Adlai blog

George W. Bush Decides Not to Go to Switzerland After All

WASHINGTON, DC – Former President George W. Bush was scheduled to go to Switzerland next week, but the trip has been called off. Bush was supposed to give an address in Geneva, on February 12, at a charity dinner in honor of the United Israel Appeal. Human rights groups were planning to protest his appearance, though, and several organizations had threatened to take legal action against Bush for allegedlyduring his time in office. The official statement is that Bush canceled his trip because the Geneva demonstrations were threatening to become violent, but onlookers are wondering whether the possibility of a criminal investigation may have played a role in deterring the president.

The Players  One of the groups most critical of Bush has been the Center for Constitutional Rights, a New York non-profit. According to , the CCR, along with "several European human rights groups," was urging Swiss authorities to "open a criminal case" against Bush once he arrived in Switzerland. The CCR reportedly has a 2,500-page complaint ready to go, and will release it at a news conference on Monday. A statement from the Center reads, "Whatever Bush or his hosts say, we have no doubt he canceled his trip to avoid our case ... The message from civil society is clear: If you're a torturer, be careful in your travel plans. It's a slow process for accountability, but we keep going."

But Does Bush Just Want to Prevent Violent Protests?  According to the United Israel Appeal, Bush is taking a rain check on Geneva not because he's scared of a lawsuit, but because "the calls to demonstrate were sliding into dangerous terrain," in the words of a lawyer for the organization, and "we didn't want to put people and property in Geneva at risk." The Post reports that "organizers of a rally outside the Hotel Wilson, where the speech was scheduled to take place, had called on demonstrators to each bring a shoe, an effort to echo the assault on Bush during a news conference in Baghdad in 2008 when an Iraqi journalist threw a shoe at him."

Would They Even Be Able to Arrest Him?  Not according to a spokesman for the Swiss Foreign Ministry, who told reporters that Bush "would have immunity from prosecution for any alleged actions while in office," as the Post puts it. The Post also notes that similar gambits in the past didn't pan out so well: "The Center, and its European partners, earlier filed suits against former defense secretary Donald Rumsfeld and other Bush administration officials in Germany and France. Those cases were dismissed."

Groups: Sure We Would!  The CCR and its allies seem pretty confident of their case, arguing that immunity doesn't apply under the Convention Against Torture.quotes Reed Brody, a lawyer for Human Rights Watch, who says that Bush is "avoiding the handcuffs... I'm surprised he would even consider visiting a country that has ratified the torture convention and which takes its responsibilities seriously." Brody adds that Bush "may enjoy some kind of impunity in the United States, but other countries will not treat him so indulgently."

Bush Is Thinking of the UIA, Not Himself  Where the CCR sees a defensive maneuver, Hot Air'ssees selflessness. "In the end, the most damage would not have been done to Bush, but to the charitable organization trying to conduct their fundraising," the blogger writes. "It appears that this was taken into consideration and the former president chose not to hamper their work by canceling the trip entirely."

Protip for Bush: Invest in a Wig  "Clearly George W. Bush is going to need to either A) stay in Texas forever or B) grow a mustache," jokes the blogger . "Maybe if he had a hat or something. Or a book. Nobody would ever recognize him if he was wearing a beret and holding a copy of Anna Karenina. It would be the perfect disguise! 'That can't be him, he's holding Tolstoy!'"

Egypt Q&A: Internal politics and key players

Egypt has long been one of America's strongest allies in the Middle East, but with popular protests on the verge of driving President Hosni Mubarak from office, Egypt's future relationship with the United States is in doubt. What is the current state of affairs in Egypt politically and who are the key players?

David Patel, a Cornell University professor of government who specializes in Middle East politics, Islamic institutions and political culture, talked about Egypt in a Q&A interview this week:

Q: A few days ago, you released a statement that the current regime was trying to foment chaos as an attempt to retain power. Can you talk about the seeming change in policy in light of Vice President Suleiman's more recent efforts to suppress the rioting through peaceful negotiation?

