Posts from — June 2008

Another Associated Press report about the inevitable result of the stonewalling by the Burmese junta: Gates could withdraw Navy ships after Myanmar ‘neglect’

SINGAPORE (AP) — Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday he will make a decision within “a matter of days” to withdraw U.S. Navy ships from the coast of Myanmar, because “it’s becoming pretty clear the regime is not going to let us help.”

As a result, he said many more people will die, particularly those in areas that can only be reached by helicopters, such as those sitting idle on the U.S. ships.

Asked if the military junta there is guilty of genocide, Gates said, “I tend to see genocide more as a purposeful elimination of people, this is more akin, in my view, to criminal neglect.”

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The Associated Press is nice about it: Immigration raids tend to spare employers

DES MOINES, Iowa – After the biggest immigration raid in U.S. history, hundreds of workers have been sentenced but not one company official as yet faces any charges — something critics say is typical of a federal government that is tough on employees but easy on owners.

Worker advocates and lawmakers say the fact that nearly 400 workers were arrested in the May 12 raid at the Agriprocessors Inc. plant in Postville — or more than one-third of the total number of employees — proves that company officials must have known they were hiring illegal immigrants.

“Until we enforce our immigration laws equally against both employers and employees who break the law, we will continue to have a problem with immigration,” said U.S. Rep. Bruce Braley, an Iowa Democrat whose district borders Postville.

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Not the campaign, but the Passing The Plate feature. After two years I have displayed all of Florida’s specialty plates. If they managed to pass more in this year’s two months of madness, also known as the legislative session, I will probably post them.

Understand that Florida also has special plates for other functions, like government plates, fleet plates, and plates for some groups of veterans that are free, but you have to qualify beyond having the money to pay for the plate.

If anyone is disappointed that this feature is over, all I can say is – get a life, seriously. It was a Sunday post. Something new if anybody stopped by, as well as a look into the strange world of Florida government.

June 1^st:

The official start of the hurricane season, which unofficially started yesterday by that upstart Arthur.

Events:
1495 – Friar John Cor records the first known batch of scotch whisky.
1660 – Mary Dyer is hanged in Boston, Massachusetts, for defying a law banning Quakers from the colony. She is considered by some to be the last religious martyr in what would become the United States.
1890 – The United States Census Bureau begins using Herman Hollerith’s tabulating machine to count census returns.
1967 – The Beatles album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band is released.
1980 – The Cable News Network (CNN) begins broadcasting.

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