President Mwai Kibaki named opposition leader Raila Odinga as prime minister Sunday, implementing a long-awaited power-sharing deal aimed at resolving a political crisis that left more than 1,000 people dead.
The deal signed more than a month ago marks the first time Kenya will have both a president and prime minister. But the working relationship between Kibaki and Odinga, which has been frosty in the past, will determine how long the coalition lasts. The two men agreed in February to share power after a dispute over who won Kenya's December presidential election triggered weeks of unrest that killed more than 1,000 people and uprooted 300,000 from their homes. But negotiations over the Cabinet dragged on, and the public grew impatient. Scuffles broke out for three days last week in Kenya's largest slum, Kibera, between police and residents protesting the delay.
On Sunday, Kibaki announced the new Cabinet with the 40 ministries split equally between his Party of National Unity and its allied parties and Odinga's Orange Democratic Movement. Kibaki made the announcement a day after holding closed-door talks with Odinga. The Cabinet includes two deputy prime ministers: Musalia Mudavadi, the second in command in Odinga's party, and Uhuru Kenyatta, a Kibaki ally and son of Kenyan independence hero and first president, Jomo Kenyatta.
Kibaki and Odinga had come under growing pressure to implement the deal. Former U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan had said he was concerned by the slow pace of forming a new government under the deal he brokered, and Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice also called them Monday.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2008 00:00 ||
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That's a much better way to handle the situation. Make him PM and just dispose of him in an airplane "accident".
Zimbabwe's opposition MDC said on Sunday it will challenge a partial poll recount and the government promised the army would not fight Zimbabweans over the election which has raised fears of bloodshed. A two-week delay in releasing the results from Zimbabwe's March 29 presidential election has raised political tensions in the southern African nation, where the economy has collapsed. A Zimbabwean electoral official said 23 constituencies in the election would be recounted next Saturday, raising new uncertainty over the vote and the possibility that the ruling ZANU-PF could overturn its defeat in the parliamentary poll.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
How can you have a recount when you haven't released the first count?
Geez, Bob, just go ahead and declare yourself President-for-Life already.
In yet another setback for democracy in Africa, Cameroon's parliament adopted a constitutional bill removing a two-term limit to allow President Paul Biya to extend his 25-year rule on Thursday, despite opposition to the extension which caused of riots that killed dozens of people in February.
The bill, submitted just a week ago, was approved on Tuesday by the assembly's constitutional law committee which dismissed more than 20 opposition amendments. Opposition lawmakers, who criticised the bill stormed out of the chamber before the vote, Reuters reported.
Biya's Cameroon People's Democratic Movement (CPDM) enjoys a huge majority, controlling 153 of 180 parliamentary seats. The CPDM oversaw the introduction of a new constitution in 1996 which limited presidents to two seven-year terms. Biya's second term under that constitution expires in 2011, but he made it clear in a New Year speech that he would like to stay on.
There was little visible reaction in the capital Yaounde, whose streets were empty late on Thursday due to heavy rain. A Reuters reporter saw members of Cameroon's military rapid reaction force patrolling parts of the city on Wednesday night.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2008 00:00 ||
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Southern African heads of state called on Zimbabwes election authorities on Sunday to verify and release election results speedily and in accordance with the due process of law. Zimbabweans have been waiting for two weeks to hear the presidential election results.
Meeting in Lusaka, Zambia, into the early hours of Sunday, the leaders of the Southern Africa Development Community (SADC) also urged all parties in Zimbabwe to accept the results of the elections when they were announced. The summit declaration said if there was a run-off presidential election between President Robert Mugabe and opposition leader Morgan Tsvangirai, the Zimbabwe government is urged to ensure that [it is] held in a secure environment."
The opposition fears that the ruling Zanu PF party is gearing up for a violent campaign to intimidate voters into voting for Mugabe.
'intimidate' might not be the right word. 'Force' or 'ignore' might be better words for the role of the voters ...
The SADC declaration was released to journalists early Sunday morning by Zambian Foreign Minister Kabinga Bande, news agencies reported. Mugabe was not at the summit, nor was he mentioned in the declaration, said Agence France-Presse.
The meeting lasted for more than 12 hours. Reuters quoted an unnamed senior Zambian official as saying there was disagreement among SADC leaders over whether the situation in Zimbabwe should be called a crisis.
Worried about setting precedents, are they ...
AFP reported that Tendai Biti, secretary-general of Zimbabwes Movement for Democratic Change (MDC), said the declaration exposed the limitations of SADCs policy of quiet diplomacy and urged the SADC mediator on Zimbabwe, President Thabo Mbeki of South Africa, to abandon it. But Biti added that the opposition was largely satisfied with the outcome of the summit: This is a major improvement, SADC has acquitted itself fairly well, AFP reported him as saying.
In a separate development, Harares government-owned Sunday Mail newspaper reports that the Zimbabwe Electoral Commission has agreed to recount votes in 23 parliamentary constituencies in which Zanu PF is disputing results.
I'm sure the count will be much 'better' this time ...
Zanu PF lost control of parliament in the elections two weeks ago, and enough successful challenges to individual results could swing the balance of power in its favour again. In Lusaka, Foreign Minister Bande told journalists the issue had been discussed at the summit. If there was a recount, it should be carried out in the presence of all parties, he was reported as saying.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2008 00:00 ||
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Opec held production steady at meetings in February and March despite calls for more oil from the US and other consumers. Opec officials blame the high price on factors beyond the group's control such as the weak dollar, investment flows into commodities and speculation. Saudi Oil Minister Ali Al Naimi said last week that global oil markets were well supplied and there was no need to put more oil on the market, despite prices hitting a record of over $112 a barrel last week.
