EyeHandy.com makes learning fun.

Sure, I'll admit I don't like asking for directions [Thank goodness for GPS.] or how to perform many everyday tasks a guy should know how to do.

Here's a website that takes away all the shame and embarrassment...and then some.

From EyeHandy:


Learn how to tie a tie with the delectable Ashley:

 

Julia shows you how to cool your car's overheated engine while overheating yours:



 

Need to field strip and clean your Glock? Ask Ashley: 

 

My, oh my... Stephanie installs a dimmer switch: 

 

Mmmmm...Jello shots. Mmmmm...Jaclyn: 

Need to rack your balls for 9 Ball? Ask Savannah: 

Feel inadequate because you can't tap a keg? Devin will teach you what a man needs to know: 

There's no reason why a guy shouldn't know how to properly wrap gifts. Watch Ashley and learn: 

The Michael and Cathryn Borden Memorial Book of the Day.*

It appears that "Mohammed" was a creation of Arab kings seeking earthly power and its consolidation.

One would be better off following Harry Potter...

Here's a review from FaithFreedom.org: 

Did Mohammed Exist? An Inquiry Into Islam’s Obscure Origins

by Robert Spencer

In 2008 Professor Muhammad Sven Kalisch, a convert to Islam since the age of 15 and practicing Muslim who taught Islamic Theology at Munster University in Germany announced that he no longer believes that Muhammad existed. According to his own testimony in German, Kalisch made the following statement:

“My position with regard to the historical existence of Muhammad is that I believe neither his existence nor his non-existence can be proven. I, however, lean towards the non-existence but I don’t think it can be proven either. It is my impression that, unless there are some sensational archeological discoveries – i.e. an Islamic “Qumran” or “Nag Hammadi” — the question of Muhammad’s existence will probably never be finally clarified.”

Instant Translation: There are no mohammedan Dead Sea Scrolls, et cetera.

Kalisch began his essay as follows:

“Up to some time ago I was convinced that Muhammad was a historical figure. Although I always based my thinking on the assumption that the Islamic historical narrative regarding Muhammad was very unreliable, I had no doubts that at least the basic lines of his biography were historically correct.

I have now moved away from this position and will soon publish a book in which I will, among other things, comment on this question and explain my arguments in more detail. This essay is only a short summary of my most important arguments.”

The book was never written probably due to outrage in the Muslim community, declarations of apostasy from radical Clerics and a genuine fear for his life. While Kalisch never published his thesis, now in 2012, famed critic and bestselling author Robert Spencer has published his own investigative work on the question at hand. Spencer is a Christian who is more interested in exposing Islam then preaching Christianity, has rightfully entitled his publication “Did Muhammad Exist, An Inquiry into Islam’s Obscure Origins”.

Muslims will immediately jump on the bandwagon of Spencer simply being an opportunist and hatemonger hoping to make some money through a proactive title. Quite to the contrary this book promotes legitimate investigation to the question it posits.

Spencer argues that for the first sixty years, between the 630’s to 690 AD, there is no mention of the Qur’an or Muhammad by either the Arab conquerors or those who were conquered. He argues that such an omission and “extraordinary silence” is absolutely strange from a historian’s perspective. Spencer does say that he believes that a man by the name of Muhammad may have existed in the same way that a Robin Hood may have existed, but all of the stories and legends about him were likely made up by competing factions who are documented by Muslim scholars themselves as fabricating stories for political reasons and/or to support their beliefs and practices.

The book goes into further fascinating details about the possibility of the name ‘Muhammad’ which is mentioned in the Qur’an no more than four times without any details about a historical figure, could have simply been an attribute given to Jesus by certain Unitarian Christians. A coin which was minted during the early parts of the Muslim era shows one side of the coin with a man holding a cross and on the other side the name of Muhammad.

Regardless of whether Muhammad existed or not, Spencer makes a valid point that such an investigation and inquiry is necessary and that while scholars such as Bart Ehrman are able to produce material to question the existence of Jesus (others such as Richard Carrier and Acharya S / DM Murdock have also questioned the existence of Jesus)  or for that matter investigation into the existence of any other historical figure, why should Muhammad be exempt? Perhaps the right of inquiry and investigation of this sort is more valuable than the conclusion itself.

 *Huh? Look here.

So, you want the story of the Christeros War told in English by Hollywood stars?

