• diary political and General News Events from Feb 2

phone, `I'm going to support you.' The next day, someone asked. I said I said it, it was in the newspapers. So I don't know if we'll have an official endorsement. But it's known. And look, Hillary, and I talk about her relationship and mine in the book, we've stepped on each other's toes. We're both, you know, aggressive, driving people representing the exact same area. It's the only place where two people represent the same area. But she works hard, she cares about people. She is really smart in a practical way. So I think she'll be not only a good candidate but I think she'll be a good president.
PRESSMAN: Does it dismay you that she opted out of the campaign finance program that...
Sen. SCHUMER: Well, what choice do you have? You know, it's sort of--we ought to change the rules. We ought to put a limit on how much people can spend. And the Buckley v. Vallejo, which is a Supreme Court decision, which says a multimillionaire has a constitutional right to spend as much of his money as he wants, her money as she wants, that screwed it all up because then, if you're not a multimillionaire, you'll get swamped. So we ought to try and get the Supreme Court to change that rule. I would even be for a constitutional amendment. Then you could put limits and everyone would abide by them. You can't now.
PRESSMAN: You're not copping out?
Sen. SCHUMER: No.
PRESSMAN: Mm-hmm. What about the question of the Baileys? What would you say to the Baileys right now about 2008?
Sen. SCHUMER: I'd say to the Baileys, look, you've achieved a lot in your lives and you should be proud of it,' and you've got three great kids. But you have worries. You have worries how you're going to pay for their college. We're going to try to solve that problem by making college tuition deductible and making the interest rates of college lower. We talk about it in the book. You're worried about your parents and your medical care? We're going to solve that problem by having a much better health care system that deals with it. You're worried about terrorism? We're not going to engage in things like Iraq, but we're going to have a strong policy that goes after the terrorists when they go after us. You're worried about pornography on the Net? Here's a novel way to deal with it. You know, this pornography comes from overseas. We can't stop it. But they make money, right? So we make the response--put the responsibility on the credit card companies. You can't do it for a kid. For an adult, that's their business, but for a kid, you can't. And so we have a lot of solutions.
PRESSMAN: Right.
Sen. SCHUMER: You're worried about high gas prices? We have a novel solution to bring the price down by both increasing supply and decreasing demand.
PRESSMAN: Has--as the senior senator from New York, you're certainly one of the senior Democrats if not the titular head of the party, depending on how you define that.
Sen. SCHUMER: Right.
PRESSMAN: You've got the potentiality of a civil war breaking out within the party in Albany with Governor Spitzer having gone along with the appointment of this panel...
Sen. SCHUMER: Yeah.
PRESSMAN: ...which didn't consider any Assembly members...
Sen. SCHUMER: Right.
PRESSMAN: ...for the post vacated by Alan Hevesi as controller...
Sen. SCHUMER: Right.
PRESSMAN: ...of the state of New York. And you have Mr. Silver feeling that he's been had. Do you think that...
Sen. SCHUMER: I think they'll work it out. They'll work it out.
PRESSMAN: They'll work it out?
Sen. SCHUMER: I don't know how? You know, I've talked to both Shelly and...
PRESSMAN: You have?
Sen. SCHUMER: Yes. Not about this--well, I've talked about this but not since the panel.
PRESSMAN: Are you going to referee the dispute?
Sen. SCHUMER: I don't think I'll referee but you know, I've told them everyone's got to get along, everyone's got to--and they have an interest in not having open warfare against each other.
PRESSMAN: What's the solution?
Sen. SCHUMER: Well, I don't know but they'll have to find somebody who's acceptable to both of them. Now, maybe it'll be one of the three on the panel, maybe it won't. But to have warfare on this when there are so many qualified people who could be controller doesn't make sense.
PRESSMAN: So you think one possibility is to take someone from the selection panel and make that person controller?
Sen. SCHUMER: Well, you know, that remains--the worst thing that can happen is if they come--there's so many issues where we've got to fix up the state. It's not worth fighting over if you can find somebody who will be good for the job and who they both could agree on.
