I might be a few days late in creating this sub-blog here on HalfThePolitics.com. While the crazy antics of this Central American leader might already be yesterday’s news, I’m not ready to pass this opportunity to create a blog about one Hugo Chavez…. (read more)
In his latest article in his own magazine, Steve Forbes asks his readers to, “Imagine the setback the bad guys–Iran, Venezuela and other countries–would suffer if oil went back to a price range of $30 to $35 a barrel.†… (read more)
I respectfully ask and petition the authorities in Venezuela to immediately arrest President Hugo Chavez, and charge him, and convict him of violating his own “Disrespect Law (read more)
I’m diversifying my portfolio as some financial gurus might say. In the next couple of days I hope to be posting regularly to all of the new sub-blogs here on HalfThePolitics.com. Most bloggers tend to keep just one blog where they post about every topic. I’ve tried that format and every single time I get in the swing of things I always lose focus. By having separate blogs I can follow select topics that I share interest in. Unless the well runs dry I should be posting regularly and consistently from here on out. These new sub-blogs will have news articles, quotes, and follow the latest internet conversations. I have my Google Reader stocked with every single source possible. And all the major news organizations at the tip of my television remote.
The New Blogs:
Hugo Blog[ - Hugo Chavez, Venezuela, and Citgo. North Korea - All about North Korea, Kim Jong Il and his communist regime. Mahmoud - Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, Iran’s nutjob President.
About Half The Politics
I believe that bloggers aren’t just about redundant news dictating, but they also serve the purpose of bringing things together. While I’ve yet to master that skill I hope this new direction will be a good starting point for me to learn.
This Half The Politics blog is going to feature link roundup posts, breaking news, and site announcements. If you keep this RSS feed you will still get a link to every single article I post in the sub-blogs.
While I’m a conservative there are a few things you won’t get on this blog. I’m not going to be playing the politics by day game that a lot of bloggers tend to post about. I’m ashamed of pretty much everything that goes on in Washington D.C. and all the positioning and politicking that is involved. It only serves the purpose of distracting the nation from what’s really going on in the world. Whenever there are calls for an investigation in the new XYZgate scandal I’m not going to post about the details and analyze who is to blame and who isn’t to blame. I believe that Americans are good at heart - but we’ve yet to elect someone to Washington that reflects that.
On this blog you might see one or two posts about who is going to gain control or lose control of a certain part of congress. But those posts will be the day prior and after the national election. I don’t believe in the data polls bring to the table and won’t make any assumptions from them like many of the news organization do.
As you can probably tell I could careless about party politics. I’m not a Republican, I’m not a Democrat, and not even an Independent. I’m an American who happens to vote for those I think know the difference between right and wrong. The moment a candidate or an elected official makes the wrong decision they lose my support.
David Zucker, the director of Airplane, Naked Gun, and producer Scary Movie 4 spoofs Madeleine Albright’s meeting with North Korea leader Kim Jong Il. Drudge Report got the exclusive on the video:
I can see this going viral, I hope there are more of these videos are coming. Not for a political standpoint, but for the pure entertainment it provided.
A
North Korean official has warned that the communist nation could fire a nuclear-tipped missile unless the US acts to resolve its standoff with
Pyongyang, the South Korean Yonhap news agency has reported.
“We hope the situation will be resolved before an unfortunate
incident of us firing a nuclear missile comes,” the unnamed official
said on Monday, according to a Yonhap report from Beijing.
“That depends on how the US will act.”
Of course, what North Korea wants is bilateral talks with the United States.
Update: Some reports are covering this story without the first two paragraphs. Hmmm.
According to Drudge’s sources the nuclear testing by North Korea wasn’t nuclear at all.
GERTZ: U.S. doubts Korean test was nuclear; Readings fall short of atomic explosion… MORE…
U.S. intelligence agencies say, based on preliminary indications, that North Korea did not produce its first nuclear blast yesterday, WASHINGTON TIMES star reporter Bill Gertz is set to report in Tuesday editions.
U.S. officials, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said that seismic readings show that the conventional high explosives used to create a chain reaction in a plutonium-based device went off, but that the blast’s readings were shy of a typical nuclear detonation.
The underground explosion, which Pyongyang dubbed a historic nuclear test, is thought to have been the equivalent of several hundred tons of TNT, far short of the several thousand tons of TNT, or kilotons, that are signs of a nuclear blast, the official said. Developing…
(AP) North Korea said Monday it has performed its
first-ever nuclear weapons test. The country’s official Korean Central
News Agency said the test was performed successfully and there was no
radioactive leakage from the site.
North Korea Plans to launch a nuclear test, from NYtimes:
(WASHINGTON, Oct. 3) North Korea announced Tuesday that it intended to conduct its first nuclear test, prompting warnings from Tokyo to Washington that an underground explosion would lead to a sharp response and could undermine the security balance in Asia.
What if North Korea tests a nuclear bomb?
