When the Turks invaded Cyprus, did the United States not engage in an embargo against Turkey, even though it was a peace keeping operation as approved by the treaties and the Turkish Cypriots were suffering slaughter by the Greek fascists that had taken over the island? When Iraq invaded Kuwait, did we not enact embargoes and eventually invade Iraq? When the United States invaded Iraq in 2003, did not the whole world frown and show their anger at the United States even though the United States had every right to stop a threat? So what changed? Why is it that the world silently ignores the plight of the Georgians when it is obvious that Russia invaded Georgia as part of a long term plan to assert influence in the region?

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Hillary Clinton is looking to secure a victory in Florida this Tuesday. Florida, like Michigan, was punished by the DNC for placing their primary too early. Tueday’s primary will award no delegates, but a symbolic victory for Clinton, especially if it’s by a wide margin, would be significant because it would serve to soften the blow of Obama’s huge victory in South Carolina. Of course, Clinton, who won Michigan by virtue of being the only one on the ballot and is ahead in the polls in Florida by virtue of campaigning there (despite agreeing initially with the DNC decision) is now calling for Michigan and Florida delegates to be seated. In the interest of fairness, of course!

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The Obama victory Speech:

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Ethnic Azeris protested against the Iranian government today in the city of Tabriz. Gateway Pundit has a video up of the event. The Christian Science Monitor reports:

When ethnic Azeris take to the streets of northern Iran Tuesday, they’ll be closely watched for signs of a growing nationalist movement – one that may be getting caught up in a larger tussle between Washington and Tehran.

Nominally, Azeri Iranians will be marking the first anniversary of large protests sparked by an insulting cartoon of a cockroach speaking Azeri. But at a deeper level, they’re driven by long-brewing frustration that their cultural rights have not been respected in Persian Iran, where they have a history of being on the front lines of upheaval.

Tehran is wary because, according to some, the US has tried to tap into those ethnic tensions as a possible pressure point for promoting regime change within Iran.

Though interest from US Department of Defense officials and others has receded over the past year, at least publicly, ethnic Azeris say they feel even more vulnerable as a result.

“These US officials have actually damaged our cause,” says Ahmad Obali, a US-based Azeri Iranian activist and head of GunazTV, which broadcasts to ethnic Azeris in Iran. “Not only have we not received anything, but Iran is blaming us for being sponsored by them.”

If the US actively supports the Azeris, the Iranian regime will have an excuse to act aggressively against them. As I see it, there are only two good ways of dealing with the Azeris: by either supporting them secretly, and to make sure that the Iranian regime might suspect but cannot know or, since the first option might be impossible to achieve, not to support them at all except for when Iran acts against the Azeris with the use of force.

It’s the same everywhere, isn’t it?

The above “personnel advertisement” is imaginary. But it sums up the mood in Ankara, as parties rush to recruit candidates that will burnish and balance their images at home and abroad. The search is on for so-called “vitrin” candidates, a Turkish word for “window front” that might as well translate as “showcase.”

As general elections approach, virtually all political parties launched the hunt for new faces to promote themselves, signing up — or trying to sign up — former ambassadors, military officers, businessmen, football players and even wrestlers. And now, minority groups.

The Turkish Daily News has learned that a Turkish citizen of Armenian origins, Kagem Karabetyan, is being mentioned as a candidate, most likely for the traditionalist Justice and Development Party (AKP), known for its roots in political Islam. Karabetyan apparently wants to run for election but is still awaiting a formal invitation. With or without Karabetyan, the AKP is expected to have a Christian candidate on its lists, but his name is not expected to be on the top of the list, reducing the likelihood of ultimate election.

The CHP: “We should encourage members of minority communities to become candidates. Greeks, Armenians and Jews should be represented in the Turkish Parliament as well. There are many people who are struggling for Turkey but we cannot reach them because of unexpected elections.”

In other words, no time to find a few good Christian candidates.

Here is my take on it: a person should not be elected, or made a candidate, because that person is a Christian, or a Muslim, or a Jew, etc. A person should be (s)elected because that person is the right person for the job. What’s relevant is whether the individual is qualified or not.

