Friday, November 30, 2007

IMO, these guys from Austin, TX were the best one album rock/blues band ever...early '90's...superstar guitar-slingers Charlie Sexton, Doyle Bramhall teamed with Double Trouble's Chris Layton & Tommy Shannon were THE next super group.......did get to see 'em here in Phoenix though...they were awesome.......killlin' time, I earned it....closed the biggest deal in company's history today.

President of the United States, Mr. Fred Thompson


Vice President of the United States, Mr. Bill Bennett


You know your religion is a total sham when cartoons and teddy bears offend you so much you have to call for death.

Rarely has a president -- so vilified for a moral stance -- been so thoroughly vindicated.

Today in History....November 30

* 1782, Treaty of Paris --- representatives from the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign preliminary peace articles (later formalized as the 1783 Treaty of Paris)

* 1786, Peter Leopold Joseph of Habsburg-Lorraine, Grand Duke of Tuscany, promulgates a penal reform making his country the first state to abolish the death penalty. November 30 is therefore commemorated by 300 cities around the world as Cities for Life Day

* 1803, in New Orleans, Spanish representatives officially transfer Louisiana Territory to a French representative. Just 20 days later, France transfers the same land to the United States as the Louisiana Purchase

* 1804, the Democratic-Republican-controlled United States Senate begins an impeachment trial against Federalist-partisan Supreme Court of the United States Justice Samuel Chase

* 1872, the first-ever international football match takes place at Hamilton Crescent, Glasgow, between Scotland and England

* 1902, second-in-command of Butch Cassidy's Wild Bunch gang, Kid Curry Logan, sentenced to 20 years imprisonment with hard labor

* 1934, the steam locomotive Flying Scotsman becomes the first to officially exceed 100mph

* 1936, London's famed Crystal Palace, constructed for the Great Exhibition of 1851, was destroyed in a fire

* 1939, start of the Winter War: Soviet forces invade Finland and reach the Mannerheim Line, launch the war

* 1943 , the Tehran Conference meets --- U.S. President Franklin D.
Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill, and Soviet leader Josef Stalin establish an agreement concerning the planned June 1944 invasion of Europe code named Operation Overlord

* 1954, in Sylacauga, Alabama, United States, an 8.5 lb (3.86 kg) sulfide meteorite crashes through a roof and hits Mrs. Elizabeth Hodges in her living room after bouncing off her radio, giving her a bad bruise, in the only unequivocally known case of a human being hit by a space rock

* 1971, Iran seizes the Greater and Lesser Tunbs from the United Arab Emirates

* 1972, during the Vietnam War: White House Press Secretary Ron Ziegler tells the press that there will be no more public announcements concerning American troop withdrawals from Vietnam due to the fact that troop levels are now down to 27,000

* 1981, in Geneva, representatives from the United States and the Soviet Union begin to negotiate intermediate-range nuclear weapon reductions in Europe (the meetings ended inconclusively on December 17)

* 1993, U.S. President Bill Clinton signs the Brady Handgun Violence Prevention Act (the Brady Bill) into law

* 1995, official end of Operation Desert Storm

* 1997, Czech Premier Vaclav Klaus formally handed in his government's resignation in the wake of a campaign financing scandal. In Tajikistan, French hostage Karine Mane was killed with five suspected kidnappers when a grenade exploded during a failed rescue operation; a companion had been released hours earlier

* 1998, Deutsche Bank announces a $10 billion deal to buy Bankers Trust, thus creating the largest financial institution in the world

Thursday, November 29, 2007

The Modern Feminist Manifesto

By Arnold Ahlert (bio)

When they liberated the women of Afghanistan, I was silent.
I am not an Afghan woman.
When they liberated the women of Iraq, I was silent.
I am not an Iraqi woman.

Though the women in many Muslim nations are oppressed and brutalized, I reman silent.
I am not a Muslim woman, nor do I live in any of these nations.
Though a 54 year-old British woman faces 40 lashes and six months in jail in the Sudan for naming a teddy bear “Mohammed,” I reman silent.
I am not her, she is not my problem.

Once I was part of a movement dedicated to stamping out injustice against all women.
But times have changed.
Now all I care about is preserving legalized abortion.
I can–and will–remain silent about everything else.

I am an American feminist.
Hear me “roar.”

One of the most inspiring stories of determination, a high school girl competing in the state finals track meet......you've got to see this.

Video is no longer available, here's the story...

ESPN High School has her story. Claire is a long-distance runner, and her high school cross country team was competing at the state finals. In the video, you'll see her fall -- this is where her left tibia broke. She gets up, and tries to continue running, causing her fibula to snap. Instead of giving up, however, she crawled to the finish line, determined to finish the race.

What Markwardt saw in the video might not be visible to the rest of us. She saw a teenage girl who, a year earlier, watched the state meet from the stands and made a personal commitment to run in that race in her senior year. She saw a girl who fulfilled that commitment, and then, with a badly broken leg 45 feet from the finish line, had a choice: Finish, or don't finish.

To her, it was a no-brainer.

At the 1- and 2-mile markers, Markwardt was on a personal-best pace. Then, as she entered the stadium at Columbus' Scioto Downs, with about 400 meters to go, she heard her left leg crack.

The leg had been sore on and off for the previous two weeks, prompting Berkshire coach Julie Cole to limit Markwardt in practice. When she heard the crack, Markwardt thought it was a muscle pull or tear. She thought she could gut it out to the finish line.

"There was a runner from one of our rival schools right in front of me," she said. "I kept staring at the back of her jersey and pushing myself to catch her."

But some 200 meters later, Markwardt heard the leg crack again. And again. Then there was a louder crack, and her entire leg gave out. She fell to the ground as onlookers winced at the sound and the sight of what happened.

One of Markwardt's teammates, unaware of what had happened, encouraged her to get up. She tried, using her right leg. But as soon as she shifted weight to the left, the loudest crack yet came. And her leg gave out again.

"At that point, I knew what had happened. I knew my leg was broken pretty badly. And I knew I couldn't get up again. So I started crawling," she said.

She said she thought not of her coach, nor her parents, nor anyone else who had encouraged her to never give up, to see things to the finish. Instead, she thought of the countless stories she had heard about runners who collapsed before a race's end and somehow found the courage to cross that last line. Even if her leg had given out at the 400-meter mark, she said, it wouldn't have mattered. She was going to finish.

"They may not have let me, and it might not have been pretty, but I would have tried," she said. "I had come so far. Our team had come so far. All season, we had been working for state, and now we were there. I was almost done, and there was no way I was going to let the team down."

She finished the race with a time of 20:24.07, only :18 slower than her personal best. She finished in 67th place, helping to put her school in a fourth-place finish in the Ohio High School Athletic Association Division III championship.

"When I saw her crawling, I wanted to cry," said Richard Markwardt, Claire's father. "I was just so incredibly proud -- as proud as any father could be."

She apparently didn't cry at all after the race, even as doctors fastened her leg into a splint. Her tibia was broken in multiple places, her fibula in one, and she was going to need surgery. But she's been able to hold it together.

For all she's gone through and all that lies ahead, Markwardt said she has broken down only twice: once on the hospital phone call to her sister, and once when she told coach Cole that she will miss the spring track season.

This Wednesday, when doctors asked her to rate her pre-surgery anxiety before the second procedure on her leg, she said, "Two."

All this time later, after the surgeries and the recovery she has looming before her, she still says she wouldn't have changed anything if she knew what the outcome would have been.

Runner or not, I don't know anyone who couldn't be inspired by Claire's story. She has a level of determination and resolve that many adults are lacking, let alone teenagers. As far as I'm concerned, this is much more than just a story about running or sports, but a story of inspiration, hope, and what a person can achieve if they put their mind to it. (Besides, the world does not revolve around politics!)

Claire, I wish you the best of luck for a speedy recovery, and I hope you're able to keep running in college. You've got the heart to make it far in whatever you choose, and we're all pulling for you.

Looks Like I'm In Good Company.......

Victor Davis Hanson on Bill Clinton...........looks like I'm not the only one who has a sneaking suspicion that Bill may, not is, but may be purposely sabotaging Hillary's campaign. Here's my post from yesterday Load Of Crap Lines Of The Day And My Take On Hillary's Run For President , and here's VDH's take on Bill Clinton:


........most Americans are still glad that he’s gone. So it is not wise for him to be so ubiquitous, snarling at Chris Wallace in a Fox interview, calling rival Democrats Swift-boaters, and bending, as usual, the truth to make himself look statesmanlike.
All he will do, if he keeps it up—and he will, given his outsized ego and need for constant stroking—is further embarrass Hillary, and remind Americans why they are glad that both are out of the White House. Remember, for Bill Clinton to give a public address is to almost ensure that he will say something that is not quite true. The $64,000 question—which is the greater incentive for him: to get Hillary Clinton elected so he can get back into the White House; or to subtly and insidiously cause her problems, so that history records there was only one Clinton, not two, and especially not one who was the first woman, might do a better job, and thereby overshadow Bill.