Patel: What we're seeing is a lot of movement within the party, pushing some people out. I think it's pretty clear that one faction within the [the ruling National Democratic Party] (NDP) is willing to sacrifice another faction within the NDP. A lot of the people associated with Gamal Mubarak [President Hosni Mubarak's son] have seen their assets frozen and their passports taken if they are not already out of the country. My sense is that a lot of the violence we saw a couple of day ago was orchestrated not from the cabinet, not from Omar Suleiman, the vice-president, or Mubarak, it was probably from mid-level NDP officials, other NDP officials, and people in the intelligence agencies.

There's a lot of competition within the party and they're pretty good at using thugs like this. There are networks of thugs that are used in elections and used to intimidate opponents. My sense isn't that the violence we saw a few days ago was from the top down, but from somebody else within the ruling party.

And you're right; the prime minister even apologized for it and said it was unacceptable. The military seems to be intervening more than they were before and that's why it stopped. The atmosphere in Tahrir is changed. It was a group of demonstrators under siege and now an almost festival-like atmosphere seems to be back with families and women in large numbers.

Q: Given the protesters' call for the immediate resignation of Mubarak and the current regime, who do you see as well-placed organizationally to take advantage of that and assume power in the short term?

Patel: The protesters are calling for a lot of things. Mubarak stepping down is the one that's easiest to chant. The real issue is: how is the transition going to be handled, and there are a couple different options? In Egypt the vice president is really the president-in-waiting. So picking Omar Suleiman is clearly designating him as the successor, and he is also someone who makes the Americans and the Israelis very comfortable. They know him very well from his time running the Egyptian Mukhabarat.

When you talk about a transition, what matters is really what's going to happen between now and September. Are they actually going to go ahead with presidential election in September? If so, how free will those elections be? Other people are talking about having parliamentary elections first, which could change things. Other people are talking about having some sort of triumvirate of one or two or three people leading some sort of transitional period which could be longer than September, delaying presidential elections and having some sort of constitutional review process first. Omar Suleiman would clearly play a prominent role, maybe even as a first among equals if that occurs.

Q: The constitution of Egypt clearly spells out the rules for succession, which would leave the NDP firmly in power if they were to follow those rules and Mubarak resigned. So it doesn't seem as though that's going to be an acceptable solution for most of the parties involved (other than the NDP).

Patel: It goes to the speaker of parliament. It also would limit the ability of a new president to call for new parliamentary elections. My understanding is that only an "elected president" can dissolve parliament and call for new elections. So, these are debates about the role of the constitution and how important that constitution and the words of that constitution should be for guiding this process.

It's pretty clear Mubarak isn't calling the shots anymore, right? Authority has moved away from him. Omar Suleiman is calling the shots. The people who were around and relied on access to Mubarak for their influence have found new patrons within the military and the party or are scrambling to find them. Mubarak is president in name only at this point.

He is hugely symbolically important, especially for the protesters, but even if he doesn't step down, his influence right now is minimal. He's not the one making statements anymore. It's Omar Suleiman who went on television the other day. It's Ahmed Shafik who's making statements. It's Tantawi, the defense minister, who's going down to Tahrir. So Mubarak's no longer the acting president. Even within the party, I don't think he's that important anymore.

Q: Of the other factions, there's the Muslim Brothers with whom the U.S. seems quite preoccupied. What is their actual influence in Egypt?

Patel: The Muslim Brothers are the largest and best organized of those opposition groups. We don't know how much support they have for several reasons. A lot of people supported the Muslim Brothers because they were seen as the only viable alternative to Mubarak. We know that a lot of the support for the Muslim Brothers comes from their ability to provide services that the Egyptian people need through clinics, schools and training centers. Well, if a new Egyptian government provides better for the Egyptian people and provides those services for the Egyptian people, maybe the influence of the Muslim Brothers in that avenue will decline.

There are a lot of people who like to say that they Egyptian Brothers have 15-20 percent of the Egyptian population behind them now. That's based not on how they did in the last election, but the previous election. There wasn't a free and fair election. There clearly wasn't a good expression of people's ultimate preferences, so you really can't estimate the support for the Muslim Brothers that way.

