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Joe Biden deserves some respect. Seriously.

Joe Biden
Joe Biden often comes across as the wacky uncle of the Obama administration. He’s also one of the most talented politicians in Washington. (AP Photo/Cliff Owen)

For a 70-year-old man, U.S. Vice President Joe Biden sure spends an awful lot of time winning the Internet. No other living politician has quite the same ratio of words spoken to memes inspired. His most recent contribution was the patter of joyously weird, occasionally creepy, one-liners he threw off while swearing in the 113th Senate earlier this month.

“Spread your legs!” he told North Dakota Sen. Heidi Heitkamp’s husband. “You’re gonna be frisked!”

“Mom, I’ll see you in a little bit,” he winked to Pennsylvania Sen. Bob Casey’s mother (he called all the mothers “mom”). “I hope I’ll sneak over and see you.”

South Carolina Sen. Tim Scott’s brother, a former football player, got this instant classic: “Need any help on your pecs, man, give me a call.” Utah Sen. Orrin Hatch’s granddaughter was advised: “No serious guys until you’re 30.” To the brunette alongside New Jersey Sen. Robert Menendez, it was: “You are so pretty. God love you. Holy mackerel.”

At one point, Biden turned to the crowd in the gallery above. “Anybody else want to be sworn in as a senator today?”

You could no more imagine President Barack Obama delivering these lines — save maybe the “pecs” one — than imagine him eating pork rinds while watching “Two and a Half Men” enfolded in a Snuggie. Obama doesn’t do backslapping bonhomie. But people love watching Biden do it. (Have you seen the gif, “This Is How Joe Biden Greets Babies“? Amazing.)

That’s why the White House website is featuring a petition to let Biden star in his own reality show. It’s a good idea, I think. Why don’t we call it the 2016 presidential campaign?

In the continuing drama that is the Obama presidency, Biden often appears as comic relief. He’s the zany neighbor, the adorable uncle. As a result, his presidential ambitions, which burn brightly even today, have mostly been laughed off. Somehow, the sitting vice president of the United States, the former chairman of both the Senate Foreign Relations Committee and the Senate Judiciary Committee, a man who’s on a nickname basis with many of the world’s most powerful leaders, is seen in many quarters as lacking the gravitas to be president.

Yet just a few days before he was giving dating advice on C-SPAN2, Biden again proved himself perhaps the most effective member of the Obama administration. He reprised his role as the White House closer, the guy who can cut a deal with the Republicans after everyone else has failed. In the end, Biden got Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., to strike a deal that the White House was happy with.

That’s something neither Obama nor Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner had achieved. And it wasn’t the first time. Biden also helped close the 2011 deal that lifted the debt ceiling and the 2010 deal that extended the Bush tax cuts in return for fresh stimulus.

Biden’s skills as a campaigner are also considerable. According to Nielsen, his speech at the 2012 Democratic National Convention won better television ratings than the addresses of either Bill Clinton or Obama (or Republicans Mitt Romney and Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., for that matter). His debate performance against Ryan bucked up anxious Democrats and arguably stanched the bleeding from Obama’s hapless initial appearance against Romney.

As a policy maker, Biden’s reputation is more mixed. Those who’ve worked closely with him describe a dedicated workhorse eager to master details. Unlike Obama, however, who grasps policy minutiae instantly, Biden doesn’t naturally think in charts and tables.

At times, Biden goes with his gut rather than the evidence, a tendency that can lead him to embrace bad policy that sounds good. On the other hand, he is also known for choosing some of the best and most substantive staff members in Washington. A politician allergic to policy doesn’t surround himself with the wonky likes of Ted Kaufman, Ron Klain, Jared Bernstein and Bruce Reed.

Biden has also proved himself an effective and trusted manager in the Obama administration. He was named top cop on the stimulus — “Nobody messes with Joe,” Obama grinned when appointing him — and the funds were spent on time and shockingly free of graft and fraud. Subsequently, Obama put him in charge of other crucial tasks, including the current push for a viable package of gun-control policies, in which Biden just succeeded in bringing Wal-Mart Stores Inc. to the table.

If Biden can’t quite match Obama’s policy chops, he has an ease with other politicians that the president hasn’t mastered. In negotiations, Obama’s policy-centric approach is arguably a hindrance, leading him to spend much of his time lecturing Republicans about the myriad ways in which they’re wrong. That Obama is often right on the policy merits doesn’t diminish Republican feelings that a trip to the Oval Office is a date with condescension.

Biden produces different results. His success in negotiating with McConnell might be partly attributable to the Republican Party’s loathing of Obama — repeatedly bypassing Obama in favor of his vice president is, after all, a kind of insult to the president — but it’s also attributable to the fact that Republicans like Biden and feel he treats them fairly.

“Does anyone down there know how to make a deal?” McConnell drawled when he called Biden to resolve the fiscal cliff. It was a rhetorical question, to which both men knew the answer: “Biden.”

A bit over four years ago, Obama was elected on a promise to change Washington. He and his team argued that what politics needed was something new — a post-partisan, post-boomer, post-racial president who could help the country move past old antagonisms and into a more united future. The Obama administration has had many successes, but ratcheting down partisanship isn’t one.

The irony, of course, is that the one bright spot in the White House’s dealings with Republicans has been Biden’s old-school, back-slapping, Senate-steeped, Washington-lifer approach. Turns out that sometimes an old dog knows the right tricks.

So don’t laugh when you hear that Biden wants to run for president. Biden is one of the most successful vice presidents in history, and one of the most successful politicians of a very difficult era. He may sometimes make himself a punch line, but he has the record of a heavyweight.