Hard call.



Today in History....November 29

* 1830, the November Uprising begins with an armed rebellion against Russia's rule in Poland

* 1847, the Cayuse War starts after missionaries Dr. Marcus Whitman, his wife Narcissa, and 15 others are killed by Cayuse and Umatilla Indians

* 1850, the Punctation of Olmütz is signed in Olomouc showing diplomatic capitulation of Prussia to Austrian Empire, which took over the leadership of German Confederation

* 1877, Thomas Edison demonstrates his phonograph for the first time

* 1890, at West Point, New York, the United States Naval Academy defeats the United States Military Academy 24-0 in the first Army-Navy football game

* 1910, the first US patent for inventing the traffic lights system was issued to Ernest Sirrine

* 1922, Howard Carter opened the tomb of Pharaoh Tutankhamun to the public

* 1943, the second session of AVNOJ, the Anti-fascist council of national liberation of Yugoslavia, is held in Jajce, Bosnia and Herzegovina, determining the post-war ordering of the country

* 1944, the first surgery (on a human) to correct blue baby syndrome performed by Alfred Blalock and Vivien Thomas

* 1945, the Federal People's Republic of Yugoslavia declared

* 1947, the U.N. General Assembly passed a resolution calling for the partitioning of the British-mandated territory of Palestine between Arabs and Jews --- "Arabs", as they hadn't discovered they were "Palestinians" yet. Jews living in the Holy Land were also "Palestinians"

* 1950, during the Korean War: North Korean and Chinese troops force United Nations forces to retreat from North Korea

* 1952 during the Korean War: U.S. President-elect Dwight D. Eisenhower fulfills a campaign promise by traveling to Korea to find out what can be done to end the conflict

* 1961, Enos, a chimpanzee, launched into space (the spacecraft orbited the Earth twice and splashed-down off the coast of Puerto Rico)

* 1963, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson establishes the Warren Commission to investigate the assassination of President John F. Kennedy

* 1967, during the Vietnam War: U.S. Secretary of Defense Robert McNamara announces his resignation

* 1972, Nolan Bushnell (co-founder of Atari) released Pong (the first commercially successful video game) in Andy Capp's Tavern in Sunnyvale, Calif.

* 1975, the name "Micro-soft" (for "microcomputer software") is first used in a letter from Bill Gates to Paul Allen

* 1982, during the Soviet war in Afghanistan: The United Nations General Assembly passes United Nations Resolution 37/37, stating that Soviet Union forces should withdraw from Afghanistan

* 1990, during the Gulf War: The United Nations Security Council passes United Nations Security Council Resolution 678, authorizing "use all necessary means to uphold and implement" United Nations Security Council Resolution 660 "to restore international peace and security" if Iraq did not withdraw its forces from Kuwait and free all foreign hostages by January 15, 1991

Wednesday, November 28, 2007

Photo of the Day
As you can see, the state's decision to flog a rape victim for being alone with a man has Saudi women positively outraged.

h/t Religion of Peace.


2 things........
1). Paranoia has officially set in
2). CNN investigating??????? Hah

Load Of Crap Lines Of The Day And My Take On Hillary's Run For President

Yesterday in Muscatine, Iowa, Bill Clinton said he's been against the war in Iraq "from the beginning." But what is the definition of "the beginning?" Clinton was speaking about the need for fiscal responsibility. "That'll require people like me, who got five tax cuts that I should not have gotten, in my income group, when we had soldiers in Afghanistan and Iraq. Even though I approved of Afghanistan and opposed Iraq from the beginning, I still resent that I was not asked or given the opportunity to support those soldiers."

Rrrriiiiggghhhttttt. Write a check there big boy.......the US government will gladly accept it.

Lately he's had a habit of making comments that seem off-key with Hillary Clinton's campaign message. Did he really want to remind people of who was on which side in the lead-up to the war? One of Hillary Clinton's biggest problems as she seeks the Democratic presidential nomination is that she voted in 2002 to authorize President Bush's use of force in Iraq.

My take............Bill Clinton, in his royal slickness way, will purposely sabotage Hillary's run for President.

Why?

Bill Clinton currently hauls in 10's of millions of dollars giving speeches around the world.........as I understand it, as the First Man, he is forbidden to do this. He will be under the microscope while in the White House.........the Oval Office....you get the picture. Does he really want to give up the travel around the world, hauling in tons of dough.............and scoring chicks on the side?

Nah. I bet he senses the large negative polling Hillary brings, he'll end up divorcing/separating from Hillary and live out the rest of his life doing what he does best....... traveling, makin' money & friends......especially the female ones.

I wouldn't put it past him.

Today in History....November 28

* 1520, Portuguese navigator Ferdinand Magellan reached the Pacific Ocean after passing through the South American strait that now bears his name

* 1895, America's first race featuring gasoline-powered automobiles was held in Chicago, Illinois, with six vehicles competing: two electric cars, three German Benz automobiles, and one American-made Duryea automobile, the USA's first working gasoline-powered car. After 10 1/2 hours, despite an accidental two-mile detour, the Duryea crossed the finish line with no other car in sight, having achieved an average speed of 7.5mph during the race

* 1943, President Roosevelt, British Prime Minister Winston Churchill and Soviet leader Josef Stalin began conferring in Tehran, Iran, during World War II

* 1964, the United States launched the space probe Mariner 4 on a course to Mars

* 1987, Tawana Brawley is found covered with feces and wrapped in garbage bags outside the Pavilion Condominiums in Wappingers Falls, New York. Brawley appeared to have undergone an extremely traumatic
experience: parts of her hair were cut off, her pants were slightly burned, and there was a racial slur scrawled on her body. Brawley told authorities that for four days she had been held against her will and repeatedly r ap ed by a gang of white men, one of whom she claimed had a police badge. Despite being proved a hoax, one of the key race hustlers in the case, Rev. Al Sharpton, is now a cable TV darling

* 1990, Margaret Thatcher resigned as prime minister of Britain during an audience with Queen Elizabeth II, who conferred the premiership on John Major

* 1994, serial killer Jeffrey Dahmer, serving 15 consecutive life sentences for the brutal murders of 15 men, is beaten to death by a fellow inmate while performing cleaning duty in a bathroom at the Columbia Correctional Institute gymnasium in Portage, Wisconsin

* 2001, Enron Corp., once the world's largest energy trader, collapsed after would-be rescuer Dynegy Inc. backed out of an $8.4 billion deal to take it over

* 2002, in twin attacks in Kenya, three suicide bombers, practitioners of that "religion of peace" killed 14 people at an Israeli-owned hotel, while at least two missiles were fired at -- but missed -- an Israeli jetliner taking off from Mombasa airport

* 2006, at the opening of a NATO summit in Latvia, President Bush rejected suggestions Iraq had fallen into civil war and vowed not to pull U.S. troops out "until the mission is complete." The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously to extend for a year the mandate of the 160,000-strong multinational force in Iraq

Tuesday, November 27, 2007

This. May. Be. The. Story. Of. The. Year.

NY Sun: Negotiations have begun on ending the occupation of Iraq by Jan. 20, 2009. The headline in the New York Sun this morning read: “Talks Are Set on Ending Battle of Iraq.”

This should be on page 1.....my God, what is wrong with the media, even if "We Won" is premature, we sure as hell have made some damn good progress. Our military and their amazing heroism, deserves the good press.

It can't be any more clear....the left and media would rather have the terrorists win than a win under George W. Bush.

Excerpt:


This should have made Page 1.

With a sailor kissing a nurse on Times Square.

Funny how while the Democrats were calling for a troop withdrawal and the surrender of Iraq to al-Qaeda — while the New York Times was even condoning genocide — President Bush changed course and won the war.

Incredible.

The New York Sun seems alone in thinking this is a big deal. Its story is here. The transcript of the press briefing is here.

Olmert to U.S. Jews: Jerusalem None of Your Business
(IsraelNN.com)

Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said on Monday that the issue of Jerusalem is an
Israeli issue and not a "Jewish issue." He made the statement as delegates from
the Orthodox Union (OU) and pro-Israel Christians met with American National
Security Advisor Stephen Hadley to express opposition to plans by the Olmert
administration to divide the Jewish capital with the Palestinian Authority
(PA).

The Orthodox Union (OU) replied that it was not trying to dictate
policy to Israel but added that Jews throughout the world have a share in "the
holy city of Jerusalem."



Olmert is a man that is devoid of even a spark in his soul of his Jewish roots. He will give the whole store away and the Jews of the world will be left with nothing.

Sounds like it is time for the Jews of the world to remove the "Israelis" from leadership in Israel and replace it with Jewish leadership.

