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Musharraf: Pakistan isn't hunting Osama
Today's Headlines
Headline Comments [Views]
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Africa Horn
Kenya govt turns on critics, Odinga hailed
Kenyan President Mwai Kibaki's government warned opposition supporters on Monday it would crack down on planned new protests against his disputed poll win, after it lashed out at critics, including Britain's ambassador.

About 650 people have been killed in violence since Kibaki's re-election last month and 250,000 displaced in a country that is more used to taking refugees from war-torn Sudan and Somalia.

Many of the deaths occured in ethnic clashes involving machete-wielding youths, although police have also shot dead scores of demonstrators in Nairobi and Kisumu in a largely successful bid to crush opposition rallies.

More violence is feared as the opposition has called for further "mass action" on Thursday. Police have banned it. "Mass action only provides an opportunity for criminals to loot and commit other crimes ... and interfere with the freedoms of other Kenyans who may not wish to participate," State Internal Security Minister George Saitoti said in a statement. "No freedom is absolute ... A few people will not be allowed to continue causing disruption. All illegal acts will be dealt with accordingly," he added.

Orange Democratic Movement (ODM) leader Raila Odinga returned to the opposition stronghold of Kisumu, for the first time since the disputed Dec 27. election, to a rapturous welcome. "I'm saddened by the brutal killing of innocent unarmed people demonstrating peacefully," Odinga told Reuters as thousands sang his name and six coffins of people said to be shot by police were laid out in a stadium in the western town. "Kibaki has proved he has no respect for democracy."
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [10 views] Top|| File under:

#1  State Internal Security Minister George Saitoti said in a statement. "No freedom is absolute ... A few people will not be allowed to continue causing disruption......we will kill you all if we have to.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2008 0:46 Comments || Top||

#2  machete-wielding youths

well, as long as they're youts, the wounds should be shallow and non-reportable. Suck it up
Posted by: Frank G || 01/22/2008 22:09 Comments || Top||


Africa Subsaharan
Former UN Boss Tackling Kenya Crisis - Koffee Mister ?
Posted by: Ebbolulet Dark Lord of the Swedes9659 || 01/22/2008 04:01 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:


Zimbabwe opposition vows to ignore ban on rally
HARARE - Zimbabwe’s opposition Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) set the stage Monday for a new showdown with the security forces by vowing to ignore a ban on a mass protest against President Robert Mugabe.

After reading a notice from Harare’s police commander ordering the party not to proceed with a march set for Wednesday, MDC secretary general Tendai Biti said there was no reason to renege on a previous agreement to stage the rally. ‘We are going ahead with our procession as agreed between the ZRP (Zimbabwean Republic Police) and ourselves,’ Biti told reporters. ‘We are proceeding as per the route agreed with the ZRP. The illegality of the action by the police is in blatant disregard of the new provisions of the Public Order and Security Act.’

MDC leader Morgan Tsvangirai and several other senior opposition figures were beaten up by the security forces when they tried to stage a banned mass rally in Harare last March.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  March heavily armed, you WILL be attacked.
Defend yourselves or prepare to die.
Posted by: Redneck Jim || 01/22/2008 15:54 Comments || Top||


Congo government, rebels to sign ceasefire Tuesday
Democratic Republic of Congo's government and warring rebel and militia factions will sign a deal on Tuesday to end fighting in the country's conflict-torn east, government officials and diplomats said on Monday.

The agreement, which will include a ceasefire, was announced after more than two weeks of talks in Goma, capital of North Kivu province, that brought together government officials, local leaders and rival armed factions.

"(A ceasefire) will be signed tomorrow at the closing ceremony," Vital Kamerhe, spokesman for the peace conference and head of Congo's lower house of parliament, told Reuters.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Arabia
Saudi rape case lawyer 'reinstated'
The Saudi lawyer who represented a woman kidnapped and raped by seven men said his license to practice has been reinstated. Lawyer and human rights activist Abdul Rahman al-Lahem told CNN's Nic Robertson that the Justice Ministry has reinstated his license.

Al-Lahem had previously told CNN that the Saudi judge revoked his license as punishment for speaking to the media about his client's case, which attracted international attention. His client, an engaged teenager, was raped by seven men who found her alone with a man unrelated to her. She has said she was meeting with the man to retrieve a photograph. The attack took place in Qatif in March 2006.
Seems to me the seven men ought to be tried for vigilantism as well. Might stop three quarters of this crap. If they didn't have the idea that the government and society would look the other way under these circumstances.
The seven rapists were sentenced to two to nine years in prison but she also was sentenced to 200 lashes and six months in prison for having violated the kingdom's strict Islamic law by being alone with an unrelated man. The woman's sentence provoked outrage in the West and cast light on the treatment of women under Saudi Arabian law.

