Remember Postcards from Africa? Well now “CARE, one of the world’s biggest charities, is walking away from about $45 million a year in federal funding, saying American food aid is not only plagued with inefficiencies, but may hurt some of the very poor people it aims to help.”
I’ve written about Jose Padilla a number of times, but now that the verdict has come out, it is worth reading the Christian Science Monitor’s pre-sentencing thoughts and Andrew Sullivan’s initial observations, which he cautions are all he’s willing to say until he’s read some of the legal documents involved.
New research says fat is critical in a child’s diet, a fact which supports the story I pointed out last week about how “diet” foods aren’t good for kids. Elsewhere, we find that fat may not really be that bad for adults, either, when they eat it the way they would have eaten it tens of thousands of years ago. Maybe. The jury is still out on this one, and anecdotally, the fellow who went on the “all meat” diet described in the second page doesn’t seem to healthy to me, despite his claims that it was the broccoli he was forced to eat as a child that caused his problem.
It’s hard to seem like Joe Average common sense middle America while riding on Daddy’s yacht. He does look happy, though. You’d never know his approval ratings were so dismal. And you know, for an old guy, Bush 41 has some nice abs there. Maybe there’s something to not eating broccoli after all.
This isn’t following up on anything, really, but here’s OpenLeft’s First BlogPac Progressive Entrepreneurs Contest Winners. If you see something you are in a position to support, you will figure out what to do.
This week, judges have been hearing arguments on a lawsuit by AT&T customers against NSA warrantless wiretapping. I just love some of the comments and questions from the judges, including “Who decides whether something is a state secret or not?”, “What does ‘ultimate deference’ mean? Bow to it?”, and “Every ampersand, every comma is top-secret?”
Remember that US Attorney firing scandal? The one that Harriet Miers and later Karl Rove himself were ordered not to testify before Congress about? ABC News suspects it’s bigger than we now know.
As mortgage woes progress, we will see more Country Forclosures and City Forclosures.
Sometimes I don’t agree with Michael van der Galien, but when it comes to immigration we are on the same page:
This has nothing to do with racism, it is all about something called the Rule of Law. When people break the law they should be punished, it is that simple. One can migrate to America legally – if one chooses to move to America illegally it seems logical and fitting for one to be punished. Not only should the person who lives in America illegally be punished, those who make it possible for him or her to do so should be punished as well.
If there are roadblocks preventing hard-working, honest people from legally immigrating to this country, let’s fix it. But that’s not the issue; the issue is people who come here illegally and the people who hire them, also illegally.
I wonder why a law passed in 2005 was a CNN top story today? Hmm. They point out that “Americans may need passports to board domestic flights or to picnic in a national park next year if they live in one of the states defying the federal Real ID Act,” but neglect to mention that they would also need a passport to get into a federal building such as a courthouse, Social Security office, or IRS office. You see, I think that’s more important than having a picnic in a national park, personally. “Chertoff said the Real ID program is essential to national security because there are presently 8,000 types of identification accepted to enter the United States,” but what does that have to do with the movements of American citizens? Since when are people presenting “baptismal certificates from small towns in Texas” to get into Yellowstone? Chertoff also told the states “There’s going to be an irreducible expense that falls on you, and that’s part of the shared responsibility,” or suck it up. They go on to mention that “Applicants must bring a photo ID, birth certificate, proof of Social Security number and proof of residence, and states must maintain and protect massive databases housing the information,” but neglect to mention that anybody who does not go by the name on their birth certificate would need documents to support their current name. That means the overwhelming majority of married women will have to bring their marriage certificates to the DMV. Thankfully they will not have to bring a male relative too. Speaking of the DMV, CNN also fails to mention that increased load for the DMV will almost certainly mean longer lines and more waiting. But I love most these paragraphs near the end:
But, [Bill] Walsh [senior legal fellow for the Heritage Foundation] said, “any state that’s refusing to implement this key recommendation by the 9/11 Commission, and whose state driver’s licenses are as a result used in another terrorist attack, should be held responsible.” [snip]
Chertoff said there would be repercussions for states choosing not to comply.
“This is not a mandate,” Chertoff said. “A state doesn’t have to do this, but if the state doesn’t have — at the end of the day, at the end of the deadline — Real ID-compliant licenses then the state cannot expect that those licenses will be accepted for federal purposes.”
Or, you don’t have to, but then your citizens are screwed, and if there is a terrorist attack it will be all your fault!
And one last thing, about the TSA program to identify Bad Guys based on what they do; I can proudly say my opinion has not changed.