Politics as usual in Africa

After the widely criticized sham elections in Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, attended an African Union (AU) summit in the Egyptian resort of
Sharm el-Sheikh, amid international condemnation of his re-election. But African leaders avoid criticising the 84-year-old president.


"He was hugging everyone, pretty much everyone he could get close to," the delegate said on condition of anonymity.

Amr el-Kahky, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Sharm el-Sheikh,
said: "The [opening] speeches by the African officials, especially
Egyptian president Hosni Mubabrak, did not touch on the Zimbabwe
elections.

"He mentioned Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia – but he
did not mention Zimbabwe. That tells you about the mood into the
summit. There are people who don't want to talk about it despite all
the Western calls to try to address the subject."

Speaking in Nairobi, Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister, said the AU should bar Mugabe from the summit.

"They should suspend him and send peace forces to Zimbabwe to ensure free and fair elections," Odinga said.

The US reaction has been much harsher.

a US-drafted UN
resolution called for the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo
on Zimbabwe, while rejecting the vote as illegitimate. The draft called for a freeze on the assets and
travel of Zimbabweans individuals and companies who helped Zanu-PF to
"undermine democratic processes".

"We will press for strong action by the United Nations but we could also act unilaterally," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said.

Politics as usual in Africa

After the widely criticized sham elections in Robert Mugabe, Zimbabwe's president, attended an African Union (AU) summit in the Egyptian resort of
Sharm el-Sheikh, amid international condemnation of his re-election. But African leaders avoid criticising the 84-year-old president.


"He was hugging everyone, pretty much everyone he could get close to," the delegate said on condition of anonymity.

Amr el-Kahky, Al Jazeera's correspondent in Sharm el-Sheikh,
said: "The [opening] speeches by the African officials, especially
Egyptian president Hosni Mubabrak, did not touch on the Zimbabwe
elections.

"He mentioned Djibouti, Eritrea and Somalia – but he
did not mention Zimbabwe. That tells you about the mood into the
summit. There are people who don't want to talk about it despite all
the Western calls to try to address the subject."

Speaking in Nairobi, Raila Odinga, Kenya's prime minister, said the AU should bar Mugabe from the summit.

"They should suspend him and send peace forces to Zimbabwe to ensure free and fair elections," Odinga said.

The US reaction has been much harsher.

a US-drafted UN
resolution called for the UN Security Council to impose an arms embargo
on Zimbabwe, while rejecting the vote as illegitimate. The draft called for a freeze on the assets and
travel of Zimbabweans individuals and companies who helped Zanu-PF to
"undermine democratic processes".

"We will press for strong action by the United Nations but we could also act unilaterally," White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said.

Hands free, don't forget

The LA times is reporting that in preparation for the 4th of July Weekend the CHP is stepping up staffing by 80% suggesting this is at least in part to enforce the hand's free law and no grace period.

Sgt. Ruben De La Torre said the Los Angeles Police Department will go
through an "educational" period at first, during which those cited will
mostly be drivers who had a mobile phone pressed to their ear and were
driving unsafely.

"It's on a case-by-case basis," he said. "But people have to be aware
that it's a clear and obvious violation. My best advice to people is
don't give an officer a reason to stop you."

Police departments in San Diego and Oceanside are taking it a step
farther, granting an official 30-day grace period before issuing
tickets, even thought the law itself doesn't include a grace period.

I've been hands free for years and I'm looking forward to the law. I'll never forget the day I saw a young lady driving down the 210 passing me, with here cell phone on top of her steering wheel, using both hands to write a text message. I'm not known for driving slow.

Arab memebers of Knesset up in arms

Some of Israel's Arab parliamentarians face a ban
from serving in the next Knesset, after a bill to prohibit anyone who
visited an enemy state in the recent past from becoming an MK became
law on Monday.

Arab
MKs immediately denounced the new law harshly, calling it
unconstitutional, and said it would be challenged and beaten in the
Supreme Court.

But the legislation, which passed by a 52-24 vote, was hailed
by its sponsors as a guarantee that "Trojan horses" and "enemies" would
no longer be allowed to sit in the Knesset.

Iraqi Oil Law

Along with the pressures Iraq is facing to sign a SOFA or Status of Forces Agreement with the United States is the mounting unrest in regards to it Oil and Gas Law, a law still very much hotly contested.

One of the original co-authors of the law Tariq Shafiq has denounced the most recent versions of the law. In a document he prepared for the Center for Strategic International Studies he is very candid about what's at stake. "The last four years have witnessed repeated attempts at dismantling the basis for any well planned resources management for the whole nation only to replace it with market oriented destabilisation and fragmentation policies that are at variance, and in competition with each other and the national interest. Such policies have been advocated in turn by the Coalition Provisional Administration (CPA), the Transition Government of Dr Al’lawi."

