THE OTHER SHOE DROPS: Updates To Previous Posts
† Updates To Previous Posts (third item, Waterboarding: The Latest Fad To Sweep The U.S.): Talking a page for Keith Olbermann’s playbook, RI State Rep. Rod Driver sent letters to former President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and ex-Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice offering to donate $100 to charity for every second they withstand waterboarding, reports The Associated Press.
Like all libs, Driver can’t tell the difference between needing to extract information vital to our homeland security from hardened terrorists who want to destroy us and needing to exact revenge vital to his political security from government officials who want to protect us.
Clearly, the Bust administration’s big mistake was not donating $100 to CAIR and Holy Land Foundation every time Khalid Sheikh Mohammed was waterboarded – such charitable donations would have cleansed the taint of torture from the act in the minds of libs.
† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, The Right To Bear Arms Belongs To Us All: Part II): It wasn’t by accident that the credit card bill included a provision allowing people to carry loaded guns into national parks (second item) passed both houses of Congress handily – Repubs and moderate Dems joined forces, reports The Washington Post:
Those Democrats, many from states in the South and Midwest, joined nearly all House Republicans to back yesterday's provision, which has passed in the Senate and could become law this week. The gun bill passed 279 to 147 in the House with the help of 105 Democratic votes; 145 Democrats opposed the bill.
The legislation was the latest defeat for gun-control advocates, who had expected more success with a Democratic president and Democratic majorities in both chambers of Congress. …
Yesterday's provision, originally sponsored by Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.), would allow gun owners to bring the weapons into national parks and wildlife refuges as long as they are permitted by the laws of the state in which the park is located. The bill codifies a change the Bush administration had sought in its final months, but a federal judge blocked the effort in March.
But this isn’t a one-shot deal: A bloc of 65 House Dems let Attorney General Eric Holder know that they would fight any effort by the Obama administration would seek to reinstate a ban on assault weapons.
† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, Never Mind Marxism. Will An Obama Administration Be Totalitarian?): In another show of bipartisanship, Dems and Repubs on the House Homeland Security Committee unanimously approved a resolution calling for a formal inquiry into the drafting and distribution of the Department of Homeland Security’s now-withdrawn "Rightwing Extremism: Current Economic and Political Climate Fueling Resurgence in Radicalization and Recruitment" that identified military veterans as potential extremists, reports The Washington Times:
[The] inquiry … calls for Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano to turn over all documents used to draft the report
"When this DHS-produced assessment first surfaced in April, like many Americans, I had issues with its content," said Rep. Bennie Thompson, Mississippi Democrat and committee chairman.
"Certainly its definition of 'right-wing extremism,' which did not clarify that extremist violence was the department's true focus, raised considerable concern," Mr. Thompson said. "So did the suggestion that returning war veterans posed a potential threat to the homeland."
The subpoena measure was originally introduced May 6 by Rep. Peter T. King of New York, the panel's ranking Republican, along with other party leaders. But the move was criticized then by Mr. Thompson as "another GOP stunt aimed at embarrassing the new administration."
The full House must approve the subpoena for documents before it becomes binding. The documents must be turned over within 14 legislative days of such a vote.
† Updates To Previous Posts (fourth item, Hunting Hokies): A couple of days ago, 20,000 faculty, staff and students at the University of California-Irvine subscribing to Zot Alert received a text message from school officials that they were checking out reports of a man wearing camouflage and carrying a rifle, reports the Los Angeles Times:
[The] report … was later downgraded when police determined it was probably just a student carrying a paintball gun.
UCI does have a campus paintball team that meets for practice Wednesday evenings. …
Fewer than two hours later, after news of the tip spread quickly across campus via the university's ZotAlert texting system and Twitter, police said they had detained a student near the campus student center. That person, who was not identified, was known to collect replica guns, but no weapons were found, said campus Chief of Police Paul Henisey.
He was released.
“The incident,” notes The Times, appeared to have served as a test of the campus emergency text-message alert system, which - like many across the country - was set up after the Virginia Tech shootings as an ultra-quick way to alert students to potentially dangerous situations”:
Some students … reported ducking into buildings or staying off walking paths. And there were voluntary lockdowns in some residential communities, such as Vista del Campo Norte, where students received an e-mail explaining they would be on "official lock-down of all community areas until we are informed that it is safe to do otherwise. We encourage you to stay indoors and keep all doors and windows locked."
Though the text and E-mail alerts alarmed students unnecessarily, they did provide the necessary information to keep them from inadvertently finding themselves at the wrong place at the wrong time. However, note that it still took police two hours to find the “gunman” and take him into custody. Had the threat been real, he could have killed dozens of people long before the law got there – unless an armed faculty member or another student who is proficient with firearms stopped him.
† Updates To Previous Posts (last item, BYOB?): The space station’s recycling system is finally up and running, which was cause for celebration, reports The Associated Press:
Astronauts aboard the space station celebrated a space first on Wednesday by drinking water that had been recycled from their urine, sweat and water that condenses from exhaled air. They said "cheers," clicked drinking bags and toasted NASA workers on the ground who were sipping their own version of recycled drinking water.
BTW, on the Russian half of the space station drinking water is condensed from moisture in the air.
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