Image via WikipediaCITY OF BROOKFIELD BALLOT BAGS FOUND 'WIDE OPEN' IN WAUKESHA COUNTY, WI
"We are finding significant anomalies, including chain of custody and missing ballots, that we need to shine light on," Kloppenburg campaign manager Melissa Mulliken told The BRAD BLOG earlier this week, while we were working on our previous story. The anomalies she was referring to, given where today's unsecured ballots are said to come from, have gotten much more "significant" in the past few hours........one of them had its serial number crossed out and then replaced by another number to match the one seen on the plastic zip-cord "seal" still attached to the bag --- another chain of custody violation. Also, yesterday, ballot bags with six-inch openings in the top, large enough to pull ballots in and out of, were also discovered from Waukesha's Village of Elm Grove. (See more photos of all below.)
The new anomalies come on top of similarly disturbing chain of custody violations previously discovered in at least eight other "counting units," mostly in Waukesha, but elsewhere in the state as well.
The majority of votes cast in Wisconsin are on hand-marked paper ballots, but are then scanned by oft-failed and easily-manipulated electronic tabulating optical-scan computers made by companies like Diebold, ES&S, and Sequoia without being checked for accuracy by human beings. Thus, our use of quotes around the word "recount,"
since almost all of the ballots cast in the crucial statewide election have never, until now, been examined for accuracy by any human being.
The stunning announcement of those 14,000 votes from the City of Brookfield, two days after the April 5th election, reversed what had originally been reported as an exceedingly slim (and unverified) "win" for Kloppenburg on Election Night. The Supreme Court race had become a referendum on Republican Gov. Scott Walker's controversial move to strip rights from citizens to collectively bargain with the state. Supporters of both candidates spent millions on outside advertising in the closing days of the contest.
Brookfield's game-changing votes were revealed to have been missed during a remarkable press conference on the night of April 7th, held by Prosser's former colleague and long-time GOP activist, Waukesha County Clerk Kathy Nickolaus. She is now under investigation for past election irregularities as well, including the recent discovery of some 20,000 more votes reported than the number said to have been cast in the county's 2006 general election.
Nickolaus waited nearly two days before notifying state officials or her own Board of Canvassers to her discovery of what she described as "human error" in failing to report the Brookfield totals on Election Night. The Kloppenburg campaign has asked for a special independent investigation into the matter.
Wisconsin Dems Charge GOP With Massive Fraud on State Senate Recall Petitions
As if the Wisconsin Supreme Court Justice “recount” isn’t a big enough mess, It appears that the Wisconsin GOP has been engaged in widespread fraud surrounding their attempts to recall democratic senators. Inexplicably, the Republican Party of Wisconsin had relied heavily on people they hired from out of state to collect signatures against democrats, even paying to house these folks in hotel rooms. In all cases, they paid by the signature. Sounds like a recipe for disaster, right? The decision to pay out of state people when there are plenty of unemployed folks that reside in those senate districts who may actually be invested in the outcome of these recall elections makes no sense at all. But the story gets even better....
In a press release issued today by the Democratic Party of Wisconsin, Senate Minority Leader Mark Miller states “”The overwhelming evidence clearly shows a pervasive pattern of election fraud committed by the shady out-of-state organization hired by Republicans to collect recall petitions,” and “Thousands of Wisconsin citizens fell victim to lies and misinformation spread by the circulators, and the papers submitted by this operation contain a river of omissions and wrong information.”
...
Miller continued: “We believe that when the facts are reviewed, the GAB will throw out thousands of flawed signatures because they were fraudulent or defective. The vast depth of this misconduct calls into question the legitimacy of every signature collected by these circulators, and shows that the GOP effort failed to gather the valid signatures needed for recall elections.“
...
Kennedy Enterprises received nearly $100,000 from the Republican Party of Wisconsin to circulate recall petitions. Kennedy owns a tarnished reputation based on past offenses in Colorado. Some of the cases and examples of election fraud outlined in the formal recall challenge of GOP petitions to be filed this afternoon include:
DePula details still more bullet-point allegations in his coverage, and notes that a "formal challenge" to the petitions will be "filed on behalf of the Democratic senators" this afternoon. A press conference, he ads, will be held this afternoon at 4:15pm local time to discuss the challenge....
Miller continued: “We believe that when the facts are reviewed, the GAB will throw out thousands of flawed signatures because they were fraudulent or defective. The vast depth of this misconduct calls into question the legitimacy of every signature collected by these circulators, and shows that the GOP effort failed to gather the valid signatures needed for recall elections.“
...
Kennedy Enterprises received nearly $100,000 from the Republican Party of Wisconsin to circulate recall petitions. Kennedy owns a tarnished reputation based on past offenses in Colorado. Some of the cases and examples of election fraud outlined in the formal recall challenge of GOP petitions to be filed this afternoon include:
- Senate District 12: Of the 534 people contacted who had signed the petition, 9.2% indicated they were misled into signing the petition or asserted they had never signed.
- Senate District 22: Of the 225 people contacted who had signed the petition, 6.6% indicated they were misled into signing the petition or asserted they had never signed.
- Senate District 30: Of the 372 people contacted who had signed the petition, 8.6% indicated they were misled into signing the petition or asserted they had never signed.
- Affidavit of a World War II veteran from Green Bay who was misled into signing a recall petition. Upon learning he had been duped, veteran called the sheriff to get his name removed. When confronted, the circulator claims he will remove the name, but a later review of the petitions reveals the veteran’s name was never crossed off.
