[Quote:]

Gambian President Yahya Jammeh says he will “cut off the head” of any homosexual caught in his country.

Addressing supporters at the end of his meet the farmers tour here Sunday, Jammeh also ordered any hotel or motel housing homosexuals to close down, adding that owners of such facilities would also be in trouble.

He said the Gambia was a country of believers, indicating that no sinful and immoral act as homosexual would be tolerated in the country.

Of course it’s a bit hard to see how murder is not also a sinful or immoral act. I guess I just lack moral clarity…. but remember, pandering to bigotry for political gains is how the Republicans won the last two presidential elections.

“President Bush was in Saudi Arabia to mark 75 years of official relations with the royal family. And 40 years of officially being screwed royally by that family. Did you see the present the royal family gave President Bush? You see what it was? … A Schwinn. A brand new Schwinn, yeah. That pretty much says it all, doesn’t it? He goes over there looking for solutions to the energy crisis, they give him a bicycle.”

–Jay Leno

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McCain, an Arizona senator, inserted $14.3 million in a 2003 defense bill to buy land around Luke Air Force Base in Glendale, Arizona, in a provision sought by SunCor Development, the largest of 50 landowners near the base, the newspaper reported on its Web site Thursday, citing public records.

[..]

The Air Force later paid SunCor $3 million for 122 acres near the base — three times its assessed value and twice the military’s estimated value, the newspaper said.

USA Today said its analysis of campaign finance data compiled by the nonpartisan CQ MoneyLine shows that McCain’s campaigns have received $224,000 since 1998 from donors connected to SunCor’s parent company Pinnacle West, including $104,100 for his current presidential run.

Two current and one retired Pinnacle executives are fundraisers for McCain’s presidential campaign.

McCain has made fighting special interest projects on Capitol Hill a centerpiece of his White House bid.

[Quote:]

On Tuesday night … Barack Obama was being trounced in the West Virginia Democratic primary — by 41 points. I can’t find a single recent instance of a candidate who ultimately became his party’s nominee losing a primary by this kind of margin. WILLIAM KRISTOL 5.19.08

VERSUS

On Feb. 5, former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney beat presumptive GOP nominee Sen. John McCain (R-AZ) by 85 points in the Utah primary. — Jerry Skurnik 5/19/08

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Cartoons liggen op het ministerie van Justitie onder een vergrootglas sinds het geweld losbarstte over Deense spotprenten van de profeet Mohammed.

De arrestatie van cartoonist Gregorius Nekschot – een pseudoniem – past in de verscherpte aandacht voor provocatieve tekeningen over de islam op het ministerie van Justitie. Minister Hirsch Ballin (CDA) vertelde dat gisteravond tijdens een spoeddebat over de aanhouding en dertig uur durende detentie van Nekschot. Na de onlusten over de Deense Mohammedcartoons – begin 2006 – is volgens de minister een ‘interdepartementale werkgroep cartoonproblematiek’ in het leven geroepen. ‘Die was al heel lang bezig met cartoons’, aldus Hirsch Ballin. ‘In de zin van anticiperen op Deense situaties.’

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Omdat het altijd nog ietsje enger kan. Sinds het pandemonium met de Deense Mohammedcartoons heeft het kabinet een Cultuurkamer voor Tekeningetjes in het leven geroepen. Echt waar. Geen grap. Zulks heeft Hirsch Ballin, minister van Intimidatiezaken & Satirebestrijding gisteren in het Nekschotdebat toegegeven. Er bestaat in Den Haag dus een werkgroep met zure mannetjes die elke dag getekende kwinkslagen controleert op het aantal islamgrappen. Opgepast dus: Nozzman. Joep Bertrams. Lectrr. Kontlachen. Fokke & Sukke. Jos Collignon. Normanieren. Willem Frederik Kutrat. Gummbah. Tom Janssen. Robert van der Kroft. Klier. De Humordenaar. John & John. Ruben L. Oppenheimer. Cisca Slettenhuis. Jan Kruis. Simon Schoftentuig. Nabaal. Djanko. Peter van Straaten. Kamagurka. Evert Kwok. Bandirah. Toon van Driel. Wulfmorgenthaler. Hanco Kok. Peter de Wit. Michiel van de Pol. Willy Vandersteen en natuurlijk De Negerhumorist. Ook jullie werkjes worden 24/7 gemonitord door HB met zijn rode pen. Volgende week in dit theater: Geef een cartoonist aan bij Justitie en verdien zevenenhalve euri!

Leden van die commissie horen waarschijnlijk bij de 21 %

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“If it was OK to have these people working for you in February, why is it not OK today?” asked one Republican lobbyist who counts a friend among the new McCain outcast class.

