George W. Bush and the... Elites ..[ 1856 ]

Bush: Elites “Didn’t Think I Could Read a Book, Much Less Write One”

FoxNews,.. by Autria Thuman | October 08, 2010

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In a photo provided by the University of Mobile, former President George W. Bush addresses the 6th-annual University of Mobile Leadership Banquet at the Arthur Outlaw Convention Center Thursday, Oct.7, 2010 in Mobile, Ala. (AP Photo/University of Mobile)

In a rare public appearance, former President George W. Bush talked about life out of the limelight and took a jab at what the "elites" might be thinking of his upcoming book.

"I have written a book. This will come as a shock to some of the elites. They didn't think I could read a book, much less write one," Bush quipped.

Speaking at the University of Mobile in Alabama Thursday night, Bush talked about his memoir "Decision Points," set to be released next month.

"It's about the decisions I made as president, and it's very anecdotal. Here are the stories, and you can decide what you would have done," he was quoted as saying in the the Press-Register of Mobile.  The 64-year-old said the tome gives some understanding to the decisions he made on tough issues like the handling of 9/11 and the Iraq war. The president, who has become a target of both Democrats and President Obama since he left office, refused to comment on the current state of political affairs. "You're not going to see me out opining or offering my critique. Frankly, I don't think it's good for the country to have a former president criticize his successor," Bush said.

President Obama has repeatedly blamed the "Bush-era policies" for today's lethargic economic condition.

"I loved being your president. But frankly, I'm having the time of my life not being your president," Bush said. "I do not miss the limelight. I have zero desire to be in the press. I have zero desire to be on your TV screens. Eight years is enough of that."

But the former president will likely be back in the spotlight once his book hits bookshelves. The book, published by Crown Publishers, will be released November 9th with an initial run of 1.5 million copies. That's the same number of copies given to Former President Bill Clinton for his autobiography, "My Life." A statement from Crown Publishers claims the book will not be a conventional narrative, but rather a reflection of important decisions and moments in Bush's life.

As he reflected on his days at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue, Bush said there are certain things he definitely misses. "The dessert chef was awesome," he joked.

Red Roma for the “Sino-Italian friendship.” ..[ 1855 ]

Berlusconi paints the town red for China’s leader

Eric Reguly.,Rome— Globe and Mail,., Friday, October 8, 2010 9:25AM EDT

The grimy facade of the Colosseum was bathed in a pleasing red light on Thursday night. Big white characters, obviously Chinese, were beamed onto the stadium’s upper reaches. They read: “Sino-Italian friendship.” 

The usual throng of tourists at the Colosseum must have wondered what was g oing on. Had the Chinese government bought ad rights to Europe’s most famous building? In fact it was Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi’s way of welcoming Wen Jiabao, his Chinese counterpart, to Rome. The red was meant to be a communist red in his honour. 
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Mr. Wen wasn’t exactly a tourist, though it’s assumed Mr. Berlusconi took him for a spin around the Colosseum. The real agenda was investment and trade and possibly -- though this was not stated -- turning Italy into China’s European beachhead. We do know that the duo vowed to double bilateral trade to $200-billion (U.S.) by 2015, including investment flows.

Mr. Berlusconi has been derided in the international press as a party boy, womanizer and hopelessly conflicted businessman-politician -- he controls Italy’s largest commercial broadcaster as well as the state broadcaster. He has been hounded by corruption allegations throughout his political career. He tries to change the law to shield himself from court cases and his government is on the verge of falling apart.
But the one thing he has done well, it appears, is court foreign investors -- and never mind if a few of them are not the kind of guys you’d want to see dating your daughter. Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin is among his best friends and girl-crazed Libyan strongman Muammar al-Gaddafi is a regular visitor to Rome. Both Russia and oil-rich Libya are boosting their investments in Italy which, after more than 2,000 years of wear and tear, desperately needs some buffing up. Certainly the debt-soaked Italian state is ill-equipped to do much more than keep the odd street clean.

The Chinese have signalled they are serious about Italy in the long run by spending heavily on infrastructure, notably ports. Hutchison Whampoa is investing €500-million in developing the port in Taranto, in the extreme south. A state-owned company is expanding the port of Naples, one of the Mediterranean’s most important container centres. Another Chinese company is negotiating to build a multi-billion-euro terminal just north of Rome. These ports and terminals, of course, will be important links in the supply chain that starts in Northern Europe and ends somewhere in China.

What will Italy get in return? Presumably equal access to the vast Chinese market. Fiat, led by Italian-Canadian CEO Sergio Marchionne, is keen to expand sales and manufacturing in China. Italian oil and green-energy companies would love greater access to China, as would Italy’s surprisingly large banks and insurers.
Italy, of course, would like something else from China -- a steady buyer of its bonds. Italy is one of the world’s most heavily indebted countries and rolling over its bonds couldn’t be done without healthy buying interest from foreign investors.

Mr. Wen earlier this week said China will continue to buy Greek bonds, signalling support for euro-zone debt. If the Chinese will buy junked-out Greek debt, you can assume they would be happy to load up on higher-rated Italian debt.

UK : Gun police cant' use common sense [ 1854 ]

Gun police cant use common sense, says Mark Saunders coroner

Paul Cheston, Courts Correspondent

 

Under fire: The armed police in the Mark Saunders shooting have been accused of lacking common sense
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the London Evening Standard.,  08.10.10 

Police marksmen are forced to follow rules slavishly instead of using their common sense, a coroner warned today.

Dr Paul Knapman said the marksmen cannot see the wood for the trees because they have to adhere to directives written in jargon.

Yesterday an inquest jury found that Scotland Yard made a series of major errors during the siege that led to the death of 32-year-old barrister Mark Saunders. It decided there had been a lack of clarity in the marksmen's line of command.

