The cover of the new Vanity Fair is another of their excellent foldout pictures, this time of the cast members of all six Star Wars movies, taken by legendary photographer Annie Leibovitz.

The photo includes SW creator George Lucas posing with actors and characters from all the films, photographed by Leibovitz. Included are Hayden Christensen (Anakin Skywalker), Jake Lloyd (young Anakin), Natalie Portman (Padmé Amidala), Ewan McGregor (Obi-Wan Kenobi), Christopher Lee (Count Dooku), Ian McDiarmid (Supreme Chancellor Palpatine), Pernilla August (Shmi Skywalker), Liam Neeson (Qui-Gon Jinn), Jimmy Smits (Senator Bail Organa), Samuel L. Jackson (Mace Windu), Harrison Ford (Han Solo), Mark Hamill (Luke Skywalker), Carrie Fisher (Princess Leia Organa) and Billy Dee Williams (Lando Calrissian).

The whole photo is so big that I can't post it here, but the photo is available for your perusal.

My inner geek is happy.

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The Electoral College votes are set to be certified before Congress tomorrow, but don't count on that to happen.

US Congress-critter John Conyers (Moonbat-MI) is seeking to challenge the results of the vote in the state of Ohio, and he's getting plenty of folks to line up behind him, according to MSNBC's Keith Olberman.

it appeared all but certain in early evening Wednesday that House Democrats had secured the support of up to half a dozen Senators to formally challenge the Electoral College slate from Ohio, when the votes are opened before a joint session of Congress tomorrow. Congressional sources tell this reporter that the house half of the written objection — which has the declared support of more than a dozen Representatives — is expected to be signed by Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones of Ohio. Republican leadership expects the Senate signatory to be Barbara Boxer of California, but this has not yet been formalized. The Majority is also worried about the possible absence of many of its members in both houses, and the prospect that a quorum might not be achieved, leading the process into uncharted, albeit not very threatening, constitutional grounds. There is a mathematical, if not practical, chance that the ratification of the Electoral College vote could be delayed past tomorrow. As it is, a written challenge would require the joint session to suspend for several hours, during which the Senate and the House would meet separately and debate the merits of the objection.

This is what you call a last minute "Hail Mary" to try to overturn the Presidential Election.

Of course, when you stop and ask them about states where the margin of victory was much closer than Ohio -- New Hampshire, Michigan, Wisconsin, even Pennsylvania, as examples -- they have nothing to say.

Why? Because Ohio is where they have concentrated their efforts; Ohio has enough electoral votes to overturn the election if they can pull this off.

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For nearly 24 hours now, rumors have run rampant across the internet that Al Qaeda terrorist Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi (who leads a cell that has claimed responsibility for this morning's assassination of the Baghdad provincial governor), who was publicly tapped by Osama Bin Laden to be the "go-to" guy in Iraq, has been captured by American forces in Iraq.

The story has come from several foreign and less than reliable sources, but has neither been proven, disproven or even mentioned by the traditional mainstream media sources.

As of this morning, Drudge is on the case, and presumably, we'll get a more definitive answer soon.

Abu Mus'ab al-Zarqawi, whom the US occupation authorities declared to be the "target number one" in Iraq, has been arrested in the city of Baakuba, the Emirate newspaper al-Bayane reported on Tuesday referring to Kurdish sources. Al-Zarqawi, leader of the terrorist group Al-Tawhid Wa'al-Jihad, was recently appointed the director of the Al-Qaeda organisation in Iraq.

The newspaper's correspondent in Baghdad points out that a report on the seizure of the terrorist, on whom the US put a bounty of 10 million dollars, was also reported by Iraqi Kurdistan radio, which at one time had been the first to announce the arrest of Saddam Hussein.

There have been no official reports about the arrest of the terrorist.

Stay tuned. Figure on something shaking loose within the next 24-36 hours.

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Michelle Malkin (who saw a piece on LibertyBlog) seems to be overreacting a little bit to a Chick-Fil-A ad that aired over the weekend during the Peach Bowl telecast.

The ad (which itself is several years old, mind you) has a cow standing down first one, then a line of tanks. LibertyBlog points out a correlation between the ad and the infamous tank standoff at Beijing's Tianenamen Square years ago.

Call me clueless, but I've never seen the correlation 'til it was pointed out today.

I'm certain that Chick-Fil-A management, from founder Truett Cathy on down would have very quickly yanked said ad if the correlation were pointed out to them.

Cathy and the entire hierarchy of CFA are staunch conservatives, and devout Christians (as profiled in the November/December 2004 issue of Christian magazine New Man and elsewhere), and would have definitely not stood for something that would have evoked such negative connotations.

