The Decline and Fall of Western Civ for 10 Jan.
After reading: wash, rinse and repeat.
- Continuing bitter partisanism instead of fulling their promise to work together, Democrat leaders said Tuesday that they intended to hold symbolic votes in the House and Senate on President Bush’s plan to send more troops to Baghdad, forcing Republicans to take a stand on the proposal and seeking to isolate the president politically over his handling of the war, reports The New York Times.
- In the same vein, yesterday on the eve of President Bush's announcement of a new Iraq policy, Sen. Edward Kennedy spoke out ahead of President Bush, in an attempt to prevent any open discussion by Congress by proposing legislation that would deny Bush money for sending more troops to the war unless the president gets "clear and specific new authorization" from Congress.
USA Today reports that Kennedy stated:"The American people sent a clear message in November that we must change course in Iraq and begin to withdraw our troops, not escalate their presence," the Massachusetts Democrat said in remarks at the National Press Club. "The way to start is by acting on the President's new plan."
Kennedy often draws parallels between the war in Iraq and the Vietnam War. In this case he would be correct, it is the Democrats who prevented a victory in Vietnam, and they seek to create the same conditions to prevent a victory in Iraq.
- At this point it is interesting to note that the U.S. finally took care of some unfinished "Black Hawk Down" business President Clinton left dangling when a senior al-Qaida suspect wanted for bombing American embassies in East Africa was killed in a U.S. airstrike, a Somali official said Wednesday, a report that if confirmed would mean the end of an eight-year hunt for a top target of Washington's war on terrorism, according to The Associated Press.
Perhaps it is also important to point out that the this is another example of how the U.S. will have to eventually deal with terrorists. As the GM commercial says, "Pay me now or pay me later."
- KSTP TV reports kids in St. Paul were kicked off a school bus for speaking English.
- The Daily Mail reports in the past six months, "image spam" has seen a massive increase and now represents 35 per cent of all junk email, according to security software firm F-Secure.
The emails, generally containing stock tips, come from gangs and even bored teenagers in the United States and Russia trying to inflate prices in a swindle called "pump-and-dump."
Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer, said:"Image spam is taking up 70 per cent of the bandwidth bulge on account of the large file sizes every single one represents."
- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad is to kick off a four-day tour Saturday to Ecuador, Nicaragua and Venezuela, whose leaders share his defiance towards the United States, media said, reports AFP.
- Reuters reports Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez was sworn in on Wednesday for a new six-year term that he vowed to use to press a radical socialist revolution including nationalizations that have roiled financial markets.
A leading anti-U.S. voice in the world and in the vanguard of a shift to the left in Latin America, Chavez now wants to scrap presidential term limits and lead the OPEC nation for decades.
"Chavez interprets the election result as giving him a blank check to develop a program that runs against the interests of Venezuela and only serves to benefit himself," Omar Barboza, a leading opposition official, told Reuters.
USA Today reports, his right hand raised, Chavez declared: "Fatherland, socialism or death -- I swear it," invoking the Cuban leader's famous call to arms.
Chavez also alluded to Jesus, saying: "I swear by Christ -- the greatest socialist in history."
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posted by Steven Moyer at 1:35 PM
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