In challenging what he said were his suspension and disbarment, al-Lahem said he had received threats on his life from the religious right. Last month, Minister of Justice Abdallah bin Mohammed al-Sheikh, in a phone call to a Saudi Television newscast, said the lawyer's license had never been revoked.
Uh, yeah. Another big misunderstanding?
"Such decisions are made through institutions in the kingdom," he said. "The punishment of the lawyer or any lawyer does not come from a reaction; it comes from a carefully examined procedure within a special council in the ministry." He said the council charged with deciding law license revocations had not issued any decisions in the case.
So how did his license get revoked? Or is it true that it never was? Perhaps the judge needs 200 lashes and six months in prison?
This article starring:
Abdul Rahman al-Lahem
Posted by: gorb || 01/22/2008 02:09 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:


Britain
High-tax Britain booted from club of 'free' economies
China, Russia slipping backward, Germany improving and Ireland shining.
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 10:30 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  All your GDP are belong to us!!
Posted by: NannyState || 01/22/2008 10:56 Comments || Top||

#2  In act two, the domestics, realizing they aren't going to get to keep any of their product, decline to produce any more. Rule Zimtannia...
Posted by: M. Murcek || 01/22/2008 13:06 Comments || Top||


Recession fears spark record FTSE 100 fall
Read the article for opinions on whether investors there are overly pessimistic or realistic.

What interests me is the impact of financial chaos on Britain's role in the GWOT and on their choice to try to keep military capability or just merge into the Euroforce.
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  What interests me is the impact of financial chaos on the US's response to the Jihad.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/22/2008 8:34 Comments || Top||


Caribbean-Latin America
Huge natural gas field found off Brazil
A huge natural gas field has been found a short distance off Rio de Janeiro's coastline, Petrobras, Brazil's state-controlled oil company, says.

The company believes the new field, Jupiter, could match the recently discovered Tupi oil field in size. Tupi is thought to be one of the largest fields discovered in the past 20 years. But Petrobras officials say further work needs to be done to establish Jupiter's exact dimensions.

The new field is located just 37km (23 miles) from Tupi, some 5,100m (5,600 yards) below the surface of the Atlantic Ocean, around 290km from Rio de Janeiro, Petrobras says.

While not providing any specific details on the size of the new reserve, Petrobras said "its structure could have dimensions similar to Tupi". Petrobras estimates Tupi contains between five and eight billion barrels of light oil.

When the oil field's discovery was announced last November, the Brazilian government said Tupi could turn the country into one of the World's major oil suppliers. Analysts were more cautious, pointing out the difficulty of extracting Tupi's oil from beneath deep layers of rock and salt.

Petrobras, though, is a world leader in deep water oil production, and the find was hailed as a major discovery for Latin America's largest country.

The discovery was made by a consortium made up of Petrobras - which has an 80% stake in the find - and Portugal's Galp Energies. A number of surveys will now have to be carried out to try to establish the scale of the new field.

Brazil's government has recently been forced to deny there was a risk of energy shortages caused by drought at hydroelectric plants which are the country's main source of energy. It currently relies on Bolivia for much of its natural gas.
And there goes Morales' leverage, when/if this field is opened.
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 14:59 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Teddy vacationing off of Rio during the Congressional break?
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/22/2008 17:23 Comments || Top||


Mexico captures senior drug cartel member
Mexico's army has arrested a leading member of one of the country's most notorious drug cartels, the attorney-general's office said on Monday.

Soldiers detained Alfredo Beltran Leyva on Sunday in the northwestern city of Culiacan, a spokeswoman for the office said. Beltran Leyva and three other people arrested with him were carrying some $900,000 in cash in two suitcases.

Prosecutors say Beltran Leyva is a close associate of Joaquin "Shorty" Guzman, Mexico's most wanted man and the head of an alliance of smugglers based in Sinaloa state.

The Sinaloa gang is in a bitter fight with the rival Gulf Cartel, based just south of Texas, for control of smuggling routes. More than 2,500 people died last year, despite a military-led crackdown by President Felipe Calderon's government.
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  2500?

QUAGMMIRE!

oops. Sorry thats Mexico. Home of Cheap Labor and future McCain/Kennedy amnesty Dem Voters and Jorge Bush's political buddies.

So I guess it gets ignored.
Posted by: OldSpook || 01/22/2008 10:35 Comments || Top||

#2  something tells me he wanted too be caught or this wouldn't have happened. Drug kingpins in mexico just don't get caught.Either rivals where about too cath up or he will be out in a matter of mins.
Posted by: sinse || 01/22/2008 10:47 Comments || Top||

#3  The Gulf Cartel was obviously the higher bidder.
Posted by: Pappy || 01/22/2008 13:36 Comments || Top||

#4  $900,000? I'll take that.
Posted by: Presidente Calderon || 01/22/2008 15:26 Comments || Top||


Hugo's a coca paste user??
Venezuela's controversial President Hugo Chávez has revealed that he regularly consumes coca — the source of cocaine — raising questions about the legality of his actions.

