Tuesday, April 21, 2009

Genocide/Ethnic Cleansing Of Sri Lanka Tamils

Tamil Canadians of Sri Lankan Tamil origin in ...Image via Wikipedia


What is happening in Sri Lanka right now makes Darfur, and Palestine, and Zimbabwe and wherever else all pale in comparison. This is brazen genocide. Ethnic cleansing is going on. This is a crime against humanity, but where's the outcry?

The Sri Lankan army has eaten up that country's entire budget, it has snuffed democracy, it has attacked journalism - and I am talking Sinhala journalists - and it has been mowing down Tamils for weeks, months now. This is a democracy gone so insane, it is not a democracy no more.

Sometimes a human being snaps. In this case an entire country has snapped. It has more than lost its way. It has gone criminal.

Hitler did not round up people like this. His crimes became public only much later. People being taken to gas chambers did not know they were being taken to gas chambers. But the Sri Lankan Army is being brazen about killing thousands a day. It has erected an iron curtain around a massive chunk of territory where it has gone berserk.

I am not for violence. But then I am staunchly against ethnic prejudice and discrimination. Democracy was not the answer to Tamil grievances for decades. If the LTTE had never been born, if Prabhakaran had never picked up his gun, would the Sinhala leadership have brought about equality for the Tamils? I don't think so. If the Sri Lankan Army were to achieve its goals of ethnic cleansing, and perhaps route the LTTE, will the subsequent Sri Lankan federal government finally bring forth equality for the Tamils? I don't believe so.

The Tamil issue is something I have thought about a long time. I never thought violence was the solution. But then I also knew Sri Lanka had proven the Tamils could not expect respite in peaceful democracy either.

Minorities like the Tamils of Sri Lanka should have the option to take the Sri Lankan federal government to the international courts to seek justice and equality. Otherwise we are asking the Tamils to make peace with a second class status. The world today does not have that kind of structure. We have to build that kind of structure, so a people do not have to choose between inequality and violence.

But before that we have to deal with the immediate issue of genocide, of ethnic cleansing. The world is mute, and people are dying. If grieving for Tamils is too much of a stretch of heart and imagination, grieve that the Sri Lankan army has murdered democracy and free speech also for the Sinhala majority. A government that can so mercilessly kill its own people has had to have lost its soul. It has.

That violence is not a solution goes both ways. I never predicted a military victory for Prabhakaran. I doubt there is a military victory in store for the Sri Lankan Army. The solution was, and is political.

Sri Lanka's crime has been that it has been a unitary state. Sri Lanka's crime has been that it has not had a constitution that guarantees minority rights. I wish it had not, but violence resulted.

And if India is turning a blind eye because Rajiv Gandhi was murdered at the orders of Prabhakaran, it has to be pointed out Rajiv Gandhi was not murdered at the orders of the Tamil civilians who are currently being wiped out in the thousands in a slaught.

What Hitler did in an autocratic framework, Sri Lanka is doing in what is officially a democratic framework. The country does have a duly elected president. Sri Lanka is proof democracy is no solution. Sri Lanka is the most literate country in my neighborhood of South Asia. Sri Lanka is proof literacy is no solution. A heartless, soulless democracy is no solution.

This massive act of genocide has to be brought to an end. World leaders have to speak out. Journalists have to go cover the happenings. Marches have to be organized worldwide. Or after over six decades of Hitler we will still have made no progress.

As things stand, the president of Sri Lanka stands guilty of crimes against humanity, and is a ripe candidate for The Hague. End the onslaught. Seek a political solution.









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April 22 Immigration Court Date

April 22: Court Date


April 20, 2009
New York Immigration Court
26 Federal Plaza
12th Floor, Room 1237
New York, NY 10278
917-454-1040
Court Administrator: Star B. Pacitto

9 AM, Judge McManus, Margaret "The judge with the smallest proportion of denials [the most asylum grants] of all the judges for this period was Margaret McManus of New York. She declined 9.8% of her 1,638 asylum requests in represented cases. Judge McManus was appointed in 1991. She began her career in private practice and for one five year period was a staff attorney with Legal Aid Society's Immigration Unit......With an over 90 percent grant-rate for asylum cases, oh that all EOIR immigration judges could emulate former legal aid lawyer McManus . . . the Treason Lobby hopes!"

Rudrakumaran Visuvanathan
875 Avenue of the Americas, Suite 2309
New York, NY 10001
212 290 2925



My Prepared Statement

I fear political assassination upon return to Nepal between now and the 2010 election because of (a) my ethnicity: I am a Madhesi, (b) my political beliefs: I have a firm commitment to democracy and social justice, (c) my political abilities and the intense visibility that will invite upon my return: Barack Obama, Howard Dean, Terry McAuliffe, David Pollak all know me, I have played a central role to the three mass movements in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, and February 2008, and (d) my association with the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum, the organization that has best countered the Maoists politically.

