From The Off-Color Coloring Book: The Political Circus

I mean, really, if you can’t get a little respect from a coloring book, what’s the rest of the world going to think?

China is improving in leaps and bounds in the area of human rights. Gone are the days of four tanks stomping one guy, they’ve finally progressed to burning protesters to death. Yea!How in the world did the People’s Republic of China get to host the 2008 Olympic Games? In Tibet and now other provinces, people are being rounded up and taken away, there’s a clampdown on the free press, and the fear of a cruel government is looming.    China is blaming the exiled Dalai Lama for the unrest, while the Dalai Lama is calling for dialog. Through all of it, the Dalai Lama still thinks that the upcoming 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, shouldn’t be boycotted:

“The Olympics should not be called off,” he told a news conerence in Dharamsala, the north Indian town from where he has run a government-in-exile since fleeing Tibet in 1959.”The Chinese people… need to feel proud of it. China deserves to be a host of the Olympic Games.” 

Now, if I were Chinese, I’d be wondering why my horrifying country was being rewarded by the rest of the world by allowing it to host the 2008 Olympic Games. I think I may actually feel more proud in general if I knew that other people somewhere thought I was an actual human being and wanted me to have basic human rights.The International Olympic Committee (IOC), should never have considered The People’s Republic of China as a host country. The Tiananmen Square Massacre was only a scant 19 years ago, and they’ve evolved as far as this:

China’s official Xinhua News Agency reported at least 10 civilians were burned to death on Friday. The Dalai Lama’s exiled Tibetan government in India said Chinese authorities killed at least 30 Tibetans and possibly as many as 100. The figures could not be independently verified. In the Tibetan capital Lhasa on Saturday, police manned checkpoints and armored personnel carriers rattled on mostly empty streets as people stayed indoors under a curfew, witnesses said. The show of force imposed a tense quiet.Several witnesses reported hearing occasional bursts of gunfire. One Westerner who went to a rooftop in Lhasa’s old city said he saw troops with automatic rifles moving through the streets firing, though did not see anyone shot.  

Inspiring.    

It seems like it was only yesterday when China was trying to poison our children with lead infested toys. Ah, memories.I think the world is already doing enough for China by shipping our manufacturing jobs over there so they can turn around and sell us toxic toys and dentures and pet food.        
Last summer, China executed THIS guy to solve their international image problems even though he left office over two years earlier.And, can I just add, their industry is so filthy (that’s part of the reason why their toxic stuff is so cheap), that there are Olympic athletes going through special training and dropping out of events because they suffer from asthma and other respiratory problems and the smog in Beijing can be brutal. 

The Ethiopian Haile Gebrselassie, 34, is a favourite for a gold medal this summer but is likely to focus instead on the 10,000 metres because he suffers from asthma.“The pollution in China is a threat to my health and it would be difficult for me to run 42km in my current condition,” he said. “But I am not pulling out of the Olympics altogether.”   

China was just a poor choice all the way around.

Yes, it’s hard to believe, but despite the fact that for the past month, United Nations “peacekeepers” have been on the ground in the Sudan with African Union troops, villagers in the Darfur region are still being slaughtered and displaced by the government sanctioned janjaweed militia:

Sudan’s Arab-dominated government has been accused of unleashing more attacks by its allied janjaweed militias, which are accused of committing the worst atrocities against Darfur’s ethnic African communities. At least 200,000 people have been killed and 2.5 million displaced since the violence began five years ago.

On Friday, Sudanese helicopter gunships and fixed-wing aircraft bombed the towns of Sirba, Sileia and Abu Suruj while striking at rebel forces, which have been trying to consolidate their positions in West Darfur.

Now why are there still “helicopter gunships and fixed-wing aircraft” on bombing raids in the Sudan when the United Nations has passed “several” resolutions that “banned military flights over the region?”

And just to add a little more excitement for the 3 tribes in Darfur that the Sudanese government is trying to eliminate, (it’s OK, former President Jimmy Carter says isn’t “genocide”), the attacks have created an even bigger refugee crisis with even more panicked Sudanese fleeing to the border with Chad, a country suffering it’s own refugee crisis:

But the porous Chad-Sudan border may not be much safer than Darfur for the refugees.

Chad is still reeling from last week’s fighting between rebels and government troops. The rebels, who accuse President Idriss Deby of corruption and embezzling millions in oil revenue, attacked the capital after advancing in trucks in a matter of days from their eastern bases near the Sudan border. They were repelled after bloody battles.

