Sunday, April 29, 2007

A Question For Harry Reid.........

...Nancy Pelosi, John Murtha and to the rest of the 'cut and runners' of the world......

"If Osama bin Laden stood up and said 'Here's my timetable for withdrawing from Iraq'...

...it would be of significant benefit to us both tactically and strategically."

These people really need to think about what they say before spouting off.

“Well, the trouble with our liberal friends is not that they are ignorant, but that they know so much that isn't so.” – Ronald Reagan

Friday, April 27, 2007

11 Years Ago Today, I Married A Queen....

.....down in the beautiful town of Tequila, Jalisco, México. Your typical awesome Méxican wedding, 12-piece mariachi band, food, food, food.....and of course....tequila! I hesitated to post this, but what the hell......... The Arizona Republic ran a story on us............. (Joe hairdo)



Dan and Fanny XXXXXX can thank a bus driver for the ride of their lives.

Hoping to practice his Spanish, Danny traveled from Phoenix to Mexico City in August 1994 and then decided to hitchhike home. Near Guadalajara, a bus pulled up, and he told the driver he wanted to go to the town of Tepic. The bus driver kept saying, "Tequila." Not wishing to purchase alcohol, Dan shook his head. Finally the driver shouted, "Subete!" (Get on!) and Dan did.

The bus was packed. Blond, blue-eyed and 6 feet, 5 inches tall, Dan stood out in the crowd. For him, one beautiful young woman stood out, too. Their eyes locked. She tugged at his sleeve and asked if he spoke English. "I wanted to practice," says Fanny, now 31, who was studying accounting at the university in Guadalajara. He said that he did and sat next to her. "He looked so lost," she says. "He seemed like a big teddy bear."

Fanny explained the bus was going to her hometown of Tequila. When she heard he wanted to go to the state of Nayarit, she told him he would have to change buses at another location. So she invited him to her family's home in Tequila, a town of cobblestone streets where her father warily eyed the tall American who was 12 years older than his daughter.

After a few hours stay, Fanny and her father escorted Dan to the bus stop. He asked if Fanny was married. She said no, and he said they should become pen pals. She would write in English, and he in Spanish.

In February, Dan went back to Tequila to see Fanny. When she met him at the airport, "I couldn't believe it," she says. "He was so handsome." Dan stayed with the family almost two weeks. Fanny's parents told her, "You'd better watch him in this town. Even the dogs smile at him."

With her parents' permission, the couple dated but never without a chaperone. "I respected it," says Dan, 43, director of the biotech-pharmaceutical division of the Phoenix-based Sterling International, a human-resource company. Once, in the plaza, he stole a kiss.

In April, Dan plotted with Fanny's father to surprise her on her birthday. "Somebody rang the doorbell, and there he was," she says. "I was shocked." And happy.

In August, Dan made one more trip to Tequila. All day he carried around an engagement ring tucked inside his sock, waiting for the right moment. Finally at a restaurant that night, when they were alone, he gave her the ring and proposed.

Today the Mesa couple celebrate two wedding anniversaries. First, Fanny and Dan had to have a civil ceremony so that they could begin Fanny's immigration process. Then April 27, 1996, they had a church wedding in Tequila. Twenty-five of Dan's friends flew down from the Valley. More than 200 of Fanny's relatives turned out, including her cousin, a chef who made food that covered a 20-foot-long table. A 12-piece Mariachi band from the nearby Sauza tequila factory played, and tequila flowed at an open bar.

And the bus driver who had brought them together? He was the guest of honor.



And tomorrow......it's her birthday......................

Virginia Tech / Columbine Shootings And Last Night's Debate


Columbine occurred in April of 1999. Hillary and "Bill" were running the country until January 2001. They had 20 months to fix the flaws in gun laws she identified in last nights debate, but didn't. She has also had over six years as a US Senator to fix them. But didn't.

End the ban on guns rants..........the bad guys will always get guns, the more good people have guns, the better off we are......end of story.

Thursday, April 26, 2007

Rudy Turns Up The Heat......Big-Time

Now this is more like it, we need to hear this from our future leaders, Rudy absolutely nails it, separating the men from the little boys......errr..... Republicans from the Democrats.