My fear comes from (a) remnant elements of the old political order who lost much after the democracy movement of April 2006 that turned the poltical order upside down, (b) the Pahadi power brokers of the three largest parties in Nepal, the Maoists, the Nepali Congress, and the UML, (c) specifically the Maoists who might see me as an American agent, (d) elements of the Maoists who might still harbor their original dream of a one party communist republic, (e) elements of the Maoists who see the Madhesi Janadhikar Forum as their number one threat, (f) rivals from the Madhesi rights camp, (g) one or more of the armed Madhesi groups who might find I am not in tandem with their separate country agenda or their violent methods, and (g) mafia elements hired by any of the forces described above.

It is going to be very easy to finish me off. I am not going to have any security detail. A likely scenario is one person with a handgun who manages to flee. Or I might get poisoned. Or I might get killed in a choreographed road accident. That is how the life of the last charismatic Nepali leader ended: Madan Bhandari in the early 1990s. I am a MLK to the 13 million Madhesis on the planet. If I go to Nepal now, I die a MLK death.

The two city charges of harassment and court order violation that got me into this immigration mess in the first place have long been dropped by the city. That is to say those two charges should never have been pressed in the first place. But Charlie Rangel's office got involved, and this was before Barack beat Hillary, and so you have to wonder. If my political opponents in America, in New York City can do this to me, what about my political enemies in Nepal? What would they want?

You had me in jail for six months from June to November last year. I received two death threats during that time period.
I came to the United States on a student visa in August 1996. I was a student five years at Berea College in Kentucky. Berea is the number one liberal arts college in the South. Within six months of landing I got myself elected student body president at Berea, first time in the college's 150 plus year history a freshman had done such a thing, first and last.

In 1999 I was one of the founding members of a dot com company that went on to raise $25 million during its second round before it went down during what in the industry is known as the nuclear winter. I was also team member number two of another dot com that sought to challenge then industry leader AllAdvantage that paid people for watching ads while surfing the web. That company also closed shop once the nuclear winter set in and there was a massive dot com meltdown. The founder Paul went on to Duke.

You can work for a year after graduation. During that year my college sweetheart proposed to me and we got married. I got a green card. She was the smartest student at Berea. She had spent her first semester at Macalester, the Kofi Annan college in Minnesota.

It so happened that we ended up spending quite some time apart. There was travel involved on my part. She had a semester long internship in Australia, another subsequent semester long internship in Thailand. Somewhere along the way we fell out of love. I moved to New York City. I was a few months away from renewing my green card, something you do within two years. My ex still cared enough about me to suggest I renew the green card before we filed for divorce. I refused for emotional reasons. I passively let the deadline pass. As of winter 2005 my green card expired. Our separation paper said we had no children, no property to divvy up, and that she will get 5% of the income from my first published book. She had not asked for that 5%.

I have eaten into savings, swiped credit cards; I have borrowed money from my business partner, I have done some writing online. Adam Carson was a Vice President at Morgan Stanley before he quit and joined my team, but that before you nabbed me. The technology company I have founded had raised round one money, thanks to Adam, but that money got pulled back a few months back. But if I can raise 80K, I can raise 100K, I expect to hit round 2 by the end of this year, and round 3 in early 2011.

Right before you nabbed me I was thinking I would grow the company a little more and then apply for a green card based on that. A friend of mine, a fellow Madhesi from Nepal, got his green card through his Seattle based software company. But now I am in a rather urgent situation, and I have decided to seek political asylum. I have an extremely strong case. If I show up in Nepal right now, I am dead meat.

The king of my country pulled a coup in February 2005 and took over. The country already had gone through a decade long civil war led by the Maoists in which 13,000 people died in active combat, twice that many committed suicide. The Maoists of Nepal had proven themselves to be the largest, deadliest ultra left group this planet saw since the end of the Cold War. At their peak they had 80% of the country.

In February 2005, three forces in Nepal were at loggerheads: the monarchists, the Maoists, and the democrats. Since February 2005 no Nepali outside of Nepal has put as much time into the democracy movement of Nepal as I have. Part of the reason I let my green card expire was because I was so busy thinking about the 27 million people in Nepal - days, nights, weekends, it was a zombie existence - I literally was not thinking about myself. There would be piles of unopened mail on my floor. The work I have put into Nepal's democracy and social justice movements is going to win me the Nobel Peace Prize. I am working to make it happen in 2010. 75% of the work is done, 25% remains, and I intend to write and publish directly online a 1,000 page autobiography. This work has been so cutting edge it is going to sell itself.

