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Putin Heads to Landslide Victory with Rigged Vote
Anti-Kremlin forces cry foul as Vladimir Putin's United Russia party cruises to victory. Could Bush's soul-searching "eye" have been way off the mark?
Vladimir Putin proves Bush's soul searching judgment may very well have been inaccurate; his United Russia party is poised to win in a landslide amidst cries of vote rigging by the Kremlin;
Campaigning for Russia's parliamentary election ended on Friday with President Vladimir Putin's party on course for a landslide victory and opposition groups voicing fears of widespread ballot-rigging.You've really got to wonder if Putin took a page from the 2004 election regarding international observers. The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe sent a team in 2004, and according to their final report, they had similar resistance to outside observation, though in the U.S. it was for a far more subtle reason (emphasis mine);
[...]
One of Putin's most vocal critics, former chess champion Garry Kasparov, said the vote would be illegitimate because, he said, the Kremlin would rig the result.
Officials deny any such rigging campaign and Putin has said he expected the election to be fair and transparent.
Kasparov, who served five days in prison this week for organizing an illegal demonstration, urged voters to spoil their ballot papers on Sunday in protest.
"We must show people that these elections are absolutely illegal and illegitimate," Kasparov told a news briefing. He is not running in the election and his opposition coalition does not have widespread support.
[...]
Kremlin opponents and non-governmental groups say they have registered large numbers of violations of election rules.They have reported dozens of cases of people being told by their employers to turn up for work on Sunday where managers will check if they voted, and of people being registered to vote in more than one polling station.
Western governments are concerned that Europe's main ODIHR vote monitoring watchdog -- widely regarded as the yardstick for elections in ex-Soviet states -- will not be at the vote. The body pulled out, citing obstruction from Moscow.
A senior member of the United Russia party said it was not up to foreign observers to determine if the election was fair.
"It is not foreign election observers who guarantee democracy in Russia, but first and foremost it is the will and political culture of the people," said Lyubov Sliska, deputy speaker of the State Duma lower house of parliament.
In keeping with its OSCE commitments, the United States invited the OSCE/ODIHR to observe these elections. OSCE observers were granted access to polling stations in a number of states, although sometimes only in specific counties. However, in other states, access was not possible or was limited. This was a result of state law, either because international observers were not included in the statutory categories of persons permitted to be in polling places, or because the lack of reference to international observers in state law was deemed to constitute an obstacle to their presence in polling places. Lack of observer access to the election process, both international and domestic, including at polling station level, is contrary to OSCE commitments, and limited the possibility of the OSCE EOM to comment more fully on the election process.Perhaps Bush's view that Putin was "very straight forward and trustworthy" was just one executive with ambitions of domination covering for another.
Looks like Tom is too. LOL
************
Frederick Kagan is up to his old tricks, as I noted last thread.
If anyone wants to see, it's at the end.
http://www.blogforamerica.com/view/23152...
A reminder of many who have been lost in this battle.
============
World Aids Day: the battle has only just begun
Last year, a special issue of The Independent, edited by Bono, introduced a new way of raising money to fight HIV/Aids. Since then, the (Red) initiative has raised more than $50m and helped more than one million people. In an exclusive interview, Bono tells Paul Vallely why people in rich nations can make a difference to the Aids disaster
Published: 01 December 2007
In a world of calibrated cynicism here's something unabashedly positive to celebrate today to mark what is the 20th occasion that people across the globe have commemorated – if that's the right word – World Aids Day. The words come from the man who is now as honoured as a campaigner against extreme poverty as he is as front man for the world's biggest-selling rock band.
"Three years ago," says Bono, the lead singer of U2, "there was virtually no one in Africa on antiretroviral drugs. Now you'll have two million by the end of this year."
Two million is, of course, only a fraction of those affected by the disease which has to date killed more than 25 million people – making it one of the most destructive epidemics in human history. Another estimated 40 million people are now living with HIV. But the international community is, for the first time, showing real signs of progress in combating the disease on a significant scale.
[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/world/poli...
Double standard being applied.
Nobody sued Terry McAuliffe when he said Michigan's delegates would not get near Boston.
http://journals.democraticunderground.com/madfloridian/1672
"Expletives were flying. The head of the Democratic National Committee was having it out with Sen. Carl Levin because Michigan wanted to crash the rarefied club of early presidential primary states.
Move your primary too early, Terry McAuliffe warned, and Michigan will lose half its delegates to the 2004 Democratic convention.
