“Punting the Pundits” is an Open Thread. It is a selection of editorials and opinions from around the news medium and the internet blogs. The intent is to provide a forum for your reactions and opinions, not just to the opinions presented, but to what ever you find important.

Thanks to ek hornbeck, click on the link and you can access all the past “Punting the Pundits”.

New York Times Editorial: The Tax Cut Endgame

We suppose it could have been worse. The deal could help to stimulate the weak economy. And if the Republicans had blocked an extension of unemployment benefits, as they were threatening to, millions of Americans would have suffered greatly.

But the country can’t afford to continue tax cuts for the rich indefinitely. And by kicking the issue down the road to 2012 – a presidential election year – it all but guarantees more craven politicking then.

Speaking on Monday evening, the president said that the deal would extend for two years all of the tax cuts, both those from the Bush years and those for low-income workers from last year’s stimulus law. Recently expired benefits for the long-term unemployed would also be extended for another 13 months.

In addition, the agreement includes a one-year cut in payroll taxes that will put a relatively modest, but much needed, $120 billion in workers’ pockets, and a year of bolstered write-offs for business investments.

On a decidedly sour note, Mr. Obama also said he had agreed to cut estate taxes even more than in the last year of the Bush administration. That is not compromise. It is capitulation.

Joan Walsh: Party time for Bush and Cheney!

Obama extends tax cuts for the rich that the GOP passed with chicanery and Cheney’s vote. How did we get here?

I know they weren’t the best of friends when they left Washington, but I bet former President Bush and Dick Cheney at least had a phone call tonight congratulating one another on one of the great heists in history. In 2001, they knew they couldn’t make their budget-busting tax cuts for the rich permanent, so they agreed to phase them out in 2010, leaving the political consequences to another administration. Even with that chicanery, the Bush tax cuts were divisive enough that they required Cheney to cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate. No problem. That’s how Republicans play: They reward their wealthy base.

Increasingly it seems, Democrats, too, reward the wealthy in their base, and ignore their much larger constituency of working and middle class voters, struggling in the economy destroyec by Bush and Cheney. President Obama’s compromise was a long time coming, telegraphed for months, but depressing nonetheless. The good news is that he got a little bit more for caving than some Democrats expected. It’s great that unemployment insurance may be extended 13 months; many Americans will appreciate a payroll tax cut, an extended Earned Income Tax Credit and the latest patch of the Alternative Minimum Tax.

E.J. Dionne, Jr.: Can Democrats “Up Their Game”?

Last week, I sat down with these Democrats who were defeated in November to get their sense of what the election means for the future and how the president should respond. Their observations were more revealing than the abstractions that conventional punditry typically invokes to explain what “the people” supposedly said.

They spoke just off the floor of the House shortly after it approved an extension of the Bush tax cuts only for families earning under $250,000 a year. This vote of principle was unfairly dismissed as “symbolic,” but Perriello said something that pointed to the opportunity Obama and the Democrats had kicked away.

“Why not up the game,” he asked, “instead of playing the same old game?” Perriello was in no mood to criticize his already beleaguered party. But his comment pointed to how it might have avoided a debilitating tax cut endgame.

Timothy Egan: A Big Idea

Grow a spine. Flex some muscle. Man up!

In Twitter-speak, the advice to President Obama from his disheartened liberal base is to bulk up on the political equivalent of steroids, something to make this most cerebral of presidents more ripped and less reserved. They want “Bring It On, the Sequel”: let Republicans deny unemployment benefits for two million people at Christmastime while giving Mr. Potter and his ilk another tax break.

Then the president can get rid of “don’t ask, don’t tell” by executive order, just as Harry Truman integrated the armed forces. He can dare Republicans to dismantle a new health care law that prevents insurance companies from dropping people when they get sick. He can insist that the fledgling consumer protection bureau, the only bulwark in the federal government against predatory lenders and credit card carnivores, be fully funded and staffed.

Not. Gonna. Happen. One of the most revealing film clips from Obama’s past shows him at school when he became the first black president of a fractious Harvard Law Review. Young Obama, the college-age compromiser, looks eerily like middle-age Obama trying to be bipartisan at midterm. And there he was on Monday, giving in to tax cuts for all in return for a few favors for the middle class.

Ralph Nader: Institutional Insanity

If there was a mental health hospital for institutions the Republican Party and its top leaders would be admissible as clinically insane. Their bizarre wackopedia seems to contain no discernible boundaries. Repeatedly, these corporate supplicants oppose any measure, any regulation, any legislation that will directly help workers, consumers, the environment, small taxpayers and even investor-shareholders.

There are some exceptions. Since these Republican politicians eat, some did vote for the long-delayed food safety bill last week so that e-coli does not enter their intestines to disrupt the drivel drooling from their daily repertoire.

The Republicans get away with countless absurdities for at least two reasons. One is that their nominal opponents are the spineless, clueless, gutless Democrats (with a few notable exceptions) who present themselves as uncertain waverers, dialing for the same corporate dollars as the Republicans chase. The other is the political reporters who dwell on questions directed toward tactics and horseraces that the dimmest of Republicans can handle easily.

Katrina vanden Heuvel: Obama: On the way to a failed presidency?