What happened in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, February 2008 and again in February 2009 in the form of a Tharu Kranti was magic. If Nepal can become a multi-party democracy of state funded parties and one where at least one third of the legislature is female by law, what happened in Nepal during the four mass movements will have been the French Revolution for this 21st century.

I went to the best school in Nepal. The number two guy in class went on to Harvard to Goldman. Bill Gates dropped out of Harvard, I never went to Harvard. When Bill Gates was 19, he launched a company. When I was 19, I launched a political party.

I am a Madhesi in Nepal. In Rwanda they got Hutu and Tutsi. In Nepal they got Pahadi and Madhesi. Jesus was a Jew. There are 13 million Jewish people on the planet. Buddha was a Madhesi. There are about 13 million Madhesis on the planet. That is how many black folks MLK had when he was doing what he was doing.

More than 40% of the people in Nepal are Madhesi. Of the 30,000 Nepalis in New York City, maybe 30 are Madhesi. That should tell you of the filters in Nepal that work against the Madhesis.

I am half Nepali, half Indian by birth. More than 99% of the Nepalis in America are not my ethnicity. More than 99% of the Indians in America are not my ethnicity. I need to point out the ethnic politics in countries like Nepal and India are way more complicated than the racial politics in countries like America. Barack did not have it tougher growing up.

Please check my Nepal blog for my work into Nepal: http://demrepubnepal.blogspot.com. Please check my Barackface blog for my work into Obama 2008: htp://democracyforum.blogspot.com. Barack knows me, as does Howard Dean. Terry McAuliffe knows me. I have a feeling the Clintons might be aware of my presence. All the top politicians in Nepal know me or of me.

There is a concrete mathematical theory called the butterfly effect. A butterfly flapping its wings in the Amazon forest could be the reason a cyclone hit Bangladesh. What happened in Nepal in April 2006, January-February 2007, and February 2008, and more recently in February 2009 were political cyclones. I was the butterfly flapping my wings in New York City. What I did I could not have done from Kathmandu. I fathered the very concept.

Fractals: Apple, Windows 95, Netscape, Google, Facebook, Twitter March 2009

In April 2006, over a period of 19 days, about eight million people out of the country's 27 million came out into the streets to shut the country down completely to force a dictator out. The Maoists wanted to take credit but they had been pushing for an armed uprising all along. (Baburam Bhattarai May Not Preach Violence To The Seven Party Alliance January 2006) The seven democratic parties kept pushing for a mass meeting here, a mass meeting there, a daylong shutdown here, and a daylong shutdown there. I am the father of the concept of continuous movement in the Nepalese context. I pushed the concept from the very beginning. If there is a tortoise sitting on the fence, chances are it did not randomly get there.


All the political actors and parties that took credit for April 2006 were fundamentally opposed to the Madhesi movement of January-February 2007 that was a more intense movement than April 2006. February 2008 was the second chapter of the Madhesi movement and the third chapter to the April 2006 revolution itself. I was the one constant to all three.

When Upendra Yadav, now leader of the largest Madhesi party and fourth largest party overall after the April 10, 2008 elections to the constituent assembly in Nepal, landed in Los Angeles in July 2007 for the annual conference of Nepalis in America, his first words were "Where is Paramendra Bhagat?" They took him to the hotel. He again asked, "Where is Paramendra Bhagat?" They had to fly him over to NYC to meet me. Today he is foreign minister of Nepal.

I was at a Nepali event in Jackson Heights in Queens. Some MPs from Nepal were on stage. I was sitting in the front row. Hundreds were in attendance. In the middle of the program one MP got off stage to come sit one seat from me to get his picture taken with me. Then he got embarrassed and said he was trying to get the crowd into the background of the picture.

In February 2006 Madhav Nepal, then leader of the largest political party in the country, was put under house arrest by the royal regime. A month later he managed to come online wireless. His brother lived in the house next to his. The first person he contacted was me. We chatted on Google Talk. Madhav Nepal is a Pahadi.

The civil war in Nepal is officially over. Nepal had elections on April 10 last year. Why would I feel unsafe in Nepal today? Me going to Nepal would not exactly be like Benazir Bhutto going back to Pakistan and getting killed. I have never been Prime Minister of Nepal, but I was thought of as a future Prime Minister when I was at high school back in 1988, 1989, 1990, 1991, and 1992. Result? The Pahadi teachers and administrators destroyed my final three and a half years of high school experience. Besides I am not going to have Benazir's bulletproof car, her bodyguards, and her money. I guess you could say there were declared threats on her life. I don't have any known declared threats on me. That is discounting the numerous, random email threats I received during January-February 2007. I took those in stride from the safety of NYC. Most of them would say, come to Nepal, and we will know to take care of you.

