#2
Is this a big deal? No. Is it a little deal? Probably not even that. Should the cop be irate? No, maybe just a little peeved at the inconvenience. Should the warden be the final authority in the polling place, the captain of the ship/pilot of plane, as it were? Maybe.
BUT, what does it say about any individual in charge or ay aspect of "public safety" to order a cop to disarm? Or worse, what does it say about any individual, regardless of position?
#3
Good to see this was handled properly, and fairly quickly. Bad that this is one of many, many stories of illegal interference in the right to vote of legitimate, properly registered voters... not to mention stories of voting by illegitimate voters, whether or not properly registered. One day, perhaps someone will investigate how this election compares to those in the past for such little games.
[Iran Press TV] At least 21 people have been killed and over 80,000 others affected by massive floods that have washed through the small West African nation of Togo in recent months.
"The number of people affected by the floods is 82,767, including 21 deaths and 85 injured," Togolese Communications Minister Djimon Ore said in a statement released on Friday.
The floods have damaged thousands of houses as well as crops and irrigation systems in the country. The floods have also washed out roads and bridges, hampering transport and completely cutting access to people in flood-stricken areas. The area of damaged fields has been estimated at about 7,744 hectares.
The Togolese Red Thingy is helping to distribute aid supplies to the affected populations in the hardest-hit areas. The aid society is also dispatching its local volunteers to educate communities about hygiene and the prevention of waterborne diseases.
Local officials and health workers say that people in the flood-affected areas urgently need tents, food, water, medicines, mosquito nets, blankets, and other basic necessities.
The floods triggered by torrential rains hit Togo in September and early October, causing a large number of rivers to break their banks. The worst damages have been reported in the Maritime Region where River Mono has burst its banks.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
It's a La Nina year. Perhaps that had something to do with it.
Naturally, Islamic groups there are urging a boycott of the referendum because the new constitution would formalize a separation of powers between the state and Islam.
I knew this story was nonsense as soon as I saw the part of the headline, "could pave way for civilian government" ...
[Arab News] Al-Asalah and Al-Menbar, the two political groups that received severe battering in the first round of Bahrain's third parliamentary elections last week, salvaged some of their pride by winning key constituencies in the second round on Saturday.
The runoffs were necessitated in nine of the country's 40 parliamentary constituencies where none of the contestants could garner more than the mandatory 50 percent of the vote in the first round. Justice Minister and Chief Election Commissioner Khaled bin Ali Al-Khalifa announced the final results on Sunday.
Among the prominent second-round winners were: Al-Asalah chief Ghanim Al-Buaneen; Al-Menbar's Ali Ahmed Abdulla Ali and Mohammed Al-Ammadi; and Al-Asalah-supported independent candidates Isa Ali Al-Qadhi and Ali Al-Zayed.
The two most important losers were Muneera Fakhro and Ibrahim Shareef. Both candidates have been fierce government critics belonging to the liberal Al-Waad group. Al-Wefaq, with 18 seats, remains the single-largest bloc in the new lower house of Parliament. The 12 business-friendly, pro-government independents will have greater say in the new house than the traditional political groups that dominated the 2006-elected House of Representatives.
The defeat of Fakhro and Shareef was particularly stinging for the Al-Wefaq-led opposition camp. It had hoped to give a tough time to the government by having a combined strength of 20 seats in the 40-member house.
Mahmoud Abdulla Al-Mahmoud, the business-friendly independent who won in the second round from Al-Muharraq Governorate's Constituency No. 4, said the focus of all independents would now be on forming strategic alliances to boost the national economy.
"We will partner with other independents and come up with a blueprint for Bahrain's economic success. Our voters have reposed their trust in us and we will ensure they are not betrayed," Al-Mahmoud said after his victory was announced.
"I feel sad," said Fahkro supporter Muneera Ahmad. "We were hoping she would win this time; she lost last time also. Fakhro energized the youth. She taught us the meaning of freedom and courage. Her loss has dashed our hopes."
