Darfur: A Clear Case For External Intervention

Transparency is not enough. People already know all over the world. And the genocide continues unabated. Political mechanisms have to be developed such that if a government anywhere engages in genocide, that automatically triggers counter action by some global body or coalition of governments elsewhere. There has to be a muscular counter strike to prevent the collapse of basic human decency.

Darfur has been going on for too long. We have become numb. It has become background noise.

It was said about the Nazi Holocaust: never again. Then Rwanda happened, and the battle cry was, never again. And now Darfur has been in your face.

Darfur is a major statement on a lack of a global political infrastructure. Apparently people there have not had the option to call 911. The rest of us express concern, dispatch statements of solidarity, but all that we end up saying is that there is not much we can do, that the people at the receiving end are basically consigned to being helpless. The rest of the world does not care, does not know to care, does not have the mechanism to care.

The mechanism is lacking.

What is the best we can hope for?

(1) Expose. The old media and the new media could do a super job of plain exposing. Get all the gory details out. That helps. Human rights organizations should continue doing the good job they have been doing. Perhaps they should get more graphic in how they present themselves. They should seek to reach a wider audience.

(2) Lobby. Citizen activists should pressure their lawmakers and leaders to do something.

(3) Muscle. Military action should be threatened.

(4) Make Peace. The political work of making peace might normalize things, but that would require intense, sustained engagement by a major power, like Bill Clinton in Ireland. Some second rung power could also pull it. Maybe India and China should jump in and boost their global credentials. This is a major case of statelessness. A defensive state has let nonstate actors run amok, sometimes by design, at other times with no actual participation. Amnesty can only be thought of in terms of a comprehensive peace and assured justice for the future, and only as the price to be paid to bring an end to future murders and rapes and lootings. The Janjaweed are posing as a non state actor, kind of like the Al Qaeda on the global scene. But how non-state are they really? How do you politically and militarily counter the Janjaweed?

(5) Engage. Perhaps the nearby regional powers should do a better job of engaging the evil doers in power in Sudan. Maybe they can try and talk some sense into their heads. Maybe carrot and stick approaches will take us somewhere.

(6) Cultivate. Dream up new global mechanisms - legal, political - for situations like this one.

(7) Depose. Is there any way regime change can be brought about? Options should be explored. The Sudanese government is clearly the guilty party. These people have to go.

(8) Provide. While the peacemakers try to make sense out of the situation, the aid agencies must provide food, water, medicine, shelter and safety to the hilt to the displaced. Safe zones have to be created. People in the war zone should know they have the option to get out. That hope has to be there.

(9) Create. Peace making efforts have failed so far because attempts have been made to soothe warring factions. The goal should not be that the factions stop competing for power. The goal should be to transform the competition so it is no longer military, but rather political, electoral. Perhaps peace talks should be held, there should be a ceasefire, and elections to a constituent assembly should be organized. The primary challenge seems to be one of building a state where one does not seem to much exist.

The solution like in Iraq is political. If our primary thrust is to be to seek a political solution, we will also be more likely to navigate the local political contours better.

On The Web

Darfur conflict - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia After fighting worsened in July and August 2006, on August 31, 2006, the United Nations Security Council approved Resolution 1706 which called for a new 17,300-troop UN peacekeeping force to supplant or supplement a poorly funded, ill-equipped 7,000-troop African Union Mission in Sudan peacekeeping force. Sudan strongly objected to the resolution and said that it would see the UN forces in the region as foreign invaders. The next day, the Sudanese military launched a major offensive in the region. ..... The UN estimates that the conflict has left as many as 450,000 dead from violence and disease. ..... As many as 2.5 million are thought to have been displaced as of October 2006. ..... In March 2007 the U.N. mission accused Sudan's government of orchestrating and taking part in "gross violations" in Darfur
Darfur - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Save Darfur
Darfur: A Genocide We can Stop
BBC NEWS | World | Africa | Q&A: Sudan's Darfur conflict More than two million people are living in camps after fleeing almost four years of fighting in the region ...... Sudan's government and the pro-government Arab militias are accused of war crimes against the region's black African population ...... Sudan also rejects moves by the International Criminal Court to name and then try war crimes suspects. ...... There are two main rebel groups, the Sudan Liberation Army (SLA) and the Justice and Equality Movement (JEM), although the peace talks were complicated by splits in both groups, some along ethnic lines. .... admits mobilising "self-defence militias" following rebel attacks but denies any links to the Janjaweed, accused of trying to "cleanse" black Africans from large swathes of territory. ...... following air raids by government aircraft, the Janjaweed ride into villages on horses and camels, slaughtering men, raping women and stealing whatever they can find ....... UN-backed attempts to get some 50 key suspects tried at the International Criminal Court in The Hague. ...... The Janjaweed patrol outside the camps and Darfurians say the men are killed and the women raped if they venture too far in search of firewood or water. ...... Some 200,000 have also sought safety in neighbouring Chad, but many of these are camped along a 600km stretch of the border and remain vulnerable to attacks from Sudan. ...... Many aid agencies are working in Darfur but they are unable to get access to vast areas because of the fighting. ...... there has been a dramatic increase in violence and displacement since the deal was signed. ....With the peace deal looking unworkable and amid fears of renewed "all-out war" ...... an area the size of France ...... Sudan has resisted strong western diplomatic pressure for the UN to take control of the peacekeeping mission.
Human Rights Watch: Africa : Crisis in Darfur
Sudan: Darfur Destroyed
Darfur: Blogs, Photos, Videos and more on Technorati

