On the night of June 24, the media and government become one, when ABC turns its programming over to President Obama and White House officials to push government run health care -- a move that has ignited an ethical firestorm!
Highlights on the agenda:
ABCNEWS anchor Charlie Gibson will deliver WORLD NEWS from the Blue Room of the White House.
The network plans a primetime special -- 'Prescription for America' -- originating from the East Room, exclude opposing voices on the debate.
The Director of Communications at the White House Office of Health Reform is Linda Douglass, who worked as a reporter for ABC News from 1998-2006.
Late Monday night, Republican National Committee Chief of Staff Ken McKay fired off a complaint to the head of ABCNEWS: Link will change.
Posted by: ed ||
06/16/2009
17:56 ||
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#1
Time to boycott ABC advertising. I haven't listened to ABC in years anyway. Time to Recall O as well. Like Europe a power change is in order for many reasons too numerous to mention.
Note that ABC isn't even pretending to be fair and balanced anymore. All questions will be screened by ABC (and the Obama Administration) for content before being asked. No opposing questions or points will be made. When the GOP protested ABC answered basically: "Too bad".
You can bet that each and every 'question' will simply be a prop for Zero (and the TOTUS) to go on a 10-miniute speech about a subject making all sort of vague promises.
ABC will be Obama's 'Pravda' on steroids. And Charles Gibson probably won't even bother to wipe off his mouth afterwards.
#4
Our constitution is written for free press as if the big government was going to crush free speech, a sound philosophy. I bet the authors of the constitution never dreamed the press would conspire control the government like this. This is more dangerous than a dictator!!
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/16/2009 18:58
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#5
Already they are being called ABC-DNC, and the irony is that they don't care. Indifferent to their lack of credibility, their only concern is that the FEC doesn't declare that they are in violation of election laws by providing free advertisement to one party and not the other.
Clearly, when the Republicans are back in power, one of their first acts should be busting up the major media cabal with antitrust law. If the market hasn't put them out of business already.
#6
I'd love to see the RNC buy time on another network to make their own "equal time". At the end, the trunks could remind their audience that Obama got a big contribution from ABC of free air time, but the Republicans pay their own way. Let's have the dualing infomercials.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/16/2009 19:08
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#7
Time to stop calling it MSM, call it what it is: State-run Media.
#8
Our constitution is written for free press as if the big government was going to crush free speech, a sound philosophy. I bet the authors of the constitution never dreamed the press would conspire control the government like this. This is more dangerous than a dictator!! Pan
But you guys elected a Kenyan dictator. What the hell did you expect?
Bishop Ron McRae: Amen. I am so thankful. Could I ask her (Sarah Obama, Barak's paternal Grandmother), uh, about this, uh, his actual birthplace? I would like to see his actual birthplace when I come to Kenya in December. Uh, was she present when he was, when he was born in Kenya?
Kweli Shububia: He is asking her, he wants to know something was she present when he was born?
Translator: Yes. She says, Yes she was! She was present when Obama was born.
#13
Time to move to the next level of understanding: It is not "state-run media," it is a media-run state. Many on the right are fond of claiming that the mainstream media are the propaganda arm of the political left. It is really the other way 'round: the "left" as we know it today is the political arm of the Media-Industrial Complex.
So Davids apologized; good. Not going to carp. My work here is done! Yes, my piece in the New York Post pushed him over the edge, and activated his contrition glands. (Kidding, in case youre tone-deaf.) It would seem mulish to continue the matter - and its not like there arent greater matters to consume us. . . .
One of the things I found interesting about the matter was the position Palin continues to occupy in many peoples minds; its as if the Right was making Geraldine Ferraro jokes deep into the opening measures of the Reagan administration. As I may have said before, Im less interested in Palin herself than what she does to other people, because its funny. Todays example comes from Matt Yglesias, (h/t contentions) blog, and it has to do with the real story of the day, Iran. Its interesting to see people unwittingly demonstrate that they dont spend a lot of time dealing with disparate opinion:
Ahmadinejad is in most ways a classic right-winger, a demagogic nationalist and cultural conservative. In a manner somewhat reminiscent of a Sarah Palin, however,...
Youll be forgiven if you bale out at that point, be you left or right; its like a conservative commentator ruminating about whether Kim Jong-Il uses the rhetoric reminiscent of Rev. Wright. Perspective. Proportionality. But note how cultural conservative becomes conceptually elongated, so right-wingers who may, for example, not wish to redefine marriage become bunkmates with someone who denies the existence of homosexuals, and whose regime hangs them from lampposts. Well, we know the right-wingers here would, if they could, right? Its only the possibility of bad PR that keeps Dick Cheney from setting his daughter on fire. As for demagogic nationalism, one suspects that Yglesias finds demagogy in anyone who talks about love of country and the great things America has done without landing with both feet on a big wet BUT, and then goes on read the syllabus from a Howard Zinn course.
I didnt love America any less in the Clinton years than I did in the Bush years, or vice versa; I dont conflate my opinions about transitory leaders with my opinion about the nations role in history and its exceptional, if occasionally improvised, conflicted, and compromised struggle to do the right thing. I mean, go back in history and find another one of us. (Note: small ethnically coherent Nordic states that cant project power six feet over the border really dont count.) But unqualified love of country unnerves some people, as though the lack of qualifications means you dont recognize qualifying factors. Me, I think theyre obvious; were made of humans, after all, and every house we build has beams of crooked timber. But I dont recall a lot of FDR speeches laying out a litany of American sins in order to bolster the case for why America should fight Hitler, despite all those troubling similarities. After all, we lynched Jews, too, ergo we must face our own demons as well as those abroad. And so on.
Its interesting how he mentions Ahmadinejads demogogy, his language of class resentment, painting his more pragmatic and reformist opponents as decadent elites out of touch with ordinary people, and his populist use of oil revenues, and Sarah Palin comes to mind instead of Chavez - who, after all, called Ahamdi to tender a warm congrats. I swear, its the heels. They just make some men feel so small. In any case, when she gives a speech at the UN and later describes how she felt herself enveloped in a godly glow, give me a call.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/16/2009
16:53 ||
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Brian Deese, the 31-year-old Yale Law School dropout charged with restructuring General Motors, takes a lot of flak for his inexperience.
Atlhough a think tank researcher with zero business experience might be an unusual choice for such a big job, GM desperately needs a break from the past. Deese, a novice in an insular industry full of seen-it-all-before veterans, may be uniquely qualified to look beyond what "everyone knows" is possible and bring America's largest automaker into the future.
With a number of powerful lobbies sitting at the negotiation table, Deese is having to cut through the clutter and acknowledge the major structural problems facing GM. The truth is that GM's crisis is the product of decades of gross mismanagement by its own executives and the equally-powerful leaders of the United Auto Workers.
In March of this year, GM President Rick Wagoner was forced to resign at the insistence of the Obama administration. That Ron Gettelfinger, Wagoner's counterpart at the UAW, has clung to his own position is an injustice, but one that could easily be remedied with some pressure from Deese. Continuing to invite Gettelfinger to the table for restructuring talks makes as much sense as tapping Bernie Madoff to reform the Securities and Exchange Commission.
Gettelfinger oversaw the implementation of a UAW contract that runs to more than 1,110 pages, nearly five times larger than the nimble non-union contract Toyota works with. While GM bled $70 billion during the past two years, Gettelfinger resisted all significant cost-savings measures while loudly trumpeting trivial concessions like eliminating Viagra from the UAW health plan and giving up the Easter Monday holiday. And last year, even as GM's financial meltdown threatened his members' pocketbooks, Gettelfinger OK'd a lavish $100,000 union meeting at the Doral Desert Princess Resort in Palm Springs. If flying to D.C. on a private jet was bad optics, the UAW was clearly tone deaf themselves.
Gettelfinger had his chance, but it's time to go.
With Gettelfinger out of the picture, Deese's next move should be helping dissatisfied GM employees decertify the United Auto Workers union. The UAW claims to represent the interests of its 400,000+ members, but this catastrophic failure of leadership calls for a reevaluation of that relationship. GM's remaining employees deserve the chance for a secret-ballot vote on firing their union, just like all workers deserve a vote on whether to be represented in the first place.
Winning majority support for decertification shouldn't be a problem:
GM's workforce has seen countless layoffs and plant closures caused by deep-rooted union legacy costs and head-in-the-sand denial. When GM made a last-ditch attempt at viability by trying to restructure in 2007, the union instigated a futile 41-hour "shot across the bow" strike that in many ways sealed the automaker's fate. And it's certainly safe to say that few of these employees are getting their money's worth from of the $33 million Black Lake golf resort their union owns and operates.
The UAW had a good run, but it's time to go.
Private investors and bondholders wouldn't be the only ones celebrating the UAW's decertification. A recent study from the National Bureau of Economic Research showed that non-unionized companies' stock prices fare significantly better than their unionized counterparts. For UAW members whose ailing pensions depend on GM shares that have plummeted 95% in the past year, freeing the automaker of union entanglements could be the ticket to an actual retirement.
The UAW has failed its members, and GM will never be competitive with the UAW's noose around its neck. The American public is set to become 60 percent shareholders, so we've all got a stake in Brian Deese's performance. We the shareholders can only hope that President Obama's fledgling car czar will exceed expectations, make the tough call, and sever the union cord for good.
#3
I looked online at the new Chevy Volt, I love it, the first seriousand practical electric vehicle around, it's a pure electric, with an on-board generator, but at 40 grand I can't afford one.
Drop the price and use a diesel genset and they'll sell millions, as is it's a fantasy dream car.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/16/2009 17:39
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#4
GM will never be competitive. It is now a welfare program for the UAW.
Living near a 'former' GM plant, that's all the laid-off line workers are worried about.
"What's in it for ME!"
Posted by: Mullah Richard ||
06/16/2009 18:40
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#6
Jim, if GM cut the battery in half they would save $4-5K. Add in the $7500 tax credit and it's a $27-28K car before haggling. Still expensive for a Chevy Cruze but mucho bragging points.
Instead of a diesel (too expensive), I would like to see a 3 cylinder 100HP version of that engine that could push a subcompact to 50MPG by itself.
Posted by: ed ||
06/16/2009 18:42
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A Chinese waitress who has become a cult figure after killing a Communist Party official has been allowed to walk free.
Deng Yujiao, 21, was working in a hotel in Hubei Province when a local Communist Party official demanded sex and pushed her down onto a lounge after throwing money at her. She refused to have sex with him and stabbed him to death with a fruit knife.
Deng was arrested but gained huge support on the internet and in parts of the Chinese media as a figure who stood up against a corrupt official.
Today she walked free after getting off murder charges. Instead she was found guilty of the lesser charge of causing injury with intent.
The result will be welcomed by throngs of bloggers who had written songs and poems about her as a symbol of resistance to widespread corruption amongst party cadres.
For decades many in the American political and policy establishment--including close supporters of President Obama--have looked enviously at the bureaucratic powerhouse of the European Union. In everything from climate change to civil liberties to land use regulation, Europe long has charmed those visionaries, particularly on the left, who wish to remake America in its image.
"There is much to be said for being a Denmark or Sweden, even a Great Britain, France or Italy," wrote political scientist Andrew Hacker in his 1971 book The End of the American Era .This refrain has been picked up again more recently by the likes of Washington Post reporter T.R. Reid and economist Jeremy Rifkin. Just last year, international relations scholar Parag Khanna shared his vision of a "shrunken" America lucky to eke out a meager existence between a "triumphant China" and a "retooled Europe."
But the tendency to borrow from the European toolbox may be somewhat questionable, particularly given that a growing number of Europeans are either uninterested--barely 40% bothered to vote in E.U. Parliament elections last week--or in open revolt against their own system of government. In the elections, for example, parties generally opposed to expanding E.U. power gained ground in countries as diverse as Hungary, Slovakia and the Netherlands. In Britain, the relatively small U.K. Independence Party, which even opposed membership in the U.N., out-polled the Labour Party and trailed only the Conservatives, who announced their own shift toward a more euro-skeptic point of view.
Although the E.U.'s current top-down bureaucratic approach is clearly losing support, these recent events don't necessarily mean the E.U. is doomed. It's just that people who might be happy to accept a customs union and perhaps even a common currency are simply proving loath to hand over land use controls and environmental standards, much less foreign policy, to Brussels-based bureaucrats. At its root this move represents both a cry against control and a cry for greater autonomy.
For the Obama administration, there may be some significant lessons here. Compared with Europeans, Americans are disposed to dislike too much central control. Turning Washington into a new Brussels, with regulations to cover virtually any human activity, could backfire both on the president and his party.
The Congressional Budget Office offers preliminary estimates of 2 key provisions in a bill from Democrats on the Senate health committee.
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Two key proposals to improve access to health insurance could reduce the ranks of the uninsured but cost $1 trillion over 10 years, according to preliminary estimates released Monday by the Congressional Budget Office.
The estimates are the first in a series over the next few months that will attempt to quantify the costs and benefits of various health reform options. President Obama, citing the huge part health care spending plays in the economy, has made passing reform this year a top priority.
The report by CBO, an independent agency that scores legislative proposals for lawmakers, focuses on proposals to create health insurance exchanges and subsidize the cost of insurance for some households.
The agency estimated that the exchange and subsidies could reduce the number of uninsured people by roughly 16 million by 2015. It is estimated there would otherwise be 51 million uninsured that year.
The CBO estimates are based on parts of a health reform bill from Democrats on the Senate's Health, Education, Labor and Pension Committee, chaired by Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass.
The committee will start debating and amending that bill on Wednesday.
Under the bill, the federal government would give grants to states to set up insurance exchanges that consumers could use to comparison shop for health insurance. And it would offer subsidies of varying levels to help families with incomes up to 500% of poverty level (roughly $110,000) to pay for coverage.
The federal government would also subsidize small businesses that offer health benefits but have workers with low wages.
The CBO stressed that its estimates are preliminary for several reasons:
- They only reflect analysis of one part of the health committee bill. So they aren't a comprehensive look at the potential costs and savings of all measures in that bill.
- They do not reflect the likely interactions that will occur with other elements of comprehensive health reform that may be included -- such as an expansion of Medicaid or the creation of a public insurance plan, which is the most controversial issue in the health reform debate.
- In addition, the CBO has not yet finished its analysis of all the bill's elements, such as a proposal to let parents cover their children as dependents until they're 27.
The health committee bill is hardly the last word on health reform. Other congressional committees have jurisdiction over other parts of health care reform.
One is the Senate Finance Committee, which will oversee the tax proposals intended to help pay for the overhaul of the health care system.
The finance panel's chairman, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., is expected to release a draft of his health reform bill this week.
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
06/16/2009 15:07
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#2
Bankrupting the pubic treasury to buy indulgences for your personal sins and guilt by erecting monuments for your ego could well repeat history - ask the Catholic Church. Throw in the depth of corruption in the hierarchy and this is going to be one of those 'may you live in interesting times'. When you have no history other than from the time you were born, you'll be more likely to repeat fatal and regrettable mistakes others have learned and you have not.
#3
this morning FoxNews also reported that that $1 trillion would only cover 1/3 of the uninsured, so you're really looking at $3 trillion + to cover all the uninsured
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/16/2009 16:48
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#6
Can anyone read these estimates without laughing out loud? I confidently predict whatever plan Obama & the Dems launch will be a dog's breakfast. My less confident cost estimate is $1 Trillion a year, or until the US goes broke, whichever comes first. They really take us for idiots.
#7
$1.6 trillion and climbing. AP: Senate sources say the latest cost estimates for health care legislation are around $1.6 trillion over 10 years. Two Senate staffers, one Democratic and one Republican, said Congressional Budget Office estimates put the cost of the Finance Committee version of the bill at around $1.6 trillion.
#10
A new development today which illustrates part of the problem: An FDA advisory panel has recommended the FDA approve a new drug Krystexxa to treat severe gout in a way that had never been possible before. The drug directly breaks down uric acid and turns it into soluble/excretable metabolites. It is aimed at the approximately 50,000 Americans whose gout cannot be treated with other drugs. Clinical trials have indicated it will work for 40% of them. The drug has to be given intravenously every 2-4 weeks. It is estimated to cost tens of thousands of dollars per patient per year.
I could swear that Matt Yglesias used to talk about how Ahmadinejad was ultimately reasonable. Now Ahmadinejad's a really bad guy because he's like . . . Sarah Palin.
Ahmadinejad is in most ways a classic right-winger, a demagogic nationalist and cultural conservative. In a manner somewhat reminiscent of a Sarah Palin, however, he clothes this right-wing politics in a language of class resentment, painting his more pragmatic and reformist opponents as decadent elites out of touch with ordinary people. Unlike the populists of the American right, however, he merges this rhetoric with something resembling an actual populist economic agenda. The main element has been the use of oil revenue to expand the state sector of the economy in an attempt to distribute wealth more broadly throughout the country. This approach has gained Ahmadinejad a loyal following among the rural poor and public employees, but Iran's objective economic performance has been disappointing, even during the great oil boom years.
Yes, Yglesias is referring to the same Mahmoud Ahmadinejad who calls for Israel to be wiped off the map, who denies the existence of the Holocaust, who calls Jews (whoops, Zionists) the "true manifestation of Satan," and so on. But the main distinction between Ahmadinejad from Palin? The former is in favor of redistributing the wealth, which automatically makes him better than Palin in Yglesias's mind.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/16/2009
13:15 ||
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Pakistan's army launched airstrikes and ferried in tanks and artillery as it confirmed Tuesday that it was preparing a major offensive against insurgents in al-Qaida and the Taliban's safest haven along the Afghan border.
The highly anticipated military operation in South Waziristan is seen as a potential turning point in the yearslong and sometimes half-hearted fight against militancy in Pakistan. It could also help curb Taliban attacks on Western forces in neighboring Afghanistan.
But the offensive in the lawless tribal region will also be the toughest yet for Pakistan's military, testing both its fighting capability and the government's will to see it through, analysts said.
Pakistani army spokesman Maj. Gen. Athar Abbas said the military had received executive orders from the government to begin operations against Pakistani Taliban leader Baitullah Mehsud, whose base is in South Waziristan.
"The necessary measures and steps which are part of a preliminary phase of the operation, the preparatory phase of the operation, that has commenced," Abbas told a news conference.
But Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira stressed that the operation "has not been officially started."
