Afghan Elections Abdullah Abdullah With Drawls

Abdullah Abdullah Afghan President Harmid Karzai's opponent in the upcoming Presidential elections has withdrawn his candidacy do to concerns over election fraud which occurred on a large scale during the first round of voting.

When the massive fraud was exposed critics accused the UN of covering up the widespread discrepancies in the vote tabulations. Kai Eide is the special representative of the secretary-general for the United Nations Assistance Mission in Afghanistan (UNAMA).

"Some of these allegations are based on private conversations whilst he was a guest in my home for two months," the Norwegian diplomat said, referring to Galbraith. "My view is that private discussions around the dinner table remain just that: private."

Peter Galbraith the top American Representative for the UN Mission in Afghanistan was fired after he exposed the widespread voter fraud.

"I think it's astonishing that the United Nations would dismiss an official because he was concerned about fraud in a UN-funded and UN-supported election," Mr Galbraith told The Times yesterday from his farmhouse in Vermont.

With Dr. Abdullah's with drawl Harmid Karzai is assured reelection as the run-off election will be cancelled. Considering that it was Karzai's political operation that is alleged to have committed the fraud along with allegations that his brother Ahmed Wali has been on the C.I.A pay roll for the last 8 years along with rumors of his involvement in the drugs trade yet Harmid Karzai has the complete backing of the American government.

Sadakazu Tanigaki Is An Idiot

On August 31 of this year the Liberal Democratic Party was handed a resounding electoral defeat at the polls for the first time in 54 years. With this defeat the Democratic Party of Japan became the first true opposition party to achieve political power in Japan's post war era. One would surmise that a political party being handed such a crushing defeat might seek to not only change their image but some of their more offensive policies.

Of course they are completely incapable of doing this or electing leaders who are not wedded to its past. In the leadership election held on September 25 party members voted to take a straight path to the past electing Sadakazu Tanigaki who has held cabinet posts in previous LDP governments. This despite its younger members advocating for such a break.

Mr. Tanigaki as lived up to the utter stupidity of of previous LDP leaders like Shinso Abe and Junichiro Koizumi and visited Yasakuni shrine in Tokyo in which several class A War Criminals are interred. Yesterday this complete moron topped any stupid statement ever made by Taro Aso when in made this comment about Prime Minister Yukio Hatayama's policy speech before Japan's Diet.

Sadakazu Tanigaki, head of the opposition LDP, said the premier’s speech lacked specifics and made a historical comparison to describe cheers from Hatoyama’s fellow lawmakers during the speech.
“I got the impression that the atmosphere in parliament was similar to the Hitler Youth agreeing to Hitler’s speech.”

Yea, just like the Hitler Youth because they agreed with the policies outlined by their parties leader and the countries duly elected Prime Minister.

In representative government there is compact between governors and the governed in essence one needs the other. In Japan this compact had worked until the bursting of the economic bubble in the 1990's which led to a 10 year economic malaise. Finally at the dawn of a new millennium the Japanese economy began a slow and difficult recovery. Junichiro Koizumi helped to orchestrate the recovery through small but needed reforms. After six years in office Koizumi vacated the office of Prime Minister to be followed by Shinso Abe, Yasuo Fukuda and Taro Aso the current Prime Minister. These three men have been failures with Aso the biggest one of all.

With the on set of the world economic crisis in September Aso acknowledged that its effects good heavily damage Japan's export economy. November arrives and the situation is deteriorating at an alarming rate Aso and the Liberal Democrats(LDP) propose an economic stimulus package which is never introduced for passage by the Diet. Why? Because the LDP no longer controlled both houses of Parliament for the first time since the end of World War II. That didn't matter because the Japanese Constitution accommodated this by allowing for a second vote in the Diet thereby enacting the legislation because a single party held a majority in that body.
With no economic stimulus on the horizon and thousands losing their jobs Aso and his government seem to be paralyzed and incapable of leading. That is what Japan needs a leader.
Yet Aso and the other members of Japan's ruling elite no matter where one casts their net leaders cannot be found. There is no Barrack Obama or anyone like him involved in politics at the national level in Japan.

Without a change in how politics is done in Japan the country will continue to produce leaders who are incapable of doing just that. Its time for the people of Japan rise up at levels of civil society and force these changes upon the ruling class through the ballot box.

I know its wishful thinking but dreaming is OK isn't

WaiWai For You

From the Mainichi Daily News its WaiWai fun for the whole family. As long as their over 18 and not members of some weird Right Wing group or Bill O'Reilly calling from the shower about falafel.