Forget about electoral mandates or campaign promises. This president has a historic mandate. Just as Abraham Lincoln had to lead the nation from slavery and Franklin Roosevelt from the Depression, this president must lead the nation from the calamitous failures of three decades of conservative dominance. This requires beginning to reverse the perverse tax policies that have contributed to gilded-age inequality and starved the government of resources needed for vital investments. This demands correcting destabilizing global imbalances, laying a new foundation for reviving American manufacturing and shackling financial speculation. It means ensuring the United States leads rather than lags in the green industrial revolution. And it requires unwinding the self-destructive military adventures abroad. The president must strengthen America’s basic social contract in a global economy, not weaken it.

This daunting project is not a matter of ambition or appetite – or even unconscious Kenyan socialism. It is the necessary function of a progressive president elected in the wake of calamitous conservative misrule. Every entrenched corporate and financial interest stands in the way; it is easier to take a less confrontational path. President Bill Clinton, for example, found it convenient to join in the conservative project of corporately defined trade, financial deregulation and social welfare constriction. From NAFTA to the repeal of welfare and the failure of labor law reform, to deregulating derivatives and repealing Glass-Steagall, he got his agenda wrong. He was seduced far more by Wall Street’s Robert Rubin than by Monica Lewinsky.

Now Obama faces the same challenge. This isn’t about conventional politics. This is simply about the fate and future of our country. This president has a clear and imperative historic mandate. If he shirks it, he risks more than failing to get reelected. He risks a failed presidency.

(11 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

Stephen Webster writes this morning at RawStory that Wikileaks’ founder Julian Assange has been arrested Tuesday morning by London Metropolitan police on a warrant out of Sweden:

The Guardian reports on a statement from Metropolitan police that “Assange, 39, was arrested on a European Arrest Warrant by appointment at a London police station at 9.30 a.m.

He is accused by the Swedish authorities of one count of unlawful coercion, two counts of sexual molestation and one count of rape, all alleged to have been committed in August 2010.”

Assange’s attorney says they plan to fight extradition to Sweden. A full extradition hearing is expected sometime in the next 21 days. If he is successfully taken to Sweden, the Guardian noted, he could also be legally vulnerable to extradition requests from other countries as well.

His attorneys were reportedly negotiating a sum for bail, but his freedom was not certain as Swedish rape laws make bail more difficult to obtain when the charge is rape.

Assange has reportedly recorded a video statement, set to be published online later Tuesday.

A protest group, calling itself “Justice for Assange,” has already said it plans to gather outside the London police station on Tuesday afternoon to stage a “silent” protest. It is distributing a digital copy of a Julian Assange placard, asking participants to wear them over their faces.

Asked by reporters for his reaction to the arrest, US Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, “that sounds like good news to me.”

Assange and WikiLeaks had earlier this year posted on the WikiLeaks website a massive (1.4 GB, 10x larger than all the other files on the page combined) heavily encrypted file on their dedicated “Afghan War Diary” page labeled simply “Insurance”, that was disseminated widely.

It is anyones guess now how many copies of the insurance file are now in existence around the world, and whether or not Wikileaks will publicly release the public key need to decrypt the file, as had been promised were anything to happen to Mr. Assange.

Although WikiLeaks has had problems since the latest release with hacking, denial of service attacks, web hosts closing their sites down, and domain name registrars pulling their domain name, you can always get to their site by navigating to any of the WikiLeaks mirror sites listed here:

WikiLeaks Mirror Sites

(2 pm. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The best people America has to offer have been getting sick and dying from their heroic efforts at the World Trad Center. As you can see from this recent Daily News front page, Mike Enzi is not the only Republican to tell the 9/11 first responders and heroes to drop dead.

The James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act that provides $3.2 billion for long-term health care for rescue and construction workers at Ground Zero, plus another $4.2 billion in compensation for others who were exposed to airborne toxins will be out of time once the Republicans control the House.

These heroes who answered the call for help on September 11, 2001 and the horrible weeks that followed have been pushing hard for justice before it is too late. After a barrage of local media coverage, multiple visits to Washington from Ground Zero worker, victim’s family members pleading with the Senate and a huge bipartisan effort from tri-state politicians, one Republican has signed on. The rest have voices disagreement with Sens. Schumer and Gillibrand’s method of financing healthcare for heroes. The cloture count is now at 59 and their big day in the Senate is tomorrow.  

Now that there is some hope for a bill named after an NYPD detective who died at age 34 of a respiratory disease attributed to participation in the rescue and recovery operations at the World Trade Center, Mike Enzi is working hard to stop the bill from going forward. His reasoning is that the nation has already given enough.

Last night I heard Senator Gillibrand make a speech about people Republicans do not consider worthy of any compensation.

“Pearl Harbor was the deadliest attack on our nation, the most deadly attack, until the morning of September 11, 2001, when 3,000 innocent people perished and tens of thousands of people came to their rescue. In the days that followed the 9/11 attack, America showed the very same resolve that it showed nearly 60 years prior, and now we’ve seen thousands of heroes and thousands of survivors sick and dying from the toxins released at Ground Zero. It is time for us to show that very same resolve again. As President Roosevelt said, “No matter how long it will take us, we will win through to absolute victory.” We will provide the firefighters, the police officers, the construction workers, the cleanup workers and the people and the children who go to school and live at Ground Zero with the health care and compensation that they justly and rightly deserve. There are few things we do here in Washington that are clearly a choice between right and wrong. There is no gray area when it comes to this issue. We truly have a moral, an undeniable obligation to help these men and women.”

