Theodore's World

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Deans Plans
Democratic National Committee Chairman Howard Dean hopes to mount a coordinated attack on Republicans this year that will enable his party to capture the 15 seats needed to control the House.

“We’re going to position ourselves as the vehicle for change,” Dean said Wednesday.

The Republicans can’t do that because “they’ve been there for five years, and they can’t get out of the responsibilities they have,” he maintained.

But some political experts have warned that the Democrats still must overcome obstacles, including redistricting that protects House incumbents, the Houston Chronicle reports.
“The Democrats need more than a strong breeze to pick up 15 seats,” said Amy Walter of the nonpartisan Cook Political Report. “They need gale-force winds.”

Wild Thing’s comment……
Howard Dean couldnt plan a trip to his mailbox. Dean is a nut case and is a great gift to the Republicans.

‘NYT’ Sunday Preview: Madeleine Albright Can Leg-Press 400 Pounds
Published: April 20, 2006 1:35 PM ET
NEW YORK In an interview in the The New York Times Magazine that will appear this coming Sunday, Madeleine Albright reveals, among other things, that even at 68, she works out three times a week “and I can leg-press up to 400 pounds.” This follows a discussion of how she does not expect to re-marry, partly because, as she says, “I’m intimidating, don’t you think?”
Another highlight of the Q & A is her commentary on the fact that her father, Josef Korbel, a Czech diplomat who became dean of the school of international relations at the University of Denver, happened to train two future secretaries of state. The other was Condoleezza Rice. “What I like about her,” Albright says, “is that she continues to give credit to the fact that my father had a big influence on her.”
When Korbel died in 1977, Rice sent a pot of flowers in the shape of a piano, and Albright’s mother referred to her as “your father’s favorite student.”
Nowadays Albright is not a fan of certain aspects of Rice’s work. She declares that the Iraq invasion “may end up being one of the worst disasters in American foreign policy.”
Wild Thing’s comment………
Sorry Madeline, years ago when I was doing the bodybuilding thing leg presses were a favorite of mine. Leg day at the gym was my favorite day of the week. haha all true
The last year of bodybuilding for me I was up to 850 pound leg presses. It really isn’t that huge a deal, women naturally have strong legs, not so much upper body but legs can handle a lot. It just takes being consistent week after week and eating steak the night before. It worked for me anyway.
She says …”I’m intimidating, don’t you think?”……good grief! Not unless you are a steriod freak and then you are just asking for trouble. I can see it now, Madeline Albright on steroids doing a Sunday morning political talk show and having roid rage. YIKES!
Hey Madeline………”Iraq invasioni may end up being one of the worst disasters in American foreign policy.” I think NOT Madeline, now go sit in the corner.

Chinese man admits plot to import missiles to U.S.
LOS ANGELES, April 19 (Reuters) – A Chinese national living in Southern California admitted on Wednesday trying to arrange the sale from China to the United States of 200 shoulder-fired missiles that can be used to bring down airplanes.
Chao Tung Wu, 51, pleaded guilty in Los Angeles federal court to conspiring to import the missiles for a buyer who turned out to be an undercover FBI agent.
When Wu was indicted in November along with another man, Yi Qing Chen, they became the first people charged under a 2004 U.S. law forbidding the import of aircraft-destroying missile systems into the United States, officials said.
Wu, who also admitted to trafficking methamphetamine, counterfeit bills, cigarettes and Ecstasy tablets into the United States, made a plea bargain with U.S. prosecutors in hopes of reducing a possible 25-year prison term.
The indictment identifies the missiles as the QW-2 shoulder-fired type used by the Chinese military since the late 1990s. According to court papers, the undercover FBI agent was told the missiles would be shipped from China to Cambodia and then to the United States with the help of bribed officials.
However, the third-party country was later switched to Paraguay. The missiles were never delivered.
Wu is scheduled to be sentenced on July 31. Chen is awaiting trial.

