An Ol’ Broad’s Ramblings
Morning Coffee 08/31/08
First of four trains carrying Gustav evacuees arrives in Memphis
The first of four AMTRAK trains carrying New Orleans residents fleeing Hurricane Gustav arrived in Memphis at 11:45 Saturday night. The trains were contracted by the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) to bring as many as 3,500 evacuees to Memphis, where they will be dispersed to shelters.
Waiting Memphis Fire Dept. personnel and AMTRAK police helped passengers disembark, handling luggage and showing them where to go. Even Memphis City Council member Myron Lowery, still tired from his week in Denver at the Democratic National Convention, helped greet the evacuees.
Instead of leaving the story about the evacuees, the Appeal just HAD to throw that little tidbit in about the Dhimmi convention. Totally irrelevant! They could have put a positive light on Memphis; instead, this pecker head threw in the politics. A real shame!
Pro-choice GOP women praise pro-life Palin
Pro-choice Republican women, including one of their movement’s best-known leaders, have embraced the strongly pro-life Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as Sen. John McCain’s choice for running mate.
Somewhat surprisingly, Mrs. Palin has elicited enthusiasm not only from pro-choice Republican groups, but from many rank-and-file pro-choice Republican women.
When you hear this woman speak, when you read what she has accomplished, it’s kind of hard NOT to be supportive of her nomination. And the fact….she terrifies the lefties! Heh!
Honduran drug suspect gamed juvenile system
Martinez now says he was 25 all along, and that his true name is Jose Mendoza Cerrato. On Thursday, he pleaded guilty in adult court to drug dealing and is expected to be transferred to immigration authorities for possible deportation as soon as next month.
The case raises questions about how diligently San Francisco’s juvenile justice system works to confirm that immigrant suspects with little or no documentation are who they say they are. Despite apparent inconsistencies in what Cerrato told authorities, he had little trouble persuading the courts to treat him as a minor who did not belong behind bars.
If you ask me, no one in San Francisco is very diligent at anything other than embarrassing the rest of the country into wishing the ‘big one’ would hit, and they’d all sink into the Pacific! I don’t care what their age is, they don’t belong here, and for dealing drugs, he DOES belong behind bars!
Tanzania president hails US Bush action on Darfur, Zimbabwe
The US president, who visited Tanzania in February, also assured the US public that “your money is being spent wisely and compassionately in Tanzania. And a lot of it has to do with the leadership of the president.”
Bush decided not to send troops to end what he called “genocide” in Sudan’s Darfur province, but has pressed the international community to deploy a UN-African Union hybrid peacekeeping force.
On Zimbabwe, Bush has expanded sanctions on what he branded in July Robert Mugabe’s “illegitimate” government and offered support to opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai.
Contrary to what the rabid Bush haters would like you to think, he has done some good. Now, if he’d just secure our borders, my respect level for him would go back up a bit.
Failing teachers ‘too hard to sack’
Weak teachers can put children off learning and are too difficult to sack, the chief inspector of schools has warned.
Christine Gilbert, the head of the Office for Standards in Education (Ofsted), claimed pupils were being let down by inadequate teachers.
She said teaching rated as “satisfactory” was not good enough, especially in deprived areas.
I don’t care where you are, when you have crappy teachers, you have crappy schools. Crappy schools are a major discipline problem. Chuck the crappy teachers, you might see an increase in learning, and your schools will start to improve. Then again, there are schools that have already been taken over by the ‘inmates’, and that’s another issue altogether.
Shalit Family: Don’t Release Prisoners Unless Gilad is Freed
The father of kidnapped IDF Staff Sgt. Gilad Shalit, speaking on behalf of the family, expressed “shock and dismay” in a statement to the media Sunday that the Palestinian Authority might ask Israel to release more terrorists in yet another “good will gesture” to PA Chairman and Fatah leader Mahmoud Abbas.
The family is demanding that the government desist from releasing any more prisoners as long as their son remains a hostage with Hamas terrorists in Gaza. Gilad turned 22 last Thursday, his third birthday in captivity.