Idol curiosity has cybernetic songstress striking a chord with parents
Computer software that allows users to create their own songs and have them performed by a squeaky voiced "idol" singer is proving a massive hit -- among the middle-aged, according to Sunday Mainichi (12/9).

Called "Vocaloid 2 Hatsune Miku", the software uses computer-generated vocal sounds mixed with an actual human voice (in this installment, provided by voice actress Saki Fujita) that can be manipulated to perform any song.

The software, put on the market by Crypton Virtual Media, has proved popular because people can create their own tunes and fiddle with them however they like, apparently creating the image of being able to make a virtual idol singer in the home.

Cops pull plug on cabaret club serving pee on the rocks, plates of pubes
One of the most daring adult clubs in Osaka's Minami entertainment district has been shut down in what many say is the first strike in a campaign to clean up the area, according to Shukan Jitsuwa (12/6).

Six of the hostesses and a male customer of the "sexual cabaret club" Impulse were arrested last month for indecent exposure after the workers allegedly labored while entirely nude and the patron exposed his genitals.

Those alleged acts aren't the only indecency that appears to have gone on at Impulse

School libraries get textbooks that give the A to Z of AV
Junior high school libraries across Japan are about to get their first-ever books explaining in graphic detail the, er, ins and outs of the adult movie industry, according to Asahi Geino (12/6).

Headed for school library bookshelves is "Hito Mina Hadaka ni Naru (All People Get Nude)."The book was written by Baksheesh Yamashita, a 40-year-old veteran of 17 years working as an adult movie director.

"This book is not a sex education textbook," Yamashita tells Asahi Geino. "It's a book that explains what's going on in the adult video world now because I want junior high school pupils to know about these kinds of things."

Little Pebbles cultists smother on the yoghurt in bizarre 'bam bam' ritual
A carnally kooky cult with raunchy rituals and a German founder doing a long stint in an Aussie prison following a kiddy sex conviction are now making ripples with nipples in Japan, according to Flash (12/4).

Members of the Akita Prefecture-based Little Pebble willingly get their gear off for the weekly magazine and perform their ritual sex, with the scenes involving yogurt being generously smeared over the genitals and lots of mutual licking described in graphic detail by the magazine

Frisky filmmaker zooms in on Japan's 'palaces of hidden treasures'
Hihokan, literally "palaces of hidden treasures," are tacky sex museums that once dotted the Japanese landscape, but their image has taken a bit of a blow in recent years, prompting a philosophy student to make sure their heritage is preserved, according to Cyzo (December).

Ryohei Sasatani, the philosophy student from posh Doshisha University in the ancient capital of Kyoto, produced the self-funded tribute flick to the sex museums with "Showa Seichi Junrei Hihokan no Tainai (A Pilgrimage Around the Hallowed Places of the Showa Era <1925-1989>: Inside the Womb of the Palaces of Hidden Treasures

George Bush Doeasn't Know Peace

George Bush is holding a Middle East Peace Summit at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis Maryland this week with only thirteen months left in his Administration. Why anyone might consider this a break through in the peace process for that part of the world is beyond my comprehension.

George Bush's administration has avoided diplomacy at all most every turn believing (making an assumption here) that it wasn't sexy in the way armed conflict is. Throughout history armed conflict has achieved very little of course there are exceptions World War II being one of them. It begs the question: Doesn't being the leader of a country whose economic and military prowess has exceed that of any other known power in history make a case for diplomacy? Why then would one resort to armed conflict and the avoidance of diplomacy as a matter of stated policy?

George Bush choose armed conflict: Does he see himself as an historical figure in the making for having invaded Iraq a country which posed no political, economic or military threat to the United States under the guise of terminating a dictatorship and facilitating the emergence of representative government in a part of the world in which only three countries have that form of government with the rest being authoritarian regimes.

By rushing headlong into battle and avoiding diplomacy what has George Bush achieved? A Middle East which is more unstable today than when his predecessor left office. Iraq is a complete failure, Lebanon is politically unstable, Syria which could play a role in bringing stability to the region has been ignored as has the Palestinian Authority.

Iran is another case of incompetence at its highest levels. Starting with The Axis of Evil portion of Bush's January 2002 State of the Union Address. How does one except to engage a country any country in a meaningful dialog if one uses inflammatory language at every turn believing that will bring pressure to bear. Just the opposite has happened with the Iranian government taking an increasingly hard line stance on the one issue which concerns the Bush administration the most: Iran's nuclear program.