So why do I have safety concerns about going to Nepal? Do I know for sure that I will be in harm's way if I show up? No, I don't. But my instincts tell me I will not be safe, the same instincts that helped me smell the April 2006 Revolution before anyone inside or outside of Nepal did. (The French Revolution And DFNYC January 2006) (And this on Barack in February 2007: Jupiter And Obama) Why? There are a few different reasons.

Nobody in the Nepali diaspora put as much time, effort and talent into the democracy movement in Nepal as I did. The old regime is gone. A new set of people have come into power. A lot of peple who used to be very important are not important no more. They don't have their old prestige, but they still have money and resources to inflict damage. In a country like Nepal you can get killed and although there will be all sorts of rumors, no one will know for sure who did it. Not claiming responsibility is the best way to do it. I do fear the anger of those who have lost much with the onset of democracy in the country.

April 2006 saw the democracy movement, but January-February 2007 and February 2008 saw the Madhesi Movement. I am a Madhesi. This was like our own civil rights movement. Upendra Yadav has been the face of that movement in Nepal. Until March 2008 Upendra Yadav did not move around like a free man but rather an underground political worker. He would always have 12-15 people with him. Very few people knew where he spent his nights. He did nonviolent political work but he moved around the country like there was a price on his head. I got to meet Yadav in New York City for a few days in July 2007 when he flew over, his airfare paid for by a Madhesi entrepreneur in Russia who in summer 2008 became Russia's Manager Of The Year.

Why would someone want to shoot and kill a Martin Luther King? Why would some random person want to do that? I am a MLK to the 13 million Madhesis on the planet. Of the six biggest parties in Nepal, three are Madhesi. The top leaders of those three parties are practically my fans. The top leaders of two of those parties used to be on the central committee of the party to which I was Vice General Secretary before I flew to America in 1996. Both have been cabinet members, one a few different times. One, Rajendra Mahto, is a cabinet minister today.

What might work in the favor of my safety though is that although all the top politicians in Nepal know me, I am not exactly a household name. I have mattered fundamentally to the peace process, the democracy movement, the Madhesi movement, but my work has been primarily to suggest tactics, strategy, and moves. In that I have almost been like a political consultant to the peace process. Also, my ways have always been nonviolent. So I don't exactly have people waiting to get "even" with me. But all it would take is one bad apple, one sick mind, one twisted heart.

And there is always jealousy. People like me who fight for equality for Madhesis and Blacs - Black, Latino, Asian Coalition - sometimes lose sight of the fact that our own peoples can harbor our worst enemies. Bob Marley made it big in America and Europe. He went back to Jamaica and was shot at.

Talk of physical harm, it has already happened. My youngest sister lives in the city. She is married to Bisun, a Madhesi who went to the same high school in Kathmandu as me, was a few years junior, he went to Harvard, now works at the Columbia Medical Center where Bill Clinton got his heart surgery, headed to Harvard Medical School.

Bisun's father was brutally murdered about two years ago. His body was chopped into pieces like a butcher's meat. The police said at least five individuals must have been involved. To this day no one knows for sure who did it. There were all sorts of rumors. Two of the largest rival armed Madhesi groups blamed each other. 700 armed cadres of one left the group and joined the other as if in protest. Some people blamed the Maoists. Others blamed some low caste groups in the village. Some blamed some Muslim youths in the village who a few days later fled. The largest armed Madhesi group blamed the Prime Minister of the country - Nepal has never had a Madhesi Prime Minister - and retaliated by murdering a close relative of the Prime Minister. If you are going to kill a Paramendra Bhagat relative, we are going to kill one of yours. That was the thinking. In a case of internalized rage, Bisun ended up blaming his own brother and that brother's wife.

I want to make it absolutely clear that I have never had any contact with any armed Madhesi group ever and there have been over a dozen of them. But their thinking highly of me should tell you how much I have mattered to the Madhesi Movement.

But the worst happened a few weeks later. The story about the Muslim youths caught fire. My family lives in the eastern plains of Nepal. In the western plains a prominent Muslim from the Prime Minister's party was murdered by two gunmen on a motorbike who managed to flee. Many suspect one of the two largest armed Madhesi groups might have been involved. That murder sparked riots that engulfed a few different districts. The riots were Pahadi-Madhesi, Hindu-Muslim. The riots lasted two weeks and were so bad the police and the army were not able to penetrate hundreds of square miles for those weeks. There was much damage to lives and property. It is very possible there is leftover anger. Do you think there are at least some people who don't believe I have had nothing to do with any of the armed Madhesi groups?