I agree whole heartedly! Do NOT send one more terrorist back home until that young man is safe with his family! This “good will gesture” BS is just that….a large steaming pile! If it was me, I would have been lobbing bombs all over the place till Shalit was home. THEN there could have been a chat about who should be released. And it would NOT have included that baby murderer!
Trooper’s political ties and charm have taken him far
Long before he was accused of running unauthorized background checks on private citizens, a joke made its way around the Tennessee Highway Patrol about Ronnie Shirley.
He could parachute over the old Soviet Union, the joke went, and if you telephoned the Kremlin an hour later, Shirley would have schmoozed his way so far within the corridors of the communist state, you’d hear his West Tennessee drawl on the other end of the line.
The joke illuminates a truth about Shirley, a 6-foot-4 trooper full of charm and backslapping political skill, but it also reflects a long-held belief about what it takes to get ahead in the THP: Politics and cozying up to the powerful too often determine the course of a trooper’s career.
“He makes friends,” said former THP Lt. Col. Steve Browder, who is from McNairy County, where Shirley grew up, and helped Shirley get hired as a trooper in the late 1980s.
Did he think he was Bufford Pusser….without the stick? Someone’s radar should have shot up, and given warning!
Bahrain deports top terrorist to Philippines
Ruben Pestano Lavilla Jr., also known as Sheik Omar Lavilla, was deported to Manila yesterday, more than a month after he was arrested in Bahrain.
Marcelino Libanan, head of the immigration commission in Manila, said the 35-year-old militant leader was working as an editor of a local magazine and was also hired as an interpreter at the Philippine Embassy in Bahrain.
Officials at the embassy confirmed reports about Lavilla’s deportation, but Consul General Jose Burgos could not confirm claims he had been working as an interpreter at the embassy. “I cannot confirm or comment on the issue as I am not aware of it,” Burgos said.
Which leads me to question if the Embassy was aware of who was in their midst.
Kilpatrick would leave in deal from lawyers
Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick would plead guilty to at least two felonies, pay a six-figure restitution and agree not to run for office for two years under a plea deal offered by his lawyers to settle perjury and obstruction of justice charges, the Free Press has learned.
The deal would mean Kilpatrick would automatically lose the mayor’s office and his law license. Under the proposal, he would also sign over his state pension and benefits to the City of Detroit, do 300 hours of community service with homeless and disabled people, and serve up to five years probation, according to a source familiar with all aspects of the negotiations. Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy hasn’t accepted the deal because she wants jail time, a condition the mayor rejects.
First off, he should be banned from running for office, completely. Community service is a nice touch, however I do think that after all that arrogant SOB has put the city through, he should do at least six months behind bars.
Texans going to GOP convention don’t expect anti-Bush backlash
“We’re the second-largest state in the country. We’re the state with the strongest economy in the country. We’ve been the source of presidents and the source of significant members of the Congress. I expect us to be treated the way we’ve always been treated — very well,” said Michael Williams, a delegate and state Railroad Commission chairman.
Williams, who believes history will judge Bush’s presidency a success, is scheduled to help introduce John McCain when the senator accepts the GOP presidential nomination on Thursday.
What an odd headline. Do people blame the whole state for JFK’s assassination back in ‘63? People treat each other with respect, not because they come from the same state as the POTUS, but because that’s what decent people do. These aren’t Dhimmicrats y’know. Jeeeez!
Wind, solar energy built on temporary tax breaks
Congress is putting the short-term future of renewable energy companies in jeopardy even as the presidential candidates and most lawmakers hail windmills, solar panels and biofuels as long-term solutions to high gasoline prices and global warming.
Some $500 million in investment and production tax credits will expire Dec. 31 unless Congress renews them. Without that help, solar and wind power companies say they will reverse planned expansions and, in many cases, cut payrolls and capital investment.
What?? Congress actually DO SOMETHING besides pass useless resolutions? I’m shocked anyone would even consider them actually DOING THEIR FREAKIN’ JOBS!
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