Iraqi Kurdish fighters have joined the fight against Islamic State militants in Kobani, hoping their support for fellow Kurds backed by U.S.-led air strikes will keep the ultra-hardline group from seizing the Syrian border town.
The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, which monitors the civil war, said heavy clashes erupted in Kobani and that both sides had suffered casualties, while the U.S. military said it had launched more air raids on Islamic State over the weekend.
Burkina Faso President Blaise Compaore resigned on Friday amid mass street protests at his attempts to extend his 27-year rule, plunging the West African nation into uncertainty as junior officers vied with top military brass for power.
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Diplomats voiced concern after military chief General Honore Traore's announcement he was taking charge as head of state appeared to be challenged by presidential guard commander Lieutenant Colonel Issaac Zida, who announced his own set of emergency measures and deployed troops on the streets.
I'd quote this whole article, but here I'll give the nut:
According to a six-month-long investigation conducted by Greg Palast for Al Jazeera, “voting officials in 27 states, almost all of them Republicans, have launched what is threatening to become a massive purge of black, Hispanic, and Asian-American voters. Already, tens of thousands have been removed from voter rolls in battleground states, and the numbers are set to climb.”
Specifically, officials have a master list of 6.9 million suspected “potential double voters.” And in Virginia, Georgia, and Washington the lists are “heavily over-weighted with names such as Jackson, Garcia, Patel, and Kim,” all common to Democratic-leaning minority groups.
The process for checking those names, a computer program called Crosscheck—touted by Kansas Secretary of State Kris Kobach, a vocal supporter for voter identification—is incredibly inaccurate. “The actual lists,” notes Al Jazeera America, “show that not only are middle names mismatched, and suffix discrepancies ignored, even conflicting birthdates are disregarded. Moreover, Crosscheck deliberately ignores any Social Security mismatches, in the few instances when the numbers are even collected.”
It turns, out, though, that the distance Mike Brown fled was not 35 feet, as was stated in the press conference and cited in hundreds of articles since. Nor was it 45 feet, or 75 feet, or even 95 feet, but approximately 108 feet away from Darren Wilson’s SUV. Below, you will find photos from the day of the murder, maps, infographics, and more to confirm for you that the distance was nearly 300 percent farther away than originally claimed by Chief Belmar and subsequently quoted as fact in almost every narrative of the case.
The various police departments involved have routinely released predominantly false information about what happened between Officer Wilson and Michael Brown. That this detail is likely false as well, shouldn't surprise. However, as the article details, that ~30 foot mark represents a significant claim in Officer's Wilson's defense.
It's a good article, which also covers likely corruption (and at least proves large, obvious conflicts of interest) in the St. Louis area police departments.
We've been through the six months of the Joint Plan of Action, plus the extension to 24 November. The Iranians have done everything--I emphasize: everything--that they were asked to do. They have been completely trustworthy throughout this process. We have made more progress in the last six to eight months than we have the last 20 years in terms of the Congress's major--the nation's major purpose and objective, which is to stop the Iranians' program from being able to make a nuclear weapon...
This tweet is what really grabbed my attention, though:
If the people of #BurkinaFaso can fight against corrupt leaders, Ghana can also do same! SayNoToCorruptLeaders. pic.twitter.com/GeMvnnrr8U
— Mac-Jordan (@MacJordaN) October 30, 2014
Could the Burkina Faso uprising spread to Ghana or other African countries the way that Tunisia's uprising spread to Egypt and then out to most of the Arab world? Should other African Presidents be worried, as Ken Opalo asks in his recent Monkey Cage piece?
Tens of thousands of protesters demanding the ousting of Burkina Faso's veteran President Blaise Compaore faced off with security forces outside the presidential palace after burning parliament and ransacking state television on Thursday.
At least three protesters were shot dead and scores were wounded by security forces, emergency services said, as the vast crowd tried to storm the home of the president's brother and overran other state buildings.
I tend to agree with the title, even if it rubs my theoretical sensibilities the wrong way.
As to the meat of the article, the major thread is the bureaucracy. I don't see any good answers to this. "Better management and oversight" isn't an answer, though it's a significant part of the cure. Nor is "less government", as Glennon states that every branch is reliant on specialists to help with increasingly complex reality.