Central Floridians Warned About New Year's 'Sky Shots'

Local6 is reporting...

Authorities in Central Florida are warning residents that firing bullets into the air to celebrate the New Year will not be tolerated this year, according to Local 6 News.

A stray bullet fired into the sky last New Year's Eve in Orlando, Fla., landed more than 2,200 yards away and killed Henry McDaniel, 75.

After an investigation, forensics experts linked the bullet to an assault rifle confiscated that night at Richardo Roach's home about a mile away.

In October, Roach was found guilty of manslaughter.

Stupid is as stupid does!-Forrest Gump

New Year's bullets strike 2 in Florida 'I don't know how you legislate against morons' --South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Most outrageous statements of 2005

This is from a left-wing outfit Media Matters, none the less some funny quotes.

Here are the most outrageous statements Media Matters for America has documented this year. From attacks on women, Muslims, and African-Americans to a call for the assassination of a foreign leader to an open invitation for Al Qaeda to "blow up" San Francisco to a claim that gay marriage would lead to unions between "a man and his donkey," these statements acutely represent the extreme conservative speech we found in the news media in 2005. (We tried to limit the comments to a Top 10 list, but it was simply impossible.)

Here's my favorite...

Tucker Carlson: "Canada is a sweet country. It is like your retarded cousin you see at Thanksgiving and sort of pat him on the head. You know, he's nice, but you don't take him seriously. That's Canada." [MSNBC's The Situation with Tucker Carlson, 12/15/05]

I'm a little disappointed I didn't make the list this year. I'll try harder in 2006.

ABC, Diane Sawyer Push Anti-Catholic "Pope Joan" Tale

This is a photo of Sr Joan Chittister OSB(AKA Pope Joan) once described by Mike Wallace of 60Minutes as the spokesperson for the lunatic fringe(far left) of the Catholic Church. She's a nut job from my home town of Erie, PA. Every Good Friday one of her crazy nuns would dress up as a mime and drag a cross across town. I'm not sure why but it was very entertaining. I think she secretly wants to be a man but nobody will spring for the surgery. I've been waiting a long time to use this photo and here's my chance.

NewsBusters is reporting..

Check out the promotional ad for this Thursday evening's (December 29, 2005) episode of ABC's Primetime. The promo is for the story, "On the Trail of Pope Joan":

"Diane Sawyer takes you on the trail of a passionate mystery. Just as intriguing as The Da Vinci Code. Chasing down centuries-old clues hidden even inside the Vatican. Could a woman disguised as a man have been Pope? Thursday night. One astonishing Primetime."

It doesn't get much uglier than this, folks. Quite simply, there was never a female pope, or "Pope Joan." The tale is a complete fabrication dating back to the 13th century - nearly 400 years after the reported "reign" of the so-called "Joan." For reliable summaries of the bogus tale, see this and this. Scholars debunked the fable hundreds of years ago, and recent books (this and this, for example) have further repudiated it.
Over the centuries, the "Pope Joan" story has been used as a slanderous tool to tarnish the Catholic Church and degrade Catholics. In his acclaimed 2003 book The New Anti-Catholicism, Philip Jenkins writes, "The Pope Joan legend is a venerable staple of the anti-Catholic mythology" (page 89).

Next week Diane Sawyer is joined by Leonard Nimoy as the go In Search Of... the elusive Yeti.

MT1 Reads You E-Mail for On-the-Go Access

Those of you who are too busy to read can now have your emails translated to audio files and read to you.

America's Favorite Pastime "Second Guessing the Cops"

Alan Colmes is almost as ignorant as Katie Couric when it comes to police shooting cases. Colmes is just a normal liberal elitists with the know-it-all attitude, as in he thinks he knows everything about all occupations. Tonight on Hannity & Colmes the recent police shooting of a man in New Orleans was discussed. Alan Colmes asked guest Mark Fuhrman, an expert on this type of situation, “can you shoot to stop as opposed to stop to kill”. Right, too bad police men are trained to shoot to kill. Colmes tried to sympathize with a man who was dumb enough to lunge at several policemen with a knife.

Hat Tip to Ian Schwartz at ThePoliticalTeen.

This just in from our "Any Port In A Storm" Dept.

Rural Temptress

Interested-Participant is reporting...

Man Has Sex With Cows
No, this is not another Clinton-bashing story, it's a report out of Wisconsin where a 63-year-old man routinely visited a farm after the strip clubs closed and had sex with cows.

Harold G. Hart, of Neillsville, has been charged with illegal sexual gratification with an animal along with disorderly conduct and two counts of obstruction. He faces a possible nine months in jail on each charge. A March 10 court date has been scheduled.According to police, Hart apparently admitted to tying a rope around the neck of cows to have sex "at least 50 times." It's been rumored, however, that he only picked the cute ones. Even so, this may explain why some cows are mad.

Follow-up...

Cow Rapist Gets Off

(Neillsville, Wisconsin) Last March, Harold G. Hart, 64, was arrested and charged with illegal sexual gratification with an animal along with disorderly conduct and two counts of obstruction. Last Thursday, Hart pleaded no contest to the charges. Hart was sentenced to two years probation and ordered to undergo psychological counseling. Since Hart was convicted of illegal sex with an animal, I must assume that there is some act that's considered to be legal sex with an animal. Frankly, I'm afraid to ask.

Attorney Who Helped Kill Terri Schiavo Leads "Euthanasia Cruise"

Dunedin, FL (LifeNews.com) -- The assisted suicide advocate who was Michael Schiavo's lead attorney during the legal battles with Terri Schiavo's parents will be heading up a "euthanasia cruise" during the first week of January. Doctors and attorneys who participate in the Caribbean cruise can earn continuing education credits by learning more about the medical and legal tactics that can be employed to end patients' lives.

Felos will be one of two faculty members leading a program called the "Advance Directives/End-of-Life Care and Neurology." Those participating in the five-day cruise will leave January 3 for the Bahamas, according to a North County Gazette report. [...]

According to the Gazette report, Continuing Education Inc., based in nearby St. Petersburg, Florida, is a company that offers courses on cruise ships. The target audience is doctors and attorneys and they can participate by paying anywhere from $350-$625.

It's not known how much Felos will make for his part in leading the courses, but this isn't the first time the Michael Schiavo attorney has financially capitalized on Terri's euthanasia death.

According to the Gazette, Felos has been listed with Eagles Talent Connection Inc. of New Jersey, which represents speakers. For fees ranging from $10,000 to $15,000, organizations or businesses can bring Felos to events to hear Felos talk on the subject: "The Terri Schiavo Saga-From Family Fight to Constitutional Crisis."

Here comes my favorite line...

Just after Terri died from the painful two week starvation and dehydration death, a reporter asked Felos how Terri's death could be described as a "death with dignity" when she was "starved to death."

"I'm sure you know that's an inaccurate question," Felos retorted. "Patients don't starve to death by removal of artificial nutrition and hydration."

Bloggers are Now Weapons in Information War

Jonathan Finer and Doug Struck of The Washington Post report on the ever-intensifying fight to shape the flow of information on the Iraq War--including the use of bloggers.

BAGHDAD -- Retired soldier Bill Roggio was a computer technician living in New Jersey less than two months ago when a Marine officer half a world away made him an offer he couldn't refuse.

Frustrated by the coverage they were receiving from the news media, the Marines invited Roggio, 35, who writes a popular Web log about the military called "The Fourth Rail" ( http://www.billroggio.com ), to come cover the war from the front lines.

He raised more than $30,000 from his online readers to pay for airfare, technical equipment and body armor. A few weeks later, he was posting dispatches from a remote outpost in western Anbar province, a hotbed of Iraq's insurgency.

