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Today in History....January 25

* 1776, the first national memorial is ordered by Congress. It was built in in honor of Brigadier General Richard Montgomery, who had been killed during an assault on Quebec on December 31, 1775

* 1905, at the Premier Mine in Pretoria, South Africa, a 3,106-carat diamond is discovered during a routine inspection by the mine's superintendent. Weighing 1.33 pounds, and christened the "Cullinan," it was the largest diamond ever found

* 1915, the inventor of the telephone, Alexander Graham Bell, inaugurated U.S. transcontinental telephone service

* 1919, in Paris, delegates to the peace conference formally approve the establishment of a commission on the League of Nations

* 1956, in a long interview with visiting American attorney Marshall MacDuffie, Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev adopts a friendly attitude toward the United States and indicates that he believes President Dwight Eisenhower is sincere in his desire for peace

* 1959, American Airlines opened the jet age in the United States with the first scheduled transcontinental flight of a Boeing 707

* 1961, President Kennedy held the first presidential news conference carried live on radio and television

* 1968, the Israeli submarine Dakar, carrying 69 sailors, passes the island of Crete and radios its position --- then disappears. The exact fate of this vessel remains a mystery to this day

* 1971, Charles Manson and three women followers were convicted in Los Angeles of murder and conspiracy in the 1969 slayings of seven people, including actress Sharon Tate

* 1981,the 52 Americans held hostage by Iran for 444 days arrived in the United States

* 1997, responding to recent cases of deadly food poisoning, President Clinton said in his weekly radio address that he would seek $43 million dollars to implement a state-of-the-art early warning system for food contamination

* 2002, J. Clifford Baxter, a former Enron Corp. executive who'd reportedly complained about the company's questionable accounting practices, was found shot to death in a car, a suicide

* 2006, Hamas won a large majority of seats in Palestinian parliamentary elections

* 2007, Ford Motor Co. said it had lost a staggering $12.7 billion in 2006, the worst loss in the company's 103-year history

Today in History....January 24

* 1848, James W. Marshall discovered a gold nugget at Sutter's Mill in northern California, a discovery that led to the gold rush of '49

* 1908, the first Boy Scout troop was organized in England by Robert Baden-Powell

* 1924, the Russian city of St. Petersburg was renamed Leningrad in honor of the late revolutionary leader (however, it has since been re-named St. Petersburg)

* 1943, President Roosevelt and British Prime Minister Churchill concluded a wartime conference in Casablanca, Morocco

* 1972, the Supreme Court struck down laws that denied welfare benefits to people who had resided in a state for less than a year

* 1978, a nuclear-powered Soviet satellite plunged through Earth's atmosphere and disintegrated, scattering radioactive debris over parts of northern Canada

* 1985, the space shuttle Discovery was launched from Cape Canaveral, Fla., on the first secret, all-military shuttle mission

* 1989, confessed serial killer Ted Bundy was put to death in Florida's electric chair

* 1995, the FDA approved Olestra, the nation's first zero-calorie artificial fat. ALSO: Specialist Michael New was discharged from the U.S. Army after a court-martial jury convicted him for refusing to wear a UN beret for a peacekeeping mission in the former Yugoslavia

* 2003, the new Department of Homeland Security officially opened and its chief, Tom Ridge, was sworn in

* 2004, the United Nations for the fist time commemorated the 60-year anniversary of the liberation of the Nazi, ym"sh, death camps, directly linking its own founding with the end of the Holocaust in some of the strongest language ever

* 2007, Democratic-controlled Senate Foreign Relations Committee dismissed President Bush's plans for a troop buildup in Iraq as "not in the national interest" of the United States

One Down, Three To Go

It is strange that the qualities we are looking for in a sitting President - thoughtful, calm, and serious - are exactly the qualities which we penalize in those running for President, sorry to see Fred Thompson withdraw.

Now who? Don't know, but Romney is intriguing, The American Thinker has an interesting article on Mitt......Why they Hate Mitt Romney.

We can't forget that we are at war with a relentless enemy. Victory in Iraq or Afghanistan is not victory in the war. It will take years of relentless pursuit of our enemies to put an end to the evil of Islamic terrorism.

And we also have extremely dangerous rivals, if not enemies, in Russia and China. As Russia provides Iran with anti-missile defenses, specifically designed to shoot down American planes in the event we should need to take military action against Iran, it should be clear to us all that the so-called "end of history" and "peace dividend" were, to say the least, premature.

We need, above anything else, a president who can be trusted to be both careful and dogged in pursuing our foreign policy. The Democratic Party has no candidate fit to be trusted with our foreign policy in this dangerous world. And the Republican Party has only Rudy Giuliani who shows that he already understands how the job is done, with McCain as a decent second and Mitt Romney as a lightweight who might be able to learn the job, hopefully in time.

A nice preview of what we can expect on the world scene took place with assasination of Benazir Bhutto. Rudy and McCain showed worldly presence and leadership, Romney too, but not as much and Huckabee was a disaster. I'll vote for whoever is the nominee, Rudy, Mitt and McCain get the nod here............and Rudy/Mitt battling it out for my vote.