Dawood ran - runs - the Mumbai underworld from Dubai, Karachi. Mirja was Dawood's top guy in Nepal. I was never mafia, but I was very good friends with some people he was very good friends with. We knew of each other, met a few times. He was a wildly popular politician. At one point he was a cabinet minister. I guess they don't do FBI background checks back there in Nepal. A few months after I came to America, they pushed 42 bullets into Mirza's body. They could not afford the news that he was "still alive." Dawood retaliated. His rival Chhota Rajan ran his business from Bangkok. There was an attempt on Chhota Rajan's life in Bangkok.



I came to America in 1996. I never left.

Safety is my number one personal reason to press for asylum, but I would also like to press the special talent narrative. A Nepali music entrepreneur I know and several Nepali movie stars and artists got their green cards in the special talent category. I am a very special talent. America needs me, and America needs me in New York City.

I am the un-Bin Laden. I mean no disrespect to Christianity and Christ and if I use this metaphor it is because it is such a vivid one. Bin Laden is the anti-Christ, I am Christ. If 9/11 has been the modern day Pearl Harbor, the first major revolution of the 21st century happened in Nepal. Between eight years of a Barack Obama presidency, a possible Mayor of NYC who will get behind my idea of a new definition for voting rights in this city to engulf everyone who lives inside the city boundaries, and my tech company that will work to get hundreds of millions of new people online, I think you are looking at a total spread of democracy by 2020. The day all Arab countries have been turned into democracies is the day the War On Terror ends. There are two aspects to that war. There is the part about killing mosquitoes. The US military, law enforcement and intelligence agencies working with their counterparts in other countries get to kill mosquitoes: that is not my area of expertise. Someone like me helps drain the swamp. Everybody you need to spread democracy everywhere on earth lives right here in New York City. America needs me, and America needs me to be in New York City.

China is also going to be a multi-party democracy. But likely it will become a multi-party democracy of state funded parties, and the Chinese Communist Party will continue in power for a few more decades. Taiwan and Tibet will be states in a federal China.

My company is the best thing I could do for my country and countries like mine. Not everyone has to come to America like I did. The Internet is what will bridge the gap between the First World and the Third World, between the west and the rest. I could not work on my company in Nepal. I have to be in New York City to grow my company. I am going to list my company on NASDAQ. I am going to turn this into a Silicon City. I am going to be the reason the center of gravity of the tech industry shifts from California to New York. My very young company alone might be reason enough to give me legal status.

I would like to share a story. In ancient Greece there was this mathematician, I forget the name. One day he was out in his yard, drawing lines in the sand, deep in thought. That very day his country got conquered. He was famous enough that the conquering emperor sent a soldier to fetch him for a private audience. The mathematician told the soldier he was in the middle of solving a theorem and waved him off. The soldier got angry and hacked him to death. During the six months of detention and after it has felt to me like I am that mathematician. I have been doing cutting edge work in politics and business. Don't hack me.

Warren Buffett once said he could not be CEO of General Electric. My management and leadership styles by now place a heavy emphasis on Web 2.0 and a heavy consumption and production of mind food. The worlds of academia, media, politics and business are seamless. I might have more in common with a theoretical physicist than your stereotypical MBA.

I am not someone who wants to stay back in America for the good life. I am someone who decided staying back is how I could make the greatest positive impact on the country I grew up in, the country that I left, and other countries like that one. Although I don't mind the good life.

America is a concept, America is an idea, that concept, that idea is democracy, it is the market mechanism. When was the last time an immigrant into America played a larger role for democracy and social justice in his country of origin and intends to play a similar role for all countries that are not yet democracies? The medium is not the message, but my role would not have been possible before the advent of the Internet. I am a new breed revolutionary intending to wage wars with communications technology. I am a digital democrat. I am the un-Bin Laden. Neither of us seem to need states or standing armies. He is for violence. I am for nonviolent militancy, the kind where you shut a country down completely for three weeks to bring a dictator to his knees.

Burma did not have a Paramendra Bhagat or Burma too would have succeeded. Tibet did not have a Paramendra Bhagat or Tibet too would have succeeded.

I got into this immigration mess due to two charges of harassment and violation of court order. Both got dropped "for lack of prosecutorial evidence." I am not someone trying to run. I am not someone trying to hide. I expect to list my tech company on NASDAQ in seven years or less. Someone like that intends to play by the rules, function in the system. The work of mainstreaming the Maoists in Nepal is not over yet, and Charlie Rangel and Charlie's Angels, and the immigration authorities of this country are going to have to take some responsibility for the conclusion of this International Crisis Group report of February 2009 that claimed Nepal's peace process was in the toughest spot it had been in years: ICG: Nepal's Faltering Peace Process. You stole me from Nepal's peace process for six months and Nepal suffered. That country needs my help to write itself a new constitution. I am still very much needed on a near daily basis to monitor the situation and to suggest political moves. And while I am at it I am also going to be useful to the Obama presidency. Barack's campaign has taken advice from me a few times. My young tech company also needs me on a near daily basis.



