Politics News

Bucharest April 2008 - NATO and Afghanistan

NATO leaders have acknowledged that Afghanistan is an important test case for the 26-member alliance as it seeks to re-define itself in a post-Cold-War, post 9/11 era.

The NATO-led force in Afghanistan currently comprises some 47,000 troops, but there have been dire reports recently that more forces and greater political efforts are needed if that country is to be saved from deteriorating into a failed state.

Speaking in Bucharest, President Bush called on NATO members to do more to counter the threat of terrorism by stepping up efforts in Afghanistan.

"The terrorist threat is real, it is deadly and defeating this enemy is the top priority of NATO," said Mr. Bush. "Our alliance must maintain its resolve and finish the fight. As [French] President [Nicolas] Sarkozy put it in London last week, we cannot afford to lose Afghanistan, whatever the cost, however difficult the victory, we cannot afford it, we must win. I agree completely."   

Bucharest - April 2008: Allied leaders honour NATO troops

At the opening of the North Atlantic Council Summit meeting in Bucharest, NATO Heads of State and Government paid tribute to the more than sixty thousand men and women from Allied and other nations who are involved in NATO’s missions and operations.

NATO leaders rose to honor the professionalism and dedication of 26 veterans with experience in operations under NATO command, one from each NATO member country. A minute of silence was observed for those wounded and those that paid the ultimate sacrifice.

“Today we honor, in  particular those who have given their lives on behalf of the Alliance and we extend our deepest sympathies to their families and loved ones. We also honor those who have been injured in the course of our common effort,” NATO Secretary General Jaap de Hoop Scheffer said

More overtime for Gov employees

COLUMBUS: Overtime for state employees increased 16 percent during the first year of Gov. Ted Strickland's administration, topping $100 million for the first time, a newspaper reported Sunday.

State troopers protecting the governor, firefighters at Air National Guard bases, medical personnel at state hospitals and prisons, and computer experts were among those receiving big overtime payments, according to a computer analysis by The Columbus Dispatch.

The newspaper found that 11 employees received at least $50,000 in overtime, and 2,167 had overtime payments of $10,000 or more.

Part of the jump resulted from the changeover in administrations from Gov. Bob Taft to Strickland, said Ron Sylvester, a spokesman for the Ohio Department of Administrative Services, which provided payroll data to The Dispatch.

The majority of state employees received a 3.5 percent raise last year, Sylvester said. Strickland, a Democrat, also froze the pay of about 3,400 higher level staff members.

The total state payroll rose $116 million from 2006 to 2007.

For the first three months after Strickland took office last January, as many as 200 positions were temporarily ''double-filled,'' Sylvester said, meaning that new employees were hired while the previous employees, many of them Republican appointees from the Taft administration, were still on the payroll.

In addition, overtime and payroll increased because employees put in thousands of hours responding to the theft of a computer backup device carrying the Social Security numbers of thousands of Ohioans and other sensitive data, Sylvester said.

Overtime increases showed up across state agencies, the newspaper reported.

At the Ohio Department of Transportation, where overtime increased 40 percent to $16 million, 362 employees got more than $10,000 each in overtime last year, compared with 235 in 2006.

Department spokesman Scott Varner said the increase was largely a result of extra hours put in by snow removal crews during a February 2007 blizzard and widespread flooding that occurred later in the year. Employees work 12-hour days in those situations, he said.

The analysis also showed that the number of people earning six figures increased by nearly 16 percent as part of the state's $3.2 billion payroll.

The state's top overtime earner last year was Melody Campbell, a nurse employed at the Corrections Medical Center in Orient. She was paid $81,495 in overtime, boosting her total pay above $160,000 — well over the $133,000 that Strickland was paid last year.

Of the top 25 overtime-earners, 11 were prison or psychiatric nurses.

No more anti-drugs money

"It is dangerous to be right when the government is wrong" - Voltaire

Nebraska Governor Dave Heineman has always insisted that public safety is a major priority.

