Posted on 25 August 2009 by trouble97018
Think Progress
By Zaid Jilani on Aug 24th, 2009 at 3:51 pm
With polls showing that the war in Afghanistan is becoming increasingly unpopular, members of Congress have begun to express skepticism about the administration’s strategy there. Military officials believe that Gen. Stanley McChrystal, the top US commander in Afghanistan, may ask for as many as 20,000 additional troops. ABC News reports today that Sen. Russ Feingold (D-WI) has called on President Obama to announce a timetable for withdrawal from Afghanistan:
Sen. Russ Feingold, D-WI, called on President Obama to announce a timetable for withdrawal of American troops from Afghanistan. “This is a strategy that is not likely to succeed,” Sen. Feingold said about the troop buildup in Afghanistan. [...]
“I think it is time we start discussing a flexible timetable so that people around the world can see when we are going to bring our troops out,” said Feingold. “Showing the people there and here that we have a sense about when it is time to leave is one of the best things we can do,” he added.
Source
Posted on 14 August 2009 by trouble97018
Salon
Friday, Aug. 14, 2009 12:01 EDT
When Mick Jagger sings the song “Dear Doctor,” he sort of fakes an American accent. After all, the song’s protagonist asks his doctor to cut out his heart, and only in the wild and wooly free healthcare market of the U.S. would any sawbones with an ounce of ethics consider such a thing. But hey, to Republicans, that’s probably a plus about the American system. Pay for what you want, right?
In fact, it’s lately been one of the GOP’s favorite touchstones in the healthcare debate. Republicans love to talk about lines for care in the U.K.’s stolid socialized system: Go on the government’s dime for medicine, and you’ll die waiting for that easy surgery! Source
Posted on 12 August 2009 by trouble97018
Salon
Heads should roll — beginning with Nancy Pelosi’s!
By Camille Paglia
Aug. 12, 2009 | Buyer’s remorse? Not me. At the North American summit in Guadalajara this week, President Obama resumed the role he is best at — representing the U.S. with dignity and authority abroad. This is why I, for one, voted for Obama and continue to support him. The damage done to U.S. prestige by the feckless, buffoonish George W. Bush will take years to repair. Obama has barely begun the crucial mission that he was elected to do.
Having said that, I must confess my dismay bordering on horror at the amateurism of the White House apparatus for domestic policy. When will heads start to roll? It’s rumored that the White House counsel may be booted, following Michelle Obama’s chief of staff, and I hope it’s a harbinger of things to come. Except for that wily fox, David Axelrod, who could charm gold threads out of moonbeams, Obama seems to be surrounded by juvenile tinhorns, bumbling mediocrities and crass bully boys. Source
Posted on 23 July 2009 by trouble97018
Huffington Post
Retired Seattle police chief, member of Law Enforcement Against Prohibition
Posted: July 22, 2009 11:24 PM
Nothing like a question from out of left field to elicit some bare-boned truths about policing, race, and stupidity.
President Obama in a televised news conference, billed as an attempt to shore up allied support and win converts for his health care plan, turned to Chicago Sun-Times Washington bureau chief Lynn Sweet for the final question of the evening. Did Ms. Sweet ask about universal health care? The ups and downs of a single-payer system? The heartburn of quaking Blue Dog Democrats over the cost of the Obama plan? Bill Kristol’s blinkered, ideological suggestion that Obama’s critics on the right sniff the blood and “Go for the Kill?” No. Source
Posted on 21 July 2009 by trouble97018
Huffington Post
TV-Radio Critic www.dcweasels.com
Posted: July 21, 2009 12:24 PM
Comedy Central wild man Lewis Black had his audience roaring on The Daily Show this week, mocking the far right’s renewed attacks on Canadian health care. It was indeed hilarious.
But some Canadian politicians, Canada’s press, and my Canadian friends are not amused by the tsunami of media effluent coming from GOP professional know-nothings — the predictable attacks, distortions, and outright lies about Canada’s popular, government-run health system.