The Washington Post reports:

Sen. Barack Obama (D-Ill.) is delivering pointed critiques of the African American community as he campaigns for its votes, lamenting that many of his generation are “disenfranchising” themselves because they don’t vote, taking rappers to task for their language, and decrying “anti-intellectualism” in the black community, including black children telling peers who get good grades that they are “acting white.”

As he travels around the country in his effort to become the nation’s first black president, Obama has engaged in an intense competition for black voters — a crucial Democratic Party constituency that accounts for as much as half the electorate in some key primary states such as South Carolina. But the first-term senator, who has sought to present himself as an agent of change eager to challenge political convention, has taken the unusual route of publicly criticizing his own community.

In a brief interview, Obama said he is simply giving broader exposure to the problems that African Americans discuss with great frankness in private. “It’s what we talk about in the barbershops in the South Side of Chicago,” Obama said, adding that he talks about these problems more in the black community because they are more pronounced there. “There’s an old saying that if America has a cold, we have pneumonia,” he said.

Aides say there is no specific strategy to target black voters by injecting these themes into the race and note that Obama speaks to white audiences about the importance of parents turning off their kids’ televisions and demanding that they finish their homework. Obama says he is echoing the concerns he hears from and shares with other African Americans.

“In Chicago, sometimes when I talk to the black chambers of commerce, I say, ‘You know what would be a good economic development plan for our community would be if we make sure folks weren’t throwing their garbage out of their cars,’ ” Obama told a group of black state legislators in a speech in South Carolina last month.

Perhaps risky, on the other hand, it is probably easier for blacks to deal with this criticism coming from a fellow black, then coming from a white person: a white politician who would say something like this would most likely instantly be accused of being (a) “racist!”

When Americans first told me that African-American youths who perform well at school are often ‘accused’ of acting white by fellow blacks, I was greatly amazed: if blacks want to exchange the gettos of America’s biggest cities for good homes in the suburbs, they’d better teach their chidren that education has nothing to do with race; it is not about race, it is about having a bright future; it is not about being black or white, it is about improving one’s life.

MSNBC reports:

After a career of cranky insults, radio star Don Imus was fighting for his job Monday following one joke that by his own admission went “way too far.”

CBS Radio and MSNBC both said they were suspending Imus’ morning talk show for two weeks following his reference last week to members of the Rutgers women’s basketball team as “nappy-headed hos.”

While CBS made its announcement without comment, MSNBC said Imus’ regret at making the inappropriate comment and his stated dedication to changing the show’s discourse made it believe this was the appropriate response.

So, this is all about ethics, right?

Well no, not exactly:

Imus could be in real danger if the outcry causes advertisers to shy away from him, said Tom Taylor, editor of the trade publication Inside Radio.

Close enough.

Hot Air has the video up of Imus’ appearance on Al Sharpton’s talk radio show.

Hot Air’s Bryan comments that, according to him, “neither of these guys deserves the prominence they both enjoy.”

Ed Morrissey shows that “it’s not the only time Imus has demonstrated a tone deafness on race.”

As for me: I have never listened to Imus’ show, I do not know anything about him, I detest racism, but I am not a fan of political correctness either. One always has to look at the intend, especially in racism cases. People are too easily accused of being racist.

H/t Memeorandum.

The Washington Post reports that “federal and state lawmakers have launched a new drive to pass the Equal Rights Amendment, reviving a feminist goal that faltered a quarter-century ago when the measure did not gain the approval of three-quarters of the state legislatures.”

The amendment, which came three states short of enactment in 1982, has been introduced in five state legislatures since January. Yesterday, House and Senate Democrats reintroduced the measure under a new name — the Women’s Equality Amendment — and vowed to bring it to a vote in both chambers by the end of the session.

Progressive women are celebrating:

“Elections have consequences, and isn’t it true those consequences are good right now?” Sen. Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) asked a mostly female crowd yesterday at a news conference, as the audience cheered. “We are turning this country around, bit by bit, to put it in a more progressive direction.”