It was Rep. Carolyn Maloney who described the Republican effort to kill a bill to help the heroes of 9/11 as “a pack of lies.” That claim was in a New York Daily News Story last week, 9/11 victims fume as Sen. Mike Enzi, GOP circulate ‘pack of lies’ in bid to sink Zadroga health bill;

With the James Zadroga 9/11 Health and Compensation Act on the verge of a Senate vote, GOP foes are circulating a document arguing Uncle Sam has paid back the ailing heroes.

Providing more aid would lead to fraud and abuse funded by “job-killing taxes,” the Republicans claimed.

The Republican think that 95% of the workers were provided for in the recent $625 million legal settlement and that’s plenty for them. The reality is that Republicans just don’t care.

That agreement only covers 10,000 people who sued, not the 30,000 people who received some form of treatment – let alone the estimated 90,000 people who rushed to the toxic scene.

“If these were legitimate concerns, why are Senate Republican leaders only raising them now, at the last minute, instead of years ago?” Maloney asked.

But it is not just New York Democrats who are disgusted with the Republican who feels the nation has already paid enough to 9/11 Heroes.

Long Island GOP Rep. Pete King, who was a sponsor of the House bill, slammed his Senate colleagues for being shortsighted, and looking at the bill as politics as usual instead of helping heroes who are dying.

He singled out Wyoming Sen. Mike Enzi, a Republican identified by many insiders as the lead opponent.

“Mike Enzi – yeah, he’s my favorite,” King said sarcastically. “I think it’s just the knee-jerk anti-New York feeling that a lot of people have. But in this case it hurts our country, and our party. I think if they really look at this, they’ll be for it.”

It’s really not about New Yorkers. When Mayor Bloomberg went to the Senate accompanied Ground Zero responders who came from across the nation his call for lawmakers to act 41 Republicans were not interested.  

All of our senators represent someone who answered the call to help our country in its hour of need, and now those brave men and women need our senators to answer their call for help. Many of them are already struggling with health problems. Some are battling serious illnesses; others may have to confront them in the future. And while we can’t prevent anyone from contracting an illness, we can and must ensure sustained funding to treat those who are sick, or could become sick, to continue researching World Trade Center health effects, and to re-open the Victims’ Compensation Fund so that those who worked at Ground Zero and did not show such symptoms until after the Fund’s deadline passed, can receive fair and just compensation. We owe at least that much to the firefighters, police officers, construction workers, community members, and volunteers from across America who contributed to the heroic task of saving lives, and then clearing the debris from the World Trade Center.

I can understand how Republicans would be unable to grasp the concept of courageous acts. The Republican Senators who have trouble with the method of payment for courageous Americans, they are despicable. When several Representatives from the House sent a reminder to the Senate Republicans didn’t want to remember anything like courage.  

On November 11, 2001, two months after the terrorist attacks and just a few blocks from the site of the Twin Towers, then President George W. Bush addressed the U.N. General Assembly, telling the world, “Time is passing. Yet, for the United States of America, there will be no forgetting September the 11th. We will remember every rescuer who died in honor. We will remember every family that lives in grief. We will remember the fire and ash, the last phone calls, the funerals of the children.”  Nine years have passed since President Bush spoke these words.  We ask that the responders and survivors of 9/11 who came to the aid of our country in a time of need and now are sick be remembered and be honored.  They should not have to wait any longer for Congress to act.

Ignoring the call of workers and community organizers from across the nation while showing no interest in a widow of one of the fallen first responder making an impassioned plea because there is nothing in it for them. That is what most expect from Republicans.  

But this Mike Enzi who thinks the nation has paid enough? I want to know where he was on that Tuesday morning of September 11, 2001 when firefighters raced to New York City and iron workers walked off their jobs to drive thousands of miles so they could help. What sort of American thinks we have already paid enough?

This is your morning Open Thread. Pour your favorite beverage and review the past and comment on the future

Find the past “On This Day in History” here.

December 7 is the 341st day of the year (342nd in leap years) in the Gregorian calendar. There are 24 days remaining until the end of the year.

On this day in 1787, (In) Dover, Delaware, the U.S. Constitution is unanimously ratified by all 30 delegates to the Delaware Constitutional Convention, making Delaware the first state of the modern United States.

Less than four months before, the Constitution was signed by 37 of the original 55 delegates to the Constitutional Convention meeting in Philadelphia. The Constitution was sent to the states for ratification, and, by the terms of the document, the Constitution would become binding once nine of the former 13 colonies had ratified the document. Delaware led the process, and on June 21, 1788, New Hampshire became the ninth state to ratify the Constitution, making federal democracy the law of the land. Government under the U.S. Constitution took effect on March 4, 1789.

Delaware  is a U.S. state located on the Atlantic Coast in the Mid-Atlantic region of the United States. The state takes its name from Thomas West, 3rd Baron De La Warr, an English nobleman and Virginia’s first colonial governor, after whom (what is now called) Cape Henlopen was originally named.

Delaware is located in the northeastern portion of the Delmarva Peninsula and is the second smallest state in area (after Rhode Island). Estimates in 2007 rank the population of Delaware as 45th in the nation, but 6th in population density, with more than 60% of the population in New Castle County. Delaware is divided into three counties. From north to south, these three counties are New Castle, Kent, and Sussex. While the southern two counties have historically been predominantly agricultural, New Castle County has been more industrialized.

