Our Awful Situation

Archive for May, 2008

Hunger Prompting Desperate Acts

Posted by Charlie Kilo on May 31st, 2008

An Afghan father, unable to feed his family, sold his 11-year old daughter for $2,000 to buy food for the rest of his family, IRIN News reported Sunday.

Illiterate and unable to find work, the man could no longer support his family by scavenging, he told a reporter for the UN-based news agency, because high food prices mean less food is being thrown away and more Afghans are scavenging.

“I know people will say I am a cruel and merciless father who sold his own child, but those who say so don’t know my hardship and have never felt the hunger that my family suffers,” said the Afghan man, identified only by a pseudonym.

Fingerprints to be required for business?

Posted by patriot on May 30th, 2008

I wonder how much of any proposed bill our elected reps actually read…

Yet earlier this week, a measure creating a federal fingerprint registry totally unrelated to national security passed a U.S. Senate committee almost without notice. The legislation would require thousands of individuals working even tangentially in the mortgage and real estate industries — and not suspected of anything — to send their prints to the feds. The database and fingerprint mandates were tucked into housing and foreclosure assistance bills that on Tuesday passed the Senate Banking Committee by a vote of 19-2.

The measure the committee passed states that “an indvidual may not engage in the business of a loan originator without first … obtaining a unique identifier.” To obtain this “identifier,” an individual is requiredto “furnish” to the newly created Nationwide Mortgage Licensing System and Registry “information concerning the applicant’s identity, including fingerprints for submission” to the FBI and other government agencies.

Woman admits to spying for China

Posted by patriot on May 29th, 2008

Gee, how many more spies are there?

A Chinese woman pleaded guilty Wednesday to helping a spy provide the Chinese government with U.S. military secrets about arms sales to Taiwan.

Yu Sin Kang, a Chinese citizen living legally in the United States, admitted serving as an intermediary for the delivery of classified information from agent Tai Shen Kuo to the Chinese government.

Kang, 33, faces up to 10 years in prison when she is sentenced August 1 in federal court in Virginia.

Kang’s plea marks the third and final guilty plea in what the U.S. government has called a “significant” conspiracy to obtain sensitive information on U.S. weapons destined for Taiwan.

Al Qaeda WMD Prank

Posted by patriot on May 28th, 2008

Be sure to read comment #8 after reading the article.

Czech President offers to debate Gore the Global Warmer

Posted by patriot on May 28th, 2008

Bring it on, Al!

Czech President Vaclav Klaus said Tuesday he is ready to debate Al Gore about global warming, as he presented the English version of his latest book that argues environmentalism poses a threat to basic human freedoms. “I many times tried to talk to have a public exchange of views with him, and he’s not too much willing to make such a conversation,” Klaus said. “So I’m ready to do it.”

Klaus was speaking a the National Press Building in Washington to present his new book, Blue Planet in Green Shackles - What Is Endangered: Climate or Freedom?, before meeting with Vice President Dick Cheney Wednesday.

“My answer is it is our freedom and, I might add, and our prosperity,” he said.

Making a good living, but still feeling strapped

Posted by Charlie Kilo on May 28th, 2008

Consumers are feeling worse about their personal finances and prospects - far worse than government statistics about the economy would indicate:

Only a few years ago, Americans who considered themselves middle class were scrimping to pay for their kids’ college education.

Now, many of them are struggling to cover far more basic needs - gas and groceries.

Continued…

Proof that McCain will be Bush III

Posted by patriot on May 27th, 2008

The proof is in the horrible voting record:

CQ’s Presidential Support studies try to determine how often a legislator votes in line with the President’s position:

CQ tries to determine what the president personally, as distinct from other administration officials, does and does not want in the way of legislative action. This is done by analyzing his messages to Congress, news conference remarks and other public statements and documents.

So, these studies only track votes when the President has an explicit, stated opinion on a bill. According to CQ, Senator John McCain has voted with President Bush 100% of the time in 2008 and 95% of the time in 2007

Czech President Klaus ready to debate Gore on climate change

Posted by Charlie Kilo on May 27th, 2008

I’d love to see this:

Czech President Vaclav Klaus said Tuesday he is ready to debate Al Gore about global warming, as he presented the English version of his latest book that argues environmentalism poses a threat to basic human freedoms.

‘I many times tried to talk to have a public exchange of views with him, and he’s not too much willing to make such a conversation,’ Klaus said. ‘So I’m ready to do it.’

UN and other “charity” workers sexually abusing children

Posted by patriot on May 27th, 2008

“We’re here to help!”

Humanitarian aid workers and United Nation peacekeepers are sexually abusing small children in several war-ravaged and food-poor countries, a leading European charity has said.

Children as young as 6 have been forced to have sex with aid workers and peacekeepers in return for food and money, Save the Children UK said in a report released Tuesday.

After interviewing hundreds of children, the charity said it found instances of rape, child prostitution, pornography, indecent sexual assault and trafficking of children for sex.

“It is hard to imagine a more grotesque abuse of authority or flagrant violation of children’s rights,” Jasmine Whitbread, chief executive of Save the Children UK, said.

Bush ‘plans Iran air strike by August’

Posted by Charlie Kilo on May 27th, 2008

Yep…its coming:

The George W Bush administration plans to launch an air strike against Iran within the next two months, an informed source tells Asia Times Online, echoing other reports that have surfaced in the media in the United States recently.

Two key US senators briefed on the attack planned to go public with their opposition to the move, according to the source, but their projected New York Times op-ed piece has yet to appear.

The source, a retired US career diplomat and former assistant secretary of state still active in the foreign affairs community, speaking anonymously, said last week that that the US plans an air strike against the Iranian Revolutionary Guards Corps (IRGC). The air strike would target the headquarters of the IRGC’s elite Quds force. With an estimated strength of up to 90,000 fighters, the Quds’ stated mission is to spread Iran’s revolution of 1979 throughout the region.

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