Clinton family Wedding

31st of July saw the wedding of Chelsea Clinton who is Methodist and Marc Mezvinsky who is Jewish. Chelsea is the daughter of former U.S President Bill Clinton and current U.S. Secretary of State and former U.S Senator from New York Hillary Rodham Clinton. Marc Mezvinsky is the son of a former congressman and a convicted fraudster Edward "Ed" Mezvinsky, who was convicted of several dozen charges of fraud in 2001. He was released from federal prison in 2008. He remains on federal probation and still owes almost $9.4 million in restitution to his victims. His mother is Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, who is a journalist and served one term as a Democratic member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Pennsylvania.
Wonder how this will effect US politics in the Middle East, having a Jewish family in such high places? After all, US politics tend to be a family affair.

Karzai wins and we pay

The warlord and Afghan president, Hamid Karzai, has just got endorsement from the international community at the Kabul Conference, 2010. He is a big winner.
Don't forget that this man who is boasted as being the first democratically elected president, with a mandate from about 10% of the population in what is agreed as interfered elections. He and his government also have one of the highest rates of corruption in the world. Afghan civilians are regularly killed and maimed by foreign invaders, the civil war has continued, and now it looks like his countries resources are the focus of international greedy mining interests.
What did he win in such a messed up land?
Well, he has US and NATO protection to keep him in power for at least another 4 years. Cunning man. Also, he is demanding the lovely Aid cash to come through his porous governments many hands and black holes. Don't forget we are talking about Billion$ of dollars in this poverty stricken(for ordinary citizens)country.
Also, he wants control of projects, in other words, he wants control of WHO he will give lucrative money to.
But what can the international community do? They have no reason to be there, that they can remember. They are losing a war against illiterate tribesmen. The world is definitely more dangerous, and all the voters of the West want out.
The international communities(the American ones) only choice is to pay all the bribes,fancy gifts, 5 star hotels, diplomatic visas, plush lunches, etc and pray that Karzai doesn't just give all the mining rights to China.

BHP Billiton, Rio Tinto and Xstrata's present from the Australian govt.

Multi-national mining companies must be drinking champagne from gold cups with the new Australian government's gift of reducing their tax bill for their extremely profitable exploitation of the nation's bounty.
The destructive extraction of Coal and iron ore has far-reaching consequences way past the local communities and environments that host their greed. For example,Coal-fired power plants are responsible for the release of over 85% of total global carbon dioxide emissions. Some of the effects of this mining on the planet include: Carbon dioxide (CO2),Ozone Smog, Sulfur Dioxide (SO2), Nitrogen Oxide (NOx), Particulate Matter (PM), Mercury (Hg) and Acid Rain.
A 40% Resource Super Profits Tax will not stop the destruction of the planet, or bankrupt these Swiss, British, Dutch and Australian companies that employ around 70,000 Australians.
Lowering it to 30% will however, deprive the Australian nation, and most important of all, the local communities, their right to also profit from the rape of the land.