Am I the only one who can not get Talk Left to load?
*** Update ***
John Cole started Balloon Juice early in 2002. Those who have followed along know that this has been quite the journey.
by John Cole| 3 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
Am I the only one who can not get Talk Left to load?
*** Update ***
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
Fareed Zakaria in today’s WaPo:
If nothing else, this week’s Middle East summits will produce a great many photographs of smiling leaders. But to understand how long and hard the road to peace is, consider the photograph that you have not seen. Last Thursday Ariel Sharon met with the new prime minister of the Palestinian Authority, Mahmoud Abbas. It was, everyone agreed, a serious and productive meeting, the kind that politicians love to publicize. Except that there is no public photograph of it, nor of their first meeting on May 17. Each side claims that the other didn’t want to release pictures of the two men shaking hands or even seated together. You know things are fragile when diplomacy isn’t even at the photo-op stage.
This post is in: Foreign Affairs
Now that French led contingent of 1200 soldies are en route, Kofi Annan is pressing the Security Council to raise the limit of troops that can be sent to the Congo:
For a chance at lasting peace in the region, Annan argued in a new 28-page report that 3,800 peacekeepers in Ituri were needed to disarm combatants, rather than the 1,700 expected to replace the French-led force in September.
”Even a force of that strength would not be able to provide comprehensive security throughout Ituri or secure all major roads or the border with Uganda,” Annan wrote. But he said he expected the troops to provide security for a host of other U.N. personnel to run radio stations and organize police.
Currently there are about 5,000 U.N. military personnel on the ground throughout the vast country as part of the U.N. Organization Mission in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, known as MONUC.
Bangladeshi and other troops and others expected in August would to raise the number to close to 8,000. The Security Council has imposed a ceiling of 8,700 personnel and Annan now wants it raised to 10,800.
What meets the troops, regardless of how many are eventually sent, is what has been described as “Mission Impossible:”
Naming all the belligerents in the Democratic Republic of Congo’s recent history would be a good trivial pursuit question if the answer did not need continuing updates.
Take, for example, the Union for Patriotic Congolese (UPC). Just as the ink was drying on the all-inclusive political agreement, this group sprang into the headlines for the worst possible reasons its fight for control of the town of Bunia in northeast Congo.
Part of the problem facing the troops is that there simply are not enough of them for the task, another problem is the fuzzy mandate they have been handed:
The United Nations force in Congo (Monuc) of about 4000 does not have the capacity to deal effectively with the complex situation… A ceiling of 8000 troops has been authorised for Monuc but the UN has struggled to find nations willing to contribute. Compare this with the 18000-strong UN force sent to Sierra Leone in its civil war. Analysts say it was a simpler scenario there government versus rebels. The Congo conflict was regional and civil.
Monuc has also been hamstrung by its chapter VI mandate that provides for unarmed observers rather than “peace enforcement”. The allure of the Congo job has not been heightened by reports earlier this year of the slaughter of two unarmed UN personnel.
The UN emergency force is vital to contain the situation in Ituri. But its role, and that of a longer-term beefed up Monuc force, needs to be far wider than finding a military solution. It needs to fill the governance gap. It must put in place sustainable structures for maintaining peace and security and must be backed by thorough regional, international and multilateral support measures. Space must be created for the fledgling central government to prove it can be effective.
As long as military issues continue to sideline economic growth and investment in the Congo, and as long as the country is awash with arms and people ready to act as proxies for all comers, nothing much will change.
I’ll post more when I can find more.
This post is in: Outrage
The headline reads:
Ariz. Bishop Says He Hid Abuse Complaints
and the first few lines of the story state:
The Roman Catholic bishop of Phoenix has relinquished some of his authority in an unprecedented agreement with prosecutors that will spare him from indictment on charges of protecting child-molesting priests.
Under the agreement, Bishop Thomas J. O’Brien acknowledged he concealed sex-abuse allegations against priests, Maricopa County Attorney Rick Romley said Monday.
So why doesn’t the headline really tell you the truth:
Lying Pedophile Enabler Admits Pattern of Corruption and Deceit in An Agreement to Escape Prosecution.
Cuz that is what really happened, you know.
by John Cole| 12 Comments
This post is in: Democratic Stupidity
Leave it to Bob Herbert to not understand that people who don’t pay taxes, by definition, can’t get a tax cut.
*** Update ***
According to people I trust in the comments section, I am wrong. There are people who are paying more than payroll tax (8 Million of them) who are not receiving a cut. I want to know if this is from the original bill or due to ‘negotiations’ on the hill.
*** Update #2 ***
I guess I am not the only one ot misunderstand the tax cut. Paul Krugman doesn’t undertsand it either.
by John Cole| 3 Comments
This post is in: General Stupidity
This doesn’t sound like my cup of tea:
Habitat for Humanity, the nonprofit group that builds low-cost housing, is opening an unorthodox ”theme park” at its world headquarters this week designed to give tourists a look at the world’s worst slums.
Millard Fuller, founder of the organization, said he expects the Global Village & Discovery Center to attract as many as 70,000 tourists in its first year of operation.
”Essentially, it’s a theme park for poverty housing,” Fuller told Reuters. ”You’ll come out of the center and walk right into a slum. You’ll see the kind of pitiful living conditions so many people in the world have.”
by John Cole| 7 Comments
This post is in: Open Threads
First, there was Godwin’s Law. Then there was Jane’s Law. Then Gorejacking. Now, we present you with the newest addition to our glossary:
fringe