Today in History....January 23

1368, in a coronation ceremony, Zhu Yuanzhang ascends to the throne of China as the Hongwu Emperor, initiating Ming Dynasty rule over China that would last for three centuries

* 1556, the deadliest earthquake in history, the Shaanxi earthquake, hits Shaanxi province, China. The death toll may have been as high as 830,000

* 1793, Russia and Prussia partition Poland

* 1845, Congress decided all national elections would be held on the first Tuesday after the first Monday in November

* 1897, Elva Zona Heaster is found dead in Greenbrier County, West Virginia. The resulting murder trial of her husband is perhaps the only case in United States history where the alleged testimony of a ghost helped secure a conviction

* 1904, the Ålesund Fire: the Norwegian coastal town Ålesund is devastated by fire, leaving 10,000 people homeless and one person dead.
Kaiser Wilhelm II funds the rebuilding of the town in Jugendstil style

* 1920, the Netherlands refuses to surrender ex-Kaiser Wilhelm II of Germany to the Allies

* 1941, Charles Lindbergh testifies before the U.S. Congress and recommends that the United States negotiate a neutrality pact with Adolf Hitler, ym"sh

* 1943, Jewish-led Warsaw Ghetto Uprising

* 1950, the Knesset approved a resolution affirming Jerusalem as the capital of Israel

* 1964, the 24th Amendment to the United States Constitution, prohibiting the use of poll taxes in national elections, is ratified

* 1973, President Richard Nixon announces that a peace accord has been reached in Vietnam

* 1985, O.J. Simpson becomes the first Heisman Trophy winner elected to the Football Hall of Fame

* 1996, the first version of the Java programming language is releasedn

* 1998, fighting scandal allegations involving Monica Lewinsky, President Bill Clinton assured his Cabinet during a meeting that he was innocent and urged them to concentrate on their jobs

* 2001, the Chinese Communist Party stages a self-immolation in Tiananmen Square to frame Falun Gong and escalate the persecution

* 2002, reporter Daniel Pearl is kidnapped -- and subsequently beheaded
-- in Karachi, Pakistan by practitioners of that "religion of peace"

PUSS in boots???

DAMN, sort of not surprised after last week.

WOW.... if true,....... John McCain wtf are you thinking??? I think I'll go over to his house and ask.......I can see his house (condo....a cool $4.5 Million) from our office 2 blocks away........... whoop-di-effen-doo.

........if it is Ronald Reagan that Republicans want, Mr. X is extraordinarily close to that venerated man. Ronald Reagan stood for two great beliefs: that big government is a big problem for a free society and that America must be militarily strong and lead the war against global communism.

Substitute "global jihadism" for "global communism" and you have Mr. X's twin pillars, here's Dennis Prager's endorsement for POTUS.

Speaking of Ronald Reagan, VDH writes about Mr. Reagan... "the candidates try to "out-Reagan" each other by claiming they alone are the true Reaganites while their rivals in the primaries are too liberal, flip-floppers or without consistent conservative principles.

In short, Ronald Reagan has been beatified into some sort of saint, as if he were above the petty lapses and contradictions of today's candidates. The result is that conservatives are losing sight of Reagan the man while placing unrealistic requirements of perfection on his would-be successors.

They have forgotten that Reagan — facing spiraling deficits, sinking poll ratings and a hostile Congress — reluctantly signed legislation raising payroll, income and gasoline taxes, some of them among the largest in our history. He promised to limit government and eliminate the Departments of Education and Energy. Instead, when faced with congressional and popular opposition, he relented and even grew government by adding a secretary of veteran affairs to the Cabinet.

Two of his Supreme Court appointments, Sandra Day O'Connor and Anthony Kennedy, were far more liberal than George W. Bush's selections, the diehard constructionists, John Roberts and Samuel Alito.

Reagan's 1986 comprehensive immigration bill turned out to be the most liberal amnesty for illegal aliens in our nation's history, and set the stage for the present problem of 12 million aliens here unlawfully.

Republicans forget all this — but so do Democrats, who for their own reasons want to perpetuate an unflattering myth of Ronald Reagan as an extremist right-wing reactionary.

In foreign affairs, Reagan was not always sober and judicious. He shocked Cold Warriors by advocating complete nuclear disarmament at his Reykjavik summit with Michel Gorbachev.

In the middle of Lebanon's civil war, he first put American troops into a crossfire. Then, when 241 marines were blown up, he withdrew them. That about-face, and the failure to retaliate in serious fashion, helped to embolden Hezbollah's anti-American terrorism for decades.

The Iran-Contra scandal exploded when a few rogue administration officials sold state-of-the-art missiles under the table to Iran's terrorist-sponsoring theocracy, and prompted opposition talk of impeachment.

In other words, a great president like Ronald Reagan made mistakes. Here's the rest.

Today in History....January 22

* 1905, Bloody Sunday in St. Petersburg, beginning of the 1905 revolution

* 1917, during World War I: President Woodrow Wilson calls for "peace without victory" in Europe

* 1946, creation of the Central Intelligence Group, forerunner of the Central Intelligence Agency

* 1957, the New York City "Mad Bomber," George P. Metesky, is arrested in Waterbury, Connecticut and is charged with planting more than 30 bombs

* 1963, Elysee treaty of cooperation between France and Germany is signed by Charles de Gaulle and Konrad Adenauer

* 1973, the Supreme Court of the United States delivers its decision in Roe v. Wade striking down state laws restricting abortion during the first six months of pregnancy. ALSO: George Foreman breaks Joe Frazier's professional career undefeated heavyweight world boxing champion status

* 1984, the Apple Macintosh, the first consumer computer to popularize the computer mouse and the graphical user interface, is introduced during Super Bowl XVIII with its famous "1984" television commercial.

* 1987, Pennsylvania politician R. Budd Dwyer shoots and kills himself at a press conference on live national television, leading to debates on boundaries in journalism

* 1990, Robert Tappan Morris, Jr. is convicted of releasing the 1988 Internet worm

* 1995, two practitioners of that "religion of peace" from the Gaza Strip blow themselves up at an Israeli military transit point killing 19

* 1997, Madeleine Albright becomes the first female secretary of state after confirmation by the United States Senate

* 1998, Theodore Kaczynski pleaded guilty in Sacramento, Calif., to being the Unabomber in return for a sentence of life in prison without parole.

* 2002, Kmart Corp becomes the largest retailer in American history to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection

A). moron

B). coke-head

C). commie loving, freedom hating prick

D). narcissistic megalomaniac midget with a severe god-complex

E). model for all of Hollywood to follow

F). all of the above

......chewin' the.....coke with Hugo.

