Here comes another WRKO Saturday morning!!!!!!!

RISE AND SHINE!!!!!

He won't be down for breakfast. Thank God.

See you at 7 on WRKO......

The year is ending in a flourish of news activity.

1......Should President Bush save Saddam? Baloney, we'll provide the rope.

2......The Left has discovered another Maypole to dance around, it's called the Downing Street Memo. It was written by a clerk describing the statements of Tony Blair's cabinet members and suggests it is a smoking gun. It's more like a dripping water pistol regarding WMDs in Iraq before we attacked. Christopher Hitchins in Slate.com says the "Downing Street document does not introduce us to any hidden or arcane occult knowledge." He goes on to describe the document as yawn inducing. He points out we define such words as fix differently here and England (Hitchins is from England). He further points all investigative agencies believed Saddam possessed WMD.

Hitchins further points out: "I am now forced to wonder: Who is there who does not know that the Bush administration decided after September 2001 to change the balance of power in the region and to enforce the Iraq Liberation Act, passed unanimously by the Senate in 1998, which made it overt American policy to change the government of Iraq? This was a fairly open conspiracy, and an open secret. Given that everyone from Hans Blix to Jacques Chirac believed that Saddam was hiding weapons from inspectors, it made legal sense to advance this case under the banner of international law and to treat Saddam 'as if' (and how else?) his strategy of concealment and deception were prima facie proof."

3.....John Edwards running for president again. Ho hum. He could get the nomination though. Oh well, another toothy Carter type.

4.....Thee seems to be some huff and puff that new senate majority leader Harry Reid will be in Peru rather than attend any part of the Ford funeral. Would anyone have noticed he was not there?

5.....You've heard Gerald Ford was opposed to our invasion f Iraq. Well, think again. This from Daily News Washington Bureau Chief Thomas M. DeFrank from his interview in Ford's California home, he spent more than two hours with him May 11 for this, his final interview:"Saddam Hussein was an evil person and there was justification to get rid of him," he observed, "but we shouldn't have put the basis on weapons of mass destruction. That was a bad mistake. Where does [Bush] get his advice?"

6.....Denver to get two more Blizzards back to back the next couple of days.

7.....Former New York mayor Ed Koch probably sums up the feelings of many with this missive on George Bush and his foreign policy: The article appears in Real Clear Politics where Mayor Ed says, "George Bush is a hero to me because he has courage. The President does what he believes to be in the best interest of the United States. He sticks with his beliefs, no matter how intense the criticism and invective that are directed against him every day." It's a worthwhile read.

8.....We're told the UN flag will not be lowered to half staff out of respect for former president Ford. It was not lowered for Ronald Reagan either. It is at the option of Goofy Annan. Please don't lower the UN flag for me when I die. I will consider it an honor to have it at full staff.

See you at 7 PM on AM 680 WRKO, Boston's Talkstation.

Ciao.......Moe

Notice: I'll be on the air on WRKO Thursday night 7-10 and Friday morning 9-Noon. See you then.

The seeds of the War in Iraq

We have caught a large number of Iranian combatants in Iraq. We've also caught many Syrians in the past, not to mention a handful of el Qaeda, Egyptians, radical Jordanians, even some Palistinians.

We took the War on Terror to terrorist nations. We did not start this battle, we were the victim of their assaults going back to 1979.

~~~November 4, 1979 began the Iranian Embassy hostage situation (led by Mahmoud Ahmenijad). It took 444 days to end that situation. It sent out a loud and clear message the extremists were in control of Iran.

~~~Next came the April 18, 1983 attack on the US Embassy in Beirut. A suicide bomber in a pickup truck loaded with explosives rammed into the U.S. Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon. Sixty-three people were killed, including 17 Americans, eight of whom were employees of the Central Intelligence Agency, including chief Middle East analyst Robert C. Ames and station chief Kenneth Haas.

Reagan administration officials said that the attack was carried out by Hezbollah operatives, a Lebanese militant Islamic group whose anti-U.S. sentiments were sparked in part by the revolution in Iran. The Hezbollah operatives who carried out the attack on the embassy reportedly were receiving financial and logistical support from both Iran and Syria. The U.S. government took no military action in response to the embassy bombing, although a covert military team entered Beirut in order to gather intelligence in preparation for retaliatory strikes.

President Reagan turned tail and ran, an act he repeated many times was the wrong strategy to deal with terrorists. He viewed this act as among the worst decisions in his eight years as president.

~~~On October 23, 1983 a suicide bomber drove a truck full of explosives into the Marine barracks at Beirut Airport; 241 U.S. Marines were killed and more than 100 others wounded. They were part of a multinational force there to help separate the warring Lebanese factions. In 1982 the Marines helped oversee the peaceful withdrawal of the PLO from Beirut. They came back when hostilities erupted again in Beirut.

Again we pulled out. The last time Reagan would demonstrate such weakness.

~~~Our embassy in Kuwait was bombed in a series of attacks on December 12, 1983. The targets also included the French embassy, the control tower at the airport, the country's main oil refinery, and a residential area for employees of the American corporation Raytheon. Six people were killed, including a suicide truck bomber, and more than 80 others were injured.

The suspects were thought to be an Iranian-backed group and one of the principal Shiite groups operating against Saddam Hussein in Iraq (see below).
The U.S. military took no action in retaliation. The Kuwait government asked we allow them to capture and deal with the insurgents.

The Kuwaitis arrested 17 people convicted for participating in the attacks. One of those convicted was Mustafa Youssef Badreddin, a cousin and brother-in-law of one of Hezbollah's senior officers, Imad Mughniyah. After a six-week trial in Kuwait, Badreddin was sentenced to death for his role in the bombings.

Over the following years, the arrest and imprisonment of the "Kuwait 17" (also known as the "Al Dawa 17"), became one of the most consistent demands of the kidnappers of Western hostages in Lebanon and plane hijackers.

Ironically, when Iraq invaded Kuwait in 1990, the Iraqis unwittingly released the imprisoned Badreddin and the remaining members of the Kuwait 17. We don't know where Badreddin is currently.

~~~On March 16, 1984, CIA station chief in Lebanon William Buckley He was the fourth person kidnapped in what began a ten year series of kidnappings. The first had been American University of Beirut's president, David Dodge. Dodge had been taken hostage in 1982.

Among the other Americans who were kidnapped were journalist Terry Anderson, American University of Beirut librarian Peter Kilburn, and Benjamin Weir, a Presbyterian minister. While some of the prisoners lived through captivity -- Anderson spent the longest time as a hostage, 2,454 days -- some, including Buckley, died in captivity or were killed by their kidnappers.

The U.S. believed Iranian-backed Hezbollah was behind most of the kidnappings and the Reagan administration devised a covert plan to deal with it.

Iran and Iraq were locked in mortal battle. Both sides had taken severe losses. Our hope was that neither would overcome the other since neither government was friendly with us. Iraq had been a client nation of the Soviets with whom we were locked into the cold war while Iran was supporting terrorist elements throughout the Middle East and beyond.

Iran was desperately running out of military supplies. However Congress had banned the sale of American arms to countries like Iran that sponsored terrorism. Reagan was advised that a bargain could be struck -- secret arms sales to Iran to get our hostages back to the U.S.

When the plan was revealed to the public, it was called as a failure and opposed to the our policy of refusing to negotiate with terrorists.
In August 1985, the first consignment of arms to Iran was sent -- 100 anti-tank missiles provided by Israel; another 408 were sent the following month. As a result of the deal, American hostage Benjamin Weir was released from captivity; he had been imprisoned for 495 days. Only two other hostages were released as a result of the arms-for-hostages deal: in July 1986, Martin Jenco, a Catholic priest, was released; and the administrator of the American University of Beirut's medical school, David Jacobson, was released in November 1986.

The funds from the arms sales to Iran were secretly, and illegally, funneled to the Contras fighting to overthrow the communist and Fidel Castro supported Sandinistas in Nicaragua. This became known as the "Iran-Contra affair."

The Iran-Contra affair led to elections in Nicaragua. The Sandinistas were thrown out of office. At the heart of the planning was Ollie North, among others.

