PoliticalMachine Forums » RSS Feed » International Posts

Myanmar officials need to accept more help!

Locamama — Fri, 09 May 2008 21:29:47 -0400

As horrible and tragic as the cyclones and the lives lost in Myanamar are. It is even more tragic that Myanamar officials seem more concerned with staying in power than helping their own people. People are starving and devastated. Myanamar has accepted help from a few neighboring countries but there are many more that are willing to help but being denied permission. This situation is just horrendous and it breaks my heart. I just watched a news report which showed a...

Potomac Bridges

marouki — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 13:26:14 -0400

Le bonhomme au pull rouge passe les doigts dans sa blanche tignasse. Il regarde d’un air amusé la trentaine de types en costards et cravates réunis, attentifs, autour de lui, dans une salle de conférence en haut d’un building dont les grandes baies vitrées dominent la rivière qui arrose la capitale de l’Empire. Son public : des pontes de la Banque mondiale. Il sait que ce qu’il va leur dire, en réponse à l...

Anthropologising Irak

marouki — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 12:10:19 -0400

Autant dans l’esprit guerrier, les américains changent d’humeur et veulent s’évertuer dans la stratégie ‘académique’, question d’assimiler les tenants et les aboutissants en Irak et gagner la sympathie des irakiens. On croit rêver ! Selon Newsweek, il y plus d’une semaine, l’administration Bush a dépêché depuis 2007 des ‘experts’, académiciens ant...

Hamas Endorses Obama

Anthony R — Mon, 28 Apr 2008 17:40:44 -0400

Ahmed Yousef, chief political adviser to the Hamas Prime Minister Ismail Hyena, has announced support for Obama.

"We like Mr. Obama. We hope he will win the election and I do believe he is like John Kennedy, great man with great principle, and he has a vision to change America."

The ringing endorsements just keep coming in

Louis Farrakan, Hanoi Jane, 'spiritual advisor' Wright, 'Mentor' Bill Ayers, Jimmy Carter, and now, the Hamas terror organization.

Read My Lips No New Freedom!

psychx — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 23:09:51 -0400

This is my first new post in 4 years. I stepped away for school and work. I'm here to pose a question. Why is it freedom is so selective? The current analogue is Tibet, of course. You may have heard of it. Tibetans want to be independent, as they were. China, the new bully in town, says no way! Everyone feels for them, some protest, but there is no major multilateral front from any government or institution. Why? Because it's effing China.&nb...

Free Speech In Europe

Dr Guy — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 16:13:39 -0400

This is what we are supposed to look up to an emulate?

At least some here, and abroad are holding up this as an example of what America should be. A land where you can be arrested, fined and jailed for what?

"I am fed up with being under the thumb of this population which is destroying us, destroying our country and imposing its acts,"

That is Bridget Bardot's crime. Just stating an opinion.

Now we can argue that she is wrong,...

Une catastrophe pas du tout naturelle

marouki — Fri, 18 Apr 2008 03:48:39 -0400

Il arrive que nous restions muets devant le malheur, quand il surgit des entrailles de la terre : une éruption volcanique, une vague géante qui submerge des villages et emporte des milliers de vies humaines. C’est ce qu’on appelle une catastrophe naturelle, souvent imprévisible. Mais rien n’est moins naturel que la catastrophe qui frappe depuis quelques jours Haïti, l’Égypte, le Bangladesh, la Guinée, le Maroc, la Maurita...

"Blessed Are The Peacemakers"

Harry_S — Tue, 15 Apr 2008 16:29:07 -0400

Ex-President Jimmy Carter is going about the work of the Jimmy Carter Foundation's stated purpose of promoting peace around the world. How can this be wrong, he is a private citizen that has the right to do what ever he pleases as long as he does not break the law.

Why are our leaders going so overboard on calling this man of peace the worst president in history, and the president of so little accomplishment when they themselves can not even begin to compare with what they have done for...

Spanish Intellectual Declaration of Principles

marouki — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 22:15:39 -0400

Je ne condamne pas le roi Fahd, honoré par le roi d’Espagne, qui taille les têtes, coupe les mains et arrache les yeux, qui humilie les femmes et bâillonne les opposants, qui fait l’important en l’absence de presse, de parlement et de partis politiques, qui viole les Philippines et torture Indiens et Egyptiens, qui dépense le tiers du budget de l’Arabie Saoudite entre les 15.000 membres de sa famille et finance les mouvements les plus réac...

