Dick Cheney 'Needs To Testify' About BP Oil Spill, Says Chris Matthews (VIDEO)

All of the records of the energy meetings that Cheney held need to be made public.



That's what voters thought they were going to get when they put Obama & Democrats into power.



Obama, in his own words:



"On transparency", "About inviting the people back into their government again", & "Part of the job of the next American president is making Americans believe that our government is working for them, because right now they don't feel like it's working for them. They feel like it's working for special interests & it's working for corporations:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K97hvOOdy_I



Transparency Will Be Touchstone:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=72g7qmeP1dE



"Meetings where laws are written will be more open to the public, no more secrecy.":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZQbQTrm_pSA



"We need a president who sees the government not as a tool to enrich well connected friends & high-priced lobbyists, but as a defender of fairness & opportunity for every single American. That's what this country's been about & that's the kind of president I intend to be:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EEMxfme7OQI



"Clintons did health care the wrong way, behind closed doors":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XvyharXBI0Q



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CU0m6Rxm9vU



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YBtIKgGHYPQ



"The American people are the answer":

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=b2cvru2TH-s



Obama's Transparency Problem:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IODbwOhZYEM



On 12/6/09:



http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5joOOsTVD57lFwm_InpZY_nRbg4KQD9CDRVOO0
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Afghan War Costs Now Outpace Iraq's

It's not just in Afghanistan.



The US is the only country on the planet that has ever used (and used in Iraq and uses in Afghanistan) nuclear weapons.
About Afghanistan
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Afghan War Costs Now Outpace Iraq's

You should have been listening to him when he was running. He did, in fact, over and over and over mention wanting to go into Afghanistan / Pakistan.



And over and over... Why am I the only Libbish type that remembers this?

======================



When Candidate Obama talked about Afghanistan, it was in the context that Bush had erred in moving the war on Al Qaeda to Iraq, and that he, Obama, wanted to refocus US efforts to where Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda were -- In Afghanistan along the border with Pakistan.



It was certainly clear that Al Qaeda was not synonymous with the Taliban, and that the AUMF did not include the Taliban.



It was also clear that Obama was speaking for that moment in time, during the campaign, and that should circumstances change, i.e., Al Qaeda was not any serious threat or Osama Bin Laden was k!lled or somewhere else, Obama wouldn't be expanding the offensive in Afghanistan.



Once Obama got into the White House, the assessment was crystal clear that there were fewer than 100 in Al Qaeda, they weren't capable of anything.



Candidate Obama also communicated clearly that he understood how the US's pursuit of empire and military aggression was a recruitment tool for Al Qaeda, and that if elected, all that was going to end.
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Afghan War Costs Now Outpace Iraq's

When Candidate Obama talked about Afghanistan, it was in the context that Bush had erred in moving the war on Al Qaeda to Iraq, and that he, Obama, wanted to refocus US efforts to where Osama Bin Laden and Al Qaeda were -- In Afghanistan along the border with Pakistan.



It was certainly clear that Al Qaeda was not synonymous with the Taliban, and that the AUMF did not include the Taliban.



It was also clear that Obama was speaking for that moment in time, during the campaign, and that should circumstances change, i.e., Al Qaeda was not any serious threat or Osama Bin Laden was k!lled or somewhere else, Obama wouldn't be expanding the offensive in Afghanistan.



Once Obama got into the White House, the assessment was crystal clear that there were fewer than 100 in Al Qaeda, they weren't capable of anything.



Candidate Obama also communicated clearly that he understood how the US's pursuit of empire and military aggression was a recruitment tool for Al Qaeda, and that if elected, all that was going to end.
About Afghanistan
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Afghan War Costs Now Outpace Iraq's

Not exactly.



Obama hedged it, left himself a loophole, with the proverbial, "Depending on conditions at the time."



And he's refused to lay down benchmarks.



By the way, when Obama or anyone in government talks about leaving either Afghanistan or Iraq, they're not talking about removing all US troops and leaving the Iraqis and Afghans to govern themselves. There will be tens of thousands of troops left in "advisory and training" capacity, guarding US embassies and personnel (the US embassy in Iraq is the largest in the world, 104 acres within the city of Baghdad, the size of Vatican City within Rome). Obama consistently misleads by stating that he's withdrawing "combat troops", but the fact of the matter is that ALL troops are combat-trained and ready.



On TOP of that number of troops, there will be equal numbers of privatized troops.



What does the US need a 104-acre embassy (fort) inside of Baghdad for? Aside from standard embassy personnel, who is going to be in there? CIA operatives.
About Afghanistan
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Elena Kagan's Not Gay, Friends And Allies Say

That's also true of her hiring record as solicitor general. Since she began as solicitor general in March 2009, she has hired no blacks.