Check this out.... The 5 most horrifying bugs in the world....."They then descend upon the beehive like an unholy plague of hell-born death engines and proceed to make this world a scary ******* place. This is maybe 30 wasps against 30,000 bees and the 30,000 bees do not stand a chance." Wanna bet PETA gets involved?? Heh. Warning....strong language warning.

Today in History....January 21

* 1789, the first American novel, The Power of Sympathy or the Triumph of Nature Founded in Truth, is printed in Boston

* 1793, after being found guilty of treason by the French Convention, Louis XVI of France is guillotined

* 1861, during the Civil War: Jefferson Davis resigns from the United States Senate

* 1908, New York City's Board of Aldermen passed an ordinance prohibiting women from smoking in public. (However, the measure was vetoed by Mayor George B. McClellan Jr. two weeks later)

* 1924, Vladimir Lenin dies and Joseph Stalin begins to purge his rivals to clear way for his leadership

* 1950, Alger Hiss is convicted of perjury

* 1954, the first nuclear-powered submarine, the USS Nautilus, is launched in Groton, Connecticut by Mamie Eisenhower, then the First Lady of the United States

* 1976, commercial service of Concorde begins with London-Bahrain and Paris-Rio routes

* 1977, President Jimmy Carter pardons nearly all American Vietnam War draft evaders, some of whom had emigrated to Canada

* 1985, because January 20 had fallen on a Sunday, Ronald Reagan's public inaugural ceremony (for his second term as President) was moved to Monday, January 21. Due to bad weather, the ceremony was held indoors in the United States Capital Rotunda

* 1997, Newt Gingrich becomes the first leader of the United States House of Representatives to be internally disciplined for ethical misconduct

* 1999, in one of the largest drug busts in American history, the United States Coast Guard intercepts a ship with over 9,500 pounds (4,300 kg) of cocaine on board

* 2004, NASA's MER-A (the Mars Rover Spirit) ceases communication with mission control. The problem lies with Flash Memory management and is fixed remotely from Earth on February 6

* 2003, the Census Bureau announced that Hispanics had surpassed blacks as America's largest minority group

Joe Jr., 3.5 yrs of age, battles the effects of Global Warming here in Arizona.

Dude has STONES OF DIAMONDS........ or whatever the hardest substance is

Terje Haakonsen's incredible descent snowboarding down almost a vertical face. How the hell the guy could even stand on top of that mountain is a feat in itself. It gets good at 1:20.

Feels good to be a Swede/Norwegian.....finally.....whatever team this cat is on, I'm on it.

Screw Islamofascism, Let's Get To The Important Stuff

Sen. Clinton will reportedly hold a news conference next week to decry the lack of African-American characters in fairy tales, and note that her husband was “doing what he could to advance Civil Rights in this arena.”

“Each night, as American children go to bed,” Sen. Clinton will reportedly say, “they hear fantastic tales from which blacks are almost entirely absent. African-American children are made to feel that there’s no place for them in imaginary society. While caucasian children live in blissful ignorance, in a fantasy world that’s lilly, or should I say snow, white.”

From none other than ScrappleFace ....heh.

Speaking of fairy tales.....
......this photo was/is the biggest load of BS around .......here's our conniving lovebirds one week before Lewinsky becomes a part of the American vernacular

LIMBAUGH ENDORSES FRED THOMPSON:

Well, David Limbaugh, anyway.

Today in History....January 18

1778, English navigator Capt. James Cook discovered the Hawaiian Islands, which he dubbed the "Sandwich Islands"

1803, Thomas Jefferson requests funding from Congress to finance the Lewis and Clark expedition. Jefferson officially asked for $2,500 in funding from Congress, though some sources indicate the expedition ultimately cost closer to $50,000

1912, English explorer Robert F. Scott and his expedition reached the South Pole, only to discover that Roald Amundsen had beaten them to it.
(Scott and his party perished during the return trip.)

1919, the Paris Peace Conference, held to negotiate peace treaties ending World War I, opened in Versailles, France

1943, during World War II, the Soviets announced they'd broken through the long Nazi siege of Leningrad (it was another year before the siege was fully lifted). ALSO: The deportation of Jews from the Warsaw ghetto to the concentration camp at Treblinka is resumed-but not without much bloodshed and resistance along the way. AND: A wartime ban on the sale of pre-sliced bread in the U.S. -- aimed at reducing bakeries' demand for metal replacement parts -- went into effect

1950, People's Republic of China formally recognizes the communist Democratic Republic of Vietnam and agrees to furnish it military assistance; the Soviet Union extended diplomatic recognition to Hanoi on January 30. China and the Soviet Union provided massive military and economic aid to North Vietnam, which enabled North Vietnam to fight first the French and then the Americans

1990, at the end of a joint sting operation by FBI agents and District of Columbia police, Mayor Marion Barry is arrested and charged with drug possession and the use of crack, a crystalline form of cocaine. ALSO: A jury in Los Angeles acquitted former preschool operators Raymond Buckey and his mother, Peggy McMartin Buckey, of 52 child molestation charges.

2002, two Israeli tanks and an armored personnel carrier parked outside the headquarters of Yasser Arafat, ym"sh, confining the terrorist to his office complex a day after a Palestinian gunman burst into a banquet hall and gunned down six Israelis

There is no racial difference between India and Pakistan, but one has democracy and the other has Islam - and oh what a difference that makes!

Indians and Pakistanis have the same Y-chromosome haplogroup. They have the same genetic sequence and the same genetic marker (namely: M124). They have the same DNA molecule, the same DNA sequence. Their culture, traditions and cuisine are all the same. They watch the same movies and sing the same songs. What is it that Indians do and Pakistanis don't: read it here.

h/t ROP

Capitalism & Billionaires

.......that evil pair for the most part, leads to altruistic motives.