Small Immoral Fable

marouki — Mon, 31 Mar 2008 21:43:39 -0400

Il était une fois, aux États-Unis, pays de cocagne, d’aimables philanthropes accourus au chevet des pauvres (pas trop, mais assez pauvres quand même) pour leur offrir de les aider à acheter une maison. Ces bienfaiteurs prêtaient, presque sans contrepartie, de l’argent à qui en manquait. Les pauvres n’auraient qu’à rembourser tout doucement, à leur main, tout en jouissant sans délai de leurs nouveaux murs et de l...

Its' been five years - will we ever get to leave Iraq?

Locamama — Mon, 17 Mar 2008 09:36:17 -0400

First of all I still don't know why we invaded Iraq in the first place. Yeah, I know the excuses etc. but I don't think any of them hold water. There were no weapons of mass destruction. None of the 9/11 terrorists were from Iraq or receiving funding from or through Iraq. There actually has recently been a study which the administration is trying to hush up that basically states that prior to our invasion of Iraq there was NO link between Iraq and Al Queda. Ye...

Religion of War Update 2008

cactoblasta — Sun, 09 Mar 2008 19:05:39 -0400

So a few weeks back one of the world's foremost studies on attitudes to war, peace and apathy in Islam was released to the media (but not the public).

I was waiting for Brad to post it up, as demographic surveys of Muslim countries are one of his regular topics.

But he hasn’t yet, so I thought I’d mention it and throw it up to JU.

Looking at the handful of figures that are out right now, I think everyone can probably find something to point to and say, “Wow, I’m ...

Is the U.S./Canada Civil Assistance Plan Constitutional?

ParaTed2k — Wed, 27 Feb 2008 14:34:15 -0500

"U.S. Air Force Gen. Gene Renuart, commander of North American Aerospace Defense Command and U.S. Northern Command, and Canadian Air Force Lt.-Gen. Marc Dumais, commander of Canada Command, have signed a Civil Assistance Plan that allows the military from one nation to support the armed forces of the other nation during a civil emergency."

Article II, Sec. 2 of the U.S. Constitution assigns the authority to make international treaties to the President of the United States, with consent from 2...

Blame NAFTA

Locamama — Mon, 25 Feb 2008 17:15:44 -0500

Manufacturing jobs are disappearing - blame NAFTA except it isn't really because of NAFTA. For one thing where are most of our goods manufactured in Mexico? Canada? No? They are manufactured in China because labor is even cheaper there than it is in Mexico. There was a time when people in this country made a choice to buy the cheaper foreign made item over a more expensive American made item. There are consequences to these decisions. Now we very se...

What just happened???

Leauki — Mon, 18 Feb 2008 06:27:35 -0500

Every morning I check one German news site, n-tv.de, the German version of CNN.

I do so for two reasons. One is that I do want to know what is going on in the country where my parents live. The other is that n-tv is less anti-American than most English news sites.

They also have Ulrich Sahm, one of the few European journalists who actually knows something about Israel other than what the Nazis and later the PLO said about Jews and who actually lives in Jerusalem.

But when it comes to Am...

UN: Still Relevant?

singrdave — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 16:30:07 -0500

By the end of the Second World War (WWII), Europe and Japan were in shambles. The United Nations (UN) was established after WWII to prevent war from breaking out again. It was not founded to govern over the myriad nations of the earth, but rather to preserve the sovereignty of each through international oversight and action. All nations could have a seat in the General Assembly, but only five nations would comprise the UN Security Council: the United States (US), France, the United Kingdom (U...

Benazir Bhutto assassinated!

SanChonino — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 21:43:47 -0500

(Read the story here.)

Breaking news out of Pakistan. Former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto has been assassinated by asshole extremists just a few days before the first elections for Prime Minister in many years in the country.

A suicide bomber finally took her out, after a failed attempt a few weeks ago.

This truly is a tragedy for the country. She was Prime MInister twice, and did a lot of good for her country when she was leader. She was a female PM in the Muslim world, which in an...