As I mentioned, the ad has run here in the Southeast (and here in their home market of Atlanta) for several years (and I'd presume nationally as well), with no repercussions. And quiet as it's kept, I actually thought that ad had been retired from CFA's regular tv ad run due to it's age. I'm honestly surprised it ran this week.

In any event, I'm sure they didn't mean any sort of harm, and that if contacted directly, would happily apologize for any offense.

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Shirley Chisholm, the first black woman to be elected to Congress has died.

Chisholm went to the Hill when Richard Nixon was elected, and stayed until two years into the Reagan Administration. She was a tireless advocate for women and minorities, and though a liberal, a tough yet fair woman fo whose like -- from either side of the aisle -- we need to see more of.

Chisholm, who was raised in a predominantly black New York City neighborhood and was elected to the U.S. House in 1968, was a riveting speaker who often criticized Congress as being too clubby and unresponsive.

"My greatest political asset, which professional politicians fear, is my mouth, out of which come all kinds of things one shouldn't always discuss for reasons of political expediency," she told voters.

She ran for the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1972. When rival candidate and ideological opposite George Wallace was shot, she visited him in the hospital — an act that appalled her followers.

"He said, `What are your people going to say?' I said: `I know what they're going to say. But I wouldn't want what happened to you to happen to anyone.' He cried and cried," she recalled.

And when she needed support to extend the minimum wage to domestic workers two years later, it was Wallace who got her the votes from Southern members of Congress.

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120,000 are dead in the Boxing Day earthquake and tsunami disaster, and with impending disease and starvation, that toll will rise as the days progress. The New York Times (free registration or go to BugMeNot.com) took the opportunity this morning to spew all sorts of venom over the United States' handling of relief for the disaster.

(President Bush) hurried to put as much distance as possible between himself and America's initial measly aid offer of $15 million, and he took issue with an earlier statement by the United Nations' emergency relief coordinator, Jan Egeland, who had called the overall aid efforts by rich Western nations "stingy."

Mr. Egeland was right on target. We hope Secretary of State Colin Powell was privately embarrassed when, two days into a catastrophic disaster that hit 12 of the world's poorer countries and will cost billions of dollars to meliorate, he held a press conference to say that America, the world's richest nation, would contribute $15 million. That's less than half of what Republicans plan to spend on the Bush inaugural festivities.

The American aid figure for the current disaster is now $35 million, and we applaud Mr. Bush's turnaround. But $35 million remains a miserly drop in the bucket, and is in keeping with the pitiful amount of the United States budget that we allocate for nonmilitary foreign aid.

Bush administration officials help create that perception gap.

Making things worse, we often pledge more money than we actually deliver.

There's not, no matter how much the MSM tries to create one.

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CAIR is in bitch and moan mode over the 4th season premiere of 24, airing on Fox on January 9.

The episode introduces a Muslim teenager and his parents as terrorists plotting an attack of mass destruction against Americans.

One of the villains is a Walkman-toting, bubble-gum-chewing teenager who fights with his conservative Dad about dating an American girl and talking on the phone.

The young man also helps his parents mastermind a plot to kill large numbers of Americans that begins with an attack on a train.

Over the breakfast table, the father tells his son: “What we will accomplish today will change the world. We are fortunate that that our family has been chosen to do this.“Yes, father,” his son replies.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a civil rights and advocacy group, plans to bring their concerns about the episode to Fox, says group spokeswoman Rabiah Ahmed.

That group has previously received complaints about the depiction of Muslims on 24, but this episode is particularly egregious, she said.

“They are taking everyday American Muslim families and making them suspects. They’re making it seem like families are co-conspirators in this terrorist plot." In another scene, she says, a terrorist is shown coming out of a mosque. The way the episode depicts Muslims creates an atmosphere in which many Americans look at all Muslims as suspects in the war on terror, she adds. “It’s very dangerous and very disturbing.”

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The death toll in the Boxing Day tsunami disaster has reached 100,000 and is still climbing, according to published reports in London.

Officials in every country today warned the final number of dead will be even higher as rescue teams reach remote areas.

The UN said there were now strong grounds to believe that the toll in the Sumatran province of Aceh, the worst affected area, would be as high as 80,000.

Aid agencies today warned disease will also cause massive casualties among the survivors as the biggest relief effort in history began.

Please take the time to donate to one of the many relief organizations participating in this, the largest relief effort in history. Some of those organizations include CARE, World Vision International, and the Red Cross. There are certainly others.

Please take the time to give, because our fellow travelers on this planet are in desperate need.

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Jerry Orbach, known to millions as the curmudgeonly detective Lennie Briscoe on the long-running Law & Order, died Tuesday night of complications from prostate cancer at the age of 69.

