Happy New Year to all. 2007 looks to be a great year, we're off to a great start (see below). Will be celebrating New Years Eve with the best friends of the Mrs., their Méxican as well, we'll be breaking out the guitars (maybe my new banjo) singing mariachi tunes, sipping tequila and watch the kids play 'til about 3am.....do this every year, it's a blast. Happy New Year.

UPDATE: Nothing is ever easy...just......get the rope.

The Good and the Bad About Hanging Saddam

First off, it looks like the MSM has finally caught up with the "morons" in the blogosphere with regards to Sad-dam meeting his maker........ Allan Akbar, Allan Akbar, Allan Akbar.

;-)

Colleague Steve sent this to me. The good? The rat dies, hopefully slowly and that he is totally frightened. Think about the innocent people you sent to "the chipper".

The bad? Not waterboarding the S.O.B. to find out the following:

1. Were there or were there not WMD? If so, where did they go?
2. Buried treasures?
3. Reason for Kuwait invasion?
4. Complicity in assasination attempt on George H.W. Bush.
5. Oil for food money?
6. Swiss/Cayman bank accounts?
7. Osama connections, direct or indirect, before AND after 9-11?

If the U.S. does not waterboard him to confess to many of these questions, the world will forever lose the truth. Make him confess and then tape it or write it FOR HISTORY'S SAKE!!! His last Will and Testament/Confession will save the world from all the conspiracy theories that the wacko left/blame & hate America will seek to make him into the MARTYR they are already portraying him as. To them, Saddam did no wrong. His ongoing trial will now be left without justice for the victims so they need his confession too. What injustices by Saddam will go unanswered? He must be forced to confess before his death!

Uday, Qusay and Finally...........Pops

Looks like it could be hours, or a few days, either way we end the year 2006 with a "hang", or we ring in the New Year with a "hang".

Saddam dead by Sunday?

I wonder who the lucky guy is who gets to tie this baby up????

UPDATE #2: Jules Crittenden says it may have already happened.

UPDATE: Saddam's lawyers have been told to pick up his personal belongings the BBC reports:

Lawyers for former Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein have confirmed to the BBC that they have been asked to pick up his personal effects.

But an Iraqi official denied that he has been handed from US military to Iraqi custody, following earlier reports this had already happened.

Saddam Hussein could be hanged at any time over the next four weeks, after an appeal against his execution failed.

The sentence is for the killings of 148 Shias in Dujail in the 1980s. A trial for a second case, genocide against the Kurds, continues.

heh, heh...goodbye a$$bag.

Today in History....December 29

On this day in …

1845, six months after the congress of the Republic of Texas accepts U.S. annexation of the territory, Texas is admitted into the United States as the 28th state

1908, Otto Zachow and William Besserdich of Clintonville, Wisconsin, received a patent for their four-wheel braking system, the prototype of all modern braking systems

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

1940, London suffers its most devastating air raid when Germans firebomb the city. Hundreds of fires caused by the exploding bombs engulfed areas of London, but firefighters showed a valiant indifference to the bombs falling around them and saved much of the city from destruction. The next day, a newspaper photo of St. Paul's Cathedral standing undamaged amid the smoke and flames seemed to symbolize the capital's unconquerable spirit during the Battle of Britain

1975,

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

A bomb exploded in the main terminal of New York's LaGuardia Airport, killing 11 people. The perps were never caught
1989, playwright Vaclav Havel was elected president of Czechoslovakia by the country's Federal Assembly, becoming the first noncommunist to attain the post in more than four decades

1996, war-weary guerrilla and government leaders in Guatemala signed an accord ending 36 years of civil conflict

2001, a fire sparked by a fireworks explosion in downtown Lima, Peru, killed 274 people

2005, international monitors said they would review Iraq's parliamentary elections in response to fraud complaints by Sunni Arab and secular Shiite groups

Make Sure You Vote For.........

....for the Idiotarian of the Year Award here, the usual suspects nominated are (except Jimmi the Dhimmi):

Kofi Annan
Hugo Chavez
John F. Kerry
Mainstream Media
John Murtha
Keith Olbermann
9/11 Conspiracy Theorists

......and the good guys, Anti-Idiotarian of the Year Award here, nominated are:

Ayaan Hirsi Ali
John Bolton
Canadian PM Stephen Harper
Australian PM John Howard
Melanie Phillips
Pope Benedict XVI
Robert Spencer
Mark Steyn
Stuck Mojo
Wafa Sultan

The Media Whore Is At It Again

.....or The Professional Griever, or quite frankly, the biggest moron/fool in human form.

Can Cindy Sheehan get anymore nuttier?

Gerald Ford, our 38th and first ever un-elected President is dead.
[...]Usually, burying a 93 year old loved one is sorrowful but, I believe his pardon of Richard Nixon is one of the factors that have led to the untimely deaths of over 3000 American soldiers and hundreds of thousands of innocent civilians in the Middle East.

