With the term of Secretary-General Kofi Annan, a Ghana native, coming to an end at the conclusion of the year, the question of a successor has sharpened.

Bolton noted that the great sentiment was for selecting an Asian—following an unwritten geographical rotation system for selecting the U.N.’s chief administrative officer.

Bwahaaha!!! Bubba Clinton’s not Asian, he’s black!!!

BTW....Bolton RAWKS!

To: National Desk

Contact: Peter Hamm of the Brady Campaign to Prevent Gun Violence, 202-289-5792

WASHINGTON, Feb. 12 /U.S. Newswire/—James and Sarah Brady made comments today related to Vice President Cheney’s reportedly accidental shooting yesterday in Texas.

“Now I understand why Dick Cheney keeps asking me to go hunting with him,” said Jim Brady. “I had a friend once who accidentally shot pellets into his dog - and I thought he was an idiot.”

“I’ve thought Cheney was scary for a long time,” Sarah Brady said. ”Now I know I was right to be nervous.”

Mr. Braddock: Ben, what are you doing?
Benjamin: Well, I would say that I’m just drifting. Here in the pool.
Mr. Braddock: Why?
Benjamin: Well, it’s very comfortable just to drift here.

Hello darkness, my old friend
I’ve come to talk with you again
Because a vision softly creeping
Left its seeds while I was sleeping
And the vision that was planted in my brain
Still remains
Within the sound of silence ...

Please help

**via Ace**

gotchyer hearts ‘n’ flower right here, pal

Activists of the radical Kashmiri Islamic group, Dukhtaran-e-Millat, or daughters of the community, shout protest slogans against the practice of Valentine’s Day outside a card store in Central Srinagar, India, Friday, Feb. 10, 2006. Nearly two dozen black-veiled Muslim women on Friday burned Valentine’s Day cards and posters showing couples together in the main city of India’s Kashmir protesting the day that they say imposes Western values on Muslim youth. (AP Photo/ Dar Yasin)

... 

Mohammad Sarwar, though, was furious as he looked over the goods tossed around his small stationery store.

“They barged in, grabbed cards and posters and burnt them outside. Most of the cards were not even Valentine cards. It is difficult to do business with such threats looming overhead,”

UPDATE: *yep*

The fees would swell to $47.2 billion over five years, dunning taxpayers and industry to help pay for government services.

Bennett Madison, who says Valentine’s Day causes stress, poses in New York on Friday, February 10, 2006. Madison has spent a lot of time thinking about this. In fact, he’s written a book, too. It’s called ‘I Hate Valentine’s Day.’

And then to this extreme:

An Islamic separatist women’s group, known for its fierce opposition to Western-style romance, vowed to prevent couples celebrating Valentine’s Day in revolt-hit Indian Kashmir.

”We will not allow anyone to observe Valentine’s Day as it does nothing but spread immorality among youth,” said Aasiya Andrabi, firebrand leader of the separatist Dukhtaran-e-Millat or Daughters of Faith.

The group, which supports a 16-year-old separatist insurgency against New Delhi’s rule in Indian Kashmir, is also engaged in a crusade to stamp out immorality in the Muslim-majority region.

Valentine’s Day, which is celebrated February 14, is ”against our culture and Islamic teachings,” Andrabi said in a statement reported by Current News, a local news agency.

The anti-Valentine’s Day protest Andrabi’s return to moral policing after her release from jail where she spent four months for harassing a couple.

The group kicked off its campaign Friday against “Lover’s Day” in Srinagar, the state’s summer capital, by raiding half a dozen shops, confiscating Valentine’s Day cards and making a bonfire out of them.

The aim of Valentine’s Day is to “pave the way for Western culture to invade youths’ hearts and minds and distance them from their traditional culture and Islamic principles,” added Andrabi.

Look, I don’t give a rat’s patootie about Valentine’s Day...I find it somewhat annoying and if JR ever spent $75 on roses to give me on Feb 14th I’d probably kill him (I’d much more appreciate them on April 19th . Or something). But jebus...for the love of St Valentine........

DaveZilla

MANSTON, England - Adventurer Steve Fossett completed the longest nonstop flight in aviation history with an emergency landing Saturday, flying 26,389 miles in about 76 hours but stopping early because of mechanical problems.

Ground control said Fossett, 61, broke the airplane distance record of 24,987 miles while his lightweight experimental plane was flying over Shannon, Ireland.

Generator problems then forced him to land the Virgin Atlantic Global Flyer at Bournemouth International Airport in southern England instead of at a military air strip in nearby Kent.

“I was really lucky to make it here today, there was a lot going on,” Fossett told reporters after he landed. “The tension of the final part really took it out of me, but I will be fine in the morning.”

USA!
USA!
USA!

A1(because he got me most excited about this)

Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have stripped most surveillance cameras and agency seals from Iranian nuclear sites and equipment as demanded by Tehran in response to its referral to the U.N. Security Council, according to diplomats in Europe quoted by The Associated Press.

The diplomats, who demanded anonymity, said the move was part of retaliatory measures announced by Iran that have left the U.N.’s nuclear watchdog agency with only the most basic means to monitor Iran’s nuclear activities, according to AP.

U.S. Army Lt. Col. Marc Hutson (center), commander, 1st Battalion, 327th Infantry Division, 101st Airborne, Fort Campbell, Ky., holds a meeting with local Iraqis from Hawijah and Ryiad, Iraq, to discuss the reopening of route Trans-Am near Forward Operating Base McHenry, Nov. 1, 2005.  U.S. Air Force photo by Tech. Sgt. Andy Dunaway

I used to be the Lt Col.’s nanny.

He and his wife, Maj. Jane Hutson are two of the most incredible people I have ever known in my life. And they’ve done things for our Army that are being employed today. Major things.

Aaaaaand....they got me a ride in a Stryker one day! (before quite a few Army folks ever did I might add):

I got to meet Iraqis that were here helping us to liberate their country, too.
(they couldn’t thank us enough, BTW)

I’m so proud and honored to call them friends. Can ya tell?

Thanks for indulging me. I’m having happy flashbacks.

Photo source for Lt. Col. Hutson.