"I am impressed that the strong majority of the world's richest individuals (about 30 out of the 39 richest Americans) made their money rather than inherited it. The wealthiest individuals are mainly self-made because inherited wealth gets dissipated over a couple of generations through bad investments, or is given to various charities, or gets broken up and divided among many
grandchildren, cousins, and divorced members. For this reason, no descendants of John Rockefeller, Andrew Carnegie, or other titans of the beginning of the century are among the very wealthiest."

Read the rest by Gary Becker, Nobel Laureate in economics on The Proliferation of Billionaires

Couldn't Have Said It Better.....

.....so instead of re-skinnin' a post, here's John Hawkins take on rooting for Hillary......

Today in History....January 17

* 1595, Henry IV of France declares war on Spain

* 1819, Simón Bolívar proclaims the Republic of Colombia

* 1893, Hawaii's monarchy was overthrown as a group of businessmen and sugar planters forced Queen Liliuokalani to abdicate

* 1899, United States takes possession of Wake Island in the Pacific Ocean

* 1916 , the Professional Golfers Association (PGA) is formed

* 1917, United States pays Denmark $25 million for the Virgin Islands

* 1929, Popeye the Sailor Man, a cartoon character created by Elzie Crisler Segar, first appears in the Thimble Theatre comic strip

* 1945, Soviet and Polish forces liberated Warsaw during World War II.
ALSO: The Nazis, ym"sh, begin the evacuation of the Auschwitz concentration camp as Soviet forces close in. AND: Swedish diplomat Raoul Wallenberg, credited with saving tens of thousands of Jews, disappears in Hungary while in Soviet custody

* 1946, the UN Security Council holds its first session

* 1949, "The Goldbergs", the first American TV sitcom, debuts

* 1950, the Great Brinks Robbery, 11 thieves steal more than $2 million from an armored car Company's offices in Boston

* 1961, President Dwight D. Eisenhower delivers a televised farewell address to the nation three days before leaving office, in which he warns against the accumulation of power by the "military-industrial complex"

* 1973, Ferdinand Marcos becomes "President for Life" of the Philippines

* 1977, convicted murderer Gary Gilmore is executed by a firing squad in Utah, ending a ten-year moratorium on Capital punishment in the United States

* 1982, "Cold Sunday" in the United States sees temperatures fall to their lowest levels in over 100 years in numerous cities

* 1985, British Telecom announces the retirement of the United Kingdom's red telephone boxes

* 1991, Operation Desert Storm begins early in the morning. Iraq fires 8 Scud missiles into Israel in an unsuccessful bid to provoke Israeli retaliation

* 1997, a court in Ireland granted the first divorce in the Roman Catholic country's history

* 2003, on the 12th anniversary of the Gulf War, a defiant Saddam Hussein called on his people to rise up and defend the nation against a new U.S.-led attack. ALSO: Tom Ridge sailed through Senate confirmation hearings on his way to becoming the nation's first Homeland Security Department chief. AND: Gertrude Janeway, the last known widow of a Union veteran from the Civil War, died in Blaine, Tenn., at age 93 (she had married John Janeway in 1927 when he was 81 and she was barely 18)

Off to Houston to see these boys about, among other things, a potential consulting gig in this dump by the water......heh........back thursday.

Potential infidel invasion?

Today in History....January 15

* 69, Otho seizes power in Rome, proclaiming himself Emperor of Rome, but only rules for three months before committing suicide

* 1759, the British Museum opens

* 1870, a political cartoon for the first time symbolizes the United States Democratic Party with a donkey ("A Live Jackass Kicking a Dead Lion" by Thomas Nast for Harper's Weekly)

* 1885, Wilson Bentley takes the first photograph of a snowflake

* 1892, James Naismith publishes the rules for basketball

* 1936, the first building to be completely covered in glass is completed in Toledo, Ohio (the building was for the Owens-Illinois Glass
Company)

* 1943, the world's largest office building, The Pentagon, is dedicated in Arlington, Virginia

* 1967, in the first ever Super Bowl, the Green Bay Packers defeat the Kansas City Chiefs, 35-10.

* 1970, Muammar al-Qaddafi is proclaimed premier of Libya

* 1973, during the Vietnam War: Citing progress in peace negotiations, President of the United States Richard Nixon announces the suspension of offensive action in North Vietnam

* 1976, President Gerald Ford's would-be assassin, Sara Jane Moore, is sentenced to life in prison

* 1991, the United Nations deadline for the withdrawal of Iraqi forces from occupied Kuwait expires, preparing the way for the start of Operation Desert Storm

* 2003, Mickey Mouse and The Walt Disney Co. scored a big victory as the Supreme Court upheld longer copyright protections for cartoon characters, songs, books and other creations worth billions of dollars

* 2005, an intense solar flare blasts X rays across the solar system.
ALSO: ESA's SMART-1 lunar orbiter discovers elements such as calcium, aluminum, silicon, iron, and other surface elements on the moon

* 2007, Barzan Ibrahim al-Tikriti, former Iraqi intelligence chief and half-brother of Saddam Hussein, and Awad Hamed al-Bandar, former chief judge of the Revolutionary Court, are executed by hanging in Iraq

Iran: We Agree With American Democrats And John McCain, Waterboarding Is To Severe, That's Why We Chop Off Hands And Feet.

Joe Movie Critic.......Vitus

Vitus.....it's a foreign film with english subtitles about a child piano prodigy who is uncomfortable with his inbelievable talents (piano playing, math & reading skills) and because of this, a source of tension is created between he and his parents. The boy, Vitus, takes a liking to his eccentric grandfather, hangs with him, has thoughts of being a pilot and really learns a lot about life from his loving gramps. Does Vitus use his superior intelligence to make his family's dreams come true or is there another twist to the story? Check it out.