In The News

US diplomat visits Sudan's war-torn Darfur Raw Story, MA
Positive signs in Darfur?Monsters and Critics.com
Africa: Ban Ki-Moon to Hold Darfur Crisis Talks With Head of ... AllAfrica.com
Darfur needs peace, not peacekeepers Los Angeles Times the double-think of balkanized minds branding as disaster in Iraq what they recommend for Darfur's salvation ...... Without a political solution brokered by the international community, there will be no peace to keep and even less to impose. ...... there are up to 15 rebel factions fighting the government — and increasingly, each other. ...... some rebels have begun raping women from their own tribes. ...... Most of the bloodshed in Darfur took place between the end of 2003 and the beginning of 2005. The same international community that is being urged to intervene in western Sudan was, at that time, helping negotiate peace between the government in the north and rebels in the south to put an end to the longest-running civil war in independent Africa — 21 years — that left an estimated 1.5 million dead. ........ our support should be realistic and honest — and not, in the end, helpless posturing. ...... In the absence of a peace agreement to monitor, what right do we have to demand that anyone — be they our children or U.N. blue helmets from the Third World — go and die in Darfur?
Darfur Crisis Comes To Google Earth InformationWeek, NY
Museum, Google Zoom In on Darfur Washington Post
Delusions of Darfur Chicago Tribune government-sponsored genocide in Darfur ...... Sudan's president, Omar al-Bashir, addressed a Nation of Islam convention in Detroit via satellite in February. The United States is exaggerating the problems in Darfur to justify an Iraq-style occupation, he told the crowd. There's no need for United Nations peacekeepers because the current African Union force is doing "fantastically well." He described the situation in Darfur as "quite calm." ........ "It is not in the Sudanese culture or people of Darfur to rape. It doesn't exist."
Google maps the Darfur crisis- Internet users can now ... ReliefWeb (press release)
China's "turnaround" on Darfur links to Spielberg: report Hindu, India
Has China changed its "see no evil stance" on Darfur? Foreign Policy (subscription)
Darfur Collides With Olympics, and China Yields Sarasota Herald-Tribune
Darfur Collides With Olympics, and China Yields Tuscaloosa News (subscription)
Militia Talks Could Reshape Conflict in Darfur New York Times, NY Adam Shogar, a commander of the Sudan Liberation Army, the non-Arab rebels at the center of the Darfur conflict, stretched a coal-black arm at Yassine Yousef Abdul Rahman, his copper-skinned, brown-eyed counterpart from an Arab insurgent group, studying him carefully with midnight eyes. ....... “The government fear is if the Darfur Arabs unify and move against them, that is a decisive switch in the balance of power” ....... “Should they shift against the government, then the government is in deep trouble.” ....... The struggle in Darfur has often been portrayed as one between Arabs and black Africans, nomads and farmers, with the former bent on slaughtering the latter. But the conflict has never been that simple. ....... Sudan’s central government in Khartoum views them as marginal and expendable ....... Arab tribes have found themselves victims of non-Arab militias armed by Chad’s government ...... and set off a broad conflict in one of the most unstable parts of the world. ...... The main perpetrators of some of the worst atrocities have been government-sponsored Arab militias that have come to be known by a local epithet for bandits, janjaweed. ...... its own military, weakened by a long civil war in the south and made up largely of non-Arab recruits, could not be relied on to crush the rebellion among non-Arab tribes in Darfur. ........ the relationship between the central government, dominated by three small Arab tribes living along the Nile, and Darfur’s Arabs, who claim a heritage going back to the Prophet Muhammad, is often antagonistic ....... Darfur’s Arabs have long been the stalwarts of the main opposition Umma Party, perhaps the largest and most popular political party in northern Sudan. ....... in the 1980s and ’90s, as the government sought to exercise greater control over Darfur. Political and traditional leaders at the state and tribal level were replaced by Arab candidates closer to the government. ....... “For centuries we have had friendship and exchange with the Fur people and other African tribes. Now we are seen as killers.” ....... the reality that the various tribes of Darfur need one other more than they need the government. ....... But even as the relationship between tribes begins to shift, slowly, back toward its traditional balance in Darfur, Chad is descending deeper into interethnic conflict. ....... black Africans living in squalid, makeshift camps. ....... much of the violence is between Arab and non-Arab Chadians. ....... “Are politics going to destroy centuries of friendship?” ....... 140,000 Chadians have been displaced in interethnic fighting in the past year ....... 10 villages of Arab families have been displaced in the latest fighting, fleeing toward Darfur against the advance of Dadjo militias. ....... Arming local militias is seen as an expedient way of dealing with border security problems, but the experiences of Darfur and the civil war in southern Sudan have shown that once militias are unleashed, they are nearly impossible to control ...... one of the most important messages he plans to bring to the Security Council is the complexity of the conflict here. ....... “It is a political problem, and it needs a political solution.”
Lopez, Molina, Etc. Set for Where's Darfur? Benefit, 4/23 Broadway World, NY
Darfur refugees will return home PRESS TV, Iran
Goodlatte: US can play role in Darfur Staunton News Leader, VA
OU students, author discuss Darfur Norman Transcript, OK
UK accused of collaborating with Sudan over Darfur refugees Sudan Tribune, Sudan
Probe Of Sexual Violence, Disappearances In Darfur Scoop.co.nz
Home Office 'collaborating with Sudan over refugees' Independent
Darfur governor expects return of displaced people after ... People's Daily Online, China

