Three years after he was hauled from a hole in the ground by pursuing U.S. forces, Saddam Hussein was hanged Saturday under a sentence imposed by an Iraqi court, al-Hurra TV, al-Arabiya and Sky News TV reported.

The deposed president was found guilty over the killing of 148 members of the Shiite population of the town of Dujail after militants tried to assassinate him there in 1982, during Iraq’s war with Shiite Iran.

The official witnesses to his execution gathered Friday in Baghdad’s fortified Green Zone in final preparation for his hanging, as state television broadcast footage of his regime’s atrocities.

The Pentagon said U.S. forces, always on high alert in Iraq, were braced for any upsurge in violence from Sunni insurgents loyal to Saddam.

A U.S. judge refused late Friday to stop the execution, rejecting a last-minute court challenge by the former Iraqi president.

“Petitioner Hussein’s application for immediate, temporary stay of execution is denied,” U.S. District Judge Colleen Kollar-Kotelly said in Washington after a hearing over the telephone with attorneys.

An Iraqi appeals court upheld Saddam’s death sentence Tuesday for the killing of 148 people who were detained and tortured after the attempt on his life.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki said in statements released Friday that those who opposed the execution of Saddam were insulting the honor of his victims. His office said he made the remarks in a meeting with families of people who died during Saddam’s rule.

“Our respect for human rights requires us to execute him, and there will be no review or delay in carrying out the sentence,” al-Maliki said.

In his Friday sermon, a mosque preacher in the Shiite holy city of Najaf called Saddam’s execution “God’s gift to Iraqis.”

“Oh, God, you know what Saddam has done! He killed millions of Iraqis in prisons, in wars with neighboring countries and he is responsible for mass graves. Oh God, we ask you to take revenge on Saddam,” said Sheik Sadralddin al-Qubanji, a member of the Supreme Council for the Islamic Revolution in Iraq, known as SCIRI.

Rumors and reports swirled Friday over when the execution would take place and whether U.S. forces had handed Saddam over to Iraqi custody, presumably the last step before the execution.

Earlier reports said al-Maliki feared fueling religious tensions if Saddam were executed during Eid al-Adha, a Muslim holiday that starts at sundown Saturday.

An execution during Eid carries great symbolism. The feast marks the sacrifice the prophet Abraham was prepared to make when God ordered him to kill his son, and many Shiites could regard Saddam’s death as a gift from God. Such symbolism could further anger Sunnis, who are resentful of new Shiite power.

Najeeb al-Nueimi, a member of Saddam’s legal team, said U.S. authorities were maintaining physical custody of Saddam until the time of the execution to prevent him from being humiliated beforehand. He said the Americans also want to prevent the mutilation of his corpse, as has happened to other deposed Iraqi leaders.

Saddam has been held at a U.S. base near Baghdad airport, but the place of execution has been kept secret.

Saddam, who said in court he had no fear of dying, had a farewell meeting with two of his half-brothers on Thursday, his lawyers said, adding the fallen dictator was in high spirits and ready to die a “martyr.” A third half-brother and another aide are also condemned to die for crimes against humanity.

Saddam’s conviction was hailed by President Bush as a triumph for the democracy he promised to foster in Iraq after the 2003 invasion.

International human rights groups criticized the year-long trial, during which three defense lawyers were killed and a chief judge resigned complaining of political interference.

Rights groups, along with the United Nations and many of the United States’ Western allies, oppose capital punishment and have voiced unease over the decision to put Saddam to death.

Saddam’s lawyers issued a statement Friday calling on “everybody to do everything to stop this unfair execution.” The statement also said the former president had been transferred from U.S. custody, though American and Iraqi officials later denied that.

The governments of Yemen and Libya made eleventh-hour appeals that Saddam’s life be spared.

Yemeni Prime Minister Abdul-Kader Bajammal wrote to the U.S. and Iraqi presidents, warning in his letter to President Bush that Saddam’s execution would “increase the sectarian violence” in Iraq, according to the official Yemeni news agency Saba.

Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi made an indirect appeal to save Saddam, telling Al-Jazeera television that his trial was illegal and that he should be retried by an international court.

Source: msnbc.com

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Can you believe this guy an illegal deported three times and had a criminal record dating back to 1990, and still driving on the streets, does it take several crimes or maybe a shooting for the law to do something with these blood sucking scumbags. This is what our government has done for us, and now we are left to deal with it while they profit!

LONG BEACH, Calif. – A man suspected of shooting two police officers during a traffic stop was killed in a wild shootout with police in a strip mall parking lot, authorities said Thursday.

More than 50 shots were fired between Santa Ana police officers and 33-year-old Oscar Gabriel Gallegos on Wednesday, Santa Ana Police Chief Paul Walters said.

Gallegos was a suspect in the Dec. 22 shootings of two Long Beach officers during a traffic stop.

Santa Ana officers went to confront a man believed to be Gallegos, Long Beach Officer Jason Evans said. “As soon as he sees the car with the officers, he starts shooting,” Walters said.

The officers got out of their car, took cover and returned fire, police said. Three officers shot at Gallegos, who was hit several times.

Gallegos continued to fire on officers even after he was shot, Walters said. He died of his wounds in the parking lot, police said.

Gallegos was an illegal immigrant who had been deported three times and had a criminal record dating back to 1990, including arrests for drug offenses and assault with a deadly weapon, authorities said.

Officers Abe Yap, 35, and Roy Wade, 39, were shot in their squad car after stopping a car for running a red light. Both are hospitalized in critical but stable condition, Long Beach Police Chief Anthony Batts said.

video on this can be seen here

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Fans honor Godfather of Soul at Apollo

Talk about a legend singer James Brown dies at 73 on Christmas Day and he recieves a beautiful farwell in a public viewing at the Apollo Theater in New York, after a horse-drawn carriage carrying the gold coffin of James Brown makes its way to the Apollo Theater in Harlem, New York, Thursday December 28, 2006. Even in death, James Brown can move a crowd. Thousands of people danced and sang in the streets outside the Apollo Theater on Thursday in raucous celebration of the music legend’s life as his body was displayed to the public on the stage where he made his 1956 debut.

NEW YORK (Reuters) – Thousands of James Brown fans lined up on Thursday to bid farewell to the “Godfather of Soul” at a public viewing of his body on the New York stage where the singer first made his mark more than 40 years ago.

The 73-year-old entertainer — whose voice, showmanship and bold rhythms brought funk into the mainstream and influenced generations of music — died on Christmas of congestive heart failure in Atlanta.

Brown’s body traveled on a horse-drawn carriage through New York’s Harlem neighborhood to the Apollo Theater on Thursday. A 1962 self-funded recording of Brown performing at the Apollo became one of the singer’s first hit albums.

“James Brown means everything to the black community,” said Brenda Baskin, 50, from Brooklyn, as she stood outside.

“(Brown’s lyrics)’Say it loud, I’m black and I’m proud,’ opened up the doors for black people to have more pride,” she said. “He told his people to hold their heads up and that there was something for them to be prideful in — themselves.”

After the viewing, Brown’s body was to be taken to his hometown of Augusta, Georgia, for a private service on Friday. Another public viewing is planned for Saturday before Brown is buried.

The Grammy-award winning singer was one of America’s great showmen and band leaders. He created a revolutionary sound that mixed funky rhythms and staccato horns behind his own often explosive vocals.

Hip-hop and rap artists revered him and extensively used his beats as the backdrop for their own music, while singers like pop star Michael Jackson drew on his dance style.

‘THE MAN WHO SET THE STAGE ON FIRE’

A line to view Brown’s body snaked along almost three city blocks. A Brown impersonator gave the crowd an impromptu street performance, while salesmen hawked T-shirts and pictures of the singer. Flashy cars drove by blaring Brown’s music.

