International Politics

When you follow Bush so closely, your country will kick you out of office:

Kevin Rudd's Labor Party won Australia's election, ending John Howard's 11-year rule after promising to tackle climate change, restore workers' bargaining power and withdraw Australian troops from Iraq.

Labor won 83 of the 150 seats in the House of Representatives, gaining 23 seats from 2004, according to Australian Broadcasting Corp. projections. The Liberal-National coalition has 58 seats, with two independents and seven still undecided, ABC said.

Add this to the news from yesterday that Poland's new Prime Minister is saying all his troops will be out within the next year, and we are left with a coalition of the dwindling. Amazing how something like this happens on the other side of the world, and yet it should leave a big empty feeling in the White House. Bush is a plague on other world leaders, and their best chance of viability is to stay the hell away from him and denounce his actions.

And now you can forget Poland. This shows how Bush's "staunchest allies" think of him now:

ONE of America's main allies, Poland, believes so many mistakes were made in the war in Iraq that any military intervention in Iran would be highly unlikely and the world would have to learn to deal with Iran having nuclear arms.

In an interview in Warsaw, the undersecretary of state for defence, Stanislaw Koziej, told the Herald the operation in Iraq "wasn't optimal, wasn't very effective and quite a lot of mistakes were done there and still we make a lot of mistakes".

Poland, one of the original "coalition of the willing" partners in Iraq, previously had 2500 troops there - its biggest military challenge since World War II. Today it has 900.

Through a translator, Mr Koziej said the experiences in Iraq, which greatly divided Europe, did not make it easy for the world to react in Iran. "I personally believe that military intervention in Iran is improbable," Mr Koziej said. "So we should get used to the fact that we will have to deal with Iran having nuclear armaments.".

(h/t to Think Progress)

When you got a bunch of chickenhawks running a war then you get a chickenhawk ran war that not only costs us troops and billions of dollars, but also costs us dear allies. This is the reason Bush has had to take a more timid response to issues like Iran and North Korea; not because he wants to, but because he must.

They must have taken a page right out of the old U.S.A. playbook on democracy:

The daily newspaper El Universal reported 10 ballot boxes and a polling station report were found in a garbage dump in a poor neighbourhood on the edge of Mexico City.

Activists demonstrated outside offices of the government's prosecutor for electoral crimes, shouting against fraud and hanging a huge banner which said: "Ugalde: You deserve jail".

Mexico's election system has improved steadily over the last decade and is widely respected, but it now faces a serious test given the extremely tight presidential vote and the animosity between Lopez Obrador and Calderon.

Lopez Obrador campaigned on promises to put Mexico's poor first with new welfare benefits and infrastructure projects, and has made clear he will not give up without a fight.

"We are committed with the citizens to act, to defend the will of millions of Mexicans," he said on Monday night.

I wonder if Ken Blackwell gave them some pointers on tricks to insure a win.

So how bad are things on the international front? The Washington Post gives us a great view:

From deteriorating security in Afghanistan and Somalia to mayhem in the Middle East, confrontation with Iran and eroding relations with Russia, the White House suddenly sees crisis in every direction.

North Korea's long-range missile test Tuesday, although unsuccessful, was another reminder of the bleak foreign policy landscape that faces President Bush even outside of Iraq. Few foreign policy experts foresee the reclusive Stalinist state giving up the nuclear weapons it appears to have acquired, making it another in a long list of world problems that threaten to cloud the closing years of the Bush administration, according to foreign policy experts in both parties.

"I am hard-pressed to think of any other moment in modern times where there have been so many challenges facing this country simultaneously," said Richard N. Haass, a former senior Bush administration official who heads the Council on Foreign Relations. "The danger is that Mr. Bush will hand over a White House to a successor that will face a far messier world, with far fewer resources left to cope with it."

Yes and whoever that President is will have to deal with this and with a budget that is out of control and other messes Bush has made (ie. FEMA). This is what happens when you get someone who would rather play President then be presidential. Bush has the most dangerous of egos - thinking he is right on everything. That ego has cost America more then it will ever know.

This really seems like the Bush/Gore debacle all over again:

Mexico's conservative presidential candidate Felipe Calderon declared victory on Monday in a bitterly contested election result as official returns showed him ahead of his left-wing rival.

Calderon said his lead was now "irreversible" because he had an advantage of more than 400,000 votes over Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador, the leftist former mayor of Mexico City, with almost 95 percent of votes counted.

"There is an irreversible result and it is in my favor," Calderon said in a television interview, looking confident. "The result give me a very clear victory that cannot be reversed."

Lopez Obrador, who had insisted on Sunday night he won the election by 500,000 votes, appeared more open to a possible defeat on Monday morning.

So the Conservative is in the lead by about 400,000 votes. I wonder if Bush will get Catherine Harris down there to help with the recount.

This is a very interesting decision:

Fox News Channel is going off the air in Mexico in advance of Sunday's presidential election to steer clear of that country's restrictions on campaign ads and public surveys, cable channel executives said Wednesday.