The state ranks second in civilian scientists and engineers as a percentage of the workforce and number of patents issued to companies or individuals per 1,000 workers. The history of the state’s economic and industrial development is closely tied to the impact of the Du Pont family, founders and scions of E. I. du Pont de Nemours and Company, one of the world’s largest chemical companies.

Before its coastline was first explored by Europeans in the 16th century, Delaware was inhabited by several groups of Native Americans, including the Lenape in the north and Nanticoke in the south. It was initially colonized by Dutch traders at Zwaanendael, located near the present town of Lewes, in 1631. Delaware was one of the thirteen colonies participating in the American Revolution and on December 7, 1787, became the first state to ratify the Constitution of the United States, thereby becoming known as The First State.

Delaware is the home state of Vice President Joseph Biden

 43 BC – Marcus Tullius Cicero is assassinated.

1696 – Connecticut Route 108, third oldest highway in Connecticut, is laid out to Trumbull.

1724 – Tumult of Thorn – religious unrest is followed by the execution of nine Protestant citizens and the mayor of Thorn (Torun) by Polish authorities.

1732 – The Royal Opera House opens at Covent Garden, London.

1776 – Marquis de Lafayette attempts to enter the American military as a major general.

1787 – Delaware becomes the first state to ratify the United States Constitution.

1862 – US Civil War: Battle of Prairie Grove, Arkansas.

1869 – American outlaw Jesse James commits his first confirmed bank robbery in Gallatin, Missouri.

1900 – Max Planck, in his house at Grunewald, on the outskirts of Berlin, discovers the law of black body emission.

1917 – World War I: The United States declares war on Austria-Hungary.

1936 – Australian cricketer Jack Fingleton becomes the first player to score centuries in four consecutive Test innings.

1941 – World War II: Attack on Pearl Harbor – The Imperial Japanese Navy attacks the US Pacific Fleet and its defending Army Air Forces and Marine air forces at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii, causing a declaration of war to Japan by the USA.

1946 – A fire at the Winecoff Hotel in Atlanta, Georgia kills 119 people, the deadliest hotel fire in U.S. history.

1949 – Chinese Civil War: The government of Republic of China moves from Nanking to Taipei.

1962 – Prince Rainier III of Monaco revises the principality’s constitution, devolving some of his power to advisory and legislative councils.

1963 – Instant Replay is used for the first time in a Army-Navy game by its inventor, director, Tony Verna.

1965 – Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras simultaneously lift mutual excommunications that had been in place since 1054.

1966 – A fire at an army barracks in Erzurum, Turkey kills 68 people.

1970 – The first ever general election on the basis of direct adult franchise is held in Pakistan for 313 National Assembly seats.

1971 – Pakistan President Yahya Khan announces the formation of a Coalition Government at Centre with Nurul Amin as Prime Minister and Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto as Vice-Prime Minister.

1972 – Apollo 17, the last Apollo moon mission, is launched. The crew takes the photograph known as The Blue Marble as they leave the Earth.

1975 – Indonesia invades East Timor.

1982 – In Texas, Charles Brooks, Jr. becomes the first person to be executed by lethal injection in the United States.

1983 – An Iberia Airlines Boeing 727 collides with an Aviaco DC-9 in dense fog while the two airliners are taxiing down the runway at Madrid Barajas International Airport, killing 93 people.

1987 – Pacific Southwest Airlines Flight 1771 crashes near Paso Robles, California, killing all 43 on board, after a disgruntled passenger shoots his ex-boss traveling on the flight, then shoots both pilots and himself.

1987 – Alianza Lima air disaster. A plane crashes killing all Alianza Lima team in Ventanilla, Callao, Peru.

1988 – Spitak Earthquake: In Armenia an earthquake measuring 6.9 on the Richter scale kills nearly 25,000, injures 15,000 and leaves 400,000 homeless.

1988 – Yasser Arafat recognizes the right of Israel to exist.

1993 – The Long Island Rail Road massacre: Passenger Colin Ferguson murders six people and injures 19 others on the LIRR in Nassau County, New York.

1994 – Norfolk Southern ends its steam excursion program. This is the last time that Norfolk and Western 611 is under steam.

   * 1995 – The Galileo spacecraft arrives at Jupiter, a little more than six years after it was launched by Space Shuttle Atlantis during Mission STS-34.

1999 – The Recording Industry Association of America files a lawsuit against the Napster file-sharing client alleging copyright infringement.

2003 – The Conservative Party of Canada is officially recognized after the merger of the Canadian Alliance and Progressive Conservative Party of Canada.

2005 – Rigoberto Alpizar, a passenger on American Airlines Flight 924 who allegedly claimed to have a bomb, is shot and killed by a team of U.S. federal air marshals at Miami International Airport.

2006 – A tornado strikes Kensal Green, North West London, seriously damaging about 150 properties.

2007 – The Hebei Spirit oil spill begins in South Korea after a crane barge that had broken free from a tug collides with the Very Large Crude Carrier, Hebei Spirit.

Holidays and observances

   * Armed Forces Flag Day (India)

   * Christian Feast Day:

         o Aemilianus (Greek Church)

         o Ambrose

         o November 24 (Eastern Orthodox liturgics)

   * Dia de las Velitas, begins after sunset. (Colombia)

   *International Civil Aviation Day (International)

   * National Pearl Harbor Remembrance Day (United States)

   * Spitak Remembrance Day (Armenia)

   * Student Day (Iran)

9th Circuit judges explore narrow routes to reinstate gay marriage

U.S. appeals court appears to be seeking a way to restore same-sex marriage in California while avoiding a decision that would send Prop. 8 to the U.S Supreme Court.

