VDH and His Continued Excellent Writing

Here are 2 excellent articles (what else is new) from Victor Davis Hanson...........quick excerpt:

“Shameful," screams Mexico's President Vicente Fox, about the proposed extension of a security fence along the southern border of the U.S. "Stupid! Underhanded! Xenophobic!" bellowed his Foreign Secretary Luis Ernesto Derbez, warning: "Mexico is not going to bear, it is not going to permit, and it will not allow a stupid thing like this wall."

....Uh Señor Fox and Señor Derbez, I love your country, but this ain't your call. Take care of your own beautiful backyard first. your country has many great resources.

Mi Casa Es Su Casa

I have a hard time linking his website's article's,

go here and then to the appropriate article

Here's the other one.....

The Plague of Success

Good chance I won't be posting until Monday/Tuesday...if not....

HAPPY NEW YEAR!!

A Quick Zinger...

...Variety reported a disappointing Christmas box office Tuesday. Hollywood can only blame itself. When the plot lines include girl meets ape, two gay cowboys, and a singing and dancing Hitler, the Red States are just grateful to have football.

Today in History.....December 30

On this day in …

* 1853, the United States bought some 45-thousand square miles of land from Mexico in a deal known as the Gadsden Purchase

* 1922, Vladimir I. Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics

* 1940, California’s first freeway, the Arroyo Seco Parkway connecting Los Angeles and Pasadena, was officially opened

* 1944, King George the Second of Greece proclaimed a regency to rule his country, virtually renouncing the throne

* 1972, the United States halted its heavy bombing of North Vietnam

* 1995, a US military policeman, Martin John Begosh, became the first American injured in NATO’s fledgling Bosnia peace mission when his Humvee hit an anti-tank mine

* 1993, the Vatican decided it was finally time to recognize Israel

For a Healthy Dose of Patriotism and What's Right.....

....get your daily batch from

Right Wing Rocker

I'm sure having a beer with this cat would be more than a blast.

Why is Tiger Woods #1?

Leading just one category on the PGA Tour is a great feat, here's Tigers' stats:

#1 - Birdie Average
#1 - Scoring Average
#1 - All Around Ranking
#1 - Money Leader
#1 - Par Breakers
#1 - Par 4 Birdie or Better
#1 - Par 5 Birdie of Better
#1 - Birdie or Better Conversion %
#1 - Scoring Avg.
#1 - Final Round Avg.
#1 - Career Mony Leader
#1 - Par 4 Performance
#1 - World Money List
#1 - Going for the Green (as in Putting Green)
#1 - Back 9 Scoring Avg. of 34.55 (front 9 avg he's #4 at 34.55)

.....and

#2 - Driving Distance
#2 - Scoring Avg. Before Cut
#2 - Top 10 Finishes (and he only played in 21 Events!!)
#2 - Lowest Round - 61

All that and he's 188th in Driving Accuracy!!

check this stat out....Tiger and Phil Mickelson each played in 21 events....Tiger had 6 wins and won 2 Majors, Phil had 4 wins and won 1 Major. What is the difference in $$$$ made for the year 2005?

Answer:
Tiger $10,628,024
Phil $5,699,605

Arnold Palmer is still the man though!

A Human Monster.....

Pakistani honor killings, whatever the hell that means, are what drove this insane animal to murder his 3 daughters....read it, courtesy of

Little Green Footballs

Where is N.O.W. or any civil rights leaders for that matter. Here's the article:


MULTAN, Pakistan - Nazir Ahmed appears calm and unrepentant as he recounts how he slit the throats of his three young daughters and their 25-year old stepsister to salvage his family’s “honor” — a crime that shocked Pakistan.

The 40-year old laborer, speaking to The Associated Press in police detention as he was being shifted to prison, confessed to just one regret — that he didn’t murder the stepsister’s alleged lover too.

Hundreds of girls and women are murdered by male relatives each year in this conservative Islamic nation, and rights groups said Wednesday such “honor killings” will only stop when authorities get serious about punishing perpetrators.

The independent Human Rights Commission of Pakistan said that in more than half of such cases that make it to court, most end with cash settlements paid by relatives to the victims’ families, although under a law passed last year, the minimum penalty is 10 years, the maximum death by hanging.

Ahmed’s killing spree — witnessed by his wife Rehmat Bibi as she cradled their 3 month-old baby son — happened Friday night at their home in the cotton-growing village of Gago Mandi in eastern Punjab province.

It is the latest of more than 260 such honor killings documented by the rights commission, mostly from media reports, during the first 11 months of 2005.

Bibi recounted how she was woken by a shriek as Ahmed put his hand to the mouth of his stepdaughter Muqadas and cut her throat with a machete. Bibi looked helplessly on from the corner of the room as he then killed the three girls — Bano, 8, Sumaira, 7, and Humaira, 4 — pausing between the slayings to brandish the bloodstained knife at his wife, warning her not to intervene or raise alarm.

“I was shivering with fear. I did not know how to save my daughters,” Bibi, sobbing, told AP by phone from the village. “I begged my husband to spare my daughters but he said, ‘If you make a noise, I will kill you.’”

“The whole night the bodies of my daughters lay in front of me,” she said.

