In an earlier post I had something positive to say about Paul Krugman´s euro analysis. But I should have understood that it was only a temporary "improvement". The old leftist Krugman is back: Now he claims that the uprising in Egypt was caused by global warming!
Noel Sheppard´s comments are worth reading.
Monday, 7 February 2011
Obama is wobbling on democracy in Egypt
Stephen M. Walt asks "Is Obama wobbling on democracy for Egypt?", and seems think that he is (and so do I):
If the news reports I've seen are correct, the United States is now getting behind a political transition that will be orchestrated by the new Vice President Omar Suleiman, a close Mubarak associate. It's not even clear if the United States now thinks Mubarak has to step down. Instead, Secretary of State Clinton seems to be suggesting that we need to help VP Suleiman "defuse" the street demonstrations, which would remove most of the impetus for change.
--
And if subsequent reforms are mostly cosmetic and individuals or groups associated with the old regime end up retaining power in a subsequent election, they are likely to have no more legitimacy than Mubarak has right now. And the U.S. image in the region, which is bad enough already, will take another big hit.
Read the entire article here.
Walt refers to this article by Asli Bâli and Aziz Rana, both contributors to Foreign Policy in Focus. The two professors conlude their article with these words:
Supporting the demands of the Egyptian people, rather than an "orderly transition" managed by a fatally compromised Egyptian regime, will require Washington to enter into unchartered territory in its Middle East policies. The United States will have to redefine stability in terms that embrace local concerns with democratic legitimacy. As a consequence, Western leaders must recognize that the alternatives presented by events in Egypt are not solely a region of adversaries or clients. There is also the possibility of a region with its own internal priorities and resources, one that can be engaged with rather than dictated to.
The following weeks will provide a profound opportunity to reset the U.S. and European approach. Perhaps the high rhetoric of Barack Obama's Cairo speech may yet be redeemed. If not, events in Cairo and beyond will represent the death knell of the president's promise of a better posture for the United States in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world. It will make clear that for all the talk of freedom and moderation, the United States seems willing to jettison both at the slightest turn of events.
If the news reports I've seen are correct, the United States is now getting behind a political transition that will be orchestrated by the new Vice President Omar Suleiman, a close Mubarak associate. It's not even clear if the United States now thinks Mubarak has to step down. Instead, Secretary of State Clinton seems to be suggesting that we need to help VP Suleiman "defuse" the street demonstrations, which would remove most of the impetus for change.
--
And if subsequent reforms are mostly cosmetic and individuals or groups associated with the old regime end up retaining power in a subsequent election, they are likely to have no more legitimacy than Mubarak has right now. And the U.S. image in the region, which is bad enough already, will take another big hit.
Read the entire article here.
Walt refers to this article by Asli Bâli and Aziz Rana, both contributors to Foreign Policy in Focus. The two professors conlude their article with these words:
Supporting the demands of the Egyptian people, rather than an "orderly transition" managed by a fatally compromised Egyptian regime, will require Washington to enter into unchartered territory in its Middle East policies. The United States will have to redefine stability in terms that embrace local concerns with democratic legitimacy. As a consequence, Western leaders must recognize that the alternatives presented by events in Egypt are not solely a region of adversaries or clients. There is also the possibility of a region with its own internal priorities and resources, one that can be engaged with rather than dictated to.
The following weeks will provide a profound opportunity to reset the U.S. and European approach. Perhaps the high rhetoric of Barack Obama's Cairo speech may yet be redeemed. If not, events in Cairo and beyond will represent the death knell of the president's promise of a better posture for the United States in the Middle East and the wider Muslim world. It will make clear that for all the talk of freedom and moderation, the United States seems willing to jettison both at the slightest turn of events.
Asli Bâli is acting professor of law at UCLA School of Law and an editor at Middle East Report and Aziz Rana is assistant professor of law at Cornell Law and author of The Two Faces of American Freedom out now from Harvard University Press. They are contributors to Foreign Policy In Focus.
PS
The article by the professors was written a few days ago. Obama has unfortunately chosen the path indicated in the last two sentences of the article.
Obama´s Egypt envoy Wisner´s law firm works for dictator Mubarak
The Independent´s Robert Fisk tells the true story of Mubarak´s friend Frank Wisner, chosen by another Mubarak friend, Hillary Clinton:
Frank Wisner, President Barack Obama's envoy to Cairo who infuriated the White House this weekend by urging Hosni Mubarak to remain President of Egypt, works for a New York and Washington law firm which works for the dictator's own Egyptian government.
