world news thread

[Brit4064]

Another socially conservative religious Republican bites the dust...

Just what is it with these people? Here's an idea. Why not just quit the public moralizing, it might just save face later on LOL. Yes he's a sort-of victim but of his own making.

Abstinence-Supporting GOP State Lawmaker Admits To s-ex With 22-Year-Old Intern

In a sworn affidavit, a Tennessee state investigator has said that Stanley admitted to having a "sexual relationship" with a 22-year-old female intern working in his office, and to taking nude pictures of her in "provocative poses" in his apartment.

Things started to unravel for Stanley, it seems, in April, when he received a text message reading:

Good morning sir, how are you this fine day? McKensie and I have been talking and I feel that I have a video and some pictures you might be interested in seeing. This is her boyfriend, that guy you met outside Walgreens.

That was the start of an effort by the girl's boyfriend to blackmail Stanley, which ultimately led to Stanley going to the cops. The boyfriend is now charged with trying to extort $10,000 from Stanley.

tpmmuckraker.com

[Brit4064]

Good 'ol Bill. That age-old saying is appropriate:

"Jaw, jaw, jaw not war, war, war"

N. Korean leader reportedly pardons U.S. journalists

North Korean President Kim Jong Il has pardoned and ordered the release of two U.S. journalists, state-run news agency KCNA said Wednesday.

The announcement came after former U.S. President Bill Clinton met with top North Korean officials in Pyongyang to appeal for the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had been arrested while reporting from the border between North Korea and China.

"Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it," the news agency reported. "Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon them and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view.

"The meetings had candid and in-depth discussions on the pending issues between the DPRK and the U.S. in a sincere atmosphere and reached a consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement of them."

CNN story

[ProudUSC]

Originally posted by Brit4064:
Good 'ol Bill. That age-old saying is appropriate:

"Jaw, jaw, jaw not war, war, war"

N. Korean leader reportedly pardons U.S. journalists

North Korean President Kim Jong Il has pardoned and ordered the release of two U.S. journalists, state-run news agency KCNA said Wednesday.

The announcement came after former U.S. President Bill Clinton met with top North Korean officials in Pyongyang to appeal for the release of Laura Ling and Euna Lee, who had been arrested while reporting from the border between North Korea and China.

"Clinton expressed words of sincere apology to Kim Jong Il for the hostile acts committed by the two American journalists against the DPRK after illegally intruding into it," the news agency reported. "Clinton courteously conveyed to Kim Jong Il an earnest request of the U.S. government to leniently pardon them and send them back home from a humanitarian point of view.

"The meetings had candid and in-depth discussions on the pending issues between the DPRK and the U.S. in a sincere atmosphere and reached a consensus of views on seeking a negotiated settlement of them."

CNN story

Oh, I see my ESP is still sharp as a tack - lol!!!!

[ProudUSC]

Originally posted by davdah:
Jeeze, you called that one, didn't you. LOL.

Too funny. Lottery ticket time - lol!!!

[mike_2007]

Washington, August 3 (ANI): U.S tax officials have reportedly demanded Nicolas Cage a whopping 6.2 million dollars.

The actor had allegedly failed to keep up with his taxes in 2007, which eventually made Internal Revenue Service (IRS) officials to take their case to a court in Louisiana.

The ‘National Treasure’ star has a home in state, which he’s apparently trying to sell in a bid to recoup the cash, reports Contactmusic.

According to the Detroit News, IRS officials filed tax lien documents against Cage in Orleans District Court on 14 July, alleging he failed to pay 6,257,005 dollars to cover his income tax last year.

Cage has faced similar problems in the past too.

He reportedly agreed to pay 660,000 dollars plus interest in back taxes and penalties in September 2008, following allegations of improperly deducted personal expenses. (ANI)

[mike_2007]

WASHINGTON - Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in Saturday as the Supreme Court's first Hispanic justice and only third female member in the top U.S. court's 220-year history.

She is President Barack Obama's first appointment to the influential court, which has shaped many of the country's laws on polarizing issues like abortion and the death penalty. As a successor to liberal Justice David Souter, who retired, she is not expected to alter the nine-member court's ideological balance.

Sotomayor took the second of two oaths of office Saturday from Chief Justice John Roberts in an ornate conference room, beneath a portrait of the legendary Chief Justice John Marshall. Her left hand resting on a Bible that was held by her mother, Celina, Sotomayor pledged to "do equal right to the poor and to the rich."

Minutes earlier, she swore a first oath in a private ceremony in the room where the justices hold their private conferences.

Sotomayor wore a cream-colored suit and her right ankle, fractured in a fall a couple of weeks after her nomination to the court, was unbandaged. Her 60 or so guests included Justice Anthony Kennedy, White House counsel Greg Craig and other members of the Obama administration team that helped prepare her for her Senate confirmation hearings, family and friends.