~~~September 28, 1984, in an area northeast of Beirut, a truck bomb exploded outside the U.S. Embassy annex killing 24 people, two of whom were U.S. military personnel. According to the U.S. State Department's 1999 report on terrorist organizations, elements of Hezbollah are "known or suspected to have been involved" in the bombing. At the time we had no idea who was responsible.

We did not respond militarily. Rather, we began to explore covert operations in Lebanon. The CIA trained foreign intelligence agents to act as "hit teams" designed to destroy the terrorists' operations. The ambassador said the we attempted to set up a "protective unit," a Lebanese counter terrorist strike force.

That didn't work out too well. President Reagan and the CIA called off covert operations when Lebanese intelligence operatives -- some allegedly trained by the U.S. -- set off a car bomb on March 8, 1985, in an attempted murder of Sheik Mohammed Hussein Fadlallah, the Shiite Muslim cleric who some believed to be the spiritual leader of Hezbollah. The problem was over 80 people were killed in the attack near a Beirut mosque while Fadlallah survived.

Many blamed the CIA for the attack, saying it had directed the intelligence operatives to carry it out. Robert McFarlane, the creator of Iran-Contra dealings and President Reagan's national security adviser, said those who carried out the attack on Fadlallah may have been trained by the us, but the individuals who carried it out were "rogue operatives," and the CIA in no way condoned or supported the attack.

~~~Two plane hijackings defined a new twist in Middle East terrorism.

The first was December 3, 1984 when Kuwait Airways Flight 221, on its way from Kuwait to Pakistan, was hijacked and diverted to Tehran.

The hijackers demanded the release of the "Kuwait 17". When the demand wasn't met, the hijackers killed two American officials aboard the flight. They were from the U.S. Agency for International Development.

On the sixth day of the drama, Iranian security forces stormed the plane and released the remaining hostages. Iran arrested the hijackers, saying they would be brought to trail. But the trial never took place, and the hijackers were allowed to leave the country. There was no U.S. military response. The State Department announced a $250,000 reward for information leading to the arrests of those involved in the hijacking. Later the hijackers were linked to Hezbollah's Imad Mughniyah to the hijackings.

Then on June 14, 1985 TWA Flight 847 was hijacked en route from Athens to Rome and forced to land in Beirut, Lebanon. The hijackers held the plane for 17 days. They demanded the release of the "Kuwait 17" and the release of 700 fellow Shiite Muslim prisoners held in Israeli prisons and in prisons in southern Lebanon run by the Israeli-backed South Lebanon Army.

When these demands weren't met, hostage Robert Dean Stethem, a U.S. Navy diver, was shot and his body dumped on the airport tarmac. We learned Hezbollah was behind this action.

In what was widely perceived as an implicit, never explicit, quid pro quo, the hostages started being released by the hijackers, followed some days after by Israel starting to free some of its hundreds of Shiite prisoners. At the time, U.S. officials denied there was a deal and said Israel had already committed to releasing the prisoners.

Imad Mughniyah, a senior officer with Hezbollah, was secretly indicted for the TWA hijacking in 1987, along with three others. One of those indicted, Mohammed Ali Hamadei, was arrested in Frankfurt, Germany. In 1989 he was convicted in a German court and sentenced to life in prison. Sixteen years later, Imad Mughniyah is still at large. (Editor's Note: See the FBI's list of the "Most Wanted Terrorists" released Oct. 10, 2001.)

~~~The beat continued on October 7, 1985, when, off the coast of Egypt, four gunmen hijacked the Italian cruise ship Achille Lauro and demanded the release of Palestinian prisoners in Egypt, Italy, and elsewhere. When the demands weren't met, they killed Leon Klinghoffer, a 69-year-old disabled American tourist. They threw hin, wheel chair and all overboard.

Investigators blamed the Palestine Liberation Front, which some believed to be allied with Yasser Arafat's Palestinian Liberation Organization. Later, U.S. officials were able to link Libya to the PLF and the hijacking.

After the hijackers escaped the Achille Lauro and left Egypt by air, U.S. Navy fighters intercepted their plane and forced it down in Italy. The capture was masterminded by Ollie North. The four hijackers were apprehended, and in 1986, they were found guilty in an Italian court.

Two of the hijackers escaped from prison. One, Magid al-Molgi, who confessed to killing Mr. Klinghoffer, was caught and returned to prison. The man identified as the mastermind of the hijacking, Abu Abbas, was released by Italy despite Washington's pleas that he be held for trial.

(On April 15, 2003 Abu Abas was captured by American forces in Iraq while attempting to flee from Baghdad to Syria.)

Then on December 17, 1985, airports in Rome and Vienna were bombed, killing 20 people, five of whom were Americans. This time, U.S. officials said they were able to link Libya to the bombing attacks. In January, U.S. officials decided to send the Navy and its warplanes to patrol the Gulf of Sidra -- in territorial waters claimed by Libya -- in an effort to provoke Qaddafi. The White House warned Qaddafi that any Libyan forces further than 12 miles from shore were subject to attack. (The U.S. and other nations used an international standard, set at only 12 miles from Libya's coast, to mark the country's territorial waters; Qaddafi said that Libya's territorial waters extended more than 100 miles from the coastline.) At this point, the face-off between the U.S. and Libya escalated.

~~~On April 5, 1986 an American soldier was killed by a bomb in a discotheque in West Berlin known to be popular with off-duty U.S. servicemen. A Turkish woman was killed, and nearly 200 others were wounded. U.S. intelligence sources identified Libya as being responsible for the attack.

After U.S. intelligence intercepted Libyan government communications implicating Libya in the La Belle disco attack, President Reagan ordered retaliatory air strikes on Tripoli and Benghazi. The operation on April 15, 1986, ten days after the bombing in Berlin, dubbed Operation El Dorado Canyon, involved 200 aircraft and over 60 tons of bombs. One of the residences of Libyan leader Muammar el-Qadaffi was hit in the attack, which, according to Libyan estimates, killed 37 people and injured 93 others. As a result of this American operation, U.S. national security officials say Libyan-sponsored terrorism ceased "for a long time."

Two days after the U.S. retaliatory attack, the bodies of three American University of Beirut employees -- American Peter Kilburn and Britons John Douglas and Philip Padfield -- were discovered near Beirut shot to death. The Arab Revolutionary Cells, a pro-Libyan group of Palestinians affiliated with terrorist Abu Nidal, claimed to have executed the three men in retaliation for Operation El Dorado Canyon.

~~~The terrorism against the United States continued on December 21, 1988.

Pan Am Flight 103 from London to New York exploded over the small town of Lockerbie, Scotland. All 259 people on board were killed, along with 11 on the ground.

According to the State Department's "Patterns of Global Terrorism, 1991," released in April 1992, the bombing of Pan Am 103 "was an action authorized by the Libyan Government." Though there were reports that Syria and Iran also played significant roles in the attack, U.S. officials were never able to tie the two countries to the bombing. No one has ever taken credit for planting the bomb.

In May 2000 the trial of the two Libyan intelligence officers charged with planting the bomb started in the Netherlands. It ended in February 2001 with the conviction of defendant Abdelbaset Ali Mohmed al-Megrahi; he received a life sentence. The other defendant, Al Amin Khalifa Fhimah, was acquitted and set free.

~~~ On February 26, 1993, the first attack by Islamic extremists occured on our soil. That day a bomb exploded in basement garage of the World Trade Center, killing 6 and injuring over a thousand others. In 1995, militant Islamist Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman and 9 others were convicted of conspiracy charges, and in 1998, Ramzi Yousef, believed to have been the mastermind, was convicted of the bombing. Al-Qaeda involvement is suspected.