Today in History.....December 29

On this day in …

* 1845, Texas was admitted as the 28th state

* 1913, shooting begins on The Squaw Man, the first feature-length film made in Hollywood. The movie, produced by the Jesse L. Lasky Company, helped establish the careers of director Cecil B. DeMille and producer Samuel Goldfish (later Goldwyn)

* 1934, Japan renounced the Washington Naval Treaty of 1922 and the London Naval Treaty of 1930

* 1940, during World War II, Germany began dropping incendiary bombs on London

* 1950, trusts and would-be monopolies were put on notice, as the Celler-Kefauver Anti-merger Act, a potent piece of anti-trust legislation, made its way into the law books

* 1956, just days before an official announcement is to be issued by the Eisenhower administration, the New York Times leaks the news that the United States is preparing a major policy statement on the Middle East. In the wake of heightened tensions in the area caused by the French-British-Israeli invasion of Egypt in November, the announcement was greeted with caution both at home and abroad. The response from Egypt was decidedly negative, with the Egyptian government declaring that it wanted no outside interference in the region's problems.

* 1975, a bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 people. The perpetrators were never discovered

* 1989, playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia by the country's Federal Assembly, becoming the first non-Communist to attain the post in more than four decades

* 2004, President Bush assembled a four-nation coalition to organize humanitarian relief for Asia and made clear the United States would help bankroll long-term rebuilding in the region leveled by a massive earthquake and tsunamis

Idiotarian of the Year....

Little Green Footballs has the top 20 nominees for the Annual Robert Fisk Award for Idiotarian of the Year. Tough competition this year includes:



Cindy Sheehan
Harry Reid
Mary Mapes
George Clooney
Sean Penn
Howard Dean
Ward Churchill
Dan Rather
Chris Matthews
Nancy Pelosi
Noam Chomsky
Kofi Annan
Ramsey Clark
Dick Durbin
Hugo Chavez
New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin
Rep. Jack Murtha
George Galloway
Maurice Hinchey
Kanye West
Cynthia McKinney

Today in History.....December

On this day in …

* 1793, Thomas Paine is arrested in France for treason

* 1832, John C. Calhoun became the first vice president of the
United States to resign, stepping down over differences with
President Jackson

* 1895, the world's first commercial screening of a film takes place
at the Grand Cafe in Paris

* 1917, the New York Evening Mail published a facetious -- as well
as fictitious -- essay by H.L. Mencken on the history of bathtubs in
America

* 1945, Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance

* 1972, Hanoi announces return to the Paris peace talks

* 1973, Alexander Solzhenitsyn published "Gulag Archipelago," an
expose of the Soviet prison system

* 1995, President Clinton vetoed a $265 billion-dollar defense bill,
saying it would waste money on an unneeded missile defense system.
(Congress failed to override the veto.)

* 2000, the Census Bureau released its first numbers from the 2000
national count; they showed that America's population had risen to
281,421,906 --- up 13-point-two percent from 1990

* 2004, the US Agency for International Development said it was
adding $20 million to an initial $15 million contribution for Asian
tsunami relief as Secretary of State Colin Powell bristled at a
United Nations official's suggestion the United States was being
"stingy".

To Everyone....

A Little Good News.......

...via

Hugh Hewitt

from the

AP

:

TYNDALL AIR FORCE BASE, Fla. - The Air Force's new F-22A Raptor is such a dominant fighter jet that in mock dogfights its pilots typically take on six F-15 Eagles at once.
Despite the favorable odds, the F-15s, still one of the world's most capable fighters, are no contest for the fastest radar-evading stealth jet ever built.

"The F-15 pilots, they are the world's best pilots," said Lt. Col. David Krumm, an F-22A instructor pilot. "When you take them flying against anyone else in the world, they are going to wipe the floor with them. It's a startling moment for them to come down here and get waylaid."

The F-22A officially became ready for combat this month with a squadron of 12 Raptors on standby for worldwide deployment at Langley Air Force Base, Va.

Live and Let Spy

The always entertaining and insightful

Ann Coulter

has a

great article here

via Real Clear Politics....here's an excerpt:

"Which brings me to this week's scandal about No Such Agency spying on "Americans." I have difficulty ginning up much interest in this story inasmuch as I think the government should be spying on all Arabs, engaging in torture as a televised spectator sport, dropping daisy cutters wantonly throughout the Middle East, and sending liberals to Guantanamo.

But if we must engage in a national debate on half-measures: After 9/11, any president who was not spying on people calling phone numbers associated with terrorists should be impeached for being an inept commander in chief".

Today in History.....December 23

On this day in …

* 1620, construction began of the first permanent European settlement in New England, one week after the Mayflower arrived at Plymouth harbor in present day Massachusetts

* 1783, George Washington resigned as commander-in-chief of the Army and retired to his home at Mount Vernon, Virginia

* 1913, the Federal Reserve System was established.

* 1941, during World War Two, American forces on Wake Island surrendered to the Japanese

* 1947, the transistor was invented, leading to a revolution in communications and electronics

* 1948, former Japanese premier Hideki Tojo and six other Japanese war leaders were executed in Tokyo

* 1968, 82 crew members of the U-S intelligence ship Pueblo were released by North Korea, eleven months after they had been captured

* 1986, the experimental airplane Voyager, piloted by Dick Rutan and Jeana Yeager, completed the first non-stop, non-refueled, round-the-world flight as it landed safely at Edwards Air Force Base in California

* 1987, Lynette "Squeaky" Fromme, serving a life sentence for the attempted assassination of President Ford in 1975, escaped from the Alderson Federal Prison for Women in West Virginia. (She was recaptured two days later.)

* 1997, on the same day that a jury in Denver convicted Terry Nichols of involuntary manslaughter and conspiracy for his role in the Oklahoma City bombing, declining to find him guilty of murder, Woody Allen married Soon-Yi Previn in a small ceremony in Venice, Italy

Flu Shots....

