Very light blogging/commenting, if any, the next 3/4 days.........transitioning into a new role......so Joe Gringo will be going into the basement for just a few days to clean things up.

Today in History....February 26

[ T O D A Y I N H I S T O R Y ]

On this day in …

* 1815, Napoleon Bonaparte escaped from exile on the Island of Elba to begin his second conquest of France

* 1870, an experimental air-driven subway, the Beach Pneumatic Transit, opened in New York City. (The tunnel was only a block long, and the line had only one car.)

* 1907, concerns about a growing influx of foreigners, mostly Europeans, prompted Congress to create what became known as the Dillingham Commission, which examined the impact of immigrants on America. (The panel later recommended curtailing immigration from southern and eastern Europe through use of quotas, higher entry fees, literacy tests and other restrictions.)

* 1919, Congress established Grand Canyon National Park in Arizona

* 1940, the United States Air Defense Command was created

* 1945, a midnight curfew on nightclubs, bars and other places of entertainment was set to go into effect across the nation

* 1952, Prime Minister Winston Churchill announced that Britain had developed its own atomic bomb

* 1979, a total solar eclipse cast a moving shadow 175 miles wide from Oregon to North Dakota before moving into Canada

* 1993, a bomb built by practitioners of that "religion of peace"
exploded in the parking garage of New York's World Trade Center, killing six people and injuring more than 1,000 others

* 1997, President Clinton defended White House fund-raising tactics as "entirely appropriate," a day after the disclosure of documents putting Clinton at the center of all-out fund-raising efforts

The greatest T-Shirt on earth....... is right here!

Dang, not working......go here Hillary Clinton Launches Fashion Line

Quote of the year........… so far, but this will be tough to beat (h/t Jules Crittenden):

“If you talk to these sheiks, they’ll tell you that they’re in no hurry to see the Americans leave al-Anbar.

“One thing Sheikh Sattar keeps saying is he wants al-Anbar to be like Germany and Japan and South Korea were after their respective wars, with a long-term American presence helping … put them back together,” MacFarland said. “The negative example he cites is Vietnam. He says, yeah, so, Vietnam beat the Americans, and what did it get them? You know, 30 years later, they’re still living in poverty.”

— Col. Sean B. MacFarland, 1st BCT, 1st AD

Smart sheikh.

THE Gator Freighter

(click to enlarge, impressive!....photo taken just hours ago)

This "Gator Freighter" (coined by Navy veteran and fellow blogger Elmers Brother ) the USS Bataan, left on January 5 for the Persian Gulf and on it has the daughter of the unflappable and buddy Vinbergstein.

His daughter Heather is a first class petty officer, a boatswains mate - believe she's an E-6. Formally known as BM1 Haas. She should be making chief anytime!

Part of THE SURGE?.........go get 'em!

Today in History....February 21

On this day in …

* 1819, Spain agreed to cede Florida to the U.S. under the Adams-Onis Treaty

* 1879, Frank Winfield Woolworth kicked off a retail revolution by opening the Great 5 Cents Store in Utica, New York. Pledging to sell "nothing" that cost more than a nickel, Woolworth packed his store with a smorgasbord of goods, ranging from items for the kitchen to beauty products. In 1997, the company threw in the towel and closed its last 400 shops when it wasn't able to compete with super-sized discount rivals like Target and Wal-Mart

* 1889, President Grover Cleveland signed an omnibus bill to admit the Dakotas, Montana and Washington state to the Union

* 1935, it became illegal for airplanes to fly over the White House

* 1967, more than 25,000 U.S. and South Vietnamese troops launched Operation Junction City, aimed at smashing a Vietcong stronghold near the Cambodian border.

* 1968, Tet Offensive ends. Claims by President Lyndon Johnson that the offensive was a complete failure were misleading. Though the North Vietnamese death toll was 20 times that of its enemies, strongholds previously thought impenetrable had been shaken. The prospect of increasing American forces added substantial strength to the anti-war movement and led to Johnson's announcement that he would not seek re-election

* 1973, the U.S. and Communist China agreed to establish liaison offices

* 1980, the U.S. Olympic hockey team upset the Soviets at Lake Placid, N.Y., 4-3. (The U.S. team went on to win the gold medal.)

* 1997, cutbacks began under new welfare law limiting childless adults, under age 50 and able to work, to three months of food stamps in any three-year period

* 2006, insurgents destroyed the golden dome of one of Iraq's holiest Shiite shrines, the Askariya mosque in Samarra, setting off an unprecedented spasm of sectarian violence. ALSO: Thieves stole
$96 million from a Bank of England cash depot 30 miles southeast of London in Britain's largest cash robbery. AND: Eight workers at a Nebraska meatpacking plant came forward to claim a $365 million Powerball jackpot

Evolution of the burqa, Little Green Footballs has the rest.

Death and Politics.........and Democrats

h/t - Brother Ron

We lose no more soldiers in Iraq than we would lose, on average, through training accidents, other accidents, and other causes. In other words, soldiers are no less safe (or no more in danger) in Iraq than they are anywhere else. Sound incredible? It shouldn’t. Because our soldiers are in Iraq, they are a target for terrorist attack, just as they are virtually anywhere in the world, and have been for two to three decades. Just as are diplomats, business people, and journalists.

Cowardly politicians. Ones on both sides of the aisle, who calculate first the political opportunity or risk to their personal ambitions, before any (if any) consideration of more moral equations.

