Bahrain Vote Erupts in Violence

As the government of Bahrain held parliamentary elections Saturday, hundreds of protesters clashed with security forces while trying to make their way to Pearl Square, the site in the capital where the kingdom’s pro-democracy movement got started early this year and was heavily suppressed.

In the village of Sanabis, where the protest began, the police used tear gas, stun grenades and rubber bullets against hundreds, perhaps thousands, of protesters, witnesses and human-rights advocates said.

The protest was a main part of the Shiite majority’s response to the election in the Sunni-ruled monarchy, which was boycotted by the mostly Shiite opposition. The aim of the protest was to march to Pearl Square, in Manama, where the government destroyed a 300-foot sculpture topped by a giant pearl in March after forcibly removing the protesters’ tent city.

“Security forces closed all access to Pearl Square today,” Mohammed al-Maskati, president of the Bahrain Youth Society for Human Rights, said by telephone. “The square is now like an army base. Thousands of protesters turned out in Sanabis and got attacked badly by the security forces.”


He said that dozens of people had been arrested on Friday and that some said they had been beaten badly. Nabeel Rajab, president of the Bahrain Center for Human Rights, said in a Twitter message sent from outside the country that about 38 women protesters had been ordered detained for 45 days.


Mr. Maskati added that turnout for the election was minimal as a result of the boycott and that the authorities had prevented television crews from shooting inside polling stations to avoid showing the low participation.

Government accounts of the voting said the opposite, that participation was high and that the day was further evidence of the country’s return to normalcy.


Eighteen members of the main opposition Wefaq party quit their posts in the 40-seat Parliament early this year. Saturday’s election was aimed at replacing them and buttressing Bahrain’s contention that it has restored order to a country whose economy, heavily dependent on international finance, relies on a reputation for stability.

Prince Khalifa bin Salman al-Khalifa, Bahrain’s prime minister, issued a statement on Saturday saying the election was proof that “we are on the right path toward a better future.”


He added, “The massive popular turnout has revealed citizens’ keenness to be partners in building Bahrain, boosting democracy and maintaining national unity and growth.”

Bahrain is more than two-thirds Shiite yet is run by a Sunni royal family. The pro-democracy movement has been heavily defined by that divide. Mr. Maskati said he and other human-rights groups would soon provide evidence of their contention that the voter turnout was low.

Police State USA emerges on Liberty Street!!!!

The police made scores of arrests on Saturday as hundreds of people, many of whom had been encamped in the financial district as part of a lengthy protest, marched north to Union Square. As darkness fell, large numbers of officers were deployed on streets near the encampment in Zuccotti Park, at Broadway and Liberty Street, where hundreds more people had gathered.



Paul J. Browne, the Police Department’s chief spokesman, said in a statement, “There were approximately 80 arrests, mainly for disorderly conduct by individuals who blocked vehicular and pedestrian traffic, but also for resisting arrest, obstructing governmental administration and, in one instance, for assault on a police officer.”

Protest organizers estimated that about 85 people were arrested and that about five were struck with pepper spray. Among those was Chelsea Elliott, 25, who said that she was sprayed after shouting “Why are you doing that?” as an officer arrested a protester at East 12th Street.


“I was on the ground sobbing and couldn’t breathe,” she said. The continuing protests, against a financial system that participants say favors the rich and powerful over ordinary citizens, started last Saturday and were coordinated by a New York group called the General Assembly.


Many of those taking part have slept in Zuccotti Park, which is private, using it as a base. In the early afternoon hundreds of people left the park and moved north toward Union Square. Witnesses said that for much of the route, protesters spilled from sidewalks onto streets and added that the police used long orange nets at Fifth Avenue and 14th Street in an apparent attempt to block the march from proceeding.


Many marchers, however, detoured and entered Union Square before eventually turning south again. Video showed a confusing scene as protesters went south on University Place, where motor vehicles run north.


At 12th Street the orange nets again were used, this time to box in protesters between University Place and Fifth Avenue. About 3 p.m., more than two dozen people sat, handcuffed, on the sidewalk.


Nearby, two other protesters standing handcuffed on Fifth Avenue told a reporter that they had both been arrested on sidewalks and were not aware of having broken any law.


“They put up orange nets and tried to kettle us and we started running and they started tackling random people and handcuffing them,” said Kelly Brannon, 27, of Ridgewood, Queens. “They were herding us like cattle.”


Next to her, David Smith, from Maine, said that he had been chanting “Let them go” as people were handcuffed, and was then arrested by a senior officer who told him that he was being charged with obstructing governmental administration.