- Many affidavits attesting that Circulator Sherri Ferrell – who gathered nearly 3,000 signatures in two districts — gathered signatures on Indian reservations claiming petitions were to support “schools,” “Democrats,” and “tribal rights.”
- Affidavit of voter in Senate District 22 attesting that circulator John Prijic claimed the petitions were for work to be done on a local park.
- Affidavit of voter in Senate District 30 attesting that circulator Annette Lord claimed the petitions were to recall Republican Senator Cowles.
- Affidavit of voter in Senate District 30 attesting that circulator Richard Madrill claimed the petitions were to recall Republican Gov. Scott Walker.
For some reason, we suspect that these detailed charges of fraud will not make their way into the fake Fox "News" canon of fake outrage over (usually) fake election-related fraud charges.
As of last night's deadline, petitions for recalls of 6 Republican and 3 Democratic state Senators have been filed with the state. They are now pending confirmation by Wisconsin's Government Accountability Board (G.A.B.) to assure the appropriate number of legal signatures on each have been collected as per the rule of law.
Given the unprecedent number of likely recall elections, the G.A.B. received approval from a Dane County, WI court to extend the time usually needed to verify signatures, and to consolidate all of the recall elections once petition signatures are approved as legitimate, on a single day, July 12.
The recalls against the Republicans come as part of a public backlash in response to the Republican-led state legislature's controversial --- and potentially illegal --- move to pass Gov. Scott Walker's legislation removing many of the rights for citizens to collectively bargain with the state. The three Democratic recalls are being carried out by Republicans in response to the 14 Democratic Senators who fled the state earlier this year in an attempt to block the legislation by denying the Republicans the quorum needed in the Senate for voting on laws related to the budget.
Eventually, after long insisting the union-stripping measures were budget-related, Republicans took those provisions out of the budget bill, and passed them separately by a simple majority in a non-budget-related bill without Democratic participation. The law, quickly signed by Walker, is now being challenged in state court, as Democrats have argued that it was passed in violation of the state's public meeting laws requiring 24 hours public notice before such bills are discussed in conference and voted on by the legislature.
Another Wake-up Call To Be Ignored: Aquifer’s Depletion Poses Sweeping Threat
So the aquifer is dropping lower and lower, and some geologists fear it could dry up in as soon as 25 or 30 years. This is a major issue confronting not just those eight states but the entire country.
- A 21st-century water forecast (NYT Green):
The broad-brush conclusion of a new federal report on the future impact of climate change ( TM Reg'd - satire ) on water in the West is a bit familiar. Throughout the West, there will be less snow, and what snow there is will melt faster. The dry Southwest is going to get drier, and the wet Northwest wetter.
Facing the dirty truth about 'recyclable' plastics (Yale 360)
Mercury levels are rising in Arctic animals (Huffington Post Green)
Iowa soil washing away at rates far higher than expected. (NYTGreen)
How to profit from the coming ecopocalypse (Climate Progress):
"The world is using up its natural resources at an alarming rate, and this has caused a permanent shift in their value. We all need to adjust our behavior to this new environment. It would help if we did it quickly."
That’s the conclusion of an important analysis by uber-hedge fund manager Jeremy Grantham, a self-described “die hard contrarian.” He is one of the few leading financial figures who gets both peak oil and global warming...
Oil Above All: Members Of HEAT Task Force Have Received Over $4 Million From Big Oil (Wonk Room)
Black Is White, Day Is Night
from (title unknown) by thefreeslave
Bin Laden: AUTHENTIC INTERVIEW
Swiss scientists 95% sure that Bin Laden recording was fakeCheney’s Plan: Nuke Iran (Great take on US media)
A witness to Bin Laden’s ‘death’ says it’s bullshit
“Early in life I had noticed that no event is ever correctly reported in the newspaper.”George Orwell
“There is no such thing, at this stage of the world’s history in America, as an independent press. You know it and I know it. There is not one of you who dare write your honest opinions, and if you did, you know beforehand that it would never appear in print. I am paid weekly for keeping my honest opinions out of the paper I am connected with. Others of you are paid similar salaries for similar things, and any of you who would be foolish as to write honest opinions would be out on the streets looking for another job. If I allowed my honest opinions to appear in one issue of my papers, before twenty-four hours my occupation would be gone. The business of the journalist is to destroy the truth, to lie outright, to pervert, to vilify, to fawn at the feet of Mammon, and to sell his country and his race for his daily bread. You know it and I know it, and what folly is this toasting an independent press? We are the jumping jacks, they pull the strings and we dance. Our talents, our possibilities and our lives are all the property of other men. We are intellectual prostitutes.”
John Swinton
Chief Editorial Writer,
New York Times,
1860-1870
Mukami.TV! Your Voice, Amplified!!
from (title unknown)Free Thinking Unabii
http://mpayukaji.blogspot.com
Is it Gadaffi's begining of the end or dupe?
Gadaffi's stinging quote on radial prejudice
"We don’t know what will happen, what will be the reaction of the white and Christian Europeans faced with this influx of starving and ignorant Africans," Col Gaddafi said in Rome, August 30, 2010.
Message from Colonel Mu’ummar Qaddafi
Translated by Professor Sam Hamod, Ph.D.
