J's Cafe Nette

Archive for the ‘Headlines’ Category

When I see a headline like this at Drudge it literally sends chills up my spine:

SHOCK: 2/3 OF WHITES CITING RACE WON’T VOTE OBAMA IN GENERAL…

Not character, qualifications or simply not believing the man is capable of handling the presidency (for any number of reasons), but rather the color of one’s skin?

I have been exposed to enough people in my lifetime to know that there are good and bad in all ethnicity’s. It is not naivete which drives this post, it is sadness.

This Democratic primary season has shown us some of the worst of America. The press in particular has driven the racial and gender card to its limits, and frankly, I am absolutely sick to death of it all.

Yes, these may just be exit poll numbers associated with the West Virginia primary, but when you think of the tone these candidates and their surrogates have taken, it is just a continuation of what we have seen over the past many months.

Last I looked, women are no better than men, a person of color is no different than a Caucasian, and the Presidency should not be a tool for those who continue to attempt to divide this country racially or otherwise.

Related story to the Drudge link above may be found here.

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Sometimes the headlines are deliberately misleading, other times they define an article well and then there are the times when it is difficult to imagine what the body of the piece is based on the bold print.

I was certainly intrigued when I read the following:

N.J. College Requires GOP Cell Phones

This was a must read for me as I had never heard of a GOP cell phone. Couple that with the fact that I could not imagine what college in the State of New Jersey would be installing this requirement and this was an instant click and read.

Here is what I found.

It was after 1 a.m. on a Sunday when college freshman Amanda Phillips arrived at the train station. She was nervous about walking alone in the dark to her dorm at Montclair State University.
So Phillips activated a GPS tracking device on her school-issued cell phone that would instantly alert campus police to her whereabouts if she didn’t turn it off in 20 minutes. After a five-minute walk, she safely reached her dorm room, locked the door behind her and turned off the timer.

“I think this is a great idea. It makes me feel a lot safer. And it’s not even that expensive,” said Phillips, an 18-year-old from Delaware.

Had she not turned the device off, an alarm would have sounded at the campus police station, and a computer screen would have displayed a dot with her location, along with her photo and other personal details.

Anything which provides an extra layer of security for these students is a great idea.

Too bad it wasn’t really a GOP cell phone. It would have been one of the most interesting stories tied to a political party in quite a while.

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The San Francisco Chronicle should be ashamed to have a writer on their staff who produces an article entitled “Bush Death Watch: Countdown”.

This gentleman, (ahem), is well within his right to speak or write whatever he chooses. However, there was a time that a headline such as the one above would have drawn harsh criticism from not only a paper’s editorial staff but other journalists. That very well may have led to the piece being shelved. Not so today, as a matter of fact this behavior is championed by many.

Just look at the list at Texas Rainmaker (who also receives the HT for the above link), of those who have wished our President dead or that harm in some form would come to him.

The liberals just never seem to get enough when it comes to fantasizing about the death of the President of the United States. Whether it’s a liberal protestor fantasizing about murdering him or a political candidate favoring the death penalty for him or artists memorializing assassination in print or entrepreneurs trying to sell merchandise endorsing his assassination or the latest example… right from one of our own American newspapers, the San Francisco Chronicle:

I too am ready for this President to retire to Texas, but for none of the same reasons these individuals cite. I want a decent man and his family to finally have the peace they so deserve after almost eight years of venom and disgusting displays of immaturity and disrespect.

It would do us all well to remember one thing about this man and his so despised (in many corners) administration. It has been a little better than six years since those towers collapsed in NYC and you and yours have remained safe since. That, in my humble opinion, is no accident.

If that in and of itself does not deserve a little credit, then I do not know what does. But then again, these days when it comes to politics in this country, I really don’t understand much.

A few days ago, I wrote that I was swearing off anything but feel good stories, at least until after the Thanksgiving holiday, but this was one which I could not in good faith allow to pass.

We really need to stop it. We need to put an end to the hatred toward each other over idelogy, or nothing, and I mean nothing good will come of it.

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What a headline!

Marines Press to Remove Their Forces From Iraq

When I saw it at Drudge it peaked my interest immediately. I found it incomprehensible that the Marine Corp would press to leave Iraq without completing their mission.

Okay, the first paragraph supplies a bit of an explanation:

The Marine Corps is pressing to remove its forces from Iraq and to send marines instead to Afghanistan, to take over the leading role in combat there, according to senior military and Pentagon officials.

Contingency plans and shifting of personnel take place constantly in the US military. Relocating troops is a bit different than leaving the impression in a headline that the Marine Corp wants to bail out of Iraq.

