Rice signs missile defense deal with Poland

Rice signs missile defense deal with Poland: "'When you threaten Poland, you perhaps forget that it is not 1988,' Rice said. 'It's 2008 and the United States has a ... firm treaty guarantee to defend Poland's territory as if it was the territory of the United States. So it's probably not wise to throw these threats around.'"

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Yeah, we aren't scared of Russia. They can take their threats and stick it where the Sun doesn't shine. Russia is F-ing stupid if they think we'll let them help Iran and do nothing to protect our friends. If Russia would simply not help Iran with obtaining nuclear weapons, then we'd probably have much less reason to help Poland. So, Russia has made their own bed, and now they have to sleep in it. Dummies. But I'm sure it's just an act, surely their government isn't THAT naive... well, then again...

News 8 Austin

Case of non-triggerman set to die raises questions
8/19/2008 7:30 AM
By: Associated Press

HUNTSVILLE, Texas—Jeffery Wood's lawyers don't dispute that the convicted killer deserves punishment for his role in a 1996 convenience store holdup in which a store clerk died.

But Woods' attorneys and supporters contend he doesn't deserve to die for the shooting death of Kriss Keeran. They cite the fact that Keeran's murder happened while Woods was waiting in the getaway car outside the store in Kerrville. They also point out that the gunman who killed Keeran with a gunshot to the face, Daniel Reneau, has already been put to death.

Attorney Scott Sullivan said “a non-triggerman shouldn't get the death penalty.”

Wood is set to die in the Texas death chamber in Huntsville Thursday in a case that again put under scrutiny a unique Texas law that makes accomplices as culpable as the killer in a capital murder case.

Wood would be the ninth condemned prisoner put to death this year and the fifth this month in the nation's busiest capital punishment state. At least a dozen other Texas inmates have execution dates in the coming months.

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This has been the law for quite a while, it seems fair to me. Maybe the guy who shot the fatal bullet would not have been so apt to kill if he didn't have a get-away driver in the first place. So, the only question I have is, "Who cares?"

Who's the idiot in charge over there?

A Finding, Perhaps, but Not of Mars Life - NYTimes.com: "A complementary experiment that vaporized a sample of soil detected a whiff of oxygen at high temperatures, which may have been released from the perchlorates. The presence of perchlorates would have been confirmed if the experiment had also detected chlorine, but because the scientists were not expecting perchlorates, they did not calibrate that instrument to look for chlorine."

-Wow, so there may be something on Mars that we didn't expect to find. That's just crazy! Whoa, who would have ever thought to maybe analyze the soil for everything or close to everything possible so that we can learn something from the millions of dollars used to shoot the robot up there? I mean, you'd have to be a real genius to think of that...

Seriously, I'm more shocked to find out that NASA limited its parameters on what they expected than the presence of perchlorate, because usually the truth of most things, especially extra terrestrial, turns out to be unexpected. Here's a clue NASA, get it!