"I was disenchanted with the reporting on the war in Iraq and the greater war on terror and felt there was much to the conflict that was missed," Roggio, who is currently stationed with Marines along the Syrian border, wrote in an e-mail response to written questions. "What is often seen as an attempt at balanced reporting results in underreporting of the military's success and strategy and an overemphasis on the strategically minor success of the jihadists or insurgents."

Read the rest HERE.

The WP story is riddled with factual errors. Get "The Rest Of The Story" at Outside the Beltway.

Terrorist Training Camps In US

On this week’s installment of Homeland Security Weekly with Doug Hagmann, Doug has some unsettling news about terrorist training facilities in the United States. Not only does Doug have hard evidence, he has photos to prove it. This show is packed with pertinent information about the enemy within this country.

Doug also discusses the Fifth Column in this country and the key positions being held by the enemy. There is also news in the Middle East, much of which was glossed over by the press during the Christmas rush. So many people are unaware of what is really going on. Doug brings us up to date as we count down the days before the Israeli/Hamas truce expires at the end of this week.You can listen to the show at http://www.enigmapodcast.com/ and you can visit Doug’s site at http://www.homelandsecurityus.com/ for more information.

Cleaner Air Aids Global Warming

The Christian Science Monitor is reporting...
New measurements of tiny particles in Earth's atmosphere contain a sobering message: All those hard-won efforts to cut air pollution may unwittingly accelerate global warming.

The result: The planet is likely to warm more and faster than current projections suggest, according to a team of British and American scientists.

The group has produced the most precise estimates yet of how tiny particles, known as aerosols, could affect the world's climate. Aerosols, which include pollutants, have a cooling effect on the atmosphere, and the team's work suggests that the cooling effect is strong — nearly as strong as the top estimates of the United Nation's Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC).

Thus, the dwindling presence of aerosols means that global average temperatures could rise faster than previously estimated and reach toward the high end of projections for the end of the century.

Those estimates currently range from 2.7 to 7.9 degrees F., depending on how emissions of greenhouse gases and other factors play out in coming years.

The results, published in the current edition of Nature, imply "future atmospheric warming greater than is presently predicted, as aerosol emissions continue to decline," suggests the team, led by Nicolas Bellouin at Britain's Meteorological Office in Exeter.

Sometimes you just can't win! Damned if you do, damned if you don't!

Some Border Patrol Agents Take a Chance on Love

The LA Times is reporting...

It's an open secret: By day they deport illegal immigrants, but at night they date them.

DOUGLAS, Ariz. — The forbidden romance between the Border Patrol agent and the illegal immigrant began in a gym.

Maria Terrazas, 31, met Jose Ruiz three years ago at LM's Body Builders in this remote border town. Terrazas, a waitress and mother of two, knew Ruiz was a catch. As a Border Patrol agent, Ruiz belonged to an elite class in town: available men with good jobs and an education.

The two began dating, and their relationship continued even after Terrazas was deported to Mexico in November 2004. She quickly bluffed her way through U.S. customs and back to Ruiz.

Terrazas, who said several of her illegal immigrant girlfriends have relationships with border agents, saw nothing unusual about dating a man whose job was to keep people like her out of the U.S. "He had his own job and I had mine," Terrazas said in an interview. "I never thought it'd cause problems."

But it did.

Michael Barone on the MSM’s ‘eavesdropping’ coverage

He nails the overhype and sensationalistic slant to the MSM’s reporting of the NSA ‘eavesdropping’ controversy:

“News stories” in the Times and other newspapers and many national newscasts have largely ignored this legal record. Instead, they are tinged with a note of hysteria and the suggestion that fundamental freedoms have been violated by the NSA intercepts.
Earlier this month, a Newsweek cover story depicted George W. Bush as living inside a bubble, isolated from knowledge of the real world. Many of the news stories about the NSA intercepts show that it is mainstream media that are living inside a bubble, carefully insulating themselves and their readers and viewers from knowledge of applicable law and recent historical precedent, determined to pursue an agenda of undermining the Bush administration regardless of any damage to national security.

The Constitution, Justice Robert Jackson famously wrote, should not be interpreted in a way that makes it “a suicide pact.” The notion that terrorists’ privacy must be respected when they place a cell-phone call to someone in the United States is in the nature of a suicide pact. The Fourth Amendment’s ban on unreasonable searches and seizures in the United States should not be stretched into a ban on interceptions of communications from America’s enemies abroad.
The mainstream media, inside their left-wing bubble, evidently thinks that there is not much in the way of danger. They should take a trip to Ground Zero, to the Sept. 11 memorial at the Pentagon, to Shanksville, Pa., where the heroes of United flight 93 prevented the terrorists from hitting their target in Washington.

Hat Tip to Sister Toldjah

Abrams Report's Politically-Correct Kabuki Dance on Exploited Teenager

From Mark Finkelstein's blog...

You know the old challenge: try to describe a spiral staircase without using your hands.

This evening's Abrams Report managed to pull off an equally impressive feat: describing a gay porn and sexual exploitation ring without mentioning that it was just that, or indeed even that males were involved.

It goes without saying that there are all sorts of predators on the internet, including many adult heterosexual men seeking to exploit underage girls. The purpose of this report is not to single out gays, but to draw attention to the PC-manner in which MSNBC approached an issue.

Abrams Report guest host Lisa Daniels had as her guest NY Times reporter Kurt Eichenwald. In this Times article, Eichenwald had broken the story of Justin, a young teenager who had hooked up a web cam, and in looking for friends on the internet, was gradually lured into becoming an internet porn star. In the segment, and in seeing him elsewhere on air, Eichenwald comes across as a good guy and a solid professional. Particularly in light of his employment at the NY Times, he deserves credit for taking up the story in the first place.

In discussing the perpetrators, Daniels and Eichenwald referred to them variously as "they" and "the predators," with Eichenwald going so far as to call them "evil." But neither ever managed to mention that the consumers of the porn were men. For all we knew, these were Desperate Housewives on line. But in fact, as Eichenwald did reveal in his Times article, this was a gay porn ring, and indeed the abuse went beyond the internet - Justin ultimately was physically molested by a number of men.

If the tables were turned and a young girl had been similarly exploited, would MSNBC have avoided mentioning that the perpetrators were males? It's hard to avoid the conclusion that the Daniels/Eichwenwald Kabuki dance reflected a conscious effort to avoid invoking the homosexual angle in the story.

Fraud Alleged at Red Cross Call Centers

The Washington Post, by Jacqueline L. Salmon

Nearly 50 people have been indicted in connection with a scheme that bilked hundreds of thousands of dollars from a Red Cross program to put cash into the hands of Hurricane Katrina victims, according to federal authorities. Seventeen of the accused worked at the Red Cross claim center in Bakersfield, Calif., which handled calls from storm victims across the country and authorized cash payments to them...

The Red Cross and fraud...together again! Anyone remember the problems after 9-11? By now they should have a system in place.

Estimate: 13 Million Celebrate Kwanzaa

ROCKSBORO, N.C. -- It's the first day of Kwanzaa and more and more people are celebrating. Bill Nesmith is a reference librarian at Person County public library in Rocksboro, N.C. He says interest in the holiday is growing, with about 13 million people now celebrating the holiday that began in 1966.

I'd like to know just where the number came from?

David B. Rivkin & Lee A. Casey on Bush and NSA

excerpts from the NYT, Dec. 27:

The president has the constitutional authority to acquire foreign intelligence without a warrant or any other type of judicial blessing. The courts have acknowledged this authority, and numerous administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have espoused the same view. The purpose here is not to detect crime, or to build criminal prosecutions - areas where the Fourth Amendment's warrant requirements are applicable - but to identify and prevent armed attacks on American interests at home and abroad. The attempt, by Democrats and Republicans alike, to dismantle the president's core constitutional power in wartime is wrongheaded and should be vigorously resisted by the administration.

