A leaner, meaner Iranian regime - Mahan Abedin

The sum effect of this new political reality is going to be very disappointing to those people who had hoped that the brief period of street rioting and mayhem would spell the beginning of the end of the Islamic regime. Notwithstanding the damage to prestige and legitimacy, the emergence of a leaner and meaner regime will present new strategic opportunities for Islamic Republic loyalists in the region and beyond. Mahan Abedin is a senior researcher in terrorism studies and a consultant to independent media in Iran. He is currently based in northern Iraq, where he is helping to develop local media capacity.

Chaudhrys’ group sweeps polls as dissidents boycott

You may be pessimistic about this news story. Perhaps you should be. But think about this. Only Jamaat and PML Q have held elections. A majority wants a functioning democracy in Pakistan. But outside of these two parties, can you name any other party that has held elections? Altaf? Imran? Mu'llah or Maulana or Mr. this or that? ~~t

Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi and Chaudhry Zaheeruddin were re-elected president and general secretary for Punjab, Amir Muqam and Mushtaq Ghani for the NWFP, Ghous Bakhsh Mehr for president of Sindh, Jam Yousuf for Balochistan and Rizwan Sadiq Khan and Dr Hasan Sarosh president and general secretary for the federal capital. Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain supervised the polling in Lahore, while Mushahid Hussain looked after the NWFP polls held in Abbottabad and later flew to Karachi to oversee the polling in Sindh.

A Chili named bhut jolokia

The hotness or pungency of a chili is measured in Scoville Heat Units (SHUs), that is, the amount of capsaicin (a chemical compound that stimulates nerve endings in the skin) present. Thus a bell pepper, which contains no capsaicin, would have a SHU rating of zero, while commonly used varieties like jalapeno or Italian peperoncino would log in less at than 5,000 SHUs. Until recently, it was the fiery hot Red Savina Habaneros developed in the United States with a rating of 350,000–580,000 SHUs that was regarded the king of the chili world. Then in 2000, the DRDO's Defense Research Laboratory (DRL) at Tezpur in the northeastern state of Assam claimed they had discovered a chili with a pungency of 850,000 SHUs. That claim was met with much skepticism abroad. In 2005, Paul Bosland, a professor at the New Mexico State University in the US, decided to test the claim. He found that the DRL was wrong. It had underestimated the pungency of the bhut jolokia. Its pungency, he found, measured a scorching 1,001,304 SHUs. Bhut jolokia had toppled the Red Savinia to emerge as the hottest chili in the world.

Poetry: climbing jacob's ladder

aaj bazaar maiN paa b'jolaN chalo
nigah buland, giraibaaN chaak chalo

bruised feet in chains, let's walk through the bazaar today
chin up, shirt torn, let's walk through the bazaar today

jo guzri so guzri hum per, chalo
paa b'jolaaN janib e maqtal chalo

what fate ordained upon us, we endured, let's go
bruised feet in chains, proudly to the gallows, let's go

yeh basti khaahishouN ka qabristan
waq't hua hay ab yahaan se chalo

this town that we cherished once has turned a graveyard
time has come to depart for the promised vineyard

baadalouN say yeh seekha insaaN nay
fanaa ho gay agar rukay, chalo

the flock of serenely floating clouds taught mankind
keep moving, stillness will exterminate mankind

woh jo lay jana chahtay haiN peechay
oon dushman e a'ql kay saath na chalo

forcefully, those who want to push you back in time
keep your distance from those foes of reason's crime

* this line is from faiz ahmed faiz

Report: Pakistan's Ideological Blowback - Shibil Siddiqi - FPIF

Nevertheless, a consensus on opposition to the Taliban and a reorientation of the state will prove difficult given a Pakistani polity that is increasingly fragmented along political, class, ethnic, sectarian, religious, and urban/rural lines. But "initiating a sustained dialogue on the political issues of who we [Pakistanis] are, where we have come from and where we want to go is crucial." 24 In the words of one Pakistani analyst, "It's a question of Pakistan's identity. Was [Pakistan] created for Islam? This kind of confusion is a threat to Pakistan's existence as a nation state."
The crisis in Pakistan is not simply political or military. It involves ideas and identity.