The displacement of tens of thousands of Chadians added to the already daunting challenge for humanitarian workers in the region. Some even fled across the Chad-Sudan border in the other direction.

“We don’t know where all the armed groups are or where they are heading to, so the whole border is just very volatile and dangerous,” Caux told The Associated Press. “The refugees are moving back and forth from one dangerous to another dangerous situation. It’s completely surreal.”

Yes, “surreal,” but let’s face it, “surreal” is completely typical for any situation the United Nations is allegedly handling.

I wanted to share this story that I read about a US soldier, a single man, who opened his heart to an Iraqi boy with cerebral palsy:

Capt. Scott Southworth knew he’d face violence, political strife and blistering heat when he was deployed to one of Baghdad’s most dangerous areas. But he didn’t expect Ala’a Eddeen.

Ala’a was 9 years old, strong of will but weak of body _ he suffered from cerebral palsy and weighed just 55 pounds. He lived among about 20 kids with physical or mental disabilities at the Mother Teresa orphanage, under the care of nuns who preserved this small oasis in a dangerous place.

On Sept. 6, 2003, halfway through his 13-month deployment, Southworth and his military police unit paid a visit to the orphanage. They played and chatted with the children; Southworth was talking with one little girl when Ala’a dragged his body to the soldier’s side. READ MORE HERE…

A recent, 23 year government study around nuclear power plants showed higher than normal cancer rates:

Children under five years old living near nuclear power stations have contracted cancer at a greatly higher rate than the national average, a study by the German government said Saturday.

The risk of cancer increased by 60 percent for children living less than five kilometres (three miles) from a nuclear power plant, according to the study by the federal office for protection against radiation. The risk was 117 percent higher when only leukemia was taken into account.

The study looked at statistics from between 1980 and 2003 in regions near 21 reactors or former reactors.

The German Environment Minister is saying it can’t be “explained by exposure to radiation:”

“To explain this increased cancer risk, the population would have to be exposed to radiation at least 1,000 times higher than what comes from German nuclear power plants,” he said.

With cancer rates that much higher than the norm among young children, an explanation is certainly needed.

The people of Venezuela have spoken, and they said, “NO.”

President Hugo Chavez suffered a stunning defeat Monday in a referendum that would have let him run for re-election indefinitely and impose a socialist system in this major U.S. oil provider.

Voters defeated the sweeping measures Sunday by a vote of 51 percent to 49 percent, said Tibisay Lucena, chief of the National Electoral Council, with voter turnout at just 56 percent.

She said that with 88 percent of the votes counted, the trend was irreversible.

So Chavez will be out after 2012, and the people of Venezuela have voted against moving more towards socialism.

In news from other backwards, poorly run countries, the Sudanese president has pardoned Gillian Gibbons, the teacher from the UK who allowed her class to name a teddy bear “Muhammad.” Her sentence was 15 days in jail and deportation for insulting Islam, but the case inflamed Islamic fundamentalists in the country who took to the streets and demanded her execution for the infraction. Gibbons is expected to leave the Sudan shortly. In a statement, she expressed sorrow at not being able to go back to the Sudan, a country steeped in genocide and terrorism and built on a large expanse of dirt:

“I have a great respect for the Islamic religion and would not knowingly offend anyone,” Gibbons said in the statement. “I am looking forward to seeing my family and friends, but I am very sorry that I will be unable to return to Sudan.”

I love good news on a Monday morning….

Thank you, Giorgio Armani.

Let’s start with the most important news, David Beckham has signed a 3 year, $41 million dollar deal to model underwear for Giorgio Armani. Oh, yeah, and Becks is back playing for England’s national team:

Despite only just returning from a long injury layoff himself, Beckham was included in the squad to play Austria in a friendly on Nov. 16 and the potentially decisive Euro qualifier with Croatia five days later.

“He is a big-game player,” McClaren said. “He is an experienced player who has never let England down.”

Meanwhile, striker Wayne Rooney is out for England and for Manchester United with an ankle injury suffered during a game of head tennis. (Apparently “head tennis” is a form of football training on a tennis court where you use your head instead of a racket).

In more England news, national team coach Steve McClaren is one of many Brits concerned that the English Premier League is down to “38%” when it comes to English players:

‘Some reality has to come into it. Of course, the sheer numbers of foreign players in the Premier League cuts down my options.’

Finding a remedy for the problem is not going to be easy.

