An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Morning Coffee 07/01/08
Shelby County Sheriff’s units make TV debut
Memphis Police recently bowed out of “The First 48″ cable-TV crime show after several council members complained it put the city in a bad light.
(…)
Steve Shular, a spokesman for the sheriff’s office, said Luttrell doesn’t view such shows as putting a negative spin on Shelby County or Memphis.
“This was done (filmed) a year ago before the controversy on ‘The First 48.’ We view this as highlighting the good work of our Street Crimes and Narcotics Units,” Shular said. “Crime publicizes itself. The worst thing we can do is not report that we are aggressively pursuing those who are responsible.”
The Memphis council folks whine because “reality TV” shows….gasp…..the reality? They had 164 homicides last year, and 65 already this year. “Bad light”? Pfft. I think the spokeman is right, showing the police doing their jobs, and getting the bad guys is lot more important.
Obama Hits a Bump, Denounces Attack on McCain
Senator Obama hit a bump in the road in his new drive to attract voters who harbor doubts about his patriotism yesterday when he was forced to denounce remarks one of his prominent supporters made minimizing the value of Senator McCain’s military service.
The flap arose over comments a former four-star general, Wesley Clark, made on a talk show Sunday arguing that Mr. McCain’s experience as a Navy pilot, including more than six years in a North Vietnamese prison, did little to prepare him for the presidency. “I don’t think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president,” General Clark said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”
He sure does have to do a lot of backpeddling and “denouncing”, doesn’t he. So, does Weasel Clark think B. Hussein has qualifications that should put him in the White House? I sure would like to know what they are, cuz I’ve yet to discover any.
Mugabe rejects calls for his ouster
With familiar defiance after elections widely denounced as a sham, President Robert Mugabe dismissed international demands for his ouster Tuesday, saying through a spokesman that the United States and other countries could “go hang a thousand times.” George Charamba, the presidential spokesman, was speaking to reporters at a meeting of the leaders of the 53-nation African Union in this Red Sea resort.
Facing pressure from the United States for expanded sanctions against Mugabe, African leaders held a second day of closed-door meetings Tuesday to seek consensus on a negotiated settlement of the crisis.
Mugabe wants African Union to endorse his re-election in a vote last Friday that three African monitoring groups labeled inadequate or not credible. But his adversaries - and some of his allies - are pressing him to accept a settlement that would mean sharing power with his rival, Morgan Tsvangirai.
What? Did they expect he’d just hang his head, shuffle his feet and say “Well, ok. I’ll go home. Didn’t wanna be no ol’ dictator anyways.” Pfft! That ’sharing power’ business never seems to work out too well for the other guy anyway.
UT war center stays alive temporarily
Dr. Vejas Liulevicius, head of the Center for the Study of War & Society in the History Department at the University of Tennessee, said Interim Chancellor Jan Simek and Tom Burman, head of the UT History Department, were able to find funds to pay for the center’s program coordinator for 2008-09.
The center compiles oral histories from combat veterans. Its collection includes tens of thousands of oral interviews, personal papers, letters, diaries, hundreds of volumes of books and artifacts from World War II up through the current conflict in Iraq.
And the honchos at UT don’t think all this history is worth a little funding to keep it alive? I’m afraid I have to disagree with them 100%. REAL history lived by REAL people is more valid than any newspaper or history book.
Olmert: Nothing will stop Israel’s struggle to bring security to the South
Speaking at a ceremony marking the opening of a new Intel factory in Kiryat Gat, Olmert said he would “continue negotiations to bring peace and create a new horizon of hope, and of development and prosperity all across Israel.”
Dang! He sounds just like a politician. His mouth writing checks his ass can’t cash.
McCain visiting Colombia and Mexico this week
He said Calderon is “one of the best Mexican presidents of modern times” and praised his fight against the country’s drug cartels.
Calderon has deployed more than 20,000 troops and federal police to battle the gangs and agreed to accept a three-year U.S. aid package of more than $1.6 billion that was approved by Congress last week.
Does this guy ever read the papers, watch the news? Calderon is a disaster for Americans, so why is McFeingold wasting our taxpayer money, visiting a bozo who encourages his citizens to break OUR laws? Aid package? $1.6 BILLION? 
World Trade Center Owner Scraps Rebuilding Schedule
Two years ago, in the last year of Pataki’s administration, the agency said it had expedited development at the site by renegotiating a 99-year lease with Silverstein and shifting responsibility for who would build what.
It set clear deadlines and penalties, including $300,000-a-day payments to Silverstein if the agency didn’t deliver land on time. The agency has paid Silverstein over $14 million in penalties after missing those deadlines.
What an utter crock of crapola! The thing should have been at least half done by now, and the memorial should have finished long ago.
Poland in new blow to EU treaty
Poland’s President Lech Kaczynski says he will not sign the EU’s reform treaty at present, following its defeat in an Irish referendum last month.
He said it would be “pointless” to sign the Lisbon Treaty, even though Poland’s parliament has ratified it. All 27 EU members must ratify the document.
Other than Ireland, just how many of these countries have asked the people if they even want to lose their national identity?
Michelle Obama Praises Husband’s Commitment to Homosexuals
The wife of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama told a crowd of homosexual activists last week that her husband wants to repeal the Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) and reverse the rule on homosexuals in the military. Michelle Obama also drew parallels with homosexual advocacy groups and the civil rights movement, referring to events “from Selma to Stonewall.”
HUGE difference there deary! You don’t CHOOSE your skin color. Comparing the two is ignorant at best.
Judges Cite Need for Reliable Evidence To Hold Detainees
Parhat, a member of the Muslim Uighur movement that is seeking a separate homeland in western China, left his country in May 2001 to avoid persecution, then lived in a camp in Afghanistan. After a U.S. airstrike, he and other Uighurs fled to Pakistan, where they eventually were handed over to U.S. authorities.
Parhat’s tribunal determined that he had not engaged in hostilities against the United States or its allies. But it concluded that he was an enemy combatant because he lived at the Afghan camp, which was allegedly run by the leader of a group tied to al-Qaeda and the Taliban, according to the appellate opinion.
I wouldn’t think he was sitting around, chatting, drinking tea and eating cookies. But hey, that’s just me.
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