How about Andy Garcia and Peter O'Toole? {And Ruben Blades!}

Pray we can defeat the worshipers of power at the ballot box, but stock up on ammo just in case.

 For Greater Glory



 

Gov. Walker of Wisconsin appears to be safe.

The one thing the Party of Blasphemy, Buggery, and 'Bortion knows how to do is spend other people's money. If they're cutting off the funds to those attempting a coup d'etat in Wisconsin, it is probably over.

From Politico:
DNC Is MIA In Wisconsin


The Republican National Committee has said it’ll kick in whatever it takes to keep Wisconsin Gov. Scott Walker in office.

But Democrats in Washington won’t commit to spending big, even though their candidate has been out raised 25-to-1 so far. And in Wisconsin, that’s left the local activists fuming.

With just three weeks until the June 5 recall election in Wisconsin, Democrats in the state are still waiting for a check they asked the Democratic National Committee to send. And the Obama campaign hasn’t given them any cash, either.

“I think [there’s] the perception that there’s not enough overall national money, national support from both individual donors and D.C. coming through the door and we’ve got three weeks — we need that money now,” said a Wisconsin Democratic operative. “I think that’s individual donors from around the country, I think that’s the DNC, I think that’s labor, I think that’s super PACs, I think that’s whoever is willing to contribute to make that gap smaller.”

Meanwhile, the RNC is expected to continue supporting Walker through election day.

“We’re all in here,” said RNC Chairman Reince Priebus. “We will be involved for as much as we need to be involved. We haven’t put a limit on the number.” The RNC has already spent hundreds of thousands of dollars on the race, he added.

Wisconsin Democrats have asked the Democratic National Committee for $500,000 to help elect Milwaukee Mayor Tom Barrett —but that check hasn’t arrived yet.

Graeme Zielinski, a spokesman for the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, said the state party has made a financial request of the DNC and that “it is pending.” He declined to confirm the amount, but didn’t dispute the $500,000 figure, first reported by the Washington Post.

“We’re going to get outspent 10-to-1, maybe 20-to-1,” Zielinski said. “We just need the resources to activate our superior get-out-the-vote operation, which we could. But we can’t do it for free. Campaigns cost money. Scott Walker has owned the air. We believe we can own the ground.” Zielinski noted he’s confident that the DNC and other allies will support state Democrats.

But top national Democrats have been evasive about their financing plans.

DNC spokeswoman Melanie Roussell declined to comment on the $500,000 request. And Obama campaign deputy manager Stephanie Cutter said that she wasn’t sure whether the DNC would shell out cash.

“I don’t know the answer to that question on the money,” Cutter told MSNBC’s Chuck Todd Tuesday morning when asked whether the DNC would pony up for the recall.

The Obama campaign isn’t planning to spend money directly on the recall, a campaign official told POLITICO last week. Cutter said Tuesday that the campaign has committed to help with get-out-the-vote efforts and “doing basically everything we can to bring the Democrat over the finish line.”

Still, Roussell said the Obama campaign and the DNC are committed to the recall. DNC Chairwoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz will host a fundraiser for Barrett later this month.

Democratic Governors Association Executive Director Colm O’Comartun said state and national Democrats have a plan in place to finance Democrats’ efforts in Wisconsin.

In addition to the $2 million the DGA has already spent on the recall, “We will be sending more,” he said, but declined to give a dollar figure. He said he has “every confidence” that it will be fully funded by the DGA, state Democrats and other allies.

But with Walker dramatically outraising Barrett and Republicans outgunning them on the airwaves, Democrats in Wisconsin want more cash now.

Walker has raised more than $25 million since January 2011 to defend his seat, and has spent more than $20 million, according to data compiled by the Wisconsin Democracy Campaign. By contrast, Barrett — a late entry into the contest who won the primary just last week — had raised only $832,000 by the end of the April reporting period and spent $809,000.

Republicans have also outspent Democrats by about 4-to-1 on the airwaves in the state this year, according to a Gannett Wisconsin analysis released earlier this month.

The final push on the airwaves or on the ground by either side could still help tip the scales in the contested race. A Rasmussen poll released last week showed Walker with a five-point lead over Barrett, with a margin of error of 4.5 percentage points. Another Marquette University Law School poll released before the Democratic primary showed Walker and Barrett locked in a dead heat.

What, did we lose a war or something?

Talking Surveillance Cameras Coming to US Streets - WTAM


Talking surveillance cameras that bark orders at passers-by and can also record conversations are heading for U.S. streets, with manufacturer Illuminating Concepts announcing the progress of its ‘Intellistreets’ system.