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Wild Thing’s comment’s with articles below…………….
As we all know China does not believe in free speech. But this is America so let’s look at what happened with ole Hu Jintao visit so far today. A Falun Gong protester broke through security cordons to heckle Mr Hu during his opening speech, saying that his “days are numbered”.
Hu Jintao is a lover of genocide and running labour camps. Communist China has yet to read the writing on the wall, and is barrelling ahead with atrocities that should be the stuff of history or fiction, not 21st century fact.
In Parade magazine……….Hu Jintao, China #3 worst dictators in the world.
WHAT????? Are there GOOD dictators?
Hu Jintao, China. Age 61. In power since 2002. LAST YEAR’S RANK: DISHONORABLE MENTION.

Hu spent 38 years moving up the Communist Party hierarchy, proving himself efficient and willing to do whatever was necessary to advance himself. Now, as president and general secretary of the party, Hu is the leader of an unusually repressive regime. Apologists point to China’s economic liberalization and say its human-rights situation “is better than it used to be.” However, the party still controls all media and uses 30,000 “Internet security agents” to monitor online use. More than 300,000 Chinese are serving “re-education” sentences in labor camps. China carries out in excess of 4000 executions a year, more than all other nations combined.

Torture and killing of Christians in China:

WASHINGTON
Jan 14, 2002
Two Christians have been killed in the Chinese government’s crackdown on pastor Gong Shengliang and his South China Church in central Hubei Province, according to a letter from members of the underground church revealing graphic details and new information about the persecution.
Gong was sentenced to death Dec. 5 on charges of operating an “evil cult” and on the seemingly trumped-up charges of rape and assault. The month-long period for deciding his appeal was extended Jan. 5 by a Hubei court following sharp international protest.
The letter, written by two underground Christian women, Li Ailian and Wang Yue, reports that in efforts to find and apprehend Gong and suppress the South China Church, police arrested and severely beat at least 25 Christians, killing two of them, while torturing others with electric prods.

China’s Christians suffer for their faith

“They hung me up across an iron gate, then they yanked open the gate and my whole body lifted until my chest nearly split in two. I hung like that for four hours.”

Mr. Peter Xu Yongze, 61, is not the only Chinese Christian to suffer for his faith. Both Catholics and Protestants have long complained of persecution by the Communist authorities, and human rights groups claim the problem is getting worse.
According to the Jubilee Campaign, an interdenominational lobby group, about 300 Christians are in detention in China at any one time, and that number is set to rise.

“A Christian was praying, so a jailer made other prisoners lift him up to the ceiling and drop him to the ground many times until he died .”—Peter Xu Yongze

Here is the Video of Hu Jintao’s arrival today and the Chinese heckler disrupting HU Jintao’s speech.
There are many things that bother me tremendously about China.Including this fact, I can not beleive that in 2008 the Olympics will be in China. Hu Jintao had 400,000 residents of Beijing FORCIBLY evicted from there homes just to have the Olympic games.

* Michelle Malkin

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Just a little announcement that there is a new addition to the Sidebar.
I have added News Radio to the links.
There were some I could not put as they requested a fee and I wanted to offer you free links at not cost to watch or listen to news around the world. This way you can go to them as often as you like 24/7.

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Just scroll down the Sidebar till you see the old time radio graphic like you see in this post. Below the radio will be the various links.

One of the Blogs that I go to is called Homemade Sin. It is James Hooker’s and he is a very talented man. He is a song writer and he has written this song. Music has always been a part of my life so it has meant a lot to me when I first got my own blog back in Sept. 2004 and then soon afterward discovered James Hooker’s blog . It is a place one can go to listen as he expresses himself in his Blog with music.
This one is and mp4 song and slideshow. It is very well done, and you might need some kleenex as you watch it.
The name is Hanging Out With The Boys. …. < click to watch it.
Wild Thing’s comment…. Thank you James!

* Homemade Sin
* Anti-Idiotarian Rottweiler

Why right over at Aaron’s.cc blog. I wonder if the Dixie Chicks are their opening act. heh heh

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I LOVE it! Good one Aaron!