I can guaran-damn-tee you my family and I will get them next year, 5 days of productivity lost, not too mention the "fun" of having the wife and 2 of the 3 kids sick at the same time!

Today in History.....December 22

On this day in …

* 1775, a Continental naval fleet was organized in the rebellious American colonies

* 1807, Congress passed the Embargo Act, designed to force peace between Britain and France by cutting off all trade with Europe

* 1864, during the Civil War, Union Gen. William T. Sherman sent a message to President Lincoln: "I beg to present you as a Christmas gift the city of Savannah."

* 1894, French army officer Alfred Dreyfus was convicted of treason in a court-martial that triggered worldwide charges of anti-Semitism. (Dreyfus was eventually vindicated.)

* 1941, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill arrived in Washington for a wartime conference with President Roosevelt

* 1944, during the World War II Battle of the Bulge, U.S. Brigadier General Anthony C. McAuliffe reportedly replied "Nuts!" when the Germans demanded that the Americans surrender

* 1984, New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot four youths on a Manhattan subway, claiming they were about to rob him

* 1989, Romanian President Nicolae Ceausescu, the last of Eastern Europe's hard-line Communist rulers, was toppled from power in a popular uprising

* 1991, the body of Lt. Col. William R. Higgins, an American hostage murdered by his captors, practitioners of that "religion of peace", was found dumped along a highway in Lebanon

* 1995, the Senate approved a wide-ranging Republican plan to overhaul the nation's welfare system, 52-47, but without enough votes to override President Clinton's promised veto

* 2000, President Clinton granted Christmastime clemency to 62 people, including former U.S. Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, who'd been convicted of misuse of public funds

* 2001, Richard C. Reid, a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami who converted to that "religion of peace", tried to ignite explosives in his shoes, but was subdued by flight attendants and fellow passengers

Out with the Flu...

...worst case I've had....probably no posting until late tuesday or wednesday.

Merry Christmas

JG

In Iran, Arming for Armageddon

If you haven't already read this, don't miss

this article by Charles Krauthammer.

We've all heard by now the remarks of Iran's President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad about "wiping Israel off of the map", but read the article, pretty scary stuff, here are excerpts:

Holocaust denial and calls for Israel's destruction are commonplace in the Middle East. They can be seen every day on Hezbollah TV, in Syrian media, in Egyptian editorials appearing in semiofficial newspapers. But none of these aspiring mass murderers are on the verge of acquiring nuclear weapons that could do in one afternoon what it took Hitler six years to do: destroy an entire Jewish civilization and extinguish 6 million souls.

and this....

The president of a country about to go nuclear is a confirmed believer in the coming apocalypse. Like Judaism and Christianity, Shiite Islam has its own version of the messianic return -- the reappearance of the Twelfth Imam. The more devout believers in Iran pray at the Jamkaran mosque, which houses a well from which, some believe, he will emerge.

And as in some versions of fundamentalist Christianity, the second coming will be accompanied by the usual trials and tribulations, death and destruction. Iranian journalist Hossein Bastani reported Ahmadinejad saying in official meetings that the hidden imam will reappear in two years.

So a Holocaust-denying, virulently anti-Semitic, aspiring genocidist, on the verge of acquiring weapons of the apocalypse, believes that the end is not only near but nearer than the next American presidential election. (Pity the Democrats. They cannot catch a break.) This kind of man would have, to put it gently, less inhibition about starting Armageddon than a normal person. Indeed, with millennial bliss pending, he would have positive incentive to, as they say in Jewish eschatology, hasten the end.

This insane nutball needs to be taken out......and soon.

Today in History.....December 16

On this day in …

* 1773, the Boston Tea Party took place as American colonists boarded a British ship and dumped more than 300 chests of tea overboard to protest tea taxes

* 1809, Napoleon Bonaparte was divorced from the Empress Josephine by an act of the French Senate

* 1916, Gregory Rasputin, the monk who wielded powerful influence over the Russian court, was killed by a group of noblemen

* 1944, the World War II Battle of the Bulge began as German forces launched a surprise counterattack against Allied forces in Belgium

* 1950, President Truman proclaimed a national state of emergency to fight "Communist imperialism."

* 1960, 134 people were killed when a United Air Lines DC-8 and a TWA Super Constellation collided over New York City

* 1985, reputed organized-crime chief Paul Castellano was shot to death outside a New York City restaurant

* 1995, President Clinton and congressional Republicans traded accusations as their budget impasse led to a second shutdown of the federal government

* 2000, President-elect Bush selected Colin Powell to become the first black secretary of state

* 2004, Saddam Hussein met with a lawyer for the first time since his capture a year earlier. ALSO: Bobby Jo Stinnett, 23, of Skidmore, Mo., was found dying in her home, her unborn baby cut from her womb (Lisa Montgomery of Melvern, Kansas, is to face trial for allegedly strangling Stinnett, performing a crude Caesarean section on her and parading the infant around as her own). Britain's highest court dealt a huge blow to the government's anti-terrorism policy by ruling that it could not detain foreign suspects indefinitely without trial.

George Walker Bush.....Gittin' 'er Done

There are men who aspire their whole lives to become President of the United States (Al Gore, John Kerry, Bill Clinton) and then there are men with whom the position for the President of the United States finds the man ....a la George W. Bush. Leaders are real men, not professional politicians.

