BAGHDAD -- Kurdish officials threatened Tuesday to boycott the upcoming national election in the three provinces they control in northern Iraq unless more parliament seats are allocated to the region. The threat came two days after Iraq's Sunni vice president
NFL jerseys said he would veto the election law passed last week unless more seats are set aside for representatives of Iraqi refugees. The majority of Iraqis abroad are Sunni. Vice President Tariq al-Hashimi has until Wednesday to veto the law, which legislators approved after weeks of wrangling, primarily over how the vote would be held in the disputed northern city of Kirkuk. The two ultimatums underscored the deep divisions among Iraqi politicians and raised fresh concerns about Iraq's ability to hold a credible election by Jan. 18. U.S. officials see the vote as a key turning point that they hope will contribute to a smooth withdrawal of
Denver Broncos Jerseys tens of thousands of U.S. troops by the end of summer. Massoud Barzani, president of the Kurdish Regional Government, said in a statement that the seat allocation system, which is based on food ration cards issued by the Trade Ministry, is "illogical, contradicts the reality on the ground and is a distortion of the facts." He said using the system as a benchmark for seat distribution "is an attempt to reduce the number of Kurdistan Region representatives in the next Iraqi parliament and diminish their achievements." The Iraqi parliament has 275 seats. The election law created 48 additional seats. Of those, eight are earmarked for representatives of exiled Iraqis. Hashimi says they should have three times as many. A spokeswoman for the vice president said he will probably veto the law Wednesday to kick it back to parliament. The three provinces that make up the Kurdish government -- Sulaymaniyah, Irbil and Dahuk -- currently have 34 seats. Under the recently
Atlanta Falcons Jerseys approved law, they will be entitled to 38. Kurds have amassed considerable political capital in Baghdad since the 2003 U.S.-led invasion while running their region like an independent state. If they boycott the election, they stand to lose their clout in Baghdad. Kurds have made similar threats in the past as a means to gain leverage in negotiations.
A 10-year-old Arkansas boy name Will Phillips has decided that he cannot in good conscience pledge allegiance to the flag as long as the country for which it stands refuses legal equality to its GLBT citizens. That stand has brought young Mr. Phillips anti-gay taunts in the lunch room, but admiration from around the country, reports a Nov. 5 Arkansas Times article. The West Fork School District fifth grader clashed with a substitute teacher for his refusal to stand for the pledge, prompting a call to Will’s mother, Laura Phillips. When the principal acknowledged that Will has the right to refuse to say the pledge,
wholesale NFL jerseys Ms. Phillips asked that her son receive an apology--a request that the principal declined to honor. A 1943 Supreme Court decision found that schools may not punish students for refusing to recite the pledge. Objections to compulsory recitation of the pledge arose from the Jehovah’s Witnesses on the basis that their religion does not permit expressions of allegiance to anything other than their own religion and to God. The Jehovah’s Witnesses lost their first case before the Court in 1940, and reportedly suffered from bias-motivated violence in the aftermath of that case. The Court’s 1943 decision reversed the earlier finding, and students have had the right to decline saying the pledge since then, although socially such refusal is often met with disapproval. Such has been the case with Will Phillips’ stand, but he hasn’t backed down.
Cincinnati Bengals Jerseys Laura Phillips told the Arkansas Times that her 10-year-old is "probably more aware of the meaning of the pledge than a lot of adults. He’s not just doing it rote recitation. We raised him to be aware of what’s right, what’s wrong, and what’s fair." Fairness in this case is more than a mere abstraction, since the family has a number of openly gay friends and has participated in GLBT equality events such as Pride parades. Will, who told the newspaper that he would like to pursue a career in law when he’s older, could not square the tenets of the pledge with the political realities faced by his family’s GLBT friends, whose family and individual rights are under constant challenge. "I really don’t feel that there’s currently liberty and justice for all," said Will. That led the young man to his decision not to pledge his allegiance due to the injustice he perceived to prevail against gays and lesbians. He discussed the matter with his family and then took his stand--or rather, refused to stand with the rest of the kids when the time for the pledge came around each morning. The first week of the young man’s protest happened to be a week when a substitute teacher, a friend of Will’s
Carolina Panthers jerseys grandparents, was in charge of the class; as days went by, the teacher grew more aggravated, until finally she took Will to task. "She got a lot more angry and raised her voice and brought my mom and my grandma up," Will told the Arkansas Times. "I was fuming and was too furious to really pay attention to what she was saying. After a few minutes, I said, ’With all due respect, ma’am, you can go jump off a bridge.’" That was enough to get Will sent to the principal’s office, which was when his mother received a call. The principal "said we have to talk about Will, because he told a sub to jump off a bridge," recounted Will’s mother. "My first response was: Why? He’s not just going to say this because he doesn’t want to do his math work." Upon learning the specifics of the exchange, Laura Phillips requested
Baltimore Ravens Jerseys an apology for her son. "She said, ’Well I don’t think that’s necessary at this point,’" Laura Phillips told the Arkansas Times. Will’s mother tweeted about the incident, and family friends informed the media. Support has poured in from around the country, and some of Will’s classmates have also been supportive. But not everyone, said Laura Phillips, has been supportive, and those who oppose Will’s stand "are much more crazy, and out of control and vocal about it than supporters are." Moreover, Will’s stand for equal rights for gays has led those who disagree to attack him personally with anti-gay epithets: "In the lunchroom and in the hallway, they’ve been making comments and doing pranks, and calling me gay," Will said. "It’s always the same people, walking up and calling me a gaywad." That hasn’t been easy for Will, who skipped fourth grade but seems older than his age,
Dallas Cowboys Jerseys especially in contrast to some of his peers. Said Laura Phillips, "It’s really frustrating to him that people are being so immature." The interviewer from The Arkansas Times asked Will what it means to be an American. The answer: "Freedom of speech. The freedom to disagree. That’s what I think pretty much being an American represents."
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