PRESSMAN: We'll be back after these messages with more from Senator Schumer.
(Announcements)
PRESSMAN: We're back here with Senator Schumer.
Senator, in trying to define yourself ideologically, you talk about the fact that there are two groups that have taken control of the Republican Party.
Sen. SCHUMER: Right.
PRESSMAN: The theocrats and the economic royalists.
Sen. SCHUMER: Yes.
PRESSMAN: Now, that's--economic royalists sounds like something from FDR.
Sen. SCHUMER: Yes, yes.
PRESSMAN: Franklin Roosevelt talked about economic royalists.
Sen. SCHUMER: Well, these economic royalists are people who've made a lot of money by themselves. Great, God bless them, that's what America's about. But they say, `I made it myself. Don't you take a nickel of it from me. Don't you tell me how to treat my worker. Don't you tell me how to treat my land. It's mine!' They're really greedy. But over the years, which they've paid this small group, but they've paid for these think tanks and professors and even media, it's right-wing talk radio which they cultivated, and they control a great deal of the Republican Party. And it's one of the reasons I think we Democrats have a leg up, 'cause they do not represent--in 1980, they resonated with the middle class 'cause the middle class thought government was not needed and out of touch. They don't anymore. And that's why we have a real chance.
And you see, we know--we Democrats, I think, know that New Deal democracy is not going to work for us anymore. But the Republicans don't know that this economic royalist, hard-right Reagan philosophy isn't going to work for them. They don't know it. That's why we have the advantage.
PRESSMAN: You said there are two groups.
Sen. SCHUMER: The other's the theocrat.
PRESSMAN: What are theocrats?
Sen. SCHUMER: These are people of deep religious faith. I respect faith. I've been in too many inner city black churches or working class Catholic parishes or rural Methodist congregations or little Jewish synagogues, and you see the people, their faith is a gift. But this narrow band of the faithful, it's only a small part of them, they want to take their faith and impose it on our government. That, in a word, is un-American. That's what the founding fathers actually put down their plows and took up muskets.
PRESSMAN: Separation of church and state.
Sen. SCHUMER: Exactly. You don't have someone's beliefs dictate what the government should do. So--but the Baileys, here's what's interesting about the Baileys. So, for instance, on abortion...
PRESSMAN: What are their names, Joe and...
Sen. SCHUMER: Joe and Eileen.
PRESSMAN: Joe and Eileen. And the kids are?
Sen. SCHUMER: Oh, the kids are Abigail, Caitlyn and Pete. Pete's the little boy.
PRESSMAN: And when you think about them, well, you were about to tell me about them and their feelings.
Sen. SCHUMER: Yeah. Well, what I was saying is on abortion, for instance, their pro-choice, not in a wild way. They know people make mistakes. But they're sort of glad that their church isn't 'cause they're worried that all society could spring loose if we take off some of the moral
PRESSMAN: They're kind of ambivalent on the abortion question.
Sen. SCHUMER: Well, they're neither--they're neither hard-right or hard-left. And we propose reducing abortion by 50 percent but not by the government telling people what to do, rather by promoting both abstinence and contraception, both.
PRESSMAN: Right. Is there any other key issue, social issue, that you think involves the Baileys?
Sen. SCHUMER: Well, we talk about a lot of them. I mean, one--I don't know if you'd call social immigration's a hot issue. As I said...
PRESSMAN: Right.
Sen. SCHUMER: ...they are not anti-immigrant but they're anti illegal immigrant. So if we could have a system--here's our system. Why do immigrants come? Because they want a job. Employers say, `Well, I don't know who's illegal and who's not. They hand me a Social Security card.
PRESSMAN: Right.
Sen. SCHUMER: We propose that everybody have a national employment card, you, me and all the people here legally.
PRESSMAN: OK.
Sen. SCHUMER: You put it through a little swipe...
PRESSMAN: And we ran out of time. Sorry. I understand.
Sen. SCHUMER: But it will stop illegal immigration and allow us to have more legal immigrants of people we need, engineers, farm workers, who knows.
PRESSMAN: Right. Thank you, Charles Schumer, for joining us today.
Sen. SCHUMER: All right.
PRESSMAN: Have a good day. This is Gabe Pressman.
Sen. SCHUMER: Thank you.
Document NWSF000020070129e31s00001
Zimbabwe Independent - AAGM: Vaunted Sino- Zim Intimacy All But a Fallacy.
Dumisani Ndlela

