a work related seminar in New Orleans we have decided to add a few days to it and take some short vacation time. We'll arrive on Saturday, May 8th and depart on Wednesday the 12th. Our son was there for a while a few years back on a study trip for an architecture course, and has some suggestions. But I thought I'd check for ideas from local folks, or frequent visitors. We promise to try to behave ourselves......;^)

Condoleezza, Condoleezza, they have called you to come up upon the hill to testify; they will try to beat up "Dubya" with your answers, and they'll call each truthful thing you say a lie; The lefties of the med-ia will berate you, though carefully, for they must be PC; many ho-urs you have spent before them do not count now, so look out now! They will try hard to trick and to trap you, but if anyone can handle them, 'tis thee!

<p>Other than denoting your disapproval, what does the adjective mean in the phrase ``special interest''? Is the National Education Association a special interest? The AFL-CIO?</p> <p>You abhor ``special tax giveaways for the privileged and special interests.'' When supporting billions in ethanol subsidies, mostly for agribusinesses, did you think about corn-growing, caucus-holding Iowa?</p>

If your state is holding a "primary" vote for the Republican candidate for president, Citizens Lobby strongly urges you to cast a "blank" ballot -- OR write in a candidate of your choice. We recommend Tom Tancredo, Ron Paul, Pat Buchanan or Alan Keyes... President Bush needs a wake call and your vote is a great way to send him a message.

The New York Times seldom passes up an opportunity to attack that pesky Second Amendment. But did you know its own reporters are armed and dangerous? At least some of the ones in Iraq are, and the paper's thought police are in a tizzy. Even though the Times sticks its nose into every other corporation's business, it refuses to discuss its internal feud, but according to the Wall Street Journal the Times' Baghdad bureau chief, Susan Sachs, is mad that reporter Dexter Filkins has had the nerve to carry a gun for self-defense. Sachs "objects to what she perceives as...

Doplmia Prgarom Diploma mill e-mail solicitations are dime a dozen these days, I probably get 10 a week; but this one is unique! I copied & pasted it as-is from the e-mail. Here goes: Cerate a mroe porsperous futrue for yuersolf Recevie a full dioplma from non acdreticed universities bsaed uopn your real life expirneece You wlil not be tseted, or ienervitwed Reecive a Mstaer's, Bochelar's or Dootcrtae Clal 24 huros a day 7 days a week

1. Why American Chaos Reigns in Iraq Chaos continues to reign in Iraq because of the State Department's meddling, NewsMax has learned. A high-ranking Reagan administration official, who has talked to several Americans working in liberated Iraq, says the situation “is chaotic, and remains more chaotic than the press is reporting.” The culprit for the troubles: the State Department. As has been described to us, there is not one interim U.S. authority in Iraq, but two, one with orders from Foggy Bottom liberals who oppose President Bush, and the other from the Defense Department. A few weeks ago, the New...

Apparently AOL is not letting the Townhall.com OpinionAlert get through to their subscribers. We are working frantically to find a solution but AOL is being quite stubborn despite several calls from our technical staff and hundreds of calls from all of you. We will keep you informed and will be working on some short term solutions in the next few days. [10:58 PM 11-Jun-03 | Jonathan A. Garthwaite]

My son just called and asked me who else was killed in the plane crash that took Richie and the Bopper. Any help appreciated!

Despite stiff and unexpected Iraqi resistance, the U.S. invasion of Iraq is likely to succeed in toppling Saddam Hussein -- and British Prime Minister Tony Blair, President Bush, the Republican Party and American neoconservatives. Wars have unintended consequences as well as unexpected developments. The White House, the Pentagon, our troops and the public were surprised that Saddam Hussein did not "collapse after the first whiff of gunpowder," as Richard Perle, the principle architect of the war, had optimistically predicted. The promised "cakewalk" quickly bogged down into a stalemate, and other major setbacks have occurred. The Pentagon has been sobered by...

