Human Ratios 1:100

a deal to exchange an abducted Israeli soldier for hundreds of Palestinian prisoner

Operation Cast Lead - 13 Israelis and est. 1,400 Palestinians dead.

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Israel defends settlement expansion

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Israel defends settlement expansion: "Barack Obama, the US president, warned on Wednesday that any settlement activity not only made harmed attempts to get negotiations going again, it could also threaten Israel's security.

'I think that additional settlement building does not contribute to Israel's security, I think it makes it harder for them to make peace with their neighbours,' he told Fox News."

When did Obama talk to Fox News? Isn't there an embargo by the White House?

GITMO ASIA

So we promise to close GITMO in a year (Jan 2009). Today, it's still open with only two months left until the deadline and just in time the New and Improved Baghram Prison is ready to open.

CHANGE. NO CHANGE.

a-part-heid

[uh-pahrt-heyt, -hahyt]
–noun
1. (in the Republic of South Africa) a rigid policy of segregation of the nonwhite population.
2. any system or practice that separates people according to race, caste, etc.
Origin: 1945–50; < Afrik, equiv. to apart apart + -heid -hood
Dictionary.com Unabridged

Based on the Random House Dictionary, © Random House, Inc. 2009.

(ə-pärt'hīt', -hāt')
n.
1.An official policy of racial segregation formerly practiced in the Republic of South Africa, involving political, legal, and economic discrimination against nonwhites.
2.A policy or practice of separating or segregating groups.
3.The condition of being separated from others; segregation.
[Afrikaans : Dutch apart, separate (from French à part, apart; see apart) + Dutch -heid, -hood.]
The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright © 2009 by Houghton Mifflin Company.

I always thought this form of government necessarily meant a majority is being ruled by a minority?

Blackwater Said to Approve $1 Million in Iraqi Bribes After Shootings - NYTimes.com

Blackwater Said to Approve $1 Million in Iraqi Bribes After Shootings - NYTimes.com: "In agreeing to describe those conversations, the four officials said that they were troubled by a pattern of questionable conduct by Blackwater, which had led them to leave the company."

a pattern of questionable conduct by Blackwater.
a pattern of questionable conduct by Blackwater.
a pattern of questionable conduct by Blackwater.

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Iran accuses Americans of spying

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Iran accuses Americans of spying

Not a pleasant situation for the three...

Are they Americans on holiday in Iraq? Seems possible in the north but probably not wise. At the same time, it provides Iran with an additional chip at the nuclear bargaining table.

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Supporters urge Abbas to run again

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Supporters urge Abbas to run again: "Supporters urge Abbas to run again"

And a group of protesters from the prostitute alliance was heard to chant "Aha aha la'titanaha!"

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Abbas 'not to seek re-election'

Al Jazeera English - Middle East - Abbas 'not to seek re-election': "Abbas 'not to seek re-election'"

I cannot believe that there is a president in the Middle East who is actually going to step down. Has it ever happened before? Is there any Middle Eastern president/king/despot who has ever left office except in a box?

Could this be a ploy by Abbas to put pressure on the US and Israel? His way of saying "deal with me or you will have to deal with Hamas?"

MUBARAK II

Is there still a question on Gamal's impending ascendency to the throan? Any discussion of alternative candidates should be saved for only those who we wish to see in tattered careers, or on proverbial bookshelf along with Mr. Moussa at the Arab League (the most dusty of bookshelves in today's political arena of relevance).

Mubarak has been in office long enough to ensure his heir his place as the first civilian president of Egypt since the 1952 coup (no, I don't think a group of 12 soldiers with their tanks constitutes a revolution - popular or otherwise). Mubarak Senior has worked with Gamal to co-opt the major families that provide the civilian facade to the Mubarak family fortune...serving as fronts, paying tribute in a manner that would make the greatest Don envious.

The media campaign began over ten years ago with Gamal's picture being introduced initially as a member of the First Family then gradually his solo shots. Until today, when the average Egyptian sees him as a symbol of continuity (to be translated in their minds as stability). It's not new. Assad did it in Syria with time enough to swap children when his eldest died a martyr in his Italian sportscar.

Mubarak's position seems even more managable considering the father doesn't show any signs of leaving this world anytime soon. But how will it transpire? Will Hosni hand over the reigns to Gamal while there's still breath left in the old pharaoh? Or will he continue to cling to office like an Egyptian male to a pretty girl on a bus leaving Gamal to fight his way to power as the head of the National Democratic Party?