The thought of a conservative

I am a conservative, because I believe in 'conserving government' at the request of our forefathers, as evidenced in the magnificent document they penned...The Constitution. Have you seriously studied The Constitution, or even in read it in full deeppeace? If so, then you know there is absolutely nothing in the Constitution guaranteeing health care, or any other "entitlement" program", to every US citizen, let alone illegal aliens (who are included in the uninsured numbers quoted). Anyway, do tell...why in the world would anyone want, or think the federal government could provide high quality national health care, in an efficient and fiscally responsible manner? Consider the bankrupt status of the single, most expensive federal debt, SS and Medicare, (which Libertarians and some Constitutional lawyers, often argue is illegally funded via FICA tax). Which prompts the next question, who is going to pay for our substandard, national healthcare? And yes, it will be substandard to the system we have now, as flawed as it may be. The idea of nationalized healthcare is a product of Socialism, and as has been proven over and over again, "Socialism", aka "the great equalizer", renders excellence obsolete. Thank God, (whomever he, she, or it may be for you), the USA is a democracy - built on excellence and ingenuity - often prompted by competition and rewarded through capitalism.
Although I certainly do not always agree with John McCain, I do agree with him that Roe -V- Wade is a flawed decision...because it simply isn't a federal law issue as mandated by the Constitution. And although it's highly unlikely, should Roe -v- Wade be overturned, the laws governing abortion simply go back to the states, where they rightfully belong. With a great mix of liberal and conservative states comprising our great nation, pro-life, pro-choice, and pro-abortion advocates all, will continue to be well represented.
I'm compelled to address the statement, "‘Pro-life’ means you respect living things. Like babies AFTER they’re born." I won't even bother to belabor the obvious...for I'm sure deeppeace recognizes that babies are alive and kickin'...long before they are "born" :) ...just ask any mom if you have doubts. More importantly, this statement reminds me that Obama doesn't support this notion...that a baby deserves the respect of life...even after it's born, if his/her mother intended for her baby to die during an abortion. Shocking, isn't it? But it's absolutely true. While serving in the IL state senate, Obama remained the lone holdout in three separate attempts to pass into law, the "Born Alive Infant's Protection Act". This law requires that usual and customary medical care be given to babies who are born alive, after surviving botched, labor-induced, late term abortions. Even the staunches supporters of abortion rights, like B Boxer of the US Senate, found the alternative practice of placing these living babies "out of sight" to die, like in a "soiled linen closet", to be just a bit too inhumane for the leader of the free world. The exact same law passed unanimously in the US Senate. Check it out for yourself Kai Noeske...read the transcript of Obama's detailed objections, "but there’s, let’s say, movement or some indication that, in fact, they’re not just coming out limp and dead...", available on the IL State Gov't official website: pp. 31-34, http://www.ilga.gov/senate/transcripts/strans92/ST040402.pdf.

Is Oprah Biased

Is Oprah Biased? because she won't Interview Palin Republican VP Nominee Sarah Palin is not welcomed on the on her show before the election. She said that after the the presidential election will be fine.

I like Oprah and enjoy her talk show but I think that it is apparent that she wants Obama to win... So is that a crime? Why would she do anything that would hurt him from becoming president?
"The item in today's 'Drudge Report' is categorically untrue," Winfrey said in a written statement provided to ABC News.com. "There has been absolutely no discussion about having Sarah Palin on my show.
"At the beginning of the presidential campaign, when I decided that I was going to take my first public stance in support of a candidate, I made the decision not to use my show as a platform for any of the candidates," Winfrey wrote.

O well, I have spoke and everyone will have to just live with my decision.

Elizabeth Spriggs died at 78

The British Shakespearean actress Elizabeth Spriggs diedat the age 78. Her theatre career, which lasted more than four decades, included thirteen years at the Royal Shakespeare, roles in several popular British TV series and even a part in a Harry Potter movie.

Spriggs joined the Royal Shakespeare Company in 1962 at the time when Peter Hall was establishing the theatre as a permanent company. Spriggs became an associate artist with the RSC and one of the company’s most accomplished performers. Spriggs also appeared in the BBC’s television productions of “Julius Caesar” and “The Merry Wives of Windsor.”

Spriggs later performed with the National Theatre and was nominated for a Tony Award in 1975 as best supporting or featured actress in a play for “London Assurance.” She stopped performing live theatre when a bad hip prevented her from standing on stage for long periods of time.

