Day: April 20, 2006

Iraqi Prime Minister Ibrahim al-Jaafari gives up the fight and clears the way toward the formation of a national unity government.

 

Michelle has no reason to be afraid.

 

84-year-old Josephine Crawford.

She put $40 worth of nickels into a slot machine and got $10 million back.

“Somehow, I’ll spend it. I’ll spend it at the casino, and I might go to Vegas,” said Crawford, who spent 27 years waiting on tables before retiring in 1992.

The jackpot was won on Megabucks, a progressive slot machine linked to hundreds of others in Atlantic City’s 12 casinos. With progressive slot machines, a portion of each bet goes toward the citywide jackpots, which start at $1 million.

So far, she has received three marriage proposals.

This good news is Bush’s fault.

The number of new people signing up for jobless benefits last week fell sharply, a fresh sign that employers are feeling better about the business climate. The Labor Department reported Thursday that new applications filed for unemployment insurance dropped by 10,000 to 303,000, the best showing since the beginning of April.

This is bad news for Democrats. After all, the list of the victims they depend on is shrinking.

NRO’s Kathryn Jean Lopez:

While news reports all day and tonight will focus on the heckler, what our president said with the Chinese president by his side was no small thing. Here, in part:

“As the relationship between our two nations grows and matures, we can be candid about our disagreements. I’ll continue to discuss with President Hu the importance of respecting human rights and freedoms of the Chinese people. China has become successful because the Chinese people are experience the freedom to buy, and to sell, and to produce — and China can grow even more successful by allowing the Chinese people the freedom to assemble, to speak freely, and to worship.”

“The United States will also be candid about our policy toward Taiwan. The United States maintains our one China policy based on the three communiques and the Taiwan Relations Act. We oppose unilateral changes in the status quo in the Taiwan Strait by either side, and we urge all parties to avoid confrontational or provocative acts. And we believe the future of Taiwan should be resolved peacefully.”

KJLo provides links to a lot of “required reading” type stuff.

Given the warm reception Chinese President Hu Jintao has received since entering the United States, it’s easy to forget who the man is and what he represents. Let’s not forget – the man is a Communist, the concept of freedom is foreign to him, and the word itself is not a part of the Chinese government’s vocabulary.

Hu collided with freedom of speech today during remarks made at the White House.

Via Drudge: Chinese heckler disrupts Hu’s speech on south lawn at White House, ‘President Bush, stop him from killing’… one cameraman put a hand on her shoulder as she shouted… seemed to be trying to quiet her down… ‘Stop persecuting the Falun Gong,’ she yelled’… she is taken away by uniformed secret service officers… right after Bush urged Hu to allow Chinese to ‘speak freely’… (Video)

Meanwhile, viewers in China didn’t see or hear any of this.

As Hu was speaking when yells of protesters became audible, the screen went black. When the feed came back the screen once again went black when woman was again heard. During CNN International’s post-speech commentary, at mention of south lawn heckler, the screen also went black again. The CNN feed returned when the incident ended.

What gets me is the mixed message we send. Hu’s first stop in the U.S. was here in Washington State. The guy was treated like a King of Kings. In fact, he was treated better than we treat our own president. Hu was ogled by Governor Christine Gregoire, various state and local government officials, and even Microsoft’s Bill Gates. Although I’ve got to hand it to Bill. In remarks made during a dinner hosted at his house where Hu was the guest of honor, Gates touched upon the importance of user privacy and security online.

“This new era of an Internet-based economy also presents new challenges to us all,” Gates said in a speech that preceded Hu’s to a gathering of about 600 people at a luncheon hosted for the visiting Chinese president.

“It is my belief that industry and government around the world should work even more closely to protect the privacy and security of Internet users, and promote the exchange of ideas, while respecting legitimate government considerations.”

The statement appeared to be urging China to respect the rights of Internet users, but also seemed to suggest Gates thinks “legitimate” government worries need to be taken into consideration, without defining legitimate.

China kills 8,000 political prisoners every year. They provide military technologies to Iran and North Korea. They threaten to attack and destroy Taiwan. That’s the truth.

Yet, we welcome Hu to our country with a 21–gun salute in Washington D.C.

Weeks after she gunned down her husband in the parsonage where they made a home for their family of five, Mary Winkler is starting to open up to her lawyers.

“She appears to be coming out of her initial shock,” said attorney Steve Farese. “She is starting to open more, she is starting to be able to give us more details of the time period surrounding the events,” says Farese.

Winkler didn’t spend Easter with her children, and now her lawyer is attempting to arrange contact with the kids. It’s still not clear if that will happen. Meanwhile, the trial will most likely be pushed back to October due to the judge’s full schedule.