Loud Thinking

Archive for the ‘My Views’ Category

An eye opening article published by The Frontier Post.

Drone memo author should be in jail

Posted on 2014-06-01 05:05:01

Link:- http://thefrontierpost.com/article/175063//

Ted Rall

Conservatives say, and this is one of their more successful memes, that poor people are immoral. The proles have sex and kids out of wedlock and expect us (i.e., upstanding middle- and upper-class patriots) to pay for them. They steal Medicare and cheat on welfare. They don’t follow The Rules (rules written by, let’s just say, not them). Which makes them Bad. This was always hogwash, of course. Though it is true that poverty causes people to do bad things, class and morals are uncorrelated. But who’s worse, the poor thief or the wealthy person who refuses to pay him a living wage?
America’s professional class has traditionally enjoyed a privileged position at the top of middlebrow America’s aspirational hierarchy. At the core of our admiration for doctors, lawyers and bankers was the presumption that these learned men and women adhered to strict codes of ethics. Doctors healed, lawyers respected the law and bankers didn’t steal.
When they did, there’d be hell to pay, not least from their brethren. Evidence abounded that the clay content in the professional class’ metaphorical feet was no lower than anybody else’s. Thanks to recent developments, not least since 2008\’s save-the-banks-not-the-people orgy of featherbedding at taxpayer expense, the fiction that we should look up to the technocracy is dying fast.
Not only are some physicians crapping on their Hippocratic oath by carrying out executions of prisoners and participating in the horrific torture of innocent concentration camp inmates, the associations charged with enforcing professional ethics sit on their old-boys-club hands. Big-time judges, depicted in movies as moral giants to get medieval on evil dirtbags whether in the mafia or the CIA, act like wimps instead, grumbling under their mint-flossed breath as they sign off on the federally funded insertion of needles into innocent men’s penises. Thurgood wept. I got to thinking about the fall of the professional class after hearing that the White House has finally relented in its incessant stonewalling on the drone memo. Finally we peons will get a peek at a legal opinion that the White House uses to justify using drones to blow up anyone, anywhere, including American citizens on American soil, for any reason the president deems fit. When the news broke, I tweeted: “This should be interesting.”
I’m a cartoonist, but I can’t imagine any reading of the US Constitution — left, right, in Swahili — that allows the president to circumvent due process and habeas corpus. I can’t see how Obama can get around Ronald Reagan’s Executive Order 12333, even after Bush amended it. Political assassinations are clearly proscribed: “No person employed by or acting on behalf of the United States Government shall engage in, or conspire to engage in, assassination.” (Yes, even Osama bin Laden.)
I have no doubt that David Barron, who is a professor at the very fancy Harvard Law School and held the impressive title of former acting chief of the Justice Department’s Office of Legal Counsel, and who furthermore is President Barack Obama’s nominee to fill a vacancy on the United States Court of Appeals for the First Circuit in Boston, did his very best with his mad legal skills to come up with a “kill ‘em all, let Obama sort ‘em out” memo he could be proud of. Still, this topic prompts two questions:
What kind of human being would accept such an assignment? Did anyone check for a belly button? How badly would such a person have to mangle the English language, logic, constitutional law and legal precedent, in order to extract the justification for mass murder he was asked to produce? I haven’t seen the drone memo, but Sen. Rand Paul has. Whatever legal hocus-pocus Barron deployed didn’t convince Paul. “There is no legal precedent for killing American citizens not directly involved in combat, and any nominee who rubber-stamps and grants such power to a president is not worthy of being placed one step away from the Supreme Court,” Paul said in a statement.
I’ll bet my next couple of paychecks that Paul is correct — and that Barron’s sophistry wouldn’t withstand a serious court challenge, not even before a panel of a dozen Antonin Scalias. After all, we’ve been here before. Shortly after 9/11, Vice President Dick Cheney and his cadre of neocon fanatics ordered the White House Office of Legal Counsel, the same entity behind Barron’s drone memo, to come up with a legal justification to give Bush legal cover for torturing suspected terrorists. When they emerged, the Torture Memos, were roundly derided by legal experts as substandard, twisted and perverse readings of the constitution, treaty obligations and case law. Read them. You’ll see. In 2010, the Justice Department decided not to file charges against torture memo authors John Yoo and Jay Bybee on the grounds that the two men weren’t evil — just dumb. (Can’t they be both?) The torture memos, they ruled, were shoddy. That, I’m as sure as I can be about something I haven’t seen yet, will be the case with the drone memo.
As with Yoo and Bybee, both of whom went on to prosper in the legal profession rather than warm the prison cells they both richly deserve, Barron probably won’t lose anything as the result of his work on the drone memo. He’ll be a federal judge, one step away from the Supreme Court. Yet another heavy stone on the grave of America’s once-vaunted professional class.

