Friday, September 14, 2007
President Basescu: Vosganian is incompetent, Adomnitei is failure
The President of Romania Traian Basescu can see nothing discriminating in his words about Armenians, but he renews his critique of "incompetent" Varujan Vosganian, the Romanian economy minister. And yesterday he also called Cristian Adomnitei, the education minister "an official who failed the building test, the only field he proved competent in", because the minister hasn't achieved the school repair operation.
When asked to comment on the National Council against Discrimination's action against him, the President claimed he had just uttered some words compensatory for the Armenians, after having publicly called Varujan Vosganian "an incompetent minister". And he pointed: "It is just that Varujan Vosganian hasn't settled his problem". He argued on that the budget project authored by the Ministry of Economy didn't include funds for buying two new presidential aircrafts, which proved Vosganian's anger. The President added: "He didn't eliminate two planes for the President, but two planes for TAROM company". He mentioned it was about an agreement between ex PM Adrian Nastase and ex French PM Jean-Pierre Raffarin. "when with the highways, planes and personal fare". He actually meant a statement he had made in 2004, when accusing the French PM of the time of having come to Bucharest "to get his fare".
"The President has got no reason for such attitude and his response to the press shows how democratic he is. Such a thing couldn't have happened in a civilized state and I think civil society must react strongly. He is actually sending an undemocratic message to his own electorate, probably also because after the scandal with the reporter from Antena 1 channel his popularity has been growing. After the referendum he has shown a certain nervousness because of failing to capitalize his popularity and overthrow the government. Although not aggressed, he is aggressive, which is impossible to understand. Basescu reiterates offenses against the press, although he enjoyed press support. Things were calm around him that moment and he had no reason to get irritated".
A. I.
Ziua Vineri 14 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
Compliments to the President
After getting irritated because Mr. Severin, his ex colleague in the party and government, had called him an "allogenous", President Basescu donated blood for some DNA test. We all could thus learn that, far from being an allogenous, Mr. President comes from the Euro-Asian Adam, whose line became local in these places some 40.000 years ago. The experts informed at that time that the President's R1b included the marker of the first non-African people (M168), shared by 90% of Spaniards, 95% of the Irish and 10% of the Romanians. As a rare product of the ceaseless continuity Ceausescu was vainly dreaming about, Mr. Basescu feels entitled to insult any post-Paleolithic newcomer to the country's territory. In the referendum day he told us his opinion about the Roma people (and also about women) and now we era learning how much consideration he feels for the Armenians. Maybe if times were different, we could have also learnt his true opinion on Jews and Greeks. As for the Hungarians, he can't afford it for now.
When Mr. Iliescu scolded the West because of the Westerners climbing trees at times when our brave Dacians were proving their excellency, it was actually the same tribal haughtiness showing its fangs. When Mr. Becali teaches us that it is very good for women, whom he describes as "patient", to stay for ever subordinate to men who don't sigh like women, there becomes visible the same primitive tendency to discrimination. When enraged, Mr. Iliescu too criticized the Anglo-American imperialism, unveiling a trait inherited from the Stalinist stage of anthropogenesis. I get affectionate when I recall that, during the 1992 campaign, Mr. Iliescu got irritated when being asked what he would do for women's equality of chance. And he answered he would develop rural tourism, according to which a woman was bound to the household. Mr. Becali too was furious at Mrs. Deputy Lavinia Sandru and he insulted her by quoting President Basescu's immoral words about the street women.
But, unlike the previous invectives such as the "filthy gypsy" one, this time Mr. Basescu was cheerful, not furious. He probably fancied that he was complimenting the surgeon who had just performed his surgery by saying in public that he was lucky enough to meet the only "good" Armenian among all the Armenians in the country and maybe on the planet. It is therefore obvious that the mother, the father or the grandfather of the distinguished surgeon can't possibly aspire to get Mr. President's consideration. The founders of the Radauti Cathedral, Virgil Madgearu or Harry Tavitian can neither aspire to such a thing.
