WASHINGTON DC – “Internal stability and anti-terrorism are main focuses for the United States in Ethiopia,” said David Kramer, Assistant Secretary of State for the Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor.
Kramer was part of a panel of experts at the Center for Strategic & International Studies who held a discussion today on “Human Rights and Governance in Ethiopia.”
“We have seen a number of efforts that are perceived in many circles, in Ethiopia and here, of trying to close the political space in Ethiopia.
Of immediate concern is the latest draft of the Charities and Societies Proclamation as well as the Media Law. Both of these run the risk of curbing freedom of speech, civic development and capacity building that we feel are very important to development of a democratic system and a respect to human rights in that country,” said Kramer.
Yoseph Mulugeta Badwaza, Secretary General of the Ethiopian Human Rights Council, described the likely impact of the pending legislation known as the “CSO Bill,” which threatens non-governmental organizations that receive foreign contributions in support of human rights, civic education, and peace building activities.
Ethiopia is currently the third largest recipient of U.S. aid in the African continent, and the panel agreed this legislation would severely hamper human rights regulation in the country.
Chris Albin-Lackey of Human Rights Watch said the draft of this legislation “isn’t just important in it of itself, it’s also very important as a bellwether and a very alarming signal about the overall direction that Ethiopia is moving in.”
NEW YORK – An Ethiopian Federal High Court judge convicted an editor today on criminal charges of “inciting the public through false rumors” over a reporting mistake, local journalists told CPJ. Editor-in-Chief Tsion Girima of the private weekly Enbilta is being held in Kality prison, outside the capital, Addis Ababa, pending sentencing on Tuesday.
Charged under article 486 of the revised penal code; Girma faces up to one year in prison, according to her former lawyer, Kassahun Asefa, who had worked for her pro bono. The October 3 edition of Enbilta mistakenly identified the judge overseeing the high-profile trial of Ethiopian pop musician Tewodros Kassahun as Judge Mohamed Amin instead of Judge Mohamed Umer, Girma told CPJ last week. Enbilta did not write a correction but used the right name in the following edition, she said.
Enbilta is one of a few politically critical independent publications that still exist in Ethiopia after a government crackdown on the independent press in the aftermath of the 2005 elections.
“It is outrageous that a journalist can be convicted over a reporting error,” said CPJ Africa Program Coordinator Tom Rhodes. “This conviction cannot stand. Tsion Girma should not be sent to prison.”
Girma, Deputy Editor Habte Tadesse, and editor Atenafu Alemayehu were arrested on October 22, the morning after reporting to police for questioning, according to local journalists. Girma was released the next day on bail of 2,000 birr (US$200) and Tadesse and Alemayehu were released on October 24 without any charges, Girma said.
Girma is the second journalist to face criminal charges this year over coverage of Kassahun’s trial. Editor Mesfin Negash of the leading weekly Addis Neger was sentenced to a one-month suspended prison term for publishing an interview with the singer’s lawyer that was critical of the former judge overseeing the trial.
Ethiopian authorities routinely use police detentions, threats, and legal and administrative restraints to censor reporting. CPJ named Ethiopia the world’s worst backslider on press freedom in 2007.
The final day before the official presidential voting and the final version of Karl Rove’s exclusive national electoral map sees a strong victory for Barack Obama, gaining the most electoral votes since Bill Clinton’s lopsided win over Bob Dole in 1996.
According to the research of compiled state polls by Karl Rove & Co., the hypothetical electoral college numbers suggest an Obama win over the Republican ticket of John McCain and Sarah Palin of 338 electoral votes to 200.
For the final report, Rove has allocated each state to the candidate leading there in state polls today.
According to these calculations, Obama takes hard-fought Florida. But McCain edges ahead in Indiana, Missouri, North Dakota and North Carolina.
Rove notes that Obama and McCain are in dead heats in North Carolina and Missouri, but the most recent polls over the weekend show a trend toward the Republican ticket. “Florida, too, could end up in McCain’s column,” Rove adds, “since he’s benefited from recent movement in the state.” But it’s not enough for the Arizona senator to capture the necessary 270.
For an explanation of the research methodology and for a chart showing the study’s movements week by week since July 1, click on the Read more line below. The Ticket’s appreciation to Rove & Co. for its permission to publish these polls simultaneously throughout the recent hotly contested months.
Methodology
For each state, the map uses the average of all public telephone polls (Internet polls are not included in the average) taken within 14 days of the most recent poll available in each state.
For example, if the most recent poll in Montana was taken on July 15, the average includes all polls conducted between July 1 and July 15. States within a 3-point lead for McCain or Obama are classified as tossups; states outside the 3-point lead are allocated to the respective candidate.
There is no polling data available for the District of Columbia, but its three electoral votes are allocated to Obama.
Former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker is one of the big-name endorsement for Democratic Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, lending his gravitas in the financial world to a presidential candidate whose biggest hurdle is to convince voters he is experienced enough to be president.
“After 30 years in government, serving under five Presidents of both parties and chairing two non-partisan commissions on the Public Service, I have been reluctant to engage in political campaigns. The time has come to overcome that reluctance,” Mr. Volcker said in a statement today. “However, it is not the current turmoil in markets or the economic uncertainties that have impelled my decision. Rather, it is the breadth and depth of challenges that face our nation at home and abroad. Those challenges demand a new leadership and a fresh approach.”
He concluded: “It is only Barack Obama, in his person, in his ideas, in his ability to understand and to articulate both our needs and our hopes that provide the potential for strong and fresh leadership. That leadership must begin here in America but it can also restore needed confidence in our vision, our strength, and our purposes right around the world.”
