New Regulations, No Recession For Piracy, Self-Immolation, Mullah Omar's Heart Attack, Does Julian Assange Dream Of Yemen?

Eugene Robinson
Lisa Armstrong

"Even if demand strengthens enough to create 300,000 jobs per month, three times the average monthly rate in 2010, employment will not regain its pre-recession level until 2015 at the earliest. And this is very optimistic." - Laura Tyson

"In the spirit of civil discourse, I'd like to humbly suggest that Sarah Palin please consider being quiet for a while. Perhaps a great while." - Eugene Robinson

Before I comment on world events, Barack Obama gave orders to all federal agencies to review all of their regulations, and to get rid of the ones that are there to hamper businesses: "Obama laid out a regulatory strategy that aims to walk the fine line between protecting public health and safety and freeing business to pursue profits. Many of its principles are already in use, senior administration officials said. But the formal order puts agencies across the government on notice that, when making new rules, they must avoid "unreasonable burdens on business,"

From today's Wall Street Journal, obama wrote in an op-ed: "Over the past two years, the goal of my administration has been to strike the right balance. And today, I am signing an executive order that makes clear that this is the operating principle of our government," Obama wrote. "This order requires that federal agencies ensure that regulations protect our safety, health and environment while promoting economic growth. And it orders a government-wide review of the rules already on the books to remove outdated regulations that stifle job creation and make our economy less competitive."

Reaction from across the aisle is predictable, for example: "Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said in a statement. "While I applaud his efforts on this new Executive Order today, we must go further." Hmmm, "further" was the sign on the front of Ken Kesey's Merry Prankster bus; I wonder if ol' Eric is referring to flashbacks from his youth, or he is just trying for Young Republican Cool and Hip... If you have ever filled out a federal form, you know how bizarre and weird they often are, so hopefully, they will be reduced to asking commonsense questions in plain English.


The annual report on piracy has come out by the Brits, announcing that 2010 was a very good year to have been a pirate, booty was up 10% from last year, reported in the NY Times: "pirates had taken 1,181 people hostage and killed 8 in attacks on 445 ships over the course of 2010. At least 53 ships were hijacked last year." This is despite the fact that there are more ships cruising around looking for the pirates than ever before... I guess soon they will have amassed enough money to sponsor an official Somalian soccer team...

What's happening in Tunisia is quite remarkable, a spontaneous revolution against corruption that, so far, has been successful. First, the dictator was forced to flee the country. When the prime minister announced that he had formed a unity government, with himself as president, folks took back to the streets and eventually forced him to resign, along with other administrators from the Ben Ali government, as al Jazeera reports: "Mohamed Ghannouchi and Fouad Mebazaa, Tunisia's prime minister and president, have resigned from the (former) ruling Constitutional Democratic Rally (RCD) party of deposed president Zine El Abidine Ben Ali.


The move, announced on Tuesday, is seen as a concession to opposition cabinet members. Earlier in the day, Tunisia's junior minister for transportation has said that he and two other ministers with ties to a top labour union have resigned from the newly formed government, leaving the new unity government in limbo.


Anouar Ben Gueddour said that he has resigned along with Houssine Dimassi minister of training and employment, and Abdeljelil Bedoui, a minister dealing with prime ministerial affairs. They are all members of a general national labour union. Mustapha Ben Jaafar, the newly-appointed health minister, has also resigned." Now, the quandary remains in choosing a stable government that can carry out elections in six months, because nobody thought that it would go this far...

During the last week, about six people have doused themselves with gasoline and set themselves on fire as a protest. The first self-immolation is what sparked this Jasmine Revolution. The process of self-immolation was a form of Buddhist protest, I remember watching a monk burn himself to death in front of television cameras. He was protesting the escalation of violence in Vietnam. This was before the war was officially declared, and it had a profound effect on my 10 year old self. Not much has been written about the cross-pollination between Islam and Buddhism, yet we know that Islam spread throughout India and China, and in reverse, that warrior monks came pouring across the landscape with the Mongols. Of course, the common thread throughout all religions is that you must practice meditation if you wish to develop insight in your religion, and the best instructions on meditation come through Buddhism. I wonder if the modern practice of the suicide bomber is a bastardization from self-immolation; going from bringing notice to your solitary death, to dying in anonymity and taking as many with you as you can...

Consider how two countries treat persons they consider to be their enemies: In Haiti, the government finally went to the hotel that Baby Doc Duvalier was staying, and placed him under arrest. Lord knows what twisted movie has been going around in his head, or if the government will take him up on his offer to help. He could be the next public spokesman for Haiti - I can see the commercials now, a smiling Baby Doc encouraging you to buy and drink Voodoo Cola! Or maybe he will go on their equivalent of QVC and urge people to place their order for a Haitian Necklace... I guess even for the criminally insane like Baby Doc, there's no place like home...

Contrast Baby Doc's current space with how Pakistan ended up treating the infamous Mullah Omar, who reputedly had a heart attack oh Jan 7th. Mullah Omar is the undisputed head of the Haqqani Network Taliban in Afghanistan. The Pakistani Secret Intelligence Service took him to the best hospital in beautiful Karachi, paid for his surgery and recovery, then took him securely to a safe house, where he can recover poolside by the ocean. This story was reported in the Washington Post, with the caveat that neither Washington nor Islamabad would confirm or deny the story, and the security firm peddling the story is a small one of limited means...

 Ahhhh, I wonder how we will treat young Julian Assange once we finally welcome him to our shores. We are being urged to storm the 600 acre estate where he is being held in Britain and to shut him away before he publishes the Swiss bank account information of famous people who use their Swiss bank accounts as tax dodges. Oh my God, what if there are some Republicans on there, even someone like George Bush or Bill Gates... Julian fears that he would end up forgotten in a jail cell like Manuel Noriega, or have a serial killer or two as cellmates. At best, we'd drag out the process of going to trial for so long, that people would forget that he is a foreign national and not one of ours to mistreat as we see fit. If all else fails, just put him on the President's Assassination List and let him loose in the desert sands of Yemen...