Great Article:

The World Doesn't Hate America; the Left Does
By: Dennis Prager

Take Western Europe, which is widely regarded as holding America in contempt, but upon examination only validates our thesis. The French, for example, are regarded as particularly America-hating, but if this were so, how does one explain the election of Nicolas Sarkozy as president of France? Sarkozy loves America and was known to love America when he ran for president. Evidently, it is the left in France -- a left that, like the left in America, dominates the media, arts, universities and unions -- that hates the U.S., not the French.


Today in History....November 27

* 1901, U.S. Army War College is established

* 1910, the Pennsylvania Railroad began service at New York's Pennsylvania Station.

* 1924, in New York City, the first Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade is held

* 1934, bank robber Baby Face Nelson dies in a shoot-out with the FBI

* 1945, General George C. Marshall was named special U.S. envoy to China to try to end hostilities between the Nationalists and the Communists

* 1954, Alger Hiss is released from prison after serving 44 months for perjury

* 1960, Gordie Howe was the first player to reach the NHL landmark of 1000 points

* 1964, Indian Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru appeals to the United States and the Soviet Union to end nuclear testing and to start nuclear disarmament, stating that such an action would "save humanity from the ultimate disaster"

* 1965, during the Vietnam War, the Pentagon tells U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson that if planned operations were to succeed, the number of American troops in Vietnam has to be increased from 120,000 to 400,000

* 1973, the Twenty-fifth Amendment in practice, when the United States Senate votes 92 to 3 to confirm Gerald Ford as Vice President of the United States (on December 6, the House confirmed him 387 to 35)

* 1990, the British Conservative Party chooses John Major to succeed Margaret Thatcher as Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

* 1991, the United Nations Security Council adopts UN Security Council Resolution 721, leading the way to the establishment of peacekeeping operations in Yugoslavia

* 1997, Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade in New York was marred when a gust of wind knocked part of a lamppost onto a 34-year-old woman, fracturing her skull and leaving her in a coma for almost a month

* 2001, a hydrogen atmosphere is discovered on the extrasolar planet Osiris by the Hubble Space Telescope, the first atmosphere detected on an extrasolar planet

* 2002, President Bush appointed former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger to lead an investigation into why the government failed to foil the Sept. 11 attacks. (The following month, Kissinger stepped down, citing controversy over potential conflicts of interest with his business clients.) ALSO: Bush gave the go-ahead to open U.S. highways to Mexican trucks.

* 2005, the first partial human face transplant is completed in Amiens, France

Monday, November 26, 2007

Are MAGLEV Trains THE FUTURE? Hope so, these babies are a blast, got to ride one in while in China last April, from Shanghai to Pudong and back.........at a cool 290 MPH.

Unlike conventional diesel- and electric-powered trains, the motor for maglev trains is essentially embedded in the track. The track creates a traveling magnetic field beneath the train, which lifts the cars and propels them at 300-plus mph. The train’s on-board systems are powered by induction from the track. And only the section of track under the train is energized.

Environmentalism Kills

......in many ways, need to keep an eye on this......

America's ethanol boom, which threatens the world with mass hunger, cannot be understood without first understanding the country's terribly destructive corn monoculture. Ethanol mandates and subsidies essentially constitute a huge transfer of wealth from corn consumers to corn growers, including agribusiness giants like Archer Daniels Midland and a handful of privileged farmers who apparently feel entitled to control and exploit thousands of acres of cropland in ways that are harmful to the environment and the health and well being of the overwhelming majority of Americans.

In 2006, more than a third of the US corn crop went to ethanol, nearly a 50 percent rise in one year alone. The higher price that results from soaring demand is hurting the already beleaguered dairy industry in New England and New York State, affecting affecting milk consumers in the United States.

Biofueld demand for corn is also affecting the price of tortillas in Mexico—making it harder for poor families to survive--and threatening to bring about sharply higher food prices internationally. As the world corn price rises, prices of wheat and rice follow. As a result, mass hunger could result among those populations that are already at the edge of starvation.

Ethanol from corn is inefficient to boot. In contrast with sugarcane-based ethanol, which is made in Brazil, corn-based ethanol may actually use more energy than it produces while making the air dirtier.

The foreign policy implications of US government mandated ethanol madness are plainly disturbing. In the name of energy independence and reducing greenhouse gas emissions, the US taxpayer is funding an industry that is contributing to food inflation and is likely to make life even more miserable than it presently is for the planet's poorest and most vulnerable people.

Check out this trailer........

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Today in History November 24

* 1499, pretender to the throne Perkin Warbeck is hanged for reportedly
attempting to escape from the Tower of London. He had invaded England in
1497, claiming to be the lost son of King Edward IV of England

* 1654, French mathematician, scientist, and religious philosopher
Blaise Pascal experiences an intense mystical vision that marks him for
life

* 1765, Frederick County, Md., became the first colonial entity to
repudiate the British Stamp Act

* 1876, corrupt Tammany Hall leader William Marcy Tweed (better known
as Boss Tweed) is delivered to authorities in New York City after being
captured in Spain

* 1889, the first jukebox goes into operation at the Palais Royale
Saloon in San Francisco

* 1945, most U.S. wartime rationing of foods, including meat and butter,
was set to expire by day's end

* 1954, for the first time, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes
above the peak it reached just before the 1929 crash

* 1963, President Johnson proclaimed November 25th a day of national
mourning following the assassination of John F. Kennedy

* 1971, the representatives of the People's Republic of China first
attended the United Nations, including the United Nations Security
Council, as China's representatives

* 1980, a series of earthquakes in southern Italy kills approximately
4,800 people

* 1984, Boston College quarterback Doug Flutie throws a game-winning
48-yard Hail Mary pass to Gerard Phelan to defeat the University of
Miami Hurricanes 47-45. It is one of the most famous plays in American
college football history

* 2006, former KGB spy Alexander Litvinenko died in London from
radiation poisoning after making a deathbed statement blaming Russian
President Vladimir Putin

Wednesday, November 21, 2007

Happy Thanksgiving To Family, Friends And To All In The Blogosphere........

....even you Hillary supporters....Happy Thanksgiving as well.

We've got 22 coming over for the feast, gonna throw that bird in the oven around 8:30am, watch some football, eat, watch some football, eat, throw some BS around, eat, watch ASU stomp on USC Thursday night...then wake up and play Las Sendas at 8:00am with 23 other cats, BTW, it will be a fine 75 degress...here's the 8th hole:

Will It Be The Catholic Church That Brings Down Chavez?

It is increasingly clear that Hugo Chavez wants to become Venezuela’s president-for-life. Bridget Johnson writes that “as Chavez steamrolls toward totalitarianism, the church could be the last voice to stand in his way and shepherd the opposition.”

Cardinal Rosalio Castillo Lara wasn’t an oracle, but he did point out in a Mass sermon last year what too few were seeing in Venezuela.

“A government democratically elected seven years ago has lost its democratic way and shows signs of dictatorship, where all powers are in the hands of one person who exercises them in an arbitrary and despotic way, not for the purposes of bringing about the greater common good of the nation, but rather for a twisted and archaic political project: that of implanting in Venezuela a disastrous regime like the one Fidel Castro has imposed on Cuba, at the cost of so many human lives and the progress of his nation,” he said.

“If the Venezuelan people fail to grasp the seriousness of the situation and fail to categorically speak out in favor of democracy and freedom, we will find ourselves subjected to a Marxist-style dictatorship.”

The cardinal died Oct. 16 at age 85. His passing was a news footnote on a day when Chavez’s constitutional reformation — under which he can rule the country indefinitely and would exert new control over institutions — went to parliament.

Still, though, Hugo Chavez’s fear of the Roman Catholic Church in this 96 percent Catholic country is palpable, considering his overblown responses to clergy expressing opposition to his lust for a Bolivarian wonderland.

The late Cardinal Ignacio Velasco, a longtime critic of Chavez, said in 2002, “Every day we turn another cheek. I have no cheeks left because every day there is a new insult.” Upon Velasco’s death in 2003, Chavez declared he was “in hell.” At Velasco’s funeral, Chavistas threw stones and held up pictures of the cleric with devil horns.

Chavez has invoked the name of Christ so much lately you’d expect him to become the first communist televangelist. But as he refers to Jesus as “the greatest socialist in history,” his invocations are hardly Christ-like as they usually involve spitting venom at his opponents.

Like how he recently took aim at Venezuela’s Catholic leader Cardinal Jorge Urosa and other opposition clergymen: “If Christ were still alive and physically present, I’m completely sure he’d take them out with whippings,” he audaciously told a crowd of supporters.

On Nov. 11, Urosa told Globovision TV that Chavez’s slate of 69 constitutional amendments “leads toward a single ideology and that, of course, is going to be discriminatory, it’s going to be exclusionary and it’s going to have terrible consequences for all liberties.”

