Tue, 22 Jul 2008 18:00:05 -0400
Just got home, just turned on...ugh, Rush Limbaugh is up... ugh ugh...
Oh there he is!!! On a four way panel, split screen. Nice indigo blue tie, white shirt dark jacket.
Uh Oh, it's an Obama World Tour question they are asking... what will Wes say? I wanted to hear about the capture of Karadzic!
The whole first part was about Obama's trip to
Iraq and whether or not Obama has to take
Petreas's advice. Of course Wes said that
if Obama is the CinC (and everybody seemed to
assume that he would be), he is free to do
what he feels is best in looking at the big
picture, that the Pres is the commander in Chief.
the corporate cable teevee so-called news shows are. I can't believe they didn't discuss Karadzic's capture with our General. How crazy is that? :/
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
because today, he was interviewed on PBS and BBC news about Karadzic ... And on BBC news, he mentions how he is a foreign policy advisor to Sen. Obama...
I think PBS, BBC, and CNN are the only news broadcast that will inform us "well" about other countries. I know my dad depended on PBS and BBC when he was here. The other channels he would say, "Forrrget abouuut it."
Guess who else was at Bilderberg?
Richard Holbrooke.
http://securingamerica.com/ccn/node/16130#comment-316840
OK. That's all. Nothin' to see here!
:X
Reason to vote for McCain IMO. The interests of these power brokers and the American public have nothing in common.
Nobody reaches the level of their party's nominee without powerful sponsorship. The powers that be are comfortable with either of these candidates playing their game, but the deck does seem noticably stacked in one direction this time.
Ralph Nader was right.
on the Arrest of War Crimes Fugitive Radovan Karadzic
July 21, 2008
Washington, DC – Chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee Joseph R. Biden, Jr. (D-DE) issued the following statement regarding the arrest of war crimes fugitive Radovan Karadzic:
“I hope that Radovan Karadzic’s arrest - and the prosecution that must follow - will mark a turning point in the struggle to bring peace and reconciliation to the people of the Balkans. Troops acting on Karadzic’s orders carried out some of the most depraved actions perpetrated in Europe since the Holocaust. His capture cannot bring back the thousands of unarmed men and boys slaughtered at Srebrenica or erase the suffering inflicted during siege of Sarajevo. But it will bring the war’s guilty one step closer to justice, and help set Serbia on a path toward a prosperous future as part of the Euro-Atlantic community. With Karadzic captured, the failure to arrest war crimes fugitive Ratko Mladic is now the only thing standing between Serbia and the full respect of the international community. I hope that a similar announcement regarding Mladic will soon follow.”
http://biden.senate.gov/press/press_releases/release/?id=1407de7c-2c79-4e82-84c7-42ca5c54c036
For what its worth I was in Amman on Tuesday when Obama dropped by. I happened to catch a report of his visit on BBC World before going out to dinner, it was my last night in Amman. Dinner was with two friends from another blog (the next tab over -->) and both ladies are involved and informed (and Jordanian) but neither had heard a word about his visit until I mentioned it. It was in the Amman newspapers Wednesday morning before I left.
Barry
Are you safer today than you were seven years ago?©
And utterly predictable.
Oh well.
Not like capturing criminals holds any kind of priority slating around here anymore.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BWQ5ZMnz25I&eurl
Sign the Petition if you haven't already.
SEND ROVE TO JAIL.
A petition everyone should sign!! Thanks ms in la!
http://sendkarlrovetojail.com/
Once in a while you get shown the light, In the strangest of places if you look at it right.
a Rover for Fitzmas... :)
Send him to Jail.
Somebody needs to get this card out of his wallet, and then burn it!
.....to Fowler and Germond's letter....
So, here's the thing: Aside from ignoring basic human psychology, which means that the belligerent tone of this letter (time to act in a mature fashion?!) will likely only make the "Democratic Friends" whom it's addressing more entrenched in their belief that the Democratic Party doesn't give a fat flying f(*)rt about them aside from their votes, it also ignores three other rather important details.
1. Obama has alienated plenty of his own primary supporters since securing the nomination. I personally know several people who voted for him in the primary who now regret that vote and are considering not voting for him in the general, either because of his FISA vote or his tack right on reproductive rights, or both. That has f(*)ck-all to do with Hillary Clinton, and f(*)ck-all to do with Clinton supporters—except insofar as it underlines that there are legitimate ("mature") reasons to find disagreement with Obama.
[...]
3. Everyone's vote is their own to do with what they will. No one reflexively owes the Democrats anything—they are supposed to earn people's votes, and would do well to remember that instead of acting like just not being as bad as the GOP is sufficient, especially when just not being as bad as the GOP still means being actively hostile to progressive issues. Some people just aren't willing to cast an affirmative vote for a party who's doing damage, just because it's less damage than the other guys.