This isn't one of those heady foreign films, but sort of an old fashioned flick that has a great story to it that is set in the present day. It's a hell of a good movie...rent it or buy it. In real life, the boy who plays Vitus (Veetus) is in fact a true child prodigy himself. The gringo household, the Mrs., the 3 Little Joe's, ages 10, 5 and 3 enjoyed it as well......it doesn't hurt that our 10 yr old boy eerily has the same expressions, quirks and mannerisms as Vitus.

Barack Hussein Obama vows for change, so he shakes things up and embraces Shaggy's dad (Scooby Doo) John Kerry endorsement....(snore)... meanwhile Republicans look for real change and battle for Hannah Montana endorsement.

Today in History....January 14

* 1639, the "Fundamental Orders", the first written constitution that created a government, is adopted in Connecticut

* 1784, during the American Revolutionary War: The United States ratifies a peace treaty with England

* 1832, American author Edgar Allan Poe publishes his first short story, "Metzengerstein"

* 1858, Napoleon III of France escapes an assassination attempt

* 1943, Franklin D. Roosevelt becomes the first President of the United States to travel via airplane while in office when he travels to meet Winston Churchill at the Casablanca Conference to discuss strategy and study the next phase of the war

* 1950, the first prototype of the MiG-17 makes its maiden flight

* 1951, the National Football League has its first Pro Bowl Game (Los Angeles, California)

* 1967, the Human Be-In, takes place in San Francisco's Golden Gate Park, launching the Summer of Love. Between 20,000 to 30,000 people attend

* 1973, Super Bowl VII: The Miami Dolphins defeat the Washington Redskins. The Dolphins become the first NFL team to go undefeated in a season

* 1975, teenage heiress Lesley Whittle is kidnapped by Donald Neilson, aka "the Black Panther"

* 1994, U.S. President Bill Clinton and Russian President Boris Yeltsin sign the Kremlin accords

* 1998, Whitewater prosecutors questioned Hillary Rodham Clinton at the White House for 10 minutes about the gathering of FBI background files on past Republican political appointees

* 2000, the Dow Jones Industrial Average reaches a record high of
11,722.98

* 2003, Kmart Corp. announced its biggest round of cutbacks yet, saying it would close 326 more stores and eliminate 37,000 more jobs in hopes of getting out of bankruptcy by the end of April 2003. (Kmart emerged from Chapter 11 protection in May 2003.)

* 2004, the national flag of Georgia, the so-called "five cross flag", was restored to official use after a hiatus of some 500 years

The case against John McCain.......or for it, depends what you stand for.

It's a must read.......pass it on. My how the party has shifted......Barry Goldwater must be rolling over in his grave.

I guess you've got to call 'em like you see 'em, so here goes......... Bush Likes Dead Jews More Than Live Ones.

I guess this proves his consistency with refusing to protect our own borders, why should he protect Israel's? Just sayin' there neighbors.......

For those who love the NFL.........you have been blessed with an upcoming awesome weekend!

Global Warming in Full Force.

Today in History....January 11

* 1759, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, the first American life insurance company is incorporated

* 1787, William Herschel discovers Titania and Oberon, two moons of Uranus

* 1805, Michigan Territory is created

* 1861, Alabama secedes from the United States

* 1880. a total solar eclipse blackens the sky of San Francisco one day after the funeral of Emperor Norton

* 1902, Popular Mechanics magazine is published for the first time

* the Grand Canyon National Monument was created with a proclamation by President Theodore Roosevelt. (It became a national park in 1919.)

* 1913, the first sedan-type automobile, a Hudson, went on display at the 13th Automobile Show in New York

* 1922, first use of insulin to treat diabetes in a human patient

* 1935, Amelia Earhart is the first woman to fly solo from Hawaii to California

* 1943, the United States and United Kingdom give up territorial rights in China

* 1949, first recorded case of snowfall in Los Angeles, California.

* 1962, an avalanche on Huascaran in Peru causes 4,000 deaths

* 1964, the United States Surgeon General Dr. Luther Leonidas Terry, M.D., publishes a report saying that smoking may be hazardous to health.
It is the first such statement ever made by the U.S. government

* 1972, East Pakistan renames itself Bangladesh

* 1974, the world's first surviving set of sextuplets are born to Susan Rosenkowitz in Cape Town, South Africa

* 1977, France set off an international uproar by releasing Abu Daoud, a PLO official and practitioner of that "religion of peace" who was behind the massacre of Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Olympics

* 2001, the Federal Trade Commission approves the merger of AOL and Time Warner to form AOL Time Warner

* 2003, calling the death penalty process "arbitrary and capricious, and therefore immoral," Illinois Gov. George Ryan commuted the sentences of
167 condemned inmates, clearing his state's death row two days before leaving office

* 2007, President Bush's plan for a surge of American troops to Iraq ran into a wall of criticism on Capitol Hill as administration officials drew confrontational challenges from both Democrats and Republicans

Man The Oars

Right Wing Nut House is organizing another blogburst for Fred. With Romney pulling his ads from South Carolina, and Huckabee's star dimming, there is a real opportunity for the Thompson campaign — and it's an opportunity Thompson needs to take advantage of. Fred's also stepping up some of his media efforts, and he'll be on the Sean Hannity show later this afternoon. Now is the time to help Fred Thompson in his push in South Carolina. Something like 43% of Republicans there are undecided, me included but I'm close, and only those who picked Fred Thompson are extremely firm on their choice.

Throw Fred a bone here.

Today in History....January 10

* 1776, Thomas Paine published his influential pamphlet 'Common Sense'

* 1863, London's Metropolitan, the world's first underground passenger railway, opened to the public

* 1920, the League of Nations was established as the Treaty of Versailles went into effect

* 1918, the U.S. House of Representatives voted for female suffrage

* 1928, the Soviet Union ordered the exile of Leon Trotsky

* 1946, the first manmade contact with the moon was made as radar signals were bounced off the lunar surface ALSO: The first General Assembly of the United Nations convened in London

* 1984, the United States and the Vatican established full diplomatic relations for the first time in more than a century

* 1995, Russian troops allowed a convoy of Chechen rebels and 160 hostages to head for Chechnya, then surrounded them in the village of Pervomayskaya. (After a five-day standoff, Russian troops launched a massive military assault that resulted in the deaths of most of the rebels and some of the hostages.)