Saudi Arabia has trimmed its output to around 9 million bpd to reflect lower customer demand, a Saudi oil source said on Friday. The kingdom had in previous months pumped around 9.2 million bpd. Crude demand traditionally dips at this time of year after the end of winter as refiners carry out maintenance and prepare to meet summer demand.
Saudi production capacity stands at around 11.3 million bpd, and is scheduled to rise to 12. 5 million bpd next year. (Reuters)
Voting with their feet in the Workers Paradise...
HAVANA (AFP) - Despite a dizzying array of reforms since Raul Castro took the helm of Cuba's government, 2008 looks to be a record year for emigration, as inhabitants abandon the communist island in droves.
The 'dizzying array' of reforms include 1) we might let you buy a DVD player if you have American dollars 2) we might let you grow food on state land, if you provide everything but the land and 3) we might let you keep some of what you sell that food for at the market, unless we change our minds again. Apparently the AFP becomes dizzy easily.
In the first half of the US fiscal year, which began on October 1, almost 3,000 Cubans tried to reach US shores by crossing the shark-infested Florida Straits, according to the US Interests Section in Havana. The number represents a 21 percent increase over the previous year. Some Cubans are abandoning the island of some 11 million inhabitants legally; Others leave illegally, crowded on smugglers' fastboats. Almost all are heading to the islands nearby arch-enemy, the United States.
Illegal emigrants -- who are returned to Cuba by US authorities if picked up at sea, but get to stay in the United States if they reach US soil -- are joined another 20,000 Cubans to whom the Interests Section grants legal immigrant visas here every year, under the immigration accords Havana and Washington struck in 1994 and 1995. And to their total one can add some 10,000 who hand themselves to US authorities at the Mexican border.
US authorities estimate that some 35,000 Cubans will arrive to stay this year in the United States, which grants them immediate residency and working rights for fleeing communism. It does not do the same for Chinese or Vietnamese immigrants. Cuba charges that the US policy granting Cubans special benefits encourages dangerous and potentially deadly illegal migration.
So let them leave legally on a plane or large ship.
The number of Cubans who additionally are departing for Europe and Latin American countries is not known.
Far from tapering off, what often is described as a "silent exodus" has actually picked up since Raul Castro took the reins of government -- officially as president in February, and for over a year as interim leader before then -- although his government has introduced a steady stream of minor reforms aimed at eliminating unpopular restrictions and boosting economic efficiency.
So now the 'dizzying' reforms are really minor. I rather figured that out on my own ...
With calm weather at sea, illegal departures by sea were up sharply in February and March, from 219 to 412, US data show. Most of those picked up at sea are between 19 and 35, US Interests Section figures show. Indeed, fully 70 percent of Cubans who made the crossing to the United States did so with smugglers, paying 8,000-10,000 dollars per person, the section's data showed. Witnesses say the smugglers' craft sometimes even set out in broad daylight from isolated locations including on the Island of Youth, witnesses say.
In addition, the United States now is stepping up a family reunification program for Cubans who want to go live with US-based relatives. Paperwork that had been taking up to seven to 10 years now can take as little as a few weeks. There are some 1.5 million Cuban-Americans, including immigrants and their US-born descendants. Many of them send remittance funds back to Cuba to help their families make ends meet; Cubans earn an average of the equivalent of less than 20 dollars a month and those living abroad send home about one billion dollars a year.
Earlier this month, access to appliances such as microwaves and computers was just the latest of some traditional "bans" to be dumped by Raul Castro, 76, five weeks after taking over permanently from his 81-year-old brother Fidel, who did not seek reelection. The Raul Castro government also has dropped its controversial ban on Cubans staying in hotels reserved for the tourists who generate the lion's share of the Caribbean island's hard currency. Some rights groups had dubbed the policy "tourist apartheid." The change is expected to be welcomed by Cubans living abroad who come home for visits and want to treat relatives to hotel stays, although locals are unlikely to be stampeding for rooms that can cost up to 300 dollars a night.
The government also has moved to try to boost farm output with some small reform steps, and said it would allow Cubans who are renting homes from state employers to gain title to them that can be passed on to their heirs.
On April 14, all Cubans for the first time will be allowed to sign contracts for cell (mobile) phones, and will be able to reach friends and relatives in the United States and beyond.
Cuba watchers say there is likely a short-term political benefit of allowing greater economic openness, though they also warn many changes in the Americas' only centrally-controlled, one-party regime could build pressure for more change than the government is prepared to allow.
#1
Illegal emigrants -- who are returned to Cuba by US authorities if picked up at sea, but get to stay in the United States if they reach US soil...
Fun and games. But it sounds like a win-win for the Castro Brothers. First they get rid of trouble makers. Then, after said trouble makers find work in American, they send dollars to their relatives in Cuba.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/14/2008 15:15 Comments ||
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#2
"US authorities estimate that some 35,000 Cubans will arrive to stay this year in the United States, which grants them immediate residency and working rights for fleeing communism."
