(Xinhua) -- Egyptian geriatric President Hosni Mubarak reaffirmed Wednesday that Egypt would hold "free and transparent" parliamentary elections slated for Nov. 28.
"I again reaffirm that I am looking forward to a free and transparent election under the supervision of the supreme committee for elections and the monitoring of Egyptian civil society," Mubarak said when addressing a meeting of the ruling National Democratic Party's (NDP) Higher Body.
"I would allow the participation of more political voters to cast their ballots," he added.
Mubarak also highlighted the achievements the country has made over the past five years and outlined parameters of the party's work plan for the next five years.
The upcoming legislative elections comes amid uncertain political circumstances in Egypt with its presidential elections due next year.
According to Egypt's High Elections Commission, 5,720 candidates submitted applications for running in the vote. The contesting parties including the NDP, the Al-Wafd, the Nasserist and Al-Tagammu. The banned Mohammedan Brotherhood group also runs in the polls with its candidates as independents.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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(KUNA) -- Hundreds of people were evacuated from the building housing the Ruling Conservative Party headquarters Wednesday as a national demonstration against tuition fees descended into chaos, police said.
A window was smashed at Millbank Tower in central London and eyewitnesses said students attempted to force their way into the building. An estimated 50,000 students and lecturers were taking part in the demonstration against Government plans to cut university funding and charge students up to 9,000 pounds per year in tuition fees from 2012.
One eyewitness who works at Millbank Tower, who did not want to be named, told news hounds: "The fire alarm went off and every one was evacuated from the building. There are hundreds of students outside. It looks like they are trying to get into the building. We were told that it was a false fire alarm because students were throwing smoke bombs into the building."
He added that around 300 workers gathered outside when the alarm went off. Students lit a fire outside Millbank Tower, near to where protesters were due to gather for a rally. Windows at the base of Millbank Tower - adjacent to Conservative headquarters at 30 Millbank - were smashed in the protests.
The tower, which has 30 floors, is home to a number of Government agencies including the Environment Agency, the Audit Commission and the Parliamentary Ombudsman, as well as Conservative Party headquarters. Liberal Democrat sources indicated that the party's headquarters in nearby Cowley Street had not been targeted.
The march ground to a halt when a group of students staged a sit-down protest outside Parliament. Dozens of coppers moved in to form a line outside one of the main entrances to the House of Commons, used by MPs. Up to 100 students broke away from the main march to protest outside the headquarters of the Business Department, the police added. Scores of coppers moved in to stop the students storming the building.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
An estimated 50,000 students and lecturers were taking part in the demonstration...
"Lecturers" huh...so that's what the kids are calling radical Socialists these days.
#2
I really do not get it. Socialism has failed every time it has been tried at enormous economic and human cost.
And yet each generation wants to try again.
Is capitalism perfect? No. But it is kind like democracy. It appears bad except when compared to every other system we have managed to come up with.
I just do not understand.
Posted by: Kelly ||
11/11/2010 14:51 Comments ||
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#3
"I really do not get it. Socialism has failed every time it has been tried at enormous economic and human cost. And yet each generation wants to try again."
Kelly, it's simple. All the other times it's been tried, they didn't do it correctly.
This generation of leftist loons will do it the right way, and this time we'll at last have our Workers' Paradise.™
See?
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
11/11/2010 18:22 Comments ||
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#4
Yes.
Actually my own personal explanation for the failure of the institution of Socialism is that the leaders were not sufficiently efficient in hunting down and executing enemies of the state.
Posted by: Kelly ||
11/11/2010 18:30 Comments ||
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[El Universal] In the post-election political scenario, the new balance of power has led President Hugo Chavez to set a strategy based on the display of force to strengthen the public's perception of Chavez's invincibility.
This was the view expressed by Luis Vicente León, director of polling firm Datanalisis, during the forum entitled 2011 Outlook, hosted by consulting firms Ecoanalítica and Metroeconómica. "The president's role is to make clear who is in charge, regardless of key players such as Major General Rangel Silva," León said.
The director of pollster Datanalisis said that the government finds himself in a predicament as to the economic strategy: following a Marxist model, where the State has the absolute control of the means of production; following an authoritarian model, where the government would impose conditions, production quotas, prices, regulations and other controls on certain private companies; and a scenario that has been called the "Chinese model," a combination of an orthodox Marxist regime in the political arena and a capitalist economic policy.