The fact is, for a lot of people, the last 8 years have made them more resolved to vote their principles, rather than compromising them to try to prevent the worst from happening, because we've seen the Democrats act as spineless enablers as or more frequently than as a vibrant and principled opposition. That effectively makes lots of progressive Democratic voters feel like tacit supporters of policies they despise—and if compromising one's ethics buys the same result as not, why compromise? Increasingly, there is no good answer to that question.
The Democrats have no one to blame for that but themselves.
[...]
I can't imagine who thought a condescending demand for fealty accompanied by the promise of nothing in return would be a good idea.
Someone check that letter for Bob Shrum's fingerprints.
Why have Obama and the New Democratic Party chose to rehabilitate the Republican Party at a time when it and conservatism has proven to be such a failure? Answer: "Because that's where the money is."
Dan Abrams has a lot of nerve asking Wes about his "flubs".... Wes handled it beautifully but you could see he was done with that subject and not wanting to go there yet again. I guess I missed the meat of the interview earlier.
Anybody catch it?
General Clark looked very relaxed on the set with Dan Abrams. More relaxed than in many recent appearances it appeared. He is free!
The main topic was Obama in Iran vs. McCain's campaign here and what a commander in chief should do with briefings from generals on the ground. General Clark pointed out that the commander in chief is the commander in chief, that he should listen but also not get told what needs to be done because the commander in chief looks at the whole picture. Somehow the way the conversation went, the concept that Obama is not the commander in chief went missing.....
your last line!
I don't know why they even bother with these pseudo elections anymore... save the money. Give everyone a day off to mourn the loss of our vote... and call it a day. Diebold could go back to manufacturing ATM's, corrupt secretaries of state could do business in the light of day, we wouldn't be banging our heads all night watching flipping votes and flipping polls at the witching hour... or having to wake up the next day to listen to news bunnies' ridiculous incredulous accounts of what mysterious things happened over night and outlandish explanations for it.
Save us all a lot of grief.
Just call them off.
Oh I know, we all love the big victory speeches. I gotta feeling we're going to get lots of those anyways. At numerous historic and grand locales.
I'm just going to vote absentee and mail it directly to the Bilderberg Steering Committee. Cut out the middle men. :/
once they have selected their roster of candidates, they could have us half-vote (all of the half people could deposit their half-votes). This would ratify their good choices and then it could be called a democratic process.
Speaking of costs, after the recent "retirement" of congressman Baker in Louisiana (to join a lobbying firm- I thought there were rulz against that!), we had a primary, then a runoff on the democratic side, and then the real election. But since the term ends in November, we will go through possibly the same three steps again, in less than a year! Yes, this voting thing is too expensive and unnecessary. Let's just give the funds in the form of bread and water to the masses.
While I'm no fan of Bush, he's still the President and CIC and Obama is only the presumptive nominee. Here is what David Gergen said on AC360 about Obama thinking he's in charge:
"...Barack Obama made the first mistake of his trip, in my judgment, in releasing a statement in which he said exactly what Maliki had said in those conversations.
We have a long tradition in this country that we only have one president at a time. He's the commander in chief and the negotiator in chief. I cannot remember a campaign which a rival seeking the presidency has been in a position negotiating a war that's under way with another party outside the country.
I think he leaves himself open to the charge tonight that he's meddling, that this is not his role, that he can be the critic, but he's not the negotiator. We have a president who does that. So, I think the underlying facts support him, but I think it would be a real mistake -- and I think it was a mistake -- to get into these conversations and let it be used politically."
Even Gloria Borger (a huge Obama fan) got in on the act by saying "I do agree with David. And Candy, in her earlier piece, talked about walking the fine line between being this candidate and being presumptuous. And I think that he may just have crossed that, because, you know, it is a tradition. You don't talk about these private conversations.
And it's not up to Barack Obama right now to negotiate troop withdrawals. It's up to Barack Obama to be on a fact-finding mission, which is indeed what he has said he was on."
Looks like Obama thinks he's already CIC. What arrogance!
Been playing around a lot with a new soundcard and headphones that I got for my computer...getting some very nice sound now even with YouTube music postings.
(sound card is a Bluegears b-Enspirer)
Fair amount of crap from amateurs on YouTube, but some gems out there too. I really like the sound and riffs this guy plays:
http://youtube.com/watch?v=eFMIHpPE93g
Even motivating me to get back in practice with my 105 year old double bass.
Thanks for that easy segue Defoliate! Afraid a little spousal pimping is in order....
Any Clarkies on iTunes can go download my hubby's songs from the soundtrack of the new movie "ROCKER" today --which premieres next month. Amazon will have the soundtrack in a week I think.
It's the tale of an 80's rock Hair Band ("Vesuvius") who kick out their drummer in a Pete Best kind of fashion, when the record label insists that, in order to sign them, they need to take on a new drummer. The film tracks the drummer's life after the band becomes huge and ... well, no spoilers- go see it when it comes out. It's a very funny romp of a film directed by the guy who did The Full Monty. Lots o laffs.
The 2 songs my husband sings are "Promised Land" and "Pompeii Nights".
Warning if you go listen: Prepare your ears for 80's metal. :) This is nothing like his other stuff....
Defoliate - that is beautiful, your YouTube link!! Love it!
Heads up... A major hit piece on the General in yesterday's Rocky Mountain News. The whole nine yards. Really bad. Looks like it may be on the Opinion page "Speak Out".
I don't want to link to it from here, but the writer's name is Paul C. Nikitovich-- and he's a first class idiot. Article was obviously fact checked by a confused blind sub-primate...
Obama Travel Press Corps Pushes for On-the-record Briefings
By Lynn Sweet (Chgo Sun-Times) July 22, 2008 7:19 PM
JERUSALEM - Aboard the Obama campaign plane flying from Jordan to Israel Tuesday night, reporters collectively balked when Obama staffers wanted to brief a second time in one day without having their names used. The reporters refused, and so there was no briefing. The upshot of sticking together: when Obama foreign policy advisor Susan Rice briefs on Wednesday morning, it will be on the record.
http://blogs.suntimes.com/sweet/2008/07/obama-travel-press-corps-pushe.html
...Obama staffers wanted to brief a second time in one day without having their names used.
What is that? OTR WORM? lolol!!!
xxxcensored commentxxx
Where's Defoliate when you need him??
WASHINGTON, July 22 (UPI) -- U.S. Rep. Bill Delahunt, D-Mass., said he wants to explore with former Iraqi officials options regarding the security deal between Iraq and the United States.
Delahunt said in a press release the House Foreign Affairs Oversight Subcommittee will meet with former Iraqi Prime Minister Iyad Allawi to discuss alternatives to the U.S.-Iraq agreement set to replace the U.N. mandate for Iraq, which expires at year's end.
"The purpose of the hearing is to review the options in the event that there is no agreement," Delahunt said.
Delahunt suggested U.S. and Iraqi officials had considered extending the U.N. mandate, should a formal agreement fail to move forward.
"I am pleased to have Dr. Iyad Allawi, the former prime minister of Iraq, join us to provide his assessment of these options," he said.
http://www.metimes.com/Security/2008/07/22/us_lawmaker_wants_un_extension_on_iraq/62cb/
"...we must never forget, especially when discussing the U.S. empire, that one man's waste is another man's fabulously enriching government contract."
Long, but very interesting article.
......To distinguish his policy from that of his rival for the White House, Obama declared: "Unlike Senator McCain, I would make it absolutely clear that we seek no presence in Iraq similar to our permanent bases in South Korea." But it doesn't require rocket science to know that keeping "residual" forces requires heavily fortified areas, installations and a state of readiness to go to war. Unless Obama has discovered something new, such areas are known as military bases. So it is the word "permanent" that separates the two, as McCain may want to stay "100 years" in Iraq. The comparison with South Korea is not heartening, considering massive US bases have been in that country for over half a century.
Obama has even pre-empted a possible line of attack from hawks by chillingly suggesting he would possibly invade Iraq again if necessary. His website states: "He would reserve the right to intervene militarily, with our international partners, to suppress potential genocidal violence within Iraq." The word potential is worth pausing over; it is salutary to remember Bush and Blair occupied Iraq and caused the death of perhaps hundreds of thousands of innocent people for "humanitarian" reasons.
Neither is Obama opposed to signing a military treaty with Iraq. He has two conditions to make Bush's current attempts to impose a pact acceptable: the pact should get Congressional approval, and renounce "permanent" military bases. However, leaked drafts of this colonialist-style pact do not mention the word "permanent" at all. And his "benchmarks" for continued support for the corrupt Iraqi politicians protected by US forces in Baghdad's Green Zone are strikingly similar to those of the Bush administration.
Tactical differences and issues of style aside, Obama's message on occupied Iraq is deeply troubling - not because it has U-turned but because it has been consistent. His 300 foreign policy advisers are making sure that he will not stray from protecting US imperialist interests, even if it does mean launching new wars and bolstering puppet regimes and corrupt dictatorships throughout the "greater Middle East".
Why have Obama and the New Democratic Party chose to rehabilitate the Republican Party at a time when it and conservatism has proven to be such a failure? Answer: "Because that's where the money is."