We need a quid pro quo plan, for every escaping communist, we exchange the passport of a member of the left. That is a program with vision, all the America hating residents here should be subject to this excahnge. Countries offered should include Cuba, North Korea, venezuela, and zimbabwe. Each of these countries needs our leftists to fill the many vaccums associated with the policies they wish to impos here.
#3
I'm all for sending as many communists lefties into Cuba as possible. They love that type of government, they can live there instead of trying to make us like it.
#4
What I don't understand, is why are people even trying to leave the worker's paradise that is Cuba? I mean they have free health care and education. What more could they want?
Other than freedom to speak their minds without being locked up, or the opportunity to own things without being part of the elite party, etc.
Posted by: Rambler in California ||
04/14/2008 18:20 Comments ||
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#5
"On April 14, all Cubans for the first time will be allowed to sign contracts for cell (mobile) phones, and will be able to reach friends and relatives in the United States and beyond. "
Yup, that was this morning. Cubans now have their own cell phones. It won't be much longer now.
#6
As is usually the case, there are quiet overtures in the background about Cuba giving up on the whole communist misadventure. But the stumbling block remains the old bastard Fidel Castro. The Cubans are too afraid to move while he is still alive.
However, when his death is announced, there is going to be some long delayed rapprochement.
#7
What are the local Castro-ites, Commies, + public Personages doing to inspire their own people to stay and invest???
*As per TOPIX, looks like the Cubans are following the same decision path as Putin's RUSSIA = Cold War USSR + Commie Bloc, i.e. focusing scarce State Socialist $$$ on ADVANCED/HIGH TECHNOLOGY DEV + TRANSFERS, FOR THE SAKE OF ANTI-US/WEST COMPETITION + SHORT-TERM NATIONAL-IDEO PRESTIGE, WIDOUT NEED OF DEV SUPPORTING ECONOMIC BASES OR ANALYZING MARKET NEEDS.
E.G. NAFTA-NAU + proposed GREAT LAKES FREE TRADE ZONE > As I'd said long ago on the Net, the USA = CONUS-NORAM can one day become a continent, perhaps TWO WID SOUTH AMERICA, of REGIONAL-GLOBAL FREE TRADE + ECON ZONES, AS PER THE MOST SURREAL, "IDEALIST/PURIST" DEFINITIONS AND PREMISES OF FREE MARKET CAPITALISM. To RUSSIA-CHINA's credit, at least their Politicos + Govts were FORMAL + OVERT IN SETTING UP THEIR FREE TRADE ZONES, NOT PDENIABLE LIKE AMERICA'S. IT TOOK THE NET TO SAY WHAT AMER LEADERS SHOULD [ALREADY]BE SAYING TO THEIR OWN CONSTITUENTS + COUNTRY.
#8
9-11/WOT > among other premises is WAR FOR MACKINDER'S WORLD ISLAND > WAR-COMPETITION BETWEEN THE CONTINENTS AS TO WHICH WILL DOMINATE THE FUTURE OWG-NWO + OWG GLOBAL MARKETS, i.e. AMERICA(S) = NEW WORLD, versus EURASIA = OLD WORLD. ABOVE + USA versus RUSSIA-CHINA versus RADICAL ISLAMISM, etc. in Pacific > Guam, CNMI + WESTPAC still caught in the middle.
* JOHN GOODMAN in RAISING ARIZONA > CEREAL = "CORN FLAKES" Scene >"SO MANY COMMITMENTS, SO LITTLE TIME" [milk + flakes fly thru air here].
Hugo Chavez blasts FARC for holding civilians, saying it "doesn't make sense" to detain people who have nothing to do with rebels' war.
Venezuelan President urged the leader of Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia (FARC) Saturday to free all civilian hostages, including former presidential candidate Ingrid Betancourt. "If I were a guerrilla, I wouldn't have the need to hold a woman, a man who aren't soldiers," Chavez said at a Caracas gathering which was participated by Betancourt's mother, Yolanda Pulecio. "First, free the civilians who don't have anything to do with the war. I don't agree with that," he added, according to AP.
Betancourt, a dual French-Colombian citizen, was kidnapped six years ago while campaigning for Colombia's presidency. The mission by a French medical team to give ailing Betancourt medical aid and seek her freedom failed last week.
Chavez who has mediated the release of six FARC hostages says he has no way of reaching the rebel group following the Colombian incursion of Ecuador last month which killed the FARC second-in-command, Raul Reyes.
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Pull!
How much do you lead a pig?
Posted by: Elvis On a Tractor ||
04/14/2008 2:07 Comments ||
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#2
He'll probably threaten to withhold funds behind the scenes and next thing you know his "words of advice" will be followed.
#4
"If I were a guerrilla instead of a turd tossing monkey, I wouldn't have the need to hold a woman, a man who aren't soldiers," Chavez said at a Caracas gathering
ROME (AP) - Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi appeared headed for a return to power as Italian premier, with projections on Monday giving his bloc a solid lead in both the house and the Senate.
RAI state television projected Berlusconi's bloc taking 164 Senate seats, ahead of 139 for center-left leader Walter Veltroni's Democratic Party and allies. The Senate has 315 seats. In the lower house, projections showed Berlusconi's bloc with a 6 percent lead over Veltroni's. Under Italy's system, premiers must have control of both houses to govern.
The voting Sunday and Monday came amid a widespread sense of national decline and an economic downturn.
