Even Bill Murray could joke about this. Murray struck a woman with an errant golf ball off his tee shot on the No. 9 hole at TPC Tampa Bay during the first round of the Outback Pro-Am on Friday. Murray, 58, was finishing his round when he hooked his tee shot so wide left, it flew to a neighboring house and hit Gail DiMaggio, who was watching the tournament from her yard across the street from the course.
Imagine a president of the United States, within his first hundred days, revealing secrets that help terrorists kill. The secret memos on enhanced interrogation, now made public, do exactly that. We are told by President Obama’s senior adviser David Axelrod that the president agonized for four weeks over the “weighty decision” to make public memoranda detailing the specifics of the CIA’s tough interrogation of high-value terrorist detainees such as 9/11 mastermind Khalid Sheikh Mohammad. For most other presidents, it would have taken maybe four minutes, required little soul-searching and resulted in the opposite choice. What on earth could the president have been thinking in revealing the nuts and bolts of how we extract information from al-Qaida operatives to prevent the success of their terrorist operations?
The Environmental Protection Agency concluded Friday that greenhouse gases linked to climate change “endanger public health and welfare,” setting the stage for regulating them under federal clean air laws. The EPA action marks the first step toward imposing limits on pollution linked to climate change, which would mean tighter rules for cars and power plants. Agency officials cautioned such regulations are expected to be part of a lengthy process and not issued anytime soon. Limits on carbon dioxide and five other greenhouse gases would have widespread economic and social impact, from requiring better fuel efficiency for automobiles to limiting emissions from power plants and industrial sources, changing the way the nation produces energy.
Action star Jackie Chan said Saturday he’s not sure if a free society is a good thing for China and that he’s starting to think “we Chinese need to be controlled.” Chan’s comments drew applause from a predominantly Chinese audience of business leaders in China’s southern island province of Hainan.
We all know how difficult it is for Janet Napolitano to figure out just who is a terrorist threat to this country and who isn’t so “HippieCritic” over at iowntheworld.com decided to help the rumored-to-be-a-lesbian out with an astonishingly easy to understand graphic to help her out. Notice there are no REAL terrorists depicted as that would probably hurt their feelings and we don’t want that now do we.
Charles Krauthammer artfully carves up Obama’s Georgetown University “New Foundations” speech.
Franklin Roosevelt gave us the New Deal. John Kennedy gave us the New Frontier. In a major domestic policy address at Georgetown University this week, Barack Obama promised — eight times — a “New Foundation.” For those too thick to have noticed this proclamation of a new era in American history, the White House Web site helpfully titled its speech excerpts “A New Foundation.” As it happens, Obama is not the first to try this slogan. President Carter peppered his 1979 State of the Union address with five “New Foundations” (and eight more just naked “foundations”).
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An American journalist has been jailed for eight years after an Iranian court convicted her of spying. The trial of Roxana Saberi, 31, lasted just five days and took place behind closed doors. Saberi, a freelance reporter for the BBC and America’s National Public Radio, was arrested in January initially for not carrying the correct press credentials. She was then accused of passing classified information to US intelligence services and taken to Tehran’s Evin jail.
The Obama administration is starting a broad effort in Pakistan and Afghanistan to prevent the Taliban from using radio stations and Web sites to intimidate civilians and plan attacks, according to senior U.S. officials. As part of the classified effort, American military and intelligence personnel are working to jam the unlicensed radio stations in Pakistan’s lawless regions on the Afghanistan border that Taliban fighters use to broadcast threats and decrees.
Police and doctors hailed the survival of Tammy Sexton, 47, as miraculous after a bullet from a .38-calibre handgun struck her squarely in the forehead, passed through her skull and exited through the back of her head. She is expected to make a full recovery, while her husband shot himself dead after the attack on his wife. But law enforcement officers in Jackson County, Mississippi, were also astonished that Mrs Sexton offered them tea when they arrived at her home after the shooting.
Don Henley, a founding member of “The Eagles,” is suing a Republican candidate for the U.S. Senate, claiming the candidate is misusing two of his popular songs. The suit filed Friday in federal court in California claims Charles DeVore is using Henley’s hit songs “The Boys of Summer” and “All She Wants to Do Is Dance” without authorization. The suit comes from two campaign videos that DeVore posted on YouTube that used Henley’s music, according to the lawsuit.
The monkey business is about to end for some Brazilian primates. Health officials in the central city of Goiania plan to perform vasectomies on 25 wild, urban-dwelling monkeys to keep their population in check and control disease. They’re looking to catch male Capuchin monkeys in three city parks, each of which has about eight female mates. The animals will be netted, snipped and released.
Large companies and government departments are employing a new Sydney-based company to dig up dirt on staff by spying on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter and YouTube posts. SR7 specialises in “online risk and reputation management” and claims to be the only company in Australia that actively monitors social networking sites on behalf of companies. (snip) Vaile said people, especially younger age groups, did not yet appreciate the legal, professional and commercial consequences of publishing material on the web.
Three patients exposed to contaminated medical equipment at Veterans Affairs hospitals have tested positive for HIV, the agency said Friday. Initial tests show one patient each from VA medical facilities in Murfreesboro, Tenn.; Augusta, Ga.; and Miami has the virus that causes AIDS, according to a VA statement. The three cases included one positive HIV test reported earlier this month, but the VA didn’t identify the facility involved at the time.