Recollections of My Life: Col. Mu'ummar Qaddafi, The Leader of the Revolution. April 5, 2011.
In the name of Allah, the beneficent, the merciful...
For 40 years, or was it longer, I can't remember, I did all I could to give people houses, hospitals, schools, and when they were hungry, I gave them food. I even made Benghazi into farmland from the desert, I stood up to attacks from that cowboy Reagan, when he killed my adopted orphaned daughter, he was trying to kill me, instead he killed that poor innocent child. Then I helped my brothers and sisters from Africa with money for the African Union.
I did all I could to help people understand the concept of real democracy, where people's committees ran our country. But that was never enough, as some told me, even people who had 10 room homes, new suits and furniture, were never satisfied, as selfish as they were they wanted more. They told Americans and other visitors, that they needed "democracy" and "freedom" never realizing it was a cut throat system, where the biggest dog eats the rest, but they were enchanted with those words, never realizing that in America, there was no free medicine, no free hospitals, no free housing, no free education and no free food, except when people had to beg or go to long lines to get soup.
No, no matter what I did, it was never enough for some, but for others, they knew I was the son of Gamal Abdel Nasser, the only true Arab and Muslim leader we've had since Salah-al-Deen, when he claimed the Suez Canal for his people, as I claimed Libya, for my people, it was his footsteps I tried to follow, to keep my people free from colonial domination - from thieves who would steal from us.
Now, I am under attack by the biggest force in military history, my little African son, Obama wants to kill me, to take away the freedom of our country, to take away our free housing, our free medicine, our free education, our free food, and replace it with American style thievery, called "capitalism," but all of us in the Third World know what that means, it means corporations run the countries, run the world, and the people suffer. So, there is no alternative for me, I must make my stand, and if Allah wishes, I shall die by following His path, the path that has made our country rich with farmland, with food and health, and even allowed us to help our African and Arab brothers and sisters to work here with us, in the Libyan Jamahiriya.
I do not wish to die, but if it comes to that, to save this land, my people, all the thousands who are all my children, then so be it.
Let this testament be my voice to the world, that I stood up to crusader attacks of NATO, stood up to cruelty, stood up to betrayal, stood up to the West and its colonialist ambitions, and that I stood with my African brothers, my true Arab and Muslim brothers, as a beacon of light. When others were building castles, I lived in a modest house, and in a tent. I never forgot my youth in Sirte, I did not spend our national treasury foolishly, and like Salah-al-Deen, our great Muslim leader, who rescued Jerusalem for Islam, I took little for myself...
In the West, some have called me "mad", "crazy", but they know the truth yet continue to lie, they know that our land is independent and free, not in the colonial grip, that my vision, my path, is, and has been clear and for my people and that I will fight to my last breath to keep us free, may Allah almighty help us to remain faithful and free.
c: Col. Mu'ummar Qaddafi, 2011/05/04
Copyright Col. Mu'ummar Qaddafi, - Mathaba.Net
Bombing of Libya (1986)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_El_Dorado_Canyon
Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi and his family rushed out of their residence in the Bab al-Azizia compound moments before the bombs dropped.
In July 2008, Gaddafi's son Saif al Islam announced that an agreement was being negotiated with the United States whereby Libya would make any future compensation payments to American victims of terror attacks conditional upon the settlement of claims by victims of the U.S. bombing of Libya in 1986.[15] On August 14, 2008 the resultant U.S.-Libya Comprehensive Claims Settlement Agreement was signed in Tripoli by Assistant Secretary of State for Near Eastern Affairs, David Welch, and by Libya's Secretary for American Affairs, Ahmad Fituri.[16]
In October 2008 Libya paid US$1.5 billion, over three installments of US$300 million on October 9, 2008, US$600 million on October 30, 2008, and a final US$600 million October 31, 2008, into a fund[17] which will be used to compensate relatives of the
* Lockerbie bombing victims an additional US$2 million each, after having paid them US$8 million earlier;[17]
* American victims of the 1986 Berlin discotheque bombing;[17]
* American victims of the 1989 UTA Flight 772 bombing;[17] and,
* Libyan victims of the 1986 US bombing of Tripoli and Benghazi.[17]
To pay the settlement, Libya demanded US$1.5 billion from global oil companies operating in Libya's oil fields, under threat of "serious consequences" to their leases. Libya's settlement was at least partially funded by some companies, including some based in the U.S., that chose to cooperate with Libya's demand.[18]
As a result, President George W. Bush signed an executive order restoring the Libyan government's immunity from terror-related lawsuits and dismissing all of the pending compensation cases in the United States.[17]
By a vote of 79 in favor to 28 against with 33 abstentions[not in citation given], the United Nations General Assembly adopted resolution 41/38 which "condemns the military attack perpetrated against the Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya on 15 April 1986, which constitutes a violation of the Charter of the United Nations and of international law."[34]
The Government of Libya said that the United States had fallen prey to the arrogance and madness of power and wanted to become the world's policeman. It charged that any party that did not agree to become an American vassal was an outlaw, a terrorist, and a devil. A meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement said that it condemned the "dastardly, blatant and unprovoked act of aggression". The League of Arab States expressed that it was outraged at the United States aggression and that it reinforced an element of anarchy in international relations. The Assembly of Heads of State of the African Union in its declaration said that the deliberate attempt to kill Libyans violated the principles of international law. The Government of Iran asserted that the attack constituted a policy of aggression, gunboat diplomacy, an act of war, and called for an extensive political and economic boycott of the United States
Missile strike kills Gadhafi's son, 3 grandchildren: Spokesperson ...