~~~A question mark exists over who, if anyone else, was involved with Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, in the April 19, 1995 attack on the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City in which 168 people were killed, including 19 children and 1 person who died in the rescue effort. Information regarding the "second bomber" may well have existed and that Nichols may have received support and help from el Qaeda sources Nichols may have met in the Philapines.

~~~On November 13, 1995 in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia a car bomb exploded at U.S. military headquarters, killing 5 U.S. military personel.

~~~On June 25, 1995 in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia a truck bomb exploded outside Khobar Towers military complex, killing 19 American servicemen and injuring hundreds of others. 13 Saudis and a Lebanese, all alleged members of Islamic militant group Hezbollah, were indicted on charges relating to the attack in June 2001. I don't have any further information on the disposition of those charged.~~~Bin Laden's henchmen continued their attacks on us October 12, 2000 in the Port of Aden, Yemen. The USS Cole was heavily damaged when a small boat loaded with explosives blew up alongside it. 17 sailors killed. No action was taken by us in retaliation.

~~~Finally, the threshold of American tolerance was crossed on 9/11.

~~~Monsoor Ijaz, a member of the Council on Foreign relations wrote in the L.A. Times in on December 5, 2001:

"President Clinton and his national security team ignored several opportunities to capture Osama bin Laden and his terrorist associates, including one as late as last year."I know because I negotiated more than one of the opportunities."From 1996 to 1998, I opened unofficial channels between Sudan and the Clinton administration. I met with officials in both countries, including Clinton, U.S. National Security Advisor Samuel R. "Sandy" Berger and Sudan's president and intelligence chief. President Omar Hassan Ahmed Bashir, who wanted terrorism sanctions against Sudan lifted, offered the arrest and extradition of Bin Laden and detailed intelligence data about the global networks constructed by Egypt's Islamic Jihad, Iran's Hezbollah and the Palestinian Hamas."

