An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Morning Coffee 06/25/08
‘Barak Has Spit in the Face of the Israeli Public’
Senior members of the Labor and Kadima parties reached a last-minute agreement early Wednesday morning to scuttle a Knesset vote to dissolve the parliament and hold early elections.
The agreement, which came at the conclusion of a marathon negotiation between secretary-general of the Labor Party Eitan Cabel and Chairman of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee Tzachi Hanegbi (Kadima), calls for the Kadima Party to begin a process to hold primaries to replace party chief Ehud Olmert by September 25. In return, Labor agreed to oppose the no-confidence motion scheduled for Wednesday afternoon and any other bill to disband the Knesset in the immediate future.
The Labor-Kadima agreement does not specify when Olmert will actually step down from office, under the assumption that the primaries will produce another paty leader.
Personal opinion: That guy has done quite a bit of damage to Irsael. He’s shown a weakness that I have never associated with the Israelis, Democrats, yeah, but Israelis? 
Tsvangirai calls for peacekeepers
Violence-wracked Zimbabwe needs United Nations peacekeepers to help prepare the way for new elections, the country’s opposition leader said in a call from his haven at the Dutch Embassy.
“We need a force to protect the people,” Morgan Tsvangirai wrote in an opinion piece published Wednesday in London’s The Guardian newspaper.
And what are the Useless Numnuts gonna do? Rape? Extort? Just business as usual.
McCain and Obama Call for Mugabe’s Ouster
The Democratic and Republican presumptive presidential nominees are calling for the end of President Mugabe’s 28 years of rule in Zimbabwe if he moves forward, as expected, with a runoff election after driving his opposition out of the contest amid a wave of state-sponsored violence.
They are just now noticing? Where have they been? Oh yeah….too busy sucking up to the folks to notice people being slaughtered.
Iran issues warning over nuclear program
Iran’s parliament speaker has threatened that the West may face “a done deal” if it provokes Iran, a hint that Tehran could build nuclear weapons if attacked.
The speaker, Ali Larijani, who was once Iran’s top nuclear negotiator, says the West should take seriously a recent warning by Mohamed ElBaradei, the U.N. nuclear watchdog chief. ElBaradei said in an interview last week that a military strike on Iran could turn the Mideast into a “ball of fire” and push Iran to develop a weapon.
Iran’s lapdog is being quoted by his masters. Isn’t that interesting. Matthew 24:6 And ye shall hear of wars and rumours of wars: see that ye be not troubled: for all these things must come to pass, but the end is not yet.
State bars public, media from meetings on buyouts
State officials barred reporters and the public from town hall meetings with state employees about Tennessee’s voluntary buyout plan.
State Finance Commissioner Dave Goetz told radio station WPLN-FM that he was protecting the privacy of state workers by closing the meetings. Goetz is Gov. Phil Bredesen’s chief cabinet officer.
Open government seems to be a no-no. I question the wisdom of not allowing the public to know how their money is being spent. After all, it IS the “people” who will be footing the bill of Bredesen’s buyout plans. If they are “state workers”, then their “privacy” is a matter of public record. At least, it SHOULD be.
EPA Urged to Reduce US Ethanol Mandate
Cattlemen and other food industry representatives joined Texas Gov. Rick Perry in Washington Tuesday, all of them pressing the Bush administration to revise current food-to-fuel mandates.
With a world food crisis going on, anyone who is still supporting the absurd mandating of food based fuel is, IMHO, just as those pulling the trigger in a drive by that hits a 2 year old. Too extreme? Too bad! Consequences of stupidity!
Hamas says it will not police truce with Israel
The militant group Hamas said it remains committed to a cease-fire with Israel, but will not act as Israel’s “police force” in confronting militants who breach the truce.
In other words, Hamas is giving free reign to anyone who wants to wreak havoc on the Israelis. Just tells me they admit they don’t have any control. They should be “policing” themselves, the Palestinians, and all groups who murder in the name of their god.
Charges Against Ford & Lee To Be Dropped
After almost a year of reports about the investigation, the indictments, the upcoming trial, now prosecutors admit they could not prove their case against Joseph Lee and Edmund Ford, Sr.
From the beginning, both claimed their innocence. The feds accused Lee, former president of MLGW, of giving Ford preferential treatment on his utility bills in exchange for his influence as a city councilman. Ford had accumulated thousands of dollars in unpaid MLGW bills.
This was the first story I heard about the goings on in my new home state. After all I heard and read about it, I find it hard to believe the feds dropped the charges.
A federal jury on Tuesday night convicted former Milwaukee Ald. Michael McGee of extortion and bribery in repeated shakedowns of inner-city store owners, using his power to demand cash and other goods.
Excuse me while I pick my chin up off the floor. I honestly thought there would be an acquittal. Why? Well, not because he wasn’t guilty, but because, well, it’s Milwaukee. Sad commentary on a city, isn’t it.
Sixth person confirmed dead in Henderson factory shootings
The CEO of a company that operates a Western Kentucky plastics plant where an employee opened fire after an argument says a sixth person has died.
Atlantis Plastics CEO Bud Philbrook says the killings are just a “total shock.”
Philbrook says the employee began arguing with a supervisor around midnight, then shot the supervisor before opening fire in a break room. Police say the shooter ended the rampage by killing himself.
This is how people resolve their differences? What ever happened to a poke in the nose? Prayers with the families.
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I agree with you about McGee. I was happily surprised. Although the evidence was absolutely overwhelming, I was afraid the jury would buy the defense’s “he was targeted, he was entrapped” bs. Good for the jury on this one, and on Wall’s prosecution in this matter.
@Chris:
Perhaps, since they kept him behind bars, he couldn’t wield his ……um……influence so easily?