 | | Lone female
CMC member
against quota
for women |
 SHEIKHA
AL JUFAIRI, who made history in 2003 when she won election to
the Central Municipal Council (CMC) from the Airport constituency,
the first woman in the GCC ever to win a municipal election,
is against reservation of seats for women in the CMC as demanded
by many. In an exclusive interview with Qatar Tribune, Sheikha
al Jufairi answered a number of... |
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|  |  | | Yemen´s ´Aborted´ Revolution |
 TOYemenis,
violence in the streets and threats of state collapse are nothing
new. Despite reports portraying the protests in Yemen as something
of a revolution, democratic change has little possibility of
success. President Ali Abdullah Saleh is essentially a figurehead;
whether he stays or goes, the regime of technocrats and thugs
he represents is unlikely. |
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| |  | | SOMERSAULT ON
GAZA WAR REPORT |
| WE have a new verb, "to Goldstone."
Its meaning: To make a finding, and then partially retract it
for uncertain motive. Etymology: the strange actions of a respected
South African Jewish jurist under intense pressure from Israel,
the US Congress and world Jewish groups. Richard Goldstone is
an author of the "Goldstone Report," an investigation
of Israel´s military campaign in Gaza... |
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Obama turns to Chicago again for 2012 re-election
AP CHICAGO PRESIDENT Barack Obama’s relationship with his hometown may be best described as a long-distance love affair.
He lavishes attention on it from afar and proud Chicago pines for its hometown hero, though the two rarely see each other.
That looks like it’s about to change.
Obama is returning to his roots as he embarks on his re-election race for 2012.
He’s setting up his campaign headquarters in a downtown highrise near Grant Park, the site of his victory celebration on a frigid election night in November 2008.
He’s coming back on Thursday to raise money, a week after launching his second White House bid with an understated email and online video.
The president is putting Chicago in the spotlight again as he tries to recreate the grass-roots, start-up flavour of his first campaign and do what no incumbent president has done in decades: try to win reelection from a location outside Washington.
“Nobody is more eager to be out and nobody is more eager to be here than him,” said David Axelrod, Obama’s chief political strategist who left the White House this year to return to Chicago to work on the re-election and be closer to his Chicago-based family.
“The conversation in Washington is completely different than the conversation you hear out here.” Obama’s advisers hope a Chicago location could insulate his campaign from some of the Washington chatter and news leaks that often plague campaigns.
A beyond-the- Beltway headquarters could allow them to offset the notion that Obama, who campaigned as an outsider above the partisan fray and promised a new approach to politics, has become the ultimate political insider.
“Basing it in Chicago says, ‘I’m not of Washington,’ but if he doesn’t spend time in Chicago, he is of Washington,” said Paul Light, a public service professor at New York University.
Obama’s relationship with his town has evolved over the years.
He was a community organiser, worked on a major voter drive and practiced law in his early days in the city.
When he entered politics, he focused on the state capital of Springfield, and cast himself as above the brass-knuckled nature of Chicago politics, whose history is pockmarked with corruption and scandal.
During the 2008 campaign, Obama was a fixture in Chicago when he wasn’t crisscrossing the country for votes.
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