Group items matching

in title, tags, annotations or url

"Divorce agreement " Dear American liberals, leftists, social progressives, socialists, Marxists and Obama supporters, et al: We have stuck together since the late 1950's, but the whole of this latest election process has made me realize that I want a divorce. I know we tolerated each other for many years for the sake of future generations, but sadly, this relationship has run its course. Our two ideological sides of America cannot and will not ever agree on what is right so let's just end it on friendly terms. We can smile and chalk it up to irreconcilable differences and go our own way. Here is a model separation agreement: Our two groups can equitably divide up the country by landmass each taking a portion. That will be the difficult part, but I am sure our two sides can come to a friendly agreement. After that, it should be relatively easy! Our respective representatives can effortlessly divide other assets since both sides have such distinct and disparate tastes. We don't like redistributive taxes so you can keep them. You are welcome to the liberal judges and the ACLU. Since you hate guns and war, we'll take our firearms, the cops, the NRA and the military. You can keep Oprah, Michael Moore and Rosie O'Donnell (You are, however, responsible for finding a bio-diesel vehicle big enough to move all three of them). We'll keep the capitalism, greedy corporations, pharmaceutical companies, Wal-Mart and Wall Street. You can have your beloved homeless, homeboys, hippies and illegal aliens. We'll keep the hot Alaskan hockey moms, greedy CEO's and rednecks. We'll keep the Bibles and give you NBC and Hollywood. You can make nice with Iran and Palestine and we'll retain the right to invade and hammer places that threaten us. You can have the peaceniks and war protesters. When our allies or our way of life are under assault, we'll help provide them security. We'll keep our Judeo-Christian values. You are welcome to Islam, Scientology, Humanism and Shirley McC

A recent report says the visit by Israeli National Security Council Head Yaakov Amidror to Turkey is aimed at securing an airbase in Iran's neighbor to pave the way for a military attack against the Islamic Republic. PressTV In an article, the Sunday Times said that during his visit on Sunday, Amidror is expected to solicit Turkey's agreement with regard to the deployment of Israeli fighter jets in Akinci airbase, northwest of Ankara, in exchange for advanced military equipments and technology, the Times of Israel reported. "Until the recent crisis, Turkey was our biggest aircraft carrier. Using the Turkish airbases could make the difference between success and failure once a showdown with Iran gets underway," Sunday Times quoted an unnamed Israeli military source as saying. Ankara agreed to restore relations with Tel Aviv on March 22 after Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu apologized to Turkey for the deaths of nine Turkish activists in a 2010 Israeli attack on a Gaza-bound international flotilla. Israel also agreed to pay compensation to the families of those who were killed by Israeli commandos. The apology was brokered by US President Barack Obama during his recent visit to Israel. The Israeli source added that the regime's military has been "lobbying hard for the politicians to find a form of apology, in order to restore the Israeli-Turkish alliance against Syria and Iran."

"World Health Organization Director-General Margaret Chan says she is disappointed a deal on climate change was not struck in Copenhagen. But she says important steps were taken that, she believes, will ultimately result in an agreement to stop or retard climate change. She says the relationship between climate change and health is obvious. For example, she says millions of people will suffer from either too much water or too little water under climate change. Chan says extensive flooding may lead to loss of life from drowning and disease. She says contaminated floodwaters can cause fatal illnesses, such as diarrhea and cholera. On the other hand, she says some areas will have too little water and prolonged drought will affect the kind of crops people normally grow. "The prediction is that in the next 20 years to 30 years, if the situation continues to get worse, the productivity from the agricultural sector and from subsistence farming in Africa, the production would reduce by as much as 50 percent," she said. "If there is any truth to that, can you imagine the impact on hunger, on acute and chronic malnutrition?" Scientists say the warming of the planet will be gradual, but that extreme weather events will increase in frequency and intensity. They say the effects of more storms, floods, droughts and heat waves will be abrupt and profound. The World Health Organization says the effects of so-called climate-sensitive diseases already are killing millions of people. WHO reports more than three-and-a-half million people die every year from malnutrition-related causes. It says diarrhea-related diseases kill nearly two million people and almost one million die from malaria."

