Do you remember what the purpose of the surge was?
"To provide breathing room for political reconciliation".
It hasn't happened.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Their not my facts, but UN-HABITAT's facts.
The wide range has to do with the Kurdish region of Iraq, where much of the sectarian violence has dissipated. If you include all of Iraq, that's the 25% because the Kurds are wheeling and dealing in oil contracts with foreigners and rebuilding.
If you exclude the Kurdish region from consideration, that's the 50%.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
When Obama was in the Senate, he voted against the surge in Iraq.
Presidential candidate Barack Obama told reporters: "I am absolutely committed to ending the war. I will call my joint chiefs of staff in and give them a new assignment and that is to end the war."
Do you seriously believe that more Americans in the history of this country voted for this man to keep wars going in Afghanistan and Iraq in perpetuity?
Aren't you the smooth propagandist trying to spin Obama's deceit into voters' hearing wrong.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama & Democrats campaigned on putting the wars on the books.
They promised that if they were given the power of the White House and control of Congress, there would be no more supplemental spending bills to fund the wars. It hasn't happened yet.
And now, all that Obama is doing is moving US troops around, leaving 56,000 combat trained & ready troops in Iraq, and shifting combat duties in Iraq to off-the-books private contractors. The money and funding for them and their activities (including responsibility for the atrocities they commit in our names) now is getting buried within Pentagon and State Department budgets.
Just when it seems Obama couldn't possibly be any more deceitful without his most ardent admirers waking up and realizing they've been duped, he is (getting more deceitful) and they (his most ardent admirers) go deeper into their slumber of denial.
What is it about Obama's most ardent admirers' make-up, their internal workings, that inhibit natural survival skills? What is it about them, that in spite of all evidence staring them in their faces, they can't admit they've been mistaken about Obama?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
What the US does to other people around the world, "in our names" - http://www.thewe.cc/weplanet/news/americas/us/war_crimes_fallujah.html
This is why they hate us.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
If Obama had any integrity, he would stop blocking investigations and prosecutions into the Bush administration.
There is no way a democratic US government can exist without opening the books for all to see.
And there's no way that after opening the books, fulfilling the promise of transparency in our government, that Bush, Cheney, Rumsfeld, et al, wouldn't be indicted, prosecuted and convicted of war crimes.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Politifact has gamed its way of measuring Obama's "promise-keeping"; its categories ('NO ACTION', 'IN THE WORKS', 'STALLED' or 'NOT YET RATED) are misleading. Many a campaign promise or pledge (hundreds of them) has been generously placed in these categories to languish so that Politifact can cut Obama much slack by only recognizing 22 broken promises.
As Politifact claims, "Once we find action is completed, we rate them 'PROMISE KEPT' 'COMPROMISE' or 'PROMISE BROKEN'". By Politifact's own definition, it enables Obama to keep these issues in limbo for 4 years.
One of many examples of Politifact's gaming its list is that Politifact doesn't even list in its "Promises Broken" category Obama's campaign promise to impose 'Windfall Profits Taxes on the Oil & Gas Industry" - Obama immediately reneged on that promise once in office, saying, "The prices have now dropped - We'll see about doing that if or when they rise again." Oil hit over $80/barrel (the amount that, had Obama kept his promise, the windfall profits tax would have been triggered) months ago. Politifact has conveniently ignored this issue.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Deputy national security adviser Ben Rhodes said the call to Bush lasted a few minutes. But neither he nor others would relate what was said.
==========================================
Anything other than, "You have the right to remain silent and refuse to answer questions. Do you understand? Anything you do say may be used against you in a court of law. Do you understand? You have the right to consult an attorney before speaking to the police and to have an attorney present during questioning now or in the future. Do you understand? If you cannot afford an attorney, one will be appointed for you before any questioning if you wish. Do you understand? If you decide to answer questions now without an attorney present you will still have the right to stop answering at any time until you talk to an attorney. Do you understand? Knowing and understanding your rights as I have explained them to you, are you willing to answer my questions without an attorney present?" is a waste of our time and an affront to Americans' intelligence.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Ok, the US-sanctioned deaths and torture by Saddam Hussein.