Chávez's comments on coca initially went almost unnoticed, coming amid a four-hour speech to the National Assembly during which he made international headlines by calling on other countries to stop branding two leftist Colombian guerrilla groups as terrorists and instead recognize them as ``armies.''

''I chew coca every day in the morning . . . and look how I am,'' he is seen saying on a video of the speech, as he shows his biceps to the audience.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  After his UN address I suspected that LSD was his drug of choice.
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/22/2008 1:14 Comments || Top||

#2  Chávez, who does not drink alcohol, added that just as Fidel Castro ''sends me Coppelia ice cream

Only Brazilian gays dine on Coppelia. Someone should send him some of that top shelf Cuban Prestone ice cream. Go ahead Hugo, kick it up a notch.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2008 1:22 Comments || Top||

#3  I'm in the middle of reading Jonah Goldberg's Liberal Fascism and man! I look at Hugo Chavez, and it's like he jumped off the pages. Messianic world-transforming program: check. Disdain for parliamentary process: check. Demonization of opponents as enemies of the people: check. He's like Mussolini, but without the charm, grace, and style.
Posted by: Mike || 01/22/2008 8:49 Comments || Top||

#4  Ima sending Chavez a box of Schwetty Balls. Happy licking Hugo.
Posted by: ed || 01/22/2008 9:10 Comments || Top||

#5  no damn wonder he likes too make 4 hour speeches. He is too wired too shut the hell up
Posted by: sinse || 01/22/2008 10:52 Comments || Top||

#6  What's the big deal? Lots of little kids eat paste.
Posted by: SteveS || 01/22/2008 11:05 Comments || Top||

#7  ''I chew coca every day in the morning . . . and look how I am,'' says Hugo. And just how is that Hugo--flakey and addled?
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/22/2008 12:03 Comments || Top||

#8  Re: Chavez
Check out the motivational poster about 1/3 of the way down the page on http://grouchyoldcripple.com/
Posted by: Injun Thogum3480 || 01/22/2008 16:21 Comments || Top||

#9  Venezuela signed an agreement to buy 4,000 tons of coca leaf from Bolivia

Time to switch to Hennessy. Seriously dude!
Posted by: Kim Jung Il || 01/22/2008 22:33 Comments || Top||


Venezuela’s Jews Find Their Voice as Chavez Ramps Up Harassment
Hat tip the Corner. As Mark Krekorian says, "'Target the Jews' has got to be a whole chapter in the 'Dictatorship for Dummies' handbook."
Caracas, Venezuela — When two dozen heavily armed policemen came to search the Hebraica community center in the Venezuelan capital one night last month, the Jewish community here finally snapped.

The government officers who entered the sprawling, country club-like complex were ostensibly looking for a stash of weapons and for evidence of “subversive activity.” They found neither. In the subsequent days, the Venezuelan Jewish community’s umbrella organization, the Confederation of Israelite Associations of Venezuela, fired off a statement denouncing the raid as an “unjustifiable act” aimed at creating tensions between the community and the government of socialist President Hugo Chavez.

This would not be remarkable in the United States, where Jewish groups routinely state their views with little trepidation. But their counterparts abroad have tended to be less confrontational, especially in countries with small communities and a volatile political environment. In Venezuela this has been the case until recently, despite a long series of problems that includes an earlier raid on the Hebraica center, antisemitism on state-controlled media and anti-Israel pronouncements by Chavez. The calculated quiet ended with last year’s December 1 raid.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:


China-Japan-Koreas
Stock rout deepens in Asia
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:

#1  This news is sooooo like 9:00 am.

Latest word (as of 8:00 pm CST) is that the Japanese stock exchange is surging upward by 3% points.

Poor Reuters - what if they gave recession party and no one came?
Posted by: WTF || 01/22/2008 21:10 Comments || Top||


Europe
France to outline blueprint plan for riot-hit suburbs
Posted by: anonymous5089 || 01/22/2008 11:00 || Comments || Link || [9 views] Top|| File under:

#1  There is a way that this can be done: division gentrification. That is, subdivide the ghettos with an entire block of new buildings for businesses, that bisect them. With a police station as part of it.

Effectively cutting the ghetto in half, and putting a lot of cops right in the middle of it.

You set up small businesses run by locals in the new block, with tax incentives, on condition they hire locals.

Using the Giuliani method, you put police all over the place on the two outward blocks, with orders to nit pick for every offense. This tends to drive out the troublemakers. And once a neighborhood is "cleaned", it takes far fewer cops to keep it "clean".

This technique busts up the big ghettos in such a way that they tend to stay busted up, and it has a carrot as well as a stick.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/22/2008 12:03 Comments || Top||

#2  "Despite an ambitious urban renovation plan, with hundreds of millions of euros poured into the town since the 1980s, jobless rates remain sky-high..."

