Satellites show Iran moving quickly

'Satellites show Iran moving quickly to rearm ... JPost - Defense
http://www.jpost.com/Defense/Article.aspx?id=293324

Separatists winning in Catalonia, Spain - early results | Reuters
http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/11/25/us-spain-catalonia-idUSBRE8AO08S20121125

Pravda: Obama Reelected by Illiterates

Obama's Soviet Mistake - English pravda.ru
http://english.pravda.ru/opinion/columnists/19-11-2012/122849-obama_soviet_mistake-0/

The “Happy Planet Index” Ranks Venezuela, Albania, and Cuba Far Higher than the United States

November 25, 2012 by Dan Mitchell
Rankings can be very useful tools, assuming the methodology is reasonable and the authors use robust data. I’ve cited many of them.

For a big-picture look at economic policy, the Economic Freedom of the World is the best ranking, though the Index of Economic Freedom is also quite good, and the Global Competitiveness Report also is useful.
On tax policy, the Financial Secrecy Index measures how well a nation treats foreign investors, while the Tax Oppression Index measures how well a nation treats its own people.
There are also more specialized rankings, such as the one measuring per-capita government debt, the Moocher Index of state-by-state government dependency, and my ranking of which President has been the biggest spender.
But I’ve also run into some really strange rankings since starting this blog, some of which are preposterous and others of which are rather subjective.

One group claimed that America is one of the world’s most authoritarian nations.
The statists at the OECD put together a ranking asserting that poverty is a bigger problem in the United States than in Greece, Portugal, or Turkey.
A poll of world travelers ranked which nations had the most attractive people.
In a 2010 ranking of influence in the world of global finance, the FCI 500 placed me higher than either George Soros or Paul Krugman.
That last one was good for my ego. My only comment is that I wish that I had real influence.

Speaking of preposterous rankings, I have something new for the list.

There’s a group that puts out something called the “Happy Planet Index,” which supposedly is a “global measure of sustainable well-being.”

But it’s really an anti-energy consumption ranking, modified by life expectancy data along with some subjective polling data about lifestyles. And it leads to some utterly absurd conclusions.

Here’s their map of the world. All you really need to know is that it’s supposedly bad to be a red country.



I’m perfectly willing to agree that people in Afghanistan and Angola are not part of a “happy planet,” but do they really expect people to believe that the United States is in the bottom category?

I’m not being jingoistic. Yes, I am a patriot in the right sense of the word, so I would like the United States to be at the top of most rankings.

But my job is to criticize bad public policy, so my life would be rather dull if the crowd in Washington adopted a much-needed policy of benign neglect for the economy.

My real gripe is that some of the world’s main cesspools get high rankings. The United States is 105th according to the clowns who put together the rankings, while Cuba somehow came in 12th place.



Venezuela also ranks near the top, and other jurisdictions that score at least 50 places above America include Albania, Pakistan, Palestine, Iraq, Moldova, and Tajikistan.

It’s not just that those nations all rank about the United States. They also are ahead of Sweden, Canada, Australia, Iceland, Singapore, and Hong Kong.

And I’d rather live in any of those nations than live in any of the ones I listed that got good scores according to the poorly named Happy Planet Index.

Heck, I’d also prefer to live in some of the nations that score even lower than the United States, such as Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, or Luxembourg.

The Luxembourg ranking is particularly absurd. It is down near the bottom, with a ranking of 138 and trailing such garden spots as Burkina Faso and the Congo.

But it also happens to be one of the world’s richest nations according to World Bank data, in part because it is a very good tax haven.

But the nuts who put together the Crazy Planet Index give Luxembourg the second-to-worst ranking for its “ecological footprint,” and I guess you’re supposed to be unhappy if you have enough wealth to use a lot of energy.

Gee, too bad Luxembourg couldn’t be more like the nations that get the highest rankings for their “ecological footprint.” The people of Afghanistan and Haiti must be very, very happy about that high honor.

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Lessons from ‘Gaza Spring’: Engaging Political Islam

Arab-Israeli Conflict November 23, 2012 Leave a comment
Should Israel Engage Political Islam?

By Chadi Abou Daher, Ph.D.



Israel’s military operation in Gaza, Pillar of Defense, marks the first encounter of the Zionist state with the new dynamics of the Middle East in the age of “Arab Spring”. The Pillar of Defense operation was different from all previous military operations in Gaza in at least two respects. First, the operational milieu has considerably changed with Hamas being able to put over four million Israelis under the mercy of its upgraded arsenal. Second, the political milieu changed the context of diplomacy with the Muslim Brotherhood in control of Egypt. Irrespective of which party claim victory, the reality is that Israel’s operation has emboldened Political Islam. While Israelis are debating the achievement of the operation, Palestinians’ triumphalism has categorized the cease-fire in terms of a “Gaza Spring”.

In the aftermath of Israel’s military campaign in Gaza there are fundamental questions that touch not only on the durability of the cease-fire, but also go all the way to questioning Israel’s attitude to Political Islam. Egypt’s Muslim Brotherhood is the guarantor of the cease-fire understanding which provided Hamas and Islamic Jihad with a tacit recognition as de-facto players. Yet, this is far from being a reversal of Israel’s long held exclusion attitude toward Palestinian Islamic groups. In the wake of Hamas landslide victory in the 2006 Palestinian elections and its subsequent control of Gaza the following year, Israel vowed not to deal with Hamas politically. Israel’s disengagement policy allowed Hamas to consolidate its control over its Gaza stronghold which further radicalized its policies and increased the militarization of all Palestinian factions.

Israel’s military leaders have recognized from the onset of Pillar of Defense operation that there is no quick-fix solution to the problem of Hamas in Gaza. There are signs among the Israeli public that they are uncomfortable with the outcome of the operation. An on-going controversy in Israel question whether this operation has strengthened Israel’s deterrence capabilities or it just did the opposite.

The main take-away for Israeli policy makers from this latest round of hostilities is that the Hamas dominated Gaza is a problem that has grown bigger than being able to deal with through simple unilateral disengagement policy or military tactics. Hamas long range missiles, although limited in number, had major impacts on a wide proportion of Israeli public. It is most likely that this will aggravate the Israeli threat perception and endure the security approach that Israel has adopted in dealing with Hamas. In fact, the Israeli public has been socialized for generations with assumptions of strategic and existential threats which perpetuated a collective sense of victimhood and magnified the concern over security. This reinforced Israel’s one-dimensional exclusion policy toward the Palestinians and prevented the development of an Israeli conception of peace that is reciprocal and capable of reaching out to the other party. To the contrary, through the denial and oppression of its opponents, Israel’s threat perception became a self-fulfilling prophecy.

What Israel’s policy makers and public attitude should recognize today is the necessity of facing the reality of the conflict in order to unlock the vicious circle of hostilities and radicalization. An alternative policy direction for Israel would be to revive the political process and adopt an inclusion policy allowing Hamas and other groups to be part of it. The argument that Political Islam is doomed to radical policies is baseless. Egypt is the most recent illustration of how political Islam can become a responsible player once recognized as a legitimate player and engaged in political process.

To assume that Hamas non-recognition of Israel and its aggressive military stance are incompatible with such approach is a reversal of causality. Furthermore, the popularity of radical Islamic group in Palestine is the result of the failure of the political process to realize the Palestinian national aspiration in an independent and sovereign state. The failure of the peace process and the discrediting of Palestinian political leaders have empowered Hamas and Islamic Jihad. Today, there is a wide public consensus among Palestinians in Gaza that military resistance is the only viable path to statehood. The precedence that Hezbollah has established in Lebanon is becoming a powerful model of liberation.

Engaging Political Islam is the exit path out of this deadlock. Israel should recognize that the power of Political Islam is growing and gaining more legitimacy from moderate states like Turkey to conservative regimes like Iran. Political Islam should not be seen from the prism of security threat, but rather through that of political accommodation. In fact, Israel’s exaggerated perception of threat led to the formulation of national security objectives in purely military terms. Therefore, an upside-down reconsideration of Israel’s threat perception from a security approach toward a political one is a prerequisite for successfully engaging Political Islam.

Moreover, adopting a policy of engaging Political Islam depends on a powerful Israeli leadership that is capable of advancing a vision of peace that is inclusive and reciprocal. In a meaningful mythical analogy, late Pope John Paul considered that there are two possible peaceful solutions to the Arab-Israeli conflict; a realistic and a miraculous. The realistic would be to rely on a divine intervention; while the miraculous would be to expect a voluntary agreement between the parties. Would Israel’s engagement of Political Islam become such miraculous solution?

Philippines, MILF sign peace accord - Video Dailymotion

Philippines, MILF sign peace accord - Video Dailymotion

Russia agrees to sell China 24 Su-35 fighters in US$1.5bn deal Staff Reporter 2012-11-22 12:36 (GMT+8)

NewsPolitics

Russia agrees to sell China 24 Su-35 fighters in US$1.5bn deal
Staff Reporter 2012-11-22 12:36 (GMT+8)

Hu Jintao meets Sergey Shoygu in Beijing on Nov. 21. (Photo/Xinhua)

The Russian defense minister, Sergey Shoygu, finally approved the sale of 24 advanced Su-35BM fighters to China during his visit to Beijing in a deal worth US$1.5 billion, reports the Moscow-based business daily Vedomosti.

Moscow had been hesitant to sell the supermaneuverable multirole fighter to China fearing that it would be copied by Chinese engineers. When China first requested to purchase four Su-35BMs, Russia demanded that China buy at least 48 of them. After China bought 26 Su-27SK fighters from Russia between 1991 and 1996, the fighter was used by the PLA Air Force as a blueprint to develop its own J-11. Russia subsequently rejected the sale of Su-33 carrier-based fighters to China. To design the J-15 fighter intended for use with its aircraft carrier Liaoning, China eventually obtained a single Su-33 from Ukraine.

A source close to the leadership of the Russian Federal Military and Technical Cooperation Service told Vedomosti that a preliminary agreement was finally reached after Shoygu met with Hu Jintao, the Chinese president and Xu Qiliang, the vice chairman of the Central Military Commission. Under the agreement, China will purchase 24 Su-35BM aircraft equipped with the 117S engine designed by NPO Saturn. The engine was displayed at the recent Zhuhai Airshow in Guangdong province.

A report from the Voice of Russia suggested Moscow should drastically cut back exports of the nation's hi-tech military equipment to China in near future to prevent the Chinese from reverse engineering its advanced fighters, which it could then sell on to other countries.

References:

Hu Jintao 胡錦濤

Xu Qiliang　　許其亮

End of the Doctor's surgery

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http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/360369/End-of-the-Doctor-s-surgery

Russia sends ships to Gaza coast

Russia sends ships to Gaza coast in preparation for violence escalation
http://english.alarabiya.net/articles/2012/11/24/251518.html

Romney aides blast the 'hypocrites'

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http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2237651/Romney-aides-blast-hypocrites-asked-cabinet-jobs-just-election-trashing-him.html?ICO=most_read_module

The Millionaires Who Pay the Highest Tax Rate

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http://www.cnbc.com/id/49939444

Iran accuses U.S. Navy of 'illegal and provocative acts'

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Fair Warning...Beware What You Wish For..

Fair Warning...Beware What You Wish For...Rahm Emanuel: How to rebuild America - The Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/rahm-emanuel-its-time-to-rebuild-america/2012/11/23/178624bc-340a-11e2-bfd5-e202b6d7b501_print.html