Obama Plans to End Iraq Combat Missions by August 2010

More at NYTimes.com: “CAMP LEJEUNE, N.C. — President Obama declared Friday that the United States has now “begun the work of ending this war” in Iraq as he announced the withdrawal of most American forces by the summer of next year while leaving behind as many as 50,000 troops for more limited missions.”

Murray Waas Exclusive: Dick Cheney’s admissions to the CIA leak prosecutor and FBI

More at Murray Waas: “Vice President Dick Cheney, according to a still-highly confidential FBI report, admitted to federal investigators that he rewrote talking points for the press in July 2003 that made it much more likely that the role of then-covert CIA-officer Valerie Plame in sending her husband on a CIA-sponsored mission to Africa would come to light.

Cheney conceded during his interview with federal investigators that in drawing attention to Plame’s role in arranging her husband’s Africa trip reporters might also unmask her role as CIA officer.

Cheney denied to the investigators, however, that he had done anything on purpose that would lead to the outing of Plame as a covert CIA operative. But the investigators came away from their interview with Cheney believing that he had not given them a plausible explanation as to how he could focus attention on Plame’s role in arranging her husband’s trip without her CIA status also possibly publicly exposed. At the time, Plame was a covert CIA officer involved in preventing Iran from obtaining weapons of mass destruction, and Cheney’s office played a central role in exposing her and nullifying much of her work.”

-- The picture that is developing is one of a person - VP Richard Cheney - who was running a "shadow government" in the Bush Administration. Just what laws were broken is not clear at this point, but the pure smell of secrecy and lies is evident. The whole matter of how we got into Iraq is an open book for legal analysis.

Code Pink activists march in Berkeley to support Iraq shoe-throwing - Inside Bay Area

Iraq shoe-throwing supporters unite Worldwide - Inside Bay Area: “Anti-war activists from the group Code Pink marched at a Marine recruiting station in Berkeley this morning to show solidarity with an Iraqi journalist who threw his shoes at President Bush on Sunday.
Members of the group and others marched around the recruiting station holding shoes in the air to show support for Iraqi journalist Muntadhar al-Zeidi, who hurled two shoes at Bush during a news conference in Baghdad.
In many Arab countries, showing the sole of one's shoes, much less throwing shoes at another person, is considered a sign of extreme disrespect.”

-- I wonder if this will become a new cultural movement beyond Iraq?

Iraqi reporter throws shoes at Bush, calls him dog TPM: News Pages | Talking Points Memo |

TPM: News Pages | Talking Points Memo | Iraqi reporter throws shoes at Bush, calls him dog: “BAGHDAD, Dec 14 (Reuters) - An Iraqi reporter called visiting U.S. President George W. Bush a "dog" in Arabic on Sunday and threw his shoes at him during a news conference in Baghdad.

Iraqi security officers and U.S. secret service agents leapt at the man and dragged him struggling and screaming out of the room where Bush was giving a news conference with Iraqi Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki.

The shoes missed their target about 15 feet (4.5 metres) away. One sailed over Bush's head as he stood next to Maliki and smacked into the wall behind him. Bush smiled uncomfortably and Maliki looked strained.

"It doesn't bother me," Bush said, urging everyone to calm down as a ruckus broke out in the conference room.

When asked about the incident shortly after, Bush made light of it. "I didn't feel the least threatened by it," he said.”

Iraq Report Spotlights Iraq Rebuilding Blunders - NYTimes.com

Huff Post: Report Spotlights Iraq Rebuilding Blunders - NYTimes.com: “BAGHDAD — An unpublished 513-page federal history of the American-led reconstruction of Iraq depicts an effort crippled before the invasion by Pentagon planners who were hostile to the idea of rebuilding a foreign country, and then molded into a $100 billion failure by bureaucratic turf wars, spiraling violence and ignorance of the basic elements of Iraqi society and infrastructure.

The history, the first official account of its kind, is circulating in draft form here and in Washington among a tight circle of technical reviewers, policy experts and senior officials. It also concludes that when the reconstruction began to lag — particularly in the critical area of rebuilding the Iraqi police and army — the Pentagon simply put out inflated measures of progress to cover up the failures.

In one passage, for example, former Secretary of State Colin L. Powell is quoted as saying that in the months after the 2003 invasion, the Defense Department “kept inventing numbers of Iraqi security forces — the number would jump 20,000 a week! ‘We now have 80,000, we now have 100,000, we now have 120,000.’ "

--- That waste can be used to help the American Economy!

Charles Krauthhammer Wrong On Obama Again. Forgot About Iraq War

In his latest column, conservative columnist Charles Krauthhammer writes that Senator Barack Obama's rise was not based on any policy position but on this...

Obama's meteoric rise was based not on issues -- there was not a dime's worth of difference between him and Hillary on issues -- but on narrative, on eloquence, on charisma.

Charles, I'm chuckling.  You forgot that the many issue Barack Obama gained notice for was his opposition to the war in Iraq.   If you need a reminder, here's a 2002 interview on the war on Iraq:





In fact, Obama, who was then in the Illinois Legislature, showed a great grasp of the issues surrounding the Iraq War at that time.

