Thursday morning early afternoon quick hits

You mean that republicans have been lying??? Over the last weeks, wingnuts have been carping about Chinese oil companies drilling off the coast of Cuba, just fifty miles from Florida. Problem is, the claim is pure bullshit. The China-Cuba connection is "akin to urban legend," said Sen. Mel Martinez, a NIMBY republican who represents Florida. Martinez opposes drilling off the coast of his state, but backs exploration in ANWR. "China is not drilling in Cuba's Gulf of Mexico waters, period," said Jorge Pinon, an energy fellow with the Center for Hemispheric Policy at the University of Miami.


Formal talks between Taiwan and China are underway Ma Ying-jeou, who was inaugurated as president of Taiwan last month, ran on a platform of normalizing relations with the mainland has wasted no time in keeping that campaign promise.




Authorities seize American food aid in Zimbabwe A truck carrying 20 tons of food aid intended for poor children was hijacked by Mugabe's thugs and the wheat and pinto beans were distributed to government supporters at a political rally. "This government will stop at nothing, even starving the most defenseless people in the country — young children — to realize their political ambitions," said the American ambassador, James McGee.


Speaking of Zimbabwe...The Mugabe government has arrested a top official with the opposition MDC party and charged him with treason for releasing election results that the Mugabe government didn't like after polling last March. MDC presidential candidate Morgan Tsvangarai was also arrested for the third time in a month.

Still crazy after all these years You didn't think that Gaddafi had been stricken by a chronic case of sanity did you? He attacked Obama for supporting Israel and went on to refer to him as "our Kenyan brother", Col Gaddafi also said Mr Obama might suffer from an inferiority complex because of his African origins.