No one needed Wikileaks to learn about the latest diplomatic flops in the world. Let’s take a minute to amuse ourselves yet again with those consummate diplomats, the French.
French diplomacy, which seemed to enjoy a pretty good reputation as reasoned and measured during the Bush administration, has taken a nose dive. It’s amateurish to the point of cartoonish. Let’s consider recent events.
This weekend, French Foreign Minister Michele Alliot-Marie “resigned” her post to be replaced by the once exiled Alain Juppé. Now this is a story that is worth following just for the pleasure of seeing that other nations have screwed up politics. Alliot-Marie had ties to now deposed Tunisian President Ben-Ali. Here is a short list:
· Alliot-Marie had accepted visits to Tunisia in the private plane of a wealthy Tunisian businessman who is connected with Ben-Ali. That created a scandal back in December.
· Her parents and she are involved in a real-estate deal with the same business man, that broke while she was in Tunisia on vacation.
· She offered Ben-Ali the assistance of French security forces in crowd control. Not such a good thing to do in a former colony.
Her replacement, Alan Juppé has been serving as Defense Minister. This has helped re-integrate him into the French political scene after being convicted in 2004 for participation in Chirac’s jobs scandal during Chirac's mayoral tenure in Paris. He was given a 14 month suspended prison sentence and a one year ban from participating in French politics. He was mayor of Bordeaux throughout the whole thing.
Then there was the holiday taken by Prime Minister Francois Fillon to Egypt last fall. Much of his week-long vacation was paid for by the Egyptian government. Oops. Joke in France now is if you want to know which regime will fall next, see where French politicians are going on vacation. As a result of this, Sarko has declared that all French officials had to take their holidays in France. Just take a moment to digest the comic irony in that. Do you get the vision of little Napoleon jumping up and down complaining that none of his ministers like France well enough to vacation in it, so he’ll make them!
If you all recall, it was Sarkozy who tried to launch a Mediterranean Union in 2008. There was one meeting at the launch and nothing since. There was an attempted meeting in November, but it was postponed. The Co-president of the barely-formed Union was none other than Hussny Mubarak. How times have changed.
The most recent and comic blunder is a tit-for-tat with the Turks. There is no love lost between French President Sarkozy and Turkish Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. Again, no need for Wikileaks to know that. But it reached a comic level this weekend.
It all started with Erdogan expressed his disappointment that Sarkozy was coming to Ankara in his capacity as head of the G20 rather than as President of France. Both Erdogan and the Turkish President, Abdullah Gul have both been to France, and I suspect that they expected a reciprocal visit. Back in 2009, when Gul went, Sarko greeted him while chewing gum. Probably not very polite.
The personal rapport between Sarko and Erdogan is sour. Erdogan went on to acknowledge as much when he said, “Relations between political leaders shouldn’t erode relations between two countries.” He was disappointed that the visit was only scheduled for 6 hours. In an expression of his disappointment, he sent a Foreign Ministry Undersecretary and the Mayor of Ankara to greet Sarkozy.
Then, to add insult to injury, Sarko descended down the stairs of his plane openly chopping away on gum. Crude little habit, I’d say.
At the end of the visit, Sarko holds a press conference with Gul rather than the Prime Minister where he says Turkey's accession would “destabilize” the EU. This further offended the Turks. But they got the last word on this trip. The Mayor of Ankara, who was part of the delegation seeing Sarko off at the airport, put a wad of gun in his mouth and chewed away as he said good-bye.
Monday, February 28, 2011
Double Your Pleasure, Double your Fun With Double Mint Gum
Posted by USWest at 9:47 AM 3 comments
Friday, February 25, 2011
Another Mysogynist
So now some democratically elected office in Georgia wants to make miscarriages illegal. Cobb County Representative Bobby Franklin has proposed a bill that would potentially define a miscarriage as "parental murder".
Now this bill will probably die. But what a tactic to use. What he really wants is to outlaw abortion. So he proposes something outrageous like this, then he "negotiates" away the crazy parts and campaigns on what a "reasonable", "bipartisan" person he is. In the meantime, everyone in the opposition wastes time knocking this crap out of the way rather than focusing on the big stuff.
Who's to say that Walker in Wisconsin isn't using the same tactic against unions? It's good that the Obama Administration isn't getting involved in this type of stuff. It's better for them to stay focused on the big stuff and not get drawn into these fights. They are right to let their state organizations do that fighting.