The views, opinions and positions expressed by all iPolitics columnists and contributors are the author’s alone. They do not inherently or expressly reflect the views, opinions and/or positions of iPolitics.


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Iowa Public Television

Episode #115

[59 minutes] Closed Captioning

This episode has not aired in the past few months on Iowa Public Television.

PBS Video

Series Description: Action-packed drama taking us into the thrilling world of MI5, the clandestine security service, and the people who make up the elite team. There's organized crime, terrorist activities, embassy sieges, weapons proliferation, subversives, anarchists and drug traffickers, not to mention the conflicts and power struggles that they have to deal with back in the office. A topical and edgy drama about passion, jeopardy and the intrigue of people who have to lie for a living -and who can never tell the truth to their loved ones about what it is that they do.

« Upcoming Episodes

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Peer Reviewed

Explores Borges' oblique yet vital relation to Whitman by examining how his emphasis on Whitman's "experiment largely focused on a composite persona and an active, participating reader" manifests itself in Borges' fiction, especially by way of his modulation of Whiman's trope of the open road in works like "The Garden of Forking Paths."

Copyright © 1985 The University of Iowa


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Warinner and Hinton leave as coaching staff shakes up

Jan 2, 2012, 12:47 PM EDT

Kelly Urban Meyer

Make no mistake about it, this means war.

Urban Meyer has always held a peculiar place in Irish fans’ hearts. He’s spurned them, leaving Monk Malloy and the school jet empty when he turned down his “dream job” at Notre Dame to head to Gainesville instead. He’s poached from them, with he and former henchman Greg Mattison using knowledge of Notre Dame and its “peculiarities” against Charlie Weis and his staff when he flipped recruits from South Bend to North Florida. He’s even worked his way back into their favor, speaking at Brian Kelly’s coaching clinic last offseason, and saying flattering things about the program, it’s new head coach, and the way Kelly’s staff does business. During the year Meyer spent with his family (and working for ESPN) after walking away from Florida, he found his way back to Notre Dame, where he famously once worked as an assistant coach, and finally patched up some wounds left behind from the past decade of putting a stick in the collective eye of ND Nation.

It was fun while it lasted.

Last week, Brian Kelly happily stated that all the coaches working at the Champs Sports Bowl would be back for the Irish next year. This morning, Kelly and the football program announced sweeping changes to the coaching staff, likely the result of Meyer relentlessly getting what he wanted, and poaching not one but most likely two coaches from the Irish staff.

The move of Chuck Martin to offensive coordinator should obviously be the headline from today’s release. That Martin will move from directing the secondary to the offense is an unconventional move at the major college level, but makes sense for the Irish. The former Grand Valley State head coach directed the offense for the Lakers for six years, just as his predecessor and current boss did at Grand Valley.

Other changes to the existing staff include Bob Diaco adding the title of assistant head coach, Kerry Cooks being promoted to co-defensive coordinator, Scott Booker being promoted from intern to full-time assistant coach, with contract extensions given to Martin, Diaco, Cooks, Tony Alford, Mike Denbrock, and Mike Elston.

The changes, other than Martin’s shift across the ball, are common this time of year. Losing two assistants — especially a week after the head coach publicly stated both would be back — is not. The official release says that both running backs coach Tim Hinton and offense line coach Ed Warinner “left the program to pursue other opportunities.” But Hinton left to join Meyer in Columbus, Ohio after awkwardly pledging allegiance to Notre Dame less than two weeks ago.

“I’m coaching at Notre Dame. That’s where we are and the bottom line is that I’m going to coach at Notre Dame as long as I can. I love Notre Dame,” Hinton said, with the politcal savvy of a guy running for office, not coaching running backs. “I’ve got one thing to do: I’m going to coach Cierre Wood, I’m going to coach Theo Riddick, and I’m going to coach George and Cam… That’s the bottom line. We’re coaching the heck out of it. Do I want to be at Notre Dame? Absolutely. This is a great place.”

Hinton’s an Ohio native, who spent time with Meyer at Ohio State when Hinton was a graduate assistant and Meyer was also working his way up the coaching ladder. Whether it’s a rumored pension he’s almost qualified for in the state of Ohio or just the siren song of the Buckeyes, the timing and non-denial denial Hinton gave while working his way out the door don’t reflect highly on a coach that did great work with running backs Jonas Gray and Cierre Wood.

The true surprise is the loss of Warinner, who’s name came out of nowhere. Warinner seemed like the logical choice to replace Charley Molnar, but Kelly went with familiarity and chose Martin, who has known Kelly and his offense for more than a decade, while Warinner was the only coach without a connection to the program when he came to South Bend from Kansas. Multiple media sources are reporting that Warinner is also joining Meyer’s Ohio State staff, which would also be a homecoming for the Strasburg, Ohio native that graduated from Mount Union and spent time coaching at Akron as well.

The Irish haven’t assigned Booker to a position group and now will hire one more full-time assistant to a job that’s likely still to be determined. More importantly, the Irish coaching staff will wait until the NCAA required quiet period ends tomorrow to reach back out and retain recruits, most likely offensive tackle Taylor Decker, who was recruited by both Ed Warinner and Tim Hinton.

In a time where the calendar is usually only crazy with recruiting hijinks, Brian Kelly learned a lesson that Irish fans have known all too well: Watch out for Urban Meyer.

  1. carlitobrahhgante - Jan 3, 2012 at 3:51 PM

    Anybody see that Shaq Thompson supposedly ruled out Southern Cal ans has ND, Cal, and Washington in his final 3..
    Shepard, Thompson, and Darby would be lethal to go with the D line..