At present negotiations are ongoing regarding short-term, no-bid contracts that would allow the U.S. and European oil
companies -- including Exxon Mobil, Royal Dutch Shell, Total SA,
Chevron, and BP.

Last week, Sen. Charles Schumer, D-New York, and Sen. John Kerry,
D-Massachusetts, sent a letter to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice
expressing concerns about those no-bid contracts.

The senators,
who released the letter, said they are worried that unfair distribution
of oil revenue could inflame the violence between the warring religious
and political groups of Iraq.

"We urge you to persuade the
(government of Iraq) to refrain from signing contracts with
multinational oil companies until a hydrocarbon law is in effect in
Iraq," read the letter from Schumer and Kerry.

The Kurdish government of northern Iraq has already negotiated deals with western oil companies which parliament does not recognize as legitimate.

With the announcement today of 6 fields being opened up to foreign oil companies for the first time in 35 years and reports of the Oil Minister's attempts to crush the Iraqi oil union filtering out concerns run high.

The section of the law drawing the most debate allows the 18 provinces to negotiate there own oil deals with foreign oil and control production. "These provinces will have enough money to feel kind of independent and given now the Violence that's going on in Basra and other provinces, this is probably a recipe for the disintegration of Iraq." according to Mohammed-Ali Zany of the Center for Global Energy Studies.

Sami Ramadani, a senior lecturer in sociology at London Metropolitan University and was a political refugee from Saddam’s regime. Is very bold in his accusations that the US is trying to force the SOFA and the Oil law calling it "two pronged attacks on Iraq so that this occupation can bear fruits for the United States."

Iraqi's need a Hydrocarbon law as it's crucial for the countries reconstruction. But valid concerns about the dissection of Iraq buy big oil interests cannot be ignore.

Balancing power - reference card

Who are the players?

The GOP


Founded in 1854 by anti-slavery expansion activists and modernizers, the Republican Party rose to prominence with the election of Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president. The party presided over the American Civil War and Reconstruction and was harried by internal factions and scandals toward the end of the 19th century. Today, the Republican Party supports a conservative platform (as far as American politics are concerned), with further foundations in economic liberalism, fiscal conservatism, and social conservatism.

It is currently the second largest party with 55 million registered members, encompassing roughly one third of the electorate

The Democratic Party


The Democratic Party traces its origins to the Democratic-Republican Party, founded by Thomas Jefferson, James Madison, and other influential opponents of the Federalists in 1792. Since the division of the Republican Party in the election of 1912, it has consistently positioned itself to the left of the Republican Party in economic as well as social matters. The economically left-leaning activist philosophy of Franklin D. Roosevelt, which has strongly influenced American liberalism, has shaped much of the party's economic agenda since 1932. Roosevelt's New Deal coalition usually controlled the national government until the 1970s. The civil rights movement of the 1960s, championed by the party despite opposition at the time from its Southern wing, has continued to inspire the party's liberal principles,^[2] despite having lost the more conservative South in the process.

In 2004, it was the largest political party, with 72 million voters (42.6% of 169 million registered) claiming affiliation.^[5] Since the 2006 midterm elections, the Democratic Party is the majority party for the 110th Congress; the party holds an outright majority in the House of Representatives and the Democratic caucus (including two independents) constitutes a majority in the United States Senate. Democrats also hold a majority of state governorships and control a plurality of state legislatures.


The Independents


Unaffiliated voters who while leaning one way or another realize the inherent dangers of blindly voting down party lines.
You are either with us or against us doesn't wash with this crowd. As of 2004 the number of independent voters was estimated at roughly 42 million.

A little lie about oil

Every day we are bombarded with Viagra adds and "reality" TV. When our governments have something to say to us about the fuel crisis we have known was coming for a long time all they tell us is we are bad and it's our fault.

The biggest consumer of oil is the same scam which makes it impossible to tell where our tomatoes came from.

Turn off your lights, weather strip your house, conserve gas, don't waste, it's your fault, recycle you barbarians.



It's the rich and powerful who are burning our resources. We fight their wars.
We pay their interest rates. We bear their burden and they foreclose on our homes.

Buy local. Don't feed the monster. If you're close to the boarder go buy gas in Mexico before they wall it off.