Update:2/28/2011
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Posted by USWest at 8:06 AM 5 comments
Wednesday, February 23, 2011
Walker and Union Busting for Benefits
Check this out: Rachel Madow has outed Scott Walker. What a sleaze ball! And when you are done with the video, go for this article where a journalist, posing as David Koch totally bonks Scott.
Visit msnbc.com for breaking news, world news, and news about the economy
Posted by USWest at 2:28 PM 4 comments
The Nature and Quality of American Democracy
A recent comment and tangent to an earlier thread about the Middle East has lead to a request for a new thread on the nature and quality of American democracy. One anonymous commenter argued that the US "Never has, never will be a democracy." This commenter started by implying that anyone who disagreed with this view was suffering from a "delusion." I hesitate to engage such statement but US West would like to discuss it and I respect her so here is my first pass at starting just such a conversation.
First, I think it is important to understand that whether a country is a democracy or not is about the process used to determine policies not about policy outcomes. This is consistent with most of the political science research on the nature of democracy. A good example of this kind of literature is Polyarchy by Robert Dahl. It’s an old book but the definition of “polyarchy” (the term Dahl coins for regimes that are close enough to the democratic ideal as makes little difference), or something very much like it has become the standard working definition of democracy in political science. Dahl’s definition is about process not outcomes. He does not say “democracies have income disparity measures between this and this level” or “anything other than minimal flat taxation is undemocratic” or “democracies have this level of welfare spending” or “democracies have this level of unionization.” Rather he focuses on whether there are free and competitive elections and freedom of the press, speech, association etc. But this view goes far beyond the personal views of Robert Dahl. The process not outcomes definition is the standard in the field.
Second, given the standard definition of democracy, we can say that the United States is clearly a representative democracy (Dahl would call it a “Polyarchy” but that’s just semantic preference on his part really). We enjoy free, competitive elections. We also enjoy a range of rights that support the free competitive nature of those elections namely: freedom of association, freedom of the press, freedom of speech etc. We also enjoy a relatively stable rule of law with an independent judiciary and the right to due process before our life, liberty or property is taken away by the state (with some relatively isolated exceptions which we have complained about on this blog before). Any assertions that the United States is not a democracy are either based exaggerated definitions of democracy that make it an ideal that is impossible to attain (and so not a practical basis for reasoned discussion) or based on erroneous or highly selective use of evidence.
For example, debating about the degree of income inequality in the country, or the level of unionization etc really amounts to a debate about policy outcomes. Framing such a debate in terms of “my view represents democracy and the opposing view does not” is not really productive either for reasoned policy debate or a reasoned discussion of what democracy is.
All that said, there are useful questions about how our processes could be reformed (I might say "improved"). For example, money plays a big role in our elections because of the nature of our campaign finance laws. A reasoned person could argue that the representative quality of our democracy would be improved by instituting something like public financing for campaigns. Another example, commonly raised, is that our primary and secondary electoral rules distort representation. Specifically, some people would prefer that the US adopt a more proportional electoral system such as proportional representation, the single transferable vote or alternative list method for counting votes and assigning seats in the legislature. Others focus on how district shapes are assigned. Still other reform advocates suggest that voting should be made mandatory. But none of these dimensions of possible reform are of the order that we would expect to see if we were to claim that the US is not a democracy.
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 2:06 PM 46 comments
Sunday, February 20, 2011
The Future US Role in the Middle East
The measured US response that leaned increasingly towards the pro-democracy demonstrators combined with the stark contrast between the government responses to similar demonstrations in US ally, Bahrain and former Soviet client and pan-arabist dictatorship, Libya may be setting up a new role for the US in the Middle East.
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 9:26 AM 16 comments
On Wisconsin!
