From Denny: The President has ordered a complete review of our nation's air safety capabilities. Since an international flight that came in from The Netherlands, sending a terrorist complete with bomb on a flight into Detroit, Michigan, America realizes we can no longer count on other countries to take our safety seriously.
Frankly, considering America is still at war in Middle Eastern countries we should have enough sense to limit to a few airports that can accept international flights. Limiting those flights to cities like New York City, Los Angeles and a few others who are adequately prepared to deal with terrorism. Somehow, Detroit is not my idea of a place with the funds or the experience for dealing with international terrorism which is precisely why it was targeted. The good news is that terrorists have grossly underestimated the American public's courage to intervene, not waiting for the cavalry to save them.
As to another precaution, how about limiting point of departure globally into America? We could have our own profilers working the airport passengers before they board. If there are only a few cities allowed to fly from into America we could easily man them. One thing is for sure, we must get a much tighter control on who goes in and out of our borders, especially in the air.
As much as we would like more specifics about this terrorist, just how much can the government reveal safely? Both the intelligence and justice communities have to be lobbying the President to keep a lid on the details until investigations are complete.
When a politician says they are "ordering an air safety review" that is basically "polite speak" for rattling a lot of cages overseas and in the various agencies responsible for air safety. Heads have probably already rolled or are a step away from firing if this is not satisfactorily resolved. What will come out of this incident is an acute awareness to tighten the safety net to a choke chain on a junkyard dog: Al Qaeda.
From Denny: Fighting for women to be treated decently throughout the world is an ongoing issue. Until other women decide to band together to help each other will the culture change. You can't wait for the men to do it. Women in India have banded together and have found safety in large numbers as they protest wrongs in their culture.
It's a mean-spirited culture toward women like this in Afghanistan that really makes Americans question why we are fighting for their freedom. Afghanistan is a country where NGOs tell us the statistics are that 90% of the women here suffer abuse, rape or murder. It's time for America to leave Afghanistan; this war isn't worth fighting to protect this kind of perverse culture. Fortunately, for these ladies they found a shelter that gives them both safety for now and hope for their future.
From Denny: Sonia Sotomayor was sworn in today by Chief Justice Roberts in two ceremonies, one private and one public.
Another first is that this is the first time in the Court's history that television cameras were allowed for an oath-taking ceremony.
Sotomayor, a 55-year-old federal appeals judge, was confirmed on Thursday by a 68 - 31 vote. There were nine Republicans who joined the Democratic caucus to support her nomination. Because of his battling brain cancer, Senator Ted Kennedy, Democrat of Massachusetts, was unable to be there to vote, though he has always supported her ground-breaking nomination.
When does Sotomayor begin her new job? The High Court reconvenes in September to listen to arguments about the McCain-Feingold campaign finance law.
So where does Sotomayor fit in the stats and trivia department? She is the 111th person to sit on the Supreme Court and only the third woman. Republicans have been adept at keeping women off the court for decades now. She is also the first Hispanic.
Her public professional history is that in 1992 she was named a district judge by President George Bush 41. Later she was elevated to the 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals just six years later by President Bill Clinton in 1998. While on the district court she presided over 450 cases.
In her private professional life she had been a partner at a firm as well as an assistant district attorney prosecuting violent crimes.
She has come to the Court with more experience than the Chief Justice and most of the rest of the Court members which is probably why the Republicans fought her rise.
From Denny: For weeks now the State Department has been acting like a real State Department and been quietly negotiating for the release of the U.S. journalists North Korea sentenced to prison for years of hard labor because they were caught sneaking into the country to do a story. Anyone with a brain would know better than to try and deceive a paranoid deceptive government and they paid a high price for their gamble.
Former President Bill Clinton was sent to retrieve the women. All Clinton had to do was publicly reap the fruits of the many background diplomats who did the heavy lifting to achieve this political coup. The former President is the high level status of attention and interaction the North Koreans were seeking. Clinton is known for both his charm and his knowledge of how best to handle difficult situations.
