07/23 -- Ships ordered to leave Gulf spill site ahead of storm; Serbia rejects UN legal ruling on Kosovo's secession

[Thomas L. Knapp]

**************************************************
* RATIONAL REVIEW NEWS DIGEST
* The Freedom Movement's Daily Newspaper
*
* Volume VIII, Issue #1,968
* Friday, July 23rd, 2010
* Email Circulation 1,897
*
* Published every non-holiday weekday
* by the staff of Rational Review
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* On the Web: http://www.rationalreview.com/news
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In The News:

0) RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser
1) Ships ordered to leave Gulf spill site ahead of storm
2) Serbia rejects UN legal ruling on Kosovo's secession
3) Venezuela severs ties with Colombia in rebels dispute
4) Three contractors killed in Baghdad's Green Zone
5) Afghanistan: Two occupation troops killed in helicopter crash
6) AIDS experts: End war on drugs
7) Democrats drop signature climate bill
8) Peruvian presidential candidate courts votes in US
9) Bernanke: Don't stop stimulus spending
10) Memo portrays UN chief wanting control, secrecy
11) Detained G-20 protesters allege police misconduct
12) UN, North Korea to discuss sinking of South Korean ship
13) Trinidad to probe coup attempt by Islamic group
14) Friction among Afghans looms as challenge in south
15) MPP to Obama: Withdraw nominee for DEA Administrator
16) South Park hater charged with trying to join Somali Shebab
17) NE: Suits seek halt to town's Know-Nothing appeasement law
18) Leftover Kennedy campaign $$ go to Dems
19) Consumer group: Insurers kept surplus while hiking premiums
20) MA: Georgia man convicted in contract scheme
21) FL: ACLU lawsuit gets widower his guns back
22) South Africa: "Hero" workers foil farm attack
23) Obama signs unemployment benefits extension bill
24) US House panel charges Rangel with ethics misdeeds
25) Dell agrees to pay SEC extortioncrats $100 million

Everybody Has An Opinion:

26) Repeal religious freedom at Ground Zero?
27) Manufacturing dissent
28) Down with the rich, again?
29) The focus should be on reparations
30) Do critics of the Israeli government hate Jews?
31) Haters go after the "Ground Zero mosque"
32) Killing feels so good
33) Proof you are being exploited
34) Avaunt, Anabaptist Atavists!
35) How psychologists profit on unending war
36) Neocons versus nonproliferation
37) "Reverse racism": Weapon of mass distraction
38) Why not Jeb Bush?
39) Where do libertarians belong?
40) Scammed: What Shirley Sherrod & Social Security have in common
41) Unemployed and unfunded
42) The Right's power of infrastructure
43) Locked up before open heart surgery for downloading e-book
44) Gun control doesn't work
45) A word of thanks to four black men and one gun
46) Follow the path of liberty -- don't stray right or left
47) Get sane, simplify, and end government
48) Shirley Sherrod scandal: The obsession with "teachable moments"
49) Epithet inflation: The case of "racism"
50) Externalities, libertarianism and social dilemmas
51) Death of capitalism? Tragedy of the commons redux
52) Ponderings on strategies for promoting freedom
53) The character of unemployment
54) The conservative pseudojournalist method
55) Move along, there's nothing to see ...
56) D mag publisher backs LP candidate Myers
57) It's a fiscal problem, not a fed problem
58) Obama and legislative power
59) The lynching of Shirley Sherrod
60) Tight budgets and fewer cops; time for citizens to "arm up"
61) Suppose there were food insurance
62) Immigrants -- good or bad?
63) Pitting states against each other: Ford's expensive game
64) Will America's police become federales?
65) Public's confidence in institutions at odds with administration's
and congressional attacks
66) Michele Bachmann's Congressional Tea Party
67) Why not another world war?
68) Court ruling on federal law advances same-sex marriage
69) US cities at long last begin grasping the benefits of
privatization
70) 10 of the most crooked candidates of 2010

See No Evil, Hear No Evil:

71) Brian Costin on Freedom Rings Radio, 07/26/10
72) Cato Daily Podcast, 07/22/10
73) Free Talk Live, 07/21/10
74) Joe Meadors on Antiwar Radio
75) MPP Insider #012

What's Up In The Freedom Movement:

76) Today's events

***************
* In The News
***************

0) RRND/FND 3rd quarter fundraiser

Update, 07/23/10: Thanks to KD, TM and JD, whose contributions of
$26.82 yesterday bring our running total to $1188.82 ($138 more than
the ChipIn meter says) against our goal of $2,083!

