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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Road Walker who wrote (197814)	8/16/2004 12:22:54 PM
From: i-node	Respond to of 1572800

Please... Does the name "Daly" not mean ANYTHING to you?

To: Road Walker who wrote (197814)	8/16/2004 12:44:21 PM
From: Alighieri	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572800

Funny....Al =========================================== Cheney vs. Cheney On Hugh Hewitt's show: HH: Vice President Dick Cheney, welcome to the Hugh Hewitt Show. VP: It is good to be on here. HH: Today you brought attention to John Kerry's plan to wage a more 'sensitive' war on terror. What do you think John Kerry meant when he said 'sensitive,' Mr. Vice President? VP: Well, I'm not sure what he meant (laughing). Ah, it strikes me the two words don't really go together, sensitive and war. If you look at our history, I don't think any of the wars we've won, were won by us being quote sensitive. I think of Abraham Lincoln and General Grant, they didn't wage sensitive war. Neither did Roosevelt, neither did Eisenhower or MacArthur in World War II. A sensitive war will not destroy the evil men who killed 3,000 Americans, and who seek chemical, nuclear, and biological weapons to kill hundreds of thousands more.... ...[later]... HH: Will the Najaf offensive continue until that city is subdued even if that means a siege of the Imam Ali shrine? VP: Well, from the standpoint of the shrine, obviously it is a sensitive area, and we are very much aware of its sensitivity. On the other hand, a lot of people who worship there feel like Moqtada Sadr is the one who has defiled the shrine, if you will, and I would expect folks on the scene there, including U.S. commanders, will work very carefully with the Iraqis so that we minimize the extent to which the U.S. is involved in any operation that might involve the shrine itself.

To: Road Walker who wrote (197814)	8/16/2004 3:07:35 PM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572800

posted August 16, 2004, updated 1:15 p.m. Fighting underscores obstacles to Afghan vote Factional violence, voter intimidation, and fraud mar runup to landmark elections. By Matthew Clark \| csmonitor.com As Afghanistan prepares for its landmark presidential elections, scheduled for Oct. 9, factional fighting increasingly threatens to derail the process. The New York Times reports that two more battalions of Afghanistan's newly trained, multiethnic army were dispatched to the western province of Herat on Sunday, to take back control of an air base. The troops were sent in response to deadly clashes in the area. At least 50 people died in fighting between forces loyal to Herat governor Ismail Khan and a rival militia, reports the BBC. The heaviest clashes were reportedly centered on an air base north of Shindand. President Hamid Karzai condemned the fighting as an attempt to disrupt the upcoming elections, according to the BBC. The elections, which were supposed to take place in June, have already been pushed back twice due to security concerns. 08/13/04 Find out more. Voter fraud is also increasingly a worry for Afghan officials. As The Los Angeles Times reported last week, Afghan President Hamid Karzai acknowledged in a joint appearance Wednesday with visiting US Defense Secretary Donald H. Rumsfeld that the number of people who have registered more than once could be anywhere from 1,000 to 100,000. The Toronto Star reports that a French fry vendor in Kabul intends to "supplement his meager income" by selling voter identification cards. After getting six voter registration cards – all containing his real name and photograph – he expects to make $1,000 for five cards and keep one for the Oct. 9 vote. ... Although the final tally is not yet in, UN election officials are scrambling to explain why more than 9.9 million cards have been issued, surpassing the original estimated 9.8 million voters. In an election the US had hoped to hold up as an example of democracy dawning in the developing world, there is now growing evidence that attempted vote-rigging has run amok. In an instance of voter intimidation, The Seattle Times reports that "Taliban militants beat to death a community leader for encouraging people to vote." Perhaps a less pressing obstacle to democracy in Afghanistan than factional violence and voter intimidation ahead of the elections, the country's burgeoning opium trade seems to be more of a worry to officials in Washington. Last week Mr. Rumsfeld warned again of the damage Afghanistan's opium trade could do to the establishment of democracy there while announcing a "master plan" to combat it. A Globe and Mail editorial says "such a plan is long overdue" and points out that the US focused "almost exclusively on the military matters at hand" when it toppled the Taliban regime in 2001. Afterward, scant attention – and far too little money – was devoted to such crucial problems as how to extend the rule of law throughout the country, disarm the warlords who still control huge swaths of territory, and develop the institutions needed to underpin a functioning democracy and a national economy. It was in this economic and political vacuum that the drug trade flourished. ... But once opium production was allowed to take root again, it grew rapidly into a major force, with global implications for the wars on drugs and terror. Meanwhile, Jonathan Keith "Jack" Idema, the American accused of running a free-lance antiterror operation and private prison in Afghanistan, testified in court Monday that that US and Afghan authorities were fully aware of his actions, reports The Washington Post. US military and intelligence officials have repeatedly denied having any affiliation with Mr. Idema, although they acknowledge having received one prisoner from him, writes the Post. Continued............ csmonitor.com