Orbach had left L&O at the end of last season, but was slated to star in the newest franchise spin-off Law & Order: Trial By Jury, set to premiere on NBC in February.

Orbach is expected to appear in early episodes of "Law & Order: Trial by Jury," for which he continued as Briscoe in a secondary role, when the series premieres later this season, Davis said.

"I'm immensely saddened by the passing of not only a friend and colleague, but a legendary figure of 20th Century show business," said Dick Wolf, creator and executive producer of the "Law & Order" series, in a statement. "He was one of the most honored performers of his generation. His loss is irreplaceable."

On Broadway, the Bronx-born Orbach starred in hit musicals including "Carnival," "Promises, Promises" (for which he won a Tony Award), "Chicago" and "42nd Street."

Earlier, he was in the original cast of the off-off-Broadway hit "The Fantasticks," playing the narrator. The show went on to run for more than 40 years.

Among his film appearances were roles in "Dirty Dancing," "Prince of the City" and "Crimes and Misdemeanors."

Orbach's song and dance past came into play in his work in Disney's Beauty and the Beast, where as Lumiere, he sang the well-known song "Be Our Guest," with friend and former Murder She Wrote co-star Angela Lansbury.

He has reprised Lumiere in several other animated and video game projects, including the upcoming Kingdom Hearts 2.

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A 22 year-old Independance, MO man has admitted that his hate-crime claim was false.

Floyd Elliott, of Independence, told police that on Dec. 14, two subjects attacked him in the parking lot of his apartment complex. He said the attackers cut him in the stomach, branded him with a hot knife, and attempted to carve the word "Fag" on his forehead.

Investigators were suspicious about the report because the head carving was backwards, as if done while looking into a mirror.

I don't think that even Homer Simpson could be that dumb.

Just damn.

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United Nations Undersecretary-General for Humanitarian Affairs Jan Egeland insists that the United States and other Western nations are being "stingy" when it comes to humanitarian aid to victims of this week's tsunami disaster in Asia. Egeland further suggests that the US should raise taxes in order to provide more aid.

Egeland suggested that the United States and other Western nations were being "stingy" with relief funds, saying there would be more available if taxes were raised.

"It is beyond me why are we so stingy, really," the Norwegian-born U.N. official told reporters. "Christmastime should remind many Western countries at least, [of] how rich we have become."

"There are several donors who are less generous than before in a growing world economy," he said, adding that politicians in the United States and Europe "believe that they are really burdening the taxpayers too much, and the taxpayers want to give less. It's not true. They want to give more."

This shows the ongoing arrogance of the United Nations and the moonbats that run that particular organization.

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New figures from Reuters and BBC News indicate the death toll from the Indian Ocean earthquakes and tsunamis have risen beyond the 50,000 level.

The sea and wreckage of coastal towns all around the Indian Ocean yielded up tens of thousands of bodies on Tuesday, pushing the toll from Sunday's tsunami past 50,000.

The apocalyptic destruction caused by the wave dwarfed the efforts of governments and relief agencies as they turned from rescuing survivors to trying to care for millions of homeless, increasingly threatened by disease amid the rotting corpses.

"Why did you do this to us, God?" wailed an old woman in a devastated fishing village in southern India's Tamil Nadu state. "What did we do to upset you? This is worse than death."

Scientists have indicated that the initial quake, measured at a 9.0 on the Richter scale, actually affected the rotation of the planet, actually slowing th eEarth's rotation by a measure of microseconds, an indication of the monumental power expended by the cataclysm.

More pictures of the devestation are beginning to emerge, now that US journalists are beginning to show up in the disaster areas stretching from Indonesia on the east to the Somalian coastline of Africa on the west.

American news networks largely ignored the disaster when it began to unfold, leaving coverage to true global broadcasters like Sky News and BBC World.

BBC World is continuing to air near-wall-to-wall coverage of the disaster both on the air, and online (which is the only way American audiences can see their coverage; in WMP format).

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The South-East Asia Earthquake and Tsunami is a blog that has been set up by bloggers in the region affected by this week's tidal wave disaster. It includes links to relief organizations that you can donate to in order to help.

Barring that, World Vision International is one of the largest global relief organizations, and they are accepting donations here.

Having worked for CARE last summer, I've got a soft spot for their efforts, and you can donate to their work here.

Other blogosphere efforts include a continually updated resources at The Command Post.

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With their obituaries, the Associated Press and The New York Times (among others) took the opportunity to insist that the late NFL great Reggie White somehow diminished himself when he took to the podium in the Wisconsin General Assembly and denounced homosexuality.