Al-Qadhi's supporters, on the other hand, were in a jubilant mood.
"If the victory had come in the first round it would not have been this sweet," said Abdul Hadi Abdul Latif, a telecommunications engineer. "Now we can sleep well and eat well ... This was the toughest battle, and we were on tenterhooks till the last ballot was counted. Now is the time to party."
Some of the Al-Qadhi supporters went berserk at some places and riot police had to be called in to control them.
Despite her defeat, the soft-spoken Fakhro -- a 69-year-old political veteran -- was in a defiant mood.
"I am not upset," she told Arab News. "I have gotten used to such defeats. It doesn't affect me, or my program. I am a liberal-democrat, and I will continue fighting for what I believe in. If I had won I would have continued my struggle inside the Parliament, now I will do it from the outside. This is a long struggle for better and dignified life."
Posted by: Fred ||
11/01/2010 00:00 ||
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[Bangla Daily Star] A Dhaka court yesterday issued a warrant for arrest of BNP Chairperson Khaleda Zia's younger son Arafat Rahman Koko in a money-laundering case. It also directed the police to report by November 30 on execution of the warrant.
"The court order means there's no legal bar to arresting Koko on his return to the country," Mosharraf Hossain Kajol, special public prosecutor dealing with graft cases, told The Daily Star yesterday.
Can they turn him over to the RAB?
Koko, who was jugged in September 2007 on graft charges and paroled for treatment abroad in July the following year, is now in Bangkok.
Incensed, pro-BNP lawyers brought out a procession on the court premises, demanding cancellation of the arrest warrant.
Asked about the court decision, State Minister for Home Shamsul Haque Tuku said, "How long will a person be on parole? Should parole last forever?"
Talking to The Daily Star last night, he also said, "Since the court, not the government, has issued the warrant, Koko must face it. If he is found innocent in the trial, he will come out free."
Only after appearing before the court can he seek an extension of his parole on health grounds, added the state minister.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... a ruling Awami League leader speaking in return for anonymity said the government has had the warrant issued to keep Khaleda Zia in pressure.
Judge Mozammel Hossain of Special Judge's Court-3 ordered Koko's arrest on a petition filed by the prosecution. He said the accused must appear before the court, or they will be tried in absentia.
Fixing November 30 for hearing on charge-framing against Koko and Ismail Hossain Saimon, the court directed the officer-in-charge of Kafrul Police Station to report back within a month.
Saimon, son of former shipping minister Akbar Hossain, has been on the run since the Anti-corruption Commission filed the money-laundering case against him and Koko on March 17 last year.
In the case statement, the anti-graft body said the accused had laundered money they received from China Harbour Engineering Company Ltd and Siemens for helping them win government contracts. China Harbour got a Tk 351 crore contract to set up New Mooring Container Terminal and Siemens a Tk 239 crore contract to supply and install equipment for Teletalk, the state-owned mobile phone operator.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Koko - named after that gorilla that could sign?
[Arab News] Two days before European Union border agency Frontex is to deploy its first ever rapid intervention teams to help Greece with an illegal immigration crisis, migrants are still streaming across the country's northeastern border with Turkey.
Dozens of undocumented Democrats crossed the border from Saturday night to Sunday morning, wading across streams and tramping through frozen fields to reach frontier villages near the town of Orestiada in far northeastern Greece.
Greece currently accounts for 90 percent of the EU's detected illegal border crossings, and has reported 45,000 illegal border crossings in just the first half of 2010, Frontex figures show.
I thought Italy accounted for 90% of the border crossings with all the boats coming over from Libya. Perhaps Italy and Greece each account for 90%, that would be in line with current immigration accounting practices.
EU sea patrols in the Aegean between Greece and Turkey have stemmed much of the flow of migrants to Greek islands near the Turkish coast, and the vast majority now use the northern land border, with most crossing along a roughly 12-kilometer (7.5-mile) stretch near Orestiada.
Greece, already facing a major financial crisis, has said its facilities are overwhelmed and it cannot cope with the numbers.