Luis Vicente León said that one of the questions to be addressed is whether the government would take actions against Polar or Cargill, as more than 70 percent of the population is against expropriations. Besides, the government has faced troubles to create the perception that these companies violate the law.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
The Chinese model works OK - for a time, at least - provided the country's gone through a period of absolute Marxism and tyranny producing a cowed and servile population. You can't travel straight to it, as Chavez's goons think they can. The Venezuelan people might resent being dictated to in every respect of their lives other than how they choose to spend their money, or becoming slave labour in the national interest.
As for orthodox Marxism, the world could do with a fresh reminder of socialism taken to its logical extreme.
The General said: The National Armed Forces has no half way loyalties but full ones towards the people, one life project and one Commander in Chief.
This is closely related to the last of the Marked Brothers busted and held in Colombia awaiting extradition to either Ve or USA. Bet on Ve getting him, but the tapes are in Colombian and Swiss hands.
:)
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where ||
11/11/2010 9:35 Comments ||
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(Xinhua) -- Cuba's ruling Communist Party proclaimed on Tuesday that socialism will be kept as the country's social and economic model but changes are necessary. The position was made clear in the official release of "guidelines" for the party's sixth congress scheduled for April 2011.
Cuban leader Raul Castro has said economic reform will be one of the main issues at the congress.
According to the guidelines, the "socialist state enterprise" remains the main model, but joint ventures with foreign investment are also encouraged.
The Cuban government is implementing a plan to eliminate more than 500,000 jobs in the bloated public sectors and to allow its people to start small businesses in 178 different professions.
"The policy we are proposing shows that socialism means equal rights and opportunities for all citizens, but not egalitarianism," said Castro.
"Work is both citizen's right and duty, and a source of personal fulfillment, and it should be remunerated according to its quantity and quality," he added.
Since the triumph of the Cuban revolution, for the first time workers' income in state enterprises will depend on productive results instead of steady salaries. The new wage system is one of the major strategies promoted by Castro since he took power in 2007.
Social affairs will be debated in another conference before the end of the year, Castro said.
Initially, the party congress were held every five years to design economic and social strategies for the party and the nation. However, The infamous However... the congress was postponed after a session in October 1997.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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#1
Watch out for the Barber Cops
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where ||
11/11/2010 9:38 Comments ||
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THE man believed responsible for exposing a Russian spy ring in the US has been named by a newspaper as Colonel Shcherbakov.
Kommersant claimed Colonel Shcherbakov, a spy handler with Russia's national intelligence service, provided information to US federal agents in their investigation and arrest of ten deep cover Russian agents in June. The colonel was aided in his "betrayal" by his daughter, who is a long term resident in the US, the report said.
It claimed Colonel Shcherbakov fled Russia for the US in June, just days before the undercover agents, including Anna Chapman, were arrested.
Colonel Shcherbakov's son was also said to have quit his government post and traveled to the US before the spy ring was exposed, in a dramatic Cold War-style sting operation that dated back several years.
Let's make sure the safe houses are really safe. And do not, Colonel, do not try the sushi no matter how tempting it looks ...
Prime Minister Vladimir Putin since denounced the then-unnamed collaborator as someone "who will end up on booze, or drugs - under the fence", the newspaper said.
"The fate of such a person is unenviable," a senior Kremlin source told Kommersant. "All his life he will be ... afraid of retaliation."
All ten agents arrested in the US were later traded in a spy exchange, which saw Russia send four of its own convicts to the West.
But the newspaper said the incident triggered fears in Russia that its entire US espionage operation was at risk, with the government now investigating other past and present employees for potential links to America.
"This is a big mix-up that will cost many titles and jobs," one source said.
Our counter-intel people will be pleased; we'll watch who suddenly goes home 'on leave' and who comes to replace them ...
It's a start but not nearly enough. I can think of entire departments that need to go bye-bye. I notice Obamacare isn't on the table. They missed that. the Department of Education won't disappear, as won't the DEQ, MMA, and a bunch of other encumbrances that just won't die. Nothing to force a balanced budget. Political action by unions continues unabated. I'd put in a flat income tax, too. Everybody should have to row, that way there are fewer stupid voters. Welfare recipients should have their vote cut in half. Nothing to cut out pork or other pet projects.
#1
As soon as theyre in office, the Republicans could pull a hat trick, here.
Social Security was originally intended *solely* for minimum wage workers with no other form of retirement. Had it remained just for them, it would have been a good retirement for them. However, socialists wanted to expand it to create a national retirement system, and this fouled it up.