Berlusconi, 71, who has been premier twice before, has blamed the outgoing center-left government for the country's troubles. Veltroni, the former mayor of Rome, is almost 20 years younger and has promised deep reform and an ideology-free approach to tackle the country's problems. Berlusconi entered the race as the front-runner, capitalizing on the unpopularity of the outgoing government of Prodi, whose early collapse forced the vote three years ahead of schedule. But Veltroni appeared to have narrowed the gap, according to polls released before a pre-election ban on publishing polls took effect.
Whoever wins will face Italy's perpetual dilemmaimproving the economy, the world's seventh largest. It has underperformed the rest of the euro zone for years and the International Monetary Fund forecasts growth of 0.3 percent this year, compared with a 1.4 percent average growth for the 15-country euro area.
Signs of decline are abound, from piles of trash in Naples, to a buffalo mozzarella heath scare that has hurt exports and hit one of the country's culinary treasures, to the faltering sale of the state airline Alitalia. And Italians increasingly blame the governing classnot just one political force or anotherfor the failure to solve the nation's problems.
The elections decide 945 parliamentary seats, 630 of those in the lower house. Under Italy's much-criticized election law, a party only needs a relative majority in the lower houseeven just a 1-vote leadto win bonus seats securing full control of the chamber.
ABC News' Mary Bruce Reports: Former President Jimmy Carter confirmed in an exclusive "This Week" interview with Mr. Suffaluffagus George Stephanopoulos that he will not be endorsing any time soon. "The only thing I know is that, I have not made an endorsement, and don't intend to, until the time of the convention."
[snark]
"Oh, noes! What will I do? I'm bereft of Jimmy Carter's wise guidance. I do not know which way to turn."
[/snark]
Despite previously dropping hints in favor of Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., Carter said "I'll let you make your own judgment...about my inclinations. I've told you what I -- as much as I intend to reveal." I think I get what's going on here. If he endorses Obama now, and Obama collapses because of a backlash over Jeremiah Wright and the "poor, stupid Pennsylvania" comments, Carter ends up on the outside looking in. If he endorses Hillary, and she doesn't pull off the come-from-behind win, Carter ends up on the outside looking in. If he spends the time between now and when the winner becomes obvious mouthing platitudes and meeting with Hamas, and only jumps on the bandwagon at the last possible moment, he doesn't make any enemies. In other words, it's in the wimp's self interest to stay mushy.
Posted by: Mike ||
04/14/2008 08:49 ||
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#1
Wow. The suspense. I don't know if I can stand it.
#3
no way Carters for Clinton. Theyve been distant for a while, Bill Clinton made a point of being "not Carter", Carter got in the way of Clintons policy on Haiti IIRC. And in the disagreements between Obama and Hillary on middle east policy, esp on Iran, one of the few substantive differences that have come out, its clear which way Carter leans.
No the prob is he wants Obama, but a Carter endorsement would confirm precisely what lots of folks suspect about 'Bama. After the convention, its just endorsing the Dem nominee, so its no big deal.
#5
OMG it's the damnable peanut farmer again; O'Lord please take this vexation upon us and deposit it back into Limbo on a perminate basis please.
OR:
I wish I could entice one of my step-sisters [Jeanette] to bitch slap enuff sense into this Horses ASS so he'd keep hiz YAP shut and stay home in Plains Ga!
I did manage to watch part of this. At least the part when they weren't showing Campbell Brown's legs. I didn't see any of BHO's performance, but what I saw of Hillary's was strangely fascinating. Sort of like watching a hooker trying to pass herself off as a nun. I especially liked the way she mangled the pronunciation of the word Purim.
Democratic Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Sunday that the potential for life begins at conception as she and presidential rival Sen. Barack Obama answered questions about faith and religion in both their personal lives and the public discourse.
In a forum devoted to an issue rare on the campaign trail, the two White House hopefuls talked about the presence of God in their lives and how often they read the Bible as well as divisive issues such as abortion, abstinence and human rights within the context of faith. The two are reaching out to people of faith in Pennsylvania, which holds its primary on April 22. GOP nominee-in-waiting John McCain did not participate.
Clinton was asked whether life begins at conception which opponents of abortion contend is a reality that makes any termination of a pregnancy the ending of a life. "I believe the potential for life begins at conception," Clinton said. "For me, it is also not only about a potential life. It is about the other lives involved. ... I have concluded, after great, you know, concern and searching my own mind and heart over many years, ... that individuals must be entrusted to make this profound decision, because the alternative would be such an intrusion of government authority that it would be very difficult to sustain in our kind of open society."
The New York senator added that abortion should remain legal, safe and rare.
The two candidates appeared separately at Messiah College near Harrisburg, Pa., and briefly met as Clinton left the stage and Obama took her place. The moment of pleasantries and handshakes belied days of angry accusations between the two over Obama's comments about bitter voters in small towns.
Asked whether life begins at conception, Obama said he didn't know the answer. "This is something that I have not, I think, come to a firm resolution on. I think it's very hard to know what that means, when life begins. Is it when a cell separates? Is it when the soul stirs? ... What I know, as I've said before, is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we're having these debates."
Clinton is a Methodist. Obama is a member of Trinity United Church of Christ in Chicago, where the retired pastor, the Rev. Jeremiah Wright, touched off a furor with sermons criticizing the United States. The words of Obama's pastor have dogged the campaign, and the candidate reiterated his condemnation of Wright's remarks but stood by his church. "Pastors are imperfect. Certainly, the membership is imperfect. I, as somebody who is sitting in the pews as a sinner, is imperfect," he said. "And, you know, that doesn't detract from, I think, what the church is supposed to be about, which is to worship God and proclaim the good news."