What's her insane reasoning for this?

but since Nixon got away with his blatant crimes and every President since Nixon has skated away from office after having committed overt and covert crimes, we have on our hands, here, a situation that I am forced now to call: "Bloody George."

Because Nixon was pardoned this caused a chain effect of lawless Presidents that ultimately led to George Bush taking the war to the terrorists and taking down a tyrant who should of been taken down long before.

That's it in a nutshell.

Blame Bush! Blame Ford! They secretly sat around the fireplace smoking pipes as they hatched a plan that 30 years later would ensure the victory of someone who would invade Iraq.

h/t Flopping Aces

Today in History.....December 28

On this day in …

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 movie screening takes place at the Grand Cafe in Paris. The film was made by Louis and Auguste Lumiere, two French brothers who developed a camera-projector called the Cinematographe. The Lumiere brothers unveiled their invention to the public in March 1895 with a brief film showing workers leaving the Lumiere factory. On December 28, the entrepreneurial siblings screened a series of short scenes from everyday French life and charged admission for the first time

1917, the New York Evening Mail published a facetious essay by H.L. Mencken on the history of bathtubs in America
1945, Congress officially recognized the Pledge of Allegiance

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

1981, Elizabeth Jordan Carr, the first American "test-tube" baby, was born in Norfolk, Va.

1996, Leftist rebels in Peru released 20 more hostages, including two ambassadors, from Japan's embassy residence, following the first face-to-face talks between guerrillas and the government's negotiator

2001, the National Guard was called out to help Buffalo, New York, dig out from a paralyzing, five-day storm that had unloaded nearly seven feet of snow

2005,

A U.S. immigration judge ordered retired auto worker John Demjanjuk, accused of being a Nazi concentration camp guard, deported to his native Ukraine. (Demjanjuk is appealing the deportation order.)

Former top Enron Corp. accountant Richard Causey pleaded guilty to securities fraud and agreed to help pursue convictions against Enron founder Kenneth Lay and former CEO Jeffrey Skilling

Milestone: It's My 1,000th Post

Couldn't ask for better timing, and with that........ Merry Christmas, Happy Hannukah everyone! Have a great Holiday. Thank you for stopping by, see you in days to come!

Christmas in Iraq

David Ignatius writes about the soldiers who are spending Christmas in Iraq.

As we all prepare to enjoy our Christmas festivities (and blogging gets lighter!), take a moment to say a prayer for all the soldiers who are defending our freedom and trying to secure a foothold for democracy in the Middle East.God bless them every one.

Enough Said

Dr. Joe, In The House

18 tricks to teach your body.

Check this out,

The Most Dangerous Roads in the World

h/t Ace

Today in History....December 22

On this day in …

1807, Congress passed the Embargo Act, barring all U.S. trade with foreign countries

1808, Ludwig van Beethoven’s Symphony No. 5 in C Minor and Symphony No. 6 in F Major had their world premieres in Vienna, Austria
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 Franklin Roosevelt

1974, Nelson A. Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st vice president of the United States

1984, New York City resident Bernhard Goetz shot and wounded 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 Marine 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

2001, Richard C. Reid, a passenger on an American Airlines flight from Paris to Miami and convert to that "religion of peace", tried to ignite explosives in his shoes, but was subdued by flight attendants and fellow passengers. (Reid, who later pleaded guilty, is serving a life sentence in federal prison.)

2005,


Congress completed work on a one-month extension of the Patriot Act and sent it to President Bush

Astronomers announced the discovery of two more rings encircling the planet Uranus, the first additions to the planet's ring system in nearly two decades

Grab A Bottle of Tequila, Your Banjo.......

and 'skinner down!

This ought to put a smile on your face! Go here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0vz1LMylZSY

See if you can name the boys in the jam session, the answer is in the comment section.

Time is tight, gotta go!

Today in History....December 21

On this day in …

1620, Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.

1913, the first crossword puzzle was published, in the New York World
1945, Gen. George S. Patton died in Heidelberg, Germany, of injuries from a car accident

1948, the state of Eire, or Ireland (formerly the Irish Free State), declared its independence

1968, Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon

1975, in Vienna, Austria, Carlos the Jackal leads a raid on a meeting of oil ministers from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC). German and Arab terrorists stormed in with machine guns, killed three people, and took 63 people hostage, including 11 OPEC ministers. Calling his group the "Arm of the Arab Revolution," Carlos demanded that an anti-Israeli political statement be broadcast over radio, and that a bus and jet be provided for the terrorists and their hostages. Austrian authorities complied, and all the hostages were released in Algeria unharmed. OPEC did not hold another summit for 25 years

1976, the Liberian-registered tanker Argo Merchant broke apart near Nantucket Island almost a week after running aground, spilling 7.5 million gallons of oil into the North Atlantic

1988, 270 people were killed by practitioners of that "religion of peace" when a terrorist bomb exploded aboard a Pan Am Boeing 747 over Lockerbie, Scotland, sending wreckage crashing to the ground

1991, in a final step signifying the dismemberment of the Soviet Union, 11 of the 12 Soviet republics declare that they are forming the Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS). Just a few days later, Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev announced he was stepping down from his position. The Soviet Union ceased to exist

1995, the city of Bethlehem passed from Israeli to "Palestinian" control. Christians living there immediately had their lives made miserable by the new Authority

2001, Hamas announced it was suspending suicide bombings and mortar attacks in Israel. It didn't last long

2005, the Senate approved a six-month extension of the USA Patriot Act to keep the anti-terror law from expiring on Dec. 31, 2005

Who Is The Real Barack Hussein Obama?