“I came out for soul brother No. 1. That’s who he is — James ‘Butane’ Brown, the man who set the stage on fire,” said fan Fred Chinnery, 50, from New Rochelle, New York. “This man was the baddest man who ever put on a pair of dancing shoes and slid across the stage.”

Brown, the self-proclaimed “hardest working man in show business,” performed more than 100 live shows this year and had been scheduled to perform in New York’s Times Square on New Year’s Eve.

Brown had more than 119 singles on the charts and recorded over 50 albums. He was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and received a lifetime Grammy achievement award.

His big hits included “Please, Please, Please,” “Papa’s Got a Brand New Bag,” “I Got You (I Feel Good)” “Get Up (I Feel Like Being a Sex Machine)” and “It’s a Man’s, Man’s, Man’s World.”

Brown emerged from a boyhood of poverty and petty crime in Augusta in the era when the South was still segregated and began his music career in jail as a juvenile offender.

His personal life remained turbulent. He was jailed in 1988 for drug, weapons and vehicular charges after a car chase through Georgia and South Carolina that ended when police shot out the tires of his truck. He left prison in 1991.

He was named to President Reagan’s council against drugs but was arrested several times in the mid-1980s and 1990s and charged with drug and weapons possession.

During his career Brown also built a business empire with a string of radio stations and a production company. He even played a manic preacher in the hit movie “The Blues Brothers.”

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Illegal immigrants have become a fixed and growing part of America — living, working, and raising families in the shadows

TRANSCRIPT
By Tom Brokaw
Correspondent
NBC News
Dec 27, 2006

In case any of you readers missed this on NBC last night here is the transcript Tom Brokaw did on Illegal immigrants living and working in Colorado I am so glad it is getting harder for illegals to find work, and take our welfare. But they our stealing it using others SSN. Gould Constuction Co. has been hiring illegals. And knows with each latino he hires is probably using a fake SSN. If he would pay a decent wage he might get employees that are legal or American.

ROARKING FORK VALLEY, COLO. – The Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado is home of Aspen and Snowmass, the playground, as they say, of the rich and the famous. This is also the home of working class and middle class communities.

There are boom times here—a lot of new construction, and a rapidly expanding population. But there’s something else going on: A passionate debate about the waves of illegal immigrants, undocumented workers pouring across the border from Mexico, Central and South America to find a job and a home here.

The debate is about the economic realities, the social consequences, and the political controversies. It’s also about whether these new immigrants should be allowed to stay in the this immigrant nation.

One Saturday night in March, the Garfield county police just stopped a van heading east on I-70, Colorado’s major interstate.

Female officer: They have so much weight, the muffler’s dragging on the pavement.

The reason the muffler was dragging quickly becomes clear: Eleven men, none of whom speak English, slowly emerge from a van that normally seats eight.

Gas receipts told them this van had been to the border of Mexico and back. It even had a makeshift bathroom, cigarettes, oil, and Pepsi, and a gallon jug.

A scene such as this has become routine in Colorado—and it’s become a popular image of illegal immigration across America.

But it’s only a small part of the story we found in the Roaring Fork Valley of Colorado, a pristine stretch between Aspen and Vail.

For eight months, NBC News explored the popular myths and the truths about illegal immigration.

The real story is of a booming economy dependent on thousands of illegal workers.

That illegal community is thriving and enjoying the benefits of what America has to offer—but only by breaking the law— whether it’s purchasing medicine on the black market or buying a fake driver’s license, and it all seems to go on out in the open.

Mark Gould owns Gould Construction company in Glenwood Springs.

It’s first in and first out at a construction site, laying sewer systems, sidewalks, and foundations for homes, and schools, and waste-water treatment plants.

Mark Gould, owner Gould Construction company: Americans don’t want this work.

The back-breaking and dirty work is done by the 25 Hispanic workers on Gould’s staff of 125.

Mark Gould: These are tough jobs. These people work their butts off.

In March, at the beginning of the Colorado building season, dozens of men, most of them Hispanic, gathered in the lobby of Gould Construction.