30 Apr 2011 ... Libyan leader Moammar Gadhafi survived a NATO missile strike Saturday that killed his youngest son and three grandchildren and wounded ...www.thestar.com/.../983461--missile-strike-kills-gadhafi-s-son-3-
Mobs protesting Saturday night's NATO assault on a Gadhafi family compound vandalized the British and Italian embassies, the U.S. consulate and a United Nations office in Tripoli early Sunday. The U.N. withdrew its 12 Tripoli-based international staffers from Libya. Britain, whose embassy buildings were badly burned, ordered the expulsion of Libya's ambassador to London.
“The African Star Wars” by Pepe Escobar
Article featured in Aljazeera:From energy wars to water wars, the 21st century will be determined by a fierce battle for the world’s remaining natural resources. The chessboard is global. The stakes are tremendous. Most battles will be invisible. All will be crucial.
In resource-rich Africa, a complex subplot of the New Great Game in Eurasia is already in effect. It’s all about three major intertwined developments:
1) The coming of age of the African Union (AU) in the early 2000s.
2) China’s investment offencive in Africa throughout the 2000s.
3) The onset of the Pentagon’s African Command (Africom) in 2007.
Beijing clearly sees that the Anglo-French-American bombing of Libya – apart from its myriad geopolitical implications – has risked billions of dollars in Chinese investments, not to mention forcing the (smooth) evacuation of more than 35,000 Chinese working across the country.
And crucially, depending on the outcome – as in renegotiated energy contracts by a pliable, pro-Western government – it may also seriously jeopardise Chinese oil imports (3 per cent of total Chinese imports in 2010).
No wonder the China Military, a People’s Liberation Army (PLA) newspaper, as well as sectors in academia, are now openly arguing that China needs to drop Deng Xiaoping’s “low-profile” policy and bet on a sprawling armed forces to defend its strategic interests worldwide (these assets already total over $1.2 trillion).
Now compare it with a close examination of Africom’s strategy, which reveals as the proverbial hidden agenda the energy angle and a determined push to isolate China from northern Africa.
One report titled “China’s New Security Strategy in Africa” actually betrays the Pentagon’s fear of the PLA eventually sending troops to Africa to protect Chinese interests.
It won’t happen in Libya. It’s not about to happen in Sudan. But further on down the road, all bets are off.
Meddle is our middle name
The Pentagon has in fact been meddling in Africa’s affairs for more than half a century. According to a 2010 US Congressional Research Service study, this happened no less than 46 times before the current Libya civil war.
Among other exploits, the Pentagon invested in a botched large-scale invasion of Somalia and backed the infamous, genocide-related Rwanda regime.
The Bill Clinton administration raised hell in Liberia, Gabon, Congo and Sierra Leone, bombed Sudan, and sent “advisers” to Ethiopia to back dodgy clients grabbing a piece of Somalia (by the way, Somalia has been at war for 20 years).
The September 2002 National Security Strategy (NSS), conceived by the Bush administration, is explicit; Africa is a “strategic priority in fighting terrorism”.
Yet, the never-say-die “war on terror” is a sideshow in the Pentagon’s vast militarisation agenda, which favours client regimes, setting up military bases, and training of mercenaries – “cooperative partnerships” in Pentagon newspeak.
Africom has some sort of military “partnership” – bilateral agreements – with most of Africa’s 53 countries, not to mention fuzzy multilateral schemes such as West African Standby Force and Africa Partnership Station.
American warships have dropped by virtually every African nation except for those bordering the Mediterranean.
The exceptions: Ivory Coast, Sudan, Eritrea and Libya. Ivory Coast is now in the bag. So is South Sudan. Libya may be next. The only ones left to be incorporated to Africom will be Eritrea and Zimbabwe.
Africom’s reputation has not been exactly sterling – as the Tunisian and Egyptian chapters of the great 2011 Arab Revolt caught it totally by surprise. These “partners”, after all, were essential for surveillance of the southern Mediterranean and the Red Sea.
Libya for its part presented juicy possibilities: an easily demonised dictator; a pliable post-Gaddafi puppet regime; a crucial military base for Africom; loads of excellent cheap oil; and the possibility of throwing China out of Libya.
Under the Obama administration, Africom thus started its first African war. In the words of its commander, General Carter Ham, “we completed a complex, short-notice, operational mission in Libya and… transferred that mission to NATO.”
And that leads us to the next step. Africom will share all its African “assets” with NATO. Africom and NATO are in fact one – the Pentagon is a many-headed hydra after all.
Beijing for its part sees right through it; the Mediterranean as a NATO lake (neocolonialism is back especially, via France and Britain); Africa militarised by Africom; and Chinese interests at high risk.
“Africa’s Hidden Presidents?” by Nkwazi Mhango
from (title unknown)What transpired in Ivory Coast recently, luckily, unearthed a great rot in our education system and upper echelons of power in Africa. Laurent Gbagbo, the professor of History, made a bad history for not understanding history. He mindlessly clung unto power so as to cause many deaths and many casualties.
Gbagbo’s saga is a test to our educational intergrity and worth for us as a society. Many would think a such highly educated person would know basic things such as human rights, freedom and rule of law, so as to uphold democracy especially elections. But nay, the guy thought though wrongly he was but a king.
