Archive for Politics
Afghan Election Panel Annuls Ballots From Karzai Strongholds
Posted by: | CommentsAfghanistan’s UN-backed Electoral Complaints Commission today invalidated voting from 83 polling places in political strongholds of President Hamid Karzai, and ordered further vote recounts over alleged ballot stuffing by Karzai’s supporters in last month’s elections.
The invalidated votes — from the southern, ethnic Pashtun provinces of Kandahar, Ghazni, and Paktika — will be too few to reduce Karzai’s 1.4 million-vote lead enough to force him into a second round election against his main rival, former foreign minister Abdullah Abdullah.
The Obama administration has counted on the Aug. 20 vote to strengthen the political credibility of Afghanistan’s government, and reinforce it as a partner for a stepped-up U.S. fight against Taliban insurgents.
State Department spokesman Ian Kelly said yesterday the U.S. is concerned by the complaints commission’s finding this week of “clear and convincing evidence” of vote fraud. The U.S. wants Afghan authorities to “take these charges very seriously and deal with them in a way that people can have confidence” in the results, Kelly told reporters.
Abdullah has released photos and videos that he says show Karzai’s backers stuffing ballot boxes in southern Afghanistan, where violence by Taliban guerrillas kept turnout low. Karzai’s campaign has denied any role in vote fraud.
Democracy Now Headlines- Tues. July, 7, 2009
Posted by: | CommentsHonduras is a very small Central American republic with a population of 7.5 million and an area about the size of Louisiana. Christopher Columbus landed in the country on one of his later voyages, and the nation is still the home of seven distinct indigenous tribes, some of them descended from the Mayans who created a significant culture in this part of the world more than a thousand years ago.
Originally a Spanish colony, Honduras received nominal independence in 1821, but has struggled with oligarchic rule since then. President Manuel Zelaya was removed from office several days ago by the Honduran Supreme Court and Congress.
Someone from his own party was named as interim president, and a new election was promised for this coming fall. Zelaya was arrested by the nation’s military at his home, and put on a plane for Costa Rica.Zelaya is part of a small group of Central and South American leaders, each originally legitimately elected, but who, having tasted power, don’t want to give it up. In effect, they really want to return to the old politics of the dictators who ruled in the previous world of Hispanic-American politics.
Hugo Chavez of Venezuela is the most notorious of this group, which also includes Evo Morales of Bolivia and Fidel Castro of Cuba (who has been the communist dictator of Cuba for 50 years).
It was no surprise then that Chavez and his cohorts came immediately to the defense of Zelaya, and it was not unexpected that the Organization of American States and the United Nations, both left-dominated organizations, would join in an effort to overturn the actions of the Honduran Congress and Supreme Court.The problem for the new American president, however, is that the U.S. is the leading advocate and protector of democracies, large and small, in the world. Now he has sent a very contradictory message to the region and the international community.
Acting President Roberto Micheletti of Honduras is a man who shows no signs of seeking or keeping political power. He’s even a member of the ousted president’s own party. An interesting development here is that the military cooperated with Honduran democratic institutions, and have not attempted to take power for themselves (as has happened in this region so often in the past).
How China and the U.S. Handle WTO Complaints
Posted by: | CommentsThe way China and the United States handle WTO complaints differs. We allow the complaints to drag through adjudication for years. We in the U.S. will even win a WTO decision, but then simply wait while China does nothing, as in the case of China’s excessive tariffs on foreign auto parts.
China has a different method for handling WTO complaints. At the same time that she files the complaint, she takes an action against American products that is way out of proportion, forcing America to cave.
Last week, at the same time that China filed a WTO complaint against an American ban on her cooked-chicken products, she completely cut off further issuance of licenses to import American chicken (13% of all of our exported chicken). Here is the story from Kim Souza in The Morning News:
SPRINGDALE — Despite news reports from China that U.S. chicken imports will continue as normal, the country has put a de facto import ban in place, said Farha Aslam, industry analyst with Stephens Inc….
News that Chinese importers of U.S. chicken were not able to get permits for importing American poultry products Thursday was a reversal of prior actions, as China’s Ministry of Commerce refuted the ban claims just two days ago…
The Chinese government filed a complaint against the U.S. with the World Trade Organization saying that U.S. congressional actions to limit Chinese poultry from coming into the U.S. were unfair, malicious and violate global trade rules.
China is practicing protectionism through a variety of means including tariffs, a dollar-yuan peg to keep American products expensive and Chinese products inexpensive, and various non-tariff barriers including import licenses. In 2008, China imported just 25¢ from the United States for every $1 we imported from her.