The complete Ijaz article is here.

~~~The war in Iraq is only a component in the war on terror. We may disagree on the manner in which Iraq War is being conducted. It is, however, a necessary element if we are to protect our shores.

If we pull out with anything less than complete victory we will be destined to repeat the above history and more. Much more.

Ciao.......Moe

This and that......

1......I'll leave the eulogies to others.

Gerald Ford, 38th President of the United States RIP, he was a good man.

2.....Since when is it a protected constitutional right for an illegal alien to rent living quarters in the United States.

Newsmax reports the ACLU has filed a lawsuit challanging a Dallas suburb's new law that outlaws renting to illegal immigrants, alleging the ordinance violates federal law and forces landlords to act as immigration officers.

The American Civil Liberties Union and the Mexican American Legal Defense and Education Fund filed the suit on behalf of Farmers Branch residents and landlords. The law, along with a measure that made English the official language of the city, was passed in November and is scheduled to go into effect Jan. 12.

"Immigration enforcement must be left to the federal government, not each local municipality," said Lisa Graybill, legal director of the ACLU of Texas. "Otherwise Texas will end up with a patchwork system that is impractical and unenforceable."

Since when is the ACLU an expert on what is or is not enforceable. They're experts on everything. One thing they are not is small "d" democrats.

3.....I receive Dick Morris' news letter regularly. You can as well.

Here is his report received today. It deals with something we can do in the War on Terror as it applies to Iran. I think you'l find it interesting. At the end arew instructions on how you can receive it daily as well......

HIT IRAN WHERE IT HURTS

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

December 27, 2006 -- The sanctions adopted by the United Nations are too weak, too puny and too late to have any deterrent effect on Iran's drive to build a nuclear bomb. But there is something the U.S. government, state governments, labor unions, pension funds and each of us as individuals can do: We can stop investing in companies that help Iran exploit the oil and gas resources on which its economy depends.

Investment funds - including pension funds - all over America are helping Iran develop the nuclear weapons that will eventually threaten us by investing in companies that directly subsidize Iran. We must all band together to stop these self-defeating investments. Frank Gaffney, a Reagan-era Pentagon official, is pioneering the way via his group, disinvestterror.org. Sarah Steelman, Missouri's state treasurer, has followed his lead - the billion-dollar state pension funds have pulled investments in any company that abets terrorism.

Among Steelman's first targets were the Swiss giant UBS Finance and the French firm BNP Paribas Finance Inc. Both got kicked off the Missouri funds' list of approved brokers. UBS got the message and pulled out of Iran; it's now seeking readmission to Missouri's list. But BNP Paribus still works there. Indeed, it's an old friend of the Iranian regime. It headed a consortium that lent $1 billion to Iran Petrochemical Commercial Co. in September 2005. In 2002, it was central to Iran's sale of $1.1 billion in bonds - the first foreign Iranian bonds for sale since 1979. Gaffney's targets include Royal Dutch Shell, the multinational oil conglomerate. It has extensive holdings in the key Iranian offshore oil fields Soroush and Nowruz, where its investments have been pivotal in raising oil output by 190,000 barrels per day - about an 8 percent increase in total Iranian output. (In October, Shell diversified its terror portfolio - winning contracts to search for and pump oil in Syria.)

In an ideal world, of course, there'd be real U.N. sanctions against Tehran, as well as strong action by the federal government. But vested interests make either near-impossible to achieve. Back in the '90s, for example, then-Sen. Alfonse D'Amato pushed through sanctions against foreign firms that do business in two terror-sponsoring nations, Libya and Iran. But the Europeans protested vigorously that the law was an extraterritorial infringement of their sovereignty. So, while President Clinton signed the bill, he took the advice of National Security Adviser Sandy Berger and waived any application of the law. But there's an alternative to shutting down Iran's economy in one fell swoop - the death of a thousand cuts, via smaller-scale actions.

The Gaffney approach aims at the same goals as D'Amato's, but by private means. And Steelman has added an important state component to the drive. Other public fund managers should pay heed. Here in New York, that means city Comptroller William C. Thompson Jr. and the successor to Alan Hevesi as state comptroller. Companies in the New York area should join in - and focus on persuading their banks to join the disinvestment project. Unions should direct their pension funds to do the same. Even more than the rest of America, the town that is Terror Target No. 1 has good reason to end Iran's nuclear ambitions.

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If you want to receive free copies of all of Dick Morris' and Eileen McGann's commentaries, sign up at http://www.dickmorris.com/.

Ciao.......Moe

The old year ending in a rush of serious news.....

Get ready for the real spin to begin.

1.....Governor Wee Cann Patrick ducks and dodges the question of drivers' licenses for illegal aliens and in state tuition for their children wanting to attend Massachusetts colleges and community colleges. He'll first tell us he is listening to us and will do whatever he knows is best for us. Harrumph!

2.....A court has cleared the way for mass murdered Saddam Hussein can be executed and the government has thirty days in which to do it. They could do it by tomorrow. Heck I know some Kurds who'd only need a couple of minutes to set up a rope and noose.

3.....The Cuban spin machine is working overtime trying to convince everyone Fidel Castro is still alive. They're even trying to tell us he was never really ill, just tired. I wonder how long he will be dead before we're told he's about to meet Ed Diablo and live in the land of perpetually burning sulfur.

4.....Queen Nancy (Pelosi) will be coronated next week.

5.....Barrack Obama is being presented to us as a soft spoken, thoughtful guy who is sensitive (I love that word) to the wishes and feelings of his constituents. Now that's a lot of bunk. He's really a radical to the left of John Kerry and Teddy Kennedy on the question of abortion. He takes his bloody view to the extreme. If a baby survives an abortion, kill it. Yes that's his stance.

Human Events reports:

"In 2002, as an Illinois legislator, Obama voted against the Induced Infant Liability Act, which would have protected babies that survived late-term abortions. That same year a similar federal law, the Born Alive Infant Protection Act, was signed by President Bush. Only 15 members of the U.S. House opposed it, and it passed the Senate unanimously on a voice vote.

"Both the Illinois and the federal bill sought equal treatment for babies who survived premature inducement for the purpose of abortion and wanted babies who were born prematurely and given live-saving medical attention.

"When the federal bill was being debated, NARAL Pro-Choice America released a statement that said, 'Consistent with our position last year, NARAL does not oppose passage of the Born Alive Infants Protection Act ... floor debate served to clarify the bill’s intent and assure us that it is not targeted at Roe v. Wade or a woman’s right to choose.'"The Human Events article has even more on Obama and his position. Click here to see it.

6......Congressional Democrats are vowing to reduce spending. Sounds like a New Year's resolution. It will probably join most of the resolutions made in the fog of alcohol on New Year's Eve. Don't bet on them keeping their promise.

7.....Congratulations to Tiger Woods for winning the AP Male Athlete of the Year award....for the fourth time. His dad died at the beginning of 2006 and his performance immediately following his father's passing indicated he may not be able to return to the focused competitor we had come to know. I'm not a big golfing fan but there is something electric about him and it's worth the effort to watch this master spin his craft.

After the weak showing he went on to place 1st or 2nd in every event the rest of the year. What he did is comparable to winning the Triple Crown in baseball, last accomplished by Frank Robinson (with the Orioles) in 1966 and Carl Yastzremski in 1967.

8.....The question of whether there was a third mad-man involved in the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19, 1995 ius open again. Keep an eye on this one. Timothy McVeigh, who was executed for his murderous role in the case failed a lie detector test when asked whether there were others involved. Now bits and pieces are creeping out and opening the question of bomber #3 to go along with McVeigh and Terry Nichols.

Fox News Network ran a story on Christmas Eve regarding questions raised by a former FBI investigator in the case:

"The former lead FBI agent in the case, Dan Defenbaugh, told AP a few years ago he was trying to get one last interview with McVeigh to go over unanswered questions in the case but could not get it arranged before McVeigh was executed.

Congressman Dana Rohrabacher's congressional committee's report cites several leads the subcommittee believes were not fully investigated, including:

—information that McVeigh called a German citizen living at a white supremacist compound in Oklahoma two weeks before the bombing and that two witnesses saw the men together before the bombing.

—witness accounts that another man was seen with McVeigh around the time of the bombing. The FBI originally looked for another suspect it named John Doe 2, even providing a sketch, but abruptly dropped that line of inquiry. The subcommittee concludes that decision was a mistake.

—findings in AP articles in 2003 and 2004 that indicated the FBI had gathered some evidence suggesting a group of neo-Nazi bank robbers may have been tied to McVeigh. The subcommittee interviewed three of those robbers, and all denied a connection. A fourth member of the gang died and a fifth member could not be located by Congress.

—phone record and witness testimony that persons associated with Middle Eastern terrorism in the Philippines may have had contact with Nichols, and that Nichols took a book about explosives to the Philippines. The FBI and Filipino police spent months investigating such a connection, but ruled it out.

—information from a former TV reporter concerning an Iraqi national who was in Oklahoma around the time of the bombing."

Stay tuned. More, much more may be in the offing.

9.....Good news from Somalia. We have been told el Qaeda is in control of Somalia. While it is true there are thousands of Islamist extremists fighters imported from elsewhere, the Ethiopian and Somalian armies have decimated the invaders with the extremists suffering hundreds of casualties. The news that Somalia is a lost cause may have been premature.


Ciao.......Moe

Prayer of Joe Wright

In 1996 when Minister Joe Wright was asked to open the new session of the Kansas House of Representatives, everyone was expecting the usual generalities, but this is what they heard:


"Heavenly Father, we come before you today to ask Your forgiveness and to seek Your direction and guidance.

• We know Your Word says 'Woe to those who call evil good,' but that is exactly what we have done.
• We have lost our spiritual equilibrium and reversed our values. We confess that.
• We have ridiculed the absolute truth of Your Word and called it Pluralism.
• We have worshipped other gods and called it multiculturalism.
• We have endorsed perversion and called it alternative lifestyle.
• We have exploited the poor and called it the lottery.
• We have rewarded laziness and called it welfare.
• We have killed our unborn and called it choice.
• We have shot abortionists and called it justifiable.
• We have neglected to discipline our children and called it building self-esteem.
• We have abused power and called it politics.
• We have coveted our neighbor's possessions and called it ambition.
• We have polluted the air with profanity and pornography and called it freedom of _expression.
• We have ridiculed the time-honored values of our forefathers and called it enlightenment.

Search us, Oh, God, and know our hearts today; cleanse us from every sin and set us free. Guide and bless these men and women who have been sent to direct us to the center of Your will, to open ask it in the name of Your Son, the living Savior, Jesus Christ. Amen"

My Christmas Card to You...Click Here...

Here comes another WRKO Saturday

Rise and Shine!!!!!!!

Our thanks to Bill Smith, the excellent production director at WRKO. He put the excellent sound effects beneath Jerry Williams' reading of a Child's Christmas in Wales. It adds to the impact of this emotion filled piece. I hope you enjoy it. We are continuing the WRKO tradition of playing the reading on Saturday morning in the 9 AM hour. I hope you enjoy it.

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FUN WEBSITES FOR YOUR KIDS.......

http://www.noradsanta.org/en/default.php and http://www.northpole.com/. Both are child friendly and loaded with fun things for the kids to do. Most of it is kid friendly so children with even the most elementary understanding of the Internet can maneuver and have fun. I highly recommend it and my granddaughters will be using them here and at their home.

SOME TOPICS FOR SATURDAY

1. This is the biggest drunken driving weekend of the year. Pay attention to "the other guy".

2. No criminal charges in the big dig calamity.

3. Thanks to the governor elect, Massachusetts will become a heaven for illegals. His Happiness has already announced his intention of reversing the order of Governor Romney of having the State Police arrest illegals. Coming next, drivers licenses and in state tuition for illegals.

4. Tony Blair thinks this could well be an el Qaeda weekend.

5. The ongoing saga of the criminal Sandy Berger.

6. Duke rape charges dropped. Is this a case of a prosecutor gone wild?

7. Governor Happiness doesn't think local law enforcement should have anything to do with illegal immigrants status. Out West 14 Orange County California sheriff's deputies graduated Thursday from a program that will allow them to check the immigration status of county inmates. The checks should significantly increase the number of inmates deported after serving their sentences, Sheriff Michael S. Carona said. Sounds good to me.

8. Three years ago the United Nations figured it would cost about $1 billion to fix up the old chicken coop. Well, they've re-figured it. $1.9 Billion is now the figure. Those boys really know how to spend money. Heck, they must have Bechtel as a contractor.

9. An AP-AOL News poll finds that 86 percent in the poll believed in Santa as a child. Add to that more than 60 percent of those of us with children at home consider Santa important in their holiday celebrations.

10. Commenting on proposed gay marriage laws in Italy, Pope Benedict said the following:

"This tacitly accredits those dismal theories that strip all relevance from the masculinity and femininity of the human being as though it were a purely biological issue," the Pope said.

Theories "according to which man should be able to decide autonomously what he is and what he isn't," end up with mankind destroying its own identity, he said.



Below is a series of Christmas items I've collected over the years on the Internet:

Someone has stated that the three phrases that best sum up the Christmas season are: "Peace on Earth",
Joy to the World, and
"Batteries not included."

~~~~~~~

Gift Wrapping Tips for MenThis is the time of year when we think back to the very first Christmas, when the Three Wise Men; Gaspar, Balthazar and Herb,went to see the baby Jesus and, according to the Book of Matthew,"presented unto Him gifts; gold, frankincense, and myrrh.