After Gbagbo was shamefully dragooned out it came to light that his wife, Dr Simone Ehivet Gbagbo, also the historian, harshly used him to tighten his grip on power and terrorize the country by ignoring all rules in the book.
In this dirty business of dirty politics Gbagbo is not alone. Who knew that a professor of law like Abdulaye Wade (Senegal) would tamper the constitution and extend his term in office on top of grooming his son to inherit his presidency?
Who would risk thinking that a hyper academician like Robert Mugabe, would mess the way he has always been doing. Who would think that Mugabe would be hoodwinked by an illiterate like his wife Grace Marufu, so as to abuse the powers vested on him as president?
The sage has it that when you want to tame a bull, you must know where its strength and weakness lie. For African big men their strength-cum-weakness is in the bedroom. So who occupies and controls their bedrooms, control everything including them and their powers.
This can be seen in, among others, Simone, former political activist, who was able to make or affect whatever decision Gbagbo made. She was like a president, especially acting as an adviser to the president. Many people who know her believe Gbagbo’s decision not to cede power to a constitutionally elected president Alasane Ouattara, was the result of the advice of this lady.
When the world found that Gbagbo had lost his sense of reasoning, it intervened to see to it that he is booted out. Interestingly, UN and Ivorian former colonial master, the French, took a lead in getting rid of the tyrant.
Gbagbo and his wife were humiliatingly bundled before the media, as they were dug out from the bunker they had spent over two weeks hiding. Indeed, Gbagbo once again proved the sage that education sometimes does not emancipate the bearer if he is unable to read the signs of times. So too, was his son, Michel, who was severely beaten before the TV cameras. It was a shame of its own magnitude for the former president and his family to be treated just like common criminals. All this happened just recently. But did our venal rulers make any note of it?
Today’s analysis is based on hidden presidents, namely the first ladies and members of the families of the presidents. Simone was described by many media outlets as the lady that was feared more than the president himself. Moreover, she was implicated in many scandals among which is the case involving the disappearance of her husband’s rivals, prominent one being French-Canadian journalist Guy-André Kieffer. Kieffer is believed to have been hijacked under the instructions of Simone in 2004. Since then Kieffer has nary been seen anywhere.
What was unveiled in Ivory Coast is just a typical replica of what has, for long, been going on in many African countries as far as power greed is concerned. It is more a tip of iceberg. Sadly though, when all this sacrilege is going on, those who oil the cog are encouraged to produce more as they slink to stinking poverty.
Presidency in corruption-rampant Africa is the means to opulence, not only for the holder of it but also his or her family, friends in other cases even the tribe. The capital so much used by hidden African hidden presidents is nothing but sharing bed with the big man plus being able to manipulate him. In today’s analysis we shall try to explore incidents where the “hidden Simones or presidents behind the curtains” are going on with business as usual.
In Uganda, Yoweri museveni’s wife Janet, the first lady and minister is still a legendary when it comes to tame the man. It is alleged that clan and kids are all benefiting from the government of the day and nobody is blotting this nepotism.
In Guinea Bissau the tyrant Theodore Obiang Nguema allowed his namesake son to scoop from the treasury as much money as he deems fit. This tiny country with the population of a half a million, of which over 50% are living under a dollar a day, is like Nguema’s private estate. The son of president, who also is a minister in his father’s government, owns mansions and beaches worth millions of dollars in Malibu and a personal jet worth over $ 30,000,000 is untouchable. To add more flavour, the son of the tyrant spends a million bucks in every trip he makes to the US. Why is the US gagged? Wherever there is trouble, just drop a coin.
Not far from Equatorial Guinea, there is Congo Brazzaville where the son of the tyrant, Denis Christel Sassou-Nguesso, has all it takes even to stop IMF and WB from probing any malpractice involving public funds. Just like Nguema, the boy can spend any huge amount of money without raising any alarm! Remember this is the country of just 4,012,809. The irony is despite having a small population with where 50% lives under a dollar a day, the same has the income of $ 3,000,000,000 annually from oil. Where does the money go? Ask the tyrant, his son and cohorts. Anyway, this is Africa.
In Tanzania, the son of President Jakaya Kikwete, Ridhiwani and the president’s wife Salma, are occupying senior positions in the ruling party to which Kikwete is chairman. One opposition party (CHADEMA) recently alleged that Ridhiwan is a billionaire despite the fact that he just graduated from school recently.
To and more flavour, Salma runs an NGO that mints and prints millions of shillings without auditing report or anything near! So too, most of her friends are in high position thanks to their friendship to this hidden president.
In Kenya, Unga (Flour) scandal that left Lucy Kibaki morally nude, is still reverberating even though it was put to rest just like Anglo-Leasing scam.
In Ethiopia the wife of Prime Minister Meles Zenawi, Azeb Mesfin is known as Queen of Mega, thanks to being alleged to have an upper hand in mega corruption.
The last but not least player is none other than Robert Mugabe’s sweetheart Grace Gucchi Mugabe. This lady is renowned for over spending, especially at the time Zimbabweans are dying in thousands thanks to poverty and mismanagement. Grace stole thunder when she was linked with Bloody Diamond by Wikeleaks recently, before the media uncovered her coveted love with governor of Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe (RBZ), Gideon Gono. Thanks to her ability to muzzle Mugabe, nothing has ever gone wrong in their convenient marriage despite the leak. Gono is still the governor of RBZ and Grace is still first lady. This can show you how president behind the curtains are more powerful than those you see on the arena.