The truth is that we thus find out the Romanian President's opinion on Romanians, not on Armenians, because he rarely utters words without being hopeful that they will strongly effect on the people whose single legitimate representatives he takes himself for. And since he can afford to represent us in such a way, he is obviously fully convinced that the people is like him: free with words, hostile to what doesn't resemble him, haughty and disdainful at the weaker ones, either in terms of number or in terms of prejudice, and humble in front of the powerful glowworms.
I wish that, after a high level meeting, Mr. President heard his interlocutor, maybe the US President, the Queen of England or Vladimir Putin, it doesn't matter, tell him he is the only "good" Romanian in a nation of dawdlers, thieves and incompetents. But I am afraid that, haughty as we know him to be, after learning that he is genetically more akin to the Spanish and the Irish than to the Romanian nation, he will fancy he has just been complimented.
Zoe Petre
Ziua Vineri 14 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
Adrian Nastase's solution
Ex PM Adrian Nastase thinks there should be a group to head the PSD (Social-Democrat Party) and be made of those influential party members now marginalized by the present leaders. He argued for this in his interview to Rompres yesterday, claiming the aim was to guide the PSD to the "positive" way and help the party recover. But what he actually pursues is to take over the PSD again and sack president Mircea Geoana. In order to make sure he is successful, the ex PSD leader would like to stick to the influent sides within the party: Miron Mitrea, the group in Cluj and even Ion Iliescu. It is to be mentioned that there has lately been press rumor about Adrian Nastase, Cristian Diaconescu and Victor Ponta as possible future leaders of the party.
But just as the reloading of the PSD top members is being voiced as solution, the National Anti-Corruption Department demanded the opening of criminal inquiry against Miron Mitrea. One day before the same Department had asked for the same in the case of Adrian Nastase. (...)
Iliescu deciphers message
Ion Iliescu, an honorary president of the PSD, comments that the PSD is already ruled by a group of leaders. Still he adds Nastase's proposal is "to be considered", because it concerns the usage of the party's human and intellectual potential. He comments: "This is not about group leadership. What Adrian Nastase is probably suggesting is to attract various personalities in the party with various missions in the Parliament or other places and establish a sort of Senate of party senior. This view may undergo debate". (...)
Group of leaders exists already
The main PSD leaders have dismissed the proposal, all of them arguing that the PSD is anyway ruled by a group of leaders. But party president Mircea Geoana has made no comment whatsoever.
Titus Corlatean, a general secretary of the party, comments this is actually the state of things and he argues that the present leaders are to be supported and respected. He comments: "I am sorry to see such kind of debate progress in public, because it should be a domestic issue. This is about several colleagues' public statements".
Ilie Sarbu, a vice president of the PSD, comments in his turn: "I don't see what good this can do for the party".
Liviu Dragnea, also a vice president of the party, claims that "in case this isn't frustration, then it is a stupid thing". (...)
Extraordinary congress
The anti-Geoana wing in the PSD estimates the PSD parliamentary groups to meet next Tuesday will decide to summon an extraordinary congress. According to the PSD Status, this may occur if most PSD MPs vote for it.
Roxana Andronic
Ziua Vineri 14 Septembrie 2007 http://www.ziua.net/english
Bush preserves big troop level in Iraq
WASHINGTON - President Bush's claim that progress in Iraq justifies preserving a large U.S. military presence there for at least 10 more months was shadowed by discouraging developments on the security and political fronts.
Friday morning, 12 hours after Bush's address to the nation, the White House was to report that Iraqi leaders had gained almost no new ground in meeting U.S. benchmarks on bringing about reconciliation and stability. The report being sent to Congress by the White House underscored the difficulty of Bush's argument that American sacrifice was creating space for political progress by Iraqis.
Other bad news hit 12 hours before Bush's speech, when Iraqi police reported the assassination in Anbar province of a prominent figure in a local alliance with U.S. troops against al-Qaida. It was a sharp blow to Bush's frequent celebration of military gains in that region as a model for the rest of the country.
In his 18-minute remarks Thursday night, the president ordered U.S. troop levels to drop to a point they were already slated to reach, while saying they would start seven months sooner than scheduled.
Bush said 5,700 U.S. forces would be home by Christmas instead of leaving Iraq beginning in the spring as originally planned. Four more combat brigades would pull out of Iraq as currently scheduled by July.