She is so effective with non-tariff barriers to foreign products that, according to the World Bank, her imports are expected to decrease this year even while her economy grows at a 7.2% clip.
Throughout this Great Recession, she has been steadily hiking her export subsidies, just raising subsidies on textiles, for example, from 15% to 16%. She is insuring that Chinese businesses can produce below cost so that they can steal market share by driving their foreign competitors bankrupt.
In response, the only thing that President Obama has done is file a WTO complaint that China will ignore. If we had a competent government, it would do what we suggest in Trading Away Our Future:
We would announce to all the countries that have been accumulating dollar reserves in order to run a trade deficit with the United States, that effective the following year their deficit on goods and services would have to be reduced twenty percent. They may respond to this challenge by planning to increase their imports from us, reduce their exports to us, or some combination of both. Failure to meet this annual goal would result in our imposition of a requirement that all imports from the offending country would require an Import Certificate (IC) purchased from the US Treasury Department or other designated agency of the federal government. (The US Treasury Department has experience in auctioning off its own obligations; much the same process would be involved in auctioning off import certificates.)
Prospective importers from countries that fail to reduce their deficits in timely fashion would have to apply for an IC and follow the Treasury’s instructions. Over a period of five years, the US Treasury Department would steadily reduce the amount of available import certificates so that the targeted country’s trade exports to the United States would be no higher than 5% above their imports from the United States. The Treasury would publish the amount of ICs issued and available and the date of each auction. Each certificate would have to be utilized within a specified period.
The Richman plan would force China to take down her barriers to American products and stop dumping her products below cost in American markets. President Obama’s WTO complaints will drag on for years through the WTO adjudication process while China steals our remaining industries.
Iran council asks for more time for vote complaints
Posted by: | Comments“We are urging you to allow us to extend the deadline to receive further complaints five more days,” the Guardian Council said in a letter.
The Guardian Council has rejected demands for a rerun from two losing candidates, former prime minister Mousavi and pro-reform cleric Mehdi Karoubi.
The legislative body said the extended deadline would pave the ground for removing any ambiguities over the disputed vote.
“As the legal deadline to review the complaints ends on Wednesday, extending the deadline will help the council to remove ambiguities,” the letter said.
Ten days of protest against elections that confirmed hardline anti-Western President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in office have produced unprecedented protests and a public split in the Islamic establishment.
Defeated candidates accuse the authorities of rigging the election and have demanded a rerun.
Moderate cleric Karoubi, defeated in the 12th June poll, signaled on Tuesday opposition would continue, calling on Iranianas to hold ceremonies on Thursday to mourn those killed at protests.
Dismissed Palin ethics complaints don’t come cheaply
Posted by: | Commentshe Alaska Personnel Board, clearly frustrated with the pile of ethics complaints filed against Gov. Sarah Palin, wants to publicize the cost of dealing with them.
The personnel board members decided at a Wednesday meeting to work with the attorney general’s office on how to make public the cost of addressing each ethics complaint, without violating the board’s confidentiality rules.
“We’ve spent pretty close to about a third of a million dollars, and it’s getting to be really expensive,” said Al Tamagni, a member of the board.
Also Wednesday, the three-member board dismissed another complaint, this one involving Palin and her political action committee, and heard testimony from a woman who asserted fear of retaliation has prevented her from filing a complaint against the governor.
The governor’s office said it is the 13th ethics complaint against Palin or her staff that has been resolved without finding of an executive ethics act violation. But Palin has agreed to reimburse the state in order to settle an ethics complaint over 10 state-paid trips taken by her children. A “few more” complaints are pending a decision by the personnel board, the governor’s office said.
Andree McLeod, an Anchorage activist who has filed multiple ethics complaints against Palin and her staff, said after the meeting that the board is trying to squash accountability by saying it costs too much.
“The whole way to mitigate all this is for Palin to behave ethically,” said McLeod, who filed the complaint that was dismissed by the board on Wednesday.
State House wants more child labor fines, reporting
Posted by: | CommentsLegislators want the state Labor Department to report what it’s done to enforce child labor laws as critics complain that its leader’s business-friendly philosophy doesn’t adequately discipline companies that mistreat workers.
But Republican Labor Commissioner Cherie Berry said the numbers tell the story that her cooperative style has made work sites safer since she was elected in 2000. Her style has led companies to ask her agency for help to comply with labor laws, something that wouldn’t happen if they feared the department as an adversary, she said.
The House voted 106-0 on Thursday to direct the Labor Department to report the number of complaints alleging child labor violations, the length of the probes and the number of investigators assigned. The department also would need to report fines and how much was collected.