Fox News decided to temporarily halt transmission into Mexico because of concerns that the channel's coverage would violate a ban on disseminating opinion polls or campaign commercials in the days before the election, and jeopardize the standing of the cable and satellite companies that distribute its signal.

"I just don't think we had much choice," said Janet Alshouse, senior vice president of international distribution for Fox News. "We can't restrict our coverage."

Sounds like Mexico is more out to protect their democracy than we are. As soon as I read this, I thought back to the 2000 election. That night when all the networks were predicting Gore the winner then all of the sudden FOX is breaking ranks and predicting Bush the winner. This of course forced the other channels to switch their prediction and we know what happened after that.

So its the day after the shit hit the fan for Blair and his missfits.

Yesterday was the local elections in 176 of 388 regions and Labour lost 255 of the 1,768 seats it was defending while a resurgent opposition Conservative party under new leader David Cameron gained 250.

Talk is now afoot within the labour camp to oust Blair out of office during the summer. This has hit Blair hard and has caused a panic reshuffle of his cabinet as follows:

Charles Clark - Home Secretary.... SACKED for being so incompetant, is now replaced by John Reid

Jack Straw no longer Foriegn Secretary (thank god, he was useless and scared the life out of me when he was negotiating on our contries behalf) and is replaced by Margeret Beckett which is even more of a disaster, she was on Question Time last night and I have to say she is a dreadfull woman, she is going to do more harm than good in this position. Foriegn trade links will suffer because of this...this is the end of labour.

Jack Straw will become the leader of the House of Commons, which somewhat puts him out of the way.

John Prescott was spared the chop after his affairs and other mistake, he has however lost one of his departments, this is obviously the slap on the wrist from Blair.

Gordon Brown remains Chancellor and has said on national radio: "We have got to show in the next few days, not just the next few weeks, that we have sorted these problems out," Brown told BBC radio on Friday morning. "I will be talking to Tony Blair about these issues over the weekend." This sounds like someone who knows the end is near.

This is just patching up a wound and delaying the inevitable, Blair has to go. I dont think he should just step aside and let someone else like Brown become Prime Minister, Labour need to decide on a new leader then take it to the country and let us decide who should lead out country.

Tim

Well over the last couple of days both President Bush (just for you RJ..lol) and Blair have been trying to justify their actions to their respective nations.

Blair especially has been bringing Afganistan back into the frame with what looks like some backtracking.

We all recall the invaision of Afganistan and how once they had taken it the US and UK military might was just moved on to Iraq leaving the Afgan folk to sort themselves out, well this hasnt been going to well of late so we are now having to move more troops back to Afganistan to try and sort things out there.

Can out leaders get ANYTHING right?

The only thing they seem to do is make a mess of things, with continued sleaze coming to the fore in the British press about Blairs political party (Labour). Firstly Tessa Jowell's husband (she's the culture minister in Blairs cabinet) being linked to a fraud case involving the Italian Prime Minister, then how he nearly lost the vote on the Education Bill as so many of his own party voted against it, now we have a Loans enquiry being carried out by the police, whats going to be next.

I know we can all sit here and pick holes and slate any political leader, but you all have to admit things have been run very badly both sides of the Atlantic.

It's going to take a brave leader to stand up and admit mistakes have been made and things need to change drastically, otherwise things are just going to get worse. I just wonder if both are leaders are praying for another terrorist attack on home soil to justify further actions against the countries they already occupy or to give them another fictious reason to invade more, such as Iran.

I believe this series of 3 speeches Blair is giving on the UK Foreign Policy are his swansong. He is laying it out how he see's things with Afganistan, Iraq and Iran and will sometime in the very near future give his notice of stepping down as he has always indicated he will do before the end of his term and hand the reigns over to Gordon Brown. Somehow I think the train of thought that Blair has is also been implanted into Brown's head and things will not change.

Looks like Iraq, Afganistan and Iran will rumble on for years to come as many press reports have indicated. The scarey thing is, how far will all sides go. There is going to be a lot more blood spilt in the months, years to come!

Tim

US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Thursday she was confident the United Nations would take appropriate action on Iran, which she called the "central banker of terrorism."

The latest in the wave of anti-globalization and anti-Americanism in South America is taking the form of striking oil workers in Ecuador:

QUITO, Ecuador (Reuters) - Petroecuador said on Wednesday it expects production will climb to near normal levels in three or four days after troops fired tear gas to clear out strikers who have cut crude output at Ecuador's state oil firm by nearly half...The roughly 4,000 contract workers put down their tools to demand full-time jobs and delayed payments...Small groups of union workers and students also clashed with police in Quito to demand the government quit free trade talks with the United States and raise the minimum wage.

Contract workers, who aren't getting paid, are demanding back wages they are owed and full-time employment.  Rather than negotiating with those striking workers, the government uses tear gas to force them back to work. 

Oh it's such a good news day.

Over the previous few days Tony Blair has been giving his support to Tessa Jowell over allegations of fraud that her husband is being investigated for in Italy along with the italian Prime Minister (see previous post for details).

