To put the world right in order, we must first put the nation in order, we must first put the family in order, to put the family in order, we must first cultivate our personal life, we must first set our hearts right. Confucius
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HAVANA - Fidel Castro temporarily relinquished his presidential powers to his brother Raul on Monday night and told Cubans he underwent surgery.
CrossPosted@Blanton's and Ashton's
How dumb was this?!!
I already said this...
The face of Islamic Jihad...we should take note...they may be our neighbors one day.
Condi's conditional mideast cease-fire...
jjoats
Prosecutors want the death penalty for the ex-president, on trial with seven others for crimes against humanity. The defendants deny the charges. No hanging for this good ol' boy! He'd better try not to get Judge Roy Bean then.
U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has insisted that no truce can be sought unless the status quo is changed. "We have to have a plan that will actually create conditions in which we can have a ceasefire that will be sustainable," Rice told a closing news conference in Rome. The United States has backed Israeli demands for Hezbollah to pull back from the border and ultimately disarm. Rhetoric...schmetoric! How do you "have" a plan that will "create" conditions that will cause a ceasefire that is sustainable? I think they are asleep at the wheel... does anyone else have a solution to their non-solution? The leaders of America are brokers for the dead and dying! This is the "dance of death...of democracy"...I wonder how long it will take for us to smell the stench they have wrought on us.
Sayed Hassan Nasrallah is the secretary-general of Hezbollah (Party of God), the Lebanese political party and Shia Muslim community’s dominant political bloc.
Alex...We're In For It Now...For $500.00 Please...
BEIRUT (IWR News Satire) - After nearly two weeks of hostilities with 375 Lebanese killed and 600,000 displaced, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice finally found enough time in her demanding shoe shopping schedule to visit the Middle East. "I wish I could have gotten here sooner to help jump start this peace process thingy, but you how important these Midsummer shoe sales are to a fashion conscious girl like me. After all, you don't want me to look like the Frump, do you?
Besides more people are dying in Iraq at the same time as this conflict, and you don't hear anyone bitching about me going to Baghdad, right? There's no decent garment stores in the Green Zone anyway. BTW, isn't it great how our Bush Doctrine is playing out in the Middle East? Anyway, I got to run. I hear there are some great Gucci sales in Tel Aviv," said Ms. Rice.
How? Amid international outcry over mounting civilian casualties and destruction of civilian infrastructure in Lebanon, President Bush is prevailed upon to pressure the Israeli Prime Minister, Ehud Olmert, to rein in the military.
And then what? Uneasy truce in which status quo is restored: probable halt to incoming rockets but Israel still vulnerable to raids like the one 13 days ago in which two soldiers were abducted by Hizbollah. Hizbollah celebrates "victory" and continues to build its strength as a military force, claiming it has twice defeated the Israeli war machine.
Winners ... Hizbollah - would still claim victory over Israel, angering US, which views militia as a proxy for Iranian terror.
... and losers Israel - would still say it had degraded Hizbollah " infrastructure," but at a huge cost to its international reputation.
So will it happen? Unlikely, given the high political cost to Israel and the US.
Option 2: Diplomatic settlement
Option 3: Israel snared in counter-insurgency
Option 4: Lebanon government falls
Option 5: Israel invades Lebanon
What happens next?
Israeli air raid across the street of a hospital in Tyre...
Heavy fighting as Israel pushes further into Lebanon...
The Israeli military said that during the past 24 hours its planes had hit more than 270 targets across Lebanon, including 21 missile launchers, more than 50 Hezbollah buildings and Hezbollah communication lines.
The army said it captured two Hezbollah guerrillas, the first it had taken any into custody during the fighting. "When the enemy surrenders, we take them prisoner. The two prisoners are located in Israel and will be held here with the aim of interrogating them," said Friedman.
theindependent.co.uk
An elderly Israeli woman in Haifa where rockets slammed down from Hezbollah...
In a dramatic breakthrough that promises an end to the current war between Hezbollah and Israel, President Bush has brokered a deal in which Hezbollah has agreed to return captured Israeli soldiers, in exchange for an Arafat rookie card in mint condition.
The President, drawing on his experience as the former owner of the Texas Rangers, came up with the idea during a bicycle ride on the West Bank with a Jewish settler from Brooklyn, who had the prized card in the spokes of his mountain bike. satiricalpolitical.com
US evacuation of Lebanon challenged in lawsuit
By Kevin Krolicki
DETROIT (Reuters) - An Arab-American civil rights group filed a federal lawsuit on Monday charging the Bush administration with failing to protect the lives of thousands of U.S. citizens trapped in Lebanon by the Israeli military offensive.
The lawsuit, which was filed by the American-Arab Anti-Discrimination Committee, seeks an emergency court order that would compel the U.S. government to stop sending weapons to Israel as long as U.S. citizens are trying to leave Lebanon.
Jumpin' Jesus on a pogo stick! Blogger is preventing me from checking on my regular haunts...so I only made it to a few to leave my titillating comments...I will return...oh yes!
US gives Israel the go ahead for more attacks this week..."Senior officials believe Israel has an American nod to continue operations against Hizbollah at least until next Sunday," the Haaretz newspaper said on its Web site.
U.S. officials in Israel were not immediately available for comment on the report.