Going back where we started, what was unearthed in Simone Gbagbo sheds light on a true but grimmer picture of what has been going on in Africa where presidents behind the curtains have inflicted a great deal of sufferings to our people and our economies. Think about that and evaluate your ruler.
Nkwazi Mhango is a Tanzanian living in Canada. He writes regularly for “The African Executive” and also has a blog entitled “Free Thinking Unabii”. He is a regular contributor to AfroSpear.
Uncomfortable Silence: Pakistan After Bin Laden
from ALL THINGS PAKISTANThere are as many opinions on what happened in Abbottabad as there are Pakistanis. Maybe more. But there is no sense whatsoever where the government of Pakistan (or any of its major institutions) stand on what happened – or stood when it was happening. For 36 hours now the world has been waiting to see what Pakistan does and says – the silence and incoherence from Islamabad has not just been embarrassing, it has been damning. Finally, key institutions in Pakistan have begun trying to piece a narrative together – unfortunately it is way too late and the narrative itself rather lame.
When I put up a short post on Osama Bin Laden’s death soon after the news broke, I had hoped that in time more details would become available and we would get more clarity on what happened and how. We do now have more detail. But certainly not more clarity. The story about what happened in Abbottabad now lives in Spin-abad. Everyone – from governments, secret agencies, the media, the Twitterati, and your spinster aunt – are taking a spin. Many are taking multiple, sometimes contradictory, spins. Everyone except the Pakistan government.
That, of course, is a surprise – not only because the Pakistan government does have a lot of explaining to do, but even more because it is in the interest of the Pakistan government to do that explaining itself rather than have someone else do it for them. Yet, up until it was already too late, Pakistan seems to have abdicated that responsibility. In fact, President Barack Obama, Secretary Hillary Clinton and Senator John Kerry seemed to be making that (half-hearted) case for Pakistan more than anyone in authority in Pakistan. Given that President Obama had informed President Zardari before the speech from the US President, one would have assumed that the Pakistan President and his media handlers would have their own statement ready to go on the air minutes, if not seconds, after President Obama’s speech. This is not about spin and PR, this is Diplomacy 101: Own and define the narrative as soon and as clearly as you can before someone else defines it for you – especially if the narrative is likely to be unfavorable.
But the narrative, itself, is not the core of Pakistan’s challenges. The problem is the facts on the ground and the government’s inability and unwillingness to explain them. Pakistan is used to the feeling of the world ganging up on it. But there are good reasons for the questions being asked of Pakistan by the world today. There are even better reasons for the questions being asked of Pakistan by Pakistanis today. Whether the government comes clean to the world or not, it is vital that it respond to Pakistanis. The first is a matter of national image (no trivial issue, that), but the latter is a question of citizen trust in national institutions (an existential element of statehood).
The fact is that there is a Pakistan case to be made on this issue. And it needs to be made to Pakistanis much more than to the rest of the world.
Mr. Bean in Pakistan
from ALL THINGS PAKISTANWhen I first saw the Habib Bank Ads with Mr. Bean, for a minute I actually thought they had inserted old (and original) Mr. Bean clippings into their Ads. I later realized that this was a Pakistan look-alike for the original Mr. Bean, Rowan Atkinson.
Film Notes: The Battle of Chile
Just before leaving on vacation, I had the opportunity to see Patricio Guzman's epic documentary, The Battle of Chile, at the Pacific Film Archive. In this approximately four and a half hour film, released in 1975, he profiles the intensifying class conflict during the presidency of Salvador Allende that culminated in the 1973 coup. Fortunately, for those of you who are interested, the film is available on DVD.Guzman lived in Chile during the events in question, and filmed them, and the public response to them, as they happened. His emphasis is upon the transformation of society by collective, popular action, and the challenges associated with such an endeavor, as most concisely expressed in a famous sentence from Allende's last speech during the coup: History is ours and the people make it. Within the polarized, politically charged climate of Chile in the early 1970s, such a seemingly homogenized statement of political rhetoric constituted a commitment of perpetual resistance. Guzman's effort to smuggle the footage for the film out of Chile to Sweden so that it could be edited and publicly released was one form of such resistance.For it was within Chile that the neoliberals entered their Garden of Eden, implementing policies of extreme austerity and privatization by means of a destabilization of society orchestrated by the CIA, ITT and the AFL-CIO and the subsequent authoritarian social controls associated with a military regime. It was here that Milton Friedman and the Chicago School, with their purported concern about ensuring that people are free to choose, persuaded General Augusto Pinochet to radically implement capital friendly, market based policies against the will of much of the Chilean populace. In an instance of dialectical irony, the truck drivers, copper workers and middle class people that served in the vanguard of opposition to Allende found themselves among the victims of Pinochet's policies. People around the world have been fighting the export of these neoliberal policies with varying degrees of success ever since. Guzman conveys the ferocity of the initial struggle within Chile as a sort of fatalistic, documentary noir.