* 1998, President Clinton denounced Chicago physicist Richard Seed’s expressed desire to clone humans, calling it "morally unacceptable."

* 2000, America Online announced it had agreed to buy Time Warner for
$165 billion, in what would be the biggest merger in history

* 2003, North Korea withdrew from a global treaty barring it from making nuclear weapons

* 2004, CBS issued a damning independent review of mistakes related to a "60 Minutes Wednesday" report on President Bush's National Guard service and fired three news executives and a producer for their "myopic zeal"
in rushing it to air. ALSO: Gunmen
assassinated Baghdad's deputy police chief and his son; Al-Qaida in Iraq claimed responsibility. Ukraine's Election Commission declared Viktor Yushchenko the winner of the presidential vote

* 2007, the Democratic-controlled House voted 315-116 to increase the federal minimum wage to $7.25 an hour

Quotes of the Day

A couple of beauties......

#1) Mrs. Clinton: Barack Obama Hasn't Done the Necessary "Spadework" - Does it really get any better than that? Of course she'll get away with it. There is a black lady in our office building who is a partner for a Real Estate Law firm....I think I'll ask her if she's done her spadework to get to where she is today.

#2)“As I say, I suspect that her tears were genuine. After all, she cried not because of some real or imagined affront to herself, to her family, or to a favored political group; nor did she cry over any of her failures. Instead, Sen. Clinton cried over her own lust for power. Her emotion was sparked by her self-admiration. She got all choked up when she suggested how indispensable she is to America and when she reflected upon - perhaps a better phrase is “wallowed in” - her own magnanimity at being willing to endure the awful hardship of being President of the United States….Sen. Clinton “never cried over the betrayal in her marriage but what made her cry was the possibility that she would lose power.”" — Don Boudreaux

h/t HispanicPundit

Some like looking at sunsets, taking a walk after a rain.....really, this is all you need.

2008 Politics - The Pet Rock Craze

Never, ever understimate the Clinton machine, if the so-called teary eyed Hillary moment (real or not, who cares?) convinced you to vote for her, you're an unstable nut.

The truth is that what a few thousand Americans think in Iowa and New Hampshire does not trump the tens of millions in states like Florida, New Jersey, New York, and California, the Clinton and Giuliani campaigns are based on this fact. An 18 hole golf match is not won on the 2nd hole, Hillary and Rudy know this......should get real interesting here in a few weeks.

Oh, and if anyone can HONESTLY tell me what Hillary has accomplished, or Obama for that matter, please fill me in. I heard Obama on FOX this morning....he had this line...."we're all seasoned politicians here"......wow, half way through your first Senate term qualifies you as seasoned?

You know what really blows about this early election hype? It's getting in the way of the best back-to-back weekends in sports.........the NFL playoffs.....doubleheaders Sat/Sun each weekend!!!

Today in History....Janurary 9

* 1349, the Jewish population of Basel, Switzerland, believed by the residents to be the cause of the ongoing bubonic plague, is rounded up and incinerated. The bubonic plague originated in Asia, specifically China in the early 1300's

* 1768, Philip Astley stages the first modern circus (London)

* 1799, British Prime Minister William Pitt introduces income tax to raise funds for the war against Napoleon

* 1839, the French Academy of Sciences announces the Daguerreotype photography process

* 1861, during the American Civil War: The "Star of the West" incident occurs near Charleston, South Carolina. It is considered by some historians to be the "First Shots of the American Civil War".)

* 1863, the first section of the London Underground Railway opens -- between Paddington and Farringdon Street.

* 1880, the Great Gale of 1880 devastates parts of Oregon and Washington with high wind and heavy snow

* 1905, according to the Julian Calendar which was used at the time, Russian workers stage a march on the Winter Palace that ends in the massacre by Tsarist troops known as Bloody Sunday, setting off the Russian Revolution of 1905

* 1951, the United Nations headquarters officially opens in New York City

* 1968, the Surveyor VII space probe made a soft landing on the moon, marking the end of the American series of unmanned explorations of the lunar surface. ALSO: The only known snowfall occurs in Mexico City, additional snow falls on Jan. 10 and 11

* 1972, reclusive billionaire Howard Hughes, speaking by telephone from the Bahamas to reporters in Hollywood, said a purported biography of him by Clifford Irving was a fake

* 1986, after losing a patent battle with Polaroid, Kodak exits the instant camera business

* 1991, the Soviets storm Vilnius to stop Lithuanian independence

* 2002, the United States Department of Justice announces it is going to pursue a criminal investigation of Enron

Vote For Change

Got to hand it to Barack Hussein Obama.....he made Hillary cry!
As far as a vote for change, I'm down with that. What would be great if the Republican Party were to have someone who can electrify people the way Barack Hussein Obama can.......the guy has appeal, fire, he's not a D.C. politician and is gaining quite a bit of support worldwide, something we could use.

But what exactly is it he believes in and this change he hypes?

He believes in his destiny. He believes in his charisma. He has the confidence of the annointed. He has faith in the magic of the man who meets his moment. He also believes in the power of good nature, the need for compromise, and the possibility of comprehensive, multitiered, sensible solutions achieved through good-faith negotiations. But mostly it seems to be about him, his sense of destiny, and his appreciation of his own particular gifts.

What else?

Well.... first off it was Mohammad and now Jesus Christ....got his bases covered there, John Kerry couldn't have scripted this one better! The bad thing here is that Muslims believe everyone is born a Muslim, now that he's Christian convert, he's an aposate, and apostacy ranks right at the bottom rung of the Islam ladder.....off with his head! No visiting Middle East for Barack Hussein Obama!