It’s a helluva way to speak of the best neighbor our country could possibly hope to have. But do these self-proclaimed patriots of the pit-bull right care? Not likely, eh?
On his always-funny “Back in Black” segment this week, the volcanic comic joked that he was in favor of President Obama’s health-care plan until he heard “incredibly convincing arguments like these…”
The first clip was of ferret-faced Texas GOP Congressman Louie “Gomer” Gohmert, who drawled, Source
Posted on 20 July 2009 by trouble97018
Mon Jul 20, 2009 3:32pm EDT
By Arshad Mohammed and C. Bryson Hull
NEW DELHI (Reuters) – The United States and India said Monday they had agreed on a defense pact that takes a major step toward allowing the sale of sophisticated U.S. arms to the South Asian nation as it modernizes its military.
Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said Delhi had also approved two sites for U.S. companies to build nuclear power plants, offering American companies the first fruits of last year’s landmark U.S.-India civil nuclear cooperation pact. Source
Posted on 15 July 2009 by trouble97018
TPM Cafe
I’ve discovered this from hard experience.
If I go out to speak to Jews in college or in their 20’s and 30’s about Israel. I’ll get an enthusiastic response. But if the event is dominated by seniors — as most Jewish events are — I’m in big trouble.
Young Jews are either dovish on Israel or, most commonly, not interested in Israel at all (that latter group tends not to show up). But Jews in the 65-100 year old range skew heavily to the right. When I spoke in Rhode Island recently, I think I would have been murdered by rampaging (and racist) seniors if Lincoln Chafee had not been there to offer me ex-senatorial protection.
Why are young Jews so dovish on Israel (or indifferent)? Simple, they do not buy into the ethnic solidarity thing that the WW2 generation adheres to. They are friends with all kinds of people. They are not ethnic chauvinists or racists. They like the nice things about being Jewish (the culture, faith, food, the good parts of Israel) but do not buy into the paranoid “the whole world hates us” shtik. They are Americans. They aren’t scared. And, with rare exceptions, they would not go near the mainstream Jewish organizations with a mile long pole. Source Article
Posted on 13 July 2009 by trouble97018
Chris McGreal in Washington
guardian.co.uk, Monday 13 July 2009 18.52 BST
• Ex-CIA officials say foreign leaders were also in dark
• Investigation demanded into post-9/11 strategy
Dick Cheney, the former vice president, ordered a highly classified CIA operation hidden from Congress because it pushed the limits of legality by planning to assassinate al-Qaida operatives in friendly countries without the knowledge of their governments, according to former intelligence officials.
Former counter-terrorism officials who retain close links to the intelligence community say that the hidden operation involved plans by the CIA and the military to launch operations, similar to those by Israel’s Mossad intelligence service, to hunt down and kill al-Qaida activists abroad without informing the governments concerned, even though some were regarded as friendly if unreliable. Source
Posted on 10 July 2009 by trouble97018
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, July 9, 2009
President Obama will abandon a controversial immigration crackdown, sought by his predecessor, to pressure U.S. companies to fire 9 million workers with suspect Social Security numbers, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano announced yesterday.
Instead, Obama will mandate that federal contractors confirm the identities of 4 million workers against federal databases beginning in September, pushing ahead under pressure from Senate Republicans with another long-stalled Bush administration initiative. Source Article
Posted on 07 July 2009 by trouble97018
Mon Jul 6, 2009 9:05pm EDT
By Jeff Mason
MOSCOW (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama meets Russia’s most powerful politician, Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, for the first time on Tuesday as part of a trip designed to improve relations between the world’s top nuclear powers.
Obama’s meeting with the former KGB spy follows talks on Monday with Russian President Dmitry Medvedev that produced agreements on a target for cuts in nuclear arms and a deal to let U.S. troops fly across Russia to fight in Afghanistan. Source Article