As we first reported last year, high tech street lights with “homeland security applications” are now being installed in major U.S. cities.

The street lights also have loudspeakers that can give audible warnings to individuals,mimicking the talking surveillance cameras in the UK that shout out orders through microphones telling people to pick up litter or leave the area.

A recent press release put out by Amerlux announces the company’s partnership with Illuminating Concepts to further advance the rollout of ‘Intellistreets’. The announcement confirms that the street lights will have a number of “homeland security features” including a loudspeaker system that will be used to “engage captive audiences”.

"Yes, Virginia, killing babies is always a good thing."

Hideous blood soaked ghouls who have no chance of getting pregnant unless they get raped by Melissa Etheridge's turkey baster opposing a mandatory ultrasound law outside the Idaho Capitol in Boise in March.

From The Lookout:

Are abortion ultrasound laws headed for the Supreme Court? 

A popular new piece of abortion legislation may eventually end up in front of the Supreme Court as federal courts have disagreed over whether it violates the Constitution.

The law—versions of which have passed in Oklahoma, North Carolina and Texas—mandates that before a woman is allowed to obtain an abortion, doctors must give her an ultrasound, describe the procedure out loud and display the images for her. Five other states are considering similar bills, while six more already require the ultrasound before an abortion, although they don't insist upon the out loud description or the showing of images to patients.

To try to knock down these laws, abortion rights supporters have taken an interesting approach in court. Instead of arguing that the ultrasound and its description are an undue burden on women trying to receive a legal abortion, they say that the law is actually infringing on the First Amendment rights of doctors, who must recite facts about the fetus against their will...

Golly, we wouldn't want doctors to give their patients the facts, would we?

Benito Hussein Okhrana teleports us to 1984.

Sure, he tells you they're up there to stop terrorists, drug smugglers, and illegal [Racist.] aliens, then one day we wake up in concentration camps.



 The Daily Mail explains red flags show active sites and blue show those locations where licences have expired since 2006. (Image: EFF via Daily Mail)

From The Blaze via Yahoo! News:
Where Are the 63 Drone Sites Approved by the FAA in the U.S.?

Earlier this year, Congress passed a bill that would open the sky to private, military and commercial drones by 2015. But news revealed through documents obtained by a Freedom of Information Act request shows for the first time who exactly is already authorized to fly drones in the United States.

The Calgary Herald reports the FOIA request made by the Electronic Frontier Foundation showed more than 50 non-military agencies have asked for approval to launch drones. The Daily Mail reported the FOIA revealed 63 active drone sites within the U.S — some of which may be surprising:

Most of the active drones are deployed from military installations, enforcement agencies and border patrol teams, according to the Federal Aviation Authority.

But, astonishingly, 19 universities and colleges are also registered as owners of what are officially known as unmanned aerial vehicles.

It is thought that many of institutions, which include Cornell, the University of Colorado, Georgia Tech, and Eastern Gateway Community College, are developing drone technology.

There are also 21 mainstream manufactures, such as General Atomics, who are registered to use drones domestically.

Of those with permission to fly drones domestically, the FAA has granted 42 public entities Certificates of Authorizations (COAs). Sixteen of COAs were reported to have expired and four were not approved. Private drone manufacturers, which are given Special Airworthiness Certificates (SAC), include 21 active locations and 17 inactive.

Here’s what the EFF says is left unanswered for now:

For example, the COA list does not include any information on which model of drone or how many drones each entity flies. In a meeting with the FAA [Thursday], the agency confirmed that there were about 300 active COAs and that the agency has issued about 700-750 authorizations since the program began in 2006. As there are only about 60 entities on the COA list, this means that many of the entities, if not all of them, have multiple COAs (for example, an FAA representative [Thursday] said that University of Colorado may have had as many as 100 different COAs over the last six years). The list also does not explain why certain COA applications were “disapproved” and when other authorizations expired.

See the full list of those with COAs here and the full list of those with SACs here. It is reported the FAA will soon release the type of drones at these locations in a second round of compliance to the FOIA.

As for the Federal Aviation Administration Reauthorization Act passed by Congress earlier this year, it is expected to be signed by President Barack Obama with measures for the regulation of testing and licensing of drones, according to Press TV. The news agency stated that some estimates believe the commercial drone market in the U.S. will be worth hundreds of millions of dollars, with more than 50 companies already developing more than 150 drone systems.

