Archive for May 3rd, 2011
Thoughts On AV.
The discussion on the Alternative Vote scheme in Britain is stupefying, even for those with an interest in politics.
Whilst I wouldn’t dream of ever telling my UK readers how to vote, I did come across one gem on AV, by Waterloo Sunset.
I will paraphrase:
1. The vote on AV was a concession to the Lib Dems.
2. They have always been keen on voting reform and will swallow many of the unpalatable measures put forward by the Tories, for the sake of voting reform.
3. Should the Lib Dems not achieve voting reform then it increases the likelihood of the coalition breaking up.
4. If the coalition breaks up then probably there will be an election, and the Tories could lose.
5. So voting no to AV is one way of getting rid of the Lib Dem-Tory coalition.
A fine argument in my view.
Gaddafi’s Crimes Against Humanity.
Reuters on Gaddafi and the ICC:
“(Reuters) – International Criminal Court investigators have proof that Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi’s forces committed crimes against humanity, and the court’s chief prosecutor, Luis Moreno-Ocampo, said on Monday he would soon ask for up to five arrest warrants
.
The U.N. Security Council voted unanimously in February to refer Gaddafi’s violent crackdown against anti-government demonstrators to The Hague-based ICC and Moreno-Ocampo said his first recommendations for indictments should reach ICC judges within weeks.“We have strong evidence on the beginning of the conflict, the shooting of civilians,” he told Reuters in an interview, noting that killing unarmed civilians would qualify as a crime against humanity.
“Also, we have strong evidence of the crime of persecution,” he said. This includes “massive arrests and torture of people, and some forced disappearances … (for) talking to journalists or going to demonstrations.”
Without giving precise details of his proof, Moreno-Ocampo said “for these two crimes we have a lot of evidence.” He plans to brief the Security Council on his probe on Wednesday.
Once Moreno-Ocampo makes his recommendations to the ICC’s pretrial chamber, the judges must decide whether there are sufficient grounds to issue arrest warrants.
Moreno-Ocampo said he would initially ask for up to five arrest warrants, but disclosed no names. “
Nearly A Bin Laden Obituary.
I was part way through writing my own short obituary of Osama bin Laden when I changed my mind on what I wrote, a common predicament for bloggers, realising that my words didn’t convey what I wanted to say, so I will leave it for another day.
In the interim here is a partial round up of other people’s views on this event.
David Wood at HuffPost talks about National Counterterrorism Center: How A Little-Known Spy Agency Helped Track Down Osama Bin Laden.
Adam Holland says He died a coward.
AP on 9/11 kin praise bin Laden death while nursing pain.
Washington Post’s David Ignatius on How the U.S. found and finished Bin Laden.
Whilst most people welcomed bin Laden’s demise, not everyone did, Hamas Leader mourns Bin Laden’s death:
Time’s Bin Laden: Wives Can Say The Darndest Things.
Stop the War Coalition didn’t seem to happy about it, as their tweets suggest and with their link to that crank, Justin Raimondo.
Channel 4 News, The man who tweeted the US raid on Osama bin Laden without knowing.
Jeffrey Goldberg on The Warp-Speed Rise of ‘Deatherism’.
Elsewhere Twitter when mad at the news, nice graph.
The Economist doesn’t miss the political angle, what this means for 2012.
Foreign Policy on After truthers and birthers, deathers?
Jonathan Kay is good on The Immortal Terrorist.
The New Yorker ponders killing Osama: Was it legal.
Over at NPR, How Do They Know He Was Bin Laden?
The Beeb video is informative, Osama Bin Laden killed in top secret operation.
Finally, Trump Demands Bin Laden’s Long-Form Death Certificate: Hawaiian Investigators Sent to Pakistan.
