Early morning... up at 3:15 a.m. for a ride to JFK. One of my "buddy" customers. God bless his wife - she always has the coffee hot and waiting for me when I get to the house!
No traffic either going or coming home; treated myself to a sausage, egg, and cheese on an egg everything bagel!
A little nap... 6:30 a.m. till 11:30 a.m.
(*HUGE FRIGGIN' GRIN*)
Since then I've watched last night's Walking Dead and now I'm watching Percival Jackson and the Lightning Thief. (Yep... gotta call my "little" buddies George and Harry to discuss later.)
Yesterday was a good day! Indeed, the entire weekend was a good one! Saturday was my buddy Coll's surprise birthday party - she hit the big FIVE OH (today in fact)! Nice party... open bar... Rebel IPA and Goose Pond Pale Ale were my beers of choice (though I did partake of a few other taps). Good food as well, though I ended up forsaking food seconds in favor of more drinking... and then made myself a sandwich when I got home.
Yesterday? A ride down to Westfield, NJ for a wine run! Yep... the nearest Trader Joe's with a beer/wine/liquor license is an hour away... but it's worth the trip! Well-chosen selection... unbeatable prices... the mixed case we bought couldn't have been more than $100.
Finally... to end the night... Mary took me out to dinner at Bellissimo in Park Ridge, NJ! Family owned and run... BYOB... the place was packed on a Sunday night! Excellent food and service including old-world touches such as a little bowl of olives with your bread basket and complimentary sambuca con la masca with dessert and coffee.
Well... let's see if I can do a bit better with newsbites today!
4 comments:
http://news.yahoo.com/brazil-presses-eu-undersea-cable-skirt-u-links-115123537--finance.html;_ylt=AwrTWfz.cAtT4nwACq3QtDMD
Brazil and the European Union agreed on Monday to lay an undersea communications cable from Lisbon to Fortaleza to reduce Brazil's reliance on the United States after Washington spied on Brasilia.
* ANOTHER "TRIUMPH" FOR OBAMA'S FOREIGN POLICY...
http://www.reuters.com/article/2014/02/24/us-iraq-iran-arms-idUSBREA1N10D20140224
Iran has signed a deal to sell Iraq arms and ammunition worth $195 million, according to documents seen by Reuters - a move that would break a U.N. embargo on weapons sales by Tehran.
(*CLAP...CLAP...CLAP*)
* TWO-PARTER... (Part 1 of 2)
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/U/US_DRUGS_ON_HIGH_SEAS?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2014-02-24-12-20-06
[D]rug smugglers are increasingly turning to the high seas.
[B]udget cuts have hit one of the lead U.S. law enforcement agencies on international waters - the Coast Guard, the only U.S. military service able to make drug arrests hundreds of miles offshore. To meet automatic federal budget cuts, it reduced its operating costs by 25% in 2013. It also lost help from U.S. Navy ships on drug missions off Latin America that were decommissioned and not replaced because of cutbacks, or sent elsewhere because of Washington's new military focus.
* DEFICITS CONTINUE... DEBT GROWS... THEY CUT THE COAST GUARD WHILE GROWING THE WELFARE STATE; DOES ANY OF THIS SOUND SANE TO YOU...?
[O]nly a third of suspected drug smuggling boats or aircraft out of South America that were tracked by U.S. intelligence in cocaine-trafficking corridors in the Pacific and Caribbean were stopped last year, the Coast Guard's top officer, Adm. Robert Papp, told The Associated Press. "Our interdictions are down 30% from the year before, when we had more assets out there, so that's an indicator to me that as soon as we start pulling assets away, they're running more drugs and they're getting through," Papp said.
* AGAIN, FOLKS... THESE ARE THE PRIORITIES WHEN YOU HAVE OBAMA IN THE WHITE HOUSE, REID RUNNING THE SENATE, AND THAT ASSHOLE BOEHNER RUNNING THE HOUSE. AGAIN... DO THESE PRIORITIES MAKE SENSE TO YOU...?
U.S. authorities stopped some 194,000 pounds of cocaine last fiscal year - more than 40,000 pounds less than in 2012, according to Coast Guard statistics. Marijuana seizures dipped between 2012 and 2013 from 124,000 pounds to 81,000 pounds.
"We've had to cut back in hours and funding, and cut back on resources on the water," said Cmdr. Chris German, deputy chief of law enforcement for the 11th District, which stretches from Oregon to Peru. "The Coast Guard's aircraft and ships have cut back on fuel, so every hour we're not in the air or on the water, it does leave a gap."
* PLENTY OF FUEL FOR PRESIDENTIAL VACATIONS...
(*SHRUG*)
* AND I'M SURE THERE'S PLENTY OF FUEL FOR CONGRESSIONAL JUNKETS - BENEFITING BOTH PARTIES!
* TO BE CONTINUED...
* CONCLUDING... (Part 2 of 2)
U.S. officials, for instance, cannot venture into Mexican waters without prior permission...
* WHY...?
* SERIOUS QUESTION! WHY...?!?! THINK ABOUT IT... WE VIOLATE THE TERRITORIAL SOVERIGNTY OF PAKISTAN, AFGHANISTAN, YEMEN, AND OTHER NATIONS AT WILL. WHY NOT TELL THE MEXICANS WE'LL DO WHAT WE NEED TO DO AND IF THEY DON'T LIKE IT..
(*SHRUG*)
Off California, smuggling vessels are typically spotted by planes from the Coast Guard or a federal agency, such as Customs and Border Protection, California National Guard or the Department of Defense. Coast Guard or CBP boats are then called to board suspicious vessels. CBP is prohibited from firing on boats off the U.S. coast unless the pursuit begins within 12 miles of shore.
* WHY...?
The Coast Guard has no such constraints, so the onus has fallen on it as smugglers have ventured farther offshore.
Adm. Papp, speaking at a defense conference this month in San Diego, said that the Coast Guard's resources to patrol the high seas and intercept threats are "woefully inadequate at this point." Its aging fleet of larger cutters is being replaced with faster, more capable National Security Cutters, but the number of high endurance cutters best suited for the high seas has dropped from a total of twelve to eight and will remain that way. The service's operating budget will return to 2012 levels this year, but future years are uncertain. Meanwhile, demands for the Coast Guard's 240 cutters, some 1,775 boats, and about 200 aircraft are expanding with the warming arctic and its emerging fisheries, cruise ship routes and commercial traffic.
* AGAIN, FOLKS... AMERICA IS A NATION IN DECLINE. WHETHER WE'RE TALKING POTHOLES OR POT SMUGGLING... THE GOVERNMENT JUST CAN'T GET THE JOB DONE ANYMORE.
In 2013, the service lost one of its own to traffickers who rammed their 30-foot boat into the small craft of Chief Petty Officer Terrell Horne III, 34, near Santa Cruz Island off Los Angeles. Horne's death drove home the dangers of the war on drugs at sea, said Petty Officer 2nd Class William Pless, 28. "You never know what you are going to encounter," said Pless, his gun at his side as he looked into the gray mist hovering over the Pacific waters on a recent evening, miles from the Mexican border.
* AND WHAT HAPPENED TO THE PERPS...???
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