They were finally able to capture Gbagbo: After a week of heavy fighting, forces backing Ivory Coast’s internationally recognized leader on Monday arrested strongman Laurent Gbagbo who had refused to leave the presidency despite losing elections more than four months earlier. The dispute over the presidency had pushed the world’s largest cocoa producer to the brink of a renewed civil war, with hundreds of civilians slain in postelection violence. An eyewitness at the Golf Hotel where election winner Alassane Ouattara had been trying to run the presidency said he saw Gbagbo, his wife and son enter the hotel around midday Monday. The witness spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The long-awaited development came after French military forces in this former French colony deployed tanks Monday for the first time near a bunker at the presidential residence where Gbagbo had reportedly been holed up with his family. Speaking on Ouattara’s private television station, Prime Minister Guillaume Soro said Gbagbo gave up when troops loyal to Ouattara entered Gbagbo’s compound. The station broadcast images of a serene Gbagbo sitting on his bed. It was not immediately clear if the images were made immediately after his capture. A senior adviser to Ouattara said it was Ivorian forces who arrested Gbagbo and that French forces were on the perimeter. Cmdr. Frederic Daguillon, the French forces spokesman in Abidjan, said “there wasn’t one single French soldier at the residence of Laurent Gbagbo.” Ouattara’s radio station confirmed Gbagbo’s arrest. Official word first came from the French Embassy in Abidjan. “It’s a victory … considering all the evil that Laurent Gbagbo inflicted on Ivory Coast,” Ouattara’s ambassador to France, Ali Coulibaly, said on France-Info radio. He emphasizing that the man in power for a decade would be “treated with humanity.” Source
They were finally able to capture Gbagbo: After a week of heavy fighting, forces backing Ivory Coast’s internationally recognized leader on Monday arrested strongman Laurent Gbagbo who had refused to leave the presidency despite losing elections more than four months earlier. The dispute over the presidency had pushed the world’s largest cocoa producer to the brink of a renewed civil war, with hundreds of civilians slain in postelection violence. An eyewitness at the Golf Hotel where election winner Alassane Ouattara had been trying to run the presidency said he saw Gbagbo, his wife and son enter the hotel around midday Monday. The witness spoke on condition of anonymity because of the sensitivity of the matter. The long-awaited development came after French military forces in this former French colony deployed tanks Monday for the first time near a bunker at the presidential residence where Gbagbo had reportedly been holed up with his family. Speaking on Ouattara’s private television station, Prime Minister Guillaume Soro said Gbagbo gave up when troops loyal to Ouattara entered Gbagbo’s compound. The station broadcast images of a serene Gbagbo sitting on his bed. It was not immediately clear if the images were made immediately after his capture. A senior adviser to Ouattara said it was Ivorian forces who arrested Gbagbo and that French forces were on the perimeter. Cmdr. Frederic Daguillon, the French forces spokesman in Abidjan, said “there wasn’t one single French soldier at the residence of Laurent Gbagbo.” Ouattara’s radio station confirmed Gbagbo’s arrest. Official word first came from the French Embassy in Abidjan. “It’s a victory … considering all the evil that Laurent Gbagbo inflicted on Ivory Coast,” Ouattara’s ambassador to France, Ali Coulibaly, said on France-Info radio. He emphasizing that the man in power for a decade would be “treated with humanity.” Source
This IS 2011, right? In a poll conducted by Public Policy Polling, whose function is to “put out highly accurate polling on key political races across the country,” according to its website, 46 percent of Mississippians believe that interracial marriage should be illegal. The poll also reveals that the majority of the poll participants are male (53 percent), very conservative (40 percent) and between the ages of 45 and 65 (36 percent). One commenter wrote: “I believe God made us a different color for a reason and should be honored by not marrying outside of the race that God picked for me, however the color of one’s skin does not make him/her better than another color.” The goal of the poll is to identify which Republican candidate Mississippians would vote for in the 2012 presidential election. The infamously controversial Governor Haley Barbour is invariably the state’s favorite among ignorant-media-whore Sarah Palin, the God-righteous Mike Huckabee, the-Mormon-most-refuse-to-embrace Mitt Romney, the-incessant-adulterer Newt Gingrich, I-think-the-founding-fathers-ended-slavery Michele Bachman, cap-and-trade-flip-flopper Tim Pawlenty and I-don’t-believe-in-civil-rights Ron Paul. Just so you understand how much we’re NOT living in a “post-racial society,” here’s another comment from one of the poll participants: “I guess they’re [blacks] just goin’ through a state of being rebellious and hard-nosed and not listenin’ to white people like they used to.” Are you surprised that there are people who still feel this way? View This Poll customer surveys
