In a greeting to the Iranian people on the occasion of the traditional New Year (Nowruz) holiday last week, Secretary of State John Kerry exposed a secret that journalists and academics have been agonizing over for the past six weeks:
Ah, for the good old days when reporters competed to get their scoops to press...
the fact that his daughter has married an Iranian-American who has extensive family ties to Iran.
The Mullahcracy has not been shy about harassing locals to blackmail the relatives not directly in their grasp. But as the editorialist points out, what odds the honourable Secretary of State would actually make any moves the Mullahs might think need correcting?
Posted by: trailing wife ||
03/26/2013 00:01 ||
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#1
John Forbes Kerry - the gift that keeps on giving...
[Bangla Daily Star] WE are horrified, surprised and somewhat dumfounded by Begum Zia's tacit invitation to the Army should, in her perception, the need arise. Coming from her, a two times prime minister, who should know better about the role of the military in a democratic set up, we find her remarks not only injudicious but also unexpected and unwarranted. We condemn her for the army baiting.
In a manner of speaking the leader of the opposition may have exposed her game plan, which is to create the need for a military intervention by spawning an anarchic situation in the country. Admittedly, for its part the government has done disservice to democracy by imposing restraints on the opposition and by arresting en masse more than hundred fifty of its big shots and workers, and putting them in shackles.
We grant the opposition that the government of Sheikh Hasina ...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide... is inefficient, corrupt, and authoritarian and which has not given adequate political space to the BNP. We have condemned the AL in these very columns in the past for its injudicious acts and we will keep on doing so till the government mends its ways. But that does not for a moment justify the intervention of the armed forces in politics. Are we to understand that to Begum Zia an unconstitutional military dispensation is preferable to admittedly flawed democracy?
It is a stark revelation of the opposition leader's mindset and speaks very poorly of her commitment to democratic system. It seems that Begum Zia's love for democracy depends on whether she is in power or out of it. Democracy is the only thing to root for under any circumstances, however flawed that might be. Perhaps it is worth reminding her and those that may feel inclined to agree with her that the ills of democracy can only be cured by more democracy.
The role of the military is well defined and we want it to achieve the highest standard of professionalism while being respectful of the constitution. We are happy to note that the military has done the country proud by its contribution to international peace over the last two decades. And our politicians would do well not to involve the military in politics.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/26/2013 00:00 ||
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Lebanese Prime Minister Najib Mikati--who was selected by Hezbollah as the country's premier--has resigned, bringing his cabinet and the government with him.
Is that a good thing or a bad thing? Since Hezbollah picked the prime minister, is it any great loss that he's gone?
Actually, maybe it is. Najib Mikati is not a Hezbollah member. And if the leaders of the Iranian-sponsored terrorist group thought they could use him as a tool, they were wrong, at least for the most part. They're the reason he got the job in the first place, but they're also--at least according to Reuters--the reason he quit.
Mikati has been pressing for Lebanese neutrality in the Syrian war, but Hezbollah wants Lebanon to side with Bashar al-Assad. What's the point of seizing power in Lebanon if Beirut won't back Hezbollah's allies in Tehran and Damascus?
#4
Family breakdown was the consequences of liberal Democrat policies. Paying more if the father leaves, feeding into the poor me victim mentality, having the graft and corruption sucking up all the money that could have maybe helped. Community organizers, race baiters like Obama and Jesse and Al all served to destroy the family.
Anyone that could left and what you see are the dregs that couldn't/wouldn't.
#5
Raised by a single mother, Carson says his family situation was the exception to the rule in the 1950s.
That which the Left(tm)can not acknowledge is the dark side of desegregation - Black upper and middle class flight. Instead of government acting as a proxy by not tolerating behaviors that those who left never tolerated, government institutions blamed everyone else but the perps for their actions. Government subsidized those behaviors and like most human behavior, simply got more of the same thing.
#6
Are the proposed mighty [Socialist]Trans-Pacific + Trans-Atlantic Partnerships/OWG Unions, etc. going to $$$ support the [Socialist] NAU iff the [Socialist] EU can NOT???
Given that the post-National/Constitution US STATE SOCIALISM = NEW "SOVEREIGNTY" ANDOR NEW "ECONOMY"???
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.
...Bangla dynastic politician and current Prime Minister of Bangladesh. She has been the President of the Bangla Awami League since 1981. She is the eldest of five children of Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Her party defeated the BNP-led Four-Party Alliance in the 2008 parliamentary elections. She has once before held the office, from 1996 to 2001, when she was defeated in a landslide...