Mr Wisner's astonishing remarks – "President Mubarak's continued leadership is critical: it's his opportunity to write his own legacy" – shocked the democratic opposition in Egypt and called into question Mr Obama's judgement, as well as that of Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.
The US State Department and Mr Wisner himself have now both claimed that his remarks were made in a "personal capacity". But there is nothing "personal" about Mr Wisner's connections with the litigation firm Patton Boggs, which openly boasts that it advises "the Egyptian military, the Egyptian Economic Development Agency, and has handled arbitrations and litigation on the [Mubarak] government's behalf in Europe and the US". Oddly, not a single journalist raised this extraordinary connection with US government officials – nor the blatant conflict of interest it appears to represent.
PS
White House officials seem to have said that they were astonished by Wisner´s remarks. But Obama´s Fox interview shows that the administration in reality is doing exactly what Wisner told the audience in Munich. From the WH point of view the only problem with Wisner´s message was, that it was delivered a day too early and without the kind of obfuscated language that is the trademark of the present administration.
Obama´s "win-win" interview
While preparing to entertain guests for the Super Bowl, the leader of the free world graciously found some time to speak for the thousands of exhausted pro-democracy demonstrators, who continue their brave and peaceful fight for ousting the hated dictator Hosni Mubarak:
Addendum (9.18 AM)
A voice from Tahrir Square:
Many of the protesters who gathered in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests, vented anger at reports that the United States was supporting the idea of a negotiated transition undertaken by Mr. Suleiman while Mr. Mubarak remained in power. “The extremists aren’t here in Egypt, but they will be if the United States persists!” said Noha El Sharakawy, a 52-year-old pharmacist with dual citizenship in both countries.
The United States can't force out Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak but the Egyptian people will no longer allow unresponsive government without representation or free and fair elections, President Obama said in an interview Sunday with Fox News' Bill O'Reilly.
With that in mind, an orderly but meaningful transition to a new government will reduce the possibility of a radical, anti-American government, the president argued in a pre-Super Bowl XLV interview.
"What I want is a representative government in Egypt and I have confidence that if Egypt moves in an orderly transition process, they will have a government in Egypt that will work together with us" as partners, Obama said from the White House, where he was preparing to entertain about 100 guests for the Super Bowl game between the Pittsburgh Steelers and Green Bay Packers
Read the entire article here.
The interview, which has been described as a "win-win" for Obama and Fox News, was most certainly also a win for Hillary Clinton´s family friend Mubarak, but perhaps less of a win for the pro-democracy demonstrators, who have had to fight the thugs sent to attack them by the criminal regime. Maybe it would have been wiser for Obama to concentrate on entertaining his Super Bowl guests?
Addendum (9.18 AM)
A voice from Tahrir Square:
Many of the protesters who gathered in Tahrir Square, the epicenter of the protests, vented anger at reports that the United States was supporting the idea of a negotiated transition undertaken by Mr. Suleiman while Mr. Mubarak remained in power. “The extremists aren’t here in Egypt, but they will be if the United States persists!” said Noha El Sharakawy, a 52-year-old pharmacist with dual citizenship in both countries.
Sunday, 6 February 2011
"The west should cheer,not fear, this cry for freedom in Egypt"
The Guardian´s Andrew Rawnsley writes about the west´s choices in Egypt:
Having conceded that to the so-called "realists", we must then ask them a question. Are they saying that Arabs are never allowed to aspire to democracy for fear that revolution might go the (highly country, culture and time-specific) way of Iran after 1979? That is a counsel of utter despair and racist condescension which consigns millions of people to the dead end of indefinite dictatorship.
Anyone with any sense of history knows the road to liberal democracy can be bumpy and bloody. Britain took centuries to progress from tyrant kings such as Henry VIII to representative parliamentary government. Americans killed each other in a civil war which left more of them dead than any other conflict. The UK and the US have yet to reach a state of democratic perfection. But we also know something else about democracy, something which was best expressed by Winston Churchill: it is the worst form of government – except for all the other ones.
Democracy is best at building stable, prosperous, resilient and tolerant societies over the long term. There has never been an armed conflict between two genuinely established democracies. The most promising path to sustainable peace and security in the Middle East and the most reliable bulwark against murderous extremism is not the chimeric "stability" of dictators. It is the nurturing of democracy.