SMH: Senators would have to push their own elevator buttons. House members would go without their free gym. Food on Capitol Hill would be sparse. And the lawmakers’ restrooms? Perhaps not as fresh. Congress would feel the pinch of a government shutdown, but nowhere near the pain that would be inflicted on the massive federal work force it is supposed to govern. Unlike the roughly 800,000 federal workers who would be affected, lawmakers get wide latitude deciding who is essential and who’s not in the fiefdoms of their own offices and committees. They also get to choose whether to give up their own pay during a shutdown — an option not afforded the furloughed. “How does that make any sense?” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who added that he will forgo a paycheck for the length of a budget impasse. More than two dozen senators of both parties took the same pledge as the clocked Friday toward the midnight shutdown deadline. House Speaker John Boehner on Friday told other lawmakers that he planned to return the pay he would be entitled to during a shutdown, In a message to House members, he noted that the Constitution forbids lawmakers from changing their compensation or the president’s in mid-term, but there is no prohibition on lawmakers refusing their pay when a shutdown occurs. Rank-and-file House members and senators make $174,000 a year, with the leaders of each party making more. Boehner receives $223,500. President Barack Obama’s annual salary is $400,000. Many members of Congress already donate all or some of their pay to charity, but those swept into office last year by the populist, tea party-tinged wave of the midterm elections are especially sensitive to the inconsistency of getting paid — more than most Americans — for a job not done. “I’ll find a way to give it back,” said Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner, a member of the Republican class of freshman that handed control of the House to the GOP. Gardner said he gave up his pay in the state Legislature under similar circumstances. “We aren’t different than anybody else.” The Capitol Hill workforce is the size of a small city, tens of thousands of people who protect, feed, shuttle, schedule, advise, clean up after and otherwise support the 535 members of Congress. During a shutdown, deciding who and what services are essential generally falls to the lawmakers, with advice from Congress’ experts on the subject. The House Administration Committee, for example, recommended that lawmakers use three criteria when deciding staffing. Employees whose jobs “are associated with constitutional responsibilities, the protection of human life or the protection of property” should be considered essential, the committee said. Three-fourths of the Architect of the Capitol’s 2,600-person workforce would stay home, severely curtailing the many services it provides, according to spokeswoman Eva Malecki. That includes limited food service and even restroom cleaning — both the public facilities and those in the lawmakers’ offices. It also means limited response to emergency service calls for help on plumbing, electrical, elevator or other problems, she said. Expect a police force big enough to keep the campus secure but severely scaled back, said Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer. That means one door open per building both for lawmakers, their staffs and the tourists Congress is obligated to admit when the legislature is in session. But since the Capitol Visitor Center would be closed, tour guidance would be mostly up to the lawmakers themselves. And if they feel like escaping to the comfort of, say, the members-only balcony just off the House floor? Lawmakers might have to find an officer with a key to unlock the door, according to knowledgeable officials who demanded anonymity to be candid. Members would have to line up for everything from elevators to news conferences, since there would only be one act of televised grandstanding allowed at a time, Gainer said. And food? Sparse enough to constitute “a mandatory diet,” he quipped. Source
SMH: Senators would have to push their own elevator buttons. House members would go without their free gym. Food on Capitol Hill would be sparse. And the lawmakers’ restrooms? Perhaps not as fresh. Congress would feel the pinch of a government shutdown, but nowhere near the pain that would be inflicted on the massive federal work force it is supposed to govern. Unlike the roughly 800,000 federal workers who would be affected, lawmakers get wide latitude deciding who is essential and who’s not in the fiefdoms of their own offices and committees. They also get to choose whether to give up their own pay during a shutdown — an option not afforded the furloughed. “How does that make any sense?” said Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who added that he will forgo a paycheck for the length of a budget impasse. More than two dozen senators of both parties took the same pledge as the clocked Friday toward the midnight shutdown deadline. House Speaker John Boehner on Friday told other lawmakers that he planned to return the pay he would be