February 2, 2010 archive

Arrests intensify Haiti adoption debate

Some groups call for moratorium, others fear long-term clampdown

Associated Press

NEW YORK – The debate over international adoption, already a bitter one, has intensified in the aftermath of Haiti’s earthquake and the arrest of 10 Americans for trying to take children out of the devastated country without permission.

Some groups are urging a long moratorium on new adoptions from Haiti, saying there is too much chaos and too high a risk of mistakes or child trafficking. Other groups fear any long-term clampdown will consign countless children to lives in institutions or on the street, rather than in the loving homes of adoptive parents.

Chuck Johnson, chief operating officer of the National Council for Adoption, said the arrests of the 10 U.S. Baptists would probably undercut his organization’s push to expand adoptions from Haiti as soon as feasible.

Q&A: Who else could help in Afghanistan?

The US and Europe play a leading role in working for Afghanistan’s stability. Can the interests of China, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Russia also aid in the nation’s success

By Mian Ridge / Correspondent / February 1, 2010

New Delhi

Although the United States and its NATO allies are leading the effort to stabilize Afghanistan, many of Afghanistan’s powerful neighbors also have an interest in how the country fares.

China, India, Iran, Pakistan, and Russia are each invested in Afghanistan – Beijing, for example, has committed billions to mine copper, and Tehran pours aid into areas that border Iran.

Also out of national interest, though, these countries are leaving to the West the difficult task of fighting the Taliban. And for some, disagreements over unrelated issues have prevented further cooperation on Afghanistan.

Here’s a look at what role these countries play in Afghanistan.

Open Thread

President Obama is now perhaps the foremost contender for the Worst President Ever epithet.  Stealing that crown from Bush was a virtual impossibility, but Obama appears to be up for the challenge.  Obama said he recognized the need to change course, he was elected on that basis, and he expressly resisted change at every opportunity.  The endemic fraud of the Bush administration has more deeply retrenched in the persona of Obama.   The slick marketing campaign around the concepts of change we can believe in, we can do better, and yes we can was utterly fraudulent.  In the most charitable characterization, whatever self-justifying internal narrative propelled him to stump on change, his conception of change is now shown to be completely at odds with the public’s understanding.  This gulf of understanding is only bound to widen.  It wouldn’t be surprising to see The Gulf of Understanding completely militarized before this Presidency ends.

Americans apparently aren’t too concerned about wars of aggression, torture, illegal wiretapping, the rule of law, the separation of powers, the constitution, and so on, nor do they care much about how the US economy works, but they do care about their pocketbooks.  Not surprisingly, Obama’s fraudulent image is souring most saliently in the public’s attitude toward the bank bailouts, and more generally, the economy (Recall that his election was only cemented when the economy turned sharply south; that’s when Obama left McCain doddering in the polling dust).  Most of the economic damage was probably irreversible before Obama even took office, but he supported Bush’s actions wholly, upped the ante after taking office, and he’s been going “all in” ever since.  

During the SOTU, Obama said something quite attention-grabbing:

“We’re working to lift the value of a family’s single largest investment — their home [..]”

Like George “This sucker could go down” Bush before him, Obama was referring to the DEBT-o-nation of actual mortgages underlying and triggering the chain reaction of mortgage backed securities that are still set to take out lower Manhattan and the rest of the global economy like a controlled demolition.  The entire scheme was nothing less than the biggest fraud ever committed, and a lot of people were on to it at its early stages.  Spitzer, for example, wasn’t taken out for whoring.  Thus, the problems of the TBTF have only gotten bigger and failer.

Unfortunately, the debt-o-nation continues apace.

Here’s what you get if you go to CNN’s website and search for “South Dakota    tribes  state of emergency   winter storms.” Zero.

CNN Censors Emergency in Dakotas ONLINE ACTION FOR PINE RIDGE RESERVATION TODAY FROM AUTUMN TWOBULLS:

I have been told that your area news and the National news will not carry the story for my people unless and until CNN carries it. Each day someone has told me they have gone to CNN on Facebook, their website, or called into report our story, since the 12/20/09 State of Emergency was issued.