As the WaPo’s Juliet Eilperin points out, “consists of 52 words and has one key line: ‘Equality of rights under the law shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex.’ That sentence would subject legal claims of gender discrimination to the same strict scrutiny given by courts to allegations of racial discrimination.”

There is currently a debate going on between legal scholars about whether or not the “35 state votes to ratify the amendment are still valid.”

Even backers of the amendment such as Rep. Jerrold Nadler (D-N.Y.) expect a legal battle on that question. They are reintroducing the amendment in Congress and hope to start the ratification process again from scratch.

Opponents fear that the amendment is too broadly worded and fear that states will rule that “equal-rights amendments in state constitutions justify state funding for abortion” as has happened in two states already.

A historic moment for the feminist movement in the making? It just might.

It is forbidden in the Netherlands to discriminate against someone based on race, gender, religion, etc.

Roger Alford writes at Opinio Juris that “March 25, 1807, two hundreds years ago today, Parliament passed An Act for the Abolition of the Slave Trade.” He also quotes from and links to a speech by William Wilberforce “the leading voice in the movement to abolish the slave trade” in Britain.

An interesting read.

Absolutely horrific and disgusting: girls chanted ‘kill him, kill him’, while a “16-year-old boy was chased by a mob and stabbed to death in a London street lined with £1 million homes.”

Witnesses could tell what had happened, but, somehow, ‘couldn’t’ intervene. As a commenter at The Times‘ article points out:

“all those witnesses!!! and nobody thought to do anything
that sums up our Country- what a disgrace i hope they can live with themselves!!”

I’m sure they can: they will talk about this for weeks, months and even years: talking about what they saw, how terrible it was that the gang killed that poor, promising lad, without ever realizing that, perhaps, they could’ve done something to stop the gang from murdering him.

It’s, according to The Times the 5th murder in a few weeks time involving black youths.

The Australian has interesting news (article from The Sunday Times): “an elite group of native American trackers is joining the hunt for terrorists crossing Afghanistan’s borders.”

The name of the unit is Shadow Wolves and has been created in the early 1970s. The Shadow Wolves normally track “smugglers along the U.S. border with Mexico.” The article goes on to explain:

Harold Thompson, a Navajo Indian, and Gary Ortega, from the Tohono reservation, are experts at “cutting sign”, the traditional Indian method of finding and following minute clues from a barren landscape. They can detect twigs snapped by passing humans or hair snagged on a branch and tell how long a sliver of food may have lain in the dirt.

As AJ Strata points out, it is a bit surprising that “the US waited this long to bring them in”, but better better late than never of course.

The article quotes Robert Gates as saying: “If I were Osama bin Laden, I’d keep looking over my shoulder.”

That sounds about right.

An Interesting article in the New York Times about Palestinian Christians.

The ‘honor’ of the family is, as we all know, considered to be so important in certain cultures that girls / young women are killed, murdered by their own relatives for thinking for themselves, deciding how they want to live themselves, and, thus, not doing what the family thinks the girl should do. Today, The Times published this article about Doaa Fares, a Druze, who was forced to withdraw from the Miss Israel contest, because two of her uncles and three other men planned to kill her.

They did not particularly agree with her choice to participate in this contest, they decided that she behaved like a ‘prostitute’, was hurting the ‘honor of the family’ and, thus, that she deserved to die. Luckily the police discovered the plot to kill her last week, after which Doaa “disappeared into protective custody” only to emerge from hiding a couple of days later announcing that “she was withdrawing from the competition, fearing for her life.”

She explained: “My life is much more important than a contest, but it’s very difficult for me to give up my dream.”
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A good article at Slate about Ayaan Hirsi Ali and her new book Infidel. Christopher Hitchens makes some great observations about those who tend to criticize Ayaan.

CNN: Whites say yes, blacks say no. The network has an interesting video up at its website (”Whites say U.S. ready for Obama, blacks don’t”.

The good news for Obama? African-Americans are - gradually - seeing him in a more favorable light.