But in the interest of factual clarity, and in rebuke of the lies Democrats and their craven Republican cohorts in Congress are spreading about Iraq, here’s some data from an essay (backed up by the data referenced by The Corner and mentioned):

The total military dead in the Iraq war between 2003 and this month stands at about 3,133. This is tragic, as are all deaths due to war, and we are facing a cowardly enemy unlike any other in our past that hides behind innocent citizens. Each death is blazoned in the headlines of newspapers and Internet sites. What is never compared is the number of military deaths during the Clinton administration: 1,245 in 1993; 1,109 in 1994; 1,055 in 1995; 1,008 in 1996. That's 4,417 deaths in peacetime but, of course, who's counting?

I am outraged at the blatant lies, misrepresentations, and misreporting that leaves such perspective conspicuously absent in any major reporting about our efforts in Iraq. That all this media malfeasance is prompted by obvious intent to support narrow political agenda and objectives, is beyond outrage. It is as near to treasonous as we will likely ever see in our lifetimes. That Congressmen and women aid, abet, sponsor, and direct these fifth-column-acting-like-fourth-column elements is beyond belief, and completely indescribable.

They will have their Vietnam, Senators Kennedy and Schumer, Speaker Pelosi and her stooge Congressman Murtha, no matter what it takes in betrayal, disloyalty, breaks of faith, dishonor, discredit, or infamy. They are that remnant from the Vietnam era, selfish and self-centered while pretending a giant lie of altruism, who are trying to relive their glory days in a different, 12 September world. As Colon observes:

It is so pathetic now (while we have this valiant volunteer military) to watch these hoary relics of the 1960s trying to recapture the relevance of that period.
Pathetic, and a disgrace to those who serve with honor.

Support the troops. Let them win.

Here is a table of all military deaths, broken down by cause, over the 25 year period 1980-2004. This includes all active duty and reservists.

The gist is that soldiers are more likely to die from accidents than hostile action (combat and terrorist actions combined). The death count from accidents has been lower than the death count from hostile action.

The fall in accidental deaths is greater than the increase in deaths by hostile action.Note that there were far more military deaths in 1980, the last year of Carter's presidency, than any year of the current administration. The death rate was, also, higher. This was because of lower standards and less care in training.

The bottom line is that we're fighting this war with lower casualties than that expected from normal training accidents in a peacetime army. You should be embarassed that you didn't know this. It's a testiment to the near universal innumeracy and incompetence of the journalism profession that most journalists haven't even seriously considered looking at basic statistics and putting things in context 5 1/2 years after 9/11.

Today in History....February 21

On this day in …

* 1885, the Washington Monument was dedicated

* 1916, the World War I Battle of Verdun began in France

* 1947, Edwin H. Land publicly demonstrated his Polaroid Land camera, which could produce a black-and-white photograph in 60 seconds

* 1965, former Black Muslim leader Malcolm X, 39, was shot to death in New York by assassins identified as Black Muslims

* 1972, President Nixon began his historic visit to China as he and his wife, Pat, arrived in Shanghai

* 1973, Israeli fighter planes shot down Libyan Arab Airlines Flight
114 over the Sinai Desert

* 1975, former Attorney General John N. Mitchell and former White House aides H.R. Haldeman and John D. Ehrlichman were sentenced to 2
1/2 to eight years in prison for their roles in the Watergate cover-up

* 1995, Chicago adventurer Steve Fossett became the first person to fly solo across the Pacific Ocean in a balloon, landing in Leader, Saskatchewan, Canada

* 1997, Whitewater prosecutor Kenneth Starr reversed his decision to resign. ALSO: The space shuttle Discovery returned to earth after a mission to upgrade the Hubble Space Telescope

* 2002, the State Department declared that beheaded Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl was dead, a month after he'd been abducted by practitioners of that "religion of peace" in Pakistan

* 2006, President Bush endorsed the takeover of shipping operations at six major U.S. seaports by a state-owned business in the United Arab Emirates, and pledged to veto any bill Congress might approve to block the agreement. (The agreement was eventually disolved by the company after extreme public pressure) ALSO: Donald Herbert, a brain-injured Buffalo, N.Y., firefighter who suddenly spoke after nearly a decade in a near-vegetative state, died at age 44

Today in History....February 20

On this day in …

* 1792, President George Washington signed an act creating the U.S.
Post Office

* 1809, the Supreme Court, in United States v. Peters, ruled the power of the federal government is greater than that of any individual state

* 1839, Congress prohibited dueling in the District of Columbia

* 1907, President Theodore Roosevelt signed an immigration act which excluded "idiots, imbeciles, feebleminded persons, epileptics, insane persons" from being admitted to the United States

* 1944, during World War II, U.S. bombers began raiding German aircraft manufacturing centers in a series of attacks that became known as "Big Week"

* 1965, the Ranger VIII spacecraft crashed on the moon after sending back thousands of pictures of the lunar surface

* 1987, a bomb blamed on the Unabomber exploded behind a computer store in Salt Lake City, seriously injuring store owner Gary Wright.
ALSO: Soviet authorities released Jewish activist Josef Begun

* 1997, the National Transportation Safety Board called for a speedup in the redesign of the rudder controls on Boeing 737s, citing potential problems suspected in a pair of deadly crashes

* 2002, President Bush, on the final leg of his Asian trip, arrived in China, where he urged President Jiang Zemin to respect religious freedoms

* 2006, President George Bush, visiting Milwaukee, outlined his energy proposals to help wean the country off foreign oil. ALSO:
David Irving was sentenced to three years in prison after admitting to an Austrian court that he had denied the Holocaust.

Dang job gits in the way of blogging :-) ......muy busy....... here's a mindless post.......