Obama Gameplan: Stable, Democratic Iraq

The Al Qaeda are mosquitoes. The idea is not to mutate them into some other more palatable species. The idea is not to reform them. They are a few thousand in number. Isolate them. Penetrate their organizations. Use human intel. Engage in surgical military operations as necessary. Decapitate, isolate their leaderships wherever possible. Strengthen homeland security. Take precautions. Think a few steps ahead. Fight smart and hard, not blunt. Fight lean and mean, not loud and scattered.

But the best way to get rid of mosquitoes is to drain the swamp. The Bush gameplan has been to add floodwaters to the swamp and then indiscriminately shower the area with DDT, and keep doing both again and again. Insanity is doing the same thing again and again and expecting a different result. The DDT has claimed lives of plants that are above water, and many species in the water that we should not want to get rid of. And the mosquitoes keep multiplying, because they have more water to play with now, and they mutate, DDT stays the same.

But the Bush propaganda machine will tell you if you are anti-DDT, you must be pro-mosquito.

If Bush will have his way, America will have spent a trillion dollars in Iraq, and the fight will still not have concluded.

The Obama gameplan is to suggest there is no military solution in Iraq. The primary challenge is political. The solution is political. Iraq is a case study of how not to spread democracy in a country that is not democratic. For one, it is too costly.

The prescription is Nepal's April Revolution. That is the prescription for Burma, for Zimbabwe. The people are sufficient unto themselves. They can rise up, they will rise up. They will come in unceasing waves. But organizational work has to be done. Political parties have to form a coalition. There has to be leadership. There has to be a gameplan. The diaspora has to get organized. The international community has to take an active, informed interest.

In Iraq's case, you slowly withdraw troops, on a definite timetable, and you fill up the resultant military space with Iraqi military and all round political grunt work. All the factions in Iraq are going to have to learn to do business with each other the democratic way. Hold dialogue, cut deals, move the ball.

But the swamp does not begin and end in Iraq. There has to be a mass movement for democracy in every single Arab country. Such can be engineered. Such can be timetabled almost. It is not like calling a muse. It is like doing homework. If we do it right, autocracies in the Arab world can start falling one after the other like in Eastern Europe in the late 1980s.

Regime after regime in the Arab countries are offensive. In a democracy you know who to blame. You voted for someone, and if they don't deliver, you vote them out. But in dictatorships like the Arab countries are, the easy slogan becomes Death To America. The distant Satan is the source of all your ills.

Bush's way of spreading democracy has been racist, quite frankly. It has been about disrespecting the Arab masses. That is not how you want to present democracy.