In an effort to control counterintelligence activities in the United States during the cold war, the surveillance act established a special court, known as the FISA court, with authority to issue wiretapping warrants. Instead of having to show that it has "probable cause" to believe criminal activity is taking place (which is required to obtain a warrant in an ordinary investigation), the government can get a warrant from the FISA court when there is probable cause to believe the target of surveillance is a foreign power or its agent.

Although the administration could have sought such warrants, it chose not to for good reasons. The procedures under the surveillance act are streamlined, but nevertheless involve a number of bureaucratic steps. Furthermore, the FISA court is not a rubber stamp and may well decline to issue warrants even when wartime necessity compels surveillance. More to the point, the surveillance act was designed for the intricate "spy versus spy" world of the cold war, where move and countermove could be counted in days and hours, rather than minutes and seconds. It was not drafted to deal with the collection of intelligence involving the enemy's military operations in wartime, when information must be put to immediate use.

Indeed, it is highly doubtful whether individuals involved in a conflict have any "reasonable expectation of privacy" in their communications, which is the touchstone of protection under both the Fourth Amendment and the surveillance act itself - anymore than a tank commander has a reasonable expectation of privacy in his communications with his commanders on the battlefield. The same goes for noncombatants swept up in the hostilities.

Behold a Savior is born!

Gospel
Lk 2:1-14

In those days a decree went out from Caesar Augustus
that the whole world should be enrolled.
This was the first enrollment,
when Quirinius was governor of Syria.
So all went to be enrolled, each to his own town.
And Joseph too went up from Galilee from the town of Nazareth
to Judea, to the city of David that is called Bethlehem,
because he was of the house and family of David,
to be enrolled with Mary, his betrothed, who was with child.
While they were there,
the time came for her to have her child,
and she gave birth to her firstborn son.
She wrapped him in swaddling clothes and laid him in a manger,
because there was no room for them in the inn.

Now there were shepherds in that region living in the fields
and keeping the night watch over their flock.
The angel of the Lord appeared to them
and the glory of the Lord shone around them,
and they were struck with great fear.
The angel said to them,
(Do not be afraid;
for behold, I proclaim to you good news of great joy
that will be for all the people.
For today in the city of David
a savior has been born for you who is Christ and Lord.
And this will be a sign for you:
you will find an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes
and lying in a manger.(
And suddenly there was a multitude of the heavenly host with the angel,
praising God and saying:
(Glory to God in the highest
and on earth peace to those on whom his favor rests.)

Merry Christmas!

EXCLUSIVE: Nuclear Monitoring of Muslims Done Without Search Warrants

In search of a terrorist nuclear bomb, the federal government since 9/11 has run a far-reaching, top secret program to monitor radiation levels at over a hundred Muslim sites in the Washington, D.C., area, including mosques, homes, businesses, and warehouses, plus similar sites in at least five other cities, U.S. News has learned. In numerous cases, the monitoring required investigators to go on to the property under surveillance, although no search warrants or court orders were ever obtained, according to those with knowledge of the program. Some participants were threatened with loss of their jobs when they questioned the legality of the operation, according to these accounts.

And this is a problem because? I want my government monitoring these sites. The enemy is within and they don't wish us well. We ignore them at our own peril! Why are we telling the enemy what were doing to monitor them? Whose side is U.S. News and World Report on anyway?

Please join me in welcoming Mike Schiano

I'll be taking a few days off to enjoy the Christmas holiday with family. Mike Schiano will be sitting in for me.

What was the most significant story of 2005?

That's the question I asked on the show this morning.

My pick is the Terri Schiavo story.

In years to come this will be looked back upon as a milestone, much like Roe vs. Wade. We allowed the State to OK the systematic death by starvation & dehydration of a woman who was not dying, not terminally ill. Terri's only problem was she was brain damaged and for that we executed her in a most inhumane way. This is a decision that will come back to haunt all of us in the years to come.

*AP names Hurricane Katrina its top story of the year. The rest of the top ten:

2: PAPAL TRANSITION: John Paul II's death marked the passing of the first non-Italian pope in 455 years and ended a 26-year pontificate, third-longest in history. In a remarkable show of affection, many millions attended services worldwide on the day of his funeral. Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger of Germany, expected to continue a conservative doctrinal approach, became the new pope and promptly waived the normal waiting period so John Paul could swiftly be considered for sainthood.
3: IRAQ: As in 2004, news from Iraq ranged from the grim, including a devastating wave of suicide bombings, to the promising - Iraqis voting for new leaders and thrashing out differences on a new constitution. The U.S. military death toll surpassed 2,000, and President Bush estimated the Iraqi toll at 30,000, but he insisted U.S. forces would stay until Iraqi troops could contain insurgents on their own.
4: SUPREME COURT: Not since 1994 had a Supreme Court seat become vacant. Suddenly there were two openings due to Sandra Day O'Connor's retirement and Chief Justice William Rehnquist's death. John Roberts was smoothly confirmed to succeed Rehnquist, but President Bush's next nominee, Harriet Miers, had to bow out amid conservative complaints. The right liked the next choice, Samuel Alito, but he could face tough Democratic opposition at confirmation hearings in January.
5: OIL PRICES: Crude oil prices hit an all-time peak of almost $71 a barrel in August before subsiding. Costly gasoline prompted some motorists to rethink their driving habits; the beleaguered U.S. airline industry had to spend $9 billion more on jet fuel in 2005 than in 2004.
6: LONDON BOMBINGS: Attacks on three rush-hour subway trains and a bus killed 56 people on July 7, including four bombers with ties to Islamic militants. Authorities said three of the alleged bombers were born in Britain to immigrant parents from Pakistan; the fourth was from Jamaica.
7: ASIAN QUAKE: A massive earthquake near the Pakistan-India border killed more than 87,000, and left more than 3 million homeless. Worried relief officials appealed for more emergency aid as winter arrived in the stricken region.
8: TERRI SCHIAVO: A family feud escalated into a wrenching national debate as the husband of brain-damaged Terri Schiavo struggled and finally succeeded in getting clearance to remove the feeding tube that had kept her alive for 15 years. President Bush, Florida Gov. Jeb Bush and members of Congress joined Terri Schiavo's parents in efforts to have the tube reinserted before she died.
9: CIA LEAK: Vice President Cheney's chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby, was indicted and several prominent journalists were entangled in complex offshoots as a special prosecutor investigated the Bush administration's leaking of Valerie Plame's CIA status to the news media in 2003. Plame's husband, a former U.S. diplomat, had accused the administration of manipulating prewar intelligence on Iraq.
10: BUSH'S STRUGGLES: Multiple factors, including public doubts about Iraq, a flawed response to Hurricane Katrina and a failed Supreme Court nomination, drove President Bush's national approval ratings below 40 percent, the lowest of his presidency.

'Twas The Night Before Jesus Came'

As heard on my show this morning...

'Twas the night before Jesus came and all through the house
Not a creature was praying, not one in the house.
Their Bibles were lain on the shelf without care
In hopes that Jesus would not come there.
The children were dressing to crawl into bed.
Not once ever kneeling or bowing a head.
And Mom in her rocker with baby on her lap
Was watching the Late Show while I took a nap.

When out of the East there arose such a clatter.
I sprang to my feet to see what was the matter.
Away to the window I flew like a flash,
Tore open the shutters and threw up the sash!

When what to my wondering eyes should appear
But angels proclaiming that Jesus was here.
With a light like the sun sending forth a bright ray
I knew in a moment this must be THE DAY!

The light of His face made me cover my head
It was Jesus! returning just like He had said.
And though I possessed worldly wisdom and wealth,
I cried when I saw Him in spite of myself.