Of course, this is a well known history, a tale told many times, most recently by Naomi Klein in The Shock Doctrine. Lesser known is the provocation for the coup, the vision of society that so threatened the middle class, the military and economic elites, including investors thousands of miles away in the United States. In his documentary, Guzman focuses upon the people and social movements that sought to socialize Chilean society and the opposition to them. As Part 1 began, I was overwhelmed by the emotional political participation of people within Chilean society. From the socially alienated, politically disengaged world of 2011, I almost thought that The Battle of Chile was a newly created film genre, the political science fiction period film. One cannot dismiss this by claiming that Guzman was speaking solely with politically engaged people, as he conducted many of his interviews with people from all walks of life, especially those involved in industrial production. He is seemingly everywhere, filming mass rallies, election campaigns, factory occupations, land seizures and organized campaigns to transport people and supply food during the effort to disrupt the Chilean economy and interviewing the participants.
By doing so, Guzman reveals the collective liberatory possibilities embedded within the emergence of popular power, the fusion of political and economic power within communities, administered through increasingly anti-authoritarian forms of social organization, something that, in a different context, Samuel Huntington alarmingly described as a democratic distemper, a situation whereby people demanded more of the government while becoming increasingly resistant to its authority. Within Chile, democratic distemper took the specific form of workers, who had been exploited by their employers and investors for decades while living in terrible conditions, responding to the election of Allende by accelerating the pace of the nationalization of some sectors of the economy by taking over taking over factories themselves. Meanwhile, peasants carried out their own land reform independent of the government by taking land for themselves. Parallel to these efforts, people mobilized to distribute necessities, such as food, during times of scarcity, and provide transportation during CIA financed strikes by transport workers, on a more egalitarian, socially conscious basis. Such actions, combined with the alliance by local economic elites and the United States to make the daily lives of Chileans more and more chaotic and difficult, shattered the effort of Allende to administer a peaceful path to socialism by taking control of the commanding heights of the economy for the benefit of middle and lower class Chileans.
let me make it clear what i think of you
"We are deeply grateful to the US for its diplomatic leadership, military support, and humanitarian assistance in the fight against the Qaddafi regime," said Ajuli in a statement. "During his visit, Dr. Jibril will help to fill out the picture and the plans of the opposition and its leadership in its efforts to establish a free and democratic Libya."
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will be out of town for Jibril's visit, on an official visit to Greenland.
NDP MP Brosseau admits she's never visited Quebec riding
Controversial NDP MP Ruth Ellen Brosseau, who won her Quebec seat despite jetting off to Las Vegas mid-campaign, has broken her silence, admitting that she hadn't expected to win in a riding she's never stepped foot in before.
( Oh, Canada ! )
Bad weld, backfill blamed in oil spill
A massive oil spill in northern Alberta likely was caused by poorly compacted soil under the pipeline, and was a one-time event, said operator Plains Midstream Canada.
Gallery: Mopping up after worst Alberta oil spill in decades
Crews at work at the site of an oil spill near Little Buffalo, Alberta Thursday, May 5, 2011. where 4.5 million litres of oil spilled from the Rainbow pipeline Friday, April 29, 2011, covering a right-of-way almost a kilometre long, settling in wetlands.
Provincial plan to save energy revenue wins praise
Economists and environmentalists say the Alberta government is finally discussing points regarding the province’s long-term economic health they’ve been making for years, in a new report spearheaded by Premier Ed Stelmach.
Alberta oil pipeline spill will take years to clean up: Environmentalist
The 28,000 barrels of crude oil spilled into a wetland near Peace River will likely take years to clean up, especially if oil soaks into the subsoil or groundwater, said a managing director of the Pembina Institute, an Alberta-based energy and environment think tank .
City hall rejects plan to restore old C-Train cars
Aldermen are backing off proposals to refurbish 30-year-old C-Train cars instead of buying new ones, with a decision that sets back hopes for aggressive upgrades to southeast transit. A council committee voted to instead buy 50 new LRT vehicles to bolster the existing fleet, which commits the vast majority of a long-awaited provincial transit grant to current train lines instead of a future southeast LRT expansion.
Setback for Libyan rebels as Gadhafi bombs fuel tanks
Libyan government forces bomb large fuel storage tanks in the contested western city of Misrata, destroying the tanks and sparking a huge fire.
U of C unveils lighter, faster solar car
It’s lighter, sleeker and ready to take top prize at the World Solar Challenge in the Australian outback this October.
16 killed in Christian village in northern Nigeria: Police
At least 16 people were killed in a pre-dawn attack Friday in a Christian village in northern Nigeria beset by ethnic and sectarian violence, police told AFP.
U.S. House pushes bill through to boost oil and gas drilling
U.S. President Barack Obama's Republican foes on Thursday pushed a bill to boost offshore oil drilling through the House of Representatives.
Oil rebounds after 10 per cent drop
Oil prices bounced back Friday from a torrid 10 per cent slide the previous session, as shellshocked traders mulled market fundamentals and the frenzy this week that wiped out half the year’s gains.
Horn River shale gas potential doubles British Columbia’s reserves
Additions from British Columbia’s prolific Horn River basin have doubled that province’s natural gas resources, according to a new report by provincial and national energy regulators.
Producing oil and gas and protecting water resources
http://www.apachecorp.com/Resources/Upload/Sustainability/environment/resources/water.html
http://www.apachecorp.com/Resources/Upload/Sustainability/environment/resources/water.html
Securing large volumes of water needed to develop unconventional formations like the Horn River Basin in northeast British Columbia is a key issue for Apache and other oil and gas producers, along with the imperative to use great care to prevent contamination of drinking water aquifers penetrated on the way to productive formations.