Reading further, I discovered the Corp has yet to even put a solid plan on the table:

Mr. Gates and Adm. Mike Mullen, the new chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, have not spoken publicly about the Marine concept, and aides to both officials said no formal proposal had been presented by the Marines.[Emphasis added] But the idea has been the focus of intense discussions between senior Marine Corps officers and other officials within the Defense Department.

There are many what-ifs in this article. Frankly, I believe our enemies in Afghanistan would love to know if the Marines are headed their way. They might just want to find even deeper caves to hide in. But until the time when the SecDef or Admiral Mullen make a shift public, it is best kept amongst those who know what is best for the US military, war strategy and our safety and security.

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Remember the huge recalls of Mattel toys in the recent past? Mattel has finally issued an apology, the bulk of which is directed to China. Via Breitbart comes this story from FT.com.

Mattel, the world’s largest toy maker, has issued a humiliating apology to China for damaging the country’s reputation, saying that millions of product recalls that the company has made in recent months resulted from design flaws, not poor Chinese manufacturing standards.

“Our reputation has been damaged lately by these recalls,” Thomas Debrowski, Mattel’s executive vice president of worldwide operations, told the head of China’s quality control agency, Li Changjiang, in Beijing, according to news agency reports.

”Mattel takes full responsibility for these recalls and apologises personally to you, the Chinese people and all of our customers who received the toys.”

It’s nice to see they are accepting responsibility for their “mistakes.” Far too little, far too late.

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It appears the “enemy combatants” held at Guantanamo Bay will not receive the right to be heard in US Federal Courts anytime soon.

A move to give terrorism suspects the right to challenge their detentions in federal court fell short in the Senate today, even though it had majority support.

Fifty-six senators voted to cut off debate, and move forward to a vote on the bill itself, a step known as cloture. But under Senate rules, 60 votes are needed to invoke cloture.

Some supporters of the bill said they might bring it up again, although it was not clear just when.

It is beyond me why anyone would believe that these individuals are entitled to the use of our courts to make a mockery of our system and of this country. These individuals are not US citizens, therefore not protected under our Constitution.

The names of those Republicans who voted for this measure should come as no surprise to anyone, but Joe Lieberman once again stepped to the plate and did not vote with the party he for so long called his own.

Besides Mr. Specter, five other Republican Senators supported the measure. They were Chuck Hagel of Nebraska, Richard G. Lugar of Indiana, Gordon Smith of Oregon, Olympia J. Snowe of Maine and John E. Sununu of New Hampshire. Senator Bernard Sanders, independent of Vermont, also voted for it.

Senator Joseph I. Lieberman of Connecticut, who lists himself as an independent Democrat, was the only non-Republican to vote against it. Senator Saxby Chambliss, Republican of Georgia, did not vote.

I believe in civil rights, however, when it comes to those who are bent on the destruction of this country I draw the line and applaud the majority of Republican Senators for standing pat on this issue.

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The NYT appears to have information about some of the bundled money donated to Democrats from Norman Hsu.

At the center of the ever-deepening mystery of Norman Hsu, the fugitive fund-raiser who was captured after a brief flight from the law last week, is the question of how he evolved from a bankrupt swindler in 1992 to a wealthy donor to many Democratic candidates, and a bundler of campaign contributions to Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton in 2007.

A review of financial records for one of Mr. Hsu’s companies begins to shed light on some of his recent activities, including his dealings with a circle of campaign contributors that has fallen under suspicion since news of Mr. Hsu’s criminal past, murky business interests and unexplained riches rocked the Democratic Party.

The records show that Components Ltd., a company controlled by Mr. Hsu that has no obvious business purpose and appears to exist only on paper, has paid a total of more than $100,000 to at least nine people who made campaign contributions to Mrs. Clinton and others through Mr. Hsu. The payments occurred in the spring of 2003, several months before Mr. Hsu emerged as a contributor to Democrats and more than a year before he started bundling checks from those same people for various campaigns. In all, he has raised more than $1 million for Democrats.

The article continues:

The financial records for Components Ltd. show that Mr. Su’s wife, Lelawattie Su, wired $100,000 to the company in May 2003, and that Mr. Hsu used that money to wire $109,500 the next day to a woman in California. On another occasion, Mr. Paw wired $20,000 to Components Ltd., and Mr. Hsu immediately wired $30,000 to another company whose location could not be determined.

In roughly that same period, Components Ltd. issued three checks to Mr. Paw totaling about $16,000, and checks and wire transfers totaling more than $100,000 to eight other people, including a worker at a rehabilitation center for the handicapped, a housewife, a nurse, a real estate developer, a plastics company executive and his wife, and a clothing shop manager.