After his arrest, one protester posted a Twitter message about his experiences from a bus taking him downtown.
@DustinSlaughter there’s 50+ of us arrested in a caravan, netted & maced by police after standing on sidewalk where they told us to

Sat Sep 24 20:12:15 via Twitter for iPhone
JRL
NONVIOLENCE
PulseOfProtest

Many demonstrators made their way back down to Zuccotti Park, where they were joined by new arrivals. “Right now we are more determined than ever that what we are doing is necessary and correct,” said Patrick Bruner, a spokesman for the protesters.


New rules posted in the park on Saturday seemed aimed at the protesters. In addition to bicycle riding, camping gear and sleeping bags were now also banned.

Looks like a buying opportunity!!!

The price-earnings ratio as of Friday was 5.1 percent below the S&P 500’s average valuation of 13 at its lowest point in the last nine bear markets, data compiled by Bloomberg show. To reach the lowest of those, 7 on June 21, 1982, the index would have to fall 43 percent to about 640, based on profit in the last 12 months of $91.41 a share.

“Stocks are starting to get pretty cheap,” Jack Ablin, chief investment officer for Chicago-based Harris Private Bank, which oversees $55 billion, said in a telephone interview. “It’s reality versus expectations. I don’t know where reality is going to be, but if their expectations are pretty low, that’s a good sign for me.”

The Morgan Stanley Cyclical Index of companies most-tied to the economy rallied 1.1 percent. Home Depot, the largest U.S. home improvement retailer, gained 2 percent to $33.72. Intel rose 2.5 percent to $22.16.

The Dow Jones Transportation Average advanced for the first time in a week, stopping the worst five-day decline since Aug. 8, as airline shares rallied and traders were lured by the lowest valuations in about two years.

Sell Europe to Greenland?

Europe is working on ways to boost the firepower of its bailout fund, a top European official said as the United States, China and other countries turned up pressure on the euro zone to contain its debt crisis.



Signs are growing that Europe is readying new measures to prevent fallout from Greece's near-bankruptcy from spreading to other euro zone countries, threatening the region's banks and hurting the world economy.


The European official said on Saturday the euro zone countries cannot boost the size of the 440 billion-euro fund, known as the EFSF, because Germany would not agree to such an increase.


"We need to find a mechanism where we can turn one euro in the EFSF into five, but there is no decision on how we could do that yet" the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.

Hello....Have you not looked at the poverty and unemployment figures in the USA???

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner said the fate of democracy in North Africa and the Middle East depends on building economies that help the youth of those nations.

“The success of these emerging democracies will hinge on building strong and inclusive economies that improve people’s lives, especially the lives of young people,” Geithner said in a statement during the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and World Bank in Washington today. International financial institutions “will be central” to that effort, he said.

functionally obsolete = USA? Can't create jobs; can't manage its debt; can't provide 1st world benefits to its citizens.

President Barack Obama pushed his jobs proposal Thursday against the backdrop of an outdated bridge that links the home states of his two chief congressional Republican rivals — a symbolic and cheeky maneuver designed to apply pressure on the GOP and convey resolve in the face of a sputtering economy.


Obama pitched his new initiative combining $447 billion in tax cuts, jobless aid and public works projects at the Brent Spence Bridge south of Cincinnati, an aging span that connects House Speaker John Boehner's state of Ohio with Kentucky, home of Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell.

The politics of the speech were clear, even as Obama name-checked both leaders in his remarks.

"Now, the bridge behind us just happens to connect the state that’s home to the Speaker of the House with the home state of the Republican leader in the Senate. Now, that's just a coincidence. Purely accidental that that happened," Obama said as the audience chuckled.

"But part of the reason I came here is because Mr. Boehner and Mr. McConnell — those are two of the most powerful Republicans in government. They can either kill this jobs bill, or they can help pass this jobs bill."

Affordable Care Act = USA acting like a 1st World Nation

Ever since it became law in March 2010, the Affordable Care Act has been mocked from both sides of the aisle for its slow rollout and intangible benefits. But a key provision that kicked in early -- allowing young people to stay on their parents' health insurance until the age of 26 -- has proven wildly popular and is paying big dividends:

Young adults, long the group most likely to be uninsured, are gaining health coverage faster than expected since the 2010 health law began allowing parents to cover them as dependents on family policies.

Three new surveys, including two released on Wednesday, show that adults under 26 made significant and unique gains in insurance coverage in 2010 and the first half of 2011. One of them, by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, estimates that in the first quarter of 2011 there were 900,000 fewer uninsured adults in the 19-to-25 age bracket than in 2010.


This was despite deep hardship imposed by the recession, which has left young adults unemployed at nearly double the rate of older Americans, with incomes sliding far faster than the national average.


