Arabs and Israel vs. Iran

I dunno if it is a Persian vs. Arab or Shia vs. Sunni or just regional differences.
My suspicions is it is the religious thing.

What is truly curious is for the "The Enemy of My Enemy" concept breaks down when it comes to cooperation between Arab states and Israel.

So that only adds fuel to my suspicion that it is less an Iran vs. Arabs as Shia vs. Sunni religious sects of Islam.

Iran, Israel and the Arab Contradiction

The WikiLeaks cables reveal that Egypt and Saudi Arabia can't decide if they fear a Shiite bomb more than they hate the Jewish state..

Speaking recently to the heads of his country's major media outlets, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu was unable to contain his glee at the revelations from the latest WikiLeaks documents (a reaction that elicited a private protest from the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv).



The main reason for Mr. Netanyahu's satisfaction was that the highly classified State Department documents present a picture of an Arab world that despises Hamas, believes that Hezbollah is a danger to Lebanon, and fears Iran. Arab leaders take the last matter so seriously that they even appear to be doing their best to persuade the United States to attack Iran's nuclear installations.


Egypt's President Hosni Mubarak, for example, "hates Hamas, and considers them the same as Egypt's own Muslim Brotherhood, which he sees as his own most dangerous political threat," states one February 2009 memorandum to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. Another memo, dated July 2008, reports that Mr. Mubarak informed Sen. John Kerry that the Iranians "are big, fat liars and justify their lies because they believe it is for a higher purpose."

Dark green Shia, light green Sunni

Transcripts of meetings between Gulf Arab leaders and U.S. officials show that while Arab hatred and fear of Iran is considerable, hostility toward Israel is just as great. In addition, because the Palestinian problem has not been solved, open Arab-Israeli cooperation is a nonstarter. The documents do confirm the existence of covert intelligence contacts between Israel and certain Arab states, including Saudi Arabia, but the ties are tenuous and cooperation is strictly ad hoc.

Iran, Israel and the Arab Contradiction

Iran's Lost Fortune

How happy are people in Iran?

Rationing Fuels Discontent In Iran

Ahmadinejad Tries To Curb Gas Subsidy

TEHRAN, June 30 -- President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who swept to power promising that every family would benefit from the nation's oil wealth, now faces growing domestic discontent over newly imposed fuel rationing and skyrocketing consumer prices.
Rationing Fuel in Iran

How happy would you be if living on a sea of Oil you would be if fuel is rationed? Would seem to me something is going/gone wrong.

Tehran’s pollution menace, déjà vu all over again


By Salman Ansari Javid

Twelve years ago I returned to Tehran after a long extended trip abroad. I was surprised to see people walking in masks on the streets of Tehran. At that point plans for the inauguration of the Tehran Metro along with introduction of Bus Rapid Transportation (BRT) system were being finalized and despite the smog there was hope in the air.

More than a decade later, after the implementation of these plans, Tehran’s traffic remains a nightmare and its pollution levels dangerously high. As a result until recently elementary schools remain closed and many government offices and banks were running on skeleton staff.

Tehran Pollution

Seems odd to me a country rich in oil must conserve that product, much less with that profits from that oil it should be getting to invest in basic quality of life like in breathable air.

U.S. Supreme Court to hear Climate Worriers Power Grab

Climate change Chicken Littles can't seem to push their agenda before the legislatures where laws are suppose to be made. Nonetheless, they are not deterred. Hope springs eternal in the Courts.

Federal Judges are not elected and immune to citizen review. Hopefully the United States Supreme Court will put a stop to this runaround the proper channels.

Supreme Court takes global warming case that targets power companies

A global warming lawsuit aiming to force power companies to curtail carbon emissions will come before the Supreme Court next year. The suit asks for a judicial order to that effect, but would such a move usurp role of other government branches?

Looks like it to me.

The US Supreme Court on Monday agreed to examine a major environmental lawsuit that seeks to force six electric power companies to cap and reduce their carbon-dioxide emissions to fight global warming.

It seeks a judicial order declaring that the fossil-fueled power plants are a “public nuisance.” It also seeks a judicial order capping the plants’ greenhouse gas emissions and requiring the plants to adopt a schedule of reduced emissions in future years.

What makes the lawsuit unusual is that it is an attempt to fill a vacuum in US environmental policy on how best to regulate greenhouse gas emissions and fight global warming. The issue is a source of substantial controversy and a political hot potato, particularly at a time of high unemployment and a sluggish economy.

I love that one line editorial claiming a vacuum in US environmental policy.

A federal judge dismissed the lawsuit on grounds that it raised sensitive policy questions best left to the political branches. But a federal appeals court in New York reversed that decision, allowing the lawsuit to move forward.

The power companies are now asking the US Supreme Court to reverse the appeals court and dismiss the lawsuit.

The Tennessee Valley Authority's Cumberland Fossil Plant near Clarksville, Tenn., is shown in this 2002 file photo.

Ron Schmitt/AP Photo/TVA

Fossil Plant? How about calling it what it is, a coal fire plant?

“The ramifications of this [appeals court] holding, if it is allowed to stand, are staggering,” wrote Peter Keisler in a brief on behalf of the six power companies. “This litigation seeks to transfer to the judiciary standardless authority for some of the most important and sensitive economic, energy, and social policy issues presently before the country.”

The highlighted above would reflect my view.

FULL TEXT

Justice Denied

How crazy can it get, just to execute a murderer?

Any excuse, dodge, whatever.
I hate the continual battle to provide justice.

Hearing to Delve Into Texas Executions

Capital punishment in Texas will go on trial Monday, as lawyers for an accused killer prepare to argue that the death penalty is unconstitutional because it carries high risks that innocent people could be executed.
____________________________________

With 464 executions in the last three decades, Texas has put to death far more convicts than any other state. But a dozen death-row inmates have been exonerated of the crimes of which they were convicted.

I find that claim suspicious.

If it was one person and the details given, I maybe able to buy that argument, but a dozen, without details?

Typical defense lawyer argument.In any event, there is no claim of an innocent person executed.



The Harris County District Attorney's office declined to comment on the hearing. But in a brief filed with the court, prosecutors called "largely unfounded and/or exaggerated" claims that innocent defendants have been convicted in other death-penalty cases, and argued that such claims should not prevent them from pursuing capital punishment for Mr. Green.

Isn't that what I said?

FULL STORY

Legal Challenge to the Death Penalty Begins in Texas


The death penalty went on trial Monday in Texas, a state where more prisoners are executed every year than in any other and where exonerations of people on death row occur with surprising regularity.

Justice in is country rarely happens with surprising regularity.

The hearing stems from a routine argument defense lawyers make in most death penalty cases.

With surprising regularity.

FULL STORY