In the Book of Life which He held in His hand
Was written the name of every saved man.
He spoke not a word as He searched for my name;
When He said "it's not here" my head hung in shame.

The people whose names had been written with love
He gathered to take to His Father above.
With those who were ready He rose without a sound.
While all the rest were left standing around.

I fell to my knees, but it was too late;
I had waited too long and thus sealed my fate.
I stood and I cried as they rose out of sight;
Oh, if only I had been ready tonight.

In the words of this poem the meaning is clear;
The coming of Jesus is drawing near.
There's only one life and when comes the last call
We'll find that the Bible was true after all!

Ten Reasons Why I Never Wash

A parish priest in Dublin, Ireland, got tired of listening to the same old excuses from people who don’t attend church. So he wrote the following and printed it in the Sunday bulletin:

Ten Reasons Why I Never Wash
1.I was forced to wash as a child.

2.People who wash are hypocrites. They think they are cleaner than everyone else.

3.There are so many different kinds of soap, I could never decide which one was right.

4.I used to wash, but it got boring so I stopped.

5.I wash only on special occasions, like Easter and Christmas.

6.None of my friends wash.

7.I’m still young. When I’m older and have gotten a bit dirtier, I might start washing.

8.I really don’t have time to wash.

9.The bathroom is never warm enough in the winter or cool enough in the summer.

10.People who make soap are only after your money.(Ain't that the truth!)

Additional excuses:

I get along very well without washing.

I work hard all week and am too tired to take a bath on the weekend.

The first bar of soap I ever used gave me a rash, so I haven't gone near soap since!

Mexican Government Plans International Campaign Against Border Wall, Hires PR Firm

The Mexican government, angered by a U.S. proposal approved by the House of Representatives last week to set up a wall along the border to keep out illegal immigrants, said yesterday (December 20th) they'd fight to block the plan and organize an international campaign against it, including recruiting U.S. church, community and business groups. Mexican President Vicente Fox has previously denounced the wall proposal as, quote, "shameful," and many Mexicans, especially those who have spent time working in the U.S., feel it is a slap in the face to those who work hard and contribute to the U.S. economy.

The Mexican government has also hired Dallas-based public relations firm Allyn & Company to improve its image and counter growing U.S. concerns about immigration. Rob Allyn, president of the company, told AP, "If people in the U.S. and Canada had an accurate view of the success of democracy, political stability and economic prosperity in Mexico, it would improve their views on specific bilateral issues like immigration and border security."

Billboard shows terrorist with driver's license

Ad set for 2 states criticized for 'connecting Arab men with violence'

Gosh! Why would anyone make that connection? I can't tell the ethnicity of the person behind the head scarf. I don't even know if it's male or female.

UPDATE...

Terrorist billboards rejected as 'racist' Ad company refusing to carry campaign featuring Arabs with licenses, explosives --WND

The Vast Majority of Americans Favor MORE “Domestic Spying”

An informal study conducted by The Science of Strategy Institute has found that more than 80% of respondents favor more domestic spying. This development comes despite recent media coverage putting what President Bush calls “domestic eavesdropping” in a negative light. Less than 5% of those surveyed viewed that all domestic spying should cease altogether.

“If the term, ‘domestic spying,’ now means intercepting the communication of foreign terrorists with their contacts in the US, most reasonable people are going to support it,” explains Gary Gagliardi, the award-winning author of a dozen books on strategy and the founder of the Science of ‘Strategy Institute. “The average person realizes that spying is a necessary component in any workable strategy and most people want to be safe against terrorist attack here at home. The media is doing a real disservice by broadening a term that used to mean ‘spying on US political organizations’ to include spying on terrorist operatives that may be working here.”

Richard Miniter stopped by to discuss the NY Times NSA story.

Let’s examine the media myths:

• MYTH: The U.S. government is “spying” on Americans.
Surveillance of suspected terrorists is no more spying than police staking out a crack house is spying. The NSA is targeting only people who have received a phone call or an email from a known al Qaeda terrorist. People who merely oppose the Bush administration and are not in contact with terrorist groups have not had their phones tapped.

• MYTH: The Bush Admin is violating the rights of “Americans.” Very few of the 300 people targeted for surveillance by the NSA are actually U.S. citizens. The overwhelming majority are what lawyers call “U.S. persons,” a catchall term that includes legal and illegal residents of the United States.

• MYTH: The NSA surveillance is unprecedented and illegal.
Actually, the FBI and the CIA have been using similar surveillance techniques against mobsters and spies for the past 30 years. Following the 911 attacks, these two agencies set their sights on terrorists inside the United States. To date, more than 600 suspects have been arrested and two attacks inside the U.S. have been thwarted. As for the surveillance being “illegal” there is little basis for this view. The President has a long established constitutional right (recently reaffirmed by the US Supreme Court in 1972) to surveil persons who are a threat to national security. The 1978 FIFA Act, which provided a secret court to issue warrants in national security cases, does not limit the President’s constitutional powers.

Have a Bulldog Attitude New Year

Here's the Doug Giles column I talked about this morning...

2. Cut The Fat. Fat will kill you. Fat is the excess baggage that is detrimental to your future progress. A good place to start is with the 50+ hours of TV you watch a week. Get this into your brain: Television is an E.I.R.: Electronic Income Reducer. TV has killed more dreams and visions than crack could ever hope to.

T.V. the great time bandit. How much time do you waste each week?

13 Grams of Fiber in a Cookie?

Strength Systems USA Presents:Tri-O-Pro Cookies

Enjoy All The Goodness Of Whole Grains In A Cookie!
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Bush’s Approval Ratings On the Rise

WASHINGTON POST - President Bush’s approval rating has surged in recent weeks, reversing what had been an extended period of decline, with Americans now expressing renewed optimism about the future of democracy in Iraq, the campaign against terrorism and the U.S. economy, according to the latest Washington Post-ABC News Poll.

Bush’s overall approval rating rose to 47 percent, up from 39 percent in early November, with 52 percent saying they disapprove of how he is handling his job. His approval rating on Iraq jumped 10 percentage points since early November to 46 percent, while his rating on the economy rose 11 percentage points to 47 percent. A clear majority, 56 percent, said they approve of the way Bush is handling the fight against terrorism — a traditional strong point in his reputation that nonetheless had flagged to 48 percent in the November poll.

Why Isn't this on the front page of the Orlando Sentinel?

Thank You for Wiretapping

Check out today's WSJ Editorial...

Why the Founders made presidents dominant on national security.

Wisconsin Democrat Russ Feingold wants to be President, and that's fair enough. By all means go for it in 2008. The same applies to Lindsey Graham, the South Carolina Republican who's always on the Sunday shows fretting about the latest criticism of the Bush Administration's prosecution of the war on terror. But until you run nationwide and win, Senators, please stop stripping the Presidency of its Constitutional authority to defend America.

POLL: KATRINA MOST TALKED-ABOUT NEWS STORY OF 2005

A survey commissioned by data and information company LexisNexis found that Hurricane Katrina was America's most talked-about news story in 2005. According to the results, 97 percent of Americans considered Katrina the most talked-about event at their home or office this past year, followed by the increase in gas prices, the war in Iraq, the Asian tsunami and the London mass transit bombings. Rounding out the top 10 were the Supreme Court nominations, the battle over removing Terri Schiavo's feeding tube, the Aruba disappearance of U.S. teen Natalee Holloway, Michael Jackson's child molestation trial, and the breakup of Brad Pitt and Jennifer Aniston's marriage.

What's it really like living inside Iran?

Ghazal Omid stops by to share her story.

Living in Hell is a captivating, multi-faceted, insider’s account that affords the reader insight into a culture foreign to the West and answers questions about society, politics and religion under the brutal regime of Khomani and his mullahs, posturing as Messiahs.

