Docudharma Times Monday Oct. 29

This is an Open Thread: Let’s meet the neighbors.

Throughout the history of nations diplomacy has played a large role in bringing stability to conflicts and political tensions between adversaries. Diplomacy is not sexy, it isn’t instantaneous, in fact it requires the ability to deal with the all the inherent problems that comes with two competing ideologies seeking to gain advantage yet in the end nether side achieves all of their original goals. Hence the reason why it’s called diplomacy or just a fancy way of saying let’s talk.

History is replete with those who saw diplomacy not as a means to end conflict or reach agreement with one’s political adversaries but as a hindrance to conflict. Just such a person occupies the White House.

George W. Bush has never believed in diplomacy you just have to look to North Korea as a prime example. The Agreed Framework wasn’t perfect but it provided a way for the international community to monitor North Korea’s nuclear programs. All that fell apart on January 20 2002 when President Bush during his State of the Union address placed North Korea in an Axis of Evil.  Doing so the Agreed Framework collapsed and North Korea walked away from the negotiating table and threw out the United Nations nuclear monitoring team. North Korea isn’t the only country George Bush has refused to deal with on a diplomatic level: Syria and Iran are the others. In doing this he removes any reasonable method or means for avoiding armed conflict.

While this administrations pronouncements concerning Iran and its nuclear program have never been subtle in their outright hostility towards it there has been a profound change in their rhetoric. President Bush recently made illusions towards the coming of World War III if Iran should develop the means to produce nuclear weapons. 

Is America under the leadership of President George W. Bush who has 15 months left in office on the edge of the abyss hurtling towards war with Iran because President  George W. Bush refuses to engage the Iranian government diplomatically over Americas concerns about Iran’s nuclear program?

George Bush can no longer afford to play the lone cowboy bent on protecting the world from evil. Its time for him to step-up and be a real world leader something that in these last six years he has failed to do.

USA

Polls don’t reflect Obama’s star power

By Robin Abcarian, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 29, 2007

DES MOINES — Hutton Street, a modest, racially mixed working-class neighborhood on the city’s east side, was unprepared for the miniature army that invaded it one recent Saturday morning when Barack Obama decided to pay a call.

Leading a parade of bodyguards, staffers and about 20 journalists, Obama first knocked on the door of Fortino and Maria Brito. Mexican immigrants, the Britos spoke little English and the conversation was brief. A few houses down, the Democratic presidential candidate had better luck with Jody DeGard, who was “flabbergasted” to see him on her doorstep. Her support tottering between Illinois Sen. Obama and New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton, DeGard said she would remember the personal touch come January’s caucuses.

F.C.C. Set to End Sole Cable Deals for Apartments

By STEPHEN LABATON

Published: October 29, 2007

WASHINGTON, Oct. 28 -The Federal Communications Commission, hoping to reduce the rising costs of cable television, is preparing to strike down thousands of contracts this week that gave individual cable companies exclusive rights to provide service to an apartment building, the agency’s chairman says.

The new rule could open markets across the country to far-ranging competition. It would also be a huge victory for Verizon Communications and AT&T, which have challenged the cable industry by offering their own video services. The two companies have lobbied aggressively for the provision. They have been supported in their fight by consumer groups, satellite television companies and small rivals to the big cable providers.

U.S. Guns Behind Cartel Killings in Mexico

By Manuel Roig-Franzia

Washington Post Foreign Service

Monday, October 29, 2007; Page A01

TIJUANA, Mexico — Assassins blasted Ricardo Rosas Alvarado, a member of an elite state police force, with a blizzard of bullets pumped out of AK-47 assault rifles.

Alvarado crumpled at the wheel of his sedan, yet another victim of the weapons known here as “goat’s horns” because of their curved ammunition clips, and which can fire at a rate of 600 rounds per minute. The killing, Mexican authorities said, was a panorama of blood, shattered glass and torn metal that brutally showcased the firepower of Mexico’s drug cartels. But that was just the warm-up.

Middle East

Under Hamas, Gaza is besieged

The Palestinian territory is hit with economic sanctions from the outside and a battle of wills on the inside.

By Ashraf Khalil, Los Angeles Times Staff Writer

October 29, 2007

GAZA CITY — The streets are quiet now and the electricity works most of the time. Crime is down and even weapons smuggling is at least being regulated. But four months after Hamas seized control of Gaza, the already precarious economy has been sent into a tailspin as the militant Islamic group reigns over a pariah state.