For all of you 10 year old boys whose friend has a hot mom.............. here's a music video for you.

It's harmless.......the expression on these kids face reminds me of my buddies and me when we were in 5th grade and Donnie's mom. There may be a 10 second commercial before it starts....here's Clay Walkers..." "Fore She Was Momma".

Memo to Dems, Bush's Defeat Will Be America's Defeat

.........from Mark Steyn

Here's an excerpt:

........the ayatollahs have concluded they have a very clear interest in fomenting chaos in Iraq. They're in favor of Sunni killing Shia, and Shia killing Sunni, and if some vacationing Basque terrorists wanted to blow up the Spanish Cultural Center in Mosul, they'd be in favor of that, too. The Iranians don't care who kills whom as long as every night when Americans turn on the evening news there's smoke over Baghdad. As I say in my book, if you happen to live in Ramadi or Basra, Iraq is about Iraq; if you live in Tehran, or Cairo, or Bei-jing, Moscow, Pyongyang or Brussels, Iraq is about America. American will. American purpose. American credibility.

There was a TV station somewhere -- was it Thunder Bay, Ontario? -- that used to show a continuous loop of a roaring fireplace all night, and thousands of viewers would supposedly sit in front of it for hours because it was such a reassuringly comforting scene. The networks could save themselves a lot of money by adopting the same approach: Run a continuous loop of a smoking building in Baghdad all night while thousands of congressmen and pundits and think-tankers and retired generals run around Washington shrieking that all is lost. America is way out of its league! A dimwitted tourist in a fearful land of strange people who don't watch "American Idol." Iraq is so culturally alien that not a single Sunni, Shia or Kurd has come forward claiming to be the father of Anna Nicole's baby!

Get a grip, chaps! In Iraq, everyone's a tourist. This al-Qaida honcho, al-Masri, is an Egyptian. His predecessor, Zarqawi, was a Jordanian. Al-Sadr is a Persian stooge. For four decades, the country was a British client. Before that, it was a Turkish province. The Middle East is a crazy place and a tough nut to crack, but the myth of the unbeatable Islamist insurgent is merely a lazy and more neurotic update of the myth of the unbeatable communist guerrilla, which delusion led to so much pre-emptive surrender in the '70s. Nevertheless, in the capital city of the most powerful nation on the planet, the political class spent last week trying to craft a bipartisan defeat strategy, and they might yet pull it off. Consider this extraordinary report from the Washington Post:

"Democratic leaders have rallied around a strategy that would fully fund the president's $100 billion request for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan but would limit his ability to use the money. . . . The plan is aimed at tamping down calls from the Democrats' liberal wing for Congress to simply end funding for the war.

Betcha Didn't Know

Only golfers will care about this one........but PGA Tour star Phil Mickelson was approached in 1992 about putting some dough into eBay......well he did, he owns 3% of eBay....or just a shade over $500 Million.

Today in History February 19

On this day in …

* 1803, Congress voted to accept Ohio's borders and constitution

* 1807, former Vice President Aaron Burr, accused of treason, was arrested in the Mississippi Territory, in present-day Alabama. (Burr was acquitted at trial.)

* 1846, the Texas state government was formally installed in Austin, with J. Pinckney Henderson taking the oath of office as governor

* 1878, Thomas Edison received a U.S. patent for "an improvement in phonograph or speaking machines"

* 1945, during World War II, some 30,000 U.S. Marines began landing on Iwo Jima, where they commenced a month-long battle to seize control of the island from Japanese forces

* 1959, an agreement was signed by Britain, Turkey and Greece granting Cyprus its independence

* 1970, the Chicago Seven (formerly the Chicago Eight--one defendant, Bobby Seale, was being tried separately) are acquitted of riot conspiracy charges, but found guilty of inciting riot.

* 1974, Alexander Solzhenitsyn awaits reunion with his family after exile from Russia. Publication of The Gulag Archipelago, a detailed history of the Soviet prison system, prompted Russia to exile the 55 year-old author. One of Russia's most visible and vocal dissidents, Solzhenitsyn once served an 11-year prison term. Solzhenitsyn had previously been prevented by the Soviets from receiving a Nobel Prize for literature, but finally in 1978, he received the award in Switzerland

* 1986, the U.S. Senate approved an international treaty outlawing genocide, 37 years after the pact had first been submitted for ratification

* 2002, President Bush opened a two-day visit to South Korea

* 2006, Israel halted the transfer of hundreds of millions of dollars in tax money to the Palestinians after Hamas took control of the Palestinian parliament.

There is progress in Iraq. That's the good news.

The bad news is that Democrats aren't just against the President's surge policy -- their goal, as one advocacy group put it baldly, has to do with "undermining" the President's "foreign and national security policy." It strikes me that there's a great difference between a disagreement about strategy, tactics and even goals on the one hand -- and actively trying to ensure that the U.S. fails in whatever goals have been set out by the duly elected commander-in-chief. It's analogous to the distinction between dissent and treason.

Finally, the Democrats have apparently decided on a "slow bleed" strategy for forcing defeat in the war on Iraq. It's a clearly dishonorable tactic, as its upshot is to make it impossible for the US to prevail in Iraq, while sparing the Democrats the unpopularity that would result from them pursuing the same end more transparently -- and honorably (by, e.g., withholding funding).

The Top 50 Conservative Rock Songs

Fluff for the day..............I saw this last year, compiled by John Miller at National Review , I agree with the top 4 and his #1 is my all-time favorite rock song, Miller writes........................

