Archive for June 29th, 2007
News to Laugh By
June 29th, 2007
It really has been slim pickings lately for good news stories but I chuckled at the way it is described by James Lileks.
There is no news today. We’ve run out. Sorry; come back tomorrow. We’re expecting a shipment around noon, but we can’t guarantee it’ll be Grade-A news – could be that weird stuff packed with sawdust and Chinese anti-freeze and other fillers and extenders.
About sums it up for me.
Posted in 
Second Car With Explosive Material Found in London
June 29th, 2007
Someone is determined to terrorize London and who knows where else?
LONDON, England (CNN) — As authorities were investigating an explosives-packed car discovered outside a nightclub near Piccadilly Circus on Friday, a second vehicle was found in London that had similar explosive material inside, security sources said.
The second car had been parked underground near Trafalgar Square in an area where parking was not allowed.
Workers towed it to a lot on Park Lane near Buckingham Palace and thought it smelled of gasoline. Given the reports that gas canisters were among the explosive material found in the other car, they became suspicious, security sources said.
Authorities then blocked off a section of Park Lane while they examined the car and discovered the material.
The sources did not say exactly what was found in the second car, but a U.S. source with knowledge of Britain’s investigation said the second vehicle is linked to the first.
Earlier Friday, a section of Fleet Street also was cordoned off briefly, then reopened without incident.
Inside the first car near Piccadilly Circus, a device was found to be loaded with fuel, gas cylinders and nails, said security sources, and it was set up for remote detonation.
Is it foolish for me to say each of us must be on the look-out for similar things in this country? I think not, though others may disagree with me.
If you’re in a large city, especially be on the look-out.
Thankfully, God was looking out for London at least twice today.
May Their Parents Safely Return
June 29th, 2007
This video stirred emotions in me which had been dormant for a very long time. It reminded me of a time (and I was one of these kids) when another war became unpopular in this country due to politics and how our returning military members were treated.
From the site which posted and composed the video these words were so touching:
The inspiration for this video comes from the Family Support Group for the unit I supported while I was a recruiter. I finally saw first hand how it isn’t only the soldier who sacrifices for this country. I saw how sometimes the world forgets how much the children of our Armed Service Members really sacrifice.
This video is for the kids… it’s for every concert or soccer game their parent miss. It’s for every band or choir concert their parents watch on video thousands of miles away. This video is for how much we really love our kids – and why sometimes mommy and daddy have to be away. Its because we don’t leave because we don’t love our kids – it’s because we leave BECAUSE we love our kids.
I hope for these children when their Moms and Dads return from Iraq or Afghanistan the people in this country will swell with pride and thank them for their service.
To every military family out there, know that there are prayers said and thoughts of you each day. Know there are those here who do understand your mission and support you and your families without fail. Washington may control policy but they will never control the hearts of those who care.
Note: If you cannot see the video on this post or are having trouble viewing it please go here and view.
Speaker Pelosi and Leader Reid, Please Just Do It!
June 29th, 2007
Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid have said they will announce a new plan to end the Iraq war, to which I say, Just defund the darned thing and get it over with! Stop playing games and be the transparent Congress leaders you promised in the last election.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) are expected tomorrow to announce a new coordinated effort to force votes in July to end the Iraq war, according to Democratic insiders.
Reid has already publicly declared that Senate Democrats will offer four Iraq-related amendments to the upcoming 2008 Defense authorization bill, including a proposal by Reid and Sen. Russ Feingold (D-Wis.) to set a firm timetable to withdraw U.S. troops from Iraq by next spring.
Pelosi is planning to announce that the House will also vote on a bill setting a new withdrawal timetable of April 1, 2008, although the details of the proposal were still up in the air at press time, according to Democratic sources. The House will consider this proposal as a freestanding bill, said the sources.
Pelosi is also planning to force a vote on a proposal by Rep. Ike Skelton (D-Mo.), chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, to repeal the 2002 use-of-force resolution for Iraq. This “deauthorization” proposal may be offered as an amendment to the 2008 Defense spending bill, which the House is scheduled to take up following the week-long July 4th recess.
Both leaders obviously feel strongly we should end the war so they should follow their gut feelings and end the funding, which will end the war on our part.
These games are mighty tiresome. Bring a de-funding bill to the floor of each chamber and see if it flies. If it does you have accomplished your mission. If it doesn’t then stop trying.
SCOTUS Ruling and Democratic Presidential Debate
June 29th, 2007
Yesterday the Supreme Court rejected Louisville, Ky., and Seattle, Wa., diversity plans because they were based solely on race for school assignments but the Court left the door open for using race in limited circumstances.