entitled to during a shutdown, In a message to House members, he noted that the Constitution forbids lawmakers from changing their compensation or the president’s in mid-term, but there is no prohibition on lawmakers refusing their pay when a shutdown occurs. Rank-and-file House members and senators make $174,000 a year, with the leaders of each party making more. Boehner receives $223,500. President Barack Obama’s annual salary is $400,000. Many members of Congress already donate all or some of their pay to charity, but those swept into office last year by the populist, tea party-tinged wave of the midterm elections are especially sensitive to the inconsistency of getting paid — more than most Americans — for a job not done. “I’ll find a way to give it back,” said Colorado Rep. Cory Gardner, a member of the Republican class of freshman that handed control of the House to the GOP. Gardner said he gave up his pay in the state Legislature under similar circumstances. “We aren’t different than anybody else.” The Capitol Hill workforce is the size of a small city, tens of thousands of people who protect, feed, shuttle, schedule, advise, clean up after and otherwise support the 535 members of Congress. During a shutdown, deciding who and what services are essential generally falls to the lawmakers, with advice from Congress’ experts on the subject. The House Administration Committee, for example, recommended that lawmakers use three criteria when deciding staffing. Employees whose jobs “are associated with constitutional responsibilities, the protection of human life or the protection of property” should be considered essential, the committee said. Three-fourths of the Architect of the Capitol’s 2,600-person workforce would stay home, severely curtailing the many services it provides, according to spokeswoman Eva Malecki. That includes limited food service and even restroom cleaning — both the public facilities and those in the lawmakers’ offices. It also means limited response to emergency service calls for help on plumbing, electrical, elevator or other problems, she said. Expect a police force big enough to keep the campus secure but severely scaled back, said Senate Sergeant-at-Arms Terrance Gainer. That means one door open per building both for lawmakers, their staffs and the tourists Congress is obligated to admit when the legislature is in session. But since the Capitol Visitor Center would be closed, tour guidance would be mostly up to the lawmakers themselves. And if they feel like escaping to the comfort of, say, the members-only balcony just off the House floor? Lawmakers might have to find an officer with a key to unlock the door, according to knowledgeable officials who demanded anonymity to be candid. Members would have to line up for everything from elevators to news conferences, since there would only be one act of televised grandstanding allowed at a time, Gainer said. And food? Sparse enough to constitute “a mandatory diet,” he quipped. Source
Looks like we know why the Republicans are so bent on tightening immigration laws… The next America is arriving ahead of schedule. And it could rattle assumptions about the coming presidential election. Last week’s release of national totals from the 2010 census showed that the minority share of the population increased over the past decade in every state, reaching levels higher than demographers anticipated almost everywhere, and in the nation as a whole. If President Obama and Democrats can convert that growth into new voters in 2012, they can get a critical boost in many of the most hotly contested states and also seriously compete for some highly diverse states such as Arizona and Georgia that until now have been reliably red. “One of the strengths of our candidacy in 2008 is, we had a broader battlefield; what these numbers suggest is that those same opportunities are there [for 2012], and there are new ones to consider,” David Axelrod, who is expected to be Obama’s senior campaign strategist, told National Journal. Even as the growing minority population creates new opportunities for Democrats, however, the party faces persistent challenges within the majority-white community. In November’s midterm elections, Republicans won 60 percent of white voters—the highest share of whites they have attracted in any congressional election in the history of modern polling. Since May, Obama’s job-approval rating among whites has exceeded 40 percent only twice in Gallup’s weekly summary of its nightly polling. Unless the economic recovery accelerates, many analysts in both parties believe that Obama could struggle to match the modest 43 percent of white voters he captured in 2008. These twin dynamics suggest that in many states the key question for 2012 may be whether Republicans can increase their advantage among whites enough to overcome what’s likely to be a growing share of the overall vote cast by minorities, who still break preponderantly for Democrats. In Florida, Georgia, Nevada, Virginia, and other key states that have experienced substantial minority growth, a National Journal analysis shows that Obama can win next year with a stunningly small percentage of the white vote—if Democrats can translate the minority-population growth into commensurate increases in the electorate. This election in 2012 is just as big if not bigger than the election in 2008. MAKE SURE YOU GET REGISTERED AND VOTE!!! Source