When you are doing cutting edge work, by definition you will not have much in the name of company. The money also seems to wait. At one point Einstein said, "Through my work I have put a clock in every corner of the universe, but I don't have enough money to put a clock on my own wall." I am going to be a billionaire, but right now I live on little.

Please grant me my work authorization papers immediately, please grant me political asylum right away. Give me back my green card. After I win the Nobel I expect President Obama to grant me an honorary US citizenship. Do one better, grant me an honorary citizenship now.

Paramendra Bhagat
A 095156466





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Tuesday, April 07, 2009

The Final Inch







Forecaster sees 6 Atlantic hurricanes in 2009 Reuters a period of heightened Atlantic hurricane activity started around 1995 and was expected to last 25 to 40 years.
CEO confidence falls to record low Reuters
Disappointed Nepal Army boycotts 5th National games Press Trust of India
Now Bihar’s deputy chief minister in trouble for anti-women remarks Thaindian.com
Obama's Support May Boost Turkey's EU Bid
Sin Chew Jit Poh
Unidentified armed group storms police post in W Nepal
Xinhua
Clinton urges controls on Antarctic tourism
Reuters UK
First 100 days: A poll bump for Obama?
msnbc.com
ULFA wages virtual war against India: Home Ministry
Hindu
South African leader says he is innocent
CNN International
GM, Segway team up on 200-mpg 2-seater
USA Today
GM and Segway create new vehicle BBC News
GM, Segway think 2 wheels Los Angeles Times
China Aims to Improve Health Care
Wall Street Journal
China's health care reform aims at public interests Xinhua
China launches sweeping health care reform plan AFP
AP cracks down on aggregators. Watch out, Google.
ZDNet
Global Soccer Rich Keep Winning, but Poor Still Have Their Joys New York Times
Dell Working on Mini 11 Netbook Techtree.com
New Data Show Rapid Arctic Ice Decline Washington Post
Arctic ice shows winter thinning BBC News
Arctic ice getting thinner, fading fast San Francisco Chronicle



Gates Unveils Overhaul of Weapons Priorities Wall Street Journal
Bihar unit of Samajwadi Party merges with JD(U)
Hindu
In pictures: India election campaign
BBC News
Marta Dazzles New York Times
Henry Kissinger: Diplomat, Nobel laureate, soccer fan
Reuters UK
Police Will Probe Gun Attack at Tom-Gisele Wedding People Magazine



Amitabh BachchanAmitabh Bachchan (via last.fm)



Treasury Chief Says He’s Open to Ousting Heads of Frail Banks New York Times
Election race divides India like never before
New Straits Times
Sri Lanka’s Army Says Tamil Rebels Driven Into Security Zone
Bloomberg
Day of Suicide Attacks Displays Strength of Pakistani Taliban
New York Times
New GM Chief Doesn’t Rule Out Bankruptcy
New York Times
Google's interest in Twitter is all about the consciousness search
Computerworld
Twitter ‘the target of Google search’ Times Online
Amitabh Bachchan tops India celeb power list
Reuters India
IBM-Sun Merger Talks Off BusinessWeek
Dell Netbook Roadmap Leaked Hard OCP
Google Acquisition Rumors Reflect Twitter's Importance PC World
Twitter Co-Founder Addresses Google Rumors PC Magazine
Twitter: Building Businesses Tweet by Tweet BusinessWeek
'Fast & Furious' roars into first place at the box office Los Angeles Times
'Fast & Furious' speeds to No. 1 worldwide Reuters











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Sunday, April 05, 2009

Onto A Nuclear Weapons Free Planet

Barack Obama - CONFIDENCEImage by springhill2008 via Flickr

If we are a sane species, nuclear weapons will never be used. And nuclear weapons are not a good way to try and see if we are sane or what. They take a lot of money to build, and a ton of money to store. They are scary things to keep around even when not used. For some countries to have them, and then preach others to not have them, that is "nuclear apartheid," not my original phrase. The most powerful person on earth standing for a nuclear weapons free world is likely the biggest boost a non proliferation agenda will get.

I have wondered a long long time as to why someone powerful enough will not take this sane position. Finally President Barack has stepped out. He just reminded me why I came out to support him even before he announced he was running.

