Eideard

The grand final of this year’s Electrolux Design Lab 2011 competition is fast approaching. The field has been reduced to the last eight solutions for compact living and video presentations of the concept designs produced.

The young designers will get their chance to pitch for victory in front of the judges on September 7 in London, but before that Electrolux has opened up the ballot box for the People’s Choice – a chance to reward your favorite design with some of the limelight…

This year’s finalists will present their design to the Design Lab’s panel of judges at the Business Design Centre, London on September 7. Entries will be judged on intuitive design, innovation and consumer insight. The winner will receive Euros 5,000 and get to spend six months as a paid intern at one of the company’s global design centers. Runners up will walk away with Euros 3,000 and Euros 2,000 for second and third place respectively. One of the final eight will also be crowned the public’s favorite with the People’s Choice Award.

Check out who you feel is most deserving, have a look at the concept presentation videos. And to vote for your People’s Choice champion, head over to the poll page on Facebook before 14:00 CET, September 7.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

A coalition of House Republicans and Democrats voiced its frustration at President Obama’s policy in Afghanistan, amassing more than 200 votes on a plan to speed up the withdrawal of U.S. troops.

The move for a quicker exit from Afghanistan was narrowly defeated on a 204-215 vote. In all, 178 Democrats and 26 Republicans voted for the plan by Reps. Jim McGovern, D-Mass., and Walter Jones, R-N.C. Similar legislation last year got 138 votes, with far less GOP support.

Today’s action was the first test in the House of Representatives of Obama’s Afghanistan policy since the president announced May 1 that al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden had been killed in Pakistan by U.S. special operations forces.

Obama is set to begin withdrawing some of the 100,000 troops from Afghanistan starting in July. But lawmakers have become increasingly impatient about U.S. involvement in Afghanistan and have been asking for a clear strategy for success.

Now that bin Laden is dead, people say America’s longest war should end. Nearly 60% of Americans said in a recent USA TODAY/Gallup Poll that they agreed with the statement that the United States “has accomplished its mission in Afghanistan and should bring its troops home.”

“There is no clear mission. The Karzai government is corrupt. We continue to borrow money to pay for this war,” McGovern said. “We need to rethink what we’re doing in Afghanistan…”

McGovern and Jones got an interesting coalition of liberals and conservatives to support their amendment, including votes from the top Democrats in the House: Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., and Minority Whip Steny Hoyer, D-Md. On the GOP side, Tea Party favorites such as Joe Walsh of Illinois and Mick Mulvaney of South Carolina were among the conservatives to support the amendment.

Just as an aside, our neighbors up in the Great White North – with a conservative Prime Minister – are preparing to reduce the number of Canadians dedicated to making war by almost 10%. Anyone in Congress or the White House ready to start down that road with the Pentagon?

You have to understand that this would have been a perfectly acceptable solution among most politicians in New Mexico. Some of our True Locals still operate within a system of logic that tends towards regal commands rather than statute law.

Rio Arriba County officials made a mistake when they included a beer and wine licensing measure on the county general election ballot in November.

An opinion filed by the New Mexico Attorney General’s Office this month says, in part, that “an election for restaurant licenses may not be held in conjunction with a primary, general, municipal or school election.”

As part of the November election, Rio Arriba voters were asked whether to allow a “local option district” in unincorporated Rio Arriba County — nearly all of the 5,000-plus-square-mile county outside the city of Española and the village of Chama.

A local option district is required for restaurants outside those two areas to get liquor licenses. In Rio Arriba’s case, the ballot question would have allowed beer and wine licenses.

But the Attorney General’s opinion says state law forbids a local option election “within (42) days of any primary, general, municipal or school district election.”

The beer and wine question was included on the November ballot anyway because county officials thought that even though the law said the local option question wasn’t allowed 42 days before or after other elections, “it doesn’t say you can’t have it that day,” County Manager Tomas Campos explained in November.

“That may be dumb logic,” he said then. “But that’s the one we used.”

No kidding.

Beckenbauer and Sepp Blather

The man who led Germany to a World Cup win both as a player and a coach admits he has lost faith in FIFA due to the way the voting process for the 2018 and 2022 tournaments was handled.

Franz Beckenbauer, a member of FIFA’s executive committee, criticized football’s governing body after the amount of votes each bidder received was made public.