The New York Times reported Friday that a nationwide poll conducted Thursday evening found that more than two-thirds of Americans support President Bush’s handling of the Iraq crisis. The Times said “support for President Bush's policy in Iraq has surged” – jumping more than 10 points from a week ago to 70 percent support today. But the paper noted strong partisan divisions in the nation and claimed the situation is “reminiscent of the partisan divide that marked the later years of the Vietnam War.” “While 93 percent of Republicans said they approved of Mr. Bush's handling of Iraq, just 50...

The headline in last Friday's (Oct. 25) Washington Times said,"Thank God, It's Over." Two suspects in the terror rampage that killed 10 people and wounded three may be in custody, but it's not over. It has only just begun. The Western diplomat murdered in Jordan on Monday is just the latest incident of targeted Americans. While the Beltway sniper suspects may have acted independently of any known terrorist organization, it is not necessary to be commissioned by a foreign national in order to effectively carry out the wishes of America's enemies. It is past time to stop worrying about political...

Everywhere you turn these days, someone on the left is denouncing President Bush as Hitler, Satan, a terrorist or a tyrannical emperor. A Yale law professor said Bush is "the most dangerous man on Earth." A famous editor referred to Bush as "a lawn jockey" and "Pinocchio." Some of the angry rhetoric flirts with the fringe idea that the United States planned the terrorist attacks. A Purdue professor said "there is no ground to be certain" that America and Israel aren't behind the 9/11 attacks. A Columbia law professor compared 9/11 to the Reichstag fire in Nazi Germany -- Bush...

New Jersey FReepers, in your opinion would Douglas Forrester or Diane Allen be more likely to beat Torricelli in November?

On the Palestinians, the Israelis, and what now? Q: Given that peace is always better than war, why don't the Israelis just give the Palestinians what they want and be done with all this violence? A :It wouldn't end the violence. And what the Palestinians want is the destruction of Israel. Arafat and the Arabs/Islamists are pledged to it. The Arabs/Islamists have attacked Israel at least four times - the first time, notably, on the very day of Israel's creation as a state by the United Nations. Q: But all they want is their land back. Don't the Palestinians have...

Is the Bush Administration involved in the Enron scandal? http://www.vote.com

With a war on, a lot of news is getting crowded off the front pages, some of it even good. For example,the U.S. Labor Department has finally issued regulations enforcing the Supreme Court's 1988 Beck decision. That decision gave union members the right to demand a refund of their dues not used for collective bargaining. Labor unions have fought the decision, and the Clinton Administration refused to implement it lest this bountiful source of coerced political cash dry up. Thirteen years is a long time for union members to wait to finally have a say in how their hard-earned money ...

When the new school year begins, Deena Esteban will not be among the legions of educators welcoming students back to class. That's because Mrs. Esteban, a 43-year-old art teacher in Prince William County, Va., lost the job she loved after being convicted of a felony last fall. Her crime? Bringing a gun to school. Mrs. Esteban's story is a textbook case of zero-tolerance tyranny. Teachers are the forgotten casualties of the education establishment's absolutist war on guns. Mrs. Esteban had never been in trouble with the law. The married mother of two owned a .38-caliber revolver for self-defense and -- ...

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The Oklahoma Farm Bureau announced today that it has set up a legal foundation and is mapping plans to file a lawsuit protesting the federal government's actions to protect a minnow. Earlier this year, the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service declared waterways in western Oklahoma and parts of three other states as a critical habitat region under the Endangered Species Act, a move to further protect the Arkansas River shiner. Steve Kouplen of Beggs, Okla., Farm Bureau president, said the action could spark "a flood of burdensome regulations" that would encroach on farmers' property rights. "We are ...

How would you like to get $50,000 tax-free from Uncle Sam by just writing a letter and getting a friend to attest to your claim that you had applied to the Department of Agriculture for a farm loan and had been turned down because of your race? Impossible, you say? Not if you were black and had joined in a class-action lawsuit known as Pigford vs. Glickman (Dan Glickman, Clinton’s last secretary of agriculture). On Jan. 17, 2001, as the Clinton era was coming to an end, the Department of Agriculture (USDA) Web site showed that 12,000 blacks who had ...