  2. bernhtp - Jan 3, 2012 at 3:52 PM

    I’ve calmed down about the coaching losses. When you think about it, we lost Molinar for a better (HC) job, Hinton to get back home and play for an old friend, and Warinner who was the guy left out of the OC promotion of Martin. It’s too bad, but life in major college football.

    Since Kelly isn’t an idiot, he must have known of the possibility of Warinner leaving because he was the un-anointed one and put that into his calculations. This was not a big surprise to him, IMO.

    Of course, Kelly may have miscalculated as he did with the QB situation. He obviously came to believe midway through USF that Rees would give him a better chance of not only winning short term, but he could be developed into a much better QB long term. I don’t know if the first half of this belief is right or wrong, but it’s pretty clear that the second half has been tragically wrong.

    • nudeman - Jan 3, 2012 at 4:51 PM

      I told you, man. Relax.
      If a kid jumps ship because an Asst Coach left, he wasn’t very solid in the first place.

      Think about it: You’re a stud HS player, you visit ND and see it in all its glory; game day, the band, the Fight Song, games on NBC, games against Michigan, USC, Michigan State, Stanford, Oklahoma; Brian Kelly meets your parents, etc etc. You can get a college degree on a par with almost any other U in the world.

      So you do the obvious thing: You commit to Notre Dame.

      Then a RB coach leaves and BECAUSE OF THAT YOU’RE GOING TO DE-COMMIT? A running backs coach?

      Come on.

      • jerseyshorendfan1 - Jan 3, 2012 at 5:34 PM

        You make an excellent point and I hope you’re right.

  3. jomilly - Jan 3, 2012 at 6:51 PM

    Good luck to them, if you dont like people you work with or a better job, or a different location, whatever it is we all have the option to do whats best for ourselves. They worked hard for ND, so get off their ass. They are replaceable, now its time for BK to do his JOB, and replace them with better coaches. Lets talk about the guys who are here. Good luck to all the coaches who left, I appreciate your efforts while you were here. I dont think I will ever here any of your names again.

  4. ndrocks2 - Jan 3, 2012 at 8:25 PM

    Coaches switching schools is the nature of the business and Meyer has more than had his way with Notre Dame both at Florida and will do damage at Ohio State, that is to be expected. What I find strange is Kelly letting Meyer get into the fold of the university over the last year or so knowing Meyer would get back in the game and his penchant for recruiting ND coaches. Kelly was probably practicing keeping your enemies close while Meyer was thinking “My My My Said the Spider to the Fly”. These switches may not have been preventable but BK needs to start thinking like a major DI coach to say this will not have any effect on recruiting is as naive as BK letting Meyer come onto the campus to begin with.
    As far as the replacement coaches named to date by BK he seems to be comfortable with lower level DI and DII schools. I hope he will learn to appreciate other coach’s experience from successful upper echelon DI schools. Right now we seem to be a proving ground for other schools, would be nice to switch that up once in a while.

  5. bernhtp - Jan 3, 2012 at 8:54 PM

    I hope that the resumes are rolling in already. I imagine there are lots of great coaches out there that would jump at a chance to coach at Notre Dame.

    Unless this was anticipated – Kelly’s recent statements suggest it wasn’t – it will take a while to locate, choose, and approve (big background check required these days) replacements. I don’t expect announcements for several weeks and this obviously hurts the closing days of recruiting. Promotion of existing GAs would be faster.

  6. jmb795 - Jan 4, 2012 at 5:47 PM

    How do you know when a football coach is lying?
    His lips are moving.
    Never forget, The Urb, Christian man that he purports to be, once told UF QB recruit, Jevan Snead, that Tim Tebow was being recruited to Gainesville as a linebacker.

    • 1historian - Jan 9, 2012 at 11:17 AM

      your source for the above?

  7. 1historian - Jan 9, 2012 at 11:16 AM

    6 years ago Urban Meyer’s Utah team was 12-0. As a former assistant @ N.D. it was known that he had a proviso in his contract that exempted him from having to buy out of his contract if he wanted to leave Utah and go to Notre Dame as HC.

    I had then the distinct impression that Notre Dame wanted to have him as HC so they fired Willingham and went after Meyer, figuring he would jump at the opportunity. They were wrong – he took a look at the roster and knew that 2007 would be a disaster, took a look at the Florida roster and just like that he was HC at Florida.

    I was watching a Notre Dame game last season on TV and Meyer was one of the commentators. More than once he raved about the talent on the Irish roster.

    If Urban Meyer had been available 2 years ago when Charlie Weis was fired, how many of you would have liked it if he had been hired?

    Let’s take a poll – if you would have liked it go thumbs up. If not, thumbs down.

    • nudeman - Jan 9, 2012 at 11:24 AM

      Trick question? Who would HONESTLY say they wouldn’t have wanted a coach who won back to back titles?

      Some will say “no” because they’re pissed off at him now, but c’mon

      I like BK. I still think he’ll do well at ND. I don’t want to throw him overboard
      But I have to admit my confidence is slightly shaken after this past year.

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text:
Tuesday, January 3, 2012

2011: The Year of the Arab Winter

by Mordechai Kedar

What happened this year?

This year six Arab countries experienced severe shocks that brought about the fall of some rulers or serious threat to their rule. The process began at the end of 2010, and continues until today.