President Bush is literally changing the face of the Middle East and the world right in front of the world's eyes. He knocked theb Taliban out of power, knocked Saddam out of power, Libya surrendered its nuclear war program, the fear that the mullahs have over the middle east citizens has decreased dramatically, free elections in Afghanistan, free elections in Iraq, it is an amazing time in history....for the good of the world.....and George Bush can take credit for much of that.

Thank God for our kick-ass and world's finest military.

---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Got this from

Right Wing Rocker

"Every purple finger is a bullet in the chest of terrorism".
Good one RWR!

80% of the population turning out to vote, that is amazing!
Have a question for Michael Moore, John Kerry, Harry Reid, John Murtha, Nancy Pelosi, Howard Dean, Diane Feinstein and the rest....how's that foot tasting about now? And Joe Lieberman.....thanks for being a man and standing up for what's right for America, and not for the liberal left.

Letter From a Battlefield Hospital

via Black Five

the 2004 Military blog of the year. Here are excerpts from that letter from Scott D. Barnes
LTC, MC, USA Theater Ophthalmology Consultant:

During the month of October, the 86th Combat Support Hospital (CSH) was the 3rd busiest trauma center in the world! You read that correctly, only the trauma centers in Miami and Los Angeles did more work that we did. Just think of all the trauma hospitals in New York, Chicago, Baltimore, Dallas, Philadelphia, Washington DC, and those in Europe, Asia, and Central/South America.most of which have 5-10 times the number of staff which we have here.
and this...

...This is medical and surgical care practiced the way that many doctors dream. You see problems, diagnose the condition, quickly plan the operation, and you just do it. Patients don't wait, doctors don't wait, OR staff doesn't wait.it is amazing! We all love it and if it weren't for missing our families or dealing with the occasional rocket and mortar attack, most of us would not want to leave.
and this....

The unit leaders come into the OR and the jobs are less defined.you just look for something that needs to be done and you do it. One young sergeant was badly broken and rushed to the OR. The IED had done its intended job and shredded this courageous American everywhere that wasn't covered by body armor. He was dying, but we weren't going to let him go without a fight. He had no immediate eye injury, so I just went to work getting the blood and hanging it on the infusers since those that usually do this were otherwise occupied. We kept pouring unit after unit into him but he was loosing it as quickly as we were able to get it in. The trauma surgeon and the vascular surgeon cracked his chest and started going after his injuries to try to stop the hemorrhaging. His heart stopped a number of times. The trauma surgeon held his heart and kept squeezing to aid in circulation while the anesthesiologists were infusing the medications needed to restart the heart. The two unit commanders were right there voicing their support and praying as they were watching the team. Two major injuries were found in the carotid and subclavian artery but too much damage had been done too much blood had been lost, and too much time had passed before his injuries could be repaired. We went through 45 units of blood. His heart stopped 7 times and we were able to restart it 6 times. When it became clear that we would not win this battle and that this young sergeant had gone into that good night, we turned off the machines and monitors, the chaplain stepped forward, and the unit commanders, nurses and doctors closed into a circle and we asked for the Lord's mercy on his soul and for God's peace with the family that will soon find out what we already know. This hero paid the ultimate price while doing his country's bidding.

I walked out onto the hospital roof which has been my refuge after such cases. I usually stay closer to some cover because I don't want to give snipers any target practice but this time I went over to hang over the rail looking down into the parking lot/patient receiving area. This is where the men usually gather to wait for news on what happened to their buddies (we don't have a waiting room). I will never forget what I saw there.for the strength of the emotion but also because I have seen it now too many times. About 30 soldiers hanging out in various groups, some talking, some joking, some smoking, some tossing a football, some catching a few winks.but just doing what waiting soldier do. LTC T (their commander) walked out to the group who immediately jumped up and gathered around the boss. I couldn't hear what was said from the roof, but I knew that commander had a difficult message to deliver. I didn't have to hear the words, these warriors' actions said it all.some just there motionless, some grabbed their buddies and just let the tears run down their dirt-stained faces, others unable to contain their anger, went to find a wall and began hitting it. The commander and sergeant major moved through their guys, reaching out to each one with a hug or supportive arm. Sometimes I can put all the damage and suffering behind me; my years in medicine have introduced me to death and in some ways I can detach myself. But to see this effect on his brothers in arms, transformed my previously detached self and turned on my humanity. In the ER and the OR, I can be the professional doctor.but on the roof, I become a human again. Under the cover of darkness I feel the pain of what I've seen.

Today in History.....December 15

On this day in …

* 1791, the Bill of Rights went into effect following ratification by Virginia

* 1916, the French defeated the Germans in the World War I battle of Verdun

* 1938, groundbreaking ceremonies for the Jefferson Memorial took place in Washington, D.C.

* 1961, former Nazi official Adolf Eichmann, ym"s, was sentenced to death by an Israeli court

* 1965, two U.S. manned spacecraft, Gemini 6 and Gemini 7, maneuvered to within 10 feet of each other while in orbit

* 1978, President Carter announced he would grant diplomatic recognition to Communist China on New Year's Day and sever official relations with Taiwan

* 1979, the deposed Shah of Iran left the United States for Panama, the same day the International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled that Iran should release all its American hostages

Time Magazine's Top 10 Photo's of the Year

Go here to view all 10

and to cast your vote, here's a great one from

Michael Yon

titled "In His Arms", a US Army soldier comforts an Iraqi child fatally wounded in car bomb blast in Mosul.

Today in History.....December 14

On this day in …

* 1927......My Mom was born!!!!