White created a stir in March 1998 with a speech to the Wisconsin State Assembly. In it, he referred to homosexuality as "one of the biggest sins in the Bible" and used ethnic stereotypes for blacks and whites.

At the time, White, considering retirement, was on a list of candidates for CBS's N.F.L. studio show, but he did not get the job.

---

White worked tirelessly with disadvantaged youths. But his image was tarnished when he gave a speech in which he denounced homosexuality and used ethnic stereotypes. White later apologized.

White was a great man; and he certainly was not the kind of thug that has dominiated the sports pages of late, from football to basketball to baseball.

And even though his words weren't politically correct, I applauded him then, and continue to applaud him now for having the courage to speak his own mind over something he truly and strongly believed.

Fare thee well, Reggie. God bless you.

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Osama Bin Laden climbed out of his hole via audio tape today to issue another tirade against the West, and called on Iraqis to stay away from the polls in next month's scheduled elections.

The new tape, together with one that appeared online earlier this month, continues a new political slant adopted by the al-Qaida leader, whose past proclamations have been more a call to arms than a promotion of a cause. They appear to back up recent suggestions by Middle East experts that bin Laden may be trying to become more of a political leader than a terrorist.

The voice on the tape described al-Zarqawi as the "emir," or prince, of al-Qaida in Iraq and said Muslims there should "listen to him."

The man speaking on the tape also referred to an October statement in which al-Zarqawi, a Jordanian, declared allegiance to bin Laden and changed his group's name to al-Qaida in Iraq. The speaker called that "a great step on the path of unifying all the mujahedeen in establishing the state of righteousness and ending the state of injustice."

The voice on the tape broadcast Monday sounded like bin Laden's and the statement used language that appeared to conform with previous statements by the Saudi-born terror mastermind. However, there was no way to independently confirm the speaker's identity.

The speaker condemned those elections.

"In the balance of Islam, this constitution is infidel and therefore everyone who participates in this election will be considered infidels," he said. "Beware of henchmen who speak in the name of Islamic parties and groups who urge people to participate in this blatant apostasy."

He apparently was referring to Shiite clerics, particularly Grand Ayatollah Ali al-Sistani, who have issued edicts saying participating in the election was a "religious duty."

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A sequence of photos from an amateur video (shown initially on Australia's Seven News), shows the sheer devestation of the tsunamis as they come ashore in the seaside resort city of Phuket, Thailand.

Late Monday, Indonesia's vice president, Yusuf Kalla, was quoted as believing the death toll in his country alone could top 25,000, which would push the overall toll in this tragedy to beyond 42,000 deaths.

Sunday's massive quake of 9.0 magnitude off the Indonesian island of Sumatra sent 500-mph waves surging across the Indian Ocean and Bay of Bengal in the deadliest known tsunami since the one that devastated the Portuguese capital of Lisbon in 1755 and killed an estimated 60,000 people.

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The most powerful earthquake the world has known since 1964 struck in Indonesia early today, triggering tsunamis across the eastern Indian Basin.

Thousands have died in India, Bangladesh, Sri Lanka, Indonesia, Thailand, Malaysia, and The Maldives, and the death toll is expected to rise as more bodies are discovered.

The 8.9 magnitude quake struck under the sea near Aceh in north Indonesia, generating a wall of water that sped across thousands of kilometres of sea.

Exact numbers of people killed, injured or missing in the countries hit, are impossible to confirm.

Hundreds are still thought to be missing from coastal regions and, in Sri Lanka alone, officials say more than a million people have been forced from their homes.

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Minister and former Green Bay Packers defensive end Reggie White died this morning after suffering a massive heart attack at his home in Huntersville, NC.

"Today our beloved husband, father and friend passed away," White's wife, Sara, said through a family pastor. "His family appreciates your thoughts and prayers as we mourn the loss of Reggie White. We want to thank you in advance for honoring our privacy."

An all around good guy, who took a lot of hits for his conservative stance, White will be remembered being a gentlemen's gentleman, and a powerful player on the field. He retired as NFL all-time sacks leader in 2000.

When I worked at CNN, I recall running into White in passing, and though he was busy, he had time for a quick handshake and hearty hello. I'm sorry he's gone.

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I woke up this morning to more a hundred spam comments on the site; I'm contemplating shutting down comments until the novelty of these simple-minded ass clowns wears off.

I can't ban 'em by IP, because they're using some sort of rotating IP configuration that generates a new IP each time they post.

So, whadda ya think -- good idea?

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In this blessed season, we bid you and your loved ones Merry Christmas.

"Unto us a Child is born, unto us a Son is given; and the government will be upon His shoulder. And His name will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace" (Isaiah 9:6)

---Michael, Rachel, Jasmine, Mitchell & Lynese King

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