that whiskey/carolans in your smiley pjs'-or are you happy to see me? lol (goin back a few posts B..)JK.

I hope a posting like this doesn't bring out the anti-religious today--ESPECIALLY TODAY. It is, after all, Christmas.

Merry Christmas to all.

fwiw my 2 cents.

I liked McCains' ad-I found it very moving. He didn't say-HE received any messages from God, but that it was a Vietnamese men who made the gesture of the cross in the sand. It was a "keep the faith gesture"-by one Christian to another human being.He let it speak for itself-the cross.

Hucks' ad, ontoh, was merely talk-much like a preacher from the pulpit of what his interpretation of the cross was "supposed" to mean to others. Being that he has the theology background-he is not equating himself to "one of us" as a Christian-but one who wants to lead using his faith.

I don't think a leader uses faith like a crutch.

The difference between the 2 was-one walked the walk-one talked the talk.

There was the blatant discrepancy. I don't think libs go far enough in dissecting what really angered/outraged/confused them about the ads-and again just want to blame the cross for all the worlds ills.

With the past scandals involving Haggard and other preachers--it is they who have put themselves up to such pious standards-by being about "all talk" concerning Jesus. Even GW claimed to have Gods' back when he decided to invade Iraq.

But it is in seeing the belligerent badgering to get an oild deal from the Iraqi govt.-while leaving millions of Iraqis homeless, sick, orphaned...that showed-this was not walking the walk at all.

It was talking the talk.

Actions speak louder than words-Jesus was a humble man, who did not wear his religion on his sleeve. even when asked direcly whether he was the SON of God. He would not answer.

This is the ultimate sign of a true christian to me.

Again....Merry Christmas all.

So all of the men who were killed or captured and didn't live to tell the tale like McCain-just didn't have enough Faith?

Ondo.-I'd been lurking and coming back to read posts today. Mainly for wanting to see latest on Bhutto. Saw your link to cbc-think it was and immediately went to read-and saved it to desktop. It was the article about spinal cord injury and bullet wounds-by an unnamed MD who worked on her.

I'm as ticked as you are about the changing stories. Josh @TPM brings up a good point-that possibly Western media(US govt)is spinning this story quickly as "it was her own damn fault" as far as hitting her head-vs. actual injuries sustained by a bullet or shrapnel. This would keep blame from Musharaf-or is an effort to--to say that M. did not supply her with proper security.

On another note DU and the Asian Times have had interesting articles about Pakistans nukes program-begun after the Cold War. Once again, Cheneys' fingerprints, along with Wolf. are ALL over Pakistans politics. Seems Cheney ok'd some illegal sales of F-16s to Pakistans-knowing full-well he had also help them get the bomb--in exchange for giving the US a place to wage wars by proxy on Russia. It was in known violations of the UN-sale of F-16s. Not only giving them the bomb-but not securing any of it either----kinda like giving a kid matches.

The CIA has also been instrumental at creating the ISI in Pakistan-and acccording to the 911 timeline:Bin Laden and the Taliban (an effort by the US to run Russia out of Afghanistan during Russias' invasion.) So, it looks to me like Cheney especially could go down-if all of the unscrupulous things he's done comes to light. This all began when he was in the state dept(Ford).

Don't know if you'll read this-but I DID save it. I also forwarded it (and Josh M's stories) to Anderson and Wolf @ CNN (they've been covering along with Nic Robertson)Pakistani coverage. I'll email it to Glenn G too-for you to get Ondo.

CNN reporting Pakistani govt. WILL allow exhumation for autopsy.

Have you seen this before? (2006)

The newspaper, L' Est Republicain, quoted a confidential document from the French secret service as saying that "according to a reliable source, Saudi security services are now convinced that OBL is dead."

The newspaper reported that intel officials had been given this document, dated Sept. 21, to Pres Jacques Chirac, PM de Villepin, and interirior and defense ministers.

I've also seen some threads that Bhutto had said OBL was dead also. Chirac discounted the info-saying nothing confirmed. Sounded like he just didn't want to believe it since it came from Saudi sources. I notice OBL has not been mentioned in quite a while too-except when necessary when the scandals keep piling up on Cheney/GW---a convenient OBL vid will surface about an attack.

If OBL was dead-Cheney and Armitage would have no grounds to 'bomb Pakistan back to the stone ages" (an Armitage quote to blackmail Pakistan to let them launch war in Iraq) if Musharef or anyone else in Pakistan would not cooperate with them.If Bhutto had gotten in power and known about OBL being dead-it would most certainly be a threat to keeping people/troops/bases there-in order to stay as occupiers of Iraq.

starting to make sense now....