#5
Second Democracy in the Western Hemesphere and the only time they've really had any stability is when the US Marines are in town running things. Very sad.
MOSCOW: Prime Minister Vladimir Putin acknowledged on Wednesday he might not win in a March presidential election in the first round, and said Russia could face political instability as a result.
Putin, who is facing the biggest opposition protests of his 12-year rule, remains the strongest candidate and looks set to win a six-year presidential term. But public opinion polls suggest he could fall short of 50 percent of the votes and face a runoff, which would be an embarrassing blow that could undermine his authority in a new stint in the Kremlin.
"There is nothing terrible about it (second round), if needed, I am ready to campaign in the second round," Putin told a group of volunteer election monitors. "I also understand that a second round implies an extended period of certain infighting, meaning a certain destabilization of our political situation."
Opinion survey results released on Jan. 25 by independent polling agency Levada showed 37 percent of respondents would vote for Putin, 17 percent were undecided and another 9 percent uncertain whether they would vote at all.
A runoff, would likely pit Putin, 59, against veteran Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov, who came second in the Levada poll with 8 percent.
So it could get worse after all...
More amusing, certainly. The man with the pet tiger vs. the guy who tottered in after "Dunno" and "There's an election?"
Putin's strategists have launched a low-key campaign appealing to Putin's core supporters in the provinces and brushing aside a barrage of criticism from the opposition concentrated mainly in large cities.
"There is a danger that my supporters may not come (to the polls), thinking that I will win anyway, that they have nothing to do there, that we will do something to ensure my victory. We will do nothing like that," Putin said.
After alleged fraud in a December parliamentary election triggered mass protests, Putin said he was keen to ensure that the presidential election is fair and ordered the installation of web cameras at polling stations across Russia.
Another Putin rival, billionaire Mikhail Prokhorov, backed by 4 percent in the Levada poll, told a news conference that a runoff would be "a blessing for the country. It means that political competition and a democratic system would be born."
After election authorities barred opposition politician Grigory Yavlinsky from standing, some analysts have speculated that Prokhorov played a part in a Kremlin plan to split the opposition and lend the vote an air of competitive legitimacy.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2012 00:00 ||
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"Instability" is when Putin doesn't get what he wants.
#2
This is the truth. The disconnect between the public and government is reality as much as it is here. Libya, Egypt, and perhaps Iraq are stumbling about now. Some want this instability. The Russian businessman Prokhorov wants economic growth. That means interaction not intervention.
The world grows smaller. The energy needs of Europe connects Russia, Turkey, Isreal and many other countries. The USA and Russia working together could do allot of good in the world. China's only interest is controling the natural resources of a country. What governments do with their populations does not concern them. Yes, the Russians sell weapons but every country does that if they can. New technology goes odsolete in how long?, and upgrades. This is big money. Russia is a vast country and difficult to manage. Russia needs economic growth, prosperity, and national pride. We need these things also. Interaction not intervention. We have a backyard also. How would we manage things. We have occupy and they have their opposition. Their opposition is much bigger. They tried to play it down and attack it like the Tea party here. The roots run deep.
There seems to be a pattern emerging in the Holder Justice Department: DOJ employees committing crimes and very little seems to happen to them. I'm not just talking about the questionable testimony under oath of Attorney General Eric Holder or Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez. I'm talking about theft, graft, child porn, bribery, and perjury. The fact that very little ever seems to happen to DOJ officials who purportedly commit the crimes tells you a great deal about the leadership of the Obama DOJ.
Matthew Boyle at the Daily Caller has this explosive story on DOJ officials taking bribes from people they are investigating. Yes, you read that correctly. More:
A U.S. Justice Department source has told The Daily Caller that at least two DOJ prosecutors accepted cash bribes from allegedly corrupt finance executives who were indicted under court seal within the past 13 months, but never arrested or prosecuted.