Cue Hugo’s next un-Christian move: revenge.

Earlier this month, a pro-government student leader said that Chavistas were waiting for the call to “take” Andres Bello Catholic University.

On Friday, El Universal reported that the National Assembly directed its committees on Domestic Policy and Education to launch an investigation into Venezuela’s Catholic schools for supposedly fomenting rebellion against Chavez’s constitutional reformation.

But the Church would be falling down on the job if it didn’t be a strong, good shepherd in the face of the wolf.

The archbishops and bishops of Venezuela issued a statement on Oct. 19 entitled “Called to Live in Freedom,” taking such a stand against Chavez’s shameless initiative. “The proposed Reform excludes political and social sectors not in agreement with a Socialist State, restricts freedom and represents a retrocession in the progress of respect for human rights,” the bishops’ conference wrote.

As “the proposed Reform violates the fundamental rights of the democratic system and of the person, threatening freedom and social harmony, it is morally unacceptable in the light of the Social Doctrine of the Church.”

The Council of Latin American Bishops’ Conferences expressed solidarity with the document, as did Venezuela’s National Council of Lay Catholics.

“The alarm bells should not only be ringing in our neighboring countries, but Venezuelans must wake up to face the prospect of constitutional reform,” said Archbishop Roberto Luckert Leon.

And as Chavez steamrolls toward totalitarianism, the church could be the last voice to stand in his way and shepherd the opposition.

The church has discouraged neo-Marxist “liberation theology” in Latin America. But now it finds itself in a position where “reforms” stand to entrap a nation in the whims of a paranoid, dangerous megalomaniac. Do you wait until later, when the church is run out of town and the cult of Chavez is the sole sanctioned religion, to try to liberate the people? Or do you take a stand now, this crucial point where the people must know they have the inalienable, God-given right to live in freedom?

As Cardinal Castillo Lara once said when asked if he’d give Chavez a blessing, “More than a blessing: I’d give him an exorcism.”

Birds of a feather flock together, guess who's endorising Hillary?

The greatest success story in sports and along with Brett Favre and Tiger Woods, my favorite athlete.

Today in History....November 21

* 1620, Plymouth Colony settlers sign the Mayflower Compact

* 1783, in Paris, Jean-François Pilâtre de Rozier and François Laurent, Marquis d'Arlandes, make the first untethered hot air balloon flight

* 1861, Confederate President Jefferson Davis appoints Judah Benjamin secretary of war

* 1877, Thomas Edison announces his invention of the phonograph, a machine that can record and play sound

* 1905, Albert Einstein's paper, "Does the Inertia of a Body Depend Upon Its Energy Content?", is published in the journal "Annalen der Physik".
This paper reveals the relationship between energy and mass. This leads to the mass-energy equivalence formula E = mc2 (squared).

* 1941, the radio program King Biscuit Time is broadcast for the first time (it would later become the longest running daily radio broadcast in history and the most famous live blues radio program)

* 1953, authorities at the British Natural History Museum announce that the "Piltdown Man" skull, held to be one of the most famous fossil skulls in the world, was a hoax

* 1964, the Verrazano Narrows Bridge opens to traffic (at the time it was the world's longest suspension bridge). ALSO: Second Vatican
Council: The third session of the Roman Catholic Church's ecumenical council closes

* 1969, US President Richard Nixon and Japanese Premier Eisaku Sato agree in Washington, DC on the return of Okinawa to Japanese control in 1972. Under terms of the agreement, the US is to retain its rights to bases on the island, but these are to be nuclear-free

* 1970, a joint Air Force and Army team raids the Son Tay prison camp in an attempt to free American POWs thought to be held there

* 1973, President Nixon's attorney, J. Fred Buzhardt, revealed the existence of an 18 1/2-minute gap in one of the White House tape recordings related to Watergate.

* 1980, a deadly fire breaks out at the MGM Grand Hotel in Las Vegas, Nevada (now Bally's Las Vegas). 87 people are killed and more than 650 are injured in the worst disaster in Nevada history

* 1995, the Dayton Peace Agreement was initialed in the Wright Patterson Air Force Base, near Dayton, Ohio, ending three and a half years of war in Bosnia and Herzegovina. The agreement was formally ratified in Paris, on December 14 that same year

* 1995, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 5,000 (5,023.55) for the first time

* 1985, Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released

* 1989, the start of the Velvet Revolution, when the number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million

* 1994, the Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war (localized fighting resumed the next year)

* 2002, 11 bus passengers were killed after a practitioner of that "religion of peace" blew himself up in a suicide bombing in Jerusalem

* 2006, Lebanon's industry minister, Pierre Gemayel, scion of Lebanon's most prominent Christian family, was assassinated in a brazen daytime hit by a practitioner of that "religion of peace"

Tuesday, November 20, 2007

Dudes, brothers, amigos & compadres............one of the best sites for politics now has a 'brother' site.......just what the doctor ordered....... go here for the lowdown.

Israel: the Hope of the Muslim World

The state of Israel embodies the last, best chance for the Islamic world to come to terms with the modern world. Received wisdom in the foreign ministries of the West holds that relations with Muslims would be ever so much easier without the annoying presence of the Jewish state, which humiliates the Muslim world. Just the opposite is true. The Israeli presence in the territory of the ancient Jewish commonwealth, on land that once belonged to the Dar al’Islam, offers the single, slender hope for the future of the Muslim world, precisely because it constitutes a humiliation.

The premise of Western policy is to tread lightly upon Muslim sensibilities. That is an error of first magnitude, for Muslim sensibilities are what prevents the Islamic world from creating modern states. Islam cannot produce the preconditions for democracy in the Western sense out of its own resources.

Free elections in Muslim lands tend to hand power to fanatical despots. Why should that be true? The first premise of Western democracy, that the rights of the weakest and most despised citizens are sacred, stems from the Judeo-Christian notion of divine humility.

Read the rest here.

HELL has frozen over.

Love these guys at Flopping Aces.

Photo of the Day

A Muslim enjoys a romantic swim with a woman (or so he hopes)..... well, I believe these full length burkas are just an excuse so gay-boy Muslims have a more difficult time being outed....heh.

Today in History....November 20

* 1789, New Jersey becomes the first U.S. state to ratify the Bill of Rights

* 1820, an 80-ton whale attacks the Essex (a whaling ship from Nantucket, Massachusetts) 2,000 miles from the western coast of South America (Herman Melville's 1851 novel Moby-Dick was in part inspired by this story)

* 1910, Francisco I. Madero issues the Plan de San Luis Potosi, denouncing President Porfirio Diaz, declaring himself president, and calling for a revolution to overthrow the government of Mexico, effectively starting the Mexican Revolution

* 1917, Battle of Cambrai begins when British forces make early progress in an attack on German positions but are later pushed back. ALSO:
Ukraine is declared a republic

* 1929, the radio program "The Rise of the Goldbergs" debuted on the NBC Blue Network

* 1940, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia join the Axis Powers

* 1943, the Battle of Tarawa (Operation Galvanic) begins when United States Marines land on Tarawa Atoll in the Gilbert Islands and suffer heavy fire from Japanese shore guns and machine guns

* 1945, trials against 24 Nazi war criminals, ym"sh, start at the Nuremberg Palace of Justice

* 1962, the Cuban Missile Crisis ends when in response to the Soviet Union's agreeing to remove its missiles from Cuba, U.S. President John F. Kennedy stops the quarantine of the Caribbean nation

* 1967, the census clock at the Commerce Department ticked past 200 million

* 1968, eleven men comprising a Long Range Patrol team from F Company, 58th Infantry, 101st Airborne are surrounded and nearly wiped out by North Vietnamese army regulars from the 4th and 5th Regiment. The seven wounded survivors are rescued after several hours by an impromptu force made of other men from their unit

* 1974, the United States Department of Justice files its final anti-trust suit against AT&T. This suit later leads to the break up of AT&T and its Bell System

* 1975, Francisco Franco, Caudillo of Spain dies after 36 years in power. He died, symbolically, on the 39th anniversary of the death of Jose Antonio Primo de Rivera

* 1985, Microsoft Windows 1.0 is released

* 1989, the start of the Velvet Revolution, when the number of protesters assembled in Prague, Czechoslovakia swells from 200,000 the day before to an estimated half-million

* 1994, the Angolan government and UNITA rebels sign the Lusaka Protocol in Zambia, ending 19 years of civil war (localized fighting resumed the next year)

* 1998, a court in Taliban-controlled Afghanistan declares accused terrorist Osama bin Laden "a man without a sin" in regard to the 1998 U.S. embassy bombings in Kenya and Tanzania

* 2001, in Washington, D.C., U.S. President George W. Bush dedicates the United States Department of Justice headquarters building as the Robert F. Kennedy Justice Building, honoring the late Robert F. Kennedy on what would have been his 76th birthday

Monday, November 19, 2007

Just in case you were wondering, and I know many are.....here are some tips on how to distinguish real shrunken heads from counterfeits...............h/t TigerHawk

Iraq is a Quagmire....... for al-Qaida that is...read here.