Democracy has to be a grassroots rallying cry. And that can be fuelled, the process can be expedited with external help.

In The News

Analysis: Rove Under Scrutiny Again Washington Post
Nepal govt postpones Constituent Assembly polls Hindu
Rudy Giuliani rivals Mitt Romney in Cash for 2008 Presidential Race Point-Spreads.com
Laden's CD with Invitation to Terrorism Appears in Bihar Patna Daily asks the Muslims to join the 'freedom fighters' in Kashmir to wage war against
India .... The police are analyzing the content of the CD with the help of language experts in
the hope of getting identifying Al Qaeda operatives in Bihar .... The CDs containing Al-Qaeda
leader Osama bin Laden's speeches urging Muslims to join the 'Jehad' (holy war) have
surfaced in the rural pockets of Patna and adjoining Bhojpur districts in Bihar.
India demands new IMF quota formula Earthtimes.org a new 'simple and transparent' International Monetary Fund (IMF) quota
formula ... if GDP is computed entirely on the purchasing power parity (PPP)
basis ..... 'No halfway house of blending GDP at market exchange rates with GDP on PPP
would meet these twin objectives,' said Rakesh Mohan, deputy governor of the Reserve Bank
of India (RBI), representing Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Sri Lanka. ..... The continued
expansion in world GDP in 2006, with growth crossing the 5 percent mark, points to the
emergence of a new phase - one that is more diversified with most regions posting higher
growth than in the previous year ..... the new robust phase is driven by emerging market
economies with China and India continuing to contribute substantially to the global growth
momentum.' ..... The increasing integration of China and India into the global production
stream has significantly altered the efficiency of the global production process ..... risks
emanating from the behaviour of oil prices, adverse developments in the US housing market,
persistence of global imbalances, large leveraged positions in financial markets and possible
emergence of inflationary pressures. ...... policy makers should be ready to respond to
emerging challenges promptly and effectively
Obama Compares Rappers to Imus ABC News
Obama Returns Lobbyists’ Donations New York Times
The Clinton question: electability Concord Monitor
CBS Poll: Giuliani, Clinton Pad Leads CBS News Giuliani's lead over McCain is now 23 points, 52 percent to 29 percent ..... Giuliani comes in at 47 percent, followed by McCain at 25 percent and Romney at 10 percent. ..... — multiple marriages (Giuliani has been married three times) and age (McCain is 70) — ..... GOP primary voters are most likely to think Giuliani will be the party's eventual nominee. ...... Democratic primary voters continue to favor Clinton and expect her to be the party's nominee. ...... Clinton leads Obama by 15 points and former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards by 18. Last month, Clinton's lead over Obama was 8 points. ..... Opinions about Obama have become slightly less positive among Democratic voters in recent weeks. ..... a majority believe the political stalemate between the White House and Congress over a war funding bill is having a negative impact on the morale of U.S. troops in Iraq. .... Americans overall continue to believe that the war is going badly, that the troop increase is not helping and that the prospects for success in Iraq are dim. ..... A record number cite the war as the country's most important problem.
'Patna should be within 5 hrs reach from rest of bihar' Business Standard We are spending Rs 150 crore on roads just in Patna ...... Our next priority for the capital is flyovers all over the city. ..... road building is going on all over Bihar. We aim to spend Rs 3,000 crore on building roads. This does not include the Prime Minister’s Gram Sadak Yojana. .... your colleague at the Centre, Rural Development Minister Raghuvansh Prasad Singh says he keeps giving you money for the National Rural Employment Guarantee Programme (NREGP) that Bihar is unable to spend .....defining minimum wages: we have revised it from Rs 67 earlier to Rs 77 now ..... We need land for roads, flyovers, bridges… So we have started a land bank: land over which there is no dispute. ...... Power plants take time to build. .... the national average per capita consumption of power is 600 units. Bihar consumes 74 units per capita. ...... The main thing is the visible, demonstrable punishment for corruption through fast track courts.
Bihar criminal justice on a fast track Hindustan Times
India tests nuclear capable missile ABC Online
India is just doing what great powers do Hamilton Spectator
Russian police swoop on protest, arrest Kasparov New Straits Times
Suicide bombs hit US center in Morocco Houston Chronicle
China To Launch New Crackdown On Net Porn All Headline News
The banker, his lover and her pay rise of $80000 Sydney Morning Herald startling pay rises given by the development lender to his Libyan-born girlfriend, Shaha Riza ...... a day after Mr Wolfowitz was booed in a meeting with World Bank staff who were demanding his resignation, US President George Bush stood firm behind an old colleague who was one of the architects of the war in Iraq. ....... on Mr Wolfowitz's personal direction, Ms Riza was given pay rises that took her annual package to nearly $US200,000 ($241,706) when she was reassigned from the World Bank's Middle East press office to the US State Department ...... This was a rise from $US132,660 and was tax-free because of her status as a diplomat. ...... an August 2005 memorandum in which Mr Wolfowitz ordered the bank's human resources division to award Ms Riza a series of extraordinary promotions and pay increases.
Paulson seeks 'even keel' in trade relations with China Channel News Asia
China to go on buying spree in US cities Financial Times