"This war ends when they stop planning to come here and kill us, but until then, if I have anything to say about it, the lesson that I learned coming out of September 11, 2001, is: never, ever again will this country be on defense waiting for them to attack us. (applause) The United States of America will be on offense (applause) and make no mistake about it, the Democrats want to put us back on defense. "


"They hate us, not because of anything bad we've done. This has nothing to do with any aggression on the part of the United States of America. It has nothing to do with anything America is taking from anyone. It has nothing to do with Israel and Palestine. They hate us for the freedoms that we have and the freedoms that we want to share with the world, because the freedoms that we have and the freedoms that we want to share with the world are in conflict with their perverted interpretation of their religion, their maniacal, violent, and perverted interpretation of their religion in which they train their young people to be suicide bombers, and they train them to hate you and despise you, and they train them to hate your religion, and to not allow you to have religion of your own, or anyone else. They hate us for the reasons that are the best about us, because we have freedom of religion, because we have freedom for women, because women are allowed to participate in society, because we have elections, because we have a free economy. Well, we're not giving that up, and you're not going to come and take it from us."

Wednesday, April 25, 2007

Did Osama Just Throw A Wrench Into The Democratic Plan To Flee Iraq?

Senior Taliban: "Osama Bin Laden Is Overseeing Operations in Iraq"

Let's see...Democrats say they want to leave Iraq to go fight Al Qaeda...So what will they say about this?

h/t GatewayPundit

http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2007/04/senior-taliban-osama-bin-laden-is.html

'Rock Star' Now Passé

At $125,000 per speech, why might he need all that cash? "Cause he's gonna run......he's achieved rock star status among his followers.......which officially gives the term 'rock star' a lame connotation.

Big Al hits Calgary:
Climate change crusader Al Gore stepped into Canada’s energy heartland on Monday and warned global warming is the most dangerous crisis humans have........ ever.

Think again...........

Amid debate over China's recent anti-satellite test and ongoing space warfare program, this video highlights a disturbing disregard for human rights--and human life--in the country's "long march" to the stars.

Of the few things I learned during my recent trip to China, is that you DO NOT talk negatively about the Chinese government, this was a pretty brave cat who smuggled this video out of the country.

Tuesday, April 24, 2007

Harry Reid: Come Hell Or High Water, The Only Way We Democrats Can Win

....is if we lose this war.

Harry Reid says that even if Gen. Petraeus reports progress in Iraq, Reid will refuse tp believe it.


Well, that certainly clarifies the Democrat stance.


An email from a soldier in Iraq. "Gen Petraeus is treating the war like a counter-insurgency rather than a stability operation. . . . there is a HUGE difference between the two. . . . However, you don't see Harry Reid talking about this. When I saw what he said, it really pissed me off. That guy does not know what is going on over here because he hasn't bothered to come and find out. The truth on the ground in Al Anbar is not politically convenient for him, so he completely ignored it."

Monday, April 23, 2007

The Last Shred of Class, Hotness And Common Sense


.....she had, just went out the window.

WIPE OUT GLOBAL WARMING: CROW PROPOSES LIMITS ON TOILET PAPER

When this global warming warrior hits the road, her touring entourage (and equipment) travels in three tractor trailers, four buses, and six cars. Now that's a carbon footprint!

RGW.....The Religion of Global Warming.......these boneheads are easy pickin's.

Friday, April 20, 2007

The Religion of Peace, err Pieces, As In Body, At Work


Jihadist Video Shows 'Barely 12-Year Old Boy' Beheading Man...

Can you only imagine the type of kids these evil maniacs will produce in years to come? Very scary.

Joe Geography

Is the highest point on earth acutally the closest point to outer space, or more specifically, the moon?

Let's take a look......

Well, we all know that Mount Everest, at 29,035 feet above sea level, is the highest spot on our planet and is likely to remain so for a long, long time… unless we think about the word "highest" in a different way.

Suppose I asked you to find the spot on Earth where you would be closest to the moon, the stars and outer space. In other words, the point on Earth that is closest to "out there."

Most of us, again, would point to Mount Everest.

But here's something you may not know: the Earth is not a perfect sphere. (And by the way, if you want to see a really, really outrageously perfect sphere, check this out.)

The Earth Isn't Perfectly Round

The Earth, it turns out, is more like a beach ball that someone sat on: It has a slightly distended middle.

Mathematicians call this an "oblate spheroid," which means there is a bulge that circles the Earth just below the equator, so anyone standing in that part of the world is already standing "higher," or closer to outer space, than people who aren't on the bulge.