"The situation has changed so unmistakably and so swiftly that we should be reading proud headlines daily," said Ralph Peters, a retired Army lieutenant colonel. "Where are they?"

Tagged

I have been tagged by Angel at WomanHonorThyself, the WINNER of the 2007 Top Blogger of the Year, category 500-999, which is huge when figure there are over 50 million blogs and counting.

The rules:
When tagged, you must link to the person who tagged you.Then post the rules before your list, and list eight random things about yourself. At the end of the post, you must tag and link to eight other people.
Was tagged earlier in the year by a future Blogger of the Year For Zion's Sake , some are repeats....so here goes:

1). For those who have read my bio, yes I can talk backwards, and pretty fast too. Started when I was about 12 or so, sitting at the dinner table when my dad said..."ssap eht tlas dna reppep.....esaelp", we all looked at other like my dad had flipped, my oldest brother and myself ran with it. When I was on radio station 93.3 KDKB in Phoenix (once weekly stint), got a huge response when I sang "Start Me Up" by the Rolling Stones backwards.

2). Passed the test to obtain PGA players card back when I was a decent golfer, I now play to figure out how to hit the next shot from a rather difficult spot.

3). Have 3 brothers, 2 sisters, my Mom turns 80 this December 14....my Dad died March 23, 1990

4). In 1994 I hitch-hiked from central Guadalajara (México) to a town named "La Venta de Astillero", I got dropped off there and within 1-2 minutes I boarded a full bus....on this bus is where I met the Mrs.

5). High jumped 6'5" my senior year in high school, had the school record, could dunk a basketball when I was short, sophomore year at 6'1" ;-).

6). Pulled a guy from a burning car that was involved in a car accident about 4 years ago at the corner of Val Vista and Broadway in Mesa, AZ. The poor guy's left thigh swelled up twice its size, when he looked down at it, he passed out, don't know what happened to him after the ambulance took him away.

7). Played in the country's first organized Arena Football League (non-pro) as a Wide Receiver and Defensive End.........thank God I tore my cartilidge in my right knee and couldn't finish the season.....there was pain on almost every play.......those boys can hit!

8). I love to read, hate the hippie world, but dig '70's rock (country and blues as well), would rather drive than fly, always hated dancing in clubs/bars, but like to tango with the Mrs.

Today in History....November 19

* 1493, Christopher Columbus goes ashore on an island he first saw the day before. He names it San Juan Bautista (later renamed Puerto Rico)

* 1794, the United States and the Kingdom of Great Britain sign Jay's Treaty, which attempts to clear up some of the lingering problems left over from the American Revolutionary War

* 1863, President Lincoln delivered the Gettysburg Address as he dedicated a national cemetery at the site of the Civil War battlefield in Pennsylvania

* 1919, the Senate rejected the Treaty of Versailles by a vote of 55-39, short of the two-thirds majority needed for ratification

* 1944, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt announces the 6th War Loan Drive, aimed at selling $14 billion in war bonds to help pay for the war effort

* 1959, Ford Motor Company announces the discontinuation of the unpopular Edsel

* 1969, Apollo 12 astronauts Charles Conrad and Alan Bean land at Oceanus Procellarum ("Ocean of Storms") and become the third and fourth humans to walk on the Moon

* 1970, the IBM 1620, marketed as an inexpensive "scientific computer", is withdrawn from the market after a total production of about two thousand units. Modified versions of the 1620 were used as the CPU of the IBM 1710 and IBM 1720 Industrial Process Control Systems (making it the first digital computer considered reliable enough for real-time process control of factory equipment)

* 1977, Egyptian President Anwar Sadat becomes the first Arab leader to officially visit Israel, when he meets with Israeli prime minister Menachem Begin and speaks before the Knesset in Jerusalem, seeking a permanent peace settlement

* 1979, Iranian leader Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini orders the release of
13 female and black American hostages being held at the US Embassy in Tehran

* 1985, in Geneva, US President Ronald Reagan and Soviet Union leader Mikhail Gorbachev meet for the first time. ALSO: Pennzoil wins a $10.53 billion verdict against Texaco, in the largest civil verdict in U.S.
history, stemming from Texaco's establishing a signed contract to buy Getty Oil after Pennzoil had entered into an unsigned, yet still binding, buyout contract with Getty

* 1990, pop group Milli Vanilli are stripped of their Grammy Award because the duo did not sing at all on the "Girl You Know It’s True"
album. Session musicians had provided all the vocals

* 1997, in Des Moines, Iowa, Bobbi McCaughey gives birth to septuplets in the second known case where all seven babies were born alive. They would go on to become the first set of septuplets to survive infancy, with all seven alive in 2007

* 1998, the United States House of Representatives Judiciary Committee begins impeachment hearings against US President Bill Clinton

Friday, November 16, 2007

Get your Christmas or Hanukkah shopping done early, hell even any of you terrorists who monitor this site will love these products....go here. I PROMISE, you will not be disappointed. Every product rocks.

Tell 'em Joe sent 'ya.........my buddy owns this company.

Joe pimp.

How Not To Fight A War, courtesy of the embarrassing Harry and Nancy show. Make this 0-41. Nice job Congress.

The last line from the link above comes from someone who actually knows what the hell is going on over there:
Michael Yon reports on the latest MIRACLE in Iraq at FOX News......please read the Michael Yon link!!

"It’s been a long time since I’ve seen any fighting. I can’t remember my last shootout: it’s been months. The nightmare is ending. Al Qaeda is being crushed. The Sunni tribes are awakening all across Iraq and foreswearing violence for negotiation. Many of the Shia are ready to
stop the fighting that undermines their ability to forge and manage a new government. This is a complex and still delicate denouement, and the war may not be over yet. But the Muslims are saying it’s time to come home. And the Christians are saying it’s time to come home. They are weary, and there is much work to be done."

The refusal to enthusiastically support this fragile democracy in the heart of the Middle East is a moral failure of the greatest sort. That the anti-war left cannot recognize the opportunity in front of us is a revelation of their deep alienation from the world as it exists. If America is forced to withdraw by the Democrats and civil war erupts, it will be Cambodia 2.0, and the American left will own a second genocide in a single generation.

I still think Democrats are underestimating just how bad this looks:

"The days of a free lunch are over," said Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y.

Yes, a Democratic senator just referred to funding an ongoing military operation as a "free lunch." Presumably, he meant a "free lunch" for President Bush--a sentiment that probably plays well for the Far Left.

Today in History....November 16

* 1776 the United Provinces (Low Countries) recognize the independence of the United States, the first country in the world to do so (This is a controversial statement, because other sources say that the Kingdom of Morocco was the first to extend diplomatic recognition to the new United
States)

* 1821, Missouri trader William Becknell arrives in Santa Fe, New Mexico over a route that became known as the Santa Fe Trail

* 1896, the first transmission of electricity between a power plant and a city was sent from the Niagara Falls hydroelectric plant to industries in Buffalo, New York

* 1904, John Ambrose Fleming invents the vacuum tube

* 1914, the Federal Reserve Bank of the United States officially opens

* 1933, the United States and the Soviet Union establish formal diplomatic relations

* 1940, New York City's Mad Bomber places his first bomb at a Manhattan office building used by Consolidated Edison. ALSO: In occupied Poland, Nazis, ym"sh, close off the Warsaw Ghetto from the outside world

* 1945, the United States Army secretly admits 88 German scientists & engineers to help in the production of rocket technology

* 1965, the Soviet Union launches the Venera 3 space probe toward Venus, the first spacecraft to reach the surface of another planet
* 1966, Dr. Samuel H. Sheppard was acquitted in his second trial of charges he'd murdered his pregnant wife, Marilyn, in 1954

* 1973, US President Richard Nixon signs the Trans-Alaska Pipeline Authorization Act into law, authorizing the construction of the Alaska Pipeline

* 1981, Luke and Laura marry on the U.S. soap opera General Hospital; it is the highest-rated hour in daytime television history

* 1985, a research assistant is injured as a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes

Thursday, November 15, 2007

Joe Factoid of the Day

It's pretty strange or odd how this worked out this way. Even if you are not religous, you should read this.

What is the shortest chapter in the Bible?
Answer - Psalms 117

What is the longest chapter in the Bible?
Answer - Psalms 119

Which chapter is in the center of the Bible?
Answer - Psalms 118

Fact: There are 594 chapters before Psalms 118
Fact: There are 594 chapters after Psalms 118

Add these numbers up and you get 1188

What is the center verse in the Bible?
Answer - Psalms 118:8

Today in History....November 15

* 1777, after 16 months of debate the Continental Congress approves the Articles of Confederation.