European employment law prevents the imposition of quotas, which England’s major clubs would forcefully fight the blanket imposition of any way given their need to tackle the biggest sides on the continent.

Some managers have gone so far as to call for minimum numbers of Brits on Premier League teams.

And, of course, ITALY + FOOTBALL = RIOTS. A Lazio football fan was shot and killed last week as police tried to stop fighting between rival football fans:

The police officer who fired the fatal shot is under investigation for manslaughter and has been reassigned to internal duties. Today the officer, who has been named only as Luigi S, said the shooting was a “tragic error”.

“I didn’t point the gun at anything, I didn’t aim at anybody,” he told Corriere della Sera. “The first shot I fired into the air and the second left me while I was running. Now I have destroyed two families, the man’s and mine.”

News of the shooting sparked rioting in Rome where a police station was attacked. You can check out videos of the rioting HERE, and HERE. In response, Italian football has suspended Serie B & C play, and a ruling will be made this week on whether Serie A play will suffer the same fate.

The threat of violence by “Ultras” during a game last Sunday, has AC Milan superstar, Kaka, talking about leaving town:

“Could I leave Italy? Yes, if these violent episodes continue,” Kaka told La Gazzetta dello Sport.

“I love football because it brings me happiness, but at the moment I can’t enjoy myself.

“If there are big problems in Italian football that prevent me doing my job properly, anything could happen.

“I am worried for my family’s safety as my wife and parents frequently come to watch me, so there is a chance I could move to another country.”

You can check out the “Ultras,” the Italian version of British fooball Hooligans HERE. Oi.

Could Blue Water Wind’s response to the PSC put the wind farm back on the table?

Just one short week ago things were looking grim for the future of America’s first off-shore wind farm after the Delaware Public Service Commission released a staff report calling the Bluewater Wind’s proposal “not in the public interest:”

The Delaware Public Service Commission is deeming Blue Water Wind’s proposed off shore wind farm “not in the public interest” after the company changed it’s original proposal during negotiations with Delmarva Power and Light.

Today, Bluewater Wind responded to the Delaware Public Service Commission’s staff report. Check it out. And here are the highlights:

Bluewater will remove all escalators related to commodities and exchange rates.

Bluewater asks that the DE PSC Staff and Independent Consultant become actively involved in the negotiations on the Power Purchase Agreement.

The new, non-escalator hybrid price is just 53 cents per megawatt hour above Bluewater’s original 2006 price.

Not a “cap,” a “removal” of escalators, this is a huge move by Bluewater Wind (pgs. 24 & 25, emphasis mine):

Bluewater carefully considered the IC’s recommended solutions regarding commodity and currency escalators and strongly considered proposing symmetrical escalators with caps. Again, the problem with symmetrical escalators is that contractors and equipment vendors rarely agree to decrease their price, even when commodities go down. Hence, the wind park’s revenues would be reduced even though its contractors would almost certainly not reduce their construction costs to Bluewater. In addition, Bluewater does not and has never viewed the escalators as a means to profit and its own estimates do not suggest that escalators will have a significant impact on the transaction. Accordingly, consistent with Bluewater’s view that the risk presented is manageable, bluewater proposes to go beyond the IC’s suggestion and eliminate such escalators entirely. In short, with all the discussion about escalators and the uncertainty and confusion they create regarding price stability, this solution better serves to sever this issue from the debate and allow us to properly turn the focus on securing Delaware’s energy future with clean, stable-priced energy.

I just spoke with Jim Lanard from Bluewater Wind and he said they were “very proud” of what they presented to the PSC today.

Pat Gearity from Citizens for Clean Power was “pleased” with Bluewater’s new submission, and left me this message:

“I’m very pleased…I really think that it’s a great step forward in getting this proposal approved for the benefit of Delaware and all of the generations that will follow.”

And Wilmington blogger Tom Noyes from Tommywonk had this to say:

“This is an important development. Last week State Sen. Harris McDowell characterized the PSC staff report, particularly its criticism of the escalator, as a “nail in the coffin.” Maybe he’ll have to pull that nail back out.”

Meanwhile, Delmarva Power and Light is “taking its case against a proposed offshore wind farm to community groups.” It’s surprising that a company that claims to just be an energy “broker,” (buying and selling electricity but not actually generating it, like Enron), would bother to lobby the public against a wind farm. If Bluewater Wind’s numbers line up, what’s the difference to DP & L?