Therefore people in Ecuador, Kenya, Tanzania and Indonesia are all a bit closer to the moon (not much, only about 13 miles closer) than people standing at the North and South poles.

Let's Climb Some Equatorial Mountains

Now to make it even more interesting, suppose we climb to the top of a mountain just south of the equator. There are several famous ones: Mount Kenya in Kenya, Mount Kilimanjaro in Tanzania, and a bunch of not-so-famous ones in the Andes. If you climbed to the top of one of them, would you be closer to space than if you climbed to the top of Mount Everest?

Joseph Senne, an engineer/surveyor, did the calculations and had his numbers checked by the director of New York's Hayden Planetarium, Neil deGrasse Tyson, author of a new book on science and the cosmos, Death By Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries.

"When all the calculating is over," Senne says, "we think we have discovered the spot on Earth that is closet to the moon and outer space."

Mount…What?

It is Mount Chimborazo in Ecuador. Yes, Ecuador.

Mount Chimborazo, in the Andes, is a 20,000-plus-foot peak sitting on top of a bulge on the Earth. Mount Everest is a 29,000-plus-foot peak sitting lower down on that same bulge. Because Chimborazo is a bump on a bigger part of the bulge, it is higher.

According to Senne, Chimborazo is 1.5 miles higher than Everest! Or, if you will, 1.5 miles closer to outer space.

If you define "highest" as highest from sea level, Mount Everest is still champion.

But if you want to stand on the place on Earth that is closest to the moon, that would be Mount Chimborazo!

Mount McKinley vs. Death Valley?

And as long as we're at it… using this same logic, which do you think is closer to the moon and stars, Death Valley in California or the top of Mount McKinley (also called Denali) in Alaska?

David Metzler, a mountain-climbing mathematician who is also known as "Spireguy," one of Wikipedia's volunteer mountain statisticians, to do the calculations. Hear what he found.

And if you think that is wild, how about this: Which is higher, the Dead Sea (lowest point on the terrestrial Earth) or the top of Mount McKinley? Hear Spireguy's answer.

So, Why Is It That This Is Not Making Any Headlines Today?

" Iraqis Take Over Operations in Maysan Province."

Maysan is the fourth of Iraq’s 18 provinces to be handed over to Iraqi forces and the third transferred by British-led troops.

Yet what makes the news is Harry Reid's "the war is lost" comments which by the way are on a constant loop on al-Jazeera and Iranian television. This guy is a sack-less hack and should be censured......traitor.

Here's the rest from Gateway Pundit....

try this...
http://gatewaypundit.blogspot.com/2007/04/shhhh-iraqis-take-over-operations.html

Thursday, April 19, 2007



This is a re-post from last year..........

After dismantling a few large land mines and bombs, Sergeant Michael Burghardt gives the 'ol salute to insurgents that had remotely set off a land mine next to him and nearly killed him. Not wanting to give the insurgents any satisfaction of seeing him be taken to a helicopter on a stretcher, Sgt. Burghardt proudly walked to the helicopter under his own power........nice story.

Read it here.

Israel: Let Freedom Ring........

While the enemies plot, plan, dream , scheme to murder, the nation of Israel lives..........and thrives.

Wouldn't a snippet of this be nice to see on CNN, NBC,CBS or BBC....yah, right.

THE Most Asinine Thing I've Heard

Compassion: Students Forgive Virginia Tech Killer.

I may be wrong here, but isn't forgiveness given to those who ask for it? Those directly involved, family members, spouses, they may forgive.Do these people understand the difference between good and evil? I refuse to watch this evil freak's video's of himself, and I believe the networks should be ashamed for constantly viewing what this murderer wants you to see. He's getting what he wanted.

Little Joe Turns 3 Today

Of course I'm biased, but there's not a funnier, rambunctious, solid 3 year old around, Happy Birthday Derrek! He's almost as big as his nearly 5 year old sister, Middle Linebacker potential for sure.

Wednesday, April 18, 2007

Adios China.....Can't Wait To Return One Day

My trip inspired me to buy "1421, The Year China Discovered the World". Been busy, will get around in a day or so, here are some photo's from my visit to Shanghai and Hangzhou, China. Blogger is not very compatible in China, had a heck of a time trying to post and checking other blogs on Blogger was impossible...... back in the hood now.