Our espoused principles and our long-term self-interest are both served by encouraging freedom. When liberty contends with tyranny, we should be on the side of all the citizens of the world enjoying the precious rights that we so take for granted. It is time that the leaders of the "free world" unknotted their tongues and said that with crystal clarity.
Right he is!
Read the entire article here.
Having conceded that to the so-called "realists", we must then ask them a question. Are they saying that Arabs are never allowed to aspire to democracy for fear that revolution might go the (highly country, culture and time-specific) way of Iran after 1979? That is a counsel of utter despair and racist condescension which consigns millions of people to the dead end of indefinite dictatorship.
Anyone with any sense of history knows the road to liberal democracy can be bumpy and bloody. Britain took centuries to progress from tyrant kings such as Henry VIII to representative parliamentary government. Americans killed each other in a civil war which left more of them dead than any other conflict. The UK and the US have yet to reach a state of democratic perfection. But we also know something else about democracy, something which was best expressed by Winston Churchill: it is the worst form of government – except for all the other ones.
Democracy is best at building stable, prosperous, resilient and tolerant societies over the long term. There has never been an armed conflict between two genuinely established democracies. The most promising path to sustainable peace and security in the Middle East and the most reliable bulwark against murderous extremism is not the chimeric "stability" of dictators. It is the nurturing of democracy.
Our espoused principles and our long-term self-interest are both served by encouraging freedom. When liberty contends with tyranny, we should be on the side of all the citizens of the world enjoying the precious rights that we so take for granted. It is time that the leaders of the "free world" unknotted their tongues and said that with crystal clarity.
Right he is!
Read the entire article here.
Shame on BP!
The Economist notes the following:
Now BP is in bed with Rosneft and has shaken hands with Mr Sechin, who is widely seen as the architect of the attack on Yukos, an oil firm that was dismantled with scant regard to the law in 2004. Yukos's main shareholder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is now in jail. He was ostentatiously given a second prison sentence just as the BP-Rosneft deal was announced.
Read the entire arcticle here.
Now BP is in bed with Rosneft and has shaken hands with Mr Sechin, who is widely seen as the architect of the attack on Yukos, an oil firm that was dismantled with scant regard to the law in 2004. Yukos's main shareholder, Mikhail Khodorkovsky, is now in jail. He was ostentatiously given a second prison sentence just as the BP-Rosneft deal was announced.
Read the entire arcticle here.
Mubarak no poor man - family fortune over 70bn $
Hillary Clinton´s family friend, socialist president Hosni Mubarak should be comfortable in retirement. The man who according to US envoy Frank Wisner has served his country for 60 years, has also served himself and his family quite well:
According to a report last year in the Arabic newspaper Al Khabar, Mubarak has properties in Manhattan and exclusive Beverly Hills addresses on Rodeo Drive.
His sons, Gamal and Alaa, are also billionaires. A protest outside Gamal's ostentatious home at 28 Wilton Place in Belgravia, central London, highlighted the family's appetite for western trophy assets.
Amaney Jamal, a political science professor at Princeton University, said the estimate of $40bn-70bn was comparable with the vast wealth of leaders in other Gulf countries.
Read the entire article here.
President Hosni Mubarak's family fortune could be as much as $70bn (£43.5bn) according to analysis by Middle East experts, with much of his wealth in British and Swiss banks or tied up in real estate in London, New York, Los Angeles and along expensive tracts of the Red Sea coast.
After 30 years as president and many more as a senior military official, Mubarak has had access to investment deals that have generated hundreds of millions of pounds in profits. Most of those gains have been taken offshore and deposited in secret bank accounts or invested in upmarket homes and hotels.According to a report last year in the Arabic newspaper Al Khabar, Mubarak has properties in Manhattan and exclusive Beverly Hills addresses on Rodeo Drive.
His sons, Gamal and Alaa, are also billionaires. A protest outside Gamal's ostentatious home at 28 Wilton Place in Belgravia, central London, highlighted the family's appetite for western trophy assets.
Amaney Jamal, a political science professor at Princeton University, said the estimate of $40bn-70bn was comparable with the vast wealth of leaders in other Gulf countries.
Read the entire article here.
Saturday, 5 February 2011
"Stand for freedom"
William Kristol gets it right on Egypt:
Stand for Freedom
Read the entire article here.