I don't know about you, but I've had about an a$$-full of the media attention that Barack Hussein Obama has been receiving lately. He is a great speaker, possesses the all important charisma, not to mention his whopping 2 years as a US Senator, but while the Oprah crowd goes nuts over the chain smoking (wonder how that will go over), sensitive (please don't talk about my ears, I was teased as a child and I am sensitive), let's take a look at what he stands for....

Obama voted against the Bush tax cuts on capital gains and dividends, justifying his anti-growth stance with the old class-warfare saw about tax cuts for the rich. Of course, these are the very same tax cuts that spurred economic expansion, created record job growth and reduced the deficit, as revenues flooded the Treasury.

The young senator also voted against repealing the death tax. He dismissed it as a “Paris Hilton tax break” that would give “billions of dollars to billionaire heirs and heiresses.” Try telling that to the owners of farms, ranches and small businesses who are forced to sell their legacies because of this tax.

He swings a nice protectionist bat, too. He has voted against free trade (CAFTA) and U.S. energy independence (drilling in ANWR), and has opposed lifting a $0.54 per gallon tariff on Brazilian ethanol. “Ethanol imports are neither necessary nor a practical response to current gasoline prices,” he claimed. Nonsense.

He’s also strongly opposed to personal retirement accounts for Social Security reform and prefers instead that the government steward your money. As Amanda Carpenter wrote in Human Events, “When speaking out against various tax cuts, Obama has likened the ‘Ownership Society’ — which entails such things as personalized Social Security accounts, health savings accounts and school choice — to ’social Darwinism.’”…

The senator is liberal to the core. He voted against Supreme Court Justices Sam Alito and John Roberts. (Even liberal Sens. Russ Feingold and Pat Leahy voted for Roberts.) He said no to Patriot Act wiretap extensions, despite their proven effectiveness in halting terrorist attacks over the past five years. He collaborated in blocking John Bolton’s appointment to the United Nations. He earned a perfect 100 percent rating from NARAL Pro-Choice America. He voted against a ban on partial-birth abortions twice as a state senator. He opposed the Defense of Marriage Act and stood against the Federal Marriage Amendment, despite acknowledging his belief that marriage is between a man and a woman.

Don’t let the charm or the nice smile fool you, when you look straight at the voting record this guy is worse than Hillary Clinton - and few senators can claim that title.

h/t Hispanic Pundit

Today in History....December 19

On this day in …

1777, Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pa., to camp for the winter

1813, British forces captured Fort Niagara during the War of 1812
1907, 239 workers died in a coal mine explosion in Jacobs Creek, Pa

1946, war broke out in Indochina as troops under Ho Chi Minh launched widespread attacks against the French

1972, Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, winding up the Apollo program of manned lunar landings

1974, Nelson A. Rockefeller was sworn in as the 41st vice president of the United States

1986,


Lawrence E. Walsh was appointed independent counsel to investigate the Iran-Contra affair

The Soviet Union announced it had freed dissident Andrei Sakharov from internal exile, and pardoned his wife, Yelena Bonner
1998, President Clinton was impeached by the Republican-controlled House for perjury and obstruction of justice (he was later acquitted by the Senate)

1996,


The television industry unveiled a plan to rate programs using tags such as "TV-G," "TV-Y" and "TV-M"

The school board of Oakland, Calif., voted to recognize Black English, also known as "Ebonics," in a decision that set off a firestorm of controversy (the board later modified its stance)
2001,


Argentina's president, Fernando de la Rua, decreed a state of siege as his country's economic crisis triggered violence

The fires that had burned beneath the ruins of the World Trade Center in New York City for the previous three months were declared extinguished except for a few scattered hot spots

Senators For Terror

Senators Bill Nelson of Florida and Barbara Boxer of Califonia should be ashamed. The former flew to Syria to conduct his own pitiful attempts at foreign policy with Syria's leader, the thug Assad, while the latter gave an "Outstanding Service" award to the head of CAIR-Sacramento.

Things Are Coming To A Head

VDH's excellent blog here.