In The News

Obama pledges to pursue the elimination of nuclear weapons · News(General) Los Angeles Times, CA
Obama nuclear vision
ABC Online, Australia
Obama calls for total nuclear disarmament
Independent, UK
North Korea tests missile as Obama urges denuclearization
Canada.com, Canada
Obama outlines sweeping goal of nuclear-free world
Daily Times, Pakistan
Obama promises leadership to rid world of nuclear arms
Irish Times, Ireland
North Korea rocket puts Barack Obama on nuclear alert · News(General)
Times Online, UK
Leave Turkey’s bid to join EU to us, Nicolas Sarkozy warns Barack ...
Times Online, UK
Obama calls for Turkey's admission to EU
Radio Netherlands, Netherlands
Obama in Turkey after 'nuclear-free world' speech
ABC Online, Australia
Text of President Obama in Prague Washington Post, United States we have an obligation to our common prosperity and our common humanity to extend a hand to those emerging markets and impoverished people who are suffering the most, which is why we set aside over a trillion dollars for the International Monetary Fund ......... We are targeting the same al-Qaida terrorists who have struck from New York to London ....... dangers that recognize no borders ...... The existence of thousands of nuclear weapons is the most dangerous legacy of the Cold War. No nuclear war was fought between the United States and the Soviet Union, but generations lived with the knowledge that their world could be erased in a single flash of light. Cities like Prague that had existed for centuries would have ceased to exist. ......... In a strange turn of history, the threat of global nuclear war has gone down, but the risk of a nuclear attack has gone up. More nations have acquired these weapons. Testing has continued. Black markets trade in nuclear secrets and materials. The technology to build a bomb has spread. Terrorists are determined to buy, build or steal one. Our efforts to contain these dangers are centered in a global nonproliferation regime, but as more people and nations break the rules, we could reach the point when the center cannot hold. ........... New York or Moscow, Islamabad or Mumbai, Tokyo or Tel Aviv, Paris or Prague ....... as a nuclear power _as the only nuclear power to have used a nuclear weapon ......... my administration will immediately and aggressively pursue U.S. ratification of the Comprehensive Test Ban Treaty ....... If we are serious about stopping the spread of these weapons, then we should put an end to the dedicated production of weapons grade materials that create them. ........ The basic bargain is sound: countries with nuclear weapons will move toward disarmament, countries without nuclear weapons will not acquire them; and all countries can access peaceful nuclear energy. ......... a new framework for civil nuclear cooperation, including an international fuel bank ........ We want Iran to take its rightful place in the community of nations, politically and economically. We will support Iran's right to peaceful nuclear energy with rigorous inspections. ....... One terrorist with a nuclear weapon could unleash massive destruction. al-Qaida has said that it seeks a bomb. And we know that there is unsecured nuclear material across the globe. ....... a new international effort to secure all vulnerable nuclear material around the world within four years. ....... turn efforts such as the Proliferation Security Initiative and the Global Initiative to Combat Nuclear Terrorism into durable international institutions ......... When nations and peoples allow themselves to be defined by their differences, the gulf between them widens.










YouTube: London Summit 2009

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India ready with $20 bn for IMF, not for stimulus Indian Express
Barack Obama and the G20, Nato and EU-US summits
guardian.co.uk
Obama May Lift US Travel Restrictions to Cuba, Official Says
Bloomberg
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msnbc.com
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Indian Express
Congress' budget blueprint contains a warning to Obama
Los Angeles Times
India's political kaleidoscope comes alive
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China: G20 summit boosts confidence
China Daily
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Google Seen As Being Likely To Partner With, Not Buy, Twitter Wall Street Journal
Levi Johnston says Sarah Palin let him and Bristol share a room
Chicago Tribune

Political parties differ over Nepal's new constitution
Hindu
Clinton Reveals Small Contacts With Iran Washington Post
Opinion poll says NDA will sweep Bihar, keep MP
Indian Express
George Fernandes expelled from JD (U) Times of India
Bihar not to allow Wal-Mart-Bharti stores Economic Times
Obama counsels 'effective dialogue' between India and Pak Hindu
Biz Stone Plays It Cool On Colbert Washington Post
Google buying - or not buying - Twitter San Francisco Chronicle
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PC Magazine
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Amitabh Bachchan tops India celeb power list Reuters India
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IBM And Sun: There Will Be Blood
Forbes



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'Terror plot' to disrupt G20 summit uncovered'Fourth Front' has suitors queueing up Times of India, India
Union ministers gear up for battle royale in Bihar
The Statesman, India
RJD spokesman joins Congress
Times of India, India
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Times of India, India
Suspicious Congress aims to cut allies to size
Times of India, India
Friends again
Indian Express, India
'Secular Alliance' will open card on PM after polls: Paswan
Press Trust of India, India