Although Hamas’ claims that its June takeover has brought peace and order to Gaza bear some credence, its four-day military rout of the Fatah faction has ushered in an abysmal new chapter for the 1.5 million people crowded into this impoverished coastal sliver.

Saudi king chides UK on terrorism

Saudi Arabia’s King Abdullah has accused Britain of not doing enough to fight international terrorism, which he says could take 20 or 30 years to beat.

He was speaking in a BBC interview ahead of a state visit to the UK – the first by a Saudi monarch for 20 years.

10 tribal sheiks kidnapped in Baghdad

BAGHDAD – Gunmen in Baghdad snatched 10 Sunni and Shiite tribal sheiks from their cars Sunday as they were heading home to Diyala province after talks with the government on fighting al-Qaida, and at least one was later found shot to death.

Separately, 18 new recruits were killed and 10 wounded Monday when a suicide bomber blew himself up outside a police camp in the city of Baqouba northeast of Baghdad, police said.

Latin America

Kirchner claims Argentine victory

Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner has claimed victory in Argentina’s presidential elections.

Partial official results, based on two-thirds of ballots being counted, gave her 43.6% of the vote.

Her nearest rival, former lawmaker Elisa Carrio, has admitted defeat with 22.6% of the vote.

If confirmed by the full count, Mrs Kirchner will succeed her husband Nestor Kirchner and become Argentina’s first elected female president.

Tropical Storm Noel nears Haiti

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti – Officials in Haiti feared flash floods would hit impoverished areas of the nation early Monday, as Tropical Storm Noel lashed the country with heavy rains.

Noel, the 14th named storm of the Atlantic season, was projected to reach Haiti and the Dominican Republic – which share the island of Hispaniola – in the morning before heading on toward Cuba.

Europe

French president walks out of US TV interview

WASHINGTON (AFP) – If French President Nicolas Sarkozy considers himself a big fan of the United States, he had no qualms about showing his prickly side in an interview with the top US television news magazine “60 minutes.”

Sarkozy, who was profiled by CBS, showed his impatience at an Elysee Palace interview calling his press secretary an “imbecile” for scheduling it.

“He is stupid,” he said in English before reverting to French to say he was a busy man. “I don’t have the time. I have a big job to do … I’m not angry, I’m in a hurry,” he told the flustered CBS interviewer.

Britain did not object to US de-Baathification plan: report

LONDON (AFP) – Britain did not raise objections to American plans to ban members of Saddam Hussein’s Baath Party from the post-war Iraqi government and disband the Iraqi army, according to a documentary to be aired Sunday and Monday.

The two-part BBC documentary cited a memo from a senior American adviser to the Coalition Provisional Authority (CPA) chief, which contradicted comments made by the British defence secretary at the time of the war, Geoff Hoon, who has said that Britain challenged the US on its de-Baathification plans.

Africa

Uganda rains affect conflict’s displaced

LATANYA, Uganda – The heaviest rains to hit Uganda in decades are washing away Santa Ayaa’s seeds of peace.

Last year’s truce between Lord’s Resistance Army rebels and Ugandan government troops largely calmed years of fighting that sent Ayaa fleeing her village. She grew confident enough that she wouldn’t have to run again that she planted peanuts and potatoes near the Latanya relief camp where she lives.

Asia

NKorea repeats nuclear disablement pledge as energy talks start

SEOUL (AFP) – North Korea Monday promised to start disabling its nuclear plants this week, a South Korean official said as a six-nation meeting discussed compensatory energy aid worth hundreds of millions of dollars.

“Basically what the North Korean side said was that North Korea is moving to disable its nuclear facilities from November 1 and faithfully implement its second-phase denuclearisation measures under the February agreement…” Lim Sung-Nam told reporters.

Resistance in the Burmese jungle

By Andrew Harding

BBC News, Loi Tai Leng, eastern Burma

The leader of a Burmese ethnic army has urged all opponents of the ruling junta to unite in the aftermath of last month’s uprising.

“All those battling the regime must co-operate,” said Colonel Yawd Serk, of the Shan State Army (SSA).

“If we cannot unite, and if the international community does not come to our help, then nothing will change in Burma for a decade.”