Related story...

IRANIAN PRESIDENT BANS WESTERN MUSIC: Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has banned all Western music from state radio and TV stations, continuing his hard shift of Iran away from moderate policies after winning office in August on a platform or returning to ultraconservative principles after eight years of reformist rule under Mohammad Khatami. The official IRAN Persian daily reported Monday (December 19th) that Ahmadinejad, as head of the Supreme Cultural Revolutionary Council, ordered the enactment of an October ruling by the council banning all Western music, including classical music, on state broadcast outlets. Iranians with satellite dishes, however, will still be able to receive broadcasts from outside the country. Music was banned by the late Ayatollah Khomeini soon after Iran's 1979 Islamic revolution, however it slowly returned in the quarter-century since, to the point where Western music is now widely available in the country. But with the turning of the tide under Ahmadinejad, Ali Rahbari, the conductor of Tehran's symphony orchestra, resigned earlier this month and left Iran in protest.

A little side note there was an assassination attempt on the Iranian President over the weekend that's not being reported by the western press.

Mystery Surrounds Plane Crash

Doug Hagmann from the Northeast Intelligence Network stops by with the latest...

WITNESS ACCOUNTS: "THE PLANE BLEW-UP BEFORE IT HIT THE WATER"

20 December 2005: Initially it appeared to be a catastrophic mechanical failure that brought down Chalks Ocean Airways Flight 101, a 58 year-old, a propeller-driven, twin-engine Grumman G-73 Turbo Mallard carrying twenty-(20) people - 18 passengers and two crew members. The crash was the deadliest plane crash in the U.S. in nearly three years, taking place at about 2:40 pm, shortly after take-off from Miami Beach and destined for the island of Bimini in the Bahamas. The last plane crash of similar magnitude involved a USAirways Express commuter flight that crashed in Charlotte, North Carolina in January 2003, killing 21 people. Chalks Ocean Airways has been billed as America's oldest surviving airline whose aircraft has carried celebrities and diplomats and appeared in the opening of the 1980's TV series Miami Vice. According to FAA safety records, incidents involving the Grumman G-73 aircraft have been few - only four recorded over the last three decades - and none involved any injuries let alone fatalities. Monday's crash, however, broke that safety record.

Video of the crash HERE.

Debbie Schlussel stops by the PC Show

to talk about...

Germany Trades Terrorist Murderer of U.S.' Stethem for Hostage in Iraq

Time Magazine's Person(s) of the Year- Bono and Gates

Keep These Men off the U.S. Olympic Hockey Team

Theater Owners Call For Blocking Cell Phones

The National Association of Theater Owners feels that asking moviegoers to turn off cell phones isn't enough to stop the annoyance of cell phone use in cinemas and wants to go a step further: blocking cell phone signals in theaters.

John Fithian, the president of the trade association, told the Los Angeles Times that theater owners "have to block rude behavior." He said that some theaters already have a no cell phone policy, asking visitors to check their phones at the door. His groups plans to petition the FCC for permission to block cell phone signals within movie theaters.

But the Cellular Telecommunications and Internet Association -- a Washington-based cell phone lobby that is also known as CTIA-the Wireless Association -- said it would fight back. "We're opposed to the use of any blocking technology, because it interferes with people's ability to use a wireless device in an emergency situation," CTIA spokesman Joseph Farren told the Times.

Great idea! Long overdue! They need this technology in restaurants and churches too.

President Bush's Speech

Video and Transcript

Instapundit: "...one big thing struck me: In this national televised speech, Bush went out of his way to take responsibility for the war. He repeatedly talked about "my decision to invade Iraq," even though, of course, it was also Congress's decision. He made very clear that, ultimately, this was his war, and the decisions were his.
Why did he do that? Because he thinks we're winning, and he wants credit."

Please read...The Media's Incurable Myopia

Going Places : How America's Best and Brightest Got Started Down the Road of Life

E.D. Hill is the cohost of Fox & Friends stopped by the show today to talk about her new book.

What one piece of advice has made all the difference in your life?

That was the question longtime journalist and Fox & Friends cohost E.D. Hill asked of scores of the most famous and successful figures in America—from President George W. Bush to supermodel Carol Alt. The result is Going Places, a collection of moving and instructive profiles that reveal exactly what inspires and drives our nation's best and brightest to survive and thrive.

Black-history month ripped as 'ridiculous'

WND is reporting...

Actor Morgan Freeman has a solution to the problem of racism – "Stop talking about it!"

In a CBS News' 60 Minutes profile of the Oscar-winning actor scheduled to air tonight, Freeman tells Mike Wallace labels like "white" and "black" are an obstacle to defeating racism.

"I am going to stop calling you a white man and I'm going to ask you to stop calling me a black man," he says. "I know you as Mike Wallace. You know me as Morgan Freeman. You wouldn't say, 'Well, I know this white guy named Mike Wallace.' You know what I'm saying?"

The actor also criticizes Black History Month, saying setting aside a special month actually segregates black history from American history. Calling the idea "ridiculous," Freeman notes there's no "white history month."

"You're going to relegate my history to a month?" Freeman asks Wallace. "I don't want a black history month. Black history is American history," he says.

The Real Scandal

President Bush delivered a very tough radio address responding to the controversy over the New York Times report on National Security Agency surveillance. The gist, according to Byron York at National Review's The Corner: "the surveillance program is critical to security, legal, and carefully reviewed at various intervals -- and the leak of its existence was illegal". Bush also revealed that "Leaders in Congress have been briefed more than a dozen times on this authorization and the activities conducted under it". The real scandal is that NYT deliberately decided to harm national security, publishing a 12-months-old "scoop" to try to downplay the impact of free elections in Iraq. UPDATE. As Glenn Reynolds writes on Instapundit: "This story was bad for Bush on Friday, but it'll be bad for a lot of other people by next week"

Hat Tip to TheRightNation.

Mark Levin has some quick FISA background and explains the damage these leaks do to national security.

Clinton NSA Eavesdropped on U.S. Calls

Pelosi: I Was Briefed on NSA Program

Harry Reid: I Was Briefed on Spy Program

Time Magazine Persons of the Year 2005

The Good Samaritans
For being shrewd about doing good, for rewiring politics and re-engineering justice, for making mercy smarter and hope strategic and then daring the rest of us to follow, Bill and Melinda Gates and Bono are TIME's Persons of the Year.

I think Bono is an excellent choice. I'll tell you why Monday morning. Also some interesting observations about Bill Gates & the Mrs.

Bono charmed and bullied and morally blackmailed the leaders of the world's richest countries into forgiving $40 billion in debt owed by the poorest; now those countries can spend the money on health and schools rather than interest payments—and have no more excuses for not doing so.

Bill Gates was considered evil when he was actually creating something, but only earns Time magazine's highest praise when he's giving his money away. Melinda Gates? She gives away someone else's money? If that's the criteria Congress should be Time's Person of the Year.

Report stirs debate: News or exploitation?

From Hal Boedeker Sentinel Television Critic

Local television newsrooms handled a child's call to 911 in sharply different ways.

WFTV-Channel 9 anchor Martie Salt suffered an unusual on-air moment last week: She choked up during Wednesday's 5 p.m. newscast.

"I couldn't read the next story," she says. "I was crying. Bob [Opsahl] took over. He picked up where I left off. I had to get my composure over the next few minutes. He had tears in his eyes too, but he could read."

Listening to a 911 tape stunned Salt. In a conversation with a dispatcher, a 7-year-old Melbourne girl told of watching her mother's fatal shooting. The girl identified her 18-year-old half brother as the gunman. Matthew Wayne Almand was later arrested in the slayings of his father and stepmother.