Spriggs appeared in many television shows but she is probably best known for the role of Nan in the ITV series “Shine On Harvey Moon.” Spriggs also appeared in several movies including Emma Thompson’s adaptation of “Sense and Sensibility” and “Harry Potter and the Philosopher’s Stone.”

was a versatile actress on stage and screen, and became familiar to television viewers in the role of Nan in Shine On Harvey Moon.

In the 1960s she brilliantly justified Peter Hall's new policy of turning the Royal Shakespeare Company at Stratford-on-Avon from a seasonal set-up with a new star-led cast every season into a permanent company.


Joining it aged 36 as an unknown but soundly-trained character actress, she stayed for 14 years to become one of its most accomplished, reliable and mature leading players.

Elizabeth Spriggs went on to star at the National Theatre as well as on television. She was the kind of serious-minded, though never solemn, performer for whom the play was the thing; she never asked herself whether it suited her career.

Acting for Elizabeth Spriggs could be a painful experience: "You have to be open to new ideas. It's a little like an open wound, never healing ... It's vital to be constantly stretched ... I hated most of my disciplining, but it taught me more than technique."

From the age of 11 she had nursed hopes of acting at Stratford-on-Avon, and from the day she did so 25 years later for Hall's newly-formed Royal Shakespeare Company she never ceased to celebrate her luck.

At that time she was nearing middle age. She was not beautiful, and she could not hope for glamorous roles. But she was mature, intelligent, experienced and patient; and she developed over the years into one of the RSC's most valued assets who, now and then, brought real distinction to her acting.

Her Gertrude, for example, to David Warner's Hamlet was rated by one experienced critic as "among the best in living memory". Her Nurse in Romeo and Juliet, her Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor and her Maria in Twelfth Night also won high praise.

But the performance which stuck longest in most playgoers' memories came with the whip and riding breeches she sported opposite Donald Sinden in London Assurance. As Lady Gay Spanker in Dion Boucicault's 19th-century comedy in the Restoration style, she addressed her friends and relations as if they were quadrupeds; her acting was a triumph of high comedy.

Although she went on to do admirable work with the National Theatre Company when Peter Hall took over as artistic director from Laurence Olivier, it was her work with the RSC which took her to the top of her profession.

Elizabeth Spriggs was born on September 18 1929 at Buxton, Derbyshire, and was educated there and in Coventry before training for the stage at the Royal School of Music. She taught speech and drama at Coventry Technical College and privately.

This was a career path, however, that brought her no fulfilment: "I felt as if I was dying inside. The desire to act was like a weight within me, and I knew if I didn't do anything it would destroy me." In 1953 she got the opportunity to join the Bristol Old Vic, and after several seasons she moved to the Birmingham Rep, where her roles included Cleopatra in Antony and Cleopatra and Madame Ranevsky in The Cherry Orchard (1958).

In 1962 she joined the Royal Shakespeare Company. In the following Aldwych season she played Mrs Vixen in The Beggar's Opera, Mother in The Representative by Rolf Hochhuth, Ida Mortemarte in Roger Vitrac's Victor and Rossignol in Peter Weiss's Marat/Sade.

At Stratford-on-Avon in 1965 her roles included Courtezan in The Comedy of Errors, Phrynia in Timon of Athens and a blowsy Gertrude to David Warner's Hamlet – considered by JC Trewin to be "among the best in living memory, a shallow woman terrified by the pressure of events she could not comprehend".

At the Aldwych she played Chairman Maudsley in David Mercer's one-acter, The Governor's Lady; Locksmith's Wife in The Government Inspector by Gogol; and Gertrude again in Hamlet, which she repeated at Stratford-on-Avon in 1966.

She also appeared at Stratford as Mistress Quickly in Henry IV Parts I and II; as the hostess in Henry V; the Widow in All's Well That Ends Well; a Witch in Macbeth; and as the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet to Estelle Kohler's Juliet. In the last two of these she toured to Helsinki, Leningrad and Moscow before playing at the Aldwych in 1968.

Back at Stratford that year she played Portia in Julius Caesar, Mistress Ford in The Merry Wives of Windsor and – at the Aldwych in 1969 – Claire in A Delicate Balance by Edward Albee. Repeating her Mistress Ford at Stratford, she also played Livia in Middleton's Women Beware Women, Paulina in The Winter's Tale and Maria in Twelfth Night. Her 1970 triumph as Lady Gay Spanker in London Assurance was also seen on Broadway in 1974.

Other roles for the RSC included Lady Britomart in Shaw's Major Barbara; a warmly sympathetic Emilia to Brewster Mason's Othello (Stratford 1971); the Duchess of York in Richard II for the Theatregoround touring company; and a sunny, complacent and busy Beatrice to Derek Godfrey's Benedick in Much Ado About Nothing, rediscovering, as one critic put it, "a capacity for love she had long since laid aside".