What makes a great conservative rock song? The lyrics must convey a conservative idea or sentiment, such as skepticism of government or support for traditional values. And, to be sure, it must be a great rock song. We’re biased in favor of songs that are already popular, but have tossed in a few little-known gems. In several cases, the musicians are outspoken liberals. Others are notorious libertines. For the purposes of this list, however, we don’t hold any of this against them. Finally, it would have been easy to include half a dozen songs by both the Kinks and Rush, but we’ve made an effort to cast a wide net. Who ever said diversity isn’t a conservative principle?

I'm not a Metallica fan but they get it..........“Don’t Tread on Me,” by Metallica comes in at #9....A head-banging tribute to the doctrine of peace through strength, written in response to the first Gulf War: “So be it / Threaten no more / To secure peace is to prepare for war.”

Go ahead an argue..............

1. “Won’t Get Fooled Again,” by The Who. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
The conservative movement is full of disillusioned revolutionaries; this could be their theme song, an oath that swears off naïve idealism once and for all. “There’s nothing in the streets / Looks any different to me / And the slogans are replaced, by-the-bye. . . . Meet the new boss / Same as the old boss.” The instantly recognizable synthesizer intro, Pete Townshend’s ringing guitar, Keith Moon’s pounding drums, and Roger Daltrey’s wailing vocals make this one of the most explosive rock anthems ever recorded — the best number by a big band, and a classic for conservatives.

2. “Taxman,” by The Beatles. buy CD on Amazon.com
A George Harrison masterpiece with a famous guitar riff (which was actually played by Paul McCartney): “If you drive a car, I’ll tax the street / If you try to sit, I’ll tax your seat / If you get too cold, I’ll tax the heat / If you take a walk, I’ll tax your feet.” The song closes with a humorous jab at death taxes: “Now my advice for those who die / Declare the pennies on your eyes.”

3. “Sympathy for the Devil,” by The Rolling Stones. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
Don’t be misled by the title; this song is The Screwtape Letters of rock. The devil is a tempter who leans hard on moral relativism — he will try to make you think that “every cop is a criminal / And all the sinners saints.” What’s more, he is the sinister inspiration for the cruelties of Bolshevism: “I stuck around St. Petersburg / When I saw it was a time for a change / Killed the czar and his ministers / Anastasia screamed in vain.”

4. “Sweet Home Alabama,” by Lynyrd Skynyrd. ; buy CD on Amazon.com
A tribute to the region of America that liberals love to loathe, taking a shot at Neil Young’s Canadian arrogance along the way: “A Southern man don’t need him around anyhow.”

Click here for the rest.............

If's........With Victor Davis Hanson

-If one were to substitute “Muslim” for “Christian” in the rants of the John Edwards bloggers, would there have been any hesitation about firing them?

-If Austrian sniper rifles really were recently sold to Iran, brought into Iraq, and used to kill Americans., what would Europeans think if American sniper weaponry were sold, under our government’s auspices, to those supplying the Basque separatists to kill Spaniards? Why no outcry from the Euro-left about the continent’s amoral propensity to sell the Iranian thugocracy about anything it wants?

-Hamas and Fatah have different uniforms. They have two conflicting ideologies and clear antithetical agendas. And now they are killing one another. Why is this not a “civil war,” but the senseless sectarian violence in Iraq is?

Today in History....February 16

On this day in …

* 1804, Lt. Stephen Decatur led a successful raid into Tripoli Harbor to burn the U.S. Navy frigate Philadelphia, which had fallen into the hands of pirates

* 1862, during the Civil War, some 14,000 Confederate soldiers surrendered at Fort Donelson, Tenn. (Union Gen. Ulysses S. Grant's victory earned him the nickname ''Unconditional Surrender Grant.'')

* 1918, Lithuania proclaimed its independence, which lasted until World War II (it again declared independence in 1990)

* 1923, the burial chamber of King Tutankhamen's recently unearthed tomb was unsealed in Egypt by English archaeologist Howard Carter.

* 1945, American troops landed on the island of Corregidor in the Philippines during World War II

* 1959, Fidel Castro became premier of Cuba after the overthrow of Fulgencio Batista

* 1968, the nation's first 911 emergency telephone system was inaugurated, in Haleyville, Ala.

* 1987, John Demjanjuk went on trial in Jerusalem, accused of being ''Ivan the Terrible,'' a guard at the Treblinka Nazi concentration camp. (Demjanjuk was convicted, but the conviction ended up being overturned by the Israeli Supreme Court.)

* 2002, President Bush, en route to a three-nation tour of Asia, stopped off at Elmendorf Air Force Base in Alaska, where he told hundreds of cheering U.S. soldiers that ''America will not blink''
in the fight against terrorism and Osama bin Laden. ALSO:
Authorities in Noble, Ga., arrested Ray Brent Marsh, who'd been operating a crematory where hundreds of decomposing corpses were found stacked in storage sheds and scattered in the woods behind it.
(Marsh later pleaded guilty and is serving a 12-year sentence.)

Damn, I'm getting promoted, partner status, more money.........less blogging......I'll figure it out.

Now I just may go out and buy myself one of these babies (below, except in black), they run anywhere between $5,000 to $10,000.......always wanted to be able to wear one of these........with my horse......and then a night out on the town with the Mrs.









Keep going.......





















This gentleman right here is known as El Rey, or The King, Vicente Fernandez.......the Frank Sinatra of mariachi. I've seen him before, I've never heard a more POWERFUL voice....the man has pipes of gold.

Today in History....February 15

On this day in …


* 1879, President Rutherford B. Hayes (R) signed a bill allowing female lawyers to argue cases before the Supreme Court.

