Docudharma Times Thursday August 28

To The Media: I’m Sorry That The

Democrats United Behind Barack Obama

I’m Sure You’ll Make Up Some Other

Ridiculous Controversy Straight Out Of Your

Little Imaginations I Have Faith In You    

Obama Wins Nomination; Biden and Bill Clinton Rally Party  



 By ADAM NAGOURNEY

Published: August 27, 2008

DENVER – Barack Hussein Obama, a freshman senator who defeated the first family of Democratic Party politics with a call for a fundamentally new course in politics, was nominated by his party today to be the 44th president of the United States.

The unanimous vote made Mr. Obama the first African-American to become a major party nominee for president. It brought to an end an often-bitter, two-year political struggle for the nomination with Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton, who, standing on a packed convention floor electric with anticipation, moved to halt the roll call in progress so that the convention could nominate Mr. Obama by acclamation. That it did with a succession of loud roars, followed by a swirl of dancing, embracing, high-fiving and chants of “Yes, we can.”

Black Delegates Also Bask in Obama’s Big Moment

?

By Alec MacGillis

Washington Post Staff Writer

Thursday, August 28, 2008; Page A23

DENVER, Aug. 27 — Lena Taylor, a Wisconsin state senator from Milwaukee, is “overwhelmed” by the history that will be made Thursday night, when Sen. Barack Obama will become the first African American to accept a major-party presidential nomination. Add in that his acceptance will come on the 45th anniversary of the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr.’s “I Have a Dream” speech, that it has been 40 years since Robert F. Kennedy predicted the country might elect a black president in four decades, and that Sen. Edward M. Kennedy made a dramatic appearance here this week, and the symbolism boggles her mind

USA

Businesses Cite a Catch-22 After Miss. Immigration Raid



By Spencer S. Hsu, Alejandro Lazo and Darryl Fears

Washington Post Staff Writers

Thursday, August 28, 2008; Page A01

The arrests this week of nearly 600 immigrant workers at a manufacturing plant in Laurel, Miss., are fueling a national debate over a federal system to check new hires’ work documents, a program whose expansion the Bush administration has made a cornerstone of its fight against illegal immigration.

In what they called the largest immigration sweep at a single site in U.S. history, federal agents raided a Howard Industries electrical transformer plant Monday despite the fact that the company last year joined the work eligibility system, called E-Verify.

New Orleans faces evacuation as Gustav looms

Katrina survivors worry as deadly storm remains on course to hit Gulf Coast  ?

Associated Press

NEW ORLEANS – National Guard troops stood ready and batteries and water bottles sold briskly as the New Orleans area watched as a storm marched across the Caribbean on the eve of Hurricane Katrina’s third anniversary.

With forecasters warning that Gustav could strengthen and slam into the Gulf Coast as a major hurricane, a New Orleans still recovering from Hurricane Katrina’s devastating hit drew up evacuation plans.

“I’m panicking,” said Evelyn Fuselier of Chalmette, whose home was submerged in 14 feet of floodwater when Katrina hit.

Asia

Thai police massing as protesters refuse to leave PM’s office

· 15,000 anti-government activists defy court ruling

· Demonstrators want ‘Thaksin proxy’ to resign

Peter Walker

The Guardian,

Thursday August 28 2008  

Thousands of anti-government protesters in Thailand were engaged in a stand-off with security forces last night after the country’s prime minister ordered riot police to clear activists occupying his office compound.

The demonstrators, estimated to number almost 15,000, stormed the grounds of Government House in Bangkok on Tuesday afternoon in what they called a “final showdown” following three months of demonstrations to try to remove the administration of Samak Sundaravej.

Samak, a 73-year-old political veteran who has been prime minister for seven months, has insisted he will not use force to remove the demonstrators. But yesterday a court issued warrants for the arrests of nine protest leaders on charges of insurrection.

Model defector Won Jeong Hwa faces trial over spying for North Korea



From The Times

August 28, 2008

Richard Lloyd Parry, Asia Editor

She arrived as a refugee, one of tens of thousands to flee the world’s most oppressive regime and, for seven years, Won Jeong Hwa was a model defector. She toured South Korean military bases to lecture on the evils of the homeland that she had escaped, the totalitarian Communist state of North Korea.

Ms Won had a secret however. According to a confession made to South Korean police, she was a spy who seduced the military officers she met, and plotted assassinations with poisoned needles. Now she faces execution for treason in a case reminiscent of the most tense days of the Cold War.

Europe

Europe must stand up to Russia says UK

Miliband launches strongest attack on Kremlin since Georgia invasion

Julian Borger in Kiev and Ian Traynor in Brussels

The Guardian,

Thursday August 28 2008

Britain yesterday raised the stakes in the scramble to contain Russia, pledging support for Moscow’s regional rival, Ukraine, and calling on the international community to stand up to Russia’s campaign to redraw the map of Europe and make it pay a higher price for its actions in Georgia.

David Miliband, the foreign secretary tipped as a future Labour party leader and potential prime minister, went to the Ukrainian capital, Kiev, to deliver a speech aimed at flying the flag of western democracy on Russia’s doorstep, while seeking to avert a new crisis boiling over on the Crimean peninsula, home to an ethnic Russian population and Moscow’s Black Sea fleet.