So ?
You can't possible still believe that the US went into Iraq to "save the Iraqi people!"???
No western nation has EVER gone to war for humanitarian reasons, to protect people from atrocities. It's always about resources. And not resources for us, We The People, but resources for the 'Corporate Masters of the Universe'. Using our money (taxpayers' money) to fund their piracy.
You can't possibly be so stup!d as to still believe that Bush-Cheney had the US military and a "coalition of the willing" attack, overthrow and occupy Iraq for noble purposes.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Today I'm not in a "hang 'em all" mindframe.
==================================
That's the only mindframe that's going to get action.
I am an old old liberal Democrat, hardly "a flaming idealist, and I suspect you're very young and the real "idealist" if you are (still) writing Pelosi, Reid and your state's reps and think the form replies you're getting are "thoughtful" and "promising".
There will be no public option, no chance of it, at least as long as Obama is in the White House. That was the deal he made.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Many Americans want to believe that the US improved conditions for the Iraqis by invading their country and ousting Saddam Hussein.
Here are statistics on how human misery has spread across the country in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion:
Iraq has between 25 & 50 percent unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, epidemic mental illness, & sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life.
What a havoc the US has wreaked in Iraq [& is wreaking in Afghanistan].
A recently published report [State of the World’s Cities, 2010-2011] with statistics on the status of cities around the world & their demographics - http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=2917.
Slum dwellers: Those living in urban centers without one of the following -- Durable structures to protect them from climate, sufficient living area, sufficient access to water, access to sanitation facilities, and freedom from eviction.
Prior to 2003 & the US invasion of Iraq, the percentage of the urban population living in slums in Iraq hovered just below 20 percent.
Today, it's 53 percent: 11 million of the 19 million total urban dwellers are slum dwellers. In the past decade, most countries have made progress toward reducing slum dwellers. But Iraq [& the US] has gone rapidly & dangerously in the opposite direction.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/082310b.html
This should give pause about what's going to happen here in the US as our economy worsens & more of us become 'slum dwellers'.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Many Americans want to believe that the US improved conditions for the Iraqis by invading their country and ousting Saddam Hussein.
Here are statistics on how human misery has spread across the country in the wake of the U.S.-led invasion:
Iraq has between 25 & 50 percent unemployment, a dysfunctional parliament, rampant disease, epidemic mental illness, & sprawling slums. The killing of innocent people has become part of daily life.
What a havoc the US has wreaked in Iraq [& is wreaking in Afghanistan].
A recently published report [State of the World’s Cities, 2010-2011] with statistics on the status of cities around the world & their demographics - http://www.unhabitat.org/pmss/listItemDetails.aspx?publicationID=2917.
Slum dwellers: Those living in urban centers without one of the following -- Durable structures to protect them from climate, sufficient living area, sufficient access to water, access to sanitation facilities, & freedom from eviction.
Prior to 2003 & the US invasion of Iraq, the percentage of the urban population living in slums in Iraq hovered just below 20 percent.
Today, it's 53 percent: 11 million of the 19 million total urban dwellers are slum dwellers. In the past decade, most countries have made progress toward reducing slum dwellers. But Iraq [& the US] has gone rapidly & dangerously in the opposite direction.
http://www.consortiumnews.com/2010/082310b.html
This should give pause about what's going to happen here in the US as our economy worsens & more of us become 'slum dwellers'.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama (nor RahmEmanuel) has NEVER gone after the Republican leadership in Congress -- Not McConnell, not Boehner, not Cantor, nor any other Republican politician. He's trying to recruit them into the DemocraticParty.
Last year, Obama disappeared from the healthcare debate as the Tea Party grew & bullied at Town Halls. The Tea Party has always been a myth, & a myth that Obama & Rahm Emanuel have helped to create. In all of the US, there are 600 registered members of the Tea Party.
