Palestinian elections today

How to get along? Folks all over the Middle East are having to learn to come to the well together. The futures of all the countries in the area are deeply connected. (see BBC title link to a comprehensive in-depth section on the Middle East). And the United States cannot control what happens there. And the Bush Administration has not been able to control the outcomes in quite some time. Nor can the European Union. We all are forced to sit back and watch it unfold. (We did put a little campaign money into today's election in Palestine, but more on that later).
Democracy vs. something else: Self government has a fragile hold in Palestine. Israel has a leadership crisis. Iraq is working on forming their first permanent government in decades. Iran is trying to become a nuclear power. And Syria, Jordan and Saudi Arabia will play vital parts in a region that is one of the most fascinating in the world. But it is the two old arch enemies, Israel and Palestine that are most in focus these days because of their elections.

Coalition building: The two main parties in Palestine may have to form a new coalition government if neither wins a clear majority in today's long awaited parliamentary election. The Middle East and West look towards the results with both hope and concern.

Palestinians cast ballots Wednesday in their first parliamentary election in a decade - a cliffhanger vote on whether to pursue peace or confrontation with Israel. The battle between the ruling Fatah Party and its Islamic Hamas rival was sure to tilt the balance of a Middle East torn between reform and traditionalism. But concerns over lawlessness, corruption and unemployment also weighed on voters' minds. Both Hamas and Fatah were confident of victory, but pollsters said the race was too close to call. Despite the bitter rivalry, both parties said they would consider a coalition if no clear victor emerges.

Leadership crisis: Israel has an election coming up before very long, in which one new and two old parties will contest with each other. Ailing Prime Minister Ariel Sharon had just formed the new party when he was struck down with a severe stroke. What Israel does, of course affects Palestine. Acting Israeli Prime Minister Olmert now has announced that there will be a drawing back in the West Bank. According to the BBC,

Israel will have to withdraw from further parts of the West Bank, acting Prime Minister Ehud Olmert has said. In his first policy speech as interim leader, he said the main challenge ahead was to shape Israel's borders for good to ensure a Jewish majority. It could not continue to control parts with a Palestinian majority, but would keep its main settlements, he said.

Influence peddling: The U.S has made efforts to influence the Palestinian election. Quoting from the Washington Post,

The Bush administration's effort to increase the popularity of the Palestinian Authority and its governing Fatah party before critical parliamentary elections this week came under intense criticism Monday from a number of candidates, some of whom charged that the program amounted to illegal interference in the democratic process. The program calls for funding Palestinian Authority events and projects and announcing those projects in the days before the vote. . . The effort has been coordinated through the chief of staff of Mahmoud Abbas, the Palestinian Authority president and leader of Fatah.

Is peace to be or not to be? Many of us would have preferred that the United States not interfere in the affairs of any countries in the Middle East. But we have done so for over half a century. Nowhere on earth are we more involved, not even Europe. And we have not been able to control the outcomes of our neocons' interference. No wonder our enemies in the region just want us out. But that is not going to happen anytime soon. Amazingly the ballot box is beyond our control. Free will or fate is what controls the outcomes with democracy. Eventually we will all have to learn to come to the well together.
References from previous posts:

1. "Directions in the Middle East" - January 5, 2006
2. "The Middle East Peace Process-at a Critical Point" - August 10, 2005

Tags: Middle East democracy elections foreign policy Palestine Israel
My "creative" post today at Southwest Blogger is about drought in cities and the country.

Legislative sound bites

Democrats arise!

What is happening in the news? Do you watch TV or read the papers to learn? Or do you go online?

Slate Magazine, owned by the Washington Post, publishes a column labeled, "today's papers - A summary of what's in the major U.S. newspapers," written by Daniel Politi, who lives in Buenos Aires (title linked above). It is a very useful way to catch up, if you can visit only one site.
Congress-blog day for me is Tuesday. Besides the crucial vote on the nomination of Judge Alito to SCOTUS, what's happening right now that pertains to legislative matters? Here's a quick catch-up, a la Slate, with my "takes" on a few of the other stories.
Hillary campaigns: Senator Clinton must get reelected this year. In a courageous move, our former First Lady has taken on the health care, after 12 years. The nation is clearly worse off now than when she and her husband first addressed the subject. It seems she has learned something since the first time around. Senator Clinton is talking about health care again, but in a much more pragmatic way. CNN reports that,

. . . her pet issue, health care, (is) at the center of her Senate re-election effort Monday, accusing the Bush administration of "deliberate neglect" of the issue. "I'm ready to get back into the fray, knowing how difficult and controversial it is," . . . "The status quo is not sustainable."