A Vote For Change would mean:

Higher taxes, government health care (see Canada and Europe), fight international terror with wet socks...err, diplomacy and a ban on guns. Obama voted against the Induced Infant Liability Act, which would have protected babies that survived late-term abortions. That same year a similar federal law, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, was signed by President Bush. Only 15 members of the U.S. House opposed it, and it passed the Senate unanimously on a voice vote.

He flip flopped on, but mostly against funding for the troops, and according to the Liberal Americans for Democratic Action, his voting record was 97.5%, nearly perfection for liberal Democrats!

What we've got here is a Presidential contender with a half of one term in the U.S. Senate and a 1 page resume.

Dude gives great speeches though!

I would suggest you download this 33 page .PDF file written by the folks at Human Events and read about the man. Stop reading the empty platitudes from the MSM and instead read about the real man and his policies.

Below is an excerpt from John Hawkins:

"Anybody who got into the Senate by beating Alan Keyes and who hasn’t yet served a full term, isn't by any objective standard even qualified to be President. Still, America's most vapid politician, a guy who should have had his presidential campaign sponsored by Hallmark greeting cards -- because in a whole year's time, I'm not sure he said anything deeper than something you've read on the back of one of those cards -- is now the favorite to be the Democratic nominee."

"Hillary's people have been trying to start fake whispering campaigns that the guy is secretly a Muslim and a former coke dealer, but they should be trying to get Fabio and the "Let's Get Ready to Rumble" guy to endorse her campaign instead. Why? Because the only two things Obama has going for him are that he's nice looking and he has a great voice and maybe Fabio and Michael Buffer combined could help Hillary's campaign match Barack strength for strength."

Defining Quote: "The truth is that right after 9/11 I had a (flag) pin. Shortly after 9/11, particularly because as we're talking about the Iraq war, that became a substitute for I think true patriotism, which is speaking out on issues that are of importance to our national security." -- Barack Obama explaining why he refuses to wear a flag pin.

Defining Photo: Vote for Obama, get that much closer to Marxism.

That photo really pisses me off.

Joe Schizo

But will he have the stones to say the same about Islam? I guaran-eff'n-tee you not a snow ball's chance in.....in........well his future home.

Not The Kind Of Leader Or Headline You Want To See

"Huckabee vs. Obama would pit an unelectable Republican against a Democrat who would wreck our economy and weaken our security. And both have blasted the president's success in the war on terror. "

Read Full Article from IBD

Today in History....January 7

* 1610, astronomer Galileo Galilei began observing three of Jupiter's moons

* 1789, the first U.S. presidential election was held. Americans voted for electors who, a month later, chose George Washington to be the nation's first president

* 1904, the Marconi International Marine Communication Co. of London announced that the telegraphed letters "CQD" would serve as a maritime distress call (it was later replaced by "SOS")

* 1927, commercial transatlantic telephone service was inaugurated between New York and London

* 1942, the World War II siege of Bataan began

* 1953, President Truman announced in his State of the Union address that the United States had developed a hydrogen bomb

* 1999, for the second time in history, an impeached American president (this time Clinton) went on trial before the Senate

* 1999, U.S. Representative Dan Burton, R-Ind., subpoenaed Elian Gonzalez to testify before Congress in a bid to keep Elian in the United States for at least another month while courts decided whether the 6-year-old should be returned to Cuba. (Elian never actually testified.)

* 2003, police in London announced they had found traces of the deadly poison ricin in a north London apartment and arrested six men in connection with the virulent toxin that had been linked to al-Qaida terrorists and Iraq

* 2004, President Bush proposed legal status -- at least temporarily -- for millions of illegal immigrants working in the U.S.

Quote of the Day

The difference between the right and the left:

- Huckabee's supporters thank God for giving them Huckabee.
- Obama's supporters thank Obama for giving them God.

h/t Ace of Spades

In terms of answering Huckabee’s charge that he is “the fellow you’d like to work with,” Romney should tout the fact that his enterprises have created thousands of jobs and Huckabee has never met any private sector payroll. Unless you own your own business, you can’t have a co-worker without a boss. - Rich Lowry

Global Banks Adopting Islam

“… the love of money is the root of all sorts of evil” (1 Ti. 6:10) So, just when you think you have just about seen it all, something even more shocking turns up. Like this…

Either global bankers are seducing Islamic dictators, or vice versa. Even if they are seducing each other at the same time, the result will be the same: Islamic/Shari’a banking is coming to the United States and other western nations, thanks to global banks such as Citigroup, HSBC, Deutsche Bank, Morgan Stanley and Goldman Sachs.

With Great Britain now pledging to become the Islamic banking center of the world, the stampede by all global banks to enter the world of Islamic banking is well underway.

What is Islamic banking?

Simply put, "Islamic banking and finance" creates, sells and services products that are in strict accordance with Shari'a. In the Islamic culture, it is referred to as "Shari'a finance" and covers the practices of banking, investment, bonds, loans, brokerage, etc.

To insure Shari'a compliance, banks must hire Shari'a scholars to review and approve each product and practice as "halal," the Muslim equivalent of kosher in Judaism. Because there is a shortage of such scholars, there is competition between banks to find the best expert to sit on their boards of directors. This provides the highest legitimacy to each ruling because it is made at the director rather management level.

It should be noted that most of these scholars are from the school of radical Wahhabi/Salafi Shari'a in Saudi Arabia and elsewhere, holding views diametrically opposed to the basic values of Western civilization.

Patrick Woods of NewsWithViews.com has the rest.

Caucus break......bonfires & beer, cool rides, guitars, a 'neck rippin' on a banjo.... just big timin' in a small town.....crank it.

News For Hillary

Nearly 70% of Democrat voters in Iowa don't want you......ouch!!

The results in Iowa are no guarantee that Obama and Huckabee will be the eventual nominees. Neither got as much as 40% of the votes in Iowa last night meaning more than six-in-ten supported someone other than the winners.