Brett Gould, in charge of hiring: I’ve gotta have you know real documents you know. They need to be real. Otherwise we can’t even go there.

Brett Gould, Mark’s brother who’s in charge of hiring, struggled to find and keep reliable labor without breaking the law by knowingly hiring illegal immigrants.

Tom Brokaw, NBC News: They present their papers to you?

Brett Gould: Yes, absolutely.

Brokaw: To say they’re legal?

Brett Gould: Yes.

Brokaw: And how much confidence do you have in those papers?

Brett Gould: Well, to me they appear legal. There are some that I’ve run across that—obviously they’re fake. Yeah, you could see that they’ve done something. They’ve doctored up the picture.

Brokaw: How much of a detective do you think you have to be at that first stop when determining the authenticity of the papers?

Brett Gould: If it looks obviously wrong, I’ll just say, “We can’t accept these.” I’ve seen permanent resident cards and this one is not even close.

Brett examines the identification presented: Social Security cards, permanent resident cards, but he’s not required to be a document expert.

Sometimes, the workers just don’t give up. Even if they’ve been turned away, they’ll come back with any documentation they can get their hands on.

Brett Gould: I need you know either a resident alien card or a permanent resident card. Do you have that?

This man tries to use a Mexican voter registration card and and a Social Security card, crudely forged.

Brett Gould: No, I can’t take this. The Social Security card had a tape over it with his name written in pen and I mean that is definitely a no-no.

Mark Gould: We don’t have enough unskilled workers in the state of Colorado.

Brokaw: But there’s nothing wrong with society advancing to a stage where it’s no longer necessary to have a good pair of boots and a strong back and a good pair of hands at the same time.

Mark Gould: Yeah, that’s the deal. I mean, right now we have every kid coming out of school feels they’re entitled to a job other than digging a ditch for Gould construction. And there’s nothing wrong with that. I mean I grew up digging ditches, but the bottom line is we all want better for our children than we had. And at the moment, there are enough skilled positions to where kids don’t have to go in the unskilled field.

Brokaw: And the moral dilemma for you is that, as a citizen, you do want to play by the rules. And you’re trying to play by the rules. But as a businessman, you have a need to fill. So there’s the real possibility that you’ve got some illegals on your payroll who are giving you the documents that seem to be right. Is that a fair summary?

Mark Gould: I would say that we have to make the assumption that we have followed the law and that there is the possibility that there are people in the system.

In mid-March, two men sat before Brett. They were both applying for entry-level jobs— that means digging ditches.

Brett Gould: Okay, I need your Social Security number right here.

Both had Social Security cards that to Brett Gould looked real.

Trinidad, who likes to be called Trino, is from Mexico.

Brett Gould: Sign and date here.

And Ray is American. Both were hired that day by Gould Construction for 14 dollars an hour—more than double the minimum wage, with full benefits.

Even though Brett checked all the identification, a permanent resident card and a Social Security card, could he be sure that Trinidad was a legal worker?

To read the rest of the transcript click here

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Virgil Goode should be commended for his candor and honesty. Keith Ellison should be publicly flogged and run out of town on a rail. JD

Virgil Goode sparks a nationwide controversy with a letter sent to a hundred of his constituents.

It said in part, “If American citizens don’t wake up and adopt the Virgil Goode position on immigration there will likely be many more Muslims elected to office and demanding the use of the Koran.” The letter went on to say, “I fear that in the next century we will have many more Muslims in the United States if we do not adopt the strict immigration policies that I believe are necessary to preserve the values and beliefs traditional to the United States of America.”

His e-mail was in response to Representative-Elect Keith Ellison’s decision to take the oath of office using a Koran instead of the Bible. Ellison, who is from Minnesota was born and raised in America and converted to Islam. Goode’s office received dozens of complaints about Ellison’s decision to use the Koran.

Goode’s letter has some Muslim groups asking for Goode to apologize, but those calls aren’t coming from around here.