By Maura Dolan and Jessica Garrison, Los Angeles Times

December 7, 2010, 12:18 a.m.

Federal appeals court judges Monday seemed headed toward a decision that could reinstate same-sex marriages in California while avoiding a ruling of national sweep that would invite U.S. Supreme Court action.

The judges explored at least two routes that could achieve that goal. One would be a ruling that California, having granted marriage rights to same-sex couples, could not take them away by popular vote.

Cancún summit: Rich countries accused over £30bn climate aid promise

India’s environment minister says delays in payments could wreck the prospects for advancing a global deal

Suzanne Goldenberg in Cancún

The Guardian, Tuesday 7 December 2010  

A fresh fault line opened up at the Cancún climate summit today after rich countries were accused of failing to deliver on their promise of $30 billion in aid to countries that will experience the worst ravages of climate change.

The commitment to $30 billion in climate aid between 2011-2012 was the single biggest concrete outcome of last year’s Copenhagen summit, and US officials used the promise of cash to get poorer countries to support the accord. But America and other richer countries had been too slow in awarding the so-called ‘fast-start’ finance, and those delays could wreck the already slim prospects of advancing a global climate deal, Jairam Ramesh, India’s environment minister, , said.

USA

FBI plant banned by mosque – because he was too extreme

 

By Guy Adams in Los Angeles  Tuesday, 7 December 2010

The spying gamee wasn’t all it was cracked up to be for Craig Monteilh, a convicted criminal recruited by the FBI to investigate the march of radical Islam into Southern California. His endless talk of violent “jihad” so alarmed worshippers at the local mosque, that they took out a restraining order against him.

Monteilh spent 15 months pretending to be Farouk al-Aziz, a French Syrian in search of his religious roots. He prayed five times a day at the Islamic Centre in Irvine, Orange County, wearing white robes with a camera hidden in one of its buttons, and carried a set of car keys that contained a secret listening device.

Tax Deal Suggests New Path for Obama



By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN and JACKIE CALMES

Published: December 6, 2010

WASHINGTON – President Obama announced a tentative deal with Congressional Republicans on Monday to extend the Bush-era tax cuts at all income levels for two years as part of a package that would also keep benefits flowing to the long-term unemployed, cut payroll taxes for all workers for a year and take other steps to bolster the economy.

The deal appeared to resolve the first major standoff since the midterm elections between the White House and newly empowered Republicans on Capitol Hill. But it also highlighted the strains Mr. Obama faces in his own party as he navigates between a desire to get things done and a retreat from his own positions and the principles of many liberals.

Europe

MP’s numerous Russian restaurant partners aroused suspicions



Luke Harding December 7, 2010  

MOSCOW: Its name means ”arousal of the senses”. And with its fine food and excellent wine, the restaurant L’Eveil des Sens in Strasbourg was the perfect place for a political meeting.

Four times a year members of the Council of Europe’s liberal group gathered here on a Sunday evening to relax and to discuss private business.

Among their number was Mike Hancock, the flamboyant British rebel Liberal Democrat MP. Typically he appeared with a young Russian woman. Sometimes he even brought two.

Euro collapse ‘possible’ amid deepening divisions over bail-out  

There is a slim chance that the euro will not survive the current sovereign debt crisis sweeping Europe, one of the Treasury’s leading independent forecasters has said.

By Philip Aldrick, Economics Editor  

Under questioning from MPs on the Treasury Select Committee, Stephen Nickell, a member of the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR) and a former Bank of England rate-setter, said a collapse of the single currency was “a possibility”.

Asked more broadly about the sustainability of currency unions, he added: “The general consensus is that sooner or later they fail for one reason or another – but that doesn’t mean to say it always happens.”

His comments came as deep divisions in the eurozone threatened to drive Spain, Portugal and Ireland into more difficulty.

Middle East

US aided stifling of Iranian arms flow to Hamas

The Irish Times – Tuesday, December 7, 2010

IAN BLACK

THE US has worked discreetly to block the supply of Iranian and Syrian weapons to the Palestinian movement Hamas and Lebanon’s Hizbullah, pressuring Arab governments not to co-operate – in many cases its requests based on secret intelligence provided by Israel.

State department cables show that Sudan was warned by the US in January 2009 not to allow the delivery of unspecified Iranian arms that were expected to be passed to Hamas in the Gaza Strip around the time of Israel’s Operation Cast Lead offensive, in which 1,400 Palestinians were killed.

US diplomats were instructed to express “exceptional concern” to the Khartoum authorities. Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, Oman and Chad were informed of the alleged Iranian plans and warned that any weapons deliveries would be in breach of UN resolutions banning Iranian arms exports.

Ruling party sweeps Egypt’s vote  

Results indicate ruling party takes 80 per cent of parliament seats, which the opposition parties denounce as rigged.  

Last Modified: 07 Dec  

The Egyptian rulingg party has swept to a predictably huge win in a parliamentary election that the opposition denounced as rigged, Egypt’s high elections commission has said.

Monday’s result has shown that Egypt’s ruling National Democratic Party (NDP) secured about 80 per cent of seats, based on final figures released by the elections commission, compared with about 70 per cent in the last parliament.

“The 2010 parliament is certainly the most illegitimate in recent Egyptian history and no one can take it seriously,” said analyst Shadi Hamid of the Brookings Doha Centre.