I think everyone but the PM believes Tessa Jowell when she says she was unaware of the 350,000 GBP ($600,000 dollars) payment her husband recieved from the Italian prime Minister. It's such crap, of coarse she knew, she just did not have her name linked to it in case there was a problem...which there now is. Tell me this, if your partner recieved over half a million dallars..woulf you know about it?

Anyways, the prosecuters in Italy have asked a judge to call the Italian Prime Minister and David Mills (Tessa Jowells husband) to court to answer charges of fraud.. heres the latest article from Reutures:

MILAN (Reuters) - Milan prosecutors asked a judge on Friday to order Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi and the husband of Culture Secretary Tessa Jowell to stand trial on corruption charges, judicial sources said.

The prosecutors have accused Berlusconi of paying tax lawyer David Mills, Jowell's recently estranged husband, a kickback of $600,000 (345,000 pounds) for not revealing compromising details of the prime minister's media empire when he testified in two court cases.

Rest of article here

You have to watch this: http://www.channel4.com/guantanamo

I've been sitting here for the past two hours watching a documentry/film about the 3 british Guys who were detained at Guantanamo for months.

It tells the story of their capture, why they were there, how they were captured and above all the relentless abuse and torture they suffered at the hands of the US Troops.

It's disgusting, it's shocking, the Bush administration must be held accountable for the actions of the troops in Guantanamo. What is shown breaks every rule in the Geneva Convention, no food, no water and torture.

No wonder no one has access to what goes on there, if there was, Bush would be out of office and up in court on charges.

Now I know some of you will sit there and agree with what goes on there, but just try and remember back to the days of Dessert Storm, remember your troops that were captured and tortured, remember the outcry, the protests, the White House press conferences condemming what was going on. Well blow me..if the Bush administration isn't doing the same now....EXCEPT this time it's OK because I'm the President of the USA and I can do whatever I fucking please.

Ahhhh..that feels better for airing my thoughts

take a look here: http://www.channel4.com/guantanamo

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Iran is the No. 1 challenge to the United States, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said on Thursday after the Islamic republic's leadership vowed no compromise with the West in a standoff over its nuclear programs.

You just know this is going to get nasty in the near future:

TEHRAN (Reuters) - President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Thursday Western countries were vulnerable and would suffer more than Iran if they continued to try to impede its attempts to develop nuclear technology, local media reported.

Speaking a day after it became clear that the U.N. Security Council would take up Iran's nuclear case, Ahmadinejad said Tehran would not be bullied or humiliated.

Rest of story : http://uk.news.yahoo.com/09032006/325/west-suffer-iran-ahmadinejad.html

The troubles in the Middle East thickens. Knowing Israels impateince in waiting for the UN to act on things which might affect it's security, how long will Israel sit there and wait for the UN to go back and forth with Iran on this issue?

Source: Reuters 

By Louis Charbonneau

BERLIN (Reuters) - If the U.N. Security Council is incapable of taking action to stop Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons, Israel will have no choice but to defend itself, Israel's defense minister said on Wednesday.

Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz was asked whether Israel was ready to use military action if the Security Council proved unable to act against what Israel and the West believe is a covert Iranian nuclear weapons program.

"My answer to this question is that the state of Israel has the right give all the security that is needed to the people in Israel. We have to defend ourselves," Mofaz told Reuters after a meeting with his German counterpart Franz Josef Jung.

Iran denies wanting nuclear weapons and says it is only interested in the peaceful generation of electricity. It has also threatened to retaliate if Israel or the United States were to bomb any of its nuclear facilities.

In 1981, Israel bombed Iraq's Osirak nuclear reactor to prevent Saddam Hussein from getting nuclear weapons. Saddam's covert atom bomb program continued until U.N. inspectors dismantled it after the 1991 Gulf War, but the Israeli strike set progress back many years.

"The Israeli approach is that the U.S. and the European countries should lead the issue of the Iranian nuclear program to the table of the U.N. Security Council, asking for sanctions. And I hope the sanctions will be effective," Mofaz said.

Mofaz, who was born in Iran, added that Israel believed the 15-nation Security Council should grant the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), the U.N.'s Vienna-based nuclear watchdog, sweeping inspection powers so that it can smoke out any secret nuclear arms-related activities in Iran.

"We need to have very deep and large inspections within all the nuclear locations in Iran because Iran has two nuclear programs -- one is a covered one and the second is uncovered," he said.

The Iranian delegation to an IAEA board of governors meeting in Vienna issued a statement earlier warning that the United States could feel "harm and pain" if the Security Council took up the issue of Tehran's nuclear fuel research and vowed never to abandon its atomic program.

At a news conference with Mofaz, Jung told reporters Germany was already discussing with the five permanent Security Council members -- Russia, China, the United States, Britain and France -- what the council could do to prevent Tehran getting the bomb.

"Everything must be done to ensure that Iran does not acquire nuclear weapons," Jung said.

A senior diplomat from one of the "EU3" said earlier that the Security Council would probably begin discussing Iran next week and hoped to issue a "presidential statement" urging Iran to suspend its uranium enrichment program and cooperate with the IAEA.