Obama´s Egypt envoy Frank Wisner - a total failure
When you put close friends of socialist dictator Mubarak in charge of dealing with the popular uprising in Egypt, you get what you deserve - a total failure.
Obama´s Egypt crisis envoy, former Enron man and close friend of Mubarak, Frank Wisner now openly sides with Mubarak and his henchmen:
"Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak must stay in power for now to steer the political transition, President Obama's special envoy for Egypt told reporters Saturday.
"We need to get a national consensus around the preconditions for the next step forward. The president must stay in office to steer those changes," Frank Wisner told a security conference in Munich, Germany, during a video conference from Washington, Reuters reported.
Wisner, former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and India who is seen as having a good relationship with the Mubarak regime, was dispatched to Cairo earlier this week by Obama to meet with Egyptian leaders.
"There is a chance to move forward," Wisner told the security conference Saturday. "It's fragile, it's the first stage, things could go wrong. But the direction is promising".
Read the entire LA Times article here.
I have sad it before, and I said it again: The inexperienced Obama has totally misjudged the situation in Egypt by putting Mubarak´s close friends Hillary Clinton and Frank Wisner in charge. To ignore the wishes of the great majority of Egyptians, who demand the immediate removal of Mubarak, is something the US is going to regret.
Obama´s Egypt crisis envoy, former Enron man and close friend of Mubarak, Frank Wisner now openly sides with Mubarak and his henchmen:
"Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak must stay in power for now to steer the political transition, President Obama's special envoy for Egypt told reporters Saturday.
"We need to get a national consensus around the preconditions for the next step forward. The president must stay in office to steer those changes," Frank Wisner told a security conference in Munich, Germany, during a video conference from Washington, Reuters reported.
Wisner, former U.S. ambassador to Egypt and India who is seen as having a good relationship with the Mubarak regime, was dispatched to Cairo earlier this week by Obama to meet with Egyptian leaders.
"There is a chance to move forward," Wisner told the security conference Saturday. "It's fragile, it's the first stage, things could go wrong. But the direction is promising".
Read the entire LA Times article here.
I have sad it before, and I said it again: The inexperienced Obama has totally misjudged the situation in Egypt by putting Mubarak´s close friends Hillary Clinton and Frank Wisner in charge. To ignore the wishes of the great majority of Egyptians, who demand the immediate removal of Mubarak, is something the US is going to regret.
People are ready to sign almost anything - if its about the environment
This Penn and Teller video is not new, but the message it conveys is still very true; people easily can be duped into signing almost anything - particularly if it is in some way related to the environment or e.g. global warming. That´s why we should not take all the polls presented to us as facts seriously.
Watch the video here.
(image by bigfoto.com)
Ronald Reagan - a great American
Man is not free unless government is limited.
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan - once so despised and ridiculed by "progressive" European leaders, journalists and "intellectuals" - would have been 100 on February 6. This weekend there will be a great number of articles about the centenary in newspapers all over the world. I will only refer to one of them, written by the veteran Washington Post journalist Lou Cannon, author of several books on Reagan:
On the eve of Ronald Reagan's election as president of the United States in 1980, a radio reporter asked him what it was that Americans saw in him. Reagan hesitated and then replied: "Would you laugh if I told you that I think maybe they see themselves and that I'm one of them?"
Thirty years and four presidents later, Americans still see themselves in Reagan. In a Gallup poll in 2009 they ranked Reagan as the best president, just ahead of Abraham Lincoln and John F. Kennedy.
This highly generous assessment is based on more than likeability. Reagan left the world safer and the United States more prosperous than he found it. Even some liberal scholars who disdained Reagan when he was in the White House now acknowledge his effectiveness as a leader, especially his role in ending the Cold War. Former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev, his partner in that enterprise, said at Reagan's funeral that the U.S. president was "an extraordinary political leader" who had "decided to be a peacemaker."
----
Reagan was at once a man of conviction who thought seriously about the great issues of his time and an ordinary American, never braggy, who treated his audiences -- all of us, really -- with consideration and respect. His greatest single quality was his self-deprecating humor, which came naturally to him and was honed into an effective political weapon. He made fun of his age, his work habits, his vanities, his ideology, his alleged lack of intelligence, and his supposed domination by his wife. When he was speaking to a political rally in Florida and a wind blew his speaking cards off a podium, Reagan picked them up, shuffled them together, and quipped that it really didn't matter what order they were in. When a reporter during the first gubernatorial campaign brought Reagan a studio picture showing him with the title chimpanzee in the movie "Bedtime for Bonzo," Reagan signed it and wrote, "I'm the one with the watch." On Air Force One he signed a picture of a sleeping Marlin Fitzwater, his press secretary, with the inscription, "Marlin, we're only supposed to do this at cabinet meetings."