New Israeli incursion in S. Lebanon...
SIDON, Lebanon - Israeli ground forces made another foray into Lebanon on Monday, fighting Hezbollah guerrillas around a major southern town, as Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice joined diplomatic attempts to stop the Israeli bonbardment and Hezbollah rocker attacks.
Kerry knocks Bush on handling of Mideast conflict
"The president has been so absent on diplomacy when it comes to issues affecting the Middle East," Kerry said. "We're going to have a lot of ground to make up (in 2008) because of it."
GRAPHIC: Images of suffering, death on Arab TV after series of Israeli, Hezbollah strikes...here
Hezbollah willing to talk...Berri stressed that prior to any talks on a prisoner swap, a cease-fire must be in place.
Earlier, Lebanese Foreign Minister Fawzi Salloukh told a French news agency that the soldiers, Ehud Goldwasser and Eldad Regev, were in "good physical condition."Ehud Goldwasser
reuters
"Last night it was really special," said Rhodes, who is divorced and makes a living giving massages in the Midwestern state of Iowa. I bet it was special...and someone ask me if I am surprised that she gives massages to people...I could have won some money on that one."There was a couple from Mexico, a couple from Virginia and a couple from Ireland, from Australia." Now you know what countries to boycott...because they probably cuddle in the streets any time of day I would imagine.
"I like to participate in life as much as possible," she said with a broad smile. No mystery there...but does participating in life mean you have to be on your knees that much?
Rhodes was among some 3,000 people gathered on Saturday at the Stardust Hotel in Las Vegas for the annual Lifestyles conference, a five-day, $700-per-couple event that offers a mix of seminars, socializing and sex. I don't know about you...but for my $700.00 I want more than socializing, sex and seminars...there had better be naked guys jumping around the place with platters of food to tempt my senses...and...and... shiny glittery things...like baubles, bangles and beads.
Early on Saturday, Rhodes was back for more, joining the action in a suite where more than a dozen couples were having sex. I certainly hope they were careful...you can poke your eye out really easy if you're not paying attention.
The conference organizer, Robert McGinley, 72, president of The Lifestyles Organization, estimates that there are 3 million swingers in the United States alone. He founded his group in 1969 and began holding the annual conferences in the 1970s. Somehow it wasn't a surprise that he founded his little group in 1969...he probably planned it years ahead of time. A tarot card reader probably told him to hold off on his shenanigans until 69'...3 million...hmm...that's alot of squealing at one time.
"Socially, we're pariahs," said Drew Alexander, 40, who attended with this wife Tina, 38. "We're behaving in a way that's completely against the ingrained Catholic values." Oh!...don't even get me started with the Catholic church and their fascination with what goes on in the bedroom. I personally think if they can't have any...they don't want anyone else to get "it" either. Do they actually think we're all stupid and don't get it...with the long flowing robes they wear? The better to hide you with...my dear...
Another couple did not want their names printed but were far from shy. They made love early on Saturday in the hospitality suites where couples wandered from room to room to watch the action at close range. They emerged from their experience beaming, saying seeing others sparked more passion. Beaming? As in beam me up Scottie? Or...beam me over there Scottie so I can get me some of that? Beam me up some of that passion Scottie...seriously!
One attendee who stayed completely on the sidelines was the man behind the event. I just knew it!!! This creepy guy likes to watch! People! Don't do it...don't do it...you might poke your eye out...or something!
Freedom to express our swinging life-style that is...I told you the government would get in on the act of monitoring sex devices and conversations...and...and things! He's above the friggin' law...afterall! I wonder if Lithium Laura likes to wear dark leather?
Secretary-General Kofi Annan called Thursday for an immediate halt to the violence between Israel and Lebanon, saying a cease-fire would be the first step toward ending the escalating war. Israel, backed by the U.S., immediately dismissed calls for a cease-fire and said the military operation — which was undertaken to free two captured Israeli soldiers but has spread to target all of Hezbollah — will "take as long as it will take."
Hello!...nobody listens to you Kofi. Nobody respects you or the United Nations anymore. I think the day has come for the UN to fold it up and go home. You have not been effective for some time now. The UN has corruption swirling around its base...and since you haven't really done anything to quell those waves lapping at your feet...you should step aside.
In the news you are having dinner with Secretary Rice...and lunch with others...what is it about eating and drinking while Lebanon and Israel burn? Why are you sending others to do the work that you should be brokering yourself? People might give you more credit it you'd show up and check it all out and talk to those necessary to get THAT CEASE-FIRE! You're afraid for your own life right? If the various journalists of other nations can get around there...why can't a man as powerful as you are supposed to be do it?
It's like the Pope...the position of the Pope hasn't been effective either for generations. You guys think you can issue edicts and the world will listen. Forget it! We are living in the real world...you guys live well up on that "hog" and look downward at the rest of us. People don't listen anymore...because there is nothing YOU can do. You just continue to have your tasty luncheons and dinners while others die. I've seen photos of dead people...I've seen dead children...I've seen Lebanese and Isreali dead and wounded...frightened beyond reason...wondering when this madness will stop...and you drink your fine wines and eat your elegant cheese and fruit. Those starving children would sure like to have some...hell...just a good drink of water would probably thrill those little tykes.
Here's what you have allowed to be born by being isolated from the real world...
