10 May 2008
News and Comments - 05/10/08
Posted by Joy Bischoff under: What's News .
INSIDE EVERY OLDER PERSON IS A YOUNGER PERSON WONDERING WHAT HAPPENED.
7 Comments so far...
Joy Bischoff Says:
10 May 2008 at 1:31 am.
Okay, I’ll confess. I was looking for an excuse to put up a picture of our son Robert who is serving a mission in St. Louis, Missouri. And I sure hope he ages better than the picture on the left.
Jesse Says:
10 May 2008 at 2:18 am.
Barack Obama sacks adviser over talks with Hamas
One of Barack Obama’s Middle East policy advisers disclosed yesterday that he had held meetings with the militant Palestinian group Hamas – prompting the likely Democratic nominee to sever all links with him.
Robert Malley told The Times that he had been in regular contact with Hamas, which controls Gaza and is listed by the US State Department as a terrorist organisation. Such talks, he stressed, were related to his work for a conflict resolution think-tank and had no connection with his position on Mr Obama’s Middle East advisory council.
“I’ve never hidden the fact that in my job with the International Crisis Group I meet all kinds of people,” he added.
Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for Mr Obama, responded swiftly: “Rob Malley has, like hundreds of other experts, provided informal advice to the campaign in the past. He has no formal role in the campaign and he will not play any role in the future.” The rapid departure of Mr Malley followed 48 hours of heated clashes between John McCain, the Republican nominee-elect, and Mr Obama over Middle East policy.
http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/us_and_americas/us_elections/article3897414.ece
Cameron Says:
10 May 2008 at 9:01 am.
PM urges Lebanese army to halt Hezbollah ‘coup’
BEIRUT, Lebanon (CNN) — Prime Minister Fouad Siniora accused Hezbollah of trying to stage a “militant coup d’etat” on Saturday in his first public comments since violence began three days ago in Beirut.
Gunmen opened fire during the funeral procession of 24-year-old Sunni Mohammed Kheir Abdel Nasser Shamaa.
He also called for the army to intervene after Hezbollah militants took control of the Lebanese capital’s western suburbs.
“I call on it once again to impose security on all, in all areas, deter the gunmen and immediately remove them from the street … to restore normal life,” Siniora said, according to The Associated Press.
The Lebanese army did not join the battles that erupted this week. Taking sides could throw the military — with its own political factions — into disarray.
Soldiers instead effectively negotiated a surrender of pro-government positions, Lebanese Internal Security Forces and Western military observers said.
Siniora spoke after one person was killed and two were wounded in a drive-by shooting at a funeral procession in the Lebanese capital, shattering the relative calm in the city following the previous days’ violence.
The funeral took place in Tariq Jdeidah, a Sunni Muslim neighborhood in Beirut, witnesses said.
Also, clashes between pro- and anti-government forces in the northern coastal city of Tripoli left one person dead and five wounded Saturday, the ISF said.
“We thought the threat our country was from our historic enemy Israel. But recent experience now shows that our homes and our democracy is being held hostage by our own brothers, who want to create coup and terror,” Siniora said in a televised address.
http://www.cnn.com/2008/WORLD/meast/05/10/beirut.violence/index.html
Benjamin Says:
10 May 2008 at 12:44 pm.
Joy, that’s a fine looking missionary you have there.
FBI, ATF Battle for Control Of Cases
Cooperation Lags Despite Merger
When a man drove a tractor into a pond on the Mall in 2003 and threatened to set off bombs, above, the FBI and ATF both claimed jurisdiction over the case. The next year, when houses in a Charles County subdivision were destroyed by arson, left, FBI and ATF agents engaged in shouting matches at the scene.
When a man drove a tractor into a pond on the Mall in 2003 and threatened to set off bombs, above, the FBI and ATF both claimed jurisdiction over the case. The next year, when houses in a Charles County subdivision were destroyed by arson, left, FBI and ATF agents engaged in shouting matches at the scene. (By Michael Williamson — The Washington Post)
In the five years since the FBI and ATF were merged under the Justice Department to coordinate the fight against terrorism, the rival law enforcement agencies have fought each other for control, wasting time and money and causing duplication of effort, according to law enforcement sources and internal documents.
Their new boss, the attorney general, ordered them to merge their national bomb databases, but the FBI has refused. The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives has long trained bomb-sniffing dogs; the FBI started a competing program.
At crime scenes, FBI and ATF agents have threatened to arrest one another and battled over jurisdiction and key evidence. The ATF inadvertently bought counterfeit cigarettes from the FBI — the government selling to the government — because the agencies are running parallel investigations of tobacco smuggling between Virginia and other states.
The squabbling poses dangers, many in law enforcement say, in an era in which cooperation is needed more than ever to prevent another terrorist attack on U.S. soil. Michael A. Mason, a former head of the FBI’s Washington field office who retired in December from a senior post at FBI headquarters, said outside intervention might be needed.
The ATF’s transfer from the Treasury Department to the FBI’s home at Justice after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks was supposed to eliminate long-standing tensions between two proud and independent entities,
“We thought we’d get more cooperation from two agencies that ought to be cooperating in the war on terror,” Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) said of the 2002 law that created the Department of Homeland Security and authorized the merger.
But the transfer, thrown together in the final stages of the largest government reorganization in a half-century, proved to be a merger in name only. The ATF came under the Justice Department seal yet maintained its offices and headquarters. Little thought went into melding the distinctive cultures.
CindyL. Says:
10 May 2008 at 4:58 pm.
Joy, if your missionary needs someone to meet his plane when he comes home just let me know. It would be a big sacrifice but I could handle it. 
Stumpy Says:
10 May 2008 at 5:42 pm.
Yup thats a nice lookin fella up there before he gets old. If that boy knocked on my door Id probly let him in for a little visit. Maybe Id even give im some a my famous bran and prune cookies. That way if he started in on tryin to convert me he would get the runs aways.
E.E. Says:
10 May 2008 at 5:46 pm.
Stumpy, you are terrible. Absolutely terrible.
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