Of 508 seats being contested, the NDP won 420, while 70 went to independent candidates and 14 to other political parties.

Asia

It’s a war zone out there

In Afghanistan you can’t be too fussy about who you’re dealing with, says the commander of Australian troops.  



THE commander of Australiantroops in the Middle East has defended Australia’s ties to a controversial Afghan warlord, accusing critics of being elitist and unrealistic.

Major-General John Cantwell told the Herald the ”northern suburbs of Sydney view” that Australia should insist on the absolute purity of its allies in Afghanistan ignored the violent and turbulent history of the country.

General Cantwell spoke in the context of revelations in the Herald that six militiamen loyal to Matiullah Khan, a dominant figure in the province of Oruzgan, had been brought to Australia for training by the Australian Defence Force.

Al-Qaeda backs massive push in Swat  

 

By Syed Saleem Shahzad  

MALAKAND – Al-Qaeda’s leaders have allocated 2 billion rupees (US$23.25 million) and a new training program for 400 militants in Khyber Agency to start a full-blown insurgency in the Swat area of Khyber Pakhtoonkhwa province and Malakand Division next summer, Asia Times Online has learned.

At a time United States President Barack Obama was making a surprise visit to Afghanistan on Friday and telling US troops at Bagram air base outside Kabul that they should be prepared for tough times, militants who spoke to ATol said al-Qaeda had masterminded a plan for militants that would see them engage the Pakistan military in Swat.

Africa

Ivory Coast’s Ouattara offers jobs to Gbagbo cabinet

Gbagbo’s former PM says other ministers may follow

By Loucoumane Coulibaly and David Lewis, Reuters    

It was thelatest manoeuvre in a power struggle that has enveloped the West African state since an election that yielded two winners – Ouattara with international backing, and Gbagbo with the support of the nation’s top legal body and military.

The Nov. 28 poll was meant to reunite the former regional economic star after a 2002-03 civil war, but analysts warned the dispute could now pit the army against pro-Ouattara rebels, who told Reuters they would defend themselves from any attack.

African diplomats fearful of US-China relationships



ILHAM RAWOOT | JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA

The cable, released by WikiLeaks on Sunday, is one of the latest in the organisation’s streaming release of over 250 000 leaked diplomatic cables. It was created on February 4 2010, and was classified as “confidential”.

“During a February 8 lunch, Kenyan ambassador to China Julius Ole Sunkuli said he and other Africans were wary of the US-China dialogue on Africa and felt Africa had nothing to gain from China cooperating with the international donor community,” reads the cable. “Sunkuli claimed that Africa was better off thanks to China’s practical, bilateral approach to development assistance and was concerned that this would be changed by ‘Western’ interference. He said he saw no concrete benefit for Africa in even minimal cooperation.”

Ignoring Asia A Blog

(10 am. – promoted by ek hornbeck)

The list of WikiLeaks Mirrors is at the bottom of this post.

Embed the WikiLeaks logo on your blog or site linking to this list of WikiLeaks mirror sites.

Although WikiLeaks has had problems since the latest release with hacking, denial of service attacks, web hosts closing their sites down, and domain name registrars pulling their domain name, you can always get to their site by navigating to any of the WikiLeaks mirror sites listed below:

• wikileaks.ch – Official Wikileaks Page [173.227.66.20, 208.65.130.26 and others]
• wikileaks.fi – Mirror Finland [46.59.1.2]
• wikileaks.nl – Mirror Netherlands [46.59.1.2]
• wikileaks.de – Mirror Germany [88.80.13.160]
• wikileaks.eu – Mirror Europe [88.80.13.160]
• wikileaks.pl – Mirror Poland [88.80.13.160]
• wikileaks.at – Mirror Austria [46.59.1.2]
• wikileaks.lu – Mirror Luxembourg [46.59.1.2]
• wikileaks.se – Mirror Sweden [88.80.6.179]
• wikileaks.no – Mirror Norway [46.59.1.2]
• wikileaks.is – Mirror Iceland [46.59.1.2]
• nyud.net – Mirror United States [129.170.214.192]
• wikileaks.ca – Mirror Canada [46.59.1.2]
• wikileaks.info – Mirror of previous leaks [62.2.16.94]

Important Wikileaks Links

• twitter.com/wikileaks – Official Wikileaks Twitter Page
• facebook.com/wikileaks – Official Wikileaks Facebook Page
  

Broadcast- ugh.  According to Zap2it, The Ed Show where Rachel ought to be.

So I’m an old garbage bag put in the street, huh?… These are the worst years, I tell you. It’s going to happen to you. I’m afraid to look in a mirror. I’m afraid I’m gonna see an old lady with white hair, just like the old ladies in the park with little bundles and black shawls waiting for the coffin. I’m fifty-six years old. And what am I gonna do with myself? I’ve got strength in my hands. I want to clean. I want to cook. I want to make dinner for my children. Am I an old dog to lay near the fire till my eyes close? These are terrible years, Theresa, terrible years… It’s gonna happen to you. It’s gonna happen to you! What are you gonna do if Marty gets married? Huh? What are you gonna cook? Where’s all the children playing in all the rooms? Where’s the noise? It’s a curse to be a widow, a curse! What are you gonna do if Marty gets married? What are you gonna do?