"For more than a century ideological extremists at either end of
the political spectrum have seized upon well-publicized incidents ...
to attack the Rockefeller family for the inordinate influence they
claim we wield over American political and economic institutions. Some
even believe we are part of a secret cabal working against the best
interests of the United States, characterizing my family and me as
'internationalists' and of conspiring with others around the world to
build a more integrated global political and economic structure - one
world, if you will. If that's the charge, I stand guilty, and I am
proud of it."

- David Rockefeller, "Memoirs" autobiography (2002, Random House publishers), page 405

I don't see any extremists over here, just a bunch of people bleeding at the gas pump and the grocery store.
I see over 800 people sick from tainted tomatoes and no answers a month later... and a bunch of fat cats sitting in a hot tub smoking there habanos and telling me to conserve.

Obama take the high road as advisor swings low blow

“Sadly, Sen. McCain was not available during those times, and I say that with all due respect to him," said informal Obama adviser Rand Beers with regards to McCain's war record. "I think that the notion that the members of the Senate who were in the ground forces or who were ashore in Vietnam have a very different view of Vietnam and the cost that you described than John McCain does because he was in isolation essentially for many of those years and did not experience the turmoil here or the challenges that were involved for those of us who served in Vietnam during the Vietnam war."

This comes as the public face of the Obama campaign officially takes the high road as the Senator urging supporters not to devalue the military service of rival John McCain.

The unofficial aid bit is pretty slick. It underlines the extent the Democrats are willing to take to win.

While hardcore Obama supporters believe the lies and backhanded tactics are just par for the course many centrists are becoming leery of the tones being set since Obama secured the Democratic nomination.

The Beers remarks, which were made at the liberal Center for American Progress Action Fund in Washington, D.C., drew a swift rebuke from a McCain spokesman who portrayed them as an example of Obama saying one thing and his supporters doing another.

It's to bad there isn't a viable independent candidate as these two have a way of ignoring what's going on around them. It's to bad there are only two choices we can make about our future and they are the same thing.

TAX DAY is coming 4/15/08 Ron Paul & FED CHMN Bernanke

California and the Electric Dream Machine!

I'm bumping this story from the San Francisco Business Times. A couple major reasons, and they all have to do with why I love living in California.

Check out Tesla Motors you think Hillary rocks? move over you old hag. She can pay her own bills Obama give 10 million to these guys.

Some people love Arnold, some people hate him. They call him a nazi sometimes, and he does have a checkered past I guess. But he's the Terminator and one thing he's done is blur the line. He's an old school republican who married into the most infamous and loved Democratic families in the country and he says stuff like this, "We want these cutting-edge companies not to just start in California and do their research and development here-we want them to build in California."

When the Terminator tells you to stay in California it's not hard to listen, especially will $100 million worth of tax insentives. Sure we burn every year and people who don't live here talk about the earthquakes like we live in terror of them, but we've got the good life here, and Tesla's decision to stay makes it that much sweeter.

California has always been in the lead when it comes to environmental advances that make a real impact, even with the failure of ZEV the tone was set. It's a state of both strong republican and democratic enclaves but it's largely walked the center line and adopted the principles of letting people live there lives.

While people see Barbie dolls and silver screen, the heart of California is it's diversity and it's willingness to embrace it. People tend to be more willing to live and let live here and even celibate life together. Tesla is new money with new ideas and California embraces them with open arms.

I have to pay my taxes or I go to jail, This is what I want my taxes spent on, not war!!!

We've been down this road before!

We've already been told the truth

Let the Bankers and the Bushes have there oil

We have to do it ourselves.

We already did it but hate and power won out

Lets do it again and this time don't let them make us forget.

Taking it back from the banks

What American Banks and Media don't want the Citizens to know is...

By Gina Keating - Analysis

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) - A lawsuit filed by a Wisconsin couple
against their mortgage lender could have major implications for banks
should a U.S. appeals court agree that borrowers can cancel their loans
en masse when their lenders violate a federal lending disclosure law.

In their 2005 lawsuit, the couple said the loan's interest rate had
more than doubled by their second monthly payment from the 1.95 percent
rate they thought was locked in for five years. The interest rate rose
well above the 5.75 percent fixed-rate loan they had refinanced to pay
their children's college tuition.

The Andrews filed the case seeking class action status; and in early
2007, U.S. District Judge Lynn Adelman ruled that the bank had violated
the Truth in Lending Act, or TILA, and that thousands of other Chevy
Chase borrowers could join them as plaintiffs.

The idea of canceling tainted loans to stem a tide of foreclosures has
caught hold in other quarters; a lawsuit filed last week by the
Illinois attorney general asks a court to rescind or reform Countrywide
Financial Corp mortgages originated under "unfair or deceptive practices."