The Obama administration, intent on showcasing the benefits of a law that has been pilloried by Republicans, attributes the improvement to a provision of the Affordable Care Act that permits parents to cover dependents up to their 26th birthdays. Until that measure took effect one year ago this week, children typically had to roll off their parents’ family policies at 18 or 21 or when they left college.

Some twenty-somethings adopted a posture of “young invincibility,” forgoing health insurance they could afford while gambling that they would not incur steep medical expenses. But others, like Kylie R. Logsdon, who credits the provision for enabling her heart transplant in July, were living with chronic or life-threatening conditions and had no prospects for coverage.

“I honestly don’t know what we would have done,” said Ms. Logsdon, 23, of Gerlaw, Ill., who gained coverage under her father’s policy after losing her job as a legal secretary. “There was no way we could have afforded it. I might not be here right now.”


Last week, the Census Bureau reported that the share of young adults without health insurance dropped in 2010 by 2 percentage points, to 27.2 percent. That decline meant that 502,000 fewer 18- to 24-year-olds were uninsured. Most gained coverage through private policies, not government programs.


For every other age cohort, the proportion without insurance increased, as high unemployment and contractions in employer coverage continued to take their toll. For the first time in more than 10 years, 18- to 24-year-olds were not the least insured group, having been overtaken by those 25 to 34.

Kathleen Sebelius, the secretary of health and human services, accentuated the silver lining in an otherwise grim Census poverty report by declaring: “The Affordable Care Act is working."

Obama needs a steady trickle of reports like this one to slowly improve impressions of the healthcare law, which remains his signature domestic achievement, before he's on the ballot again in November 2012.

FTL

An international team of scientists said on Thursday they had recorded sub-atomic particles traveling faster than light (FTL) -- a finding that could overturn one of Einstein's long-accepted fundamental laws of the universe.



Antonio Ereditato, spokesman for the researchers, told Reuters that measurements taken over three years showed neutrinos pumped from CERN near Geneva to Gran Sasso in Italy had arrived 60 nanoseconds quicker than light would have done.

I don’t have the foggiest idea about what I think about international, foreign policy,” said George W Pakistan Daily

The Haqqani militant network is a "veritable arm" of Pakistan's powerful ISI intelligence service, which supported the group as it launched a startling attack last week on the U.S. Embassy in Kabul, the top U.S. military officer said on Thursday.

Admiral Mike Mullen , who steps down this month as chairman of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff, made his accusation before a U.S. Senate panel, underscoring the fragility of the strained U.S.-Pakistan alliance.

Mullen, CIA director David Petraeus and Secretary of State Hillary Clinton all have met with their Pakistani counterparts in recent days to demand Islamabad take action against the Haqqani network.

"The Haqqani network ... acts as a veritable arm of Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence Agency," Mullen told the Senate panel.

Republicans go Rogue!!!

The U.S. House of Representatives unexpectedly defeated a bill that would fund the federal government past September 30 on Wednesday as dozens of Republicans broke with their party to push for deeper spending cuts.



The unexpected outcome was an embarrassment for House Republican leaders who have at times struggled to rein in a conservative wing that remains closely allied with the anti-spending Tea Party movement.


"This is a democracy. This is the sausage factory," said Appropriations Committee Chairman Hal Rogers, who sponsored the bill.


The vote could further rattle consumers and investors who have been unnerved by the high-stakes budget battle that has played out in Washington this year. Congress pushed the government to the brink of a shutdown in April and the edge of default in August.


Republican leaders said they would figure out a way to pass the spending bill and avoid disrupting everything from national parks to scientific research.

Should Politicians Vote Party Line or “Think” and Vote Reasonably…

Some of us want to pay taxes, allow gay marriages, preserve the separation of church/mosque/synagogue/temple & state, avoid costly wars and figure out a way off of oil. No matter how much others might not want these things there will always be fiscal conservatives who are social liberals.

Mr. Brown has told friends he was unprepared for the extent, in his view, to which Republicans have not made sufficient efforts to accommodate him on critical issues, like putting on the ballot measures to extend taxes to avoid budget cuts.

In one case, Mr. Brown told a friend, he said he felt like “we weren’t even on the same playing field” in negotiating face to face with a Republican lawmaker who would not accept his assertion that most money in the California education budget did not go to administrative costs. Mr. Brown said he finally just stood up and left the meeting.

Again and again, he said, he has found that approaches that once worked — inviting Republicans to dinner rather than attacking them, offering measured concessions on issues like pension cutbacks and spending, trying to rally public support for what he described as balanced proposals — were no longer effective.

“He is aghast,” said Jodie Evans, a longtime associate who had recently had dinner with Mr. Brown in Oakland. “He reports on some of the conversations, like he couldn’t believe the narrowness or lack of comprehending by public officials.

