Archives for October 2009

October 1, 2009 By Fausta

Kerry’s political blackmail

peekahike

Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, has blocked Sen. Jim DeMint’s (R-S.C.) trip to Honduras slated to begin Friday, according to DeMint’s office.

But the chairman’s office claimed that the DeMint trip was stopped because the South Carolina Republican is blocking two of President Barack Obama’s nominations: Auturo [sic] Valenzuela, Obama’s nominee to be assistant secretary of state for Western Hemisphere Affairs, and Tom Shannon, the current assistant secretary and nominee to be ambassador to Brazil.

Political blackmail, barefaced tit-for-tat, “do what I say or else”, call it what you may, but Kerry’s totally open about it:

Kerry spokesman Frederick Jones responded Thursday evening that “Senator DeMint’s statement wins an A for ‘audacity.’”

“The Foreign Relations Committee always prefers to operate in a bi-partisan and collegial fashion, and it did so when it approved these two nominees by votes of 14 to 4 for Mr. Shannon and 15 to 4 for Mr. Valenzuela,” Jones told The Hill in a statement. “But now Sen. DeMint refuses to let the nominations of two distinguished public servants even be considered on the floor of the Senate.”

“When Senator DeMint lifts these holds and allows these individuals to receive an up or down vote on the Senate floor, the Committee will approve his travel to Honduras, a country that is in the middle of delicate, political crisis.”

If the crisis is that delicate, why doesn’t Kerry himself go? Can his support of Zelaya bear no scrutiny?

Follow-up post, Friday 2 October
DeMint’s trip to Honduras is on

October 1, 2009 By Fausta

Governor of Tokyo: 2016 Olympic Games could be the last because of global warming

Olympics-2016 Games could be the last, says Tokyo governor

“It could be that the 2016 Games are the last Olympics in the history of mankind,” Ishihara told reporters at a Tokyo 2016 press event ahead of the vote.

“Global warming is getting worse. We have to come up with measures without which Olympic Games could not last long.

Meh.

Everybody knows it’s not 2016, it’s 2012 anyway.

October 1, 2009 By Fausta

Stimulus Spending Doesn’t Work

Economists Richard Barro and Charles Reddick release the results of their study for the National Bureau of Economic Research
Stimulus Spending Doesn’t Work
Our new research shows no evidence of a Keynesian ‘multiplier’ effect. There is evidence that tax cuts boost growth.

The bottom line is this: The available empirical evidence does not support the idea that spending multipliers typically exceed one, and thus spending stimulus programs will likely raise GDP by less than the increase in government spending. Defense-spending multipliers exceeding one likely apply only at very high unemployment rates, and nondefense multipliers are probably smaller. However, there is empirical support for the proposition that tax rate reductions will increase real GDP.

Fat chance for any of those, considering how the administration is intent on bankrupting the economy.

October 1, 2009 By Fausta

Lula, Arias, Honduras, and the US: 15 Minutes on Latin America

In today’s podcast at 11AM Eastern, two articles:
Brazil Reluctantly Takes Key Role in Honduras Dispute, and From a Zelaya Backer, an Admission That Honduras Got It Right
Costa Rican President Oscar Arias admits that Honduras acted lawfully in ousting Manuel Zelaya.

UPDATE
The Tegucigalpa Accord

A proposal for a Honduran solution for the Honduran crisis was announced tonight by Cardinal Juan Jose Pineda. Instead of the international community forcing the San José Accord on Honduras, when neither side agrees with it, Hondurans will develop their own Tegucigalpa accord.

Interesting.

Honduras right, Obama, UN, OAS wrong — according to the smart people
Honduras courageously speaks truth to power

October 1, 2009 By Fausta

The Farmer’s Daughter

No, not this farmer’s daughter,

But Rukhsana Kausar, this farmer’s daughter,

Farmer’s daughter disarms terrorist and shoots him dead with AK47
An Indian farmer’s daughter disarmed a terrorist leader who broke into her home, attacked him with an axe and shot him dead with his own gun.

Rukhsana Kausar, 21, was with her parents and brother in Jammu and Kashmir when three gunmen, believed to be Pakistani militants, forced their way in and demanded food and beds for the night.

Their house in Shahdra Sharief, Rajouri district, is about 20 miles from the ceasefire line between Indian and Pakistani forces.

It is close to dense forests known as hiding places for fighters from the Lashkar-e-Taiba group, which carried out the Mumbai terrorist attack last November.

Militants often demand food and lodging in nearby villages.

When they forced their way into Miss Kausar’s home, her father Noor Mohammad refused their demands and was attacked.

His daughter was hiding under a bed when she heard him crying as the gunmen thrashed him with sticks. According to police, she ran towards her father’s attacker and struck him with an axe. As he collapsed, she snatched his AK47 and shot him dead.

She also shot and wounded another militant as he made his escape.

Interestingly, the article doesn’t call the attacker the “t” word until the third paragraph from the bottom,

She may also receive a £4,000 reward if, as police believe, the dead terrorist is confirmed as Uzafa Shah, a wanted Pakistani LeT commander who had been active in the area for the past four years.

At least they used the “t” word twice in the title.

The article also forgets to mention that the Pakistani LeT is an Islamist Jihadi group.

(hat tip: DaMav)

UPDATE
Welcome, Jawa readers. Please visit often!

October 1, 2009 By Fausta

Gitmo alumnus status update: shot in Yemen

Not only did he graduate from Gitmo, he also graduated from Saudi Arabia’s rehab program:

Former Gitmo detainee killed in shootout, or as Ace says, former terrorist dies of dental plaque and bullets, but mostly bullets,

A former Guantanamo detainee has reportedly been killed in a shootout between the Yemeni Army and Houthi rebels in northern Yemen. The former detainee, Fahd Saleh Suleiman al Jutayli, was captured in Pakistan after fleeing the Tora Bora Mountains in 2001. He was repatriated to his native Saudi Arabia in May 2006.

According to the Yemen Post, two other former Gitmo detainees – Yusuf al Shehri and Othman al Ghamdi – called their families to tell them Jutayli had been killed in the fighting and asked them to inform Jutayli’s family.

Earlier this year, the Saudi government included all three of these former Guantanamo detainees – Jutayli, Shehri, and Ghamdi – on a list of the Kingdom’s 85 most wanted terrorists. After being released from Guantanamo, the three graduated from Saudi Arabia’s rehabilitation program and joined eight other former Gitmo detainees in fleeing south to Yemen. All eleven joined al Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula.
Yusuf-al-Shehri.JPG

Yusuf al-Shehri, a former Gitmo detainee, reportedly informed his family of Jutayli’s death. Photo courtesy of the NEFA Foundation.

The escape of the eleven former Gitmo detainees from Saudi Arabia was reportedly organized by still other Gitmo veterans. Writing in the May 2009 issue of the CTC Sentinel, Dr. Christopher Boucek, an associate in the Middle East Program at the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace, said that Saudi officials found their disappearance “was well-coordinated in advance.” Their escape “was allegedly coordinated with other non-Saudi former Guantanamo detainees who have been repatriated to other countries, indicating that returnees have maintained ties from Guantanamo,” Boucek reported.

Surely we have nothing to worry about with all the plans to close Gitmo by next January, do we?