Obama portrayed himself as the agent of change. Clinton ran as the voice of experience.

Change won. I know it's early but, Republicans....stand up and take notice!

Brooke at NeoCon Command Center has a great clip of Glenn Beck on Huckabee's win last night, the tide's gonna change for the Huckster once he steps out of Iowa, go here.

Today in History....January 4

* 1493, Christopher Columbus leaves the New World, ending his first journey

* 1717, the Netherlands, England, and France sign the Triple Alliance against Spain, attempting to maintain the agreement of the 1713 Treaty of Utrecht. The three states were concerned about Spain becoming a superpower in Europe. As a result of this militarisation took place, causing great havoc to civilians. This enraged Spain and other states, leading to brinkmanship. It became the Quadruple Alliance the next year with the accession of Holy Roman Emperor Charles VI

* 1762, England declares war on Spain and Naples

* 1847, Samuel Colt sells his first revolver pistol to the United States government

* 1865, the New York Stock Exchange opens its first permanent headquarters at 10-12 Broad near Wall Street in New York City

* 1936, Billboard magazine publishes its first pop music charts

* 1944, Operation Carpetbagger, involving the dropping of arms and supplies to resistance fighters in Europe, begins

* 1951, during the Korean War: Chinese and North Korean forces capture Seoul

* 1962, New York City introduces a train that operates without a crew on-board

* 1965, President Lyndon B. Johnson proclaims his "Great Society" during his State of the Union address

* 1974, President Richard Nixon refuses to hand over materials subpoenaed by the Senate Watergate Committee

* 1995, the 104th Congress convened, the first entirely under Republican control since the Eisenhower era

* 2004, Spirit, a NASA Mars Rover, lands successfully on Mars at 04:35 UTC

* 2006, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon of Israel suffers a second stroke.
His authority is transferred to Acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert, who still holds the position

* 2007, the 110th United States Congress convenes, electing Nancy Pelosi as the first female Speaker of the House in U.S. history

Hillary on tape courting the Iowa folk this afternoon in the Iowa Caucus.

Thanks to Ace of Spades for the 'ol stein hoist, err.... h/t 'ing the above video at his site.

Today in History...January 3

* 1496, Leonardo da Vinci unsuccessfully tests a flying machine

* 1777, American general George Washington defeats British general Charles Cornwallis at the Battle of Princeton

* 1815, Austria, the United Kingdom, and France form a secret defensive alliance treaty against Prussia and Russia

* 1823, Stephen F. Austin receives a grant of land in Texas from the government of Mexico

* 1870, construction of the Brooklyn Bridge begins

* 1871, Henry W. Bradley patents oleomargarine (butter substitute)

* 1888, the 91 cm refracting telescope at Lick Observatory of the University of California is used for the first time. It was the largest telescope in the world at the time. ALSO: Marvin C. Stone patents the drinking straw

* 1899, the first known use of the word automobile, in an editorial in The New York Times

* 1924, English explorer Howard Carter discovers the sarcophagus of Tutankhamen in the Valley of the Kings, near Luxor, Egypt

* 1925, Benito Mussolini announces he is taking dictatorial powers over Italy

* 1947, proceedings of the U.S. Congress are televised for the first time

* 1953 , Frances Bolton and her son, Oliver from Ohio, become the first mother and son to serve simultaneously in the U.S. Congress

* 1961, the United States severs diplomatic relations with Cuba

* 1967, Jack Ruby, the man who shot accused presidential assassin Lee Harvey Oswald, died in a Dallas hospital

* 1988, Margaret Thatcher becomes the longest-serving British Prime Minister in the 20th Century

* 1990, former leader of Panama Manuel Noriega surrenders to American forces 10 days after taking refuge in the Vatican's diplomatic mission in Panama City

* 1993, in Moscow, George H. W. Bush and Boris Yeltsin sign the second Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty (START)

* 2000, the last new daily "Peanuts" comic strip by Charles Schulz ran in 2,600 newspapers

* 2004, NASA's Mars rover, Spirit, touched down on the red planet

Hillary re-invents "GirlPower".......the NAGS and feminazi groups go nuts. Nowwwwww I know why she is the smartest woman in America...or the world....or the universe, or whatever it is they say.

h/t A Small Dose of Reality

Today in History....January 2

1492, Muhammad XI, the sultan of Granada, the last Arab stronghold in Spain, surrendered to Spanish forces

* 1757, the United Kingdom captures Calcutta, India

* 1793, Russia and Prussia partition Poland

* 1882, John D. Rockefeller unites his oil holdings into the Standard Oil trust

* 1893, Webb C. Ball of the General Railroad Timepiece Standards in North America introduces railroad chronometers

* 1900, Secretary of State John Hay announced the "Open Door Policy" to facilitate trade with China

* 1905, the Russian garrison surrenders at Port Arthur, China

* 1923, U.S. Interior Secretary Albert Fall resigns over the Teapot Dome scandal

* 1929, Canada and the United States agree on a plan to preserve Niagara Falls

* 1935, Bruno Hauptmann goes on trial for the murder of Charles Lindbergh, Jr., infant son of aviator Charles Lindbergh. (Hauptmann was found guilty, and executed.)

* 1941, during World War II: The U.S. government announces its Liberty ship program to build freighters in support of the war effort

* 1946, unable to resume rule after World War II, King Zog of Albania abdicates but retains his claim to the throne

* 1957, the San Francisco Stock and Bond Exchange and Los Angeles Oil Exchange merge

* 1974, President Richard Nixon signs a bill lowering the maximum US speed limit to 55 MPH in order to conserve gasoline during an OPEC embargo (Federal speed limits were abolished in 1995)

* 2006, a methane gas explosion at the Sago Mine in West Virginia, claimed the lives of 12 miners, but one miner, Randal McCloy Jr., was eventually rescued.