They declined to give more details, citing operational secrecy.
Convoys of military trucks carrying tanks and artillery were seen Tuesday in the towns of Dera Ismail Khan and Tank, near South Waziristan. Intelligence officials said they were part of the buildup for the operation against Mehsud.
In recent days, the military has shelled and launched airstrikes in both South Waziristan and neighboring Bannu, although so far there has not been large-scale fighting with the militants.
On Tuesday, the army shelled suspected militant hideouts in three villages in South Waziristan in response to attacks on two military checkpoints, and helicopter gunships targeted Mehsud hide-outs in the region, intelligence officials told The Associated Press.
One official called the attacks "surgical strikes" ahead of the main operation.
The officials spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to disclose information to the media.
The military buildup comes as the army says it is entering the final stages of a major operation against the Taliban in the northwestern Swat Valley, which has triggered a wave of retaliatory attacks by militants across Pakistan that have been blamed on Mehsud.
More than 100 people have died since late May in suicide bombings on targets including police and security buildings, mosques and a hotel catering to foreigners. The attacks have fueled anti-Taliban sentiment in Pakistan that in turn has emboldened the politically weak government of President Asif Ali Zardari.
A military assault in South Waziristan would likely trigger an escalation in the attacks something the government is bracing for.
"The risk of lives is there we have to give sacrifices, we have to pay this price and the nation is ready to give this price to get rid of this menace," Kaira said.
The slow start to the offensive may indicate the government is talking it up before launching it to allow civilians time to flee. The Swat offensive displaced more than 2 million people.
Thousands of residents have already fled Waziristan, local officials and refugees say, and are most are staying with extended family. Aid agencies have warned that the humanitarian crisis in Pakistan's northwest could worsen if fighting spreads in the tribal belt.
The armed forces may also need more time to mobilize for a full-scale battle in Waziristan, a hard-scrabble, mountainous area where well-armed tribes hold sway and the government's influence is minimal.
Many Taliban and al-Qaida militants fled to the region after the U.S.-led invasion that ousted the Taliban regime in Afghanistan after the Sept. 11 attacks on the United States. It remains a base for cross-border attacks on Western and Afghan forces and a training center for militants operating in both Afghanistan and Pakistan. South Waziristan is also a possible hiding place of al-Qaida leader Osama bin Laden and his deputy Ayman al-Zawahri.
Militants have had years to dig in and store arms and ammunition in bolt-holes that include concrete bunkers and tunnel networks, said Asad Munir, a retired brigadier and former intelligence chief for the tribal region.
Battle-hardened fighters from Afghanistan, Swat and elsewhere will rally to join the fight, he predicted.
"This is going to be their final battlefield because the prominent leaders of al-Qaida, the Afghan Taliban, the local Taliban and our own terrorist jihadi organizations, they are all here," Munir said. "They will defend this place, which has acted as a sanctuary for them."
U.S. missiles fired from unmanned drones have repeatedly struck South Waziristan, most recently on Sunday, and militants would become far more vulnerable to airborne attacks if they are forced out of their strongholds by Pakistan's offensive. The military has launched repeated operations in the past, only to later back off as the government has pursued failed peace deals instead.
Abbas said Tuesday there were unconfirmed reports that al-Qaida-linked Uzbek militant leader Tahir Yuldash was injured in a Pakistani air force strike Sunday in South Waziristan. He gave no further details.
Yuldash leads the Islamic Movement of Uzbekistan and has survived numerous Pakistan military operations to trap him in the tribal regions.
Earlier this month, the U.S. Department of Justice said the State of Georgia cannot check drivers licenses and Social Security numbers to verify the citizenship of prospective voters. The concern was that Georgias policy was discriminatory toward minority voters. According to a FOX News/Opinion Dynamics poll released Friday, most Americans disagree with the Justice Department ruling.
When it comes to showing photo identification at a polling place before voting, 83 percent of Americans say they think it is a good idea to require it, because it helps avoid fraud. Only 15 percent of Americans agree with the Justice Department that such a policy is a bad idea.
This sentiment is spread across party lines, with large majorities of Republicans (92 percent), Democrats (76 percent) and independents (84 percent) agreeing with a policy that requires voters to show photo ID before voting.
Those most likely to think that the policy is a bad idea include blacks (23 percent), low income voters (22 percent) and liberal voters (22 percent).
Even more Americans agree that people should be required to show photo ID or a Social Security card to prove U.S. citizenship before registering to vote, with fully 91 percent believing it should be a requirement.
Again, there is overwhelming support for such a policy across party lines, with almost all Republicans (94 percent), Democrats (89 percent) and independents (90 percent) in favor.
While the Help America Vote Act (HAVA) requires first time voters, who register by mail, to show photo ID before voting, there are currently 24 states that have more stringent requirements than HAVA. Of these states, only seven require all voters to show photo ID before voting. The remaining 17 will accept some forms of non-photo ID.
Opinion Dynamics Corp. conducted the national telephone poll of 900 registered voters for FOX News from June 9 to June 10. The poll has a 3-point error margin.
On a Saturday night at the end of May, visitors to the forums section of Digital Spy, a British entertainment and media news Web site, were greeted with an ad that loaded malicious software onto their computers. The Web site's advertising system had been hacked.
A number of such attacks have occurred this year, as perpetrators exploit the complex structure of business relationships in the online advertising world, with its numerous middlemen and resellers.
Web security experts say they have seen an uptick in the number of ads harboring malware as the economy has soured and publishers, needing to boost their ad revenues, outsource more of their ad-space sales.
Viruses can be incorporated directly within an ad, so that simply clicking on the ad or visiting the site can infect a computer, or ads can be used to direct users to a nefarious Web site that aims to steal passwords or identities.
In most cases, the problem becomes apparent within a matter of hours and quick fixes are put in place, but that's not fast enough for Internet surfers whose computers end up infected or compromised.
"The system is only as safe as its least secure members, and some of these members can be strikingly insecure," says Ben Edelman, an assistant professor at Harvard Business School who researches Web security issues.
EWeek.com, a technology news site owned by Ziff Davis Enterprise, in February displayed an ad on its homepage masquerading as a promotion for Lacoste, the shirt maker.
The retailer hadn't placed the ad -- a hacker had, to direct users to a Web site where harmful programs would be downloaded to their computers, says Stephen Wellman, director of community and content for Ziff Davis.
German soldiers are softies who lack discipline, hate responsibility and show an inadequate desire to serve their country, according to the army's chief inspector.
General Wolfgang Schneiderhahn, the general inspector of the Bundeswehr, told the German parliament that depite their positive contribution in Afghanistan, complaints from troops about their conditions were an "embarrassment".
"We have given a good account of ourselves in Afghanistan, but we cannot guarantee an all-round feel-good feeling for soldiers," said the general, before going on to detail the less dignified side of the country's armed forces.
He cited complaints reaching him about the quality of sleeping bags used in a deployment in the Congo.
"Are our soldiers too soft?" asked the best-selling daily German newspaper Bild.
Gen Schneiderhahn told politicians in Berlin on Monday that the descendants of the country's mighty military machines of the past needed to have "a better feeling for discipline and to show a greater readiness to serve the state".
The Bundeswehr was formed after the Second World War. The German post-war constitution initially mandated the Bundeswehr only to serve in protection of German borders. After a 1994 ruling by the Federal Constitutional Court their remit was expanded to assist in crisis reaction and conflict prevention around the world under Nato and the United Nations.
But in Afghanistan they are not allowed at the "sharp end" of fighting with the Taliban and Berlin is under constant pressure from America and Nato to send more manpower.
#3
Could it be that those sleeping bags WERE of poor quality and someone bitched and exposed poor procurement policies that embarrassed the General? And that the politicians will NOT allow the troops to be responsible?
#4
Somewhere, the ghosts of Gebhard Liebrecht von Blücher, Ludwig Adolf Wilhelm von Lützow, and both Helmuth von Moltkes are weeping bitter tears of shame.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/16/2009 14:29
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#5
@tipover
you have a point. It has been widely reported how inadequate equipment is in Bosnia or Kosovo.
There IS a dofference when you are drafted and serve in Afghanistan, and NOT fighting for the survival of your country against Soviet invaders.
US troops are all professional instead and I think we should do that, too.
We don't need hundredthousands of drafted youngsters, we need a highly motivated professional army.
Lean but mean.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/16/2009 14:29
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#6
And another thing:
The work German troops do abroad is not appreciated and honored back home - neither by politicians nor in the media.
You never hear about medals given for bravery, their hands are tied and those who have died are flown home in secrecy and treated like that was some kind of accident.
If troops "lack discipline", it's not the troops fault but that of those leading them.
And if you send German troops to the Congo you better motivate them well.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/16/2009 14:34
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#7
Well, when you're in the jungle, and your government insists that you carry the same sleeping bag suitable for northern Europe...I'd be pissed too.
Lots of dynamics in play here. The elan, and espirit de corps of the German ranker has long been muted and in some instances extinguished. It has much to do with post WWII military prohibitions, public sentiment and political attitudes regarding German history in the 20th history. The Germans, French, and Italian soldier are not much different than our own. Soldier bitching is a good thing. It is when the stop bitching that one should have cause for concern.
#11
I have first hand info about troops in Afghanistan.
An example. Troops are there to protect a girls school. Local Taliban assholes come and tell the school principal: Close or we kill your girls.
The principal goes to the local commander and asks what can be done. The Talibs are known. The commander - one of those who makes his own decision - sends a few troops who will protect the school and tells his boys to shoot an Taliban trying to enter. The boys are motivated to do just that. The Talibs give the school a wide berth.
What happens next? The commander is reprimanded and ordered to withdraw the troops "because he's putting them "in danger". The commander says if troops cannot be put "in danger" for a good cause he doesn't see the point in having them here in the first place. The troops even offer to guard the school on their free time. No chance. The troops are withdrawn.
A few days later the Talibs return and throw molotov cocktails into the (empty) school, threatening that next time they will do it when the girls are there. The principal closes the school.
And now they blame those troops that they "lack discipline" and "hate responsibility"?
Of course the General forgot to include that incident in his report. Sleeping bags are safer issues.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/16/2009 15:32
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#12
I'm sure the EU bureaucrats are absolutely convinced that if these same soldiers were in an EU army, instantly and overnight, they would be the best soldiers in the world.
Or at least that is what their status reports would say.
The following document, known as the Seven-Point Manifesto, calling for the resignation of Supreme Leader Ayatollah Khamenei, has hit the streets of Iran. Hundreds of thousands of copies have already been circulated throughout the country. Supreme Leaders respond better to a Seven-Point Six Two Manifesto.
A copy was sent from Tehran to filmmaker and activist Ardeshir Arian, who has translated it for Pajamas Media:
The Seven-Point Manifesto calls for:
1. Stripping Ayatollah Khamenei of his supreme leadership position because of his unfairness. Fairness is a requirement of a supreme leader.
2. Stripping Ahmadinejad of the presidency, due to his unlawful act of maintaining the position illegally.
3. Transferring temporary supreme leadership position to Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazery until the formation of a committee to reevaluate and adjust Iran's constitution.
4. Recognizing Mir Hossein Mousavi as the rightfully elected president of the people.
5. Formation of a new government by President Mousavi and preparation for the implementation of new constitutional amendments.
6. Unconditional release of all political prisoners regardless of ideology or party platform.
7. Dissolution of all organizations -- both secret and public -- designed for the oppression of the Iranian people, such as the Gasht Ershad (Iranian morality police).
#1
nominally pro-Moussavi, but subtly opposed to the whole clerical regime
"Transferring temporary supreme leadership position to Ayatollah Hussein-Ali Montazery until the formation of a committee to reevaluate and adjust Irans constitu"
IE Montazeri for Supreme Leader, until that office is abolished.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/16/2009 11:55
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I wonder if Fareed Zakaria still thinks his cover piece in Newsweek, on how "Everything you know about Iran is wrong, or at least more complicated than you think," is accurate.
In an interview last week, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu described the Iranian regime as "a messianic, apocalyptic cult." In fact, Iran has tended to behave in a shrewd, calculating manner, advancing its interests when possible, retreating when necessary.
Does the management of the election, and the reaction to the protests, seem shrewd and calculating to you?
Iran isn't a dictatorship. It is certainly not a democracy. The regime jails opponents, closes down magazines and tolerates few challenges to its authority. But neither is it a monolithic dictatorship. It might be best described as an oligarchy, with considerable debate and dissent within the elites. Even the so-called Supreme Leader has a constituency, the Assembly of Experts, who selected him and whom he has to keep happy. Ahmadinejad is widely seen as the "mad mullah" who runs the country, but he is not the unquestioned chief executive and is actually a thorn in the side of the clerical establishment. He is a layman with no family connections to major ayatollahs—which makes him a rare figure in the ruling class. He was not initially the favored candidate of the Supreme Leader in the 2005 election. Even now the mullahs clearly dislike him, and he, in turn, does things deliberately designed to undermine their authority.
Divisions in the ruling class seem rather moot at this point. Those who counted the votes seemed set on declaring Ahmadinejad the winner by a landslide; the cops are running around beating protesters in the streets. We'll see if supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei really offers anything resembling a serious investigation, but I'm not seeing many folks holding their breath. At this point, there's those in power who have the guns, and there's the folks in the street getting shot. A "pure" dictatorship would not behave terribly differently.
It seems like every story about Iran for the past two decades has featured young, hip, urban Iranians with the subtext, "Iran: It's not just the Ayatollah anymore." And from that, a lot of us outside the country had hoped or wondered that the country's changing culture would eventually prompt a change in the way they are governed. Well, this is it. Either this shakes the regime, or the regime comes out of this with a firmer grip on power than ever before. It's great that there are young, hip, urban Iranians who like America and the West. But as long as they're powerless, American policy has to recognize the regime for what it is — ruthless, heavy-handed, oppressive, brutal, and menacing to the region and to our interests.
Posted by: Mike ||
06/16/2009
10:26 ||
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#1
theres factions in the regime, and there are outsiders who use those factions, and are used by them. Khameni is leader of one "hardline" faction, and Rafsanjani is of one "pragmatic" (NOT moderate) faction. Khameni plucked dinnerjacket as a weapon against Rafsanjani, which is why a layperson without ties to the Ayatollahs is so important to most of them. rafsan, OTOH, is using Mousavi and his wife, and they are using the teheran students, etc - these latter are NOT pro-Rafsan, they are antiregime, but they know its safer to attack the election results than the regime, and if Khameni gives in, the whole clerical regime is weakened anyway.
Divisions in the ruling class certainly matter - NOT between dinnerjacked and khameni - the notion that they werent aligned looks increasingly foolish - what matters is what support does the Rafsan/moussavi faction have within the administraion, especially in the army.
If the crowds overwhelm the baseeji - not impossible - the regime will presumably send in the Pasdaran. IF the army wants to be done with the Pasdaran, that would be their moment.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/16/2009 11:52
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Nuthin to see here. Move it along...
(CNN) A CIA spokesman is sharply downplaying Director Leon Panetta 's recent comments that appear to question whether former Vice President Dick Cheney is hoping for another terrorist attack against the United States. "The Director does not believe the former Vice President wants an attack," CIA spokesman Paul Gimigliano said in a statement to CNN. "He did not say that. He was simply expressing his profound disagreement with the assertion that President Obama's security policies have made our country less safe. Nor did he question anyone's motives."
The statement comes days after the New Yorker published an interview with Panetta during which he said Cheney's recent criticism of Obama including the decision to close the detention center at Guantanamo Bay in Cuba show the ex-vice president "smells some blood in the water on the national security issue. It's almost, a little bit, gallows politics," said Panetta. "When you read behind it, it's almost as if he's wishing that this country would be attacked again, in order to make his point." See. He didn't say that.
Cheney's office released a terse statement from the vice president Monday responding to the comments, saying "I hope my old friend Leon was misquoted. The important thing is whether or not the Obama Administration will continue the policies that have kept us safe for the last 8 years," Cheney said.
Vice President Joe Biden also appeared to distance himself from Panetta's comments Sunday, telling NBC "I don't question [Cheney's] motive." Joe's probably just glad someone else is on the hook for once...
#2
I wonder if Obama knew that Panetta and Cheney were "old friends" when he nominated him?
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/16/2009 13:00
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#3
Would the real Panetta please stand up and explain what he had said and what he had meant by it? I'm tired of the habit that this administration has of having someone else explain what the speaker of something controversial actualyy said and meant. Leon is a big boy. He can do a much more credible job of explaining himself than any mouthpiece can. I suspect that his mouth ran a couple of steps ahead of his brain. He knows better than to say that any former VP wants the US to be attacked. I can forgive him a misstatement, but it's hard to swallow a cop out like this.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/16/2009 15:52
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#4
Talk to me about mirandising detainees, Panetta?
The stormy Iranian elections are one more sign of how the world has been shaken up in the age of Barack Obama. of course if unstormy elections had placed 'moderate' terrorists in charge in Tehran, that would have also shown Obama's greatness - in fact that was the prepared abc, cnn, cbs, wapo, nytimes, nbc narrative up to 72 hours ago
U.S. intelligence officials consulted with the White House as speechwriters were preparing the Cairo address -- seeking to calibrate the message in a way that would be most effective in countering Muslim extremists. These officials believe that Obama, with his coolly rational approach, is suggesting a new pathway for young people who might otherwise be tempted by jihadist rhetoric.
"What the president has done thus far is create a strategic framework for understanding the U.S. in a different way," said a second intelligence official. Obama is "chipping away" at the radical narrative and "increasing the number of alternatives to that radical view," he explained. "He's making more attractive the idea that change can occur outside the radicalization process."
A similar analysis of Obama's outreach to the Muslim world comes from Tawfik Hamid, a former jihadist from Egypt who was once part of a network that included Ayman al-Zawahiri, the No. 2 official in al-Qaeda. Hamid argued in an interview that Obama has encouraged "critical thinking" among young Muslims -- pushing them to transcend the simple categories of halal (pure and Islamic) and haram (impure and un-Islamic). Hamid recalled that among his jihadist group in Cairo, there was a saying: al fikr kufr, which loosely translates as "To think makes you an infidel." Obama challenges that.
