Osama bin Laden is – Dead?

For something this ‘unbelievable’, (it actually is pretty believable) I must give sources first. This page has a simple translation of a December 2001 article in an Egyptian newspaper where Osama’s death was given. This page has more information, including a picture of the original newspaper and a picture of a pretty sickly Osama in a December 2001 tape.

How come Osama’s 2004 tape has been reported as fake? And are his 2002 voice tapes fake as well? Even Israel apparently admits his death – along with Pakistani president Musharraf.

Of-course, it makes sense to perpetuate the myth of a living Osama who can serve as both a casus belli for more wars and a bogeyman to keep the Americans brainwashed in fear. Disinter is right in tagging his entry on this with ‘fear-mongers’ and ‘war profiteering’.

- Nishant

After ganging up on Ron Paul, Fox News removes his response from future broadcasts of the debate

What’s the point of ganging up on a candidate in an attempt to embarrass him, then removing his response from future broadcasts of the debate? It kind of defeats the purpose of showing him as a blubbering incoherent wreck. Unless – wait – he wasn’t a blubbering incoherent wreck, and actually answered the question better than anyone at the South Carolina Republican Debate could.

I’d like to draw your attention to Jason’s excellent analysis of Ron Paul’s treatment, which reveals just how afraid the establishment is of him. And, of-course, the fact that Fox News has cut off his response to their question on his ‘electability’.

Sorry Fox News; better luck hiding the truth next time. And to Ron Paul, excellent job at that debate – you remained cool, took everything they threw at you, and dished it right back at them.

Oh, and something new – if you’re interested in this, take a look at gillard’s compilation of Ron Paul’s responses in the same debate, well worth viewing.

- Nish

Kucinich Requests Vote Recount – Theory of Vote Irregularities Crosses into Real Life

As this post alerted me to, Democratic presidential candidate Dennis Kucinich (“wait, who?”) – who won about 2% of the vote in New Hampshire (“oh, one of those candidates) – is requesting a recount of the votes cast in the New Hampshire primary. Kucinich will have to pay for it: the cost is $2,000 if you have lost by a margin of 3% or less, otherwise you must cover the full cost of the recount. In a move which I don’t quite understand, Kucinich has sent off the $2,000 fee – that’s for candidates who lose by three percent or less, not for those who receive three percent or less of the vote. Unless it’s an obligatory down payment. In any case, Kucinich has said that he is not “making this request in the expectation that a recount will significantly affect the number of votes that were cast on my behalf”.

Anyway, Kucinich can sort out the money himself. I do think it is a good idea to call this recount – obviously the only person who has anything to gain from it is Obama, who lost by a slim margin of 2%. It wouldn’t look good on Obama to call for a recount himself, (sore loser anyone?) so it’s probably best for Kucinich to do it. The Deputy Secretary of State, David Scanlan, says that he has “every confidence” that the results are accurate; but who cares, it’s Hillary who has the most to lose here. (Apparently those voting machines that favoured her can be hacked within ten minutes).

You have to admire Kucinich for this – I never thought that online allegations of election fraud would cross the boundary into real life action.

- Nish

Election Fraud in New Hampshire: Significant Evidence that Hillary shouldn’t have Won

    Firstly, I’d like to thank Jason for bringing this issue to my attention.

This is the U.S.A right? The country that invades countries and funds foreign governments in the name of ‘promoting democracy’ right? (Or not). Maybe America’s taking tips from Kenya.

Let’s skip to the point. In the New Hampshire primary, some votes were counted by hand and some were counted with the aid of a machine. You’d expect the percentage of votes won by each candidate to be roughly the same in the hand-counted votes and the machine-counted votes right? Wrong.

In the hand-counted votes, (which are harder to rig) Clinton won 34.7% whereas Obama won 38.8% – he won. However, in the machine-counted votes Clinton won 40.1% and Obama won 35.8%. Suspicious no? The machine-counted votes gave Hillary 5% more and Obama 3% less. I find it hard to believe that there should be such significant differences with both candidates – especially if both difference benefit the candidate favoured by the establishment. Here is a page with a whole bunch of figured detailing the differences between machine and hand counted cotes.

Of-course, just like Kenya, it’s not like anything will happen. After all, it’s America – land of freedom and democracy. How could the elections have been rigged?

- Nishant

Obama gets Kerry’s Endorsement

Just a heads-up here, John Kerry will soon (or has recently) announce his endorsement of Barack Obama for Democratic presidential candidate. His main reason is that Obama is the candidate with the best chance of uniting America. Interestingly, he also said that Obama’s ‘inexperience’ is an advantage: “Because of his newness on the scene, he has not created the political opposition and enemies that come with extensive service in politics. He is a clean slate.”, in his own words.

