Category Archives: International News & Politics

Cassava crop virus threatens millions, could be Irish potato famine writ large

Happy Monday Tuesday! In need of something new to worry about? Start off the new week, and month, right — with a new source of PANIC!!!!!!!!!: [A new plant-blighting virus, called] brown streak, is now ravaging cassava crops in a great swath around Lake Victoria, threatening millions of East Africans who grow the tuber as their staple food. Although it… Read more »

“Ha ha! I can see his arse!”

      1 Comment on “Ha ha! I can see his arse!”

Dear Lord, I love British people: We live in serious times. … [And] this seriousness is being compounded by an intensifying national determination to behave terribly seriously about it. … This aversion to levity certainly infused the [U.K.] election campaign. But there was a funny bit and most of us missed it. When Gordon Brown got in his car and… Read more »

Railroad, steamboat, river and canal…

Two in the middle and I can’t catch Cameron. Two in the middle and I can’t get around. Two in the middle and I can’t catch Cameron. Goodbye, Gordon Brown. [/obscure Chad Mitchell Trio reference that only my parents will get] Uh, so there’s an election today across the pond, over in the U.K., or as Wonkette and other snarky… Read more »

Eyjafjallajökull’s ash cloud

      2 Comments on Eyjafjallajökull’s ash cloud

From the Norwegian Meteorological Office, via The Map Room, here’s an animation of the ash cloud from the Icelandic volcano, Eyjafjallajökull, that’s disrupting air travel and sowing PANIC!!!!! all across Europe. “Yellow indicates ash that has fallen by itself, red ash that has fallen as a result of precipitation, and black where the ash cloud is at that moment in… Read more »

Olympics announcement live-stream [UPDATE: Chicago eliminated on first ballot; Matt Drudge dies of happiness]

Via Olympic.org. Again, here’s the timetable. Voting starts at 9:10 AM Mountain Time (11:10 Eastern, 15:10 GMT), and the announcement is scheduled for 10:30 AM MDT (12:30 PM EDT, 16:30 GMT). Live coverage from the Chicago Breaking News Center. More from ESPN Chicago. UPDATE: Whoa. That was unexpected. Let the schadenfreude begin! UPDATE 2: That’s more like it, Matt: I… Read more »

Gibbs backtracks on “elected leader” comment

Sounds like President Obama gave somebody a tongue-lashing: White House spokesman Robert Gibbs on Wednesday said he had misspoken in calling Mahmoud Ahmadinejad Iran’s elected leader and that Washington will let the Iranian people decide whether Iran’s election was fair. “Let me correct a little bit of what I said yesterday. I denoted that Mr. Ahmadinejad was the elected leader… Read more »

Joe Biden keeps his mouth shut!

      Comments Off on Joe Biden keeps his mouth shut!

From the “Signs Of The Apocalypse” files: Joe Biden has arrived in Baghdad for a surprise visit to meet with Iraqi officials and U.S. troops. Yes, that’s right: Joe Biden managed to keep something secret. Ladies and gentlemen, the end is nigh. PANIC!!!

Iranian regime launches all-out massacre [UPDATE: conflicting reports]

It sounds like today was a day of horrific violence in Tehran (WARNING: graphic photo on linked page). Excerpt: An Iranian blogger (whose URL I will not publish) live blogging from Baharestan Square in central Tehran today captures but brief glimpses of the unimaginable horror that took place today. Bus loads of protesters were stopped and unloaded from their buses… Read more »