An Ol' Broad's Ramblings
Morning Coffee 07/19/08
N.H. Will Accept Free Oil from Chavez After All
Two years ago, New Hampshire refused to accept heating oil from Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez, the pro-Castro U.S. critic who once called President Bush “the devil.” But with fuel prices rising, well, free oil is free oil.
I wonder if this is part of Queen Moonbat‘s energy plan? The idea of citizens of the greatest nation in the world accepting hand outs from a ruthless dictator. We are the most generous people, well, the south is, so why aren’t the people of New England helping out their neighbors so they don’t see the need to accept anything from a small minded man who is ruining his own country? DRILL HERE! DRILL NOW!
Iran rules out freeze in nuclear enrichment ahead of US talks
Asked about the latest comments, Cristina Gallach, a spokeswoman to the EU’s foreign policy chief, Javier Solana, said: “We have to wait to this afternoon to see the Iranian position. We are ready to look at creative manners to allow negotiations to start in full agreement with the UN security council.”
No one expects swift progress. Imani, speaking to reporters shortly after the talks began, said there was “no chance” that Iran would suspend enrichment. The US says that real negotiations cannot begin until Iran freezes sensitive nuclear work.
One more waste of taxpayer money. Iran isn’t going to give up their goal to destroy the West and Israel with nukes, and if our side capitulates, then they might as well go home, cuz I see no future for them, anywhere.
TVA emissions cuts would save lives, witness says
The lives of hundreds of North Carolinians would be saved in coming years if the Tennessee Valley Authority reduced air pollution to levels called for in a lawsuit, a researcher testified Friday.
Jonathan Levy of the Harvard School of Public Health said he calculated health benefits that would come from installing scrubbers and other pollution control technology on TVA’s 11 coal-fired power plants in Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama.
How on earth did the human race ever survive without those who wish to control EVERYTHING? What annoys me is that who is to say what will prevent deaths? How do they know those who would die of a heart attack wouldn’t still die because of their lifestyle, genetics, any number of things. Criminy! Yeah, I’m all for clean air. I remember it fairly well. Guess what! I’m still alive…..sorta. 
Obama Arrives in Afghanistan to Tour War Zone
Barack Obama arrived in Afghanistan on Saturday, the first stop on a campaign-season tour of war zones, a spokesman said.
Less than four months before the general election, Obama’s first visit to Afghanistan, with a subsequent stop in Iraq, was rich with political implications, although the Illinois senator flew as part of an official congressional delegation.
I know I don’t have to be concerned for B. Hussein’s safety while he’s over there. Why, you ask? Well, because he’s a lot like the Taliban. He wants to control your life, so odds are, they see him as one of them.
NJ beach town mayor sez ‘Fuhgeddaboudit!’ to blog
The comments in his blog for summer renters in this legendary party town on the Jersey shore were meant, Pringle says, as tongue-in-cheek jabs at visitors behaving badly – which Belmar surely has each summer.
But they struck a nerve far beyond what was intended, offending Italian-American groups, New Yorkers, and yes, blondes. And, following an exchange of insults, they even earned the mayor an invitation from a Staten Island tourism group to visit and find out what it’s really like.
Oh, fer the love of pete. Can’t anyone laugh at themselves anymore? If this guy was pointing out the bad behavior of visitors to his city, they should have taken it as a hint NOT to behave like jackasses. Are we ALL so thin skinned?
After eight hours of jury deliberation, Ford faces up to 20 years in prison
The verdict was delivered less than an hour after jurors listened a second time, in open court, to a secretly recorded 2004 conversation in which Ford bragged to an undercover FBI agent posing as a businessman that Ford had “put together the deal” — a consulting contract between Doral Dental Services and Managed Care Services Group, a consulting firm in which Ford was a 40 percent partner.
The Middle Tennessee jury deliberated a total of eight hours — six on Thursday — before returning to the courtroom where its members were first seated at the start of the trial on July 1.
I was really surprised it took them so long to find him guilty! What I couldn’t figure out is why the judge wouldn’t allow them to actually read the transcripts of the tapes.
Jade Dragon sued again over misspelling
A Chicago man with a misspelled “tomorrow” tattoo on his forearm filed a negligence suit Friday in Cook County Circuit Court against Jade Dragon Tattoo and Body Piercing, 5331 W. Belmont Ave.