No, the conflict in Libya is not over yet. Yes, Muammar/Moammar Gadhafi/Qaddafi is still in power… and U.S. troops are still out on our dime. But it’s not all bad news. With the support of France, England, the U.S. and the U.N., rebel forces in Libya are actually making some headway in their fight for freedom. Rebel forces battled the government outside Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown and stronghold of Sirte as Western and Arab nations prepared to meet in London Tuesday to seek an exit for Libya’s long time leader. Thanks to international airstrikes begun March 19, Libya’s rebels are in a much stronger position than a week ago, having recaptured all the territory lost earlier to Gadhafi’s forces, including two key oil terminals. But the rebels remain woefully outgunned by Gadhafi’s forces and it is unclear how they can take the stronghold of Sirte without further aggressive international air support. Attacks on Monday were repelled by heavy mortar and rocket fire. Rebels acknowledged they could not have taken so much ground without the air and cruise missile strikes. Libya state television reported new NATO airstrikes after nightfall, targeting “military and civilian targets” in the cities of Garyan and Mizda about 40 miles and 90 miles respectively from Tripoli. NATO insisted that it was seeking only to protect civilians and not to give air cover to an opposition march. But that line looked set to become even more blurred. The airstrikes now are clearly enabling rebels bent on overthrowing Gadhafi to push toward the final line of defense on the road to the capital. Meanwhile, the world’s “super powers” are set to get together in London this week to do what they do best: figure out how to pressure a third world leader into doing what they want him to do. International leaders were gathering in London on Tuesday seeking to plot out an endgame for Moammar Gadhafi’s tottering regime and to strike agreement on plans for Libya’s future. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Arab League and as many as 40 global foreign ministers were joining the talks — seeking to ratchet up pressure on Gadhafi to quit. Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said several nations planned to table a joint deal aimed at swiftly ending the conflict, setting out proposals for a cease-fire, exile for Gadhafi and a framework for talks on Libya’s future between tribal leaders and opposition figures. Oh. So we might see an end to this by summer? SMH. Source 1 Source 2
No, the conflict in Libya is not over yet. Yes, Muammar/Moammar Gadhafi/Qaddafi is still in power… and U.S. troops are still out on our dime. But it’s not all bad news. With the support of France, England, the U.S. and the U.N., rebel forces in Libya are actually making some headway in their fight for freedom. Rebel forces battled the government outside Moammar Gadhafi’s hometown and stronghold of Sirte as Western and Arab nations prepared to meet in London Tuesday to seek an exit for Libya’s long time leader. Thanks to international airstrikes begun March 19, Libya’s rebels are in a much stronger position than a week ago, having recaptured all the territory lost earlier to Gadhafi’s forces, including two key oil terminals. But the rebels remain woefully outgunned by Gadhafi’s forces and it is unclear how they can take the stronghold of Sirte without further aggressive international air support. Attacks on Monday were repelled by heavy mortar and rocket fire. Rebels acknowledged they could not have taken so much ground without the air and cruise missile strikes. Libya state television reported new NATO airstrikes after nightfall, targeting “military and civilian targets” in the cities of Garyan and Mizda about 40 miles and 90 miles respectively from Tripoli. NATO insisted that it was seeking only to protect civilians and not to give air cover to an opposition march. But that line looked set to become even more blurred. The airstrikes now are clearly enabling rebels bent on overthrowing Gadhafi to push toward the final line of defense on the road to the capital. Meanwhile, the world’s “super powers” are set to get together in London this week to do what they do best: figure out how to pressure a third world leader into doing what they want him to do. International leaders were gathering in London on Tuesday seeking to plot out an endgame for Moammar Gadhafi’s tottering regime and to strike agreement on plans for Libya’s future. U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-Moon, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, the Arab League and as many as 40 global foreign ministers were joining the talks — seeking to ratchet up pressure on Gadhafi to quit. Italy’s Foreign Minister Franco Frattini said several nations planned to table a joint deal aimed at swiftly ending the conflict, setting out proposals for a cease-fire, exile for Gadhafi and a framework for talks on Libya’s future between tribal leaders and opposition figures. Oh. So we might see an end to this by summer? SMH. Source 1 Source 2
