No, Percy, you don't get to do this one...
Posted on 12/29/2006 9:11:00 AM PST by AVNevis
Since it now seems very imminent, I decided that it was an appropriate time to start this up. Links to information and pictures (if we get them) can be posted here.
What's life like out there? AZ used to take my breath away when we lived there, and I've always imagined NM to be the same way. Any pictures?
I am outright laughing at him! ;)
930 to 1000 pm est he should be hanged.
No, Percy, you don't get to do this one...
It's a frenzy.
10 pm EST, so how far are you behind on EST?
Very true. Its amazing how completely their brains shut off with even just one snowflake.
Italy's PM issues last minute plea against Saddam Hussein
Hindustan Times, India - 6 minutes ago
Italian Prime Minister Romano Prodi issued a final plea against the execution of deposed Iraqi leader Saddam Hussein, calling on "wisdom and magnanimity to prevail".
"I issue a final and sad plea for wisdom and magnanimity to prevail", he said on Friday, according the ANSA news agency.
Prodi's plea came as Iraqi officials finalised plans for the execution amid reports he could be hanged within hours.
The governments of Brazil and Chile, which opposed the US-led war in Iraq, voiced opposition to the death penalty for former Iraqi president Saddam Hussein on human rights grounds.
Statements by officials of the two Latin American countries came on Friday amid a flurry of signs the former dictator's execution by hanging for a 1982 massacre could come within days, if not hours.
The Brazilian foreign ministry said the execution would not help end the violence in Iraq and argued the US-led invasion that led to his capture and trial had lacked international legitimacy.
The Chilean undersecretary for foreign affairs, Alberto Van Klaveren, objected to the speed of the execution following the Iraqi leader's sentencing.
"We have closely followed what occurred in the trial against Saddam Hussein. We believe the application of the death penalty in such a swift manner is contrary to our principles," Van Klaveren told Radio Biobio.
Shep Smith on FOX now. May be fun to watch. Tears may well up anytime now, especially if he gets Whorealdo to comment.
****"Used to take my breath away"****
Uhh...lol...no pun was intended.
Yes, I need some Doritos. Thanks!
Death, exile come with being a dictator
By ROBERT H. REID, Associated Press Writer
Some ended up in prison, others were butchered at the hands of their own people. A lucky few lived out their days in comfortable exile or in positions of privilege in the lands they ruled. India's independence leader Mohandas K. Gandhi said dictators "can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall." That hasn't always proven true. Russia's Josef Stalin, North Korea's Kim Il-Sung, China's Mao Zedong, Spain's Francisco Franco and Syria's Hafez Assad all died in power. Enver Hoxha of Albania and Augusto Pinochet of Chile arranged comfortable retirements before handing over power.
The global record of bringing tyrants to justice has been mixed.
Former Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic stood before an international tribunal to answer for his regime, but he died before a verdict could be rendered.
Liberia's Charles Taylor has been indicted for war crimes in neighboring Sierra Leone and awaits trial.
Panamanian strongman Manuel Noriega is serving a 40-year term in a federal prison in Miami for racketeering, drug trafficking and money-laundering after U.S. troops entered his country and arrested him in 1989.
But history's master tyrant, Adolf Hitler, escaped retribution by committing suicide in Berlin before Soviet troops could capture him in 1945.
Pol Pot, whose Khmer Rouge regime was responsible for the deaths of up to 2 million Cambodians, died in the jungle in 1998 as remnants of his vanquished movement were preparing to hand him over to an international court.
For dictators, great power entails great risk. The price for years spent firmly in the saddle can be high.
For nearly 25 years, Nicolae Ceausescu wielded vast powers as the Communist boss of Romania, even defying the Kremlin, which tolerated him because of his firm hold over his people. Ceausescu and his wife, Elena, were executed by a firing squad on Christmas Day 1989 after revolutionaries toppled his regime.
That seemed like a merciful end compared with that of Samuel Doe, the shy, soft-spoken master sergeant who overthrew Liberian President William Tobert in 1980.
Power and corruption soon got the best of him and after 10 years of dictatorial rule, Doe was himself overthrown — tortured, mutilated and brutally slain.
More fortunate are those who can call on a foreign leader for a safe haven once their regime is on the rocks.
Idi Amin, who as president of Uganda ordered the massacre of thousands of his countrymen and impoverished his people, managed to get away to Libya after neighboring Tanzania overthrow his regime in 1979. Amin later settled in Saudi Arabia, where he died in 2003.
Ethiopia's Col. Mengistu Haile Mariam escaped to Zimbabwe in 1991 as rebels led by ethnic minority Tigreans closed in on his capital, ending a 17-year dictatorship notorious for its bloody purges.
Mengistu has a luxury villa, bodyguards and a pension — payback for having provided Zimbabwean President Robert Mugabe with arms, money and training facilities during the 1972-80 war to end white rule in former Rhodesia.
Jean-Claude "Baby Doc" Duvalier of Haiti used his family's longtime ties to France to escape retribution when the Haitian military ousted his regime in 1986.
"Baby Doc" was named president for life at age 19 following the 1971 death of his father, Francois, "Papa Doc," who had ruled with the help of the notorious paramilitary Tonton Macoutes.
Despite promises to liberalize, the younger Duvalier muzzled the press, wrecked the economy and ordered the torture and killing of hundreds of political prisoners, finally provoking mass protests and a coup that chased him from the country.
Jean-Bedel Bokassa of the Central African Republic wasn't so lucky. One of Africa's most ruthless dictators, Bokassa was ousted in a French-backed coup in 1979 after a bizarre 13-year rule that included proclaiming himself Emperor Bokassa I.
Bokassa was accused of killing and eating those who dared criticize him. His purported crimes included the 1979 massacre of 100 children who complained about school uniforms they were required to buy from his factory.
After seven years in luxurious exile in Ivory Coast and France, Bokassa returned to Central African Republic in 1987 expecting to be welcomed. Instead, he became the first deposed African chief of state to be publicly tried on charges of murder, torture and cannibalism.
He was acquitted of cannibalism charges, but convicted of murder and sentenced to death. The sentence was commuted to 20 years in prison, and he was freed in September 1993.
Bokassa died three years later and was honored with a state funeral.
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20061229/ap_on_re_mi_ea/saddam_other_dictators
Yeah, I know. They just came out with a Luby's cookbook.
All your favorite Luby's recipes so you can make them at home.
And I'm screaming...why???
When you can go to Luby's. (and don't anybody accuse me of being lowbrow...Luby's food is good)
OK, he who picks the exact minute the butcher swings wins a huge prize..(just wait for publishers clearing house to deliver it)..
pick the minute..
Come west... you'll never regret it.
It was harrowup, and he said he was appalled at the juvenile and sadistic attitudes FReepers are displaying on this thread (I agree with him, FWIW), that he had been banned in the past for protesting similar behavior, and wouldn't be surprised if he got banned again. I don't think he said he wanted to be banned again. ;)
OWF is not making it up. Perhaps you just misinterpreted, or perhaps you just like to cause trouble. In either case please, respectfully shut-up!
Just heard that on FOX.
The U.S. military is on high alert. Prayers for their safety.
Saddam now has between 2:28 and 2:58 to live.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.