The Israeli Tourism Authority, thinking of creative ways to lure visitors back to the Holy Land, has taken to organizing the high profile visits of Hollywood stars and pop divas to mixed reaction.

Earlier this year, Richard Gere arrived for a film festival, attended a seminar, had posters of his face plastered all over Israel and generally left with rave reviews especially from the female human rights activists. They didn't question the intentions of his visit or give him too much flak for not taking any public positions on human rights. They work on human rights every day of the year, but he was RICHARD GERE!

A few months later Chris Noth, Mr. Big, was on the pages of Haaretz being whisked away by helicopter to see the sights of Israel all paid for by the good folks at the Israeli Tourism Authority. In fact, they were even armed with pro forma statements about how much the visit would boost Israeli tourism.

Then came "Esther," pilgrim Madonna, donning the latest Kabbalah outfit, raising a storm for visiting Rachel's Tomb, having her cab mobbed by fans resulting in her planned visit to the Old City of Jerusalem

The recent polls showing a large Bush lead seem to be designed to either discourage Democratic voters and/or condition the American public for a Bush victory based on vote rigging. The methodology that seems to be in use by Gallup and most other polling firms connected to large corporations are greatly over weighted to give Republicans excessive representation and do not give sufficient weight to Democratic voters based on historical voting trend. Polls by independent polling organizations that are using properly weighted samples (like Zogby, Pew Research, Harris and others) are not showing a significant Bush lead and some have Kerry ahead!

While most political analysts predict the largest Democratic voter turn-out in history, Gallup is predicting in their methodology that Republicans will be 7-8% more of the total electorate than Democrats actually voting on election day. Based on the most recent elections, Democrats have usually been 7-8% more of the total electorate when the actual votes were counted. The swing in numbers using Gallup’s distorted methodology would tend to give Bush a “fake” lead in the neighborhood of 15%.

AUSTIN --- Alice, we're in the Twilight Zone of Wonderland. Whee! John Kerry is disrespectful of our allies! Donald Rumsfeld thinks an election in three-fourths of Iraq is good enough. The No. 1 best seller in our nation is an untrue, vicious and ugly attack on a genuine, bona fide, certified war hero. Despite everything you have seen, read or heard about Iraq, all is tickety-boo over there, and anyone who says different is helping the terrorists.

        More than a year after "Mission Accomplished," we have still not restored water or electricity in Iraq back to Saddam Hussein's pitiful standards. The electricity is out between four and 14 hours a day in Baghdad, there is no potable water because of pipe breaks and contamination, the garbage is uncollected, and sewage runs in the streets. A year after Congress voted to spend $18.4 billion reconstructing Iraq, only $1 billion has been spent, and most of that has gone to overhead, contractors' profits, security service, insurance and property losses. The jobs have gone largely either to Americans or other foreigners in Iraq, with little benefit to the Iraqis.

If I were Ralph Nader (and given the number of people screaming at me about stabbing Kerry in the back I sometimes think I am), I'd get on the plane to Palestine and Baghdad, and spend less time on ballot access fights with lawyers working for the Democrats.

There are about six weeks left to run in this campaign, and Nader, the outsider candidate, needs to finish off with a bang, not a whimper. The Democrats have got him stuck in the trenches, running from one courtroom to another. It's the only campaign they know how to fight. They can't sell Kerry. Their hearts aren't really in it anyway, but when it comes to stopping people from being able to vote for Nader, they're firing on all cylinders.

Organized labor can't get Kerry to promise working people more than a hike in the minimum wage to $7, but here's the SIEU putting $70 million of its members' dues into the Kerry campaign and deploying hundreds of organizers across the country, working 24 hours a day to keep Nader off the ballot. It's tying Nader down. He's fighting 21 legal cases in 17 states, and as Nader himself concedes, "The ballot access has drained our time and our resources."