Shibil Siddiqi is a Gordon Global Fellow with the Walter & Duncan Gordon Foundation in Toronto. His research interests focus on Pakistan and Afghanistan, countries where he has lived and worked extensively. He has presented research briefs on South Asia at the Department of Foreign Affairs and International Trade and the Afghanistan Taskforce at Foreign Affairs in Canada. He is a contributor to Foreign Policy In Focus.

[thanks SR]

Pepe Escobar: Go ahead, Bibi - drop the bomb

The Obama administration seems to have realized that it's impossible to prevent Tehran from acquiring a nuclear capability by force. It also seems to have realized that to keep the illusion of a military option on the table amounts to a bald-faced lie. But that all leaves out of the box the real, supreme consequence of Iran becoming a nuclear power, at least in the eyes of the Iranian leaders: it would be the end of the American threat over the country. If pressured and cornered, Tehran, with the IRGC controlling the nuclear program, would go all the way. Israel, in this big picture, is just a minor detail.

Green Tips

Try out My Emissions Exchange, and get paid to take a bite out of global warming.Read more:

20 Garden Veggies That Could Each Save You $25 or More (Including One Worth $600)Read more:

4 Cancers That a Vegetarian Diet Prevents:

The 9 Best Natural Deodorants

8 Surprising Uses for Olive Oil

4 Simple Tips for Decluttering Your Home

Anjum Niaz: RIP KO

That same evening one read the Dawn to discover that Kaleem Omar, 72, had suffered a fatal heart attack. KO as we called him during the Star days was too serious for the rowdy lot that surrounded him in the newsroom. He would simply be pounding away at his typewriter, only looking up to light yet another cigarette or ask of the umpteenth cup of tea. Within hours he’d roll out his sheets of paper from the typewriter, giving one fleeting look at the numerous pages and march off to the editor’s room looking smug (or so we thought then). KO was educated, sophisticated and bordering on brilliance. He didn’t have a mean bone in him. Today, were you to scan old copies of the Star, now sadly put out of publication, you’d notice Kaleem Omar’s byline on almost all the pages! When Benazir became the PM for the first time, she gave an exclusive to KO. He was a great fan of BB’s. Soon the staff at Star said goodbye to KO who was invited by the PM to become her media advisor and move to Islamabad. KO, always dressed in black or grey shalwar kamiz with a black waistcoat, looked real happy for once in his life. But his happiness was short-lived. He was back in our midst soon. We never did find why his new assignment didn’t work out. KO had moved to The News years ago and died with his last column hot off the press.

Jawed Naqvi: Racism Over There And Here

What Jawed writes is applicable here also. Just change names and places. We are no less biased ~~t

A marked feudal upbringing of India’s burgeoning middle classes has brought with it a culture of prejudices. The steeper the economic climb, the greater the chances of atavistic social traits tagging along. Add an inbuilt gender bias together with a homegrown intolerance of other Indian cultures into the social basket and you would have an explosive cocktail of violent and unruly assertiveness. Road rage, sexual harassment, even rape, insensitivity towards ethnic minorities and vandalism is a hallmark of a new class of Indians. They have been let loose on the streets of big and small cities to prey on their own fellow compatriots, their pockets bulging with wads of cash, their minds vacuously riveted to other ways of making more money. About racism that lurks within, the chief minister of Nagaland recently complained how he was often asked if he was Nepali.

Game of Balls: SC 1 - Parliament 0

The Supreme Court on Monday directed the government not to increase power tariff until the case against increase in electricity rates was pending before the court.A three-member bench of the apex court, comprising Chief Justice (CJ) Iftikhar Muhammad Chaudhry, Justice Chaudhry Ijaz Ahmed and Justice Mahmood Akhtar Shahid Siddiqui, gave this direction while hearing a suo moto on the proposed raise in electricity tariff.