What's different this time you may ask. Isn't it obvious? Finally, after 3 decades, someone figued out they neeed a Blueprint.
Posted by: DepotGuy || 01/22/2008 12:10 Comments || Top||

#3  Wondering if this article had something to do with assault plans into a fortified position.

I like the plan Anonymoose. The difference I see between New York and Paris is that the youts have insta-riot programmed on their speed dial, the population is sympethetic (stories of people throwing down bottles of water to counter the tear gas), and have some victories against the unarmed police. With stories about makeshift hospitals already set up and blunderbusses for use against police there may be -real- defenses and plans in place for police/military incursions.

France, it seems to me, will have to take a major blow to its international image as the happiest place on earth in order to clean up the ghettos.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/22/2008 12:18 Comments || Top||

#4  Hmmm, is a blueprint anything like a roadmap?
Posted by: DMFD || 01/22/2008 22:15 Comments || Top||


Imam's historic visit to synagogue in Rome cancelled
An historic visit by the imam of Rome's mosque, Ala Eldin Mohammed Ismail al-Ghobashy, to the Rome synagogue tomorrow has been called off at the last moment on instructions from Muslim authorities in Cairo.

Abdullah Redouane, secretary of the Rome Islamic Cultural Centre, who was to have accompanied the imam, claimed the cancellation was for "organisational reasons". However Italian reports quoted Abdul Fattah Allam, spokesman for Sheikh Mohammed Sayed Tantawi, head of Al Azhar University in Cairo, as saying the sheikh had ordered the imam not to meet Rome's Jews while Israel continued to "refuse to restore the rights" of Palestinians. Reports said the Israeli blockade of Gaza had been "the final blow".

Corriere della Sera said the cancellation of what would have been the first ever visit to Rome's synagogue by a senior Muslim cleric was proof that "even so called Muslim moderates share the ideology of hate, vilolence and death towards the Jewish state". It said Al Azhar, which in the absence of a central Muslim authority constituted a "Vatican of Sunni Islam", had in effect issued "a kind of fatwah." The paper said that "What the Cairo statement really means is that Muslim dialogue with Jews in Italy is only possible once Israel has been eliminated". The synagogue visit was planned two years ago when a Jewish delegation headed by Riccardo Di Segni, Rome's Chief Rabbi, visited the Rome mosque.

Rabbi Di Segni said he had not been officially notifed of the reason for the imam's cancellation and therefore could not comment. However he told Il Messaggero, the Rome daily, that while he detested Islamophobia as much anti Semitism, the Muslim world was "having to confront in a single generation problems of intolerance, identity and integration which the Jews have been confronting for two thousand years".

Souad Sbai, head of the association of Moroccan women in Italy, said the cancellation was "short sighted and a grave mistake".
Posted by: ryuge || 01/22/2008 07:11 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under: Global Jihad

#1  Corriere della Sera said the cancellation of what would have been the first ever visit to Rome's synagogue by a senior Muslim cleric was proof that "even so called Muslim moderates share the ideology of hate, vilolence and death towards the Jewish state".

What the world is coming to? Even leftist organs are starting to take a notice.
Posted by: Spike Uniter || 01/22/2008 7:53 Comments || Top||

#2  "Corriere della Sera said..."even so called Muslim moderates share the ideology of hate, vilolence and death towards the Jewish state"".

Actually, I think it shows that would-be moderates are scared to offend mainstream extremists.
Posted by: mhw || 01/22/2008 11:03 Comments || Top||

#3  Afraid his penis would fall off if he touched a Jew. But would his goat notice?
Posted by: Titus Hayes || 01/22/2008 13:41 Comments || Top||


Italian govt wobbles as party withdraws support
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Thirty seven governments since WWII - wobbling seems to be the normal state of Italy's government.
Posted by: DMFD || 01/22/2008 22:28 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Politix
Fred drops out of the race, does not endorse anyone else
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 14:26 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Goddamnit.
Posted by: DarthVader || 01/22/2008 14:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Not yet, anyway.
Posted by: USN,Ret. || 01/22/2008 14:47 Comments || Top||

#3  My man Rudy better get his ass in gear or he's gonna be next.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/22/2008 15:01 Comments || Top||

#4  whimper
Posted by: Ebbang Uluque6305 || 01/22/2008 15:31 Comments || Top||

#5  Apologies to the moderators for my double-posting on this subject.

