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Politics : Just the Facts, Ma'am: A Compendium of Liberal Fiction -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Sully- who wrote (61855)	8/8/2007 11:11:03 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

Divestment For Thee ... By Ed Morrissey on War on Terror Captain's Quarters ABC News reports that a major benefactor to both Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama has ties to companies doing business with the Sudanese government currently committing genocide in Darfur. Despite Hillary's prescription for "moving quickly on divestment" to spur an end to the conflict in Darfur, Warren Buffet has no intention of selling his stock: <<< Democratic presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton have taken tough, conscientious stances against the genocidal Sudanese government and the companies which help fund it. Billionaire investor Warren Buffett, America's second richest man, has not. In what activists are calling "a definite contradiction," Buffett -- whose estimated $3 billion in Sudan-linked holdings have been disparaged by anti-genocide watchdogs -- is helping raise hundreds of thousands of dollars for the White House aspirants. Over the past several years, the Sudanese government has been widely accused of sponsoring the killing of more than 400,000 of its own people and displacing more than two million more, in what has been called one of the worst humanitarian crises of the new century. Buffett, the legendary 76-year-old investor, has turned away pleas from shareholders and activists to sell his firm's massive stake in PetroChina, a public subsidiary of China's national petroleum company, which watchdogs have tagged a "chief corporate sponsor" of the Sudanese government. Buffett's company, Berkshire Hathaway, reportedly owns the majority of publicly-traded stock in PetroChina. >>> Obviously, Hillary and Obama can't force Buffet to divest. However, it seems more than just a little contradictory for them to offer that as a prescription to other investors while the super-rich Buffet -- who could afford to take a little loss on the transaction -- continues to both fund PetroChina and their campaigns. Some of those proceeds arguably go into those donations. In fact, both Senators have sponsored a bill to push states into divesting from these same companies that do business with the Sudanese. That may or may not be good policy on its own. Divestment doesn't have that much of an effect on international governments; it just opens the markets to other companies with less exposure to American investment. It would be difficult to convince these states to comply while the bill's co-sponsors take major contributions from an investor in these same companies -- and who could profit by purchasing stock at cheaper prices on the basis of this divestment policy. If Hillary and Obama want to be taken seriously, they should refuse Buffett's contributions. The likelihood of that happening is about the same as the chances of success for the UN peacekeeping mission that has just been approved, and which can't get staffed. If they don't, they're taking money that they demand others to eschew, a rather rank form of hypocrisy. captainsquartersblog.com blogs.abcnews.com captainsquartersblog.com

To: Sully- who wrote (61855)	8/8/2007 11:59:36 PM
From: Sully-	Respond to of 90947

Had They Been Two White Kids, No One Would Have Cared ... about, y'know, those Pipe Bombs Andy McCarthy The Corner But, alas, they were Muslims so everybody cares. Or, better yet, CAIRs. Yes, that execrable organization and it's official Sami al-Arian-pom-pom-wavin' spokesman, Ahmed Bedier, are at it again. First, Bedier pronounced, before anything approaching an investigation could have been done, that the two Egyptian Muslims who were arrested over the weekend in South Carolina, were totally innocent: Just a couple of "really naive kids" (ages 21 and 26) who happened to have some "fireworks" in their car as they made their way on one of those crazy college kid field trips ... one that just happened to take them by Goose Creek where the the U.S. Naval Weapons Station is located, many miles from Tampa, where they attend the University of South Florida's School of Engineering. And, here, well, let's just say we end up with one of those you-just-can't-make-it-up coincidences: That happens be the same USF School of Engineering that served as home base for former Professor Sami al-Arian while he was laboring for Palestinian Islamic Jihad. And, whaddya know, Al-Arian's case was the last time we were hearing so regularly from Bedier. By the end, in spring 2006, he was boldly pronouncing that Sami would stick to his guns. He would not under any circumstances plead guilty to any terrorism offenses because there was "no conspiracy to support terrorism." That turned out to be right before al-Arian pled guilty to conspiracy to provide services to a designated terrorist organization. Now Bedier is once again on the case for Ahmed Abda Sherf Mohamed and Yousef Samir Megahed, the really naive kids with the, er, fireworks. Of course, Bedier wants you to understand, he and CAIR are absolutely, positively, opposed to terrorism, without reservation. Why, he even made a point of saying, "If it's clearly a pipe bomb that's a different story. Then there is cause for concern." Well, guess what? Police say it was actually several pipe bombs and formally charged the men with possession of an explosive device (a felony under South Carolina law, punishable by up to 15 years' imprisonment). So, then, it's a "different story," right Mr. Bedier? It sure is. Now — make sure you're sitting down for this, you'll never, ever guess — the story is ... Islamophobic profiling! Here's Bedier today in a story posted on CAIR's website: "'Had they been two white kids nobody would be asking any questions,' Ahmed Bedier, Executive Director of the Counsel For Islamic American Relations (CAIR), said." (For regular readers, you'll find it in the always dynamic "CAIR in the News" section — thanks to Greg Pollowitz for the heads-up). But of course! We all know that white kids — other than my son, apparently — never get stopped for speeding. And on those rare occasions when they do, the police always let white kids off with a warning: "Look here, son, stop driving so fast. Last thing you need is to make those those pipe bombs rattle around in the trunk." Oh, the injustice! I'm ashamed to live in this country. No Justice No Peace, Insha Allah! corner.nationalreview.com tampatrib.com tampatrib.com usdoj.gov abcnews.go.com foxnews.com cair-net.org