The Japan Times.

Now, taking a cue from the above mentioned statement of late Mr. Nelson Mandela, it is suggested that Pakistani government should slightly re-phrase it and declare the following as its mission statement: “Sports has the power to change Pakistan…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite Pakistani people in a way that little else does. It speaks to the Pakistani youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope for the entire Pakistani nation where once there was only despair, lawlessness, hunger, poverty, drugs, suicide bombings and alarming increase of suicides, due to the economic hardships. It is more powerful than government in breaking down the menace of terrorism which has blown Pakistan to the smithereens.”

Before concluding, I would like to bring to your kind notice that please don’t consider sports as something which should be left as your last priority, on the national agenda. And if any proof was required to substantiate my request, here is the statement for your kind perusal, about the power of the sports, by one of the greatest statesman of the world, late Mr. Nelson Mandela.

“Sport has the power to change the world…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”

Again, if I were the PM, for the sake of the name and image of Pakistan, for which our soldiers are almost daily embracing martyrdom, I would have gone across the party lines, to select an advisor for sports, who could turn around all the major sports played in the country, in not more than a years time.

If I were the PM, all the sports administrators including the minister in charge, would have been sacked with the orders to refund entire pay and perks waisted on them for abysmally failing, during the last one year of the government, to deliver even 1% positive results.

The improvement in the sports sector is neither difficult, nor has a requirement of rocket science. What is needed is commitment and dedication with honesty, integrity and meritocracy, without any politics, favouritism and nepotism.

Another black day in the sporting history of Pakistan..!

Dear Mr. Prime Minister

AoA.

I will not at all be surprised, if your very important national and international commitments, must have kept you unaware, from the extremely sad and tragic news that today for the first time ever, in the country’s 60-year history of the game of Hockey, Pakistani team is not playing the World Cup; because our team failed to qualify for the tournament, which has commenced today on Saturday, 31 May 2014 at Hague and from Asia, India, South Korea and Malaysia are participating.

Hope you remember the Hockey World Cup was introduced by Pakistan, which also won this title 4 times in the past.

MashaAllah, next week you will be completing first year of the government.However, if we just talk about sports, it looks that the people at the helm of affairs for sports in the government, absolutely failed to stem the rot and provide any vision or guidance in the improvement of the pathetic state of affairs of the sports, particularly in games of Hockey, Cricket, Squash and Snooker, which were once dominated by Pakistan, around the world.

The improvement in the sports sector is neither difficult, nor has a requirement of rocket science. What is needed is commitment and dedication with honesty, integrity and meritocracy, without any politics, favouritism and nepotism.

Hope you are also aware about the state of the ugly affairs in the other major game of the country namely cricket, where our team came last among all the participants of the Champions trophy played in the UK, but were rewarded with an Eid bonus by Mr. Najam Sethi, as if PCB was his father’s company. Then our team went to Zimbabwe and got defeats from them (Zim a lowest status team) in a Test as well as, the ODI match. And recently Pakistani team created another record of shame, when in the T20 World Cup tournament held in Bangladesh, for the first time in the history, we failed to qualify for even the semi finals spot.