Clinton said she has felt the gift of God in her life and said she makes decisions on tough moral issues such as abortion and the treatment of alleged terrorists after prayer, contemplation and study. "I don't pretend to even believe that I know the answers to a lot of these questions," Clinton said. "I don't."
One of the toughest questions she faced was why God allows innocent people to suffer. Clinton said that has been the subject of much debate for generations, and added: "I don't know. I can't wait to ask him."
When asked if she thought God wanted her to be president, Clinton quipped, "I could be glib and say, well, we'll find out." She said she doesn't presume anything about God and she thought Abraham Lincoln was right to not act as if God is on our side. "In fact, our mission should be on God's side," Clinton said.
#1
"I don't pretend to even believe that I know the answers to a lot of these questions"
Translation (in her case): "I want to do whatever I want, damn the consequences or morality, and be able to claim ignorance and innocence about my actions at some later date."
Her words aren't about deep religious thought. They're about plausible deniability.
And I seriously doubt that BHO is any better - probably worse.
Posted by: no mo uro ||
04/14/2008 8:12 Comments ||
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#2
"I'm more G*D D*mn pious than you are!"
Posted by: M. Murcek ||
04/14/2008 8:28 Comments ||
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#3
I have faith both of them will look very foolish come November. In fact, I hope the whole dhimocrat party will be shattered.
#5
"This is something that I have not, I think, come to a firm resolution on. I think it's very hard to know what that means, when life begins. Is it when a cell separates? Is it when the soul stirs? ... What I know, as I've said before, is that there is something extraordinarily powerful about potential life and that that has a moral weight to it that we take into consideration when we're having these debates."
Not quite as good as declaring himself to be pro life but slightly more encouraging than the usual knee jerk response from donks about a "woman's right to chose" with complete disregard for the baby's right to live.
Of course, if the "potential" for life begins at conception and "we really don't know" it seems the sensible thing to do would be to err on the side of safety and not commit a mortal sin just because the baby is inconvenient. But never accuse Hildebeast of being sensible. If she has her way your tax dollars will pay for any abortion that any woman wants.
Posted by: Abu Uluque ||
04/14/2008 16:11 Comments ||
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#6
Well, Hillary is Satan. I think we all know that and are comfortable in that knowledge.
And we've also gotten a peek into Obama's "faith".
No thanks...
#7
Why do people buy this "potential life" idea? Things are either dead or alive. Apart from miracles, dead things do not become alive. Biologically you have a live sperm combining with a live egg to form a live human. If a candidate cannot be honest about something so simple, how can they be trusted with anything really complex?
Posted by: Donald McConnell ||
04/14/2008 17:56 Comments ||
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The independent label sticks to John McCain because he antagonizes fellow Republicans and likes to work with Democrats.
But a different label applies to his actual record: conservative.
The likely Republican presidential nominee is much more conservative than voters appear to realize. McCain leans to the right on issue after issue, not just on the Iraq war but also on abortion, gay rights, gun control and other issues that matter to his party's social conservatives.
The four-term Arizona senator, a longtime member of the Armed Services Committee, criticized the earlier handling of the war but has been a crucial ally in President Bush's effort to increase and maintain U.S. forces in Iraq. Besides the war, McCain agrees broadly with Bush and other conservatives on:
_Abortion. McCain promises to appoint judges who, in the mold of Supreme Court Justice Antonin Scalia, are likely to limit the reach of the Roe v. Wade decision that legalized abortion. McCain's record is not spotless on abortion: He said once, in 1999, that Roe v. Wade should not be overturned. But that amounted to a blip in an otherwise unbroken record of opposing abortion rights for women. "I am pro-life and an advocate for the rights of man everywhere in the world," McCain told the Conservative Political Action Conference in February. "Because to be denied liberty is an offense to nature and nature's Creator."
_Gay rights. McCain opposes gay marriage. True, he does not support a federal ban on gay marriage on grounds the issue traditionally has been decided by states. But McCain worked to ban gay marriage in Arizona. He also supports the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy, and he opposed legislation to protect gay people from job discrimination or hate crimes. "I'm proud to have led an effort in my home state to change our state constitution and to protect the sanctity of marriage as between a man and woman," he told CNN in March. "I will continue to advocate for those fundamental principals of our party and our faith."
_Gun control. McCain voted against a ban on assault-style weapons and for shielding gun-makers and dealers from civil suits. He did vote in favor of requiring background checks at gun shows, but in general he sides with the National Rifle Association in favor of gun rights. When the Supreme Court held arguments last month on Washington, D.C.'s handgun ban, McCain said it was "a landmark case for all Americans who believe, as I do, that the Second Amendment guarantees an individual right to keep and bear arms."
His conservatism could be a problem for McCain particularly if this November's contest is as close as recent presidential elections, which were decided by independent-minded voters in the center of the political spectrum.
Said another way, his conservatism would rally the base and allow him to go after the center, thus winning the election handily.
But he might avoid this problem to the extent people know him as an independent-minded politician. And many do view him that way. "People see him as a centrist. They don't see him as a conservative," said Andrew Kohut, president of the Pew Research Center for the People and the Press. "In fact, they put him pretty close to themselves, in terms of ideology, and put President Bush way to the right of themselves," Kohut said.
