Midway through his murderous rampage, the Virginia Tech gunman went to the post office and mailed NBC a package containing photos and videos of him brandishing guns and delivering a snarling, profanity-laced tirade about rich “brats” and their “hedonistic needs.”

“You had a hundred billion chances and ways to have avoided today,” 23-year-old Cho Seung-Hui says in a harsh monotone. “But you decided to spill my blood. You forced me into a corner and gave me only one option. The decision was yours. Now you have blood on your hands that will never wash off.”

NBC said the package contained a rambling and often-incoherent, 1,800-word video manifesto, plus 43 photos, 11 of them showing him aiming handguns at the camera.

He repeatedly suggests he was picked on or otherwise hurt.

“You have vandalized my heart, raped my soul and torched my conscience,” he says, apparently reading from his manifesto. “You thought it was one pathetic boy’s life you were extinguishing. Thanks to you, I die like Jesus Christ, to inspire generations of the weak and the defenseless people.”

Full Story at YAHOO!

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Mark Buehrle pitched the first no-hitter of the season Wednesday night - and he was nearly perfect, too. The Chicago White Sox left-hander faced the minimum 27 batters in a 6-0 victory over the Texas Rangers, picking off the only runner he walked and throwing his team’s first no-hitter since 1991.

Working quickly and efficiently in a dominant performance, Buehrle allowed only one baserunner. He walked Sammy Sosa with one out in the fifth inning, then promptly picked him off first base.

With the crowd on its feet in the ninth, Buehrle struck out Matt Kata and Nelson Cruz, then got Gerald Laird to hit a slow grounder to third base that Joe Crede picked up and threw to first. As Paul Konerko caught the ball, he pumped his fist, setting off a wild celebration.

Buehrle was mobbed by teammates at the side of the mound, including catcher A.J. Pierzynski, and then got a big hug from manager Ozzie Guillen as he came off the field.

The pitcher said his teammates tried to avoid him on the bench as the game progressed, following baseball tradition. But he went up to a couple of players in the dugout around the fifth inning and said, “You know I got a no-hitter going.”

Full story on YAHOO!

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“Save A Horse (Ride A Cowboy)”
Big and Rich

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This from the delusional nutjob who thought we’d buy into the “you can walk down the streets of Baghdad” line. One word……HA!!!

From YahooNews
MURRELLS INLET, S.C. - Republican presidential candidate John McCain (news, bio, voting record) told voters Wednesday that if he becomes commander in chief he’ll brief the public biweekly from the Oval Office on developments in the Iraq war.

“I would tell them exactly what the battlefield scenario is,” McCain told about 450 people packed into a VFW post in this town south of Myrtle Beach.

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Every once in awhile I like to put a name to the number. So many deaths in Iraq, and we hear the numbers, but we don’t hear who these people are. This blog has had more hits for “Shaun Blue” than I can count. So I googled him. Being from Chicago, I know Munster, Indiana. It’s right over the state line. Read about Shaun Blue. What a huge black hole in their hearts his friends and family must feel. If you are a friend of his and you end up here at the Blue Herald, please do leave a comment. Tell us about Shaun Blue. I’d like to hear more about this exceptional young man who lost his life in Iraq. My sympathies to his friends and family. What a tragic loss!

Rest in Peace 1st Lt. Shaun M. Blue!

1st Lt. Shaun M. Blue, 25, of Munster, Indiana, died April 16, 2007, while conducting combat operations in Al Anbar province, Iraq. Blue was assigned to 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, I Marine Expeditionary Force, Twentynine Palms, California.

A 25-year-old National Merit student who was a top 10 student in his Munster High School class was killed Monday while conducting combat operations in Anbar province, Iraq.
1st Lt. Shaun Blue could have achieved anything, said Munster High School Principal Steven Tripenfeldas, but Blue chose to join the Marine Corps in 2004. Blue was deployed to Iraq in January and was assigned to the 2nd Battalion, 7th Marine Regiment, 1st Marine Division, where he won numerous awards, including the National Defense Service Medal, the Global War on Terrorism Service Medal, the Combat Action Ribbon and the Sea Service Deployment Ribbon.

