News – Goodwill or What Should be a Given?

Middle East

The US releases 500 detainees in what is described as a goodwill effort. So riddle me this, readers. What is with the ‘goodwill’ release of prisoners? One would assume that if someone is innocent they would be released as soon as they are discovered as such. If not, they remain locked up. One would assume these people being released are innocent, which calls into question why the US would wait to release them, then label what they should do regardless as a ‘goodwill gesture’.

It doesn’t make sense to me.

Benazir Bhutto is currently under house arrest.

More word from Palestinians about how their lives are.

Israel’s attempt to cut Gaza’s electricity continues to be delayed by the good work of human rights orgs. Furthering the hardship of the common people in Gaza won’t stop those launching rockets from launching. They don’t need electricity to do so.

Africa

The UN believes that deploying peacekeepers to Somalia wouldn’t be viable. Not unless they want to be a frontline combat force, considering the current violence there.

Asia/Pacific

Ibrahim Gambari, UN envoy to Burma, says that progress has been made in dialogues between the current military government and the opposition. We’ll see if anything useful comes out of it. Past performance isn’t reassuring.

Americas

Michael Mukasey gets approved as our new attorney general. Looks like he’ll have a chance to show in practice what he really believes when it comes to the US and whatever secret means the powers that be use to forcibly get information from terror suspects.

Congress overturns’s Bush’s veto on a bill that authorizes spending on water projects.

Fred Phelps gets owned and will likely see his Westboro Baptist ‘church’ go bankrupt because of his picketing of military funerals. A good thing has he gives everything he represents a bad name had has been allowed far too long to spew his hateful vitriol all over those that don’t deserve it.

A guide to the US military’s recruiting incentives. Seems like they have to bribe soldiers just to get them to sign up. What other label could you give awarding someone 20-40k just for signing up?

General

A scrapbooking expo? Interesting.

The Blogs look at election potential in Pakistan, the latest form Iraq and the potential delay in season 7 of 24 because of the screenwriter strike.

Today’s Papers has a note of just how crazy some of this election coverage has become(oh god she didn’t leave a tip!), the indictment of former New York Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik on corruption and tax evasion charges and what it could mean for Giuliani, how Afghan President Hamid Karzai is trying to take advantage of factional divisions by reaching out to Taliban militants, convince them to lay down their arms and join the government and more in the one page news.

Amusements

Neurotically Yours: Coffee Flavors

Oregon police are lending radar guns to people concerned about speeders in their neighborhoods and sending strongly worded letters to the speeders they catch

A woman wearing a wedding dress drove into a pond after officers tried to take a bag of marijuana from her. Nothing to see here. Move along

News: Civil Aviation Authority receives distress signal from ship. Fark: located in center of a pile of refrigerators in a junkyard

Giant candy-licking GTA billboard sure to be a hit with parents and nuns

The city is trying to shut down your private swinger’s parties. Do you: A) Hire a lawyer and fight it? B) Shut down the party? Or C) Argue that attending church is more dangerous

Wesley Snipes claims the U.S. government purposely chose the most racist county in the nation as the location for his tax-evasion trial

Flasher flashes court during his appeal hearing on a flashing conviction

Concerned mom finds out her precious little snowflakes are sending each other rubber blowup dolls on Facebook. Does she A) get over it B) have a stern talk with her kids C) fling hamster poo at her husband

Contest to define Britain in five words: Strangely, “My orthodontist is highly skilled” not on shortlist (with voting)

Green Bay man tased three separate times AND bitten by police dog before his snowplow hijacking crusade comes to a close. A+ for persistance

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop the scene that this sign is trying to depict

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this aviator

Fark Photoshop Challenge: Photoshop this facade