Lula's allies sweep Senate race, governorships
The Earth Times : Mon, 04 Oct 2010
Brasilia - The coalition that backs Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da
Silva is set to have a two-thirds majority in the Senate and won 12
governorships in the first round of voting, results showed Monday.
Sunday's general election was however not a complete success for the ruling-
party camp. Its presidential candidate, Dilma Rousseff, won the first round
of voting, but still must to face off against social democrat Jose Serra in
a runoff October 31.
Lula's Workers' Party (PT) and its allies are to have 55 Senate seats
beginning in January - up from their current 39, while the opposition goes
from 33 down to 22 seats and independents shrink from 10 to four, according
to a vote count from Sunday's legislative election. Lula's allies swept the
board Sunday: Of 54 Senate seats being chosen, they won 40.
The relevance of the balance of power in the Senate will depend on the
outcome of the presidential runoff between Rousseff and Serra.
If Rousseff wins the presidency, she will have a very friendly Senate to
work with, in line with the wishes of the outgoing Lula. However, if Serra
were to win, he would have to govern in an unfavourable legislative setting.
Rousseff's leftist PT increased its own share from 11 to 15 senators. It is
set to be the second-largest in the upper house of the Brazilian Congress,
behind its main ally, the centrist Party of the Brazilian Democratic
Movement (PMDB), with 20 seats.
The opposition led by the Party of Brazilian Social Democracy (PSDB), whose
presidential candidate Serra managed to hold Rousseff to a runoff, and by
the conservative party Democratas (DEM) suffered a historic defeat in the
Senate race.
The PSDB, which currently has 14 senators, will from January have only 10,
while the DEM went from 18 seats to seven.
No details were immediately available as to the make-up of the lower house
of the Brazilian Congress, for which pre-electoral opinion polls had also
given Lula and his allies a comfortable lead.
The ruling coalition that backs Lula and Rousseff also carried 12 of the 18
state governorships races that were decided in Sunday's voting.
The PT got back the leadership of the state of Rio Grande do Sul and kept
Bahia, Sergipe and Acre. Its allies of the Brazilian Socialist Party (PSB),
in turn, comfortably won Ceara, Pernambuco, Piaui and Espirito Santo.
The centrist PMDB, the PT's main ally, kept Rio de Janeiro - Brazil's third
most powerful state - and also won Maranhao, Mato Grosso and Mato Grosso do
Sul.
However, the social democratic opposition will keep command of Brazil's two
most powerful states in both political and economic terms, Sao Paulo and
Minas Gerais. They also won Parana and Tocantins, while their allies of the
DEM are to govern the states of Rio Grande do Norte and Santa Catarina.
The state of Amazonas elected a governor of the tiny Party of National
Mobilization (PMN).
The election for governor is set to be defined in a runoff in the remaining
eight states and in the federal district of Brasilia.
***
http://www.informationclearinghouse.info/article26515.htm
Mission Creep In Afghanistan / Pakistan
by Eric Margolis:
Information Clearing House: October 04, 2010
The focus of the Afghan War is clearly shifting south into Pakistan, drawing
that nation and the United States forces ever closer to a direct
confrontation. This grim development was as predictable as it was
inevitable.
In fact, this writer has been warning for years that US and NATO efforts to
defeat resistance by Afghanistan's fierce Pashtun tribes to Western
occupation would eventually lead to spreading the conflict into neighboring
Pakistan, a nation of 175 million.
Last week, Pakistan temporarily closed the main US/NATO supply route from
Karachi to the Afghan border at Torkham after the killing of three Pakistani
soldiers by US helicopter gunships. Two US/NATO fuel supply convoys were
burned by anti-American militants.
Eighty percent of the supplies of the US-led forces in Afghanistan come up
this long, difficult route. Along the way, the US pays large bribes to
Pakistani officials, local warlords, and to Taliban. The cost of a gallon of
gas delivered to US units in Afghanistan has risen to $800.
US helicopter gunships have staged at least four attacks on Pakistan this
past week alone, in addition to the mounting number of strikes by CIA drones
that are inflicting heavy casualties on civilians and tribal militants
alike. US special forces and CIA-run Afghan mercenaries are also
increasingly active along Pakistan's northwest frontier.
Pakistan's feeble government has long closed its eyes to CIA's drone
attacks. Washington does not even seek permission for the raids or give
advance warning to Islamabad. Pakistani civilians bear the brunt of the
attacks.
The failing government in Islamabad is caught between two fires. Pakistanis
are furious and humiliated by the American attacks. Each new assault further
undermines the inept, US-installed Zardari government. Even Interior
Minister Rehman Malik, the government's strongman, protested last week's US
attacks.
But Pakistan is on the edge of economic collapse after its devastating
floods. Islamabad is now totally reliant on $2 billion annual US aid, plus
tens of millions more "black" payments from CIA. Washington has given
Islamabad $10 billion since 2001, most of which goes to financing 140,000
Pakistani troops to join the US-led Afghan war.
As Osama bin Laden just pointed out in a new audio tape, the Muslim nations
have been derelict in coming to Pakistan's aid. He blamed the massive
flooding in Pakistan on global warming.
An influential former Pakistani chief of staff, Gen. Mirza Aslam Beg, just
demanded Pakistan's air force shoot down US drones and helicopters violating
his nation's sovereignty. His sentiments are widely shared in Pakistan's
increasingly angry military.
Pakistan's senior generals are being blasted as "American stooges" by some
of the media and are losing respect among Pakistanis. A video this week of
the execution of six civilians by army troops has further damaged the army's
good name.
However, Washington's view is very different. Pakistan is increasingly
branded insubordinate, ungrateful for billions in aid, and a potential enemy
of US regional interests. Many Americans consider Pakistan more of a foe
than ally. The limited US financial response to Pakistan's flood was a sign
of that nation's poor repute in North America.
Fears are growing in Washington that the nine-year Afghan War may be lost.
American popular opinion has turned against the war. The Pentagon fears a
failure in Afghanistan will humiliate the US military and undermine
America's
international power. In short, just what happened to the Soviet Union in
Afghanistan.
America's foreign policy establishment is venting its anger and frustration
over the failing Afghan War by lashing out at Pakistan and the US-installed
Karzai regime in Kabul.
Pakistan's President, Asif Ali Zardari, is seen in Washington as hopeless
and incompetent. Full US attention is now on Pakistan's military, the de
facto government, and its respected but embattled commander, Gen. Ashfaq
Kayani, whose tenure was just extended under US pressure. Kayani is still
regarded as an "asset" by Washington. But like Zardari, he is caught between
American demands and outraged Pakistanis - plus concerns about the threat
from India and Delhi's machinations in Afghanistan. The recent upsurge of
violence in Indian-ruled Kashmir has intensified these dangerous tensions.
The neoconservative far right in Washington and its media allies again claim
Pakistan is a grave threat to US interests and to Israel. Pakistan must be
declawed and dismembered, insist the neocons. Pakistan's nuclear arsenal is
reportedly being targeted for seizure or elimination by US Special Forces.
There is also talk in Washington of dividing Afghanistan into Pashtun, Tajik
and Uzbek mini-states, as the US has done in Iraq, and perhaps Pakistan, as
well. Little states are easier to rule or intimidate than big ones. Many
Pakistanis believe the United States is bent on dismembering their nation.
Some polls show Pakistanis now regard the United States as a greater enemy
than India.
Now that America is in full mid-term election frenzy, expect more calls for
tougher US military action in "AfPak." Already unpopular politicians are
terrified of being branded "soft on terrorism" and failing to maximally
support US military campaigns. Flag waving replaces sober thought.
If polls are right and Republicans achieve a major win, it's likely there
will be more and deeper US air and land attacks into Pakistan. The Pentagon
is convinced it can still defeat resistance by Taliban and its allies "if
only we can go after their sanctuaries in Pakistan," as one general told me.
Where have we heard this before? Why in Cambodia and Laos, that's where,
during the Vietnam War. The frustrated US expanded the war into Cambodia and
Laos to go after Communist base camps. The war spread; these two small
nations were largely destroyed, but the war was ultimately lost.
Victory in war is achieved by concentration of forces, not spreading them
ever thinner and wider.
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