* 1854, in Egypt, the Suez Canal, linking the Mediterranean Sea with the Red Sea, is given the necessary royal concession

* 1864, Union General William Tecumseh Sherman burns Atlanta, Georgia and starts Sherman's March to the Sea

* 1889, Brazil was proclaimed a republic as its emperor, Dom Pedro II, was overthrown

* 1920 first assembly of the League of Nations is held in Geneva

* 1935, Canada and the United States signed the reciprocal trade agreement in Washington

* 1939, US President Franklin D. Roosevelt lays the cornerstone of the Jefferson Memorial

* 1966, the flight of Gemini 12 ended successfully as astronauts James A. Lovell and Edwin "Buzz" Aldrin Junior splashed down safely in the Atlantic

* 1969, in Washington, D.C., 250,000-500,000 protesters staged a peaceful demonstration against the war, including a symbolic "March Against Death

* 1971, Intel releases world's first commercial single-chip microprocessor, the 4004

* 1979, a package from the Unabomber Ted Kaczynski begins smoking in the cargo hold of a flight from Chicago to Washington, forcing the plane to make an emergency landing

* 1985, a research assistant is injured as a package from the Unabomber addressed to a University of Michigan professor explodes

Wednesday, November 14, 2007

From the future Mayor of Chicago, Obob's World, want to see who you align with for the 2008 Presidential Race? Don't think it's scientific.......nevertheless, it's intersteing.

Answer these 11 questions and find out.

I went Fred, Mitt, Huckabee. ......Rudy and Duncan Hunter are in the mix.......the time to decide is just about right now, crunch time....I'll have my choice verrrrryy soon.

The Morality of Waterboarding

Question........

If we could have prevented 9/11 by waterboarding Osama bin Laden for 2 1/2 minutes, should we have done it?

Standard assumptions apply. It’s a moral question, not a legal one, so assume that the waterboarding is legal. Assume that the waterboarding is the least coercive method of obtaining the information. Assume that the information obtained is reliable.

Bonus question: is the morality of waterboarding dependent on its reliability? In other words, if your objection to my hypotheticals is that waterboarding won’t necessarily reveal reliable information, then is your moral objection based on the practical question of whether it will work? (I don’t mean to suggest that a yes answer is wrong. I’m just throwing it out there for discussion.)

My answer........hell yah neighbor.

h/t Patterico

Today in History....November 14

* 1851, Herman Melville's novel "Moby-Dick" was first published in the United States

* 1862, President Abraham Lincoln approves General Ambrose Burnside's plan to capture the Confederate capital at Richmond, Virginia, leading to the Battle of Fredericksburg

* 1889, pioneer woman journalist Nellie Bly (Elizabeth Cochrane) begins a successful attempt to travel around the world in less than 80 days.
She completed the trip in seventy-two days

* 1922, the British Broadcasting Company (BBC) begins radio service in the United Kingdom

* 1959, Clutter family murdered in rural Kansas, which inspired the Truman Capote novel, In Cold Blood

* 1969, Apollo program: NASA launches Apollo 12, the second manned mission to the surface of the Moon

* 1971, Mariner program: Mariner 9 reaches Mars, becoming the first spacecraft to orbit another planet

* 1972, the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes above 1,000 (1,003.16) for the first time

* 1979, amid the Iran hostage crisis: US President Jimmy Carter issues Executive order 12170, freezing all Iranian assets in the United States in response to the hostage crisis

* 1982, Lech Walesa, the leader of Poland's outlawed Solidarity movement, is released after eleven months of internment near the Soviet border

* 1990, after German reunification, the (extended) Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Poland sign a treaty confirming the Oder-Neisse line as the border between Germany and Poland

* 1991, American and British authorities announce indictments against two Libyan intelligence officials in connection with the downing of the Pan Am Flight 103

* 1995, a budget standoff between Democrats and Republicans in the U.S.
Congress forces the federal government to temporarily close national parks and museums and to run most government offices with skeleton staffs

* 2001, Afghan Northern Alliance fighters takeover the capital Kabul

* 2002, the US House of Representatives votes to not create an independent commission to investigate the September 11 attacks.

Tuesday, November 13, 2007

Swamped, poco tiempo to post....end of the year mode......up 58% over 2006...smo-kin'........Hillary is still a nag.

This past Sunday, Veteran's Day, instead of watching the usual football games, I was really wrapped up in watching CNN's and the History Channels documentary's of the heroic activities by our military in current and past wars.....these shows were amazing.

Here's a video, definitely a must-watch, Soldier Impaled With Live RPG; Comrades Risk Lives To Remove It .

His friends call him, um, "Rocket Man." He's missing two thirds of his intestines and part of his hip and will need additional medical help, but he's, well, watch for yourself.

Monday, November 12, 2007

Today in History....November 12

* 1847, Sir James Young Simpson, British physician, is the first to use chloroform as an anesthetic

* 1920, Italy and the Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes sign the Treaty of Rapallo

* 1927, Leon Trotsky is expelled from the Soviet Communist Party, leaving Joseph Stalin with undisputed control of the Soviet Union

* 1942, the World War II naval Battle of Guadalcanal began. (The Allies ended up winning a major victory over the Japanese.)

* 1946, a branch of the Exchange National Bank in Chicago opens the first ten drive-up teller windows

* 1948, in Tokyo, an international war crimes tribunal sentences seven Japanese military and government officials to death, including General Hideki Tojo, for their roles in World War II

* 1970, the Oregon Highway Division attempts to destroy a rotting beached Sperm whale with explosives, leading to the now-infamous exploding whale incident

* 1971, as part of Vietnamization, US President Richard M. Nixon sets February 1, 1972 as the deadline for the removal of another 45,000 American troops from Vietnam

* 1979, in response to the hostage situation in Tehran, US President Jimmy Carter orders a halt to all Iranian petroleum imports into the United States

* 1980, NASA space probe Voyager I makes its closest approach to Saturn and takes first images of its rings

* 1981, the 2nd shuttle mission of Columbia 2. It was the 1st time a spacecraft was launched twice

* 1982, Lech Walesa, Solidarity leader, is released from a Polish prison after eleven months

* 1990, Tim Berners-Lee publishes a formal proposal for the World Wide Web

* 1997, Ramzi Yousef is found guilty of masterminding the 1993 World Trade Center bombing

* 2002, in an audiotaped message, a voice purported to be that of Osama bin Laden praised terrorist strikes in Bali and Moscow and threatened Western nations over any attack on Iraq

* 2004, a jury in Redwood City, Calif., convicted Scott Peterson of murdering his pregnant wife, Laci, and dumping her body in San Francisco Bay. (Peterson, who maintains his innocence, was later sentenced to
death.)

* 2006, Gerald R. Ford surpassed Ronald Reagan as the longest-lived U.S.
president at 93 years and 121 days

Friday, November 09, 2007

Headline Of The Day

And Her Ankles and Butt Are Gorgeous, Too

The psycho-dynamics of the marriage between Hillary and Bill continue to fascinate and appall me. Bill Clinton now claims that he was responsible for the failure of the health care plan...... More

Oh to be a Muslim in Saudi Arabia.......Saudi Fatwa Bans Camel Beauty Contests

25 Pictures Taken At Exactly The Right Time.

Today in History....November 9

* 1799 - Napoleon Bonaparte leads the Coup d'état of 18 Brumaire ending the Directory government, and becoming one of its three Consuls (Consulate Government)

* 1872, fire destroyed nearly 800 buildings in Boston

* 1887, the United States receives rights to Pearl Harbor, Hawaii

* 1888, Jack the Ripper kills Mary Jane Kelly, his last known victim

* 1906, Theodore Roosevelt becomes the first sitting President of the United States to make an official trip outside the country (to inspect progress on the Panama Canal)

* 1917, Stalin enters the provisional government of USSR

* 1918, Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany abdicates after the German Revolution, and Germany is proclaimed a Republic

* 1921, Albert Einstein awarded the Nobel Prize in Physics for his work with the photoelectric effect

* 1937, Japanese troops take control of Shanghai, China.

* 1938, Nazis looted and burned synagogues as well as Jewish-owned stores and houses in Germany and Austria in what became known as "Kristallnacht."