Anyway. That's it. We're f*cked.
Posted by: Excalibur || 01/22/2008 15:46 Comments || Top||

#6  There are still some rumblings about a Veep slot. Not that Fred is jumping up and down publicly saying "pick me for Veep!"
Posted by: eLarson || 01/22/2008 16:00 Comments || Top||

#7  Well, fellow Fredheads, time to pick the best of the remaining availables and do what we can do to advance the ball. Fred will be back again, in some fashion (Heritage Foundation? Cabinet slot?), standing up for the cause. In the meantime, get engaged, stay engaged, work to win hearts and minds.
Posted by: Mike || 01/22/2008 16:12 Comments || Top||

#8  I'm still gonna vote for anyone that running against Clinton.
Posted by: BrerRabbit || 01/22/2008 16:13 Comments || Top||

#9  Further evidence that the best man for the job doesn't always get nominated/elected.

I was on the Fred bandwagon before the wagon was built. Fred is far and away the best man for the job. The more of his position papers that I read the more convinced I was that he is the man for the job. Nobody else came close.

Having stated Fred is the best man for the job, I must add he did not run a "great campaign". For this he has to take responsiblity. And he will because he is a man of integrity. And no...I don't believe that because he ran a lousy campaign would mean that he would have run a lousy administration. Thems be apples and oranges.

Here's what I'm hoping for: The eventual nominee - whoever he may be - will BEG/PLEAD with Thompson to be his running mate. At which point in time Fred will rise again to serve his country.

With that last thought in mind, I'll now say three Hail Mary's and three Our Fathers plus one Act of Contrition on behalf of my country.
Posted by: MarkZ || 01/22/2008 16:32 Comments || Top||

#10  By listening to his speech after the SC vote, you could tell he was done. He never really started, was the trouble. Nothing left now but the chaff. Sounds like both Rudi & the Huckster are out of money. Romney never runs out of money. Then we have the very emblem of RINO's everywhere, McClain. This is sad for the Republican Party. It, essentially, has been done in. McCain would be a nightmare. Fat Ted would call him and tell him what was going to go down. Miss Facelift would probably take a bridle whip to him. Romney is redux of GW. He probably can lose to Barry if he tries. We need a third party for sure, but not Bloomie. We need Perot. What has happened to him ? Has he been embalmed ? Dead men make more noise than he has for the last ten years.
Posted by: Woozle Elmeter 2907 || 01/22/2008 16:47 Comments || Top||

#11  I dunno .... Romney might do better than people think.

But we'll see.

I'd have to hold my nose and suppress my gag response to vote for McCain. If it's Obama I would do so, if it's Hillary I'll think about moving to the wilds of Idaho or something ....
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 17:04 Comments || Top||

#12  So now we have a bunch of guys I can see voting for (and a couple I'd actively vote against) rather than a candidate I want to vote for.
Posted by: rjschwarz || 01/22/2008 17:09 Comments || Top||

#13  Comment by Orrin Judd:

He deserves great credit for running such a weighty campaign in terms of ideas and proposals. But he, unfortunately, demonstrates once again that if you want to make a serious run you have to make a full-on commitment to the race years in advance. He happens to be too normal to do that. So, in effect, the qualities that would have made him a good president--mental balance, seriousness, placid temperament--left him unqualified to be the nominee of a major party. There's no shame in that and there ought to be few regrets.
Posted by: Mike || 01/22/2008 22:12 Comments || Top||

#14  Jim Geraghty @ National Review: "Fred should have punched more hippies."

Well, you can never punch too many hippies.
Posted by: Mike || 01/22/2008 22:40 Comments || Top||


Clinton, Obama get out long knives, slash at each other
Eric Scheie, Pajamas Media

In the days leading up to the Congressional Black Caucus-sponsored Martin Luther King Jr. Day debate on CNN tonight, a lot of people — including me — were talking about identity politics, the race card, the gender card, but the card that really got played was the personal animosity card. . . . It didn’t take long for the sparks to fly between Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama, which made this debate far more vicious than in any of the previous debates or any other candidates. Hillary Clinton actually got booed, and it is already being reported around the world. . . .

In an almost schoolyard manner, they taunted each other over who was doing the most good while the other was engaged in the worst sleaze.

Obama said that when he was fighting the evils of Reaganomics, Hillary was sitting on the board of Wal-Mart:

Because while I was working on those streets watching those folks see their jobs shift overseas, you were a corporate lawyer sitting on the board at Wal-Mart.

And when she got her turn, Hillary returned fire and brought up the Rezko matter.

I was fighting against those ideas when you were practicing law and representing your contributor, [Tony] Rezko, in his slum landlord business in inner-city Chicago.

Frankly, I think Obama missed an opportunity there. Not that I’m advocating schoolyard fighting between candidates in a debate, but since sleazy campaign contributors were all of a sudden fair game, this would have been a perfect moment for Obama to “drop the Hsu” (as in Norman….) Perfect opening, and Hillary was asking for it.

Hillary also slammed Obama for his “present” votes, and got booed for that too. I’m not convinced that Obama did the greatest job in explaining why that’s such great tactic in the Illinois legislature, but he seems to think it was. At least he said so. Again, the nastiness seemed out of proportion to the issue, and it showed how personal this has gotten.