Reason vs. unreason; outreach vs. closed minds; connection with the modern world vs. isolation and backwardness; freedom vs. repression. This is the shape of the debate in Iran and much of the rest of the Muslim world as the age of Obama moves forward. For once, it's an argument that puts America firmly (but unobtrusively) on the side of the people. What we're seeing in Tehran is a reminder that millions of Muslims hunger for change -- but they want to make it themselves.
Posted by: Lord garth ||
06/16/2009
10:12 ||
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Did he write this in bed without disturbing Zero's sleep? No wonder he didn't answer the 3 AM phone call, Ignatius was still awake curled up in his arms nibbling on his ear.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/16/2009 13:03
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#2
ignatius meanders between insightful and fatuous (sp?).
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/16/2009 14:11
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#3
Hussein O apologized for US intervention in 1953. In fact, those events were largely national. Major, unprofessional, CIA bragging followed events in which their role was minimal.
Time to play "Guess that party"...
TOLEDO, Ohio Residents of Toledo, Ohio, are complaining that they received $25 tickets for parking their vehicles in their own driveways.
Mayor Carty Finkbeiner says he stands by the citations handed out last week by the Division of Streets, Bridges and Harbor. Click on the link for Carty's previous apperances here. I mean, who could forget a goofy name like Carty Finkbeiner?
He says the tickets were issued under a city law against parking on unpaved surfaces, including gravel driveways. ...and it's "for the children".
During a news conference Monday, Finkbeiner ignored a reporter's question of whether the crackdown and fines were related to the city's budget crisis. The three-term mayor faces a recall vote in November. Critics have claimed he's wasted city money.
City Councilman D. Michael Collins calls the ticketing "Mickey Mouse nonsense." He has told residents he'll try to have the citations rescinded.
#1
There's one mayor who doesn't need to bother runnung again.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/16/2009 10:42
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Either that, or someone got their knickers in a twist over someone who lives there, and decided to "spread the joy" to everyone else in a lame attempt to CYA.
#3
Councilman D. Michael Collins, whose district includes the homes where the tickets were issued, said he would make certain that the homeowners do not have to pay the $25 fine.
"I would hope the city would realize this was an exercise in insanity and rescind the tickets," Mr. Collins said. "Those who work for the mayor, it is like One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, where those who are all insane flock together."
Mr. Collins said Ms. Frederick went on to private property and wrote the tickets without any authority. "The people ticketed would have to pay $50 to appeal a $25 ticket to a board that does not exist," Mr. Collins said.
He promised to pay the fines himself if they are not rescinded.
#4
OTOH, cities in SoCal have similar ordinances designed to prevent multiple families (read illegal aliens) living in one house. I suspect the problem in Ohio is more with poor white trash than illegal aliens and there might be some dispute about the definition of driveway but when they start parking on lawns it really does affect the property values of neighboring houses.
#6
This Mayor and ineffectual Council have made news before. It's clearly a case of Carty Finkbeiner syndrome. Beatings are in order
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/16/2009 21:38
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#7
So why doesn't the council just repeal the law? If they are united, they should be able to override the mayor's veto (assuming they have a veto/override in Toledo.)
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/16/2009 21:43
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George Clooney portrays a character loosely based on Las Vegas resident John Alexander in a movie coming out this year. But being played by a Hollywood heartthrob isn't enough to make the retired Army colonel happy with the film. Alexander criticizes the 2004 book as "5 percent true and the rest extrapolated beyond belief."
Alexander's 32-year military career included a stint as an intelligence officer with an "X Files" mission: exploring the use of psychokinesis and psychic abilities to create better soldiers and enhance intelligence collection.
The movie, "The Men Who Stare at Goats," is based on a book with the same title, a reference to a belief that some military researchers were experimenting with the use of the mind to kill or injure goats.
#4
"Suspect Zero" The movie's DVD bonus features include interviews with people who worked with the US military and intelligence agencies in remote viewing. The movie itself actually frightened me. Didn't get a great appreciative audience US-wide, but scary anyway.
#5
This is a stealth attack, and probably more widespread than let on. This is a "Pearl Harbor" attack, since it would cover the entire US border within several hundred miles inland, which is within the Border Patrol jurisdiction. That is about 90% of the US population.
To make matters worse, many other police authorities base their regulation on the BP regulations.
#8
Don't forget two things. The first was that Obama & co. were planning to use a Mexican treaty to ban US guns, and Border Patrol regulations would be a big part of that. So the knives issue might be a test run.
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Foreign demand for long-term U.S. financial assets fell in April as both China and Japan trimmed their holdings of Treasury securities.
The Treasury Department said Monday that net purchases of stocks, notes and bonds obtained by foreigners fell to $11.2 billion in April, from $55.4 billion in March. More hope, less change?
#1
Can't incur a debt if no one buys the bonds. That just leaves you with inflating the money on the books to fund unnecessary patronage programs and handouts.
Posted by: ed ||
06/16/2009 10:50
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No one else is reporting this but Glenn Beck had a story on two Japanese men caught on the border of Italy and Switzerland with $134 Billion in American bonds, same as cash! If real, it must be a government trying to dump them, or if counterfeit, still requires the sophistication of a government to print them. Reportedly old, mostly from the Kennedy era.
#4
This should get interesting. The year that Bush left office, we borrowed $400b on top of rollovers of existing debt. (In 2 terms, Bush added $2T to the federal debt). This year alone, we need to borrow $1.8T on top of rollovers of existing debt. Japan's net trade surplus is zero. China's trade surplus is cut in half. Domestic investors are leery of losing money (at the abnormally low interest rates the Fed has forced upon us by buying huge amounts of Treasuries Zimbabwe-style, i.e. printing money) if they buy Treasuries at the low yields offered.
#5
The $134 Billion in bearer bonds story could be a big one if the bonds are legit. The bonds are either legit, or they're not. No one would issue a bearer bond without serializing them, or otherwise attaching information to them that would enable them to be authenticated. No one would buy a bearer bond that could not be authenticated. Counterfeiting a US-backed bearer bond would be both expensive and futile. US-backed bearer bonds have been illegal to issue to US peeps since 1982. It is rather unlikely that there are still $134 billion of legitimate US backed bearer bonds in existence. So someone has been fooled, but just who is not known at present. If the US has been surreptitiously issuing valid bearer bonds to cover deficits it didn't want publicized, then TSHTF. Of course the US in that case could blandly pronounce the secretly issued bonds to be counterfeit, and make the owner (whoever it was) eat his loss, and it would be SUCH a cool way to repudiate part of the national debt. Of course foreign bond holders might see such a repudiation in quite a different light, but that's a horse of a different color.
#6
Those bonds are certainly fake.
Only nations could or would have them and they certainly would not smuggle ALL of them in a suburbian train into Switzerland.
They fit in any diplomatic briefcase.
Definitely some Nigerian scam. They have done so before. Inflate numbers and you inflate stupidity.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/16/2009 19:43
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"Of course the US in that case could blandly pronounce the secretly issued bonds to be counterfeit, and make the owner (whoever it was) eat his loss, and it would be SUCH a cool way to repudiate part of the national debt."
No the U.S. couldn't because a legitimate buyer would certainly have transaction records and nobody "eats a loss" of 100 bn dollars.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/16/2009 19:46
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US President Barack Obama's Cairo speech was a historic event in many aspects. First of all it was remarkable that a Western leader felt legitimized to talk about Islamic truths, as if he were a Muslim theologian. Secondly, he approached the Israeli-Palestinian conflict even-handedly, as if the Jewish right to Israel and the Arab resistance to it have the same moral weight.
...Obama didn't mention the core message of Hamas: the worldwide destruction of the Jews. Ayatollah Khomeini, the instigator of the present Islamist revolution, defined world history, the course of human events, as follows: "From the beginning, the Islamic movement has been obstructed by the Jews. They were the first who developed anti-Islamic propaganda and conspiracies. And this is still the case."
In other words, opposing Israel, the nation of the Jews, is the driving force of the Islamist revolution, both Sunni and Shi'ite. It is its core. It cannot exist if it would give up its ambition to erase Israel. The destruction of Israel is its ultimate goal, its fuel, its body, its nature, its direction and its destination. Only through the destruction of the cunning, conspiring, obstructing Jews the Islamist revolution can reach its goal: the resurrection of the caliphate.
OBAMA EXPLICITLY decided to ignore this threat, and decided to leave Israel in the cold, or better in the heat of a nuclear explosion. This is what he said: "No single nation should pick and choose which nations hold nuclear weapons." The president meant: Israel, a single nation, doesn't have the right to deny Iran nuclear armament. Iran, an existential threat to Israel, cannot be stopped by Israel on its own - this should be matter of the international community, according to the president.
Through his Cairo address Obama made an end to America's alliance with Israel that has lasted over 40 years.
...AMERICA WILL now act as even-handedly to Israel as the European Union.
...The famous Jewish lobby has not been able to prevent Obama's change of direction. The truth is the lobby has always been a myth, and American Jewry, which is in majority an affluent, liberal, assimilated and only vaguely religious group, has been distancing itself more and more from Israel, which it considers right-wing, militaristic, chauvinistic, belligerent.
For liberal American Jews, Israel is a confusing phenomenon. They feel connected to Israel through the remembrance and legacy of the Holocaust, but they are highly politically correct and feel solidly at home on the campuses where generations of students have been brainwashed by the works written by the holy spirit of Arab studies, Edward Said. American Jewry was aware of the president's spiritual mentor in Chicago, Jeremiah Wright, a black racist and anti-Semite, and of his friendship with Rashid Khalidi, a Palestinian intellectual and anti-Zionist with whom he had a strong personal relation. The Jews preferred to side with him instead of worrying about his opinions about Israel.
...A SMALL NATION like Israel, a single and lonely modern democracy in a part of the world in which autocracies and tyrannies are the norm, cannot survive without a strategic partnership with a major international power that is forced, by the sheer size of its interests, to play the complex fields of the Middle East. It is too soon to create a lasting bond with India, a natural ally for Israel. India will emerge during this century as a major international power, both militarily as economically and scientifically, but it cannot give Israel yet the diplomatic and military backup it needs.
But there is another strategic player in the field who would welcome a partnership with Israel, especially with its cutting-edge electronic industries.
#1
Sunday NY Times [yes, I still get it] has a great story about how the Israeli's via its President (Liebermann) are now cozing-up to the Russians in order to create a possible alliance to counter-balance Obama's cold shoulder. Another example of brilliant diplomacy on Obama's part. Does this guy even understand basic world politik? In Chicago, if someone you want to influence decides to ignore you and ally with another pol, you just get some dirt on him and publish it in the Sun-Times or Trib. Or you get precinct workers or ACORN to discredit them. But this is Israel, dummy, and you better have something more than Chicago tactics to back you up.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/16/2009 7:57
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Russia for gas/oil, but China in the longer run.
#5
Israel doesn't make plane engines (Lavi had Russian corpus, IMI electronics and Rolls Royce engines). However, Israel can offer China human cloning.
Hat tip, puppy blender
It's hard to know whether President Obama's health-care "reform" is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest. Probably all three. The president keeps saying it's imperative to control runaway health spending. He's right. The trouble is that what's being promoted as health-care "reform" almost certainly won't suppress spending and, quite probably, will do the opposite.
Senator Charles Grassley has demanded records from the Obama administration over the dismissal of the Inspector General for Americorps and raises the possibility that Barack Obama broke a law he co-sponsored in the Senate that protects the independence of the IGs. The firing comes as the Obama administration cut a sweetheart deal with a major Obama backer that allows him to receive federal funding as mayor of Sacramento, and fails to repay taxpayers for the money Kevin Johnson admittedly took illegally:
#1
It's called 'The Chicago Way'
All anyone had to do during the campaign was (HORRORS!) travel west of the Alleghanies to the Illinois country and the merest child could have told them about this... but instead the media only saw peasants in colorful dress, clog dancing for their east coast betters.
A Muslim cocktail waitress who resigned after being ordered to wear a "revealing" dress for work that offended her religious beliefs has won £3,000 for sexual harassment despite having posed for photographs in a low-cut top.
Fata Lemes, 33, who claimed her upbringing meant she was "not used to wearing sexually attractive clothes", was handed the payout even though it later emerged pictures of her in a revealing top had appeared on Facebook, the social-networking site. Miss Lemes later insisted that the photo was taken on a beach and was irrelevant to her claim that the dress she was asked to wear at the Rocket Bar in Mayfair made her "look like a prostitute".
The tribunal panel concluded that the Bosnian Muslim "holds views about modesty and decency which some might think unusual in Britain in the 21st century". But it accepted that she genuinely believed that the short, low-cut dress was "disgusting" and made her look "like a prostitute". It ruled that her bosses should have made allowance for her feelings and their insistence that she wear the dress amounted to sexual harassment, it ruled.
Lawyers for Spring & Greene, the restaurant group that owns the bar, highlighted the existence of the Facebook picture to the tribunal but it is not known whether the panel ever saw it before making their judgment.
The panel at Central London Employment Tribunal found that Miss Lemes "overstated" her trauma at being asked to wear the sleeveless dress that was open at the back. It rejected Miss Lemes' claim that she was left with no choice but to walk out of her job after just eight days. It branded her compensation claim of £20,000 including £17,500 for hurt feelings as "manifestly absurd". But it awarded her £2,919.95 for hurt feelings and loss of earnings.
Miss Lemes, who had previously worn black trousers and top to work, told the tribunal that she "might as well be naked" in the dress, adding: "I was brought up a Muslim and am not used to wearing sexually attractive clothes."
In its judgment, the panel ruled that restaurant group Spring & Greene must "take their victim as they find her". It said of the dress: "It is eye-catching, not only because of its colour but also because of its cut and lines. It is clearly a garment for a girl or young woman. It is intended to, and does, show the curves of the body. It seeks to make the wearer attractive. It might be seen as a party dress or something to wear at an informal celebration." But the panel ruled that wearing the dress could not amount to "conduct of a sexual nature".
Miss Lemes told how she was pestered for sex by customers at the bar shortly after starting work in May last year.
The tribunal ruled: "In our judgment, the effect of requiring her to wear the dress was to violate her dignity. We further consider that it created for her an environment which was degrading, humiliating and offensive." It pointed out that a summer uniform of "brightly coloured, figure-hugging garb" had not been introduced for male waiting staff.
But the tribunal rejected Miss Lemes' claim of constructive dismissal. The company's lawyer Tom Grady told the tribunal: "There is no evidence to support the suggestion that it is a sex club or some sort of seedy brothel."
#2
Wait a minute! She was fired from a job as a waitress at a BAR! I thought any contact with alcohol was forbidden in Islam. Why did she even apply for the job in the first place?
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
06/16/2009 7:16
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Posted by: ed ||
06/16/2009 10:47
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#6
Wear a burkah, watch your tips fall to zero.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/16/2009 17:23
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#7
EU regulation allows awards for proven "effects" of discrimination, even if same are unreasonable. And mere subjective claims of hurt feelings, are enough to prove same. That is why anyone who matters in Europe wants to scrap the human rights legislation.
#8
She alleged that bosses ran Rocket like a sex club and allowed clients to think that waitresses could be treated as prostitutes.
She told how on one shift two men told her they were looking for a blonde for one or more nights.
Why on earth would she want to work in a place like that? There are plenty of other restaurants in the city where she could waitress without being harassed.
Tahra Goraya, district director for California state Sen. Carol Liu, was served June 10 with legal papers naming her as a defendant in a federal fraud and racketeering lawsuit. We are aware of it [Goraya being served with papers], said Robert Oaks, Lius legislative director. [The case] is from a previous employer, not since she has been with Senator Liu. He added that he could not comment any further on the case or Gorayas involvement but said she continues as district director, a job she has held since Dec. 1, 2008.
Before joining Lius staff, Goraya served as national director at Council on American Islamic Relations (CAIR). According to the complaint filed by former CAIR clients, the organization hired Morris Days to serve as the resident attorney and manager for civil rights in their offices in Virginia. It was later found that Days was practicing without a law degree and had defrauded several clients of CAIR. He purportedly took money from the clients, said attorney David Yerushalmi, who represents the four plaintiffs.
According to Yerushalmi, nine CAIR officials, including Goraya, named in the suit did not do an adequate background check on Days. It would have only taken one phone call [to learn Day did not have proper credentials], Yerushalmi said. He added that officials did not act quickly once they were made aware of Days' non-attorney status. Rather than doing the correct thing they joined with Mr. Days and continued the fraud, he said. After they fired him they continued to cover up [the issue], causing enormous damage [to clients].
Yerushalmi alleges that CAIR officials responded only after they realized how many clients were actually affected. The national [division] shut down the Virginia office of CAIR and sent their national legal attorney to collect client files and take them back to their Washington, D.C. office, he said. We have evidence that Goraya was fully aware of what took place and engaged in the [cover-up] behavior.
Although Yerushalmi represents only four clients he said that there are many more affected by Days actions. According to CAIR [estimations] there are hundreds, he said. Clients thought lawsuits were filed and later found out they were not filed, leaving many in legal limbo, he said.
I represent two African American Muslims who were clearly harassed at their place of employment, the attorney said. One of his clients was a woman who had thought Days filed a lawsuit against her employer on harassment and discrimination charges. She was taking advice from Mr. Days and did what he told her to do, Yerushalmi said. He said the advice included telling her employer that she had legal representation, but Days had not filed a lawsuit. Once her employer found out there was no legal action taking place she was fired.
CAIR is a public interest law firm that holds itself out to protect the rights of Muslim Americans, he said. To operate and cover this up to protect themselves not to protect their clients that is horrendous.
The CAIR defendants have filed a perfunctory motion to dismiss.
A bomb killed two policemen and a Buddhist teacher was shot dead Tuesday in the latest surge of violence in Thailand's rebellious Muslim south.
The bomb hidden in a motorcycle wounded two other officers outside a police station in Pattani, one of three southernmost provinces near the Malaysian border where roughly 3,500 people have died in five years of unrest. Police said the device hidden under the seat was triggered by a cellphone when officers went to look at the motorcycle left in front of the building. In neighboring Yala province, a female teacher was killed in a drive-by shooting as she travelled to work, police said.
The latest incidents occurred as Thailand's army chief, General Anupong Paochinda, was due to chair a meeting in Bangkok of army commanders from the three restive provinces of Yala, Narathiwat and Pattani. Thirty-one people have been killed and more than 50 injured in the region over the past 11 days, with police, soldiers, teachers, laborers and Buddhist monks among the victims.