The Brothers have come out and said that they are not going to rule. They're not going to run somebody for president, and in fact, it looks like they are going to back a secular candidate for president. It seems like they've done everything they could to say that they will support a democratic process in terms of elections. They're working with secularists, and they'll be a part of the new order. They're not going to dominate it though. There's good reason, both empirically and theoretically, to think that they're not going to dominate Egypt in the short, medium, or long run.

The military is very well-trained, it's very large, it's very well-equipped. Order is not going to break down in Egypt. It's not like the Muslim Brothers are going to send their people out in the streets and seize power. The military isn't going to let that happen.

Q: One of the other groups that has become prominent is that of ElBaradei. Do you see him and his group, which, one might argue, has less in-country organization at this point, as playing a strong role?

Patel: He's been very prominent in the western media because he's a name and a face people recognize. He tried to position himself at the head of the protesters. You saw that there was a very dramatic scene of him going to Tahrir Square and giving a speech. My sense is that he doesn't have much of an organization in Egypt. Which could be both an advantage and a disadvantage, right?

He might be less threatening to various opposition groups as a figurehead, but he hasn't been able to consolidate all the opposition groups and voices behind him. There are a number of other groups that are negotiating not through him, but directly with the Egyptian government. The Muslim Brothers have said they would support him as a potential candidate for president. He's somebody who probably will emerge as one of the top two or three opposition leaders at least in the interim period. How much staying power he has in the long run, whether or not he can develop a political party and organization of his own is another matter entirely.

Q: Minister of Defense Tantawi is seen by many to be someone separate from Mubarak and Suleiman. While he may be following orders, the west is reporting that the military is taking more of a stand-offish role in support of the government. Do you see that as entirely false and only a western perspective?

Patel: You're trying to ask me if there's going to be a coup? The military is massive, at least 350,000 to 400,000. The Egyptian military currently runs between 15 and 24 factories around the country. They have massive economic and business interests throughout the country. Military officers and businesses and people connected to them are incredibly influential in the Egyptian economy. There's a lot of people in the Egyptian military interested in preserving their access to things, making sure that military contractors are involved in building all those new roads around Cairo, making sure that the military is the dominant player, especially in food industries.

They've gotten very good at dividing the kitty. They have become very good at balancing factions within the military. They've been a pretty stable military regime. You don't hear about coup attempts within the military in Egypt very often. I'd say the likelihood of a coup is very low. A lot of people have incentive to make sure the military comes out, as a whole, in a strong position, economically, perhaps even more importantly than politically.

Q: What do you see, in the near term, as a catalyst for ending the protests and getting back to ordinary life in Egypt?

Patel: Cairo and the surrounding areas are 18 million people, and the protests are concentrated in one area, Tahrir Square. Most of Cairo is, if not business as usual, seeing people going to work. People are going out and selling things, even in the middle of Tahrir.

The government is hoping that the protesters will get tired, that they'll, through attrition, go home. That doesn't seem to be happening. Those protesters there seem to be extremely resilient. If anything, the numbers have grown over time and they have tremendous staying power.

So the regime's strategy now seems to be to try to buy off some of the opposition. They've made what they see as some concessions to the protesters. They're hoping that the opposition groups will make some concessions. The Muslim Brothers sitting down to talk to Omar Suleiman the other day was a concession. They didn't agree to anything, as I understand it, but they did sit down with him.

A lot of different people try to represent the protesters and try to negotiate with the government, various groups of wisemen, ElBaradei, various political parties. The government's hoping that some of the opposition groups will pull their support away. They're hoping that some of the Egyptians who aren't involved in any way will say, "This has gone on too long. You've achieved enough; we can achieve more without being there in Tahrir." So they're hoping that public opinion in Egypt will turn against public protests. The protesters have said that they'll stay there indefinitely. It's been going on for two weeks now. The military has said they're not going to crack down so the protesters have a sense of safety now that they didn't have a couple days ago. I think you could see this continuing to go on for several more weeks, if you don't see some sort of agreement between various opposition groups and the government as to how a transition would occur... and for Mubarak to step down.