What Obama's doing is a variation of the old Bush-R0ve 'fear' tactic. Only instead of terr0rists with kn!ves between their teeth climbing over border walls between Mexico & Arizona/Texas/California, it's gvn-toting John Birchers at Town Hall meetings.
All of last summer, as they brought gvns to the Town Halls, & members of Congress were canceling Town Halls, did Obama take charge, send out federal marshals to protect the democratic process? Did Obama hit the air waves, saying, "There will be gathering in the public square to do what we do in America: Debate and discuss the issues facing us!"?
No.
What Obama did instead during the same time period was unleash federal security forces to Pittsburgh to break up peaceful protests of the G20 meeting. Tested out the new weaponry - http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/blog/2009/sep/25/sonic-cannon-g20-pittsburgh
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
You ignore the facts, that Obama is not working for you & your interests, and instead try to play the fear card, just like Bush & R0ve did.
Obama and the DLC are courting Republican politicians and their supporters.
I (and others) have been writing about the DLC and its plan to move the Democratic Party to the right for about 20 years. What we're talking about is not a great secret; The DLC has said it itself, that it wants to move the Democratic Party to the right in order to be able to govern "from the center, for 100 years". You might want to expand your research to studying the DLC, its history, members, and plans for the future.
I'm not the only one who has written about Obama & RahmEmanuel trying to make Limbaugh & Palin the face of the Republican Party instead of the actual elected Republican politicians who are running the RepublicanParty, although I may have been among the first, if not the first. Here's Carville and Begala on the subject - http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/19596.html
No sooner did Obama get into office than he & Emanuel went after two people who have no official connection to the Republican Party -- Rush Limbaugh and Sarah Palin. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QQ02WUmh-24
KEEP READING
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
As far as "Who gets to determine what real Democrats are", it's not a nebulous concept; it's actually written and voted on. It's called the platform of the Democratic Party, and includes very specific planks on what Democrats stand for and are working to achieve.
I am to the left of Obama and I am a mainstream Democrat. I am one of the base, the 70% of the Democratic Party who are liberals. I am far from far left. Far left does exist within the Democratic Party, but the far left mostly exists outside of the Democratic Party, as Independents.
I would love to hear whether you've ever heard of the DLC, their history, what they're about and who they are. Most Democratic voters don't know what the DLC is and who they are, despite the fact that the DLC controls the Democratic Party.
And despite the DemocraticParty's platform, the fixed definition of what the DemocraticParty stands for and is working to achieve, the DLC is active in subverting that platform and works to achieve for transnational corporations, just like Republicans. One example of that is the DemocraticParty's plank on healthcare reform: Getting affordable, quality medical treatment for all. That's not the same thing as forcing everyone to buy insurance policies. Having insurance is not the same thing as being able to get affordable quality medical care. But that is what Republicans worked toward, and what Obama and the DLC did.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
I think Obama is losing support because he is a far-left ideologue, and that is not what the majority of the VOTER DEMOCRATS are.
========================================
If you believe that Obama is "a far left ideologue", you are a low information voter.
I would like to hear you define left, far left, center, right-of-center Democrats (and then define moderate Republicans, mainstream Republicans, conservatives, neoconservatives, rightwing, extreme right, and fringe Republicans). I would also like you to provide an example of each perspective, one person per label. For example, if you believe that Obama is far left, who then is to the left and right of him? Then who else is to the left and right of that person (and so on)?
These are not ever-changing definitions, depending on who you're talking to; these are fixed definitions.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Has Obama used all of the tools available to him then to prevent
what you say is the Republicans desire to make America fail? No. If
1 in 8 federal judgeships sitting empty is really a problem (and I
think it is), then one of the immediate tools that Obama has
available to him is recess appointments. Yet he refuses to use it.