Applying two well-known and proven technologies — horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing — has unlocked previously untapped natural gas resources in North America. Environmentally responsible operations and innovative solutions to water issues are essential if natural gas is to fulfill its promise as a means to reduce carbon emissions from the electric generation and transportation sectors.
Apache has years of experience dealing with water issues in drilling and production operations and seeking solutions that rely on non-potable water (non-freshwater or water not suitable for drinking) in its operations. This reduces the impact on regional aquifers, lakes and rivers used for local water supplies. In mature oil fields, like Apache’s fields in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, the largest component of what comes out of the well is salt water that is separated from the oil and frequently pumped right back into the reservoir, enhancing the recovery of oil and gas reserves while minimizing the disposal of production by-products.
Applying two well-known and proven technologies — horizontal drilling and hydraulic fracturing — has unlocked previously untapped natural gas resources in North America. Environmentally responsible operations and innovative solutions to water issues are essential if natural gas is to fulfill its promise as a means to reduce carbon emissions from the electric generation and transportation sectors.
Apache has years of experience dealing with water issues in drilling and production operations and seeking solutions that rely on non-potable water (non-freshwater or water not suitable for drinking) in its operations. This reduces the impact on regional aquifers, lakes and rivers used for local water supplies. In mature oil fields, like Apache’s fields in the Permian Basin of West Texas and New Mexico, the largest component of what comes out of the well is salt water that is separated from the oil and frequently pumped right back into the reservoir, enhancing the recovery of oil and gas reserves while minimizing the disposal of production by-products.
( Smooth. Did you follow the posts about hydrofracking in Energy and Water files ? How about the stories where environmentally sensitive areas had ceaselessly had attempts at exploitation made on them ? You have to have the poison gas liberated to kill Mother Nature by crazing underground formations laced with toxic substances which will migrate throughout the aquifer for the best ever solution to the infestation of life on this planet. )
Fort Nelson River Ecological Reserve. · The ecological reserve is moved from Schedule B to Schedule A because a new legal description using the mapped ...
www.gis.ubc.ca/BCDD/BCProtAr/Parkchanges.doc
www.gis.ubc.ca/BCDD/BCProtAr/Parkchanges.doc
Bowser Ecological Reserve
- The ecological reserve is moved from Schedule B to Schedule A because a new legal description using the mapped boundary process is provided.Buck Hills Road Ecological Reserve
- The ecological reserve is moved from Schedule B to Schedule A because a new legal description using the mapped boundary process is provided.Byers/Conroy/Harvey/Sinnett Islands Ecological Reserve
- The ecological reserve is moved from Schedule B to Schedule A because a new legal description using the mapped boundary process is provided.Rinse and Repeat. Sounds like a bypass of environmental protection, doesn't it ? Then again, a Search for Horn River...doesn't seem to produce usable map results.
Big Pharma’s global guinea pigs
http://www.vancouversun.com/technology/Special+report+Pharma+global+guinea+pigs/4745531/story.htmlFiddausi Abdullahi Madaki, who fell ill during Pfizer’s 1996 trial of Trovan, a drug tested on children during a meningitis epidemic, sits on a chair at her home in Kano in this October 2, 2007, file photo. The clinical trials business has gone global as drugmakers seek cheaper venues for studies and cast their net farther afield for big pools of “treatment-naive” patients who are not already taking other drugs that could make them unsuitable subjects for testing new ones.
Floodwaters expected to rise in parts of Quebec
Flood-plagued Manitoba farms must wait for fields to dry off
Most Manitoba fields are still too wet for planting — if they're not covered in water — and that's got grain growers worrying.Calgary taxis get green light to park next to downtown fire hydrants
Coming to a downtown hydrant near you this June: taxis for hire. In a likely Canadian first, a council committee voted for a plan to let taxis wait at nearly half of downtown Calgary’s 195 fire hydrant zones.Water levels on the swollen Richelieu River and Lake Champlain in southern Quebec are expected to rise even more on Friday and into Saturday before stabilizing, an expert says.
Nenshi says Calgary must cut back on harmful pesticides
Mayor Naheed Nenshi placed himself firmly into the anti-pesticide camp Thursday, saying that although he’s leery of ban Calgary must cut back the “harmful chemicals.”
Most Canadians unaware of online tracking: privacy watchdog
Canada's privacy watchdog said Thursday many Canadians don't know how closely companies are tracking their online activities — much less are they providing informed consent.Climate change hardly visible in North America, crop study finds
When your lawn scorches or the geraniums croak, it may be premature to blame global warming. One of the world's top science journals says climate hasn't changed in most of North America — yet.Study: Hottest economies in Canada are in Calgary, Edmonton, Regina, Saskatoon
CALGARY — Four cities in Saskatchewan and Alberta will occupy the top four spots in the economic growth leaderboard, according to the Spring 2011 edition of The Conference Board of Canada’s Metropolitan Outlook released Thursday. “Buoyed by the resources and energy sectors, the economies of Saskatoon, Calgary, Regina and Edmonton will post noticeably stronger growth than the other cities covered in this report,” said Mario Lefebvre, Director, Centre for Municipal Studies, for the board.Pakistan army will 'review' U.S. co-operation if more raids
Pakistan's army, facing rare criticism at home after U.S. forces killed Osama bin Laden in a raid, said it will review its intelligence and military co-operation with the United States if more unilateral attacks are conducted.
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