Sorry for the delay
Wow, it’s been a crazy week. I’ve been simply slammed. I had to get something out on what’s going on in Iran, though. In case you hadn’t heard, Ahmadinejad “won” the election, but there’s tons of evidence against the fact that this was a fair election. There are even claims that he switched the vote counts.
How did he do this? you ask. Well, the elections are run by the Interior Ministry that reports to the President, Ahmadinejad. That’s right.
There are protests burning all over Iran, especially in Tehran. Folllow @persiankiwi for up to date information.
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What a crazy weekend in the Middle East!
Here are some quick thoughts on the big news items.
1. Pro-West bloc retains control in Lebanon
What a huge event here. We were on the brink of some very difficult times with Lebanon if Hezbollah had managed to take control of the Parliament. The Obama Administration would have had a very difficult task working with a government run by an organization that has been labelled (correctly) a terrorist organization.
Now the waiting game begins to see how Hezbollah reacts to the defeat at the polls. There has not yet been an official statement made by Hezbollah in reaction to the elections, though one is expected today.
The difficulty isn’t over for the victors, though, due to Lebanon’s power structure. This structure requires that a Shia Muslim lead the Parliament, which strengthens the hand of Hezbollah, despite its deficit of seats, due to the fact that Hezbollah is a Shia-dominated organization.
2. Villagers Fighting Against the Taliban
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What a Weekend…
Well, nothing truly serious or important here, so if you’re looking for that, come back tomorrow!
Meredith (my wife) and I got quite a bit done around the house this weekend. Took care of the lawn yesterday and then had dinner with friends and saw Up. What a tremendously touching movie that was. I was blown away by it, because frankly, I was expecting a Finding Nemo type flix. If you haven’t seen it yet, go see it soon. You simply have to love Pixar. And the short that played before it was, again, fantastic.
Today, we were very constructive. I fertilized the yards, fixed our back fence (big pain there), and then helped Meredith break up some paving stones. Mer took the stones and created a very nice walkway near our front door where we have failed for four years to get grass to grew. We finally gave up and she did a great job with the stones. She also painted a wooden flower hanging basket thingy box that I hung from the window of our study on the second floor that faces the street. It does a great job of giving some friendly character to the house.
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Pretty Intense Stuff Going on in Kenya
“Most troubling is the existence of police death squads operating on the orders of senior police officials and charged with eliminating suspected leaders and members of criminal organizations.”
Yeah, I’d say that’s pretty troubling. According to this CNN article, the UN completed its investigation into security forces of Kenya. The investigator:
Comments (0)accused government security forces of torturing and killing hundreds of men in a March 2008 crackdown on a militia.