Republicans behind closed doors: Democrats are routinely shut out of the legislative process. And it happened again last month. Despite being in the midst of the breaking Abramoff scandal, the health care lobby had a great deal of influence over recent Medicare payment legislation. The house must still approve it. But it will probably sail through, perhaps late at night, as is often the case. The WaPo reports that,

House and Senate GOP negotiators, meeting behind closed doors last month to complete a major budget-cutting bill, agreed on a change to Senate-passed Medicare legislation that would save the health insurance industry $22 billion over the next decade, according to the CBO.

Not real ethics reform: When one party controls every branch of government the country will soon get into trouble. There are no checks and balances. And this year of midterm elections, when so few election races are contested, it will get worse. Members of Congress in safe seats and not indicted will do just barely enough reform to get by. Everything is political. The proposed legislation to clean up the lobbying scandal will not be strong enough, seven public citizen groups contend. Quoting CNN,

Congressional proposals to end corrupt and unseemly ties with lobbyists fall short because they don't sufficiently address the role of lobbyists in raising money for politicians, private groups said Monday. . . . "We need to break the nexus between lobbyists, lawmakers and campaign cash," said Joan Claybrook, president of Public Citizen. "At rock bottom, that is the root cause of the Abramoff scandal."

Mine safety-Federal and State: The Clinton administration had begun to try to make miners more safe. But, until now, those efforts had been scrapped by the current administration. And 14 coal miners have lost their lives as a result. Today the Senate will hold hearings to try to find out what went wrong at the Sago mine. To quote Fox,

Senators from coal mining states are leading the charge to review how 13 miners in the Sago Mine in Tallmansville, W.Va., became trapped for more than 41 hours after an explosion on Jan. 2.

West Virginia state regulatory legislation was passed quickly yesterday. Quoting CNN,

Following the deaths of 14 West Virginia miners in less than three weeks, state lawmakers on Monday approved legislation aimed at improving the chances of survival for miners trapped underground.
The measure proposed by Gov. Joe Manchin would require miners to wear wireless devices so they can be found more quickly.

Now is the time-2006 is the year: Democrats may find it very difficult to regain control of a weak and corrupt Congress. But, in spite of that, the party must try as hard as iy can to win the battle. Business, through its lobbyists, controls too much of what happens in Congress. As a result, too few people have too little health care coverage. Medicare recipients are not well served. Workers are not safe. And these issues are just a few of those needing to be addressed soon. This is the year to do it.
Tags: legislative congress election reform Democrats
My "creative" post today at Southwest Blogger is about fame and fortune's potential rewards.

Spotlight on Cheney

Borrowing this photo from TWN, today's focus is on Vice President Dick Cheney (bio in title link above).

Due to the indictment of his Chief of Staff, Lewis "Scooter" Libbey, and problems with gout, he had been keeping a low profile. But it seems that the "Veep" is back in business.

Newsmaker - Before the close of last year's legislative calendar, he cast a major tie-breaking vote in the Senate. And the VP has resurfaced in the news since the beginning of this year. He has traveled to the Middle East. He made a major speech on January 19 at the Manhattan Institute for Policy Research.

Veep and Halliburton - It is probably not related, but the stock market plunged last Friday. Progress Now Action notes that Cheney is still doing well with Halliburton, however. To quote,

Like I say, it's all about what stocks you're checking. Notably, Dick Cheney's Halliburton closed at an all-time high of $75.50 a share yesterday. Bet he's not feeling much pain, and that's before you factor in the gout pills.

It is still a mystery how the Vice President has been able to hold on to his Halliburton stock since it is a conflict of interest for him. In another conflict of interest, Halliburton is by far the largest single no-bid contracter in Iraq. The company has had many ups and downs. This is probably a down. Senator Dorgan will begin looking into it today. AP reporter, Larry Margasak, reports that Halliburton has been cited for exposing troops in Iraq to contaminated water. Quote,

Water supplied to a U.S. base in Iraq was contaminated and the contractor in charge, Halliburton, failed to tell troops and civilians at the facility, according to internal documents from the company and interviews with former Halliburton officials. . . the company once headed by Vice President Dick Cheney denied there was a contamination problem at Camp Junction City, in Ramadi. . . Senate Democrats who are holding a public inquiry into the allegations Monday. Sen. Byron Dorgan, D-N.D., who will chair the session, held a number of similar inquiries last year on contracting abuses in Iraq.

Opinions in the blogs - Highly respected blogger, Steve Clemons at the Washington Note does not pull any punches with his evaluation of Cheney in a recent post urging Senator Reid to show more backbone. I quote,

However, as I told Senator Reid yesterday, Democrats have too much of a tendency to concede defeat before the battle has really been fought . . . I believe that the reasonable and sensible personalities in the Bush administration should be supported while the clan that holds close to Vice President Cheney -- and which is responsible for the worst disasters of Bush's term -- need to be exposed and vilified.