The First: Tunisia

In the beginning of 2011 a wave of optimism washed over the Arab world, and a feeling of the dawning of a new day began to beat in the hearts of the people, among the simple folk, the intellectuals and the media as well. Tunisia, a country that is not usually at the center of the news, was in turmoil as a result of the tragic events that happened on December seventeenth 2010, when Mohamed Bouazizi, an unemployed college graduate who supported himself by selling vegetables in the market of Sidi Bou Sa'id immolated himself because of an argument with a policewoman who subsequently slapped him in the face. When he went to complain about her to her superiors she called over to him scornfully: "Get lost". This event sparked a local demonstration, which the police broke up with characteristic violence. But then a wave of rage brought masses of Tunisians out into the streets with the cry "Get lost" against the corrupt president, Zin Abedine Ben Ali, who ruled Tunisia with an iron hand for 23 years and always "won" a majority of more than ninety percent (in elections). Ben Ali fought for his seat for almost a month at the cost of hundreds of dead, but on January 14 he was forced to flee to Saudi Arabia. And the whole Arab world cheered the Tunisians because for the first time in modern Arab history the Arab people proved themselves capable of removing a dictator by themselves. In the weeks after Boazizi's suicide 37 more people immolated themselves throughout the Arab and Islamic world as a protest against the political, social and economic situation in their countries. The elections that took place in Tunisia in October brought the Islamist movement "Al-Nahda" to power with more than forty percent of the seats of parliament, and new Tunisia - with at least twenty percent unemployed - is now trying to find its way between Islam and modernity.

In February, everyone cheered the heroism, strength, spirit and determination of the Tunisians and asked "who will be next in line?". Because it was clear to everyone that the president of Tunisia, his wife and cronies were not the only corrupt rulers who rule their citizens with cruelty and without a shred of legitimacy.

The Second: Egypt

The Egyptians were next in line: on the 25th of January thousands of secular, restless Egyptian youth arose (men and women together), and with a series of demonstrations under the heading "Get lost" they succeeded to cause the Minister of Defense, Mohammed Hussein Tantawi, to join in and say to Mubarak: "Get lost", and he did "get lost" on February 11th.

The army suspended the constitution and gave the government six months, until August, to stabilize the country and to hand the power over to a council of selected citizens, but that "half year" was cut short. The army appointed a government of experts through whose hands the power was supposed to pass in an orderly way, to a democracy by means of elections for a parliament and president. These elections should be finished by June 2012, but until then the military rules with an iron fist, partly in order to ensure that the new constitution will leave its status intact, above civilian rule and not subordinate to it. But the results of the (relatively) free and fair elections bore out what many cautioned against: the rise of the Muslim Brotherhood. By manipulating the elections, Mubarak made sure that the "Brotherhood" would not be able to reach the seat of power, even with a ten foot pole. The real surprise of the elections is the Salafis, those ardent fanatics, whose aim is to bring Egyptian Muslim society back to the seventh century, to the life-style characteristic of when Islam first emerged. Although this is the first time that their name appeared in the public arena, they won about one third of the seats in parliament. Undoubtedly, Egypt will find itself very far from the hopes of the youth of Al-Tahrir in January.

In 2011, tourism ceased and foreign investment in Egypt has totally stopped. Unemployment is rising and tens of millions of Egyptians are destitute. This situation is widespread and the pressure is evident in the demonstrations and in the violence that the military uses to disperse them.

The economic crisis in Egypt will force many Africans who are now in Egypt to cross Sinai, towards Israel.

The Third: Syria

On January 26th, one day after demonstrations broke out in Egypt, demonstrations began in Syria. During the first phase it was the mosque-goers who, after Friday prayers, joined the spontaneous demonstrations, which were broken up by the regime in a typically violent way. The funerals of those who were killed were held the next day, Saturday, and they too turned into protest demonstrations that were broken up forcefully. Things calmed down during the week, but flared up again on subsequent Fridays. During the first phase, the demonstrations were centered around the southern border city of Dar'a, a city whose Bedouin residents have connections to their brothers in Jordan, from whom they get the light arms that they need in order to defend themselves from Asad's armored tanks. Hundreds residents of Dar'a and its environs were killed, but the demonstrations only intensified and spread to the northern border towns of Adlab, Jisr Al-Shu'ara and the cave of Al-Na'aman, near Aleppo. Afterwards, the demonstrations came to the secondary cities - Homs, Latakia and Deira - Suhr -- and spread to the provincial towns that surround the capital, Damascus.

Thousands of Syrian refugees fled to Lebanon and Turkey, which watches the ongoing events in the back yard of its southern neighbor with great concern for several reasons: a.The Turkish Islamic regime cannot watch with equanimity as Alawites - who, according to Islam are infidels - slaughter Muslims. b. The Syrian turmoil might cause the country to disintegrate into separate parts, and Turkey will find itself trying to cope with another Kurdish country, this time built upon the ruins of Syria, in addition to the Kurdish problem that exists in Iraq. c. In recent months several events have occurred in Turkey where Muslims have murdered Alawites in revenge for what they are doing in Alawite Syria to the Muslims.

Erdogan doesn't want an internal religious Muslim-Alawite conflict on top of the internal Turkish-Kurdish ethnic conflict.

In order to "convince" Asad to stop slaughtering his Muslim citizens, Turkey concentrated its military forces on the southern border with Syria, but then Iran reacted and started sending messages to Turkey, that if Turkey dares to interfere in Syria, Iran will attack it. Apparently this threat worked, because up until now, the Turks have not done to Asad what they want so much to do to him.

Meanwhile, the Arab League has also awakened and in the month of September it began to threaten Asad with bringing the matter before the UN, with a clear reference to the Libyan scenario, which involved outside intervention. Three months of bloodshed passed until the solution was found that allows the Arab League to send overseers into Syria, and it's still not clear if they will truly be able to bring about peace between Asad and his opposition.

By the end of December the number of known fatalities has reached almost 6000, and to this number about sixty thousand prisoners must be added, and the fate of these prisoners is unknown.

The world must keep a very watchful eye on the Syrian military storehouses, so that weapons - especially chemical and biological weapons - will not find their way to terror organizations like Hizbullah, Hamas and Islamic Jihad.