Panagiotis Siankouris, mayor of Vyssa, the area that sees the greatest influx, told the AP Sunday that between 100 and 300 people cross each day. Most wait to be picked up by police and taken to a local detention center, where they are held for a few days before being released with papers that give them a month to leave the country.
Last week, Civil Protection Minister Christos Papoutsis appealed to Warsaw-based Frontex for help, and the agency is to deploy 175 staff to the Orestiada area as Rapid Border Intervention Teams from Tuesday. The deployment is scheduled to last for two months.
"The immigration flow at our borders is very intense" Papoutsis said in an interview in the Free Sunday newspaper. "Alone, our country cannot deal with a phenomenon which is not local, but European. As such it requires European solutions, it requires European coordination." The minister said Greece was also sending a message "to the international community, the countries which are the starting point of the immigration flow, and to Turkey, from which we expect more cooperation in dealing with the international network of smugglers who are commercializing migrants' hope for a better life." The Frontex rapid intervention officers, drawn from the EU's 27 countries, will include experts in false documents, border checks, stolen vehicles and clandestine entry, as well as interviewers, interpreters and dog handlers, the agency said Friday.
Frontex is also sending equipment, including a helicopter, buses, patrol cars and vans with thermal imaging equipment from Austria, Bulgaria, Germany, Hungary, Romania and Slovakia, as well as a Danish office unit.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/01/2010 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Turkey has lifted a two-year ban on YouTube, which was imposed after the website had allowed the posting of videos deemed insulting to the country's founder Mustafa Kemal Ataturk. It'll probably be awhile before they unban Fezbook, huh?
The ban was lifted after the offending videos were removed from the site, it was announced in a staff address by the head of the country's prosecution authority, according to the Turkish-based Anadolu news agency Sunday.
The prosecution called on state bodies to remove the Turkish ban imposed since May 2008.
Meanwhile, ...back at the ranch... civil society organisations welcomed the decision, expressing the view that the law should not prevent freedom of expression or compromise the right to information sources, also calling on bans of other sites to be lifted.
Turkish Transport and Communications Minister Binali Yildirim had told news hounds on the matter, that Turkey is a nation controlled by the rule of law and that everybody in the country is subject to the law.
The Turkish constitution forbids any insult to the founder of the transformed secular republic. In the past, a number of writers and journalists were jugged and fined after carrying out such an act.
Turkey remains to have bans on thousands of websites on moral, political and security grounds.
Despite this, many Turks resort to internet proxy sites to overcome these bans.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#4
Thanks for sharing that. That's great to see George W. enjoying himself like that! I should think an ex-fighter pilot should be able to throw a good pitch! :)
Who's the gorgeous blonde gal standing next to Laura Bush?
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 ||
11/01/2010 21:37 Comments ||
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Interesting criticisms. If only they didn't come from WPE.
"I don't have any criticism of the members of the Tea Party. A lot of those same people, 30 years ago, were the ones who put me in the White House."
"This Tea Party doesn't realize that they are financed by oligarchs, in the oil industry primarily - the Koch brothers and others.
Mr. Carter is claiming he was put into the highest office in the land by oligarchs and oil interests, not the peepul? How odd.
They've been pouring hundreds of millions of dollars into the political system ... after what I call a stupid Supreme Court ruling last January." So just where does the Tea Party get its money? I never did give this much of a thought. But it kind of makes me wonder.
I also laugh at WPE's derision about oligarchical funding and his hand-in-hand denial of where liberals and their organizers get their funding. Which has more than its share from oligarchists, opportunists and detractors. Some traceable, some not quite.
#1
So, these ordinary Americans who are organizing themselves from the grassroots on up, are just useful idiots? Gimme a fucking break, Carter. This is just the typical leftist "your entire idealogical foundation is corrupt and your ideas cannot be spoken in public" thinking that has led them to the desert of ideas. Unless one speaks from a leftist frame, one's ideas are not acceptable in public MSM discourse.