Saunders, an alcoholic with a history of depression, was cut down in a hail of bullets in Chelsea in May 2008 after he leant out of his kitchen window with a shotgun that he had repeatedly fired. The jury found he was lawfully killed but said the operation was flawed.

Dr Knapman, who presided over the inquest at Westminster, said that at least six protocols covered the use of firearms by officers.

In a letter to Theresa May, the Home Secretary, he wrote: Highly trained marksmen and their senior officers should be allowed to use their common sense rather than be forced in to a slavish adherence to written documents and protocols. These guidance documents were tied up in jargon and needed simplifying urgently. My perception is that not being able to

see the wood for the trees' may be a problem.

He called on the Home Secretary to merge the material so police have fewer documents to read, and raised fears that officers were relying on written rules rather than common sense.

�You may also take the view that there has been an over-reliance upon the printed word of instruction in the police service in recent times.

�It may be that there is merit in encouraging one or two shorter documents instead, set out in simple and unsophisticated language thereby minimising jargon and indeed encouraging more common sense rather than slavish adherence to written documents and protocols

Dr Knapman called for a very senior police officer to review the entire operation.

�It may be that such a person would have the confidence that goes with not being too risk averse' and to look at matters afresh, he wrote.

Saunders had fallen off the wagon and had been taking cocaine for at least six months as well as Prozac. The jury decided by a 9-2 majority that he had not tried to commit suicide by cop but said that the police should have given more consideration to allowing his wife Elizabeth to speak to him.

Dr Knapman highlighted six different documents governing the use of firearms containing more than 300 pages. They are:

* Standing operation procedures on police use of firearms  Met police (97 pages).

* Manual of guidance on the police use of firearms  Association of Chief Police Officers (90 pages).

* Attenuating energy projectile guidance  ACPO (32 pages).

* Operational use of Taser. Operational guidance  ACPO (46 pages).

* Code of practice on police use of firearms and less lethal weapons Home Office (18 pages).

* Manual of guidance on the management, command and development of armed officers 1 National Policing Improvement Agency (22 pages).

Nobel Peace Prize Outrages China ..[ 1853 ]

China Outraged Over Nobel Peace Prize Selection

Photo: ASSOCIATED PRESSPro-democracy protesters raise pictures of Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo with Chinese words reading: ‘Release Liu Xiaobo’ during a demonstration outside the China's Liaison Office in Hong Kong, 08 Oct. 2010

Stephanie Ho | Beijing 08 October 2010

Sarah Williams' Q&A with VOA Beijing Correspondent Stephanie Ho:

China has lashed out at the Nobel Peace Prize committee after it awarded this year's prize to jailed Chinese dissident Liu Xiaobo, who has long called for political reform in the country.
The Chinese government's reaction was swift and unequivocal. A statement on the Chinese Foreign Ministry's website called the award "an obscenity" that goes against the aims of the award.  It warned the award also will hurt China's relations with Norway, the country where the Nobel Committee is based.
The Chinese government's dismay had been expressed in recent days, in less harsh language, by Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Jiang Yu.

Jiang does not mention Liu Xiaobo by name, but points out that Chinese judicial authorities sentenced him to jail for violating Chinese law.

In December, Liu was sentenced to 11 years in prison for subversion, although officials have given no details of which laws he has violated.

CHINESE REACTION

VOA Beijing - Stephanie Ho "Inside China... the government has been making an effort, apparently, to have a total news blackout on the fact that he's been awarded a Nobel prize. I mean, China would like to win a Nobel, but the thought of awarding a Nobel Peace Prize to a Chinese dissident who is in jail is not something that the Chinese government would want to make public. So there's been no news announcement on TV. In fact, when the international news channels tried to make an announcement, the Chinese apparently tried to pull the plug. My TV has been cut off quite a few times whenever the announcement comes up."

The 54-year-old writer was detained in December 2008, shortly before the release of Charter 08 - a manifesto he helped organize that calls for sweeping political reform.
Patrick Poon, of the Independent Chinese PEN Center, a writers' group that Liu has previously headed, says he thinks a hard-line from the Chinese government will actually inspire more people to speak out.

"As we can also see in the situation in the past few years, there may have been more and more crackdowns, but we have not seen a decreasing number of dissidents, people expressing their views," said Poon.


"On the contrary, we are having more and more petitioners, more and more human rights defenders coming onto the scene.  I think that will only bring a reversal effect, if the Chinese government cracks down on the people, that will have a reverse effect, to get more people in the streets," he added.

The statement expressing the Chinese government's anger was carried on the Foreign Ministry's Webpage and aimed at outsiders.

Other than that, the news of the Nobel Peace prize going to Liu Xiaobo was not carried in Chinese media, and broadcasts of international TV channels carrying the news were temporarily cut.  Internet users could find information about it on the Internet, but only if they used proxies to get around cyber-blocks the Chinese government maintains to filter out information that it deems sensitive or illegal.

NASA Image of the Oct 7th..[ 1852 ]

The latest NASA "Image of the Day" image.

Soyuz Liftoff in Kazakhstan

The Soyuz TMA-01M rocket launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome in Kazakhstan at 7:10 p.m. EDT on Thursday, October 7, 2010 (5:10 a.m. Friday in Kazakhstan). 

Expedition 25 Soyuz Commander Alexander Kaleri of Russia, NASA Flight Engineer Scott J. 

Kelly and Russian Flight Engineer Oleg Skripochka are due to arrive at the International Space Station on Saturday, October 9.  

Credit: NASA/Carla Cioffi

Πέμπτη, 7 Οκτώβριος 2010 7:00:00 πμ