Excerpt follows:

The World’s Wars

These last few weeks Somalis were killing Ethiopians. Iraqi Shiites and Sunnis were killing each other. Pakistani and Afghan fundamentalists were killing Afghan reformers. Hamas is killing Fatah and vice versa. Syrians are killing Sunnis and Christians in Lebanon, as is Hezbollah that also attacked Israel.



Off the battlefield this past year Muslims were threatening Danish cartoonists, the Pope, Salman Rushdie again, German opera producers, French high-school teachers, and Dutch filmmakers. The common denominator in all this is not, pace the Western Left, the nefarious United States, its Patriot Act or wiretaps, but rather Islamic extremists—mad that the modern world both excites them, and ignores and passes them by. And of course they play to the millions of their brethren appeasers who don’t really want these radicals to bring them a Taliban Dark Ages, but sorta, kinda, like the idea that they kill a few of those arrogant infidel Westerners as blood sport.

Like Watching the Oedipus or Ajax?

The war since 9/11 is sort of like a Greek tragedy whose end we all anticipate, but apparently have no means to avoid. We tried to remove the worst of the Middle East’s murdering regimes, and to offer in their places consensual governments that might serve as models how Muslims need not kill each other, and need not ruin their economies and oppress the innocent. But all the while Islamic jihadism keeps trying to repeat September 11, with the clandestine aid—whether sanctuary, cash, or arms—from Iran, Pakistan, Syria, and Saudi Arabia.

Read it all here.

Hey Flying Imams.....Bite Me

(click to enlarge)

Today in History....December 18

On this day in …

1620, passengers on the British ship Mayflower come ashore at modern-day Plymouth, Massachusetts, to begin their new settlement, Plymouth Colony
1777, the new United States celebrates its first national day of thanksgiving, commemorating the American victory at the Battle of Saratoga after the surrender of General John Burgoyne and 5,000 British troops in October 1777

1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, abolishing slavery, was declared in effect

1892, Tchaikovsky's ballet "The Nutcracker" publicly premiered in St. Petersburg, Russia

1940, Adolf Hitler, ym"sh, signed a secret directive ordering preparations for a Nazi invasion of the Soviet Union. (Operation Barbarossa was launched in June 1941.)

1941, Japanese troops land in Hong Kong and a slaughter ensues

1956, Japan was admitted to the United Nations

1972, the United States began heavy bombing of North Vietnamese targets during the Vietnam War. (The bombardment ended 12 days later.)

1996, FBI agent Earl Edwin Pitts was arrested, accused of selling secrets to the Russians. (Pitts was sentenced in June 1997 to 27 years in prison.)

2001, federal judge in Philadelphia threw out vicious cop-killer Mumia Abu-Jamal's death sentence and ordered a new sentencing hearing for the former Black Panther (Both sides appealed that ruling, and Abu-Jamal remains on death row.)

2005,


In a televised speech, President Bush declared that Iraq's parliamentary elections signaled the birth of democracy in the Middle East

Susanne Osthoff, a German aid worker kidnapped in Iraq by practitioners of that "religion of peace", was freed after three weeks in captivity

Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a mild stroke

Tick, Tock, Tick, Tock...It's Just A Matter Of Time

Fidel Castro won't be missed:

"Everything we see indicates it will not be much longer . . . months, not years," Negroponte told a meeting of Washington Post editors and reporters.

I bet it's weeks.

Look out Cox & Forkum....'cause it's "Barbee Time!"

Notorious D-A-D

This is f-u-n-n-y.

Not a real fan of rap, but I can take this one......if it ain't got guitars, it ain't worth listneing to in my book, but this is funny........over 35 year old white boys rappin' about.......well..... being white, married with kids and living in the 'burbs.

h/t Bobby Bag of Donuts

Today in History....December 15

On this day in …

1791, following ratification by the state of Virginia, the first 10 amendments to the U.S. Constitution, known collectively as the Bill of Rights, became the law of the land
1890, Sioux Indian Chief Sitting Bull and 11 other tribe members were killed in Grand River, S.D., during a fracas with Indian police

1938, groundbreaking ceremonies for the Jefferson Memorial took place in Washington

1939, the motion picture "Gone With the Wind" had its world premiere in Atlanta

1944, a single-engine plane carrying bandleader Glenn Miller, who was a major in the U.S. Army Air Forces, disappeared over the English Channel while en route to Paris

1961, Adolf Eichmann, ym"sh, the architect of the Holocaust, was condemned to death by an Israeli war crimes tribunal

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

1973, Jean Paul Getty III, the grandson of American billionaire J. Paul Getty, is found alive near Naples, five months after his kidnapping by an Italian gang. J. Paul Getty, had initially refused to pay his 16-year-old grandson's $17 million ransom but finally agreed to cooperate after the boy's severed right ear was sent to a newspaper in Rome. He eventually secured his grandson's release by paying just $2.7 million, the maximum amount that he claimed he was able to raise

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

1996, Boeing Co. announced plans to pay $13.3 billion to acquire rival aircraft manufacturer McDonnell Douglas Corp.

