Mediaboss Marketing

By Niels Lesniewski Posted at 3:58 p.m. on Feb. 5, 2015

(Tom Williams/CQ Roll Call File Photo)

A Democratic senator has launched a new campaign-style effort to lend a voice to progressives in foreign policy, saying theres a void in the current debate.

Sen. Christopher S. Murphys newcampaign, which features a new website and social media engagement, makes the case thatthose with more liberal views on foreign affairs have been underserved in current debates about global hotspots, with the conversation focusing on disagreements between the likes of President Barack Obama, and hawkish and libertarian Republicans like the split between John McCain of Arizona and Rand Paul of Kentucky, for instance.

The dominance of the President, Senator McCain, and Senator Paul on foreign policy should trouble progressives. Why? To state the obvious, because none of these three camps adequately represents the views of most American progressives, Murphy wrote in a post on Medium.

In that post, Murphy, a member of the Foreign Relations Committee, said that a progressive view might includea substantial increase in the budget for diplomacy relative to the Pentagon.

A substantial transfer of financial resources from the military budget to buttress diplomacy and foreign aid so that our global anti-poverty budget, not our military budget, equals that of the other world powers combined, Murphy said. A new humility to our foreign policy, with less emphasis on short-term influencers like military intervention and aid, and more effort spent trying to address the root causes of conflict.

Murphys viewis also interesting given the extent to which Connecticuts economy has been reliant on defense production, with facilities that manufacture everything fromjet engines and helicopters to submarines. Its also a stark contrast from his predecessor, independent Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman, who while a member of the Democratic caucus generally aligned with McCain on defense and national security questions.

The Murphy website, which is run through his campaign operation, urges supporters to submit ideas. It comes as the Senate isgoing to be faced with a number of foreign policy issues in the coming months, including a battle over imposing additional conditional sanctions against Iran and authorizing the use of military force against the terror group ISIS.

The 114th: CQ Roll Calls Guide to the New Congress

More here:
Murphy Seeks to Be Progressive Voice in Foreign Policy Debates

February 7, 2015 by Tunde Ajaja with agency report 154 Comments

Maj. Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.)

The All Progressives Congress presidential candidate, Gen. Muhammadu Buhari (retd.), has said it will be too bad if the Independent National Electoral Commission allows itself to be compromised to shift the general election or allow irregularities in the voting process.

Buhari made the statement in an interview published on Reuters on Friday, saying he was optimistic that he would win the election and that he would approach the courts if there are irregularities in the voting process. He said he would not call his followers into the streets.

Buhari said, Im optimistic that I wont lose. But we signed an undertaking that it will be violence free. We are attempting to stabilise a multi party democratic system.

There will be no delay. But if INEC is compromised then it will be too bad, Buhari said.

The APC had said that the only reason the pro-Jonathan camp was pushing for a delay of the elections was because it knew that the president would lose if voting should hold as planned.

On the insurgency in the country, the APC candidate said it was a disgrace that neighbouring countries like Chad, Niger and Cameroon had been more successful than Nigeria in the battle against the Boko Haram insurgency.

Buhari told Reuters that, Its a big disgrace for Nigeria. It is now Cameroon and Chad fighting the insurgency more than Nigeria. We will build the capacity and Nigeria should be able to secure its territorial integrity

Our main objective is to secure the country. We will not tolerate insurgency, sabotage of the economy by blowing up of installations, by stealing crude and so on. All these things will be things of the past.

More:
Too bad if INEC shifts election Buhari

National Publicity Secretary of the All Progressives Congress, Lai Mohammed

The All Progressives Congress has flayed the persistent call for the postponement of the next general elections by those it described as desperate advocates of evil.

In a statement signed by the APC National Publicity Secretary on Friday in Abuja, Alhaji Lai Mohammed, the party said the desperadoes will always fail in their evil machinations because no power is strong enough to defeat a determined people.

The APC said the provocative call by the bogus Southern Nigeria Peoples Assembly for the postponement of the elections and the arrest of Independent National Electoral Commission Chairman, Prof. Attahiru Jega, is one of the new antics of the election postponement campaigners.

The statement read, It is shameful that those who should be working hard to promote peaceful elections as scheduled are the same ones doing everything possible to trigger violence.