The Blaze has reported several instances where drone technology has already been becoming more mainstream for local police departments and by private drone hobbyists. In January, a Texas man flying his small unmanned aviation system spotted what he called a “huge stream of blood” coming from an animal packing plant, which he then reported to authorities. We’ve also reported on historian Francis Fukuyama’s interest in amateur drone operation. A separate FOIA request late last year revealed the New York Police Department’s counterterrorism division was looking to drones for law enforcement and an image later seen in Brooklyn showed drone activity was already in progress.
(Related: Aerial ‘Shadowhawk’ police drones can now deploy tasers and  tear gas)

We’ve also shown media and protesters have also found uses for small drones equipped with cameras to capture otherwise hard-to-film footage.

Fyodor Presents Reel Cinema: The Last Christeros

Coming soon to a theater near you unless the forces of antichrist have their way...

LOS ULTIMOS CRISTEROS

(THE LAST CHRISTEROS)

 

 Of course it couldn't happen here, kiddies. There aren't enough real men like these Mexican peasants in our country.

"Stop your whining, you Catholics. Nobody's out to get you."

From dayofwrathdiesirae.blogspot.com:

 The Christeros War

In 1926, a small army of Catholic peasants who took on the name "Cristeros" (followers of Christ) fought to regain religious freedom in Mexico. Before they were through, as many as 50,000 men from every socioeconomic background took up arms against the government.

The "war" produced many religious refugees, some of whom came to El Paso. The city welcomed the persecuted, and from this support stemmed the founding of new seminaries and monasteries, which still exist today.

In 1917, President Plutarco Elías Calles and the former president, General Álvaro Obregón, weakened the Catholic Church in Mexico by enforcing the Articles of the 1857 constitution included in the 1917 version. Article 3 called for secular education in the schools, thus outlawing parochial education. Article 5 closed all seminaries and convents. Article 24 forbade worship outside the physical borders of the church.

Article 27 prohibited religious groups from owning real estate, thus nationalizing all Church property. Article 130 prohibited priests and nuns from wearing religious vestments, but more importantly, it took away from the clergy the rights of voting and speech, prohibiting the criticism of government officials and comment on public affairs in religious publications.

The closing of seminaries began during the Mexican Revolution, leaving nuns and priests with no place to live or work. The government also ruled that only Mexican born clergy would be allowed to remain and participate in religious activities in Mexico. By 1917, hundreds of religious had been expelled from Mexico or had fled the country.

The Catholic Church did not want to retaliate violently against the government, so from 1919 to 1926, they obeyed the laws. However, in 1926, President Calles introduced legislation which fined priests $250 for wearing religious vestments and imprisoned them for five years for criticizing the government.

Archbishop of Mexico, José María Mora y del Río, declared that the Catholic Church could not accept the government's restraints. On July 31, 1926, the archbishop suspended all public worship by ordering Mexican clergy to refrain from administering any of the Church's sacraments.

The Cristeros felt the only way to fight the government was to take up arms: they were willing to become martyrs for their freedom of religion. Jean Meyers, a French expert on this revolution, tells us about Cristeros attending field masses, dressed in sandals and white garments and armed with machetes. They knew that soldiers could attack them with machine guns at any time.

Many priests were martyred while celebrating mass, either by being shot or beheaded. In a last affirmation of their faith, the Cristeros would shout, "Viva Cristo Rey!" (Long Live Christ the King!) just before dying.

Padre Miguel Agustin Pro was one of the best known of the martyred priests. Pro used elaborate disguises so that soldiers would not recognize him as a priest. Known for his indefatigable sense of humor, he visited the faithful often dressed as a beggar. He administered the sacraments, provided jokes and laughter, and helped financially those in need. Rich families often received the sacraments from Padre Pro in his disguise of businessman. Pro and his brother, Humberto, were arrested for being erroneously linked to a car bombing which injured ex-president Obregón. The car used in the bombing was traced back to Humberto Pro, the previous owner.

Calles took advantage of the opportunity to execute a priest publicly in an attempt to discourage other priests from participating in politics. He ordered Pro be shot at the police station and invited reporters to the execution. Padre Pro carried a small crucifix and his rosary and held his arms out forming a cross as he was shot. Pope John Paul II beatified him on September 25, 1988.