Salt's tears reflected the strong reactions the tape provoked in local television newsrooms, which handled the call in sharply different ways.

WESH-Channel 2 and WOFL-Channel 35 decided against airing the call.

"This tape takes advantage of a distraught 7-year-old girl at the worst moment in her life,'' says Ed Trauschke, news director at WESH. "We still covered the story. I don't think it [the tape] added anything.''

See what Paul Harris has to say about Exploiting A Child's 911 Call.

Tom "The Bomb" Tancredo drops another.

NewsMax is reporting...

Tancredo: Terrorist Suspects Crossing U.S. Borders
Congressman Tom Tancredo (R-Colo.) revealed figures which show that since October, 2004, 51 persons who have crossed into the U.S. illegally were arrested on suspicion of terrorism.

The JTTF document shows 51 persons were arrested who had "entered without inspection” into the U.S. from countries such as Iran, Iraq, Lebanon, Egypt, Syria and Pakistan. "If this isn’t a wake-up call to our lax border security, I don’t know what is,” said Tancredo.

And these are just the ones we caught. How many others made it through?

Air Marshals to Patrol Mass Transit Systems

Soon, air marshals will be shooting rambling, incoherent people dead at train and bus stations. They're going to need a lot more bullets.

Federal air marshals will be patrolling mass transit facilities in a three-day test program aimed at expanding their role beyond airplanes. Air marshal spokesman David Adams told AP, "We just want to develop the capability to enhance security outside of aviation." The TSA is trying to expand the role of marshals, who've been eager to conduct anti-terrorism surveillance activity beyond planes, as well as increase security on public transit over the holidays.

The Transportation Security Administration said that teams of undercover air marshals and uniformed law enforcement officers would be patrolling Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, Los Angeles rail lines, Washington state ferries, bus stations in Houston and mass transit systems in Atlanta, Philadelphia and Baltimore. The so-called VIPER teams -- for "Visible Intermodal Protection and Response" -- will consist of two air marshals, one TSA bomb-sniffing canine team, one or two transportation security inspectors and a local law enforcement officer.

Not everyone thinks this is a good idea, however. American Airlines pilot Denis Breslin, spokesman for the Allied Pilots Association union, told AP, "I don't think there's enough air marshals to cover commercial aviation as it is. That's what transit police are for."

MAN DATES GAL ON INTERNET FOR SIX MONTHS -- AND IT TURNS OUT SHE'S HIS MOTHER!

MARSEILLES, France -- Skirt-chasing playboy Daniel Anceneaux spent weeks talking with a sensual woman on the Internet before arranging a romantic rendezvous at a remote beach -- and discovering that his on-line sweetie of six months was his own mother!

"I walked out on that dark beach thinking I was going to hook up with the girl of my dreams," the rattled bachelor later admitted. "And there she was, wearing white shorts and a pink tank top, just like she'd said she would.

"But when I got close, she turned around -- and we both got the shock of our lives. I mean, I didn't know what to say. All I could think was, 'Oh my God! it's Mama!' "

But the worst was yet to come. Just as the mortified mother and son realized the error of their ways, a patrolman passed by and cited them for visiting a restricted beach after dark.

"Danny and I were so flustered, we blurted out the whole story to the cop," recalled matronly mom Nicole, 52. "The policeman wrote a report, a local TV station got hold of it -- and the next thing we knew, our picture and our story was all over the 6 o'clock news. "People started pointing and laughing at us on the street -- and they haven't stopped laughing since."

Oh wait it gets better!

Daniel admits he and his mother could do little but stammer and stutter around each other for days after their cyberspace exploits came to light. And his father Paul -- Nicole's husband of 27 years -- wasn't too happy when the story hit the news and his beer-drinking buddies made him the butt of their jokes.

"Dad was ticked for a while and he forbid Mom to talk to anybody on the Internet ever again," said embarrassed Daniel.

Daniel should change his name to Oedipus.

U.S. teacher sexpidemic spreading across planet

What's the solution to the outbreak of teacher-student sex? A new York Times article suggests that we should lower the age of consent to 14. I'm talking about it Thursday.

Supporters declare Williams deserves statesman's funeral

The S.F. Chronicle referred to him as Tookie The Redeemer? I can't believe how they've elevated this thug to Christ like status. I fully expect him to rise from the dead on the 3rd day. To honor him with a statesman's funeral is to dishonor his victims and their families.

I'm on MSNBC tonight at 9:15PM ET.

I'll be on Live and Direct with Rita Cosby at 9:15PM ET. We'll be discussing the latest developments in the Natalee Holloway case. Rita wants to know how I feel about the Aruba Boycott.

Watch the video HERE.

Thanks to Ian Schwartz from ThePoliticalTeen.

Rita Cosby Will Watch Williams Die

MSNBC's Rita Cosby will be one of the media witnesses to tonight's execution of Stanley "Tookie" Williams by lethal injection. She will report live from San Quentin tonight on Live & Direct.

Rita joins me at 8:05AM ET Tuesday to talk about it.

Today's word from Unity: Persistence

He'd tried twice to enter America illegally and got sent back. Third time lucky: he got a $44,000./year job, U.S. government help buying a house, and the opportunity to become a serial rapist. Yes, the possibilities are limitless in America.

LIVE OR DIE?

Should Governor Schwarzenegger grant clemency for Tookie to avoid race riots in LA?
Justice delayed is Justice denied!
Breaking...
ARNOLD: TOOKIE DENIED
Let the party begin...
LOS ANGELES ON ALERT FOR UNREST...

Comedian Richard Pryor dies at 65

Vintage Pryor, one of the best...

Saturday Night Live drew tremendous ratings: the primary sketch featured Pryor as a job applicant and Chevy Chase as his interviewer who suggests a round of word association. Each of Chase's words grows incrementally more racist than the last, and Pryor attempts to follow his suit.

White? Black. Negro? Whitey. Colored? Redneck. Tarbaby? Peckerwood. Spearchucker? White trash. Junglebunny? Honkey. Nigger? Dead honkey.

Watch the video HERE.

Follow-up to my appearance on FOX & Friends Friday morning

As many of you know I made an appearance on FOX & Friends Friday morning. The Topic was The War Against Christmas. They pitted me against Ed Schultz. Most of you probably never hear of Ed. He's a progressive talker based out of Fargo, ND. He's nationally syndicated and claims he's on 100 stations. He bills himself as the Left's version of Rush Limbaugh. To make a long story short I ran circles around him and got the better of him. Toward the end of our 2nd segment he took off his microphone in disgust. According to Brian Kilmeade he said he'd never come on the show again. Based on his actions you can figure out who came out the winner. Some of his listeners alerted me via e-mail that he spent his whole show whining about the beating he took. You can hear the whole pathetic rant HERE.

I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia today.

I went to see The Chronicles of Narnia today at The Regal Theater in Oviedo with four of my children. Without a doubt this is the finest Family movie I've ever seen. I'm not someone who easily dishes out praise for movies but this is 5 star material. This is a movie for children of all ages and the child in every adult. A movie you wouldn't be embarrassed or ashamed to take your mother or grandmother to see. A good wholesome movie with a classic plot of good vs evil, where good wins. It stays true to the C.S. Lewis story line. The visuals are spectacular, the special effects are impressive. The best part is all of my children picked up the Christ story. "Dad the lion(Aslan)is just like Jesus!"

Catholics condemn South Park episode about Virgin Mary

KXAN is reporting...

Editors: Note nature of content in second paragraph NEW YORK _ The Catholic League for Religious and Civil Rights is condemning an episode of "South Park" that it says "defiled" the Virgin Mary.

The cartoon, which runs on Comedy Central, features an episode this week titled "Bloody Mary," in which a South Park character claims to have been sprayed by blood from a body orifice of a Virgin Mary statue. When Pope Benedict investigates, he declares that she's just having her period.

