Keep this in mind

[grantcart]

Karzai suffered a humilitating defeat when Parliment rejected most (17/24) of his cabinet nominees.

It is an unusual for the chief executive to have to get legislative approval for his cabinet

This is a major setback for Karzai and you should keep this in mind reading ANY news from Afghanistan and realize that Karzai will be desperate to change the subject and create a diversion. We should be able to connect the dots in a few days.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/03/world/asia/03afghan.html?hp


Many Karzai Afghan Cabinet Choices Are Rejected
KABUL, Afghanistan — In a clear signal to President Hamid Karzai that he cannot count on Parliament for support, lawmakers resoundingly rejected most of his nominees for cabinet posts and expressed discontent with the candidates’ competence.

In parliamentary voting on Saturday, 17 of 24 nominees to lead Afghan ministries were rejected.


Of those who received votes of confidence, all but one are currently cabinet ministers.

The president’s office had no comment on Saturday’s vote; the deputy spokesman, Hamid Elmi, said a news conference would be held on Sunday.

After being declared the winner of an election tainted by fraud, Mr. Karzai has been under pressure from Western leaders and Afghan opposition figures to help make things right by choosing cabinet officials not linked to corruption or incompetence. Parliament’s action on Saturday made it clear that they felt he had not met those requirements.

In particular, they said that they were not consulted enough during the nomination process and that many cabinet nominees lacked the professional backgrounds necessary to do their jobs. However, ethnic politics were also in play, raising questions about whether lawmakers were primarily interested in being partisan defenders of their own ethnic constituencies, though many denied that that was a factor

[Cha]

1. Thanks for the heads up, grant.

[grantcart]

4. welcome Cha

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. Very interesting. If this keeps up, I'm wondering if Karzai will stick it out?

And if he doesn't, will there be new elections, or will a replacement be appointed?

[goclark]

3. Thanks grantcart, I heard about 1 second of this on the news

Seems they have a hard time doing full stories to explain things of importance.

I just keep seeing how much they ran the Lady in Red Visit at the White House.

That was a non story.

[Cha]

5. "Lady in Red"? I don't watch corporate n00ze and

haven't since 2002.

[goclark]

6. K and R