Google's Biggest Acquisition: DoubleClick, for $3.1 Billion Playfuls.com a whopping $3.1 billion in cash ...... a provider of digital marketing technology and services ...... the display ad company ...... Acquisition-happy Google, which expects the purchase to close this year, had a stunning $11.2 billion in cash at the end of 2006. DoubleClick has also recently introduced a Nasdaq-like exchange for online ads ...... make Internet advertising better - less intrusive, more effective, and more useful. Together with DoubleClick, Google will make the Internet more efficient for end users, advertisers, and publishers ....... "This was a hotly contested asset," said analyst Jordan Rohan, to Bloomberg. "Clearly Google was willing to pay what it took to keep this away from Microsoft." ..... Headquartered in New York, and with 17 offices and development hubs and 15 data centers worldwide, the company employs more than 1200 people and delivers billions of digital communications every day. ... DoubleClick, which was founded in 1996, provides display ads on Web sites like MySpace, The Wall Street Journal and America Online as well as software to help those sites maximize ad revenue.
Google out of the traps in pay service race ic Newcastle.co.uk Google's dominance of the search market has led it to revenues of US$7.1bn in 2006 - not to mention the evolution of its name into a synonym for internet searches.
Google Earth edges into global politics Ithaca Journal
Darfur Crisis Comes To Google Earth InformationWeek
Museum, Google Zoom In on Darfur Washington Post Elie Wiesel conceived of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum, he envisioned a "living memorial" that would not only chronicle the crimes of the past but also take on issues of contemporary genocide ........ "A memorial unresponsive to the future would violate the memory of the past" ....... the genocide unfolding in the Darfur region of western Sudan, where government-backed militias and nomadic tribesmen have burned huts and villages to drive sedentary farmers from their homes. ....... accompanying video footage, photographs and eyewitness testimony explain what happened in each case. ...... women accompanying attacking tribesmen while singing songs and lashing out with racist slurs. "The blood of the Blacks runs like water, we take their goods and we chase them from our area and our cattle will be on our land," he quoted the women as telling some of the farmers under attack. ........ the credibility gap that Holocaust survivors once faced: how to provide concrete evidence that the most unspeakable atrocities are actually occurring. ........ the story of Jan Karski, a young Pole who came to America in 1943 and attempted to describe to a skeptical Justice Felix Frankfurter, himself a Jew, what he had seen in the Warsaw ghetto and a Nazi death camp. ........ After asking technical questions, pacing back and forth and then quietly sitting down, the judge told the Pole, "I am unable to believe you." ........ a viewership of 200 million and growing ...... "No one can any longer say they don't know. This tool will bring a spotlight to a very dark corner of the earth, a torch that will indirectly help protect the victims," said John Prendergast, a senior adviser to the International Crisis Group. "It is David versus Goliath, and Google Earth just gave David a stone for his slingshot."
Sprint plans WiMax network The Grand Rapids Press Some low-income households could pay $9.95 a month. .....The city hopes the service will be available this year, making it one of the first cities in the nation with WiMax service. ....... there's a reason fast-food restaurants often are built across the street from each other ...... Technology to put a WiMax receiver into a card that could be used with laptops still is being developed. ....... Sprint earlier announced it would introduce its WiMax service in Chicago and the Baltimore/Washington, D.C. area by the end of this year. ..... the network would spread to other cities, from Boston to Grand Rapids to Seattle.
Taking wireless to the WiMax Chicago Tribune Chicago soon will become one of the first cities in the country to have access to the next generation of computer communication, in which people will keep connected to the Internet wherever they go. ....... envelop the region in a digital signal as powerful as the broadband service ...... a $3 billion national bet by Sprint ...... will provide competition to Internet connections offered by Comcast Corp. and AT&T Inc. ...... a mobile Internet will spawn totally different services, such as cheap radio tags for airport luggage that would assure an end to lost bags. Or billboards that change their messages to appeal to the age and gender of people walking by them. ....... "Low-cost chips and pervasive wireless will change everything" ........ Chicago, Washington and Baltimore, are the first cities to get Sprint's new high-speed wireless service, which will spread to other cities next year. Sprint said it will take three years to build the new network. By the end of 2008, Sprint hopes to have coverage available to 100 million Americans. Sprint has enlisted help from Motorola, Intel Corp., Nokia Corp., Samsung and other equipment vendors to create a wireless network that is open to innovation, much like today's wired Internet........... Nearly all new laptop computers come equipped with Wi-Fi chips at no extra charge. Intel and other chipmakers intend to do the same for WiMax, making it inexpensive and widespread. ...... Sprint's commitment to build the nation's first commercial WiMax network has really focused industry efforts to get WiMax products to market ..... They've talked about $40 to $50 a month ..... It will be about three times faster than so-called 3G data services available from cell phone carriers. ..... The goal of Motorola and other vendors, said Mitoraj, is "to make WiMax so inexpensive that it's a no-brainer for devicemakers to put the chipset into their products." ...... the really interesting devices equipped to use WiMax probably won't be available until 2009 .... about 200,000 cards enabling laptop computers to use WiMax may be shipped this year. ...... Sprint is leading the way in WiMax, he said, because it has a supply of radio spectrum sitting idle. ...... Sprint's decision has caused a buzz across the industry.