Read the entire article here.
Of all the speeches Reagan gave, I think this one, deservedly, is the one that most people, at least in Europe, will remember and cherish:
EU to become "most climate-friendly region in the world"
Remember a few years ago, the European Union announced that by 2010 it would be "the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world capable of sustainable economic growth with more and better jobs and greater social cohesion". The programme that would produce this miraculous achievement was called the Lisbon Strategy. Well, 2010 is history now - and so is the failed Strategy.
But that does not stop the EU from dreaming up similar "strategies". The latest one was this week announced by the unelected EU "climate comissioner", former Danish journalist Connie Hedegaard:
But that does not stop the EU from dreaming up similar "strategies". The latest one was this week announced by the unelected EU "climate comissioner", former Danish journalist Connie Hedegaard:
As Commissioner for the new DG Climate Action, it is Connie Hedegaard’s ambition that, in five years’ time, Europe is the most climate-friendly region in the world. With this in mind, she was quick to stress the role that space can play in tackling climate change.
In her opening address, Commissioner Hedegaard said, "Today, we are focusing on the tools needed for the International Climate Change Policy Regime. In that respect, space is not just nice to have; it’s a need to have.
"We need science, knowledge and facts to formulate European policies. With those policies in place, we then need the tools to monitor them"
While stressing that Earth observation is essential for monitoring, reporting and verification, Commissioner Hedegaard also pointed to satellite navigation as an important space tool, "The transport sector accounts for 27% of all European emissions. Satellite navigation can help develop intelligent traffic systems to limit those emissions"
With climate change a priority, Commissioner Hedegaard is working with Vice-President Antonio Tajani to develop a joint strategy on space and climate. As part of this, Commission Hedegaard invited experts from the space sector to provide inputs for consultation.
PS
If, for a change, the EU climate strategy actually would succeed, it would mean a decisive blow to EU economic competitiveness. But that does not worry the warmist Hedegaard and her likes.
It is also interesting to note that Hedegaard, without naming Galileo, tries to promote the economically disastrous European Galileo satellite navigation project. Climate change (former global warming) can be used for all kinds of purposes.
Friday, 4 February 2011
Mubarak´s and Ben Ali´s parties were members of the Socialist International
This is how the Socialist international defines itself:
PROGRESSIVE POLITICS for a fairer world
If you click the present list of members, you will not find dictator Mubarak´s National Democratic Party or Ben Ali´s Tunisian Constitutional Democratic Assembly among the members. However, until the 31 January Mubarak and his party were highly regarded members of this socialist elite group priding itself on working "for a fairer world". Ben Ali and his party belonged to the Socialist Interntional until 17 January.
PROGRESSIVE POLITICS for a fairer world
The Socialist International is the worldwide organisation of social democratic, socialist and labour parties. It currently brings together close to 170 political parties and organisations from all continents. (List of members in full)
If you click the present list of members, you will not find dictator Mubarak´s National Democratic Party or Ben Ali´s Tunisian Constitutional Democratic Assembly among the members. However, until the 31 January Mubarak and his party were highly regarded members of this socialist elite group priding itself on working "for a fairer world". Ben Ali and his party belonged to the Socialist Interntional until 17 January.
That it took popular uprisings to remove the two dictators from the "progressive" club says something about the socialist brotherhood.
Unelected EU "foreign minister" lectures Egyptians on "deep democracy"
Baroness Ashton, EU "foreign minister" still today refused to demand the immediate removal of Mubarak. Instead the unelected Labour Baroness lectured the Egyptians about "deep democracy" in an article published in the Guardian. William Dove, writing in the International Business Times comments:
The truth about the pro Mubarak "demonstrators"
German Der Spiegel describes the pro regime thugs, paid by the criminal Mubarak regime to fight peaceful demonstrators in Egypt:
Texas powerless after ice storm - Mexico unable to help
The huge ice storm affecting great areas of the US has caused rolling blackouts in the state of Texas. The lone star state had hoped to get power from neighbouring Mexico, but now the Mexicans say that they cannot help, becouse they also are freezing ....
