Barack Obama will warn that eight years of "broken" politics and "failed" Republican leadership is enough, and issue a call for sweeping change at a "defining" moment of US history. "America, we are better than these eight years," Obama said, in speech excerpts released before he formally accepts the Democratic Party's charge to become the first black major party White House nominee in history. "We are a better country than this," he said, launching a withering attack on the Bush administration, and Republican White House candidate John McCain. "We meet at one of those defining moments - a moment when our nation is at war, our economy is in turmoil, and the American promise has been threatened once more," Obama will tell a 75,000 strong crowd at an open-air football stadium in a dazzling finale to the convention. "We are here because we love this country too much to let the next four years look just like the last eight," Obama said. "On November 4, we must stand up and say "Eight is Enough.'" The Illinois senator, who just four years ago electrified the convention as a mere state lawmaker, also savaged Republican claims that he is not ready to be US commander-in-chief. "Don't tell me that Democrats won't keep us safe," Obama said. "The Bush-McCain foreign policy has squandered the legacy that generations of Americans - Democrats and Republicans, have built, and we are to restore that legacy. "I will only send our troops into harm's way with a clear mission and a sacred commitment to give them the equipment they need in battle and the care and benefits they deserve when they come home," Obama vowed. Speaking in historic echoes on the 45th anniversary of Martin Luther King's "I have a dream speech," Obama also sought to forge a bond with working class Americans, hammered by foreclosures, high gasoline prices, and soaring food costs. "Tonight, more Americans are out of work and more are working harder for less," Obama said. "More of you have lost your homes and more are watching your home values plummet. "More of you have cars you can't afford to drive, credit card bills you can't afford to pay and tuition that is beyond your reach. "The failure to respond is a direct result of a broken politics in Washington and the failed presidency of George W Bush." =============================================================================== Putin blames US for war The Russian President, Vladimir Putin, has shocked Europe by using the giant American broadcaster, CNN, to accuse his US counterpart, George Bush, of creating the war in Georgia as a plot to install John McCain as his successor.
In the most outrageous - and inflammatory - claim since the crisis in South Ossetia erupted earlier this month, Putin accused the US of provoking the conflict to help the Republican candidate - an outspoken critic of the Kremlin - in the race for the Presidency. "It is not just that the American side could not restrain the Georgian leadership from this criminal act. The American side in effect armed and trained the Georgian army," Mr Putin told CNN. "Why spend years holding difficult negotiations and looking for complicated compromises in ethnic conflicts? It's easier to arm one of the parties and push it to kill the other party, and the job is done. "The suspicion arises that someone in the United States especially created this conflict with the aim of making the situation more tense and creating a competitive advantage for one of the candidates fighting for the post of US President." While Mr Putin carefully did not name Mr Bush directly, White House officials quickly denounced his accusations - broadcast both on CNN and Russian television. His claims had been widely aired in Russia last week too.. Mr Putin's comments have added to rising tensions with the US as the scenario of a Cold War, Act One, rose in Europe after Russia sent warships on "peacekeeping" duties to the Black Sea - in response to the arrival of US and NATO naval ships it insists are using humanitarian aid as a guise. The Kremlin described the presence of American warships in the Black Sea as a "direct confrontation" yesterday and a spokesman for the Russian Prime Minister, Vladimir Putin, confirmed last night that Russia was now taking precautionary measures: "Let's hope we do not see any direct confrontation in that," he said. "The decision to deliver aid using Nato battleships is something that hardly can be explained, it's not a common practice." He said any attempt by the west to isolate Russia would end up harming the economic interest "of those states" he warned. The inflammatory words come just 24 hours after the Kremlin flagged that it was "not afraid" of a new Cold War, sparking aw ave of immediate condemnation from the European Union and the United States. The statement emerged at the same time as Russia announced its unilateral decisin to sign of the decree of independence for the breakway regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia. As Europe strongly rebuked Russia's aggressive stance, the British Foreign Minister, David Milliband, became the flagbearer for Europe's rhetoric, warning the Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev, against any further steps towards a new Cold War: "The Russian President [Medvedev] says he is not afraid of a new Cold War. We don't want one. He has a big responsibility not to start one." Mr Miliband flew to the Ukraine yesterday and became the first western official in Kiev to provide Ukrainian President, Viktor Yushchenko, with a clear sign of support. Like Georgia, Kiev wants to join the European Union and Nato and is being bitterly stymied by the Kremlin. The US vice president, Dick Cheney, is now also scheduled to visit both Georgia and Ukraine next week. However Mr Milliband - a powerful contender for the British Labor leadership - was careful to temper his language, adding that it would also be "counter-productive" to try and isolate Russia in the wake of of its continued and belligerent military presence in Georgia. Germany and France, both opponents of the US and Britain's decision in April to block Georgian negotiations to join Nato, have until now been the most reluctant to embark on economic or trade sanctions to punish Russia for the Georgian aggression. They have been working behind the scenes to try and revive the peace plan mediated by President Nicolas Sarkozy of France a fortnight ago but it is now agreed by all that