DonViejo
DonViejo's JournalHamas leader: No to Israeli disarmament demand
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) — The leader of Hamas has rejected Israel’s demand that the group be disarmed as a condition for ending the long-running blockade of the Gaza Strip and permitting the opening of an air and seaport there.
Ismail Haniyeh told a gathering on Friday near Gaza City that “we cannot accept or deal with any international decision to disarm the resistance” — a reference to Hamas and other Palestinian militant groups.
Israel has said it will press for Hamas’ disarmament in indirect talks in Cairo aimed at charting a way forward for Gaza in the wake of 50 days of fighting that killed more than 2,200 people — almost all Palestinian. The fighting ended Aug. 26.
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Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/09/05/hamas_leader_no_to_israeli_disarmament_demand/
Kerry, Hagel urge coalition against Islamic State
Source: ASSOCIATED PRESS
NEWPORT, Wales (AP) — America’s top diplomatic and defense leaders pressed a core coalition of 10 nations to summon the willpower to go after the Islamic State group in Iraq militarily and financially, and said they must build a plan by the time the U.N. General Assembly meets in about two weeks.
In a private meeting with the foreign and defense ministers from the United Kingdom, France, Australia and six other nations, Secretary of State John Kerry said leaders need a clear strategy and a solid idea about what each country will contribute to the fight. And, while noting that many won’t be willing to engage in military strikes, he said they can instead provide intelligence, equipment, ammunition or weapons.
“We have the technology, we have the know-how,” Kerry said. “What we need is obviously the willpower to make sure that we are steady and stay at this.”
Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel, sitting alongside Kerry, said the group of 10 nations represents a core coalition that will be needed to face the insurgent challenge. He said the group can then be expanded.
Read more: http://www.salon.com/2014/09/05/kerry_hagel_urge_coalition_against_islamic_state/
Bob McDonnell’s shocking stupidity: How could a politician have been this dumb?
Latest GOP governor to humiliate himself -- and break the law -- endured a crazy saga. Here's why it's so surrealJIM NEWELL
On a level of basic human sympathy, it’s painful to see anyone, including former Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell and first lady Maureen McDonnell, sob through the jury’s reading of 11 and nine guilty counts, respectively. They have children and grandchildren and, barring an appeal, are likely headed to jail for a significant chunk of time. And that’s after, in a desperate, quirky and ultimately unsuccessful defense, they laid bare the daily troubles with their marriage for the world to absorb. It felt dirty to watch the trial, and I, at least, didn’t feel it was necessary to write daily updates about the tabloid trash revealed in court on any particular day.
But what must be most painful for the McDonnells right now is the knowledge of how completely avoidable this was. There’s nothing even approaching honor or pride in these transgressions. There’s no crime here that you can convince yourself was the right call as a statesman; you can’t even say, in some sort of Nixonian way, all I had in mind, the whole time, was the good of the people of Virginia. There’s nothing like that here, unless you think that Virginians really needed the dietary supplement Anatabloc in order to live long and prosper. Bob and Maureen McDonnell will go down as the first Virginia first couple to go down on criminal charges … because they took a bunch of cash and golf trips and Rolexes.
Cash, golf trips, Rolexes, vacations, checks, vacations, Ferrari rides: The components of the $100,000+ in gifts and loans that they received from Star Scientific CEO Johnnie Williams Sr., in exchange for using the powers of the governorship to promote his dumb diet pill thing, couldn’t have been a shinier bundle of objects for the prosecution to present to the jury. In modern politics, corruption charges are usually more tediously complex: Money was wired here and then laundered via a pass-through, which made its way through another pass-through and was distributed through a foundation before ending up at a nonprofit designed to help such and such’s interests with a client trying to change regulations in foreign markets, or whatever. Not in this case. The prosecution just had to show the jury images of the idiot governor showing off his flashy watch that was given to him by the rich businessman for whom he did favors in return. How much simpler could this get? It’s only a degree of reality or two away from an old-timey political cartoon of a tuxedoed plutocrat, smoking a cigar, handing over a big bag marked “$$$,” to a crooked politician slapping his back and cackling.
more
http://www.salon.com/2014/09/05/bob_mcdonnells_shocking_stupidity_how_could_a_politician_have_been_this_dumb/
Wyoming State Bar Apologizes For Publishing Cheney Bio Bashing Obama
By BRENDAN JAMES Published SEPTEMBER 4, 2014, 6:06 PM EDT
Dick Cheney caused an uproar ahead of his upcoming speech at a Wyoming legal convention after the former vice president submitted his own speaker bio bashing President Obama's "weakening of America across the globe."
The Wyoming State Bar invited Cheney to give the keynote address at the group's annual convention next week, the Associated Press reported on Thursday.
In promoting the event, the organization ran into trouble after Cheney's office submitted his own biography for the speech, which was published without any edits from the bar.
