AS IF THE AFGHANI THEATRE IN THE UR-RAHOWA AGAINST INTERNATIONAL TERRORISM WASN'T RATHER DIFFICULT and trying already, along comes word of another rather bizarre cause which Afghanis are protesting for in the streets.

Witness the following Agence France-Presse item via Google News (hat tip to The MMF Hall of Humiliation):

Around 3,000 mostly young Afghan men marched through Kabul Sunday to demand the government lift a temporary ban on an international money-making scheme.

The protesters marched to the gates of the palace of President Hamid Karzai, where they read out a resolution demanding the government lift a temporary order on the Afghan version of the Internet-based QuestNet pyramid scheme.

The scheme, in which people encourage others to buy a product over the Internet to become a member, started in Afghanistan two years ago with 600 members and now has about 21,000, head of the Afghan Quest Union, Najmudin Fayaz, told reporters.

"We are here to ask for our rights," Fayaz said. "We have been active here for two years and have been given a licence for our business."

Kabul issued the scheme a licence two years ago but withdrew it last week, saying it needed to draw up an operating law, leaders of the demonstration said.

"If you cannot provide us jobs, don't take our jobs," read one of the banners held up by the demonstrators, many of whom wore Western dress.

"Fight corruption, drugs, and warlords--not IT and information technology," said another, referring to the scheme's use of the Internet.

One of the participants, Karim Wasal, said it had rescued him from poverty and helped "make my dreams come true."

Afghanistan is one of the poorest countries in the world after three decades of war.

There is high unemployment--although the government releases no figures--and the development of industry is held back by insecurity, including linked to an extremist insurgency, and the lack of basic infrastructure like electricity.

The QuestNet website (www.quest.net) says the scheme, also known as GoldQuest, was set up in 1998 and has a presence in 160 countries.

Critics say it is a scam in which few people make any money.

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AND TALK ABOUT YOUR "DIVERSIONARY" NEWS STORIES HAVING LITTLE OR NO REAL NEWS VALUE, yet which certain conservative elements enjoy pushing for no reasonable purpose save the distraction of Kankerdom from The Big Picture: Judging by the following item per Media Matters for America, it appears as if we may be seeing the makings of a cheap redux of that 2004 non-story about then-Democratic Presidential candidate John Kerry's asking for green tea during a campaign appearence with the Little Old Lady from Dubuque:

On the February 11 edition of CNN's The Situation Room, senior political correspondent Candy Crowley said that the "affluent, well-educated white voters" who were part of Sen. Barack "Obama's voting bloc" were the "so-called latte liberals." Similarly, during Fox News' coverage of February 9 caucuses and primaries, U.S. News & World Report senior writer Michael Barone suggested that Obama would do well among "latte liberals." Moments later, co-host Alan Colmes challenged Barone's description: "Is there--are there latte conservatives? I'm just curious. Do they--conservatives may like that drink, too. It's a very lovely drink." Barone responded: "Well, I think it seems to be a pretty universal drink these days."

Crowley's use of the term "latte liberals" recalls her reported 2004 suggestion that green tea is unfamiliar to "most of America." According to a November 16, 2004, Palm Beach Post article, Crowley gave a speech in which she said that in January 2003, she and Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) "met for breakfast at the Holiday Inn in Dubuque, Iowa. 'I'd like to start out with some green tea,' Kerry told the waitress, who stared at him for a moment before responding, 'We have Lipton's.' " The article reported that Crowley said: "There were many green tea instances ... There's a very large disconnect between the Washington politicians and most of America and how they live. Bush was able to bridge that gap, and Kerry was not." In fact, as Media Matters for America noted at the time, according to Lipton's product locator, green tea was available (and still is available in 2008) at the Dubuque, Iowa, Kmart.

Additionally, on the December 14, 2007, edition of The Situation Room, host Wolf Blitzer cited a December 12, 2007, Associated Press article, in which the presidential candidates answered questions about their coffee preferences, part of the AP's "series of questions about [the candidates'] personal side," and announced, "[L]ook at this--Hillary Clinton is a flip-flopper. Sometimes she takes it black, sometimes with cream." Yet, Blitzer had offered no characterization of either Rudy Giuliani's or Sen. John McCain's (R-AZ) coffee preferences, noting only "Giuliani prefers low-cal sweetener, any brand will do" and "McCain is fond of cappuccino, or coffee with cream and sugar."

During the October 19, 2006, edition of The Situation Room, Crowley asserted that Democrats have been "on the losing side of the values debate, the defense debate and, oh yes, the guns debate"; suggested that Democrats are out of touch with mainstream Americans because "[former Democratic presidential candidates] Al Gore and John Kerry lost every Southern state and most of the mid- and interior West"; and aired only negative opinions of the Democratic Party, such as an Asheville, North Carolina, resident who called the Democrats "losers."

Which begs the question of whether "real Americans" are expected to drink cheap, oily-tasting coffee (usually private-label store brands) as their beverage of choice. Straight, not "cut" with chicory, per the New Orleans stylee (as in Luzianne, CDM, Café du Monde and French Market; you can even buy roasted chicory to add to your own coffee supply, especially recommended for off-brand coffees known to have that G-d-awful bitter taste as may be the consequence of poor roasting and/or blending).

And speaking of coffee-and-chicory blend, you can buy it online if you can't quite find it @ your local supermarket or, for that matter, Wally World: