All-purpose news and politics thread: One Step Beyond!

[Gryphon]

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-middle-east-20436699

Hamas and Israel agree Gaza ceasefire at Cairo talks

It lasted for 18 minutes before hamas launched rockets into Israel again.

[inferno]

He said that to get a real answer, it's FAR better to call or to mail a physical letter. Letters, he said, are the best way to communicate.

Snail mail has been a rotten way to communicate with Congress since the anthrax attack in 2001. It takes forever for physical mail to get screened and even delivered to the COngressional office, much less acknowledged. It's fine if you want a certified receipt or something.

But in a situation like the one here where you need to express opposition to Sen. Leahy's draft police-state legislation, snail mail is particularly useless. FAX is a good method since it gives them physical paper to deal with and can be sent from the proper constituent area code.

Try to find out who the relevant staffers and communicate with them directly. Ask for a meeting, clog their voicemail.

Twitter of all things also seems to be more and more useful in that it is a public demand for accountability. As a result of the blowback over the C|NET story you posted, Sen. Leahy has claimed on twitter to be backing off the legislation.

and that applies in the entertainment industry as well....most tv stations/radio stations ignore or emails or make PAs and interns sort through them

TV and radio stations have to keep formal complaints on file under FCC regulations. A good certified letter is useful there.

[inferno]

Multi millionaire tax exile Lord McAlpine is setting out to sue every single Twitter user who won't apologise for naming his as a paedophile ...Obviously he isn't a paedophile and would never, ever be associated with any known paedophile in any way at all but his actions have managed to censor and silence journalists,

Is it really that obvious? Here's the story from 1991 he never sued over --- http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-e7CLmmhaPr...mcalpine_1.jpg etc

http://scallywagmagazine.blogspot.co...e-on-lord.html

[Charles RB]

No, it's because Rwandas and Uganda have been arming and sheltering Congolese rebels for years for a wholw range of reasons ranging from getting a cut of the profits from illegal mining of rare earth ores to using them as proxies against the Rwandan Hutu militias still sheltering in Congolese refugee camps.

That too. The fuss about the Terminator being jailed - sorry, them being "betrayed" - is the more public motive because "Rwanda wants us to keep going on" isn't a good rallying cry.

[carabas]

Snail mail has been a rotten way to communicate with Congress since the anthrax attack in 2001. It takes forever for physical mail to get screened and even delivered to the COngressional office, much less acknowledged. It's fine if you want a certified receipt or something.

Your emails on the other hand arrive instantly, probably get diverted to the spam folder, and get deleted unread.

[Spike-X]

Your emails on the other hand arrive instantly, probably get diverted to the spam folder, and get deleted unread.

Do you mean emails from the public in general, or inferno's specifically?

Because I reckon most of his would get forwarded all over the office, and the top five read out at the Christmas party every year.

[king mob]

The south west was royally screwed today. Someone in school today said they saw a pregnant woman sat on top of her - now floating - car waiting for help this morning.

Walking home from work tonight was miserable with the sort of rain that I've never seen in this country as it was like a tropical downpour.


Just in case anyone thinks we're just moaning about the weather, it's somewhat more serious than that as it's going to affect foodstock (expect bacon to go up vastly in price for example), housing, farming and transport as people just can't get to work or anywhere.

If this is more than just a bad year, and is part of a longer trend of climate change then we're going to have to seriously rewrite a lot of how things are done in the country.

[Iangould]

Foreign policy magazine pretty much confirms what Enduring America has been saying: The Syrian rebels are winning.

One item i'd missed: the Aleppo rebel group that claimed they weren't going to recognize the new Syrian National Council has retreated from that position.

[Charles RB]

That was fast.


Speaking of fast things, M23 continued their advance, the army deserting before them (and claiming they're getting no orders) and people fleeing in droves, and the presidents of Rwanda & Uganda have publicly told M23 to stop carrying on to Kinshasa and to leave Goma. M23 have told them "no" and that they're going to keep going on until the president agrees to talk (which he's on the verge). I'm not sure if that's Uganda & Rwanda trying to go "see we're not with M23" or getting worried that the group are doing too well.