* 1911, Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole, beating out an expedition led by Robert F.
Scott

* 1939, the Soviet Union was dropped from the League of Nations

* 1945, Josef Kramer, known as "the beast of Belsen," and 10 others were hanged in Hameln for crimes committed at the Belsen and Auschwitz Nazi concentration camps

* 1962, the U.S. space probe Mariner 2 approached Venus, transmitting information about the planet

* 1967, first time DNA created in a test tube

* 1975, six South Moluccan extremists surrendered after holding 23 hostages for 12 days on a train near the Dutch town of Beilen

* 1988, America agrees to talk to PLO (the first time in 13 years)

* 1990, Right to Die case permits Nancy Cruzan to have her feeding tube removed; she dies 12 days later

* 1995, Presidents Alija Izetbegovic of Bosnia, Slobodan Milosevic of Serbia and Franjo Tudjman of Croatia signed the Bosnian peace treaty in Paris. ALSO: AIDS patient Jeff Getty received the first-ever bone-marrow transplant from a baboon (however, the experimental procedure at a San Francisco hospital was criticized by animal rights activists. The transplant failed, but Getty survived)

* 2000, President-elect George W. Bush conferred by phone with congressional leaders of both parties and planned a goodwill tour of Washington, D.C.; he also received a flood of congratulatory calls from world leaders on his first full day as president-elect. ALSO:
U.S. businessman Edward Pope was pardoned and released by Russia after being convicted of espionage. The Federal Trade Commission unanimously approved the $111 billion merger of America Online and Time Warner.

Today in History...December 13

On this day in …

* 1577, Sir Francis Drake of England set out with five ships on a nearly three-year journey that would take him around the world

* 1918, President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office

* 1944, during World War II, the U.S. cruiser Nashville was badly damaged in a Japanese kamikaze attack that claimed more than 130 lives

* 1964, in El Paso, Texas, President Johnson and Mexican President Gustavo Diaz Ordaz set off an explosion that diverted the Rio Grande, reshaping the U.S.-Mexican border and ending a century-old dispute

* 1978, the Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which went into circulation the following July

* 1981, authorities in Poland imposed martial law in a crackdown on the Solidarity labor movement. (Martial law formally ended in 1983.)

* 1995, as President Clinton flew to Paris to attend the signing of the Bosnian peace accord, Congress gave him partial backing for his Bosnia policy. ALSO: China's most influential democracy activist, Wei Jingsheng, who already had spent 16 years in prison, was sentenced to 14 more years. (However, Wei was later granted medical parole by Beijing, and allowed to travel to the U.S.)

* 2003, Saddam Hussein was captured by U.S. forces while hiding in a hole under a farmhouse in Adwar, Iraq, near his hometown of Tikrit

* 2004, Redwood City, Calif. jury recommended the death penalty for Scott Peterson for the murders of his wife and unborn child. ALSO:
NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe resigned. A Chilean judge indicted former dictator General Augusto Pinochet on charges of kidnapping nine political dissidents and killing one of them during his 17-year military regime

Zarqawi: American Agent!

This from John Hinderaker over at

Power Line

The growing split between Iraq's Sunni Arabs and the foreign jihadists led by Zarqawi is a huge story that hasn't gotten enough press, although both Ed Morrissey and Glenn Reynolds have been talking about it. Both noted this AP story, which says that pro-Saddam Sunnis have gone so far as to vow to protect the polls against jihadist terrorism:

Saddam Hussein loyalists who violently opposed January elections have made an about-face as Thursday's polls near, urging fellow Sunni Arabs to vote and warning al Qaeda militants not to attack.
In a move unthinkable in the bloody run-up to the last election, guerrillas in the western insurgent heartland of Anbar province say they are even prepared to protect voting stations from fighters loyal to Abu Musab al-Zarqawi, leader of al Qaeda in Iraq.


The Sunnis recognize that their boycott of the last election was a bad mistake, and some Sunni clerics have now pronounced voting a religious duty. They are distancing themselves from Zarqawi and al Qaeda; of course, after the Jordanian bombings, on top of Zarqawi's many mass murders of Iraqis, just about everyone in the Arab world is distancing himself from Zarqawi.

I found this interesting:

Saddam loyalists have turned against Zarqawi, a Jordanian militant whose fighters travel to Iraq from across the Arab world to blow themselves up in a bid to spark sectarian civil war.
"Zarqawi is an American, Israeli and Iranian agent who is trying to keep our country unstable so that the Sunnis will keep facing occupation," said a Baathist insurgent leader who would give his name only as Abu Abdullah.


Actually, he's right, if you put aside the ritual reference to the US, Israel and Iran. I made this point on our radio show yesterday. Most Iraqis, and all Americans, want American troops to vacate Iraq as soon as possible. What stands in their way? Terrorism. "Abu Abdullah" is correct in saying that Zarqawi wants to use terrorist attacks to keep the Americans in Iraq. Al Qaeda's interests are at odds with substantially all Iraqis, which is one reason why the Iraq war most likely will turn out to be a big victory for the U.S. and the Bush administration.

Today in History.....December 12

On this day in …

* Pennsylvania became the second state to ratify the U.S.
Constitution

* 1897, "The Katzenjammer Kids," the pioneering comic strip created by Rudolph Dirks, made its debut in the New York Journal

* 1913, authorities in Florence, Italy, announced that the Mona Lisa, stolen from the Louvre Museum in Paris in 1911, had been recovered"

* 1925, the first motel, the Motel Inn, opened in San Luis Obispo, Calif.