"These are simple words, but if we analyze them carefully, wediscover an important, yet often overlooked, theological fact there is no mention of wrapping paper.If there had been wrapping paper, Matthew would have said so "Andlo, the gifts were inside 600 square cubits of paper. And the paper was festooned with pictures of Frosty the Snowman.

And Joseph was going to throweth it away, but Mary saideth unto him,she saideth, 'Holdeth it! That is nice paper! Saveth it for nextyear!' And Joseph did rolleth his eyeballs. And the baby Jesus wasmore interested in the paper than the frankincense."But these words do not appear in the Bible, which means that thevery first Christmas gifts were NOT wrapped. This is because thepeople giving those gifts had two important characteristics

1. They were wise.

2. They were men.

Men are not big gift wrappers. Men do not understand the point of putting paper on a gift just sosomebody else can tear it off.

This is not just my opinion, this is a scientific fact based on astatistical survey of two guys I know. One is Rob, who said the only time he ever wraps a gift is "If it's such a poor gift that Idon't want to be there when the person opens it.

"The other is Gene, who told me he does wrap gifts, but as a matterof principle never takes more than 15 seconds per gift. "No oneever had to wonder which presents daddy wrapped at Christmas,"Gene said. "They were the ones that looked like enormousspitballs.

"I also wrap gifts, but because of some defect in my motor skills, I can never completely wrap them. I can take a gift the size of adeck of cards and put it the exact center of a piece of wrappingpaper the size of a regulation volleyball court, but when I amdone folding and taping, you can still see a sector of the giftpeeking out.

(Sometimes I camouflage this sector with a markingpen.) If I had been an ancient Egyptian in the field of mummies, the lower half of the Pharaoh's body would be covered only by Scotch tape.

On the other hand, if you give my wife a 12-inch square of wrappingpaper, she can wrap a C-130 cargo plane. My wife, like many women, actually likes wrapping things. If she gives you a gift that requires batteries, she wraps the batteries separately, which to me is very close to being a symptom of mentalillness. If it were possible, my wife would wrap each individual volt.

My point is that gift-wrapping is one of those skills, like havingbabies, that come more naturally to women than to men. That is why today I am presenting: GIFT-WRAPPING TIPS FOR MEN* Whenever possible, buy gifts that are already wrapped. If, when the recipient opens the gift, neither one of you recognizes it, you can claim that it's myrrh.*

The editors of Woman's Day magazine recently ran an item on how to make your own wrapping paper by printing a design on it with an apple sliced in half horizontally and dipped in a mixture of food coloring and liquid starch. They must be smoking crack.*

If you're giving a hard-to-wrap gift, skip the wrapping paper! Just put it inside a bag and stick one of those little adhesive bows on it. This creates a festive visual effect that is sure to delight the lucky recipient on Christmas morning Your wife: Why is there a Hefty trash bag under the tree?

You: It's a gift! See? It has a bow!

Your wife: (peering into the trash bag) It's a leaf blower.

You: Gas-powered! Five horsepower!

Your wife: I want a divorce. You: I also got you some myrrh.In conclusion, remember that the important thing is not what yougive, or how you wrap it. The important thing, during this veryspecial time of year, is that you save the receipt.-- Author Unknown (but definitely male)

~~~~~~~

Gifts Your Husband Doesn't Want For Christmas

10. Anne of Avonlea/Anne of Green Gables Collectors Edition with
74 minutes of extra footage
9. Any knick-knack
8. Tickets to the ballet
7. "Another" new tie
6. A Bath and Body Works Soap Basket
5. New teddy bear pajamas
4. Vacuum cleaner
3. A weekend seminar on "Getting in Touch With Your Feelings"
2. Pair of fuzzy bunny slippers
1. A nose and ear hair trimmer (OK, well... maybe.)
[Take this off the list...I got one last year and it beats plucking nose and ear hair.]

~~~~~~~

Do you know what would have happened if it had been three Wise Women instead of three Wise Men ?

Women would say:

They would have asked directions, arrived on time, helped deliver the baby, cleaned the stable, made a casserole, and brought practical gifts.

Here's Men's rebuttal.....

Yeah, and do you know what they said would have said when they left?

"Did you see the sandals Mary was wearing with that gown?"

"That baby doesn't look anything like Joseph!"]

"Can you believe they let all of those disgusting animals in the house?"

"I heard that Joseph isn't even working right now!"

"And that donkey that they are riding has seen better days too!"

"Want to bet on how long it will take until you get your casserole
dish back?"

]~~~~~~~

Hanukkah Gifts

Maury's mother gave him two sweaters for Hanukkah. The next time he visited her, he made sure to wear one.

As he walked into the house, his mother frowned and said, "What's the matter? You didn't like the other one?"

~~~~~~~

Hanging Lights

Did you know that hanging lights on a Christmas tree is one of the three most stressful situations in an on-going relationship?

Psychiatrists claim the other two danger zones are teaching your mate to drive and wallpapering. They are rarely wrong on these things. We therefore rush to print with an emergency prompt list of Things Not To Say When Hanging Lights on the Christmas Tree.

- "You've got two red lights right next to each other, dummy. You're supposed to go yellow, green, red, blue, not yellow, red, red, green, blue..."
- "Up a little higher. You can reach it. Go on, try."
- "What the heck do you do to these lights when you put them away every year? Tie them in knot?"
- "Come away from that aluminum ladder, kids. I'm going to fry that sucker."
- "If you're not going to do it right, don't do it at all. Don't just throw them on, like you do the icicles. You're worse than your father."
- "Give me that!"
- "You've got the whole thing on the tree upside-down. The electric pluggee thing should be down here at the bottom, not up at the top."
- "I don't care if you have found another two strings, I'm done!"
- "You've just wound 'em around and around - I thought we agreed it shouldn't look like a spiral this year?"
- "Have you been drinking?"
- "Where's the cat?"

~~~~~~~~

I suspect you resemble one of the above Christmas stories. Merry Christmas to all.

See you Saturday Morning 6-10 on AM 680 WRKO, Boston's Talkstation.

Ciao.......Moe

See you Friday at 9 AM on AM 680 WRKO

Who needs a White Christmas? Do you think the people in Colorado are jumping with snowmen of joy at the idea?

~~~~~~~

Former Virginia James Gilmore is considering a run for the Republican nomination for president for 2008. Now, he's a real Reagan conservative who actually voted for Reagan and was proud long ago to say so, not like Mitt Romney who bragged in his 1994 debate with the worst senator in the world, Ted Kennedy, that he didn't approve of Reagan policies, especially on tax cuts, and didn't vote for the Gipper either.

Conservatives will give him a fair hearing.

I bet Gilmore would not have thrown the Boy Scouts of America our of the Winter Olympics and Romney did.

~~~~~~~

It kills me to say this: George Bush may be in the Jimmy Carter category of failed presidents. Yes, that bad. I thought Carter was the pits. George is working hard to join him. Even his dad didn't have that distinction. Of course "Old" George only had one term.

~~~~~~~

This in the Associated Press wire last night:

"Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has predicted that Britain, Israel and the United States would eventually disappear from the world like the Egyptian pharaonic kings.

"'The oppressive powers will disappear while the Iranian people will stay. Any power that is close to God will survive while the powers who are far from God will disappear like the pharaohs,' he said Wednesday, according to Iranian news agencies."

I think it's time for Mr. Ahmadinejad is introduced to Little Boy. If that's not enough, maybe "Fat Man's" great grandson.