The region's Buddhist minority has borne the brunt of the attacks since a June 8 shooting at a Narathiwat mosque, where unknown gunmen killed 10 Muslims at prayer and wounded 12 more. No arrests have been made following the incident, which angry Muslim residents blamed on security forces. The military has denied involvement and says jihadi terrorists separatist militants seeking to cause sectarian rifts are the likely masterminds.
Prime Minister Abhisit Vejjajiva has vowed not to use military force to tackle the unrest and promised development aid to raise living standards in one of Thailand's poorest regions. The government planned to invest heavily in tourism, fisheries and rubber and palm oil industries, Abhisit said on Sunday.
Heard Hugh Hewitt interviewing Michael Ledeen today.... Michael surprised me... to me, he's always been of the opinion that the "people" would need outside help to overthrow the regime. Today - maybe there is a chance. And it was only Sunday that I suggested, maybe Zahra Rahnavard, Mousavi wife might be available! Interesting thoughts from Faster, Please! here
To start with, the BBC, long considered a shill for the regime by most Iranian dissidents, estimates between one and two million Tehranis demonstrated against the regime on Monday. Thats a big number. So we can say that, at least for the moment, there is a revolutionary mass in the streets of Tehran. There are similar reports from places like Tabriz and Isfahan, so its nationwide.
For its part, the regime ordered its (Basij and imported Hezbollah) thugs to open fire on the demonstrators. The Guardian, whose reporting from Iran has always been very good (three correspondents expelled in the last ten years, they tell me), thinks that a dozen or so were killed on Monday. And the reports of brutal assaults against student dormitories in several cities are horrifying, even by the mullahs low standards.
Western governments have expressed dismay at the violence, and Obama, in his eternally narcissistic way, said that he was deeply disturbed by it, and went on to add that freedom of speech, etc., were universal values and should be respected by the mullahs. I would have preferred a strong statement of condemnation--stressing the evil of killing peaceful demonstrators--but he finally said something.
He probably thinks hes in a bind (he isnt, actually). He probably thinks that if he condemns the violence, and the regime wins, that will lessen his chances to strike the Grand Bargain he so avidly desires. Somebody might remind him that Ronald Reagan was unstinting in his criticism of the Soviet Union ("The Evil Empire"), but negotiated no end of bargains with them, including quite dramatic arms reductions.
Its always better to assert American values, both because hes our president and he should be speaking for all of us, and because catering to the tender sensibilities of the murders in Iran wont gain anything. It will only increase their contempt.
Whats going to happen?, you ask. Nobody knows, even the major actors. The regime has the guns, and the opposition has the numbers. The question is whether the numbers can be successfully organized into a disciplined force that demands the downfall of the regime. Yes, I know that there have been calls for a new election, or a runoff between Mousavi and Ahmadinezhad. But I dont think thats very likely now. The tens of millions of Iranians whose pent-up rage has driven them to risk life and limb against their oppressors are not likely to settle for a mere change in personnel at this point. And the mullahs surely know that if they lose, many of them will face a very nasty and very brief future. The question for years has been, "Who's the leader of this revolution?
If the disciplined force comes into being, the regime will fall. If not, the regime will survive. Can Mousavi lead such a force? If anyone had said, even a few days ago, that Mousavi would lead a nation-wide insurrection, hed have been laughed out of the room. Very few foresaw anything like the current situation, although I will claim credit for predicting that neither side in the electoral circus would accept the official verdict.
Does Mousavi even want to change the system? I think he does, and in any event, I think thats the wrong question. He is not a revolutionary leader, he is a leader who has been made into a revolutionary by a movement that grew up around him. The real revolutionary is his wife, Zahra Rahnavard. And the real question, the key question in all of this, is: why did Supreme Leader Ali Khamenei permit her to become such a charismatic figure? How could he have made such a colossal blunder? It should have been obvious that the very existence of such a woman threatened the dark heart of the Islamic Republic, based as it is on the disgusting misogyny of its founder, the Ayatollah Khomeini. What? A woman leader of Iran? Those fashion shows will just get better!
I was told months ago that Khamenei and Mousavi had made a deal. Mousavi would run, and win, and then slowly introduce greater freedom. I didnt believe it at the time, but it has seemed more and more plausible. When somebody at the Interior Ministry called Mousavi on election night to tell him to prepare a victory statement, that was part of the deal.
But by then, the mullahs had seen their doom, and used the only weapons at their disposal: lies and violence. Some have asked why Khamenei used such grossly implausible numbers to "reelect" Ahmadinezhad, but that bespeaks ignorance of the mullahs: there is no lie that will shame them.
No, the real question is why Zahra Rahnavard was given a free hand, and the real answer is that the mullahs, with Khamenei in the lead, made a blunder. It has often been said, that in revolutions, the first one to blink loses.... these guys have been the pros... but a blink has occurred.
In any event, all of that is irrelevant now. The only thing that matters is winning and losing. Whatever plans Mousavi had for a gradual transformation of the Islamic Republic, they have been overtaken by events; the issue now is the survival of the system. Mousavi has called for a general strike on Tuesday. That is the right strategy, since he must demonstrate that the overwhelming majority of Iranians want an end to the regime. And the dissidents must show that they are not afraid of the thugs.
Mousavi has said that they must use flowers, not guns, since he must aim at the disintegration of the armed killers, not at winning a gunfight.
There are reports of members of the Revolutionary Guards defecting to the dissidents. There is this report from an Iranian website (the only place ive seen it) according to which 16 senior Revolutionary Guards officials have been arrested:
"These commanders have been in contact with members of the Iranian army to join the peoples movement. Three of the commanders are veterans of Iran-Iraq war. They have been moved to an undisclosed location in East Tehran."
If true, its very important, but, as I have often noted, the regime has distrusted them for some time. The young Islamic revolutionaries of the late 1970s are now middle aged, and do not wish to slaughter their neighbors. That is why the mullahs have imported killers from abroad: the five thousand or so Hezbollahis who, according to Der Spiegel, have been brought in from Lebanon and Syria. Dissidents on Twitter report clashes with security forces who do not speak Farsi, and there are even some rumors suggesting that Chavez has sent some of his toughs from Venezuela. Who knows?
The other great threat to the regime comes from the upper reaches of the clergy. Do not be surprised to see some senior ayatollahs denounce the regime; many have done so in the past (Ayatollah Montazeri has been under house arrest for years, and Ayatollah Boroujerdi has been subjected to horrible torture for criticizing the lack of freedom in Iran). We are still quite early in this process.
But the key element is the people. They are only just beginning to understand the reality of their situation. Virtually none of them imagined that they would be in a revolutionary confrontation with the regime just two days after the electoral circus, and few of them can realize, so soon, that they can actually change the world. I think the Mousavis now understand it (they know that they are either going to win or be destroyed). It remains to be seen if they can instruct and inspire the movement. I've read several Twitters like this, "I'm afraid, but I'll be there." And, "People are leaving their doors open so people can escape to them."
Much will depend on their ability to communicate. The regime has been waging a cyberwar against the dissidents, shutting down websites, cell phones, Facebook, and the like. As most people have learned, the basic communiations tool is Twitter, which somehow continues to function. Bigtime Kudos to Twitter, by the way, for postponing its planned maintenance so that the Iranians can continue to Tweet. Would that Google were so solicitous of freedom. I didn't know this! Maybe it's time to learn more about this Twittering thingy first encouter for me, was when the House went against Nancy when she was closing down the session, and the Repubs staged a "to the mattresses" moment.
We dont know whos going to win. The Iranian people know that theyre on their own; they arent going to get any help from us, or the United Nations, or the Europeans. But paradoxically, this lack of support may strengthen their will. There is no cavalry on the horizon. If they are going to prevail, they and their unlikely leaders will have to gut it out by themselves. God be with them.
#1
The Guardian, whose reporting from Iran has always been very good
I believe they reported yesterday that it was quite possible Dinnerjacket actually did win the vote. But it must have at least been close enough to scare him into falsifying the count just to be sure.
#3
Twitter is a tool. You use a tool in a way that is useful to you.
Twitter allows ordinary people to bypass the state control of the media and telecommunications. You won't win a battle with Twitter alone, but good communications is a must for the protesters.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009 7:53
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#4
I truly wish somebody had a retrospective of their last revolution and how it compares to this one.
LAHORE: Pakistan is concerned over the violation of its sovereignty and civilian casualties in drone attacks on Al Qaeda leaders, Pakistans Ambassador to the United States Hussain Haqqani said on Monday.
In an interview with BBC Hard Talk, Haqqani said, There is no doubt that the drones have eliminated many top Al Qaeda terrorists. That is not what Pakistan objects to the elimination of militant leaders and terrorists through drone technology. Our issue is with respect to Pakistans sovereignty and we do not want civilian casualties.
Then 1) extend sovereignty to the wild lands and deal with the Talibs yourself and 2) get the wimmins and kiddies out of the way.
Explaining Pakistans position on the strikes, he added, It is wrong to misinterpret Pakistans objections to the use of Predator drones as an objection to the elimination of senior Al Qaeda leaders. We want Pakistans sovereignty to be respected but it does not mean Pakistan does not want Al Qaeda or its allies to be eliminated from its soil. We are looking for ways which would allow the advantage and the positive aspect of the dronesthat they help locate the bad guys and then can take them out to continue without killing our innocent civilians and also ensure that Pakistans sovereignty is not violated.
Intelligence sharing between Pakistan and the US has improved and the US knows Pakistan is on the right path. Even the Afghan and Indian intelligence services, which have been at loggerheads with Pakistans intelligence service for years, recognise that Pakistan has found the right kind of intelligence against terrorists and is following it, he was quoted as saying.
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#2
If you don't control your own border, sovereignty is iffy. Let us tell you about that effect. If someone else has the will, then just step back and let them take out the garbage.
#3
Sez the guy from the land where every terrorist plot has been hatched and whose terrorist loving peoples have invaded every nook and cranny of the civilized world.
Posted by: ed ||
06/16/2009 11:40
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#4
ed, do you realise you just defined cockroaches as well as terrorists?
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/16/2009 17:09
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WASHINTON, June 15 (Yonhap) -- South Korean President Lee Myung-bak urged the United States Monday to quickly ratify a free trade agreement (FTA) signed between the countries nearly two years ago, saying the FTA will significantly benefit both countries while strengthening the half-century-old alliance between the two.
The South Korean president's renewed call came in a meeting with U.S. Trade Representative (USTR) Ronald Kirk. "While noting the economic and trade relations between South Korea and the United States have steadily improved over the years, President Lee called for USTR Kirk's active efforts to produce progress that is acceptable by both sides, saying an early enactment of the Korea-U.S. FTA will not only benefit both countries, but will also help significantly strengthen the overall alliance between them," a spokesman for the South Korean president said of the meeting.
The trade deal was signed in June 2007 by the countries' former administrations. Seoul wants to quickly move ahead with the ratification of the agreement, but the Obama government has been somewhat reluctant to do so, citing possible damages to U.S. industries, especially the auto industry.
"President Lee also called for U.S. efforts to fight trade protectionism, which was one of actions agreed upon at the G-20 economic summit" to counter the global recession, the Cheong Wa Dae spokesman said in a released statement.
Kirk noted Lee's efforts to fight the global economic crisis and said the U.S. will work to meet the South Korean leader's expectations, it said.
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June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian leaders will probably take decisive action to quell opposition protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads re-election, said Richard Bulliet, an Iran expert at Columbia University.
Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated today in downtown Tehran at a rally led by Ahmadinejads defeated opponent, Mir Houssein Mousavi, who charges widespread fraud in the June 12 vote. A pro-government militia fired at opposition protesters, killing at least one person, the Associated Press reported, citing one of its photographers, who was a witness. There was no immediate confirmation. The rally took place in defiance of an official ban on public protests.
The regime will quell the discontent, Bulliet, a professor of history at Columbias Middle East Institute, said by phone today from New York. It will be dampened down and the U.S. and foreign governments will have to resign themselves to dealing with the Ahmadinejad regime.
No, we don't have to 'resign' ourselves: we can declare Short Round and Khamenei to be illegitimate and the election to be a fraud. That would align ourselves both with our best values and with the truth.
Irans Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, who endorsed Ahmadinejads election June 13, calling it a glittering event, has ordered an investigation into allegations of irregularities. Bulliet predicted that the Guardian Council, the elections supervisory body, with the authority to review the results, will still endorse the outcome within the next week.
Because they have no choice; if they throw out the election they endanger their own rule.
If the protests continue after then, Khamenei could respond to street unrest by declaring martial law and imposing curfews, he said.
And also by working to disappear a lot of protesters.
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#1
So this "expert", did he call the event, or was he as surprised as the rest of the world? Hmm?
He did NOT call it, he's just trying to kiss ass.
Fred, feel free to grab this graphic. Its perfect for many uses here on the Burg
Margaret Chan, the Executive Director of the World Health Organisation (WHO), on Monday urged Member States to place "fairness" at the core of decisions to protect the most vulnerable against major worldwide crises.
"Fairness, I believe, is at the heart of our ambitions in global health. A failure to put equality at the centre of health-care policy decisions is one reason why the world is in such a great big mess," Chan told senior government officials and international experts attending a Forum on Advancing Global Health convened by Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon.
Even the level of preparedness for and capacity to cope with the A-H1N1 influenza outbreak in recent months are strongly biased towards wealthy countries, Chan told the high-level meeting.
"Global warming, hikes in fuel and food prices, the economic meltdown and now the A-H1N1 influenza pandemic hit hardest in developing countries," she added.
She characterized globalization as a rising tide that lifts "the big boats, but swamps or sinks many smaller ones," adding that the financial crisis has "proved highly contagious and this contagion showed no mercy and made no exceptions on the basis of fair play".
In his opening address to the Forum, Ban said "Health is the tie that binds all the Millennium Development Goals MDGs together," in reference to the globally agreed anti-poverty targets with a 2015 deadline. Eradicating poverty, illiteracy and the other challenges the MDGs seek to tackle will not be met without reaching the health targets, he said, adding "that is why global health is a top priority for me".
#2
'Give us your money then get in line, Citizen. And start slouching. It's not fair to the dowager behind you if she has to see your strong broad back.'
#7
How about fairness in developing the capabilities in the first place, of committing the resources, in nurturing an environment that allows discovery unhampered by superstition and staying with the 'old ways', and the petty meddling of local potentates and bureaucrats more interested in their own power. Sure, when you get those straightened out in those parts of the world that could use modern health practices, come talk again. "Fairness starts at home"
#9
She's insane if she thinks countries won't save their own people before helping others. Especially when many of those other governments are unfriendly to the West or to their own people.
Police here Monday night arrested at least seven militants from a posh area, police sources said. The militants were arrested from F-7 sector of Islamabad in a raid conducted by police on a tip-off, local news channel Samaa quoted the sources as saying.
It said the militants have been shifted to an unknown location and the authorities were expecting breakthrough leads during interrogation.
North Korea has finished preparatory work at a missile launch pad in Tongchangri, North Pyongan Province, where a long-range missile has been transported, a South Korean government source said Monday. "But the launch is not imminent because no radar has been set up and no missile has been installed at the launch pad," the source added.
But the launch structure connecting electric power and fuel to the missile and allowing personnel to check the missile has been erected. That means North Korea is speeding up preparations to launch a long-range missile there.
Expert analysis of satellite photos shows the launch structure is about 50 m high, much higher than the 30 m it had previously been believed to be. A launch pad of this height is capable of firing an intercontinental ballistic missile measuring 40 m or longer. The old launch pad at the Musudanri launch site in North Hamgyong Province is a mere 32m high. The whole Tongchangri launch site actually seems to be three times as large.
But experts are still divided on when and what kind of missile the North will fire, the source added. There is a likelihood that North Korea will conduct a third nuclear test in resistance to the UN Security Council's adoption last week of a resolution sanctioning it over the last one.
South Korean and U.S. intelligence authorities are watching for signs of another nuclear test, having spotted constant moves of personnel and vehicles in the Punggyeri area in Kilju-gun, North Hamgyong Province, where it conducted the first and second nuclear tests.
South Korean and U.S. intelligence services are watching two or three locations as possible candidate sites for another nuclear test. The likeliest candidate site is the eastern mine pit area of Mt. Mantap in Punggyeri, where the first nuclear test in October 2006 happened.
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#1
TOPIX > NORTH KOREAN MISSLE CAN HIT AK [Alaska] IN 30 MINUTES.
* SAME > RUSSIA WILL NOT MAKE ITS SOIL AVAILABLE FOR US MISSLE DEFENSES.
Iranian women come to the aide of a man being beaten, allegedly by the Basiji. (c) Flicker.
Reuters summary of the previous day's events, useful if you're just now getting to the story.
TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian demonstrators called for more mass protests on Tuesday, a day after hardline Islamic militiamen killed a man during a march by tens of thousands against a presidential election they say was rigged.
The Iranian capital has already seen three days of the biggest and most violent anti-government protests since the 1979 Islamic revolution after hardline incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared winner of last Friday's vote.
"Tomorrow at 5 p.m. (8:30 a.m. EDT) at Vali-ye Asr Square," some of the crowd chanted at Monday's march, referring to a major road junction in the sprawling city of some 12 million.
Further protests, especially if they are maintained on the same scale, would be a direct challenge to authorities who have kept a tight grip on dissent since the overthrow of the U.S.-backed shah after months of demonstrations 30 years ago.
"We fight, we die, we will not accept this vote rigging"
People on the streets of Tehran
U.S. President Barack Obama said on Monday he was "deeply troubled" by post-election violence in Iran. "The democratic process, free speech, the ability of people to peacefully dissent -- all those are universal values and need to be respected," he told reporters. Obama said he would continue pursuing tough, direct dialogue with Tehran but urged that any Iranian investigation of election irregularities be conducted without bloodshed. The world was inspired by the Iranian protesters, he said.
Demonstrators filled a broad avenue in central Tehran for several kilometers (miles) on Monday, chanting "We fight, we die, we will not accept this vote rigging," in support of Mirhossein Mousavi, the defeated moderate candidate.
Mousavi said he was "ready to pay any price" in his fight against election irregularities, his Web site quoted him as saying, indicating a determination to keep up the pressure for the election result to be annulled.
