Stan Getz
“We’ll Be Together Again”

I have always loved Stan Getz.

Commentary from Youtuber ilbofilms, who has some excellent videos on Youtube

This clip was recorded in Stockholm Sweden in 1983
Next to Stan Getz on tenor sax we see Jim McNeely piano, George Mraz bass and Victor Lewis drums.

Stan Getz ( 1927-1991)
Born to Ukrainian-Jewish parents and raised in New York City, Getz played a number of instruments before his father bought him his first saxophone at the age of 13. In 1943, he was accepted into Jack Teagarden’s band. After playing for Stan Kenton, Jimmy Dorsey, and Benny Goodman, Getz was a soloist with Woody Herman from 1947–49. He scored a hit with Early Autumn. With few exceptions, Getz would be a leader on all of his recording sessions after 1950.
Getz married Beverly Byrne, a vocalist with the Gene Krupa band, on November 7, 1946; they had three children. He married Swedish aristocrat Monica Silfverskiold on November 3, 1956, and had two children. In 1957, Swedish girlfriend Inga Torgner gave birth to his son, Peter.
In the 1950s, Getz become popular playing cool jazz with Horace Silver, Johnny Smith, Oscar Peterson, and many others.
In 1958, Getz tried to escape his narcotics addiction by moving to Copenhagen, Denmark.
Returning to America in 1961, Getz became a central figure in the Bossa nova. His “The Girl from Ipanema” won a Grammy Award.
He had become involved with drugs and alcohol while a teenager, and would physically abuse his wives while under the influence. In 1954, he was arrested for attempting to rob a pharmacy to get a morphine fix. As he was being processed in the prison ward of Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center, Beverly, whom Stan had gotten addicted to heroin, gave birth to their third child one floor below. After years of trying to get him clean, Monica, who had gained custody of Stan and Beverly’s children, left him; he divorced her in 1987. Getz died of liver cancer.

From Raw Story:

Senator Richard Lugar, the most prominent Republican yet to break ranks with the US administration over Iraq, called Sunday for an “orderly” withdrawal of US troops in the coming months.

President George W. Bush should embrace moderates from both sides in Congress to chart a new path forward, the top Republican on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee said on CBS News.

The group would examine forming “a diplomatic forum to bring together all the neighboring countries, and we meet continuously and we talk about our interests in Iraq but also our interests with each other,” he said.

“Then withdrawal of a majority of American troops in a calm, orderly way over the next few months so that we refurbish our ability to meet problems elsewhere in the world,” Lugar said.

“I think we are too much stretched and I would add to that our recruiting problems have become severe.”

Lugar sent shock waves through political Washington last Monday by taking to the floor of the Senate to argue that Bush’s “surge” of US troops had not translated into meaningful progress by Iraqi authorities.

His Dad goes and meets Putin at the airport? What’s up with that? What….Georgie boy too busy? Well, he did have a tough morning….him and Daddy got the anchor of Daddy’s boat ( a cigarette boat….my theory on those things….small dick, big fast boat) stuck in some rocks and had to have secret service divers get them loose. Great use of our tax dollars! I’ll tell you what I think. They know he’s such an imbecile that they don’t want him to be alone with Putin. Daddy had to step in….and bring Mommy along, too.

By JENNIFER LOVEN
Associated Press Writer

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine — Relations are rocky between President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin, but their meeting began Sunday with handshakes and smiles, flowers and kisses from Putin for the first lady and Bush’s mother.

Bush waited at his family’s seacoast estate as his father, former President George H.W. Bush, met Putin at a nearby airport and rode with the Russian leader in a helicopter to the compound. Emerging from a limousine, Putin handed large bouquets of flowers to first lady Laura Bush and former first lady Barbara Bush, then kissed them on both cheeks.

“It’s pretty casual up here — unstructured,” Bush said about the setting for his talks with Putin.

More at the Sun Sentinel

I am not impressed. U.S. deaths are up, and we have no way of knowing what the actual Iraqi death count is. They can tell us anything they want.