Among notable performances at the National Theatre were Madam Arcati, Noël Coward's tweedy, suburban and eccentric medium in Blithe Spirit (1976), and the tarty tobacconist with a heart of gold who seduces young men and corrects the shortcomings of others in Tom Stoppard's version of Odon von Horvath's Tales From the Vienna Woods.

At the National she was also the indomitable Lady Would-Be in Volpone, and the frightful Lady Fidget in Wycherley's Country Wife. As the stoical wife of Michael Gough's dying trades unionist in Arnold Wesker's Love Letters on Blue Paper (Cottesloe, 1978) she won the West End Managers' prize for the best supporting actress of the London season.

Among her numerous television credits were Shine on Harvey Moon, in which she played Harvey's mother, Nan; the title role of Hannah in Victorian Scandals; Dilecta in the Balzac serial Prometheus; Maud Lowther in Wings of a Dove; Frade in The Dybbuk; and Calpurnia in Julius Caesar. She also appeared in the ever-popular Midsomer Murders (she was a murder victim in the very first episode). She was Connie Fox in the serial Fox, the wife in We, The Accused, and she had the title role in The Kindness of Mrs Radcliffe. In Strangers and Brothers she played Lady Muriel Royce and the Mistress in Those Glory, Glory Days.

She also played The Witch in Simon and the Witch, and appeared in Gentleman and Players, Watching, Boon and Survival of the Fittest. She was in Oranges Are Not The Only Fruit, The Old Devils, Heartbeat and Anglo-Saxon Attitudes.

Elizabeth Spriggs appeared as the formidable Aunt Agatha in Jeeves and Wooster and had parts in several Alan Bennett plays, including Bognor, Intensive Care and Our Winnie. She was a staple of costume drama, featuring in adaptations of both Our Mutual Friend and Martin Chuzzlewit (in the latter she excelled as the gin-sodden midwife Sairey Gamp) as well as the BBC's version of Middlemarch.

Her feature film credits included Peter Hall's Work Is A Four-Letter World, An Unsuitable Job For a Woman, The Cold Room, Sakharov, Parker and Yellow Pages. In 1995 she appeared as Mrs Jennings in Emma Thompson's adaptation of Sense and Sensibility and in 2001 was the Fat Lady in Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone.

Elizabeth Spriggs met her third husband, Murray Manson, in 1972 when he was working as a minicab driver and she was starring at the Albery in London Assurance. He survives her with the daughter of her first marriage.

Greg Burson died at 59

Greg Burson died on July 22, 2008 at the age of 59. The cause of death is being given as complications due to diabetes and arteriosclerosis but obviously, drinking had a lot to do with it.


Greg Burson was given the responsibility of voicing Bugs in 1995's Carrotblanca, a well-received 8-minute Looney Tunes cartoon originally shown in cinemas alongside The Amazing Panda Adventure (US) and The Pebble and the Penguin (non-US); it has since been released on video packaged with older Looney Tunes cartoons and was even included in the special edition DVD release of Casablanca, of which it is both a parody and an homage. Burson next voiced Bugs in the 1996 short From Hare to Eternity; the film is notable for being dedicated to the memory of the then-just deceased Friz Freleng, and for being the final Looney Tunes cartoon that Chuck Jones directed. Greg Burson also provided Bugs' voice in The Bugs and Daffy Show, which ran on Cartoon Network from 1996 to 1999.

He also voiced Yogi Bear and many other characters in Hanna-Barbera-related shows.


[edit] Legal Issues
Greg Burson was later arrested by detectives after barricading himself inside his Los Angeles home for six hours. He screamed a stream of nonsensical words at cops who were alerted to his home after two women rang them claiming he was holding his roommate against her will. Armed Special Weapons And Tactics teams joined the stand-off which eventually ended when a seemingly inebriated Greg Burson surrendered following hours of negotiations. Cops later discovered a collection of guns in his home. One officer says "He was so drunk we couldn't tell if he was trying to do one of his voices or was just slurring his words." Officer Rudy Villarreal has confirmed all three women involved in the incident lived with Burson. Neither women were harmed in this incident


