Links and Minifeatures 2008 05 12 Monday

Carnival of Personal Finance

Carnival of Real Estate

Death toll in China earthquake up to nearly 9,000

Xinhua said 80 percent of the buildings had collapsed in Sichuan province's Beichuan county after the quake, raising fears that the overall death toll could increase sharply.

Fare thee well Irena Sendler. You will be missed.

Saved thousands of children from the Warsaw Ghetto, was caught and tortured by the Nazis, and still believed she should have done more?

People like her show you precisely how small one's own accomplishments are.

Army Corps says Condition of many levees a mystery

And it's not just a problem along the Mississippi and Missouri, either. The Sacramento River delta probably has more people at risk than any other per square mile.

Obama defends his patriotism, quarrels with McCain

"At a time when we're facing the largest homecoming since the Second World War," Obama said of veterans returning from Iraq and Afghanistan, "the true test of our patriotism is whether we will serve our returning heroes as well as they've served us."

Talk about ignoring the elephant in the phone booth! Yes, I'd like to see veteran's benefits augmented, but when Obama's "pull the troops out right away" encourages our enemies to stay in the game a little longer so they can win when we leave after he's elected, he's getting our troops killed. Good news, Ms. Soldier's Widow! Your husband would be eligible for increased benefits if he was alive! Great news, Johnny and Jenny Orphan! Your daddy would get better care, if I hadn't caused him to get killed! (end sarcasm). President Bush still meets with families of service members killed in action. How many have you met, Mr. "Give the military benefits with one hand while getting them killed with the other"? Oh, and how about stop trying to tie funding for the troops to all sorts of unrelated projects, Mr. Earmark? Finally, the VA regs and bureaucracy as as bad as they are because that's the way Congress wrote the law. You want to tame the VA bureaucracy? You have the ability to introduce such a bill, Mr. Obama. By the way, you might talk with someone about how closely our enemies do pay attention to US Politics. You might learn something.

Oh, and by the way, he's not correct about McCain failing to back improved veteran's benefits, either:

McCain's campaign said the Arizona senator backs a Republican alternative that is better because it enhances benefits for those who stay longer in the military, thereby encouraging recruitment and retention of troops.

They say familiarity breeds contempt. The more familiar I am with Barack Obama, the more I think he's a case in point. I still think he'd be a great guy to chat with - so long as I keep my hand on my wallet. Because every time he says something, he reminds me of the old lawyer's game of straining at flies and swallowing camels.

Technology Gets Cocky Department: MIT students show power of open cell phone systems

A Yemeni journalist

Thank you very much for this campaign, which comes in the context of the overall values that we believe, and they punish us when we believe those values and adopt them. I do not want to talk about myself, but rather the environment that we live in and suffering we endure from the inconsistency between what the authorities announce about democracy and freedoms, and what happens when we believe in those same things, democracy and freedoms.

They want us to practice our rights as they understand them, but we do it ideally. The regime said that democracy is the way of ruling, but when we try to practice our rights within this concept, criticizing the way that the regime governs and how they act, then they deal with us in a way that has no relation to democracy. They deal with us as outlaws. They use all of the state's resources to attack anyone who has any opinions not corresponding with their opinions, and to attack those who even discuss their way of ruling.

What I am suffering and facing is part of the price I and many others pay for the democracy and freedom we hope to achieve in the future. At least we are preparing for a healthy environment that we want the next generation to live in. We believe that democracy and freedom have an expensive price, and this is a part of that price.

However that doesn't mean we will keep silent and bend, as it is the price. We will refuse injustice peacefully. Solidarity is a way to enhance new civil values which support the democracy we will make with our sacrifice and with the support of others. We pay the price of the freedom for ourselves and for the generations after us. Again, thank you very much for your help and support.

Abdulkarim al-Khaiwani
10/5/08
Sana'a, Yemen

Armies of Liberation has a petition to save his life. They want to sentence him to death for criticizing Yemen's dung-ball of a president. It can't do any harm to take thirty seconds to sign.

We in the United States are obscenely wealthy not just economically, but politically. Let's help others get rich too!

Depressing: Gag on 2nd Amendment Is City's Aim in Guns Suit