McCain, Hillary, UBL, Ahmadinejad, Qadhafi and All That


For a week or two John McCain and the Republicans were reduced to adopting one of their favorite punching bags, Hillary Clinton, as an ally. Hillary, much abused by the GOP over the past 16 years, is being used in TV ads to save the GOP from its own eight years of failed policies, both foreign and domestic. They have been essentially hiding behind her skirt, or pantsuit. Not to mention Britney Spears and Paris Hilton's whatever they wear.

Back in the real world- Arab media tour:
Arab media report that the Emir of Qatar, on a state visit to Iran, has invited President Ahmadinejad to attend the next summit of leaders of the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC). Except that the summit will not be in Doha this time, it will be in Muscat, Oman. Man o' man.
The world's most famous holocaust-denier, and GOP campaign mascot, did attend the last GCC summit at Doha. The better GOP mascot would be UBL, but he represents utter Republican failure to find him, dead or alive. McCain has promised to go in wherever UBL is and find him: maybe he will do that before next November? He did say that he has a plan for that. So did Nixon once say in '68 that he had a plan to end the Vietnam War, which turned out to be the invasion of Cambodia and the resurgence of the murderous Khmer Rouge. Nixon's plan, and Kissinger's, ended with the loss of all of Indo-China.

Algerian media report that the ruling party, ruling for the past 46 years, is getting ready to nominate current president Bouteflika for an unconstitutional third term. Bouteflika, in true Arab leadership fashion, is demurring, claiming he is not convinced of it. My eiyiees (that is a southern drawl).
Bouteflika means 'father of Teflika' or 'the one with a Teflika': but no one knows wtf a Teflika is. It sounds rather Greek to me than Arabic or even Berber. Teflika has a similar ring to it as sovlaki (dare I say even ouzu?). There are other Greek words that rhyme with Teflika, but I won't mention them here.

"The Chief of the Jordanian Diabetes Center, a former Health Minister, has said that half of Jordanian women over the age of 25 suffer from at least one serious disease. (It gets more interesting now) The official also said that 62% of Jordanian men suffer from sexual impotence problems to some degree. Ouch" Al-Khabar, Jordan.
Does this explain the phenomenon of rampant 'honor' killings in the country, sort of 'if you can't join them, kill them' ? But that would be the case if the only recognizable symbol of honor is.....anatomical. Oh well.

Lebanese legal authorities have issued an order for the arrest of Libyan leader Colonel Muammar Qadhafi. He is suspected in the disappearnce of the former leader of the Shi'a Amal movement in 1978. Imam Moussa al-Sadr disappeared during a visit to Libya in the summer of 1978, thirty years ago. The Libyans have always denied their responsibility for the disappearnce during the years of the Lebanese civil war. Except there are no records of al-Sadr ever leaving Libya or entering another country.

"A huge Saudi-American arms deal worth billions of dollars is waiting the return of Congress....The Saudis have taken a 'take it or leave it' attitude toward some demands that the deal be adjusted to meet Israeli concerns." Elaph.
"The Saudis note that they have other options. Recently a $4 billion arms deal was negotiated with Russia by chief of Saudi National Security, Prince Bandar Bin Sultan al-Saud, (he of other controversial famous arms deals). Ooops." Elaph
Cheers
Mohammed