2001,


A 50-foot tall section of steel --- the last standing piece of the World Trade Center's facade --- was brought down in New York

Leaning Tower of Pisa, Italy, was reopened to the public after a $27 million realignment that had dragged on for over a decade
2005, millions of Iraqis turned out to choose a parliament in a mostly peaceful election

Dennis Miller on Iraq And The War On Terror

Trust me, you'll like this, well most will, a few cuss words.......pretty funny:

Click here.

"What If He Dies, Then What?"

Unfortunately, politics is above life and death for some. Driving back from Palm Springs last night and listening to the radio, the main talking point from a certain party on the hospitalization of Democrat Senator Tim Johnson was "what will happen to us now?"

What about Tim Johnson?

Remember US Senator Paul Wellstone? Rrrrrreeal nice funeral, that was absolutely disgusting. I have friends that are Democrats and they are great guys, too bad some their leaders are pathetic, narcissistic dolts.

Here's a scene from one those chicks at "A View"...You've got to see it to believe it.

excerpt:

Joy Behar - "Is there such a thing as a man-made stroke? In other words, did someone do this to him?"

Then.....audience laughter..........laughter??

Today in History....December 14

On this day in …

1927 - My Mom was born! Born and raised in Minnesota, she had the wonderful experience of having 4 boys averaging 6'4" and uh uh, uhm 235 lbs, and 2 daughters, the oldest being a little thing of 5'2" and 100 lbs. The oldest son was your typical do nothing wrong, good son, not really sure if he's ever got on the wrong side of her, or anybody, but the remaining 3 boys took care of the grief that mothers usually go through. I, of course, was the nicest. ;-) Happy Birthday Mom, we love you!

1918 President Wilson arrived in France, becoming the first chief executive to visit Europe while in office
1921, United States, Britain, France and Japan sign Washington Treaty to respect each others' rights over insular possessions in Pacific

1937, Japanese troops take Nanking in China and proceed to massacre an estimated 300,000 Chinese civilians

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

1978, the Philadelphia Mint began stamping the Susan B. Anthony dollar, which went into circulation in July 1979

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

2001,


The Pentagon publicly released a captured videotape of Osama bin Laden in which the al-Qaida leader said the deaths and destruction achieved by the Sept. 11 attacks exceeded his "most optimistic" expectations

Five suspected terrorists, practitioners of that "religion of peace", killed nine people in an attack on India's parliament before being killed themselves

President Bush served formal notice that the United States was pulling out of the 1972 Anti-Ballistic Missile Treaty with Russia
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

2005,


Crips gang co-founder Stanley Tookie Williams was executed in California for killing four people in robberies

Iraqis living abroad began voting in the country's parliamentary elections

Going to Palm Springs in a bit for a little over a day. Top secret meeting at La Quinta Resort.

The Shiites, The Sunnis, and US Rep. Silvestre Reyes

As a member of the US Intelligence Committee, he is paid $162,000 to know more than basic facts about our foes in the Middle East.

On the Shiites and the Sunnis, Reyes responds....."it’s not like the Hatfields and the McCoys. It’s a heck of a lot more complex."

No shiite.

Here's a crash course from Dean Barrett at Hugh Hewitt

1) Who are the Sunnis and the Shiites?

They are the two main sects of Islam. And generally speaking, they’re not crazy about each other.

2) What are the differences between them?

Historically, they suffered their fissure 13 centuries ago when they differed over who the rightful heir to Muhammad was. Beyond that little nugget, the typical congressman shouldn’t have to worry his pretty little blow-dried head about the origins of the two sects.

The Sunnis historically were much more political than the Shiites. Devout and fundamentalist Sunnis felt (and feel) that there can be no law above the Koran. That means they feel that government by necessity must be a theocracy. Also, fundamentalist Sunnis consider Shiites to be apostates. An apostate is an even worse thing to be than an infidel.

Shiites traditionally were relatively non-political. You’ve seen this kind of Shiite philosophy in action in Iraq where Ayatollah Sistani supported the formation of a secular government and declined to claim the reins of leadership himself.

3) So who’s Sunnis and who’s Shiite?

The Shiite majority countries are Iran and Iraq . The Sunni majority countries are everyone else.

Here's the rest, it goes to 15.