Roberts, wearing his black judicial robe, said that once the oaths were done, Sotomayor could "begin work as associate justice without delay."

Obama scheduled a White House reception for Sotomayor on Wednesday.

Joins Ginsburg
The 55-year-old Sotomayor has been a federal judge for 17 years. Obama nominated her for the lifetime appointment in May, and the Senate confirmed her on Thursday.

She will join Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg as the only other woman currently serving o the court
Sotomayor is the daughter of Puerto Rican parents who was raised in a housing project in New York City's gritty South Bronx neighborhood and educated at the elite universities Princeton and Yale before going on to success in the legal profession and then the federal bench.

Replacing Souter
The new justice can now get to work, although the Supreme Court won't hear arguments until Sept. 9, in a key campaign finance case. The entire court will convene a day earlier, however, for a formal ceremony to welcome Sotomayor.

Sotomayor also will be learning the quirky customs of the highest court in the land. As the newcomer she will take notes and answer the door when the justices have private meetings, including one in late September at which they dispose of a couple thousand appeals.

A former clerk to Sotomayor's predecessor, Souter, says that first case in September could get her thinking about the biggest change anyone faces in becoming a justice, the far-reaching impact of some Supreme Court decisions.

There are few easy questions that come the court's way," said Meir Feder, the former Souter clerk who is now a partner at the Jones Day firm in New York "You're not applying settled law," Feder said, "because if it's settled, it shouldn't get there in the first place

[mike_2007]

updated 1 hour, 35 minutes ago
WASHINGTON - Using better-than-expected jobs numbers to press his top domestic priority, President Barack Obama argued Saturday that overhauling the nation's costly health care system is essential to the country's economic well-being.

"We've begun to put the brakes on this recession and ... the worst may be behind us," Obama proclaimed in his weekly radio and Internet address, citing a new Labor Department report that shows a dip in unemployment. "But we must do more than rescue our economy from this immediate crisis; we must rebuild it stronger than before."

He added: "We must lay a new foundation for future growth and prosperity, and a key pillar of a new foundation is health insurance reform
It's a pitch that comes as the Democratic-controlled Congress wrestles to write a health care plan that meets Obama's goals of expanding coverage to millions of uninsured while reining in exploding costs.

"So far they have produced a measure that they cannot sell even to their own members," Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell said in a jab at majority Democrats. "The only thing bipartisan, so far, is the opposition."

With lawmakers embarking on a monthlong summer break, opponents and supporters of various proposals under consideration are waging fierce campaigns. Obama is also redoubling his effort to explain his positions to a public that polls say is becoming increasingly wary he can deliver on his promise to revamp health care.

The president argued that Congress was close to finalizing "real health insurance reform" but, as he has for weeks now, he warned against listening to opponents who he said were spewing misleading information and outlandish claims to defeat "the best chance of reform we have ever had."

Countering the Democratic position, Bob McDonnell, the Republican nominee for Virginia governor, argued that the new Labor Department report was "yet another reminder that families and small businesses are struggling as unemployment remains high
In the Republican Party's response address, McDonnell sought to draw distinctions between Republicans and Democrats on economic and health care policy.

"As Republicans, we believe you create jobs by keeping taxes and regulation low, and litigation at a minimum. Americans succeed when government puts in place positive policies that encourage more freedom, and more opportunity," he said.

McDonnell also said that, unlike Democrats, Republicans are committed to helping the uninsured — "not through nationalizing the system with a costly government-run plan, but rather by supporting free-market incentives and helping small business owners make coverage more accessible and affordable, and ensuring that Americans can keep their individual private policies."

[mike_2007]

Sat Aug 8, 12:18 pm ET
JERUSALEM – Israel's Foreign Ministry says it has summoned for consultation a senior Israeli diplomat who in a confidential memo criticized the government for harming ties with the U.S.

A ministry statement said Saturday that Israel's consul-general in Boston would arrive in Jerusalem next week to give a "clarification" to the ministry's director-general.

It said Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman ordered the summons.

Consul-general Nadav Tamir wrote an internal memo that was leaked to Israel's Channel 10 TV. It said that Israel's public clashes with Washington over the U.S. demand for a settlement construction freeze is causing "strategic damage to Israel" and undermining the special relationship between the two countries.

[mike_2007]

WASHINGTON — International shipper DHL has agreed to pay $9.4 million to settle allegations the company violated U.S. sanctions with shipments to Iran, Sudan and Syria, one of the largest such penalties ever levied.
"That's a huge fine," said Hal Eren, a former U.S. Treasury Department lawyer who now represents companies in sanctions cases. "They are aggressively enforcing the prohibitions of the sanctions."