Another martyr, San Pedro de Jesus Maldonado Lucero, served the people's spiritual needs in Chihuahua, Mexico. Maldonado attended seminary in Mexico in 1914, but the political conflict forced him to leave. He came to El Paso and received his ordination on January 25, 1918, from Bishop Anthony J. Schuler at St. Patrick's Cathedral. Then he returned to Chihuahua to serve the faithful.

After Calles' anti-Catholic laws were implemented in 1926, Maldonado became a government target for performing religious ceremonies in private homes. He succeeded in celebrating night masses on one ranch or another, performing marriages and baptisms and administering other sacraments. In 1937 during Holy Week, the mayor and soldiers in Santa Isabel, Chihuahua, arrested him and beat him to death for defying government bans on hidden religious celebrations. Maldonado's murderers used riffle butts to bash in his head and dislodge an eye from its socket.

Like Maldonado, many other priests and nuns along with ordinary Catholics, Mormons and Episcopalians left the country and found refuge in border cities in the United States, among them, El Paso. Patrick Cross writes that by 1929, some 25,000 priests in approximately 12,000 parishes no longer could minister to the spiritual needs of Mexican Catholics, over 10 million strong.

In a personal interview, Dr. Jesus Cuellar, this writer's grandfather, recalled that at the age of 13, in 1927, he was helping Father Gregorio Paredes with a secret mass in a house in Guanajuato. After it concluded, soldiers came looking for a place to feed and water their horses.

In order to save the priest's life and to keep the Eucharist from desecration, Cuellar took the Chalice containing the Eucharist and ran out to hide it in a neighboring house. He and Father Paredes hid in a basement for three days, waiting for the soldiers to leave.

Persecuted Mexican Catholics received worldwide sympathy. Boston banned the new religious regulations calling them "the most brutal tyranny." New York parishioners crowded Catholic and Protestant churches to offer prayers for a peaceful solution in Mexico.

El Paso Bishop Reverend Anthony J. Schuler welcomed Juárez Catholics and even granted priests permission to perform marriages and baptisms without requiring residency for the Mexican citizens. Between 1926 and 1929, the number of people attending services at El Paso Catholic churches doubled. A dramatic increase in baptisms and marriages of people with Hispanic surnames at Catholic churches suggested that downtown churches were serving great numbers of Catholics from Mexico.

Since priests and nuns in Mexico could no longer teach there, many of them came to El Paso. Three nuns from the order of Perpetual Adoration and two from the Servants of the Sacred Heart arrived in El Paso on August 2, 1926. Sacred Heart Church received the nuns from the Sacred Heart Order with open arms.

Because there was no Perpetual Adoration order in El Paso, Bishop Schuler provided the funds for the foundation of such a monastery to train nuns. Other exiled nuns from Mexico City and Guadalajara soon joined the first nuns.

Reverend Mother María Concepción del Espíritu Santo was in charge of the nuns who came from Guadalajara. She found a suitable location for the monastery in a house at 1401 Magoffin. Along with money from the diocese, the Catholic community raised funds and helped pay $7,550 for the property in monthly installments.

Once El Paso became a diocese in 1926, it was allowed to establish seminaries and became the home to Franciscans at St. Anthony's Seminary at Hastings and Crescent in 1935. Before this, the persecuted Franciscan order of Michoacan, which had not had a seminary since 1910, had lived in Santa Barbara, Calif., after their departure from Mexico.

The monasteries and seminaries established at this time succeeded so well that an additional Perpetual Adoration Monastery in the Lower Valley and the Roger Bacon Seminary soon followed to house homeless priests and nuns.

During the religious persecution, some Mexican nationals who sought and found asylum in El Paso decided to stay here. However, many returned to Mexico but continued to enroll their children in the parochial schools here. Perhaps the trend of bringing children to school across the border began when El Paso met those needs so many years ago.

Even though Catholicism is no longer openly persecuted in Mexico, the religious persecution of the 1920s is still felt. The government prohibits priests from owning property, criticizing government officials or commenting on public affairs. The state still does not recognize weddings performed by priests.

In 2000, the Pope canonized 25 priests of the Cristero era, including San Maldonado. The blood of the thousands of Cristeros and martyrs that flooded the land nourished the spirits of those left behind; their courageous cry can still be heard in the hearts of the faithful, "Viva Cristo Rey!"

Oh, please. Sadly, this happens every day in Mexico...

The land that brought us Selma Hayek, masked surf bands, and the murder of over 200,000 people in a persecution of the Catholic church keeps on keeping on.

