MY PREDICTION—OBAMA WINS REELECTION TOMORROW WITH 320 ELECTORAL VOTES

I hear reporters on NBC, CBS, BBC World News, Al Jazeera, and France 24 talk about the election as a virtual tie.

I disagree.  President Barach Obama is going to win almost every state.  Mitt Romney is going down to defeat.

American presidential elections are decided on the number of electoral votes, with 270 needed to win.  Each state is assigned so many electoral votes, based on population.  Illinois, for example, has 20 electoral votes.  If Obama wins in Illinois, he garners all of the state's 20 electoral votes.

From what I see in state-by-state polls, I predict Pres. Barach Obama will win with 320 electoral votes.

OBAMA SHOWS TILT TOWARDS ISRAEL IN PEACE NEGOTIATIONS

I thought the U.S. government under Pres. Barack Obama would take a fair approach to solving the Middle East crisis. Instead the Palestine Papers published by Al Jazeera and The Guardian show that Obama's policy has been one of pressuring the Palestinians to make concessions, and, at the same time, no corresponding pressure on Israel and the Israeli government to make concessions in return, especially about settlements and the right of return of Palestinians to come back to their ancestral homeland.

FREE AL JAZEERA JOURNALIST LOCKED UP IN GUANTANAMO

On the Media had a segment today on Sami Al Hajj, the Sudanese cameraman working for Al Jazeera, who was taken captive in Pakistan in 2001, and who has been locked up in Guantanamo pretty much ever since.



Al Hajj's story is mind-blowing. He is a 39-year old cameraman who the U.S. accuses of being a terrorist, but who has never seen the charges, and who has never been brought up on formal charges. I thought this was anathema to American law and constitution, that someone could be locked up with no prospect of release and no prospect of receiving a speedy trial. The Sixth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution provides:


"In all criminal prosecutions, the accused shall enjoy the right to a speedy and public trial, by an impartial jury of the state and district wherein the crime shall have been committed, . . . and to be informed of the nature and cause of the accusation; to be confronted with the witnesses against him; to have compulsory process for obtaining witnesses in his favor, and to have the assistance of counsel for his defense."

Al Jazeera has a web site devoted to Al Hajj's release. His continued detention without trial puts a stain on the U.S. and its government and military. Al Hajj should be charged or forthwith released. But the U.S. should not keep him or the other 400 prisoners locked away to rot in Guantanamo without due process.