Amitabh Bachchan pleads for privacy Apun Ka Choice “My son’s wedding is a very private solemn and precious moment for me and my family. Surely, we’re entitled to our privacy if and when we need it.” ..... none of the Khans have been invited and the reason cited by the Bachchans is the illness of Bachchan's mother Teji Bachchan. The Bachchans don’t wish to have a grand wedding out of respect to Teji Bachchan. .... rumours that Salim Khan who has written several successful scripts for Bachchan during his career earlier was invited, but Salim Khan too claims that this is untrue. ....... Salman too has not been invited obviously due to his past friction with Ash. ...... lovebirds Ash and Abhishek seem to be spending quality time together in London and are enjoying every bit of their rare time together. ...... The only ones who have so far received an invitation are Karan Johar , Sanjay Dutt , Ajay Devgan and Kajol and Sunil Shetty .
Team accepts Imus's apology Boston Globe a national debate on race, gender, and power spurred by derogatory comments by radio host Don Imus ...... we are in the process of forgiving ...... "We still find his statements to be unacceptable, and this is an experience that we will never forget" ....... The team met with Imus for three hours on Thursday night at the governor's mansion in Princeton, shortly after Imus was fired from his radio show by CBS. ..... emotions ran high, with tears on both sides ...... Imus did not shed any, but his wife, Deirdre, did, according to the person at the meeting, and she hugged each of the players individually. ...... the team voted on whether or not to accept Imus's apology. ...... a culture that "has produced language that has denigrated women." ....... CBS fired him from the radio show that he has hosted for nearly 30 years. ....... was once named one of the 25 Most Influential People in America by Time magazine. ...... Governor Jon S. Corzine was critically injured in a car crash while heading to the governor's mansion in Princeton for the Thursday meeting. ...... comments Imus made April 4 when he called the Rutgers players -- eight of whom are black -- "nappy-headed hos."
Study says CO2 emissions in US rose 18% during1990-2004 period Earthtimes.org
G-7 Predicts Strong Global Economy ABC News
Lilly again the Hub of US soccer team Boston Herald
Rumor: Dell to Buy Palm, Enter Smartphone Market Mobile Magazine moving away from standalone PDAs and into smartphones that combine the functionality of a personal organizer with the calling features of a cell phone. ..... Before Dell can finish the deal, they'll have to fend off other potential buyers. Earlier this month, there was a rumor floating around that Nokia was interested in buying Palm too.
Dell dumps handheld business IT Week Dell appears to have quietly ended its presence in the Pocket PC market with the removal of its Axim x51 handheld from the company’s web site. .... the decline of the unconnected handheld market as customers switch to either smartphones or PDAs with cellular connections. ..... while the Dell handheld range could have incorporated cellular technology into existing handsets this would demand a fundamental shift in the company’s business model.
Gene Variant Linked to Obesity, Diabetes Forbes
Common gene causes obesity, says study Financial Times
Human Bone Marrow Used to Create Early Stage Sperm Cells Forbes For the first time, scientists have used human bone marrow to create early stage sperm cells
Women to self-create Daily Telegraph
Command sent to wrong computer address led to loss of Mars probe Los Angeles Times
Apple's Leopard delay may signal deeper problems San Jose Mercury News Apple's ambition may be starting to get ahead of the company's ability to achieve it. ...... The problem Apple is running into is that it's a relatively small company compared to tech giants such as Hewlett-Packard or IBM ...... Apple had about 18,000 full-time employees, compared to 156,000 for H-P ...... Apple is "broadening their product offering, and they have only so many engineering resources to go around." ...... the company is favoring an unproven product that will compete in a very challenging industry ....... they'll have to be more careful with spreading themselves too thin ....... Leopard, which promises a number of new features, including a new backup program called Time Machine and advanced 3-D animation features. ....... a reality check for investors and analysts who have been expecting big things from Apple. ...... many have been salivating at the thought that the iPhone or Apple TV may become as big a hit as the company's iPods. ....... the company has updated its iPod lineup regularly, adding new models and completely revamping older ones.
Imus' Wife Hosts The Show For A Day KUTV
Author Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Dies Voice of America
'So It Goes': Looking Back At Kurt Vonnegut's Big-Screen Impact MTV.com
Astronaut will run in marathon from space Central Maine Morning Sentinel the U.S. Navy commander will run the equivalent distance on a treadmill -- 210 miles above Earth, and tethered to her track by bungee cords so she doesn't float away. ...... "Boston Marathon in Iraq" ...... She is pioneering a new frontier in running and in sports with her run, which will truly be out of this world ....... three months with little gravity takes a toll on a human, and NASA requires all members of a station crew to exercise on the treadmill, a stationary bike and a resistance machine to maintain bone density and muscle mass ....... A "vibration isolation system" built by a NASA engineer will keep her from shaking the entire space station as she runs, but the machinery puts a strain on the runner's hips and shoulders. She also has to be ready to abort her mission.
Movie Review: Perfect Stranger Seattle Post Intelligencer It's a shame when such good actors come together and make such an absolutely horrible and pointless movie. .... the cyber sex chats weren't necessary for the story and took up a lot of screen time
Stern sues Anna Nicole Smith's mother's lawyer CNN

