Hours before boarding a flight out of Kabul, Norwegian diplomat Kai Eide delivered a final warning Saturday as he wrapped up his two-year tenure as the top United Nations diplomat in Afghanistan.
"This year can become a year when negative trends are reversed, but it will require a tremendous effort and mobilization of political energy," Eide told a small women's conference. "So far, I do not see that mobilization of political energy . . . . If this does not happen, then I believe the negative trends ."
In his final weeks, Eide stepped up his push for political talks with the Taliban as the best way to end the eight-year-old war, and in his final press conference, he expressed concern that President Barack Obama's decision to send 30,000-35,000 additional U.S. troops to Afghanistan is coming without a concurrent political surge.
UN envoy says Afghan strategy is too 'military-driven'
Top home-school texts dismiss Darwin, evolution
Christian-based materials dominate a growing home-school education market that encompasses more than 1.5 million students in the U.S. And for most home-school parents, a Bible-based version of the Earth's creation is exactly what they want. Federal statistics from 2007 show 83 percent of home-schooling parents want to give their children "religious or moral instruction."
"The majority of home-schoolers self-identify as evangelical Christians," said Ian Slatter, a spokesman for the Home School Legal Defense Association. "Most home-schoolers will definitely have a sort of creationist component to their home-school program."
U.S. Enriches Companies Defying Its Policy on Iran
The federal government has awarded more than $107 billion in contract payments, grants and other benefits over the past decade to foreign and multinational American companies while they were doing business in Iran, despite Washington’s efforts to discourage investment there, records show.
That includes nearly $15 billion paid to companies that defied American sanctions law by making large investments that helped Iran develop its vast oil and gas reserves.
For years, the United States has been pressing other nations to join its efforts to squeeze the Iranian economy, in hopes of reining in Tehran’s nuclear ambitions. Now, with the nuclear standoff hardening and Iran rebuffing American diplomatic outreach, the Obama administration is trying to win a tough new round of United Nations sanctions.
Virginia attorney general to colleges: End gay protections
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has urged the state's public colleges and universities to rescind policies that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, arguing in a letter sent to each school that their boards of visitors had no legal authority to adopt such statements.
Virginia Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II has urged the state's public colleges and universities to rescind policies that ban discrimination on the basis of sexual orientation, arguing in a letter sent to each school that their boards of visitors had no legal authority to adopt such statements.
The real threat to Israel’s national security
It is time for the Israeli government to be realistic with the changing political conditions in the Middle East. The national security paranoia that has defined its policy toward the Arab world is dated, and no longer helps Israel in dealing with its regional threats: in fact, this paranoia is serving only to obstruct what is left of a lagging peace process.
The current conditions on the ground are ripe for the establishment of a just and sustainable peace: The Arab League is endorsing renewed efforts by the United States to facilitate a peaceful two-state solution with normalization of relations with Israel through the Arab Peace Initiative, the Palestinian Authority's Salam Fayyad has begun implementing a non-violent plan to build successful state institutions in the West Bank, and the U.S. and EU are both invested in a direct path toward a secure and viable two-state solution.
The Unholy Wars & The Disinfo Age
One of the things about the information age is that control of the information is a hi-profit industry. If a manufacturer can get you to believe the commercial, then he can sell you his goods. If an information operation can sell you a line of bullshit (possible profanity alert) you will go around with that information in your head and it will influence what you believe to be true. It doesn't matter if it's true or not. What matters is if you believe it. People kill and engage in all sorts of nasty behavior based on what they believe to be true.
Debra Medina, The Neocon Establishment and 9/11 Truth
Do I know what happened? No. But so many people in our country have bought the official story hook, line and sinker, that they will defend their belief and the government who created that belief to their grave. However, if the official story was the truth, than why are there so many millions of intelligent, bright, well-meaning and honest people around the world still questioning the official story 8 years after the fact? Is it perhaps because there is overwhelming proof and mountains of evidence that the official story is a fabrication of lies and disinformation designed to keep the public from discovering the real orchestrators of the biggest mass murder on American soil in our history? And why is it that whenever anyone asks the questions, they are immediately labeled as a kook, a loon, or simply a crazy "conspiracy theorist"? Good question. What is it "they" have to hide? Why haven't the hundreds of questions been answered? Since when did free speech in America and questioning our government become something with which to attack people? Where did it all go so wrong?
Commander Defends Okinawa Marine Base
Everyone agrees the base on southern Japan's Okinawa Island should be shut down and moved. The problem is where. Col. Dale Smith, who commands the base, is undaunted.
''We operate just fine out of Futenma,'' he told The Associated Press on Friday in his first interview with the media. ''When a new facility is built and it's fully operational, that's the day that we will close our doors. We do not have any problem with the way we do business out of the current location of Futenma as it is now, though.''
Futenma, which has been used by the U.S. since the closing days of World War II, is a classic ''not in my backyard'' issue. Residents want it shut down and moved.
More:
TVNL Comment: Why does the US still have 18,000 troops in Futenma? Why does the US have miliitary bases in more than 150 countries around the world? Just asking...
U.S. media replays Iraq fiasco on Iran
Major U.S. news organizations, including the New York Times and the Washington Post, are engaged in a replay of the kind of slanted coverage that paved the way to war in Iraq, only this time regarding Iran.
The treatment of Iran’s election last June, the depictions of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad and the alarm over Iran’s nuclear program all parallel the one-sided coverage that the U.S. news media directed toward Iraqi Saddam Hussein and Iraq’s alleged WMD program before the U.S.-led invasion in 2003.
In both cases, the leading U.S. news outlets took sides; they cast developments in the “enemy” Muslim nation in the harshest possible light; they treated the leaders as unrelentingly evil; they exaggerated the threats (and potential threats) posed by the country’s weaponry, real and imagined.
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