That's what is meant by his failure of leadership. Obama is either
inept or what Republicans are doing is serving Obama &
Democrats in some way. Which is it? And if it's the latter, what do
you think that might be? Politics? That he gets more out of using
Republican obstructionism in upcoming elections than from serving
the People and the office he was elected to?
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama & Democrats campaigned on putting the wars on the books.
They promised that if they were given the power of the White House
and control of Congress, there would be no more supplemental
spending bills to fund the wars. It hasn't happened yet. And now,
what Obama is doing is moving US troops around, leaving 56,000
combat trained & ready troops in Iraq, and shifting combat
duties in Iraq to off-the-books private contractors. The money and
funding for them and their activities (including responsibility for
the atrocities they commit in our names) now is getting buried
within Pentagon and State Department budgets. Just when it seems
Obama couldn't possibly be any more deceitful without his most
ardent admirers waking up and realizing they've been duped, he is
and they go deeper into their slumber of denial. What is it about
Obama's most ardent admirers' make-up, their internal workings,
that inhibit natural survival skills? What is it about them, that
in spite of all evidence staring them in their faces, they can't
admit they've been mistaken about Obama? During the campaign, Obama
told people that they had to stay involved after the election, that
they couldn't just vote for him, go away for four years and expect
that he would do what they had hoped. He said that there were
powerful interests working against what the people wanted, and if
We The People wanted Obama to do our bidding, we would have to MAKE
HIM DO IT. Obama's most ardent supporters forget that those of us
who criticize Obama are only doing what he warned us needed to be
done. NOT to trust him. Since the election (and even before, with
his FISA vote), Obama has been deceptive, breaking every campaign
pledge and promise, conceding the positions of the left (getting
nothing in return), and hobbling real Democrats at every turn while
making Republicans and Blue Dogs stronger (and harder to beat in
2010 and 2012). Obama's most ardent supporters are the most
immediate problem, as they help him screw them (and us) over. Until
they wake up to these facts, they are the reason we don't get what
we all thought we were voting for when we voted Obama and Democrats
into office as the majority power in our government.
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Obama & Democrats campaigned on putting the wars on the books.
They promised that if they were given the power of the White House
and control of Congress, there would be no more supplemental
spending bills to fund the wars. It hasn't happened yet. And now,
what Obama is doing is moving US troops around, leaving 56,000
combat trained & ready troops in Iraq, and shifting combat
duties in Iraq to off-the-books private contractors. The money and
funding for them and their activities (including responsibility for
the atrocities they commit in our names) now is getting buried
within Pentagon and State Department budgets. Just when it seems
Obama couldn't possibly be any more deceitful without his most
ardent admirers waking up and realizing they've been duped, he is
and they go deeper into their slumber of denial. What is it about
Obama's most ardent admirers' make-up, their internal workings,
that inhibit natural survival skills? What is it about them that in
spite of all evidence staring them in their faces, they can't admit
they've been mistaken about Obama? During the campaign, Obama told
people that they had to stay involved after the election, that they
couldn't just vote for him, go away for four years and expect that
he would do what they had hoped. He said that there were powerful
interests working against what the people wanted, and if We The
People wanted Obama to do our bidding, we would have to MAKE HIM DO
IT. Obama's most ardent supporters forget that those of us who
criticize Obama are only doing what he warned us needed to be done.
NOT to trust him. Since the election (and even before, with his
FISA vote), Obama has been deceptive, breaking every campaign
pledge and promise, conceding the positions of the left (getting
nothing in return), and hobbling real Democrats at every turn while
making Republicans and Blue Dogs stronger (and harder to beat in
2010 and 2012). Obama's most ardent supporters are the most
immediate problem, as they help him screw them (and us) over. Until
they wake up to these facts, they are the reason we don't get what
we all thought we were voting for when we voted Obama and Democrats
into office as the majority power in our government.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Your last paragraph is true, too, but both issues fall under the
control of Congress and ultimately the stinkin' Supreme Court.
