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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: kumar who wrote (22975)	1/4/2004 10:26:07 PM
From: Nadine Carroll	Read Replies (3) \| Respond to of 793685

Hey, kumar, remember the Iranian seizure of the Grand Mosque in 1980?

To: kumar who wrote (22975)	1/5/2004 2:17:33 AM
From: frankw1900	Respond to of 793685

Kumar, here ya go: Some background: In Saudi Arabia, the 1960s, and especially the 1970s, had been years of explosive development, liberal experimentation, and openness to the West. A reversal of this trend came about abruptly in 1979, the year in which the Grand Mosque in Mecca came under attack by religiously motivated critics of the monarchy, and the Islamic Republic of Iran was established. Each of these events signaled that religious conservatism would have to be politically addressed with greater vigor. Although the mosque siege was carried out by a small band of zealots and their actions of shooting in the mosque appalled most Muslims, their call for less ostentation on the part of the Saudi rulers and for a halt to the cultural inundation of the kingdom by the West struck a deep chord of sympathy across the kingdom. At the same time, Ayatollah Khomeini's call to overthrow the Al Saud was a direct challenge to the legitimacy of the monarchy as custodian of the holy places, and a challenge to the stability of the kingdom with its large Shia minority. [MORE] networkingtheinternet.com Iran wanting Mecca ? Thats news to me. Its also kinda absurd IMO.

To: kumar who wrote (22975)	1/5/2004 8:16:03 AM
From: LindyBill	Respond to of 793685

Real Clear Politics.com Monday, January 5 2004 LET THE GAMES BEGIN: Some quick thoughts on the Democrat primary race. Dean continues to remain the favorite to win the nomination, and yesterday's debate in Iowa did little to spoil Dean's status as the field's front-runner. In my mind the biggest development these last three weeks is the reemergence of Wesley Clark as a serious contender for the nomination. Though Clark was not in the Iowa debate, he made an appearance on Meet the Press and (from a Democratic voter's standpoint) gave a solid performance. Clark raised an impressive 10 million dollars in the fourth quarter and is definitely in the lead to become the main anti-Dean candidate. Dick Gephardt, who I had always thought was positioned the best to become the #1 anti-Dean candidate, continues to run a campaign that is its own "miserable failure." Gephardt's problem is that he refuses to treat his pro-war vote as a positive. If he were attacking Dean from the right on national security the way Lieberman is going after the Vermont Governor he would be in considerably better shape. Instead, it appears as if he's just going though the motions. He has to have a win in Iowa and a second place finish in South Carolina or he's finished. Kerry of all people actually appears to have a bit of momentum, after falling from front-runner status last year to essentially dead two months ago. Ironically, expectations are now so low he may be the leading candidate to get tagged with the all important "better than expected" mantle. If he can manage a strong third or even an upset second in Iowa, and then follow that up with a "better than expected" showing in New Hampshire. He may just be able to spin the press that he's the guy with the Big Mo. Don't get me wrong, he's a long shot now and this is probably just a dead-cat bounce, but at least he's got a pulse back and finally appears to have a plan. In many ways Edwards is poised to emerge from behind the pack with respectable showings in Iowa and New Hampshire, and then a breakout performance in South Carolina. However, I just can't get around my gut feeling that irrespective of how well he may do in this or that state, there is little chance he will win the nomination. He's running for VP, and I think he is going to be disappointed there as well. Lieberman has always had little better than no chance of winning the nomination, and if he were somehow to become the nominee there would be a third-party candidate on the left who would get over 10% in the general election. My current odds for most likely Democratic ticket: Dean/Clark: 30% Clark/Clinton: 20% Dean/Feinstein: 15% Dean/Gephardt: 10% Dean/Richardson: 10% Clark/Gephardt: 5% Kerry/Clark: 5% Gephardt/Graham: 4% Edwards/Gephardt: 1% As you can see I think there is a 90% likelihood that the Democrat nominee will be either Dean or Clark. This of course assumes that Hillary stays out of the race, which is a good bet as long as the Dow stays above 9,000. realclearpolitics.com