the unilateral recognition of Abkhazia and South Ossetia has thrown the plan to the wind. A summit of EU leaders is to be held in Brussels on Monday to discuss Europe's options. And according to an exclusive report in the London Times, Russian-backed paramilitary men have assaulted elderly men and women, burned down house sand even murdered civilians in the frontier like buffer zone established by the Russian army just north of Gori. The violnece, near the border of the newly recognised republic of Tblisi, is reported to have sparked a new wave of desperate refugees flowing into Gori, 40 miles north of Tblisi. The newspaper reported that people who had started to return to their villages were now fleeing or a second time, joined by old people who had refused to leave their homes when the Russians stormed in two weeks ago. As Europe widely condemned Russia's aggressive stance, the British Foreign Minister, David Milliband, became a flagbearer for Europe's rhetoric, warning the Russian President, Dmitri Medvedev, against any further steps towards a new Cold War. In Moscow, the naval manoeuvring has heightened anxiety with Russian commanders arguing that the build up of NATO vessels in the Black Sea violates a 1936 treaty, the Montreux Convention, which they argue imposes a three week limit on non-coastal countries sailing of military vessels. The New York Times said that at a briefing in Moscow, Colonel General Anatoly Nogovitsyn, the deputy chief of the Russian General Staff, Turkey, which controls the straits of the Bosporus and the Dardanelles, must be notified 15 days in advance before military ships sail into the sea. In addition, warships cannot remain longer than 21 days: "The convention stipulates a limited number of vessels,'' he said. Any sustained NATO deployment would require rotating ships through the straits, he said. However it remains unclear exactly how many NATO ships are currently in the Black Sea.. A spokesman at the Supreme Headquarters Allied Powers Europe, in Mons, Belgium, said there were four NATO warships on a previously scheduled exercise called Active Endeavour, for training in antiterrorist and anti-pirate manoeuvres but there may be other NATO countries with ships there that are not under NATO command. ----- Original Message ---- From: Sam Rainsy Party-USA/Canada <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: News <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; News Camnews <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>; News Camdisc <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Sent: Friday, August 29, 2008 10:46:32 AM Subject: FW: [SAMRAINSYPARTY-For] Failure in the election complaint resolution process August 28, 2008 FAILURE IN THE ELECTION COMPLAINT RESOLUTION PROCESS SAYS A LOTABOUT THE WHOLE ELECTION PROCESS The way electoral complaints are handled or mishandled is an integral part of the election process that international observers are supposed to monitor. There was only one international observer left today in Cambodia. He was from the European Union Election Observation Mission. Today was the final day of the complaint resolution process following Voting Day of July 27. None of the opposition's numerous complaints has been properly dealt with. Over the last four weeks following Voting Day, both the National Election Committee (NEC) and the Constitutional Council (CC) have dismissed all the opposition's requests for re-vote or vote recount in spite of irrefutable evidence of massive fraud. http://tinyurl.com/4eegak This failure in the election complaint resolution process says a lot about the whole election process… The following is an excerpt from letters that the Sam Rainsy Party and the Human Rights Party have just written to signatories of the 1991 Paris Peace Agreements on Cambodia. The letter to France's President of the Republic is in French http://tinyurl.com/56b3xl The letter to Indonesia's President of the Republic is in English http://tinyurl.com/6ka6x4 France and Indonesia were co-chairs of the Paris International Conference on Cambodia which led to the signing of the Paris Peace Agreements on October 23, 1991. "An acceptable resolution of a number of our electoral complaints should be through the holding of a re-vote or, at least, a vote recount in a limited number of constituencies (provinces or municipalities) where the opposition has come very close to winning one additional parliamentary seat according to figures provided by the NEC. However, the NEC, which is both judge and judged, has rejected practically all our complaints. Even the most important ones were only "examined" behind closed doors and very quickly dismissed as "groundless". As of today, the NEC has not allowed a single vote recount, let alone a re-vote, even when first reports of ballot counting from a given polling station conflict with each other and some of these reports seem to have been doctored. When the opposition submits a complaint with some evidence raising some doubt, why doesn't the NEC accept to jointly with the plaintiffs recount the ballots from any given ballot box from any given polling station so as to dissipate any doubt?Are they afraid that a vote recount even for a single ballot box from a single polling station – there are 15, 254 polling stations nationwide – could reveal anomalies/irregularities that are indicative of broader fraud commune-wide, province-wide and nationwide? The Constitutional Council, which is another CPP-controlled institution acting as a kind of Supreme Court, has so far upheld all the NEC's decisions to dismiss the opposition's complaints and requests. There is apparently no other reasons for the two institutions for not allowing any vote recount than the fear to see the CPP's "landslide victory" evaporate following proper verifications." SAM RAINSY PARTY HUMAN RIGHTS PARTY --~--~---------~--~----~------------~-------~--~----~ You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "Cambodia Discussion (CAMDISC) - www.cambodia.org" group. This is an unmoderated forum. Please refrain from using foul language. Thank you for your understanding. Peace among us and in Cambodia. To post to this group, send email to [email protected] To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [EMAIL PROTECTED] For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/camdisc Learn more - http://www.cambodia.org -~----------~----~----~----~------~----~------~--~---