And remember, according to the Nobel laureate Al Gore, this is all because of global warming ...
MEXICO CITY — Mexico said Thursday it was temporarily suspending an offer to provide electricity to Texas to help the U.S. state weather an ice storm that forced rolling blackouts, because of severe cold in Mexico's own territory.
Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission had said Wednesday it had agreed to transmit 280 megawatts of electricity to Texas.
But on Thursday, the commission said it was temporarily suspending the transfer because below-freezing temperatures in northern Mexico have caused some damage to the generating capacity of its own plants, causing some power outages in several parts of Chihuahua state and a reduction of about 3,800 megawatts in generation.
Read the entire article here.
And remember, according to the Nobel laureate Al Gore, this is all because of global warming ...
MEXICO CITY — Mexico said Thursday it was temporarily suspending an offer to provide electricity to Texas to help the U.S. state weather an ice storm that forced rolling blackouts, because of severe cold in Mexico's own territory.
Mexico's Federal Electricity Commission had said Wednesday it had agreed to transmit 280 megawatts of electricity to Texas.
But on Thursday, the commission said it was temporarily suspending the transfer because below-freezing temperatures in northern Mexico have caused some damage to the generating capacity of its own plants, causing some power outages in several parts of Chihuahua state and a reduction of about 3,800 megawatts in generation.
Read the entire article here.
Thursday, 3 February 2011
Obama misjudged Egypt
Timing is of utmost importance in a crisis. I am afraid that Obama - and also the Europeans - missed the opportunity by not early enough loudly and clearly demanding the immediate resignation of dictator Mubarak. I hope I am wrong, but by sending its thugs to attack peaceful demonstrators the corrupt regime may very well have succeeded in intimadating people enough to be able to cling to power. Part of the Mubarak tactics is that they pretend to "understand" the grievances of the "youth". The only way the pro-democracy side can regain the initiative, is to bring huge numbers of supporters out on the streets again, as soon as possible.
(image by antiqueprints.com)
Putin interviewed
Fínally, there is a US reporter, who dares to put all the tough questions straight to Vladimir Putin!
Read the entire interview here.
Read the entire interview here.
"Time for Obama to cut Mubarak loose"
Jonathan Chait in the New Republic says it:
The Egyptian populace seems almost totally united in opposition to Mubarak, with the only significant support coming from those in Mubarak's pay. The opposition has all the nationalist and religious legitimacy it needs. At this point Obama needs to forcefully cut Mubarak loose. The only delay, I would hope, is his slowness to respond to events, a trait he has consistently displayed since the campaign. Sometimes that caution has served him well, but here it hasn't. If Obama does not act soon it will be a black mark.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/82667/time-obama-cut-mubarak-loose
The Egyptian populace seems almost totally united in opposition to Mubarak, with the only significant support coming from those in Mubarak's pay. The opposition has all the nationalist and religious legitimacy it needs. At this point Obama needs to forcefully cut Mubarak loose. The only delay, I would hope, is his slowness to respond to events, a trait he has consistently displayed since the campaign. Sometimes that caution has served him well, but here it hasn't. If Obama does not act soon it will be a black mark.
http://www.tnr.com/blog/jonathan-chait/82667/time-obama-cut-mubarak-loose
Wednesday, 2 February 2011
Hillary Clinton - friend of Mubarak - not the right person to deal with his departure
Barrack Obama - who has no real foreign policy crisis experience - seems to be relying on Hillary Clinton´s advice on dealing with events in Egypt. She is unfortunately a very bad choice. How on earth could Clinton, a family friend of the Mubaraks, contribute to getting Mubarak removed as quickly as posssible?
Politico offers this analysis:
But proximity has its perils. In a 2009 interview with Al Arabiya television, Clinton defended the relationship with the Egyptian president and his wife when asked about human rights abuses by the Mubarak regime, saying, “I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family. So I hope to see him often here in Egypt and in the United States.”
That led to a Washington Post editorial, questioning her ability to challenge autocratic regimes — and raised questions about Clinton’s repeated claim that the administration has long pressured Mubarak to enact much needed democratic and economic reform.
Activists are pressuring the administration to move even more quickly – and publicly acknowledge the pitfalls of helping to prop up corrupt regimes.