The Fourth: Yemen

On the 27th of January, two days after the demonstrations broke out in Egypt, and one day after they broke out in Syria, large demonstrations began against President Ali Abdullah Saleh, who ruled Yemen for 33 years. He and other members of his tribe make all of the decisions in Yemen. The military has split up between units that supported the president and those who opposed him, however there were never open hostilities between the two sides. Yemen experienced a year in which there was a long series of demonstrations, which the regime tried to break up very violently, and hundreds of people lost their lives in these demonstrations. In the beginning of June the palace of Saleh was attacked by missiles, Saleh was wounded and suffered moderate burns and went for about four months of medical treatment in Saudi Arabia. During these months the situation in the country calmed down somewhat, but the flames returrned to the city streets when Saleh returned to Yemen in late September.

The main objection to Saleh centered around the South of the country, in the cities of Taez, Ave and Aden, where many of the southern tribes want to re-establish the independent country that they used to have, South Yemen, until twenty years ago. A group of Gulf states intervened and suggested a compromise to Saleh to resign from his post without being held legally responsible for killing his citizens.

On the 21st of October the Security Council of the UN demanded that Saleh resign. On the 23rd of November he transferred authority to his deputy, however the situation did not ease. The South continued to demand independence, and the Sa'da area in the North, which is ruled by a group of Iranian-leaning Shi'ites also demands to secede from the country.

Many of Saleh's tribe continue to command military units and parts of the government, therefore it's very likely that the civil disquiet will continue.

The Fifth: Bahrain

Three days after Mubarak resigned, demonstrations began in the island of Bahrain, which is near the coast of Saudi Arabia. This island is populated mainly by a majority of Persian-speaking Shi'ites who are ruled by a minority of Sunni Arabs, the Al-Khalifa tribe, who emigrated from the continent to the island of Bahrain about two hundred years ago, and rule over it by the grace of the British, Americans and the Saudis until today. A series of demonstrations with tents in the central square of the capital Manama, "The Pearl Square", was dispersed violently, but the biggest change occurred when the Saudi military invaded Bahrain in the middle of March, conquered the country by the request of the King and did with it whatever was suitable in his eyes. The revolution in Bahrain failed, however the tension between the controlled Shi'ite majority and the Sunni minority that rules over them continues and from time to time breaks out as a street demonstration.

It's important to note that regarding Bahrain, the partially hidden player is Iran, which claims that the island of Bahrain belongs to it historically. Iran also claims that because the population is Shi'ite it is also responsible for their welfare and security. Claims such as these make the Saudis, the bitter rivals of the Iranians, shudder because the island of Bahrain is only 28 kilometers (about 17 miles) from the coast of Saudi Arabia, and if it falls into Iranian hands then Iran will be able to control of the Saudi coast and the many sources of oil in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia.

Another important matter regarding Bahrain is the fact that the main port of the United States military is located on this Gulf, island and this is why it is strategically important in the balance of power for the Western forces stationed in the Gulf opposite Iran. This is what explains the international agreement and the Iranian rage about the conquering of Bahrain by Saudi Arabia.

The Sixth: Libya

Four days after Mubarak's resignation, on the 15th of February, demonstrations began against Qadhaffi, and he, as is his way, responded with great cruelty, killing thousands of citizens. The military disintegrated quickly into its tribal components, and whole units, with their heavy equipment and arms, turned their cannons and tanks on Qadhaffi. The world hesitated, stumbled, issued condemnations and finally interfered by means of aerial attacks on the Libyan forces, meaning the tribes, who continued to be loyal to Qadhaffi. The area of Cyrenaica and its capital Benghazi were the center of the revolution against Qadhaffi. There was an ethnic component here too, because Barbary tribes joined in the fight against the Libyan military. Qadhaffi was aided by African mercenaries from Sa'ad and Manizer as well as Syrian soldiers that Bishar Asad sent to help and fight alongside Qadhaffi's forces. But all of this could not stand against the European war machine that took advantage of the vague decision of the Security Council to defend the Libyan people in order to try to harm Qadhaffi personally. He survived until the 20th of October, when he was captured and executed by the rebels, but not before they abused him in the most humiliating way.

After this, his sons were captured as well, and control passed into the hands of the coalition of tribes that manage the country by force. Since Qadhaffi was overthrown many disputes have arisen between the tribes about the division of power among them. Weapons from the military storehouses, especially anti-aircraft missiles, have been scattered throughout the Middle East, and some of them have turned up in Gaza.

It's important to note that since the beginning of the year there have been large demonstrations in more of the countries in the area - Algeria, Morocco, Jordan, Iraq, and Iran, which is not Arab - but they were taken care of by normative police action. These countries still operate as they operated before 2011. In Morocco the king introduced changes in the constitution so that now there are wide margins of legitimate political action in the kingdom.

Seeds of Destruction

These developments began in the Middle East in the previous decade: in April 2003 an international coalition headed by the United States overthrew the ruler of Iraq, Saddam Hussein. Since the fall of his regime this important question has arisen in Arabic public discourse: "Why do we members of the Arab nation, need foreign forces in order to overthrow the dictators? Why don't we do what any society does when it's under oppression? Why do the Ukrainian, Czechoslovakian and Romanian masses go out into the streets in order to win their independence by their own hands while we behave like obedient sheep"? Since 2003 these questions have been exhaustively discussed in the Arab media and intensified the desire of many Arabs to free themselves from their rulers.