By SINAN SALAHEDDIN, Associated Press Writer

BAGHDAD, Iraq - Around 1,200 Iraqi civilians were killed in violence in June, a 36 percent drop from the previous month and the lowest monthly toll this year, according to Iraqi government figures obtained Sunday.

The decrease comes amid a U.S. troop increase in Baghdad that began in February and has been building since, with the military launching simultaneous offensives in mid-June aimed at uprooting insurgents in the capital and neighboring provinces to the northeast and south.

A U.S. military spokesman said the decrease was encouraging but that it was too early to attribute it to the crackdown. “The synchronized effort only began two weeks ago. It’s too early to declare a trend,” said Lt. Col. Christopher Garver.

More at YahooNews

Iraqi Security Forces and Civilian Deaths
Source: Iraq Coalition Casualties
Jun-07 1342
May-07 1980
Apr-07 1821
Mar-07 2977
Feb-07 3014
Jan-07 1802
Dec-06 1752
Nov-06 1864
Oct-06 1539
Sep-06 3539
Aug-06 2966
Jul-06 1280
Jun-06 870
May-06 1119
Apr-06 1009
Mar-06 1092
Feb-06 846
Jan-06 779
Note: Iraqi deaths based on news reports . This is not a definitive count. Actual totals for Iraqi deaths are higher than the numbers recorded on this site.

from CNN

NEW ORLEANS (AP) - The car bomb scare in London and the attack Saturday at the Glasgow airport underscore the need for a strong immigration policy in the United States, Republican presidential hopeful Rudy Giuliani said Saturday.

Border security is critical to knowing who is entering the United States and who is at the borders, said Giuliani, who was mayor of New York at the time of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror
attacks.

Giuliani, who toured work to repair one of the canals where floodwalls broke during Hurricane Katrina, said government at all levels failed after that storm. He said he is accustomed to making government run more efficiently and believes he could do that as
president.

Giuliani was on his first trip to New Orleans as a presidential contender. He was last here in April 2006, for a tour of areas like the hard-hit Lower 9th Ward and a briefing on levee protection and coastal wetland restoration, campaign spokesman Elliott Bundy said.

Virtually no major Republican candidates have visited New Orleans, or Louisiana, in recent months. Sen. John McCain did, in August, before announcing his run for president. His was a
fundraising appearance in Baton Rouge for GOP state candidates.

Several major Democratic candidates, including Sens. Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama and former Sen. John Edwards, have visited- in some cases, repeatedly. Edwards announced his candidacy in a still-devastated New Orleans neighborhood in December.

After Saturday’s briefing, Giuliani planned to attend a private fundraiser in suburban Metairie, Bundy said.

from Earth Times.org

WASHINGTON, (July 1) The large segment of independent voters may play the role of political power broker in the 2008 U.S. presidential election, a survey says.

About three in 10 voters call themselves independent, says the joint survey from The Washington Post, the Henry J. Kaiser Family Foundation and Harvard University.

Independents split their votes between President George Bush and John Kerry in 2004 but shifted to the Democrats in 2006, providing critical support in the Democratic takeover of the U.S. House and the Senate, the survey said.

The study underscores the Republican Party’s problems heading into 2008, the Post reported Sunday. Independents continue to lean heavily toward the Democrats, fueled by dissatisfaction with Bush and his supporters and opposition to the war in Iraq.

“What have (Republicans) done for the good of the country? Nothing that I can think of,” said Fred Wood, an Independent from Marietta, Ohio, who voted for Bush in 2000 and Kerry in 2004.

By Caren Bohan
from Reuters

KENNEBUNKPORT, Maine (Reuters) - President George W. Bush, hosting Vladimir Putin at his family’s estate on Maine’s rocky coast, will seek to revive a friendship with the Russian president amid tensions that have evoked comparisons to the Cold War.

Arriving on Sunday in picturesque Kennebunkport, Putin will dine in the evening with the Bush family at Walker’s Point, the summer home of Bush’s father, former President George Bush.