Q: The one thing that almost all the parties agree upon, is that they don't want outsiders to determine their future. They don't want people outside Egypt either corrupting the situation or exerting undue influence. That could be the United States, Iran, or whomever. What countries are well-poised, other than the United States, to continue or to begin to have a strong influence in Egypt?

Patel: In the short run, nobody. This is going to be resolved by Egypt one way or another. I don't think the United States can force Mubarak out of office. I don't think any other actors can put the pressure that will be decisive one way or another. Egyptians are determining the future of Egypt and that's a good thing. The Egyptian government continuously repeats the line that these are foreign agitators. Sometimes they blame Iranians. Sometimes they blame Israelis. Sometimes they blame Americans. They're all sorts of rumors flying around about outside agitation to weaken the homeland, to weaken the stability of Egypt. I haven't seen any evidence of foreign influence in the protests whatsoever. This is clearly an Egyptian, and a very diverse Egyptian, protest.

Credit Card Solicitation’s Rise As America Resists and Reduces Debt

Credit Card Solicitations Are on the Rise and Card Companies Are Making the Offers More Attractive. Morgan Drexen Financial Experts Ask Consumers to Beware. America's Legal System is Reducing Debt with the Assistance of the Complex Workflow Automation of Morgan Drexen

(Vocus/PRWEB) January 31, 2011

Credit card solicitations last year rose to 2.73 billion from 1.39 billion in 2009.That’s according to market research firm Synovate’s Mail Monitor. The credit card is back, with bigger and better offers than ever.

"The proverbial wheels of the credit engine are being greased once again," says Anuj Shahani, director of competitive tracking services for Synovate. Banks have saturated super-prime households and are again looking to subprime consumers to build up their revenues. That's good news for people who were shut out of credit cards over the past two years. However, getting a card will probably cost them more, due to higher interest rates and fees.

Some may consider this good news, however the credit card offers of 2011 may be more costly then ever. Despite the Credit Card Accountability, Responsibility, and Disclosure Act of 2009 (CARD), card companies are finding new ways to charge consumers.

For many American Consumers the use of credit cards has led them into severe financial hardship.For Helen Baker, a New Jersey resident it was everyday problems that led to her high debt. Helen engaged with an attorney based debt resolution company. The Rosen & Winig law firm helped Helen reduce her debt.

Rosen & Winig use the legal support services of Morgan Drexen, who were recently requested to assist Southern Californian Bankruptcy Trustee Jeffrey Golden. Morgan Drexen use complex automation to assist the critical workflow of attorneys across the United States. This allows for enhanced productivity and saves the Law firms money. Morgan Drexen also provides paralegal and accounting services.

Helen was dealing with $40,000 in debt; her debt had one singular cause, credit cards. The biggest lesson Helen learned was, “I have no credit cards now. You don’t buy what you can’t afford. If you don’t have the money in the bank then you can’t have it,” says Helen. She admits that during the debt resolution program she had to make some sacrifices, but being debt free was worth it.

Credit card companies start soliciting prospective consumers at an early age.In a recent investigation highlighted by CNN Money, a consumer wishing to remain anonymous admitted that her 3 year-old daughter had received an application from American Express. On contacting AMEX, a spokesperson for the company apologized and immediately removed the 3 year-old from its mailing lists.

A similar story occurred for a 12 year old whose name was mistakenly put on the American student list, that list was then provided to Discover and 1st Financial Bank.

Patricia Goodman engaged with an attorney based debt resolution company in Florida.That Florida law firm was Figueredo & Boutsis, who are supported by the complex workflow automation of Morgan Drexen.She engaged with more then $180,000 in debt with Bank of America. Already struggling with the high debt Patricia received yet another card from the company with a credit limit of $6,000.

Consumers need to be cautious of the new and tempting credit card offers, as credit card solicitations as predicted by Synovate’s mail monitor will continue to rise in 2011.

