Is it just me or does the Mexico City police department look like it could use a few more motorcycles?
Rice visits Beirut in surprise Mideast tourUnscheduled? Sure. Unplanned? Of course. Unexpected? Great! But please, anything but "surprise".
BEIRUT, Lebanon - Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice sought to buttress Lebanon's fragile democratic government Monday after nearly two weeks of warfare, making this stricken capital a surprise first stop on a high-stakes Mideast diplomatic mission.
The House of Representatives passed legislation yesterday that would prevent judges from hearing cases seeking to remove a reference to God in the Pledge of Allegiance. In 2002, an appeals court ruled that the phrase "under God" represented an endorsement of religion and was in violation of the U.S. Constitution. The decision was later struck down by the U.S. Supreme Court on procedural grounds, but conservatives have been attempting since that time to prevent "activist judges" from tampering with the wording of the pledge in the future.
I'm not totally sure I have this right but I think I just saw on the wire that they're remaking "A Christmas Story," only this time with an all-monkey cast. Above, a Hulman langur recreates the famous "Flick gets his tongue stuck on a flagpole after being triple-dog-dared" scene, except instead of a flagpole, it's a tutti frutti ice bomb with frozen fruit inside. I, for one, wish Christmas would hurry up and get here already.
Okay, I'm as big a Red Sox fan as the next guy -- if the guy next to me happens to be a Red Sox fan -- but what's the deal with these mascots? Seems to me that if you're going to invite U.S. Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer, his wife and his 3-year-old granddaughter to throw out the ceremonial first pitch at Fenway, you trot out the reliably asexual Wally the Green Monster, not a couple of mascots that look vaguely, you know, tumescent.
General Casey appeared at a news conference here with Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld, who made a surprise visit to American troops at an air base in Balad, north of Baghdad, before meeting with Mr. Maliki in the capital to discuss plans to improve this city’s deteriorating security.
Whether the task is plotting last week's surprise trip to Baghdad or improving the flow of information at meetings -- ''I actually spent a good hour or two thinking about the structure of the table,'' [Chief of Staff Josh Bolten] said of the Roosevelt Room -- few details have been too small to escape his notice.
On Wednesday, Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld made a surprise visit to Baghdad -- his first in 2006 -- to meet with Jawad al-Maliki and other officials just days after the Shiite politician was selected as prime minister-designate. A spokesman for Mr. Rumsfeld said his visit was intended to offer support for the new government.Dec. 19, 2005
Vice President Dick Cheney paid a surprise visit to Iraq, the opening move in the White House's extraordinary daylong effort to shore up public support for continued military involvement there. His visit came as insurgents' attacks in central and northern Iraq left at least nine people dead.
Mr. Rumsfeld's surprise visit [to Iraq], which was not announced in advance because of security concerns, is to include meetings with Jalal Talabani, the Kurdish militia leader who is the new president, and with Ibrahim al-Jaafari, the leader of a Shiite religious party who has been nominated to be prime minister. The daylong trip to Iraq will allow Mr. Rumsfeld to conduct the first face-to-face meetings by an American cabinet secretary with the new leaders since they were chosen.
HANOI, Vietnam - After nearly two decades of ridicule, a father has agreed to change his son's name from "Fined Six Thousand and Five Hundred" — the amount he was forced to pay in local currency for ignoring Vietnam's two-child policy.Too bad it doesn't mean "I Got My Ass Kicked Up And Down The Playground Because My Father Is A Cheap Asshole Who Couldn't Part With Fifty Cents."Angry he was being fined for having a fifth child, Mai Xuan Can named his son Mai Phat Sau Nghin Ruoi after the amount he was forced to pay — 6,500 dong (50 cents), said Dai Cuong village chief Nguyen Huy Thuong.
In 1999, local government officials tried to persuade Can to change the name because the boy was constantly being teased by classmates at school. But Can, a former People's Committee official, refused to back down, Thuong said. They appealed to him again recently, and this time it worked.
"I told him that as his son is growing up, he should have another name — not that weird name — and he finally agreed," Thuong said.
The son, now 19, finally got a new name: Mai Hoang Long, which means golden dragon.
Sen. Joseph Lieberman, running for re-election in Connecticut, announced today that he will stay in the race even if he loses the Democratic primary in August. "I'm essentially taking out an insurance policy," Lieberman told CNN. "I'm opening up an option that will guarantee me that I will be able to make my case to all the voters in Connecticut in November." Lieberman, 64, also told CNN he will not vacate his Senate office even if loses the general election in the fall, will continue to use the "Ten Items Or Less" line at the supermarket even if he has more than ten items in his cart, will still drive in the state's HOV lanes even if he is the only passenger in his car, will file a 1040EZ tax form with the IRS even if his taxable income exceeds $50,000 and is considering challenging the "one coupon per customer" restriction at his local car wash.
Sandra Kullas and Margo Uusorg from Estonia beat out 39 other teams to take the world wife-carrying crown in Sonkajarvi, Finland on Saturday. Uusorg, 26, completed the course in a world-record 56.9 seconds, while Kullas, 19, clung to his back upside down with her legs around his neck. According to Reuters, the 11-year-old tournament is meant to "evoke the legend of robber Rosvo-Ronkainen who made people trying to join his gang run through a forest carrying heavy sacks."
Doctors pronounced Dick Cheney "fit as a fiddle" after the vice president underwent routine medical tests at George Washington University Medical Center today to check on aneurysms on the backs of his knees and a high-tech pacemaker inserted in his chest in 2001. The vice president's office said Cheney's pacemaker is "functioning properly", that no irregular heartbeat had been detected and that the vice president would take a treadmill test in the fall.
Doctors did note that while they continue to be "troubled" by the huge deposits of evil around the vice president's unusually tiny heart, they felt the American public probably wasn't willing to give its approval to the lengthy impeachment proceedings that would be required to remove it.