A second development occurred in January 2006 when the Hamas movement won the majority of seats in the Palestinian Legislative Council in the first elections that they ever participated in. The next phase was in June of 2007, when the Hamas movement took control of Gaza by armed force, overthrew the security organization of the PA, killed and wounded many PA people and chased out its remaining members to Judea and Samaria. This was a living example of a civil Islamic movement, produced by the Muslim Brotherhood, which took over a parcel of land and set up a stable government. With this, Hamas set an example to be emulated, that encourages many in the Arab world to follow in their footsteps.

Islam Attains a Central Position

In a number of countries this year, Islamic movements attained a political status that it has never had in the past: in Tunisia the Islamic party won 41 percent of the seats in parliament, in Morocco the Islamic party won a position of seniority in parliament, and in Egypt a historical triumph is emerging of the religious parties that will control more than 70 percent of the Egyptian parliament. In Libya the head of the National Council announced that Libya will be an Islamic country and Shari'a will be the basis of its legal system. And indeed, the new regime in Libya cancelled Qadhaffi's prohibition on polygamy.

In addition to these countries, the Gaza Strip must be added as a country that conducts itself as an Islamic country since June 2007 with massive Iranian support.

Islam has come to power by democratic means, despite the fact that democracy is not a form of government that is consistent with Islam, because the Islamic tradition doesn't easily accept some of the important components of democracy like equality between the sexes, rights of religious minorities, freedom of expression, the rule of law, separation of powers, freedom of religion, freedom from religion and regime change by means of the ballot box.

We have not yet experienced the situation in which an Islamic party loses the majority in parliament, and therefore it's difficult to know how a party such as this will behave if it does lose an election; will it yield power or hold onto it indefinitely?

Regarding political Islam, it's important to remember what happened in Iran, which began the Islamic Revolution in the beginning of 1979. This allowed Hizbullah to take control of Lebanon in gradual steps.

There are researchers who claim that the Muslim Brotherhood represents pragmatic, moderate Islam, open to and accepting modernity with its many societal and political components and therefore there is no reason to be concerned about the Islamic wave that's sweeping the Arab world. And opposing them, there is a group of researchers who claim that the Muslim Brotherhood can perhaps be pragmatic, but they do not take action against groups much more radical than they are, and allow them to act against the "enemies of Islam" almost freely. They say that Islamic terror organizations grew out of different places within the ideological platform of movements like the Muslim Brotherhood.

The true test of the political Islamic movements that come to power is not one of slogans, but rather of implementation: do they relate to the population and its distress in a fair way?

Will they stand by their international commitments made by previous governments? Regarding Egypt - will the next regime honor the peace agreement with Israel?

An additional problem that stems from the Islamic political victory relates to the future of the modernistic, liberal, secular movements within the Arab world: will the Islamic victory cause them feelings of demoralization, loss and discouragement, or perhaps it represents a challenge that, in order to overcome it, they will redouble their activities, become better organized and improve their tactics so that they might win the public trust when the time comes.

The answers to these questions and others related to political Islam will become clear in the next few years.

Tribal Awakening

In a number of countries where the society still has a traditional character, the tribal component, which is deeply rooted in Middle Eastern society, plays a key role.The political problems of Iraq, Libya, Yemen, Sudan and the Palestinian Authority are a political expression of tribal, ethnic, religious and sectarian factionalism, which characterizes many societies in the Middle East. It's clear that the standard conglomerate Arab country, which tried to base its legitimacy upon a shared national consciousness among all of the citizens in the country, failed in the experiment to settle in the hearts of the population and to uproot the traditional loyalties to the tribe, the ethnic group (for example: Kurds, Turkmen, Armenians), the religious framework (Muslim, Christian, Zoroastrian, etc.), or the sectarian (Sunni, Shi'ite).

Upon this background there is a growing tendency to the break up the conglomerate as it was demarcated by the colonialists, and divide it up according to a homogeneous basis:

Sudan has already split into two countries in July 2011, and it's reasonable to assume that its partitions (Darfur, Kordofan) will continue to demand independence and that Northern, Arabic-Islamic Sudan will thus split into tribal units.

Iraq has already actually split into two countries: Kurdistan and Iraq. The autonomous Kurdish section enjoys its own government, its own parliament and many symbols of independent governance: a strong military, effective police, legislature, legal system, administration and economy. In recent months, and on the background of the dysfunctional Baghdad government, some of the areas (=tribes) in Arabic Iraq have declared themselves to be a "climate", i.e. an entity that conducts its life according to broad autonomy, as a sort of "state" (like New Jersey and Utah).

In Libya the tribes succeeded in overthrowing Qadhaffi, and now they are fighting each other over the distribution of power between them.

In Yemen, many demonstrations in the cities of the South - Aden, Taez, Ave - are held in order to promote the public demand to split Yemen and renew the independence that South Yemen had until twenty years ago.

The Palestinian Authority is divided culturally and politically into Gaza and something that may, perhaps, arise in the future in Judea and Samaria .

Also in Syria, against the background of widespread rebellion against the Asad regime, there are signs that the country will disintegrate into a number of homogeneous units.

Modern Communications

We mustn't ignore the role that satellite communications played in the changes that occurred during the last year. The Al-Jazeera television channel led the fire of revolution from place to place, following 15 years of wild and blunt incitement against the Arab rulers, especially against the United States and Israel and against the West in General.

The oppressed masses couldn't organize demonstrations by means of newspapers, radio or television in their countries, therefore the social networking sites played a central role, by allowing the "Revolutionary Youth" to organize huge activities against the regime, no matter where they were.

Video uploading sites like YouTube helped the rebels to publicize the oppressive actions against the demonstrators to the world. This is most prominent in Syria and Egypt, where a battle against the military is carried out almost as a live broadcast. They also broadcast the oppressive actions of the regime. The modern Arab ruler can no longer hide his actions from the world. He is exposed and therefore he is vulnerable, because world opinion is aroused by the bloodshed in the streets and causes politicians to act.