These troops comprise the troop buildup that Bush ordered in January that boosted U.S. troop strength to 168,000, the highest level of the war. Under the withdrawal plan, troop levels would drop back to around 130,000 by next summer, close to where they were before the buildup.
The president's speech marked only the latest shift in direction — and rationale and packaging — for a war that has lasted 4 1/2 years and cost a half trillion dollars and nearly 3,800 American lives.
Bush's decision sets the stage for a fiery political debate in Congress and on the 2008 presidential campaign trail. Democrats said Bush's modest approach was unacceptable.
"The president failed to provide either a plan to successfully end the war or a convincing rationale to continue it", Sen. Jack Reed, D-R.I., said in the Democrat's televised response.
Congress' majority Democrats pledged to push for a more dramatic reduction in troop levels, which Bush has rejected, and which they say the war-weary public demands, even though they still appear unable to muster enough votes to force an end to the war.
Instead, Democrats hope to win veto-proof support for legislation that would require a narrower mission for a presumably smaller U.S. force, one used only for training Iraq's military and police, protecting U.S. assets and fighting terrorists.
Bush was to reinforce his message the U.S. is winning and that continuing the fight is crucial to American security during a trip Friday to the Marine base in Quantico, Va., just outside Washington. He was to lunch there with 250 Marines, family members and commanders.
Vice President Dick Cheney was scheduled to deliver two Iraq speeches Friday, in Michigan at the Gerald R. Ford Presidential Museum and at MacDill Air Force Base in Florida.
Bush said the U.S. engagement will stretch beyond his presidency. But he hinted further reductions were possible before he leaves office, saying the top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. David Petraeus, and U.S. ambassador Ryan Crocker will report again in March.
"The troop surge is working," Bush said. "The more successful we are, the more American troops can return home".
He said his decisions would be guided by the principle of "return on success" — a replacement for his oft-repeated promise that coalition forces would "stand down" as Iraqi troops "stand up".
Despite the stunning setback represented by Thursday's killing of Sunni sheik Abdul-Sattar Abu Risha, Bush said Anbar, once considered lost to al-Qaida, shows what can happen across Iraq. Yet while mentioning Abu Risha, with whom the president met last week on a surprise trip to Anbar, Bush said, "In Anbar, the enemy remains active and deadly".
When Bush announced the troop buildup in January, he said it was conditioned on the Iraqis also stepping up — though he attached no consequences if they did not. Their obligations included such previously promised but unmet tasks as sending more and more capable Iraqi fighters into Baghdad, taking on Shiite militias to which the Shiite-led government is sometimes considered beholden, investing heavily in reconstruction projects that help Sunnis as well as Shiites, and enacting several pieces of legislation aimed at promoting reconciliation between warring sects.
The president later agreed to allow lawmakers to codify such benchmarks into law.
The administration's first status report to Congress, in July, showed that the Iraqi government was making satisfactory progress toward meeting eight of 18 benchmarks, unsatisfactory progress on eight more and mixed progress on two.
The followup report to Congress on Friday concluded that Iraqis have done enough to move only one benchmark — allowing former members of Saddam Hussein's Baath Party to hold government positions — from the unsatisfactory to satisfactory column, a senior administration official told The Associated Press on Thursday.
That movement was due to a pact made last month between leading Iraqi politicians from all major sects, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because the report was not public. Iraqi officials have announced similar deals in the past only to have them fall apart.
Bush officials said there hadn't been nearly enough time between the July report and now — just 58 days — for improvement. The president said there were other, equally important developments, including passage of a budget, the sharing of oil revenues among the provinces even without legislation and local reconciliation efforts that could trickle up to Baghdad.
But in addition to defending Iraqi leaders, he urged them to "make the tough choices needed to achieve reconciliation".
ENNIFER LOVEN, Associated Press Writer
Associated Press Vineri 14 Septembrie 2007 http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070914/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_iraq
* ADVICE !!! *
Starting next week we will publish everyday, from Monday to Friday, under the generic title "Romania's Wonders" a set of pictures illustrating representative monuments, city scapes or views from Romania who can made the "brand" of our country !
Enjoy us next week !
Thanks,
mig007
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