Eideard

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

The rally, particularly huge in a nation of fewer than five million people, took place hours after Anders Behring Breivik appeared in a closed court charged with the murders.

The rose is the symbol of the Norwegian Labour party, whose youth camp members were cut down in Breivik’s gun rampage on Utoya island on Friday.

Prime minister Jens Stoltenberg told the crowd: ‘We will not let fear break us. The warmth of response from people in Norway and from the whole world makes me sure of this one thing – evil can kill a single person but never defeat a whole people…’

Earlier, a scheduled minute’s silence stretched on for five minutes in Oslo, while similar tributes were held not only across the country but in neighbouring Sweden and Denmark. Flags flew at half-mast across the capital, where a sea of bouquets is growing around the cathedral.

Mechanic Sven-Erik Fredheim, 36, said: ‘This is a tragic event to see all these young people dying due to one man’s craziness.

‘It is important to have this minute of silence so that all the victims and the parents of the families know that people are thinking about them.’

The turnout was so great the scheduled “march” had to be canceled. The whole of downtown Oslo was already filled with mourners leaving no room for a march route.

WRC is the closest of all world class motorsport competition to the genuine road environment, though conditions vary considerably across the 13 race, five continent series from last weekend’s first round in Sweden where blizzards and -28ºC temperatures necessitated tungsten-tipped studded Michelin tyres, through to the gravel and rocks and 40ºC temperatures the cars will encounter a fortnight from now in Mexico.

New “environmentally aware” regulations were introduced this year based around 1600cc turbocharged, 4WD cars, and Ford’s all-new Fiesta RS made a dream debut with a 1-2-3 finish…

RTTFA for all the details – and lots of photos. Most countries show at least delayed coverage of each event. VersusTV is the likely source here in the USA.

Two Comedy Central funnymen are apparently entering into the partisan political fray with rallies of their own in the nation’s capital.

Jon Stewart and Stephen Colbert have set October 30 as the date for their respective rallies.

On Thursday night’s airing of “The Daily Show With Jon Stewart,” the comedian announced plans for a “Rally to Restore Sanity.”

“See you October 30 on the National Mall to spread the timeless message, ‘Take it down a notch for America,’ ” he said. Stewart dubbed the event a “clarion call for rationality…”

On “The Colbert Report,” which airs immediately after Stewart’s show, Colbert fired back with plans for his “March to Keep Fear Alive.”

“Now is not the time to take it down a notch. Now is the time for all good men to freak out for freedom,” Colbert said…

Read the rest of this entry »

Supporters rally in Tokyo

Demonstrators have gathered at a rally in Okinawa, Japan, to protest against a US military air base on the island.

Sunday’s rally, near Kadena air base, the largest US military facility in the Asia-Pacific region, is expected to include Hirokazu Nakaima, Okinawa’s governor, and more than 30 town mayors.

Many on the island are unhappy with the heavy American military presence – a legacy of Japan’s World War II defeat – complaining of noise, pollution and frictions with US soldiers.

The issue threatens the political future of Yukio Hatoyama, the prime minister, who has staked his job on settling the issue.

The row centres on the unpopular Futenma US Marine Corps Air Station, which under a 2006 deal between Tokyo and Washington, was to be moved from the crowded city of Ginowan to the quieter coastal Henoko area of Okinawa.

After taking power in September in a landslide election, Hatoyama said the base may be moved off the island entirely instead…

Under the 2006 agreement – which requires legal approval from Nakaima, the Okinawa governor – Futenma facilities would be shifted to reclaimed land around Camp Schwab in Henoko and about 8,000 marines would move to the US territory of Guam.

Japan, which committed to pacifism in its post-WWII constitution, relies heavily on the US, its treaty partner, for its security.

And we all know how important that has been.

Get the bloody troops off Japanese territory, bring ‘em home, quit spending 6-figures apiece on sustaining each soldier-ambassador of American democracy.

The tea party movement is disturbingly racist and reactionary, from its roots to its highest branches. On Saturday, as a small group of protesters jammed the Capitol and the streets around it, the movement’s origins in white resistance to the Civil Rights Movement was impossible to ignore. Here’s only what the mainstream media is reporting, ignoring what I’m seeing on Twitter and left wing blogs:

Civil rights hero Rep. John Lewis was taunted by tea partiers who chanted “nigger” at least 15 times, according to the Associated Press (we are not cleaning up language and using “the N-word” here because it’s really important to understand what was said.) First reported on The Hill blog (no hotbed of left-wing fervor), the stories of Lewis being called “nigger” were confirmed by Lewis spokeswoman Brenda Jones and Democratic Rep. Andre Carson, who was walking with Lewis. “It was like going into the time machine with John Lewis,” said Carson, a former police officer. “He said it reminded him of another time.”

Another Congressional Black Caucus leader, Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, was spat upon by protesters. The culprit was arrested, but Cleaver declined to press charges.

House Majority Whip James Clybourn told reporters: “I heard people saying things today that I have not heard since March 15, 1960, when I was marching to try to get off the back of the bus.”

There were many reports that Rep. Barney Frank was called a “faggot” by protesters, but the one I saw personally was by CNN’s Dana Bash, who seemed rattled by the tea party fury. Frank told AP: “It’s a mob mentality that doesn’t work politically…”

So I’m having a hard time tonight trying to believe almost uniformly white tea partiers are anything other than a racist, right-wing reaction to the election of an African American president who brings with him feminists and gays (even if he doesn’t do as much for them as they would ideally like). I’m having a hard time seeing the tea partiers as anything other than the spawn of George Wallace racism – the movement Pat Buchanan bragged to me that Richard Nixon made his own…

Anyone surprised?

Kimi airborne in the Finland Rally
Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Former world champion Kimi Raikkonen will not be racing in Formula 1 next year after failing to find a drive.

The 30-year-old Finn had been trying to do a deal with McLaren but they would not offer him the salary he wanted, his manager David Robertson told BBC Sport.

“They couldn’t afford him,” Robertson said. “It wasn’t in his interests to race for what they were offering so he’s going to go rallying instead…”

Raikkonen is trying to find a drive in the world rally championship, Roberston said, although nothing had yet been sorted out.

He made his world rally debut on his home Rally Finland last August, setting competitive times before crashing out…

Asked how Raikkonen felt about the temporary end of an F1 career that started in 2001 and in which he won 18 grands prix, Robertson said: “He’s one of those guys who moves on quickly – he just said ‘now we concentrate on rallying’.

We didn’t watch much WRC this year. If Kimi is driving for someone next year – we’ll watch.

Dozens of Iranians in the country’s capital Tehran have held their own shoe-throwing rally in protest at US President George W Bush.

They were showing support for the Iraqi journalist who threw his footwear at the American leader in Baghdad.

One demonstrator, who called himself Mr Ghanati, said he was a member of the Islamic guards and that the Iraqi journalist had seen off the “traitor” Mr Bush with his action. “Bush has committed a lot of cruelty against the people of Iraq and other countries,” he said.

Since then a Turkish firm, which claims it made the shoes, says it has had to take on 100 extra staff to cope with the surge in orders.

Har!

Republican vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin will be in Roswell on Sunday for a rally.

The event is slated for Roswell’s Great Southwest Aviation. Doors open at 1 p.m., and the program begins at 2:30 p.m.

The McCain-Palin campaign’s Web site says tickets are required and will be given out on a first come, first serve basis but do not guarantee entry.

Uh, OK. Next week – Area 51.

C’mon, now. All you McCain voters. Y’all sing along!