So the end result of SS reform should be to return it to its original purpose. That being said, the question is how do we get everybody else off the system with minimal pain? There is an answer.
First thing, only allow new people into the system if they are minimum wage employees. Nobody else who would otherwise enter the system has to pay FICA (which is both for SS and Medicare, which is also on its way out.)
Then, some years ago, it was suggested that there should be means testing, so that people with other retirement shouldnt get SS payments. This was a no-go and was soundly rejected.
But there is an alternative, RIGHT NOW. Because the ending of the W. Bush tax cuts will be an economic disaster, the Republicans want to restore them. But they should hold off, and instead use this as an opportunity to downsize SS - with tax cuts!
That is, offer people who would get SS payments a deal. If they want the money, fine. But, if *they* want, they can get slightly *more* money through tax deductions (though it would appear to be a lot more, as you can only deduct part of a deduction against your taxes.)
The hat trick is that the Republicans would, in effect, be restoring the W. Bush tax cuts, but at the same time reducing the expenditure of SS dollars, which would make the system far more stable, even sound.
Once the people who are actually getting benefits get this deal, then a version of these tax cuts could be extended to those who are still paying into the system. Instead of paying FICA, which would about double many peoples paycheck, they get a tax deduction for the money they already paid in to FICA.
Each year, they get a deduction to pay for the money they put into the system, so in a matter of speaking, they get their money back as a *double* increase in their net income, both by not paying FICA, and by getting a previous years FICA-payment in tax deductions.
For someone still working, this would be quite a windfall, and there should be private retirement programs available for them to put this extra money into. Fortunately such programs exist right now.
Now, this all will cause a big hit to the federal revenues, but in turn it creates a great opportunity to replace the federal income tax with some much better alternative.
I didnt mention Medicare in this, but it will need equally drastic reduction heading to elimination as well. But that will be a much tougher nut to crack.
#2
First thing, only allow new people into the system if they are minimum wage employees. Nobody else who would otherwise enter the system has to pay FICA (which is both for SS and Medicare, which is also on its way out.)
?
Nobody else who would otherwise enter the system has to pay FICA (which is both for SS and Medicare, which is also on its way out.)
This would created millions and millions of jobs paying 3 cents an hour over the minimum wage.
But perhaps that's the plan.
Posted by: Goldies Every Damn Where ||
11/11/2010 9:43 Comments ||
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#3
Jobs and wealth are going to have to be created at the same time. A more friendly environment for business is going to have to be created. However, under no circumstances can we return to a situation where the government/Wall Street are creating/trading phony worthless paper to loot the economy.
#4
Goldies: "3 cents over minimum wage" doesn't make sense, because for minimum wage workers, there wouldn't be any change, either in the FICA they pay, or the matching funds their employers pay. They would have to be a LOT over minimum wage before they would no longer be part of the system.
It is the salaried employees that would no longer have to cough up half their taxes in FICA. While that money was *supposed* to be used to pay for SS and Medicare, it was *always* spent on other things, with congress just paying the monthly "push" for those getting money *from* the system.
#6
No. Social Security was sold as a tax to the
Supreme Court as a tax. It was designed to be welfare for very old people right after the great depression. You are trying to find ways to snake within the system. No pyramid scheme is any good.
You put thought into this and that is good, but
welfare state thinking begats a welfare state.
If you truely want a fix, go to fair tax.
#8
I'm not sure why people who make minimum wage should be able to get Social Security retirements and those making several bucks an hour more than minimum wage will end up destitute in old age.
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 ||
11/11/2010 11:37 Comments ||
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#9
Social security was a good idea for its time. People were less sophisticated (no insult) about financial matters, and most pension plans were defined benefit-style plans. Setting up SS with the age limits as a defined benefits plan, with an immediate payout to the current elderly, was a way to help people who were destitute.
But if FDR was alive and president today and was faced with designing an old age pension plan, he wouldn't do what he did in the 1930s.
So (my two cents) let's design a new system. Aim it at low-income workers, means-test, and make it a defined contribution (ala 401K) plan.
Then transition the country over a generation from SS to new SS. We'd have to continue to pay some sort of FICA tax to support the people who are currently retired or who are eligible for retirement in the near future, but we could then phase out old SS. For example, people in the 45 - 55 age group would get a mixed plan, people in the 35 -45 would get a different mixed plan more like new SS, and workers under 35 get new SS.