Some formed a human chain in front of a building of the Basij Islamic militia, but others broke through and the hardline volunteer paramilitaries opened fire on the crowds sending thousands fleeing in havoc. One man was killed and many wounded, said an Iranian photographer who witnessed the shooting. Television footage showed one man, his leg covered with blood, being bundled onto the back of a taxi and driven away.
"Tanks and guns have no use any longer," chanted the protesters in a deliberate echo of slogans used leading up to the 1979 revolution.
Members of Iran's security forces have at times fired into the air during the unrest and used batons to beat protesters who have pelted police with stones.
One of the more interesting series of photos I saw was a Mousavi supporter helping a Basij officer get away after the latter had been seriously injured and was bleeding on the ground.
The Basij militia is a volunteer paramilitary force fiercely loyal to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei who has the final say on all matters of state in Iran.
Gunfire was also heard in three districts of wealthy northern Tehran on Monday evening and residents said there had also been peaceful pro-Mousavi demonstrations in the cities of Rasht, Orumiyeh, Zahedan, and Tabriz on Monday.
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QUETTA: A complete shutter-down and wheel-jam strike was observed across Balochistan on Monday. The Baloch Students Organisation (BSO) had called for the strike against the alleged enforced disappearance of BSO Vice-Chairman Zakir Majeed Baloch, Quetta BSO President Shahzaib Baloch and several other Baloch students. The Anjuman-e-Ittehad-e-Marri also backed the strike.
Life in Quetta and several other districts came to a halt as all business centres, banks and educational institutions remained closed. Police said a case has been registered against unidentified men who burnt an Irrigation Departments vehicle during the strike.
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Exxon Mobil's surprise decision to join Trans-Canada on a vast Alaska gas pipeline project is a big step toward making the U.S. self-sufficient in domestic energy. By defying naysayers, Sarah Palin is now vindicated.
It must be sweet vindication for Alaska's governor. Against critics who said her 1,712-mile natural gas pipeline project would never get off the ground, who should the project bag but the "big gorilla" of American energy -- Exxon Mobil.
In a major surprise, Exxon announced Thursday that it had forged a partnership with TransCanada, the Canadian pipeline company that holds the state license for Palin's $126 billion Alaska Gasoline Inducement Act project.
It's a big vote of confidence in Palin's top project from a by-the-books company known for its rigid investment standards.
"We evaluated all the options and it came down to our belief that this approach with TransCanada and Exxon Mobil was going to be the most successful project," said Marty Massey, U.S. joint interest manager of Exxon Mobil Production Co. He said Exxon might look at expanding its participation.
Rival oil firms had whispered to IBD that it would never happen. "It's gonna happen and we're very excited about this development," Palin told "Good Morning America" on Friday.
Doubters of Palin's pipeline plan were numerous. Some said the pipeline would be too big to work, and that a rival BP/ConocoPhillips project, called Denali, would doom Palin's plan because Alaska didn't have enough natural gas for both.
Exxon's tilt toward TransCanada suggests the oil giant believes that's not true. Exxon is America's largest company, with extraction rights to a third of all Alaska's gas reserves. It can use them to fill either pipeline. "We will make a decision based on commercial reality," Massey said. "But ... why would we put our money and not our gas in the pipeline?"
Obama administration officials who had nothing to do with this, like Energy Secretary Ken Salazar, rushed to claim credit too. What better vote of confidence could there be?
Other doubters had suggested the pipeline could never happen because of a global gas glut, making the pipeline uneconomical. But with the project slated for completion in 2018, and the need for natural gas expected to rise between 20% and 40% by 2030, it's precisely now that such a project should be built.
"I think it's very shortsighted" to assume that"market conditions are going to stay as they are today," Palin told CNN. In an interview with IBD last July when gasoline hit $4 at the pump, she noted that if drilling had started in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge just five years ago, when policymakers were dismissing the idea of $100-a-barrel oil, "we wouldn't be in our predicament today." Palin was in Dallas last week working to make sure the Exxon-Mobil fell into place.
#1
If the Democrats and eco-Luddites (I repeat myself) don't want the pipeline to the lower 48, the Canadians will take that cheap gas, process w/ tar sands and sell expensive oil to our limousine and private jet loving overlords.
Posted by: ed ||
06/16/2009 11:35
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#2
Sarah is a hell of a lot smarter than her critics, the MSM, the pointy-headed pundits and late night so-called jokesters.
#3
Watch this season's "Ice Road Truckers" for an account of the Dalton Highway' transport grinder. Flat Canadian Arctic lands, with Winter river truck runs, offer easier transport and supply routes. Sea Tankers must be US owned and operated. I wonder if there isn't some lower-48 moves against the Palin' initiative?
#5
too bad the reserves in AK/Canada would be burned up by us here in the USA /Canada in about 3 months.... there isnt that much in those reserves people!
CAIRO - The Egyptian parliament has passed a law giving women a 64 seat quota in the countrys lower chamber, an eighth of the total assembly number, according to local media reports Monday. The legislation followed a pledge made last year by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to increase the number of women in parliament and give them a more active voice in the male-dominated government.
The new law also increased the total number of parliament seats to 518 from the present 454 seats that will come into effect after next years parliament elections, the leading daily Al-Ahram said.
The Egyptian parliament has two chambers. The lower house, or Peoples Assembly is dominated by the ruling party. The 264-seat Upper House, called the Shoura Council, has no legislative powers and enjoys only a consultative role.
The new law passed with a majority approval, while opposition parties, including Islamists and others who hold a quarter of the seats, opposed it.
The legislation envisages each of Egypts 32 electoral constituencies electing two women to parliament. The law is set to expire after two five year parliament terms, meaning it will be up for reviewed in 10 years. Currently, there are only nine women in the lower chamber, mostly appointed personally by Mubarak to ensure female representations in parliament.
Abdel-Ahad Gamal Eddin, a leading lawmaker of Mubaraks ruling National Democratic Party that proposed the bill, described it as a historic and a civilized legislation.
The parliaments opposition bloc, including the conservative Muslim Brotherhood and the secular Wafd party, both opposed the law. Mahmoud Abaza, the Wafd party leader, said it violates the constitution because it goes against basic principles of equality among citizens. He also complained that opposition parties were not consulted. The bill came out of the blue without any discussions with the opposition parties or in the civil society, Abaza said.
Some independent lawmakers issued a statement warning the women quota was doomed to failure. But the senior NPD member and parliament speaker, Fathi Sorour, dismissed the oppositions remarks as a call for a return to the middle ages through backwardness.
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RAWALPINDI: Security forces personnel on Monday claimed to have killed 50 Taliban in operations in Mohmand, Bajaur, Malakand and Bannu during the past 24 hours.
The Inter-Services Public Relations said five Taliban were killed in retaliation after they attacked a local lashkar in Dir. They said the lashkar also destroyed three houses and injured six Taliban. It said another member of the Taliban was killed when police fired at a car that refused to stop at a checkpost. The car exploded, as it was primed for a suicide attack, it added.
In Mohmand Agency, 29 Taliban were killed and 25 wounded when security forces targeted their hideouts with jet planes, and helicopter gunships. In Bajaur, eight Taliban, including a commander, were killed, a security official in Khar told AFP.
In the Jani Khel area of Bannu district, Taliban fired rockets at a police station and an airport early on Monday. Seven Taliban were killed in the retaliatory attack, said Zahinuddin, a local police official.
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BAGHDAD - Iraq has seen a significant fall in the number of foreign fighters arriving to battle U.S. and local forces, and efforts by neighbouring Syria are starting to bear fruit, U.S. General Ray Odierno said on Monday.
We have seen a significant decrease in the flow of foreign fighters into Iraq in the last eight to 10 months, Odierno, the commander of U.S. forces in Iraq, told a news conference alongside the Iraqi defence and interior ministers. For the most part it has just been a trickle ... We have seen some fighters coming through Syria, but Syria has been taking some action over the last few weeks, so hopefully that will continue."
Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim said the June 30 withdrawal of American soldiers from urban centres marked the start of an important new era building Iraqs institutions.
Odierno said a very small number of U.S. troops will remain in some Iraqi towns and cities as trainers and advisers. The dark days of the previous years are behind us. Iraqis are able to live more normal lives, he said. It is a fitting time for our combat forces to move out.
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#1
Cool.
Here is what USA Today says:
BAGHDAD The top U.S. commander in Iraq said Monday that the country's "dark days" of violence have passed, and that improved security will allow U.S. combat troops to withdraw from cities as promised by the end of this month.
Gen. Ray Odierno had said as recently as March that U.S. troops might stay in restive areas such as the northern city of Mosul if the Iraqi government requested their help. Odierno said Monday that he feels "much more comfortable with the situation in Mosul now."
* * * *
Now, if you care to Google 'restive areas' or check dictionary.com for the definition of RESTIVE,you will see that the troops are getting the shitty end of the stick.... again.
Barry sends
Posted by: George Elmavimble6947 ||
06/16/2009 15:57
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ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Monday that the early resumption of dialogue between Pakistan and India is imperative to address issues that have for long been the reason for tensions between the two countries. Gilani made the comments while talking to a Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs delegation which was headed by Pugwash Conference Secretary General Prof Paolo Cotta-Ramsunio at Prime Ministers House.
The prime minister also urged the international community to facilitate Pakistan in efforts to win the hearts and minds of internally displaced persons (IDPs).
He assured the delegation of his governments sincerity in proceeding with the dialogue process with India and maintaining cordial bilateral relations with all its neighbours.
The Pugwash Conference, an NGO involved in track-two diplomacy between Pakistan and India has planned to organise a series of meetings on Pakistans role against terrorism, Pak-Afghan relations, US economic assistance and Pakistans vision of regional relations in South Asia. Gilani welcomed the initiatives taken by the NGO, and said they would greatly help in creating better understanding and remove misperceptions about Pakistan in the West.
He also briefed the visitors on the ongoing military operation, the relief efforts and the ramifications of the situation on the economy.
The prime minister again called on the US to write off Pakistans debt, expedite the passage of the Kerry-Lugar and reconstruction opportunity zones bills.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009
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Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday deemed protests in Tehran on the aftermath of presidential elections as "a domestic matter." Turkey does not wish to comment on the issue, Davutoglu told reporters before embarking on a European tour.
"Iran is an important neighbor to Turkey, as Ankara wishes to maintain deep-rooted relations with Tehran in a manner that serves joint interests and regional stability," the Turkish top diplomat noted.
Earlier today, Turkish President Abdullah Gul and Prime Minister Recep Tayyib Erdogan both congratulated Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad for winning the elections.
#2
The Danish cartoons however weren't a domestic matter. There was no need to respect Denmark's freedom and sovereignty.
In fact the designated NATO Secretary General had to apologize for permitting the publication of cartoons critical of the classical principles of Marxism-Leninism Holy Prophet of Islam. And he had to deliver his apology in Constantinopolis Istanbul.
It is 1979 in Tehran all over again. From Saturday to Sunday, the deafening sound deep in the night across Tehran's rooftops was a roaring, ubiquitous "Allah-u Akbar" (God is great). Then, in 1979, to hail the Islamic revolution; now, in 2009, to signify what appears to be the hijacking of the Islamic revolution. Then, the revolution was not televised; it was via (Ruhollah Khomeini) radio. Now, it is being broadcast all across the world.
Let's cut to the chase: what Iranian presidential candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi qualified as "this dangerous charade" and Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei "the sweetness of the election", or better yet, a "divine assessment", has all the non-divine markings of intervention by the Iranian Republican Guards Corps (IRGC). This follows President Mahmud Ahmadinejad officially gaining 64% of the vote in defeating Mousavi in what in the days before Friday's vote had widely been called as a very close race.
Scores of protesters equating Ahmadinejad with Augusto Pinochet in 1973's Chile might not be that far off the mark. Call it the ultra-right wing, military dictatorship of the mullahtariat.
This is emerging as a no-holds-barred civil war at the very top of the Islamic Republic. The undisputed elite is now supposed to be embodied by the Ahmadinejad faction, the IRGC, the intelligence apparatus, the Ministry of the Interior, the Basij volunteer militias, and most of all the Supreme Leader himself.
The elite wants subdued, muzzled, if not destroyed, reformists of all strands: any relatively moderate cleric; the late 1970s clerical/technocratic Revolution Old Guard (which includes Ayatollah Hashemi Rafsanjani, Mohammad Khatami and Mousavi); "globalized" students; urban, educated women; and the urban intelligentsia.
Even fighting a cascade of political and economic setbacks, for the past three decades the regime has always been proud of the Islamic Republic's brand of popular democracy, and its alleged legitimacy. Now the revolution enters completely uncharted territory as thousands of people have taken to the streets in protest against the result.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009
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GUAM PDN > seems PALAU may not only accept GITMO Uighurs, but also a similar number of MYANMAR REFUGEES???
#2
"A Basiji center in north Tehran seems to have been captured by protesters on Sunday night. This means the green revolution having access to weapons. "
Key graf.
As for the stolen election in 2000 in the US? Fuck you. It was a narrowly averted stolen election by vote fraud Democrats.
I am posting the link only - I have not read the speech and don't dare excerpt for fear of missing something important. Please RTFA before commenting - the comments here are to be ONLY for reaction to the contents of this speech. Thanks to the LA Times blog for supplying the transcript.
#1
I'll restrict my comments to the central medical data base. It seems a sure thing that it will be cracked. Perhaps then we'll get a full medical history of our president. I'm also looking forward to medical files for David Letterman, John Murtha, Michael Moore... oh the list goes on and on! It's a veritible bottomless smut mine. Thank you, Mr. President for this new level of transparency.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
06/16/2009 10:39
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"Now, there are already voices saying the numbers don't add up. They're wrong."
First, lets all agree where the real money will come from. That 630 Billion in his medical reserve fund is from the Stimulus Boondoggle. You know that borrowed money that America will be paying back for generations. Then there are the additional revenue streams. In other words raise taxes. Tax the rich has a nice populist ring but even the rubes are catching on that this will effect every taxpayer.
But how about that nebulous-kinda confusing-never really defined-always changing-the dog didnt bark-moving target called Savings. To help understand how this accounting works one may want to view how the Stimulus saved 150 thousand jobs as the total workforce lost about 1.6 million.
Now, three sources of cost containment that the CBO actually can score come from Health care providers, Health insurance, and Pharmaceutical companies. Obama likes to tell us how, when it comes to health care, Quantity doesnt equal quality. And how competition will keep insurance companies honest. As well as, how the drug makers need to pay their fair share. Thats his folksy way of strong arming private business into limiting options, benefit reductions, and price controls. But dont call this Socialized Medicine!
The new president is taking a tough line on North Korea. Will the U.S. support him?
Long interview with South Korean President Lee in the WSJ.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009
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Will the U.S. support him?
Under the cowardly Obama administration? No. Obama and state dept never met a corrupt dictator they didnt like. He's one of their own, a narcissist with a superiority complex that's a product of a political machine. The bit difference is that Obama has a press that VOLUNTARILY fawns over him.
#4
I think what the Skor are expecting is that he is such a limpid lizard that the US will not try and stop them from kicking seven bells out of the North. Japan would give them considerable tacit support as well, so the only question would be China.
MANILA, June 15 (Reuters) - Fighting across oil and gas-rich marshlands in the southern Philippines has escalated with members of the country's largest Muslim rebel group reinforcing rogue guerrillas, an army field commander said on Monday.
Troops have been fighting rogue Muslim guerrillas since last August and if reports of regular members of the Moro Islamic Liberation Front (MILF) joining the fighting are confirmed, it would mark a dangerous expansion to the war. Soldiers have captured at least eight Muslim rebel bases in south, seizing a cache of weapons and explosives and killing nearly 100 guerrillas in 10 days of fighting, Colonel Medardo Geslani, an army brigade commander, told reporters.
Violence across the marshlands and nearby hills on the southern island of Mindanao has spread in recent weeks and displaced more than 50,000 families, pushing back prospects of peace talks stalled since August 2008.
Geslani said troops had recovered dozens of assault rifles, crude bombs and undetermined rounds of ammunition in five of eight guerrilla bases across Maguindanao province. No material was recovered in the other three, he said, adding Muslim rebels from other areas in Maguindanao province have joined the fighting between troops and a rogue faction of the MILF.
Geslani said 93 guerrillas were killed and dozens wounded since June 4 when troops launched an air and ground assault on key Muslim rebel bases in Maguindanao, an MILF stronghold. He said soldiers counted at least 50 mangled bodies found in concrete bunkers that were directly hit by artillery fire and aerial bombs. "We are in the process of methodically destroying them. We're winning in the war."
Geslani said fighting has spread to other areas across the marshland because some MILF units were sending reinforcements to rogue Muslim rebels.
Less than a dozen troops were wounded in 10 days of fighting for the control of rebel bases that sit on strategic points that control traffic of people and goods near the marshland area, he added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Get advisers from Sri Lanka to show you how its done.
YEKATERINBURG: Islamabad is expected to suggest an intelligence-sharing mechanism with its top investigators to New Delhi in the first meeting of both countries leaders since the Indian government suspended dialogue following the 26/11 Mumbai attacks.
The idea is that India shares useful intelligence so that the Paks can find their weak spots and leaks, and fix them. Pakistan in turn gives India a bunch of nonsense.
President Asif Ali Zardari and Indian Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh are set to resume formal bilateral contact on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation, Indian Foreign Secretary Shiv Shankar Menon told reporters. However, official sources said this was merely an opportunity to convey the Indian governments concerns to Pakistan at the highest level. They said the meeting was organised after the Pakistan high commissioner in India expressed President Zardaris wish to meet Dr Singh. They said the Indian PM would call upon the Pakistani leadership to take credible action against terrorism. Dialogue was being resumed in line with Dr Singhs vision of maintaining cordial relations with all of Indias neighbours, they added.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009
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"I never met an Indian I didn't like. With the possible exception of Khalil Gibran."
#2
The Mumbai attackers passed through over 100 checkpoints between northern Pakistan and Karachi, and then were allowed to hire a cargo boat without carrying cargo. Nuf said.
Of course, when the jihadis reached Mumbai by small boats, and commenced off-loading their bomb laden bags, a harbor employee questioned same but backed off when one shouted, "Mind your own business!" Nuf said, again.
On this day in history: June 16th.
