An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Morning Coffee 07/16/08
Souder playing rough on D.C. ban
The mayor and other officials in Washington, D.C., are trying to circumvent the Supreme Court’s rejection of the District of Columbia’s gun ban, Rep. Mark Souder, R-3rd, says. So he is trying to repeal all restrictions the city has on guns.
“Their intent is basically to try to get around the court ruling,” Souder said. “In other words, ban the gun, keep all the strict registration, track all the ammunition and, in effect, keep a D.C. gun ban fully operating as if there hadn’t been a court decision.”
And that ban has really worked well for them in the past……how? Look at this map. And that’s just crimes involving guns in less than a month! (Ya might have to eliminate crimes not involving guns. Not sure if the map will save my input.)
IRGC to face security, political, cultural, military threats
Commander of the Islamic Revolution Guards Corps Major General Mohammad-Ali Jaafari said Tuesday that the IRGC is getting more prepared to face “asymmetrical” security, political, cultural and military threats facing the country.
Jaafari told a group of IRGC officials that enemies of Iran are not however capable of posing any direct threat or taking open action against Iran.
“The US and Israel have become aware of their weakness against our country and due to the same reason they try to put Iran under pressure through different sanctions,” he added.
Weakness? Uh, yeah, thanks Congress, for expressing YOUR belief of our weakness to the bad guys. Really ‘preciate that. Actually, the biggest threat to Iran, is Iran.
Obama has 7-point edge on McCain
Democrat Barack Obama has a 7-point lead on Republican John McCain in the U.S. presidential race, and holds a small edge on the crucial question of who would best manage the economy, according to a Reuters/Zogby poll released on Wednesday.
More than a month after kicking off the general election campaign, Obama leads McCain by 47 percent to 40 percent. That is slightly better than his 5-point cushion in mid-June, shortly after he clinched the Democratic nomination fight against New York Sen. Hillary Clinton.
Perhaps the yahoos in D.C. are right. We are a nation of idiots, and don’t deserve to think for ourselves. 
Well, at least “47%” of us at any rate.
In an address in Washington that was the most detailed outline yet of his national security strategy, Obama said it was time to end the war in Iraq, which he opposed from the start, and to begin to address the resurgent al-Qaida and Taliban forces in Afghanistan and Pakistan, which he said posed a far greater danger to U.S. security than did the chaos in Iraq.
McCain drew the opposite conclusion from events in Iraq. He said the success of the so-called surge, which he supported from the start, pointed the way toward victory in both Iraq and Afghanistan.
Can you imagine if FDR had caved to the loons and pulled out of WWII? I’m not a fan of his, but at least he had a set. B. Hussein must have lost his while pretending to be a “community organizer”.
Abbas congratulates family of Samir Kuntar
Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas on Wednesday sent his regards to the families of Samir Kuntar and the other four Lebanese prisoners scheduled to be transferred to Hizbullah.
Abbas praised the prisoner swap and congratulated the Kuntar family.
Insanity! “Regev, Goldwasser remains officially identified” I don’t know about you, but I don’t call that a “prisoner swap”.
Shell-shocked GM retirees react: ‘This is a knife stab in the back’
After years of getting generous coverage, retirees from salaried jobs at General Motors Corp. reacted angrily Tuesday to the announcement that GM was ending their health benefits.
Where in, lies the problem. How can a company continue to pay “generous” benefits, and expect to stay in business. People need to save for their retirement, not depend on a company, or government, or any other entity, to support them. Criminy! We ARE a nation of whiners! Gramm is right!
WH to send envoy to Iran meeting
U.S. officials insisted that Mr. Burns will not negotiate with Mr. Jalili but only listen to what the Iranian has to say. He will “reiterate that our terms for negotiations remain the same: Iran must suspend its enrichment and reprocessing activities,” one official was quoted as saying by the Associated Press.
You do realize that Iran is going to tout this as a victory over the Great Satan, right?
U.S. ban on visitors with HIV could be repealed soon
The U.S. is one of a dozen countries — including Sudan, Saudi Arabia, Libya and Russia — that ban travel and immigration for HIV-positive people.
Even China, said Sen. John Kerry, D-Mass., recently changed that policy, deciding it was “time to move beyond an antiquated, knee-jerk reaction” to people with HIV.
“There’s no excuse for a law that stigmatizes a particular disease,” Kerry said Tuesday at a speech to the Center for Strategic & International Studies HIV/AIDS Task Force. Even people with avian flu or the Ebola virus have an easier time than those with HIV when it come to applying for visas, he said.
Oh, why the hell not! We’re letting folks with diseases we had eradicated slip through the southern ‘border’. So, what the hell. Nobody there in D.C. gives a happy crap about our safety and well being anyway.
Fahrvergnügen, y’all. VW picks Chattanooga
Volkswagen announced Tuesday that it will build a $1 billion U.S. assembly plant in Chattanooga, ending an eight-month search for a site that finally came down to a competition between Tennessee and Alabama.
Even though several auto industry publications, quoting unidentified sources purportedly inside Volkswagen’s headquarters, said in recent days that the plant would go to a site near Huntsville, Ala., the big celebration Tuesday morning took place 100 miles away, on a bluff overlooking the Tennessee River in downtown Chattanooga.
Cool. Are they making VW pick ‘em trucks yet? 
NATO forces abandon Afghan outpost
NATO-led forces in eastern Afghanistan have left a temporary combat outpost station, a site insurgents tried to overrun earlier this week in a push that led to the deaths of nine American soldiers.
But a spokesman for NATO’s International Security Assistance Force said Wednesday that ISAF troops and Afghan National Security Forces would “continue to perform regular patrols near the village of Wanat.”
Question: Does NATO do this often? Abandon places?
