May 2009 archive

Bill O’Reilly Don’t Know

Much About History

Don’t Know Much

About Anything

Taliban-Style Justice Stirs Growing Anger

Sharia Being Perverted, Pakistanis Say

By Pamela Constable

Washington Post Foreign Service

Sunday, May 10, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 9 — When black-turbaned Taliban fighters demanded in January that Islamic sharia law be imposed in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, few alarm bells went off in this Muslim nation of about 170 million.

Sharia, after all, is the legal framework that guides the lives of all Muslims.

Officials said people in Swat were fed up with the slow and corrupt state courts, scholars said the sharia system would bring swift justice, and commentators said critics in the West had no right to interfere.

Today, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Swat and Pakistani troops launching an offensive to drive out the Taliban forces, the pendulum of public opinion has swung dramatically.

Iran court hears reporter appeal

A court in Iran is hearing an appeal from jailed US-Iranian reporter Roxana Saberi, two days earlier than originally expected.

The BBC

Ms Saberi’s lawyer said it was not clear when a ruling would be announced, but that he was optimistic that the 32-year-old would be acquitted.

Ms Saberi was convicted of spying for the US – a charge she denied.

The case sparked international concern and US President Barack Obama has appealed on her behalf.

Appeal process

Unlike her original trial, the legal process this time has been arranged to appear fair and open, says the BBC’s Jon Leyne in Tehran.

While Sunday’s hearing is still not open to the public, Ms Saberi’s appeal is being heard before a panel of three judges, and representatives of the Iranian Bar Association are being allowed to attend.

Her lawyer has also been given plenty of notice.

USA

For Victims of Recession, Patchwork State Aid

THE SAFETY NET

By JASON DePARLE

Published: May 9, 2009

WASHINGTON – As millions of people seek government aid, many for the first time, they are finding it dispensed American style: through a jumble of disconnected programs that reach some and reject others, often for reasons of geography or chance rather than differences in need.

Health care, housing, food stamps and cash – each forms a separate bureaucratic world, and their dictates often collide. State differences make the patchwork more pronounced, and random foibles can intervene, like a computer debacle in Colorado that made it harder to get food stamps and Medicaid.

The result is a hit-or-miss system of relief, never designed to grapple with the pain of a recession so sudden and deep. Aid seekers often find the rules opaque and arbitrary. And officials often struggle to make policy through a system so complex and Balkanized.

Bill O’Reilly Don’t Know

Much About History

Don’t Know Much

About Anything

Taliban-Style Justice Stirs Growing Anger

Sharia Being Perverted, Pakistanis Say

By Pamela Constable

Washington Post Foreign Service

Sunday, May 10, 2009

ISLAMABAD, Pakistan, May 9 — When black-turbaned Taliban fighters demanded in January that Islamic sharia law be imposed in Pakistan’s Swat Valley, few alarm bells went off in this Muslim nation of about 170 million.

Sharia, after all, is the legal framework that guides the lives of all Muslims.

Officials said people in Swat were fed up with the slow and corrupt state courts, scholars said the sharia system would bring swift justice, and commentators said critics in the West had no right to interfere.

Today, with hundreds of thousands of people fleeing Swat and Pakistani troops launching an offensive to drive out the Taliban forces, the pendulum of public opinion has swung dramatically.

Iran court hears reporter appeal

A court in Iran is hearing an appeal from jailed US-Iranian reporter Roxana Saberi, two days earlier than originally expected.

The BBC

Ms Saberi’s lawyer said it was not clear when a ruling would be announced, but that he was optimistic that the 32-year-old would be acquitted.

Ms Saberi was convicted of spying for the US – a charge she denied.

The case sparked international concern and US President Barack Obama has appealed on her behalf.

Appeal process

Unlike her original trial, the legal process this time has been arranged to appear fair and open, says the BBC’s Jon Leyne in Tehran.

While Sunday’s hearing is still not open to the public, Ms Saberi’s appeal is being heard before a panel of three judges, and representatives of the Iranian Bar Association are being allowed to attend.

Her lawyer has also been given plenty of notice.

USA

For Victims of Recession, Patchwork State Aid

THE SAFETY NET

By JASON DePARLE

Published: May 9, 2009

WASHINGTON – As millions of people seek government aid, many for the first time, they are finding it dispensed American style: through a jumble of disconnected programs that reach some and reject others, often for reasons of geography or chance rather than differences in need.

Health care, housing, food stamps and cash – each forms a separate bureaucratic world, and their dictates often collide. State differences make the patchwork more pronounced, and random foibles can intervene, like a computer debacle in Colorado that made it harder to get food stamps and Medicaid.

The result is a hit-or-miss system of relief, never designed to grapple with the pain of a recession so sudden and deep. Aid seekers often find the rules opaque and arbitrary. And officials often struggle to make policy through a system so complex and Balkanized.

All Mixed Up

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles, or UAV’s, is becoming increasingly controversial. U.S. military leaders say the robotic drone aircraft have been effective in killing Al-Qaeda and Taliban insurgents in Iraq, Afghanistan and Pakistan without putting U.S. troops in danger. But what happens when civilians die too? Our guest is Peter Singer, senior fellow and director of the 21st Century Defense Initiative at the Brookings Institution; he’s also author “Wired for War: The Robotics Revolution and Conflict in the 21st Century”

Still another US air strike killing dozens of civilians in Afghanistan, still another promise by the Pentagon to “investigate”, while in Washington President Obama hosts the AfPak summit with “Af” Hamid Karzai” and “Pak” Ali Zardari.

Obama’s surge in Afghanistan will ensure a steady supply of “collateral damage”, even though sane military voices condemn “democracy at gunpoint” and Taliban “tacticians” mock Gen. David Petraeus’ counterinsurgency tactics.

The Bush “war on terror” has been rebranded as “overseas contingency operations” (OCO) by the Obama administration.

Pepe Escobar argues everything remains the same, but with a new twist: Washington selling OCO in AfPak to US public opinion not as an American war – but as a Pakistani war.

Playing The Remix

The Golden Years

It was reported that automaker Nissan has introduced new features to appeal to Japan’s aging consumers, including door handles that open no matter which way they are grabbed and “extra knobs” to hold on to for support.

The car company’s engineers have also taken to donning an “aging suit” to experience what it’s like for a 70-year-old to get around.

A 91-year-old Kagoshima woman is gaining notoriety as the proprietor of Grandma’s English Salon. Hatsune Honda charges just ¥500 for lessons that last one or two hours.

In 1966, Honda also served as Sean Connery’s interpreter when the actor was in Japan filming the James Bond film You Only Live Twice.

A government survey revealed that nearly 40 percent of condominium owners in Tokyo are 60 or older, the highest such figure ever.