It could get a little complicated, of course, and strong leadership would be needed to prevent the politicians from loading up the new plan with all sorts of gim-crack nonsense. But we ought to get away from the old social security. It was good for 1930 but it isn't good for 2030.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/11/2010 11:42 Comments ||
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#10
Better watch that third rail. SS is the safety net for a lot of people, including the disabled, especially since corporations have so gleefully dropped their own retirement programs.
I'm certainly not saying there isn't a lot of waste or fraud in it but Republicans may be rushing in where angels fear to tread. Perhaps they'd be better off finding the rot in the system, i.e. people with "bad backs" or "stress" who claim to be disabled these days and reform the system instead of tear it down wholesale.
I'd personally rather see whole departments of the fed gov't be dismantled, such as Education, before removing SS benefits from other than the wealthy. But of course the wealthy would bitch and moan of how unfair it is, so removing their benefits would never happen either.
There are a whole lot of people who can shift their votes just as quickly in the next election as they did in this one. Just something to remember.
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 ||
11/11/2010 12:19 Comments ||
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#11
Social Security was a terrible idea that derived from the Bismarkian deal to trade up-front low-cost Ponzi scheme social democracy for the right to reassemble the Reich. Where it has lasted the longest, it has crippled the family and voluntary support systems that formerly supported the elderly. Now in the US they are abandoned as a result of federal largesse crowding out the market for resonsible treatment of the aged.
My two cents? People, not the government, are responsible for their own old age. They should rear children who are willing to support them. If they don't they should save lots of money to pay others to take care of them.
Have public assistance for the poor regardless of age, but not as good as today. People should dread ending their lives on the public dole.
I'm tired of paying for other people's abandoned parents and I don't want my children doing so either.
Somehow my grandfather, a carpenter, was able to raise a family during the depression consisting of a mentally retarded boy, another son and daughter, and a wife who suffered for the last 20 years of her life with MS and was able to support himself till his death at 86. Sure he got some Social Security payments, but he also left a fully paid house and inheritance to his second wife. If a carpenter could do that so many years ago, there is no reason it couldn't be done today, if people had the right incentive and their savings weren't destroyed by constant inflation.
We won't adopt even the half-way measures advocate by Dr. White. Instead, this whole rotten mess will collapse in a moment unknown. And then we will start from scratch.
#12
Personally, I think the Social Security issue is the one that is closest to being actually solvable among all the ones the Debt Panel dealth with.
Raising the age of eligibility a few decades before the commission proposes to do so, reducing payments to wealthy retirees, convicted felons are a few other groups, indexing to a more realistic set of values and allowing most income of people over 67 to escape SS taxation (which actually hurts the SS trust fund but helps the economy enormously) would just about take care of the situation .
The other entitlement issues, e.g., Medicare and Medicaid are much, much more difficult to deal with.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/11/2010 12:36 Comments ||
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#13
Perhaps all government employees should have their retirement packages eliminated like everyone else.
That would save a lot of money in taxes. Then we can all be poor together and our corporate CEO's and bankers can jet around the world with all the moolah telling us whether we can breathe or not.
Posted by: Black Charlie Chinemble5313 ||
11/11/2010 12:49 Comments ||
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#14
I'll throw my two-cents in about Medicaid, which I have some experience with:
1)Legal or illegal, non-US citizens cannot receive any sort of Medicaid. If you're here legally and you cannot pay for an emergency room visit, you go on a payment plan linked to your social security number (or the equivalent) and your console is informed. If necissary, Medicaid tracks you back to England, Mexico, or wherever and docs your pay - and other nations cooperate OR ELSE.
If you're illegal, you get treated then deported without the ability to ever return (legally, at least).
2) If you're a US citizen, you don't get it unless you are otherwise uninsurable, disabled or severely ill, and your income or family income falls below a certain level. And when I say disabled, I mean DISABLED: Down syndrome, quadriplegic, and the like. That's who the freaking program was for, anyhow, and those people are being basically robbed by everyone else sneaking onto Medicaid.
3) Turn it into a means to subsidize private insurance rather than (in some cases) a stand alone program. For example, if Blue Cross agrees to insure a one-year-old with Down syndrome and heart problems for a medium income family, the government agrees to cover amounts over "X"
I have no hard facts to back up my plan, but I'm guessing you could seriously save some money this way. Half the current budget, maybe more.
#15
It also proposed a target of revenue into the Federal beast to the tune of 21% of GDP. That's staggering, and very possibly unprecedented in recent decades.
Posted by: Grenter, Protector of the Geats ||
11/11/2010 13:21 Comments ||
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#16
Defined benefit retirement plans all depend on accurately guessing future revenues to be paid out in future benefits. All public & private plans have this same weakness. All should be done away with, except for retired military (a small proportion of the public).