The Treasury Department alleged that the company, part of Germany-based Deutsche Post DHL, made 309 shipments from the United States to Iran and Sudan from 2002 to 2007 in violation of U.S. embargoes with those countries. The department also alleged that the company failed to keep required records on 9,000 shipments to Iran from 2002 to 2006, although it acknowledged that 90% of those shipments "may have been for informational materials" not prohibited by sanctions.

The Commerce Department, also part of the investigation, said the company violated export restrictions in eight instances when it made shipments to Syria between June and September 2004. In 90 other instances, the company failed to keep proper records, the government alleged.

"DHL may have conferred a significant economic benefit to sanctioned countries that potentially created extraordinarily adverse harm," the Treasury Department said in its analysis of the case, included in the settlement agreement. The document accused DHL of engaging in "a large pattern of misconduct over an extended period of time," but it noted that the company cooperated with the investigation.

FIND MORE STORIES IN: Sudan | Deutsche Post
Treasury Department spokeswoman Marti Adams said the penalty was "among the largest" meted out in a civil trade embargo case. In 2008, Treasury levied a total of $3.5 million in penalties in 99 cases, according to its website.

DHL's shipments to Iran included computer software, condoms, Tiffany jewelry and an automobile radar detector, according to the settlement agreement.

Sanctions "enforcement overall throughout the U.S. government has been stepped up over the last year or so," said Michael Jacobson, a former senior adviser in Treasury's Office of Terrorism and Financial Intelligence.

DHL neither admitted nor denied the charges. In a statement, DHL Express, based in Florida, said, "The incidents cited ... represent significantly less than 1% of the total volume of DHL Express USA export transactions and involved shipments of correspondence, personal items, or consumer goods. The U.S. government has not alleged that DHL transported shipments of strategic sensitivity to these countries."

The case was investigated by the Commerce Department's Bureau of Industry and Security and the Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC).

OFAC, headed by Stuart Levy, a holdover from the Bush administration, has made an impact by stepping up action against financial institutions that do business with Iran and North Korea, said George Lopez, a sanctions expert with the University of Notre Dame. "I think most experts would agree those measures have been pretty effective and biting," he said.

[mike_2007]

wow

[mike_2007]

DHL's shipments to Iran included computer software, condoms, Tiffany jewelry and an automobile radar detector, according to the settlement agreement

oh man, 9 million dollars charge to send condoms loooooooool

[mike_2007]

They see no death, no blood, no pain;
too blinded by an ancient claim.
So take the land, destroy the man,
and bomb the babe in mothers’ hands,
Uproot the olive, kill the dove,
to Hell with charity and love.
When those twain die, so too does hope,
a victim of the hangman’s rope.
And who is there to fear the Reaper
when no one is his brothers keeper.

Our tribe we must ourselves protect
with murder, which we must perfect.
So goes that atavistic claim,
to justify the bombs that maim,
to justify the phosphorous shells,
the fire of this worldly hell.
A worldly hell the Gazans know,
that testing ground, that weapons show.
But from that ground the will persists.
From pools of blood rise clench’d fists.
And then those fists hurl sticks and stones,
that smash the walls of stolen homes.

From mounds of rubble come the words,
of futile cries to just be heard.
Heard through the death, the blood, the pain;
that others have a valid claim.
And through the fog of war it’s clear,
no one alive would care to hear.
So kill them all so be their fate,
their claim is ours, but theirs can wait.
So take the land, destroy the man,
and bomb the babe in mothers’ hands,
Uproot the olive, kill the dove,
to Hell with charity and love.
When those twain die, so too does hope,
it’s Gaza in the hangman’s rope.

[4now]

They see no death, no blood, no pain;
too blinded by an ancient claim.
So take the land, destroy the man,
and bomb the babe in mothers’ hands,
Uproot the olive, kill the dove,
to Hell with charity and love.
When those twain die, so too does hope,
a victim of the hangman’s rope.
And who is there to fear the Reaper
when no one is his brothers keeper.

Profound

[Kollerkrot]

Originally posted by 4now:
<BLOCKQUOTE class="ip-ubbcode-quote"><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-title">quote:</div><div class="ip-ubbcode-quote-content">They see no death, no blood, no pain;
too blinded by an ancient claim.
So take the land, destroy the man,
and bomb the babe in mothers’ hands,
Uproot the olive, kill the dove,
to Hell with charity and love.
When those twain die, so too does hope,
a victim of the hangman’s rope.
And who is there to fear the Reaper
when no one is his brothers keeper.

Profound </div></BLOCKQUOTE>

The whole poem is very profound. Who wrote it?

[mike_2007]

thnx guys, his name is imam zaid shaker