27 Oct
Events of Interest and Analyses, A Foreign Perspective
News
News
Several dead in Eid attacks across Iraq
At least 14 killed in shootings and bombings in Baghdad and elsewhere, as Muslims mark second day of Eid al-Adha.
Last Modified: 27 Oct 2012 12:01 GMT
Middle East
Iran cancels EU visit over preconditions
Tehran cancels European Parliament visit after delegation requests meeting with two dissidents who won rights prize.
Last Modified: 27 Oct 2012 12:51 GMT
Middle East
Poverty pushing many Guatemalans to US
Risking desert heat, corrupt police, gangs and US immigration, many migrants are heading north.
US presidential candidates cool on warming
By Sam Bollier
27 Oct 2012 11:55 GMT
Though polls show more Americans believe the planet is warming, the issue is seldom discussed on the campaign trail.
Weather experts say 2012 is set to be the warmest year on record in the United States.
Meanwhile, a new poll conducted by the Pew Research Center found a growing percentage of Americans – two-thirds – believe there is solid evidence that global warming is happening………….
Colin Powell only endorsed Barack Obama because he is black, says Mitt Romney’s aide
A senior aide to Mitt Romney has played the race card for the first time in the presidential campaign as new polling reveals that it is the most racially polarised election in more than two decades.
John Sununu, a former White House chief of staff, suggested in a CNN interview on Thursday that the former secretary of state Colin Powell, a respected member of the Republican establishment, had endorsed President Barack Obama because he was a fellow African American……………………
Richard Mourdock, Republican Senate candidate from Indiana, who has not retracted his debate remark that a pregnancy caused by rape ‘is something that God intended to happen’. Photograph: Michael Conroy/AP
The real Republican rape platform
It’s no accident GOP candidates can’t stop talking about rape: the party view is women are mere vessels subject to men’s will
Dear GOP candidates and party members,
I’m going to give you some free campaign advice: stop talking about rape.
The latest Republican rape commentary comes from Romney-endorsed Indiana senatorial candidate Richard Mourdock, who tells us:
“I think even when life begins in that horrible situation of rape, that it is something that God intended to happen.”
Cue outrage, then cue “apology” from Mourdock – not for his comments, but for “any interpretation other than what I intended”. National Republican senatorial committee chairman John Cornyn voiced his support for Mourdock and added that he also believes “life is a gift from God.”
I would hate for Mr Mourdock to think I’m misinterpreting him here, so let’s be clear about what he said: he did not say that rape is a gift from God. He did say that an unwanted pregnancy is a post-rape goodie bag from the Lord. And that the Lord intended it to happen that way.
Perhaps God should rethink his delivery system. And perhaps Mourdock should rethink his interpretation of divine will.
What this umpteenth rape comment tells us isn’t that the Republican party has a handful of unhinged members who sometimes flub their talking points. It reveals the real agendas and beliefs of the GOP as a whole…………………..