Mr. Volcker, a Democrat, was appointed to the Fed chairmanship by Jimmy Carter in 1979 and replaced – with Alan Greenspan – by Ronald Reagan just a couple of months before the 1987 stock market crash. He is widely respected among central bankers, Wall Street and economists for breaking the back of inflation in the 1980s – at the cost of the deepest recession the country has seen since the Great Depression. An economist, he was earlier president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York from 1975 to 1979 and an under secretary of the Treasury from 1969 to 1974.
Since retiring from the Fed, he did a stint as chairman of of Wolfensohn & Co., an investment banking firm founded by the former president of the World Bank, and led investigations of corruption controls at the World Bank and the controversial United Nations’ oil-for-food deal with Saddam Hussein.
In Obama’s home state of Illinois, seven daily newspapers which had endorsed Bush in 2004 endorsed Obama this year, including the state’s largest paper. In McCain’s home state, The Arizona Daily Star, which endorsed Kerry in 2004, now endorses Barack Obama. The Arizona Daily Star
TUCSON, ARIZONA – Our future requires a steady, intelligent and, as former Secretary of State Colin Powell said, a “transformational” leader to guide us into a new era. Obama brings deep intellectual curiosity, equanimity and discipline.
The ground under America is moving. A generational change is under way with or without Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., or Barack Obama, D-Ill.
The core concerns are more about the future than the past, be it eight years ago or one day ago. They are about the moment and the movement to engage Americans in ways not seen before, especially against a backdrop of economic strife unmatched since the Great Depression.
McCain is correct that it’s time to stand up. “Stand up, stand up, stand up and fight. Nothing is inevitable here. We’re Americans, and we never give up. We never quit. We never hide from history. We make history,” he said at the Republican National Convention.
However, the ways of the past, which we believe McCain understands, will not work in this new America. The future requires new tools and new expertise. A premium must be placed on more than just love of country. We must re-embrace American ideals and lead the world on a stronger path to prosperity and peace.
The time is now and the leader is Barack Obama. The Star endorses Obama for president of the United States.
Like a race car driver going into a turn, a leader must see not only what confronts our nation today but envision where we come out on the other side. Obama sees how the United States is connected to other nations through our economic, immigration, national security and energy policies. No one can thrive alone.
Obama sees a foreign policy where force is but one tool. He envisions countries collaborating to confront bad actors and shared challenges such as global warming, poverty, terrorism, disease and religious extremism.
Obama sees a health-care system in which children can go to the doctor and families aren’t forced into bankruptcy by medical bills. He experienced the same hardships many American families face. While his mother was dying of cancer, she battled her insurance company for care.
He embraces the strength of the free market, but sees that, in the United States today, the market doesn’t meet people’s health-care needs. He knows the heavy toll that inequitable public policies take on people’s lives. We agree with Obama that health care should be as affordable and accessible to as many people as possible.
Obama sees an economy creating jobs through innovation, helping families stay in their homes and lifting the middle class and small businesses. He would reduce taxes for the majority of Americans and not raise taxes on those making less than $250,000.
Obama sees education as an investment in America’s prosperity, political system and national security. He would expand early childhood education and protect funding for public schools. A college education is out of reach for many Americans. He would help make it more affordable through tuition tax credits.
He’s proved himself with his nuanced understanding of complicated issues. His vision is not built on rhetoric. He offers substantive, detailed policies and the acumen to make these changes a reality.
He demonstrates leadership by surrounding himself with smart people who will strengthen his administration. For vice president Obama chose Joseph Biden, a U.S. senator with 35 years of experience, a foreign policy expert qualified to be president.
Obama made a responsible, pragmatic and intelligent choice that shows us he puts the nation above party politics.
This moment in history requires courage to change. Our nation must find a way to restore the confidence that our government is of the people, by the people, for the people — all of our people.
We share Obama’s vision of America. And we share his urgency.
It’s unlikely McCain will win the popular vote. Obama will likely win California and New York by 20-25 points or more. And black turnout in the South will reduce McCain’s margins to single digits.
But who cares? Whether you win a state by 1% or 20%, a win is a win is a win in the electoral college.
All McCain has to do is hold the Bush states and steal Pennsylvania (PA). Thee is a view that whoever wins PA will win the election. The west is hard because of the growth in the hispanic population and liberal California refugees. So while I’m still hoping to eke out wins in Nevada and Colorado I am not counting on them. I now believe we will win Ohio, PA, etc because of the God sent coal issue and expose on Obama! Today is national Day of Prayer!
Let me tell you, I’ve seen the internals of the PA polls having Obama leading by 7, 8 or more. They are complete nonsense! They have Obama winning SW Pennsylvania and Northeast PA by 10 points. Hillary won many of those counties 3:1. These are socially conservative voters. These are older voters. They are the salt of the earth people that Obama said clung to their religion and guns. They don’t like radical change. They will not vote for B. Hussein Obama who spent 20 years in Wright’s church of hate. I don’t care what any poll says. It isn’t likely to happen.
If you look at the last Mason Dixon poll that had Obama with a 4 point lead 47-43 with 10% undecided, the vast majority of whom were white and rural in SW and NE PA, this is very, very, very do-able.
Seriously, if you are still undecided after watching Obama carpet bomb the airwaves outspending McCain 4:1, you aren’t going to vote for him no matter what. Obama outspent Hillary 4:1 and still lost by 10 points in Pennsylvania.
McCain will likely win Pennsylvania. The people LOVE Sarah Palin, especially Hockey moms, and with it the White House. Do not get discouraged. Get out the vote!
McCain may win electoral college and lose total popular vote by as much as 4%
Obama would be MAD if he wins the popular vote by 4% and lose the electoral vote! I think he will probably win the popular vote by 2% , we’ll see!