The situation in Wisconsin is really touching a nerve with me. Governor Walker (R) was elected as part of the Republican victory in 2010. He is now proposing a combination of policies that the country recognizes as a preview of things to come for many state governments. In his first month in office, Governor Walker pushed through a package of tax cuts for corporations. Wisconsin's corporate tax rates are comparable or below those of their main neighbors: Illinois, Minnesota, and Iowa (Wisconsin and Michigan share a border along the base of the Upper Peninsula but this is a sparsely populated part of Michigan that depends largely on mining which cannot relocated because of tax rates). Wisconsin's personal income tax rates are slightly higher than those in Illinois and Iowa but somewhat lower than those in Minnesota. Wisconsin's sales taxes are lower than those of Illinois, Iowa and Minnesota. I go through these comparisons to suggest that Wisconsin's citizens are not excessively taxed. Wisconsin's tax rates are comparable especially to its neighbors. This is important because a major argument that state leaders put forward for cutting taxes - especially on businesses is to encourage new businesses to relocate to their state and deter old businesses from relocating out of their state. My brief survey of Wisconsin tax rates suggests that this probably not a major problem for the Badger State.
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 5:53 AM 11 comments
Saturday, February 19, 2011
Manah Manah Doo Doooo Doo Doo Doo
Sorry, I can't get that song out of my head (because of the capital of Bahrain). So the revolutions and uprisings against dictators in the Middle East continue. Yemen, Bahrain and Libya are all best with massive demonstrations. Yemen is not that surprising as the country is already fighting two separate civil wars plus dealing with the largest branch of Al Qaeda outside of the Afghanistan-Pakistan theater. All three are deadly serious. But Bahrain and Libya are more interesting because their regimes were not so unstable to begin with.
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 5:27 AM 1 comments
Friday, February 18, 2011
Government Shut Down
So unless a continuing resolution or a budget is passed before March 4th, the government will shut down. Tea Partiers will see just how valuable the 200,000 civil servants who work in the "big government" are to our security and comfort as a nation. Civil Servants aren't paid when on furlough and many of us won't be shopping in our time off. Boehner had the audacity to say that he really didn't care about civil servants being unemployed. That means he doesn't care about the rest of America either. Everything is linked together. So if the government closes, Social Security isn't paid, taxes aren't filed or returns paid, contractors who work for the government aren't paid (many of them small businesses). A shut down would devastate the economy-especially if it goes on 5 days like the last shut down did.
I think this is a game of chicken. The Republicans will blink first. It would look real bad to get a majority in the House and then shutdown government. But then, I am convinced that some of these people care way too little about Americans.
Barbara Boxer co-sponsored a bill today that would prevent the President and Congress from being paid in the event of a shutdown and would prevent them from being retroactively paid. Good for her. Let's hope it doesn't have to be implemented.
Posted by USWest at 5:08 PM 5 comments
Wednesday, February 16, 2011
The 2012 Budget and Presidential Leadership
President Obama's proposed 2012 budget doesn't bother me as a budget document. It is not a proposal to solve all our growing fiscal crisis, however. It is just a proposed operating budget. The GOP is hammering Obama for lack of leadership. To some extent they have a point. What the Republicans wanted was for the President to propose the unpopular cuts. He didn't; he proposed the easier ones. That was smart. It is a good idea to force the GOP to stop taking potshots from the sidelines as they have done for two years and instead take some responsibility for governing. Want a balanced budget without raising taxes? Make a proposal. Let the country see just how much it will cost them to keep the Bush tax cuts for the super rich. Otherwise, let's talk turkey about how we reduce deficits during a recession without screwing everyone. Republicans need to be forced to admit that they can't solve the problems we face without serious cuts to very popular programs or some tax increases on the wealthiest among us. Until they do, and as long as they insist on claiming that the problem is Obama being a spendthrift, then there is no reason for the President to save their bacon. He needs a partner in Congress. If not, we can wait. I suspect we will have to wait.
On the other hand, I DID want to see the President take a stab at the entitlement issue. I do not mean I want him to adopt the idiotic proposals of his blue-ribbon commission. Those proposals are basically cuts. Good riddance. No. I wanted him to be 100% crystal clear that we are not going to cut or reduce social security, and that we will solve this entitlement problem through other budget spending cuts or raising the social security tax cap. That is leadership on the issue.
He does need to lay down the law on this issue and a few others, not just say "everything's on the table in private back-room negotiations." That's not transparency for you. So yes, President Obama, take the lead. Oppose "entitlement reform" where it means just screwing the taxpayers out of their old-age security. Instead remind the American people that Social Security and Medicare must be paid for, and that means we may need to restore some of the tax rates of the 1990s (the prosperous 1990s) on the wealthiest.