But he won't be putting in two million dollars to shore up Nebraska's war on drugs. Last month Congress slashed funding to an anti-drug program that police in Nebraska count on. Nebraska's share cut from three million to one million.

Jordan: Any chance the state can kick in a couple of million dollars to continue to fund those programs?

Heineman: It'll be very difficult Joe, very difficult.

Jordan:    There's not a couple million dollars to fight one of the biggest problems on the streets of Nebraska?

Heineman: I'm a very strong advocate for public safety. Would I like to (continue the funding) yes, but again if the federal government starts a program they have a responsibility to fund it."

The money is all part of the "Byrne Anti-Drug Program" which the Bush administration has been trying to eliminate.

"I have no idea what he’s going to do."

Under capitalism, man exploits man. Under communism it's just the opposite

PRESIDENT BUSH said last week of his erstwhile “friend” Vladimir Putin, “I have no idea what he’s going to do.” Mr. Bush is not alone: no one but Mr. Putin knows whether the Russian president will relinquish power next year. Still, after Mr. Putin’s announcement that he would not be averse to becoming the next prime minister, the prevailing guess is that after the March 2 presidential election Mr. Putin will head the Russian government under a new president.

Yet before the Bush administration and the leading contenders for the White House begin to design a Russia policy based on this, its plausibility has to be examined. In the light of what we know about Mr. Putin and the political and economic system he has forged, he is more likely to find a way to continue in office as President Putin.

To begin, Vladimir Putin has done the opposite of what he publicly said he would do with regard to some major policy issues. In November 2003, he declared that “the state should not really seek to destroy” Yukos — at the time Russia’s largest, most modern and most transparent private company — and then methodically did just that through a palpably fraudulent prosecution.

He has repeatedly averred that Russia needs a robust party system — and then proceeded to make participation in parliamentary elections arduous and subject to unchallenged management by an election commission that is subservient to the Kremlin. No party may hope even to get on the ballot in Russia without the Kremlin’s approval.

Yet power in Russia today grows not only from the barrel of a gun, but also from a barrel of oil. And here, too, everything has been done to ensure that the president’s administration, not the prime minister’s office, be in charge of the daily export of seven million barrels of crude oil and oil products (like fuel oil and diesel fuel). With natural gas, these fuel exports fetched $190 billion last year.

Crime Wave Forces Omaha Mayor's Hand

If good policy is good politics, what are 30 something shootings in 40 something days for a Mayor who might run for the Senate next year....well it can't possibly be helpful.

So  Mayor Mike Fahey (D-Omaha) took time Friday a to announce a series of moves aimed at shoring up the city's crime fighters.

At the top of Fahey's list a crackdown on illegal guns, especially those winding up in the hands of minors.

At the bottom: hiring more police. He won't.

His critics complain he should, but Fahey's not budging.

This is the worst spike in inner city violence during Fahey's six years in office. There was a similar though smaller spike just about a year ago.

As for that Senate race, Fahey's been saying for weeks that until Senator Chuck Hagel (R-Nebraska) decides if he's running for re-election, the issue is off the table.

Kasparov Gets 5 Days in Jail for Marching

Reality is whatever refuses to go away after I stop believing in it.

Garry Kasparov, the former chess champion and opposition leader, was arrested Saturday and sentenced to five days in jail after trying to lead a march to the offices of the federal election authorities.

Mr. Kasparov was taken into custody during a scuffle between protesters and security officers on the route to the offices, where he had intended to present a letter asserting that the parliamentary election on Dec. 2 was biased toward President Vladimir V. Putin’s party.

Taken into a small bus, he gave a victory sign through the back window as he was being driven away.

On Saturday night, a Moscow judge ordered him to serve five days in jail for holding an unauthorized march. City officials had given his loose opposition coalition, Other Russia, permission to conduct a rally on Saturday, but not a march.

In a statement, Mr. Kasparov said the court proceedings had been “a choreographed farce from beginning to end.” He added, “It was a symbol of what has happened to justice and the rule of law under Putin.”