Clinton also came up with the idea of sending formen ambassador and Enron man Frank Wisner to Egypt. Not the ideal representative, either.
Politico offers this analysis:
But proximity has its perils. In a 2009 interview with Al Arabiya television, Clinton defended the relationship with the Egyptian president and his wife when asked about human rights abuses by the Mubarak regime, saying, “I really consider President and Mrs. Mubarak to be friends of my family. So I hope to see him often here in Egypt and in the United States.”
That led to a Washington Post editorial, questioning her ability to challenge autocratic regimes — and raised questions about Clinton’s repeated claim that the administration has long pressured Mubarak to enact much needed democratic and economic reform.
Activists are pressuring the administration to move even more quickly – and publicly acknowledge the pitfalls of helping to prop up corrupt regimes.
Clinton also came up with the idea of sending formen ambassador and Enron man Frank Wisner to Egypt. Not the ideal representative, either.
Forget global warming: More cold winters ahead
Be prepared for more cold winters, says AccuWeather´s Chief Long Range forecaster Joe Bastardi, whose predictions usually have been very reliable:
Bastardi thinks that not only will the next few winters be colder than normal for much of the U.S., but that the long-term climate will turn colder over the next 20 to 30 years.
"What's interesting about what we're seeing here is that [the current La Niña] is starting so cold," said Bastardi, "and it's coinciding with bigger things that are pushing the overall weather patterns and climate in the Northern Hemisphere and, in fact, globally over the next 20 to 30 years that we have not really dealt with, nor can we really quantify."
"That ties into a lot of this arguing over climate change," he added.
Bastardi has pointed out that the Pacific Decadal Oscillation (PDO), which is a pattern of Pacific climate variability that shifts phases usually about every 20 to 30 years, has shifted into a "cold" or "negative" phase.
Over the past 30 years or so, according to Bastardi, the PDO has been "warm" or "positive."
This change to a cold PDO over the next 20 to 30 years, he says, will cause La Niñas to be stronger and longer than El Niños. Bastardi adds that when El Niños do kick in, if they try to come on strong like they did last year, they will get "beaten back" pretty quickly.
"When you have a cold PDO and lots of La Niñas, when El Niños do come on, you generally tend to have cold, snowy weather patterns across the U.S.," Bastardi said. "That's what we saw in the 1960s and 1970s."
Read the entire story here.
PS
Weather Services International, another long range forecaster, is saying the same thing, as pointed out in an earlier post.
(image by antiqueprints.com)
US secretly backed Egyptian opposition
According to leaked US Cairo embassy cables (Wikileaks) the US secretly supported a leader of the Egyptian opposition movement, reports the Telegraph:
In a secret diplomatic dispatch, sent on December 30 2008, Margaret Scobey, the US Ambassador to Cairo, recorded that opposition groups had allegedly drawn up secret plans for “regime change” to take place before elections, scheduled for September this year.
The memo, which Ambassador Scobey sent to the US Secretary of State in Washington DC, was marked “confidential” and headed: “April 6 activist on his US visit and regime change in Egypt.”
It said the activist claimed “several opposition forces” had “agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections”. The embassy’s source said the plan was “so sensitive it cannot be written down”.
Ambassador Scobey questioned whether such an “unrealistic” plot could work, or ever even existed. However, the documents showed that the activist had been approached by US diplomats and received extensive support for his pro-democracy campaign from officials in Washington. The embassy helped the campaigner attend a “summit” for youth activists in New York, which was organised by the US State Department.
Read the entire article here.
PS
Good work by the American embassy! But it does not alter the fact that the general US approach has been the wrong one, as pointed out by e.g. David Brooks in the NYT. (See previous post).
In a secret diplomatic dispatch, sent on December 30 2008, Margaret Scobey, the US Ambassador to Cairo, recorded that opposition groups had allegedly drawn up secret plans for “regime change” to take place before elections, scheduled for September this year.
The memo, which Ambassador Scobey sent to the US Secretary of State in Washington DC, was marked “confidential” and headed: “April 6 activist on his US visit and regime change in Egypt.”
It said the activist claimed “several opposition forces” had “agreed to support an unwritten plan for a transition to a parliamentary democracy, involving a weakened presidency and an empowered prime minister and parliament, before the scheduled 2011 presidential elections”. The embassy’s source said the plan was “so sensitive it cannot be written down”.