1,089 words

26 January 2007

Zimbabwe Independent

MEWZII

English

The Financial Times Limited. Asia Africa Intelligence Wire. All material subject to copyright. Zimbabwe Independent © 2007 All rights reserved.
A PLANNED African visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao provides no clue as to Zimbabwe's vaunted close relations with the Asian country.
Hu, making his second visit to the continent, has again given Zimbabwe a wide berth, instead visiting four of the country's neighbours in a policy initiative viewed by observers as aimed at putting African economies on a solid footing.
No country required that better than Zimbabwe, currently grappling with an economic crisis now in its seventh year.
Besides giving a modicum of hope to Zimbabwe, isolated by the international community over a poor human rights record, a visit by Hu would have generated confidence that the Chinese would finally provide a hefty financial bail-out.
Hu, whose Africa visit will start on January 30, will visit Mozambique, whose economy is experiencing one of the highest growth rates on the continent; Zambia, whose once-suffering economy is on the mend; Namibia, whose economy is one of the most vibrant in the region; and South Africa, the continent's economic powerhouse.
Trade between China and Africa has swelled in recent years, reaching US$42 billion in 2005.
China has become a dominant supplier of cheap manufactured goods for the continent, and the Zimbabwean government has entered into several deals with Chinese companies, most of them state-owned, for barter arrangements in which Zimbabwe will receive assistance in setting up power plants and telecommunications infrastructure in return for minerals resources to sustain China's expanding economy.
Hu visited Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya in April last year, signing a number of trade agreements, while Chinese Foreign minister Li Zhaoxing visited several African countries this month, again also giving Zimbabwe a wide berth.
During his current mission, Hu will also visit Cameroon, Sudan, the Seychelles and Liberia between January 30 and February 10, according to information released this week by Chinese Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.
Liu told a news briefing the visits were a follow-up to last year's China-Africa summit in Beijing and aimed to "consolidate traditional friendship" between China and the African countries.
President Robert Mugabe was one of the delegates to the China-Africa summit held towards the end of last year.
Immediately after the visit, government suggested that China was to provide immense support to Zimbabwe to facilitate the country's economic turnaround programme, with a consignment of fertiliser, as well as other goods reported to have been already in shipment immediately after the summit, demonstrating to pessimists China's unflinching support for President Mugabe's regime.
The European Union and the United States have imposed targeted sanctions, which include travel bans, on President Robert Mugabe and members of his regime.
The sanctions have impeded the country from accessing offshore finance from international financial institutions as well as from the international donor community.
This has compounded the country's economic woes, with acute foreign currency shortages resulting in severe fuel shortages which have disrupted economic activities.
Mugabe's government has pushed for aggressive relations with Asian countries, particularly China, under a Look East policy adopted mainly to spite Western countries for the targeted sanctions on his regime.
Shunned by the West and blamed by opponents for sinking the country into its worst crisis since Independence in 1980, Mugabe has been forced to scramble for aid from the East.
However, many observers say China, rather than Zimbabwe, has been the major beneficiary of Zimbabwe's Look East policy, and several bids by Mugabe's government to source financial assistance from the Chinese have failed.
China has been trying to gain a foothold in Zimbabwe's key mining sector to explore the country's vast mineral reserves.
In July 2005, Mugabe visited China in a bid to negotiate an economic package to rescue the country from its crisis.
Nothing came out of that visit.
However, Zimbabwe's ambassador to China, Chris Mutsvangwa, said the country was on the verge of securing a US$2 billion credit line from China.
The claim was however denied by the Chinese government, who also dismissed state media reports that a Chinese firm was preparing to inject huge amounts of money into Ziscosteel to turn around the ailing steelmaker's fortunes.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono, however announced in September a US$200 million facility from China as part of nearly half a billion dollars worth of mainly foreign loans which he said had been offered after Zimbabwe had met conditions for the Chinese loan.
This left market watchers speculating that Zimbabwe could have mortgaged mineral resources for the loan.
Zimbabwe has made several offers to the Chinese firms in a bid to persuade the Chinese government into granting the country a financial bail-out package.
A Chinese company, Bunday Technical Mining, was recently granted land by the Chirumanzu Rural District Council to set up a chrome processing plant in Lalapanzi.
Although the Chinese have become major buyers of tobacco on the local market, plans by several Chinese firms to finance tobacco farming appear to have fallen through.
Although a delegation of senior officials from Air Zimbabwe, the Civil Aviation Authority and the National Railways went to China in 2004 "to finalise discussions with a Chinese firm" for investment in the companies, the Chinese firm, China National Aero Technical Import and Export Technology (Catac), has not followed through on the deals.
Catac has signed several memorandums with the Zimbabwe Electricity Supply Authority to finance several power projects but these have failed to get through because of failure by the Zimbabwe government to provide required guarantees.
Catac had also been courted by Tel*One to provide software for Tel*One to mitigate theft of copper cables.
The Chinese company has been given a tender to supply aviation equipment for the Victoria Falls Airport and Joshua Nkomo Airport in Bulawayo, as well as to assist with the construction of a cargo harbour and runways.
The company was also expected to supply railway infrastructure, especially signal network and dualisation of the Harare-Masvingo road up to the Beitbridge border post.
But Chinese firms have refused to release funds initially pledged for the projects and until they do so there will be no progress.
The failure of these schemes could explain why China's leader is being circumspect about visiting Zimbabwe in his journey to Africa. Relations don't appear to be as intimate as we have been led to believe.
Distributed by AllAfrica Global Media. (allafrica.com)
ZBIN53949262
Document MEWZII0020070127e31q00003

