Month: October 2005

On Daily Kos and My Left Wing there is a wonderful diary that I don’t see here. There is a company called Kiva that does microloans to small businesses in Uganda. You can loan directly to a particular individual through Kiva and since they pool people’s money, you can loan as little as $25 at a time. On dKos people have been going crazy and have been filling up the loans needed to the point that the person who runs the site can barely keep up. More below.

According to RAW STORY:

“At least one” doesn’t sound all that encouraging. But if you read this article carefully there is some very interesting news. It all boils down to what happened Tuesday night:

Apparently, Rove was offered a plea deal as well, and like a loyal soldier, he turned it down. After all, if Rove cops a plea, that means he has to testify against a bigger fish. And the only bigger fish are…

It looks like several (former?) members of the White House staff were playing a game of chicken with Fitzgerald. When he announced that Wednesday was zero hour, some of these staffers blinked.

This cannot be good news for Darth Cheney.

The BBC reports that Israel’s Prime Minister Ariel Sharon wants Iran expelled from the UN after Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad called for Israel to be “wiped off the map”. Probably not a smart move on Iran’s part.

Sharon also said, “A country calling for the destruction of another people cannot be a member of the UN”.

Pot. Kettle. Black.

EU leaders stated, “Calls for violence, and for the destruction of any state, are manifestly inconsistent with any claim to be a mature and responsible member of the international community”.

Pot. Kettle. Black. on the part of some of those countries too.

Here are some past quotes from George W Bush about Saddam Hussein, the GWOT and the Iraq war:

Our nation is somewhat sad, but we’re angry. There’s a certain level of blood lust, but we won’t let it drive our reaction. We’re steady, clear-eyed and patient, but pretty soon we’ll have to start displaying scalps.

For all who love freedom and peace, the world without Saddam Hussein’s regime is a better and safer place.

Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us, or you are with the terrorists.

I just want you to know that, when we talk about war, we’re really talking about peace.

All told, more than 3,000 suspected terrorists have been arrested in many countries. Many others have met a different fate. Let’s put it this way — they are no longer a problem to the United States and our friends and allies.

There’s just something very disgusting about hypocrisy, isn’t there? I don’t recall Sharon and the EU leaders calling for the US to be expelled from the UN.

Surprisingly, or maybe less so since the Bush administration used the same kind of rhetoric in the past, the US is not backing the call for Iran’s expulsion from the UN.

“Iran is a member of the United Nations,” State Department spokesman Sean McCormack said. “What I think we would encourage instead is Iran to start behaving in a responsible manner as a member of the international community.”

Pot. Kettle. Black.

The lies, half-truths and forsaken logic of Bush-apologist Condi Rice have been broadly displayed on various blogs and internet sites. But there is one specific example that hasn’r received the appropriate attention. Keep the following in mind as some yahoos bellow “Rice in 2008.” Christie Whitman doesn’t come off too well here either.

After more than 3,000 died and many more were wounded, the following vividly demonstrates the worth and value Rice and the rest of her ilk placed on human life in New York after 9/11. 2,000 dead soldiers, countless military members maimed, untold dead Iraqis–such is just the beginning of the toll on humanity on this Administration’s watch.

In a year chock full of examples of Mother Nature returning fire against an earth’s population hell bent on destroying her, she has fired another salvo.  This time, it appears that she may be aiming for Nicaragua.

Meet Beta.  Not yet a hurricane, but rapidly developing into one.  The latest measurements from the National Hurricane Center tell us this tale: