Comedy Alert: Pelosi Lectures Karzai on Corruption

This is almost as amusing as Obama lecturing the Spanish socialist on the need for economic reform.

Do these people have the slightest clue how hypocritical they look?

Congress will press Afghan President Hamid Karzai to rein in corruption, believing it is holding his country back, US House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday.

Karzai is spending a week in Washington for talks to repair a rift with the Obama administration, which infuriated the Afghan leader with its public criticisms of his alleged corruption and vote-rigging.

Pelosi said Congress would welcome Karzai and show respect for his office, "but we do have questions that require answers."

Congress wants from Karzai a "decision to end corruption, to have more accountability, more transparency."

"We're not talking about paying a dollar to cross the road. We're talking about systemic corruption and a system that prevents the flourishing of a nation," she said.

Yeah, most Americans feel the same way.

Here's the real zinger.

"We need accountability, too. We're subjecting every dollar we spend here to very tough scrutiny," she said.

She apparently said that with a straight face.

Afghans Reconsider Marital Rape Law

Welcome back to the civilized world, folks. Granted, this won't stop the primitive Taliban from treating women like garbage, but at least Hamid Karzai is paying attention.

A controversial law condoning marital rape and reintroducing Taleban-era rules for Afghan women has been shelved after an outcry in the West.

The Afghan Foreign Ministry said that the law had not been enacted, while Justice Ministry officials said that its contents might be reconsidered. The legislation was put on hold pending a review.

“The Justice Ministry is reviewing the law to make sure it is in line with the Afghan Government’s commitment to human rights and women rights conventions,” Sultan Ahmad Baheen, a spokesman for the ministry in Kabul, said.

The British Government expressed alarm at the law, which applies to the 15 per cent of the Afghan population that is Shia Muslim. President Obama called the law “abhorrent” at the Nato summit in Strasbourg last week.
...
One of the most controversial articles stipulates that the wife “is bound to preen for her husband as and when he desires”.

Later the law explicitly sanctions marital rape. “As long as the husband is not travelling, he has the right to have sexual intercourse with his wife every fourth night,” Article 132 says. “Unless the wife is ill or has any kind of illness that intercourse could aggravate, the wife is bound to give a positive response to the sexual desires of her husband.”

Article 133 reintroduces the Taleban restrictions on women’s movements outside their homes, stating: “A wife cannot leave the house without the permission of the husband” unless in a medical or other emergency.

Article 27 endorses child marriage with girls legally able to marry once they begin to menstruate.

The law also withholds from the woman the right to inherit her husband’s wealth.

Perhaps we can whisper sweet nothings in their ear and encourage more dialogue.

Afghans Protest Against America After Latest Raid, Reuters Conveniently Omits Name of New President

You see, now they're simply protesting against the United States. None of this apparently has anything to do with Barack Obama. No burning puppet heads of Obama, no Death to Obama posters, in fact, nary a mention of Obama whatsoever.

How convenient.

Thousands of Afghans protested against President Hamid Karzai and the United States on Sunday over reports of fresh civilian deaths caused by U.S.-led troops during a raid against Taliban militants.

The issue of civilian casualties is sensitive in Afghanistan and has eroded public support for Karzai's government and the foreign troops backing it.

It has also caused a rift between Karzai and his Western allies more than seven years after U.S.-led and Afghan forces overthrew the Taliban's government.

The operation causing the latest controversy happened this week in eastern Laghman province. The U.S. military said on Saturday that troops, backed by air support, had killed 15 militants in an overnight operation.

Assadullah Wafa, a Karzai adviser investigating the deaths, said on Sunday that "16 civilians, many of them children and women, were killed" in the operation.

"We strongly condemn it and want an end to it (civilian casualties)," he told reporters in Mehtar Lam, Laghman's provincial capital, where the protest was held.

A statement from the presidential palace quoted Karzai as saying that bombing villages and causing civilian deaths "will not bear any progress in the war against terrorism.

The Most Dangerous Place In the World: An Afghan 'Wedding Party'

Seems like a couple of times a months one of these Afghan "wedding parties" gets blown up. Naturally, the media is quick to report it as such only to later discover it was a group of terrorists that got whacked.

We'll see about this one.

A U.S. air strike killed a number of Afghan civilians, officials said on Wednesday, as President Hamid Karzai called on newly elected Barack Obama to make it his priority to stop the killing of innocents.

Scores of civilians have been killed in U.S. air strikes this year leading to seething resentment against the presence of foreign troops and a rift between Karzai and his Western backers.

Karzai referred to the incident in the Shah Wali Kot district in the southern Taliban heartland of Kandahar province.

"By bombing Afghanistan, the war against terrorism cannot be won," Karzai told a news conference. "As we speak today, we had again civilian casualties ... In Shah Wali Kot of Kandahar we had civilian casualties," he said.

