Democrats to field 5,000 lawyers in Key states to ensure the Republicans do not “steal” the election

International     Democrats to field 5,000 lawyers in Florida Ewen MacAskill To ensure Republicans do not “steal” the election They will help voters denied a ballot on spurious grounds or fight to keep polling stations open The Republicans plan to send their volunteer-advocates too Orlando: A team of 5,000 volunteer lawyers representing the Democrats will fan out across polling stations in Florida next Tuesday to , as — Democrats claim — George Bush did eight years ago. Heading the biggest team of lawyers ever assembled is Charles Lichtman, a partner in the Fort Lauderdale law firm Berger Singerman, who has been working as an unpaid volunteer for up to 18 hours a day since August. His drive comes from the experience of being what he describes as “the Hanging Chad Guy,” leading a group of lawyers based in the infamous Broward County for weeks during the recount in 2000. “Legitimate votes of citizens did not get counted. If they had been counted, we would not have been in Iraq and the economy would not have tanked,” said Mr. Lichtman (53), who is from Chicago. He vowed he would do his best to ensure it never happened again and began planning the operation that will be in place on November 4. Democrat Barack Obama’s campaign team has recruited thousands of volunteer lawyers to attend polling stations in battleground states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania, and other states where the vote could be close. But the biggest push is in Florida, in part because of its history and also because polls suggest the vote will be tight.  more

NYT endorses Obama, says Palin 'unfit for the office'

Fri, Oct 24 11:34 AM

US Presidential hopeful Barack Obama, already leading Republican rival John McCain in opinion polls, got a major boost to his campaign with the influential 'New York Times' newspaper lending its endorsement to the Democrat, commending him for possessing 'a cool head' and 'sound judgement'.

Contending that the Afro-African was better placed to deal with deteriorating economy and sensitive world problems, including wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the newspaper said he was also likely to engineer sound alliances at international and national levels.

"He has shown a cool head and sound judgement. We believe he has the will and the ability to forge the broad political consensus that is essential to finding solutions to this nation's problems," the 'Times' editorial board said in an 1800-word endorsement.

In contrast, the paper said McCain has retreated farther and farther to the fringe of American politics, running a 'campaign on partisan division, class warfare and even hints of racism.'

Claiming that McCain's policies and worldview were mired in the past, the paper also termed his running mate Alaska Governor Sarah Palin as 'unfit for the office'.  more 

Colin Powell backs Barack Obama to be an ‘exceptional’ president

From The Times

October 20, 2008

General Powell, 71, who was also the National Security Adviser to Ronald Reagan, said that he had asked himself: “Which is the President we need now?” Referring to Mr Obama, he continued: “And I come to the conclusion that because of his ability to inspire, because of the inclusive nature of his campaign, because he is reaching out all across America, because of who he is and his rhetorical abilities — and you have to take that into account — as well as his substance — he has both style and substance, he has met the standard of being a successful President, being an exceptional President.


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Amartya Sen for Obama

Obama win will warm up things: Amartya

Sun, Oct 19 02:30 AM

Americans lolling about without confidence has pushed the US into a recession, but things could become normal if "cool" Democrat nominee Barack Obama wins the presidential election, feels Nobel laureate Amartya Sen. "It (US) certainly is in a recession already. There is no question about that. The question is how deep a recession it is," he told NDTV on his assessment of the US economy.

The 1998 Nobel laureate in economics said that economies are pushed towards depression when people suddenly lose confidence and that is what has happened in the US. "It is that suddenly people have lost confidence. And, that's how depression has traditionally been. You lose confidence, you cut down on your activities. That leads to the cut down of other activities," the economist said. He was, however, of the view that Obama could play a major role in infusing confidence, although he would not be in office until January. "Obama's coolness is a real advantage in a financial crisis. And, when that happens, I think you might see the confidence... turn around very quickly," said Sen, who was born in Santiniketan, West Bengal. According to him, "the positive side (to any depression) is that just as it can decline by lack of confidence, when confidence comes in, it can also dramatically improve."