If true - the story of born out of wedlock Saudis!

“The Saudis have tacitly agreed to the Israeli air force flying through their airspace on a mission which is supposed to be in the common interests of Israel and Saudi Arabia,” it quoted a diplomatic source as saying. Israel and Saudi Arabia have no formal diplomatic relations but Mossad has “working relations” with the Saudis, the newspaper added, citing an Israeli defence source

Dali - Still Life - Fast Moving

RealNew seven-part interview of Gore Vidal.

PAUL JAY, SENIOR EDITOR: Was the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki the closing curtain of World War II, or the opening act of the Cold War?

GORE VIDAL: Probably the opening act of the Cold War. It was also the end of the American republic. Every single important military commander on the American side pleaded with the new president, our great Augustus, Franklyn Roosevelt, had died in I think it was April of '45 and was succeeded by a no-brainer called Harry Truman, who didn't know what he was doing.


This seven-part interview is classic Gore Vidal. Whether you agree with Vidal or not, as Martin Amis said: "Even his blind spots are illuminating."

Gore Vidal on the Cold War
Part one of a seven-part interview with Gore Vidal

Gore Vidal on "The Emperor"
"He smiled benignly at the oil wells"

Gore Vidal on liberty
The people who wrote the constitution hated democracy

Gore Vidal on US media and society
We're not the United States of Amnesia — We're the United States of Alzheimer's

Gore Vidal on the Democrats and religion
How different would a Democratic Party administration be?

Gore Vidal on the future
"We've got to get back the pillars of the Constitution"

Gore Vidal on the media
Have TV journalists learned anything from the last several years?

Who shoud we be fighting? - Bombay Monsoon

Who should we be fighting? Around 90 percent of our military assets are along the India-Pakistan border. Tanks are known to have invaded countries. Suicide bombers, on the other hand, mostly kill non-combatants and have never ever in human history captured a country. America has a National Defence Strategy (NDS). The Department of Defence regularly updates it and puts it on the net. America's latest NDS is a concise 29-page document and can be read by clicking here: for Americans to read, debate and analyse. Strategic confusion - Dr Farrukh Saleem

Being a staunch Mumbaikar Aaker glosses over Northern India that does have a glorious fall and winter. ~t Bombay in the monsoon - Aaaker Patel

Apartheid Australia-Israel, Building Park on Displaced Cleansed Land,

Apartheid Australia is currently involved in the Iraqi Genocide (post-invasion excess deaths 2.3 million) and the Afghan Genocide (post-invasion excess deaths 3-7 million) and has special race-based, Apartheid-style laws that grossly violate the human rights of its most vulnerable Indigenous inhabitants, those of the Northern Territory (annual death rate about the same as for Australian sheep). Now a team of pro-war, pro-coal, pro-Zionist, right-wing Apartheid Australian politicians from both major political parties and led by Australian Deputy PM Julia Gillard, is visiting Apartheid Israel with a attendant expressions of “mutual admiration” between Apartheid Australia and Apartheid Israel .. In an attempt to pre-empt the standard, false, defamatory and threatening racist Zionist (RZ) vilification of critics of Apartheid Israeli crimes as “anti-Semites”, all sources quoted in the analysis below are from outstandingly-credentialled Jewish writers and scholars (with the exception of UN Agency demographic data sources). Apartheid Australia Backs Racist Zionist Run Apartheid Israel By Dr Gideon Polya

Canada Park: Canada’s chief diplomat in Israel has been honoured at an Israeli public park -- built on occupied Palestinian land in violation of international law -- as one of the donors who helped establish the park on the ruins of three Palestinian villages.Jon Allen, Canada’s ambassador to Israel, is among several hundred Canadian Jews who have been commemorated at a dedication site. A plaque bearing Mr Allen’s name is attached to a stone wall constructed from the rubble of Palestinian homes razed by the Israeli army. Ambassador To Israel Honoured At Illegal Park By Jonathan Cook