"For decades, China was viewed by U.S. strategists as a struggling communist nation with a massive population that really did not represent any kind of strategic threat to the United States at all. But that has now dramatically changed. Thanks to trade agreements that are extremely favorable to China, the "Great Dragon" has risen and has become a formidable economic machine. Already accounting for a fifth of humanity, this new economic muscle has also allowed Beijing to dramatically reform and upgrade the Chinese military. Now China is without a doubt a world superpower and it stands poised to be a major player on the world stage during the last days. So just how powerful of an economic force is China now? Well, in 2010 China is expected to replace Japan as the world's second-largest economy. Not only that, but China has overtaken Germany and is now the biggest exporter in the entire world. Let that sink in for a bit. China sells more stuff to other countries than anyone else in the world. That fact alone is enough to make China an economic superpower. Citizens of the U.S. like to think of themselves as the greatest economic superpower, but the reality is that the average American is drowning in debt. In fact, the average American piled up even more debt this past Christmas season buying cheap plastic stuff made in China to exchange with family members around the ole Christmas tree."

"BRUSSELS - Stunned by having been sidelined in the endgame of the Copenhagen world climate summit meeting, the European Union is debating how to regain influence in the fight against global warming. Should the E.U., the world's largest trading bloc and economic area, respond to the policy setback and the diplomatic humiliation of the bare-minimum Copenhagen accord by playing Mr. Nice, Mr. Nasty, Mr. Persistent or Mr. Pragmatic? The first two options - setting a more ambitious example to others, or threatening climate laggards with carbon tariffs - are tempting gestures, and each has its supporters. But when the dust settles, the 27 E.U. governments are likely to stick to their carbon-emissions reduction strategy while becoming more pragmatic about working outside the United Nations framework to achieve progress, experts say. The E.U. went to the U.N. negotiations in Copenhagen last month seeking a legally binding agreement to cut emissions of greenhouse gases, which are blamed for increasingly warming the planet, with precise reduction targets that would have been subject to international monitoring and enforcement. Despite warning signs that their goals were unrealistic, the Europeans hoped to convert the rest of the world to their own model of supranational governance."

"PARIS (Reuters) - French President Nicolas Sarkozy on Friday proposed setting up a group of 28 countries to guide global negotiations on climate change and avoid a repetition of last year's chaotic talks in Copenhagen. In a New Year address to the diplomatic community, Sarkozy said United Nations climate negotiations in Copenhagen in December had failed because of the huge number of countries involved in preparing the accord. "The main lesson from Copenhagen is that you can't negotiate in a round of 192," Sarkozy said, arguing that national leaders had arrived in the Danish capital to sign the accord only to find an illegible text full of disputed clauses. He proposed forming a "balanced, representative" group of 28 countries that would provide ideas and prepare for the next round of negotiations in Cancun. He did not name any of the proposed participants. "The wisest option would be to pursue a twin strategy -- talks among the 192, as that involves the whole international community, and among ministers and sherpas from the Group of 28," he said. Sarkozy said he wanted the Group of 28 to hold monthly meetings, starting in March, in New York or Bonn. Last month's Copenhagen talks ended with a bare-minimum agreement when delegates "noted" a deal struck by the United States, China and other emerging powers that fell short of the conference's original goals. Mexico will host the next talks in Cancun in November/December, building on the Copenhagen deal which seeks to limit the rise in temperature to 2 Celsius above the average recorded in pre-industrial times. The Copenhagen accord did not spell out how to achieve that goal."

"The world's largest Internet search company and the world's most powerful electronic surveillance organization are teaming up in the name of cybersecurity. Under an agreement that is still being finalized, the National Security Agency would help Google analyze a major corporate espionage attack that the firm said originated in China and targeted its computer networks, according to cybersecurity experts familiar with the matter. The objective is to better defend Google -- and its users -- from future attack. Google and the NSA declined to comment on the partnership. But sources with knowledge of the arrangement, speaking on the condition of anonymity, said the alliance is being designed to allow the two organizations to share critical information without violating Google's policies or laws that protect the privacy of Americans' online communications. The sources said the deal does not mean the NSA will be viewing users' searches or e-mail accounts or that Google will be sharing proprietary data. The partnership strikes at the core of one of the most sensitive issues for the government and private industry in the evolving world of cybersecurity: how to balance privacy and national security interests. On Tuesday, Director of National Intelligence Dennis C. Blair called the Google attacks, which the company acknowledged in January, a "wake-up call." Cyberspace cannot be protected, he said, without a "collaborative effort that incorporates both the U.S. private sector and our international partners." But achieving collaboration is not easy, in part because private companies do not trust the government to keep their secrets and in part because of concerns that collaboration can lead to continuous government monitoring of private communications. Privacy advocates, concerned about a repeat of the NSA's warrantless interception of Americans' phone calls and e-mails after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, say information-sharing must be limited and closely overseen.