The suit, seeking more than $30,000 in damages, marks the second time in the last 17 months the parlor has faced litigation by customers alleging tattoos had misspelled words. Last year, a customer said he left with the word “CHI-TONW” instead of “CHI-TOWN.”
In the latest suit, Alfonse Wingfield, 30, said he asked for a tattoo in 2006 and was inked with “Tommorow Never Promised Today. John P. R.I.P.” Wingfield said he paid the shop $250.
Might be a good time for this ‘artist’ to get a spell checker. One more REAL good reason not to get a tatoo.
Restaurants That Lack Calorie Counts Now Face Fines
Since May, inspectors have had the authority to cite restaurants that did not conform to the city’s calorie-posting rules. As of July 12, 277 restaurants had been cited.
But the health department had said there would be a “no fine” period at first, and that period was extended after the New York State Restaurant Association challenged the rules in federal court. The United States Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit eventually denied the restaurant association’s request to extend the no fine period beyond midnight Friday. The fines will range from $200 to $2,000.
Dear Lord in Heaven! Are people in New York so ignorant that they can’t figure out that a Big Mac is fattening? Or a mega sized brownie? Why is it the job of the gubmint to think for them?
Candidates vague over $11B helicopter fleet
John McCain and Barack Obama vow to reform the nation’s defense procurement if elected president, yet each is unwilling to take a firm stand against the skyrocketing cost of a plum White House perk: the new Marine One helicopter.
Originally carrying a hefty price tag at $6.1 billion, the fleet of 28 helicopters being built to fly the next president is now projected to cost $11.2 billion.
At $400 million apiece, the helicopters far exceed a prime example McCain uses on the campaign trail to rail against congressional pork-barrel spending, a $230 million ”bridge to nowhere” in Alaska.
Hmm….. Well, there’s a big difference between a “bridge to nowhere” and a helicopter. I gotta ask….why would any president need 28? Do they keep them in various parts of the country? Honestly, I don’t see a major problem with a president, who is always under some threat or another, having swift transportation. But hey, that’s just me. Perhaps we all go back to the horse and buggy, problem solved.
Hizbullah won’t rule out more abductions
Hizbullah’s deputy secretary-general, Sheikh Naim Kassem, would not rule out on Saturday the abduction of more Israeli soldiers in order to achieve the organization’s goals.
Congrats to the feckless weasels in the Israeli gubmint! You’ve given the terrorists a green light to continue with their assault! Way to go! (insert massive disgusted sarcasm here)
Across China, Security Instead Of Celebration
Shortly after dawn on July 9, the local government here bused several thousand students and office workers into a public square and lined them up in front of a vocational school. As the spectators watched, witnesses said, three prisoners were brought out. Then, an execution squad fired rifles at the three point-blank, killing them on the spot.
But Bush doesn’t want to insult the Chinese by not attending the opening ceremonies. 
President Bush and Iraq’s prime minister have agreed to set a “general time horizon” for bringing more U.S. troops home from the war, a dramatic shift from the administration’s once-ironclad unwillingness to talk about any kind of deadline or timetable.
Well, no, not actually. I’ve heard him say when the job was done, he’d bring the troops home. I don’t see that as a softening. Seems more like he’s doing what he said he would do, since the Iraqis are finally standing up. However, if they are brought home too soon, Iraq will collapse, and chaos will reign. Hmm… Odds are, that’ll happen anyway. Oh well.
At the Democrats’ party, a Pentecostal minister
Daughtry, 44, was preparing for an Aug. 24 interfaith service that will open the Democrats’ gathering here – a first for a party that hasn’t always gotten God. Before her was an angry letter from a secularist group that wanted to know whether atheists would be on the podium.
“Atheists speaking at an interfaith service … does that work?” Daughtry asked this week. “I don’t quite know. But they’re part of the party, you treat them with respect. I’ll give them an answer.”
On a larger scale, it’s what Daughtry and a growing number of Democrats of faith are setting out to do: hold together and grow their party by claiming ground on religion and values that Republicans have successfully mined for years.
I have a serious problem with anyone who claims they have “faith”, yet supports a candidate whose limited vote record flies in the face of all that the faithful deem sacred. Example: Life! B. Hussein is just okie dokie with killing babies. And that’s NOT ok with the Bible.