~~~~~~~~

Mitt Romney 1994 in the Kennedy debate:

Kennedy attempted to link Romney several times during the debate to conservatives such as Sen. Jesse Helms (R-N.C.) and accused him of trying to return the country to the policies of the Reagan-Bush administrations. Romney objected to the characterizations, saying: "I was an independent during the time of Reagan-Bush. I’m not trying to return to Reagan-Bush." Romney has sought throughout the campaign to portray himself as a "Bill Weld Republican" who is liberal on social issues and conservative on fiscal matters.


Contrast that to his current position:


According to National Review On Line Mitt Romney says his party "must return to the common sense Reagan Republican ideals of fighting for hardworking Americans."

My recollection is he trashed Reagan in the 1994 Kennedy debate. He came in with the lead and left a loser. He still is a loser.

Remember this is the man who banned the Boy Scouts from the 2002 Winter Olympics he headed.

It's my bedtime. See you at 10Am on WRKO.

Ciao.......Moe

'Tis the Season.......

I'll be in on WRKO Thursday and Friday from 9 to Noon.

~~~~~~~

This is the Christmas Season. Therefore to hear Merry Christmas here in the land of overwhelmingly Christian people is not surprising nor should it be offensive. If I lived in Israel I would expect to hear Happy Hanukkah and I would;d not feel offended or left out.

If we are an American society free of restraints, those benefiting and profiting from the Christmas spirit of millions of Christians should be willing to acknowledge the "Reason for the Season". This nonsense of ordering clerks in stores to not say Merry Christmas so as to not be offensive is offensive to the overwhelming numbers of us who enjoy the ring of it and the millions in America who respect the joy felt by Christmas believers.

I recall a lesson I learned from an Orthodox Rabbi who was a friend and neighbor. I wished him a Merry Christmas and quickly apologized to him fearing I may have offended him. He smiled and replied there was nothing to be offended over because my message was intended as a message of love and peace to a friend. He concluded, "So now what's there to be offended over?" From then on I wished him a Merry Christmas during the Season and he responded with the same wish to me. Yes, we exchanged Happy Hanukkahs as well.

Rabbi Weinberg wherever you are today, Merry Christmas and Happy Hanukkah.

Heck, we Christians stole the Christmas Tree from the Pagans and Jews stole the Hanukkah Bush from us.

Now, maybe we can better understand the need to be Americans first lest we fall into the trap those in Northern Ireland, Belgium, Iraq, and Jerusalem find themselves in.

If you find Merry Christmas offensive, when you see me either put your fingers in your ears or cross the street.

~~~~~~~

With all the above in mind:

Why Hanukkah Is Better Than Christmas
1. There's no "Donny & Marie Hanukkah Special"
2. Eight days of presents (in theory, anyway).
3. No need to clean the chimney.
4. There's no latke-nog.
5. Burl Ives doesn't sing Hanukkah songs.
6. You won't be pressured to buy Hanukkah Seals.
7. You won't see, "You're a Putz, Charlie Brown".
8. No barking dog version of "I had a Little Driedl".
9. No pine needles to vacuum up afterwards.
10. Blintzes are cheaper to mail than fruitcakes.

~~~~~~~

When Christmas Was Not So GreatWhen I was young, my family was so poor that for Christmas we gotbatteries with a note attached saying "Toy not included."

~~~~~~~

A woman was out Christmas shopping with her two children. After many hours of looking at row after row of toys and everything elseimaginable, and hearing both her children asking for everything they saw on those many shelves, this woman finally made it out ofthe store and to the elevator with her two kids.

She was feeling what so many of us feel during the holiday seasontime of the year: Overwhelming pressure to go to every party, every housewarming, taste all the holiday food and treats, get that perfect gift for every single person on our shopping list, make sure we don't forget anyone on our card list, and the pressureof making sure we respond to everyone who sends us a card. Not to mention, getting the kids everything they ask for.

Finally the elevator doors opened--there was already a crowd in the car. This woman pushed her way into the car and dragged her two kids in with her, along with all her bags of stuff. When the doors closed, she let out a big sigh and decided she couldn't take it anymore, saying out loud, to no one in particular, "Whoever started this whole Christmas thing should be arrested andstrung up!

"From the back of the elevator, a quiet calm voice responded, "Don't worry ma'am, I believe they crucified Him."

~~~~~~~

Someone has stated that the three phrases that best sum up the Christmas season are: "Peace on Earth", "Goodwill to Men" and "Batteries not included."

A very serious note: This just in from Hood River, Oregon, the sheriff has just announced the effort is now a recovery, no longer a rescue operation.

We'll have more Holiday sillinesss and seriousness tomorrow.

Ciao.......Moe

Et tu George W?

Bush tax hikes may be in our future. Can anyone say "like father like son".

Usually that statement is a curse borne by the son. Sometimes it presents an impossible level of attainment. In the Bush family, it appears as curse; not due to expectations, but they may both be remembered for the same malaise.

George W. has been sold to us as firm on principles. To that extent even the most hardened conservatives have been disappointed by his so-called compassionate conservatism, we understood he had his own belief system that did not put him in a mold.

However, the "like father" curse in this case is well earned.

The man who was like hardened steel on the tax issue, "like father", "W" is about to move his lips. He will give in to a tax hike in the spirit of compromise. His dad did the same. He bargained with the Democrat controlled congress in the spirit of the Democrats cutting spending to the extent he raised taxes. Of course, the Democrats acted like Democrats and reneged on the spending cuts.

The Washington Times reports in this morning's edition the administration has said everything is on the table, setting the stage for a 180-degree reversal in its tax position. Experience tells us these surprises of this sort come at times when we're not paying attention.

Heads up, George was seen applying chap stick to his lips.

~~~~~~~

What the heck is going on in Gaza? Palestinians are at each other's throats. Any wonder why Israel is fearful of people acting like savages. Had Yassir Arafat accepted the original Ariel Sharon plan there would be a nation of Palestine today. But he said no and a living hell exists in its place.

~~~~~~~

Have you heard the latest from Baghdad? Despite the carnage and dangerous streets, their economy is booming. Would low taxes have anything to do with it.

~~~~~~~

New York City lunacy comes to Massachusetts. First there were the seat belts safety zealots hell-bent on saving you from yourself, then margarine in all restaurants, smoking prohibitions, now it's trans-fats thanks to Democrat State Representative Peter Koutoujian of Waltham. He wants us to mimic NYC and their rules. There goes the good tasting fries and donuts.

What is it with these "I'm going to save you zealots"?

We may well be on our way to introducing liberty to the Middle East but we are surrendering our liberties here int he USA, especially in the People's Republic of Massachusetts.

~~~~~~~~

We've mentioned this before but it bears repeating. Americans grow $35 billion worth of marijuana each year, making it the country's largest cash crop, bigger than corn and wheat combined, an advocate of medical marijuana use said in a study released on Monday.

I guess we need to build larger prisons and give longer sentences. There that will do it. While they're at it they can build cells for those of us who scoff at the planned trans fat laws.

~~~~~~~

John Kerry was in Damascus talking to the bloody dictator Bashir al-Assad. I wonder if he brought up Syria's imprisonment of dissidents? Somehow I doubt it. That's not his type of thing. He wouldn't want to act like a lousy guest by bringing something as imprisonment of dissenters.


Ciao.......Moe

Democrat's New Direction for America

Subject: Democrat's New Direction for America

A New Direction For America and
What the Democrat Vote Meant

1. The stock market is at a new all-time high and America's 401Ks are back.

A new direction from there means, what?
2. Unemployment is at 25 year lows.

A new direction from there means, what?
3. Oil prices are plummeting.

A new direction from there means, what?
4. Taxes are at 20 year lows.

A new direction from there means, what?

5. Federal tax revenues are at all-time highs.

A new direction from there means, what?

6. The Federal deficit is down almost 60%, just as predicted over last year.
A new direction from there means. what?

7. Home valuations are up 200% over the past 3.5 years.

A new direction from there means, what?
8. Inflation is in check, hovering at 20 year lows.

