The spoils of victory.

Since Obama became president in 2009 the Republicans were determined not to cooperate with him. During Obama's speech to a joint session of the Congress on 9 September 2009 a Republican Congressman, Addison Graves " Joe " Wilson shouted " you lie " twice when Obama said that healthcare would not cover illegal immigrants. Subsequent fact checking revealed that Wilson was wrong. The Republican hatred gave rise to the Tea Party with whose help they won the House in 2010 and, under Speaker John Boehner, refused to raise the debt ceiling in 2011 just to try and humiliate Obama. Eventually the debt ceiling was raised with an agreement that $600 billion worth of tax rises and spending cuts would kick in if there was no deal on fiscal reform. Their tactics of obstructionism backfired to give Obama a second victory in last month's elections. Now Obama is demanding tax rises on people earning more than $400,000 per year but the 51 members who belong to the Tea Party caucus are refusing tax rises on anyone. So Boehner came up with plan B which would allow tax rises on people earning more than $1 million per year but was humiliated by the caucus into withdrawing the bill. Boehner may be thrown out as Speaker and if $600 billion are suddenly withdrawn from the economy the US may go into a recession. In Egypt President Muhamed Morsi forced through a referendum on a hastily written constitution which he won with 64% of votes cast. However, only about 35% of people voted which means that only around 18% of people supported the constitution. Liberals and religious minorities are opposed to the constitution because it is based on the Sharia but that will not stop Morsi and the Muslim Brotherhood from hailing a great victory and going ahead with parliamentary elections in 2 months time. If they win that, which is not guaranteed, they will have total power over Egypt but that is when their troubles will start. Muslim hardliners, like the Salafis, will demand  complete Sharia law like in Saudi Arabia and will protest violently if refused. In May 2011 Salafis attacked 3 Coptic Christian churches in the Imbaba neighborhood of Cairo killing 15 people and injuring 232 others. On 7 August, 2012  militants attacked a Border guard post as they were sitting down to break their Ramadan fast killing 16 guards. They stole 2 security vehicles and drove through the Israeli border fence. One vehicle exploded and the other one was blown up by the Israelis killing 7 militants. In the 1980s Zia ul-Haq increased the number of Madrassas in Pakistan from 893 to 2801, supplied arms to Khalistani militants and actively helped terrorists to fight the Soviets in Afghanistan. Today the Khalistanis have gone but thousands of Pakistanis are being killed by terrorists. Our fascist government wins by beating us up. It should remember what happened to Mussolini. The spoils of victory maybe poisoned.