Just Make The Portions Smaller

Today in History....December 12

On this day in …

1901, Italian physicist and radio pioneer Guglielmo Marconi succeeds in sending the first radio transmission across the Atlantic Ocean, disproving detractors who told him that the curvature of the earth would limit transmission to 200 miles or less. The message--simply the Morse-code signal for the letter "s"--traveled more than 2,000 miles from Poldhu in Cornwall, England, to Newfoundland, Canada
1906, the Senate confirmed Oscar Straus to be President Theodore Roosevelt's Secretary of Commerce and Labor; Straus became the first Jewish member of a presidential cabinet

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

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

1941, the U.S. Navy takes control of the largest and most luxurious ocean liner on the seas at that time, France's Normandie, while it is docked at New York City. Shortly thereafter, the conversion for U.S. wartime use began

1963, a vinyl long-playing record ("LP") called John Fitzgerald Kennedy: A Memorial Album sets a record for album sales. A total of 4 million copies sold in the first six days of its release

1980, American oil tycoon Armand Hammer pays $5,126,000 at auction for a notebook containing writings by the legendary artist Leonardo da Vinci. The manuscript, written around 1508, was one of some 30 similar books da Vinci produced during his lifetime on a variety of subjects

1987, during an official visit to Denmark, U.S. Secretary of State George Shultz issues a statement calling on America's NATO allies in western Europe to sharply increase their defense spending. Shultz bluntly informed his Danish hosts that it was "important for all of us to increase our contributions to NATO?to insure that we do everything we can to preserve our values." The call for funds was in direct response to the INF Treaty that had recently been signed by the U.S. and the Soviet Union

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

"Hey Joe, I'm Stumped, My (choose) Wife/Husband/Friend Has Everything, What Could I Possibly Get Him/Her For Christmas?

THIS.

Especially if they're a lefty. Wear it to your company Christmas party and you'll get a raise.

And this/these. Pimping for a friend......tell 'em I sent you, I swear to you these are the best products in its class you will ever find. Made right here in Arizona, with help from New Mexico.

Aahh, something to do with html in the URL, try this:

http://www.azgunslinger.com/page3.html

Apocalypto - Not Sure If This Made The Final Cut

I'm really looking forward to seeing this film, this slice is only 1 minute in length.

I just received this screening of the movie, even if you saw it this weekend, please let me know if this scene was not cut. That 'ol Mel Gibson is something else....... heh heh.

Hamas Confirms Meeting with American Democrats

Time to get some recent travel records........

Hamas Confirms Meeting with American Democrats
16:16 Dec 11, '06 / 20 Kislev 5767

(IsraelNN.com) Hamas officials have confirmed a WorldNetDaily report that terrorist organization leaders recently met with senior Democratic party members after the recent sweep of both houses of Congress in last month's American elections. The independent Arab news agency Ma'an quoted Ahmed Yousef, an aide to prime minister of the Palestinian Authority (PA) Ismail Haniyeh as saying the meeting was held. However, a Democratic National Committee spokeswoman said she has no knowledge that the meeting took place.

Details were withheld in order not to damage the image of the Democratic party, he added. Yousef said that Hamas leaders also spoke to leaders of key European countries, including British Members of Parliament.

"Hey Man.....You're Going to China"

When your CEO pops in and drops this line on you........things are good!

Mid April I'm going to Shanghai, Nanjing, Suzhou and Guangzhou to hang with my Chinese friends, bond in the mountains of China and be a Chinese dude for a week.

Been Out of Commission / New Blogger Notice

Meetings, Meetings, and I'm spent... but the good part?............I've got a new computer.

This baby smokes.

Gone for the weekend starting now, back on Monday, maybe sunday night......meanwhile welcome new blogger Serendip, check it out. Here's a taste, Twenty-six years ago, a picture of an execution in Iran won the Pulitzer Prize. But the man who took it remained anonymous. Until now.
Here's his post -
http://fleetingperusal.blogspot.com/2006/12/photos-made-public-for-first-time.html

Make it a great weekend!!!

-Uprising in Iran?

-Pearl Harbor / The Iraq War, Then and Now

2 quick posts today and then it's off to meeeeeeeeeettings.

I did a post last August 25 about what would it take for an overthrow of Iran President Mahmoud Ackmadinutcase, I wrote here http://joegringo.blogspot.com/2006/08/redneck-and-gringo-chewin-cud.html ............"On my recent golf trip with the boys, including Vinstein, he and I were talking about how the both us were going to team up and kick the crap out of the Muzzies and get the ball rolling for their downfall. The Vinstein came up with a beauty, he brought up the idea that the uprising of women would start the downfall.

Then I added my 2 cents worth.....

Iran President Ahmadinejad knows that a massive student uprising could derail his leadership as well as the mullahs, and according to many Iranians living in the U.S they believe that to be true.

They need a martyr.

A popular student needs to arise so the mullahs kill him. Now think if the martyr was a woman! Women are oppressed there and could rise up, it is said that many muslim women are westernized inside the home and complain about the conditions outside the home. So, how about the martyr(s) be a Female Student(s)?

Maybe the ball is rolling that way?? Check this out: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,235062,00.html

VDH has a great piece on Pearl Harbor and our current situation in Iraq and The M.E. :

[I]n those days, peace and reconstruction followed rather than preceded victory. In tough-minded fashion, we offered ample aid to, and imposed democracy on, war-torn nations only after the enemy was utterly defeated and humiliated. Today, to avoid such carnage, we try to help and reform countries before our enemies have been vanquished —putting the cart of aid before the horse of victory.
Our efforts today are further complicated by conflicting Internet fatwas, terrorist militias and shifting tribal alliances; in short, we are not always sure who the enemy cadre really is — or will be.

So paradoxes follow:

A stronger, far more affluent United States believes it can use less of its power against the terrorists than a much poorer America did against the formidable Japanese and Germans.

World War II, which saw more than 400,000 Americans killed, was not nearly as controversial or frustrating as one that has so far taken less than one-hundredth of that terrible toll.

And after Pearl Harbor, Americans believed they had no margin of error in an elemental war for survival. Today, we are apparently convinced that we can lose ground, whether in Afghanistan or Iraq, and still not lose either the war or our civilization.

Of course, by 1945, Americans no longer feared another Pearl Harbor. Yet, we, in a far stronger and larger United States, are still not sure we won’t see another Sept. 11.


Today in History....December 7

On this day in …

1787, Delaware became the first state to ratify the U.S. Constitution

1796, electors chose John Adams to be the second president of the United States

1941, Japanese forces attacked American and British territories and possessions in the Pacific, including the home base of the U.S. Pacific Fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii

1963, during the Army-Navy game, videotaped instant replay was used for the first time in a live sports telecast as CBS re-showed a one-yard touchdown run by Army quarterback Rollie Stichweh. (Navy beat Army, 21-15.)

1972,

America's last moon mission to date was launched as Apollo 17 blasted off from Cape Canaveral, Fla.

Imelda Marcos, wife of Philippine President Ferdinand E. Marcos, was stabbed and seriously wounded by an assailant who was then shot dead by her bodyguards


1988, a major earthquake in the Soviet Union devastated northern Armenia; official estimates put the death toll at 25,000

1996, the space shuttle Columbia landed at the Kennedy Space Center, ending a nearly 18-day mission marred by a jammed hatch that prevented two planned spacewalks
2001,


Taliban forces abandoned their last bastion in Afghanistan, fleeing the southern city of Kandahar

The space shuttle Endeavor docked with the international space station, delivering a new three-member crew to relieve a crew in place since August


2005, federal air marshals shot and killed an airline passenger at Miami International Airport after he falsely claimed to have a bomb

The Best Analysis of the Iraq/Iran Conflict To Date

This suggests that Iran welcomed our takeout of Saddam Hussein and knew that a civil war would take place after that, leading to a potential collapse of the US military presence, Iran's proxy armies (Hezbollah, terrorist/insurgents) would re-inforce their presence.

Tigerhawk has it here.
ahh..... try this:
http://tigerhawk.blogspot.com/2006/12/what-to-do-about-regional-war.html

It's a bit lengthy and it's only an intro, here's an excerpt:

"Had the Shia maintained what appeared to be their course politically when al-Zarqawi was killed, accommodation would seem to have been possible. But, under Iranian influence, the Shia drew back from the political process in Iraq and increased their attacks against the Sunnis. Along with this shift, Tehran encouraged its ally in Lebanon, Hezbollah, to become more aggressive toward Israel, and provided military equipment and training for this effort. The conflict in July-August 2006 was the outcome, and it stunned both Israel and the world. For whatever reason, Israel was unable, for the first time since the founding of the modern state, to crush an enemy in war. This increased the confidence of Syria, another Iranian ally dominated by an Alawite government, to raise its pressure on Lebanon.

In short, Iran had three goals. First, it wanted to be the dominant power in Iraq. Second, it wanted to be the dominant power in the Persian Gulf. Finally, it wanted to reclaim for the Shia the distinction of leading the Islamist renaissance — a position that had been assumed by Sunni al Qaeda. By the fall, it was on the verge of achieving this. The key was Iraq: Iran either had to create a situation that would force the Americans’ withdrawal, thus leaving Iraq to the Iranians, or failing that, a civil war that would divide the nation, allowing Iran to dominate the new, southern Shiite entity. That would give Iran the ability to begin to dominate the Persian Gulf, and would give it revolutionary primacy in the Islamic world."

Today in History....December 6

On this day in …

1790, Congress moved from New York to Philadelphia

1865, the 13th Amendment to the Constitution, officially ending the institution of slavery, is ratified. "Neither slavery nor involuntary servitude, except as a punishment for crime whereof the party shall have been duly convicted, shall exist within the United States, or any place subject to their jurisdiction." With these words, the single greatest change wrought by the Civil War was officially noted in the U.S. Constitution

1884, Army engineers completed construction of the Washington Monument

1921, British and Irish representatives signed a treaty in London providing for creation of an Irish Free State a year later on the same date

1923, a presidential address was broadcast on radio for the first time as President Coolidge spoke to a joint session of Congress

1947, Everglades National Park in Florida was dedicated by President Truman

1955, the Federal government standardized the size of license plates throughout the U.S. Previously, individual states had designed their own license plates, resulting in wide variations

1957, America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit failed as Vanguard TV-3 blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Fla.
1973, House minority leader Gerald R. Ford was sworn in as vice president, succeeding Spiro T. Agnew

1996, stock markets around the world plunged after comments by Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan were taken to mean that U.S. stock prices were too high

2001,


The U.S. House of Representatives, by a one-vote margin, gave President Bush more power to negotiate global trade deals

Yasser Arafat, ym"sh, intensified his crackdown on Islamic terrorists. The stunt was nonetheless met with angry resistance as 1,500 Hamas supporters battled Palestinian riot police outside the home of the group's leader

Beyond Cool

FLAT

OUT

AWESOME!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

This just replaced golf as the funnest sport.