A new direction from there means, what?

9. Not a single terrorist attack on US soil since 9/11/01.

A new direction from there means, what?

10. Osama bin Laden is living under a rock in a dark cave, having not surfaced in years, if he's alive at all, while 95% of Al Queda's top dogs are either dead or in custody, cooperating with US Intel.

A new direction from there means, what?

11. Several major terrorist attacks already thwarted by US and British Intel, including the recent planned attack involving 10 Jumbo Jets being exploded in mid-air over major US cities in order to celebrate the anniversary of the 9/11/01 attacks.

A new direction from there means, what?

12. Just as President Bush foretold us on a number of occasions, Iraq was to be made "ground zero" for the war on terrorism -- and just as President Bush said they would, terrorist cells from all over the region are arriving from the shadows of their hiding places and flooding into Iraq in order to get their faces blown off by US Marines rather than boarding planes and heading to the U.S. to wage war on us here.

A new direction from there means, what?

Now let me see, do I have this right ?

I can expect:

• The economy to go South
• Illegals to go North
• Taxes to go Up
• Employment to go Down
• Terrorism to come In
• Tax breaks to go Out
• Social Security to go away
• Health Care to go the same way gas prices have gone

But what the heck! I can gain comfort by knowing that Nancy Pelosi, Hillary Clinton, John Francois Kerry, Teddy Kennedy, Howard Dean, Harry Reid and Obama have worked hard to create a comprehensive National Security Plan, Health Care Plan, Immigration Reform Plan, Gay Rights Plan, Same Sex Marriage Plan, Abortion On Demand Plan, Tolerance of "Everyone and Everything Plan", "How to Return all Troops to the U.S. in TheNext Six Months Plan", "A Get Tough Plan" (adapted from the French Plan by the same name) and a How Everyone Can Become as Wealthy as We Are Plan. I forgot, the "No More Katrina Storm Plan".

Now I know why I felt good after the elections. I am going to be able to sleep soooooo much better nights knowing these dedicated politicians are thinking of me and my welfare.

Good night.......Moe

Some Sunday type things........

Congratulations on you being the Time Person of the Year.

Newt Gingrich. Presidential candidate?

Gingrich made the remark Friday night, as he delivered the keynote speech at the Manchester Republican City Committee Christmas dinner, the the Manchester Union Leader reported today.

"Those six people should have been arrested and prosecuted for pretending to be terrorists," Gingrich said. "And the crew of the U.S. airplane should have been invited to the White House and congratulated for being correct in the protection of citizens."

Way to go Newt!

~~~~~~~

The following three items were provided by Issues of the Day readers:

A libertarian case against abortion:

1. Human offspring are human beings, persons from fertilization.

2. Abortion is homicide -- the killing of one person by another.

3. There is never a right to kill an innocent person. Prenatally, we are all innocent persons.

4. A prenatal child has the right to be in the mother's body. Parents have no right to evict their children from the crib or from the womb and let them die. Instead both parents, the father as well as the mother, owe them support and protection from harm.

5. No government, nor any individual, has a just power to legally depersonify any one of us, born or preborn.

6. The proper purpose of the law is to side with the innocent, not against them.

Tony Blair was asked why he feels as he does about the United States. Here is his response:

"A simple way to take measure of a country is to look at how many want in and how many want out."

~~~~~~~

Only two defining forces have ever offered to die for you:

1. Jesus Christ

2. The American G. I. One died for your soul, the other died for your freedom.

~~~~~~~

Do you know what chutzpah is? Well, this story Cybercast News Service describes the ultimate corruption of morals by a labor union. To suggest what Immigration Customs Enforcement agents did with illegal workers at Swift packing plants is galling. The illegals were stealing Americans' identity.

One final item for today (Thanks to Tony C.):

Tequila Cookies Cuervo Cookies

This is the BEST Christmas Cookie recipe EVER!

1 cup of water1 tsp baking soda1 cup of sugar

1 tsp salt1 cup of brown sugarLemon juice

4 large eggs1 cup nuts2 cups of dried fruit

1 bottle Jose Cuervo Tequila

Sample the Cuervo to check quality.

Take a large bowl, check the Cuervo again to be sure it is of the highest quality, pour one level cup and drink.

Turn on the electric mixer.

Beat one cup of butter in a large fluffy bowl.

Add one teaspoon of sugar.

Beat again.

At this point it's best to make sure the Cuervo is still OK, try another cup just in case.

Turn off the mixerer thingy.

Break 2 leggs and add to the bowl and chuck in the cup of dried fruit.

Pick the frigging fruit off floor.

Mix on the turner.

If the fried druit gets stuck in the beaterers just pry it loose with a drewscriver.

Sample the Cuervo to check for tonsisticity.

Next, sift two cups of salt, or something.

Check the Jose Cuervo.

Now shift the lemon juice and strain the nuts.

Add one table.

Add a spoon of sugar, or somefink. Whatever you can find.

Greash the oven.

Turn the cake tin 360 degrees and try not to fall over.

Don't forget to bean off the turner.

Finally, throw the bowl through the window, finish the Cose Juervo and make sure to put the stove in the dishwasher.

CHERRY MISTMAS

~~~~~~~

We're getting closer.......61 days to Spring Training.


Ciao.......Moe

HERE COMES ANOTHER WRKO SATURDAY

Rise and Shine

1….The eight day festival of lights begins tonight at sundown. Happy Chanukah to one and all.

2….Do you recall the flap at the Seattle airport? You know, where Christmas trees were ordered by airport management when there was a threat of a lawsuit. The problem has been resolved. The trees are back.

3….."I told the governor-elect, if you're willing to share and you care and you prepare and are ready to deliver, then everything will work out. If not, I have senators across the state who share my vision and my approach and if forced to choose, I'm comfortable with whom they'll choose."

Ah, the sensitivity of liberals. Senate czar Robert Travaglini quoted in today’s Boston Globe. He stated publicly what he told incoming Boy Scout governor Deval Patrick.

The globe story went on: “Patrick has repeatedly said he can find $735 million in wasteful spending in the yearly budget. According to audience members, Travaglini said when he objected to the figure, Patrick backed off and said he didn't really mean it.”

Patrick then went on to use that figure in subsequent debates.

Gee, we’re now on the horns of a dilemma. One of them is lying. Is it “Trav” or Mini Me Barack or the senate boss?

I get the feeling Patrick is way over his head. Stay tuned.

Now he’s promising 1,000 new policemen. Where will the money come from?

Clinton Birthplace

4…..This item in Hope Star, the Clinton home town newspaper.

“Legislation to designate the Clinton Birthplace Home as a national monument under the federal parks system died in the waning hours of the 109th Congress on Friday, the victim of a 'senatorial hold.' Michael Teague, a spokesmen for U.S. Senator Mark Pryor, D-Ar., who has taken up the legislation on the designation from the House, said Monday that U.S. Senator Tom Coburn, R-Okla., had killed the bill for this session of Congress."

Go here for the whole story:

http://hopestar.com/articles/2006/12/11/news/news2.txt

5….Governor MiniMe’s possible selection of James Aloisi as his transportation secretary is actually scary. Aloisi is the one responsible for the legislation that helped transfer Big Dig responsibilities to the Turnpike Authority and create more financial leeway in the form of tolls.

He also defended his former boss James Kerasiotes against a Securities Exchange Commission probe into charges Kerasiotes concealed huge cost overruns on the project. The SEC concluded fraudulently understated the project’s true costs by more than $1 billion. For some reason he was never punished for his wrongdoing.

Aloisi must be a good mouthpiece.

6….Good news in the Washington Post……. “Cuban President Fidel Castro is very ill and close to death….” One can hope.