Before he joined the Marines, Blue was winning awards at Munster High, where he was ranked in the top 10 of his senior class of 2000, was in the highest honors group for his year and was a National Merit Commended Student.

“Talk about a kid that was mentally tough,” Tripenfeldas said. “He was one of those kids who did things everyone else was afraid to do.”

Tripenfeldas said he felt sick to his stomach when he found out Tuesday afternoon that one of his star students had been killed. Blue lived within walking distance of the high school, and his family has been a major influence in the Munster community.

More at the Post Tribune

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President Shit for Brains just doesn’t get it…..and he’s never going to. I was glad to hear the democrats say they would not remove the timelines from the funding bill. I hope they stick to their guns! 233 killed in Iraq today. Admiral Fallon says this is it, if the Iraqis don’t step up to the plate, it’s over. Surge or no surge. This morning there were 700+ Iraqis killed this month, this afternoon, we’re up to 935. What doesn’t President Shit for Brains get about THE SURGE ISN’T WORKING!
From the International Herald Tribune:

WASHINGTON: President George W. Bush and Democratic leaders of Congress failed to reconcile key differences Wednesday over a disputed war-funding bill facing a promised veto because it mandates the withdrawal of U.S. troops from Iraq.

Bush met with a bipartisan group of lawmakers in the Cabinet Room for about an hour. Democrats said afterward they would send the president legislation soon and held hopes that Bush would sign it. But the White House said that would not happen.

“It appears that they are determined to send a bill to the president that he won’t accept,” White House spokeswoman Dana Perino said. “They fundamentally disagree.”

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid tried to pressure Bush to sign the legislation. “We believe he must search his soul, his conscience and find out what is the right thing for the American people,” Reid said, standing outside the White House. “I believe signing this bill will do that.”

“It gives the troops more than he’s asked for and leaves the troops there for considerable periods of time with some goals and benchmarks that have been called for by the American people, the Iraq Study Group and many, many military,” Reid said.

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I feel another Haliburton contract coming on……. and I do wonder why Gaddafi didn’t meet Negroponte. Any thoughts?

TRIPOLI (Reuters) - U.S. Deputy Secretary of State John Negroponte left Libya on Wednesday without meeting Muammar Gaddafi after becoming the highest-ranking U.S. official to visit the country in half a century, officials said.

Negroponte said he held “excellent” discussions with Foreign Minister Mohammed Abdel-Rahman Shalgam and Ali Triki, Libya’s envoy on Chad and Sudan, during a 24-hour visit aimed principally at discussing the crisis in Sudan’s Darfur region.

He said Washington wanted to build a new embassy and appoint an ambassador to continue the improvement in bilateral ties since Libya ended a mass destruction weapons plan in 2003, a move that helped end its long international isolation.

Officials declined to speculate why Negroponte left without meeting the oil-exporting north African country’s veteran leader Gaddafi, who has met a string of other U.S. official visitors over the past four years including State Department diplomats.
(emphasis mine)

More at YahooNews

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SAN ANTONIO - Clear Channel Communications Inc. agreed Wednesday to a private equity group’s $19.35 billion offer - an almost 4 percent increase from the group’s previous bid that had met with strong shareholder opposition.

The offer of $39 per share plus the assumption of $8 billion in debt raises the price for the billboard and radio company by about $690 million. It came the day before a scheduled vote on a lower offer that was facing strong resistance from several large shareholders.

The new offer now faces a shareholder vote on May 8.

entire story at YAHOO!

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Update: 3:00p.m. Add the fact that the shooter had two campus stalking cases, and WAS hospitalized awhile back because of suicidal tendencies. Yah….it makes perfect sense that this kid can walk in and buy a gun.
Something that’s not being talked about is the problems with the mental health system in the U.S. This kid was quite obviously ill, and was not receiving the care he so desperately needed. Why? I don’t know……but there’s something wrong when a depressed, suicidal 23 year is acting out and not only is he not treated, he’s able to walk into a gun store and walk out with guns and ammo.