Just don't name a teddy bear Mohammed....

Skyjack — Sun, 02 Dec 2007 01:29:07 -0500

I love when one of these do-gooders goes to one of these s-holes to try and help the "people".

Specifically, the above mentioned case in Sudan this week.

After her appeal she'll likely get a clitoral circumcision.

What makes poeple think they will be treated rationally?

I say good. Don't even try to deal with these people who live in the year AD 700.

And then there's the case in Saudi of a woman who was raped and they sentenced her to prison. She enticed the savages to rape ...

Defending President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad of Iran

Moderateman — Thu, 27 Sep 2007 13:52:13 -0400

I am sure most of us remember the President of Iran declaring that Israel must be wiped off the map,{this was a translation from his native language to English} Now I have heard several lefties declaring that Ahmadinejad did not mean that all the Jews of Israel should be killed, that we have misunderstood him, that the translation was wrong, what Ahmadinejad said was Israel as a country should be deleted from world maps that the country has no right to the name and it should be called Palestine...

Pesanteurs Marocaines

marouki — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 17:39:50 -0400

PESANTEURS

Ce n’est pas comme le régime chérifien, qui résiste fort bien aux tentations démocratiques. Après les années de plomb du règne d’Hassan II, les Marocains étaient en droit d’espérer un régime moins autocratique, sous le sceptre du fiston, Mohammed VI : changement de génération, de mentalité, d’environnement. Le jeune roi n’était-il pas présenté comme un libéral, formé dans les meilleures écoles et même un temps stagiaire à Bruxelles au cabinet de Delors, qui en disait beaucoup de...

Les Elections n'ont rien d'extraordinaire !

marouki — Fri, 07 Sep 2007 16:59:26 -0400

Excepté l'atmosphère d'état d'urgence que prend la campagne électorale ces derniers jours dans certaines villes et contrées, rien ne prédit que ces élections ne seront, encore une fois, qu'une piètre affaire de style pour le Makhzen. Loin de moi l'idée de jouer les Cassandre, mais le constat est flagrant : la représentation est en crise depuis des lustres, puisqu'il y a un fossé social immense entre les élus et le peuple d'une part, et un autre plus idéologique entre les "intellectuels" et l...

The Development Dilemma

singrdave — Thu, 06 Sep 2007 12:00:25 -0400

The development dilemma addresses the compulsion for the so-called Second and Third Worlds to grow and prosper only through sustainable development. Sustainable development is defined as improving living standards without sacrificing environmental integrity, thus allowing nations to grow with minimal impact on the environment. This is in complete contrast with the development of those countries that have already gone through their growth phases. The nations of the First World became industrio...

Iraq's Yield Point

ThinkAloud — Tue, 28 Aug 2007 23:20:05 -0400

When you get a steel bar and start to put loads on it, it gets stressed. When you remove the load, it regains its former shape as if nothing happened to it. For each metal, or any thing for that matter, there is a load that will stress the system beyond a limit at which the system will not regain its former shape and it suffers a permanent deformation. This point is called the Yield Point and the stress causing it is called the Yield Stress.

Beyond the yield point, the system will never be t...

Iraq - seven soldiers viewpoint

Locamama — Mon, 27 Aug 2007 18:17:45 -0400

Link

Seven soldiers who are coming off of a fifteen month deployment in Iraq wrote an op-ed piece for the NYT. I am going to quote from their article but if you would like to read the entirety the link is above. I think it is very interesting to get the viewpoint from the actual troops with their boots on the ground. I would love to hear from other soldiers in Iraq but I'm not sure what the military regulations are and how much they are allowed to share about their experiences. One of th...

Is Iraq like Vietnam?

Locamama — Sat, 25 Aug 2007 22:48:40 -0400

President Bush compared Iraq to Vietnam today. He is using this comparison as an argument to "stay the course". The fear is that we will have "another Vietnam" if we were to leave Iraq now. I guess there are similarities to Vietnam. We are again in the middle of a civil war. There is less and less support for the war at home. What bothers me is the simililarity to the fact that Nixon knew the war was lost but stayed and let more and more of our soldiers die for political reasons. Is that ...