Contrary to Reuters and BBC reports, farting is still legal in Malawi

What a relief!

The international media uproar amazed Chikosa Silungwe, a lawyer with the Malawi Law Commission, the country’s independent law reform organization. “There’s nothing like that happening in Malawi. There’s no farting law being introduced in our Parliament and there has never been a farting law in Malawi,” Silungwe says.

The alleged ‘farting ban’ is in fact a clean air provision, much like you would see anywhere else in the world. The provision against ‘fouling the air’ is nothing new: it has been in place since Malawi adopted a penal code 70 years ago. The provision has never been used to prosecute public farting. Rather, it has been used to prosecute people who have left large amounts of rubbish in public spaces, for example.

More confusing about the media’s recent interest in clean air provision is that it is not even up for debate in Parliament. What is currently being tabled is a bill to re-introduce a localized court system in the country, in which the clean air provision is included only in passing.

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Wells Fargo CFO to retire with $28 million

Quite frankly, who isn't retiring with a deal like this these days? With the booming economy and the world's best banks running like well oil machines, it seems like this should be the minimum for anyone. But what about his gold watch?

Wells Fargo's former CFO Howard Atkins stands to walk away from the company with deferred compensation, pension benefits and stock grants valued at $27.21 million as of Thursday's close.

An earlier report by CNBC put the number at closer to $10 million, but Wells Fargo confirmed that Atkins will keep restricted stock shares (RSS) and restricted performance shares (RSP). These will vest over time and their value may fluctuate depending on the company's performance.

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Leading forecaster sees 2 million jobs and 3.2% growth for 2010

It sounds ambitious considering the slow start to the year but this is good news, if it turns out to be accurate. Bloomberg:

The U.S. economy will create 2 million jobs in 2011, twice as many as last year, said Scott Brown, the most accurate forecaster of the jobless rate over the past two years according to Bloomberg News calculations.

Unemployment will end the year at 8.6 percent, projected Brown, chief economist at Raymond James & Associates Inc., less than the 8.8 percent median forecast of 61 economists surveyed by Bloomberg from Feb. 2 to Feb. 8. It dropped to 9 percent in January from 9.4 percent the prior month.

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WSJ: How the Egyptian protesters fooled the police & occupied Tahrir Square

We are starting to see reporting on the behind-the-scenes maneuvers in Egypt during the run-up to Mubarak's exit. Here's a good article by the news staff of the Wall Street Journal on how the Egyptian opposition to the Mubarak regime managed to spark what is being called the "January 25" revolution (h/t Sam Seder):

On Jan. 25, the first day of protests, the organizers from the youth wings of Egypt's opposition movements created what appeared to be a spontaneous massing of residents of the slum of Bulaq al-Dakrour, on Cairo's western edge. These demonstrators weren't, as the popular narrative has held, educated youth who learned about protests on the Internet. They were instead poor residents who filled a maze of muddy, narrow alleyways, massed in front of a neighborhood candy store and caught security forces flatfooted.

That protest was anything but spontaneous. ... After his release from detention Sunday, Google Inc. executive Wael Ghonim recounted his meeting with Egypt's newly appointed interior minister. "No one understood how you did it," Mr. Ghonim said the minister told him. He said his interrogators concluded that outside forces had to have been involved. ... The plotters, who now form the leadership core of the Revolutionary Youth Movement, which has stepped to the fore as representatives of protesters in Tahrir Square, in interviews over recent days revealed how they did it.

In early January, this core of planners decided they would try to replicate the accomplishments of the protesters in Tunisia who ultimately ousted President Zine al-Abidine Ben Ali. Their immediate concern was how to foil the Ministry of Interior, whose legions of riot police had contained and quashed protests for years. The police were expert at preventing demonstrations from growing or moving through the streets, and at keeping ordinary Egyptians away.

"We had to find a way to prevent security from making their cordon and stopping us," said 41-year-old architect Basem Kamel, a member of Mohamed ElBaradei's youth wing and one of the dozen or so plotters.

According to the article, a group of protesters, including Ziad al-Alimi, "a leading youth organizer for Mr. ElBaradei's campaign group", met daily for two weeks planning the protest that would eventually reach, and occupy, Tahrir Square.

Let's just say that subterfuge was involved. Twenty January 25 protests were announced via the Internet, but twenty-one were planned. The announced 20 were prevented from reaching Tahrir Square by riot police. The secret 21st protest succeeded:

The Bulaq al-Dakrour marchers, the only group to reach their objective, occupied Tahrir Square for several hours until after midnight, when police attacked demonstrators with tear gas and rubber bullets. ... On Jan. 28, they seized Tahrir Square again. They have stayed there since.

By the way, January 25 was chosen because it is a national holiday celebrating ... the Egyptian police.