Posted by The Law Talking Guy at 6:20 PM 7 comments
Tax Reforms for the Wealthy
I just had the pleasure of doing my taxes for 2010. Good news, I get a return. Bad news, I thought it would be a bit larger. But welcome to the middle class where 35% of your income is taken off the top. So I start listening to all the budget talk. Most of the proposed cuts I hear about are cuts to things that benefit the poor and middle class: heating assistance, baby formula assistance, community redevelopment funds, etc. All of this while the unemployment rate lingers around 10%, prices for food and fuel are up, people are taking pay freezes and cuts, etc.
So I want to know what the wealthier set will be asked to sacrifice. This is what my search turned up.
- Ending tax breaks for coal, oil, and gas sectors. Oil, gas and fossil fuel companies would lose tax breaks and subsidies and have to pay more taxes on profits.
- Re-introducing an environmental corporate tax (Superfund taxes for clean-ups)
- Ending tax breaks for businesses who transfer profits overseas
- Increasing taxes on financial partnerships and hedge funds
- Cap tax deductions on things such as charitable donations and mortgage interest paid by the wealthiest Americans (comes to about a 30% decrease in itemized tax deductions)
- Allowing Bush tax cuts to lapse for those making over $250K a year.
- A proposed tax on the largest financial firms and banks (which the Republicans oppose)
The New Yorker had a good article on tax reform. It's worth a look.
Posted by USWest at 8:20 AM 5 comments
Saturday, February 12, 2011
Gutenberg, Zuckerberg and Egypt
We all remember from our high school history classes (hopefully) how important the invention of the printing press was for the development of modern society – including democracy. Relatively widespread access to printed information made it easier for people to organize politically. They could print books about new political ideas, leaflets about immediate actions or current events, and keep the records needed to maintain a long lasting political organization. The enormous impact of the invention of the printing press is well known. We are almost certainly witnessing a socio-technological change of similar proportions with the emergence of social media as a political resource. Zuckerberg may be the new Guttenberg.
Central to much of the literature on democratization and revolutions is the idea that reaching a certain level of development makes new democracies more stable (see previous post on this blog of Jan 29th for a far from exhaustive sampling). Implicit in these arguments is the belief that economic development makes it easier for likeminded individuals to organize to the point where they become politically effective for a long term. The idea is that people find it easier to organize when they have more economic resources. They have easier access to information and the skills and tools required to communicate with likeminded people and coordinate political action with them.
Access to information is central to political organization. It is impossible to formulate any kind of effective political response to a situation if you do not know what your options are or what the preferences of the other major political players are. In the old days, political scientists and sociologists used to count things like the number of radios, TVs, and newspaper subscriptions per 1000 households. These things cost money and for a long time, access to these things was largely restricted to the wealthiest countries or the elites within developing countries.
Setting up a lasting political movement requires a fair amount of skill. Higher literacy rates help potential political activists circulate information among them. In the old days the thinking was someone with a printing press or mimeograph machine or something would print off thousands of leaflets and distribute them around. These could be simply for propaganda purposes or let people know to show up at this or that square in a few days for a big demonstration or organizing meeting for a new political party. Without these kinds of resources, individual people who want to change their political environment may not be able to coordinate their actions. They may not know how many think like they do or how many are willing to risk a crackdown by the police to challenge the regime.
Egypt may change the thinking on all of this radically. It's fairly well known that Egyptians (and people in lots of other non-democracies) have been using Youtube to circumvent state media censorship for some time. Also, there is a lot of talk in the news that the Egyptian uprising was originally set in motion by a marketing exec for Google-Egypt and group of computer savvy young people who intentionally used social media like Facebook and Twitter to get as many people out on the streets as possible in very short order. These things, combined with relatively inexpensive computer (and smart phone) technology, have revolutionized the thinking about what it takes to overcome the difficulties in coordinating political activities. Now, a really big demonstration can be organized in hours. Emerging political parties can use social media to get the word out to their members and get information back from them about their desires and priorities. I even heard a pundit on CNN talk about how he had heard that the CIA was ordering all their station chiefs located in non-democracies to look into the local availability of social media. The clear implication of the conversation was that the CIA was looking into encouraging the spread of such technology in non-democracies where the US government would like to see more democratization (like Iran, Syria or China).
