Ailing Kennedy seeks quicker Senate succession

Sen. Ted Kennedy speaks at a news conference on Capitol Hill in a file photo. (REUTERS/Jim Young)

Senator Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, terminally ill with brain cancer, has asked state legislative leaders to change the law and let Gov. Deval Patrick appoint a temporary replacement upon his death.

Under current law, the seat would be empty until a special election could be held 145 to 160 days later, but the 77-year-old Democrat senator sent a letter to Patrick, State Senate President Therese Murray and State House Speaker Robert DeLeo asking the governor be allowed to appoint an interim U.S. senator, should one be needed, rather than wait up to five months for a special election.

A spokesman for Kennedy said on Thursday the letter was not related to any deterioration in his health.

Senator Kennedy has been a lifelong supporter of revamping the nation’s healthcare system, but his absence from the debate and public life in recent months has raised speculation that he will not be well enough to cast a vote when the time comes, according to New York Times, Reuters and Boston Globe reports.

Democrats need Massachusetts' two senators to muster 60 votes in the U.S. Senate, which is crucial to blocking any Republican maneuvers to stall the legislation, Reuters pointed out.

Democratic votes will be crucial to passing the healthcare legislation that is the subject of intense Congressional (and national) debate, and if Kennedy were to die before the vote, his seat would likely be vacant as per the current law.

Patrick and legislative leaders have yet to comment on the senator’s request to appoint an interim senator rather than wait for a special election.

“It’s typical of Ted Kennedy to be thinking ahead and about the people of Massachusetts, when the rest of us are thinking about him,” Patrick said in a statement.

In a joint statement, DeLeo and Murray said: "We have great respect for the Senator and what he continues to do for our Commonwealth and our nation. It is our hope that he will continue to be a voice for the people of Massachusetts as long as he is able."

Massachusetts state law allowed the governor to appoint a temporary replacement for a Senate seat until 2004, when Democrat Sen. John Kerry was running for president and the Democratic-controlled Legislature wanted to prevent then-Gov. Mitt Romney, a Republican, from naming a replacement if Kerry won the presidency, the NYTs reported.

In his letter, Kennedy, who has held his seat for 47 years, wrote that he supported the new law but added, “I also believe it is vital for this Commonwealth to have two voices speaking for the needs of its citizens and two votes in the Senate during the approximately five months between a vacancy and an election.”

Kennedy also asked that Mr. Patrick “obtain, as a condition of appointment of the interim Senator, an explicit personal commitment not to become a candidate in the special election."

Kennedy "wanted to ensure that whomever received that appointment did not have any head start or advantage in the special election," his spokesman said.

Although the letter was delivered Tuesday, it was dated July 9.

Kennedy was diagnosed with a virulent brain tumor in May 2008 and for most of this year has stayed away from Washington and the public eye. He has spent the summer at his home on Cape Cod and occasionally has been spotted sailing with family members, according to news reports.

He did not attend the public funeral last week of his sister, Eunice Kennedy Shriver, and didn't travel to Washington to accept the Presidential Medal of Freedom from Obama.

Sources: New York Times, Reuters, Boston Globe
Copyright © 2009, Primetime Oracle
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More votes than people in Iran

Left: Guardian Council spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei (PressTV)

Iran's Guardian Council has admitted that the number of votes collected in 50 cities surpass the number of the people eligible to cast ballot in those areas.

We heard this one before, and if it's true...well, there can only be one reason...

Council spokesman Abbas-Ali Kadkhodaei, who was speaking on the Islamic Republic of Iran Broadcasting (IRIB) Channel 2 on Sunday, made the remarks in response to complaints filed by Mohsen Rezaei, a defeated candidate in the June 12 presidential election.

"Statistics provided by Mohsen Rezaei in which he claims more than 100% of those eligible have cast their ballot in 170 cities are not accurate, the incident has happened in only 50 cities," Kadkhodaei said.

However, he said that although the vote tally affected by such an irregularity is over 3 million, "it has yet to be determined whether the amount is decisive in the election results."

Three of the four candidates contesting in last Friday's presidential election cried foul, once the Interior Ministry announced the results, according to which incumbent President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was declared the winner with almost two-thirds of the vote.