1858 Abraham Lincoln delivers his House Divided speech in Springfield, Illinois.
1897 A treaty annexing the Republic of Hawaii to the United States is signed.
1903 The Ford Motor Company is incorporated.
1904 Irish author James Joyce begins a relationship with Nora Barnacle, and subsequently uses the date to set the actions for his novel Ulysses; traditionally "Bloomsday".
1940 Marshal Henri Philippe Pétain becomes Premier of Vichy France.
1940 A Communist government is installed in Lithuania.
1948 The storming of the cockpit of the Miss Macao passenger seaplane, operated by a subsidiary of the Cathay Pacific Airways, marks the first skyjacking of a commercial plane.
1963 Vostok 6 Mission Cosmonaut Valentina Tereshkova becomes the first woman in space.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/16/2009 12:14
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EC, I'm very worried about her. Much as the Chinese eventually identified and killed the courageous fellow who stood in front of the tanks, I'm afraid the Mad Mullahs will kill her and everyone else they can identify on video and images. That's what thugs do.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009 12:18
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The Iranians may find out soon that they either have to go the entire way and finish off the Mullah regime for good. I believe that this is possible right now.
If they back off revenge will be terrible.
Posted by: European Conservative ||
06/16/2009 14:24
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Change in Iran is a great way to undermine Bammo's foreign policy. If Castro dies Bammo might even insist on joining the evil corpse on the funeral pyre like tribal wives of old.
Egyptian President Mohammad Hosni Mubarak on Monday received a telephone call from Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, during which the latter clarified some points mentioned in his speech last night, Egyptian TV said. Mubarak, in a statement to reporters earlier today, said the speech, which called for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, will complicate the situation even further and will undermine peace hopes in the region. "Netanyahu's call for changing the Arab peace initiative to drop the refugees' right to return will not receive support from Egypt or elsewhere," Mubarak was quoted by the TV as saying.
#3
If the Juice would only throw themselves into the sea, the Arabs could go back to scheming and plotting against one another and the Paleos, finally realizing their misery and wretchedness was a requirement for support from their Arab brethren, would fight amongst themselves like a bag of cats to the last man standing
MIAMI (AP) Cuban exiles said Monday they were relieved the Supreme Court refused to review the convictions of five intelligence agents for the communist country, despite calls from Nobel Prize winners and international legal groups to consider the case.
The convictions stand against the so-called "Cuban Five," who maintain they did not receive a fair trial because of strong anti-Castro sentiment in Miami. The men have been lionized as heroes in Cuba. Exile groups say they were justly punished. The five Gerardo Hernandez, Ramon Labanino (aka Luis Medina), Rene Gonzalez, Antonio Guerrero and Fernando Gonzalez (aka Ruben Campa) were convicted in 2001 of being unregistered foreign agents. Three also were found guilty of conspiracy to obtain military secrets from the U.S. Southern Command headquarters.
Hernandez was convicted of murder conspiracy in the deaths of four pilots, members of the Miami-based Brothers to the Rescue organization, who were shot down by Cuban fighter jets in 1996 off the island's coast. The group sought to identify and help migrants leaving Cuba by sea. The Cuban government maintains the planes violated its airspace to scatter political pamphlets over the island.
Richard Klugh, a Miami-based attorney for the five, said he was disappointed. He and other attorneys were reviewing their options.
Brothers to the Rescue President Jose Basulto, the sole survivor of the shooting, said the Supreme Court did the right thing. "Those four young men didn't deserve to die like that," said Basulto, a veteran of the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. "Fine, I'm a sworn enemy of Cuba, but those men weren't."
Basulto said the Cuban government relies on spies like the Cuban Five and most recently retired State Department officer Walter Kendall Myers and his wife for information it can use or trade. The Myerses were arrested June 4 in Washington on charges they spied for Havana for three decades. "This is a business they have," Basulto said. "If you're a spy, you're a spy. You've got to pay the consequencnes."
In 2005, a three-judge panel of the federal appeals court in Atlanta initially reversed the convictions, agreeing the trial should have been moved from Miami because the defendants couldn't get a fair trial there. The full 11th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals reinstated the convictions. But new sentences were ordered for Guerro and Medina, both of whom are serving life sentences, as well as Fernando Gonzalez. A judge is expected to re-sentence them in the coming months.
Hernandez is serving a life term, while Rene Gonzalez has about two years left on a 15-year sentence.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009
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UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - Russia, at odds with Western powers over Georgia, vetoed on Monday a Western plan to extend the mandate of a U.N. mission in the former Soviet republic, in a death blow to the 130-strong observer force. A U.S.- and European-sponsored draft resolution would have extended for two weeks the mandate of the U.N. team in Georgia's breakaway zone of Abkhazia, which declared independence last year after Russia's brief war with Georgia.
"There is no point in extending it because it is based on old realities," Russian U.N. Ambassador Vitaly Churkin told the council in an explanation of his vote against the plan.
There were 10 votes in favor and four abstentions, one of which was China's. No country joined Russia in voting against.
The U.N. mission in Georgia was set up in 1993, after Abkhazia overthrew Tbilisi's rule, to verify compliance with a ceasefire between Georgia and Abkhaz forces. Since its mandate, which expires at midnight New York time (12 a.m. EDT Tuesday), has not been extended, the entire mission will be shut down. The point of the two-week extension plan had been to give Russia and the Western members of the 15-nation Security Council time to try to agree on a long-term plan for the U.N. mission.
Churkin told reporters earlier that Russia rejected the draft resolution because it referred to council resolution 1808 from April 2008, which reaffirms Georgia's "territorial integrity." He described the reference as "political poison."
Any mention of resolution 1808 was unacceptable, Churkin said, because it was adopted four months prior to what he described as the "Georgian aggression" against South Ossetia, the Georgian breakaway province at the center of the August 2008 Russian-Georgian war. Churkin told the council he had proposed extending the mission's mandate until July 15 to allow time for negotiations, "provided there are no offensive references in that resolution." Western council members rejected that idea.
But French Ambassador Jean-Maurice Ripert said the Russians had wanted the council to take note of the existence of the "Republic of Abkhazia," which he said would be impossible for the Western powers. "We could not and we will not compromise on the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Georgia," he said.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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The pretense of "International Community" wears thiner every day.
A judge was expected yesterday to hear a report on the health of a white supremacist accused of killing a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum.
Court records say a hearing is set for Monday in U.S. District Court on the status of 88-year-old James von Brunn. He is charged with first-degree murder in Wednesday's fatal shooting of 39-year-old Stephen T. Johns. Authorities say von Brunn was shot in the face when other museum guards returned fire. He remains hospitalized, and FBI officials have said he is likely to survive.
The court must decide when von Brunn's initial court appearance will be. An FBI spokeswoman says the court has appointed a federal public defender to represent him.
Try him fair and hang him fair. No mercy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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Die already, von Brunn. The taxpayers have wasted enough on your fossilized ass.
#2
No hearing was held as it was determined that the defendant could neither arrive in court or be arraigned/deposed/whatever the legal term is at the hospital either.
He was shot in the face and we are left to assume there's not much face left with which to interact with the legal system.
#2
I watched the video from yesterday, with the motorcycle thugs beating people with clubs, I saw that two of them got their own asses kicked, and a bike (Theirs, I think) on fire, that's exactly what's needed, more thugs asses kicked
(I don't care if they hide behind "POLICE" badges whomp them anyway)
I strongly recommend protesters carry 2 1/2 foot long lengths of 3/4 pipe, when the policethugs hit, smush them (Also good for front bike spoke)They attacked citizens, that alone loses them their 'Police" Status right there.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/16/2009 0:41
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Easy does it, Jim --- Let the Iranians take this one step at a time --- this is new to them ---- like the Iraqis, there is much to be learned in this "Let freedom reign."
Knowingly, we Americans do have a violent streak in us, but it usually has been used, when true freedom is being threaten... our own Revolutionary War, the two Big Wars, etc....
#4
Michael Totten is doing great work this week at Commentary. I recommend that you read every word.
From his most recent essay, I propose we give some consideration to the Khomeinist doctrine of velayat-e faqui via the prism of the aims and actions of the new global elite. Is transnational progressivism just another name for velayat-e faqui, or as Steve put it, old wine in a shiny new velvet-swaddled steel bottle? And for further consideration, read this article and ponder if there is a certain solidarity in play.
#5
God help 'em. Seeing hte videos of those thugs stirs up a basic deep anger in me, the US Soldier's anger at seeing people in power beat on the powerless. Part of me thinks it worth it to have a good rifle and a well positioned and hidden place up high to introduce those fellows to 7.62mm of high powered consequences.
#9
All this time I've been saying "Bomb Iran!" and now you put a human face on them. Shame on me. Good luck and best wishes to them. I hope it all works out for the best. Of course, we're all human, aren't we? Today's DS&TP is truly inspired and inspirational.
Even Clinton would have reacted more forcefully than this. He (Zero) can't create strawmen here. But if he did, it would go like this:
"There are those who would say that this is an overt expression of frustration that the long road to freedom has been impeded but on the other hand there are those who understand the reality of the new world politik - of not interfering - of not imposing on others our values such as liberty, freedom and the pursuit of happiness."
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/16/2009 12:49
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No EU, not shame on you. Bombing Iran was not a shameful idea. The bombs would have landed on the 17 Army divisions and special forces divisions outside the population centers, on the nuclear development sites, in short, the entire infrastructure that is a threat to the world. The people of Iran are rather western in philosophy. They have been hijacked and their country derailed by Islamic extremism, it can happen anywhere, here included if we are not careful. If this revolution is successful Iran will not be the great friend to the Arab world it once was. They will be moderate. I am afraid this is opportunity lost, zero will do nothing and perhaps the opportunity for the greatest event in our time with relation to the east will be missed.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/16/2009 15:56
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that's some good snark. Nice catch, Sea:
After breaking ground at groundbreaking ceremonies in three states in two days last week and mis-speaking about the new $7-billion tunnel between New Jersey and New York, Vice President Joe Biden has decided to stay home in Wilmington, Del., today for what the White House describes as "private meetings." (See photo above.)
Now that the official ceremonial swearing-in season has slowed down, Biden apparently can do much of what his work is from home.
But as The Ticket reported urgently Saturday, Biden also took the entire weekend off in Wilmington, where economic stimulus funds are helping to remodel the railroad station that Biden used for all those decades he was in Congress, which regularly also works a grueling Tuesday-Thursday schedule.
On the other hand, President Obama, who was only 11 when Biden entered the Senate, put in a full day of golf Sunday. The media was kept away, however, so no photos of the lefty's swing.
Here's the official Monday schedule for Biden from the White House: "The Vice President is in Wilmington, DE. He has private meetings throughout the day."
That's actually a pretty good line to use with your boss, especially if you've run out of sick days: 'I've scheduled a full day of private meetings at home.' Anyway, in Joe's public absence, it's up to the rest of us today to pick up the slack.
-- Andrew Malcolm
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/16/2009 7:46
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This is long but I'm not sending it to Page 49. I'm unhappy with my President and you should be too. The man has to stand for freedom and human rights or the United States doesn't mean anything anymore. The woman in the photo showed more courage today than my government, and that is simply shameful.
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama for the first time voiced his concerns about the way Iran's election was conducted, though he fell short of calls from some democracy activists that he formally denounce the vote.
He's picking and choosing his words, "voicing concerns", because he doesn't know what to say. He doesn't know what to say because his moral core doesn't have the words for "freedom" and "human rights" and "liberty".
Mr. Obama said he was deeply troubled by the violence surrounding the election, but also stressed it was up to the Iranian people to choose their leadership.
No, it isn't and it hasn't been, and that precisely is the problem. Does the man not understand the difference between democracy and dictatorship? Iran is ruled by a Guardian Council. They pick and approve of the presidential candidates. They approve of all other national leaders. They veto government legislation. Iran has billed itself as an 'Islamic Republic', sovereignty coming from Allah and not from the people. Therefore it isn't up to the people in the first place. Now that the people are rising up Khamenei is moving to make clear to the world what perceptive people have always understood -- Iran is ruled by thugs.
Does Obama not understand this?
He said he would maintain his policy of directly negotiating with Iran's leadership on its nuclear program, irrespective of the current vote.
There is nothing to negotiate. The 'leaders' may not be there next week. And if they are, they are certainly not going to compromise with you -- not after they slapped their own people down. Khamenei is arresting the very people he hand-picked to run in the election. The smart thing to do is to get on the side of the people, so that if and when they throw out (and execute) the Guardian Council, we'll be able to say, "we were on your side when it mattered." Obama is throwing that away.
"It is up to Iranians to decide who their leaders may be. We respect Iranian sovereignty," Mr. Obama said following a meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi. "I think it would be wrong to remain silent about what we've seen. ... The world is watching and is inspired by their participation, regardless of the outcome."
So don't be silent. Take a stand, man, and pledge the United States to being on the side of the common, ordinary people of Iran who are rising up.
The fluid political developments inside Iran are placing Mr. Obama in an increasingly difficult diplomatic position, U.S. officials and regional analysts said. Mr. Obama has pledged both to support democracy in the Middle East and to engage directly with Tehran's clerical rulers over the future of Iran's nuclear program.
The former should take precedence over the latter. Dump the clerics.
Any push by Mr. Obama to overtly support Iranian opposition candidate Mir Hossein Mousavi could make diplomatic talks more difficult, while also potentially painting Mr. Mousavi and his supporters as American puppets, these officials and analysts said.
They will be painted as puppets regardless. It's already happening. The key is to get out in front and use the inspiration of the Iranian people to make clear where you stand as a world leader, and in turn to inspire the Iranian people to dump the thugs.
Still, a gathering number of Iranian opposition leaders, both inside Iran and out, are calling on Mr. Obama to lend more direct public support for those Iranians challenging the vote that re-elected President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad. These activists fear that any near-term dialogue between the Obama administration and Mr. Ahmadinejad or Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei could result in legitimizing the Iranian regime while also validating the election results.
Absolutely correct, and Short Round would use such talks expressly to smack down the internal revolution.
Ayatollah Ali Khamenei Monday ordered a probe into alleged voter irregularities in the country's presidential election. This was a shift after his strong endorsement of Mr. Ahmadinejad's re-election over the weekend.
It's a sham -- it is what thugs do when they're trying to placate the people. Call for an investigation and then bury it.
United Nations Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon on Monday joined world leaders in supporting an inquiry into the disputed presidential election in Iran. "My position and that of the United Nations is that the genuine will of the Iranian people should be fully respected," Mr. Ban told reporters in New York. "I am closely following how this investigation into this election result will come out."
Don't follow the 'investigation', follow the people. Put the U.N. on the side of the people and you'll send a message to thugs all around the world. That would be legacy worth having as Secretary-General.
"We view the implications of recent events in Iran with serious concern," British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said.
Mr. Miliband said the long view from London on the election outcome was its impact on Iran's nuclear program. "It is the implications of the decisions that are being made at the top levels of the Iranian regime that are of most concern," he said. The foreign secretary said the West's diplomatic overtures should be "answered by Iranian willingness to sit down and negotiate."
French President Nicolas Sarkozy said he was "profoundly troubled by the political situation in Iran" and "condemns the violence against the demonstrators." He condemned the arrests of opposition political leaders and called for an end to restrictions on freedom of expression.
That's better -- Nick gets it. France can't do a lot, practically, to help the demonstrators, but France can take their side.
The French foreign ministry on Monday summoned the Iranian ambassador to the ministry to explain his government's actions, but the ambassador sent his press counselor in his place, according to an official at the French mission to the U.N. in New York.
A clear demonstration that Iranian officials plan to weather this and don't give a damn what the world thinks.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said the U.S. was still evaluating the claims of election fraud, but reiterated the administration continued to have "doubts about the returns, which showed Mr. Ahmadinejad winning 63% of the vote.
Oh come on, we're not 'investigating' election fraud in Iran -- we have no such ability whatsoever. It's not like we're going to be examining voting machines. Kelly is stalling for time because Obama and Hillary do not know what to do. And they don't know because they don't have a moral core.
Ongoing demonstrations could force the Obama administration to take a firmer line on Tehran's handing of the election in the days ahead, said a number of Iranian activists and former U.S. diplomats. These officials said the political uprising in Tehran could represent a rare generational shift in the country, where a rising pro-democracy movement is seeking to uproot the founders of the 1979 Islamic revolution. Not to support these reformists, said these officials, could have a much broader impact for democracy promotion across the Middle East.
In his outreach so far to Iran, including in a speech on the Persian New Year, Mr. Obama has generally demurred from democracy and human-rights issue while formally recognizing the rule of the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Thus ripping the heart out of democracy movements around the world. If the President of the United States won't support democracy, no one will.
Former U.S. officials said the Obama administration is walking an increasingly delicate line between supporting democracy in Iran while pursing the abolition of Tehran's nuclear program. Any rupturing of a dialogue between Tehran and the West could have major implications for global security, these officials said. Israel has vowed to attack Iran's nuclear research sites if there isn't progress diplomatically to contain the nuclear program.
That's the 'realists' talking, the one who don't want to 'upset' things. Right now upsetting Short Round and Khamenei is exactly what needs to be done.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009
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Sorry, I cannot hold back.
What will the price in Iranian blood be for your fecklessness? What about American and Israeli and other innocent blood down the road when this squandered opportunity ends up in Mullahs with Nukes, Barry, you ignominious dickhead?
Obama is simply a dumbfuck Chicago Pol; a narcissist who thinks his shit don't stink, and who thinks he can finesse anything. The ignorant bastard has never had to work for anything in his life, from his ivy league scholarship to his dirty tricks to win the Senate seat, to the GOP leadership's utter incompetence nominating McStain who refused to hit him hard, and the national press handing him this election with their Bias, then the press becoming as slanted as state owned media in old Communist eastern europe in order to cover the huge errors he has made so far.
All Obama has to do is be brave enough to speak a few words of respect for democracy and the will of the people, that's all the minuscule amount of courage that he needs to take a stand. It could be as few words as Reagan use "Mr Gorbachev, tear down this wall". Compare that small act of speaking to the Iranian people putting their lives on the line against the regime of thugs. And these are thugs who, if left in place, will have nukes, and don't give a crap about anyone's population including their own.
If this fool sides with the Mullahs and Amadhinejad, he deserves to be thrown out of office for cowardice and incompetence, for his endorsement, by inaction, of the thugs.