7….Here’s a cute item in NPR.org…….. “A fence-building company in Southern California agrees to pay nearly $5 million in fines for hiring illegal immigrants. Two executives from the company may also serve jail time. The Golden State Fence Company's work includes some of the border fence between San Diego and Mexico.”

Oops….

8….The inmates are running the institution. Read this Globe story on a class action lawsuit filed against the Massachusetts Registry of Motor Vehicles: http://www.boston.com/news/local/articles/2006/12/15/denied_licenses_legal_immigrants_sue_state_registry?mode=PF

When a foreign national who resides does not have to prove his/her being here legally when applying for a driver’s license?

The article says, “Registry workers asked the immigrants for proof of legal residency when they were not authorized to do so. The workers then denied licenses to the applicants, incorrectly concluding that the immigrants had not demonstrated they were in the United States legally, the suit alleges.”

I don’t think it would be xenophobic to say, tough. Our courts have said a license is a privilege. Add to that the fact is serves as an ID card opening the door for many other benefits. Why shouldn’t we require proof of legitimacy.

Jean Francois Arnold

9….There was an American general who, in 1775, distinguished himself as a hero of the revolution. Early in the war through acts of cunning and bravery at the battle of Fort Ticonderoga, the march to Canada and the attack on Montreal and besieging of Quebec he was recognized for his loyalty to America. Later with his conduct in the Battle of Valcour Island on Lake Champlain in 1776, the Battles of Danbury and Ridgefield in Connecticut he further distinguished himself and was rewarded with the rank of Major General. He continued his good service at the Battle of Saratoga in 1777.

By 1780 this general had his ego stubbed and became a traitor. He came up with a plan to give the British army control of the Hudson River Valley and West Point. That would have split the nation and the American forces. Fortunately his treachery was discovered and foiled.

Benedict Arnold escaped to the British in New York. He was rewarded with a commission as a Brigadier General in the British Army, along with an award of 6,000 pounds.

Overnight, Arnold went from hero to traitor.

We have a man who, now a US Senator, while still a comissioned reserve officer, met with the North Vietnamese in Paris behind the back of our negotiators on three separate ocassions. He now is blasting American foreign policy while in Egypt. He is on his way to Syria, a terrorist state, against the wishes of the State Department to conduct private negotiations with the criminal dictator al-Assad.

I wonder what war hero turned traitor John Kerry will say from Damascus.

10….Wisdom for the day (state department please take note) out of the mouth of American mobster, Al Capone:

“You can get much further with a kind word and a gun than you can with a kind word alone.”

11....Earlier this week we were treated to the specticle of anti-semites joining the world'sa leading bigot, Mad Mahmoud of Iran denying the Holocaust. In Tuesday I was treated with the rare treat of being called a communist and extreme left winger because of my positionon the Holocaust.

Our guest at 9 will be an old family friend who was among those who liberated Buchenwald at the end of WW II. Retiured Fall River District Court Judge Milton Silva will be our guest at 9 AM.

Here is a segment of Chapter Four of TALK RADIO, You're on the Air where I talk about Judge Silva:

My second real exposure with the Holocaust was with Holocaust was with Judge Milton Silva of the Fall River District Court. He was with the 120th Evacuation Hospital, the first medical unit to enter the just liberated Buchenwald Concentration camp. Each year Judge Quinn, of the Juvenile Court, sponsored a Holocaust Remembrance in the courtroom of the F.R. District Court which was attended by students of the various schools in the district. Judge Silva participated in this annual event.

At the time the 120th entered Buchenwald Judge Silva was a Corporal. When I learned of the observance I invited him to be a guest on my show. He accepted. My thoughts on the Holocaust were changed forever.

During my years in the textile machinery business I had met many WWII veterans including German and Japanese vets. The first personal encounter I had with the Holocaust was in meeting a man named Hugo Kahnman in Queens, New York. Hugo had been in the Dutch Air Force when Hitler’s troops invaded the Netherlands. Since he was Jewish he was taken to a concentration camp (I don’t recall which one). He had "the" tattoo on his forearm. He was reluctant to talk about his experience; something I learned was true of most survivors.

I had a psychologist friend who explained many survivors felt some form of guilt because they survived and others were systematically killed.

Judge Silva had known me since my youth. My dad was an undertaker too and we had met casually many times in the past. I knew him as a fun loving, congenial man. Yet when we discussed Buchenwald he became deadly serious. He still felt strong emotions more than thirty-five years later. The experience had become embedded in his soul.

I read many books on the Holocaust, including some which described Adolph Eichman’s doings, The Rise and Fall of the Third Reich and many others on the war in Europe and the Pacific.

Yet it was not until this interview with Judge Silva that I felt the full force of the Holocaust. He talked of the walking dead who greeted the Americans at the gate. The still warm crematoria, piles of bodies, the shallow graves, all these memories were vivid and still weighed heavily on him.

We now know the Nazis were desperately trying to kill the remaining prisoners in their concentration camps to destroy all the eye witnesses to their evil deeds.

It was disappointing to hear callers who doubted the validity of the Holocaust. Even with a witness from Buchenwald in the studio.

I began to read all I could about the Holocaust and had different guests from time to time. One such guest answered any thoughts I may have had to the degree of evil which existed during the war. I had learned about the rape of Nanking and the Batan death march and other atrocities performed by the Japanese and their cruelty to prisoners. Horror is the only appropriate word to describe learning what had been done.

I believed Mr. Kahnman. Ditto for Judge Silva and many other guests on this subject.

I read much of what Eli Wiesel wrote. He dedicated his life to preserving the history and uncovering the murderers who escaped justice right after World War II.

However, one guest brought the evil into very clear focus. The emotions of the victims and desperation of the times became very real thanks to this guest.

A book publicist contacted our WSAR program producer Charlie Verde promoting a book by an Australian on the subject of the Holocaust.

I thought, “What could a writer in Australia know about anything but the Pacific War?”

Thomas Keneally was one of Australia’s top authors. Formerly a school teacher he began writing professionally about 1960 and was prolific in turning our novel after novel. Now he had written of a flamboyant German industrialist who grew into a living legend to the Jews of Krakow, Poland. Only, this was not a novel.

Oskar Schindler was a womanizer, a heavy drinker and a bon vivant, but to them he was a savior.

Keneally’s book is the story of Oskar Schindler who risked his life to protect beleaguered Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland, a man who continually defied the SS, and who was transformed by the war into a man with a mission, a compassionate angel of mercy. The story Keneally told was spell binding.

It sold fairly well, but few knew about it until Steven Spielberg made a movie based on Kineally’s book, Schindler’s Ark.

Oskar Schindler uses Jews to start a factory in Poland during the war. He witnesses the horrors endured by the Jews, and starts to save them.

To this day, Schindler’s List gives insight to the horror of the Nazis like no other motion picture on the subject.

After I left WSAR I did numerous programs on the subject of the Holocaust but nothing came close to what an Australian author recounted.

One of the tragedies of our times is the Holocaust is running out of eye witnesses. In another generation they will all be gone.

While talk radio has done a reasonable job in keeping the memory alive, it is a disappointment to know it is not in its nature to preserve history, so what Keneally and later Spielberg did with Schindler’s List will help keep that history alive.

I did a show on our war with Japan about ten years ago. A student from one of Boston’s great colleges called. She stands out because a format of serious issues does not lend itself to keeping the attention of youthful listeners. This program occurred before the movie Pearl Harbor made a big splash a couple of years ago.

The young lady spoke with surprise that we had fought Japan. She wanted to know when? Then finished her call with the question, “Who won?”

I should have asked her what she knew about the Holocaust.

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Radio legend Paul Harvey has a segment he refers to as, "The rest of the story.”
Well here's the rest of the story.

See you in the morning on Boston’s Talkstation, AM 680 WRKO.


Ciao…….Moe