If I were the PM, all the sports administrators including the minister in charge, would have been sacked with the orders to refund entire pay and perks waisted on them for abysmally failing, during the last one year of the government, to deliver even 1% positive results.

Again, if I were the PM, for the sake of the name and image of Pakistan, for which our soldiers are almost daily embracing martyrdom, I would have gone across the party lines, to select an advisor for sports, who could turn around all the major sports played in the country, in not more than a years time.

In this regard, the following three names come to my mind, for selecting amongst them, a national sports advisor to the P.M.

1. AVM Farooq Umar Ex. CEO & M.D. PIA. He was also elected “President Pakistan Hockey Federation.” (PHF) It was during his tenure that he Resurrected Pakistan Hockey and made it Win the “World Champions Trophy” and the “World Cup Sydney 94” after a long lapse of 14 years . His success depended on upfront leadership and the ability to motivate the players right in the play field.

2. Lt. Gen (R) Tauqir Zia. As the chairman Pakistan Cricket Board for 4 years, he not only introduced the “Vision 2005”, paragon for the promotion and development of Cricket in Pakistan but also managed to implement almost 75% of that Project in every part of the country particularly in the far flung areas of Balochistan, Sind and Frontier.

3. Khalid Mahmood. His keen interest in sports particularly cricket, provided Mr. Khalid Mahmood opportunities to serve Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) in various capacities: Honorary Secretary (1975-1976), Member PCB Council (1988-94), Manager of Pakistan Cricket Team touring England, South Africa and the West Indies (1992-1993) and as Chairman PCB (1998-1999).

Before concluding, I would like to bring to your kind notice that please don’t consider sports as something which should be left as your last priority, on the national agenda. And if any proof was required to substantiate my request, here is the statement for your kind perusal, about the power of the sports, by one of the greatest statesman of the world, late Mr. Nelson Mandela.

“Sport has the power to change the world…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers.”

Now, taking a cue from the above mentioned statement of late Mr. Nelson Mandela, it is suggested that Pakistani government should slightly re-phrase it and declare the following as its mission statement: “Sports has the power to change Pakistan…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite Pakistani people in a way that little else does. It speaks to the Pakistani youth in a language they understand. Sports can create hope for the entire Pakistani nation where once there was only despair, lawlessness, hunger, poverty, drugs, suicide bombings and alarming increase of suicides, due to the economic hardships. It is more powerful than government in breaking down the menace of terrorism which has blown Pakistan to the smithereens.”

With best wishes and kind regards,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

“There is no better test of a man’s integrity than his behavior when he is wrong.”

— Marvin Williams

An urgent proposal to the Prime Minister..!

Dear Mr. Prime Minister,

AoA.

A Watt saved is a Watt produced and the cost of installing 1MW powerhouse is approximately PKR 1 billion. We can save a minimum of 1000 MW per day, if countrywide all markets and offices are very strictly closed at 6 PM, along-with all TV and Cable TV is also shut down at 9 PM.

Extraordinary problems needs extraordinary solutions.

The above proposal will also give peaceful load shedding free nights to the teeming millions during the long hot and humid summer season, who can’t afford UPS, generators or solar power systems.

Hope your government will swiftly act to implement (even if issuance of an ordinance is required) the above proposals in the larger public interest, without fearing any backlash of the vested interests.

With kind regards and best wishes,

Syed Nayyar Uddin Ahmad

Lahore.

Sent from my iPad3 4G LTE

The New York Times deserves a Noble Peace Prize for its great service to the humanity by publishing this heart wrenching article.

And the entire Muslim Country’s governments deserve hall of SHAME for their callousness in looking the other way on the genocide of Muslims in Myanmar.

