Moar 1/30/09

1. iraqi provincial electios tommorrow, and so far there hasnt been a noteworthy amount of violence. i guess everyone has accepted iraq being a democracy? will the people be voting against corruption? better schools? time will tell
2. EU and china summit back on. there was originally one for december but china cancelled it after the dalai lama was sposed to visit france. people need to face it. tibet will never be free and with china looking like the savior of the world economy right now the dalai lama will definitely die before he makes a noteable appearance in any major country
3. afghanistans presidential election has been put on hold for august. the interesting thing aout this is many groups wont recognize hamid karzais authority past may 20 which is when theyre supposed to have a new president. my guess is the us will install a new go to guy as karzai has put too much blame on america for civilian casualties and warming up to russia definitely wasnt part of the plan
4. turkeys recep tayyip erdogan in a bold move suggested obama should redefine what they consider to be terrorist organizations. turkey is obviously speaking of hamas and hezbollah. 2 democratically elected governments. turkey is a pretty stable and somewhat secular democracy with a NATO membership. theyre definitely worth listening to
5. IAEAs elbaradei believes the us and other countries should freeze sanctions on iran in return for a freeze on its nuclear program. sounds like a fair deal to me, low oil and these sanctions are eating iran alive