In Rocky Mount, Goode’s hometown, there are streets and buildings named for his father, Virgil Goode, Sr. In this part of the Commonwealth, you aren’t likely to hear any criticism of the congressman.

“The people of Franklin County love Virgil,” said Sue Wallis of Boones Mill.

At Hazel’s Beauty Salon, they cut Goode some slack.

“I think Virgil would not do anything that he did not think was right for his people,” said Hazel Jones, the owner of the shop. “I think he’s trying to protect his people.”

Wallis added, “I think Virgil is an honest man and he tells things like he feels.”

Over at The Franklin Restaurant, the food was steaming and so were the opinions.

“This country was founded on Christian religion, not Muslim religion,” said, Fred Stump of Boones Mill.

Once again, people think Goode is justified.

“He’s right. I don’t want them in here,” said Dot Weiss of Ferrum. Her husband, Harry, said, “We have a culture, it’s not very old, but by god it’s ours. And if they can’t respect it then stay away.”

Goode will not apologize for the letter.

He was re-elected to his sixth term in 2006 with 59-percent of the vote.

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Correct me if I’m wrong, but Rosie O’donnell is entitled to an opinion, right? I think Rosie is an embarrassment to lesbians throughout the world. Why are most lesbians obese? Go on a diet, fatso! Sorry, end of side bar. Rosie got in trouble last week for goofing on Chinese people. She dared to goof on the way they speak. Personally, I think listening to Chinese people speak is like listening to Italians speak. EVERYTHING IS LOUD AND CONFRONTATIONAL. Thats funny to me. Grow some skin you big bunch of babies. JD

Talk show host Rosie O’Donnell is in hot water with Donald Trump after launching into a tirade about him live on The View.

O’Donnell, speaking about Trump’s decision to give Miss USA Tara Conner a second chance, called him a “snake-oil salesman” who went bankrupt and benefited from his father’s money.

Trump fired back Wednesday in an interview with People magazine, insisting he will sue O’Donnell.

“You can’t make false statements,” he said. “Rosie will rue the words she said. I’ll most likely sue her for making those false statements – and it’ll be fun. Rosie’s a loser. A real loser. I look forward to taking lots of money from my nice fat little Rosie.”

O’Donnell angered the billionaire developer by flipping her hair over to one side, lowering her voice and mocking Trump for daring to evaluate the morality of Conner.

“(He) left the first wife – had an affair. (He) had kids both times, but he’s the moral compass for 20-year-olds in America. Donald, sit and spin, my friend,” she fumed.

O’Donnell also made fun of the Miss USA pageant, of which Trump is a 50 percent owner.

“It’s basically a model competition . . . They have one question in Miss USA, yeah and they’re like ‘I’d like to cure cancer and end world hunger – and then I’d like to go to Studio 54 and do some crack.’”

Trump told Access Hollywood: “She says things that come to her mouth, she’s not smart, she’s crude, she’s ignorant and to be honest I look forward to suing Rosie. I’m gonna sue her and I look forward to it. She’s really very dangerous for the show.”

He didn’t say on what grounds he will sue O’Donnell but insisted his legal team is already in motion.

“Rosie will find out what we’re suing her for,” he told the show. “Rosie’s been a loser for a long time.”

Trump also warned O’Donnell to keep a close eye on her partner Kelli Carpenter.

“Rosie is somebody out of control who really just doesn’t have it and she ought to be careful because I’ll send one of my friends to pick up her girlfriend and I think it would be very easy,” he told Access Hollywood.

In a statement, The View’s executive producers Bill Geddie and Barbara Walters said: “Both Rosie and Donald are high-spirited, opinionated people. Donald has been a friend of The View for many years and Rosie, of course, is our enormously popular moderator. We cherish them both and hope the New Year brings calm and peace.”

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Not may updates lately. Been working doubles from 2 pm to 6 am six to seven days a week. It takes its toll. I don’t know when I will next update because I’m working the holidays. I make triple time through the new year. My next day off isn’t until New Years Eve. I will see what I can find to put up from time to time. JD

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