Monica Ali, Anti-intellectualism, Sarah Palin, Pleasures of LIght Verse

I spent a year researching In the Kitchen. Most of this time was spent reading a mountain of non-fiction books about the restaurant and hotel trades, and delving firsthand into those worlds. I spent time in five large London hotels, on the understanding that I would not identify them. I talked to everyone from managers to receptionists, but mainly I hung out in the kitchens chatting to staff and absorbing the atmosphere.As one of my characters observes, hotel kitchens resemble UN assemblies: a rich source of diverse stories. They are also places that function under intense pressure, creating an ideal crucible for dramatic confrontation. To a certain extent, the same things could be said of any commercial kitchen, but once I had entered the hotel world I knew no other kitchen would do. The setting provided more scope to bring in a wider range of characters and to examine ideas, tensions and conflicts in a larger part of society. Indeed, I had so much material that for a while it was difficult to know where to begin.
Researching my novel in five different London hotels made me appreciate why they are such a rich source of stories and characters for writers - Monica Ali

When I told friends that I was heading off to a doctoral program in U.S. intellectual history, they either seemed mystified - "Do we have an intellectual history?" - or found the entire proposition somewhat funny : "American intellectual history! ? Isn't that an oxymoron! ?" More skepticism awaited as I began my studies. Classmates repeatedly subjected me to playful, if remorseless, interrogations about the wherefores and whithers of this so-called history of the American mind. I had to wonder what I was doing studying a subject that people think does not exist.

Anti-Intellectualism is a systematic analysis of a cultural malady, but it is also a history of a grievance ; therefore, even at its most restrained, it is a deeply personal document. Hofstadter' s unusually qualified and tentative conclusions signal what his scholarly critics regarded as the book's shortcomings in conception and tone. Many took issue with the elusiveness of conceptualization of "anti-intellectualism," unsatisfied with his apologia that it "does not yield very readily to definition."3 Rush Welter argued that antiintellectualism was at best "a protean concept," and used to articulate nothing like a "national commitment so much as a cluster of expressions and activities that may or may not have held the same meaning for all." Cushing Strout complained that the book documents "[f]eelings" which are "diverse, ambivalent, and no index to social isolation." While documenting these feelings, Hofstadter exposed his own, producing a confessional history of a confession that "skates ... on what he knows to be thin ice."4
Anti-intellectualism as romantic discourse by Ratner-Rosenhagen, Jennifer


It is always sad when a valuable artist perishes. It is sadder still when a valuable art form perishes. It is saddest of all when a valuable art form did not need to perish, but was simply hounded to the culture’s periphery by a deliberate, malicious process of what Fred Reed has called “enstupidation.”

One art form belonging firmly to this last group is light verse. Today it is a drab, tiny creature, which, insofar as the major media tend it at all, survives more in Britain than in the States. Things were very different in the two decades following World War II. Back then, among Americans, light verse flourished. It owed part of its exuberant health to the enlightened attitude of New Yorker editor Harold Ross, who had an admirable policy of paying substantially more for light-verse contributions than for conventional free-verse bromides. But The New Yorker was not light verse’s only home. The New York Herald Tribune, Life, and the Saturday Evening Post all found abundant room for it. As critic William H. Pritchard observed, “Books by [light verse’s] practitioners were reviewed in The New York Times Book Review, the general sense being that, in the age of [T.S.] Eliot and Wallace Stevens, it was an excellent alternative to high modernism.” The practitioners themselves won Pulitzers and honorary doctorates. They could even earn a middle-class living by producing the stuff.
Sweetness & Spite - The forgotten pleasures of light verse By R.J. Stove


Politics - It Came from Wasilla By Todd S. Purdum
Despite her disastrous performance in the 2008 election, Sarah Palin is still the sexiest brand in Republican politics, with a lucrative book contract for her story. But what Alaska’s charismatic governor wants the public to know about herself doesn’t always jibe with reality. As John McCain’s top campaign officials talk more candidly than ever before about the meltdown of his vice-presidential pick, the author tracks the signs—political and personal—that Palin was big trouble, and checks the forecast for her future.
By Todd S. Purdum August 2009

Robert Fisk’s World: Tanks roll and guns fall silent, but the clichés go on for ever

Clichés are poison. They seep into our language like defoliants, pesticides that reside in our imagination, slowly destroying our power to express ourselves by dehumanising language, by industrialising speech. Newspaper and television reporting are to blame. We are all guilty. So why do we insult you, reader? And why do you put up with this?