• ABC Family– Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer & the Island of Misfit Toys, Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory (Wilder)
• AMC– Mrs. Doubtfire
• Disney– 16 Wishes
• Discovery– Sr. v. Jr. marathon (with premier)
• ESPN– Throwball, Jets @ Patriots
• ESPN2– Women’s College Hoopies, Texas A&M at Duke
• Food– The Best Thing I Ever Ate x 2 (premiers)
• FX– Superbad
• History– Pawn Stars, American Pickers (premiers)
• Lifetime– Home by Christmas, James Patterson’s Sundays at Tiffany’s (World Premier)
• Sci Fi– The Golden Compass, National Treasure
• TBS– Family Guy marathon
• Turner Classic– Marty
• TLC– Cake Boss (premier)
• TNT– The Closer, Men of a Certain Age (premiers)
• Toon– Johnny Test
• Travel– Anthony Bourdain: No Reservations (Holiday Special premier)
• Vs.– Sharks @ Red Wings

Later-

• AMC– You’ve Got Mail, Sleeping with the Enemy
• FX– The One
• Turner Classic– A Face in the Crowd
• USA– The Chronicles of Narnia: Prince Caspian

New Dave finally.  He hosts Ray Romano and John Mellencamp.  Jon has Hugh Shelton, Stephen Garry Trudeau.  Alton does roasts, Crown and otherwise.  Conan hosts Nicole Kidman, Charlie Day, and Lauren Pritchard.

Boondocks– It’s a Black President, Huey Freeman (pivotal, a must see)

Suppose I tell you exactly what’s gonna happen to you. You’re gonna be back in television. Only it won’t be quite the same as it was before. There’ll be a reasonable cooling-off period and then somebody will say: “Why don’t we try him again in a inexpensive format. People’s memories aren’t too long.” And you know, in a way, he’ll be right. Some of the people will forget, and some of them won’t. Oh, you’ll have a show. Maybe not the best hour or, you know, top 10. Maybe not even in the top 35. But you’ll have a show. It just won’t be quite the same as it was before. Then a couple of new fellas will come along. And pretty soon, a lot of your fans will be flocking around them. And then one day, somebody’ll ask: “Whatever happened to, a, whatshisname? You know, the one who was so big. The number-one fella a couple of years ago. He was famous. How can we forget a name like that? Oh by the way, have you seen, a, Barry Mills? I think he’s the greatest thing since Will Rogers.”

Zap2it TV Listings, Yahoo TV Listings

Elizabeth Edwards stops cancer treatment

“You all know that I have been sustained throughout my life by three saving graces – my family, my friends, and a faith in the power of resilience and hope. These graces have carried me through difficult times and they have brought more joy to the good times than I ever could have imagined.

The days of our lives, for all of us, are numbered. We know that. And, yes, there are certainly times when we aren’t able to muster as much strength and patience as we would like. It’s called being human.

“But I have found that in the simple act of living with hope, and in the daily effort to have a positive impact in the world, the days I do have are made all the more meaningful and precious. And for that I am grateful. It isn’t possible to put into words the love and gratitude I feel to everyone who has and continues to support and inspire me every day. To you I simply say: you know.”