Night time in Shanghai, looking across the river into Pudong and the famous buildings that Shanghai/Pudong are known for. It was very foggy that night with a light rain, so the photo quality is not quite there. I rarely take photo's, the Mrs. is much more adept than I am. Click to enlarge for better viewing quality.















The shopping district, one of the many in Shanghai, bought a bunch of stuff from the 2008 Beijing Olympics store.



















Another view of the buildings in Pudong......
















This is called the Peace Hotel, 100 years old, when I turn around 180 degrees from the above photo, this is what you see.......
















....and then look down to the left and you see this..........

















Here is the famous green tea mountain in Hangzhou, well part of it, where they grow this expensive green tea........















Meet my friends Tsing Tao, Chow Mein and Carne Asada, don't really know their names, but they kept coming up to me saying "Hi.......Hi.......Hi" and I would say "Ni hao.......ni hao". Cute kids.















Joe Green Tea Master doing his thing, sort cleaning and roasting the tea leaves........















The day I left I got up at 5:00am to take a stroll around for about 3 hours on foot to soak it all in for one last time, this is a photo of the buildings in Pudong.....















Joe Ham at 6am , spent, tired and shot.

Sunday, April 15, 2007

The Camp David of China.........

, (click to enlarge, notice the Chinese tower in the backround on the left)

Back in Shanghai, it's Sunday night and finally able to through up a post!. On my second day in China, we went to Hangzhou and stayed at the Hangzhou State Guest House, this is the Camp David of China.......very nice. They do open this place up to people other than government connected types, not sure to who, saw quite a few families there. We were almost sent out, a President from an un-named country dropped in (we were informed that this was possible and to have backup plans in case) and we were confined to only a certain part of this guest house "estate". President Nixon and Henry Kissinger were here (Kissinger in secret) to sign the treaty that ended the Vietnam War, great history here as well as throughout China. Hangzhou is also produces the best green tea in the world, we went to a famous mountain
where the best is grown..........picked some, drank some....and bought some. Another few containers to add to my collection!

Pictured with me in the center is Bill O'Neill (sits on our Board of Directors) and on the left, a gentleman who has an incredible life, Mr. Stewart Stemple. Stewart, who's parents, who are from a small town near Lake Erie in Ohio, were missionaries in Vietnam during the '60's through the early '90's, was born in Vietnam. He lived there until he was 6, the time when everyone had to get out in 1975, and moved to Malaysia, then China, Thailand, then after high school in Thailand, went to the USA and graduated from Cornell, went to Brazil got his Masters, got another one at Pepperdine and another one in Jordan, 3 Masters degrees..........whoa. He is fluent in English (very clear and succinct and one of the best speakers I've ever heard), Mandarin, Cantonese, Vietnamese, Malay, Spanish, Portuguese, Arabic and French. He worked extensively with Coca-Cola in China, setting up executive management programs, and many other functions with Coca-Cola setting up different types of programs for executives and management teams setting up shop throughout China. He was instrumental in setting up a program for over 18,000 employees for Coke in Shanghai. He's now a sought after consultant working with HP, Coca-Cola, Motorola, E-Bay, Intel,, hell....you name it....he's a great guy to know and I am very fortunate to have had the opportunity to spend a few days with him. If you ever need a speaker......this is the guy!

I'm not really up to speed with what's going on aroung the world, I can tell you CNN International (can't find FOX) blows in a big way. When I get time, I hope to check on my favorite bloggers out there to get the best of the best of current events/news/insights.
Hangzhou is considered by many to be the most beautiful city in China and I am fortunate and thankful that I am able to be here. You would not believe how MANY people live here and the buildings......and buildings......and buildings......not too mention the driving here, NYC and LA have nothing on this place.
Bye for now.

Saturday, April 14, 2007

Blogging from China........

...shouldn't have to be this difficult, can't access my home page and can't tell if my posts are posted, everthing is converted to Chinese, having a hard time emailing as well, keeps timing out, if the Queen is there, I love you and the little Joe's.

I'm in Hangzhou, considered to be the most beautiful city in China, it is wonderful..........if you all have kids....teach 'em Mandarin!!!!!!

Back to normal in a few days, if not sooner when I return to Shanghai later today (sunday) around 5pm or so.

Monday, April 09, 2007

Heading Out To Shanghai and Nanjing, China..........

Ni hao, that means hola in Mandarin. Joe Chinese.