Bush and Putin will hold a policy session on Monday and may take in some fishing.

U.S. and Russian officials have described the Kennebunkport meeting as informal and emphasized that big announcements are unlikely on some of the difficult issues, such as a proposed U.S. missile shield in Europe and independence for Kosovo.

“One should not expect any breakthroughs to be made or any major decisions to be announced or documents signed,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

“The point of the meeting is to explain to each other mutual concerns and positions on certain questions.”

Iran is one topic the White House is eager to raise. Bush plans to try to enlist Putin’s support for wider economic sanctions aimed at pressuring Tehran over its nuclear program.

read more at REUTERS

from YAHOO! NEWS

Come on now! Doe anyone really think that anything will actually make Iran happy? - JS.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iran criticized on Sunday Tony Blair’s appointment as Middle East peace envoy but welcomed his successor as British prime minister, Gordon Brown.

“He did not have a good background and a good reputation in the region,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Mohammad Ali Hosseini said when asked about Blair’s new post as envoy for the international Quartet.

“I doubt that this appointment would … have a positive impact on the developments of the Middle East region,” he told a news briefing.

The Quartet — the United States, the European Union, Russia and the United Nations — appointed Blair on Wednesday, the day he stepped down after 10 years as British prime minister.

Under Blair, Britain has played a leading role in Western efforts to isolate the Islamic Republic over its disputed nuclear program. Iran denies accusations it is seeking to develop nuclear weapons.

Britain also took part in the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. Tehran blames the presence of foreign forces for the violence there and have called on them to leave its neighbor.

Arabs have also said they doubted Blair could succeed as regional peace envoy because of his unpopularity and because he is too close to Israel and the United States.

They said Blair had little credibility in the Middle East because he took part in the invasion of Iraq, opposed an immediate ceasefire in Lebanon last year and failed to follow up on many promises to tackle the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

Brown, who served as finance minister throughout Blair’s premiership, has vowed to revitalize the ruling Labour Party and learn from what he called the divisive Iraq war, although he still backs the decision to join the 2003 invasion.

Hosseini said Iran welcomed Brown’s appointment.

“We hope that in Britain’s new Labour government, proper and unbiased decisions will be made in regard to regional and international developments,” he said.

An article written by former VP Al Gore appears in the July 1, 2007 edition of the New York Times. This is a must-read! (Anything by Al is a must-read!)

Full article can be read HERE

“Foot in mouth”… it’ll do it every time!

Fred Thompson:
Someone should remind Mr. Thompson that there are plenty of hispanic voters out there. Pissing them off is not a smart thing to do at this time.

Democratic presidential hopeful Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y.

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla. - Taking a swipe at a potential GOP presidential rival, Democrat Hillary Rodham Clinton on Saturday criticized Fred Thompson for suggesting illegal Cuban immigrants pose a terrorist threat.

“I was appalled when one of the people running for or about to run for the Republican nomination talked about Cuban refugees as potential terrorists,” Clinton told Hispanic elected officials. “Apparently he doesn’t have a lot of experience in Florida or anywhere else, and doesn’t know a lot of Cuban-Americans.”

Thompson, who is polling strongly among GOP primary voters and is expected to join the race soon, made the comment at a campaign stop Wednesday in South Carolina.

The actor and former Tennessee senator was criticizing an immigration bill in the Senate, contending it would make the country more vulnerable to terrorism.

Noting that the United States had apprehended 1,000 people from Cuba in 2005, Thompson said, “I don’t imagine they’re coming here to bring greetings from Castro. We’re living in the era of the suitcase bomb.” Fidel Castro is Cuba’s leader.

Dennis Kucinich:
Mr. Kucinich seems a bit out of touch with mainstream America here. Everybody I know doesn’t want (an official) second language here in America. Making it an educational requirement and forcing it upon our youth removes whatever serious contention Mr. Kucinich had.

Ohio Rep. Dennis Kucinich, saying he believed all American children should learn to speak Spanish, gave his closing statement in Spanish while apologizing in advance for his accent.

More at Yahoo! News