These journalists should count themselves extremely lucky that President Obama was willing to seek their freedom. Under a Republican administration they would have been considered expendable and left to rot in prison for their full terms.
Moral of the story? As an American don't get jailed in a foreign country unless you have lots of friends in high places to pay for your release or there is a Democrat in the White House.
Now the real questions remain: What did Clinton privately promise North Korea? Was it enough to extract a public apology from a heavy weight powerful country? Will North Korea power down on their nuclear ambitions?
For now, North Korea threw a temper tantrum and got the international attention it was seeking by stepping on the faces of two women. Fortunately, Clinton and Obama are class acts and retrieved them.
This video is from early this morning before Clinton's plane had taken off and was in the air. Smart move from the White House not to crow about it until they knew all parties were out of North Korean air space.
This is the video hours later after confirmation from the White House the jailed reporters and Clinton were on their way home to America.
Analysis from CNN Asia correspondent on how this is perceived in North Korea
From Denny:Secretary of State Hillary Clinton goes high tech for the stodgey State Department! She's bringing government out of the Stone Age with cutting edge technology and connecting up with every day citizens here in America and around the world. When she travels to other countries the new techonolgy makes it possible for folks online to ask her questions directly as if they are there in her global town hall. Check out what she's up to from this video. "Two" words: AWE SOME! :)
From Denny: These are the petty charges against the Iranian moderates who are members of the opposition party. Looks like the government wants to make sure even a small charge can stick just in case public opinion runs against them. They want to be able to declare victory on the most ambiguous of charges.
* clashing with security forces - how dare you protect yourself when beaten over the head with night sticks and rifle butts when you are unarmed and in a peaceful demonstration.
Looks like Iran's regime is determined to hold onto power. These charges satisfy the harshest elements in their society. Putting these people away in prison on such flimsy - even childish - charges will not stop the movement but only give it martyrs to fuel the movement.
The opposition has started a fire the government cannot put out. When a person's spirit is on fire for change there is no stopping it. You can sideline people for a while but the inevitable will happen and that government will be dismissed by voters or toppled by a coup.
From Denny: This Presidential comment about the racial profiling case with Prof. Gates has unleashed a firestorm of racial blowback across America. Understandably, the President was himself racially profiled when younger and is hypersensitive to the subject. The wise thing to do would have been to get all the facts of the case before - or if - offering any comment. The President now realizes that his word carries a lot of power and to use it carefully. Every new President goes through this process in their first year of discovering every word they utter has greater significance than before they took office.
CNN: Obama said Sgt. Crowley acted "stupidly." The reporter that asked the question spoke with CNN's Carol Costello.
Here's the news story about her leaving the Alaskan Governor's Mansion with 18 months left to serve. She just up and quit like some diva, surprising everyone and angering Republicans for being a quitter. Guess she can't fade the heat of 16 ethics charges.
CNN: CNN's Candy Crowley reports on the questions remaining following Sarah Palin's decision to quit her job.
From Denny: The public wallet has yet to rally as fast as these big businesses. Unemployment is almost double digits, the economy is on life support propped up by bail outs which translates as coming from the wallets of the middle class who lost their jobs those same big businesses chose to send overseas. It isn't really very smart when a business takes jobs away from the very people who turn around and purchase their products, now is it? That's basically what has happened.
There is a significant need to get serious about regulating Wall Street and other robber baron big businesses in America. Until then, the average middle class investor will not trust them with their money. Until regulation is done, overseas investors won't have a healthy long-term confidence either.
Realistically, expect a correction in these rosy statistics.
"The stock market recently rallied to its best level all year, which is making investors hope that this could be a signal that the worst of the economic downturn is over. Karen Brown reports."
From Denny: President Obama makes his case for national health care reform of some kind, preferably by August, though it looks like that deadline is going to be pushed back to Labor Day in September or longer.