Senator Barack Obama Gets Ovation From Troops At U.S Embassy In Baghdad

Take a look at this video because you're not likely to see this kind of ovation for President Bush. Senator Barack Obama visited our troops at the U.S. Embassy in Baghdad and got a warm welcome. He then took time to thank them for their service.

Tom Hayden Questions Obama's Afghanistan Plan As He Sees It

In The Nation, Tom Hayden questions Senator Barack Obama's strategy -- or as he understands it -- to shift troops from Iraq to Afghanistan.

Hayden's point is that the country is so unstable that we may be going from the frying pay to the fire. I agree.

But I don't think that Obama's plan is to recreate our Bush-style Iraq situation in Afghanistan.

At any rate, it's worth checking out.

US Soldier throws puppy off cliff (video) - Barack Get Us Out Of Iraq!

US Soldier throws puppy off cliff - Watch more free videos

This is causing a lot of outrage around the Internet and for good reason. This solidier -- on video -- threw a puppy off a cliff. It makes one wonder what kind of people the military recruit! It's also a good reason to bring the troups home. This is what our tax money is paying for!? Ok Barack Obama: get us out!

Want to see how people feel? Check out Digg.

They said his name and showed his face. He and his buddy ought to get arrested by the military police and have the book thrown at them.

read more | digg story

CNN/YouTube Debates - Godzilla and Terrorism

The title of this question is dramatic, but give a listen and look and you'll understand. Also visit http://www.communitycounts.us and vote for this question when it appears.

Thanks!

New York Times Editorial Calls For U.S. To Get Out Of Iraq

I just read this path-breaking editorial in today's New York Times which calls for the U.S. to get out of Iraq and lays out a time table in a sub section called "The Mechanics Of Withdrawl.

President Bush should feel the walls closing in around him. Yes, he's a lame-duck president, but one would think that he'd not use this "I can do what I want" status to, well, do what he wants to do and the public be damned.

But that certainly is the way he's behaving.

Look, policy by mob rule is more often than not a good thing, but in this case, it is a good thing. People are plain tired of hearing about -- or in some cases, seeing -- Americans killed in Iraq. It's time to leave.

According to "Alive In Baghdad", Biggest Problems Are Security, Water, and Electricity

For Senator John McCain to even claim that Iraq's safe is more than stretching the truth; it's distorting it. According to the blog for the video show Alive In Baghdad, conditions there are worse than unliveable. The blog reports:

"Now in Baghdad there are more problems then getting killed or kidnapped and one of those most important problems is the water and the electricity. The Iraqi people are tired of getting those promises from their government about fixing the electricity every month and official man comes on Al-Iraqiyah satellite channel and give a statement about fixing the power problem forever and everything is still the same, nothing has changed. ,"

On top of that, people who have nothing to do with politics are getting killed every day. For nothing. I can't understand why we're over there. It's not getting any better at all.

Cindy Sheehan Should Read "The Irony of Democracy"

I just got an email from a friend and about Cindy Sheehan -- the anti-war activist who's campaign was launched by the death of her son Casey in the Iraq War -- wrote a diary in the Daily Kos called "Good Riddance Attention Whore" and which outlines her displeasure with not just Republicans who are for the war, but Democrats who've also voted in such a way as to keep the effort going, and states that she's giving up her protest.

Cindy writes...

"I have come to some heartbreaking conclusions this Memorial Day Morning. These are not spur of the moment reflections, but things I have been meditating on for about a year now. The conclusions that I have slowly and very reluctantly come to are very heartbreaking to me.

The first conclusion is that I was the darling of the so-called left as long as I limited my protests to George Bush and the Republican Party. Of course, I was slandered and libeled by the right as a "tool" of the Democratic Party. This label was to marginalize me and my message. How could a woman have an original thought, or be working outside of our "two-party" system?

However, when I started to hold the Democratic Party to the same standards that I held the Republican Party, support for my cause started to erode and the "left" started labeling me with the same slurs that the right used. I guess no one paid attention to me when I said that the issue of peace and people dying for no reason is not a matter of "right or left", but "right and wrong."

Apparently Cindy never read "The Irony Of Democracy." This class book by Thomas Dye and L. Harmon Ziglar was introduced to me while I was a freshman at The University of Texas at Arlington. The basic premise of the Dye / Ziglar book is that America's ran by elitists and elite networks. These associations are formed in various ways mostly college-based, and solidify more for those who step into the poltical arena. These groupings are more powerful than parties, which explains how some Democrats could side with Republicans in voting for funding for The Iraq War.

"Elites are the few who have power, the masses are the many who do not" says Dye and Ziglar. And if you think about it, they're totally correct. We put a small set of people in office to make laws for us, so it should come as no surprise that that small gathering of people as its own outcome which at times runs counter to pure democracy.

What bothers me is that many people just don't get how our society is becoming even more divided in this way with the growth of the Internet. The Digital Divide is still a large problem, and it becomes more wide-spread with every new Web 2.0 application. There are many, including supposedly smart marketing people, who can't even define the term Web 2.0 I'm serious.