* Aaron’s.cc
* SondraK

Palestinian militants threaten to attack Jews abroad
17 Apr 2006 12:48:56 GMT
Palestinian militants linked to President Mahmoud Abbas’s increasingly fractured Fatah movement threatened on Monday to attack Jews overseas to force Israel to release Palestinian prisoners from its jails.
Two other main Palestinian militant groups, Hamas and Islamic Jihad, also said they supported violence to free more than 8,000 prisoners held by the Jewish state, but neither explicitly backed attacks on Jews outside Israel.
The call by militants of the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigades could heighten tension between Israel and the Palestinian Authority, which has been crippled financially by the loss of Western aid, and of tax and customs revenues frozen by Israel, after Hamas’s crushing electoral win over Fatah in January.

“This is an open call to all our fighters in the homeland to focus on kidnapping Israeli soldiers and civilians inside our occupied land. And if the enemy does not release our prisoners, then Zionists outside Palestine will be an easy target for our fighters,” the group said in a statement.

The threat was made shortly before a Palestinian suicide bomber killed himself and six other people at a sandwich stand in Tel Aviv, an attack claimed by both Islamic Jihad and al-Aqsa.
Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri, whose party now controls the Palestinian government, said militants had given Israel “a complete chance” to free the prisoners during a de facto truce reached last year.

“Therefore we believe our people have the right to use every possible means, including the use of force, to free prisoners and end their suffering,” he said.

Israel freed nearly 400 prisoners in June as part of pledges to secure the ceasefire, but Palestinians said this was not enough. Israel has said it will not release prisoners who have “blood on their hands”.

TEHRAN, April 18 (Reuters) – Iran has suspended a joint venture project to produce the L90 or Logan car with French automaker Renault in the Islamic republic, a government official said on Tuesday.
Analysts said the move would be a further blow to foreign investment in Iran, seen as crucial for creating jobs for the country’s young population. It also comes at a time of increasing international tension over Iran’s nuclear programme.
A dispute over exports of the no frills car appears to be at the heart of the dispute.

“Iran’s industry and mines minister has ordered the suspension of the L90 project until Renault company considers this ministry’s views regarding the project,” said Mohammad Karimi, a spokesman for the ministry.

An official for the L90 project in Iran said that Renault had accepted that 60 percent of the car should be built inside Iran, the car’s platform could be used to build other models and that the L90 would not enjoy a monopoly in its class of car in Iran.

But he said: “the main problem remains where Iran wants to have a share of this company’s (Logan) exports”.

Renault has said it had set up a joint venture with an Iranian partner to produce the L90 in Iran from 2006. The L90 is better known as the “Logan”, a car that Renault already produces in Romania.

“It is a very bad sign to the world community. It shows they can’t trust us again,” Leylaz said, adding that it will also have a major impact on the local car parts industry.

He said that the joint venture company had signed contracts worth about $800 million with local firms to supply parts. These contracts were now being threatened, he added.
Leylaz pointed to a previous dispute in which Iran threw out a Turkish operator of a project to run a new Iranian airport, saying it had already damaged Iran’s international commercial reputation.

“In this case, we are losing our internal reputation because hundreds of suppliers are involved in this project,” he said.