Sonia, Rahul, Manmohan to campaign in Bihar Times of India
Obama Says He Is Bringing Sharper Focus to Afghan War Washington Post
McCain: I'd like to see Palin compete for 2012 WH bid CNN Political Ticker
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Bobby Jindal Don't Like No Science And Don't Like No Art-- So That ...
Huffington Post
Nepal Maoists isolated as key partner begins stir against govt Press Trust of India
Nepal celebrates first person to scale top peaks of all continents Xinhua
Fourth Front forward Hindustan Times
Congress fights battle for revival in Bihar Hindu
All eyes on Manmohan-Obama meet on April 2
Times of India
World looks to India to spur global economy: PM AFP
Sprint Pushing 'Clear' WiMAX to 10 Cities in 2009
PC Magazine Atlanta, Charlotte, Chicago, Dallas, Forth Worth, Honolulu, Las Vegas, Philadelphia, Portland, and Seattle. Next year, that will also expand to Boston, Houston, New York, San Francisco and Washington, D.C Sprint also plans to introduce new 4G devices over the next two years, including a single-mode 4G data card, embedded laptops, a small-office-home-office broadband modem and a tri-mode phone. ...... cities planned for 2010 - which includes the Big Kahuna, New York City
Sprint preps 15-city WiMAX roll-out Register
Is Women's Pro Soccer Really Coming Back Now? TIME
Verizon Wireless Rep: 'Yep, Netbooks On The Way' InformationWeek Verizon competitor AT&T already offers a netbook in a partnership with RadioShack. The $99 device requires a two-year contract, which costs $60 per month for 5GB of wireless broadband data.
Madonna in Malawi, Part Deux Christian Science Monitor

Banking Plan Propels Wall St. to Best Day in Months
New York Times
India likely to provide 500 mw to Nepal Economic Times
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Details of David Letterman's Surprise Wedding Revealed People Magazine
Stay focused on big picture, Obama urges
USA Today
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Reuters
US Market Responds Well To Obama's Toxic-Debt Plan RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty
Jindal to GOP: Time for navel-gazing over
Dallas Morning News He opened with a joke, comparing his last speech to torture, and quipped it's not allowed at Gitmo anymore. ...... "The Republican Party has decided once again to be the conservative party in America," Jindal told a crowd of about 1,200 people at the GOP congressional fundraising dinner. "It's been almost five months since the last election. It's time to declare our time of introspection and navel-gazing over." ........ He urged his colleagues to be the party of ideas and better solutions and launched into a survey of policy areas, starting with health care, one of his areas of expertise.
La. Gov. Jindal urges GOP to stand up to Obama The Associated Press Jindal opened his speech by poking fun of himself. He threatened to deliver a reprise of the earlier performance and then jokingly compared it to torture. ..... "They're not allowed to show my speech at Gitmo anymore," he said. "They've banned that."
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'Hillary: The Movie' gets high court attention CNN
Paswan tries to expand LJP base outside Bihar Times of India
RJD to field candidates against Cong in Bihar: Lalu
Press Trust of India
RJD-LJP will contest all Bihar seats: Lalu NDTV.com
Congress to contest 37 seats in Bihar Sify
India's Nano, Driving Like a (National) Dream Washington Post
Obama rejects China's call for new global currency AFP China's call for a new global currency as an alternative to the dollar. ..... a replacement of the dollar, installed as the reserve currency after World War II, with a different standard run by the International Monetary Fund. ...... Zhou suggested the IMF's Special Drawing Rights, a currency basket comprising dollars, euros, sterling and yen, could serve as a super-sovereign reserve currency, saying it would not be easily influenced by the policies of individual countries...... the world's largest holder of US dollars as a reserve currency, at more than one trillion dollars. ....... Russia has also proposed the summit discuss creating a supranational reserve currency.
China's plan to end the dollar era Financial Times It would, of course, make it more difficult for the US to finance its deficits. But America should not want the world to be yoked so tightly to its willingness to generate demand. Such imbalances are at the root of this crisis. ......... Married with other necessary reforms, this plan would also empower the IMF to act more flexibly. ....... Beijing now wants to play an active role in reshaping the world monetary order.
Obama's TV push jolts presidential tradition Los Angeles Times "It took me a couple of days because I like to know what I'm talking about before I speak, OK?" ..... Television launched him from Chicago politician to presidential candidate, and if it ain't broke don't fix it. ....... lucidly explaining complex issues while exuding the calm and easy dignity ...... As the first real television president, John Kennedy managed to make even civil service seem glamorous. ....... He prefers basketball to golf, never seems to know who gets to keep what pen and his first big, real fight as president was to keep hold of his BlackBerry. ...... the ultimate Ready for Prime Time President -- an American leader in the era of reality television. He came of age in front of cameras and digital screens, and he understands not just their power, but their nature. ....The Obama brand is about calm amid chaos, strength through humility, and transparency through television.
Google makes changes to search results Los Angeles Times
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Stanford gets international soccer match San Jose Mercury News
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