Swiss finally clear the last ‘witch’ beheaded in Europe

 

By Thomas Brunner in Berne

Thursday, 28 August 2008    

Anna Goeldi was executed for being a witch more than 220 years ago, the last one beheaded in Europe. On Wednesday, the Swiss cleared her name. The parliament of the Swiss canton (state) of Glarus decided unanimously to exonerate Goeldi as a victim of “judicial murder”, said Josef Schwitter, a government spokesman.

Several thousand people, mainly women, were executed for witchcraft between the 14th and 18th centuries in Switzerland, and elsewhere in Europe. Yet Goeldi’s trial and beheading in the village of Mollis was in 1782, when witch trials had largely disappeared from the continent.

Africa

How Robert Mugabe and Morgan Tsvangirai shared a table for two



From The Times

August 28, 2008

Jan Raath in Harare

President Mugabe and his rival Morgan Tsvangirai got on remarkably well and found common ground at a dinner for two last month, it emerged yesterday – just as Mr Mugabe announced that he was effectively abandoning power-sharing talks.

The two men met at the five-star Rainbow Towers in Harare shortly after their historic handshake and shared what a close Tsvangirai aide described as an amicable meal. “They got on surprisingly well,” he told The Times.

Another spokesman for Mr Tsvangirai’s Movement for Democratic Change (MDC) said: “They didn’t get on like a house on fire but Morgan felt at the time there was common ground between them. But it has evaporated since that only one-on-one meeting and both are now polarised as ever.”

In Congo, a new twist on ‘blood diamonds’>

Warring militias are stealing cows to perpetuate a conflict sparked by spillover from the 1994 Rwandan genocide.

By Alex Halperin and Jina Moore  | Correspondents of The Christian Science Monitor

Goma, Democratic Republic of Congo – For years, African militias have used proceeds from precious natural resources to fund conflicts – a practice dramatized in the 2006 Hollywood film “Blood Diamond.” Now, there’s a new twist: blood cows.

Warring rebel groups in the Democratic Republic of Congo are stealing and selling livestock to finance a conflict sparked by spillover from the 1994 Rwandan genocide, in which 800,000 were killed.

Vast and volatile, the Democratic Republic of Congo has long suffered from conflicts fought over its reserves of gold, copper, uranium, and coltan, a mineral needed in cellphones and other electronics. For years, armed groups have sought control over mines and forests, their acquisitions of wealth fueling cycles of violence. Cattle may sound less glamorous than precious metals, but they’re accessible.

Middle East

Syria eyes an edge amid Russia-U.S. rift

amascus is seeking an arms deal with Moscow, a move that would bolster its position in the Middle East.

By Nicholas Blanford  | Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor

from the August 28, 2008 edition

Washington –  When Russian forces crossed into South Ossetia and Georgia, Syria was one of the few countries to voice support for Moscow’s actions in the Caucasus as the West was busy condemning the invasion.

The growing rift between Russia and the United States over Georgia promises to be a golden opportunity for Damascus as it seeks a weapons deal with Moscow – an agreement that would give it greater leverage in tentative peace talks with Israel and bolster its standing in the Middle East.

“Syria saw a lot of opportunity in what happened in Georgia and South Ossetia to advance its own interests in the [region],” says Sami Moubayed, a Syrian political analyst and historian.

Indeed, if the US-Russia rift continues to widen, Moscow could start building greater ties with Washington’s Middle East foes.

Two Iraqis’ different paths lead to American cooperation

In Ramadi, a businessman and a sheik each play a role in helping bring peace, and the U.S. hopes, long-term stability to the once-violent city.

 By Doug Smith and Saif Rasheed, Los Angeles Times Staff Writers

August 28, 2008  

RAMADI, IRAQ — One is from the city, a businessman with the hint of smuggling to his name.

The other is a wealthy sheik from the countryside.

Two years ago, they allied with the U.S. Army and Marines in a civilian uprising that broke Al Qaeda in Iraq’s reign of terror over this city once synonymous with the insurgency — and in the process became heroes to the people of Ramadi and the American military alike.

Now, the two Sunni Arabs have taken on equally crucial roles in the remarkable rebuilding of Ramadi, the capital of Anbar province. And each has once again become an ally of the Americans, this time in the U.S. effort to put a more modern, Western face on Ramadi’s police and government.

Ahmed Hamid Sharqi, the businessman who turned his employees into a combat unit to calm central Ramadi, is now Col. Ahmed, commander of the Iraqi police’s North Precinct in Ramadi. He has emerged as a key player in restoring the rule of law and setting up a firewall between the security forces and the region’s influential, and often meddling, tribal leaders.

Latin America

As food prices soar, Brazil and Argentina react in opposite ways





By Andrew Downie

Published: August 28, 2008



SÃO PAULO, Brazil: Luciano Alves planted beans, corn and grain on about 7,500 acres of his farm in southern Brazil last year. This year, he is planting 8,600 acres. And he credits Brazil’s president, Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, with the increase.

“The government is helping us finance the purchase of new machinery,” said Alves. “They reduced the interest rates we pay and have given us more time to pay off the loans. It’s vital.”

Rising food prices mean many farmers around the world are reaping record profits. And South America’s agricultural powerhouses, Brazil and Argentina, are responding to the farming windfall in opposite ways.

da Silva’s government recently announced record farm credits, a form of indirect subsidy, to encourage Brazil’s farmers to produce more while the price of their exports are high on world markets, a move that should improve Brazil’s economy.