These changes may take a generation if they're ever won at all. And
that means working within the stinkin', corporate 2-party system we
have. =================================== You're wrong. There's
absolutely nothing that the Democratically controlled Congress is
doing that Obama hasn't signed off on, much less ordered. For you
to say that it takes a generation to effect change shows just how
strong the denial is in Obama's most ardent admirers. Have you
forgotten the last administration so quickly? It's that kind of
forceful leadership that we (Democrats & the all of the
American people, & all the people of the world) need now. But
leadership beneficial to the People, & NOT the corporations
& the Establishment Elites. What we don't need is a president
working on behalf of the EstablishmentElites & the
Corporations, putting the People off with feeble excuses like
"bipartisanship". From a bully pulpit, from the political capital
wind at his back after winning the 2008 election (more people voted
for Obama & his promises of CHANGE & a government that
works for the People than any other presidential candidate in US
history), Obama could've been a contender. But instead, he ground
the momentum to a halt, & then flip-flopped on just about every
campaign promise & pledge. Until Obama's most ardent supporters
realize that it's they who are enabling his betrayal, we're all
doomed to per!sh on this runaway train.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
No, it's not progress (for the People) if the incremental movement is going in the same direction and consolidating the gains established by Bush & Cheney (and really begun under Nixon and then later Reagan).
The Obama administration is continuing most of Bush's policies, and even going Bush-Cheney one better on unitary executive claims, opacity in government, and abusives of Constitutional protections and invasions into privacy.
Obama's most ardent supporters make the same mistake of believing that if there's a 'D' after the name, the politician must be for traditional Democratic Party values, i.e., populist policies over corporate. That hasn't been true since the DLC took over the Democratic Party in the late 1980s.
Just as Bill Clinton consolidated the gains of Reagan-Bush with many Democratic voters clueless as to the foundation that was being laid in his doing so, Obama is repeating that history. And like Clinton's failure to hold Reagan-Bush to account (Iran-Contra, October Surprise), Obama is repeating the mistake by blocking investigations and prosecutions of Bush-Cheney.
The Democracy ended there.
And Obama's most ardent supporters do no one any favors, least of all themselves, by throwing themselves under the bus for Obama.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
MADDOW: And it is just all spread out and ripped open. And people are going through it to see if there‘s anything valuable in the trash?
ENGEL: Yes. I mean, kids - here are some kids right here. They go through it. And it is quite sad. I mean, they‘ll go to through it and pick through anything that can be recycled or used again - or of any value, metal things. So in a way, it is its own environmental - but it shows there is a lot of poverty here.
MADDOW: Yes. This corner is like the microcosm of the war. This and this -
ENGEL: And these kids.
MADDOW: And us, too, because we‘re here as Americans covering this because of the American initiative here that created the economy that made this all possible.
Watch the interview: http://www
Americans are losing our Social Security, Medicare, police, firemen, teachers, & going into debt to China, Japan, Saudi Arabia, (even our grandchildren won't be able to pay it off), for wars to protect & increase the riches (an oil pipeline & mineral riches) that Americans don't derive any benefit from, don't get profits from, but that the Establishment Elites (Dick Cheney & the Bush family among them) all get profits from.
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
ENGEL: It can breed corruption. Just having so much money injected into an economy. Afghanistan is very poor and it was isolated from the world except for the last 30 years of war which was an unpleasant interaction with the world for hundreds of years. And now, you have a totally different scale of economy coming in, billions of dollars a month. This country never saw anything like that.
MADDOW: It is going to people who are - it‘s not going to build the country. It is going to people who have private armies. It‘s going to people who are -
ENGEL: Next to giant houses, these streets are not even paved.
MADDOW: Yes.
ENGEL: I think that gives you an idea of how much the social services are spreading.
MADDOW: So when you hear the government, when you hear the leadership say, “We don‘t want the Americans to leave. We don‘t want the war to be over” -
ENGEL: There is an incentive -
MADDOW: Think about this neighborhood.
ENGEL: There is an incentive because war is a profitable business for many people.