Certainly the Feds could get out of the education business altogether, abolish that department, repeal "No Child Allowed to Excel Left Behind" & let the states handle it. The EPA can be reined in by amending the act to exclude regulation of CO2 emissions, think of the savings in that.
Lots of good ideas, but the whole thing is dead on arrival. The electorate is too ignorant of what needs to be done, and too insistent on getting theirs, to tolerate these suggestions. I am guessing the system will have to collapse first before they will come around. National debts, public & private, can only be dealt with 2 ways, by default or by being paid off. Then there is the 3rd way, to shuck & jive, which is so far working just fine.
#18
I watched the announcement. I thought it an encouraging start. Then slammed my fist on the table with about the loudest rant of bullshit I have done.
There are some alright ideas and a lot of facade. Calling it doa in committee made me want to burn my w-2 like a draft card.
New Delhi: The Left may have staged protests during his visit but US President Barack Obama was "glad" to meet an Indian communist leader last evening.
"I am glad to meet an Indian communist. I am told that communists have been part of the (Indian) political mainstream," Obama told CPM Politburo member Sitaram Yechury at the Rashtrapati Bhawan banquet as they were introduced and both shook hands.
Yechury told Obama that the Indian communists have been in the political mainstream "throughout".
Except for the Maoists, they just kill people.
Marking a departure from their past practice, leaders and MPs of the CPM and CPI, known for their anti-US stance, had attended Obama's speech in Parliament last evening.
They always want to hear from one of their own ...
The CPM leadership had maintained that "as we hear him, he should also listen to the voice of the Indian people and their protests".
But their Left ally, Forward Bloc, had boycotted the speech. Asked about the boycott, Yechury merely said, "That's why we are different parties".
The Left parties had organised protests against the US policies during Obama's visit and asked the government not to succumb to "pressure" from America on strategic and economic issues.
Posted by: Steve White ||
11/11/2010 11:26 ||
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#1
So did the commie get a nice bow too? Or just the secret handshake?
(KUNA) -- US President Barack B.O. Obama arrived in South Korea on Wednesday to attend the summit of the Group of 20 (G-20) major economies set for Nov.11-12, where spats over foreign exchange rates and economic imbalances in the world economy are set to dominate the talks, the Seoul-based Yonhap News Agency reported.
Earlier in the day, the International Chamber of Commerce (ICC) urged G-20 leaders to recommit themselves to free trade, saying trade is the fundamental key to many problems facing the world, including the ongoing foreign exchange dispute between the US and China. The call came one day before Obama and Chinese President Hu Jintao were to meet in Seoul with 18 other heads of state for the G-20 Seoul summit.
South Korean President Lee Myung-bak said last week that global leaders will seek to reach a set of concrete guidelines on ways to halt currency disputes and reduce trade imbalances in the upcoming summit. He said the US China and European nations, in despite over exchange rates, will "be able to move one step forward and reach a compromise through discussions." China has come under growing pressure to stop its practice of keeping its currency, the yuan, artificially low in a bid to boost exports and let it appreciate at a faster speed. Lee took note of China's cooperation at the Gyeongju meeting and held out expectations over "positive cooperation by Chinese President" at the Seoul summit as well. The G-20 involves Argentina, Australia, Brazil, Britain, Canada, China, France, Germany, India, Indonesia, Italy, Japan, Mexico, Russia, Soddy Arabia, South Africa, South Korea, Turkey, the US and the European Union.
Posted by: Fred ||
11/11/2010 00:00 ||
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10:93 (about settling the Children of Israel in a nice place)
7:137 (about giving them a home after the defeat of Pharoah)
5:20-26 (about the episode dealing with the report of the 10 scouts in Numbers 13
17: 100-104 (Gods promise to Moses after the destruction of Pharaoh's forces at the sea of Reeds)
Per normalistic Islam, these are all promises from God that were abrogated because Israel did bad things like violate the Sabbath (e.g. 7:163) and worship Ezra as the son of God (e.g. 9:29)and thus the 'kill them where you find them' (2:191) are now the ongoing command to the Umma.
Posted by: Lord Garth ||
11/11/2010 11:07 Comments ||
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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.
(KUNA) -- Hundreds of people were evacuated from the building housing the Ruling Conservative Party headquarters Wednesday as a national demonstration against tuition fees descended into chaos, police said. 
(KUNA) -- US President 