At 73, Mr. Brown is certainly indefatigable and remains exceedingly optimistic, as was clear during a cheerful 45-minute interview in his office last week. He said he would propose another budget next year that again offered the Legislature a choice between raising taxes or imposing more cuts, in the belief that at some point, voter backlash to reductions would push some Republicans to act on taxes.

“I mean, how much less school do you want?” he said.

Even though Democrats outnumber Republicans in the Legislature, state law requires a two-thirds vote on tax bills.

“The Republicans are far less engaged and independent than they were 30 years ago,” Mr. Brown said. “The Republicans then were very independent. Everything was not a party-line vote.”

We did get a balanced budget on time. We didn’t get the tax extensions but we got massive cuts that won praise on Wall Street.”

Saudi Prince raped Spanish Woman

A Spanish judge has reopened an abandoned sexual assault case against a Saudi prince who is one of the world’s richest men, reviving accusations that he raped a 20-year-old model on a luxury yacht in the Spanish Mediterranean in August 2008.



The prince, Alwaleed bin Talal bin Abdulaziz al-Saud, a nephew of King Abdullah of Saudi Arabia, is the largest individual stakeholder in Citigroup and, among his other major holdings, is the second largest investor in the News Corporation. Forbes valued his fortune this year at $19.4 billion, making him the 26th richest man in the world and the single richest in the Arab world.

Environment = who cares!!! It's not like our children breath the air, drink the water or want to see blue skies & sunsets....

The House of Representatives in the current Congress is the most anti-environment House in the history of Congress. So far this year, the House has voted 125 times to undermine the protection of the environment.


The House has not completed debate of H.R. 2584, the FY 2012 Interior and Environment Appropriations bill, which some have called “the worst assault on clean air and water in history.” This legislation contains 39 new anti-environment riders and slashes funding for the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Interior. This analysis includes the votes on H.R. 2584 taken on or before July 28th, 2011.

The anti-environment votes taken by the House include 20 votes to block actions to address climate change. These include votes to deny that climate change is occurring; to block EPA from regulating carbon emissions from power plants and oil refineries; to block EPA from regulating carbon emissions from motor vehicles, which also reduces oil imports; and even to eliminate requirements that large sources disclose the level of their carbon emissions.

The anti-environment votes include 31 votes to block actions to prevent air and water pollution. These include votes to block EPA from regulating mercury and other hazardous air pollutants emitted from cement plants; to relax emission requirements for offshore oil and gas activities; to stop EPA from establishing new water quality standards or enforcing existing ones; and to prevent EPA from protecting streams from the effects of mountaintop-removal mining.

The anti-environment votes include 33 votes to undermine protection for public lands and coastal areas. These include votes to slash funding for the Land and Water Conservation Fund; to require oil and gas leasing off of the East and West Coasts; and to waive requirements for environmental review under the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) for offshore oil and gas activities.

And the anti-environment votes include 22 votes to defund or repeal clean energy initiatives. These include votes to overturn new, industry-supported energy efficiency standards for light bulbs; to cut funding for renewable energy projects; and to defund research into promising clean energy technologies.

Multiple federal agencies and statutes have been targeted by the anti-environment votes. Among federal agencies, the most common targets have been the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and the Department of Interior: 50 votes targeted the Environmental Protection Agency; 24 votes targeted the Department of Energy; and 25 votes targeted the Department of the Interior.

Among federal statutes, the most common targets have been the Clean Air Act, the Clean Water Act, and NEPA: 28 votes rolled back or defunded the Clean Air Act; 16 votes rolled back or defunded the Clean Water Act; and 11 votes limited the application of NEPA.

The anti-environment votes were highly partisan. Of the 125 anti-environment votes, 104 were roll-call votes. On average, 96% of Republicans voted for the anti-environment position. In contrast, 84% of Democrats voted for the pro-environment position.

Canada welcomes unemployed Americans (oh ya you get free medical too)

A Canadian official has suggested that unemployed Americans could move north to help fill tens of thousands of new jobs in Canada’s expanding oil sands; and one of the hemisphere’s hottest new oil pursuits is actually in the United States, at a shale formation in North Dakota’s prairie that is producing 400,000 barrels of oil a day and is part of a broader shift that could ease American dependence on Middle Eastern oil.

See what $100 oil can't buy you... ie if you live in the West

Saudi Arabia will spend $43 billion on its poorer citizens and religious institutions. Kuwaitis are getting free food for a year. Civil servants in Algeria received a 34 percent pay rise. Desert cities in the United Arab Emirates may soon enjoy uninterrupted electricity.

Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries members are poised to earn an unprecedented $1 trillion this year, according to the U.S. Energy Department, as the group’s benchmark oil measure exceeded $100 a barrel for the longest period ever.