Wingnut of the Year 2004! [link disabled]

I've been in two major earthquakes, one in 89' and the other in 94': I know the terror caused by natural disasters. The LA quake hit with such force that the building almost came down on my head. It felt like a giant hand grabbed my neck and throttled me with a jack hammer. I barely got away unscathed. Telling the tale is nothing like seeing it. Our hearts go out to the victims of this latest natural disaster.

Those who crave Starbucks can step over to a kiosk at Grace Capital Church in Pembroke, N.H. At True Bethel Baptist Church in Buffalo, N.Y., the spot where the choir once sang now sells Subway sandwiches. And in more than a few picturesque meeting houses, hymns and prayers ascend through a steeple that doubles as a leased-out cellphone tower....read on

DEBKAfile’s

Chinese deputy prime minister, State Councilor Tang Jiaxuan, flew in to Israel secretly Saturday night, December 25. His mission: to recover an unspecified number of Israel-built Harpy unmanned aerial attack vehicles sent back for overhaul or upgrade and held back by Israel at Washington’s insistence. US officials claim Israeli never asked permission or notified the administration about the Chinese sale. However, since no American-developed technology is present in the Harpy, Israel was under no compulsion to check with Washington on the sale. The transaction only came to light in Washington when the UAVs were returned to Israel for overhaul or upgrading – and even then the information came not from Israel but US intelligence. In actual fact, Washington was informed by Taiwan, which recently also purchased Harpy drones from Israel.

BANDA ACEH, Indonesia - Mourners in Sri Lanka used their bare hands to dig graves Tuesday while hungry islanders in Indonesia turned to looting in the aftermath of Asia's devastating tsunamis. Thousands more bodies were found in Indonesia, dramatically increasing the death toll across 11 nations to more than 52,000.

WASHINGTON - The U.S. Agency for International Development is adding $20 million to an initial $15 million contribution for Asian earthquake relief as Secretary of State Colin Powell bristled at a United Nations official's suggestion the United States has been "stingy."

[Yahoo News; stories no longer posted]

KIEV, Ukraine - Viktor Yushchenko, fresh from his victory in Ukraine's disputed presidential race, called on his supporters Tuesday to blockade the Cabinet of Ministers building to prevent his opponent from holding a government session.

[Yahoo News: story no longer posted.]

Rumsfeld referred to the "the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania."

Video

This prompted a statement from the Pentagon: A Pentagon spokesman insisted that Rumsfeld simply misspoke, but Internet conspiracy theorists seized on the reference to the plane having been shot down. Operation Truth sent a letter to the Senate demanding that it hold hearings on Donald Rumsfeld's tenure as Secretary of Defense, and then hold an official vote on confidence in him.

The human toll from the earthquake-spawned tsunamis that swamped an epic swath of South Asia climbed to 44,000 dead yesterday, and with tens of thousands still missing is bound to soar even higher.
At least eight Americans were killed and hundreds of other Yanks remain unaccounted for in the region, the State Department said...

Model Recounts Horrifying Experience Being Swept Up by the Waves

Jet-setting supermodel Petra Nemcova survived the terrifying Asian tsunami by clinging to the top of a palm tree for eight hours - wincing through the pain of a broken pelvis and haunted by the sight of her boyfriend being swept out to sea.

"This huge wave just pulled us out of the house," Nemcova, 25, told the Daily News last night from her hospital bed in Thailand. "It was so powerful I couldn't get up. I couldn't get out of it."

From Hannity and Colmes:

"I'm about as pro-Jewish as you can get..."

The Raw Story has an article called "Will Pat Robertson force us to tax Jesus?" that exposes the fallacies in many of his views:

But do we remember this golden hit from Robertson’s repertoire? “The Antichrist is probably a Jew alive in Israel today.”

On rights for other religions:

Colmes: "Do we ignore those religions?"

Robertson: "We don't give em up because of some Muslim out there who doesn't like Christianity...

What exactly are you giving up?

It seems to us it isn't about religion, it's about control.

Worth the read: Reason Magazine Online on what prominent conservative commentators have said about prisoner abuse.