Veep on spying on Americans - According to a Washington Post article published January 4, Vice President Cheney claimed that the NSA secret wiretapping program was justified,

Vice President Cheney said yesterday that the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks might have been prevented if the Bush administration had had the power to secretly monitor conversations involving two of the hijackers without court orders. . . Cheney told a small group of conservatives at the Heritage Foundation that instead of being able to "pick up" on the terrorist plot "we didn't know they were here plotting until it was too late.". . . In his speech, scheduled as part of a White House offensive to defend the recently disclosed surveillance program, Cheney painted an ominous portrait of U.S. security without the controversial practice. . . Cheney said the National Security Agency program, combined with the expanded surveillance powers authorized by the USA Patriot Act, has saved lives -- and thwarted terrorist attacks. "No one can guarantee that we won't be hit again, but neither should anyone say that the relative safety of the last four years came as an accident," Cheney said. "America has been protected not by luck but by sensible policy decisions."

Clemons calls for the exposure of Cheney. The current Vice President has often been exposed, but there have just been no consequences for him. He seems immune. And he has always seemed "detached." In fact, he may literally be detached in ways that do not serve the nation well. Ex CIA operative Larry Johnson suggests that Cheney is not involved enough with the intelligence community. Johnson worries that we would not be able to catch Osama bin Laden before he attacks America again. Do you suppose the Veep is counting on the NSA domestic surveillance program to keep us safe? To quote from Larry Johnson's TPMCafe post,

. . . the bureaucratic walls that separated the law enforcement and intelligence communities prior to 9-11 are back up and higher than ever. I was given this bad news two weeks ago by an old friend . . . debacle of 9-11. The only way to break through the log jam of bureaucratic politics and stovepiping is for the President or Vice President to make forging interagency cooperation a priority. . . If they fail to act and the old status quo, which has reemerged with a
vengeance, remains in place then Bin Laden will eventually succeed. . . Bin Laden speaks clearly on this point: Quote, "As for us, we do not have anything to lose. The swimmer in the sea does not fear rain. You have occupied our land, defiled our honour, violated our dignity, shed our blood, ransacked our money, demolished our houses, rendered us homeless, and tampered with our security. We will treat you in the same way." . . .
"we have been warned," concluded Johnson.

Veep and Homeland Security - NPR's Robert Smith reports that the broadcast of the bin Laden tape will not raise the U.S. official security threat level. Again there is the Vice President's apparent detachment. I quote from their 1/20 blurb,

U.S. authorities say the release of a new audiotape . . . will not prompt an increase in the terror-threat level. The al Qaeda leader also makes a vague reference to a truce offer on the tape, which Vice President Cheney and other officials dismissed.

Veep on Iran - Is Vice President Cheney detached from what happens in Iran or not? Is he setting the stage for an invasion, or attack on Iran or not? He is keeping his cards very close to his chest. A larger number of people in the government need to know his plans because what he wants is always taken seriously by our current president. The neocons are still in charge. I have no doubt about that. The Political Gateway reports that "US Vice President Dick Cheney on Thursday warned against seeing US military intervention in Iraq as a precedent for possible action to prevent Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon." He hints about Iran:

"The fact of the matter is, it is a problem for the world if the Iranians have nuclear weapons, especially with a government headed up by the kind of individual that's there today," he said. "We are working aggressively to avoid having that situation arise."

Vice President Cheney and Donald Rumsfeld continue to wield enormous power in the imperial Bush administration. We need to keep the spotloght on them. I will focus on Rumsfeld in a subsequent post. If we fail to keep watch, we remain at risk for further erosion of the well-being of our nation.
Tags: Bush administration Dick Cheney Vice President security war on terror neocon
My "creative" post today at Southwest Blogger is about BEING A "CITY KID".

Blogging-commentary and opinions

Blogworld? What's up?
The "Cat's Eye Nebula," a world so far away in space, is the image I chose for today's post. Because . . .
It's not what it seems - a cat's red eye, or a rose. "Nebula=Cat's Eye=Rose" is a perfectly good idea for what blog commentary is like for me and for many of my favorite bloggers. Reflections and impressions are the best we can come up with to describe our confused world views.
It doesn't make sense - bloggers are like that. We use blog/diary or commentary to make sense of current events. It is often a world that "bugs" us, one that seems too big at times, with unimaginable suffering, even insane. What is the purpose of it all?
We'll agree or disagree - today's thoughts are mine; my opinion is no more or less valuable than yours. Very often I have questions or do not have a clue. And very often we are poles apart on the opinion spectrum. But . . .
Credit's due - and when your idea or opinion informs me or if it influences me, I will try to remember to give you credit. When it delights me I will notice it, and say thanks.
In the end - There are so many things I like about the bloggosphere:

• A good rant
• Often surprise
• Reasoned argument
• Gentleness or diplomacy
• My biases getting reinforced
• Comment threads full of energy
• Getting to know another through inference
• New takes on old conundrums - or are they conundra?

Tags: blogging commentary opinion writing blogs
My "creative" post today at Southwest Blogger is about myths and dreams in the U.S. and Iraq.