"The closest they'll get to Boston will be watching it on television," McAuliffe vowed. "I will not let you break this entire nominating process for one state. The rules are the rules."
Leave it to Robert Fisk to cut through the prattle and obfuscation to the chase.
What a shame that none in the US media appear to be so capable.
=================
Robert Fisk: A different venue, but the pious claims and promises are the same
Published: 29 November 2007
Haven't we been here before? Isn't Annapolis just a repeat of the White House lawn and the Oslo agreement, a series of pious claims and promises in which two weak men, Messrs Abbas and Olmert, even use the same words of Oslo.
"It is time for the cycle of blood, violence and occupation to end," the Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas said on Tuesday. But don't I remember Yitzhak Rabin saying on the White House lawn that, "it is time for the cycle of blood... to end"?
Jerusalem and its place as a Palestinian and Israeli capital isn't there. And if Israel receives acknowledgement that it is indeed an Israeli state – and in reality, of course, it is – there can be no "right of return" for hundreds of thousands of Palestinians who fled (or whose families fled) what became Israel in 1948.
And what am I to make of the following quotation from the full text of the joint document: "The steering committee will develop a joint work plan and establish and oversee the work of negotiations (sic) teams to address all issues, to be headed by one lead representative from each party." Come again?
We went through all these steering committees before – and they never worked. True we've got a date of 12 December for the first session of this so-called "steering committee" and we have the faint hope from Mr Bush, embroidered, of course, with all the usual self-confidence, that we're going to have an agreement by 2008. But how can the Palestinians have a state without a capital in Jerusalem? How can they have a state when their entire territory has been chopped up and divided by Jewish settlements and the settler roads and, in parts, by a massive war?
[...]
http://news.independent.co.uk/fisk/artic...
And I leave the blog tonight (now Sunday am) with this one: a latter-day better-clad Diogenes in search of an honest Democrat to do the dirty work that is their responsibility to do when confronted with putzCo, the greatest threats to our Constitution since 1789.
===================
Published on Saturday, December 1, 2007 by The Associated Press
Man Hitting Road to Lobby on Impeachment
by John Curran
BRATTLEBORO, Vt. - John Nirenberg has waterproof sneakers, a bright yellow poncho and a plan. He also has outrage in his heart and much of his retirement savings tied up in his cause.
The 60-year-old author and academic plans to walk from Boston to Washington, D.C., to confront House Speaker Nancy Pelosi in hopes of persuading Congress to take up the impeachment of President Bush and Vice President Cheney.
Nirenberg says he’s no activist. He hates snow, cold and darkness. He’s not even sure he’ll make a difference, but he’s going to try.
He plans to hit the road Sunday, leaving from Faneuil Hall and walking 15 miles a day until he gets to Capitol Hill, stopping at the Statue of Liberty, Independence Hall and other symbolic locations as he makes his way to the U.S. Capitol.
Wearing a “Save the Constitution, Impeach Bush and Cheney,” sandwich-board style sign, Nirenberg hopes to rally support for an issue Pelosi has said is no longer on the table.
“This is about satisfying my conscience. I just don’t want to be the guy who says in five years that I regret not having stood up and said something.
“With a name like Nirenberg, you’re very sensitive to that kind of environment,” he said, referring to the post-World War II Nuremberg trials of Nazi war criminals.
[...]
http://www.commondreams.org/archive/2007...
5. Well, the current rules are also McAuliffe's.
Huron John
Sat, 12/01/07
1:58 pm
Reply to this
Some pretty catty remarks about my guy Kucinich and his wife above. If anyone dared to say the same about Michelle Obama, there'd be hell to pay.
+++
HJ -
In all due respects, what is your hang up with Obama ? From what I see, all of your posts about Obama are negative and in fact you lose no opportunity to slam him.
Yes, I agree with you that Joan*in*Florida's comment, about Elizabeth Kucinich in the previous thread, looking away from her husband, IMO was not a worthy comment to mention. It was a cheap shot against the Kucinichs.
That being said, you bringing up Michelle Obama, what did that accomplish for you ? Did it somehow make you feel better ? That you were getting revenge for something ?
Travel stalls as snow, ice smack Midwest
Snow and ice plastered a wide area of the Midwest on Saturday, disrupting campaigning by presidential hopefuls, making highways hazardous and closing Des Moines' airport for several hours.
Phil...hope you're warm, dry and safe.
Rigged elections? THIS country should talk??????????????????????????????
* rdorgan
Sat, 12/01/07
7:10 pm
___________________________________________________________________________
I think Ive narrowed it down to "three" things she is staring at................................