The four Soldiers sat around an olive drab painted footlocker playing cards. Actually, the group was comprised of three Soldiers and one Marine, all wearing desert camouflage uniforms, their blouses removed exposing brown t-shirts, not because they were hot, rather it was just more comfortable to have them off.
“Let’s go for six Top,” the Marine Captain said to his partner.
“Six it is then Sir,” First Sergeant McNeely agreed. Julian McNeely was from Newark, New Jersey and had served in this man’s army for just over 17 years. He took a lot of shit for his first name while coming up through the ranks, especially while at basic training, but only his brother got away with ribbing him about it in recent years.
Julian McNeely’s partner in this game of spades was Captain Mike Williams from Sarasota, Florida. Private First Class Williams attended the United States Marine Corps Officer Candidate School at Quantico, Virginia and graduated as Second Lieutenant Williams on September 9, 2001. He enjoyed playing cards with Top McNeely and the men, it kept his mind off of missing his wife and daughter.
Sergeant Booker B. Washington grew up in Montgomery, Alabama before enlisting in the Army the day after he graduated from Robert E. Lee High School in May of 2002, where his picture still hangs as the All-American quarterback who took the Generals to the state championship two years in a row. Booker B. Washington turned down several scholarship offers from colleges and universities like Notre Dame, Syracuse, Clemson, and the most tempting, the University of Alabama’s Crimson Tide. In his 18 year old heart, young Booker knew he was to be a Soldier first, before anything else.
“I can go three myself sergeant,” Private First Class Brian Velleux of Newport, Maine told his partner, Sergeant Washington.
“OK, we’ll go five and set them ‘V’,” the sergeant said confidently.
Brian Velleux disappointed his parents by joining the Army a little over a year ago. He was supposed to play professional hockey and make a ton of money and buy his parents a house in Florida and have fake teeth and bad knees and a BMW. He never really liked playing hockey; the early morning practices, the long ass drives to play 90-minutes of “chase the puck,” and the never living up to his father’s expectations on the ice. Brian Velleux loved being a Soldier had aspirations to one day be a noncommissioned officer like Sergeant Washington.
“Damn.” Captain Williams said, throwing his cards down onto the makeshift table after being set by the younger team. His partner grinned slightly, knowing the young officer had bid bigger than he had in his hand.
“We ought to start making our way to the station,” the first sergeant announced looking at his watch.
Captain Williams reflexively asked, “We got someone coming in Top?”
“Yeah, we got another Soldier comin’ home,” McNeely answered as he placed the deck of cards dead center of the footlocker and put on his blouse.
“Let’s go greet him ‘V’,” Sergeant Washington announced standing up, likewise putting on his blouse.
As the train pulled into the station, Corporal Carmen Sanchez marveled at the number of people awaiting their arrival, waving banners and holding signs all welcoming them. When she stepped off the train, Corporal Sanchez was greeted by Captain Williams and First Sergeant McNeely first, with a firm handshake and a pat on the back.
“Welcome home Sanchez,” McNeely said with all sincerity as he gripped her hand with his right, his left hand on her shoulder, and his eyes looking into her soul.
Carmen Sanchez joined the Army three years ago to the day in El Paso, Texas though she was originally from Honduras. Her parents immigrated to America when she was 13 years old, determined to give their daughter a future filled with freedom, liberty, and opportunities.
The melodic sounds of a band playing patriotic music caught her ear as she passed by countless numbers of people welcoming and thanking her, when Corporal Sanchez realized that she was the only Soldier on the train. Though there were other civilians disembarking, the “welcoming party” was solely for her. Tears welled in her dark brown eyes.
The original group of four received Corporal Sanchez as if they had known her forever. The card games continued, rotating Carmen into the mix while the “odd man” out took care of keeping score and maintaining refreshments. She quickly noticed that it didn’t seem to matter who partnered with Captain Williams, his team never won a game.
On her third day at home, Devlin Thomas, a tall blonde haired reporter in his mid to late twenties from New York, New York, who had taken the train with Corporal Sanchez, stopped by to see her.
“Hey Devlin,” Carmen Sanchez said looking up from her cards held in a fan with her left hand in front of her.
“Hi Carmen, how are you managing?” the reporter somberly asked.
“Fabulously! And you?” she responded slapping down the Queen of Spades, trumping that hand.
Devlin Thomas, junior reporter for the New York Times, just kind of shrugged in response, staring off into the distance, longing to be someplace else.
“Would you like a soft drink or some bottled water sir?” Private First Class Velleux asked, interrupting Mr. Thomas’ trance.
“Ah, no thank you,” Thomas answered. “Where are you from Private Velleux?” he asked the young Soldier.
“I’m from Maine sir,” replied Brian Velleux.
Devlin Thomas then slipped into his reporter persona asking harder hitting questions of the young private, “Why are you here? Is it worth it? Aren’t you angry?” Private First Class Velleux refused to answer.
A little later, Sergeant Washington was the “odd man” out and found himself talking with Devlin Thomas who took a bit of a different approach.

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