Beckenbauer was one of the 22 FIFA members who voted in the process and claims he was assured that the details would remain private.

Yet soon after it was announced that Russia had won the right to host the 2018 competition, and Qatar had secured the 2022 version, media were reporting that two of the favorites, England and Australia, attracted just two votes and one vote respectively.

It led to an angry reaction from representatives of the England and Australia bid teams and Beckenbauer acknowledges his faith in FIFA has been shaken as a result.

“I am disappointed with the way FIFA dealt with the result. The seven losing countries were treated disgracefully, particularly England and Australia, Beckenbauer told German newspaper Bild…

“All of us ExCo members were told ahead of the ballot that neither we nor the public would ever know the exact number of votes for each country. After each round of voting we were told only which country had been ruled out.
“Then, a few hours later, I was hearing from journalists what the exact voting had been. It’s certainly affected my confidence in FIFA.”

There are thousands of ordinary fans who lost faith in FIFA years ago – as anything other than a club for self-seeking, greedy business-turds who happen to have some cachet inside the world of sport. Their opinions, decisions, reek of gold and gravy. They deserve about as much respect and deference as the average con artist on work-release from prison.

The campaign to allow gays to serve openly in the US military will gain momentum today when the Pentagon releases a report on the impact a repeal of the “don’t ask, don’t tell” policy would have on morale. It will be sent today by the defence secretary, Robert Gates, to President Barack Obama and to Congress.

Officials told the Washington Post last month that the report, a survey of opinion among soldiers, other military personnel and their spouses, found an overwhelming majority either supporting or, at least, not opposing the reform. A majority said it would have no impact on morale…

Gates and Mullen back the change, as does Obama, but repeal of the existing policy, in which gays can serve but not openly, needs to be done by Congress. The House has voted in favour of repeal of the existing law but the Senate is stalling.

The Senate is to hold hearings on Thursday and Friday and its Democratic leader, Harry Reid, has promised a vote before Christmas. However, senators such as the Republican John McCain are holding out, saying there has not been sufficient scrutiny…

Supporters of reform fear that if the vote, which would be part of a defence spending bill, is delayed until next year, the new Congress will have even more Republicans, possibly making reform tougher. Several Republican and Democratic senators have said they would not make up their mind until they had read the Pentagon report…

The survey is based on responses by some 115,000 troops and 44,200 military spouses to more than a half million questionnaires.

Everyone knew the report was coming – with a positive response. Hypocrites like John McCain have already been working out revisionist recasting of their original objections – which were based on waiting for the report.

Principles – and civil rights – be damned.

Daylife/AP Photo used by permission

Afghan electoral officials, releasing preliminary results of last month’s parliamentary election, said Wednesday that they had tossed out more than a million ballots because of proven or likely fraud.

The decision by Afghanistan’s Independent Election Commission laid bare the enormous extent of malfeasance in the Sept. 18 vote, which initially was billed as a showpiece of the country’s nascent democracy.

But it also demonstrated the ability of formerly pliant electoral officials to disqualify ballots because of ballot box stuffing, wholesale vote buying or threats to voters from gunmen, among other offenses.

The large number of nullified ballots was an embarrassment to the government of Afghan President Hamid Karzai, which had pledged that all efforts would be made to ensure that the election would be free and fair…

In the tainted 2009 presidential vote, the disqualification procedure fell mainly to a United Nations-appointed oversight body, which also must give its blessing to the final results of last month’s election.

The Independent Election Commission, or IEC, like many Western officials, had painted a somewhat successful scenario in the wake of the balloting, simply because so many Afghans turned out to vote despite Taliban threats, and because the insurgents staged no successful large-scale attacks on voting day…

“We can state with pride that the turnout exceeded our expectations,” IEC Chairman Fazel Ahmad Manawi told reporters. “In the current situation in Afghanistan, this amounts to success.”

Yup. We’re really getting good at this here nation-building thing.

Fifa is investigating allegations two of its officials offered to sell their votes in the contest to host the 2018 World Cup, ahead of December’s ballot.

Reporters from The Sunday Times posed as lobbyists for a consortium of American companies who wanted to bring the tournament to the United States. The reporters approached Amos Adamu, a Nigerian who serves as a Fifa executive committee member.

He allegedly said he wanted $800,000 to build football pitches…

The Sunday Times footage appears to show Adamu asking for money to be paid to him directly for endorsing a US bid.

