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Mugabe Pushes Back Against Zimbabwe Power-Sharing Deal

By Alex Perry and Simba Rushwaya/Harare

"A power-sharing deal meant to end Robert Mugabe's 28 years of one-man rule in Zimbabwe appeared close to disintegrating, Tuesday, with Mugabe's party and the opposition deadlocked on how to divide government ministries between them. South Africa's President Thabo Mbeki had brokered the Sept. 15 agreement to resolve Zimbabwe's political crisis and set the stage for its economic revival, but the deal's implementation has stalled over how to allocate the 31 government ministries between Mugabe's Zanu-PF and the Movement for Democratic Change MDC, led by Morgan Tsvangirai. As fears mounted that the agreement would collapse, Mbeki was asked by the MDC to intervene, but as of Tuesday, a spokesman said Mbeki had no immediate plans to return to Harare.

Although the power-sharing deal had been hailed as historic, it left many key disputes unresolved. The two sides had agreed that Mugabe would remain President while Tsvangirai would take up the newly created post of Prime Minister, and that Zanu-PF would get 15 ministries, Tsvangirai's MDC would have 13, and a breakaway MDC faction would have 3. But the two leaders did not specify which ministries would go to which party. Reports at the time suggested the MDC would gain control of two key ministries, finance and home affairs, which controls the police, while Zanu-PF would retain defense. It now appears there was no such understanding — or if there was, it has since been reversed — prompting fears of a breakdown that will plunge the country further into turmoil and uncertainty. On Tuesday, MDC spokesman Nelson Chamisa told South African radio that signing a deal before agreeing the detail had been "a big mistake."

But there's more at work here than poor-dealing making: Since agreeing to share power, the world around Tsvangirai and Mugabe has changed. For one thing, Mbeki is no longer President of South Africa, Zimbabwe's powerful neighbor on which it remains heavily dependent. A few days after the Zimbabwe deal was concluded, he was ejected from office after losing a power struggle in the ruling party Although Mbeki has been asked to stay on as mediator of the Zimbabwe talks, his own authority has been much diminished by his ouster. Global financial turmoil has also pushed Zimbabwe off the immediate agenda of the international community. And the combination of Mbeki's demise and international distraction may have emboldened the 84-year-old Mugabe, and some of his cohort, to push back on a deal whose purpose had been to dilute their power. Mugabe denied last month that there was a deadlock, saying four ministries remained to be allocated and that a government would be established by the end of last week. That didn't happen. And according to a source close to Tsvangirai, Mugabe has been warning the opposition leader with whom he now confers regularly that the deal is far from done. "Tsvangirai said [he and Mugabe] now talk like friends. [Tsvangirai] asked Mugabe how things were in the Zanu-PF. Mugabe [replied] that some of his top ministers were against the deal and think Mugabe sold out."

Zimbabwe's economic revival will depend on an extensive infusion of foreign aid and investment, which won't be forthcoming until the political conflict has been settled. Unemployment now stands at 80%, inflation has long-since spiraled out of control, and, with the collapse of farming, aid agencies are warning of widespread hunger in the next few months. But Mugabe's lieutenants have little incentive to compromise. Their hold on power has facilitated corruption, while many have also profited from the recent chaos by seizing land and making millions of dollars by working the difference between the black market and official rates of exchange between Zimbabwean and foreign currencies. A senior Zanu-PF official told TIME on condition of anonymity that the Sept. 15 deal was "a hundred steps backwards". She added: "These MDC people are coming into this government with vindictiveness. They are just coming to rob our gains. They want to give back the farms to the whites and that is unacceptable. If I were comrade Mugabe I would not have embraced those people." One Harare-based political analyst, who also asked not to be named, added: "The problem is that Mugabe is surrounded by vultures who are hovering over the resources of the country. These are extremely rich people who don't want Tsvangirai in the picture because they fear crackdown."

But given the global financial turmoil and the political infighting in South Africa, Zimbabweans may have to bear the yoke of Mugabe and his regime for some time, yet.

Is Palin Trying To Incite Violence Against Obama?

by Jeffrey Feldman

MCCAIN CAMP TALKS 'CHARACTER ASSASSINATION,' SUPPORTERS SHOUT FOR REAL ASSASSINATION
At her last rally in Florida, Sarah Palin told the audience that Barack Obama "palled around with terrorists" adding,"I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America." Upon hearing the Republican VP candidate's concern that Sen. Obama might be a terrorist, a voice in the crowd cried out 'Kill him!'