The Catholic League is calling on the board chairman of Viacom, which owns Comedy Central, to apologize to Catholics and stop the episode from airing the next several nights as scheduled.

The Catholic League notes that Viacom chairman Joseph Califano is a practicing Catholic, and that today is the church's feast of the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary.

Texas Teen Video Gamer Arrested for Threatening to Torture and Kill Miami Anti-Video Game Activist

The Harris County, Texas Sheriff’s Department (Houston) arrested today, at his high school, a 16-year-old boy who was immersed in extremely violent, Mature-rated video games. This boy, whose name may be released by authorities shortly, called Miami attorney Jack Thompson and threatened to torture and kill him. The threat was taped.

Thompson has for past seven years been involved in national efforts to stop the marketing and sale of Mature-rated, violent games, some of which titles this boy consumed, because of their impact on the attitudes and behaviors of kids. This incident helps prove the harmful impact of the games. The specifics of the torture with which Thompson was threatened are so grotesque that they cannot be properly placed in this news release. The torture was to end with the shooting of Thompson, as in this teen’s favorite games.

“Shoot the messenger” is the video game industry’s strategy. This time, because of the arrest in Texas, it didn’t work. It backfired.

I'll be on Flashpoint Saturday Morning.

I'll be on Flashpoint on Local 6, with Lauren Rowe, Saturday morning at 7:30AM. I'll be on with fellow panelists discussing The War On Christmas.

Rabbi Aaron D. Rubinger, Congregation Ohev Shalom
Mathew D. Staver, President and General Counsel of Liberty Counsel
Attorney Scott Ross, former head of Orlando chapter of the ACLU

I'll be on Fox and Friends Friday morning at 6:10AM ET

Here's what is on tap for Friday: "FOX & Friends First"Starts at 6 a.m. ET

Is Christmas really under attack? We'll get a fair and balanced debate from talk show hosts Ed Schultz and Pat Campbell.

Passenger Who Made Threat Shot, Killed At Airport

WFTV is reporting...

MIAMI -- A passenger who claimed to have a bomb in a carryon bag was shot and killed by a federal air marshal Wednesday on a jetway connected to an American Airlines plane that had just arrived at Miami International Airport from Colombia, officials said.

The man's name was not immediately released. He was a 44-year-old United States citizen, said Homeland Security Department spokeswoman.

A passenger on the flight, Mary Gardner, told WTVJ-TV, that she saw a man running "frantically" up the plane's aisle before he was shot. A woman, apparently the man's wife, said he suffered from bipolar disorder and had not taken his medication, Gardner said.

Gardner said four to five shots were fired.

Accusers say rapist left his phone number

A suspect raped two women in the same apartment complex within 27 hours, Orange County sex-crime investigators said Tuesday.But returning to the scene of the crime wasn't the dumbest thing he did, investigators said. Evislandys Brito, they said, also programmed his telephone number into his victims' cell phones in case they wanted to go on a date later.

Black survivors of Katrina: We were genocide victims!

WASHINGTON -- Black survivors of Hurricane Katrina said yesterday that racism contributed to the slow disaster response. In emotional congressional testimony, some likened themselves to victims of genocide and the Holocaust.

Am I the only one that finds this slightly offensive? I don't remember Blacks being round-up put on cattle cars and taken away to the gas chambers. I could be wrong but I don't think the death toll in New Orleans was anywhere near 6,000,000.

Sami Walks!

AP is reporting...Ex-Professor Acquitted on Several Charges

TAMPA, Fla. (AP) - A former Florida professor accused of helping lead a terrorist group that has carried out suicide bombings against Israel was acquitted on several charges Tuesday, and the jury deadlocked on the other counts.

The case against Sami Al-Arian, 47, had been seen as one of the biggest courtroom tests yet of the Patriot Act's expanded search and surveillance powers.

As predicted several weeks ago by Debbie Schlussel on my show. Sadly she is right again!

Does Howard Dean Speak For His Party?

WOAI is reporting...

(SAN ANTONIO) -- Saying the "idea that we're going to win the war in Iraq is an idea which is just plain wrong," Democratic National Chairman Howard Dean predicted today that the Democratic Party will come together on a proposal to withdraw National Guard and Reserve troops immediately, and all US forces within two years.

Dean made his comments in an interview on WOAI Radio in San Antonio.

"I've seen this before in my life. This is the same situation we had in Vietnam. Everybody then kept saying, 'just another year, just stay the course, we'll have a victory.' Well, we didn't have a victory, and this policy cost the lives of an additional 25,000 troops because we were too stubborn to recognize what was happening."

Dean says the Democratic position on the war is 'coalescing,' and is likely to include several proposals.

"I think we need a strategic redeployment over a period of two years," Dean said. "Bring the 80,000 National Guard and Reserve troops home immediately. They don't belong in a conflict like this anyway..." [snip]

"What we see today is very much like what was going in Watergate," Dean said. "It turns out there is a lot of good evidence that President Bush did not tell the truth when he was asking Congress for the power to go to war. The President said last week that Congress saw the same intelligence that he did in making the decision to go to war, and that is flat out wrong. The President withheld some intelligence from the Senate Intelligence Committee. He withheld the report from the CIA that in fact there was no evidence of weapons of mass destruction (in Iraq), that they did not have a nuclear program. They (the White House) selectively gave intelligence to the United States Senate and the United States Congress and got them to give the go ahead to attack these people."

From RealClearPolitics...

Dean hit all the highlights: Comparison to Vietnam. Check. Call for immediate withdrawal. Check. Bush lied. Check. Comparison to Watergate. Check.

In all seriousness, Howard Dean is not some yahoo, he's the national voice of the Democratic party and his comments - saying Iraq is unwinnable and calling for the immediate withdrawal of 80,000 troops less than two weeks before Iraq goes to the polls - unquestionably furthers the perception that Democrats are the party of cut and run. This is a horrendous political mistake and it puts even more pressure on Democrats like Clinton, Biden, et al to respond to the question: Does Howard Dean speak for your party?

Speaking of the lunatic fringe, let's not forget John Kerry with this gem over the weekend.

Sen. KERRY: Let me–I–first of all, there is so much more that unites Democrats than divides us. And Democrats have much more in common with each other than they do with George Bush’s right now. Now Joe Lieberman, I believe, also voted for the resolution which said the president needs to make more clear what he’s doing and set out benchmarks, and that the policy hasn’t been working. We all believe him when you say, `Stay the course.’ That’s the president’s policy, which hasn’t been changing, which is a policy of failure. I don’t agree with that. But I think what we need to do is recognize what we all agree on, which is you’ve got to begin to set benchmarks for accomplishment. You’ve got to begin to transfer authority to the Iraqis. And there is no reason, Bob, that young American soldiers need to be going into the homes of Iraqis in the dead of night, terrorizing kids and children, you know, women, breaking sort of the customs of the–of–the historical customs, religious customs. Whether you like it or not…

Watch the Video HERE.

Hundreds Of Seminole County DUI Cases Tossed Out

WESH is reporting...

Seminole County judge Ralph Erikson has tossed out hundreds of driving under the influence cases because of a problem involving the test used to tell if a driver is drunk.

The problem is that the state won't reveal how the test works because it doesn't have that information.

The company that makes the breath-alcohol testing machine won't give it up.

Lawyers for DUI defendants say without that knowledge, they can't challenge the validity of the test. Seminole County's chief judge agreed that it wasn't fair to the defendants.

Read a more detailed account in Today's Orlando Sentinel HERE.

Check out this article from the American Bar Association's online journal. It
explains things better as to what is going on in this State other than the petty problems between Judge Erickson and the State Attorney here in Seminole.