What has diplomatic avoidance achieved for President Bush and his administration one foreign policy failure after another. As for the Middle East peace summit its already a failure as President Bush has stated that

"U.S. cannot impose vision on Mideast, Bush says" President Bush on Wednesday told CNN he would personally "facilitate" peace negotiations between the Palestinians and Israelis, saying the formation of a democratic Palestinian state was the best way to bring peace to the region.

Facilitating peace in Bush's mind means working the phones and leaving the real work to someone else like the next president.

Leadership has many facets to it from the mundane to moments when history is made yet how many times has positive history been made at the end of a sword or gun.
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People are constantly effusive about the Japanese education system. What's so great about it? That students are not encouraged to be curious beyond what is being taught them: Japanese classrooms are case study for controlled chaos. A majority of the students just ignore the teacher. Bullying is a constant. Its not only done by the students the teachers also actively participate. I'm sure you want your child going to school six or seven days a week.

Japan has been ruled by the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP) since 1954. As with any single conservative party rule they strive to be the first ones to create a future to past type nation. They dnai any complicity for example of Japanese Imperial Army human rights violations during the Second World War

Japan is so modern that there was a crisis over the secession of who was to become the next emperor. Why was there a crisis? Because in a modern country one cannot allow a female to assented the imperial throne that would smack of being open minded and modern when it comes to women's rights.
The police here are pretty interesting as they spend most of their day giving directions or solving major crimes: bicycle theft.

Riding the train here can be quite an education as well as helping to perpetuate stereo types. Yes, you do see salary reading those manga that best left under the bed, High school girls who change their clothes, groups of friends who get on the train sit together and then bring out their mobile phones and proceed to ignore each other, sleeping on trains in Japan is an art form and yes you do see the occasional Sumo wrestler.






Sidewalk vending is controlled by the Yakuza.

If you by something to eat at a convenience store here you will be asked if you would like it heated up and you'll be given the necessary utensil to eat it with.

Train stations have parking garages for bicycles.



Akihabra is where Japanese Geeks hang out



Wait those aren't Geeks.

For those who thought that vending machines for used panties was an urban legend:

Pedophile nerd gets hard lesson on not stiffing teen hookers
A junior high schoolgirl prostitute in Hokkaido narrowly avoided punishment after her big sister pimp called the cops because a geekish john had run off without paying, according to Shukan Josei (11/27).

Instead, the 14-year-old girl's client, 30-year-old heater repairman Tsutomu Igarashi was arrested after he allegedly paid the girl for sex on 100 occasions from October last year until July this year after they met up through a mobile phone matchmaking service.

Americas Primary Season

The American election cycle is always interesting in that what is important usually turns out to be irreverent. Take the term flip flop for example: For that term applies to someone who truly can't make a decision about the simplest of issues. Yet in politics that term is used like one might use a gun. An example: Former Senator John Edwards of North Carolina voted for the law which authorized the use of force in Iraq. Over time John Edwards position on that resolution changed coming out against the war. For most people that would show an ability to analyze a previous position find fault with it and admit it. That shows growth as a person. In the world of partisan politics that was called Flip Flopping In May of 2004 a group financed by T Bone Pickens called Swift Boat Veterans for Truth launched a series of attacks against Senator John Kerry for his actions during his service in Vietnam. That none of what this group published or the television ads they produced were completely untrue didn't matter to the American media or anyone else it was a Good Story. Therefore it was OK to perpetuate the lie.

Once again its primary season and the stupidity has come fast and often. John Edwards was back in the news for his alleged $400 haircut. Did it matter that this particular hair-cut was provided at 11pm by his special request which required a hairstylist to come to the hotel on their time-off? Of course not it was a $400 hair-cut given to a "rich" Trail Lawyer. Like a nightmare that never goes way it will live for ever.

For reasons that just escape me two the most "important issues" concerning Hillary Clinton's campaign are neck lines and her marriage to Bill. Now I know her marriage to Bill Clinton has never been the subject of any investigations, newspaper, magazine, blog posts or books. Yet again and again Americas mainstream media for reasons all their own keep publishing stories on these two subjects. Will Hillary's fashion sense impare her ability to govern? Somehow I think not. Just her marriage to Bill Clinton isn't as important as how she'll govern the country.

Ah the silly season when all the important issues are brought to the forefront by the lazy American Media.