Mouse Over Color Change Issue

Hello,
I am using the NotesIL Theme. I add this line to my CSS file so that my sidebar entries change color when the mouse goes over them.

div.sidebar li:hover > a,
div.sidebar a:focus {
background: #f9f9f9; /* Show a solid color for older browsers */
background: -moz-linear-gradient(#BC0404, #BC0404);
background: -o-linear-gradient(#BC0404, green);
background: -webkit-gradient(linear, 0% 0%, 0% 100%, from(#BC0404), to(#BC0404)); /* Older webkit syntax */
background: -webkit-linear-gradient(#BC0404, #BC0404);
color: white;

It works perfect, appart from one little problem I can’t solve. When the mouse is near the entry it look like I want it to be – red background and white text. But when the mouse is over the text, suddenly it disappears. I found changing the value of this parameter:

div.sidebar ul li a:hover {
	<ul>
color: white</ul>

; }

solves the issue with my sidebar, but then my links are not visible.
http://i42.tinypic.com/20ztcw8.jpg
http://i42.tinypic.com/vmysts.jpg
http://i44.tinypic.com/2ewinph.jpg