For the first time, John Edwards was looking almost reasonable as he gently shamed the combatants by reminding them that none of this squabbling would help the poor. . . . On the issue of health care, Hillary and Edwards both championed state mandates, and ganged up on Obama, who for allowing that he might not use government force to imprison deadbeat patients, came close to being castigated as a “capitalist roader.” It was almost surreal.

Here I have to say that while I’d never vote for Obama, he does at least resemble a human being in terms of style. Style does matter, and I think one of the things people forget is that there’s a huge gulf between “Obama the Kind” and “Hillary the Cruel.”

It really came through in the health care debate. Hillary nearly shrieked when she said “I am not running for president to put bandaids on our problems! I want UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE!”

Shrill, braying, and grating. At least Obama sounds reassuring, even if his policies aren’t.

This may be irrational, but if I am going to have to endure socialism, can’t I at least get it with a more calming and soothing voice? . . .
Posted by: Mike || 01/22/2008 08:49 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  I want UNIVERSAL HEALTHCARE!

Just like 15 years ago! I still have the plans you never let me reveal! And now that Romney guy stole my idea and got in passed in Massachusetts! I have to get it rammed through for my legacy! Get outtah my way!

Posted by: Bobby, speaking for Hilly || 01/22/2008 11:53 Comments || Top||

#2  I saw the debate where the leading donks tried to figure out who was the most womanly, who was the most black, who was the most liberal, and who was the most anti-Reagan (and trunk).
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/22/2008 12:34 Comments || Top||

#3  Kumbaya moment.
Posted by: JohnQC || 01/22/2008 12:35 Comments || Top||

#4  I'll cut ya, man...I'll cut ya!
C'mon, bitch! Bring it on!
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/22/2008 12:53 Comments || Top||


Voter id rule finds support
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 06:27 || Comments || Link || [11 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The link doesn't work, lotp.
Posted by: trailing wife || 01/22/2008 8:47 Comments || Top||

#2  Fixed - thanks.
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 9:33 Comments || Top||

#3  Once again, the democrap party, all corruption, all the time.
Posted by: wxjames || 01/22/2008 14:11 Comments || Top||

#4  But you'll disenfranchise undocumented workers!!
Posted by: The Democrats || 01/22/2008 22:18 Comments || Top||


Obama confronts Bill Clinton over campaign attacks
Barack Obama gambled today on a full frontal challenge to Democratic icon Bill Clinton, previously thought to be untouchable because of his status as former president and the most popular figure in the party. Clinton has made a series of personal attacks on Obama on the campaign trail since December. Obama finally retaliated today, describing the former president's behaviour as "troubling" and accusing him of distorting facts.

Tackling a figure of Clinton's stature in such a public way is risky, though less so than it would have been a few weeks ago. Clinton's derogatory and often tetchy remarks have alienated and angered many senior Democrats previously loyal to Clinton, particularly African-Americans.

In an interview with ABC television, Obama said: "You know the former president, who I think all of us have a lot of regard for, has taken his advocacy on behalf of his wife to a level that I think is pretty troubling. "He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts... This has become a habit, and one of the things that we're going to have to do is to directly confront Bill Clinton when he's making statements that are not factually accurate."
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "He continues to make statements that are not supported by the facts... This has become a habit..... aquired during adolecense, refined during law school, and pathologicalized soon thereafter.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2008 0:53 Comments || Top||

#2  Bill Clinton is telling lies? Perish the thought.

LOL Besoker.
Posted by: WTF || 01/22/2008 8:49 Comments || Top||

#3  The man who would be the Second Black President sniping at the First Black President and vice versa.
How...disconcerting.
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/22/2008 9:32 Comments || Top||

#4  #3 The man who would be the Second Black President sniping at the First Black President and vice versa.
How...disconcerting.


Disconcerting yes, but very tribo-congolese.
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2008 9:55 Comments || Top||

#5  I don't see how this lying, cheating criminal who performed some soft-shoe on the Arsinio Hall show being called black is in any way a positive statement concerning Blacks.
Posted by: swksvolFF || 01/22/2008 10:57 Comments || Top||


India-Pakistan
Nepal ethnic leader warns of election unrest
KATHMANDU - Nepal will face fresh ethnic unrest ahead of this year’s elections if the government fails to address the concerns of the Madheshi people living in the southern plains, the leader of the major ethnic group said.

Nepal’s government and the Maoists have agreed on elections for a constituent assembly on April 10, a key part of the peace deal with the former rebels who ended their decade-long civil war which killed more than 13,000 people. That body is meant to map the country’s political future, formally declare Nepal a republic and make the country’s laws.