Holder has got to be tried and imprisoned, along with most of his staff. I fear the rest of government is this corrupt as well.
discovery should be fun. Another link where Terry's family accuses then US Atty Dennis Burke of lying to them. Join the crowd
Posted by: Frank G ||
02/02/2012 08:20 ||
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The way the Gansgter Government works with tax payer money is they will pay the 25 mill and then tell the Terry family to shut up from now on. Where are the criminal charges for accessory to murder for supplying the cartel with the murder weapon?
STOCKHOLM, Sweden The nomination deadline for the 2012 Nobel Peace Prize closed Wednesday amid renewed criticism that the award committee has drifted away from the selection criteria established by prize founder Alfred Nobel.
No way! What was their first clue?
Russian human rights activist Svetlana Gannushkina, jailed former Ukrainian Prime Minister Yulia Tymoshenko and Cuban rights activists Oswaldo Paya and Yoani Sanchez are among the candidates who have been publicly announced by those who nominated them.
The secretive prize committee doesnt discuss nominations which have to be postmarked by Feb. 1 to be valid but stresses that being nominated doesnt say anything about a candidates chances.
Its choices often spark debate the world rarely agrees on whos most deserving of the $1.5 million award but this year the committee is facing criticism even before the deliberations have begun.
Stockholms County Administrative Board the authority that supervises foundations and trusts in the city has formally asked the Nobel Foundation to respond to allegations that the peace prize no longer reflects the will of Nobel, a Swedish industrialist who died in 1896. The move comes after persistent complaints by Norwegian peace researcher Fredrik Heffermehl, who claims the original purpose of the prize was to diminish the role of military power in international relations.
Nobel called it a prize for the champions of peace, Heffermehl told The Associated Press on Wednesday. And its indisputable that he had in mind the peace movement, the movement which is actively pursuing a new global order ... where nations safely can drop national armaments.
Since World War II, especially, the prize committee, which is appointed by the Norwegian Parliament, has widened the scope of the prize to include environmental, humanitarian and other efforts.
For example, in 2007 the prize went to climate campaigner Al Gore and the U.N.s panel on climate change, and in 2009 the committee cited President Barack Obama for extraordinary efforts to boost international diplomacy.
These might have been their first two clues, along with the odious Rigoberta Menchu and the even more odious Yassar Arafat.
Do you see Obama as a promoter of abolishing the military as a tool of international affairs? Heffermehl asked rhetorically.
Nobel gave only vague guidelines for the peace prize in his 1895 will, saying it should honor work for fraternity between nations, for the abolition or reduction of standing armies and for the holding and promotion of peace congresses.
Geir Lundestad, the nonvoting secretary of the Norwegian Nobel Committee, dismissed Heffermehls claims. Fighting climate change is definitely closely related to fraternity between nations. It even concerns the survival of some states, he told AP.
Still, the county administrative board decided it was worth raising the matter with the Stockholm-based Nobel Foundation, which manages the prize assets. The board has an obligation to make sure Nobels will is respected, and has the authority to suspend the foundations decisions, going back a maximum of three years, if they do not, Wiman said, adding that such measures were highly unlikely.
The peace prize and the other five Nobel awards are always handed out Dec. 10, the anniversary of Alfred Nobels death.
Posted by: Steve White ||
02/02/2012 00:00 ||
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No kidding they need Investigating, they nominated Bambi, BIG BIG mistake.
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
02/02/2012 1:04 Comments ||
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Hey, be nice about Bambi, he might be the first to ever win the Nobel Peace Prize twice (if they think it'll help his election), and I wouldn't count him out on an Oscar as well (although they may have to edit him into an existing film to make it happen).
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
There seems to be a pattern emerging in the Holder Justice Department: DOJ employees committing crimes and very little seems to happen to them. I'm not just talking about the questionable testimony under oath of Attorney General Eric Holder or Assistant Attorney General Tom Perez. I'm talking about theft, graft, child porn, bribery, and perjury. The fact that very little ever seems to happen to DOJ officials who purportedly commit the crimes tells you a great deal about the leadership of the Obama DOJ.