Have a great weekend, and support the freedom movement's daily
newspaper - TLK

http://www.rationalreview.com/content/83890

-----

1) Ships ordered to leave Gulf spill site ahead of storm
USA Today

"The federal government ordered dozens of ships to evacuate the site
of BP's busted oil well as Tropical Storm Bonnie sweeps toward the
Gulf of Mexico. ... Work to plug the well with mud and concrete has
been temporarily suspended and [Coast Guard Admiral Thad] Allen
directed BP to keep the well's new cap closed." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/25v8aj7

-----

2) Serbia rejects UN legal ruling on Kosovo's secession
BBC News [UK]

"Serbia has said it will never recognise Kosovo's independence after
UN judges ruled that its secession in 2008 had not broken
international law. Their non-binding decision found no reason to
prohibit the Serbian province's declaration, made after nine years of
de facto independence. Belgrade, which lost Kosovo after a Nato
bombing campaign, argues the move violated its territorial integrity.
The US welcomed the ruling and urged European nations to unite behind
it." (07/22/10)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-10734502

-----

3) Venezuela severs ties with Colombia in rebels dispute
Independent [UK]

"Venezuela's president, Hugo Chavez, broke off relations with Colombia
yesterday and ordered a maximum alert on his country's long border
with its Andean neighbour, raising new fears of conflict in the area.
The move came minutes after Bogota presented to the Organisation of
American States (OAS) what it claimed was evidence showing that 1,500
left-wing Colombian guerrillas were hiding in western
Venezuela." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/23vx2ln

-----

4) Three contractors killed in Baghdad's Green Zone
USA Today

"The U.S. Embassy in Iraq says a rocket attack on Baghdad's heavily
fortified Green Zone has killed three foreign security contractors. In
a statement, the embassy said Thursday that another 15 people,
including two Americans, were wounded when a rocket struck the area,
home to the offices of the Iraqi government and the large U.S.
Embassy. Iraqi police said it was a mortar, not a rocket, that struck
the Green Zone." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/25kxaxd

-----

5) Afghanistan: Two occupation troops killed in helicopter crash
Agence France-Presse

"Two foreign soldiers were killed Thursday in a helicopter crash in
restive southern Afghanistan, NATO and a Taliban spokesman said. The
Taliban claimed responsibility for the crash they said took place
close to Lashkar Gah district, in Helmand province. ... No further
details of the incident were given but the crash 'is under
investigation,' NATO's International Security Assistance Force (ISAF)
said in a statement." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2ednu8o

-----

6) AIDS experts: End war on drugs
New York Times

"Some of the world's top AIDS experts issued a radical manifesto this
week at the 18th International AIDS Conference: They declared the war
on drugs a 50-year-old failure and called for it to be
abandoned." (07/22/10)

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/23/health/23aids.html

-----

7) Democrats drop signature climate bill
Boston Globe

"Senators John F. Kerry and Harry Reid conceded yesterday that they
have no chance of passing a comprehensive climate and energy bill any
time soon, saying they would instead push for a limited bill to
address problems with offshore oil drilling and to boost energy
conservation. ... The decision to abandon the proposal in the Senate
was another concession to the difficult political environment
Democratic leaders face, as many rank-and-file are wary of casting any
vote that could be used in political attacks by
Republicans." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2c8hz9g

-----

8) Peruvian presidential candidate courts votes in US
USA Today

"A candidate for president of Peru made a campaign stop Thursday to
court the votes of an increasingly important constituency: Peruvians
living abroad. Keiko Fujimori, the daughter of Peru's imprisoned but
popular former president Alberto Fujimori, added Paterson, New Jersey,
to her itinerary. The city is home to one of the largest emigre
communities outside the South American nation." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2849w9z

-----

9) Bernanke: Don't stop stimulus spending
MSNBC

"Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke told Congress Thursday that the
fragile economy still needs government stimulus spending to strengthen
the recovery and help reduce unemployment. Testifying before the House
Financial Services Committee, Bernanke did urge lawmakers to come up
with a credible plan to reduce the government's record-high budget
deficits in the long run. But he said they shouldn't move now to slash
spending or boost taxes, or undertake some combination of
both." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/28e2p4r

-----

10) Memo portrays UN chief wanting control, secrecy
Juneau Empire

"A portrait of Ban Ki-moon as a secrecy-obsessed U.N. chief seeking to
wrest control of internal investigations emerges from a blistering 50-
page confidential memo by his former oversight chief. The unusual memo
by Inga-Britt Ahlenius, a copy of which was obtained by The Associated
Press, describes Ban as more concerned with preventing news leaks than
with releasing possible criminal evidence to prosecutors." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2amnj6w