Mr. Hsu later bundled campaign contributions from all of those people, including Mr. Paw and six members of his family, along with Mr. and Mrs. Su. The Paws and Sus together contributed more than $400,000 since 2004 to Democrats across the country, usually in tandem with Mr. Hsu.

This story continues to grow, and the information which continues to come to light only furthers the question of what exactly the individuals responsible for vetting donations to the democrats who received contributions were doing all this time. If this much information is available in such short order after the re-arrest of Hsu, it would seem only plausible at least portions of the same should have been available to them.

Much more in the article itself..well worth the read.

Update A must see. Flip at Suitably Flip has paid a visit not only to Mr. Hsu’s residence but has also personally checked out all his published business addresses. I’m shocked I tell you by what he discovered. (Complete with pictures)

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Senator Chuck Hagel to retire according to the Omaha World-Herald.

Chuck Hagel will announce Monday that he is retiring from the U.S. Senate and will not run for president next year, people close to the Nebraska Republican said Friday.

Nebraska Sen. Chuck Hagel plans to leave the Senate after two terms as a Republican Party maverick, people close to him say.Hagel plans to announce that “he will not run for re-election and that he does not intend to be a candidate for any office in 2008,” said one person, who asked not to be named.

Hagel has scheduled a press conference for 10 a.m. Monday at the Omaha Press Club.

According to one person interviewed, Hagel told Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky on Friday morning that he had decided to retire. Hagel’s staff learned of his decision that afternoon.

The Republicans had better be looking for a candidate to run for this seat immediately.

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Everyone has been wagging their tongues about Sen. Larry Craig. Republicans on the Hill have been calling for his resignation for his guilty plea on a misdemeanor charge of disorderly conduct.

The Minneapolis-St. Paul Airport Police Dept. has released the audio and a written transcript of the interview between the arresting police officer and Sen. Craig.

Listen to the audio and then read the transcript because in the audio you are able to hear voice inflections etc. See if you can come to a certain conclusion, other than the fact he pled guilty to disorderly conduct, of any crime having been committed in that restroom.

Audio here.

Transcript here.

Now here’s a story about the arresting officer in the Craig case involving a man riding a bicycle from the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport.

It’s a long piece and doesn’t mention this officer until later in the story. Be patient and read it, as it will give you some insight into the kind of “power trip” this officer and his subordinates seem to have.

Now go here and click on all the links at the top, i.e. Welcome, overview, etc. to see all the documentation this man has against these officers.

Hat Tip: Macsmind.

Here are some thoughts by one of Sen. Craig’s former interns as written at The Strata Sphere.

Thank you AJStrata for posting on this. I decided to wait a day or two and cool down so that I did not sound like a ranting lunatic. I was Senator Larry Craig’s high school intern in the spring of 2003. Senator Craig takes every intern out to lunch (no do not twist my words. He takes a group of interns, but every intern has the chance to go). At this lunch he will answer any questions you can ask. During my time in his office I realized that I wanted to be a politician like Craig. He serves his state and his people, not his own agenda. He worked his way up through the ranks rather than just buying in. I’m proud that I was able to work with him, even if it was for a short period of time. And I completely support him.

I am not condemning nor am I defending Sen. Craig. I have put this information here for you to decide for yourself.

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Isn’t it a shame that we could once again see a rogue prosecutor, fueled by politics, be responsible for the reputation and career of a man being ruined? Time will tell if Ronnie Earle managed this case in the same manner as Mike Nifong did his.

Court refuses to reinstate charges against DeLay

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals today refused to reinstate criminal conspiracy charges against former U.S. House Majority Leader Tom DeLay and two co-defendants.

DeLay, R-Sugar Land, and political consultants Jim Ellis and John Colyandro were accused of conspiring to violate state election laws in the 2002 elections for the Texas House. But lower courts threw out the indictment on grounds that conspiracy to violate the election code was not a crime until 2003,

A majority of the Court of Criminal Appeals agreed.

DeLay, Ellis and Colyandro were charged with plotting to funnel illegal corporate campaign contributions to several Republican House candidates in 2002, when the GOP gained its first House majority of modern times.

The three also were charged with money laundering, but a trial on those charges has been held up pending a resolution of the conspiracy charges.

DeLay’s attorney, Dick DeGuerin, said he was pleased with the ruling but sorry that it took so long and resulted in DeLay’s resignation from Congress, where he represented Houston’s southwest suburbs for more than 20 years.