Two Terms As Governor

And Spitzer will be ready to be president. I think he is going to be a terrific president. He is going to add an additional d to democracy. He is going to give democracy backbone. He is going to prove at the national level that people actually matter to the political process, big time. Spitzer's commitment to the ordinary people is amazing, it is sophisticated, it is pragmatic, it is in your face.

Obama might, will bring in universal health care, but Spitzer will bring what not even Obama could, namely publicly financed campaigns nationwide. His strong suit is democracy itself. When Howard Dean says people power, his is a rally cry, and that has been sorely lacking, and has been much needed. But when Spitzer says people power, it is people power 2.o, it is much more concrete.

Imagine statehood for DC. Spitzer has the backbone to be able to deliver something like that. Imagine all of the US is considered one territory, and constituencies to the House and the Senate are divided based on equal population. Imgine that. I think Spitzer could make possible such a thing.

The states already have their legislatures. The federal folks should be thinking national. Federal constituencies need not respect state boundaries.

Direct elections for president.

Spitzer's rectification of the Wall Street has been very pro-market. His acts have been to weed out corruption and inefficiency so as to help the market better serve people.

Universal health care is pro-market. I can't imagine a full blown information age without it.

Similarly democracy has to be taken to the ideal of one person, one vote. The suggestion is mathematical. Of all politicians in America, Spitzer has the backbone to deliver Democracy 2.0. I can't think of anyone else even remotely close.

FDR was also New York Governor. He also had a majority in the state Senate like Spitzer is about to get, something that has not happened after FDR.

The word that most comes to my mind when I think of Spitzer is the word substance. The guy is sheer substance. Sheer substance. Sheer guts. And for all that you would think he can't ever break into a smile. The truth is he can be out and out hilarious. First time I got to see him in person, he brought the house down repeatedly cracking up about his wild acts on - upon - Wall Street.

And for someone who was in his early 20s when he came to the US, the symbolism of a Spitzer in the White House does not escape me at all. Hopefully the Middle East will have seen a final map and a total spread of democracy before that, but if not, I mean. Who gives a f____ what happened 2,000 years ago. Or 200 years ago. Or even 50 years ago. Think today, think the future, and make peace. Give Jerusalem to me. I will be the monkey to the two cats fighting over a piece of bread. And give the refugees to America. Put up tents in Arizona.

Make money, not war.

Middle East 2.0.

