Category: World News & Politics

The European Union launches sanctions on the United States for the first time Monday as a dispute over tax breaks for U.S. firms turns into a trade war that could cost American exporters $300 million this year.

[via CNN]

After having the US impose sanctions on several countries time and time again, breaking their economy and putting their people in misery, it’s sort of good for a change to see things turned around this time, although the results won’t be as bad.

Maybe this will show the US administration how bad sanctions are for the people and businesses, not for the leaders. And maybe it will make them reconsider applying sanctions on other countries.
Maybe. But I don’t think so.

Which reminds me of this term the US & UK created: Smart sanctions.
Smart Sanctions my ass !

Recently we’re hearing more and more about something called The Greater Middle East.
It’s a new term that the Bush administration has created for a region that extends beyond the known geographical boundaries of the Middle East. It goes from Morocco in the west to Pakistan in the east.

They say that it’s a plan to promote democracy in the “Greater Middle East” that will adapt a model like the one used to press for freedoms in the Soviet Union and Eastern Europe.

It’ll supposedly come in the form of a package of incentives that will be given to countries of the region in return for concrete steps towards political reform, improving the record on human rights, women

[via Je Blog, via visions of conflict]

So, Forbes has released this year’s list of the World’s richest people.

Bill Gates still tops the list of course.

J.K. Rowling from Harry Potter fame and the Google co-founders have newly entered the list too.

Prince Alwaleed bin Talal is at 4th place.

And I’m nowhere to be found on the list, lol…
Maybe next year 😛 (In my dreams)

Check out the full list of the World’s Richest People.

Does the Jewishness of the neocons influence American foreign policy in the Middle East? Or is this analysis just more anti-Semitism?

This is the debate the guys at adbusters have started.

I think it’s very interesting that some people are starting to think about this and realize it as it’s very true.
But still, I think the word Jewish should be changed to Zionists.
Not all Jews support what is happening and how things are being dealt with. Judaism is a religion, and we shouldn’t mix peaceful Jews with murdering Zionists.

Anyway, in addition to the fact that Zionists are in key positions and making a lot of influence on decisions, other people who run for office too are approached by Zionist groups and individuals who promise them support and money in return for pushing the Zionist and Israeli causes in the case they win.

I know this through an American who once ran for office and blogged about how he was approached by people like this.

It’s incredible how much happens in the backstreets and alleys of politics, and how many decisions are pushed through from the background.
The people we see at the front these days are just puppets to who put them there in the first place.

Anyway, if you’re interested in joining the debate, click here.

So, what do you know ?
Ralph Nader is running for President again.

Doesn’t this guy get tired of ruining every election ? 😛

Well, in fact, I think he has all the right to. After all, that’s what democracy is all about, isn’t it ?
I agree with his opinion on the duopoly in American politics, and I truly think that the American voter should open up his mind to other parties and independent runners.

Why should the President be either a democrat or a republican ?
Why can’t he be anyone from any other party instead ?
I don’t think any outsider could screw things up more than some presidents from either of the 2 big parties have in the past.

Of course, Nader running could take voters away from either of the 2 big parties, but that’s only normal and should be factored into the democracy of .

Some people argue that he shouldn’t run if he knows he has no chance of winning, but I disagree. If everyone doesn’t run because they think they don’t have a chance for winning, then things will never change.

I think there should be more people like Nader out there, and I truly think the voters should consider them more seriously and listen to what they have to say.

I don’t really know what Nader’s policies are, nor what he would do as President, but I think it’s healthy for a democracy to have people like him.

Someone commented on one of my posts yesterday sending this link from the NY Times about Arabs in the U.S. Raising Money to Back Bush.

Anyway, even though most of the examples the writer mentions are not actually arabs, it’s a real shame.
Obviously these people only care about their special interests, and they don’t give a damn about what happens to their brothers and sisters in the US or outside of it.

These people are rich and so they don’t feel the sting of Bush’s policies, in fact they use them to advance their own personal agendas and profit from other people’s suffering.

People like these make me sick and disgusted.
If they sent half the money they’re giving away to Bush to start wars, bomb countries and kill people in the name of spreading democracy and peace to their home countries, this world would truly become a better and more peaceful place.

Cherie Blair, wife of British Prime Minister Tony Blair said this at a charity event for Medical Aid for Palestine, June 2002:

“As long as young people feel they have got no hope but to blow themselves up you are never going to make progress.”

Liberal Democrat member of the British Parliament Janet Tonge said this on Sky News:

“I do not condone suicide bombers but I do understand why people out there become suicide bombers ? it is out of desperation. If I was in their situation…I might just think about it myself. They are in a terrible plight and the world is standing by and watching. Something needs to be done.”

Professor Leighton Armitage, adjunct political science professor at Foothill College in the US has dared to say this of the Israeli treatment of Palestinians:

“And what are they doing with Palestinians, every day? They’re killing them. They’re walling them in, they’re essentially doing the same thing that was done to them… It’s exactly what Hitler did to the Jews.”

[via Jalan-Jalan]

John F. Kerry is a practising catholic, but his grandfather Fritz Kohn was a Czech national of Jewish descent.
In the Students for Israel publication “Perspectives: An Israel Review” he wrote an article entitled “A Powerful Journey, an Essential Dream”, in which he said:

“In this difficult time we must again reaffirm we are enlisted for the duration – and reaffirm our belief that the cause of Israel must be the cause of America – and the cause of people of conscience everywhere.” — J.F.Kerry, in “Perspectives: An Israel Review”

Seems like whoever wins the next US elections won’t really change anything in how the US treats the Middle East problem.
Israel will always get it’s way, and the Palestinians will always be shot down.

[via Jalan Jalan]