Is there more long term stability in the cost of wind power, or is there more long term stability in the price of coal? Is burning coal still America’s energy future?

More to come as this unfolds….

Former Vice President and Oscar winner and now Nobel Peace Prize winner, Al Gore.

Former Vice President and Oscar winner, Al Gore has won the Nobel Prize for peace for “for spreading awareness of man-made climate change and laying the foundations for counteracting it.”

The White House was “happy” for Mr. Gore:

“Of course we’re happy for Vice President Gore and the IPCC for receiving this recognition,” White House spokesman Tony Fratto said, referring to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, which shared the award with Gore.

The last time an American won the Nobel Prize for peace was former President Jimmy Carter in 2002. Carter has been keeping himself busy lately denying that genocide is occurring in the Darfur region of the Sudan.

Check out what Hube has to say about Al Gore winning the Nobel Prize for peace at the Colossus of Rhodey.

European football is back and better than ever with one of my favorite players back on the pitch, the hooligans and ultras all fired up, and an apparent racist playing for a German National Team…

This is Ashkan Dejagah, he plays for the German National Under 21 team.

A German soccer player born in Iran, Ashkan Dejagah, will not play in Germany’s European Championship qualifier against Israel this week because it’s being played in Tel Aviv:

Dejagah, who plays for Bundesliga club VfB Wolfsburg, asked his national team managers to withdraw him from Germany’s European Championship qualifier against Israel, to be played in Tel Aviv on Friday, citing “personal reasons.”

“He came to us citing personal reasons that seemed very plausible,” DFB spokesman Jens Grittner said in a statement.

Dejagah was quoted by mass-circulation tabloid daily Bild as saying his motive was cultural.

“I have more Iranian than German blood in my veins,” he said in a report published Tuesday. “That should be respected, and besides I’m doing this out of respect. My parents are Iranian.”

Expect Dejagah to be dropped by the German National Under 21 team by the end of the weekend. You can’t have a German National Team player, even if it’s the Under 21 team, that won’t play Israel. Tisk, no room for racist politics in sports.

And if the topic is Italian football, you know we’re talking about at least one riot. Fans clashed in Turin last weekend before Juventus played Torino and you can check out the action on YouTube complete with tear gas, chains, clubs and riot police. Also this week there were football related stabbings in Rome, and then there was this:

Earlier that day, Rome police arrested 66 Lazio fans, some armed with knives, machetes, clubs and knuckle-dusters, before they could set off for a match against Atalanta in Bergamo.

Yes, that says, “machetes.” You don’t even see machetes at Eagles games when Santa’s in town.

In English Premier League play, Manchester United striker, Wayne Rooney, is back from a foot injury scoring twice this week and assisting winger Christiano Ronaldo in one of his two goals against Wigan. Man U won 4 - 0.

OK, so Ronaldo needs help with his trash talk, but otherwise there should be no complaints.

Meanwhile Ronaldo is predicting a great season for himself and Manchester and disappointment for rival Chelsea since the departure of coach Jose Mourinho (Jose Mourinho, the guy who nicknamed himself “The Special One,” you’ve gotta love Europeans).

‘Chelsea without Mourinho, that’s a completely different team,’ Ronaldo, according to The Times, told Austrian newspaper Heute.

‘You can never write Chelsea off, but I have a feeling that this will not be a good season for them.’

Now that’s scathing trash talk.

The LA Galaxy has been on a roll recently without Becks, who’s been out with a knee injury.

For a little domestic soccer news, it looks like David Beckham may be back on the pitch, possibly for this Saturday’s game against FC Toronto but don’t hold your breath. Beckham has been out of commission for the LA Galaxy since he injured his knee on August 29th, he started the season in July on the bench with an ankle issue.

UPDATE: Ashkan Dejagah has been “permanently suspended” from the German National Team:

President of the German Football Association Theo Zwanziger made the announcement Thursday morning in a meeting with Israeli Football Association Chairman Avi Luzon. Zwanziger told Luzon that the association “will not let this slide; he (Dejagah) will be taken care of and suspended”.

Luzon commented on the news of the suspension, saying, “In my talk with the chairman of the German association, he told me that they have decided to suspend him (Dejagah). The Germans showed up with quite a large delegation because they really wanted to show that Germany’s visit to Israel was of great importance.

Duh, Germany sends people to jail if they deny the Holocaust, who didn’t think Dejagah would be given the boot from their Under 21 National Team for refusing to play in Israel?