While some focused blame only on the gunman, world opinion over U.S. gun laws was almost unanimous: Access to weapons increases the probability of shootings. There was no sympathy for the view that more guns would have saved lives by enabling students to shoot the assailant.

“We took action to limit the availability of guns and we showed a national resolve that the gun culture that is such a negative in the United States would never become a negative in our country,” said Australian Prime Minister John Howard, who staked his political career on promoting tough gun laws after a gunman went on one of the world’s deadliest killing sprees 11 years ago.

The tragedy in a Tasmanian tourist resort left 35 people dead. Afterward, Australia’s gun laws were changed to prohibit automatic weapons and handguns and toughen licensing and storage restrictions.

Handguns are also banned in Britain - a prohibition that forces even the country’s Olympic pistol shooting team from practicing on its own soil. In Sweden, civilians can acquire firearm permits only if they have a hunting license or are members of a shooting club and have no criminal record. In Italy, people must have a valid reason for wanting one. Firearms are forbidden for private Chinese citizens.

More at YahooNews

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from “Crooks and Liars”

For the last several months, the White House and its allies have had a consistent message: debating the merit of the war in Iraq is an inherently bad idea. In February, when lawmakers were considering (and passing) a non-binding resolution criticizing the escalation strategy, Tony Snow went so far as to suggest that the debate itself brought “comfort” to terrorists.

A month later, when the House and Senate took up spending measures that included timelines for withdrawal, conservative war supporters said the very discussion sent a dangerous signal to the world, undermined the troops, and “emboldened the enemy.”

But when one cuts through the nonsense and the rhetoric, it looks like the Bush gang finds the Dems- efforts useful after all.

[Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates said Tuesday that] demands in the U.S. Congress for a timeline to withdraw American troops from Iraq are constructive because they exert pressure on Iraq’s leaders to forge compromises.

“The debate in Congress … has been helpful in demonstrating to the Iraqis that American patience is limited,” Gates told Pentagon reporters traveling with him in Jordan. “The strong feelings expressed in the Congress about the timetable probably has had a positive impact … in terms of communicating to the Iraqis that this is not an open-ended commitment.”

How about that, a “positive impact.” For literally months, the White House and its congressional sycophants have been arguing the exact opposite - that dissent is dangerous, that our enemies are listening, and that our troops are undermined when there are political divisions over war policy. But in reality, Dems are doing what the president refuses to do: pressuring Iraqis to step up.

cross posted at Crooksandliars.com

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Only proves not enough gun lobbyists in Washington have school-aged children.

Freedom of speech must have some limits. For obvious reasons, yelling ‘FIRE!’ in a crowded theater cannot be protected. Why can’t the same logic be used here? How many more kids have to be senselessly killed before eyes are opened?

Until a machine, which can prove a person “sane and well-balanced”, can be built and installed in every gun store in America, we need to revisit gun limits. (Sane people purchasing Glocks and AK-47’s… I made a funny!)

CNN.com:

Gun control unlikely to get on agenda despite shootings

WASHINGTON (CNN) — Is the Virginia Tech tragedy likely to put gun control on the political agenda? Don’t bet on it. In recent years, gun control has been an issue most politicians prefer to stay away from.

The last significant gun control measures to make it through Congress were the Brady bill in 1993 and the assault weapons ban in 1994.

And what happened? Democrats lost control of Congress for 12 years. President Clinton said the gun lobby had a lot to do with his party’s defeat. Democrats have been gun’shy ever since.
[...]

Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-California, issued a statement saying, “I believe this will re-ignite the dormant effort to pass common’sense gun regulations in this nation.”

But public anger is not usually sustained very long, whereas gun owners remember every gun control vote as a threat to their rights. Gun owners vote the issue. Supporters of gun control typically don’t. So politicians believe they will pay a price at the polls if they support new guns laws, even when most voters agree with them. When it comes to public opinion, intensity matters. Not just numbers.