Some of this claptrap has been around for years. Catholics are always "devout", Protestants (the Northern Ireland version, at least) inevitably "staunch". Bitterly hostile antagonists are always "foes" or "arch-foes". New dictatorial laws – the new press laws in Iran, for example – are always "draconian" (poor old Draco), while secret policemen (the Gestapo, the Shah's Savak, the Afghan Khad, the Syrian mukhabarat, the present-day Iranian Etelaat) are always "dreaded". Needless to say, the Israeli secret police – who also torture and murder – tend to be "elite" or (my favourite) "second to none". The point about all these words, of course, is that we do not use them in conversation. We never ask a Catholic if they are "devout" or describe a vexatious next-door neighbour as an "arch-foe". If we are discussing the Syrian secret service, nobody says: "Yes, they're fairly dreaded, aren't they?" We just don't talk like that.

Fixing the World and more...

The increasing support for the formation of a Truth Commission by Senator Patrick Leahy to investigate the warrantless wiretapping, torture and other allegations of wrongdoing by the Bush administration further illustrates the incipient anger of an American public increasingly cognisant of being duped by their leaders. In keeping with this trend as Americans celebrate their traditional red white and blue this year, they also seem to be accepting that the world is indeed grey. How Iraq has changed America —Rafia Zakaria

Eight Ways to Radically Remake the World By Bob Davis
The International Monetary Fund isn’t usually a font of radical thinking. But in a new paper published by the IMF, University of California at Berkeley economist Barry Eichengreen – a usually modest sort — conjures eight “out of the box” proposals to remake the international financial system. None of the eight has much chance of ever being adopted — the Asia financial crisis of a decade ago produced a passel of proposals that went nowhere. But that sorry history doesn’t deter Mr. Eichengreen, who argues “there is reason to think that, like the Great Depression of the 1930s, [the current crisis] might occasion more radical reforms.

15 Ways to Fix the World
"Make no little plans," said President Barack Obama last spring as he rolled out a pitch for a high-speed rail network—yet another presidential initiative to lift America out of recession and chart a new national course. In that spirit, The Atlantic offers a few modest proposals for making the world a better place.

Who was Abdul Wahhab? Sophie Elmhirst
Historians differ on the detail of Abdul Wahhab’s life, but it is widely agreed he was born in the town of al-Uyayna, in the Nejd , in 1703. Tutored by his father in the strict Hanbali school of Islamic jurisprudence, Wahhab studied in Basra in southern Iraq, where debates with Islamic scholars led him to decide reform was needed. Wahhab’s main theological argument during his lifetime was for a more rigorous, conservative interpretation of Islam, in particular advocating monotheism in line with the Salafi tradition.

Saving Israel From Itself - The two-state solution is the only way to guarantee the Jewish state’s long-term security—and our own. By John J. Mearsheimer
The United States and Israel fundamentally disagree about the need to establish a Palestinian state living side by side with Israel. President Obama is committed to a two-state solution, while Israel’s Prime Minister Netanyahu is opposed and has been for many years. To avoid a direct confrontation with Washington, Netanyahu will probably change his rhetoric and talk favorably about two states. But that will not affect Israel’s actions. The never-ending peace process will go on, Israel will continue building settlements, and the Palestinians will remain locked up in a handful of impoverished enclaves in the West Bank and Gaza. Anticipating this outcome, Obama has told Congress to expect a clash with Israel.

