Quote of the Dumb
“Before the enemies can put their fingers on the trigger, the armed forces will cut off their hands.”
“This is only a small part of Iran’s defense capabilities and in future we will unveil more of our defense capabilities if it is needed.”
-Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said today.
NRA: “Obama is Anti-gun & That’s No Smear”
The National Rifle Association ranted off today on Obama, bloggers, smears, and whatever else is anti-nra. Here’s the latest from the haters:
| 7/11/2008
No Smears Here Some blog has decided that the NRA is smearing Barack Obamaand his record on the Second Amendment. Before I get into Obama’s record, I’ve gotta point out that the blog’s author has no problem smearing the NRA. He accuses the NRA of “protecting gun companies’ sales to gang bangers and criminals” and “protecting the right of criminals to have easy access to automatic weapons and high-kill rate ammunition.” He even accuses the NRA of “protecting gun and ammunition sales to the Mexican drug cartels.” They’re ridiculous charges, hardly worth mentioning except for the fact that this author believes the NRA is “smearing” Barack Obama by pointing out his anti-gun record. We use facts. We use Obama’s voting record and his statements to the press and his supporters. When this blogger smears the NRA, he can only use innuendo and lies. So here’s the truth: The NRA isn’t out to protect gang members, drug cartels or any other violent criminal. We believe that the answer to dealing with those lawbreakers is to vigorously enforce the existing laws and throw these people behind bars. We don’t believe passing another gun control law designed to impact the law-abiding will help reduce criminal behavior. The NRA stands by its statements about Barack Obama’s Second Amendment record. Click the link above and see for yourself. Barack Obama is as anti-gun as they come, and that’s no smear. It’s just what they didn’t tell you today. |
How To NOT Fight A War
So, reports are flooding in from all around the world confirming that U.S.-led airstrikes a week ago killed 64 or 47 (depending on who you ask) people, most of them women and children.
While the US-led coalition has denied killing civilians -saying only militants were killed- it says it is looking into the allegations. President Hamid Karzai appointed high-level teams to investigate the claims, which have now attracted criticism from the United Nations, the International Committee of the Red Cross and the Afghan parliament.
The team that looked into Sunday’s strike in the remote Deh Bala district of Nangarhar told the AFP they were shown the bloodied clothes of women and children killed in the strike that hit a wedding party and turned left buildings into rubble.
“We found that 47 civilians, mostly women and children, were killed in the air strikes and another nine were wounded,” said the head of the mission, Burhanullah Shinwari, who’s also deputy speaker of Afghanistan’s senate.
“They were all civilians and had no links with Taliban or Al-Qaeda.”
Local officials said earlier the strikes had hit a party of mainly women and children escorting a bride to her groom. The bride was among the dead, they said.
Jesus.
A separate investigation into Friday’s strike in the northeastern province of Nuristan had found that 17 civilians were killed there, said General Mohammad Amin, a defence ministry official who headed the team.
“We found that in the bombing 17 people were killed and nine were wounded. They are all civilians.”
Afghan authorities said before that the dead included two doctors and two midwives who were leaving the area after the coalition said it was preparing an operation there.
The relatives of some of the victims were paid compensation, Amin said, warning the killings could see a backlash against the government and the international troops helping it to fight an extremist insurgency.
“If the government keeps quiet about these civilian casualties in Nuristan like in the past, it will be bad for the security of the province.”
A coalition spokeswoman, Nielson-Green says: “Any loss of civilian life is tragic. We never target non-combatants. We do go to great lengths to avoid civilian casualties.”
The United Nations said last month that nearly 700 civilians had lost their lives in Afghanistan this year, about two-thirds in militant attacks and about 255 in military operations.
War sucks. Why can’t we just handle disputes in a soccer match or something?
Ancient Ruins Found In Bolivia
Archeologists have begun digging at an ancient ceremonial site in eastern Bolivia to piece together the rites and daily life of cultures dating as far back as 3,000 years ago.
Locals stumbled upon the remains while clearing the ground to build a new market in the tourist town of Copacabana.
While many of the unearthed tombs, textiles, clay pots and jewelry belonged to the well-documented Tiwanaku and Inca cultures that populated the area hundreds of years ago, some relics go back as far as 3,000 years, when a little-known religious tradition called Yayamama is thought to have flourished in the Andes.