He also concluded that the current crisis in the US has not been caused by external factors and the problems were internal and more to do with lack of confidence.

source 

Racial Politics in US elections

The Terrorist Barack Hussein Obama

By FRANK RICH

Published: October 11, 2008, The New York Times Op-Ed

.........
There are no black faces high in the McCain hierarchy to object to these tactics. There hasn’t been a single black Republican governor, senator or House member in six years. This is a campaign where Palin can repeatedly declare that Alaska is “a microcosm of America” without anyone even wondering how that might be so for a state whose tiny black and Hispanic populations are each roughly one-third the national average. There are indeed so few people of color at McCain events that a black senior writer from The Tallahassee Democrat was mistakenly ejected by the Secret Service from a campaign rally in Panama City in August, even though he was standing with other reporters and showed his credentials. His only apparent infraction was to look glaringly out of place.
Could the old racial politics still be determinative? I’ve long been skeptical of the incessant press prognostications (and liberal panic) that this election will be decided by racist white men in the Rust Belt. Now even the dimmest bloviators have figured out that Americans are riveted by the color green, not black — as in money, not energy. Voters are looking for a leader who might help rescue them, not a reckless gambler whose lurching responses to the economic meltdown (a campaign “suspension,” a mortgage-buyout stunt that changes daily) are as unhinged as his wanderings around the debate stage.

My vision of India-Pakistan relations -Manmohan Singh

“is that both countries situate their bilateral relations in a cooperative framework of mutual understanding. We seek the normalisation of our relations with Pakistan, a solution of all issues that cause estrangement, including Jammu and Kashmir through dialogue and peaceful negotiations in an atmosphere free of violence. While we cannot change borders, we can make them irrelevant,” he said.

“When I met President Zardari in New York recently, I invited Pakistan to work with us to usher in a new era of sub-continental cooperation.”

Road ahead

Dr. Singh said: “The road ahead is difficult but if we persevere and remain committed we will find solutions to all issues in a spirit of friendship and cooperation.

“When I inaugurated the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service in April 2005, I had said that this is the first step on a long road of peace. Notwithstanding the many difficulties which have come, we have taken several steps. The start of trade on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad and Poonch-Rawalakot roads on October 21 is a major initiative that has been taken. History will judge how big these steps were. The fact is that they have taken place after many lost decades of mutual recrimination, violence and war,” he said.

“There are real winds of change in the subcontinent today. Economics, technology and travel are altering older mindsets of suspicion, fear and hostility. It is undeniable that much has changed between India and Pakistan in the past few years,” he said.  read it all 

Ahtisaari wins Nobel Peace Prize

Page last updated at 10:42 GMT, Friday, 10 October 2008 11:42 UK BBC  E-mail this to a friend Printable version

This year's Nobel Peace Prize has been won by peace negotiator Martti Ahtisaari, the Nobel Foundation has announced in Norway's capital, Oslo. Finland's ex-president has been a UN mediator on Kosovo, helped end the conflict in Indonesia's Aceh province and aided Namibia's independence. Mr Ahtisaari told Norwegian broadcaster NRK he was "very pleased and grateful" to receive the award. The laureate wins a gold medal, diploma and 10m Swedish kronor ($1.4m). The winners were chosen by a secretive five-member Norwegian awards committee from 197 nominations this year.  more  Profile: Martti Ahtisaari

Hate Campaigns in US

Obama is a traitor, cry McCain supporters

Crowds at Republican rallies hurl insults at Democrat candidate

By Leonard Doyle in Washington
Friday, 10 October 2008

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Rallies for John McCain and Sarah Palin are becoming rabble-rousing events where warm-up speakers encourage unruly crowds to vent hatred for the Democratic contender, Barack Obama. Cat-calls of "traitor", "criminal" and "terrorist" have been heard.