Last of the Titans: Ustad Ali Akbar Khan’s (1922-2009)

Ustad Ali Akbar Khan, who passed away on June 18, was perhaps the most gifted of all the instrumentalists to have graced the Hindustani music scene in the past hundred years, that is, in the era of recorded music and the public concert stage. Those who have had the privilege of having heard sarod players of generations earlier than Ali Akbar’s have, almost to the man, put their prejudices aside, to acknowledge him as the most complete of all the instrumentalists. His knowledge of the grammar of ragas was formidable. In this respect, he was equal to his sister, the unsung genius Annapoorna Debi, and his former brother-in-law Pandit Ravi Shankar. His interpretation of the roop and aakaar, inner and outer raiments of many ragas, left both the connoisseur and the layman utterly astonished.

A government of the rich, for the rich by the rich would not tax the rich

A government of the rich, for the rich by the rich would not tax the rich. This simple irony escapes Cyril Almeida.

But it gets worse, damningly, cursedly, outrageously, disgustingly worse, when you realise that the Rs9 the government is earning is earned by taxing the poor. Six of those nine rupees are earned by the dreaded indirect taxes, the same ones that impact the poor more than the rich.

Why? Because the government won’t, in any meaningful way, tax agriculture, it won’t tax the stock market, it won’t tax real estate, it won’t tax services catering to the rich, it won’t tax the fat cats. It had a chance in the latest budget, but it got cold feet. The poor are easier to tax.

Saudi Bombshell III, Ayodhya, and UN Crapshoot...

The demolition of the Babri Masjid (mosque) by Hindu fanatics on December 6, 1992, at Ayodhya in the northern province of Uttar Pradesh is a blot on India's contemporary history. It exposed the underbelly of dirty communal, caste and minority politics that peaked in the 1990s even as some tapering of this vicious agenda has taken place over the past four to five years. This week, 17 years after being appointed on December 16, 1992, to probe the conspiracy leading to the destruction of the mosque, M S Liberhan, then a judge of the Punjab and Haryana High Court, submitted his findings to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. A tryst with India's communal past by Siddharth Srivastava

More than 18 months after the assassination of former Pakistani prime minister Benazir Bhutto, the United Nations has begun a formal international inquiry into the "facts and circumstances" surrounding the traumatic day of December 27, 2007, in Rawalpindi. That the inquest into the killing of Bhutto while she was on the campaign trail took so long to take off makes clear that the UN's three-member team is entering a political minefield with no guarantee of success in identifying the plot and masterminds of the killing. A UN crapshoot in PakistanBy Sreeram Chaulia

SAUDI BOMBSHELLS, Part 3FBI chief defended SaudisBy Gareth Porter
Part 1: Al-Qaeda excluded from suspect list
Part 2: Why US officials blamed Iran

102 billion on military bases, Iran, Public Health Plan, Fossil Fuel Addiction ....

Here's the strange thing: The embassy story was broken at the end of May by the superb journalists at McClatchy News (in this case, Warren P. Stroebel and Saeed Shah). As part of what Shah, in the Christian Science Monitor, estimates as a staggering "$2-billion-plus price tag on a revamped diplomatic presence for the United States in Afghanistan and Pakistan," they reported that an appropriation of $736 million for embassy construction had quietly made its way through both houses of Congress without a peep from anyone. This news, however, seemed to plunge off a steep cliff into a deep well of silence. Indicative as the Obama administration's decision to build such an imperial monstrosity may be of a longer-term commitment to a wider war in the Af-Pak (as in Afghanistan-Pakistan) theater of operations, it evidently proved of no interest to anyone here. Spending $102 Billion a Year on 800 Worldwide Military Bases Is Bankrupting the Country
By Chalmers Johnson, Tomdispatch.com.

In Iran, Fears That a Prominent Prisoner Detained In Election Upheaval Could Die in Jail
By Katie Mattern, IPS News.

The Results Are In: A Public Health Plan Saves Big Money
By Bill Scher, Campaign for America's Future.