* 1937, a Japanese aircraft sank the U.S. gunboat Panay on China's Yangtze River. (Japan apologized, and paid $2.2 million in
reparations.)

* 1975, Sara Jane Moore pleaded guilty to a charge of trying to kill President Ford in San Francisco the previous September

* 1995, by three votes, the Senate killed a constitutional amendment that would have given Congress authority to outlaw flag burning and other forms of desecration against Old Glory

* 2000, a divided U.S. Supreme Court reversed a state court decision for recounts in Florida's contested election, transforming George W.
Bush into the president-elect

* 2004, practitioners of that "religion of peace" blew up an Israeli base, killing five soldiers

Krauthammer on the Bungling of the Trial of Sadaam Hussein

Have to say, the Bush administration has bungled this one.

Superb article here

by Charles Krauthammer and to the point, read it. Here are excerpts:

"This has become a platform for Saddam to show himself as a caged lion when really he was a mouse in a hole," said Vice President Ghazi Yawar. "I don't know who is the genius who is producing this farce. It's a political process. It's a comedy show."

and this....

Why have we given him control of the stage? We all remember the picture of him pulled out of his spider hole. That should be the Saddam Hussein we put on trial. Instead, with every appearance, he dresses more regally, emerging from cowering captive to ordinary prisoner to dictator on temporary leave. Now he carries on as legitimate and imperious head of state. He plays the benign father of his country, calling the judge "son," then threatens the judge's life. Hussein shouts, defies, brandishes a Koran. The judge keeps telling him he's out of order. He disobeys with impunity, the guards not daring to intervene.

and finally....

Both President Bush and his opponents in Congress are incessantly talking about "benchmarks" to guide any U.S. withdrawals from Iraq. But there is one benchmark that is always left unspoken: We cannot leave until Saddam Hussein is dead, executed for his crimes. No one will say it, but everyone knows it. As long as he is alive and well-dressed, every Iraqi will have to wonder what will happen to him and his family if Hussein returns. Only Hussein's death will assure them that he will not return.

Which is why the lateness of this trial is such a tragedy. And why its bungling is such a danger. Our only hope, as always with Hussein, is that he destroys himself with his arrogance and stupidity. He has stupidly walked out of his own trial. This is our opportunity. He should not be allowed back, certainly not without a glass booth. Only Saddam Hussein can save us from our own incompetence. We should let him.

GraGwyneth Paltrow on 9/11: "Get Over It America"

Bitch.

Great post

via Political Pitbull

, blogger extraordinaire:

Perhaps naming her daughter after a piece of fruit was the first sign that Gwyneth Paltrow is not the sharpest knife in the drawer.

In a recent interview in

The Superficial, read here

, Paltrow praised the reaction of Londoners to the terrorist attacks on 7/7 and slammed Americans as wimps:

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I find the English amazing how they got over 7/7. There were no multiple memorials with people sobbing as they would have been in America. There, they are constantly scaring people but at the same time, people think nothing of going to see a therapist.
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I can only assume Paltrow is referring to American reaction to 9/11. Gwyneth, how about a little perspective?

7/7 = 37 dead. 9/11 = 2948.

I know celebrities aren't that good with numbers, so here's a visual she can work with:

I for one am glad us cry-baby Americans (which Paltrow is, don't forget) were moved when terrorists took 2948 innocent lives. And I'm glad that we take the time to remember what happened on that day.

Paltrow should really think twice before slapping the hand that has fed her so well. Americans don't tolerate attacks against this country, whether they come from terrorists or an actress with a fake British accent.

Let's See Howard "The Coward" and the Rest Spin this One.....

Drudge

is reporting that the Republicans are about to unveil a "white flag" commercial attacking the Democrats' defeatism on Iraq, and its negative impact on our troops. I hope Drudge is right, as such an attack is richly deserved.

Drudge quotes a Republican strategist:

The Democrats, especially Howard Dean have a way of trying to turn the tables and say ‘that’s not what I meant’ – its just those ‘evil Republicans’ This video will make them crazy – it reinforces what they really believe with what they actually said – and that is devastating for the Democratic Party.

The Democrats need to pay the price of their defeatism. Things aren't turning out the way they expected.

John Hinderaker

over at

Power Line

coins a new word that perfectly fits the Democratic party....calling them Defeatocrats.

This just in,

here's the video

Today in History.....December 9

On this day in …

* 1835, the Texan Army captures San Antonio

* 1865, the New York Stock Exchange threw open the doors on its new home, located at 10-12 Broad Street in lower Manhattan

* 1926, Benny Goodman records his first solo, 16 bars of a song called "He's the Last Word."

* 1940, British troops opened their first major offensive in North Africa during World War II.

* 1981, Philadelphia police officer Daniel Faulkner is found dead on the street with Mumia Abu-Jamal lying severely wounded nearby. In 1982, Abu-Jamal was tried for and convicted of Faulkner's murder, but in recent years he was been made a "cause." He is still alive.

* 1984, the five-day-old hijacking of a Kuwaiti jetliner by practitioners of that "religion of peace" that claimed the lives of two Americans ended as Iranian security men seized control of the plane, which was parked at Tehran airport

* 1990, Solidarity founder Lech Walesa won Poland's presidential runoff by a landslide

* 1992, Britain's Prince Charles and Princess Diana announced their separation. (The couple's divorce became final Aug. 28, 1996.)