In a national Pew survey earlier this year, voters placed McCain in the middle, where they placed themselves, when asked to judge the ideology of Bush and the presidential candidates. They placed Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama far to the left.
And voters who back Clinton and Obama are open to McCain. Nearly a third of Clinton supporters said they would back McCain if Obama becomes the Democratic nominee, and more than a quarter of Obama supporters said they would back McCain over Clinton, according to Associated Press-Ipsos polling released Thursday.
Democrats are trying to change the perception of McCain. The Democratic National Committee insists that McCain's election would amount to a third term for Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney. "All he offers is four more years of the failed Bush economy, an endless war in Iraq and shameless hypocrisy on ethics reform," DNC Chairman Howard Dean said last month.
Whatever the general image of McCain, the Christian right is deeply suspicious of him despite his many conservative positions. McCain has clashed with its leaders. He called televangelists Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell "agents of intolerance" and has often worked against them.
He pushed to limit the influence of money in politics through campaign finance reforms that, critics say, stomp on the constitutional right to free speech. He backs a path to citizenship for illegal immigrants, which many of his party's most conservative members oppose. And he splits from the right over research which extracts stem cells from human embryos in an effort to develop treatments for Parkinson's, Alzheimer's and a range of other diseases. Conservatives object because human embryos are destroyed; McCain supports the research.
Polls indicate McCain has the same level of GOP support as Bush had at this point in 2000. But some insist he still isn't reaching out to rank-and-file conservatives who are needed to lick envelopes, make phone calls and knock on doors in states where the election is likely to be close.
He doesn't need to 'reach out' to conservatives as much as they need to reach out to him. He's the nominee. Want access to President McCain? Get involved in the campaign.
On the right and across the political spectrum, McCain's image, rather than his positions on issues, seems to form people's opinion of him. Indeed, in choosing presidents, voters often look past issues to character and personality, and most individual issues are unlikely to mean much.
But one broader issue could figure prominently in November the tumbling economy and consequent job losses, home foreclosures and soaring energy prices. Those could prove troublesome for McCain, and not only because he acknowledges he's no economic expert.
"We are surely in a time of deep economic insecurity for a majority of the American people," said Curtis Gans, director of American University's Center for the Study of the American Electorate. "That has always led to two things: somewhat higher turnout, and votes against the party in power."
"We are also in a deeply unpopular war," Gans said. "Where there are these differences, and strong differences, they could be in the Democrats' direction."
#1
McCain, the best of three disfunctional elite liberals who is way over his head and groping for air, funding, and the right wing.
More groping, studdering, and stumbling to come as we get closer to E-day. I call it E-day for want of a better word. It's the day when America by her own hand accelerates her abrogation.
#3
Well, DG its according the Yahoo News. You know yahoo -
A Yahoo is a legendary being in the novel Gulliver's Travels (1726) by Jonathan Swift.
Swift describes the Yahoos as vile and savage creatures, filthy and with unpleasant habits, resembling human beings far too closely for the liking of protagonist Lemuel Gulliver, who finds the calm and rational society of the Houyhnhnms far preferable. The Yahoos are primitive creatures obsessed with "pretty stones" they find by digging in mud, thus representing the distasteful materialism and ignorant elitism Swift encountered in Britain."
#4
By far the most important reason to support McCain is GRIDLOCK. More important now than ever. Much better for Congress & President to expend their energies blaming each other for what is not getting done than on working together and doing things, since most of what they would be doing would be bad.
#6
So we need to get the Senate or House back, OS.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2008 16:28 Comments ||
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#7
In a career that straddles both politics and journalism, Gans is also well known for leading the effort against the re-election of President Lyndon Johnson in 1967 and serving as staff director of the Presidential campaign of Senator Eugene J. McCarthy the following year. He is former member of the Democratic National Policy Council and its Foreign Policy Subcommittee. He has served as a consultant to the Woodrow Wilson Center for International Scholars, the National Committee for an Effective Congress, and has managed a number of political campaigns.
TEELTON, Penn. -- Democrat Barack Obama lashed out Sunday at rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, mocking her sudden vocal support for gun rights and saying he understands the concerns of working class people. "She knows better. Shame on her. Shame on her," Obama told an audience at a union hall here.
The Illinois senator has spent two days on the defensive after comments he made at a San Francisco fundraiser suggesting working class people are bitter about their economic circumstances and "cling to guns and religion" as a result. Clinton has pounded him for the remarks, calling him "elitist and divisive."
After reiterating his regret for his choice of words, Obama turned the tables on Clinton -- mocking, among other things, her sudden fealty to the rights of gun owners. "She is running around talking about how this is an insult to sportsman, how she values the second amendment. She's talking like she's Annie Oakley," Obama said, invoking the famed female sharpshooter immortalized in the musical "Anne Get Your Gun."
Obama continued, saying "Hillary Clinton is out there like she's on the duck blind every Sunday. She's packing a six-shooter. Come on, she knows better. That's some politics being played by Hillary Clinton."
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Correct me if I am wrong here but the Annie Oakley remark is a clear reference to Clinton's gender. In Canada this would be enough to pull Obama up in front of a Human Rights tribunal. Is it ok for Clinton to start comparing Obama to the sheriff in Blazing Saddles? I doubt it.
