News – Focus on Iraq and Palestine

Middle East

“There is not much risk to security at the moment,” said Iraqi election official Ibrahim Hassan Qassam hours before four poling stations in Basra, his city, were bombed. US marines are put on alert and rough emergency measures have been set in place, clamping down on Iraq head of the Sunday vote. Abroad Iraqi exiles are doing their voting(Pictures here) and encouraging their peers in Iraq to do the same, despite the violence.

Kassim Daoud, Iraq’s national security minister says they’ve got two of Abu Musab al-Zarqawi’s lieutenants. Little int eh way of details were given.

Israel’s reducing it’s operations in Gaza in response to the deploying of Palestinian security forces. This is the sort of response I was hoping for. I grow more optimistic daily and it feels damn good. Interesting note, in local elections on the Gaza strip, Hamas has swept two thirds of the available seats, beating out Fatah candidates. This isn’t surprising, considering the public words that Hamas has done for the people there through their political wing. Personally, I hope this will aid them in making a shift from a hybrid political and military movement to one that’s purely political. I’m impressed with how swiftly Abbas has been moving, and yet that’s still not fast enough it seems. The opportunity is there, I’m glad someone is snatching at it before it fades.

The EU pledges another $261 million for Iraqi reconstruction.

Senator Edward Kennedy thinks we should be working on the pull out from Iraq soon. I’m in the camp that thinks we should hang out until things are quiet or the Iraqis authority makes it clear it’s time for us to step aside. Though it seems Rumsfeld and Hoon have privately agreed upon an alternate exit strategy.

Asia

Officials from twelve Asian nations disagree as to who should run a new regional tsunami warning system. Fortunately they likely have time to eventually forge an agreement on it. The best idea would be to have it be universally administered.

Should all go well, this tsunami could result in peace between rebels and the Indonesian government. Always have to keep an eye on that silver lining.

North America

Bush proposes an increase in federal funds for computerized medical records and touts an overhaul of the health care industry(includes capping medical malpractice damages, increasing the number of county health clinics for the poor, promoting health savings accounts and more flexible insurance coverage for small business).

Senator Hillary Clinton believes Bush has it in for Medicade, saying market-based or tax-inspired solutions that try to turn the poor, sick or frail elderly into “rugged individualists” will leave them with no protection.

Commonwealth Fund, a group that studies health policy issues, has issued a report that notes half of patients with a high-deductible plan(Health Savings Accounts) racked up medical debt and were faced with other billing woes, compared with 31 percent of those with more traditional health plans.

Mexico is getting annoyed with us badmouthing their war against drugs. Considering our own inability to banish drugs from the populace, we really don’t have room to criticize.

An amusing little tidbit here, in which a few seconds in a kids show, where a kid acknowledges having two moms, sinks the entire episode. Are we getting a little too freaked out on this issue, do you think?

General

U.S. Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist says the world needs an effort on the scale of the Manhattan Project aimed toward the threat of bio-terrorism. Agreed, question is how to get it started.

A new documentary out there traces J.R.R. Tolkien’s impact on pop culture, from ’60s hippies to current-day movie fans.

The Nintendo DS, month without direct competition, will be getting it soon, with the Japanese release of Sony’s PSP. I’ve been reevaluating my gaming habits and I’ve decided to focus more on portables. When at home, I rarely use the TV linked console I have and more often avail myself of the portables I have while traveling. So I’m going to evaluate the PSP and if I like it too, I might get it to compliment the GBA SP and DS I currently have. The PSP has interesting multimedia capabilities, but I’ll have ti wait and see if they’re capabilities I’d use.

MIT is playing with some interesting <A HREF="http://www.space.com/businesstechnology/technology/spacesuit_innovations_050126.html”>tech ideas for future space suits that are less bulky and could even enahnce the physical capabilities of the wearer.

Hide and Seek gets reviewed, the lackluster review leaving me undecided if this will be what I spend my weekly movie money on.

Should video games be more like the movies or not? This, of course, deals with cutscenes and the like. Personally I like cutscenes and don’t mind the break in gameplay to see one. They can greatly enhance the experience if done right and many are. Blizzard has had great success with them, for one.

Today’s Papers has note of the lack of election observers for Iraq’s election, Riggs bank agreeing to pay out a $16 mllion fine for turning a blind eye to likely money-laundering by former Chilean dictator Augusto Pinochet, the FBI cozying up with foreign nationals to get more foreign intelligence in the US and more in the one page news.

Amusements

Tony Blair gets through mind-numbing meetings by doodling. Sometimes he forgets to take his doodles with him (with pic and psychiatric analysis)

Town in RI cancels spelling bee because it “violates No Child Left Behind” (The people who made this decision are idiots, read and you’ll see why)

School principal uses jedi milk jug trick to slow down speeders

Gas station accidentally sets price at 18 cents per gallon prompting a rush on fuel & threats of violence

Legislator tries to get police department that arrested his son abolished

Any prank call that ends when a SWAT team accidentally storms a house has to have a dumbass involved

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this woman and her snow shovel

Fark Photoshop Challenge: So, what is Dude really buying from Dudette?

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop a worker trying to clear the field at the Eagles’ stadium