An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Morning Coffee 06/30/08 - Aggrevation Edition
U.N.: U.S. aid ship arrives in N. Korea
A U.S. ship carrying thousands of tons of food arrived in North Korea after the impoverished nation agreed to open up to greatly expanded international aid, the U.N. food agency said Monday.
The World Food Program said the freighter arrived Sunday carrying 37,000 tons of wheat, the first installment of 500,000 tons in assistance promised by Washington.
Foreign welfare, that, of course, is paid for by the American taxpayer. I have this image in my head: I go out, buy all the latest “toys”, and expect YOU to feed my children. What is wrong with this picture?
Zahar: Hamas can exploit Kuntar deal
Hamas on Monday said it was emboldened by Israel’s decision to trade Hizbullah terrorist Samir Kuntar for Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev.
Gaza strongman Mahmoud Zahar, speaking to the independent Al-Quds radio station, said Hamas would take advantage of this decision “to release people Israel accused of having blood on their hands like Samir Kuntar. We have to take advantage of this to release our prisoners.”
This was a really stupid idea! If you appease one bunch of murderous thugs, the other murderous thugs are going to expect the same. There will be more death because of this, and Israel’s sons and daughters will pay the price.
U.S. forces to hand over hard-won Anbar Province
This is a city literally rising from the ashes. While reminders of two major US assaults here in April and November 2004 are inescapable, signs of rebirth are plenty. Men in jumpsuits busily work on construction sites, sewers are being installed, and a hospital is nearly completed.
I guess this is one of those “failures” Runnin’ Reed and the Moon Queen are always talking about, right?
Auction Ends for Australian Man’s Life, Disappointed With Final Price
A man who auctioned his life — his house, his car, his job, even his friends — on eBay said Monday he is disappointed with the selling price: almost $384,000.
Ian Usher, a British immigrant to Australia, put everything he owned as well as introductions to his friends on the online auction site after a painful breakup with his wife prompted him to want a fresh start.
Bidding closed Sunday and reached nearly $384,000 — an amount Usher said his house in the western city of Perth was worth on its own.
The lesson here? Nobody thinks our “lives” are worth as much as we do.
River cresting below flood stage at St. Louis
The National Weather Service says the swollen Mississippi River is about to crest at just under nine feet below flood stage at St. Louis.
The river’s high water has closed only the President Casino and a handful of other businesses along the city’s riverfront.
Upriver from St. Louis, the river is slowly receding in hard-hit towns like Winfield and Foley, Mo., but it will be some time before residents can assess the damage.
Finally, some positive news. It will take time, but perseverance will pull them through.
Court Rules Against Canadian’s Torture Suit
A federal appellate court has ruled that a Canadian man who claims American officials sent him to Syria to be tortured cannot sue this country.
The man, Maher Arar, a native of Syria, was on an American terror watch list because Canadian law enforcement officials had told their American counterparts that they believed Mr. Arar had ties to Al Qaeda, according to a report by a Canadian commission that investigated Mr. Arar’s case.
American immigration officials detained Mr. Arar at John F. Kennedy International Airport in 2002. Mr. Arar was then forcibly transported to Syria where he says that he was held in a small cell and beaten repeatedly. Syria released him in 2003. The Canadian commission subsequently found that Mr. Arar poses no security threat. Canada has paid him close to $11 million in compensation.
I think the court was right. If the man has issues, it’s between him, Canada and Syria. Has he filed a suit against Syria?
Ford trial in Nashville delayed again
Jury selection in former state senator John Ford’s federal court trial in Nashville was delayed again today — for at least a day — as Ford’s defense attorney was hospitalized over the weekend with an inflamed finger.
Asst. Federal Public Defender Isaiah Gant was admitted to the hospital and underwent surgery on Sunday after his finger ailment did not respond to antibiotics, attorneys assembled this morning for the start of jury selection said.
Y’know, when I first read that headline, without even reading any of the content of the story, my immediate thought was “What is it this time? Does he have a hangnail?” Guess I was pretty close, eh?
‘Iran Preparing Graves for Its Enemies’
The Mehr news agency quoted Gen. Mir-Faisal Bagherzadeh as saying the graves would be dug in Iran’s border provinces, to provide for the burial of enemies in line with the Geneva Conventions.
“The burial of slain soldiers will be carried out decently and in little time,” said Bagherzadeh, a senior officer in the Islamic Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC) who heads a propaganda body called the Sacred Defense Foundation.
“We do not wish the families of enemy soldiers to experience what Americans had to go through in the aftermath of the Vietnam War,” he added, apparently referring to the ordeal faced by families of MIAs during and after that conflict.
How very nice of them. Perhaps they’d like to prepare a few million sites for the Iranians who will perish as well? And while their at it, let those who have already died at their hands know where their loved ones are buried? I hear there are a few folks who have never been heard from again after the Iranians honchos got through with them.
Kenya urges AU to suspend Mugabe
Kenyan PM Raila Odinga has urged the African Union to suspend Robert Mugabe from the bloc until he allows free and fair elections in Zimbabwe.
The call came as the Zimbabwe opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said the country faced a constitutional crisis.
The Zimbabwe crisis has overshadowed the African Union summit in Egypt.
Correspondents say the AU’s response to the Zimbabwe crisis will be a major test of the bloc’s effectiveness.
Is the AU any more effective than the EU, or the UN at protecting the innocent and promoting freedoms? I doubt it, considering the recent atrocities they’ve witnessed, and done nothing.
UK statesmen call for world free of nuclear weapons
Four former British foreign and defence secretaries Monday put aside their party differences to issue an appeal to the world’s nuclear powers to reduce their arsenals in the hope of dissuading other countries from pursuing nuclear ambitions.
The word “naive” comes to mind.
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