The Arab League

In the first decade of the current century, and especially on the background of the Arab failure to act against Israel during the second intifada, there were many who wrote the obituary for the Arab League, so much so that one of the prominent newspapers in Egypt called it "the dead body in the morgue that no one has the courage to declare as dead".

The League failed in its attempts to get Iraq out of Kuwait in 1990, failed to convince Syria to stop supporting Iran against Iraq during the years of the Iran-Iraq War (1980-1988), failed to halt the genocide in Darfur, which was carried out by the central Sudanese regime, and failed to represent the Arab collective on the international arena.

The weakness of the League caused other, multinational bodies to arise in the Arab world: the Gulf Cooperation Council and the Organization of North African States, as well as others.

During the past year, the League received "artificial respiration" from Europe, because of the seriousness with which NATO took the Arab League's appeal to the Security Council of the UN to defend the citizens of Libya from the oppressive steps of the regime. NATO translated this request into an all-out war against Qadhaffi that caused his ultimate downfall.

These days there are attempts to replay this scenario regarding Syria: the request of the Arab League to the Security Council will give international cover to foreign interference in Syria. The Arab League cannot do anything practical against an Arab ruler who is slaughtering his own citizens. And it is precisely this weakness which allows it to turn to strong international bodies for help in fighting the bloodthirsty Arab dictators.

Qatar - The Rising Power

We cannot ignore the central role that the Principality of Qatar filled during the last decade, especially during the last year. Qatar, and the Al-Jazeera channel, which Qatar operates, succeeded to undermine the regime of Ben Ali in Tunisia, Mubarak in Egypt, Qadhaffi in Libya, Saleh in Yemen, Asad in Syria and many more rulers of Arab countries. Al Jazeera waged a "media war" against them without anyone lifting a finger against Qatar. As a result, the Emir of Qatar has become the strongest man in the Arab world.

During the past year, Qatar was also involved in the military attack against Qadhaffi, when Qatari Air Force jets bombed Libyan military targets, and supplied weapons and ammunition to the rebels. Qatar participates - together with Turkey - in training deserters from the Syrian military so that on their return to Syria they will be able to fight against the Syrian army and Asad's regime.

Qatar hosts, on its territory, the main air force base of the United States in the Gulf, and it's clear to all that if there is American action against Iran, it may originate from this base, which is located at a distance of five minutes flight from the Iranian coast.

The Emir of Qatar and its minister of Foreign Affairs are pressuring Asad with clear threats to turn to the Security Council of the UN if he continues to kill his citizens. The verbal attacks on Qatar in the Syrian media clearly express the official Syrian rage towards the Qatari Principality, which behaves as if it were a superpower.

During the past year Iran has watched the events in the Arab world with much concern.The regime in Syria is rocky, and if Asad falls, Iran will lose its base in that country. Hamas has turned into a governmental organization and has suspended the Jihad against Israel, and even Hizbullah has run into ever-increasing internal Lebanese conflicts as Asad's situation continues to deteriorate.

Iran is now trying to pull Iraq into the Iranian hegemony, and the American withdrawal from Iraq in December has accelerated this process. Therefore, there is now a possibility that Iraq will return to the Eastern front. Israel must take this into account in all plans related to the future of the Jordan Valley.

Iran is committed to its nuclear project and translates that into military strength, to discourage all who plan to do evil against the regime of the Ayatollahs, and to regain its regional hegemony. Iran also aspires to bring the Gulf under its influence and neutralize Turkish and Israeli power.

Turkey, which built its foreign policy in the previous decade on the principle "Zero Conflicts" is involved today in a number of complex problems. It is involved in Syria, threatened by Iran, in contention with Israel because of the flotilla and the gas that was recently found under the Mediterranean Sea, angry with France regarding recognition of the Armenian genocide and was at odds with the United States and Europe, because of its support of Qadhaffi.

The Turkish quickly-developing economy is still the engine from which it derives its political power, mainly because of the economic problems that the European Union and the United States are facing. However, an economic slowdown in Europe might pull Turkey down too, and cause many of its unemployed nationals to return from Germany, which is very worrying to the heads of the government.

In Summary

The year 2011 was a stormy year throughout the Middle East. Its character changes quickly, and sinks into the swamp of internal conflicts within each country. The economy stumbles from one failure to another, and many hopes shatter on the hard ground of reality and its problems. The "Arab Spring" is looking more and more like an "Islamic and Tribal Winter", and the forecasts of observers and Western journalists who spoke of "democracy in the Arab world" seem far from the bitter reality.

Israel appears in this whole scenario as an Island of sanity, stability and prosperity, and we must guard ourselves from the storm waves that rock the world around us.

Dr. Mordechai Kedar
(Mordechai.Kedar@biu.ac.il) is an Israeli scholar of Arabic and Islam, a lecturer at Bar-Ilan University and the director of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. He specializes in Islamic ideology and movements, the political discourse of Arab countries, the Arabic mass media, and the
Syrian domestic arena.

Translated from Hebrew by Sally.

Links to Dr. Kedar's previous articles on this blog:

Source: The article is published in the framework of the Center for the Study of the Middle East and Islam (under formation), Bar Ilan University, Israel. Also published in Makor Rishon, a Hebrew weekly newspaper.

Copyright - Original materials copyright (c) by the authors.

Anonymous said...

Good article. Seems a typo in first paragraph of Tunisia: "tens of unemployed" "tens of thousands"?

sally said...

Thanks - I fixed it.