The timing, motivation and even the details of the policy itself all are the subject of debates and consternation this week at water coolers, in restaurants and on conference calls on K Street.

“McCain’s self-righteous [expletive] has caught up with him. Now he’s got himself in a jam,” said another Republican lobbyist who asked to remain anonymous because he is a campaign volunteer. “He’s got to change the subject back to economic growth and taxation and the war on terror.”

And there’s this thought from another McCain supporter: “I find it a little offensive. It was good enough to get my $2,300 donation. If we’re not good enough, then send my check back. It pisses me off.”

Boo-hoo - you knew what kind of person you were supporting, so stop whining.

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Creditcards waarmee op internet kinderporno wordt aangeschaft, worden geblokkeerd. Minister Ernst Hirsch Ballin van Justitie heeft dat met de creditcardmaatschappijen afgesproken.

“Het is een manier om onmiddellijk in te grijpen”, zei hij donderdag in het Radio 1 Journaal.

Aan het blokkeren van de creditcard komt geen rechter te pas. Zo gauw de politie merkt dat er met een kaart kinderporno is gekocht, kan deze virtueel worden doorgeknipt.

Ik vraag me af waarom de politie niet met de creditcard maatschappijen afspreekt dat de leverancier afgesloten wordt, nog voordat er iemand kinderporno kan aanschaffen - dit bericht insinueeert immers dat politie weet wie er kinderporno verkoopt, maar zonder daar iets aan te willen doen… Aangezien die situatie toch wat onwaarschijnlijk overkomt, klinkt dit veel meer als een manier om zonder tussenkomst van een rechter iemand het leven zuur te kunnen maken - bijvoorbeeld als justitie onvoldoende argumenten heeft om die rechter ergens van te overtuigen, of als een wat minder nette agent aan iemand een hekel heeft.

Het zou allemaal wat geloofwaardiger worden als dit soort maatregelen ingevoerd wordt met: 1) een manier om een dergelijke maatregel aan te kunnen vechten, en 2) vooraf bepaalde hoge sancties voor de ambtenaar die bij het aanvechten ongelijk krijgt.

En ga nou niet beweren dat er nooit fouten worden gemaakt.

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Zeven op de tien Nederlanders (69 procent) vinden het acceptabel als alle Nederlanders DNA-materiaal moeten afstaan dat wordt opgeslagen in een DNA-databank waarmee de politie beter misdrijven kan oplossen.

Tuurlijk. Want we weten allemaal hoe zorgvuldig de overheid met DNA bewijs om gaat.

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RIM encrypts e-mail between BlackBerry devices and the server the server with 236-bit AES encryption. The Indian government doesn’t like this at all; they want to snoop on the data. RIM’s response was basically: that’s not possible. The Indian government’s counter was: Then we’ll ban BlackBerries. After months of threats, it looks like RIM is giving in to Indian demands and handing over the encryption keys.

Moral: never consider a connection to be “secure” if any third party has the keys.

And, as usual, “corporations” get more rights than those who truly are corporal.

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A handful of US lawmakers gave only half an ear to the testimony on Tuesday of a former detainee at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba who spent nearly five years in prison before being released without charge.

[..]

The first to speak after Kurnaz was finished was ranking member on the committee, Republican Congressman Dana Rohrabacher, who expressed doubts about the testimony and recalled that the United States was “at war” and needed to protect itself even at the price of making some errors.

And when it came to the question of where ex-inmates should go when their home country refuses them, Rohrabacher said: “I would suggest that any of our allies who have criticized the US should take some of them themselves.”

It was past 10:00 pm in Germany by the time Democrat Jerrold Nadler spoke.

“The people who tortured you were committing crimes under American law,” Nadler said. “I hope in the next few years these people will be held accountable.

Forget American law - if congress is this disinterested in hearing about this, I’d invite them all over to here.

[Quote:]

On stage Tuesday, Robbie Bach, president of Microsoft’s entertainment and devices division, and one of his reports, Mark Kroese, demonstrated how a single advertising campaign could cross several different types of screens, including PC, TV, mobile phone and–gasp–Zune.

The demonstration involved a music festival sponsored by Doritos. A musician participating in that festival might create a Zune Social profile containing a small advertisement for Doritos. Users could then become “friends” with this musician, allowing them to see his playlist and perhaps even download free songs on that list (paid for by Doritos). They’d also see a little Doritos logo embedded in the musician’s profile, which would appear not only in the Zune software, but also on the actual Zune device whenever they visited that profile.

Dear artists. The odds of me becoming your “friend” in a scenario like this: zero. The odds of me never wanting to have anything to do with when you ever again after participating in a stupid stunt like this: 100%.

Yet another proof that Microsoft sees you as an advertising venue - you are not the customer to them, you are the product.