News – A Better Man than I

Israel/Palestine

No matter what the Israelis throw at Khalil Bashir, he will not relent and will not give up his message of forgiveness. I have to give him respect for his unmoving, selfless stance, tried and tested but unchanged despite the tragedy of his life. He’s had his home taken over by the IDF, the wall built right along it. His family more or less imprisoned within their home, his son shot and possibly crippled for life without provocation(In front of two UN folk who were visiting the family) and still he holds to his message and his determination to keep the home that is no longer his by the dictate of others.

Another Israeli air strike on a car kills three men said to be militants. Palestinian security sources say all three were members of Hamas. No note of any injuries this time around.

By all accounts, Israel continued to build settlements last year despite the US given roadmap. Just another show of how the Israel government cannot be trusted because, no matter what they might seem to agree to, they’ll do whatever they want if they feel it in their best interests. A bit like US policy now.

Iraq

A letter said to be from alQueda has denied having a hand in the massive attack on Iraqi Shi’ites Tuesday. The death toll from the strong of blasts stands at around 185(Some estimate over 200) with 435 wounded. Iraqi leaders are calling for calm as many mourn.

Fifteen people are being held in connection with the above attacks. Four are Farsi speakers thought to be Iranians. Which is not necessarily telling as thousands of Iranians come to the celebrations that were going on at the time and many were likely among the dead and wounded. There is also note that there may have been more attacks planned that day, but they were stopped.

Serco, a British company, becomes the first UK business to win in Iraq. It will be their task to restore air traffic control services in the Baghdad and Brasa airports.

The signing of Iraq’s constitution was delayed for a three day mourning period for the Iraqi officials. I’m sure that only makes some US officials even more twitchy considering they likely want this signed really bad.

Pakistan

The attack yesterday in Quetta resulted, at current count, in at least 41 deaths and 150 injuries. The attackers raked a gathering of pilgrims with machinegun fire, grenades, then blew themselves up. Thus far there is no evidence that the attacks in Pakistan and Iraq are connected, but you have to admit.. that’s a pretty damn big coincidence.

Haiti

One of the Haitian rebel leaders is flexing muscle and trying to take some authority. His attempt to arrest the Prime Minister was warded off, but with rebels entering the city, something like this could cause trouble to flare up.

US

Well, John Kerry is the nominee of the democratic party. Amusingly, Dean still won his home state, even though he’d already dropped out. Goes to show how solid his support is there.

Killington, a town in Vermont, wants to secede and join up with New Hampshire to resolve their property tax feud with Vermont.

Cheney says he’ll remain Bush’s running mate. Good. More gaffes will only make Bush look even more foolish for keeping him on. Keep up the bad work Dick.

The latest use of the electronic voting machines has run into more technical snafus. If they insist on using this clunky technology without fix the problems, election 2004 could be an interesting rolling conflict.

The DEA has been convinced to test Ecstasy as a help for suffers of post-traumatic stress disorder. If the drug turns out to be beneficial in this regard, it could be given in prescriptions.

David Kay continues to be a problem for the Bush administration. He says they should just come clean and admit they were wrong about weapons in Iraq. Rummy has dismissed Kay’s assertion, that there were no weapons in Iraq at the time of the Iraq war, as an unlikely theory.

Why is it legal for Transsexuals to marry in Texas but not in California?

General

It’s official. The science guys who have been studying Mars through those two rovers say there is enough evidence to conclude that Mars had enough water at one time to support life. That begs the mildly disquieting question of where did it all go and what caused it to disappear? This could be an important question for us here on Earth.

Today’s Papers has the Pentagon trying to emphasize Iraq positives, suggestions of Bill Clinton as Kerry’s running mate and other interesting news tidbits.

Amusements

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Theme: Company mascots in 20 years

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Theme: Situations where it’s really easy to hate your friends

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop what life would be like if the U.S. president really was a trained monkey