Interesting Stuff # 47

Wasn’t there a time when Republicans knew something about economics?

Trudy Rubin: Why so little passion about Darfur?

On Sunday, the Save Darfur coalition will hold a mass rally in Washington to focus public outrage on the genocide in that country….
But, although the Sunday rally will be large, it appears the numbers won't be sufficient to make a truly powerful statement -- unless more demonstrators travel to Washington at the last minute. (For rally details, see www.savedarfur.org or www.genocideintervention.net…
After the Rwandan slaughter of 800,000 in 1994, there seemed to be strong public sentiment against permitting another such slaughter.
Bush reportedly wrote in the margins of a study on Rwanda: "Not on my watch." The movie "Hotel Rwanda," a true story about a hotel manager in Kigali who saved 1,200 guests from death by machete, gave Americans a graphic portrait of the Rwandan tragedy. Don Cheadle was nominated for an Academy Award for his role as the hotelier, Paul Rusesabagina, who proved that one man can make a difference.
So it was depressing to hear the real Rusesabagina speak at the Free Library of Philadelphia about his January 2005 trip to Darfur.
"What we didn't learn in Rwanda, we didn't learn in Darfur," he said bluntly. He recalled that, while flying back from Darfur, he watched a TV broadcast of the 60th anniversary celebrations of the liberation of Auschwitz.
"How many times shall we keep lying 'never again'?" he asked.

The Democrats Never Did Understand Economics
One thing about the Democrats, though, is that they can always make the Republicans look good by comparison. The latest Democratic proposal is for a "windfall profits tax," whereby they would steal the oil companies' money and create a windfall for themselves. This might be the single stupidest thing that could be done in connection with the current shortage of gasoline. If we steal the oil companies' money, the result will be less investment in drilling, pipelines and refineries, which means less supply of oil, which means higher prices indefinitely.

Chavez Wins It For Garcia (Venezuela has to buy oil!)

Pledging fealty to ‘vilayat e faqih’ in Iran’s impending war with the West

Venezuela, Bolivia, Cuba form economic/political alliance

Bolivia's new left-leaning president signed a pact with Cuba and Venezuela on Saturday that rejects U.S.-backed free trade and promises a socialist version of regional commerce and cooperation…. Dressed in his typical olive green uniform, Castro, who turns 80 in August, said sharing the spotlight with two younger, like-minded leaders "makes me the happiest man in the world."
The U.S.-backed Free Trade Area of the Americas hemispheric trade pact stalled last year, but Washington since has signed nine free-trade agreements with Latin American countries….
Chavez is likely eyeing Peru as a potential ALBA member if nationalist Ollanta Humala prevails in a presidential runoff expected for May 28 or June 4. Humala was the front-runner in the April election.

British troops in Iraq are afraid to open fire, secret MoD report confirms

British troops in Iraq "lack the confidence to open fire" because of a "fear of prosecution", says a confidential Ministry of Defence (MoD) report seen by The Sunday Telegraph.

It confirms that soldiers believe that if they shoot dead insurgents they will become embroiled in a "protracted investigation" and if prosecuted will receive "no support from the chain of command".

…
Patrick Mercer, the Tory spokesman on homeland security, who is a former infantry commanding officer, said last night: "We went through all of this in Northern Ireland 30 years ago and we arrived at rules of engagement that worked. The MoD has got to be held to blame for eroding a soldier's ability and willingness to defend himself. You can't send lads into action who are not completely confident that they will be backed to the hilt by the people who sent them to this war in the first place. The MoD has been consistently economical with the truth on this matter."

Third World veto leaves UN in budget crisis

Third world nations have blocked a sweeping United Nations reform package that is backed by the West, in an acrimonious showdown that has left the troubled organisation heading for a budget crisis in June….
Adam Thomson, Britain's deputy head of mission, expressed dismay at what he called the "destructive move" by the so-called Group of 77 - which represents 133 poorer nations - after it forced the vote in a UN budget committee that traditionally works by consensus. France's UN ambassador, Jean-Marc de la Sabliere, said: "This was a victory for the radicals."
Western diplomats fear that the ambush has sabotaged the best chance for reforming the organisation after its authority was left in tatters by disclosures of corruption and incompetence in the oil-for-food programme.
The UN also faces an immediate funding crisis following the 108-50 vote, since, at US insistence, the assembly agreed in December to delay setting a two-year budget until there was progress on reforms. Instead it set a temporary budget that will run out at the end of June.