The court split, 5-4, with Chief Justice John Roberts announcing the court’s judgment. The court’s four liberal justices dissented.
The districts “failed to show that they considered methods other than explicit racial classifications to achieve their stated goals,” Roberts said.
Yet Justice Anthony Kennedy would not go as far as the other four conservative justices, saying in a concurring opinion that race may be a component of school plans designed to achieve diversity.
To the extent that Roberts’ opinion could be interpreted to foreclose the use of race in any circumstance, Kennedy said, “I disagree with that reasoning.”
He agreed with Roberts that the plans in Louisville and Seattle violated constitutional guarantees of equal protection.
Justice Stephen Breyer, in a dissent joined by the other liberals on the court, said Roberts’ opinion undermined the promise of integrated schools that the court laid out 53 years ago in its landmark decision in Brown v. Board of Education.
“To invalidate the plans under review is to threaten the promise of Brown,” Breyer said.
I have grandchildren in school now and not my own children so I can’t speak too much to the question from first-hand experience except to say I know the schools in our city are integrated, but we are not as large a school system as these two cities.
I have always thought bussing children clear across town, when they have to stand at the side of the street waiting for the bus while it’s still dark and they don’t get home until after 5 pm in the afternoon, when it’s again dark in the winter, was not the best solution to the problem of integration, but it seemed to be the best solution fifty years ago.
Last night the Democratic presidential candidates apparently had another debate, and it included talk of this decision and of race.
I’m not going to review the entire debate except to say it was held at Howard University in front of a predominantely black audience, but one quote stuck out at me and has really angered me by what was said by Sen. Clinton:
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, the first female candidate with a serious shot at the presidency, drew the night’s largest cheer when she suggested there was a hint of racism in the way AIDS is addressed in this country.
“Let me just put this in perspective: If HIV-AIDS were the leading cause of death of white women between the ages of 25 and 34 there would be an outraged, outcry in this country,” said the New York senator.
Haven’t we spent millions of dollars on HIV-AIDS research and haven’t we tried to educate the people in our country on how one gets HIV-AIDS? Haven’t we sent millions of dollars to help stop the spread of HIV-AIDS in Africa, which the last time I looked, was populated mostly by people with black skin?
Excuse me, Sen. Clinton, but you are using the race card to continue to divide our country by race and you are not trying to bring together the various races in our country. It works better for your party if you keep a split there and make it look as though it’s all the Republicans’ fault.
Here’s a factoid I’m sure you know, but just failed to mention: President GW Bush has spent more money on AIDS research and prevention than any other president in our history, including your husband who was his immediate predecessor.
Before this everlasting campaign for president is over I expect to hear the old Social Security scare used to get the old people to vote against the Republicans because it has proven to be a vote-getter in the past.
When are we going to get past this and talk about solutions and not try to make people afraid and angry? This is done on both sides, and I’m tired of politics as usual. In fact, it’s one of the reasons I am tiring of politics altogether.
Nothing new gets said in campaigns from one year to the next. We just continue to anger and scare voters but offer no solutions.
The Republicans are guilty of it too, and when I see the quotes I’ll put them up here.
British Foil Apparent Terror Attempt
June 29th, 2007
People in the Haymarket section of London, which is close to Picadilly Circus, a place with restaurants, bars, etc. noticed a Mercedes that had crashed into some trash cans and the driver running away.
They called the police who discovered the car was laden with gas containers and a large number of nails.
British police thwarted an apparent terror attack in central London on Friday, discovering a parked silver Mercedes that was packed with gas containers and a large number of nails. The attack would have caused “significant injury or loss of life,” police said.
A British security official told The Associated Press that there were similarities between the device and vehicle bombs used by insurgents in Iraq.
“Forensic staff are still examining the device, but once we know more about it, we’ll know more about what type of individuals are behind this,” said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the security details.
The official said Britain’s domestic spy agency MI5 also would examine possible connections between Friday’s incident and at least two similar foiled plots — including a planned attack on a West End nightclub in 2004 and a thwarted attempt to use limousines packed with gas canisters to attack targets in London and New York.
Officers were called to the Haymarket area near Piccadilly Circus shortly before 2 a.m., a police statement said. Sky News cited witnesses as saying doormen from a nearby nightclub had reported that someone had crashed a Mercedes sedan into garbage bins and had run away.
It’s a good thing someone was smart enough to call the police before anything bad had happened to a lot of people.