#2
It may be true that some of the people in the Tea Party voted for Carter - that was 34 years ago. Since then, a lot of people have grown up and come to their senses.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
11/01/2010 7:29 Comments ||
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#3
Remind me again, Dhimmi, where does the Carter Center gets its funding? Oh that's right - the Magic Kingdom. So STFU.
#5
The whole paid for by billionaires shows a lot of projection on the lefts part. They understand that they could only get that kind of attendance at great financial cost.
#6
"I don't have any criticism of the members of the Tea Party. A lot of those same people, 30 years ago, were the ones who put me in the White House."
Actually, it was 34 years ago. 30 years ago, they elected Ronald Reagan and kicked your sorry rump out of the White House.
Posted by: Mike ||
11/01/2010 10:26 Comments ||
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#7
1. There is no ONE Tea Party, just a collection of local Tea Parties. And organizing them is as tough as herding cats.
2. I can't speak for other Tea Parties, but ours is most assuredly NOT financed by oligarchs (unless I, and my $100 contribution, and others like me qualify as such.)
#9
I dunno, Glenmore, it sounds pretty oligarchichal to me. You should have sent the money to some long-suffering deserving proletariat such as myself instead.
#11
I would say that Carter had the unique distinction of pissing just about everyone off in his 4 years. Republicans and Democrats thought him incompetent. He unleashed an internal war within his party and they ended up booting him.
Obammer has managed to exceed Carter. He has managed to piss off just about everyone in only two years.
#16
The one good thing Carter did was to block Teddy Kennedy from the Dem nomination against Reagan.
I was a registered Democrat in the spring of 1980 (my father was active in local politics, and if I'd shown my true colors it would have been awkward for him) and I proudly voted for Ted because that meant I didn't have to wait until November to vote against Carter!
Posted by: Mike ||
11/01/2010 16:35 Comments ||
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#17
So now that the title of WPE goes to Obean, what do we call Carter?
[Pak Daily Times] Interior Minister Rehman Malik warned public departments to improve within a week and put an end to corruption, adding that the government is determined to take stern action against corruption-plagued departments after November 7, a private TV channel reported on Sunday.
"Any office, be it WAPDA, FIA, Passport Immigration, NADRA or CDA or wherever it is responsible for public dealing, corrupt officers of these offices should mend their ways. After November 7, our covert action will start, we will have zero tolerance and the government will take action against the terrorism of corruption," Malik said while presiding over a meeting at the Federal Investigation Agency (FIA) headquarters.
"The government has taken corruption as terrorism and we'll fight it on a war footing," he said, adding results of the drive would be seen in the next two months. "Corruption is everywhere, in every government department, and this action shows they were not doing it before," he said.
Malik stressed the media to help the government eradicate corruption from society, saying he knew the scale of the menace. He directed the agency to adopt a zero-tolerance policy regarding criminal activities, saying that the process of accountability would be started from the FIA.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/01/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Corrupt officials should mend their ways: Malik
You're pissing upwind.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
11/01/2010 13:13 Comments ||
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A PLAN n by former Baywatch star Pamela Anderson to donate her $25,000 Playboy cover shoot fee to a charity that helps Indonesian disaster victims has been condemned by a hardline Islamic group.
Anderson announced her plans on her own website, Ive just shot another Playboy cover that will debut in January for Hugh Hefner, at his request - I adore him. Playboy and I decided to do this, so I could donate earnings from the shoot to Waves for Water.
But the Islamic Defenders Front on Monday told Indonesia's Metro TV that the donation to the charity - which works to bring clean drinking water to disaster hit zones - would be "against the law of God" because it was obtained through "immoral acts."
If she wants to be photographed naked, then she is challenging a bigger disaster to happen in Indonesia. It's haram [forbidden], Habib Umar Salim, the head of FPI's advisory council said.
#1
I'm guessing that the IDF has plenty of water (and other haram things to drink). Let them go thirsty for a week and see if they change their tune..."Allan willed it....."
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