From The Lookout:

Gruesome find rattles Mexico

 Forty-nine headless, dismembered bodies were found along a stretch of highway in Mexico on Sunday.

The mutilated bodies "scattered in a pool of blood"—some with their hands and feet "hacked off," according to the Associated Press—were discovered by local authorities on the edge of the town of San Juan on a road that connects Monterrey to the Texas border.The bodies were thought to have been dumped there by a drug cartel, authorities said. A welcome sign near the killing field was filled with graffiti with the message, "100% Zeta."

Zetas is one of the two largest drug cartels in Mexico. The other is the Sinaloa Cartel.

"This continues to be violence between criminal groups," Jorge Domene, a state security spokesman, said in a news conference on Sunday. "This is not an attack against the civilian population."

 Does this help anyone sleep better?

But the escalating violence between the two cartels has resulted in a recent rash of symbolic slayings.

On April 17, according to the AP, mutilated bodies of 14 men were left in a minivan in downtown Nuevo Laredo. On May 5, the bodies of 23 people were found, some hanging from a bridge and others decapitated and dumped near city hall. On May 9, 18 dismembered bodies were discovered outside Guadalajara, Mexico's second-largest city.

Nuevo Laredo and Monterrey are considered Zetas territory, while Guadalajara has been controlled by the Sinaloa Cartel.

In September, a Sinaloa drug gang dumped 35 bodies in Veracruz, Mexico. In August, a Zetas attack on a Monterrey casino left 52 dead.

Domene said Sunday's victims—43 men and 6 women—would be hard to identify because of "the lack of heads, hands and feet."

Since 2006, when Mexico's President Felipe Calderon announced a crackdown on cartels, more than 47,500 people have been killed in drug-related violence. [Emphasis mine. F.G.]

 

This is not my headline.

Seriously, I can't make this excrement up.

The Sophist* Party is alive and well.

From ABC via Yahoo! News:
Edwards defense relies on definition of 'the'

 Not since Bill Clinton challenged the definition of "is" has so much hinged on a very short word. 

John Edwards appears to basing much of his defense, which begins today in a North Carolina courtroom, on the legal interpretation of the word "the." 

Edwards has listened to three weeks of testimony meant to prove that he violated federal campaign finance laws by using nearly $1million in donations to hide his mistress Rielle Hunter and her pregnancy during his bid for the 2008 presidential election and in the months after he dropped out -- but was still angling to be vice president or attorney general. 

If convicted Edwards could be sentenced to 30 years in prison. 

The statute governing illegal receipt of campaign contributions "means any gift, subscription, loan, advance, or deposit of money... for the purpose of influencing any election for federal office." 

The words "the purpose" suggests that in order for a conviction, the sole reason for the money would have to be to finance a presidential campaign. 

Edwards' legal team has argued he did not know it might be illegal, did not intend to break the law and that his main reason for hiding Hunter was to keep her secret from his wife, Elizabeth, who was dying of breast cancer. 

Prosecutors, however, are arguing the law should be interpreted to mean "a purpose," meaning use of the donations does not have to be solely for a political campaign. 

"It is sufficient under the law if you find that the gift, purchase, or payment was made for, among other purposes, the purpose of influencing any election for federal office," prosecutors argued in court filings last week. 

Edwards' lawyer Abbe Lowell has argued that prosecutors are asking the jury to "invent a new crime" with its interpretation of the law. 

Edwards' legal team will begin its defense today, which is expected to last a week. He may have a lot to overcome. Prosecutors concluded their case last week by showing an interview Edwards gave to ABC News' "Nightline" program in which he clearly lied several times, including denying that he had fathered Hunter's baby. 

Judge Catherine Eagles also rejected a motion by Edwards' team to dismiss the charges against him.
The defense is expected to go after the prosecution's key witness Andrew Young, a former Edwards' aide who helped hide Hunter, going on the road with her to keep her away from the press, even claiming paternity for his boss. 

Edwards defense has argued that much of the money was solicited by Young and he used the scandal to enrich himself. 

Among Edwards' witnesses will likely be his daughter Cate, who has been his most visible supporter throughout the trial. 

Hunter is on Edwards' list of witnesses, but it's not clear whether she will be called. Her presence in the courtroom could be volatile. 

It's not yet known whether Edwards will take the stand in his own defense. 

 * One skilled in elaborate and devious argumentation.