Thanks to Our Fossil Fuel Addiction, We May Be Setting Ourselves Up for a Catastrophic Natural Event
By Scott Thill, AlterNet.

Nawab and I: Intercourse, Pa.

With towns name Bird in Hand, Paradise, and Intercourse, Lancaster County in Pennsylvania has added attraction for tourism. What attracts people is not the name but the Pennsylvania Dutch. They are descendants of German Amish and Mennonite immigrants here. If you have seen Harrison Ford's Witness (1985) you would have a pretty good idea of how the Amish live.

It is off Route 30 [map link] and just celebrated its 255th Anniversary.

t: We don't have to be in DC till dinner time.
N: Why, you don't want to drop in on Potus?
t: He won't have the time of day for us.
N: You have become critical of him lately.
t: I tell like it is. It is his actions not mine.
N: CJ thinks you never really liked him.
t: I would have preferred a dog over W.
N: Don't insult dogs. Woof woof.
t: Sorry, I meant no insult to dogs. (Damn, should be careful with N too when choosing words.)
N: Fragile egos.
t: We used to call Ulloo stupid, but Owl is wise here.
N: You could continue on 30 then take 15 to 270 later.
t: You don't like Ms. Garmin do you?
N: I know more.
t: Modesty is a human trait, think we agreed on that.
N: So what will you do at Intercourse?
t: Don't know, never been at Intercourse, only....
N: Don't go there, minors may be reading this.


t: Name the three things famous around here.
N: Beer, pretzels and chocolate. Two are out for you.
t: Yes am driving. But why do dogs don't drink?
N: And what about your mullahs?
t: That is a personal choice. But have heard some do.
N: Amish, Mennonite, Hasidim, Mullahs...different feathers.
t: You are so intolerant for a wise one.
N: Stating the obvious is not being intolerant.
t: They pursue their beliefs peacefully.
N: hmmmmmm
t: [Each time Nawab is made to think is a small victory for me.)
N: Condoms!
t: HaiN, yeh condoms kahaaN se tapak paRa?
N: None of the four have use for condoms.
t: hmmmmmm... well it is their belief. Non interference in nature.
N: You do know they are not Dutch?
t: No?
N: Germans, originally.
t: There I learned another thing from you Nawab.
N: You are a miserable liar.
t: Tell me something new. Is Barak in town? Can I bump into him ordering a burger?
N: CJ and AJ have plans for barbecue dinner.
t: They do? Guess can plan bumping into Barak another time.

Jemima Khan's broken country

I’m staying with Imran, my ex-husband, and our children in the house I helped to design but which we never lived in together. It's on top of a hill outside Islamabad. The courtyard fountain is a reminder of the insanity of political life in Pakistan, even on the periphery. It’s covered in the exquisite blue and white Multani tiles that almost landed me in jail in 1999. I bought them as a present for my mother but, before they reached the port to be shipped to England, they were impounded and I was charged with smuggling antiques (they weren’t, according to Bonhams and other experts here), a non-bailable offence.

[thanks SR]

"People should be ashamed for not seeking the truth" A bereved father of a 9/11 victim

A forward from SR:

This email is for those who are not conspiracy theorists but who are intelligent and open minded enough to hear out arguments that do not concord with the 'official' and 'politically correct' version of events.

These videos show respectable people -- mostly Americans -- who are, or have been, engineers, physicists, airline pilots, military pilots, air traffic controllers, intelligence officers, FBI agents, high ranking military officers, high ranking diplomats, elected members of legistative bodies like national parliaments, business executives and survivors from the Twin Towers who "were there" and family members of the victims along with several other credible witnesses who make very convincing arguments that the 9/11 official version of events is a BIG LIE.

You must see ALL 12 parts ... This is not sensational journalism. I wouldn't waste your time...