Read the whole article here.

Woman who led to the ‘Crying Clinton’ incident voted for Obama

    The title says it all; for more information, I’d like to direct you to the original article.

Of particular interest (at least to me) is this comment by Ms Young, the freelance photographer who caused the incident.

Clinton takes New Hampshire – but Equal in Delegates and Losing in Educated Votes

It’s old news by now, but Clinton has won the popular vote in New Hampshire. Jason is right – it’s time New Hampshire changed their motto. The former president’s wife beat Obama by 2% of the vote to win the early state. On the Republican side, McCain beat Romney by a comfortable 6%; as Errington Thompson says, Romney is the real loser here.. Getting back to the primaries, are the two victories unconnected? I think not. Obama and McCain both benefit from the support of a majority of independent voters. That the media portrayed Obama as the clear favourite before the election must have resulted in these independents deciding that he didn’t need their support, and instead shifting their votes to McCain. The good news here is that Obama hasn’t lost the support of these voters that carried him in Iowa, they simply thought he could win without their support. Optimism with a dash of hope leads me to believe that these voters will return to back Obama in the coming primaries, (e.g. South Carolina). The bad news here is that independents cannot vote in the Democratic primaries in many states to come.

Hillary’s made a lot of ruckus about the parallels between her victory in New Hampshire and that of her husband, which resulted in him winning the nomination. However, the opposition that she faces is very different from what her husband faced – voters have a clear figure to rally around this year in Obama, (Edwards’s definite defeat in this primary might result in some of his supporters shifting their support to Obama simply to keep Hillary out). Clinton the First did not face such a unified opposition.

Finally, and perhaps very importantly, both Hillary and Obama walk away from this election with 9 delegates, meaning that Obama is still ahead in elected delegates. See this post for videos of the post-primary speeches of both candidates. And if you want more on the New Hampshire primary, see this informative analysis.

- Nishant

PS: 39% of college graduates voted for Obama, 5% more than those who voted for Hillary.

Obama and McCain lead in first two New Hampshire towns

As Jason reports, Obama has come out with a clear lead in the first two towns in New Hampshire to report their results. He’s beaten Clinton by 9 votes to 3 in one, and Edwards by 7 votes to 2 in the other. On the Republican side, McCain has taken the towns, though by a smaller margin, beating Romney by 4 votes to 2 in the first town. It’s even closer in the second town, where he just won by 6 votes to Huckabee’s 5 – and Ron Paul in third place with 4 votes! Hopefully a good sign of things to come.

- Nish

So Hillary’s sad about falling behind – big deal.

    The title might sound a bit rough, but seriously, what does it matter that Hillary shed some tears when asked a question by a voter in New Hampshire? (Unless you’re living under a rock, you should know that New Hampshire has its primaries today – here’s a page that updates at intervals). Does her crying in front of a voter provide any information about her political policies? No. Does it give any reason that we should vote for her? No. Heck, it doesn’t even attack her opponents, (something that Hillary is not averse to doing when behind in polls). Therefore, whether her tears were sincere or not, the only purpose they served was to attempt to emotionally influence voters – a pretty hard task when you consider the public view of her as a cold and hard person – JT’s implication that Clinton is a robot created in the 1960s pretty much hits the spot.

If she wants to pull ahead in the polls, maybe she should stop resorting to underhanded tactics; I don’t care if those tears were sincere, a president should have enough control to hold back tears in public. Instead, focusing on what she’s doing wrong would be a good step – although frankly, I’m in full support of her blundering away and handing the nomination to Obama or Edwards.

- Nish

Kenya Death Toll being kept Artificially Low

Living in Tanzania, I’m frequently able to talk with refugees that are constantly streaming into the country from Kenya. Something that I have repeatedly heard from many refugees here is that the actual death toll in Kenya is at least 1000. The official government figure is 486, but the Kenyan police have stated that there are at least 600 dead, with more bodies still hidden in bushes. Furthermore, according to refugees that I’ve met, there are areas in the deep slums which the police have barely set foot in since Kibaki stole the election: these areas house scores of bodies. From listening to the refugees, it seems that 1000 killed is a conservative figure – and the death toll looks set to rise even more, considering that the Kenyan army has been sent into Kibera to quell unrest (i.e. kill people).

There’s really nothing left to add to this that I haven’t said before. Odinga has had to call off his nationwide protests scheduled for tomorrow because of this violence; protests that he has every right to hold. (At least protests can still be held in the UK).

There may not be much left to write about this, but first-hand photos can tell the story in greater depth – here’s another good blog to find some pictures.

- Nishant