My first reaction to the announcement yesterday that Gore had picked Joe Lieberman for Vice-president was somewhat negative. Initially I remembered Lieberman's condemnation of Bill Clinton during the Lewinsky scandal. At the time, I sent him an e-mail voicing my displeasure. But after hearing him speak at a Gore headquarters in Tennessee, I've changed my mind. I was impressed with his sincere religiosity, his gratitude that he, a Jew, was chosen to be Gore's running mate, his love for his wife and children, and his position on the issues. He has an excellent record on the environment, a dedication to civil rights, a desire to see all Americans well-educated, support for gun control and universal health care.

I was also impressed with his charming wife, Hadassah, such a difference between her and Dick Cheney's pit bull spouse, Lynn. Hadassah spoke of her parents coming to America after being rescued by American troops from Nazi concentration camps. She marveled that she should be in the position she is in, the wife of the first Jewish man to run for Vice-president.

Looking at his horoscope, an astrologer can see that Joe has strong opinions that clearly indicate a personality that is both morally scrupulous and conservative combined with an innovative compassionate nature. He has Mars the planet of initiative and action both conjunct(in the same place with)Saturn the planet of tradition and discipline and Uranus, the planet of change and innovation. Since this three planet conjunction is in Taurus, we see his bull headedness regarding Clinton's actions during the Lewinsky mess. Since he is a Pisces, however, his compassionate adaptable nature is also evident and he was able to forgive the President's sins, sincerely support him and give him credit for his excellent stewardship of the economy. Joe Lieberman is no phony.

His triple Taurean conjunction, however, could come into conflict with Gore's triple conjunction of Mars, Saturn and Pluto. They voice disagreement on support of school vouchers, Lieberman for it, Gore against. But both are also adaptable enough and smart enough to resolve their differences or at least respect the other's opinions without rancor. There is one area that concerns me a little. Lieberman is, obviously, pro Israel. I hope his pro-Israeli policies don't get in the way of support for a Jewish-Palestine agreement. I hope he is fair-minded enough to see the Palestinian perspective.

He is a much better choice for vice president than Cheney is. Not only does the Cheney choice drag as back to the past of primitive and unenlightened Republican foreign policy(don't intervene unless the rich are going to lose money), but it indicates the depth of Bush's commitment to compassionate conservatism. Cheney's votes on AIDs, South Africa, homosexuals, Headstart were obviously conservative, never compassionate.

Foo on you George W. Bush for your brain dead choice for Vice President and your lack of depth and commitment to the American people. All you really care about is you and your Dad's rich friends. You and your parents think the Bushes were bred to be President. Nobody as uninformed as you appear to be should be President. We need a smart guy up there.

Maureen Dowd in her August first column, "A Members-only Convention", writes of your elitist attitude. You try to hide it, but there it is just the same. Maybe you don't try to hide it, but you have no idea that you have it. Dowd mentions an anecdote told by David Dreier, a Republican congressman from California, in a recent issue of Newsweek. While running for Congress in 1978, he attended Republican candidate's school and ran into you. You told him that you had a great idea for raising money for campaigns. "Have your mother send a letter to your family's Christmas card list," you told him excitedly. "I just did and I got $350,000." The thought didn't occur to you that others might not have the access to rich friends of their parents as you do.

At a lunch or breakfast with ministers, Clinton discussed the stupid mistakes he made that led up to his impeachment. Dumbo Bush said Gore should repudiate his boss for those mistakes. I think Gore should ask Bush to castigate Newt Gingrich for his adulterous behavior, or Henry Homewrecker Hyde for his "youthful indiscretion". Newtie's actions were worse. He left his wife for the girl. Clinton didn't, and he didn't break up any families, either.

Andre in Amsterdam hates the American mixing of the public and personal life. The only other place this occurs in the First World is Britain. But, of course, America is based on the social values of the British Isles. They were the early leaders in the first 13 colonies and their Puritan belief system never really disappeared. It is alive and well in the religious right wing of the Republican party. They would have enjoyed seeing Clinton in stocks or in jail. At the very least, they hoped he'd been branded with the letter A (like Hester Prynne in Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter) and run out of town. This santimonious slop is dangerous. With the Republican religious right wing in power, would we be that far removed from The Handmaid's Tale? Luckily the Founding Fathers were deists and set up a Constitution that guaranteed freedom of religion, speech etc., or we'd be in big trouble.

Psychic Fred came back from Seattle. While there, he took a trip on a boat that sailed amongst the whales. He met a Texan on board and asked her what she thought of Georgie. She said he wasn't a good governor and she hoped the rest of the country wouldn't be saddled with him.

His record is bad on so many things, let me count the ways. I'll get back to enumerating his political messes and dumbo actions in the next few days.