* 1898, the U.S. battleship Maine mysteriously blew up in Havana Harbor, killing more than 260 crew members and bringing the United States closer to war with Spain

* 1903, toy store owner and inventor Morris Michtom places two stuffed bears in his shop window, advertising them as 'Teddy' bears.
Michtom had earlier petitioned President Theodore Roosevelt for permission to use his nickname, 'Teddy.' The president agreed and, before long, other toy manufacturers began turning out copies of Michtom's stuffed bears, which soon became a national childhood institution

* 1933, President-elect Franklin D. Roosevelt escaped an assassination attempt in Miami that mortally wounded Chicago Mayor Anton J. Cermak; gunman Giuseppe Zangara was executed more than four weeks later, on March 20

* 1942, in one of the greatest defeats in British military history, Britain's supposedly impregnable Singapore fortress surrenders to Japanese forces after a weeklong siege. More than 60,000 British, Australian, and Indian soldiers were taken prisoner, joining 70,000 other Allied soldiers captured during Britain's disastrous defense of the Malay Peninsula

* 1950, the Soviet Union and the People's Republic of China, the two largest communist nations in the world, announce the signing of a mutual defense and assistance treaty

* 1989, the Soviet Union announced that the last of its troops had left Afghanistan, after more than nine years of military intervention

Idiot John Mellencamp Jumps The Shark......Damn

U2 is a great band, one of my all-time favorites, even though most of their political views are different than mine, I still really like 'em and buy their product, the list could go on and on....let's take it to John Mellencamp. He has some really great songs but I think Mellencamp just Just Jumped the Shark, suffered brain damage then whipped off his shoes and stuffed 'em in his mouth.

John Mellencamp: U.S. Should not Respond to 9/11 or Pearl Harbor.

Memo to John Cougar Mellon-head..........take the advice of Alice Cooper.......you guys are rock stars, here's what all-around cool dude Alice Cooper had to say about rock stars and politics/current events....

"To me, that's treason. I call it treason against rock 'n' roll because rock is the antithesis of politics. Rock should never be in bed with politics," says the 56-year-old Cooper.

"When I was a kid and my parents started talking about politics, I'd run to my room and put on the ROLLING STONES as loud as I could. So when I see all these rock stars up there talking politics, it makes me sick.

"If you're listening to a rock star in order to get your information on who to vote for, you're a bigger moron than they are. Why are we rock stars? Because we're morons. We sleep all day, we play music at night and very rarely do we sit around reading the Washington Journal."

"I Love You More Than Bunnies"

All of you Arizonans out there (and others who want a t-shirt) please help support my friends, Bill and Abby Simpkins, 5K run this March 31 called Emma's Run in memory of their daughter Emma. "I Love You More Than Bunnies" was Emma's favorite phrase to say. You can make a donation here - http://www.active.com/donate/emmasimpkins and sign up for the 5K Run/Walk in Anthem, AZ here - http://www.active.com/event_detail.cfm?event_id=1376562. Myself, the Mrs. and my 3 little Joe's are training for this (well, they are........... I think)

The goal is to raise $5,000, we're at $2,600 so far. All proceeds benefit "We Care in Anthem" an organization committed to helping critically and terminally ill children and their families. Thank you.

Headline of the Year

From Drudge .........

HEARING ON 'WARMING OF PLANET' CANCELED BECAUSE OF ICE STORM

Today in History....February 14

On this day in …

* 1778, the American ship Ranger carried the recently adopted Star and Stripes to a foreign port for the first time as it arrived in France

* 1903, the Department of Commerce and Labor was established. (It was divided into separate departments of Commerce and Labor in
1913.)

* 1929, the "St. Valentine's Day Massacre" took place in a Chicago garage as seven rivals of Al Capone's gang were gunned down

* 1962, first lady Jacqueline Kennedy conducted a televised tour of the White House

* 1979, Adolph Dubs, the U.S. ambassador to Afghanistan, was kidnapped in Kabul by practitioners of that "religion of peace" and killed in a shootout between his abductors and police.

* 1989, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini called on Muslims to kill Salman Rushdie, author of "The Satanic Verses," a novel condemned as blasphemous.

* 2002, launching his defense against war crimes charges, former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic justified his actions as a "struggle against terrorism" and said he was a victim of twisted facts and "terrible fabrication." ALSO: The House voted to ban unregulated contributions to national political parties

* 2006, attorney Harry Whittington, the man accidentally shot by Vice President Dick Cheney, suffered a mild heart attack when a shotgun pellet traveled to his heart, but he later recovered. ALSO:
Iran said it had resumed uranium enrichment; Russia and France immediately called on Iran to halt its work

Today in History....February 13

San Diego rocks.........in fun and in business.........nailed the biggest single deal in our company's history yesterday.

On this day in …

* 1795, the University of North Carolina became the first U.S. state university to admit students with the arrival of Hinton James, who was the only student on campus for two weeks

* 1920, the League of Nations recognized the perpetual neutrality of Switzerland

* 1935, a jury in Flemington, N.J., found Bruno Richard Hauptmann guilty of first-degree murder in the kidnap-slaying of the son of Charles and Anne Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was later executed.)