Source- Raychel Harvey-Jones – Morgan Drexen ©

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Raychel Harvey-JonesMorgan Drexen749231500Email Information

expressor software enters 2011 with New Products, Free ETL, and Key Hires

Company is building strong market momentum with brand new ETL and data integration product.

Burlington, MA (Vocus/PRWEB) January 31, 2011

expressor software, a leading provider of free and affordable data integration software, today announced that the company is building strong market momentum with a brand new fast, easy to download and use ETL product, and new hires in key areas of its operations.

"It took us some time to get all the components of our new business model up and running," said Bob Potter, president and CEO, expressor software. "I am very excited about the fact that we are entering 2011 with a significantly improved and redesigned product set that fully supports our high-transaction business model going forward.The download activity has surpassed our very high expectations to date and I’m expecting close to 20,000 unique downloads of the free Studio product this year."

"expressor software has made significant progress in all areas of its operations," added Melinda Smith, CFO, expressor software."I am very pleased with our year end achievements in customer and bookings growth and our ability to exceed 2010 cash flow targets. Our customer acquisition and sales goals for fiscal year 2011 are very ambitious, but I'm optimistic based on 2010 growth and momentum that we will be able to achieve them."

Product, sales and marketing momentum

During Q4 2010, expressor continued to release breakthrough products, increase customers, hired senior staff and receive positive customer and analyst feedback on its brand new expressor 3.0 data integration platform.Key highlights include:     Launched expressor 3.0 beta program, which was started in mid-2010 and was opened to the public in earlier November.Over 1,500 unique users downloaded the new expressor Studio beta product and utilized the company’s new Community Center to receive free online forum support, online training via tutorials, and access to expressor’s knowledge base and online documentation.

    Released expressor Studio 3.0 as a free community edition in late December 2010 and announced its general availability (GA) in early January.expressor Studio is a next-generation data integration application with simplified data mappings and reusable business rules.The GA release of expressor Studio is being followed by the release of the commercial expressor Standard Edition 3.1 in late February 2011.

    In addition to free community forum support, expressor announced a comprehensive annual support package priced at 1,150 dollars, which enables expressor Studio users to receive unlimited incidence reporting; email and phone support; guaranteed response; automatic notification of updates and bug fixes; 3 hours of product mentoring; and the ability to file enhancement requests. This comprehensive, yet affordable offering is the most generous support package in the industry and by far outmatches similarly priced offerings provided by open source ETL vendors.

    Added new and repeat customers including Western World Insurance Group and Viverae and continued joint partnering and marketing with Teradata by exhibiting at the Teradata Partners user group conference in late October, and conducting its first joint webinar with Teradata in early November 2010.

    expressor also had a strong showing at the PASS SQL Server Summit 2010 the week of November 8, where the company demonstrated the new expressor Studio 3.0 product, announced the public beta and GA plans for it, and jumpstarted the Studio download program right at the show floor. At the event, expressor held its first SQL Server MVP advisory council meeting to receive their input on how expressor can best position and market its product into the SQL Server community.

    Brought on board Alan DiPietro, formerly of LogMeIn, as Vice President of Sales, who is an expert in building and managing high-transaction sales environments.expressor also hired Wiqar Chaudry, formerly of Mobile Messenger and Epsilon, as the company’s product manager for the expressor 3.x product line.

“We like the new Semantic Types capability in expressor Studio 3.0 and are firmly of the belief that the use of semantics is the way forward in many technology areas, of which data integration is just one,” said Philip Howard, Research Director at Bloor Research. “When combined with cross-core parallelism in the commercial editions of expressor 3.x, it is our opinion that expressor offers significant advantages over traditional methods in terms of ease of use, reuse and performance.”