Boy, it's great to Firsties actually in first place. Small mercies, lol!
Just talked to Thankful, she sez hi to everybody! She's heading back to MA beginning of next week.
And message to Paine on DFALink.
7:58 pm
28 degrees
Putin doesn't have to rig the elections...
Putin enjoys 77% approval rating, September 2007
The Russian economy is doing VERY well and so are the people there. If you watched the special on "Czar Putin" – by CNN, the mobs of young people in the street rooting for Putin – the increase in salaries and living conditions. Almost looks like a very modern Western country…. It made you wonder why the BUSH Administration (and now our follow the leader media) are all putting him down. The country is so stable and growing – the majority of Russians don’t want to change leaders..DUBUQUE, IA -- It's no secret that Iowa Christian Alliance president Steve Scheffler isn't a Rudy fan. But tonight, within spitting distance of Giuliani’s rival GOP candidate Romney, Scheffler explicitly urged Iowa Christians to oppose Giuliani in the race for the nomination. "If our party nominates this guy," he told a crowd at a Dubuque gathering of the ICA, "we will see a bloodbath at the polls like we've never seen before.”
Are those...like..threats? from the GOOD Christian? LEAVE the Republicans alone, they are destroying each other. : )
rdorgan
Sat, 12/01/07
7:10 pm
Reply to this
What!?!?!?!?!?
I never said bad things about Elizabeth Obama nor Obama either. Check back to the posts. Not me.
Exclusive: Just returning from a trip to Iraq, Sen. Webb (D-VA) joins us to discuss what he saw on the ground. Is progress being made? Where do we go from here? A key senator from the Armed Services and Foreign Relations Committees shares his firsthand account of a region at war. Plus, a Decision 2008 roundtable with David Brody, David Gregory, Michele Norris and Eugene Robinson. http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3032608/
oh you where talking to Huron John. I really never, or almost never say bad things about people. People often call me HJ :-)
http://www.brasschecktv.com/page/206.html
Finally – a question I’ve had for years might have been answered by this new video of President Kennedy’s last few minutes. It never made sense. WHERE were his body guards??? WHERE was the car that should have been right behind him??? After he was shot, the one bodyguard had to run as fast as he could - to get up on the car and try to protect Mrs. Kennedy.
Unbelievable. This film will make probably make you angry, as it did me.18.
Holly -
Sorry, if you mistook HJ for you.
I abbreviate at times. Mike does it too, often calling me rd. Now if there was someone else here with rd initials, it could get confusing.
That being said, two HJ's here mean that I'll use both full handle names from now on to avoid confusion.
An Oak Creek teacher was arrested for posting a blog item that criticized West Bend teacher salaries and said the Columbine killers "knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs." More » http://www.jsonline.com/
Ditto what Linda wrote on 12., Phil. Hope you and other midwesterners stay safe and WARM. Hot chocolate with Schnapps - that's the ticket.
Unless he bangs his right elbow climbing up to his tree stand, Green Bay Packers quarterback Brett Favre will start his 250th consecutive regular-season game against Oakland at Lambeau Field on Dec. 9.
Thank Dennis for Impeach ON the table, Hres676, Single payer Universal, fighting against the war since '02, and all the votes against funding the war, the Patriot Act, and soon to Impeach Bush to name but a few.
Go to december152007.com and say thanks Dennis.
Brattleboro is not my birth town but is my home town...it is where I came to know my roots and from where my roots began to grow...I do not know Mr. Nirenberg but my heart and soul are with him. Let it be said that I support and walk with Mr. Nirenberg from here. Well done sir...a tip of the hat to you.
Vladimir Putin proves Bush's soul searching judgment may very well have been inaccurate; his United Russia party is poised to win in a landslide amidst cries of vote rigging by the Kremlin;
Bush soul searching wasn't off the mark. It's quite natural that he would look into Putin's soul and see a kindred election thief with a contempt for freedom, human rights, and democracy equal to his own.
An Oak Creek teacher was arrested for posting a blog item that criticized West Bend teacher salaries and said the Columbine killers "knew how to deal with the overpaid teacher union thugs."
Better to check out someone like this before the killing spree starts.
Double standard being applied.
Nobody sued Terry McAuliffe when he said Michigan's delegates would not get near Boston.
Another good reason for Dean to get out of that DNC job as soon as possible. He should be leading the charge to get rid of early primaries instead of having to defend preferential foolishness.
I just want to say HI. Hope Phil thaws out. Church sign of the day: Do right even if the stars fall. See y'all later.
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