BAGHDAD, Tuesday, Sept. 18 — Blackwater USA, an American contractor that provides security to some of the top American officials in Iraq, has been banned from working in the country by the Iraqi government after a shooting that left eight Iraqis dead and involved an American diplomatic convoy.I wonder what sort of action the loyal Bushies would have taken had this happened to Haliburton?
SINGAPORE (Reuters) - Oil surged to a record high above $81 a barrel on Tuesday, drawing strength from concerns of a winter supply squeeze in the world's top consumer where an anticipated interest rate cut is calming recession fears.At least Bush has accomplished one thing in his horrifically long tenure living in the White House.
U.S. light crude for October delivery rose 56 cents to $81.13 a barrel by 11:15 p.m. EDT after touching a high of $81.18 earlier in Tuesday's session and a $1.47 jump on Monday. London Brent crude for November rose 22 cents to $77.20 a barrel.
Carlos Arredondo, 47 year old father of two sons, arrived in the nation's capitol on Monday, 09/10/07 to share a memorial he has made to honor for his eldest son, Alex. Carlos has visited thirty of the United States with the traveling memorial to his son Alexander. Lcpl. Alexander S. Arredondo, USMC was killed on 08/25/04. He was 20 years and 20 days old. The memorial consists of a casket, poster- size photographs of Alex when he graduated from boot camp, before his second tour in Iraq, lying in state at his wake, and a photo of Alex with his younger brother Brian.I'm certainly glad that I'm not a compassionate conservative like the Gathering of Morons who follow the Fox Opinion Network and who beat up fathers of kids killed in an illegal unjust war.
GAINESVILLE -- A University of Florida student from Weston was stunned with a Taser and taken to jail on Monday after police say he disrupted an event with U.S. Sen John Kerry and refused to leave.You expect this sort of totalitarian response by the pigs when someone exercises their right of freedom of speech at a gathering of loyal Bushies, but not when a Democrat is talking to a group.
The incident was caught on video, which has since been distributed on the Internet.
In what was billed as a major televised address on Iraq, President Bush last week “recycled tired rhetoric” and “mumbo jumbo” about staying the course. Sen. Jack Reed delivered a direct response, pledging the Democratic leadership would “exercise our Constitutional duties and profoundly change our military involvement in Iraq.”
Quietly and miserably, like an anxious mother tiptoeing away from an autistic child who has fallen asleep with his helmet on, the Republican Party continues its hopeless search for a viable nominee while backpedaling from its own disaster in Iraq. The candidates, all of them -- I exclude here Congressman Ron Paul, who is an uninvited guest to this ball -- are fourth-rate buffoons, not one of them qualified to hold down the last ten minutes of a weekday open-mike night in a Skokie comedy club. They are divided into two categories: those who try to avoid talking about Iraq by saying nothing at all, and those who try to avoid talking about Iraq by talking loudly about something else.
BY NICOLE WINFIELD – Sep 2, 2007 LORETO, Italy (AP) — Pope Benedict XVI urged hundreds of thousands of young Catholics on Sunday to take better care of the planet, saying the world's water supply needs to be preserved and shared to avoid conflicts.This is a curious plea coming from the leader of a religion that refuses to acknowledge or support the use of condoms and other forms of birth control.
Benedict offered a very eco-friendly message during an open-air Mass on the final day of a weekend religious youth rally in the pilgrimage town of Loreto that was organized by the Italian bishops' conference.
The Italian Church has designated Sept. 1 as "Save Creation Day," and as a result the Loreto meeting carried a strong environmental message, with each of the participants given biodegradable plates, recycling bags for their trash and a hand-cranked cell-phone recharger.
Benedict told the crowd that it was up to them to urgently save the planet from development that had often ignored "nature's delicate equilibrium."
"Before it's too late, we need to make courageous choices that will recreate a strong alliance between man and Earth," Benedict said in his homily. "We need a decisive 'yes' to care for creation and a strong commitment to reverse those trends that risk making the situation of decay irreversible."
He said water, in particular, was a "precious" resource that needed to be preserved since "it unfortunately becomes a source of strong tensions and conflicts if it isn't shared in an equitable and peaceful manner."
Benedict has been on something of a green campaign of late, lamenting just this past week the environmental impact of recent forest fires in Italy and Greece. During his recent summer vacation in the mountains, he spoke frequently about the importance of nature in rekindling spirituality.
An estimated 500,000 people turned out for Benedict's Mass, the ANSA news agency said, citing police. Most of them spent the night camped out on tarps and tents on the field down the hill from Loreto, Italy's most important shrine dedicated to the Virgin Mary.
The meeting was an Italian warm-up for next year's World Youth Day, in Sydney, Australia, which the 80-year-old pope plans to attend.
Copyright © 2007 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.
WASHINGTON - Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday he would recommend a veto of a Senate proposal that would give troops more rest between deployments in Iraq, branding it a dangerous "backdoor way" to draw down forces.Yet, despite this admission of Gates', the Repignican Party claims constantly that the Democrats are the ones who don't support the troops by wanting to bring them home alive, provide them with body armor so their parents don't have to buy it for them, and striving to reinforce the trucks that are sitting ducks for roadside bombs in the land where we were supposed to be greeted as liberators.
Democrats pledged to push ahead with the plan by Sen. Jim Webb, D-Va., and expressed confidence they could round up the votes to pass it, although perhaps not by the margin to override a veto.
PHUKET, Thailand - A plane carrying foreign tourists crashed Sunday as it tried to land in stormy weather on the resort island of Phuket, engulfing some passengers in flames while others kicked out windows to escape the smoke-filled cabin. At least 88 people were killed.Of all the countries on earth, why is it that bad things keep happening to wonderful, loving Thailand? Among the 98 countries I have visited Thailand rockets to the top three of those I enjoyed the most and its the only country that caused me to have a tear in my eye when I left it.
The budget One-Two-Go Airlines flight was carrying 123 passengers and seven crew members from the capital Bangkok to Phuket when it skidded off the runway in driving wind and rain, officials said. It then ran through a low retaining wall and split in two
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- O.J. Simpson was arrested Sunday on charges related to an armed robbery involving sport memorabilia, police said.I hope this time what fits is the gun barrel this viscious criminal bastard used in the robbery and I hope it fits firmly in his anal pore. Maybe some time in the slammer with people who couldn't buy their way out of a murder they committed is just what this bastard needs.
Simpson was arrested shortly after 11 a.m. and is being brought to a police office, Capt. James Dillon said. Police are still determining charges against Simpson.
AMERICA’s elder statesman of finance, Alan Greenspan, has shaken the White House by declaring that the prime motive for the war in Iraq was oil.The only reason Alan Greenspan has "shaken" the White House is that finally someone associated with the Bush Administration (in his case peripherally) has spoken the truth about why Bush illegally invaded Iraq.
In his long-awaited memoir, to be published tomorrow, Greenspan, a Republican whose 18-year tenure as head of the US Federal Reserve was widely admired, will also deliver a stinging critique of President George W Bush’s economic policies.
GRAND JUNCTION, Colo. -- The Bush administration's aggressive drive to promote oil and gas drilling on the western slope of the Rocky Mountains has sparked growing anger here among traditional Republican constituents who say that the stepped-up push for energy development is sullying some of the country's most majestic landscapeThis is great news. Unfortunately vast areas of the American west will be destroyed for oil and gas development while the Repignicans slowly figure out they are getting hosed by their Fuhrer. In the end they will still wind up voting for Repignicans because they just can't bring themselves to vote for someone progressive. So nothing will change except the character of the surface of the earth.