Rezaei, along with Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Mehdi Karroubi, reported more than 646 "irregularities" in the electoral process and submitted their complaints to the body responsible for overseeing the election: the Guardian Council.

Mousavi and Karroubi have called on the council to nullify Friday's vote and hold a new election. This is while President Ahmadinejad and his Interior Minister Sadeq Mahsouli have rejected any possibility of fraud, saying that the election was free and fair.

Moussavi reportedly is telling protesters: "The country belongs to you. The revolution and the system is your heritage."

Meanwhile, an analysis of the elections by academics in the U.K. further add to doubts about the authenticity of the results.

Below is a report published by London-based The Times.

Claims that Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s re-election was rigged have been bolstered by an analysis of the official results by British academics In the conservative provinces of Mazandaran and Yazd, the number of votes cast exceeded the number of eligible voters, the survey by researchers from the University of St Andrews and Chatham House, the London think-tank, found.

• Four more provinces recorded turnouts close to 100%.

• To achieve the official results in 10 of the 30 provinces, the ultra-conservative President must have carried all the new voters who did not cast ballots in 2005, all the votes that went to his centrist rival Ali Akbar Hasemi Rafsanjani and up to 44% of the votes that went to reformist candidates.

• Those provinces include ones dominated by ethnic minorities who seldom if ever vote conservative. “The numbers from Ilam, Lorestan and Hormozgan almost defy belief,” said Thomas Rintoul, one of the researchers.

• Lorestan is home to Medhi Karoubi, the most liberal of the four candidates, who won 440,247 votes (55%) there in 2005. Official figures suggest he won only 44,036 (4.6%) this time.

• “The analysis shows that the scale of the swing to Ahmadinejad would have had to have been extraordinary to achieve the stated result,” said Ali Ansari, Professor of Iranian Studies at St Andrews.

• The figures also challenge the notion that Mr Ahmadinejad’s victory was due to the massive participation of a previously silent conservative majority and that he was particularly popular in rural areas.

I bet Ahmadinejad's usual ear-to-ear smile is slowly fading. Perhaps now he'll stop attributing the violence on Tehran streets to "traffic violations"...though given his self-deluding skills, I doubt it.

So what if Iran were to hold new elections and Ahmadinejad wins "again," will the protesters rest?

Source: BNO News, PressTV, TimesOnline

More violence in Iran, militia shoots at protesters

Reformist presidential candidate Mir Houssein Mousavi, with his wife his wife Zahra Rahnavard, addresses supporters at a rally today in Tehran. (Olivier Laban-Mattei/AFP/Getty Images)

It should be of no surprise that the unrest in Iran continues to be our top story.

We start the day with reports of shootings in Tehran with one person confirmed dead (I suspect this number will climb) and more panic spreading throughout the city, which has been "on fire" in the aftermath of presidential elections Friday Supporters of President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's chief rival, Mir Hossein Moussavi, are protesting the election results, claiming fraud .

Tens of thousands of Mousavi supporters--more than 100,000 according to some reports--gathered for a rally in downtown Tehran calling for the annulment of the official result of Friday's election. Moussavi spoke to the crowd at the rally.

It has been reported that the pro-government militia opened fired at demonstrators at Azidi Square, but according to the latest reports shootings have now been heard in at least three districts of northern Tehran.

The BBC's Jon Leyne, in Tehran, said rally is the biggest demonstration in the Islamic republic's 30-year history and described it as a "political earthquake."

The U.S. State Department stated it's "deeply troubled" by the reports of violence in Iran.

So where is this clash heading to? Will people calm down and the issue die down in a couple of days? Hmm...I doubt it.

But Iran is not the U.S.--there won't be a "recount" there, and foreign nations have no say on Iran's elections. The opposition isn't powerful enough to be a threat to Ahmadinejad. So what are the protesters hoping to accomplish other than rant and vent? Not that there's anything wrong with ranting and venting...

"If Ahmadinejad remains president we will protest every day," the protesters are shouting. "We fight, we die, we will not accept this vote rigging," was another chant in the crowd, Reuters reported.

If indeed Ahmadinejad was the winner, the opposition is toast. But if the election was tampered with and this can be proven somehow, then democracy and justice could have a chance at prevailing in Iran...but I'm not holding my breath.

Sources: BNO News, Reuters, My Twisted Mind
Copyright © 2009