Archeologist Sergio Chaves, working for Central Michigan University says:”They carved sculptures [in stone] with a man on one side and a woman on the other.”
Chaves said the Yayamama built a series of small temples by the lake, each two hours by foot from the other, and says he will study the stratified remains to try to better understand how different Andean cultures evolved.
“Starting from the oldest period, we have the Yayamama. And gradually we have … the Tiwanaku some 1,000 years ago, the Inca, the colonial period, the hacienda era, [and] the republic.”
“There’s a lot to be proud of in here, and we have to find our identity in these things. To understand the present and plan for the future, we have to look at the past.”
But Chaves said not everyone in Copacabana, near the border with Peru, is as excited about the past as he is. Apparently locals are determined to finish the construction of the market they started in June.
WHAT! Screw the market. The 3,000 year-old ruins will have MUCH more “turistic value” that some modern market.
Chaves adds, “We’ve had to work really hard to show the architecture, the remains, so people realize that they have a huge cultural value.”
Bolivianos: Escuchan!
[Image via David Mercado, Reuters]
Project Runway Digs Michelle Disses Cindy
STYLE SHOWDOWN!!
Michelle Obama or Cindy McCain?
“Oh, no contest, Michelle Obama. From a fashion viewpoint, Michelle Obama looks so comfortable and relaxed in her style and her fashion, and she exudes that. She has a presence that gives you confidence in her. And Cindy McCain looks like someone has twisted her pony tail into a knot and tried to give her a face lift.”
- Tim Gunn, Project Runway, tells Time
A Royal Bike Ride
Yesterday, the beautiful blonde Princess Maxima of the Netherlands and her hubby Willem-Alexander, Prince of Orange, agreed to play up for the cameras this week with a photo session at their residence in Wassenaar.
The princess took her look-a-like daughters along: Amalia, who turns five in December, Alexia, three, and one-year-old Ariane, off for a bike ride in the sun.
Pretty family.
Seattle Girl Tried for Murder in Italy
Prosecutors in Perugia, Italy requested that Amanda Knox, 21, of Seattle; her former Italian boyfriend Raffaele Sollecito; and Ivory Coast citizen Rudy Hermann Guede be tried in connection with the death of Meredith Kercher.
Kercher, a 21-year-old student from Leeds University in England, was found dead in November from a stab wound to the neck in the house she shared with Knox.
Knox and Sollecito have been jailed since November. Guede was arrested in Germany in November and extradited to Italy the following month.
Prosecutors say the three suspects strangled and stabbed Kercher, according to a court document that notified defense lawyers last month that the investigation was closed. The document said Guede engaged in sexual violence with Kercher, with the help of Knox and Sollecito.
Quick Reminder to all Americanos Traveling Abroad: US Rights and Processes Do NOT Apply
Video: Sarkozy Ends His Olympic Boycott
So the big bad boycotter is just a bad bluffer after all.
Nicolas Sarkozy will attend the Olympics after all.
We knew Sarkozy could never be serious.
Wake-Up Wisdom
“A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on.” - Winston Churchill
“As you educate a woman, you educate the family. If you educate the girls, you educate the future.” - Queen Rania
“When I despair, I remember that all through history the ways of truth and love have always won. There have been tyrants, and murderers, and for a time they can seem invincible, but in the end they always fall. Think of it–always.” -Mahatma Gandhi
Maryland City Elects 1st Black & Woman Mayor
Talk about a double whammy.
Cambridge, Maryland elected its first black mayor this week who also happens to be their first woman mayor.
Victoria Jackson-Stanley is a 54-year-old social worker who kicked an eight-year incumbent to the curb. She said: “I didn’t set out to make history, but here it is.”
Though Cambridge is home to only 11,000 residents, it has the honor of being the birthplace of Undergroud Railroad hero Harriet Tubman.
Jackson-Stanley recalls growing up in a far different Cambridge, where blacks lived in a section called Ward Two and attended segregated schools. Jackson-Stanley was among the first black students to attend the county’s previously all-white high school. She says:
“It’s a very beautiful, diverse, multicultural place now. It wasn’t always like this.”
One local Carolyn E. Jones says: “What’s that commercial? ‘You’ve come a long way, baby?’ Oh, that’s us.”
Yes it it. CONGRATULATIONS CAMBRIDGE!