-----

11) Detained G-20 protesters allege police misconduct
Bozeman Daily Chronicle

"Some women arrested during G-20 summit protests in Toronto have
alleged police made sexual threats against them while they were held
in a makeshift detention center. The allegations were made in two
video testimonials played at a media conference Thursday organized by
the Toronto Community Mobilization Network in Toronto. One of the
women, Amy Miller, said police told her she was going to be raped when
she was detained for about 13 hours in a cell during the June 26-27
summit." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/27hwkco

-----

12) UN, North Korea to discuss sinking of South Korean ship
CNN

"North Korea has agreed to hold talks Friday with the U.S.-led U.N.
Command on the peninsula over the sinking of a South Korean warship.
It will be the second meeting between the two parties since the March
attack on the Cheonan, which killed 46 South Korean sailors. An
international investigation blamed North Korea for the sinking, an
assertion the North has denied." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/27nrufa

-----

13) Trinidad to probe coup attempt by Islamic group
Raleigh News & Observer

"Trinidad and Tobago's new government announced Thursday it will name
a commission to look into a bloody 1990 coup attempt by a radical
Islamic group in the twin-island Caribbean nation. Prime Minister
Kamla Persad-Bissessar, whose five-party coalition won a 29-12
advantage in May parliamentary elections, said the fact-finding panel
will help the country close a painful chapter of its
history." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/25hlu43

-----

14) Friction among Afghans looms as challenge in south
Yuma Sun

"Lt. Col. Abdul Hadi, a police commander in Kandahar city, is a burly,
bearded man who speaks quickly and bluntly. And he didn't mince words
during a meeting with a young U.S. Army officer overseeing an infusion
of elite Afghan security forces in his district. 'Most of the people
here, they wear turbans, but they are not Talib,' Hadi said, using the
singular for Taliban. 'But they're being searched like they are
Talibs.'" (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2bm2td3

-----

15) MPP to Obama: Withdraw nominee for DEA Administrator
Marijuana Policy Project

"Today, a coalition of organizations supportive of medical marijuana
patients and providers -- including MPP, Drug Policy Alliance (DPA),
NORML, California NORML, Law Enforcement Against Prohibition (LEAP),
and Students for Sensible Drug Policy (SSDP) - is calling on President
Obama to withdraw his nomination of Michele Leonhart to serve as
administrator of the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA). The
following is a from press release just sent out on behalf of the
coalition: Ms. Leonhart, who is currently the DEA's acting-
administrator, has not demonstrated that she is capable of leading the
agency in a thoughtful manner at a time when 14 states have enacted
medical marijuana laws and science is increasingly confirming the
therapeutic benefits of the substance. Under Leonhart's leadership,
the DEA has staged medical marijuana raids in apparent disregard of
Attorney General Eric Holder's directive to respect state medical
marijuana laws ..." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2elmnp7

-----

16) South Park hater charged with trying to join Somali Shebab
Agence France-Presse

"A 20-year-old US national has been arrested and charged with trying
to join Somalia's Shebab militants, the latest in a slew of homegrown
extremism cases in the United States. Zachary Adam Chesser, 20, was
charged Wednesday in a criminal complaint that he provided material
support to Shebab, a designated foreign terrorist organization, the
Justice Department said. Officials said Chesser sought to use his
infant son as cover so no one would suspect he was traveling to Africa
to join the Shebab, which earlier this month claimed suicide bombings
that killed 76 people in Uganda. According to court documents, Chesser
also was linked to a website that called for protests against the
creators of satirical cartoon South Park for the show's depiction of
the Prophet Mohammed earlier this year." (07/22/10)

http://tinyurl.com/2as3gov

-----

17) NE: Suits seek halt to town's Know-Nothing appeasement law
Washington Post

"Two lawsuits were filed yesterday against the town of Fremont, Neb.,
seeking to overturn an ordinance banning illegal immigrants [sic] from
renting homes or taking jobs. Fremont, a rural town with a population
of about 25,000, found itself at the frontline of the immigration
debate when it passed the law in a special election last month. It was
due to go into effect July 29, but a federal lawsuit filed by the
American Civil Liberties Union seeks an immediate injunction while the
legal battle ensues. The Mexican American Legal Defense and
Educational Fund also filed suit against the city. About 45 percent of
the town's eligible voters turned out, approving the ordinance 57
percent to 43 percent. ... Fremont's immigrant population has grown as
foreign workers have been attracted by the meatpacking
industry." [editor's note: As my friend Mr. Smith put it, "Democracy:
The principle by which 51% of a group may vote to KILL AND EAT the
other 49