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McCain Campaign Amplifies Violent Rhetoric, GOP Crowds Threaten Obama's Life
The Washington Post's Dana Milbank reported an incident at a Palin rally that should open America's eyes to the central role violent rhetoric now plays in the McCain campaign. Milbank describes how Palin told the crowd in Florida that Obama has close associations with a terrorist who sought to bomb the Pentagon and the U.S. Capital, in response to which the crowd responded with a threat on Sen. Obama's life:

"Now it turns out, one of his earliest supporters is a man named Bill Ayers...And, according to the New York Times, he was a domestic terrorist and part of a group that, quote, 'launched a campaign of bombings that would target the Pentagon and our U.S. Capitol,'" she continued.

"Boooo!" the crowd repeated.

"Kill him!" proposed one man in the audience.

Palin went on to say that "Obama held one of the first meetings of his political career in Bill Ayers's living room, and they've worked together on various projects in Chicago." Here, Palin began to connect the dots. "These are the same guys who think that patriotism is paying higher taxes -- remember that's what Joe Biden had said. "And" -- she paused and sighed -- "I am just so fearful that this is not a man who sees America the way you and I see America, as the greatest force for good in the world. I'm afraid this is someone who sees America as 'imperfect enough' to work with a former domestic terrorist who had targeted his own country."


Palin's new rhetorical strategy signifies an alarming new development in the 2008 Presidential election, and one that has been not only been documented by such high profile newspapers as the Washington Post, but confirmed by the McCain campaign itself.

"It's a dangerous road, but we have no choice," a top McCain strategist recently admitted to the Daily News. "If we keep talking about the economic crisis, we're going to lose."

The 'dangerous road,' however, is not just a generic attack on Sen. Obama's trustworthiness or honesty. Rather, the McCain campaign has chosen to stand before campaign rallies and accuse Sen. Obama of hiding sympathies with domestic terrorists--to accuse their opponent, essentially, of being a terrorist.

With the McCain campaign now using the Palin stump speech to accuse Sen. Obama of hiding a terrorist agenda, the McCain campaign has staked its future on rhetoric that skirts the boundary between character assassination and incitements of actual violence against their opponent.

Meanwhile, while McCain is not yet accusing Obama of terrorism in his own stump speech, the crowds at his rallies are.

In a recent video clip from MSNBC, McCain asked a rally, "Who is the real Barack Obama?" In response to McCain's rhetorical question, a voice from the crowd can be clearly heard to shout in response, "Terrorist!"

Since the start of the election campaign well over a year ago, voters have been subject to ongoing smear campaigns in emails and push polls accusing Sen. Obama of ties to and sympathies with domestic and foreign terrorist groups. No matter how many times these smear campaigns have been exposed, they continued. Now that John McCain and Sarah Palin have echoed these accusations--the idea that Sen. Obama is secretly a terrorist has the stamp of approval of a presidential campaign, but of a multi-term U.S. senator and a U.S. governor.

One wonders at this point how the various agencies charged with the responsibility of protecting the Presidential candidates from violence will respond to this latest tactic from the McCain campaign. If, for example, a McCain supporter threatens the life of Sen. Obama by shouting 'Kill him!' at a Palin rally, should Sen. Obama's Secret Service contingent launch an investigation? Having been accused of terrorist ties by the McCain campaign, will Sen. Obama's name be put on the 'No Fly' list, effectively making it impossible for him to engage in normal airline travel?

An even more basic question, perhaps: Is Gov. Palin trying to incite violence against Sen. Obama as part of an ill-conceived campaign strategy to change the topic from the economy at any cost?

Time will tell how law enforcement will respond, but one thing is already certain: the more Palin and McCain incite calls for violence against Sen. Obama, the more their chances of achieving a victory in November disappear.

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Rapper Nas Delivers Fox News Petition, Says Network Is "Scared" (VIDEO)

Rolling Stone reports on the Color Of Change/MoveOn/Brave New Films petition that rapper Nas brought to the offices of Fox News today: About four hours after the announcement that his controversial, politically charged ninth album was number one in the country, Nas was on a small podium in front of Fox News headquarters in New York City protesting what he sees as racist attacks against Black Americans and presidential candidate Barack Obama. In a brief prepared statement, the multi-platinum rapper pointed out examples of what he and ColorOfChange see as a long racist smear campaign against the Obama family: The onscreen graphic that referred to Michelle Obama as the Senator's "baby mama"; Bill O'Reilly casually using the phrase "lynching party" to refer to attacks on the Senator's wife; referencing to the couple's infamous fist thump as a "terrorist fist jab." Said Nas, "Fox poisons this country every time they air racist propaganda and try to call it news. This should outrage every American that Fox uses hateful language to talk about the person that may be the first black president." The rapper stood next to 19 neatly stacked cardboard boxes, with the number 620,127 taped to the side of each one -- over 600,000 signatures gathered by ColorOfChange demanding that network president Roger Ailes "find a solution to address racial stereotyping and hate-mongering before it hits the airwaves." Fox rejected the petitions, but Brave New Films says that Comedy Central's The Colbert Report will accept them instead.

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