Americans continue to groan under the weight of a weak economy, now 20 million people have experienced home foreclosure, banks are still failing, health care costs are still high, and continued, though somewhat slowed, job loss. The problem is that it will take a good decade to develop new jobs to a sustainable level. Meanwhile, families are going broke trying to pay for health care that often is denied when it comes time for the insurance companies to pay out.
Did I say our economy is in a real mess because it went unattended for eight years by the previous Bush administration? :) Considering the freefall going on it's pretty amazing anyone with a rational mind would oppose health care of some kind.
The reality is that it is needed and we had better start with something basic for everyone so we can stop breaking the backs of the hospitals with the uninsured flooding the emergency rooms for standard sore throat, colds and flu care. Preventive care and education of how to handle basics at home is also required so we don't end up with a nation of hypochondriacsrunning to the doctor for every sniffle.
Amazing too that Congress thinks it's OK to waltz off on a holiday while the majority of America is groaning under the weight of rising costs from every angle: food, gas, local and state taxes as well as health care.
Barack Obama, Health care, Insurance, Health, Breaking News, Health Policy, Labor Day, United States
From Denny: Well, it took long enough! Finally, we are starting to bomb the daylights out of the drug crops in Afghanistan. These farmers have repeatedly been offered free seeds and other resources to raise other crops that will bring income. As usual for weak human beings, they go for the easy and fast cash offered by the new drug dealers in town: the Taliban.
Here's an excerpt from a CNN article. It's also linked on my link companion page: Dennys Global Politics Fav Links under the North America section.
"KABUL, Afghanistan (CNN) -- The U.S. military bombed about 300 tons of poppy seeds in a dusty field in southern Afghanistan Tuesday in a dramatic show of force designed to break up the Taliban's connection to heroin.
The U.S. military bombed about 300 tons of poppy seeds in a dusty field in southern Afghanistan Tuesday.
The air strike occurred mid-day in Helmand province.
The military dropped a series of 1,000-pound bombs from planes on the mounds of poppy seeds and then followed with strikes from helicopters.
Tony Wayne, with the U.S. State Department, said the strikes on poppy seeds, that can be used to make opium and heroin, is part of a strategy shift for the military to stop the Taliban and other insurgents from profiting from drugs.
In a bid to encourage Afghan farmers to swap out their poppy plants for wheat crops the U.S. Agency for International Development has been offering them seeds, fertilizers and improved irrigation.
Many of Afghanistan's northern and eastern provinces have already benefited from USAID alternative farming programs, which have doled out more than $22 million to nearly 210,000 Afghans to build or repair 435 miles (700 kilometers) of roads and some 2,050 miles (3,300 kilometers) of irrigation and drainage canals.
Giving Afghan farmers improved access to markets and improved irrigation is successfully weaning them away from poppy production, according to officials at USAID.
Over the years, opium and heroin -- both derivatives of the poppy -- have served as a major source of revenue for the insurgency, most notably the Taliban movement that once ruled Afghanistan.
"If you can just help the people of Afghanistan in this way, the fighting will go away," said Abdul Qadir, a farmer in Lashkar Gah. "The Taliban and other enemies of the country will also disappear."
To read the full article and watch a video, just click on the title link. Thanks for visiting!
Subscribe today to Dennys Global Politics, just click on the orange feed icon or the email link!
Photo by Department of Defense
Afghanistan, Taliban, United States, heroin, poppy seeds, war, farmers, bombings, Kabul, USAID, farm aid
From Denny: Thanks to bestontube.com who brought this video to my attention over at the Blogged Directory and GoodMagazine.com who produced it! This video is a couple of years old from 2007 so the numbers might be slightly off. Who knows how many nukes Russia may have sold to bolster its flagging bad economy? For those who don't know the actual numbers this video is a real eye-opener!