Myanmar\’s Appalling Apartheid
Posted on 14 hours ago

Nicholas Kristof
Minura Begum has been in labor for almost 24 hours, and the baby is stuck. Worse, it\’s turned around, one tiny foot already emerging into the world in a difficult breech delivery that threatens the lives of mother and child alike.
Twenty-three years old and delivering her first child, Minura desperately needs a doctor. But the Myanmar government has confined her, along with 150,000 others, to a quasi-concentration camp outside town here, and it blocks aid workers from entering to provide medical help. She\’s on her own. Welcome to Myanmar, where tremendous democratic progress is being swamped by crimes against humanity toward the Rohingya, a much-resented Muslim minority in this Buddhist country. Budding democracy seems to aggravate the persecution, for ethnic cleansing of an unpopular minority appears to be a popular vote-getting strategy.
This is my annual \”win-a-trip\” journey, in which I take a university student on a reporting trip to the developing world. I\’m with this year\’s winner, Nicole Sganga of Notre Dame University, spotlighting an injustice that some call a genocide. There are more than one million Rohingya in Rakhine State in the northwest of Myanmar. They are distinct from the local Buddhists both by darker skin and by their Islamic faith. For decades, Myanmar\’s military rulers have tried systematically to erase the Rohingya\’s existence with oppression, periodic mass expulsions and denials of their identity.
\”There are no people called Rohingya in Myanmar,\” U Win Myaing, a spokesman for Rakhine State, told me. He said that most are simply illegal immigrants from Bangladesh. This narrative is absurd, as well as racist. A document as far back as 1799 refers to the Rohingya population here, and an 1826 report estimates that 30 percent of the population of this region was Muslim. Since clashes in 2012 claimed more than 200 lives – including children hacked with machetes – the authorities have confined Rohingya to internment camps or their own villages. They are stripped of citizenship and cannot freely go to the market, to schools, to university, to hospitals.
Tens of thousands have made desperate attempts to flee by boat, with many drowning along the way. This year, the Myanmar authorities have cracked down even harder, making the situation worse. First, the government expelled Doctors Without Borders, which had been providing health care for the Rohingya. Then orchestrated mobs attacked the offices of humanitarian organizations, forcing them out. Some kinds of aid are resuming, but not health care. That\’s a sterile way of putting it. I wish readers could see the terrified eyes of Shamshida Begum, 22, a mom whose 1-year-old daughter, Noor, burned with fever.
Shamshida said that at home the thermometer had registered 107 degrees. Even after damp cloths had been placed on Noor to lower her temperature, the thermometer, when I saw it, still read 105 degrees. What kind of a government denies humanitarians from providing medical care to a toddler? Noor survived, but some don\’t. We visited the grief-stricken family of a 35-year-old man named Ba Sein, who died after his tuberculosis went untreated.
\”He died because he couldn\’t get medicine,\” said his widow, Habiba, as friends made a bamboo coffin outside. Now she worries about her four small children who, like other children in the camp, haven\’t been vaccinated. The camp is an epidemic waiting to happen. Minura, the woman with a breech delivery, survived a 28-hour labor and hemorrhaging, but lost her baby. The infant girl was buried in an unmarked grave – one of a large number of achingly small graves on the outskirts of the camp.
\”Because I am Rohingya, I cannot get health care and I cannot be a father,\” Minura\’s husband, Zakir Ahmed, a mason, said bitterly after the burial. The United States has spoken up, but far too mildly; Europe and Asia have tried to look the other way. We should work in particular with Japan, Britain, Malaysia and the United Nations to pressure Myanmar to restore humanitarian access and medical care. President Obama, who visited Myanmar and is much admired here, should flatly declare that what is happening here is unconscionable. Obama has lately noted that his foreign policy options are limited, and that military interventions often backfire. True enough, but in Myanmar he has political capital that he has not fully used.
As a university student, Obama denounced apartheid in South Africa. As president, he should stand up to an even more appalling apartheid – one in Myanmar that deprives members of one ethnic group even of health care. Myanmar seeks American investment and approval. We must make clear that it will get neither unless it treats Rohingya as human beings.
The New York Times