But Mahanta Thakur, the 65-year-old former Madheshi minister who quit the government in December to form the Terai Madhesh Democratic Party, said on Monday the polls would not be possible unless the Terai region was turned into an autonomous state. ‘We want the autonomy for the Madhesh just like the American states. The centre can’t interfere in matters relating to the government and administration,’ the soft-spoken Thakur told Reuters in an interview. ‘We want this to be incorporated into the interim constitution.’
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Steve White || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [13 views] Top|| File under:


Iraq
Civilization Returns: Baghdad Packies are Open
Posted by: Super Hose || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [3 views] Top|| File under:

#1  "I hope that security will improve to an extent where I can open a cowboy-themed bar,” he said. “That is my dream."

Good luck with that! Hopefully soon. But don't tell your patrons about barfighting, OK?
Posted by: gorb || 01/22/2008 2:00 Comments || Top||

#2  Well they at least have the oil to support all them big pickups with Easy Rider[tm] gun racks in the rear window [ax handle or AK47 optional].
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/22/2008 8:59 Comments || Top||

#3  Democracy! Whiskey! Sexy!
Posted by: SteveS || 01/22/2008 15:15 Comments || Top||


Science & Technology
Amazing old stars give birth again
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [4 views] Top|| File under:

#1  The Big Bang did what again?
Posted by: Besoeker || 01/22/2008 1:23 Comments || Top||

#2  Banging without protection will do that.
Posted by: gorb || 01/22/2008 2:02 Comments || Top||

#3  These gas-and-dust rings provide the fodder for the making of planetesimals, such as comets and asteroids that can merge to form larger bodies, along with planets.

Ah, mythology! "We don't care if it has no basis in reality as long as it sounds good."
Posted by: Spike Uniter || 01/22/2008 7:40 Comments || Top||

#4  Spike, care to explain that comment and offer another scientific explanation for planet formation?

Posted by: FOTSGreg || 01/22/2008 13:02 Comments || Top||

#5  I didn't even know Angie Dickinson was pregnant. That is amazing...
Posted by: tu3031 || 01/22/2008 13:05 Comments || Top||


Southeast Asia
Myanmar going ‘downhill on all fronts’: US
HANOI - Myanmar is going ‘downhill on all fronts,’ a senior US diplomat said during a visit to Vietnam Monday, urging regional neighbours to pressure the junta running the country formerly called Burma.

‘The regime in Burma is absolutely refusing to take any positive steps at all, either in response to its own people or to the international community,’ said US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Scot Marciel. ‘It should be a cause of concern for everybody because the way Burma is going under this regime and its policies is sort of downhill on all fronts,’ he told a media briefing during a Hanoi stop on a regional tour.

‘We talk about it mostly in terms of human rights and democracy and that’s critically important to us, but it’s beyond that,’ he said. ‘The economy is going downhill, the education system is getting ruined. The health care system isn’t functioning, ... you’re getting more and more cases of resistant strains of tuberculosis and malaria out of Burma. You’ve got refugee flows out of Burma. It’s just a whole series of problems.’
Posted by: Steve White || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [7 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Burmese are among the most physically beautiful people in the world. But the planet doesn't really need a semi-successful dictatorial narco-state. Going "downhill" is probably the best we can hope for from the SLORC leadership.
Posted by: Scooter McGruder || 01/22/2008 8:35 Comments || Top||

#2  The economy is going downhill, the education system is getting ruined. The health care system isn't functioning,..

So the average Burmese is no worst off than his counterpart in the US by Donk standards? /sarcasm off
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/22/2008 9:31 Comments || Top||


Thailand's first post-coup parliament opens
Posted by: Fred || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Syria-Lebanon-Iran
Khameini backs parliament in dispute with Ahmadinejad
Iran's supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has backed parliament in a dispute with hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who had objected to several measures adopted by MPs, the ISNA news agency said on Monday.
Ahmadinejad had criticised parliament, which is dominated by fellow conservatives, for overturning his decision to dissolve several institutions -- including the Monetary and Credit Council, a key financial policy maker -- as well as his abolition of summer time in Iran.

"Laws adopted through the process defined by the constitution must be respected by all organs," Khamenei said in a letter to parliament speaker Gholam Ali Hadad Adel.

Hadad Adel had sought the opinion of the supreme leader, who has the final say on all key policy issues, after receiving Ahmadinejad's complaint.

"I was surprised by the president writing to parliament to say a bill was against the constitution. This is unprecedented," Hadad Adel said, noting that it was the prerogative of the Guardians' Council to decide whether legislation was in accordance with the constitution.

Since he came to power in 2005, Ahmadinejad has sought more control over the economy to allow him to fulfil his campaign promise to distribute oil income more evenly.

But he has come under fire from both reformists and some fellow conservatives who charge that his expansionist economic policies have fuelled inflation.