Karzai did not give any more details but several villagers who had taken a group of wounded to the hospital in Kandahar city said more than 90 people had been killed and dozens more wounded in the air strike Monday, which they said hit a wedding party.

The U.S. military said it was checking reports.

Karzai wouldn't be alive if it weren't for American efforts. He may want to hold off on such comments until reports become more confirmed. It's not as if we're actually targeting civilians like the Taliban does.

Palin to Meet With Karzai as Obama Whines

Apparently, nothing this woman does will ever satisfy the critics. They complain she has a lack of foreign policy experience, but when she tries to meet with foreign leaders, the petty partisans just bitch and moan. She planned to attend a rally to protest the maniacs in Iran, but no, we can't have that because The Pantsuit might be shown up.

Republican vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin will meet next week with Afghan President Hamid Karzai in New York, on the sidelines of the opening of the U.N. General Assembly, according to Afghan officials in Washington.

The meeting is part of a broader effort to demonstrate the Alaska governor's ability to handle foreign policy issues, at a time when she has come under fire for a lack of experience on the international stage. The opportunity to speak before the United Nations annually draws the world's leaders to Manhattan, and the GOP presidential nominee, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), plans to use the occasion to introduce Palin to those officials, McCain aides have said.

"It's a great opportunity for Governor Palin to meet and interact with some of the world leaders she will deal with as vice president," said one McCain adviser, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because her U.N. schedule had not been made public. "She'll talk about the issues facing the world."

Palin will meet with Karzai, and possibly other foreign leaders, during a midweek campaign swing through New York.

"Unfortunately, a few meetings at the U.N. won't change the fact that John McCain is promising four more years of the same cowboy diplomacy that has shredded our alliances and set back our ability to fight international terrorism," said Hari Sevugan, a spokesman for the Democratic nominee, Sen. Barack Obama (Ill.).

Apparently, Obama's spokesthing missed the part about us winning the war on terror and the Iraq conflict. Perhaps they've been too busy chiseling his image on Mount Rushmore to notice.

Maybe the plan with the Palin attacks is to just badger and insult her into submission so she'll just go back to Alaska and won't upset the coronation of The Messiah.

I think what frightens them is she won't submit to the taunts no matter how nasty it gets. And you can bet it'll get nastier by the day.

Burqa Bomber Attacks in Afghanistan

No limit to their evil.

A suicide bomber disguised in a burqa detonated a blast in a bazaar in western Afghanistan on Thursday, killing 18 police and civilians, in the bloodiest suicide attack in weeks, officials said.

Twenty-two people were wounded in the blast, which happened near a police station in the Del Aram district of Farah province. The policemen were inspecting vehicles on the road outside at the time.

"So far, 18 people, including police and civilians, have been killed," Farah's governor Rohul Amin told Reuters by phone.

Citing officials near the site, Amin said the bomber was wearing the all-enveloping burqa robe that Afghan women commonly wear.

President Hamid Karzai who has been leading Afghanistan since Taliban's removal, condemned the attack and said it was "obscene" that the bomber had used a burqa a disguise.

"The enemies of Afghanistan, by misusing the women's veil, put on display their unmanhood," a palace statement quoted him as saying.

Sarkozy in Afghanistan: Failure is 'Not an Option'

While many purported allies and Democrats are getting squishy over Afghanistan, French President Nicolas Sarkozy today announced France could likely increase its military presence there.

French President Nicolas Sarkozy said France could boost its presence in Afghanistan to help the Afghan army and police in a surprise visit to give French troops his Christmas greetings.

"The top contribution for the French troops is to help the training and building of an Afghan army, an Afghan police, to assist in the creation of an Afghan administration, an Afghan judiciary," Sarkozy said.

Taliban leader Mullah Omar on Tuesday called on foreign forces to withdraw from Afghanistan. Diplomats and the local military have called for a new strategy to fight the rebels.

"What is certain is that we have not wanted to give the signal of departure, that would have been a despicable signal at a time when one sees the ravages inflicted by terrorism in the world," Sarkozy said. France has 1,900 troops in Afghanistan.

He gets it.

More here.

"Here there is a war against terrorism, against fanaticism, that we cannot and must not lose," Mr Sarkozy told reporters after his talks with Mr Karzai.

"That is why it is important that we help with the emergence of an Afghan state that is legitimate, democratic and modern."

Mr Sarkozy told the US Congress in November that French soldiers would stay in Afghanistan "as long as needed" and that failure was "not an option".

Now, he can score even more points if he helps mediate a burgeoning domestic crisis back home.

We're counting on you, Sarko. Do the right thing.

UPDATE:
Instapundit links. Thanks!