This is a state-wide issue over a widely used machine, the Intoxylizer 5000, whereby the manufacturer of the machine is not willing to give-up trademarked information to prove its validity.

Read the article HERE.

Mandatory life, no parole for child molesters?

WND is reporting...

Amid increasing evidence that child molesters are sexual predators for life, Florida lawmakers are considering life for sexual predators.

State Rep. Bob Allen, R-Merritt Island, hopes to seize the opportunity of a special legislative session that begins today and runs through Friday to make headway with his "Sexual Predators Elimination Act."

The measure, HB 251, seeks mandatory life sentences without parole or eligibility for gain time for individuals designated as sexual predators. Under Florida law, these are individuals convicted of sexual battery on a child 12 or younger, repeat sexual offenders, sexual offenders who use physical violence and sexual offenders who use or threaten the use of a deadly weapon.

"We need to lock them up and throw away the key," Allen told WND. Otherwise, he says, they continue to prey on children and teenagers to feed a need that never goes away.

Who could possibly be opposed?

George Crossley, president of the central Florida chapter of the American Civil Liberties Union. "I'm reasonably cynical enough to know that these folks really don't care one way or another about what happens to children, they care what it'll take for them to win the next election."

Crossley told WND he's concerned about the 170,000 family members of sex offenders across the state being adversely affected by what he views as a building hysteria.

"About 3 percent of the people that we're talking about here are sexual predators who deserve to be watched," he said. "The other 97 percent are sexual offenders, some of them who 20, 25, 30, 40 years ago did something, and in many cases it was underage sex. ... The facts are in most of these cases, you're not talking about people who are a threat to anybody. And yet, since Jessica Lunsford's murder, which was basically the fault of law enforcement in more ways than one, we've had one Draconian statute proposed after another."

Pilot Reports 'Missile' Fired at Jetliner Near LAX

FBI agents and Homeland Security officials spent the weekend investigating the report of a possible missile fired at an American Airlines plane taking off from Los Angeles International Airport.
Sources tell ABC News the pilot of American Airlines Flight 621, en route to Chicago, radioed air traffic controllers after takeoff from LAX. He told them a missile had been fired at the aircraft and missed.

The plane was over water when the pilot said he saw a smoke trail pass by the cockpit.

FBI agents believe it was a flare or a bottle rocket, but say they may never know if that's what it actually was.

Well, well, well look what the MSM is finally getting around to reporting. Listeners to my show knew about this Wednesday morning thanks to Doug Hagmann of NEIN. We got a call from an Airline Pilot in Orlando, FL. who told us of a similar incident at the Newark airport several months ago. Where a manpad was spotted not far from the landing strip and all pilots were ordered to switch over to a special frequency.

Abortion Doctor Says Hillary Clinton Was His Patient

NEW YORK, December 1, 2005 (LifeSiteNews.com) - Abortionist William F. Harrison was profiled in the LA Times yesterday, as a 70-year-old doctor who is proud to have "terminated at least 20,000 pregnancies" since he began performing abortions in 1973. What the LA Times did not report is that Harrison, claims to have had New York Senator Hillary Clinton as his patient right around the time he commenced the procedure.

Cut Down the Phone Tree

Tired of being forced into the abyss of automated phone systems every time you call an organization? Here's how to reach an actual human.

The IVR Cheat Sheet™ by Paul English

Plus...

COMPLAIN more effectivleyLearn how to reach real people. Download a sample complaint letter you can mail or e-mail. And consult our list of links to helpful consumer agencies.

Hat Tip to Kiplinger's.

Mike Fumento Rocked Orlando !

Mike Fumento stopped by this morning with his reflections on World Aids Day.

Read Why is HIV So Prevalent in Africa?

He also helped us sort through all the hype regarding the Avian Flu.

Don't forget to check out his book The Myth Of Hetrosexual Aids.

'L.A. Times': U.S. Military Paying to Plant Stories in Iraqi Media

The U.S. military began a program this year to secretly pay Iraqi newspapers to run dozens of pro-American articles written by a special military task force, The Los Angeles Times reported Wednesday (November 30th). The Times said that none of the papers that published stories revealed their connection to the military, although some identified them as advertising or took other steps to distinguish them from normal news. The report further said that the task force carrying out the operation also bought an Iraqi newspaper and took control of a radio station to put out its stories.

Colonel Barry Johnson, a senior U.S. military spokesman in Iraq, told the Times the effort is to, quote, "help get factual information about ongoing operations into Iraqi news." He called it a, quote, "important part of countering misinformation in the news by insurgents" and emphasized that all the information in the stories is factual.

According to the report, a Washington-based public relations firm called Lincoln Group helped translate the stories and used staff or subcontractors posing as freelance journalists or advertising executives to bring them to Iraqi media. The Times said the stories were basically factual, but omitted information that might not reflect well upon the U.S. or the Iraqi government.

Do you think it's okay for the military to be writing these stories and then secretly paying Iraqi media to run them?

Study - Longer needles needed for fatter buttocks

GetOffYourAss is reporting...

Baby Got Back and then some!

This is just too good to be true. Are you kidding me? One of our nation’s most regarded medical publications is reporting the current crop of needles used by the medical community is inadequate. We’re so fat, they’re not long enough. Did you get that? We’re so fat our needles no longer deliver the “goods”. What’s the solution? Well bigger needles of course. Bigger needles to go with our bigger cars, our bigger furniture, our bigger pants, our bigger appetites and now our bigger assess! Pathetic

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Nativity role for Britney Spears' baby

Britney and Cletus transform son's bedroom into nativity scene, with little Cletus Jr as the Christ child. Three wise men to present gifts of adolescent drug problem, therapy and a contract for a "tell all" book.

Hat Tip to FARK

More and more married couples are choosing not to have kids.

Is there anything wrong with that? My guest says "yes".

Think kids aren’t for you?
Think again
Procreation is more than a personal choice

(Dallas) Why are more couples choosing not to have kids? Because there are other ways to find fulfillment, say newlyweds. Is there a problem with this attitude? In her new book, "SMART SEX: FINDING LIFE-LONG LOVE IN A HOOK-UP WORLD," DR. JENNIFER ROBACK MORSE evaluates our modern conceptions—and prejudices—of family life.

By the end of the twentieth century, most people had joined the once-radical sexual revolutionaries in embracing a pair of badly flawed ideas—that freedom means being unencumbered by relationships, and that sex is a purely private activity with no moral or social significance. Morse shows how these ideas reduced sex to a commodity—“consumer sex”—and left millions of people miserable. She offers a radically different yet compelling view of sex, based on the law of self-giving inscribed in our human nature.

Here are some of the things we discussed.

-Why is childlessness among couples on the rise?

-Isn’t it okay for people to marry for each other and not for kids?

-How have our conceptions about sex and marriage changed since the sexual revolution?

-How are children a couple’s gift to the world?

-Is contraception wrong?

We are happy to offer your listeners a 50% discount on "Smart Sex" when they order from our website, www.spencepublishing.com, or 1-888-SPEN PUB.

So What Would Jesus Do?

Check out this Editorial in the Tampa Tribune...

In a case of competing values, a Catholic school in Queens, N.Y., has opted for appearances rather than forgiveness. It has fired an unmarried prekindergarten teacher who admits she's pregnant.

She broke the rules, the school decreed, since a teacher is required "to convey the teachings of the Catholic faith by his or her words and actions." The 26-year-old woman is suing to get her job back. It's unfair that she could have avoided getting sacked by having a secret abortion. Had she been a man, her sex life would have stayed private.

Religious freedom should allow the school to enforce its standards without government interference. But it's hard to imagine that Jesus would want this woman fired. After all, his own mother once found herself pregnant and unmarried.

Am I the only one that finds this last line offensive?