The president also drew widespread criticism by abolishing daylight saving after he took power on the grounds that the measure, which had been in force for 16 years, went against the teachings of Islam.
Yeesh. Is there nothing the Kwhore'an leave to the imagination?
Posted by: gorb || 01/22/2008 02:20 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:


Home Front Economy
Fed slashes rates by 75 basis pts, stocks continue to drop
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 10:18 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:

#1  That 3/4ths move is probably going to be seen as a sign of weakness by the market. So while it will buck up stocks today, there is still Wednesday, Thursday and Friday.
Posted by: Anonymoose || 01/22/2008 12:04 Comments || Top||

#2  The problem isn't the markets, it's the potential for social/geopolitical fallout. The fact wheat hit a record high yesterday is more significant than the market falls. People don't riot over stock dividend cuts, they do over bread prices.
Posted by: phil_b || 01/22/2008 17:11 Comments || Top||


Asian markets tumble on US worries
Global stock markets extended their slide for a second day Tuesday, plunging amid fears that a possible U.S. recession will cause a worldwide economic slowdown. The dramatic declines in Asia and Europe so far this week were expected to spread to Wall Street, where stock index futures were already down sharply hours before the trading day began.

Japan's Nikkei 225 index nose-dived 5.7 percent — its biggest percentage drop in nearly 10 years — to 12,573.05, a day after falling 3.9 percent. Australia's benchmark index sank 7.1 percent, the market's steepest one-day slide in nearly 20 years.

Hong Kong's Hang Seng index, which slumped 5.5 percent Monday, finished down 8.7 percent. In China, the Shanghai Composite index lost 7.2 percent to 4,559.75, its lowest close since August.

Indian Finance Minister P. Chidambaram urged investors to remain calm after trading in Mumbai was halted for an hour when the stock market there fell 10 percent within minutes of opening. The Sensex rebounded some later to finish down 4.6 percent. "There is no reason at all to allow the worries of the Western world to overwhelm us," Chidambaram said.

European markets, which fell sharply Monday, were volatile Tuesday. By midmorning the U.K.'s FTSE 100 had slipped 1 percent, Germany's DAX dropped 2.9 percent, while France's CAC 40 declined 1.1 percent.
Posted by: ed || 01/22/2008 08:10 || Comments || Link || [6 views] Top|| File under:


Oil falls below US $89/bbl as stock markets drop
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [8 views] Top|| File under:

#1  Fed Cuts Rate 0.75 Percentage Point in Emergency Move... for the first time since 2001.
This from Bloomberg at 0827 EST.
Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 || 01/22/2008 8:37 Comments || Top||

#2  Just make sure those speculators who bid high pay when the note is due without escape clauses.
Posted by: Procopius2k || 01/22/2008 8:50 Comments || Top||

#3  Sign of deflation.
Posted by: Bright Pebbles || 01/22/2008 9:03 Comments || Top||

#4  Good for exports, bad for the dollar and imports. Europe's not going to be happy (but so what).
Posted by: DMFD || 01/22/2008 22:22 Comments || Top||


Home Front: Culture Wars
Rupert to transform WSJ into main competitor to NYT
Posted by: lotp || 01/22/2008 00:00 || Comments || Link || [5 views] Top|| File under:



Who's in the News
72[untagged]
6Hamas
6Taliban
4al-Qaeda
4Govt of Pakistan
3al-Qaeda in Iraq
3Iraqi Insurgency
2al-Qaeda in Europe
2IRGC
2Govt of Iran
1Lashkar e-Taiba
1Mahdi Army
1PFLP
1Takfir wal-Hijra
1TNSM
1al-Qaeda in Britain
1al-Qaeda in North Africa
1al-Qaeda in Yemen
1Chechen Republic of Ichkeria
1Global Jihad
1Hezbollah
1ISI

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Two weeks of WOT
Tue 2008-01-22
   Musharraf: Pakistan isn't hunting Osama
Mon 2008-01-21
  Darkness falls on Gaza
Sun 2008-01-20
  Spain arrests 14 over possible Barcelona attack
Sat 2008-01-19
  Nasiriyah mosque raid ends two days of slaughter
Fri 2008-01-18
  Tennyboomer kills 9 Pakistani Shi'ites
Thu 2008-01-17
  Army 'flees second Pakistan fort'
Wed 2008-01-16
  Four arrested after Kabul hotel attack
Tue 2008-01-15
  PRC, Islamic Jihad to attend Hamas-sponsored conference in Syria
Mon 2008-01-14
  Attack on luxury Afghan hotel kills guard, militant: ISAF
Sun 2008-01-13
  Bissau extradites al Qaeda suspects to Mauritania
Sat 2008-01-12
  Militant threat on Eiffel Tower intercepted
Fri 2008-01-11
  Lahore suicide kaboom kills at least 20, injures 80
Thu 2008-01-10
  40,000 pounds of US bombs hit 38 Qaeda 'safe havens'
Wed 2008-01-09
  Mullah Fazlullah deadullah?
Tue 2008-01-08
  Chadian planes bomb rebels in Sudan


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