A recent survey (also reported in Marketing News) by Market Tools, reported that nearly 80% of marketers have no clue what Web 2.0 is.

I increasingly find that many supposedly well-educated Americans have no idea of the power of the Internet let alone how it can positively and negatively impact their lives and business objectives. Thus, they're rendered as much a part of the masses as anyone, and leave a growing set of aspects of society foreign to them, even as they don't know what they're missing. It's tragic. Plus, it's creating a whole class of Internet Elites -- the more things change, the more they remain the same.

So Cindy, and anyone in the American Marketing Association, read The Irony Of Democracy, before it's too late!

Video - Barack Obama Slams Romney And McCain For Lying About His Support Of The War On Terrorism

In this video, Presidential Candidate Senator Barack Obama -- addressing the Coalition of Black Trade Unionists at their annual convention in Chicago -- wasted no time in firing back against Republican Presidential Candidates Mit Romney and John McCain for their claim that Senator Obama's against the troops and the War on Terror because he voted against the Iraq spending bill, which passed earlier this week.

Here's the video:

Du'a Khalil Aswad Killed For Converting To Islam to Marry Muslim - Video Report

This is one of the most terrible acts of violence and examples of a person's inhumanity toward another person I've ever seen in my life. Du'a Khalil Aswad is a 17-year old woman stoned to death by a crowd of Iraqi men just for and only for converting to Islam to marry a Muslim boy. The video - which shows the crowd of men -- is below.

Ron Paul Wins Poll Again - Takes Fox Poll After Debate

Rep. Ron Paul has done it again, confounding and even angering the conservative pundits who've focused on Rudy Giuliani and other front runners in the race for the Republican Presidential nomination.

Ron Paul made a statement that the U.S involvement in the Mid East was the reason for 9-11. Even though it's controversial, it's true.

Senator John McCain Has Lost His Mind - Will Tell America Iraq War Is Winnable

Just a few short days after being challenged by a CNN reporter, when he stated that Irag was essentially safe to be in, Senator John McCain R-Arizona is going on a campaign to tell Americans we can win the Iraq War.

Wow.

Fox News' Britt Hume called this "courageous" but I call it foolish. It's obvious McCain has given up any idea of winning the Presidency of the United States -- not that this bothers me -- and elected to commit political suicide. McCain just appeared on 60 Minutes, and according to Marc Cooper , gave a good example of how much heavy artlery Americans really need to walk around. In other words, he looked foolish. But that's not enough for him, he's so busy trying to win a conservative base that's not even worth the bother, he's about to make his foot the best meal's he's had in weeks.

Does he really think people are going to be swayed by this video?



I guess he likes bad press, because he's getting some on the blogs, and with this new "sic" initiative, I can't see how he's going to be able to crawl out of the doghouse he's made for himself. Just check Technorati to see where people stand on ths matter.

At the end of this process, he'll shoule have wrecked his Presidential bid and the Republican Party, too. How is anyone supposed to believe him when he just came off a massive political blunder as the one regarding the safeft of Iraq?

They'r

Apply Iraq War Expenses To Heath Care Here

I'm watching the "New Leadership Health Care 2008 Presidential Forum" in Las Vegas. Senator Obama just made his presentation and did very well. Now Senator Clinton is speaking and it's obvious that this is where her heart is. But the matter of how we should pay for a new health care system has not been adressed in a way that avoids taxes or at least is less likely to cause an increase in taxes.

I have a suggestion for Senator Obama, because he opposes the War In Iraq. Because Senator Clinton does support the war, this idea does not apply to her.

Currenly, the War On Iraq costs $411 billion. That's a half trillion dollars and the cost is going up each second. According to the National Priorities Project, we could have insured 246 million kids for one year. Now, get this, we don't have that many kids in America. So one could argue that we could insure kids for up to three years!

The Senator needs to make this link between what we need to pay for heath care and what we spend on the War on Iraq.

Hillary Clinton Voted Twice For The Iraq War - Technorati WTF

I just saw this great post which states:

While the media covers the news on Hillary Clinton as to why she voted to support for the war in Iraq from the beginning, they are forgetting that in June of 2006 she also voted to ''stay the course'' along with 42 other Democrats-much to my displeasure. While the 42 votes that day would not have been enough to beat the Republicans in order to change the course, Hillary Clinton had the opportunity to correct herself back then. That was 7 months ago.

After her vote in June 2006, learning that her supporters were watching closely and were astonished by her actions, she immediately bashed Rumsfeld at the very first opportunity she had calling the current administration ''incompetent''. Rumsfeld looked at her , curiously enough, as to say, ''I thought you were on our side?''

The fact of the matter is that Hillary Clinton has been on the current administration's side since the beginning and stamped her approval in June of 2006. Her votes are fact. Her actions now are that of a politician who now wants to ''start a conversation with the American people..'' and promises to end the war with no plan to present on how. Barack Obama reminds us of how he voted against the invasion of Iraq from the beginning and has a plan here http://www.barackobama.com/iss… . Barack Obama says that whether they voted for or against the war in Iraq the first time, that the issue now is to take responsibility and challenges his fellow Democrats to present a plan that will bring our troops home.

I could not have said it better myself.