* 1945, during World War II, the Soviets captured Budapest, Hungary, from the Germans. ALSO: Allied planes began bombing the German city of Dresden

* 1960, France exploded its first atomic bomb, in the Sahara Desert

* 1997 Discovery's astronauts hauled the Hubble Space Telescope aboard the shuttle for a 1 billion-mile tuneup to allow it to peer even deeper into the far reaches of the universe. ALSO: On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average broke through the 7,000 barrier for the first time, ending the day at 7,022.44

* 2002, John Walker Lindh pleaded not-guilty in federal court in Alexandria, Va., to conspiring to kill Americans and supporting the Taliban and terrorist organizations. ALSO: Britain's Queen Elizabeth II made former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani an honorary knight

* 2006, auditors reported that millions of dollars in Hurricane Katrina disaster aid had been squandered, paying for such items as a $450 tattoo and $375-a-day beachfront condos

Off to San Diego for the whole day.

But before I bail for the day, let's get a few things straight about the Dixie Chicks and their Grammy wins (or handouts). "America" has not spoken. This is what I heard about 4 times driving in this morning, if that were the case, they would have played to full and/or sold out arenas and their last album would have been a blockbuster sales-wise. Instead, they played to less than half full arenas and their last album was their worst sales-wise, so if America has spoken, it is because they don't like you or your music. Who has spoken are the handful of artists/voters who voted for them.

The thing that really bothers me about these chicks, is that they blame their fans for not agreeing with them and turn around and berate them as well as fellow country stars.....Toby Keith, Reba McEntire and Martina McBride.

"We don't want those kinds of fans. They limit what you can do," said Dixie Chick Martie Maguire, who shares the stage with Natalie Maines and Emily Robinson.

You obviously have the right to say pretty much what you want here in the USA, just don't expect everyone to agree with you, and when they don't agree with you, come back with something intelligent to back it up. These chicks are horrible (or great depending on where you stand) in interviews and come off as lame, uninformed dumb..........chicks.

Question, why have Waylon Jennings, Willie Nelson, Faith Hill and Tim McGraw all spoken out against the war, but still are loved by their country base? Because there is a broadline between having strong political views and being a complete a$$hole while having strong political views.

One more thing......I find it interesting that a non-country album wins Country album of the year and record of the year, among their other awards.

Today in History....February 12

On this day in …

* 1818, Chile officially proclaimed its independence, more than seven years after initially renouncing Spanish rule

* 1912, Pu Yi, the last emperor of China, abdicated, marking the end of the Qing Dynasty

* 1915, the cornerstone for the Lincoln Memorial was laid in Washington D.C.

* 1940, the radio play "The Adventures of Superman" debuted with Bud Collyer as the Man of Steel

* 1973, Operation Homecoming began as the first release of American prisoners of war from the Vietnam conflict took place

* 1997 the highest-ranking official to flee communist North Korea, Hwang Jang Yop, asked for political asylum at South Korea's consulate in Beijing. ALSO: The Clinton administration gave permission to 10 U.S. news organizations to open bureaus in Cuba

* 2002, former Enron chairman Kenneth Lay expressed "profound sadness" about the collapse of the energy giant, but refused to testify at a Senate hearing. ALSO: Former Yugoslav president Slobodan Milosevic went on trial in The Hague, accused of war crimes. AND: Pakistan charged three men in connection with the kidnapping of Wall Street Journal reporter Daniel Pearl in Karachi (they and a fourth man were later convicted of Pearl's murder).

* 2006, a record 26.9 inches of snow fell in New York's Central Park

Let Them Eat........Chicken Feet!!!

Well, look what the great people of Venezuela have had to resort to due to commie price controls and food shortages.....yep.....that delectable culinary item of chicken feet.

Chávez and his government toadies are blaming "hoarders and speculators" for the shortages. The real problem is Chávez's price controls. Beef is artificially priced at $1.82 per pound when $2.41 per pound is required just to get it to the supermarket shelves. That means that the supermarkets have to sell it at cost, which they refuse to do, and the middlemen have to eat a $0.59 per pound loss, which they also refuse to do. Hence, no beef. Since the cattle raisers can't sell their beef to anyone, I guess that means they are hoarding it.

Chávez insituted price controls on over 400 basic items in 2003 in an effort to control inflation and help the poor. He successfully reduced the inflation rate from 25% where it was in 2003 to 78% where it stands today. And now the poor can't afford to buy even chicken feets. Nice job, Hugo!

h/t Mark in México

Today in HIstory....February 9

On this day in …

* 1825, the House of Representatives elected John Quincy Adams president after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes

* 1861, Jefferson Davis was elected the provisional president of the Confederate States of America

* 1870, the U.S. Weather Bureau was established

* 1942, daylight-saving "War Time" went into effect in the United States, with clocks turned one hour forward

* 1950, in a speech in Wheeling, W. Va., Sen. Joseph McCarthy, R-Wis., charged that the State Department was riddled with Communists

* 1964, The Beatles made their first live American television appearance on "The Ed Sullivan Show" on CBS

* 1971, the crew of Apollo 14 returned to Earth after man's third landing on the moon

* 1997, Best Products closed the last of its stores, a victim of the diminishing allure of the catalog showroom concept of retailing

* 2006, President Bush defended U.S. surveillance efforts, saying spy work helped thwart terrorists plotting to use shoe bombs to hijack an airliner and crash it into the tallest skyscraper on the West Coast

Insulting Allah Now a Crime at SFSU

Alli can say is........what a bunch of leftard, asshat commie appeasers.... look where we're heading!

If you don't understand what dhimmitude is..........be prepared, 'cause you will have it ingrained into your brain before long. Hey Nancy Pelosi, this sh*t is happening IN YOUR DISTRICT.

Little Green Footballs reports here that at San Francisco State University, you can do anything you want to a US flag or a Christian religious symbol: burn it, deface it, submerge it in bodily fluids. It’s all good.