#2
The thing that offended me about BO's remarks was the use of the word "cling". Cling is something that you hold to that you should't - like a security blanket, or your mother's apron strings. Clinging to religion is old fashioned, and unless you're bitter, there's really no reason to go to church. Only bitter people cling to religion.
You know, like the way Obama clings to a hate-filled mentor and spiritual advisor.
Posted by: Bobby ||
04/14/2008 6:49 Comments ||
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#3
Um, I cling to my guns because of people like O.
#11
An exercise for anyone who would like a bit of fun. How many tactical rules did BHO use in that article from his Alinsky play book?
Alinski devised and proved thirteen tactical rules for use against opponents vastly superior in power and wealth ...
1. "Power is not only what you have but what the enemy thinks you have.
2. Never go outside the experience of your people.
3. Wherever possible go outside of the experience of the enemy.
4. Make the enemy live up to their own book of rules.
5. Ridicule is man's most potent weapon.
6. A good tactic is one that your people enjoy.
7. A tactic that drags on too long becomes a drag.
8. Keep the pressure on.
9. The threat is usually more terrifying than the thing itself.
10. Major premise for tactics is development of operations that will maintain constant pressure upon the opposition.
11. If you push a negative hard and deep enough it will break through into its counterside.
12. The price of a successful attack is a constructive alternative.
13. Pick the target, freeze it, personalize it, and polarize it.
The real action is in the enemy's reaction. The enemy properly goaded and guided in his reaction will be your major strength. Tactics, like life, require that you move with the action."
DEMOCRAT grandees Jimmy Carter and Al Gore are being lined-up to deliver the coup de grâce to Hillary Clinton and end her campaign to become president.
After all, who knows better when it's over than Al Gore and Jimmuah Carter?
Falling poll numbers and a string of high-profile blunders have convinced party elders that she must now bow out of the primary race.
Why? Obama's doing a nice job of wrecking the second half of his primary campaign. It's more than possible he'll implode sometime between now and the convention, and Hillary could be there to pick up the pieces, for whatever they're worth at that point. Hillary has to bet on that because newsflash! there's nothing waiting for her if she quits now. She's never going to be the 'Lioness of the Senate', and the idea of being junior Senator from New York and sucking up to Chuckie Schumer the rest of her life can't be too appealing. And it isn't as if the party ever is going to turn to her in four or eight years. So she's in to August.
Former president Carter and former vice-president Gore have already held high-level discussions about delivering the message that she must stand down for the good of the Democrats. "They're in discussions," a source close to Carter told Scotland on Sunday. "Carter has been talking to Gore. They will act, possibly together, or in sequence."
That about covers all the possibilities, doesn't it ...
An appeal by both men for Democrats to unite behind Clinton's rival, Barack Obama, would have a powerful effect, and insiders say it is a question of when, rather than if, they act. Obama has an almost unassailable lead in the battle for nomination delegates, and is closing the gap with Clinton in her last stronghold, Pennsylvania, which votes on April 22. Clinton remains publicly defiant, insisting she will continue the battle with Obama all the way to the Democratic convention in August when superdelegates, or party top brass, will have the chance to add their weight to primary votes.
But the party's top brass have concluded her further participation in the race can only harm the party as Republican nominee John McCain strives to take advantage of her increasingly bitter battle with Obama.
Obama is quite capable of harming the party all by himself.
Neither Carter and Gore are likely to object to the role of bringing down the curtain on Clinton. While neither man has formally endorsed either her or Obama, both have clashed in the past with the Clintons. Gore blames his loss to George Bush in the 2000 presidential election on the impeachment of Clinton triggered by his White House affair with Monica Lewinsky. Carter, who has carved out a successful career as an international mediator, is believed to detest the flashy style of the Clintons. He recently told an interviewer that his entire family are committed Obama supporters.
Of course, if Al Gore had been a man in 1998 and had said to Bill, "you go or I go", he either would have been president right then or been in an unassailable position for the 2000 election. Instead of being a man of conviction, he's just another craven politican.
A number of options are being considered by the higher echelons of the Democrats, but they fall roughly into two categories. One is for Carter and Gore to go to Clinton privately and ask her to step down.
Hillary has more balls than both of them put together. She'd have their heads on spikes on her front lawn. Which, by the way, would bring in more Republician crossover votes.
The other is for both men to appear in public and endorse Obama a move which would see a majority of superdelegates go with them.
The campaign to force Clinton to make an early exit is being masterminded in Congress, home to the most influential of the superdelegates. Senate Leader Harry Reid and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi ...
... neither of whom have enough to do ...
... have called on superdelegates to hold an unofficial congress in early June to anoint a winner, rather than waiting for the convention in Denver. Pelosi has drawn withering fire from the Clinton camp for saying that these superdelegates must follow the national vote, with Clinton insisting that they should "vote with their conscience".
If the party had wanted them to follow the national vote, they wouldn't have created 'superdelegates' in the first place.
Posted by: Steve White ||
04/14/2008 00:00 ||
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#1
Carter and Gore to end Clinton bid
Why all the machinations? If those two really want Hillary out, they should just endorse her.
#2
If it were any other pair of politicians, I'd call this a case of somebody using their names to jostle the Clinton campaign & get them off-balance. With that craven hypocrite Carter involved? Even odds this is a valid feeler. He's always had less sense than a rabid squirrel.
Posted by: Mitch H. ||
04/14/2008 7:28 Comments ||
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#3
The donks are scared shitless about having a convention this year. What the hell scares them so bad about putting it to a vote? Are they going to try to declare BHO president half way through October?