Vaunted Sino- Zim Intimacy All But a Fallacy
by Dumisani Ndlela

1,090 words

26 January 2007

04:41 PM

All Africa

AFNWS

English

(c) 2007 AllAfrica, All Rights Reserved
Jan 26, 2007 (Zimbabwe Independent/All Africa Global Media via COMTEX) --
A PLANNED African visit by Chinese President Hu Jintao provides no clue as to Zimbabwe's vaunted close relations with the Asian country.
Hu, making his second visit to the continent, has again given Zimbabwe a wide berth, instead visiting four of the country's neighbours in a policy initiative viewed by observers as aimed at putting African economies on a solid footing.
No country required that better than Zimbabwe, currently grappling with an economic crisis now in its seventh year.
Besides giving a modicum of hope to Zimbabwe, isolated by the international community over a poor human rights record, a visit by Hu would have generated confidence that the Chinese would finally provide a hefty financial bail-out.
Hu, whose Africa visit will start on January 30, will visit Mozambique, whose economy is experiencing one of the highest growth rates on the continent; Zambia, whose once-suffering economy is on the mend; Namibia, whose economy is one of the most vibrant in the region; and South Africa, the continent's economic powerhouse.
Trade between China and Africa has swelled in recent years, reaching US$42 billion in 2005.
China has become a dominant supplier of cheap manufactured goods for the continent, and the Zimbabwean government has entered into several deals with Chinese companies, most of them state-owned, for barter arrangements in which Zimbabwe will receive assistance in setting up power plants and telecommunications infrastructure in return for minerals resources to sustain China's expanding economy.
Hu visited Morocco, Nigeria and Kenya in April last year, signing a number of trade agreements, while Chinese Foreign minister Li Zhaoxing visited several African countries this month, again also giving Zimbabwe a wide berth.
During his current mission, Hu will also visit Cameroon, Sudan, the Seychelles and Liberia between January 30 and February 10, according to information released this week by Chinese Foreign ministry spokesman Liu Jianchao.
Liu told a news briefing the visits were a follow-up to last year's China-Africa summit in Beijing and aimed to "consolidate traditional friendship" between China and the African countries.
President Robert Mugabe was one of the delegates to the China-Africa summit held towards the end of last year.
Immediately after the visit, government suggested that China was to provide immense support to Zimbabwe to facilitate the country's economic turnaround programme, with a consignment of fertiliser, as well as other goods reported to have been already in shipment immediately after the summit, demonstrating to pessimists China's unflinching support for President Mugabe's regime.
The European Union and the United States have imposed targeted sanctions, which include travel bans, on President Robert Mugabe and members of his regime.
The sanctions have impeded the country from accessing offshore finance from international financial institutions as well as from the international donor community.
This has compounded the country's economic woes, with acute foreign currency shortages resulting in severe fuel shortages which have disrupted economic activities.
Mugabe's government has pushed for aggressive relations with Asian countries, particularly China, under a Look East policy adopted mainly to spite Western countries for the targeted sanctions on his regime.
Shunned by the West and blamed by opponents for sinking the country into its worst crisis since Independence in 1980, Mugabe has been forced to scramble for aid from the East.
However, many observers say China, rather than Zimbabwe, has been the major beneficiary of Zimbabwe's Look East policy, and several bids by Mugabe's government to source financial assistance from the Chinese have failed.
China has been trying to gain a foothold in Zimbabwe's key mining sector to explore the country's vast mineral reserves.
In July 2005, Mugabe visited China in a bid to negotiate an economic package to rescue the country from its crisis.
Nothing came out of that visit.
However, Zimbabwe's ambassador to China, Chris Mutsvangwa, said the country was on the verge of securing a US$2 billion credit line from China.
The claim was however denied by the Chinese government, who also dismissed state media reports that a Chinese firm was preparing to inject huge amounts of money into Ziscosteel to turn around the ailing steelmaker's fortunes.
Reserve Bank of Zimbabwe governor, Gideon Gono, however announced in September a US$200 million facility from China as part of nearly half a billion dollars worth of mainly foreign loans which he said had been offered after Zimbabwe had met conditions for the Chinese