Politics

Find today's news article here... http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4450208.stm It's really quite sad there's a lack of interest in the subject, I'm wondering why this trend has grown over the years.

I just came across this, it`s Crazy! http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/education/4697461.stm what`s next? "Oh you didn`t Lose, you were just Winningly Challenged". has the world gone MAD!?

Bill Nelson is an extremely popular Democratic Senator from Florida, and is considered a shoe-in for re-election next fall. Any flack he might have received from liberals over this is likely to ring hollow, considering that his Republican opponent is likely to be Katherine "Hanging Chads" Harris. (chuckle) Yet... for some reason... I don't think this story will get the same amount of attention that the Murtha story got. Gee, I wonder why! http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/florida/sfl-fnelsonnov24,0,618949.story?coll=sfla-news-florida

That's some mighty shady politicking... http://www.nytimes.com/2005/11/18/politics/18cnd-mili.html?hp&ex=1132376400&en=521ea30b567c07c3&ei=5094&partner=homepage

From Yahoo! News VANCOUVER, Wash. - Rockfall at Mount St. Helens kicked up a dust plume Tuesday that rose above the rim of the volcano's crater, drawing attention in the region. "It's a nice sunny day and we're having the first couple of rockfalls that we've had in a while that are putting little dust plumes over the crater rim," said U.S. Geological Survey geologist Seth Moran at the agency's Cascade Volcano Observatory here, about 50 miles south of the mountain that erupted to deadly effect in May 1980. Seismic activity has continued at low levels, Moran said. The white plume floating above the peak was raising concerns locally. "When rockfal…

Republicans are pursuing policies that will drastically change the global climate in the next century. (Some of) the Republicans are also the only real proponents of intelligent design. What's interesting is that, according to punctuated equilibrium, we should start seeing greatly speeded-up evolution of species very shortly as development and global warming drastically change these species' habitats. Now that's irony!

Ariel Sharon, prime ministe of Israel is resigning his membership of Likud, the biggest political party in Israel today, for those who don't know, its also a party that's pretty right of center. He's going to form a new party that is supposed to attract many new members (which is important becuase in Israel the Parilment {the Kneset} is given to seats by political party membership and size). The new party is going to be a purely centralist party in every aspect. Sharon is urging to push the election date foward, with the hopes of attaining reelection more easily (this is done by dissolving the present Knesset) What does everybody think? Will these measur…

I tried searching but couldn't find exactly what I was looking for so I posted this..... During class Wednesday, a boy started talking to us about Michael Ross, the murderer who wants to die. He killed like 8 girls and even showed the police where all the bodies were. Two of the girls were only 14 and he told the police that one of them begged for her life. He was judged sane during his trial and knew exactly what he was doing. Anyway, the teacher heard us and decided to probe the class on our feelings toward capital punishment and we discussed it again on Friday. The kids in my class wanted to see him die and so did I, and as I listened, I decided I could look a…

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/11/15/AR2005111501450_pf.html One of the things that I think is interesting about this is that the left is beside itself in being quick to point out that Hagel sits on the Senate Intelligence Committee, and therefore he is privy to intelligence information, and therefore his position on the Iraq War is extra valuable. And yet, they also seem adamant in telling us that Bush, and ONLY Bush, is responsible for the Iraq War. Apparently the people sitting on the ICs then, who saw the same intelligence and supported the war, that doesn't count! Oh no, it's all BUSH's fault! (chuckle) Gotta love hypocrisy. …

I wasn't sure whether to put this here or in politics. (I guess that in itself is revealing of the sad state of things.) Anyway, this was an editorial in the Saturday Washington Post. It made me smile. Here it is: IF YOU LIVE BY politics, you can die by politics, too. That's the lesson of the school board vote on Tuesday in Dover, Pa. All eight of the board's Republican incumbents were defeated. And all of the defeated incumbents had supported a policy -- the first in the country -- requiring the teaching of "intelligent design" as an alternative to evolution in ninth-grade biology classes. The board had been sued by a group of parents who argued that intelligent-desi…

A small victory for conservationists? http://ogj.pennnet.com/articles/article_display.cfm?Section=ONART&C=GenIn&ARTICLE_ID=241235&p=7

This is truly terrible, or rather, as someone had well put it, "a logistical nightmare". Does anyone else feel like this is a repeat of the bombings that took place in Egypt? Deja-vu? Geez...But at least now, the Jordanians are speaking out and protesting against Al-Qaeda. To say that they're pissed would be an understatement. Ugh. I just hope things don't take a turn to even worse events. What are your thoughts on the situation? I put some article links down here about the situation right now in Jordan in case anyone was interested. http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20051110/ap_on_re_mi_ea/jordan_explosion_68;_ylt=AvNjhXMBqual7iMC8oCRbH1YU.0A;_ylu=X3oDMTBiMW04NW9mBHNlYw…

I thought McCain was unusually blatant in his anti-Bush bias. Don't get me wrong -- I was glad to see it. Frankly I'm unhappy with myself that I voted for Bush over McCain in the primaries in 2000. If McCain runs against Hillary in 2008 I'm going to have a seriously hard time making that call. I like the guy a lot.

Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad addressed a conference in Tehran called aptly "A World without Zionism" where he said that a Palestinian uprising would wipe Israel off the map. Should be interesting to see where this leads to. http://www.timesonline.co.uk/article/0,,251-1845402,00.html

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/blog/2005/11/08/BL2005110800679.html Broop broop, this is the rhetoric police. You're under arrest for epistrophe abuse. So as long as the cause is fighting the war on terror, Bush is convinced that we can do no wrong. Yikes.

I just finished reading an article on Marilyn's death (this month's Playboy mag...which also has a great interview with Pacino and another good read on Super Bowl tix bookies.) I'm not an expert (although I admit to being a Forensic Files junkie), there were a few points that the article brought up that really make me wonder how it could have been classified as an "apparent suicide" and not further investigated as a murder. Though this might be fun to discuss...as I'm sure everyone has an opinion on theory. Feel free to add your thoughts: 1) Her house was completely bugged, under 24/7 surveillance from all sorts of people (FBI, CIA, Hoffa, etc.) So how could no one h…

The Malaysian-born Jemaah Islamiyah bomb maker has been confirmed as dying by Indonesian police. He's thought to have been living in Indonesia for over three years, since leaving Malaysia, and made several of the bombs JI had set off. Most reports say that he died after setting off explosives during the raid. http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=10000080&sid=aHdTZ3lDVWps&refer=asia

Fascinating to watch this showdown between the Senate and the Bush administration on torture and coersion. What do you guys think about it? I happen to agree with McCain and the Senate, with one reservation which I'll get to in a moment. I think we've allowed the executive branch their leeway, we've seen insufficient results or learning from the experience, and it's cost us more than it's gained us -- that seems to be clear. It's time to define what it is that we're going to allow, and then stick to it. BTW, on the Jon Stewart show, McCain outright threatened to override any presidential veto of the bill. Bully for him! My main concern is that the bi…

How they handle it in Australia: http://www.theage.com.au/news/national/kosky-rules-intelligent-design-a-faith/2005/10/28/1130400365346.html October 29, 2005 Kosky rules intelligent design a faith Victoria's government schools will treat intelligent design as a religious faith, not science, Education Minister Lynne Kosky has ruled. In her first statement on the subject, Ms Kosky reaffirmed the principle that government schools were secular and did not promote any religion. She said the two areas in which religion could be discussed were optional religious education lessons and VCE studies comparing religions. "In line with the above principles,…

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20051102/ts_nm/bush_leak_italy_dc

So here's a short timeline of events for you: 2002: The Bush administration sends Joseph Wilson to Niger to confirm the authenticity of documents obtained by British intelligence showing that that Saddam had attempted to purchase significant quantities of yellowcake from there, allegedly as part of a clandestine nuclear program. He determines that the documents were forgeries and that the alleged events never happened, and reports this information to the State Department. 2003: In the State of the Union address, Bush claims that British intelligence has discovered that Saddam had attempted to purchase large quantities of yellowcake from Africa. Joseph Wilson i…

Good times: http://www.news.com.au/story/0,10117,17104337-28793,00.html The funniest part is right at the end of the story. Not only do they have to pay a fine for damaging the reef, but they didn't find any evidence of damage to the reef due to global warming! BWahahashdAHAHsdahafda!!!11one!

http://www.usatoday.com/news/washington/2005-11-03-carter-bush_x.htm

Motivations aside (for now), is terrorism valid? I am defining terrorism as the murder of innocents in the cause of furtherance of a political goal. I would also like to point out that the firebombing of Tokyo, Dresden, and Hamburg in WWII, and to a lesser extent Hiroshima and Nagasaki (as the political message was more direct here), were orchestrated in the hopes of demoralizing the German and Japanese citizenry to the extent that the citizens would support a radical shift in the policies of their governments (i.e, surrender). Since all of these campaigns resulted in the slaughter of, for the vast majority, innocents, I fail to see the difference in tactics betwe…

http://apnews.myway.com/article/20040423/D824KL5G0.html He was a better man than I.