[Charles RB]

President Mursi has passed new laws that basically give him lots of power and make his decrees impossible to undo, followed by:

* Retroactively changing the retirement age for the chief prosecutor (so the current one is out) and ordering re-trials of, well, everyone from the regime who was acquitted of killing protestors. This is the same prosecutor who was involved in acquitting and who Mursi tried, and failed, to get rid of earlier; and ex-regime that many Egyptians believe were deliberately let off by their old mates.

* Saying nobody can dissolve the Constituent Assembly or the Shura Council upper house. So that's preventing another dissolving of parliament and further problems with getting a new constitution.

Right after Mursi's riding high on brokering a ceasefire. He's seized his chance; this is another grab to undermine the old regime and "clean house". The problem is, while his motives seem rational, he's still giving himself greater amounts of power, and interfering with judicial independence, at a time when Egypt doesn't have a working parliament, a constitution, et al. There needs to be a check-and-balance very soon, it is dangerous for Egypt to have a president with this much power right now.

[jmc247]

Post unpopular cease-fire polling shows a big drop in support for Likud mainly benifiting far right parties.

Unpopular cease fire hurts Bibi in new poll

A new poll that came out on Thursday shows the merged Likud - Yisrael Beiteinu party taking a big hit mostly for the benefit of more right wing parties. The reason behind the shift is likely dissatisfaction with the cease fire.

A new Israeli poll released this morning, and conducted following the cease-fire with Hamas, announced yesterday after 8 days of fighting, shows a significant drop in public support for Israeli Prime Minister Netanayhu.

The poll which was commissioned by Israel’s Knesset website and conducted by the Panels Institute shows Netanyahu’s joint list with Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman, named Likud-Beiteinu dropping significantly from a current 42 seats combined to 33 seats.

According to Israeli website Walla, a Likud mister who did not wish to be named said that the, “public response is very, very difficult. We do not remember such a magnitude of an enraged response. People call and say: this time we will not vote Likud.”

Another minister is quoted as saying that a reserve soldier said: “A week ago all of my battalion were Likudniks. Now, if you think anyone would vote Likud You’re kidding yourself.”

http://israelmatzav.blogspot.com/201...um=twitter&m=1

[bringthenoise]

The Scottish Council for Voluntary Organisations isn't too happy with the Coalition's proposed benefit cuts, calling them "criminal": http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-20417508

The body has published research showing how charities believed they would be affected by welfare cuts.

Three-quarters of charities (76%) expected demand for services to continue to increase significantly over the next year, it said.
Continue reading the main story
“Start Quote

The sector is pulling together to pick up the pieces and help to mitigate the terrible effects of these ill-conceived Westminster cuts”

Martin Sime SCVO chief executive

While 81% of third sector organisations expected the financial situation for the sector to worsen in the next 12 months.

Mr Sime said the welfare cuts were "ill-conceived" and that charities were concerned about meeting the record high demand for services.

"It's clear from this research that Westminster's criminal cuts to welfare are putting so much pressure on charities' services that some will struggle to keep up with demand from people and families in Scotland," he said.

"The sector is pulling together to pick up the pieces and help to mitigate the terrible effects of these ill-conceived Westminster cuts which should never have happened in the first place."

The Scottish government, which has no devolved powers over welfare payments, said the UK reforms were coming too fast.

[7thangel]

It lasted for 18 minutes before hamas launched rockets into Israel again.

and vice a versa

standard procedure as they both like to get off their last shots before the actual ceasefire date comes into effect. both sides are nothing if not predictable

[Charles RB]

Post unpopular cease-fire polling shows a big drop in support for Likud mainly benifiting far right parties.

Hamas agreed to stop firing rockets at south Israel. The IDF did much damage and death back to Hamas (and Gaza in general) than Hamas could do to Israel. Ramping up the IDF more than it had would mean more dead children.

Or to put it another way, what the FUCK do these people WANT?

[jmc247]

Foreign policy magazine pretty much confirms what Enduring America has been saying: The Syrian rebels are winning.

One item i'd missed: the Aleppo rebel group that claimed they weren't going to recognize the new Syrian National Council has retreated from that position.

The Syrian rebels have had three big military wins over the past week one of them bringing in more war booty then anything to date for them. Plus Europe is starting to recognize them as the legitimate authority in Syria.