This is the promo text: "Nuclear weaponry is the most devastating technology on the planet, and has brought us to the brink of civilization-ending conflagrations. In 2007, who has them? Who is beefing up their arsenal? Who is scaling down? And what would a single nuclear weapon do to Manhattan?"
Russia, Nuclear weapon, Dmitry Medvedev, United States, Nuclear, North Korea, Barack Obama
From Denny: This is a post I ran over at The Social Poets Friday evening for the Bloggers Unite Human Rights Day post on 17 July 2009. Bloggers everywhere are all blogging on the same day about human rights.
***
Humanity is at a crossroads in our world history where we must make a profound decision. It’s time to live better.
Currently, human rights abuses are no longer exclusive to certain regions of the globe. There is a sharp increase in human rights abuses worldwide for decades now and situations are increasing in violence yearly.
Stories abound globally of the most heinous crimes to humanity. Nothing good is accomplished by mankind trying to annihilate mankind. Just what is going on in the world? Here are just a few areas:
• Hamas and Taliban Islamic terrorists and other terrorist groups worldwide are on a bloodthirsty killing spree with bombings of civilians, women and children in many places in the world.
Photo by azrainman @ flickr
• Rogue unstable governments, covertly cozy with terrorist groups, working feverishly to acquire the nuclear bomb so they can kill off their neighbors they don’t like because they are another religion, a different economic or another kind of social system – or just plain won’t give them what they want.
• Genocide in Africa because people of different tribes can’t work out their differences like civilized people.
• Jailing journalists - trying to report the truth - as political temper tantrums to get their own way: North Korea and Iran.
• Tortured prisoners worldwide with the most notable recent heinous acts perpetrated during the Bush years on terrorist suspects never given trials, mainly because there was no real hard evidence.
• Under Taliban Islamic law and culture women are still regarded as subhuman and not deserving of first class treatment like men.
• Here in the United States, during the Bush years, women were raped, often savage gang rapes, at our military universities yet went unreported.
• Then there are battered women worldwide from Islamic to Christian countries whose husbands will not stop pummeling them.
We, the majority, are allowing the few to terrorize us, our neighbors and our loved ones. We must mobilize to stop it. How? Education for starters. In the end, in order for humanity to not come to an end, we must consider a working alternative to what exists today in the way of abuses. It is a basic human right to be loved. Loved, you say? Yes, loved. We all have the right to be loved.
Love comes in many forms. We have the human right to certain expectations of basic decency and civility. We have the human right to healthy drinking water and sanitation and affordable housing. We have the human right to expect our political leaders that are guardians of our country to be honest and get serious about addressing pressing social and economic issues.
Photo by alicepopkorn @ flickr
Human rights abuses worldwide, in our own countries, in our homes will continue until the average person stands up and says "No!" to it all. Human rights abuses will continue until we all get serious about connecting up to create a tsunami force to push humanity along until we all do better, choose better and, in the end, start living better. Now that’s Love in action! We all have the human right to be loved. Let’s give Love.
A few places you can go for education and plug in to help:
North Korea, United States, denny lyon, Human rights, Nuclear weapon, Africa, Amnesty International, Human Rights and Liberties, Sharia, The Social Poets
Update: There were such a great comments on this story that I just had to repost this story for you to read. I really like it when someone wants to seriously discuss a social issue. What comes out of any good discussion is more understanding and some new facts to investigate. I have an inkling that this story is just the tip of the proverbial iceberg. Time will tell as more reporters look into the veracity of the experts and the accusers.
Federal Agents Investigate Burger Kings Treatment of Foreign Students - An excerpt: "RIVERTON, Wyo. – Federal agents from the Department of Immigrations are expected to arrive in Riverton today to investigate a possible indentured service case involving foreign students. Five university students working in the states through an exchange program said they were fired from the local Burger King and evicted from squalid living quarters provided by the company after they complained about the conditions.
They described the 15x15-foot house as a boiler room prison, because the windows wouldn’t open, bunkbeds with air mattresses were the beds, a hot-plate on a counter sufficed for a kitchen stove and the toilet and shower stall were unsanitary due to corrosion.