But step on paper copies of Hamas and Hizballah flags, and you’re in a world of hurt.

Not because they’re flags, though. Because they contain the world “Allah.”

The key word in here is State, as in San Franscisco STATE University............which means our/my government is funding this pathetic place.

Radical Islam = Islam.

Did Jew Know?

Betcha didn't know they were Jewish (this topic is from IsreallyCool but this selection is mine)

- He was an accomplished amateur photographer

- A United States Senator from the western US

- Was one of the more prominent American politicians to openly show an interest in UFOs.

- Middle name is Morris

- His son served as a U.S. House member from California

- He supported the NAACP in his state and was involved in desegregating the National Guard in his state. Nationally, he supported the Civil Rights in early 60's.

- He sued Jimmy Carter

- One of his campaign slogans was "Au H2O"

Who is this mystery Jew? (was raised Episcopalian though)

(the first comment will give it away, so don't look)

Click here.

Muslims Killing Muslims = Someone Else's Fault

History News Network’s Judith Klinghoffer, now observing events in India, picks up a story line there that’s becoming all too familiar: Muslims killing Muslims to make Muslims angry at non-Muslims.

h/t Jules Crittenden

What Happened To That Ozone Layer Thing?

Global Warming will have to wait...For now, it's gas guzzling Chevrolet Tahoes and private jet rides for Nancy Pelosi....................

The return of arctic conditions to much of the U.S. has many people sympathizing with this cartoon by Sam Ryskind:

You don’t hear much about the ozone hole any more. Has it gone away? Nope. NOAA and NASA say in 2006 it was bigger and deeper than ever.

But wait, you say, we implemented the Montreal Protocols in 1989, eliminating ozone depleting CFCs. Kofi Annan called the Protocol, “Perhaps the most successful international agreement to date.” CFC concentrations have been falling since 1995. How can the ozone hole be worse?

It’s not worse, says NOAA, it’s better. It’s just that you can’t see how great the Protocol is working because colder than average temperatures in the Antarctic mask the benefit. Cold weather “result[s] in larger and deeper ozone holes, while warmer weather leads to smaller ones.”

Colder in Antarctica? Al Gore told me it was melting! Al Gore told me there was consensus. Consensus!

h/t Power Line

Today in History....February 8

On this day in …

* 1837, the Senate selected the vice president of the United States, choosing Richard Mentor Johnson after no candidate received a majority of electoral votes

* 1904, the Russo-Japanese War, a conflict over control of Manchuria and Korea, began as Japanese forces attacked Port Arthur

* 1910, the Boy Scouts of America was incorporated

* 1915, D.W. Griffith's groundbreaking and controversial silent movie epic about the Civil War, "The Birth of a Nation," premiered in Los Angeles

* 1924, the first execution by gas in the United States took place at the Nevada State Prison in Carson City as Gee Jon, a Chinese immigrant convicted of murder, was put to death

* 1974, the last three-man crew of the Skylab space station returned to Earth after spending 84 days in space

* 2002, the Taliban's foreign minister (Mullah Abdul Wakil
Muttawakil) turned himself in to authorities in Afghanistan

* 2006, President Bush condemned deadly rioting by practitioners of that "religion of peace" which was sparked by cartoons of Muhammad, as he urged foreign leaders to halt the spreading violence

Rockers For The Troops

Good to see that it's just not cool Country stars going to support the troops, the band Shinedown goes to the Middle East to perform and SHOW SUPPORT FOR THE TROOPS. Although I've heard of them, and they sold out when they came here to Phoenix a month or so ago, I'm not real familiar with their music........but they close this YouTube video with a Skynyrd tune.........very cool, and very cool to hear the lead singer say that being there with the troops was the most amazing day of his life.

Iran Allies, Appeasers Warn of Terror Tsunami

h/t Big Jimbo

Chinese, Russian, and European opponents of military action against Tehran's turbaned tyrants are intensifying efforts to isolate and weaken Washington as it struggles to deal with the nuclearzing nut-cases.

Military action against Iran would be disastrous, the line goes, because it would unleash a tsunami of terror likely to engulf the entire Middle East and nations around the world.

Which could hapen if the military action is tentative and half-baked. But chances of meaningful retaliation are de minimis if the action is swift, decisive and truly devastating, destroying all known and suspected Iranian nuclear and missile sites--while annihilating the mullahocracy's war-making capabilities for all time.

Air and naval action ... using any and all available weapons ... including tactical nuclear arms if necessary ... could and should end the Iranian regime ... before it ends Israel or an American city.

An Iranian nuclear attack against an American city? It's possible, as previously reported. Not for nothing has Iran been developing and testing so-called Scud-in-a-bucket attack scenarios that involve the firing of nuclear-tipped rockets from specially constructed launchers concealed atop civilian cargo ships (which could fly any number of non-Iranian foreign flags as they approach US coastal cities).

Today in History....February 7

On this day in …

* 1861, the general council of the Choctaw Indian nation adopted a resolution declaring allegiance with the South "in the event a permanent dissolution of the American Union takes place."

* 1904, a fire began in Baltimore that raged for about 30 hours and destroyed more than 1,500 buildings

* 1936, President Franklin Roosevelt authorized a flag for the office of the vice president

* 1943, the government announced the start of shoe rationing, limiting consumers to buying three pairs per person for the remainder of the year

* 1964, The Beatles began their first American tour as they arrived at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport

* 1984, space shuttle astronauts Bruce McCandless the Second and Robert L. Stewart went on the first untethered space walk

* 2006, Abu Hamza al-Masri, a cleric of that "religion of peace"
linked to 9/11 plotter Zacarias Moussaoui, was sentenced in London to seven years in prison for inciting followers to kill non-Muslims

Blogger in Beta

Since I made the switch to the new version of Blogger, there has been a few glitches........like yesterday, not being able to access my blog! Posting and uploading photo's is a snap...hopefully they'll get the bugs ironed out quick.