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Just a wake up call to everyone who’s been fixated on the tragedy in Virginia (and it is a great tragedy), our troops continue to die in Iraq, along with hundreds of Iraqis, and no one on the MSM is talking about that. 6 U.S. soldiers Monday. 64 so far this month. In one week, 99 U.S. soldiers have been wounded. Over 700 Iraqi deaths already this month.
Today: BAGHDAD (AP) Iraqi police and hospital officials say death toll from Baghdad bombings has reached 111, including 66 killed in attack at market.

16-Apr-2007 6 | US: 6 | UK: 0 | Other: 0
US 1st Lieutenant Shaun M. Blue Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US Lance Corporal Jesse D. Delatorre Al Anbar Province Hostile - hostile fire
US Lance Corporal Daniel R. Scherry Al Anbar Province Non-hostile - accident
US Private 1st Class Lucas V. Starcevich Baghdad (southern part) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Private 1st Class Aaron M. Genevie Baghdad (southern part) Hostile - hostile fire - IED attack
US Sergeant Mario K. De Leon Baghdad (southwest part) Hostile - hostile fire - small arms fire

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In a Senate Armed Services Committee hearing this morning on Army and Marine Corps preparedness, retired Maj. Gen. Robert Scales testified that two thirds of regular brigades and “virtually all of our reserve brigades are not combat-ready.”

He added that “the stress of back-to-back deployments has created uncertainty and anxiety among military families that is affecting the morale and resolve of those who we will rely on to fight the Long War for a generation.”

Lawrence Korb, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, added in today’s hearing that the decision for a surge-to increase the number of ground troops in Iraq-”threatens to leave the United States with a broken force that is unprepared to deal with other threats around the world.” He further testified that Army and Marine commanders “will only be able to provide these additional troops by cutting corners on training and equipment and by putting additional stress on those in uniform.”

Korb said that while Secretary of Defense Robert Gates’s decision to expand the Army and Marines is “long overdue,” how to expand the forces without relaxing standards is tricky. To ensure those standards, he said, “the current target of adding 7,000 soldiers and 5,000 Marines per year is too ambitious in light of current circumstances and should be scaled back.”

Read more at USNews.com

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BERLIN (Reuters) - A drunken man who fell under a train after being jolted out of a nap at a railway station emerged unscathed from beneath the locomotive.

The 19-year-old had fallen asleep on the station platform in Cologne but was startled by the incoming train. Losing his balance, he fell in front of the locomotive, police said.

“According to the man he fell exactly between the two tracks and just felt a light knock on the head,” Cologne police said in a statement.

The shocked train driver pulled the emergency brakes only to see the man emerge unaided from under the engine. He was taken to hospital for observation.

NEW DELHI (Reuters) - Passengers on a British Airways flight from New Delhi to London faced a 13-hour delay as the pilot felt he was too sleepy after a noisy night in a New Delhi hotel, newspapers reported on Monday.

Angry passengers were offloaded from the plane early Sunday morning after the pilot refused to fly until he caught up with his sleep.

“The crew hadn’t had enough rest…the entire crew had a disturbed night,” Radhika Raikhy, spokeswoman for BA, was quoted in the Hindustan Times as saying, adding the airline’s safety rules do not allow its crew to operate in such conditions.

BERLIN (Reuters) - Business is booming for a Berlin entrepreneur’s unique service — delivering break-up messages for a fee.

Bernd Dressler, who charges 50 euros ($68) to tell people they have been dumped, says he has helped end 200 relationships in the last 11 months.

“I almost never get invited in for a coffee,” he told the Berliner Morgenpost newspaper on Monday. “Most of the time they’re totally surprised.”

Breaking the bad news only takes about three minutes and often leaves the message recipients in a state of shock, said Dressler, a trained economist.

People wanting to dump their partners in person can make use of coaching sessions given by Dressler, who also offers help for those wanting to save their relationships or apologize for going astray.

And if you’re headed for vacation, why not visit the town with the great name?

Take the family and enjoy vacation in beautiful Toad Suck, Arkansas.

Check out their website! Toad Suck, Arkansas.

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