The above excerpt from Rueters highly three important things. One of the biggest financial scams in history is coming apart, and the individual people left holding the bag have the power to fight back. It also clearly is missing from American media reports, but I have to go to international news sources to find this story front and center where is should be. The same people that have scammed us are running our news.

Smashing atoms

August will be an exciting time as the Hadron Collider comes online. As CNN reports there are those who wish to keep us in the past and will always stand in the way of progress.

Critics of the LHC filed a lawsuit in a Hawaiian court in March seeking
to block its startup, alleging that there was "a significant risk that
... operation of the Collider may have unintended consequences which
could ultimately result in the destruction of our planet."

But people are sick of living under the rules established 2k years ago by some book and it's interpretation by a man in a dress with a funny hat. More people are holding a bible in one hand and a science textbook in the other. More people are reading the texts left out of the canon.

This isn't 325AD and the Coucil of Nicaea is long dead.

This thing could shake the foundations of science and as John Ellis, a British theoretical physicist at CERN, it's going to do it by reproducing "...what nature does every second, what it has been doing for billions of years,"

The largest scientific experiment in history, isn't expected to begin
test runs until August, and ramping up to full power could take months.
But once it is working, it is expected to produce some startling
findings.

Scientists plan to hunt for signs of the invisible "dark matter" and
"dark energy" that make up more than 96 percent of the universe, and
hope to glimpse the elusive Higgs boson, a so-far undiscovered particle
thought to give matter its mass.

I say fire that thing up and lets have the biggest tailgater in history. I'll bring the hot dogs?

eBay the the right to sell your stuff

"We believe that this ruling represents a loss not only for us but for
consumers and small businesses selling online, therefore we will
appeal," eBay says in it's official statement. "It is clear that eBay has become a focal
point for certain brand owners' desire to exact ever greater control
over e-commerce. We view these decisions as a step backward for the
consumers and businesses whom we empower every day."

These comments come in the wake of a landmark ruling by French courts. Fines leveed against eBay for roughly $63 million in a lawsuit brought by French luxury-goods maker LVMH Moet Hennessy Louis Vuitton SA.


The case was brought over the sale of counterfeit items using brands owned by LVMH. but of equal or greater significance is the plaintiffs assertion that even the sale of authentic items via eBay violated their authorized sales networks.

This goes to a fundamental principle of a free market. My right to sell stuff I own. When I buy a legitimate hand bag from a legitimate dealer it's mine, take your brand name and stick it in your ass, I own the bag, I payed for it I should be able to sell it when and where I want to.

The internet empowers people in so many ways. Knowledge and information is just part of the equation. People all over the world are waking up to the fact that they have the power of the pocket book. The powers that be are making there moves to take this away.

Who is surprised that this latest blow to global liberty comes from the French? While the east oppresses empowerment of the people by crushing the net, the west begins it's oppression in the courts in earnest.

Who cares about eBay I want my right to sell my stuff, I have to much as it is.

Status of Forces and Slight of Hand

As the dust settles in Iraq the victors are eager to divide the spoils, even if the dust hasn't really settled. Fast approaching is the July 31st deadline for the Iraqi government to accept a Status of Forces Agreement or SOFA. It has broad implications for the future of Iraq.

The US has between 140 and 160 SOFA around the world, including Japan and Germany. While a key condition is immunity for US troops, the is a key condition in all SOFA. By most accounts the Bush administration has dropped the demand for immunity to private contractors.

Many people are focusing on the establishment of permanent or long-term bases. But this is going to be part of any deal and few should be deluding themselves here.

But the sharp spike in violence in Iraq especially around the capital belays the more sinister tons of the deal.

AL Queda in Iraq is largely beaten now and Iraq is occupied by the International Military Force, or INMF under United Nations Charter, Chapter 7. Once Iraq enters into a SOFA with the USA it will no longer be under chapter 7. Further it is doubtful that the USA is including other members of the INMF in it's SOFA, therefore all other members of the INMF would need to negotiate there own SOFA. While many people consider the American presence in Iraq illegitimate now, the flip side is that once out side chapter 7 any military presence in Iraq would be illegitimate as a point of law without a SOFA.

Iraq has a lot of debt, and the Federal reserve is holding $50 billion in Iraqi money. Currently it is protected under Presidential immunity. According to Patrick Cockburn this is being held over the Iraqi government's head as incentive.

Even if the Maliki government wanted to make this deal it's doubtful it would pass through parliament. While the goal for Iraq is to get out of chapter 7, it's the last thing it wants or should do at this moment. It's also a central goal for the current administration before the November elections.