Here's a portion of the bio:
more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/cheney-wyoming-bar-writes-own-bio
Chuck Todd Lands Obama Interview For 'Meet The Press' Debut
By CATHERINE THOMPSON Published SEPTEMBER 5, 2014, 6:47 AM EDT
Chuck Todd is slated to interview President Barack Obama on Sunday as the newly-minted moderator of NBC's "Meet the Press," the network announced Thursday.
The interview is expected to cover news of the day including the threat posed by the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria, relations with Russia and Ukraine, the Ebola outbreak, and midterm elections.
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http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/chuck-todd-interviews-obama-meet-the-press-debut
Steven Sotloff Held Israeli Citizenship, But ISIS Apparently Didn't Know About It
Israel's foreign ministry says Steven Sotloff, the journalist whose execution was captured on video by ISIS, held dual American-Israeli citizenship. Sotloff's connection to Israel had been kept secret in an effort to protect him, and it's not believed that his captors even knew he was Jewish. From Reuters:
The Times of Israel writes that Sotloff moved to the country in 2008 to study government at the Interdisciplinary Center. His mother Shirley's parents were Holocaust survivors.
A journalist named Oren Kessler who kept up an email correspondence with Sotloff says that he did not discuss Israel or Judaism when working:
more
http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_slatest/2014/09/03/steven_sotloff_israeli_isis_victim_was_dual_citizen.html?wpsrc=slatest_newsletter
Scalia Once Pushed Death Penalty For Now-Exonerated Inmate Henry Lee McCollum
A North Carolina death row inmate exonerated by DNA evidence on Tuesday was once held up by Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia as an example of someone who deserved to die.
When the court declined to review an unrelated death row case out of Texas in 1994, Justice Harry A. Blackmun issued a dissenting opinion arguing that capital punishment is cruel and unusual, and therefore unconstitutional.
Scalia answered back with an opinion of his own:
"For example, the case of an 11-year-old girl raped by four men and then killed by stuffing her panties down her throat," Scalia wrote in Callins v. Collins. "How enviable a quiet death by lethal injection compared with that!"
He was referring to Henry Lee McCollum, who at the time had already been on death row for 12 years. McCollum's conviction was overturned on Tuesday when DNA evidence implicated another man in the case.
more
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2014/09/02/scalia-death-penalty_n_5756362.html
Cops: Gun Range Claimed Uzi Release Forms 'Were Blown Away By The Wind'
Source: TPM
By AHIZA GARCIA Published SEPTEMBER 3, 2014, 11:23 AM EDT
Staff at an Arizona gun range reportedly told investigators that the release forms signed by the family of a 9-year-old girl who accidentally killed her instructor with an Uzi last week were unavailable because they had been "blown away by the wind."
An investigative report released by the Mohave County Sheriff's Office to TPM and other news outlets on Tuesday included descriptions by a sergeant and deputy who helped investigate the fatal Aug. 25 shooting at the Bullets and Burgers shooting range in White Hills, Arizona.
The victim, Charles Vacca, was wounded in the head when the 9-year-old girl he was instructing lost control of the Uzi when the gun recoiled. The investigators spoke with the girl's family and the staff of the shooting range and attempted to get the release forms that had apparently been signed by the family, according to the report. Sgt. J. Thien described his attempt to get the releases in the report:
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Read more: http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/fatality-shooting-range-police-report
Scott Brown: Out-Of-State Supporters Should Come Vote For Me Anyway
By CATHERINE THOMPSON Published SEPTEMBER 3, 2014, 9:52 AM EDT
New Hampshire Senate candidate Scott Brown (R) said supporters from outside the Granite State should feel free to “come on down” and vote for him anyway.
Brown made the comment last week during an interview with Boston radio host Howie Carr, which was flagged Tuesday by Boston.com.
A person called into Carr’s show from a Connecticut phone number to ask why people should vote for Brown instead of New Hampshire's other GOP Senate candidates.
“Well, they can come over and do same-day registration and say they want to come down and vote," Brown said, drawing laughter from Carr. "So if they feel compelled to do so, come on down.”
A spokeswoman for Brown, Elizabeth Guyton, told Boston.com that the Senate candidate was “clearly joking.”
more
http://talkingpointsmemo.com/livewire/scott-brown-out-of-state-supporters-should-vote-for-me-anyway
GOP Performing Below Expectations in House Races
"Tepid fundraising, underperforming candidates and a lousy party brand are threatening to deprive House Republicans of the sweeping 2014 gains that some top party officials have been predicting this year," Politico reports.
"Politico interviewed more than a dozen top strategists from both parties about their outlook for the House in the midterms, and their assessment was nearly unanimous: Republicans are on track to expand their majority by only five or six seats, or roughly half their goal. The conversations covered everything from advertising strategies to fundraising to polling."
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http://politicalwire.com/archives/2014/09/02/gop_performing_below_expectations_in_house_races.html