MADDOW: Yes.
ENGEL: I think this neighborhood is actually very symbolic of a lot of the problems with this entire world, frankly. And here, next to an incredibly big house is an open garbage pile, because no one cares about the common space. Nobody - it is not anybody‘s problem. That is what you see everywhere. You know, you have a giant -
KEEP READING
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
MADDOW: America, it‘s your tax dollars at work. This is the war economy as translated to land-locked Central Asia. We dump a ton of money thinking that we are paying for our military effort. Everything that goes along with our military effort ends up letting - or in this case, directing like a squirt gun, instead of flooding -
ENGEL: The streets become rivers of mud.
MADDOW: But the money doesn‘t go to the country and trickle down its economy. It just goes to the elites and power brokers who can keep it for themselves.
ENGEL: A war lord system. There is a lot of money in war - contracting, supplying, shipping. And if you have been in power, you keep those contracts for yourself and you build neighborhoods like this. And maybe, you don‘t even live here. You live somewhere else, in a foreign country.
MADDOW: This is what it is like in Kabul. This is the exact same dynamic that we saw in Kandahar where you‘re talking with these counterinsurgency doctors and soaked military officers who are incredibly smart and have far reaching thinking about this sort of thing and they can because of that, they can see the basic contradiction at work that we‘re trying to do.
If the whole effort, all the money and everything, is to establish governance and - if the whole effort is to establish governance, all of our money, all of our spending here is only supporting the elite, the warlordism -
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
ENGEL: Exactly. And the reason the streets are still unpaved is that these government officials refuse to pay any taxes to the government. They are in a fight so the government won‘t come and pave the roads or connect it to any kind of sanitation system at all because the same government ministers won‘t pay to register the neighborhood.
MADDOW: So they won‘t throw their weight around to get their neighborhood taken care of, because they don‘t live here anyway.
ENGEL: They don‘t live here anyway. So you have these large homes, and some of these homes - you see this building right behind you?
MADDOW: That looks like a hotel.
ENGEL: No. No. No. They are all private homes.
MADDOW: This is a private home?
ENGEL: It‘s a private home. It probably has 25 bedrooms in it and garish, colonnades and unusual architectural features. And then, they‘ll rent that out to some western client and they‘ll charge either by the bedroom or by the floor or for the whole thing. And if you were to build this one - it‘s obviously under construction - that is a $1 million plus house in Kabul with no paved streets.
KEEP READING
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
Where are our tax dollars going?
Rachel Maddow walked the dusty, garbage-strewn streets of Afghanistan with RIchard Engel to see what exporting US-style democracy means, and what US nation-building actually builds:
RACHEL MADDOW: There are very few countries in the world poorer than Afghanistan where abject poverty is almost everywhere. The keyword there is almost. There are super rich folks here. We visited their neighborhood in Kabul. They‘re garish, bizarre. What it looks like to be rich in poor, war-torn, land-locked Central Asian neighborhood.
MADDOW: So we are in a neighborhood now. Kabul. Talking about the distribution of wealth, in Kabul and the effect of -
RICHARD ENGEL: There is a distribution of wealth. This is where it is distributed. This is where it ends up. All of the money from contracts and association with the government and association with the U.S. military has ended up here.
MADDOW: Why?
KEEP READING
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
And the Afghans, too.
http://www
http://afg
Read those articles along with this below to see how we are throwing good money after bad, for which the only purpose is so that the Pentagon can try to save face while trying to make a sow's purse out of a pig's ear (an impossibility, given the policies Obama is working off of):
Rachel Maddow walked the streets of Afghanistan with Richard Engel, who showed her how and where US taxpayer money is being spent --
http://www
KEEP READING
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
I'm a real Democrat and agree with most of what the President is doing. Only a foolish Repub would make that statement.
==========
You'd better get with the program if you want to make that statement true, because most do NOT support what Obama and the Democrats in Congress are doing. http://www
About Barack Obama
Read the Article at HuffingtonPost
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