I personally know of several social scientists who are already studying the political importance of social media. One of them had decided to focus his research on the importance of social media for political revolutions even before things broke in Tunisia and Egypt. Applying this sort of research to revolutions and democratization is about to explode.
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 1:40 PM 4 comments
Egypt, Israel, and the United States
So I've been engaged in a running debate with a couple of people about what the revolution in Egypt means for Israel. These two both believe that the USA betrayed Mubarak and that this is will end in an Iran-like regime that will dissolve the peace treaty with Israel and support more terrorism. They think Obama is stupid for not having tried to stop this dangerous revolution. Both are Democrats, but make the mistake that some Americans make of viewing everything through the lens of "is it good for Israel?" I've had to read their rants about how Muslims are "animals" who are incapable of democracy. In their view, Israel is completely blameless vis-a-vis the Palestinian - that Israelis are victims, plain and simple. Nevermind that Palestinians live under Israeli rule, and not the other way around. Nevermind that the relative civilian casualty count is more than 100 to 1 against the Palestinians. Nevermind that there hasn't been a car bomb or suicide bomber in Israel proper for years. Nevermind that every day Israel expands its settlements into the West Bank. I'm fed up to here (indicate neck) with this attitude. And I'm an American who is quite sympathetic to the Jewish people and their cause in Israel otherwise. This is exactly the attitude of the Netanyahu government that prevents any meaningful peace agreement.
So let's get a few things straight. The decision of the British in 1916 to conquer rather than liberate the Ottoman Arab territories, then encourage large scale European Jewish immigration into Palestine without the consent or even dialog with the existing mostly Arab colonial population was bound to, and did, cause resentment. It really didn't matter how peaceful and friendly the Jews intended to be or actually were. The British decision to divide the Arab world into various subject countries and install kings in TransJordan, Egypt, Iraq, and Saudi Arabia, was not calculated to win friends either. The third British decision - to ban Jewish immigration halfway through the project and abandon the situation to the same division of territory that has been so successful in Ireland and Kashmir - was equally disastrous. So the table was set really badly by the British. The Cold War made it worse, with the USSR supporting Arab nationalists against "American/Zionist aggressors" and the USA supporting in turn "moderate" dictatorships to keep oil flowing while trying to buttress Israel. All this is before the Israelis and Palestinians themselves made their own messes. Palestinian "leaders" like Arafat committed to a horrific strategy of terrorism and the Israelis began to create permanent settlements in the occupied territories, making it clear they were not leaving. It's now been more than 40 years of Israeli rule over millions of Palestinian Arabs who are not given any political rights in the Israeli state, but not allowed to have a state of their own. It's almost irrelevant that the Israelis have been pretty good rulers all told, permitting more liberty to Palestinian Arabs than they could have had elsewhere. It's almost irrelevant that the vast majority of Palestinians have had no connection to terrorism. Even if you decide that the Arab decision to engage in terrorism and start the 1967 and and 1973 wars make them by far the guiltier party, it does not mean that Israel is blameless, and it certainly does not mean that we should unquestioningly support the continued Israeli policy of occupation and gradual squeeze-out of the Palestinian Arab population denied political rights in their own country.
It is also a big mistake to think that Arabs are incapable of democracy or peaceful coexistence for cultural or religious reasons. First, it is historically idiotic. For most of the time since Mohammed's birth, Jews have been much, much happier in the religiously tolerant Muslim countries than in Christian ones. The holocaust wasn't their doing - it was the product of European/Christian civilization. Second, it is racist. Arabs are people too. Their problems are political, geopolitical, and economic at root, and the cultural stuff is largely epiphenomenal. Third, it's just an attitude designed to be self-fulfilling. Deny people liberty on the theory that they can't handle it and they will not learn how. Fourth, it pisses off everyone in the region to no end.
Israel is our best friend in the region. It ranks with Canada and the UK as our best friends in the world. But just as we tried to make peace in Northern Ireland rather than just supporting the UK (or just opposing it), we need to have get fucking perspective on the situation in Israel.
Posted by The Law Talking Guy at 8:03 AM 2 comments
Friday, February 11, 2011
Watershed Event in Egypt
Hosni Mubarak has officially resigned and left Cairo. His future will now be one of cocktails on beaches and old boy retreats with the Stonecutters. What will this mean?
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 8:15 AM 2 comments
Monday, February 07, 2011
Bye-bye, DLC
I'm sure you all are heartbroken.