The McCain campaign protests that it does not condone such behaviour and does not want to see it happen. But in the closely contested states of Florida, Ohio and Pennsylvania, a campaign that had been confined to the internet is coming into full public view. One of the main things that the Obama campaign's "Fight The Smears" unit have been battling are the false rumour that their candidate is Muslim. At a 6,000-strong rally in Pennsylvania this week, as the two candidates on the Republican ticket waited backstage, a senior party member asked the crowd how they would feel about having a president with the middle name Hussein.

"Think about how you'll feel on 5 November if you wake up and see the news, that Barack Obama – that's Barack Hussein Obama – is the president-elect of the United States," said Bill Platt, the Lehigh County Republican chairman. The crowed booed, jeered and hissed at the very thought. Then another speaker, Peg Ferraro, denounced the Democratic candidate's "background and affiliations", saying they were "questionable" and asking: "Do we know who his friends are?"

The remarks were later condemned by the McCain campaign as "inappropriate rhetoric, which distracts from the real questions of judgement, character, and experience".  more 

N-deal: Bush allays Indian concerns over fuel supply, reprocessing

Thu, Oct 9 07:02 AM

Washington, Oct 9 (IANS) President George W. Bush has sought to allay India's concerns over nuclear fuel assurances and reprocessing of spent nuclear fuel with an assertion that the enabling US law does not change the terms of the bilateral 123 Agreement.

"The legislation does not change the terms of the 123 Agreement as I submitted it to the Congress," said Bush in what the White House described as a "Statement by the President on the Occasion of Signing H.R. 7081," which had added a couple of riders in ratifying the India-US civil nuclear deal.

"That Agreement is consistent with the Atomic Energy Act and other elements of US law. This legislation is important as it enables me to bring the 123 Agreement into force and to accept on behalf of the United States the obligations contained in the Agreement,' Bush said.

"The Agreement grants India advance consent to reprocessing which will be brought into effect upon conclusion of arrangements and procedures for a dedicated reprocessing facility under IAEA (International Atomic Energy Agency) safeguards,' he stated

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Sarah Palin related to Princess Diana, Obamato Brad Pitt.

New York, October 8: Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is distantly related to the late Princess Diana and late US President Franklin Roosevelt, genealogy experts said on Wednesday.
The governor of Alaska and the princess are tenth cousins, while Palin and Roosevelt are ninth cousins once removed, said Ancestry.com, online genealogists based in Provo, Utah.
The genealogical connections are not the first to gain attention in the US presidential campaign. Last year, Lynne Cheney said she found while tracing her family roots that her husband Vice President Dick Cheney was a distant cousin of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.
Other researchers discovered Obama is distant cousins with actor Brad Pitt.  more

Pakistan Parliament to discuss law and order in camera

SLAMABAD: Joint session of the parliament summoned by President Asif Ali Zardari will be held(Wednesday) tomorrow to discuss the law and order situation in the country. 

Former prime minister and PML-N leader Mian Nawaz Sharif has accepted invitation of Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani to attend the in-camera session of the parliament. 

The intelligence and security agencies will brief the parliament about the security situation in the country. 

Prime Minister said that the government is implementing the proposal of in-camera session of the parliament given by Mian Nawaz Sharif. 

It is pertinent to mention that the powers of the speaker will be exercised to ensure attendance of Nawaz Sharif in the parliament as the PML-N leader is not a member of the parliament.  more 

Civilians flee Tamil Tiger centre

BBC 3 October 2008

By Swaminathan Natarajan
BBC Tamil service


This rebel building was damaged on Thursday, the Tigers say.
Large numbers of civilians are reported to be fleeing the northern Sri Lankan town of Kilinochchi in the face of more air force attacks.
Kilinochchi is the administrative headquarters of Tamil Tiger rebels fighting for a separate Tamil state.
On Friday the air force targeted the Tigers' police HQ, reports say.
Aid agencies estimate about 200,000 people have been displaced by the fighting. The government says it is on the verge of defeating the Tigers. more