Days earlier, the Arabic administrator of the Facebook page commemorating Khaled Said, who was killed by police in Alexandria, asked his members what should Egyptians give to the police on their special day. The answer was universally, "Tunisia!"

Gift delivered.

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Texas drives Amazon out of state over dispute

While Texas may have some merit in its dispute, driving an existing facility out of state and losing the chance to add another 1,000 jobs during one of their worst economic periods may not help with the "Texas Miracle" storyline that is rapidly crumbling. Again, Amazon has had the same legal issue elsewhere but something tells me the Democrats would be crucified by the GOP if the tables were turned.

Rick Perry, destroyer of jobs.

Amazon.com Inc., the world’s largest online retailer, said it will close a Texas distribution facility on April 12 because of a tax dispute.

“Despite much hard work and the support of other Texas officials, we’ve been unable to come to a resolution with the Texas comptroller’s office,” the Seattle-based company said today in an e-mailed statement.

Amazon received a request from Texas last year for $269 million in uncollected sales tax, with the state contending that since Amazon has a facility in Texas, it should be collecting such taxes for online purchases. Amazon has been involved in similar battles in states including New York and North Carolina.

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70% of Republicans want to cut deficit, but most don't want to cut any specific program

That's because the GOP has sold the electorate on a lie. Government is wasteful, government doesn't work, your money is spent on $600 toilet seats and "crazy" Democratic stimulus plans and that "useless" socialist Obamacare. So of course 70% of the GOP, and a lot of the public at large, wants to "cut the deficit" - they want to cut the bad stuff. The good stuff, however, they're not so keen on cutting. What they don't understand is that there's a ton of good, and not so much of the wasteful silly stuff as the Republicans would have them believe. Thus the lousy survey numbers for cutting specific programs.

Budget cutting is a top priority for the GOP, with 70 percent of Republicans in a new survey by the Pew Research Center saying the federal government should focus on reducing the deficit, not new economic stimulus. And in many cases, more Republicans now support cuts than did so two years ago.

But across 18 areas of federal spending, a majority of Republicans support decreasing spending in just one: aid to the world's needy. In one other area, unemployment assistance, 50 percent of Republicans polled said they would decrease spending (far higher than the 11 percent who said they would increase it), but in all others the number saying funds should be cut is under the 50 percent mark.

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WikiLeaks: FBI trained Egyptian security forces

From the sound of it, the Egyptian "security" forces were trained at Gitmo. The Telegraph:

According to leaked diplomatic cables, the head of the Egyptian state security and investigative service (SSIS) thanked the US for “training opportunities” at the FBI academy in Quantico, Virginia. The SSIS has been repeatedly accused of using violence and brutality to help prop up the regime of President Hosni Mubarak. In April, 2009, the US ambassador in Cairo stated that “Egypt’s police and domestic security services continue to be dogged by persistent, credible allegations of abuse of detainees.

“The Interior Ministry uses SSIS to monitor and sometimes infiltrate the political opposition and civil society. SSIS suppresses political opposition through arrests, harassment and intimidation.”

In October, 2009, “credible” human rights lawyers representing alleged Hizbollah detainees provided details of the techniques employed by the SSIS. The cable states: “The lawyers told us in mid-October that they have compiled accounts from several defendants of GOE [Government of Egypt] torture by electric shocks, sleep deprivation, and stripping them naked for extended periods.

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Pakistan issues arrest warrant for Musharraf in assassination of Bhutto

Retirement in London may not be in the cards for Musharraf. Al Jazeera:

He said "a joint investigation team that had been formed to probe the assassination said in its report Musharraf had involvement in the case and was equally responsible."

"The report said it was a broad conspiracy involving Pervez Musharraf, two police officials and terrorists," Ali said after the closed-door hearing that took place in Rawalpindi's Adiala prison.

Bhutto was killed in December 2007, in a gun and suicide bomb blast during a rally weeks after returning to Pakistan to campaign in new elections.

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Ry Cooder - Vigilante Man

Some may recall Ry Cooder is the amazing guitarist on this Stones classic. Wow, can he play.

We had our first taste of spring yesterday as temperatures pushed into the mid 60s. Unlike the snowy winter that much of the US has experienced this year, we've been well above the average since the start of the year. Yesterday though was amazing. The cafés were mobbed with people sitting outside and soaking in the sun and the bike path was jammed like a Saturday. There was the usual retirees out there on the path - including quite a few on bikes - but it also looked like a number of people called in sick to take full advantage of the day.

I noticed the willow trees budding along the Marne as well as daffodils starting to pop up. In our garden, the camellias are budding as is the forsythia and our almond jasmine. It's not quite as warm today but the ten day forecast has Paris at or above the average. Winter is on its last leg over here. Read the rest of this post...