About expressor software

expressor software knows data integration -- and we know today’s most capable data integration tools are too complex and too expensive. Our vision is to provide enterprise-class data integration software that is cost-effective, fast and easy to use.

expressor’s game-changing usability enables you to use less technical, lower-cost development resources. Our unique, active metadata foundation simplifies data mapping and transformation to reduce your time-to-value. And our dramatically lower cost makes it easy to justify replacing your brittle and expensive hand-coded implementations or underperforming in-house ETL tools. Version 3 of expressor is a comprehensive design, development and deployment platform available in three editions tailored to support the full range of data integration applications, from tactical data migrations to the largest enterprise data warehouses and strategic, predictive analytics.

To learn more about what makes expressor the leader in affordable, enterprise-class data integration, visitor download the free expressor Studio at .

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Jessica Murphyexpressor software781-505-4190Email Information

New Controversial Book Claims That the Song Lyrics of Jay-Z Reveals the Secrets to Success for the Hip-Hop Generation

"I Will Not Lose! The blueprint for greatness when good is not enough" is a street-smart self-help guide inspired by the song lyrics of Jay-Z. The book gives a unique approach to personal development, revealing how the lyrics of one of Hip-Hop's most successful artists can be a source of inspiration for a highly ambitious generation during these challenging times.

Alexandria, VA (PRWEB) January 26, 2011

There has been extensive coverage in recent years of Jay-Z’s meteoric rise in the entertainment industry and the world of business, but what fans, critics and the media seem to find most intriguing about the Brooklyn born rapper is his cryptic song lyrics. Every new lyric by the rapper is met with anticipation and debate; his music continues to be a hot topic on the web and in the streets.

Author, Duane L. Lawton, has written a new self-help ebook, “I Will Not Lose! The blueprint for greatness when good is not enough” that is inspired by the song lyrics of Jay-Z. The book, whose main title is taken from a self-affirming statement of confidence that Jay-Z has famously declared out-loud in his music, champions a ‘street-smart’, think-outside-the-box approach to personal development and is aimed at readers from all walks of life that share one powerful trait -- undeterred ambition. Broken down into 7 sections, “I Will Not Lose!” lays out a complete “blueprint for greatness” for ordinary people who have extraordinary expectations for their personal lives.

In "I Will Not Lose!" Lawton devotes over 300 pages examining lyrics from more than 90 of Jay-Z's songs -- it's the most in-depth work ever written about the music of a rap artist. The author makes the argument that while Jay-Z’s lyrics are perceived as self-aggrandizing, his words actually give profound insight into what it takes to be successful in life whether you’re a platinum-selling rapper turned business mogul or a young hustler from Brooklyn with dreams of going to college or owning a business. Jay-Z used to be that guy.

Jay-Z’s lyrics about his drug-dealing past and his music’s focus on materialism has made him a target of critics who say that his work glorifies crime and violence and glamorizes an opulent lifestyle that’s out of reach for most of his listeners. Lawton, a fan of Jay-Z's music since the rapper’s debut album, Reasonable Doubt, disagrees. “Anybody who thinks Jay-Z’s lyrics are just about 'money, cash and hoes' (in reference to the title of one of Jay-Z’s biggest hits in the late 90’s) may hear his words but aren’t really listening. I think Jay’s lyrics resonate with fans because in his words he’s able to reflect on the ups and downs of ambition in a way that is universally understood. Through his lyrics, Jay-Z vividly gives a complete 'picture' of both struggle and success, in which you see yourself -- whether you’re a student, athlete, artist, street hustler, career professional or an entrepreneur.”

Lawton believes that by trivializing the lyrics of rappers, even Hip-Hop’s most gifted wordsmiths like Jay-Z,fan and critics fail to see how an artist’s words of confidence and defiance can actually have a positive impact on their own lives. Lawton: “Jay-Z is as much of an American success story as Warren Buffet, hence, his co-billing with the investment giant on the Forbes magazine cover. But the title of the book makes the message clear: ‘I Will Not Lose!’ is not about Jay-Z’s greatness, it’s about realizing yours.”

To get a copy of “I Will Not Lose! The blueprint for greatness when good is not enough”, visit the ebook’s website at

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DUANE LAWTONDLL Publishing571-723-3612Email Information