Evening Edition is an Open Thread

1 Twin suicide attack kills 40 in Pakistan

by Lehaz Ali, AFP

Mon Dec 6, 11:28 am ET

2 Swiss close bank account of WikiLeaks founder

AFP

2 hrs 52 mins ago

3 WikiLeaks adds twist to climate hopes

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

1 hr 13 mins ago

4 UN sees climate talks progress but disputes linger

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

Sun Dec 5, 7:50 pm ET

5 Guarded hope at UN climate talks

by Shaun Tandon, AFP

Mon Dec 6, 12:23 pm ET

6 US airline Continental guilty over Concorde crash

by Katell Prigent, AFP

Mon Dec 6, 11:54 am ET

7 Google opens e-book store in Kindle challenge

by Glenn Chapman, AFP

1 hr 22 mins ago

8 Facebook founder rolls out changes to profile pages

by Chris Lefkow, AFP

Sun Dec 5, 8:00 pm ET

9 Europe divided over bonds, bailout fund boost

by Roddy Thomson, AFP

2 hrs 51 mins ago

10 Spain will not seek international bailout: minister

AFP

Mon Dec 6, 6:20 am ET

11 England chase victory in second Ashes Test

by Robert Smith, AFP

Mon Dec 6, 9:08 am ET

12 I.Coast in turmoil with two presidents, two PMs

by David Youant, AFP

Mon Dec 6, 4:47 am ET

13 Special report: Legal woes mount for a foreclosure kingpin

By Scot J. Paltrow, Reuters

2 hrs 25 mins ago

14 WikiLeaks lists sites U.S. says vital to interests

By Keith Weir, Reuters

Mon Dec 6, 12:54 pm ET

15 Mideast funding of militants irks U.S.: WikiLeaks

AFP

Sun Dec 5, 7:29 pm ET

16 Bernanke: More Fed bond buys "certainly possible"

By Pedro Nicolaci da Costa, Reuters

Mon Dec 6, 8:36 am ET

17 Appeals court hears California gay marriage case

By Dan Levine and Peter Henderson, Reuters

43 mins ago

18 Continental, welder guilty in Concorde crash trial

By Thierry Leveque, Reuters

Mon Dec 6, 1:27 pm ET

19 China’s GDP is "man-made," unreliable: top leader

Reuters

Mon Dec 6, 7:44 am ET

20 Suicide blasts kill 40 in Pakistan’s northwest

By Aizaz Mohmand, Reuters

Mon Dec 6, 11:12 am ET

21 Merkel rebuffs IMF call to raise euro zone fund

By Jan Strupczewski, Reuters

Mon Dec 6, 7:17 am ET

22 Exclusive: AOL mulls breakup, then merger with Yahoo

By Nadia Damouni, Reuters

Mon Dec 6, 1:08 am ET

23 Ivory Coast’s Gbagbo must step down, rival says

By Loucoumane Coulibaly and David Lewis, Reuters

Sun Dec 5, 7:01 pm ET

24 Assange’s lawyer confirms talks with UK police

By JOHN HEILPRIN and SYLVIA HUI, Associated Press

12 mins ago

25 Court to look at huge Wal-Mart sex bias lawsuit

By MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press

1 hr 30 mins ago

26 Televised gay marriage hearing draws wide audience

By LISA LEFF, Associated Press

1 hr 38 mins ago

27 Germ inspector helps prevent hospital infections

By LAURAN NEERGAARD, AP Medical Writer

13 mins ago

28 UN climate talks move into decisive phase

By ARTHUR MAX, Associated Press

19 mins ago

29 French court: Continental guilty in Concorde crash

By ANGELA DOLAND, Associated Press

35 mins ago

30 AP IMPACT: US fails to tackle student visa abuses

By HOLBROOK MOHR, MITCH WEISS and MIKE BAKER, Associated Press

48 mins ago

31 Auburn, Oregon give BCS title game new look

By RALPH D. RUSSO, AP College Football Writer

Mon Dec 6, 7:09 am ET

32 Bernanke defends bond buys, citing at-risk economy

By JEANNINE AVERSA, AP Economics Writer

Mon Dec 6, 7:58 am ET

33 Suicide bombers kill 50 tribesmen in Pakistan

By RIAZ KHAN, Associated Press

Mon Dec 6, 12:14 pm ET

34 Prosecution to be mute at death penalty hearing

By JUAN A. LOZANO, Associated Press

58 mins ago

35 Ex-suspect testifies in AIM activist slaying trial

By NOMAAN MERCHANT, Associated Press

1 hr 5 mins ago

36 Case alleging sodomy by police emerges in NY court

By TOM HAYS and LARRY NEUMEISTER, Associated Press

1 hr 27 mins ago

37 Explosive-laden Calif. home to be destroyed

By JULIE WATSON, Associated Press

1 hr 34 mins ago

38 Schools, lawmakers cut sabbaticals to trim costs

By RYAN J. FOLEY, Associated Press

2 hrs 14 mins ago

39 Katrina looms over deadly police shooting trial

By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN, Associated Press

Mon Dec 6, 2:09 pm ET

40 Japan, India pressed to curb child abductions

By DAVID CRARY, AP National Writer

Mon Dec 6, 1:17 pm ET

41 Baltimore’s drunk-and-armed police rule questioned

By BEN NUCKOLS, Associated Press

Mon Dec 6, 11:43 am ET

42 Neighborhood survives Katrina – not urban renewal

By CAIN BURDEAU, Associated Press

Mon Dec 6, 4:22 am ET

(1 PM   – promoted by TheMomCat)

Mary Ann Wright is a former United States Army colonel and retired official of the U.S. State Department, known for her outspoken opposition to the Iraq War. She is most noted for having been one of three State Department officials to publicly resign in direct protest of the March 2003 invasion of Iraq. (wikipedia)

“We were told as diplomats, ‘Don’t ever put anything in a cable you wouldn’t want on the front page of a newspaper.’ It shows that they’re a lot of arrogant people, that the system itself wasn’t checking itself,” says Wright of the latest documents released from WikiLeaks.  Meanwhile, several of the diplomatic cables released depict possibly illegal actions by the U.S. government, and Wright notes that the chances of anyone being held accountable are slim.

Ann Wright joined Laura Flanders of GritTV to discuss the latest releases from WikiLeaks, what they tell us about the U.S. Government and Defense and State departments, and what should happen, but probably won’t, to the people implicated therein.

Although WikiLeaks has had problems since the latest release with hacking, denial of service attacks, web hosts closing their sites down, and domain name registrars pulling their domain name, you can always get to their site by navigating to any of the WikiLeaks mirror sites listed at wikileaks.info:  

• wikileaks.ch – Official Wikileaks Page [173.227.66.20, 208.65.130.26 and others]
• wikileaks.fi – Mirror Finland [46.59.1.2]
• wikileaks.nl – Mirror Netherlands [46.59.1.2]
• wikileaks.de – Mirror Germany [88.80.13.160]
• wikileaks.eu – Mirror Europe [88.80.13.160]
• wikileaks.pl – Mirror Poland [88.80.13.160]
• wikileaks.at – Mirror Austria [46.59.1.2]
• wikileaks.lu – Mirror Luxembourg [46.59.1.2]
• wikileaks.se – Mirror Sweden [88.80.6.179]
• wikileaks.no – Mirror Norway [46.59.1.2]
• wikileaks.is – Mirror Iceland [46.59.1.2]
• nyud.net – Mirror United States [129.170.214.192]
• wikileaks.ca – Mirror Canada [46.59.1.2]
• wikileaks.info – Mirror of previous leaks [62.2.16.94]

Important Wikileaks Links

• twitter.com/wikileaks – Official Wikileaks Twitter Page
• facebook.com/wikileaks – Official Wikileaks Facebook Page