* 1993, the Air Force destroyed the first of 500 Minuteman II missile silos marked for elimination under an arms control treaty

* 1994, representatives of the Irish Republican Army and the British government opened peace talks in Northern Ireland. ALSO: President Bill Clinton fired Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders after learning she'd told a conference that masturbation should be discussed in school as a part of human sexuality

* 1998, Doug Englebart, inventor of the mouse, was honored at a daylong public symposium at Stanford University.

* 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court ordered a temporary halt in the Florida vote count on which Al Gore pinned his best hopes of winning the White House. ALSO: Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak announced he would resign and call a special election

Here's Some Fun....

Click to enlarge






















And here's my new toy, should be delivered this monday/tuesday....my new 5-stringer....Bluegrass may never be the same!

Today in History.....December 8

On this day in …

* 1863, President Abraham Lincoln announced his plan for the reconstruction of the South.

* 1941, the United States entered World War II as Congress declared war against Japan, a day after the attack on Pearl Harbor

* 1949, the Chinese Nationalist government moved from the Chinese mainland to Formosa as the Communists pressed their attacks

* 1980, rock star John Lennon was shot to death outside his New York City apartment building by an apparently deranged fan

* 1987, President Ronald Reagan and Soviet leader Mikhail S.
Gorbachev signed a treaty calling for destruction of intermediate-range nuclear missiles. ALSO: the "intefadeh" by "Palestinians" began

* 1993, President Bill Clinton signed into U.S. law the North American Free Trade Agreement, which went into effect at the start of 1994

* 1999, a jury in Memphis, Tenn., hearing a lawsuit filed by the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.'s family found that the civil rights leader had been the victim of a vast murder conspiracy, not a lone assassin. Also: A Russian diplomat was ordered to leave the U.S.
after he was allegedly caught gathering information from the State Department with an eavesdropping device

* 2004, the Senate completed congressional approval of the biggest overhaul of U.S. intelligence in a half century, voting 89-2 to send the measure to President Bush

Merry Christmas, Felíz Navidad and the ACLU....and Sadaam...and our pal, Howard Dean

I've been very busy and a bit under the weather, blogging has been limited the last few days, I'll try to make up for it.............

It's that time of year, that communist organization is doing what it does best.....trying to take away the religous theme of what 96% of the people in the United States celebrate and what 84% believe in...........the Christianity theme in Christmas. No mention of the word Christmas, no saying "Merry Christmas", no Christmas Tree, no religous music...you know what I'm talking about. How pathetic.

How long will it be before these moonbat commies will go take the next step and demand that the Hispanic population refrain from anything "Felíz Navidad". Think about it, the Hispanic population in 2020 reportedly will be greater than the White population in California and since the ACLU believes that the minority should have more say/receive more services than the majority, are they going to demand the removal of anything referencing "Felíz Navidad?"
That ain't gonna fly folks. The ACLU, what a morally bakrupt, pathetic and useless organization, not to mention dangerous.

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Talk about the prisoners running the asylum (literally), Sadaam Hussein not showing up for court today is a bit disturbing. It's good that Saddam has finally been put on trial, although it may have been better yet if he had simply been shot. The idea that his crimes need to be "proved"--as though there were some doubt about them that could be resolved through a "trial"--is ridiculous.

But if Saddam is to be tried, some basic norms need to be observed. A court can only function if it is accepted that it has power over those who come before it. In this case, this basic premise is unclear. Many Iraqis still fear that Saddam could return to power; most of the witnesses against him do not dare to reveal their identities for fear that they will be killed by Saddam's allies. And Saddam himself rejects the authority of the court. That's OK, up to a point; many criminals who have no respect for the American judicial system are nevertheless tried, convicted, and on rare occasions put to death by that system. What is essential is that the tribunal assert its own authority, not give to a murderer.

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It's too early to tell whether Howard Dean's prediction of defeat in Iraq will turn out to be a major blunder that could cost him his DNC chairmanship, or just another Deanism that will be forgotten after a day or two. Yesterday, Republican spokesmen criticized Dean for his defeatism; they'll have to keep it up, though, if they want to have any effect.

Their points were well taken, but the usually-reliable Ken Mehlman did suffer a momentary lapse:

Republican National Committee Chairman Ken Mehlman said: "It's fairly extraordinary. I can't remember any time in history where the leader of a national party . . . predicted America would lose a war we were engaged in."
Mehlman told the same San Antonio radio station, "Imagine if we had said to Hitler in 1942 that in two years we're going to pull out of Europe . . . Hitler would not have surrendered."

Um, Hitler didn't surrender. Nevertheless, the Republicans have the better side of the argument, and should continue to press it.

Best Blogs of 2005

Courtesy of Right Wing News, here are winners for best blogs of 2005

There are many categories....I liked this category.......'cause I already had them on my site!

Favorite Columnist Who's Not A Blogger

Honorable Mention: George Will (4)
Honorable Mention: Christopher Hitchens (4)
Honorable Mention: Victor Davis Hanson (5)
Honorable Mention: Ann Coulter (7)
3) Thomas Sowell (8)
1) Mark Steyn (22)
1) Charles Krauthammer (22)

John F'n Kerry is at it Again.

The Master Flip Flopper continues to do what he does best, appearing yesterday on "Face the Nation" with Bob Schieffer, Kerry implied that U.S. soliders are responsible for terrorism in Iraq:


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"And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the--of--the historical customs, religious customs".
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This comment seems to contradict the statement on

JohnKerry.com

that, "All of us believe our troops are doing an extraordinary job. They believe in the mission and we believe in them."

Well, which is it? Either U.S. soldiers are "terrorizing" Iraqis or they're doing an "extraordinary" job.