Here's the administration's quote defending this record -



==Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler added that Kagan's hiring record as solicitor general "reflects a strong commitment to hiring qualified candidates of all races and genders." According to the department, Kagan's hires since March 2009 have included one white man, three white women, one Asian man and one Indian man.==



That's the definition for remedying the lack of diversity in government by the Obama administration. Adding an Asian man, an Indian man, and more white people (more of the same).



http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/05/11/AR2010051103390.html
About Elena Kagan
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Afghan War Costs Now Outpace Iraq's

FALLUJAH, Iraq, March 4 (UPI) -- Doctors are investigating reports of a very high rate of birth defects in a city of Iraq that was often the scene of heavy fighting involving U.S. troops.



The BBC reported the residents of Fallujah are seeing birth defects, including heart problems, at a rate of 95 in every 1,000 births. The report said that represented 13 times the number of similar birth defects in Europe.



A doctor told the BBC she is seeing two or three cases every day of birth defects, including paralysis, brain damage and cardiac problems. Data indicate prior to 2003, doctors would have seen perhaps one such case every two months.



Local officials have advised woman in Fallujah not to have children, the BBC said.



Residents link the timing of the surge in defects with about a year after a U.S. military-led offensive in Fallujah in 2004 and suggest armaments used in the fight may be to blame for their children's problems. Military officials told the BBC they had received no official reports of an increase in birth defects in the area but that exploded ordnance is a "recognized hazard."



One researcher said she had seen "footage of babies with an eye in the middle of the forehead, the nose on the forehead."



http://www.upi.com/Daily-Briefing/2010/03/04/Iraq-birth-defects/UPI-80511267712248/
About Afghanistan
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Afghan War Costs Now Outpace Iraq's

That endless cycle would be bad enough standing alone. But it's accompanied by a relentless & still ongoing transformation of our political system. We never ask what we're doing to cause Terrorism & how we can change our actions to weaken it. We instead ask only one question each time the word Terrorism is uttered: which new rights can we get rid of now? Even after 8 years of Bush/Cheney, Americans are still finding new and creative ways to answer that question, this time by aiming it at themselves.



http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/05/13/citizens/index.html
About Afghanistan
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Afghan War Costs Now Outpace Iraq's

As long as we continue to invade, bomb & occupy Muslim countries, there are going to be people (including within our country) who want to return the violence to us. That'll happen no matter how repeatedly we rewrite our rules of justice & acquiesce to more core liberties being taken away [last week's assault by Obama on citizens' miranda rights' protections].



But not only do we show no signs of slowing down in the behavior that causes us to be Terrorist targets, each new attack causes us to intensify that behavior through the use of the most circular logic imaginable. Obama said this week that we must continue to fight in Afghanistan because of the recent Terrorist attacks aimed at the U.S.; of course, a primary reason there are Terrorist attacks aimed at the U.S. is because we continue to kill Muslim civilians around the world, including in Afghanistan. It's a neverending, self-perpetuating cycle: we attack people in the Muslim world, causing Terrorist attacks aimed at the U.S., & then cite those episodes as a reason to further attack people in the Muslim world, etc.



http://www.salon.com/news/opinion/glenn_greenwald/2010/05/13/citizens/index.html
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Elena Kagan And The Persuasion Factor

So much for Kagan obviously being a liberal in the Thurgood Marshall mold:



==While Kagan clearly relished the experience [of clerking for Associate Justice Thurgood Marshall] and admired the justice as a historic figure, she appears to have had a far more ambivalent attitude toward his jurisprudence, according to a review of his papers at the Library of Congress, her comments over the years about him and interviews with her fellow clerks and colleagues.==



http://www.nytimes.com/2010/05/13/us/politics/13marshall.html
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Elena Kagan And The Persuasion Factor

A judge thats been sitting on the bench for many years can lose that power of persuasion. Ms Kagan has that at her disposal.

===================================



Randall Kennedy, one of the surrogates who has been unleashed to sell this nomination, shot the 'persuasion factor' all to heII when he wrote on HP:



==First, it is mistaken to suggest, as some have, that the Dean of Harvard Law School is responsible for all that happens or does not happen with respect to hiring. The Dean is the single most influential member of the faculty. One does not get hired at the law school without the Dean's blessing. At the same time, the Dean does not have the power on her own to hire someone to the faculty. To be hired, a candidate must receive at least a majority, usually a super-majority, of votes. The Dean can seek to persuade, but the Dean at Harvard Law School cannot force professors to move when it comes to faculty hiring, traditionally the most contentious arena of struggle at a famously contentious institution.==



So much for the argument that she'd cobble together majority coalitions on the US Supreme Court.
About Elena Kagan
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