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A look back at Farm-Aid's past twenty years.

Condi Rice wants Syria out of Lebanese politics.

Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice and several other foreign ministers on Monday repeated their call for Syria to stay out of Lebanese politics now that it has withdrawn its troops from the nation.

Lebanese Prime Minister Fuad Saniora met with Rice, U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Anann and ministers of European and Muslim nations as he charts a delicate course of political independence after 29 years effectively occupied by neighboring Syria.

"Lebanon has to be free of foreign interference. This is an issue of national sovereignty for Lebanon and Syria must respect the national sovereignty of Lebanon," Rice said. "Syria needs to get on the right side of events that are going on in the Middle East."

Saniora is seeking economic ties beyond its former patron and overlord Syria. His newly elected government got a show of international support but no immediate promises of financial aid.

Last night's tributes to Johnny Carson and the big three anchors were very heartfelt and brought tears to some eyes.

And there was the tribute and the cheers for retired network news anchors Tom Brokaw and Dan Rather, and for the late Peter Jennings - and Brokaw and Rather's tribute, in turn, to the journalists still covering Hurricane Katrina.

Somewhat ironically, it was a couple of late-night hosts who supplied two of the classiest moments.

David Letterman, one of Johnny Carson's most devoted admirers, paid tribute to the man of "wit, charm and grace" who died in January.

"Johnny gave me and countless others validation, true status in show biz, and a career," Letterman said. He quoted Carson when Johnny was asked what made him a star. "Johnny said, 'I stared out in a gaseous state, and then I cooled.'...With all due respect to the laws of physics, Johnny Carson's star never cooled."

Then later, when The Daily Show with John Stewart won as best variety, music or comedy series, Stewart came back with his admiration for Letterman.

"I just wanted to say, the way (David Letterman) feels about Johnny Carson," Stewart said, "is the way that all of us, the comedians of our era, feel about him."

One question though, unless the article online is fixed but who in the heck is John Stewart? The author emailed me back saying he knows. But his spelling error was not why I posted it.

Warner2008 likes Evan Bayh in a post at TPM Cafe.

I am a liberal populist Democrat, but my favorite politician is Evan Bayh who is a moderate version of my ideology. Do I support him any less for being more moderate? The answer is no. I have no problem with it. I think it is a good idea to recruit candidates that may note be in the mainstream with the party nationally but stances reflect their own state. Some people on the far left are a decrying this viewpoint as a betrayal of our ideas. I totally disagree. If a Democrat is truly pro-life like Ted Strickland that falls in line with a vast majority of Ohio voters than I think we should support him totally as long as they are qualified for the job. If a candidate totally changes his stance just to win an election I think we should discourage that practice because voters can pick up on a sell out.

On the national level I think we should find candidates that for most part fall in line with party orthodoxy. Like if a liberal leaning moderate runs and we like him than we should unify behind that candidate. But if a moderate conservative Democrat runs who is totally off the party orthodoxy than I think we should discourage those type of candidates. In the last presidential election what beat us was the party had only an 88% voter ID vote for Kerry, and Bush had over a 90% voter ID. If we had a voter ID vote like Bush’s we would have beat him.

For the next election I would like to see a more bipartisan moderate like Evan Bayh or Bill Clinton type candidate win the nomination because they are smack down in the middle of the party orthodoxy, and will be able to unify the base more. Plus we will be able to pick up more of the moderate Republicans or conservative leaning Independents. Even though I am suggesting this I feel John Edwards who is a liberal populist has such a winning personality, and is smart enough to be able to find how to win over voters can win a general election.

All in all, In 2008 primaries we should not vote against a candidate because they are not liberal enough like Evan Bayh who would be a nice consensus candidate who has the unquestionable credentials to lead the country and win the general election. And in states where the voters are basically Democrats but vote the other way because of the pro-life issue we should find an excellent candidate who believes in that issue full heartedly and will be able to win. But we should NEVER change our viewpoints just to win. If you don't have the passion for the issue everyone can tell, and it will hurt us.

That's what I'm talking about!

Coldplay has apologized for cancellations on their tour.

Drummer Will Champion says, "It is with great regret that we have had to cancel our shows in your towns this week.

"Chris is suffering from some issues with his throat and it was felt by his doctor that if he didn't give his voice a rest he might not be able to sing for the rest of the US dates.

"Please be assured that we are planning to return to the US in the spring of 2006 and when we do we will definitely reschedule these shows."

Get well, Chris.

The Red Sox play 30 games in a row before an off day this Thursday. David Ortiz is the first player in Sox history to have two back to back seasons with OVER 40 home runs. The Red Sox fans contributed $510,000 to the relief efforts.