In the video, he was asked whether the money for a “private project” would have an effect on the way he voted.

Adamu, who is president of the West African Football Union, replied: “Obviously, it will have an effect. Of course it will. Because certainly if you are to invest in that, that means you also want the vote.”

Reynald Temarii, president of the Oceania Football Confederation, is also alleged to have asked for a payment, in his case to finance a sports academy.

A statement from Fifa read: “Fifa and the Fifa ethics committee have closely monitored the bidding process for the 2018 and 2022 Fifa World Cups and will continue to do so…”In any case, Fifa will immediately analyse the material available and only once this analysis has concluded will Fifa be able to decide on any potential next steps. In the meantime, Fifa is not in a position to provide any further comments on this matter.”

Don’t you love 3rd Party press release copouts?

I would have linked the original story, btw; but, you would have to PPV to Rupert Murdoch to read it.

Donkeys delivering ballot boxes

Afghan officials hailed a parliamentary vote on Saturday as a success despite low turnout, attacks that killed 14 people and widespread fraud that could undermine the result and test the government’s credibility.

Taliban attacks and attempts at vote-rigging were reported across the country. While there was less violence, attacks were more widespread than during a deeply flawed presidential vote last year and reached into once peaceful areas…

A flawed poll would also weigh on Obama when his administration faces mid-term Congressional elections in November amid sagging public support for the war, with violence at its worst since the Taliban were ousted in 2001…

The Taliban had vowed to disrupt the poll and warned voters not to cast ballots. Their threats appeared to have an impact, with 3,642,444 votes cast, according to preliminary figures released by the IEC.

The United Nations’ top diplomat in Afghanistan, Staffan de Mistura, told Reuters before the vote that a turnout of between 5 million and 7 million could be considered a success. The IEC has put the number of eligible voters at 11.4 million…

As well as the low turnout and violence, thousands of reported attempts at fraud threatened to undermine the poll’s credibility, and that of Afghan President Hamid Karzai.

The lure of graft is sufficient to guarantee on average 10 candidates for every seat in the lower house of parliament, the wolesi jirga.

There is no doubt of the number of candidates risking their lives for a democratic Afghanistan. Theirs is truly a story of courage – though perhaps taking place well before their nation, their fellow Afghans, are ready to support such a change. On their own.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Why? Because they’re Republicans.

A GOP member of the Senate Judiciary Committee said Monday that he expects Republicans to delay for a week the panel’s confirmation vote on Supreme Court nominee Elena Kagan.

The Judiciary Committee, which held four days of hearings on Kagan’s nomination before Congress went on its Fourth of July recess, is scheduled to vote on Tuesday.

“It’s just the normal way of doing business,” Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina said when asked why his party would delay the vote, which is permitted by committee rules.

Kagan is expect to be approved by the committee, which includes 12 Democrats and seven Republicans.

You certainly wouldn’t expect the Party of NO to act like the Party of Accomplishment.

Daylife/Getty Images used by permission

Kyrgyzstan has voted to create Central Asia’s first parliamentary democracy.

The author of the article feels that what’s important is what Russia thinks about the idea. Baloney.

At least 294 people, possibly hundreds more, were killed this month in violence between ethnic Kyrgyz and Uzbeks in southern Kyrgyzstan, a former Soviet republic which hosts U.S. and Russian military air bases and shares a border with China.

Official results showed that with almost all votes counted, 90.6 percent of voters backed a new constitution paving the way for a parliamentary election in October…

Interim leader Roza Otunbayeva, speaking before the first results were known on Sunday, said Kyrgyzstan — which lies on a major drug trafficking route from Afghanistan — had embarked on a path to establishing a “true people’s democracy.”

The 56-nation Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) said the referendum was transparent and the high voter turnout signaled the resilience of Kyrgyz citizens…

RTFA if you think you need to examine Medvedev’s concerns. They’re all about “too much” democracy.

Security analysts say violence is unlikely to hand gains to militant Islamists as authorities are on alert…

Under the new charter, Otunbayeva — the first woman to lead a Central Asian state — will be acting president until the end of 2011. A former ambassador to the United States and Britain, she has struggled to gain control of the south, Bakiyev’s family stronghold, even though she was born in Osh.

I would look forward to the same opportunity in the United States – only I’m not holding my breath.

Maybe even minority parties representing someone other than corporate dollars?