(CSMonitor) “At a minimum, a test would be a clarifying moment,” says Jonathan Pollack, director of the Strategic Research Department at the Naval War College in Newport, R.I.
In addition, a test would hold geopolitical ramifications for the northeast Asian region, experts say, and for international efforts to keep the proliferation genie in its bottle. “The political effects of a nuclear test would be at least as consequential - and destabilizing - as any technological leap it might provide the North Korean nuclear program,” says Daryl Kimball, executive director of the Arms Control Association in Washington.
A test would shake up northeast Asia, sending shock waves through South Korea and possibly inciting a regional arms race - causing Japan and even South Korea to consider it a necessity to reverse course and develop their own nuclear deterrents. That, experts say, would very likely mean that the international nonproliferation regime is dead. (More)
“Happy Birthday Puti!”
(JPost)North Korean leader Kim Jong Il has sent a birthday greeting to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the North’s official Korean Central News Agency said Saturday, amid mounting tensions over a possible nuclear weapons test by the reclusive communist country.
In a brief message, Kim extended congratulations to Putin on his 54th birthday and wished him success in accomplishing Russia’s socio-economic development, KCNA said.
Japan wants North Korea to halt the tests… or they can continue to test and they will ask the Anti-Security Council to slap the North Koreans on the wrist.
(news1130) Japan sees a possible nuclear test by North Korea as “a grave threat to the peace and security of Northeast Asia and the world” and welcomed the statement, a Japanese Foreign Ministry statement said.
“If North Korea conducts a nuclear weapons test, despite the concerns expressed by international society, the Security Council must adopt a resolution outlining severely punitive measures,” the ministry said.
Blowing up a coal mine…
(BEIJING) North Korea is ‘more or less ready’ to conduct a nuclear test deep inside an abandoned coal mine but might hold off it can win concessions from the United States, a Chinese source briefed by Pyongyang said on Friday.
The source, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said a device would be detonated about 2,000 metres (6,500 feet) inside a mine near the border with China in the north of the country.
I just finished watching Wednesday’s episode of Jericho, the new CBS drama where the United States suffer from a nuclear attack and a small town rushes to survive. In the episode a storm that possibly carried with it radiactive rain was swiftly heading towards the town of Jericho. The residents had to seek shelter in underground basements and bunkers just to stay away from the possible harm the rain could cause them. As everyone knows radiation poisoning is bad.
After the episode finished I refreshed The Drudge Report only to see this as the top headline: Chlorine Gas Cloud: Emergency In North Carolina Town. My first reaction was, “AHHH” My second reaction was if this was related to terrorism. As it seems now, there seems no connection to terrorist activites. They are describing the disaster as a leak that quickly developed into a series of explosions. The city manager of Apex said there were aboue 20 to 30 explosions. Flames could be seen shooting up to 100 feet into the nighttime sky.
I logged into the North Carolina local news that is streaming live on nbc17.com. The first words that I heard was their meterologist analyzing the direction of the winds and the potential of a storm forming to the west of the city of Apex. My first reaction was, “AHH!”
**World Exclusive**
**Must Credit the DRUDGE REPORT**
According to two people close to former congressional page Jordan Edmund, the now famous lurid AOL Instant Message exchanges that led to the resignation of Mark Foley were part of an online prank that by mistake got into the hands of enemy political operatives, the DRUDGE REPORT can reveal… Developing…
CLAIM: FILTHY FOLEY ONLINE MESSAGES WERE PAGE PRANK GONE AWRY
BAGHDAD (Reuters) - U.S. forces killed the leader of al Qaeda in Iraq, Egyptian militant Abu Ayyub al-Masri, in the western Iraqi town of Haditha on Wednesday, a government source said on Thursday.
The source who declined to be identified told Reuters U.S. forces acted on a tip and launched an airstrike and ground assault that killed Masri and three of his aides.
“There was a raid where we thought he may have been among those killed. We are still doing DNA tests but we do not believe coalition forces have killed al-Masri,” U.S. military spokesman Lieutenant Colonel Barry Johnson told Reuters.
*creates a new al-Masri Google Alert*
Update II:
Tests are being done on DNA taken from a slain militant to determine if he is al-Qaeda in Iraq leader Abu Ayyub al-Masri, but the US military said it is “highly unlikely” that the terror chief had been killed.
A US military spokesman, Lieutenant-Colonel Barry Johnson, said that a number of al-Qaeda suspects were killed in a recent raid in western Anbar province and initially “we thought there was a possibility al-Masri was among them.”
“As we did further analysis, we determined that it was highly unlikely that he was killed,” Johnson said.
“We are doing DNA testing to completely eliminate the possibility that this would be al-Masri, but we do not believe it is,” he said.
Johnson would not say what kind of a DNA sample existed that tests of the body might be compared to, but said “we’re confident we will be make a positive ID, or not, when the time comes.”
The process “can take weeks to resolve,” Johnson said.