Today in History....February 6

On this day in …

* 1778, the U.S. won official recognition from France with the signing of treaties in Paris

* 1899, a peace treaty between the United States and Spain was ratified by the U.S. Senate

* 1933, the 20th Amendment to the Constitution, the so-called "lame duck" amendment, was proclaimed in effect by Secretary of State Henry Stimson

* 1952, Britain's King George VI died; he was succeeded as reigning monarch by his daughter, Elizabeth II

* 1959, the United States successfully test-fired for the first time a Titan intercontinental ballistic missile from Cape Canaveral

* 2002, a federal judge ordered John Walker Lindh, the so-called "American Taliban," held without bail pending trial. ALSO: Britain's Queen Elizabeth II reached a bittersweet milestone, somberly marking 50 years as monarch on the anniversary of the death of her father, King George VI

* 2006, terrorist conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui disrupted the opening of his sentencing trial in Alexandria, Va., and was tossed out of court. ALSO: Hundreds of protesters, practitioners of that "religion of peace", hurled stones and fire bombs at the Danish Embassy in Tehran to denounce published caricatures of Muhammad.
Isabelle Dinoire, the Frenchwoman who'd received the world's first partial face transplant, showed off her new features at a news conference

Martyrs

Michael Yon in Iraq has the heart-rending tale of an attack on a mosque thwarted by a real Martyr:

...The closer a counterfeit comes to the genuine article, the more obvious the deceit. As the murderer dressed in women’s clothes walked purposefully toward his target, there was a village man ahead. But under the guise of a simple villager was a true Martyr, and he, too, had his target in sight. The Martyr had seen through the disguise, but he had no gun. No bomb. No rocket. No stone. No time.

The Martyr walked up to the murderer and lunged into a bear hug, on the spot where we were now standing...

Read Mike's entire dispatch here.

h/t Black Five

Tiger Woods vs George Strait

King George wins the arm wrestling, boxing and wrestling matches, Tiger wins the sprints, skiing and scuba diving events.

Tiger Woods' win last week at Torry Pines gives him 55 victories on the PGA Tour and his 7th win in a row. Tiger trails Sam Snead (81), Jack Nicklaus (70), Ben Hogan (63) and Arnold Palmer (60).

George Strait just picked up his 54th #1 hit with his latest hit and album title It Just Comes Natural. All time leader of any genre is, believe it or not, fellow country twanger Conway Twitty with 55 #1's.

Both will post more #1's and both will end as the all time leaders in their fields.

Today in History....February 2

On this day in …

* 1653, New Amsterdam -- now New York City -- was incorporated

* 1876, the National League of Professional Base Ball Clubs was formed in New York

* 1880, the first electric streetlight was installed in Wabash, Indiana. The city paid the Brush Electric Light Company of Cleveland, Ohio, $100 to install a light on the top of the courthouse. A month later the city commissioned four more lights to be installed. Residents of Wabash became the first Americans to wear their sunglasses at night

* 1887, Groundhog Day, featuring a rodent meteorologist, is celebrated for the first time at Gobbler's Knob in Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania. According to tradition, if a groundhog comes out of its hole on this day and sees its shadow, there will be six more weeks of winter weather; no shadow means an early spring

* 1942, Vidkun Quisling, a collaborator with the German occupiers of Norway, is established as prime minister of a puppet government.

* 1943, the remainder of Nazi forces, ym"sh, from the Battle of Stalingrad surrendered in a major victory for the Soviets in World War II

* 1948, President Truman sent to Congress a 10-point civil rights program calling for measures against lynching, poll taxes and job discrimination

* 1949, United States rejects proposal for conference with Stalin

* 1971, one week after toppling the regime of Ugandan leader Milton Obote, Major General Idi Amin declares himself president of Uganda and chief of the armed forces. Amin, head of the Ugandan army and air force since 1966, seized power while Obote was out of the country

The Ugly American

Victor Davis Hanson writes today about The Ugly American..................and just who is the ugly American?

VHD cites...........

XXXXX criticisms are hauntingly similar to al-Qaida's own talking points. Both Osama bin Laden and Ayman al-Zawahiri have preposterously claimed that America's past inaction on Kyoto was a good excuse for going to war. In various ways, they have long blamed America for the spread of AIDS, and insisted that the United States is an international outlaw. When XXXXXXX makes similar charges, it only enhances the jihadist propaganda, and weakens the United States in a war that is largely to be decided by relative resolve.

What then drives XXXXXXX to say such ugly things?

.....it is intellectual laziness. It is always easier to cite America's flaws to applause than to take the time to explain the nature of its rare morality to catcalls. In truth, the United States has never been richer or more generous. Its military is preeminent, protects vulnerable allies and fights extremism worldwide. Immigrants risk their lives to reach our shores.

Who is the Ugly American?










Our favorite comedian..................Jon Carrie!!!!

Momma's, Don't Let You're Babies Grow Up To Be Baby's

Thanks to the "libbie weather Nazis" (that one courtesy of Brooke at NeoCon Command Center) we have Al Gore Nominated for Nobel Peace Prize...

What on earth does this has to do with peace? This prize has mostly been a joke since Arafat won it.

He wins.........that will officially make this prize a joke.