Riverton police, who executed the eviction notice over the weekend, were appalled at the conditions found and reported the situation to immigrations and the U.S. Attorney’s Office. Local Burger King management has refused comment and corporate officials in Florida say they were unaware of the situation. The students were matched with the local Burger King through the work/travel programs of Worldwide International Student Exchange (WISE) and Aspire Worldwide. They paid $3,500 to $5,000 each to participate, and were told adequate housing would be provided at an affordable fee.
They said rent for the house was $1,800 a month, paid to Burger King District Manager Peggy Handran. Her phone number listed on the work agreement is no longer in service.
The university students are all men, ages 18-21, coming from Turkey, Mongolia, Azerbaijan and the Ukraine. They have found temporary sanctuary with a neighbor, Donna Michel."
Click on the title link for the rest of the story.
The Discussion
Comments:
smbpott said...
This case is unfortunate and I feel bad for the kids, but the vast majority (95%) of exchanges are positive for the students and the families and communities which host them. I urge the press to investigate Danielle Grijalva, director of Committee for Safety and Chris Gould, a retired British police investigator and PURPORTED consultant to foreign exchange programs worldwide. They say mistreatment of foreign students is significantly underreported. What basis do they use to show underreporting? What is the board make up of the committee for safety? What foreign exchange programs is Chris Gould a consultant for? You will find these two people have NO basis for their setting themselves up as experts, and that they are acting together, but essentially alone (no real committee, no board oversight of organization, restraining order against Danielle...), just trolling the internet for sensationalized cases of exchange student abuse and posting them on one website repeatedly.
16 July, 2009 22:21 Denny Lyon said... Hi, smbpott, thanks for visiting and leaving your comment!
As with most stories like this, it isn't about how well the majority has been treated but rather about the abused minority that went unreported or not investigated.
This story is really not about the concept of foreign exchange students as it is a great idea culturally. It isn't about the whole organization either.
What this story is about is the fact that nothing was done to address these problems, not enough or perhaps any oversight on the part of our government - most likely the vast majority of issues happened during the Bush years of "non-doing."
It was foolish for our current State Dept. not to fine tooth comb every project they had in operation during the Bush years looking for this kind of thing. As it was the GAO was prevented from investigating AND reporting by Bush and Cheney. Normally, they handle these kinds of investigations as these problems always follow one culprit: follow the money. Most likely, Bush and Cheney cut the funds for oversight and hired outside political cronies as payback for campaign funds.
BTW, do you have proof to back up the stats you give that 95% of the foreign exchange students do not encounter any problem? If there was no oversight, no reporting, no surveys, where did you get this stat?
In the end, we are both coming at this problem from different sides and meeting in the middle in complete agreement: not enough oversight to prove either the good or the bad satisfactorily!
I'm glad these people have finally gotten the courage to speak up and speak out about their abuse. It went pretty much the same in the religious community, especially Catholic, when for decades people complained about sexual abuse. The same arguments abounded that it wasn't that bad, it wasn't true, that 95% etc., etc. Since then the abused began to speak up and the whole truth came out: there were thousands worldwide who were badly abused for decades.
My policy is never to deny a listen to anyone who has been abused, especially when it was as a result of an institutional entity for which as part of the public I am partly responsible.
17 July, 2009 08:57
From Denny: This is a video story I tried to put up yesterday but CNN did not yet have it up on its site until today. Unbelievable what foreign exchange students have lived through when visiting the United States during the Bush years and recently. The truth is just now coming out.
It's a real horror story that our own government funded this abuse and did not take the interest to regulate these agencies that promote and place these students in American homes. Some of those homes were convicted felons, students were raped, starved, forced to live in filthy situations, even placed with known and registered sex offenders! How perverted can you get?
Politics foreign exchange students rape sex offenders starvation abuse America United States State Department investigation
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