“Ronnie Earle indicted Tom DeLay for a crime that didn’t exist, wasn’t on the books,” DeGuerin said.

Please do not misunderstand me here, I do not think Tom DeLay is a choir boy, but neither are most politicians at any level today. Won’t it be interesting to see if the money laundering charges hold up now that the main portion of Mr. Earles case has been defeated?

More here, here and a HT to MacRanger for pointing me to this story.

Update: The Courts Decision is available through a link at Redstate.

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China’s former drug regulator has been sentenced to death for taking bribes and allowing substandard medicines to be approved, causing the deaths of at least 10 people and the contamination of pet foods and toothpaste whose ingredients or products have been exported by China.

BEIJING (AP) – China’s former top drug regulator was sentenced to death Tuesday in an unusually harsh punishment for taking bribes to approve substandard medicines, including an antibiotic blamed for at least 10 deaths.
Seeking to address broadening concerns over food, the government also announced plans for its first recall system for unsafe products.

The developments are among the most dramatic steps Beijing has publicly taken to address domestic and international alarm over shoddy and unsafe Chinese goods—from pet food ingredients and toothpaste mixed with industrial chemicals to tainted antibiotics.

Beijing’s No. 1 Intermediate People’s Court convicted Zheng Xiaoyu of taking bribes in cash and gifts worth more than $832,000 while he was director of the State Food and Drug Administration, the official Xinhua News Agency said. Those bribes allowed eight companies to get around drug approval standards, it said.

Zheng’s acts “greatly undermined … the efficiency of China’s drug monitoring and supervision, endangered public life and health and had a very negative social impact,” Xinhua said, citing the court.

The punishment was appropriate given the “huge amount of bribes involved and the great damage inflicted on the country and the public,” Xinhua said.

In one instance, an antibiotic approved by Zheng’s agency killed at least 10 patients last year before it was taken off the market.

Under Chinese law, a death sentence meted out by an intermediate court automatically will be reviewed by a higher court and ultimately has to be approved by the state supreme court.

The sentence was unusually heavy even for China, which is believed to carry out more court-ordered executions than all other nations combined—and likely indicates the leadership’s determination to deal with the recent scares involving unsafe food and drugs.

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Cindy Sheehan, the mother whose son Casey’s death in Iraq caused her to be a peace activist, has given up her public fight against the war. See here and here.

She says her son’s death was in vain, she has lost her marriage, her health and her savings for her cause and now she is being criticized by some on the far left for criticizing Democrats for the same actions for which she criticized Republicans.

In a lot of ways I feel Cindy Sheehan was a victim of her own making. No, she didn’t cause the death of her son, which is what she says brought her to the public eye, but she allowed others to benefit their cause by her own grief.

Now that she has forsaken the Democratic party she has been called unsavory names at Democratic Underground, a site that is so far to the left it’s ready to drop off the face of the earth, but it was a place that praised her and glorified her before she turned against the democrats.

“I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a ‘tool’ of the Democratic Party.” Sheehan wrote. “However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the ‘left’ started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. “

She has been quite a celebrity for the far left for the past two years, but is now giving it all up, including selling Camp Casey in Crawford, TX, to go back home to her other children and try to patch up relationships that have been strained due to her so-called “fame”.

Maybe now she can actually take the time to grieve over the loss of her son in a way that will be cathartic for her, and she will be able to re-start her relationship with her other children whose needs have come second to the anti-war movement for the past two years.

As as conservative Republican who believes her son will have died in vain only if we leave without bringing about a peace that is elusive at best, I feel no ill feelings toward her. I wish her Godspeed and the peace she so desperately seeks for herself.

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According to this UK newspaper the capture of the 15 British Marines and sailors is all the fault of the United States for taking Iranian hostages in Iraq.

A failed American attempt to abduct two senior Iranian security officers on an official visit to northern Iraq was the starting pistol for a crisis that 10 weeks later led to Iranians seizing 15 British sailors and Marines.

Early on the morning of 11 January, helicopter-born US forces launched a surprise raid on a long-established Iranian liaison office in the city of Arbil in Iraqi Kurdistan. They captured five relatively junior Iranian officials whom the US accuses of being intelligence agents and still holds.

In reality the US attack had a far more ambitious objective, The Independent has learned. The aim of the raid, launched without informing the Kurdish authorities, was to seize two men at the very heart of the Iranian security establishment.

Yada, yada, yada.

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Anna Nicole Smith died of an overdose. Does that surprise anyone?

In other news: Saddam Hussein and Abu Musad Al Zarqawi are still dead and the fate of bin Laden is still not known.

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