"People should be ashamed for not seeking the truth" A bereved father of a 9/11 victim

1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v5thLh7UuaM&NR=1 ( view time 7 min 7 sec)
2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_1JMQc5piPk&NR=1 (5 min 36 sec)
3) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bp86ZdMkw0o&NR=1 (9 min 54 sec)
4) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bpnXRe7yPb8&feature=related (6 min 9 sec)
5) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0GIQSovhBQ&feature=related (8 min 5 sec)
6) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CA8Ru71vyvA&feature=related (9 min 55 sec)
7) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2Wl-NHB5o0&feature=related (9 min 40 sec)
8) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DWy9QDZRj7k&feature=related (9 min 37 sec)
9) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QFHbh_GmYfM&feature=related (9 min 12 sec)
10) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y5Ut5I7pa8Q&feature=related (9 min 44 sec)
11) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xfZoOb7VVkY&NR=1 (9 min 42 sec)
12 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e2M_prRX0mA&NR=1 (10 min 12 sec -- last six minutes are credits)

Sarah Palin Resigns: Aims to Run for President in 2012

photo NYT

Alask Governor Sarah Palin is set to resign this Friday. She would be handing over the reins to Lt. Gov. Sean Parnell. He would be sworn in on July 25.

This long speculated and anticipated announcement was made by Sarah Palin in presence of her husband Todd and other family members at her home in Wasilla, Alaska.

Mitchell Blumnethal, of NYT, quotes her saying, This decision came after much consideration,” Ms. Palin told reporters gathered at her home, and added, “I really don’t want to disappoint anyone with this announcement.”

Here is her full statement to the press:

“People who know me know that besides faith and family, nothing’s more important to me than our beloved Alaska,” said Governor Palin. “Serving her people is the greatest honor I could imagine. I am determined to take the right path for Alaska even though it is not the easiest path,” said Governor Palin after the announcement. “Once I decided not to run for re-election, I also felt that to embrace the conventional ‘Lame Duck’ status in this particular climate would just be another dose of ‘politics as usual,’ something I campaigned against and will always oppose. It is my duty to always protect our great state. With that in mind, my family and I determined that it is best to make a difference this summer, and I am willing to change things, so that this administration, with its positive agenda, its accomplishments, and its successful road to an incredible future, can continue without interruption and with great administrative and legislative success. I look forward to helping others – to fight for our state and our country, and campaign for those who believe in smaller government, free enterprise, strong national security, support for our troops, and energy Independence.” [link]

She would be the second Governor to resign to seek the Presidential nomination. Last month Gov. Tim Pawlenty of Minnesota, also considered a leading Republican candidate announced that would not seek re election.

While her Conservative base would be pleased by her decision, it does not bode well for the process of electioneering in the US.

Already, the pundits have been decrying the long and expensive process that culminates in the Presidential campaign.

Esposito, Turkey, Israel, Margot Veillon - Al Ahram

John L Esposito's academic fame and his specialisation in issues like political Islam and Muslim-Christian relations make him something of an international intellectual celebrity as well as a magnet for neoconservative criticism back home. Over the past 35 years Esposito, professor of religion and international affairs and of Islamic studies at Georgetown University, has authored and co-authored more than 30 books covering Islamic movements from North Africa to South East Asia, among other issues. A consultant to the Department of State as well as to corporations, universities and the media, Esposito, 69, is an authority on many of today's more pressing political affairs, issues that have, if anything, become more relevant with the election of a US president who has committed himself to improving his country's relationship with the Muslim world. -
John Esposito tells Amira Howeidy now that Barack Obama is president of the United States and not a hopeful candidate he needs to move forward, get new faces into his administration and deliver - 'The bottom line'

The Turkish government's attempt to clear mines along its southern and eastern borders triggers nationalist sentiment amid accusations that reclaimed land will be leased to Israelis, writes Gareth Jenkins in Ankara - One minefield to another

Israel is pushing ahead with settlements, defying Obama to punish Adam, prophesies Khaled Amayreh in occupied Jerusalem - Forbidden fruit

Gamal Nkrumah writes on an exhibition of works by the Swiss artist Margot Veillon, who spent her life in Egypt - A life in Egypt