A quote for that vacuous preening shithead we have in the Oval office:
All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing
#3
I suspect he's a little nervous about the prospect of street protests when the tea parties gather steam ahead of the 2010 elections here. When it becomes clearer the power nakedly grabbed, the debt gathered, and the economy still tanked, Teh One may not be enthusiastic about a people expressing their will against an unpopular regime
Posted by: Frank G ||
06/16/2009 7:41
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#4
Maybe instead of 3 AM they should wake him up around 10 AM. I hate to say this but Hillary got this one right. He must not trust anyone other than Ayers, Marshall and Wright or either Jim Jones, Bob Gates and other responsible thinkers are lethargic also. I suspect this is his Carter moment and he is acting accordingly.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/16/2009 7:50
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#5
Didja ever notice that almost all bullies are actually cowards?
#6
Obama is more confrontational with Israel then with Iran.
Instead of saying, "It is up to Israelis to decide who their leaders may be. We respect Israeli sovereignty."
He said, "endorse a Palestinian state or else."
Posted by: Lord garth ||
06/16/2009 8:43
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#7
Leftists despise individual freedom, and obambi is a leftist. He was probably choking on bile just making the lame utterances he's made thus far. He'd be a mullah himself if he could get away with it...
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
06/16/2009 9:03
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#8
Obama is simply a dumbfuc* Chicago Pol; a narcissist who thinks his shi* don't stink, Old Spook
I believe the appropriate term is "uppity." It is a colloquial term used during the presidential election by Congressman Lynn Westmoreland. Not heard much anymore in "polite" society.
#9
Besoeker, we don't need that, especially today. Don't do it again.
AoS
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009 10:19
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#10
The clinched fisted Communist (opps...forget that his advance people changed it to Community) Organizer strikes again.
Posted by: jack salami ||
06/16/2009 10:19
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#11
In fairness to BHO, part of the reason he is holding back has to do with the political situation in Iran. As I have said before, Moussavi and his reformist supporters are NOT necessarily on the same wave length. Moussavi has been PART of the regime, and is no western liberal, albeit (like Rafsanjani) he is more sane than dinner jacket. The reformers are trying to use him, and he them.
Moussavi has NOT called for the US to support him, and probably wont. A few reformers have asked for support, in tweets, and occasionally in interviews with MSM. But can it be proven they speak for the entire movement? There is no leader of the true reformists, only Moussavi for now. No Walesa here.
And will it strategically make sense to call for US support? This isnt Poland. Granted, dinner jacket will call moussavi a puppet anyway. Will fence sitters beleive him? And who are the fence sitters who count, anyway? Moussavi voters who havent come into the streets yet? dinner jacket voters having regrets? Or more importantly, the regular Army? (which some say resents the influence of the Rev guard/pasdaran) I dont know.
I give BHOs speech a b-, or at worst a C+. He understood what he needed to do, and he more or less did it. But this is a guy whose rhetorical skills should have given him an A. He should have managed to avoid saying anything risky, and STILL have been more inspiring, instead of checking the boxes.
I dont think this is cause he doesnt have the words for freedom and liberty. If it was a matter of reconciling two sides, in order to achieve freedom and liberty, he would do it just fine. What he seems to lack is a core for revolutionary confrontation. The Bushies had the core in words, they just had a tendency to apply the rhetoric excessively and with inconsistent or incompetent follow through. Clinton was a born compromiser, but he could at least empathize with someone elses aspirations and articulate them.
BHO, derided as a messiah, and worshipped by some as a messiah, is singularly LACKING in messianic qualities. Thats good on domestic policies (and has disappointed many of his backers so far) and is good on many for policy issues. But faced with a democratic revolution like this, it leaves him tone deaf.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/16/2009 10:53
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#12
as for the contrast to messing with the Israeli coalition - sure, if Im bibi (and I AM someone with more respect for Bibi than a week ago) I pocket that.
But that doesnt do a thing for folks in Teheran.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/16/2009 10:55
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#13
I actually would rather BHO didn't say much here...
If anything makes a mass protest uncool in Iran, it's having a US Presidential backing to it. That partly explains why the previous protests over there in 2003 (albeit of smaller magnitude) didn't quite catch on, irrespective of how good President Bush's intentions were. The Iranian politicians were too afraid to endorse the protests, lest they be seen as America-influenced traitors
There is a massive unrest in Iran (at least 100,000 took part in a mass rally yesterday)The best we can do (for RIGHT NOW) is to sit back, be quiet and watch the fireworks.
That's precisely the problem isn't it? They can't since Iran is an islamic dictatorship. What a weasel the US has for a president. America: the #1 friend of dictators since Jan 20, 2009.
Posted by: ed ||
06/16/2009 12:04
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#15
Until the protestors hold signs that say "forget '53, we want US support anyway" I fear Obama will be too worried it would be counterproductive.
Michael Totten has a good essay on why BHO is wrong to worry about that.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/16/2009 12:26
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#16
LH, I hear you and understand the concern. I don't want Obama pledging to send the Big Red One into Tehran.
But he CAN say, loudly and simply, "we stand with all people in the world who want democracy, liberty and human rights. We stand with all brave people willing to fight for their families, their children and their rights to live in freedom."
That's all he has to do.
And wear a green tie.
The Iranians will do the rest.
The Poles didn't ask Ronald Reagan to send the army through the Fulda Gap. But every time Reagan spoke for liberty and freedom, dissidents everywhere behind the Iron Curtain took heart.
Heart. That's what it is about. When people lose their fear, an evil regime's days are numbered. Obama can give the Iranians heart without committing the US to a dangerous course, and that's all I ask him to do.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009 12:39
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#17
Zero has already spoken forcefully about the struggle for freedom - in Cairo. He said that no country should impose its politics or values on other countries. He isn't going to now contradict himself by getting embroiled in this kerfuffle. No, he is a man of his word and his word is "back-off".
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/16/2009 12:57
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And I hear you Steve. Obviously no one is talking about armed intervention. We are talking about presidential statements. And when I said Iran isnt Poland, that is what I had in mind. In 1989, in Poland, there was, afaik, no one who had ANY particular reason to dislike or mistrust the United States. Maybe FDR and Yalta, but I think most Poles didn't really think there was much FDR could have done. Whereas in Iran there is '53, and the support for the Shah over the years. Whether thats as important as folks like Sullivan and John Judis think, or as unimporant as someone like Michael Totten thinks, I am not in position to say, which is why I am fence sitting on this one.
is what you have written that much stronger than "The world is watching and is inspired by their participation " ? Its a matter of subtle differences in wording.
As I said, I give BHO a C+. I dont know about you, but when my kid comes home with a C+ its not cause for celebration. But I dont think it means BHO is against freedom. He may be so "realist" that he has no stomach for any US support for freedom abroad (rather than simply forced to abandon such support out of a belief we are too overstretched at this time). Or maybe not. But whether he is that "realist" or NOT, he clearly is not one with stomach for confrontations for freedom. He likes to see the other guys side. In some instances that may well work - we are going to get farther with Russia, say, by acknowledging where Putin is coming from than by cheering for the Yelstin era. But Iran is different, in ways that dont comfortably fit BHO's world view.
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/16/2009 13:00
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"The Poles didn't ask Ronald Reagan to send the army through the Fulda Gap. "
but they did ask him to speak out.
have the iranian protestors aske BHO to speak out? If not, why not? Lack of leadership? Fear of the alienating Iranian fencesitters? Higher priorities?
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/16/2009 13:04
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#20
LH, BHO IS against freedom. This is all a part of his makeup along with sucking up to every dictator in the world from Venezuela to China. He despises freedom in the US because it interferes with the control (aka power) he craves.
This is shown by every thing he does and says. Total government control be it of GM, banks, healthcare, media, etc. all screams of BHO's fascist nature.
My study is a bit littered, I've just ripped the entire "U" section out of my Websters. I was aware of the recent injunction regarding discussions about birth certificates. Please let me know if there are other prohibited words or phrases. I'll get right after them as well!
#22
That the man is neutral between the wolf and the sheep is all that needs to be said about him, and all that will be remembered, if there are aught to remember afterward.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/16/2009 14:00
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#23
Looks like the admin did something practical
Reuters:
The U.S. State Department contacted the social networking service Twitter over the weekend to urge it to delay a planned upgrade that could have cut daytime service to Iranians, a U.S. official said on Tuesday.
We highlighted to them that this was an important form of communication, said the official of the conversation the department had with Twitter at the time of the disputed Iranian election. He declined further details
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/16/2009 14:05
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#24
It may appear a bit counterintuitive, but if Barry plans to 'do nothing' he should probably 'say nothing' as well. On the other hand, if he plans to take some sort of action, it would be well advised to 'say nothing' of it as well.
#25
This is shown by every thing he does and says. Total government control be it of GM, banks, healthcare, media, etc. all screams of BHO's fascist nature.
In a very loose sense "Government total Control" is desirable, there's no blame shifting, we know just who to blame.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/16/2009 16:58
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#26
I'm sure Obama had nothing to do with this upset in Iran, but he couldn't create a better diversion from our financial woes if he tried.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/16/2009 17:02
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#27
Respect for "sovereignty"? Israeli Jews would be slaughtered if a belligerent paleosaur entity was formed on their eastern border, which is only 9 miles from the sea at one point. Hussein O has an agenda that goes beyond preserving life and liberty.
I don't suppose Big Media would corner the Enlightened One on his position-of-weakness' diplomacy?
#28
Obama is going to go with his strength on this one; wait for the worst to happen and then apologize. He is working with Charlie Gibson in the Whitehouse on crafting an emotional filled apology to be delivered in Primetime.
#4
I don't care if the joke was about her 15 or 18 year old daughter, the joke crossed way over the line and shame on the MSM for not sticking up for the young ladies. But what would one expect when they are "reporting" on the child of some with an "R" after their title.
Letterman's Palin Joke Costs CBS an Advertiser, Spawns Campaign for His Firing.
David Letterman's comments about Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and one of her daughters has prompted a hotel chain to pull its advertising on CBS' website and spawned a campaign to fire the Late Show host that includes a planned protest outside his studio.
Embassy Suites, part of the Hilton Hotels Corp., pulled advertising on CBS' site because of complaints, company spokeswoman Kendra Walker told TVGuide.com. The company was not an advertiser on Letterman's show.
"We received lots of e-mails from concerned guests and we assessed that the statement that he made was offensive enough to our guests and prospective guests that we elected to take the ads down," Walker said. She declined to release the cost of the ads.
#8
Well, he kinda had to apologize. NOW even said that the jokes were indefensible. (Hey, they even waited until the third paragraph before they dusted off some old complaints about Rush Limbaugh, so you can tell the outrage was more or less genuine.)
#9
The people hit them where it counts, in the advertising pocket. The bigger insult that they will never understand is to Letterman. He is a puppet and stage prop where Palin is an elected official. He has no real value to CBS when the advertisers walk. He will say anything CBS tells him to, hell, Miss California has more integrity than he does.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/16/2009 11:11
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#10
I still think he's a creep who thinks that making jokes about the rape of a 14 (or 18) year old is funny.
You have to wonder what goes through his head to even dream up such a joke (or think its funny if one if his writers actually thought it up).
#11
I don't wonder at all what was going through his head. He wanted to smear Sarah Palin. He thought it would be cool and hip. He still does. He's just that kind of a guy.
#12
One CBS advertiser reportedly pulled its ads in response to the protests, some of which have demanded that CBS fire Letterman. The network is on the verge of giving Letterman a two-year contract extension that will keep him on the air through 2012. ... the real reason for an apology - $$$$$$$.
#14
I don't wonder at all what was going through his head
Not just Dave, but also the staff of writers who probably came up with the joke.
Worth noting that the apology was an actual apology and not one of those 'sorry you were offended' jobs. Plus it made Dave + Writers look stupid as well as slimy for not knowing who was at the baseball game - riffing on current events being a staple of late monologues.
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari urged the international community on Monday to fully support Pakistans efforts in the war against terrorism and help it in overcoming the multitude of challenges. This is a challenge of our times and a challenge for the world. We have two wars [going on]. One is physical against militants [while the] other is to look after the displaced people. The world [must] come forward to support us, President Zardari said in an interview with Russia Today, the countrys only English television channel.
The president said the military operation in Pakistan had full public support, as the people had risen against the Taliban. He said the countrys people were in favour of democracy and were therefore supporting the governments endeavours.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009
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Rope a Dope 101.
Posted by: jack salami ||
06/16/2009 10:21
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President Asif Ali Zardari urged the international community on Monday to fully support Pakistans efforts in the war against terrorism
A local official in Somalia says Ethiopian troops are now staying at a military base near a town in the central part of the country. The reported sighting of Ethiopian troops in central Somalia is just one of several from around the country.
In an interview with local reporters, the district commissioner of Balanbale town in the central Galgadud region says several truck loads of Ethiopian troops are staying at the military base set up on the outskirts of the town. District Commissioner Hareere Hassan Barre did not say how many Ethiopian troops were in Balanbale, located about 28 kilometers from the Ethiopian border, but his comments appear to back up other eyewitness reports.
Barre said the soldiers began arriving there on Friday and have set up a military camp in the western part of town. The Somali official says an Ethiopian commander explained that the troops have been sent to Balanbale for security reasons, not to re-occupy the town. Barre says their presence appears to be related to heightened al-Shabab activities in central Somalia in recent weeks.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009
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At least part of the country will have relative peace and stability so long as the mighty AEthiops remain encamped.
TEHRAN, Iran -- Violence flared across Iran on Monday with the first reported death from anti-government riots, as hundreds of thousands of defiant Tehranis took to the streets demanding "Where is my vote?" after Friday's disputed presidential election.
The unrest, possibly Iran's worst political crisis since the 1979 Islamic revolution, confounded predictions that the regime would be able to contain the fallout from President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's unexpected claim of a landslide victory. Iranians who were feeding the Twitter online social-networking service reported clashes between Mousavi supporters and security forces and the Basij militia in Shiraz, Mashad, Babool and Tabriz.
Unknown gunmen killed one person and wounded others in Azadi (Freedom) Square, the Associated Press reported, citing a photographer who witnessed the shooting. Photos posted on the Internet showed that at least four people had been shot, and there were reports that clashes were spreading across Tehran and raging in other cities, including Isfahan.
Dramatic video aired by Britain's Channel 4 television showed a crowd throwing rocks and setting fire to a building that belonged to the pro-government Basij militia. A helmeted militiaman on the roof fired his AK-47 rifle into the air before retreating from a shower of stones. As flames licked from the building's windows, the militiaman returned to the front of the roof and fired multiple shots into the screaming crowd. The video showed at least one young man, reportedly dead, being carried from the scene.
The bulk of the protests - held despite warnings by the Interior Ministry - were peaceful, with anti-Ahmadinejad crowds honking car horns, flashing victory signs and shouting "Allahu Akbar!" - "God is great" - from rooftops well after dark.
The size and persistence of the protests appear to have caught the regime off guard, and it's vacillated between using force to put them down and trying to appease the mostly young protesters. Special anti-riot forces and motorcycle-riding Basiji militiamen have beaten and chased Mousavi supporters through the streets. At times, though, the protesters have fought back.
Thousands of Tehranis streamed down wide boulevards on foot and motorbike into Enghelab (Revolution) Square anyway, as riot police in helmets and shields stood immobile on the square's rim. Fashionably dressed women wore signs that read, "Where is my vote?"
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009
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"Where is my vote?" > On a separate note, 'tis weirdly and mysteriously the same questionne' mainstream Amerikans + World should be asking as per OWG-NWO = GLOBAL GOVT.!
holding a recount for what its worth , in contested areas .
No dount will just adjust figures slightly and then continue down the dinnerjacket path of enlightenment .. /facepalm
Posted by: Big Foot ||
06/16/2009 4:21
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Today, the government of Iran, dispatched a contingent of mullahs to consult with Senator-elect Al Franken on recount and political recovery techniques, after it was learned that the actual electoral count for Amenajenadad was three votes.
"Ahmed is an unemployed graduate in Shiraz who has joined a pro-Mousavi rally every day since the results came out. He told the BBC the authorities were shipping in guards from outside the city to deal with the protests.
"The Basijis [volunteer militia] are very organised, armed with batons and sticks and they basically attack without warning".
He said the mood of the crowd had been volatile: like "Sparks of fire under the dust".
Ali, also from Shiraz, emailed the BBC Have Your Say to describe his experiences at Monday's rally in his city.
There were lots of police on motorcycles attacking people
Ladan, Shiraz
He said tear gas was fired and then "Police on motorcycles attacked the protesters". He described taking refuge in someone's house but police broke windows to follow them in.
"They also arrested three young men and attacked another two. They started to hit them with batons ruthlessly. We could see blood running down their heads".
Ladan got in touch with BBC Persian TV: "My sister and her friends went to Molla Sadra Street in Shiraz. There were lots of guards and police on motorcycles attacking people."
Azarnoush in Shiraz tweeted: "Students are being surrounded in Shiraz University, civil police is in fight with people".
People have emailed the BBC from across Iran, in Yazd, Rasht, Esfahan and Tabriz to describe pro-Mousavi rallies. "
Posted by: liberal hawk ||
06/16/2009 10:37
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#5
I saw where current Iran government plans to have a "limited vote re-count." They are going to count the ones that go their way and dump the rest.
#6
You'd think that idiots on motorcycles would be easy meat for organized street fighters. Get a long stick & three or four friends with long sticks, and play pike & pole-vault on any of these thugs who dare to charge you. A motorcycle isn't a horse, and a couple guys on a motorcycle isn't the cavalry. They're dynamically unstable and easily smashed up by somebody with a hoe or shovel who's willing to stand his ground.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
06/16/2009 13:50
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#7
The Basijis [volunteer militia] are very organised, armed with batons and sticks and they basically attack without warning".
Yes, we saw it as it happened.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
06/16/2009 16:49
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#8
There is now first hand, perpetrator evidence that proves that ballots were NOT counted. I watched BOTH major presidential debates on the Live Station feed, and both the clerical and semi-secular candidates slaughtered Ahmadinejad. He was accused of misuse of over 1 billion dollars, and refused to account for same. The Ayatollah's candidate - former speaker of the Iran parliament - blasted Ahmadinejad for lying about the angelic presence during his UN speech.
There is no freaking way that anyone could win a free election in face of a refusal to either account for cooking the economic books or to apologize for blasphemy. Ahmadinejad is under effective condemnation for blasphemy.