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Target Hackers Have More Data Than They Can Sell 118

itwbennett writes "The hackers who stole millions of credit card numbers from Target customers are probably 'laying low knowing that everyone is looking for them,' says Alex Holden, who runs cybercrime consultancy Hold Security. But it's also likely that they can't sell them: 'You can imagine that having a lot of stolen credit cards will not net the hackers, say $35 per card for all 40 million,' said Holden. 'Even if the hackers are willing to sell cards for $1 a card, no one will buy the stolen goods in these amounts.'"
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Target Hackers Have More Data Than They Can Sell

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Stratus Names Nigel Dessau Chief Marketing Officer
Technology Industry Veteran Brings Global Leadership and Branding, Product Management and Sales Enablement Experience to Top Mission Critical Availability Provider

MAYNARD, MA -- (Marketwire) -- 01/29/13 -- Stratus Technologies, Inc., a global leader in ensuring availability for mission critical applications, announced today the appointment of Nigel Dessau as chief marketing officer (CMO). Reporting directly to Stratus CEO and President David Laurello, Dessau will lead all global corporate, internal, and product marketing and management functions.

"I am excited Nigel has joined the Stratus team," said Dave Laurello, Stratus CEO and president. "He brings strong expertise in leading both global technology marketing and product management teams and these will be invaluable assets for driving Stratus' initiatives forward, including our ability to deliver mission critical availability in the cloud."

"This is an exciting time to be joining a company that has spent the better part of 30 years ensuring its customers mission critical applications in banking and manufacturing among other industries are always available," said Nigel Dessau, Stratus CMO. "Driven by new technologies, applications, access requirements and devices, the global market for mission critical applications is expanding dramatically and Stratus has the leadership, and solutions to meet these challenges. I am looking forward to scaling our marketing effort to seize this tremendous opportunity."

A seasoned technology and vertical industry veteran, Dessau brings more than 25 years of marketing leadership experience to Stratus. Dessau has held executive positions with Advanced Micro Devices (AMD), StorageTek and Sun Microsystems. He began his career at IBM in England in various sales roles, and worked at the company in both England and New York. Dessau studied business at Nottingham Trent University in the UK and will reside in Boston, Mass.

About Stratus Technologies
Stratus delivers the world's only proactive availability guarantee for the platforms that run the most vital functions of commerce, public safety, manufacturing, financial services, and healthcare. Combining patented software and hardware technologies with thirty years of unparalleled remote monitoring and management expertise for availability, Stratus helps save lives and protect the business and reputations of companies, institutions, and governments the world over. To learn more about worry-free computing, visit

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Top Definition
Totse isn't just a website, totse is the first true website, if it can even be called a website anymore. Nowadays, totse is your fat, sweaty Mexican mom. I, snoopy, am the saggy bitchtits that slap your dumb ass skank ho around if you misbehave, or if you just happen to be around me when you shouldn't.

Totse, like all holy things, exists from 3 divine parts. The text file section, the BBS, and the IRC chatroom. The text file section is like the Bible, only better. It, like the bible, is filled with metaphors, riddles and satire. Unfortunately, these are the arch enemies of any idiot's brain, hence the text file section is very hated, yet it is very famous for acts of losing fingers, burning ones face off, getting in jail, getting raped, murder/suicide, molotov everything etc.

The BBS is much like a BBQ. There's the elite, enjoying the weather, food, poolside conversation a.o. However, for every elite, there are about 1000 (one thousand) idiots, throwing around frisbees, kicking footballs into the grill, setting off bottle rockets from our drinks, peeing in the pool and so on and so on.

The IRC room isn't very popular, because it's one of the few corners of totse still held intact by the elites. For a community with thousands and thousands of members, the IRC room never gets more than 20 users at once. This is largely because we, the elites, ban anyone who comes in on tap.

All in all, if you're reading this and you've never been to totse, I would just like to prepare you for hours upon hours of getting your worthlessness shoved down your throat by none other than me, myself and TrippyMcGee.
"Or we could replace you with a piece of chicken."
di Snoopy 04 marzo 2005
The best website on the net short of porn.
di Anonymous 06 ottobre 2003
Totse, In 1989 I started a dial-up BBS system called & the Temple of the Screaming Electron with an old 8088 PC XT clone with a 20MB hard drive and a 2400 baud modem running DOS and DMG BBS software.

A man named Jeff Hunter is the one held responsible for the creation of totse.

Totse is a BBS/Textfile website, it has forums discussing everything and anything, from 100 ways to torture a cat, to discussing wether or not you can make white ions into red ones.
Anyway totse has a wide number or things to off, raging 14 year old boys who can't type properly, horny old men asking for exotic_touch's tittis, nazi moderators, and last but not least. Useful information.
di Acid-Killer 10 marzo 2005
n. A site where free speech is encouraged.
I have to agree with the guy that was talking about hydrocarbon Cannon, you go in there with an IQ of 100 and after years of sleepless nights on that site you learn that Totse causes insommia, lack of sleep, sleepless nights, and waste of electricty.
di sss3d 16 luglio 2004
Totse is the best website in the world. It's a place where complete idiots and intilectuals come together to make a wonderful and happy community.
The only thing better than mary jane is being on mary jane while looking at totse.
di Vladimir Lem 25 luglio 2005
A beautiful online community, where many people of about two races meet to talk about basically anything. Most people here have good grammar and are over twelve years of age(unlike the rumors). Jeff Hunter founded Totse In 1989, its first name was &Totse, until the & charcter was banned from URL's.
Totse (Temple Of the screaming electron)
di SlaysGays 31 agosto 2005
A Online Knowlege Oriented manifestation of ethreal wisdom where one can attain knowledge and ample discretion on the utilization and potential ramifications therof.
Totse a haven for paranoids and visionaries
di Brad 09 giugno 2004

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