THE RACHEL MADDOW SHOW
Best coverage of this serious news story.
Category Archives: US & World News
TODAY IN HISTORY, MAY 17 Reply
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Barack H. Obama… is not a crook!
“WILL PRINCE CHARLES FINALLY BECOME KING?” Reply
“RODMAN TO KIM: ‘DO ME A SOLID AND FREE AMERICAN” Reply
NBC SPORTS/AP
SEOUL, South Korea (AP) – Former NBA star Dennis Rodman is tapping his friendship with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un to ask for the release of a Korean-American man sentenced to 15 years of hard labor in the North.
“I’m calling on the Supreme Leader of North Korea or as I call him `Kim’, to do me a solid and cut Kenneth Bae loose,” Rodman said on Twitter. He later called the tweet a direct response to a Seattle Times editorial that dared him to ask Kim for the release if the two are really buddies.
Rodman visited North Korea in February and sat next to Kim as they watched an exhibition basketball game. His trip came at a time of high tension between Pyongyang and Washington and was not endorsed by the U.S. State Department.
Bae is a tour operator who was arrested in North Korea in November. The North’s Supreme Court sentenced him last week for unspecified “hostile acts” against the state. In a Foreign Ministry statement on Sunday, North Korea said the 44-year-old Washington state man entered the country with a disguised identity.
Bae is at least the sixth American detained in North Korea since 2009. The others eventually were deported or released, some after trips to Pyongyang by prominent Americans, including former U.S. presidents Bill Clinton and Jimmy Carter.
North Korea’s Foreign Ministry rejected speculation that it was seeking a U.S. envoy to negotiate Bae’s release, saying he is not a political bargaining chip.
Analysts have said North Korea may be using Bae as bait to open direct negotiations with the United States over its nuclear arms programs. Bae’s sentencing came during a lull after weeks of threats of war from Pyongyang against the U.S. and South Korea.
COMING TO A CABLE CHANNEL NEAR YOU!
“Boston suspects’ carjacking victim describes terrifying night”
CBS NEWS
(CBS News) You are about to hear, for the first time, from a man who got caught up in the terror in Boston two weeks ago and helped bring it to an end.
An immigrant from China, he was carjacked by the suspects, but escaped and tipped off the police.
This 26-year-old Chinese entrepreneur, who calls himself “Danny,” had just pulled over in his new Mercedes on a Boston street to send a text message when a man jumped in.
In his first television interview, he tells his story. At his request, CBS News is concealing his identity and has altered his voice.
“I thought it was just a robbery, you know?” Danny said. “He took out his gun, pointed to me. He told me that ‘You now I am serious. Don’t be stupid.’”
CBS Logo Light (Photo credit: watchwithkristin)
World Says ‘Goodbye’ to Margret Thatcher
THE “COWARD” SENATORS WHO VOTED “NO” ON GUN LEGISLATION
Some senators complained to the president about dealing with guns, gay marriage and immigration all at the same time. If our US senators and representatives cannot multitask in the 21st Century, then it is time for the American voter to cull the wheat from the chaff. We need new blood in Washington, DC. The old ways of governing the USA and leading the world no longer meet the challenges we face.
”Vote the bums out!”
—GoodOleWoody
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SENATORS, SOMETIMES
YOU HAVE TO STAND
FOR WHAT IS RIGHT!
“CBS/AP/ April 18, 2013, 1:18 AM – Unknown number killed in Texas plant explosion”
Updated April 18, 2013, 1:27 AM ET
WEST, TEXAS – A massive explosion at a fertilizer plant near Waco on Wednesday injured dozens of people and killed an unknown number of others, leaving the factory a smoldering ruin and leveling buildings for blocks in every direction.
The explosion at West Fertilizer in West, a community about 20 miles north of Waco, happened shortly before 8 p.m. and could be heard as far away as Waxahachie, 45 miles to the north.
A person looks on as emergency workers fight a house fire after a near by fertilizer plant exploded Wednesday, April 17, 2013, in West, Texas.
/ AP PHOTO/ WACO TRIBUNE HERALD, ROD AYDELOTTE
Although authorities said it will be some time before they know the full extent of the loss of life, Texas Department of Public Safety spokesman D.L. Wilson said just after midnight that an unknown number of people had died and more than 100 were injured.
West Mayor Tommy Muska told reporters that his city of about 2,800 residents needs “your prayers.”
“Navy unveils powerful ship-mounted laser weapon” 2
NBC NEWS
By Courtney Kube
The U.S. Navy announced Monday that it is preparing to deploy a new weapon that can disable a hostile boat and even destroy a surveillance drone overhead — all without dispensing any expensive ammunition.
It is the Navy’s Laser Weapons System (LaWS), a laser mounted on a ship that is so strong it can ignite a drone, sending it crashing and burning to earth in mere moments.
The USS Ponce, an amphibious transport docking ship, will be the first Navy vessel to deploy with the LaWS, officials announced Monday.
The new laser will be installed on the Ponce over the next year and operational in summer 2014. The Ponce is now based in the Fifth Fleet area, which covers the Persian Gulf and the Horn of Africa.