CREDITS
Film Appearances
Voices of Nemo's father, Flap, Bullwinkle, Boris, and Dudley, Little Nemo: Adventures in Slumberland, Hemdale Releasing, 1990
Voice of moving man, Tom and Jerry: The Movie (animated), Miramax,1993
Voice of Mr. DNA, Jurassic Park (also known as JP), MCA/Universal, 1993
Voices of Buggs Bunny, Pepe Le Pew as Louie, and Foghorn Leghorn as radiodispatcher, Carrotblanca (animated), Warner Bros., 1995
Voices of Bugs Bunny, From Hare to Eternity (animated), Warner Bros., 1996
Voice of the animated Mr. Quincy Magoo, Mr. Magoo, Buena Vista, 1997
Voice, Bugs Bunny's Funky Monkeys (animated), 1997
Also voices of Huckeberry Hound, Peter Perfect, and Snagglepuss, Cartoon Survivor; voices of Elmer and Foghorn for the film Space Jam; and voices of Bugs Bunny as Jim Hawkins and Pepe Le Pew as Squire Trelawney, Treasure Island: A Looney Tunes Movie.
Television Appearances
Series
Voice of Elmer Fudd, a recurring role, Tiny Toon Adventures (animated; also known as Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures), 1990-1991
Voice of Bugs Bunny, The Bugs n' Daffy Show (animated), The WB, 1996
Also voice of George Wilson, The All-New Dennis the Menace, CBS; voice of Professor Edwin I. Relevant, Channel Umptee--3, The WB; and voices of Yogi and Boo-Boo, Yogi & Co. (animated). Episodic
Voice of Mad Dog, "Shadow of the Bat: Parts 1 & 2," Batman: The Animated Series, Fox, 1993
Voices of Corbin and Sanderson, "Race against Danger," The Real Adventures of Jonny Quest (animated), Cartoon Network and syndicated, 1996
Voice of Quick Draw McGraw, "Jack and the Clenches," Samurai Jack(animated), Cartoon Network, 2000
Also voices of judge and first otter, "SqOtters," an episode of The Angry Beavers (animated); voices of Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, and Elmer Fuddfor various episodes of Animaniacs (animated); voice of Barry the Baboon, Catdog (animated); voice of Attila, Mother Goose and Grimm(animated), CBS; voices of Porky Pig, Bugs Bunny, Daffy Duck, Pepe Le Pew, and Cupid for various episodes of Tiny Toon Adventures (animated; also known as Steven Spielberg Presents Tiny Toon Adventures); voice, Tomand Jerry Kids Show (animated), Fox; voices of Huckleberry Hound, QuickDraw McGraw, Snagglepuss, and Yogi Bear, Wake, Rattle & Roll (animated), syndicated; and voice of Yogi Bear, Yo! Yogi (animated), NBC.
Specials
Voice, Hanna-Barbera's 50th: A Yabba Dabba Doo Celebration, TNT, 1989
Voice of Porky, It's a Wonderful Tiny Toons Christmas Special, 1992
Voices of Yogi Bear, squirrel baby, and squirrel boy, A Day in the Life of Ranger Smith (animated), Cartoon Network, 1999
Other
Voice of Yogi Bear, Scooby-Doo in Arabian Nights (animated movie;also known as Arabian Nights and Scooby Doo's Arabian Nights),syndicated, 1994
Also provided voices for the animated programs Droopy Master Detective; Fantastic Max; Garfield and Friends; Smurfs; SuperFriends; Taz-Mania; and 2 Stupid Dogs.
Television Work
Additional voices, I Yabba-Dabba Do! (animated movie), ABC, 1993
Additional voices for Jonny Quest (animated) and The Twisted Adventures of Felix the Cat (animated; also known as The Twisted Tales of Felix the Cat), CBS.
RECORDINGS
Video Games
Voice, Star Wars: Episode I--The Gungan Frontier, Lucas Learning,1999
Voices of Boss Nass, guard door, first injured soldier, Jabba's porter, and shop owner, Star Wars: Episode I--The Phantom Menace, LucasArts Entertainment, 1999
Voices of Sergeant Blast, Rufus Ruffcut, Peter Perfect, and Red Max, Wacky Races, Infogrames, 2000
Voices of Boss Nass and Peck, Star Wars: Episode I--Jedi Power Battles, LucasArts Entertainment, 2000

Pervis Jackson (far right in the picture) has died of cancer at age 70

Iam very sad to inform that Pervis Jackson (far right in the picture) has died of cancer at age 70.
Pervis Jackson is an American R∧B singer, noted as the bass singer for The Spinners , and is one of the group's original members. He is perhaps best known for his line of "12:45" from the group's Billboard Top 10 smash, "They Just Can't Stop It (Games People Play)". As of 2008, Jackson was still singing with The Spinners. 08-18-2008 Pervis Jackson, a member of "The Spinners," died from cancer at Sinai Grace hospital this morning.