......won't have time to post/make the rounds until thur/fri or sat. Will be in Shanghai Wednesday, Thursday and then going to a guest house resort in Nanjing on Friday, Saturday, Sunday, a place where the Chinese dignitaries hang out, and I'll be bonding with my Chinese, Japanese, Singaporean, South Korean and U.K. counterparts.....and to party down like real hillbillies...............Chinese style.

But.......I hope to be blogging from China and will have some photo's.

Bye for now.




Thursday, April 05, 2007

Good Friday To All!!!


And to make it that extra special day, I'm teeing it up at 8:00am with the boys at a great golf course!

I Heard Easter's Been Cancelled

keep going............














H/T the wife of my badass redneck buddy





A nice compliment to my post yesterday from Beakerkin "A Great Case For NOT Going To War With Iran"

Betcha Didn't Hear This.....

........31 U.S. Citizens Arrested in Venezuela - charges of spying or to be part of the CIA.

Haven't read this anywhere except at Vcrisis and Pajamas Media ......yep, on the blogosphere, and 2 awesome ones at that, no mention on the MSM, not surprised.

Funny thing is (well not so funny) the group of detainees is composed of 7th Day Adventists, doctors, nurses and religious leaders - have been detained in the Venezuela - Brazil border under the accusation of illegally practicing medicine. A source stated that the decision of detaining the group appeared to had been taken by local military that thought odd the increased number of US citizens arriving in the area.

The scary thing is, looks like Thugo Chavez wants to join the ranks of his kidnapping buddy Ahmadinejad...........maybe he's cooking something to start the ball rolling with his fantasy of going to war with the Great Satan?

Wednesday, April 04, 2007

They don't call this Holy Week for nothing.




Prediction: Tiger gets even with Phil.......in 2004, Phil Mickelson wins The Masters.....in 2005, Tiger wins and Phil gets to put the Green Jacket on El Tigre, in 2006 Phil wins and then Tiger gets to put the Green Jacket on Phil.............2007, Tiger gets revenge.

I love golf man.

A Headline That Says It All


"Pelosi Receives Warm Welcome in Syria." Well, of course she did. Pelosi is apparently content for America to be weakened militarily, and so is Bashir Assad. Their objectives are largely the same -- so why wouldn't this enemy of the west be welcoming her warmly?

A Great Case For NOT Going To War With Iran

h/t Steve's Hodgepodge

Great post, here's a snippet from Beakerkin:

Iran is declining and faces many serious problems. It has serveral indigenous people seeking independence or to be reunited with their bretheren across borders. The oil economy is in its last stages and even if the nuclear program were 100% for civilian use this would hardly do more than postpone the inevitable. Iran also has a severe drug problem and all of this is being obscured by belicose rhetoric from the Mullahs.

The Iranian people are the countries best resource. In a modern economy human capital trumps natural resources. Japan has no natural resources, but it does have a first rate educational system. Long term natural resources are also dependent of human inovation. As prices for comodities rise cheaper alternatives are found. The notion that Oil as we know it today will be the key source of energy even ten years from now is just unknown. Maybe coal gasification will be a real energy source. Our enemies both Commie and Jihadi are extrapolating from the present to the future.


Read the rest here........

Tuesday, April 03, 2007

Hostage Taking Redux With Victor Davis Hanson

I listened carefully to the Democratic Senators denouncing the effort in Iraq. All were supposed repositories of deep wisdom. Most of them voted for the war, once gave alarmist speeches on the threats of WMD, and now demonize the Iraqi reformers of all people as ingrates who weren’t worth our sacrifices. For each face that came to the podium, I remembered a past quotation: the now shrill Sen. Harry Reid once demanded that we go to war on the basis that Saddam had broken the 1991 armistice accords (a fact no one has contested); the kinetic Sen. Durbin once compared our soldiers to Nazis and Pol Pot; the therapeutic Sen. Patti Murray once praised bin Laden’s social welfare efforts in Afghanistan while castigating the supposed lack of our own. The list goes on. Even more embarrassing pronouncements could be produced for Sens. Kerry (we are a “pariah” nation), Kennedy (we opened up Abu Ghraib under new management, no different from Saddam’s); Biden (we need a troop surge), and so on.

Apparently the American people, if polls and the emboldened nature of the Democratic-controlled Congress are any fair indication, have expressed a desire to return to the past, to withdraw from Iraq, to put Afghanistan out of sight, out of mind—and hope for the best. Yet these are not unilateral decisions, but involve the enemy as well, who may think today Iraq, tomorrow the Gulf, soon the Mediterranean.