The Democratic Leadership Council, the centrist Democratic group that once dominated the party and provided much of the core intellectual framework of the Bill Clinton presidency, could be on the verge of demise.
Ben Smith at Politico reports:
The Democratic Leadership Council, the iconic centrist organization of the Clinton years, is out of money and could close its doors as soon as next week, a person familiar with the plans said Monday.
Interestingly, the DLC's associated think tank, the Progressive Policy Institute, appears to still be alive and well.
Posted by Bell Curve at 5:50 PM 5 comments
Saturday, February 05, 2011
The EU, Turkey and the Emerging New Middle East
A couple of recent threads about Egypt have seen comments/posts by Law Talking Guy and US West about the emerging new Middle East, Turkey's place in it and the EU's possible increased interest in Turkey because of it. This all got me thinking about whether the EU would see Turkish accession to the EU as something that helped the EU in the new Middle East or a risky thing. It also gets wrapped up in the advantages/disadvantages of Turkish membership in the EU regardless of Turkey's geopolitical position or geographical location. I'll start with what we know and then move to a more speculative discussion.
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 11:38 AM 7 comments
Thursday, February 03, 2011
Hosni Mubarak: General, Tyrant, and Complete Idiot
Pardon me while I vent...
Posted by Raised By Republicans at 5:40 PM 8 comments
Tuesday, February 01, 2011
Remaking the Map of the Middle East
What is happening in Egypt today is going to remake the map of the Middle East. Until a couple weeks ago, American policymakers had a particular view of the region. The twin goals, not as compatible as we would like, were to support Israel and protect the flow of oil from the Gulf states. The Egyptian-Israeli peace accord of 1977 and the Iranian revolution of 1979 defined US foreign policy for the last 30 years after the USSR essentially stopped meddling in the region outside of Afghanistan. The Egyptian-Israeli accord pacified Suez (which was repeatedly blocked in the 1947-77 period). The US committed billions of dollars in payments to Egypt tied to the size of the aid packages given annually to Israel. The USA spends several billion a year on Egypt and Israel. We then pursued a policy of making nice to Gulf states, with the lynchpin being Saudi Arabia, and the goal of keeping them from military antagonism with Israel and out of the hands of Iran and its Islamists. The decision to use military force to protect one of the Gulf states in 1990 demonstrated how far the USA was willing to go to keep this structure in place. This still left as big issues, Syria, Jordan, and Iraq. The policy on all three was to try to herd them toward "moderation" - which meant no confrontation with Israel and no cozying up to Iran, and no opposing the USA. Success in Jordan, failure in the other two places. The USA finally just invaded Iraq entirely in an effort to deal with its destabilizing potential. Meanwhile the Israeli/Palestinian conflict dragged on, intensified, and created anger in the Arab street against their "moderate" governments like Mubarak and King Hussein who wouldn't really do anything about it.
Now this is about to unravel. We do not know what has been unleashed in Egypt, or what to do about it: only that we want to keep Suez open and the Camp David accords in place. But new governments in Egypt, Tunisia, may be more democratic but will almost certainly be less willing to continue doing nothing about the demands for action involving Israel. This will put pressure on the remaning more fragile dictatorships and kingdoms to take a harder line against Israel. It puts Iraq's fledgling government in a terrible position as the most aligned with the USA and by extension Israel. The specter of newly-democratized states using their oil leverage to squeeze the USA into abandoning Israel is a nightmare that now may loom. A return to the 1967-73 period would be a disaster. Recommendation to Israel: make peace fast and move past this scenario. (Wikileaks has told us that the two sides are not really all that far apart.)
Posted by The Law Talking Guy at 5:13 PM 8 comments
The Scent of Jasmine
So in the news today, other than Egypt:
- King Abdullah of Jordan disbanded his government and appointed a former General as his new prime minister.
- On the West Bank, they are rushing to hold municipal elections, the first since 2006.
- Syrians are trying to organize mass demonstrations for Saturday. One of my Syrian employees was trying to reach her family in Damascus most of the day yesterday and the phone lines were down. You decide why that was the case. She finally got through yesterday evening. Her family had been trying to contact her from their end as well with no success.
- And there were protest in Lebanon last week when a Hezbollah candidate was selected as Prime Minister.
Posted by USWest at 8:50 AM 6 comments