Unfortunately, the faux-president owns the military and civil service. And, in spite of clerical opposition, they have now fatwahed against use of protests for "counter-revolutionary" purposes. They prefer the status quo to free elections. Civil war is certain. It will likely start in the ethnic areas to the east, and gain Persian support. And there are professional soldiers who would like to have a go at the Basij parasites, who strike break for the Ayatollah' family companies.
#9
Unfortunately, the faux-president owns the military and civil service.
In the end, the election will go the way the ayatollahs want it to, Black Bart Sliter4867, because the game was rigged from the start, when the ayatollahs picked which potential candidates they would permit to run. The election was neither free nor fair, just like every election since 1979. What happens after the final results are announced is the interesting bit.
One of the UNs largest international relief efforts is under investigation after it emerged that thousands of sacks of food aid were being diverted from starving refugees and openly sold for profit.
But since it is the UN, nothing will happen, and since Bambi is president, we won't even complain.
The head of the UNs $955 million (£580 million) aid operation in Somalia has launched an inquiry after being shown footage showing tonnes of food bearing the World Food Programme (WFP) logo widely on sale in Mogadishu, the capital. Stacks of bags of maize and wheat and tins of cooking oil marked not for re-sale and bearing the UN stamp are on sale from ten warehouses and 15 shops in the citys main market.
About 45,000 tonnes of WFP food are shipped to Somalia from Kenya every month. Mogadishu traders told Channel 4 News that they bought their supplies straight from UN staff. We buy [food] aid from WFP staff directly or from people they employ, one market trader said. They take us to the warehouses used by the WFP and let us load our lorries. The goods are freely available and you can buy as much as you like, but we usually buy no more than 500 to 1,000 sacks at a time. Just a tonne or half a tonne a day can be shifted more discreetly.
The food could hardly be more needed. More than a million people have been driven from their homes by fighting in the area, including 117,000 thought to have fled from Mogadishu in the past month.
UN officials say that civil war and the worst drought in a decade have created near-famine conditions, with Somalia ranking alongside Darfur as the worst humanitarian emergency in the world. The WFP is charged with feeding 3.5 million Somalis almost half the population and is struggling to overcome an operational shortfall of more than $84 million over the next six months.
Britain gave the WFP £9 million for Somalia last year through the Department for International Development and is now deciding whether to give more.
Another market trader described how he invented fictional refugee camps, which were then allocated food that he could sell. You go to the WFP office and fill in an application form to create a camp, he said. When we receive the food, we give out some and then divide the rest between ourselves and the WFP guys who negotiated the deal.
The scam is, according to Mark Bowden, the former British diplomat who is now the UNs humanitarian coordinator for Somalia, disturbing. He is urging the WFP to speed up its inquiry.
Many of the sacks for sale are marked: A gift from the American people, with the US governments aid agency, USAID, providing $274 million last year in food and in humanitarian assistance for Somalia.
Peter Goossens, the WFPs Somalia director, describes food for sale as a minor phenomenon.
Posted by: Steve White ||
06/16/2009
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Ah, a minor phenomenon. Nothing to see here! I was worried there for a second.
You know, as the WFPs Somalia director, this guy is at the top of the pyramid. Wonder how much his cut of sales is? Because you know there is no freaking way something like this could go on without his say-so.
Leading Arab energy officials attending a meeting in the Egyptian capital, Cairo, on Monday approved 12 recommendations which will represent a priority implemented under the Arab strategy for peaceful nuclear energy uses until 2020, adopted at the last Arab Summit in Doha, Qatar.
Arab Atomic Energy Agency (AAEA) Director-General Abdul-Majeed Al-Mahjub, at the end of a three-day meeting at the Arab League headquarters, emphasized that attendees, according to an AAEA working paper, had agreed to a number of recommendations including the admission of nuclear science into Arab educational institutions.
Other recommendations include improving Arab capabilities to respond to nuclear and radioactive emergencies, the complete management of radioactive waste and materials, and the use of nuclear technology to manage water resources and to improve agricultural and livestock production.
He also added that other recommendations aim to improve the infrastructure of Arab nations to accommodate nuclear powered electricity generation plants.
CAIRO (AP) - How do you count almost 40 million handwritten paper ballots in a matter of hours and declare a winner?
Have a million ACORN volunteers do the counting?
That's a key question in Iran's disputed presidential election. International polling experts and Iran analysts said the speed of the vote count, coupled with a lack of detailed election data normally released by officials, was fueling suspicion around President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's landslide victory.
Iran's supreme leader endorsed the hard-line president's re-election the morning after Friday's vote, calling it a "divine assessment" and appearing to close the door on challenges from Iran's reformist camp. But on Monday, after two days of rioting in the streets, he ordered an investigation into the allegations of fraud.
Mir Hossein Mousavi, Ahmadinejad's reformist challenger, claims he was robbed of the presidency and has called for the results to be canceled. Mousavi's newspaper, Kalemeh Sabz, or the Green Word, reported on its Web site that more than 10 million votes were missing national identification numbers similar to U.S. Social Security numbers, which make the votes "untraceable." It did not say how it knew that information.
Mousavi said some polling stations closed early with voters still in line, and he charged that representatives of his campaign were expelled from polling centers even though each candidate was allowed one observer at each location. He has not provided evidence to support the accusations.
His supporters have reported intimidation by security forces who maintained a strong presence around polling stations.
Observers who questioned the vote said that at each stage of the counting, results released by the Interior Ministry showed Ahmadinejad ahead of Mousavi by about a 2-1 margin. That could be unusual, polling experts noted, because results reported first from Iran's cities would likely reflect a different ratio from those reported later from the countryside, where the populist Ahmadinejad has more support among the poor.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White ||
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The Iran vote will go fast if you don't have to count them in the first place, that is the outcome is determined before the election.
SEOUL (AFP) North Korea may have built more underground nuclear test sites in the northeastern district where it staged its first two tests, a news report has said.
South Korean intelligence sources quoted by Yonhap news agency said the North could have built two or three such sites in and around Punggyeri in Kilju district near the coast.
US intelligence sources quoted by American TV networks said last week the North intends to respond to new UN sanctions with a third nuclear test. "There are no signs yet of preparations for a third test," a source told Yonhap.
News of the hardline Stalinist state's nuclear developments come as South Korean President Lee Myung-Bak left for talks with US President Barack Obama on growing tensions with North Korea, with Obama expected to reassure the US ally of security commitments.
In further developments on the issue of North Korea's nuclear programme JoongAng Ilbo newspaper, quoting intelligence sources, said South Korean and US officials have intensified satellite monitoring of 11 underground facilities for a possible test. It said some sites are in the north of the country and include Kumchang-ri in the northwest, which came under suspicion back in 1998 as a possible hidden atomic facility.
US visits in 1999 revealed only empty tunnels.
An intelligence source told AFP that the North's activities are being closely monitored but it was not true that 11 sites were being watched. "It's not easy to pick a multiple number of possible nuclear test sites and closely monitor all of them," one official told Yonhap. "In 2006 we made a list of suspected North Korean nuclear facilities for possible verification. But we cannot just conclude that these facilities are all possible nuclear test sites."
The National Intelligence Service declined to comment on the media reports.
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France said on Monday that it had summoned Irans ambassador in Paris to the Foreign Ministry on Monday but the envoy said he was "unavailable" and sent his First Counsellor in his place, according to official sources.
The French aides wanted "to express the disquiet of France on the subject of the ongoing events following the presidential election" in Iran. "We have noted the intensity of the debate around the campaign and the very high turn-out level, which marked the vitality of the democratic processes in Iran," the French statement affirmed.
At the same time, France "expressed to the First Counsellor our unease concerning the allegations of irregularities in the ballot in Iran and the desire that the demands for recourse are examined attentively".
#3
Yes, Redneck Jim, ambassadors have diplomatic immunity.
That protects them from e.g. being tried or going to prison in the host country. But host countries can and sometimes do reject an ambassador sent to them and demand that they leave. Hence the tradition that when summoned, an ambassador meets with the host government.
DUBAI - A crowd gathered in front of the Iranian Consulate in Dubai, on Sunday, protesting the results of the Iranian presidential election which took place on Saturday. More than 150 Iranians assembled Iranian consulate at 9am to peacefully protest the results of what they claim to be a rigged presidential election. Protesters were holding signs in Farsi saying 'where is my vote' or 'two times two equals 24' to portray how they believe the votes were calculated in Iran, said Samad Yazdanie, 27, salesman.
Khamis Mattar al Mazina, Deputy Commander in Chief of Dubai Police, said nobody was arrested during the peaceful protest, which was watched over by riot police. He also said people here have a right to express their point view as long as the do not break any laws or endanger the safety of others.
Police had arrived at the scene and asked the people to leave peacefully. "They said we need to get permission to hold such gatherings," said Kamyar Mohammadi, 23, graphic designer.
"We want to respect Dubai's rulers, we need their support for us, but we also need to show our anger towards this act of national betrayal," said Yazdanie. "This is the first time we do anything like this in Dubai, and honestly, this is the least that we can do."
But it was not only the protesters that were holding cameras and taking pictures. Two men with video cameras standing on top of the walls of the Iranian Consulate were also filming the protesters.
It's more sophisticated: you film them and then pinch them quietly, instead of sending in the riot police (at home). The Basij and Revolutionary Guards are certainly doing that at home. Expect a lot of people in Iran, and perhaps some in Dubai, to disappear in the next few weeks.
"They are filming our faces to scare us. They want us to know that they now know who we are," said Mohammadi. He also said "for 30 years people didn't vote because we didn't trust the government, but this time we thought we can make a change through peaceful methods - now we feel betrayed. Now we feel used and pathetic."
Another protester, Saeed Kamali, 24, interior designer said "I am here to support my people, who are in a middle of a war in Teheran."
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
Say! Where are all those protests in London, Paris, Berlin and San Francisco to show solidarity with the Iranian people like they had for Hamas, Hezbollah and the Gitmo detainees? Do ya think there is some kind of double standard here? Or is it one of those "any enemy of the Jooos, is a friend of mine?"
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
06/16/2009 12:51
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Iranians concider themselves Persian, not Arab. When they are in trouble the Arabs could care less.
Posted by: 49 Pan ||
06/16/2009 15:46
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Where are all those protests in London, Paris, Berlin and San Francisco to show solidarity with the Iranian people
Anyone with expertise in this sort of thing might want to see what they can do to help the brave Iranian people in this regard.
While demonstrators gather in the streets to contest Irans rigged election, online backers of the so-called Green Revolution are looking to strike back at the Tehran regime by attacking the governments websites.
Pro-democracy activists on the web are asking supporters to use relatively simple hacking tools to flood the regimes propaganda sites with junk traffic. NOTE to HACKERS - attack www.farhang.gov.ir - pls try to hack all iran gov wesites [sic]. very difficult for us, Tweets one activist. The impact of these distributed denial of service (DDOS) attacks isnt clear. But official online outlets like leader.ir, ahmadinejad.ir, and iribnews.ir are currently inaccessible. There are calls to use an even more sophisticated tool called BWraep, which seems to exhaust the target website out of bandwidth by creating bogus requests for serving images, notes Open Society Institute fellow Evgeny Morozov.
In both Iran and abroad, the cyberstrikes are being praised as a way to hit back against a regime that so blatantly engaged in voter fraud. But some observers warn that the network strikes could backfire hurting the very protesters theyre meant to assist. Michael Roston is concerned that it helps to excuse the Iranian regimes own cyberwarfare. Text-messaging networks and key opposition websites mysteriously went dark just before the election. Morozov worries that it gives [the] hard-line government another reason to suspect foreign intervention albeit via computer networks into Iranian politics.
Iran has one of the worlds most vibrant social media communities. Thats helping those of us outside Iran follow along as this revolution is being YouTubed, blogged, and Tweeted. But Irans network infrastructure there is relatively centralized. Which makes Internet access there inherently unstable. Programmer Robert Synott worries that if outside protesters pour too much DDOS traffic into Iran, carriers there will simply pull the plug to protect the rest of their network.
For the moment, however, those connections are still live. And activists are using them to mobilize mass protests in Tehran. Opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi has just appeared. Tens of thousands of protesters are chanting No fear, No fear, we are with each other.
Meanwhile, universities are recovering from assaults by pro-regime goons. Students were bloodied. Memory cards and software were swiped by police. Computers were smashed.
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#1
In terms of the White House, this explosion of over a reported 3 million Iranians demanding long over due freedom, is an absolutely disgraceful missed opportunity to assist in various ways to bring down the despotic Islamic Iranian régime. Then again what's in today's White House very likely supports rat boy.
Posted by: Mark Espinola ||
06/16/2009 2:11
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Mark, "Disgraceful" is O'Bambi's hidden middle name.
The United States said Monday that a scientific analysis of North Korea's May 25 nuclear test shows it to have had only a fraction of the explosive force first estimated. The U.S. intelligence report came as President Barack Obama prepared for talks Tuesday on the North Korean nuclear program and other issues with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak.
A brief statement from U.S. Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said North Korea probably conducted an underground nuclear test on May 25 that had an explosive yield of a few kilotons, the equivalent of a few thousand tons of TNT.
Although it was a sizable explosion, the test was small by nuclear weapon standards and only a fraction of the 10 to 20 kiloton estimate by Russia's Defense Ministry issued a few days after the event. By contrast, North Korea's first nuclear test, in November 2006, was estimated at just one kiloton and is considered by some experts to have been a partial failure.
Although the statement by the U.S. intelligence chief spoke of a "probable" nuclear test, officials say they do not have serious doubts that the May 25 detonation was nuclear, given the difficulty and cost of simulating a blast of that magnitude with conventional explosives.
Posted by: Steve White ||
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#1
But was it a low efficiency, low sophistication nuke or a highly sophisticated mini-nuke like we have? Obviously, I suspect the former.
#5
The obvious synchronicity problems in firing the nuclear charge are resolveable if Euros sell sophisticated ignition-coil technology, on the sly. That will probably happen, unless a major move is made against the Norks. And look who is in the White House.
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.
Brian Deese, the 31-year-old Yale Law School dropout charged with restructuring General Motors, takes a lot of flak for his inexperience. 
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Two key proposals to improve access to health insurance could reduce the ranks of the uninsured but cost $1 trillion over 10 years, according to preliminary estimates released Monday by the Congressional Budget Office.
Jonah Goldberg, National Review
German soldiers are softies who lack discipline, hate responsibility and show an inadequate desire to serve their country, according to the army's chief inspector.
A Muslim cocktail waitress who resigned after being ordered to wear a "revealing" dress for work that offended her religious beliefs has won £3,000 for sexual harassment despite having posed for photographs in a low-cut top. 
June 15 (Bloomberg) -- Iranian leaders will probably take decisive action to quell opposition protests against President Mahmoud Ahmadinejads re-election, said Richard Bulliet, an Iran expert at Columbia University.
Police here Monday night arrested at least seven militants from a posh area, police sources said. The militants were arrested from F-7 sector of Islamabad in a raid conducted by police on a tip-off, local news channel Samaa quoted the sources as saying.
North Korea has finished preparatory work at a missile launch pad in Tongchangri, North Pyongan Province, where a long-range missile has been transported, a South Korean government source said Monday. "But the launch is not imminent because no radar has been set up and no missile has been installed at the launch pad," the source added.
QUETTA: A complete shutter-down and wheel-jam strike was observed across Balochistan on Monday. The Baloch Students Organisation (BSO) had called for the strike against the alleged enforced disappearance of BSO Vice-Chairman Zakir Majeed Baloch, Quetta BSO President Shahzaib Baloch and several other Baloch students. The Anjuman-e-Ittehad-e-Marri also backed the strike. 
RAWALPINDI: Security forces personnel on Monday claimed to have killed 50 Taliban in operations in Mohmand, Bajaur, Malakand and Bannu during the past 24 hours.
ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani said on Monday that the early resumption of dialogue between Pakistan and India is imperative to address issues that have for long been the reason for tensions between the two countries. Gilani made the comments while talking to a Pugwash Conference on Science and World Affairs delegation which was headed by Pugwash Conference Secretary General Prof Paolo Cotta-Ramsunio at Prime Ministers House. 
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu on Monday deemed protests in Tehran on the aftermath of presidential elections as "a domestic matter." Turkey does not wish to comment on the issue, Davutoglu told reporters before embarking on a European tour.
Egyptian President Mohammad Hosni Mubarak on Monday received a telephone call from Israeli Premier Benjamin Netanyahu, during which the latter clarified some points mentioned in his speech last night, Egyptian TV said. Mubarak, in a statement to reporters earlier today, said the speech, which called for recognition of Israel as a Jewish state, will complicate the situation even further and will undermine peace hopes in the region. "Netanyahu's call for changing the Arab peace initiative to drop the refugees' right to return will not receive support from Egypt or elsewhere," Mubarak was quoted by the TV as saying.
ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari urged the international community on Monday to fully support Pakistans efforts in the war against terrorism and help it in overcoming the multitude of challenges. This is a challenge of our times and a challenge for the world. We have two wars [going on]. One is physical against militants [while the] other is to look after the displaced people. The world [must] come forward to support us, President Zardari said in an interview with Russia Today, the countrys only English television channel. 
TEHRAN, Iran -- Violence flared across Iran on Monday with the first reported death from anti-government riots, as hundreds of thousands of defiant Tehranis took to the streets demanding "Where is my vote?" after Friday's disputed presidential election.
One of the UNs largest international relief efforts is under investigation after it emerged that thousands of sacks of food aid were being diverted from starving refugees and openly sold for profit.
CAIRO (AP) - How do you count almost 40 million handwritten paper ballots in a matter of hours and declare a winner? 
SEOUL (AFP) North Korea may have built more underground nuclear test sites in the northeastern district where it staged its first two tests, a news report has said.
France said on Monday that it had summoned Irans ambassador in Paris to the Foreign Ministry on Monday but the envoy said he was "unavailable" and sent his First Counsellor in his place, according to official sources.
The United States said Monday that a scientific analysis of North Korea's May 25 nuclear test shows it to have had only a fraction of the explosive force first estimated. The U.S. intelligence report came as President Barack Obama prepared for talks Tuesday on the North Korean nuclear program and other issues with South Korean President Lee Myung-bak. 