VDH has the rest here......

aahhh..bad link, go here:
http://victordavishanson.pajamasmedia.com/

Dhimmicrats, You Better Watch Out.........

....you just might get what you ask for!


I've really had an a$$-full of all these women going to the Middle East and donning these burqa type scarves.I really do wish that this was photoshopped, unfortunately it isn't, and unfortunately the Democrats are going down a dangerous road led by their fearless leader Nancy Pelosi. This lady wouldn't last 1 week under Sharia Law.

Democrats' True Priorities

Debra Burlingame puts it best -- lawsuits first, security second.

Democrats are opposed to protecting American travelers from being the target of a lawsuit when they make reasonable, good-faith report of suspicious terrorist activity. In other words, they are willing to "chill" the very people upon whom authorities must depend in order to identify and apprehend those who might be intending to launch terrorist attacks on mass transit or elsewhere.

Tells you a lot about Democratic priorities, doesn't it?

Monday, April 02, 2007

Today in History....April 2

On this day in …

* 1513, Spanish explorer Juan Ponce de Leon landed in Florida

* 1792, Congress passed the Coinage Act, which authorized establishment of the U.S. Mint

* 1865, Confederate President Davis and most of his Cabinet fled the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va., because of advancing Union forces

* 1902, the first American theater devoted solely to movies opens in Los Angeles. Housed in a circus tent, the venue was dubbed "The Electric Theater." Its earliest pictures included "New York in a Blizzard." Admission cost about 10 cents for a one-hour show

* 1917, Jeannette Pickering Rankin, the first woman ever elected to Congress, takes her seat in the U.S. Capitol as a representative from Montana. ALSO: President Woodrow Wilson asks Congress to send U.S. troops into battle against Germany in World War I. In his address to Congress that day, two of his most memorable lines were "It is a fearful thing to lead this great peaceful people into war"
and "The world must be made safe for democracy." Four days later, Congress obliged and declared war on Germany

* 1932, aviator Charles A. Lindbergh and John F. Condon went to a cemetery in New York City's Bronx borough, where Condon turned over $50,000 to an unidentified man in exchange for Lindbergh's kidnapped son. (The child, however, was not returned, and was found dead the following month.)

* 1941, radio sitcom "Life of Riley" debuts. The show starred William Bendix as a bullheaded family man. The show ran for 10 years on radio and about six years on television.

* 1972, Charlie Chaplin returns to the United States for the first time since 1952. Chaplin had been labeled a communist in the early 1950s. While on tour in Europe, he learned that the attorney general had issued instructions to deny Chaplin's re-entry. He vowed never to return to America but relented when he came back to accept a special Academy Award

* 1980, President Jimmy Carter attempted to soothe the nation's ailing finances by signing the Crude Oil Windfall Profits Tax Act.
The tax came one short year after Carter eliminated controls on oil prices; the demise of these regulations sent oil profits soaring.
With the economy mired in a prolonged funk, Carter urged Congress to create legislation that would take advantage of the oil industry's good fortune. And, the Windfall Act did just that: by 1990, the legislation had helped haul in roughly $227 billion dollars

* 1982, several thousand troops from Argentina seized the disputed Falkland Islands, located in the south Atlantic, from Britain.
(Britain seized the islands back the following June.)

* 1987, the United States Government allowed individual states to increase the speed limit on rural roads from 55mph to 65mph. The move opened the forum for legislation that would, over the next decade, dramatically increase the speed limits observed on our country's roads

* 1989, in an effort to mend strained relations between the Soviet Union and Cuba, Russian leader Mikhail Gorbachev arrives in Havana to meet with Fidel Castro. Castro's suspicions regarding Gorbachev's economic and political reform measures in the Soviet Union, together with the fact that Russia's ailing economy could no longer support massive economic assistance to Cuba, kept the meetings from achieving any solid agreements

* 1997, the White House released documents showing how eager it had been to exploit the money-drawing powers of President Clinton and Vice President Gore during the 1996 campaign while coordinating with the Democratic Party's fundraising machine

* 2002, "Palestinian" gunmen forced their way into the Church of the Nativity in Bethlehem, where they began a 39-day standoff. The Christian holy place was trashed. (Please see http://www.jewishworldreview.com/cols/tyrell051602.asp for more
info)