#6
What the hell is it with these democrat ex-president, ex-vice-president types (Carter, Gore, Clinton)? They're all living in some dream world where they're still relevant. Get a clue - nobody gives a sh*t! STFU.
#11
This has got to be a friggin opinion piece. There is not one sourced reference in the entire thing. Gore and Carter ARE NO LONGER RELEVANT! Hillary would no more listen to these two asshats than she would Karl Rove. Cripe, who makes this shit up?
#13
What the hell scares them so bad about putting it to a vote?
I can' figure this out either. Yeah, it'll be acrimonious: that's politics, people.
A while back an Arab blogger (Egyptian, I think) expressed indignation that Hillary didn't gracefully step aside and make way for the Manifest Future of the Democratic Party. I laughed out loud.
Now, some Egyptian shmoe has an excuse for not knowing how democracy is done. Don't know what Gore and Carter's excuse is.
#14
At the rate things are going, I expect the Manifest Destiny of the Democratic Party will be banging around in the Dustbin of History for some time to come.
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
04/14/2008 20:34 Comments ||
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#16
NEWSMAX > DE BORCHGRAVE - 44th PRESIDENT WILL HAVE TO DEAL WITH UNPREDICTABLE TERRORISTS. The threat of Islamism as coupled or affected by DECLINING WORLD RESOURCES + Islam's need for a MARTIN LUTHER KING, or better yet a MARTIN LUTHER, to induce and lead VITAL = BADLY NEEDED, LONG OVERDUE REFORMS WITHIN ISLAM.
* TOPIX > THE FLAME OF DEMOCRACY IS SLOWLY DYING OUT, vv AUTHORITARIANISM due to pan-Moderates + Democractists' alleged failure to halt or contain the ISLAMIST THREAT + vari WORLD PROBS.
* TOPIX again > TOP DPRK OFFICIAL: THE REUNIFICATION OF THE KOREAN PENISULA CAN NO LONGER BE POSTPONED; + NORTH KOREA VOWS WILL NOT WORK WITH NEW SOUTH KOREA/ROK GOVERNMENT; + ASIA: TALKING PEACE WHILE PREPARING FOR WAR. NORTH KOREA - Officio vows NOKOR will not accept and will continue to resist the influence of the US-West both in Seoul = SOKOR Govt + Asia.
IMO NOKOR has only three scenarios/options:
1. Accede to the collective or unified demands of the Six-Party Talks, including the proposed US-NK Nuclear Declaration.
2. The USA will PC covertly allow NOKOR to dev indigenous NUCLEAR WEAPONS as a NK bargaining chip agz US-World [SSSHHHH, read - CHINA]. Prob is SOKOR-JAPAN, etc. tolerance for this [read- TRUST OF PYONGYANG + CHIN LACK OF MIL RESPONSE OUTSIDE OF NK].
3. NOKOR willfully initiates a MUTUALLY DESTRUCTIVE, ALL-OUT ATTACK AGZ SOKOR + USFK/UNC, etc. IN THE HOPES OF A INDUCING A US-CHINA CONFLICT IN WHICH CHINA WILL LOSE = OTHERWISE FORCED TO GIVE UP CONTROL = SUZERAINTY OVER NOKOR.
Pakistan's ex-Chief Justice Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry says he will not resign and is planning to stay in office till his term ends in 2013.
"When I did not succumb to the pressure and said no to top generals present at the President's camp office in Rawalpindi on March 9, 2007, with then Army Chief Pervez Musharraf, then why I should resign now," the President of Rawalpindi High Court Bar, Sardar Ismatullah Khan quoted Iftikhar as saying. "My tenure will end in the year 2013. Till then I will continue to serve the nation as Chief Justice," he added, The Dawn reported.
Justice Iftikhar had filed an affidavit before a 13-member Supreme Court on May 29, 2007, stating that top intelligence officials had pressured him into resigning. According to the statement, those who had pressured him included the then heads of the Military Intelligence (MI), Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), Intelligence Bureau (IB), the President's Chief of Staff (COS) and an unnamed official. Sardar Ismatullah said Justice Iftikhar had dismissed the report that he had reached an understanding with the coalition government to resign immediately after reinstatement.
This article starring:
Iftikhar Mohammad Chaudhry
Sardar Ismatullah Khan
Posted by: Fred ||
04/14/2008 00:00 ||
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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.
Southern African heads of state called on Zimbabwes election authorities on Sunday to verify and release election results speedily and in accordance with the due process of law. Zimbabweans have been waiting for two weeks to hear the presidential election results.
ROME (AP) - Conservative leader Silvio Berlusconi appeared headed for a return to power as Italian premier, with projections on Monday giving his bloc a solid lead in both the house and the Senate. 
ABC News' Mary Bruce Reports: Former President Jimmy Carter confirmed in an exclusive "This Week" interview with 
TEELTON, Penn. -- Democrat Barack Obama lashed out Sunday at rival Hillary Rodham Clinton, mocking her sudden vocal support for gun rights and saying he understands the concerns of working class people. "She knows better. Shame on her. Shame on her," Obama told an audience at a union hall here.
DEMOCRAT grandees Jimmy Carter and Al Gore are being lined-up to deliver the coup de grâce to Hillary Clinton and end her campaign to become president.
Pakistan's ex-Chief Justice 
