Friday, March 31, 2006

Stories In The News

Sorry it's been so long since the last update. Here's some of the ongoing stories...

- Lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to 5 years, 10 months in Prison.

JILL CARROLL RELEASED
Christian Science Monitor journalist Jill Carroll was released Thursday, nearly three months after her capture. The strangest thing I took notice of was the fact that Carroll, in her first video-interview after being set free, all but praised her captors for her treatment.

Carroll was released by her captors, the "Revenge Brigade" after, supposedly, the demands for Carrolls release had been met. According to official statements, the U.S. Embassy did NOT pay for her release. However, the statement leaves a loophole the size of L.A., leaving the possibility that another U.S. entity secured her release. The Christian Science Monitor denies paying a ransom.

RICE RECOGNIZES ERRORS
And in a newer story, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice today, during her trip to England, admitted that there are errors in the way the War in Iraq was carried out. Rice said "I know we've made tactical errors, thousands of them I'm sure," and followed up this perfectly good moment with "But when you look back in history, what will be judged will be, did you make the right strategic decisions." It was nice while it lasted, but I know no one in the administration will admit to any large errors, w/o putting spin on it, until after Bush is out of Office.

FOOLISH CONGRESSMAN?
Howard Kaloogian, who is running as the Republican challenger for the California 50th Con. District, posted a picture on his campaign websiteshowing that Iraq is really a peaceful place, and that the press was distorting the real story.

The problem is, the picture is NOT from Iraq, it's from Instanbul, Turkey. The office of the prospective Congressman said that the photo was placed by mistake,andhas since been "corrected". The new photo, however, does not completely work with new picture, which is either taken from a helicopter or a tall building, and thus lacking detail.

Here's the picture.

IMMIGRATION BILLS
This whole immigration bill thing is getting out of hand. I don't even know all the details of it, it's so confusing. As far as I understand, there's two bills, but two proposed amendments to them or something.

And I took note that at least some of the political blog sites aren't even talking about it that much. I don't know where my party officially stands on this bill. From what I understand, the Democrats are split on the "Guest-Worker Program", which is being offered in the Senate bill, but not the House, and a majority of the Republicans are behind it, but not all.

Republican Rep. Dana Rohrabacher of California had the interesting idea of having the prisoners pick the fruit.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I'm sure the Democrats are out running focus groups on where "swing voters" want them to be on immigration. God, I wish they would just take a stand on something for a change. They'll never get elected any other way.

Unknown said...

I agree, we need to take a side, and it's annoying me also. But I think the Democratic Party is still better than the Republican Party, and I don't plan to change anytime soon.