* 1963, twin disasters struck Japan as some 450 miners were killed in a coal-dust explosion, and about 160 people died in a train crash

* 1965, several U.S. Northeast states and parts of Canada are hit by a series of blackouts lasting up to 13 hours. ALSO: 1965 - Catholic Worker member Roger Allen LaPorte, protesting against the Vietnam War, sets himself on fire in front of the United Nations
* 1985, Garry Kasparov becomes the youngest world chess champion by beating Anatoly Karpov

* 1989, Communist-controlled East Germany opens checkpoints in the Berlin Wall allowing its citizens to freely travel to West Germany.
People start demolishing the Berlin Wall

* 1998, brokerage houses are ordered to pay $1.03 billion to cheated NASDAQ investors to compensate for their price-fixing. This is the largest civil settlement in United States history

* 2003, during the holiest season f the year, practitioners of that "religion of peace" wage attack a suicide bombing in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, killing 17 people

* 2005, others do it again, this time at three hotels in Amman, Jordan, killing at least 56 people

* 2006, Republican Sen. George Allen conceded defeat in the Virginia Senate race to Democrat Jim Webb, sealing the Dems' control of Congress

Thursday, November 08, 2007


From The Mrs...........

Operation Happy Note is a volunteer effort to send musical instruments to our deployed service men and women throughout the world.

Steve and Barb Baker from Fergus Music started Operation Happy Note after their son was deployed to Iraq. They had sent him a guitar and then a buddy wanted one.
These soldiers were so pleased with having these instruments over there that Steve and Barb wanted to find a way to get more instruments to our troops, hence “Operation Happy Note”.
You can bet one day that one of our military will have a chart topper, you may just be indirectly responsible!

Today in History....November 8

* 1895, while experimenting with electricity Wilhelm Röntgen discovers X-rays

* 1917, People's Commissars gives authority to Lenin, Leon Trotsky, and Josef Stalin

* 1923, the Beer Hall Putsch: In Munich, Adolf Hitler, ym"sh, leads the Nazis in an unsuccessful attempt to overthrow the German government

* 1933, during Great Depression: the New Deal. US President Franklin D. Roosevelt unveils the Civil Works Administration, an organization designed to create jobs for more than 4 million of the unemployed

* 1937, the Nazi exhibition Der ewige Jude ("the eternal Jew") opens in Munich

* 1939, in Munich, Adolf Hitler, ym"sh, narrowly escapes an assassination attempt while celebrating the 16th anniversary of the Beer Hall Putsch.

* 1950, during the Korean War: United States Air Force Lt. Russell J. Brown shoots down two North Korean MiG-15s in the first jet aircraft-to-jet aircraft dogfight in history

* 1966, U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs into law an antitrust exemption allowing the National Football League to merge with the upstart American Football League

* 1973, the right ear of John Paul Getty III is delivered to a newspaper together with a ransom note, convincing his father to pay
$2.9 million

* 1977, 3,100 people mysteriously register to vote in Perry County, Ohio, unearthed by the U.S. House Judiciary Committee report investigating 2004 election inconsistencies in Ohio

* 2002, the United Nations Security Council unanimously approves a resolution on Iraq, forcing Saddam Hussein to disarm or face "serious consequences"

Wednesday, November 07, 2007

The News In Iraq Continues To Get Better, & Worse For The Left.


Michael Yon, embed reporter since late 2004, has uplifting news.

THANKS AND PRAISE: Michael Yon emails: "I photographed men and women, both Christians and Muslims, placing a cross atop the St. John's Church in Baghdad. They had taken the cross from storage and a man washed it before carrying it up to the dome. A Muslim man had invited the American soldiers from 'Chosen' Company 2-12 Cavalry to the church, where I videotaped as Muslims and Christians worked and rejoiced at the reopening of St John's, an occasion all viewed as a sign of hope. The Iraqis asked me to convey a message of thanks to the American people. 'Thank you, thank you,' the people were saying. One man said, 'Thank you for peace.' Another man, a Muslim, said 'All the people, all the people in Iraq, Muslim and Christian, is brother.' The men and women were holding bells, and for the first time in memory freedom rang over the ravaged land between two rivers. (Videotape to follow.)"
Let's hope these sentiments continue to spread.

Today in History....November 7

* 1492, the Ensisheim Meteorite, the oldest meteorite with a known date of impact, struck the earth around noon in a wheat field outside the village of Ensisheim, Alsace, France

* 1665, The London Gazette, the oldest surviving journal, is first published

* 1874, a cartoon by Thomas Nast in Harper's Weekly, is considered the first important use of an elephant as a symbol for the United States Republican Party

* 1910, the first air freight shipment (from Dayton, Ohio, to Columbus, Ohio) is undertaken by the Wright Brothers and department store owner Max Moorehouse

* 1914, the first issue of The New Republic magazine is published

* 1917, in Petrograd, Russia, Bolshevik leaders Vladimir Lenin and Leon Trotsky lead revolutionaries in overthrowing the Provisional Government (As Russia is still using the Julian Calendar, subsequent period references show an October 25 date). ALSO: Third Battle of Gaza ends: British forces capture Gaza from the Ottoman Empire

* 1929, in New York City, the Museum of Modern Art (MOMA) opens to the public

* 1931, the Chinese Soviet Republic proclaimed on the anniversary of the Bolshevik Revolution

* 1932, Buck Rogers in the 25th Century airs on radio for the first time.

* 1944, President Franklin D. Roosevelt won an unprecedented fourth term in office, defeating Thomas E. Dewey

* 1956, during the Suez Crisis, the United Nations General Assembly adopts a resolution calling for the United Kingdom, France and Israel to immediately withdraw their troops from Egypt

* 1962, Richard M. Nixon, having lost California's gubernatorial race, held what he called his "last press conference," telling reporters, "You won't have Nixon to kick around anymore."

* 1967, US President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Public Broadcasting Act of 1967, establishing the Corporation for Public Broadcasting

* 1973, the U.S. Congress overrides President Richard M. Nixon's veto of the War Powers Resolution, which limits presidential power to wage war without congressional approval

* 1983, a bomb explodes inside the U.S. Capitol Building

* 1991, Magic Johnson makes announcement that he is infected with HIV, thus retiring from the NBA

Tuesday, November 06, 2007

If You Vote In Hillary......Well At Least You'll Get A Form Of Population Control

This just in, BOOK: Kathleen Willey suspects Clintons murdered husband...

I'm not a conspiracy theorist, but uh, this list is pretty interesting.....just sayin'......sayin....

James McDougal - Clinton's convicted Whitewater partner died of an apparent heart attack, while in solitary confinement. He was a key witness in Ken Starr's investigation. Was James McDougal Murdered In A Federal Prison To Silence Him?

Ron Brown - Secretary of Commerce and former DNC Chairman. Reported to have died by impact in a plane crash. A pathologist close to the investigation reported that there was a hole in the top of Brown's skull resembling a gunshot wound. At the time of his death Brown was being investigated, and spoke publicly of his willingness to cut a deal with prosecutors.
The Botched Ron Brown Investigation

C. Victor Raiser II - & - Montgomery Raiser: Major players in the Clinton fund raising organization died in a private plane crash in July 1992.

Paul Tulley - Democratic National Committee Political Director found dead in a hotel room in Little Rock, September 1992. Described by Clinton as a "Dear friend and trusted advisor".

Ed Willey - Clinton fund raiser, found dead November 1993 deep in the woods in Virginia of a gunshot wound to the head. Ruled a suicide. Ed Willey died on the same day his wife Kathleen Willey claimed Bill Clinton groped her in the oval office in the White House. Ed Willey was involved in several Clinton fund raising events.

Jerry Parks - Head of Clinton's gubernatorial security team in Little Rock. Gunned down in his car at a deserted intersection outside Little Rock. Park's son said his father was building a dossier on Clinton. He allegedly threatened to reveal this information. After he died the files were mysteriously removed from his house.

James Bunch - Died from a gunshot suicide. It was reported that he had a "Black Book" of people containing names of influential people who visited prostitutes in Texas and Arkansas.

James Wilson - Was found dead in May 1993 from an aparent hanging suicide. He was reported to have ties to Whitewater.

Kathy Ferguson - Ex-wife of Arkansas Trooper Danny Ferguson died in May 1994 was found dead in her living roon with a gunshot to her head. It was ruled a suicide even though there were several packed suitcases, as if she was going somewhere. Danny Ferguson was a co-defendant along with Bill Clinton in the Paula Jones lawsuit. Kathy Ferguson was a possible corroborating witness for Paula Jones.

Bill Shelton - Arkansas state Trooper and fiancee of Kathy Ferguson. Critical of the suicide ruling of his fiancee, he was found dead in June, 1994 of a gunshot wound also ruled a suicide at the gravesite of his fiancee.

Gandy Baugh - Attorney for Clinton friend Dan Lassater died by jumping out a window of a tall building January, 1994. His client was a convicted drug distributor.

Florence Martin - Accountant - Sub-contractor for the CIA related to the Barry Seal Mena Airport drug smuggling case. Died of three gunshot wounds.

Suzanne Coleman - Reportedly had an affair with Clinton when he was Arkansas Attorney General. Died of a gunshot wound to the back of the head, ruled a suicide. Was pregnant at the time of her death.