“It’s basically to look at what is going on in terms of child labor law enforcement” after reports that some managers tell underage employees to perform tasks barred to minors, said the bill’s primary sponsor, Rep. Jennifer Weiss, D-Wake. Examples can include minors operating power saws or meat slicers, or doing roofing work.
On Wednesday, the House voted unanimously to increase some of the country’s lowest penalties for businesses that violate child labor laws. The maximum would double from $250 to $500 for first-time violators, and increase to $1,000 for further violations.
Both measures now move to the Senate.
2006 study by University of North Carolina researchers said of the 16- and 17-year-old North Carolina construction workers studied, more than four out of five did prohibited tasks. The Labor Department’s 2008 annual report said youth employment complaints account for less than 1 percent of all complaints received, and just 15 complaints involved minors in hazardous occupations.
With small-town politics, more ethics complaints
Posted by: | CommentsThe state Ethics Commission each year investigates thousands of complaints alleging misdeeds by city and town officials.
Over the last five years, 577 of those complaints came from South Shore towns. But instead of large municipalities like Quincy or Weymouth generating the most, it’s the small towns, like Abington and Rockland, that top the list, with 70 each from 2004 to 2008.
“Ultimately, it means that people are interested; they’re concerned; they’re involved,” he said. “There’s nothing wrong with people being a watchdog in a town where it’s their money.”
A complaint, however, doesn’t mean there is definitely a violation. Anyone can file an complaint anonymously, and one person could file several complaints on the same issue.
Commission Spokesman David Giannotti said he couldn’t fathom a guess as to why some towns have so many more complaints than others.
“You can have one or two of those people that want to complain about everything,” Rockland Town Administrator Allan Chiocca said. “It doesn’t mean there’s merit in (the complaints).”
A small town is like a family, Chiocca said, the people in it usually know exactly what’s going on.
“To be subjected to implications of impropriety when nothing exists, certainly discourages people from volunteering in many cases,” he said.
Small communities have a shrunken pool of candidates, creating more opportunity for perceived conflicts of interest. Personal and family connections can raise eyebrows, Kryzanek said.
Such is the case in Rockland, where selectmen Chairman James Simpson’s son is a police officer.
The Hanover board of health makes rules about animal issues, but two members own horse farms.
When fishery issues come up in Marshfield, Selectman Michael Maresco has to disclose that his father in law is a lobsterman.
“It gets harder and harder in smaller towns where so many people are related,” Chiocca said.
In Weymouth, which operates under a mayoral form of government, dealing with the problem in house means the Ethics Commission never has to get involved. The town of 53,000 people had only 11 total complaints.
“The buck stops here in the mayor’s office,” Mayor Sue Kay said. “I take all the responsibility.”
Warren said he takes exception to the anonymous process of filing a complaint, where there is no accountability.
“It makes it easy for someone that wants to correct some injustice they feel they’ve suffered at the hands of the town,” Warren said.
With people watching the budget process even more closely this year, Kryzanek said he expects complaints to rise.
“There’s an increasing level of suspicion that people in government … are abusing their office,” he said.
China’s political advisors urged to help maintain social stability
Posted by: | CommentsChina’s top political advisor Jia Qinglin on Tuesday urged his colleagues from the private sector not to lay off workers to help maintain social stability amid the global economic turmoil.
National Committee members from the non-public sector of the economy should be encouraged to shoulder their share of social responsibilities,” according to the Report on the Work of the Standing Committee of the CPPCC National Committee.
“Advisors should try their best to refrain from laying off any employees, cutting salaries or withholding wages, so as to create a harmonious labor relationship,” said Jia.
The unfolding financial crisis has resulted in mass unemployment in China. Jobless migrant workers alone exceed 20 million, not to mention millions of graduates swarming into the job market every year.
A report issued in January by the Ministry of Human Resources and Social Security (MOHRSS) showed that China’s urban unemployment rate rose to 4.2 percent at the end of 2008, up 0.2 percentage points year-on-year.
The real situation is more serious, as the number of migrant workers and newly graduated college students are not included in the count.
Political advisor Wang Junjin, chairman of the Shanghai-based Junyao group, said that the grim economic situation requires people to help each other and share weal and woe.
“Employers should nurture good relations with employees. They must also take up greater social responsibility,” said Wang.
According to media reports, the ongoing CPPCC session and upcoming session of the National People’s Congress, China’s top legislature, will have deputies and advisors from more than 150 listed companies.
These companies account for about 10 percent of the firms listed on the yuan-denominated market. They include executives of large financial companies such as China Life Insurance (Group) Company and Ping An Insurance (Group) Company of China
Jia also urged political advisors from the ethnic minorities and religious circles to play a unique role in the drive for ethnic unity and religious harmony.