Those who should ordinarily be seen as elder statesmen have degenerated to dangerous partisans and shameless promoters of a narrow, parochial interest, at the expense of the national interest.

Who does not know that wherever President Goodluck Jonathans interest lies, therein you will find Chief Edwin Clark, whether or not it is in the national interest?

Who does not know that the anarchic call by Chief Clark and his cohorts are being made at the behest of a frenzied presidency?

It also pointed to a statement credited to the spokesperson for the ruling Peoples Democratic Party which it said was an indication that those working hard to scuttle the polls were not about to give up.

The APC dismissed claims by the ruling party that INEC was working hand in hand with it to disenfranchise supporters of the PDP by making sure they do not get Permanent Voter Cards without a shred of evidence beyond sheer emotions.

See the original post:
Evil advocates behind poll shift APC

February 6, 2015 by Kayode Idowu, Maiduguri 30 Comments

The All Progressives Congress in Yobe State said on Friday it received into its fold an estimated 26,000 members of the Peoples Democratic Party in the state.

The Speaker of the Yobe State House of Assembly, Alhaji Adamu Dogo, who is the Chairman of the Contact, Mobilisation and Reconciliation Committee of the Yobe APC, said these number cut across seven of the 17 local government areas of the state.

He said the defectors were from Damaturu, Tarmuwa, Yunusari, Nangere. Gulani, Geidam and Bursari local government areas.

Dogo added that in all the local government areas, all the chairmen and the local government executive members among others, denounced membership of the PDP and had thrown their weight behind the APC in the search for a better and purposeful leadership.

He promised the defectors that APC would carry them along in its programmes, saying they would never regret leaving the PDP.

Dogo said, I am happy you now realise and denounce membership of the PDP by shifting your loyalty to the APC. Let me assure you that you will never regret joining the APC because the party will carry all of you along in its programmes and you will be treated just like any other old member of the party.

The former PDP chairman of Damaturu Local Government, Alhaji Ibrahim Talio, who spoke on behalf of the defectors, said they left the PDP because of serious injustice they suffered over the years and expressed optimism that APC will surely be better.

He praised the progress recorded so far by the APC government in the state, expressing the hope that similar transformation would be recorded at the national level when the APC clinches power at the centre.

The seven defected party chairmen and some selected former PDP executive members attended the ceremony held in Damaturu, the state capital.

Go here to read the rest:
Seven Yobe PDP leaders, supporters defect to APC

The All Progressives Congress governorship candidate in Delta State, Chief Otega Emerhor, has said he remains the candidate adopted by the Urhobo ethnic nationality for the February 28 governorship election.

In a statement on Friday, Emerhor said the Chief Tuesday Onoge-led leadership of the Urhobo Progress Union was the authentic leadership of the union.

The Onoge-led faction of UPU had last Sunday endorsed Emerhor after it broke off from the Joe Omene-led leadership of UPU that endorsed the Labour Party candidate, Chief Great Ogboru.

Emerhor said the truth about the Omenes groups endorsement of Ogboru was that they were working for the Peoples Democratic Party governorship candidate, Dr. Ifeanyi Okowa, an arrangement he said was worked out by President Goodluck Jonathan in Abuja.

The APC candidate further said Ogboru s alliance with the UPU and Omene was a well crafted political strategy to divide the Urhobo votes so as to enable Okowa of the PDP to win the governorship election.

He urged the people of Delta Central and Urhobo nation in general to support the APC so as to actualise the Urhobo dream of electing him (Emerhor) as the next governor of Delta State come February 28.

He warned that should Urhobos fail to dislodge the Ogboru-Omene political scheming, the Urhobo nation would be marginalised politically for another eight years.

He noted that the PDP government, which deliberately neglected the Urhobo and Delta Central in development, government appointments, both at the state and federal levels, was the same party Omene and Ogboru had aligned with to deprive Urhobos the opportunity of producing the next governor.

Emerhor said the APC was the only party that had the winning structure in Delta State with the capacity to defeat the PDP in the forth coming general elections, adding that the Labour Party had no presidential candidate with a weak structure that could not survive the test of time in this years general elections.

Read the original:
Urhobo union faction working for PDP -Emerhor