I seem to think there are two John Kerry's (to paraphrase John Edwards): the scripted Kerry that "supports the troops" and the real Kerry, who without planning, believes our troops are not a force for good in the world.

Today in History.....December 5

On this day in …

* 1776, the first scholastic fraternity in America, Phi Beta Kappa, was organized at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, Va.

* 1792, George Washington was re-elected president; John Adams was re-elected vice president

* 1831, former President John Quincy Adams took his seat as a member of the U.S. House of Representatives

* 1848, President Polk triggered the Gold Rush of 1949 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California

* 1932, German physicist Albert Einstein was granted a visa, making it possible for him to travel to the United States

* 1933, national Prohibition came to an end as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment

* 1994, Republicans chose Newt Gingrich to be the first GOP speaker of the House in four decades

* 2004, Egypt freed an Israeli Arab man convicted of spying in exchange for Israel's release of six Egyptian students who were suspected of trying to kidnap Israeli soldiers

Victor Davis Hanson is nails.....Christopher Hitchens bitchslaps Ramsey Clarke

Here are 2 excellent articles from

VDH

and

Christopher Hitchens

Here's an excerpt from VDH's article

A Moral War

:

Having problem's with his links,

try this

if that didn't work

The White House, as is true in all wars, has made mistakes, but only one critical lapse — and it is not the Herculean effort to establish a consensual government at the nexus of the Middle East in less than three years after removing Saddam Hussein. The administration’s lapse, rather, has come in its failure to present the entire war effort in its proper moral context.

We took no oil — the price in fact skyrocketed after we invaded Iraq. We did not do Israel’s bidding; in fact, it left Gaza after we went into Iraq and elections followed on the West Bank. We did not want perpetual hegemony — in fact, we got out of Saudi Arabia, used the minimum amount of troops possible, and will leave Iraq anytime its consensual government so decrees. And we did not expropriate Arab resources, but, in fact, poured billions of dollars into Iraq to jumpstart its new consensual government in the greatest foreign aid infusion of the age.

In short, every day the American people should have been reminded of, and congratulated on, their country’s singular idealism, its tireless effort to reject the cynical realism of the past, and its near lone effort to make terrible sacrifices to offer the dispossessed Shia and Kurds something better than the exploitation and near genocide of the past — and how all that alone will enhance the long-term security of the United States.

That goal was what the U.S. military ended up so brilliantly fighting for — and what the American public rarely heard. The moral onus should have always been on the critics of the war. They should have been forced to explain why it was wrong to remove a fascist mass murderer, why it was wrong to stay rather than letting the country sink into Lebanon-like chaos, and why it was wrong not to abandon brave women, Kurds, and Shia who only wished for the chance of freedom.

Alas, that message we rarely heard until only recently, and the result has energized amoral leftists, who now pose as moralists by either misrepresenting the cause of the war, undermining the effort of soldiers in the field, or patronizing Iraqis as not yet civilized enough for their own consensual government.

Poll: Iraq Better Under Saddam According to Dems

From NewsMax.com

Democrats have given Saddam Hussein a shocking vote of confidence in the latest Fox News Opinion Dynamics survey, with a solid plurality saying the world would be better off if the Butcher of Baghdad was still in power.

Forty-one percent of Democrats gave Saddam a thumbs up, while just 34 percent said Iraq is better served with the murderous dictator gone, reports the New York Post.

In stark contrast, 78 percent of Republicans said toppling the mass-murdering leader left everyone better off. Just 10 percent said they wished Saddam still ruled Iraq.

This is truly disturbing, especially considering two-thirds of Iraqis say Iraq is better now than it was under Saddam.

I would love to see the results of a poll asking Democrats who they would prefer as a leader, George W. Bush or Saddam Hussein.

The Crab Nebula.....

A mind-blowing new photograph from the Hubble Space Telescope shows the six-light-year-wide Crab Nebula, the remnant of a supernova explosion nearly a thousand years ago.

Take a Moment Today...

...and send the troops a note,

go here

to send an email.

Today in History.....December 1

On this day in …

* 1824, the presidential election was turned over to the U.S. House of Representatives when a deadlock developed between John Quincy Adams, Andrew Jackson, William H. Crawford and Henry Clay. (Adams ended up the winner.)

* 1904, the Louisiana Purchase Exposition in St. Louis closed after seven months and some 20 million visitors

* 1913, the first drive-in automobile service station opened, in Pittsburgh

* 1934, Sergei M. Kirov, a collaborator of Josef Stalin, was assassinated in Leningrad, resulting in a massive purge

* 1943, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin concluded their Tehran conference

* 1955, Rosa Parks, a black seamstress, refused to give up her seat to a white man on a Montgomery, Ala., city bus. Mrs. Parks was arrested, sparking a year-long boycott of the buses by black

* 1965, an airlift of refugees from Cuba to the United States began in which thousands of Cubans were allowed to leave their homeland

* 1969, the U.S. government held its first draft lottery since World War II

* 2000, the U.S. Supreme Court heard arguments on a narrow question of Florida election law while the Florida Supreme Court and a circuit judge denied Al Gore's petitions for immediate recounts.
Florida's high court also refused to order a new election in Palm Beach County, where a "butterfly ballot" drew protests from Democratic voters. ALSO: Vicente Fox was sworn in as president of Mexico, ending 71 years of ruling-party domination

* 2004, Tom Brokaw signed off for the last time as principal anchor of the "NBC Nightly News"; he was succeeded by Brian Williams