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.

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 '49 by confirming that gold had been discovered in California

1917, German and Russian delegates sign an armistice at Brest-Litovsk ("Brisk"); peace negotiations begin there on December 21

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

1933, the 21st amendment of the U.S. constitution is ratified, ending the "noble experiment" of prohibition
1945, the so-called "Lost Squadron", five U.S. Navy Avenger bombers carrying 14 Navy flyers, take off on a training mission from a Florida air base, and are never seen again. They are popularly believed to have vanished in the "Bermuda Triangle"

1957, the Indonesian government orders the expulsion of all Dutch nationals

1977, Egypt breaks ties with Syria, Libya, Algeria, Iraq and South Yemen after they all opposed its peace moves with Israel

1985, Britain announces it was withdrawing from UNESCO on December 31, claiming the agency had an anti-Western bias and accusing it of financial extravagance

1990, British author Salman Rushdie, who had been in hiding since Iran ordered his death for blasphemy, appears in public for the first time in nearly two years

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

2001, Afghan factions sign an accord to set up a post-Taliban government headed by Pashtun chief Hamid Karzai. The deal created a government of 30 members

2003, an explosion rips through a morning commuter train just outside Yessentuki station in Russia's southern fringe. Forty-six people are killed and more than 160 injured by practitioners of that "religion of peace"

An Appeal to Supporters of Venezuela's Democracy

Caracas 01.12.06 "There's going to be a coup... Chavez won't accept defeat... Chavez's militias will attack us if we try to defend the vote... You better get food stocks for there's going to be a bloodshed... The fix is in..." These are some of the rumours I have heard in the last few days.

Says Venezuelan blogger extraordinaire Aleksander Boyd he continues....."Of the many scenarios the one I consider the most likely is: Rosales wins, Chavez refuses to accept defeat, orders his militias to attack, the military react -as they did on 11 April 2002-, force Chavez to accept results and after much tension and perhaps some deaths Rosales is proclaimed Venezuela's president. However there's a crucial aspect about this view, which is people power or the involvement of the millions of Venezuelans that have been marching alongside Rosales for the last three months.

....and......

Hence dear freedom fighters, be on your guard, give democracy a chance for we all stand to benefit from it.

Here's the entire article>>>

It's Official

Just an hour ago, México now has their new Presidente, Felipe Calderón. AMLO and the PRD's foolish attempt at blocking Calderón's inauguration failed.

FYI.....he's one of the good guys.

¡Bienvenidos!

BrokeBack? Hell,The Guy Got A Lot More Than That From This Mountin'

Another reason why I despise much of Hollywood. Documentary on man-horse sex picked for Sundance... and then the freak dies from internal injuries. Uh, no shiite. Now, does it really get any more twisted than that? What possible artistic, or even possible entertainment can their be with a guy having gay sex with a.........frickin' horse? Does this even qualify as gay?

This just takes sexual perversion to a whole new level. I wonder if he thought the horse was "hot". Do you think the horse was sad that the guy died. Does anyone even care? If you're that f'd up, then I guess the dude derserved it.

Wow.

Did You Happen To Miss the Lost Seinfeld Episode?

Pretty damn close to brilliant.

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, built by Gulf Refining Co., opened in Pittsburgh

1921, the Navy flew the first nonrigid dirigible to use helium; the C-7 traveled from Hampton Roads, Va., to Washington

1934, Soviet communist official Sergei M. Kirov, an associate 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 yearlong boycott of the buses by blacks

1964, in two crucial meetings (on this day and two days later) at the White House, President Lyndon B. Johnson and his top-ranking advisers agree, after some debate, to a two-phase bombing plan for North Vietnam

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

1990, shortly after 11 a.m. on December 1, 1990, 132 feet below the English Channel, workers drill an opening the size of a car through a wall of rock. This was no ordinary hole --- it connected the two ends of an underwater tunnel linking Great Britain with the European mainland for the first time in more than 8,000 years

2000, Vicente Fox was sworn in as president of Mexico, ending 71 years of ruling-party domination

2001, two suicide bombers, practitioners of that "religion of peace", blew themselves up in back-to-back explosions at a downtown Jerusalem pedestrian mall, killing 11 innocent bystanders