"WASHINGTON - For the past year, China has struck an increasingly muscular position with the United States, berating American officials for the global economic crisis, stage-managing President Obama's visit to China last November, refusing to back a tougher climate change agreement in Copenhagen and standing fast against American demands for tough new Security Council sanctions against Iran. Now, the Obama administration has started to push back. In announcing an arms sales package to Taiwan worth $6 billion on Friday, the United States leveled a direct strike at the heart of the most sensitive diplomatic issue that has existed between the two countries since America affirmed the one-China policy in 1972. The arms package was doubly infuriating to Beijing, coming so soon after President Bush announced a similar arms package to Taiwan in 2008, and right as Beijing and Taipei are in the middle of a détente of sorts in their own relations. China's immediate, and outraged, reaction-canceling some military-to-military exchanges and announcing punitive sanctions against American companies - demonstrates, China experts said, that Beijing is feeling a little burned, particularly because the Taiwan arms announcement came on the same day that Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton publicly berated China for not taking a stronger position on holding Iran accountable for its nuclear program."

"Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas declared on Thursday that Palestinians would not accept any alternative to Jerusalem as the capital of a future state, despite other proposals. Abbas told Russian television that Jerusalem should not be divided and that there should be free passage for people of various faiths. The Palestinian leader added it must be made clear what belongs to the Palestinians and what belongs to Israel. A Advertisement bbas said that he could only recognize Israel as a Jewish state in the framework of a conclusive peace agreement that leads to the establishment of a Palestinian state. Abbas also said that he could not agree to resume the stalled peace negotiations with Israel as long as construction in West Bank settlements and East Jerusalem continue. The peace process would collapse after the first meeting of such negotiations, said Abbas. "If Israel says in the meeting that it will not accept the 1967 borders and that it is not prepared to discuss Jerusalem and the refugee situation, what is there to talk about?" Abbas said in the interview. "If I enter negotiations with them and the building in East Jerusalem continues, Israel will be saying that Jerusalem is theirs. So why would I agree to negotiate while building in East Jerusalem continues?" "

"In an interview with Kuwaiti newspaper Al-Rai published on Sunday, a US official who spoke on condition of anonymity said that "if Syria supplies Hezbollah with surface-to-air missiles (SA-2), war will break out and Tel Aviv will directly strike Damascus." In addition, the official said Syria trained Hezbollah members in Damascus on how to use the SA-2 missiles. Israel has previously warned the country not to supply Hezbollah with the missiles, according to the US source. "Any possible military attack by Hezbollah against Israel will be met by a 'harmful war' on Lebanon. Israel made a mistake in 2006 by not striking Syria during the war with Lebanon, and any new attack from Hezbollah against it will not spare Damascus from a strike," he added. Israel's top priority, the official said, is preventing Syria from supplying Hezbollah with the SA-2 missiles. "During the 2006 war in Lebanon, Damascus told Tel Aviv it wanted peace and was not going to side with Hezbollah," the official alleged. Following the war, however, the United Nations and international intelligence community have been monitoring attempts to smuggle weapons from Syria to Hezbollah, he added. The official also compared South Lebanon after the 2006 war to the situation in the Golan Heights in Syria, which he said has enjoyed a calm climate after a cease-fire agreement was signed between Israel and late Syrian President Hafez al-Assad in 1974. He said Hezbollah's desire to liberate the Shebaa farms, which is occupied by Israel, does not justify military attacks against the entity. "Launching war with Tel Aviv is not an excuse for Hezbollah." The official said he does not think a war will break out anytime soon, "unless Syria crosses the line." End item/ 129"

By Louise Gray, Environment Correspondent Published: 7:00AM GMT 01 Mar 2010 Ed Miliband, Britain's climate change secretary, has spoken of his frustration at the chaotic end to the Copenhagen summit and admitted he had wanted Ed Miliband said agreement was 'not an easy task' Photo: REUTERS A United Nations meeting in Copenhagen at the end of last year broke down in chaos because rich and poor countries could not agree the best way to cut greenhouse gas emissions. The main problem was that developing countries wanted an extension of the Kyoto Protocol, that imposes targets on rich nations, while developed countries wanted a whole new treaty.