Throughout the years, they have acquired twelve (12) gold records with their hits climbing to the top of both Pop and R&B charts and they are one of the few groups who can boast of four (4) lead singers. Members include, Frank Washington, Bobbie Smith, Henry Fambrough. Pervis Jackson and Harold "Spike" Bonhart.

Hey he got a gun!

You think that you can shoot at me? Take this rock ump, and see how you like that!!!

Jerry Reed passed away

Jerry Reed 1937-2008


Jerry Reed Hubbard was born in Atlanta, Georgia, on 20 March, 1937. He was the second child born to Robert Spencer Hubbard and Cynthia Hubbard. Jerry's birth strained an already troubled marriage, and four months later the couple separated. For the next seven years Jerry and his sister Patricia where shuttled between Georgia orphanages and foster homes. They finally returned home in 1944 when their mother married Hubert Howard, another mill worker.
Music provided a welcome diversion for the family. He was exposed to gospel music via his religious background, and a natural aptitude for singing gave him a yearning to become a musician at a very early age. Encouraged by her son's continuing passion for music, Cyntia Howard saved seven dollars to buy a no-name second-hand guitar from a neighbor. Using a nickel as a flat pick, she taught the nine-year-old his first chords.
By the time he entered Atlanta's O'Keefe High School, Reed was already writing and singing novelty songs. After completing his second year, Reed left school to work in an Atlanta cotton mill. He spent his free time honing his performing skills in local honky tonks. Jerry also developed skills as an entertainer, often stopping a show with his imitations of popular country artists.
In 1954 an Atlanta policeman introduced the youth to Bill Lowery, who helmed a popular live country music show Saturday mornings over WGST radio. Reed joined Lowery at WGST, working part-time as a disc jockey. At night he performed with a band Lowery managed, Kenny Lee and the Western Playboys.
On November 16, 1954, Reed performed at a gala country show in Atlanta honoring Faron Young, who had just been discharged from the Army. Capitol Records' country music chief Ken Nelson was there to celebrate the occasion, and Lowery encouraged him consider signing the young singer. Reed's first Capitol session was held in Nashville's Castle Studios on October 17, 1955, and Nelson recruited his front-line Nashville musicians to back him. Reed wrapped up his Capitol contract in May 1958. If Nelson had any intention of keeping him on Capitol, Reed ended any future association by joining the United States Army.
In 1961 Jerry Reed moved to Nashville and landed a Columbia contract, but his success proved only marginally better there than at Capitol. While Jerry didn't exactly sell a lot of his own records, he did develop as a writer. Johnny Cash did well with his "A thing called love" and Porter Wagoner took Reed's "Misery loves company" to #1 in 1962. Jerry also spent a lot of time as a studio musician and backing picker with various touring country artists. He now began sending demos of his guitar instrumentals to Chet Atkins at RCA Victor. Chet Atkins signed him to RCA Victor and started producing his albums.
In 1967, Reed notched his first chart hit with "Guitar Man," which Elvis Presley soon covered. After releasing the 1970 crossover hit "Amos Moses," Reed teamed with Atkins for the duet LP "Me & Jerry". During the 1970 television season, he was a regular on the Glen Campbell Goodtime Hour, and in 1971 he issued his biggest hit, the chart-topper "When You're Hot, You're Hot".
In the mid-1970s, Reed's recording career began to take a back seat to his acting aspirations. In 1974, he co-starred with his close friend Burt Reynolds in the film "W.W. and the Dixie Dancekings". While he continued to record throughout the decade, his greatest visibility was as a motion picture star, almost always in tandem with headliner Reynolds; after 1976's "Gator," Reed appeared in 1978's "High Ballin" and 1979's "Hot Stuff". He also co-starred in all three of the Smokey and the Bandit films; the first, which premiered in 1977, landed Reed a Number 2 hit with the soundtrack's "East Bound and Down."
In 1982, Reed's career as a singles artist was revitalized by the chart-topping hit "She Got the Goldmine (I Got the Shaft)," followed by "The Bird," which peaked at Number 2. His last chart hit, "I'm a Slave," appeared in 1983. After the 1986 LP "Lookin' at You" Reed focused on touring until 1992, when he and Atkins reunited for the album "Sneakin' Around" before he again returned to the road.
In 1998 he formed the group "Old Dogs" together with country superstars Waylon Jennings, Mel Tillis, and Bobby Bare. They recorded one album entitled "Old Dogs". In early 2008 he recorded his last album, "The Gallant Few," which was produced to raise funds for wounded veterans.
Jerry Reed passed away August 31, 2008.