An Obama Administration
Eliot Spitzer, Governor
Eliot Spitzer For Running Mate
Eliot Spitzer, Aliza Fatima
Eliot Spitzer

One little tidbit. I was inspired to write this blog entry after listening to the Madonna clip on my MySpace page again and again for hours, literally. Erotica. Madonna is a major statement. I consider her a political inspiration.

http://www.myspace.com/paramendra

In The News

Spitzer Rumbles With Healthcare Union NY1, NY
Pataki Gift to Spitzer: An $800 Million Problem New York Sun, NY
New start for much delayed Manhattan subway project Newsday, NY
The Seven Sisters Pose for Spitzer - and for You! NewsBlaze, CA
Spitzer Founds PAC To Help Dems Nationwide WBEN 930, NY
Spitzer Forms Federal Political Action Committee WETM-TV
The Power of Spitzer's Purse New York Observer, NY
Exclusive NY1 Poll: Spitzer, Cuomo Get Thumbs Up After First 100 Days NY1, NY
Spitzer's racked up many accomplishments Newsday
Spitzer brings it 'home' one more time, stressing economy, education White Plains Journal News
First 100 Days: Spitzer Tries To Wake Up State NY1
Spitzer Creates PAC WENY-TV, NY
Presidential primary moving to Feb. 5 Auburn Citizen

I won't be Clinton's No 2, says Obama Telegraph.co.uk Mr Obama was at ease on the show .... traded quips and one-liners with Mr Letterman. He said his two young daughters were "not overly impressed" by his running for president and that his wife was frustrated he was not home in Chicago more often. "My wife is starting to refer to me as her first husband," he said. "It's a little disturbing."
For Democrats, Health Care Is a Rite of Passage New York Times universal health coverage by January 2013. ..... Health care has become, by many measures, the leading domestic policy issue for American voters, and it is especially hot among Democrats. ...... she is keenly aware of every political landmine on the issue, having stepped on most of them during the Clinton health care push of 1993-94. ....... he is listening to an array of health care experts ...... At one end is the single payer option — essentially expanding Medicare to every American and creating a national health insurance program ....... At the other end is pure incrementalism — encouraging coverage with tax credits and the like, but creating no new mandates on individuals or employers, and settling for less than universal coverage. ........ And then there is the middle ground, a mixture of government and private insurance: expanding the already existing public programs to catch more low and moderate income people, creating new requirements for employers to provide or help pay for coverage, creating new mandates and opportunities for individuals to obtain affordable health insurance.
Barack Obama Spotted in New York with Foreign Policy Expert and ... openPR (press release) at the lobby of the W Hotel in New York City on 49th and Lexington Ave. ..... Obama met with Bill Clinton at a Central Park West fundraiser earlier in the evening before taping his appearance on the David Letterman Show.
Nepal ethnic group calls strike in southern plains Reuters AlertNet "We have called for a general strike on April 20, 21, and 22 in the entire Madhesh region against the anti-Madhesi and anti-democracy policy of the government," Forum chief Upendra Yadav said in a statement.
Religious activist in India says Liz Hurley’s wedding mocked Hindu ... Boston Herald The 41-year-old British actress-model and Nayar, a 42-year-old Indian businessman, were married in a lavish Hindu ceremony at a palace-turned-hotel in the western Indian city of Jodhpur in March. ..... The couple first wed in a private civil ceremony in a castle outside London. .... since the couple already had married before, they had no Hindu religious sanction to marry for a second time. ....... The complaint goes on to say that Hurley did not remove her footwear while walking around the sacred fire at the ceremony and wore revealing clothes. ....... Arun Nayar’s father, Vinod Nayar, also will testify against the couple ..... Vinod Nayar has severed ties with his son after he was thrown out of the wedding on Hurley’s urging.
US defends China on Darfur role MSNBC
China-US trade volley unlikely to become trade war Reuters
Google Earth Zooms Into Heart of Darfur's Darkness TechNewsWorld
Holocaust Museum, Google team up Jewish Telegraphic Agency
Google Responds to Sudan Genocide Sci-Tech Today
Viacom joins with Yahoo! for text ads, spurns Google Blogging Stocks
Viacom and Yahoo Join Forces, Shut Out Google Associated Content
AOL launches Search Marketplace built on Google ad technology BtoB Magazine a program that enables advertisers to buy sponsored links specifically targeting the search audience on AOL.com.
Now Shot-Gun Aims At Amitabh Bachchan Desicritics.org say anything about the Bachchans and you get your share of lime-light








When you do a search on Spitzer on Google Video, some of my clips show up on pages 1 and 2. That is flattering.