Paula Grober - Clinton's speech interpreter for the deaf from 1978 until her death December 9, 1992. She died in a one car accident.

Danny Casolaro - Investigative reporter. Investigating Mena Airport and Arkansas Development Finance Authority. He slit his wrists, apparent suicide in the middle of his investigation.

Paul Wilcher - Attorney investigating corruption at Mena Airport with Casolaro and the 1980 "October Surprise" was found dead on a toilet June 22, 1993 in his Washington DC apartment. Had delivered a report to Janet Reno 3 weeks before his death.

Jon Parnell Walker - Whitewater investigator for Resolution Trust Corp. Jumped to his death from his Arlington, Virginia apartment balcony August 15,1993 Was investigating Morgan Guarantee scandal.

Barbara Wise - Commerce Department staffer. Worked closely with Ron Brown and John Huang. Cause of death unknown. Died November 29, 1996. Her bruised nude body was found locked in her office at the Department of Commerce.

Charles Meissner - Assistant Secretary of Commerce who gave John Huang special security clearance, died shortly thereafter in a small plane crash.

Dr. Stanley Heard - Chairman of the National Chiropractic Health Care Advisory Committee died with his attorney Steve Dickson in a small plane crash. Dr. Heard, in addition to serving on Clinton's advisory council personally treated Clinton's mother, stepfather and brother.

Barry Seal - Drug running pilot out of Mena Arkansas, Death was no accident.

Johnny Lawhorn Jr. - Mechanic, found a check made out to Clinton in the trunk of a car left in his repair shop. Died when his car hit a utility pole.

Stanley Huggins - Suicide. Investigated Madison Guarantee. His report was never released.

Hershell Friday - Attorney and Clinton fund raiser died March 1, 1994 when his plane exploded.

THE FOLLOWING CLINTON BODYGUARDS ARE DEAD
Major William S. Barkley Jr.
Captain Scott J. Reynolds
Sgt. Brian Hanley
Sgt. Tim Sabel
Major General William Robertson
Col. William Densberger
Col. Robert Kelly
Spec. Gary Rhodes
Steve Willis
Robert Williams
Conway LeBleu
Todd McKeehan

Vince Foster - Former white House councelor, and colleague of Hillary Clinton at Little Rock's Rose law firm. Died of a gunshot wound to the head, ruled a suicide.
Snippets From The Vince Foster Death Investigation

Mary Mahoney - A former White House intern was murdered July 1997 at a Starbucks Coffee Shop in Georgetown. The murder happened just as she was to go public with her story of sexual harassment in the White House.
Mary C. Mahoney and Eric Butera .Was this just a robbery gone bad? - See: Starbucks Suspect Faces Host of Charges By Bill Miller Washington Post, August 5, 1999

Today in History....November 6

* 1869, in New Brunswick, New Jersey, Rutgers University defeats Princeton University, 6-4, in the first official intercollegiate American football game

* 1888, Benjamin Harrison won the presidential election, defeating incumbent Grover Cleveland with enough electoral votes, even though Cleveland led in the popular vote

* 1918, the Second Polish Republic is proclaimed in Poland

* 1935, before the New York section of the Institute of Radio Engineers, Edwin Armstrong presents his paper "A Method of Reducing Disturbances in Radio Signaling by a System of Frequency Modulation," i.e. FM radio.

* 1941, Soviet leader Joseph Stalin addresses the Soviet Union for only the second time during his three-decade rule. He states that even though 350,000 troops were killed in German attacks so far, that the Germans have lost 4.5 million soldiers (a wild
exaggeration) and that Soviet victory was near

* 1943, Russia recaptures Kiev. Before withdrawing, Germans destroy most of the city's ancient buildings

* 1944, Plutonium is first produced at the Hanford Atomic Facility, subsequently used in the Fat Man Atomic bomb dropped on Nagasaki, Japan

* 1963, following the November 1 coup and execution of President Ngo Dinh Diem, coup leader General Duong Van Minh takes over leadership of South Vietnam

* 1965, Cuba and the United States formally agree to start an airlift for Cubans who want to go to the United States. By 1971, 250,000 Cubans will take advantage of this program

* 1971, the United States Atomic Energy Commission tests the largest U.S. underground hydrogen bomb, code-named Cannikin, on Amchitka Island in the Aleutians

* 1975, the Green March begins as 300,000 unarmed Moroccans converge on the southern city of Tarfaya and wait for a signal from King Hassan II of Morocco to cross into Western Sahara

* 1985, in Colombia, leftist guerrillas of the April 19 Movement seize control of the Palace of Justice in Bogotá, eventually killing
115 people, 11 of them Supreme Court justices

* 1997, the Clinton administration warned Iraq it could face military action or economic sanctions if it continued to bar U.N.
weapons inspection

* 2006, Saddam Hussein is sentenced to death. He was sentenced to die December 30th of the same year.......good riddance loser!

Thursday, November 01, 2007

We live in amazing times.....this stuff is flat out awesome.

A soldier, who was at the trials, said: "This technology is incredible. If I hadn't been present I wouldn't have believed it. I looked across the fields and just saw grass and trees - but in reality I was staring down the barrel of a tank gun."

Off to do something I haven't done in something like 10 years, off to the Arizona State Fair with the Mrs. and the 3 little joe's, and going to see the Mrs'. favorite (well on of her faves) American band, and when this band is done, headlining the show is this band, my 5 year old daughter thinks she's the lead singer.

Wow......first concert with the kids....... a little different seeing U2, Rush, Guns 'N Roses, INXS, et al, back in the day.

Global Warming Caused The Calif. Fires That Cause Global Warming Redux

The claim: global warming caused the California wildfires.

The reality: California wildfires cause global warming:

In one week, Southern California’s wildfires spewed the same
amount of carbon dioxide — the primary global warming gas — as the state’s power plants and vehicles did, scientists figure.



Solution: replace those fire-prone polluting forests with clean-burning hybrid trees! C’mon, tree manufacturers; modernise, and stop living in the carbon-generating past.

h/t Tim Blair

Today in History....November 1

* 1520, the Strait of Magellan, the passage immediately south of mainland South America, connecting the Pacific and the Atlantic Oceans, is first navigated by Ferdinand Magellan during his global circumnavigation voyage

* 1604, William Shakespeare's tragedy Othello is presented for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London

* 1611, William Shakespeare's romantic comedy The Tempest is presented for the first time, at Whitehall Palace in London

* 1765, the British Parliament enacts the Stamp Act on the 13 colonies in order to help pay for British military operations in North America

* 1790, Edmund Burke publishes Reflections on the Revolution in France, in which he predicts that the French Revolution will end in a disaster

* 1800, US President John Adams becomes the first President of the United States to live in the Executive Mansion (later renamed the White House)

* 1805, Napoleon Bonaparte invades Austria during the War of the Third Coalition

* 1814, Congress of Vienna opens to re-draw the European political map after the defeat of France, in the Napoleonic Wars

* 1870, the Weather Bureau (later renamed the National Weather
Service) makes its first official meteorological forecast

* 1918, the worst rapid transit accident in US history occurs under the intersection of Malbone Street and Flatbush Avenue, Brooklyn, New York City, with at least 93 deaths.

* 1922, the last sultan of the Ottoman Empire, Mehmed VI, abdicates

* 1936, in a speech in Milan, Italy, Benito Mussolini described the alliance between his country and Nazi Germany as an "axis" running between Rome and Berlin

* 1941, Ansel Adams takes a picture of a moonrise over the town of Hernandez, New Mexico that would become one of the most famous images in the history of photography

* 1946, the New York Knicks played against the Toronto Huskies at the Maple Leaf Gardens, in the first Basketball Association of America game. The Knicks would win 68-66

* 1950, Puerto Rican nationalists Griselio Torresola and Oscar Collazo attempt to assassinate US President Harry S. Truman at Blair House

* 1952, the United States successfully detonates the first large hydrogen bomb, code named "Mike" ["M" for megaton], in the Eniwetok atoll, located in the Marshall Islands in the central Pacific Ocean.
The explosion had a yield of 10 megatons

* 1960, while campaigning for President of the United States, John F. Kennedy announces his idea of the Peace Corps

* 1973, Leon Jaworski is appointed as the new Watergate Special Prosecutor, succeeding Archibald Cox

* 2002, a federal judge approved most provisions of an antitrust settlement between Microsoft and the Justice Department

* 2006, Senator John Kerry, D-Mass., apologized to "any service member, family member or American" offended by his "botched joke"
about how young people might get "stuck in Iraq" if they did not study hard and do their homework. ALSO: An Ethiopian immigrant was convicted in Lawrenceville, Ga., of the genital mutilation of his 2-year-old daughter in what's believed to be the first such criminal case in the U.S. (Khalid Adem was sentenced to 10 years in prison.)