Mr. Kasparov is one of the best-known foes of Mr. Putin, but the Kremlin has isolated him by preventing him from receiving coverage on television networks. Mr. Kasparov has in turn relied on demonstrations to draw attention to his criticisms of Mr. Putin. He was arrested at a march in April, though he received only a fine, not jail time.

History: Skip Iowa at Your Own Risk

Plenty's been said about the Clinton campaign memo recommending that Senator Clinton pull out of the Iowa Caucuses. Although the memo was quickly quashed by Mrs. Clinton it made one thing crystal clear: the Clinton campaign (which is running third in the polls there) is in big trouble in Iowa.

So why not punt Iowa? One name: Al Gore.

In 1988, running against other Democrats including Richard Gephardt and Michael Dukakis (who won the nomination even after losing Iowa) Al Gore decided he wasn't going to do well in Iowa or New Hampshire. So Gore put all his time and money into that year's Super Tuesday. One problem, by ditching Iowa he took himself off the political map during a critical time, went on to do badly on Super Tuesday, and was finished.   

(By the way Gore did show up at the Des Moines Register's debate in 1988 and dropped a few choice words about Dukakis' revolving door furlough program for Massachusetts inmates, which George Bush turned into the Willie Horton ad that helped keep Dukakis out of the White House).

Learning from his mistakes, in 2000 Gore played in Iowa, beat Bill Bradley, and went on to win the nomination.

As for Senator Clinton while the bad news is she's running third in Iowa, the good news is she's running third in Iowa. Come January if she finishes second she beats the expectations and goes to New Hampshire with momentum, if she finishes first the race could be over quickly.

But if she passes on Iowa history says she's going nowhere fast.

A lot has been said about politics

A lot has been said about politics; some of it complimentary, but most of it accurate:

Please tell me you’re Republicans. - Ronald Reagan, 40th US President, to surgeons as he entered operating room after being wounded in an assassination attempt 30 Mar 81

Today Mr. President we are all Republicans. - The reply of one of the doctors to Reagan's previous remark

Honey, I forgot to duck - President Reagan to his wife, Nancy after being shot.

Ninety-eight percent of the adults in this country are decent, hard-working, honest Americans. It's the other two percent that get all the publicity. But then - we elected them. - Lily Tomlin

It makes no difference who you vote for -- the two parties are really one party representing 4 percent of the people. - Gore Vidal

When I was a boy I was told that anybody could become President -- I'm beginning to believe it. - Clarence Darrow

In California, 50 women protested the impending war with Iraq by lying on the ground naked and spelling out the word peace. Right idea, wrong president. - Jay Leno, comparing Clinton to Bush

The strange world we live in

Charles Bullock, a professor of political science at the University of Georgia, said that "in much of the South, there was this tremendous transformation from a time when it was a term widely used by politicians making successful appeals to now where it is something that no politician would dare utter."

Webb's comments to the Times-Dispatch prompted Allen campaign officials to direct a reporter to Dan Cragg, a former acquaintance of Webb's, who said Webb used the word while describing his own behavior during his freshman year at the University of Southern California in the early 1960s. Webb later transferred to the U.S. Naval Academy.

Cragg, 67, who lives in Fairfax County, said on Wednesday that Webb described taking drives through the black neighborhood of Watts, where he and members of his ROTC unit used racial epithets and pointed fake guns at blacks to scare them.

"They would hop into their cars, and would go down to Watts with these buddies of his," Cragg said Webb told him. "They would take the rifles down there. They would call then [epithets], point the rifles at them, pull the triggers and then drive off laughing. One night, some guys caught them and beat . . . them. And that was the end of that."

Cragg said Webb told him the Watts story during a 1983 interview for a Vietnam veterans magazine. Cragg, who described himself as a Republican who would vote for Allen, did not include the story in his article. He provided a transcript of the interview, but the transcript does not contain the ROTC story. He said he still remembers the exchange vividly more than 20 years later.