Ambassador Scobey questioned whether such an “unrealistic” plot could work, or ever even existed. However, the documents showed that the activist had been approached by US diplomats and received extensive support for his pro-democracy campaign from officials in Washington. The embassy helped the campaigner attend a “summit” for youth activists in New York, which was organised by the US State Department.
Read the entire article here.
PS
Good work by the American embassy! But it does not alter the fact that the general US approach has been the wrong one, as pointed out by e.g. David Brooks in the NYT. (See previous post).
Tuesday, 1 February 2011
David Brooks on the US reaction to events in Egypt and other uprisings
David Brooks column in the New York Times is one of the best he has ever written. Why is it that the US and other Western goverments almost always misjudge popular uprisings?:
The other thing we’ve learned is that the United States usually gets everything wrong. There have been dozens of democratic uprisings over the years, but the government always reacts like it’s the first one. There seem to be no protocols for these situations, no preset questions to be asked.
Policy makers always underestimate the power of the bottom-up quest for dignity, so they are slow to understand what is happening. Last week, for example, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the Egyptian regime was stable, just as it was falling apart.
Then their instinct is to comfort the fellow members of the club of those in power. The Obama administration was very solicitous of President Hosni Mubarak during the first days of the protests and of other dictators who fear their regime may be next.
Then, desperately recalibrating in an effort to keep up with events, they inevitably make a series of subtle distinctions no one else heeds. The Obama administration ended up absurdly calling on Mubarak to initiate a reform agenda. Surely there’s not a single person in the government who thinks he is actually capable of doing this. Meanwhile, the marchers heard this fudge as Obama supporting Mubarak and were outraged.
The Obama administration’s reaction was tardy, but no worse than, say, the first Bush administration’s reaction to the uprisings in the Baltics and Ukraine. The point is, there’s no need to be continually wrong-footed. If you start with a healthy respect for the quest for dignity, if you see autocracies as fragile and democratic revolts as opportunities, then you’ll find it much easier to anticipate events.
Read the entire column here.
The other thing we’ve learned is that the United States usually gets everything wrong. There have been dozens of democratic uprisings over the years, but the government always reacts like it’s the first one. There seem to be no protocols for these situations, no preset questions to be asked.
Policy makers always underestimate the power of the bottom-up quest for dignity, so they are slow to understand what is happening. Last week, for example, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton declared that the Egyptian regime was stable, just as it was falling apart.
Then their instinct is to comfort the fellow members of the club of those in power. The Obama administration was very solicitous of President Hosni Mubarak during the first days of the protests and of other dictators who fear their regime may be next.
Then, desperately recalibrating in an effort to keep up with events, they inevitably make a series of subtle distinctions no one else heeds. The Obama administration ended up absurdly calling on Mubarak to initiate a reform agenda. Surely there’s not a single person in the government who thinks he is actually capable of doing this. Meanwhile, the marchers heard this fudge as Obama supporting Mubarak and were outraged.
The Obama administration’s reaction was tardy, but no worse than, say, the first Bush administration’s reaction to the uprisings in the Baltics and Ukraine. The point is, there’s no need to be continually wrong-footed. If you start with a healthy respect for the quest for dignity, if you see autocracies as fragile and democratic revolts as opportunities, then you’ll find it much easier to anticipate events.
Read the entire column here.
Massive snow storm hits large areas of the US - it´s global warming according to Al Gore
On Tuesday, snow, ice, and powerful winds began hitting hit a wide swath of the US. As the blizzard finishes in the Midwest and the rain exits the Southeast, snow, ice and rain will target the Northeast. At least 100 million people will be impacted by this colossal "winter beast". Two dozen states are in the line of fire, according to the Weather Channel.
Al Gore has a good explanation for the huge storm. Of course, it is all because of global warming ....
.
“A rise in global temperature can create all sorts of havoc, ranging from hotter dry spells to colder winters, along with increasingly violent storms, flooding, forest fires and loss of endangered species.”
EU continues to pour "climate change" money to corrupt Ethiopian government
"The Ethiopian government is routinely using access to aid as a weapon to control people and crush dissent. If you don’t play the ruling party’s game, you get shut out. Yet foreign donors are rewarding this behavior with ever-larger sums of development aid".
The European Union "climate change" madness continues in Ethiopia. Now the UPI reports that EU has decided to increase its aid to the corrupted government of Ethiopia:
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