|
Tag Archives: equality
wacky Wednesday &some News
President Obama starts Middle East peace talks in the other Washington today and later today he will be traveling to Milwaukee with labor secretary Solis.
As some parts of the US moves into Autumn weather other parts are suffering awful hurricanes and or heavy rains creating flooding. I am hoping those who usually say they will stay put opt in to being evacuated. There are reports that mandatory evacuations have been ordered in N.C.
Last night the President announced the combat in Iraq has ended and though some are still there he was able to get this thing ended a little early. It was a moment to give facts numbers and tie in to something that helped hurt our current economy and he did. The idea that libs are not happy with this President is getting on my nerves. They cannot be satisfied with the fact that the combat was ended so please stop beating him down for not wanting to bring the last guy or administration up on charges …it ain’t going to happen. If we could just thank all our troops who served, make sure they all have medical and are among those who are able to take advantage of HR1586 and move on to solve our economic problems. It just annoys me to hear libs burn the President with all the negative rhetoric because they need in my opinion to focus on what is News to the Americans instead of what they did not get out of voting for this President. I believe a lot has been achieved but libs are again participating in that circular squad -it is reckless and will hurt our cause. Come on -give him credit for getting things despite Republicans despite the daily name calling and labeling we should not expect this President to come out and battle with each and every negative thing said about him. There are reports that folks representing big corporations are now switching sides because our President supported the need for financial reform. Those who tell us raising taxes would be a job killer are in control of Banks that should loan to neighborhood lenders by don’t and can only be translated into a clear threat. Those of us regular folks who supported and voted for Obama need to stand up to the BS being shoved onto us by both the libs and the folks on the right. I am a democrat who believes it will take years to get the US economy back on track because the votes of No screwed us from getting it done sooner and has now slowed down the effort to next to zero .
The continued slow down of our economy is because of the Political Party of NO -do not be fooled …we needed large sums of money thrown at a big problem but when Bills got to Senate Republicans they were able to stall them, block them or scale them down to something that seems like a band aid now. It is apparent that the projection of 8% unemployment was given with the info they had at the time. It did not include Banks withholding funds from small business, Wall Street being unwilling to cooperate and Republicans doing everything to ruin this President including throwing their own constituents under the bus …
Other News …
The first face-to-face talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since 2008 will begin today, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with President Obama in the White House. Expectations are low, but U.S. officials are hopeful they can at least get the two sides to agree to a second round of talks next month.
Top U.S. commander in Afghanistan Gen. David Petraeus said yesterday that the Taliban is expanding its presence across the country even as U.S. and coalition forces close in on insurgent strongholds. “Levels of attacks have gone up and that’s a manifestation of us increasing our resources substantially and taking away safe havens,” he said, “And when the enemy’s safe havens are threatened they fight back.”
And finally: Former GOP House Speaker and current FreedomWorks chief Dick Armey told the Texas Tribune that he’s not interested in being the leader of the Tea Party movement because he’s too busy caring for his goats. When asked if he would step up to lead the movement, Armey replied, “Oh, no, no, no, no. I’ve got 34 goats that depend on me daily. I couldn’t be away that long.”
The first face-to-face talks between Israeli and Palestinian leaders since 2008 will begin today, as Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas will meet with President Obama in the White House. Expectations are low, but U.S. officials are hopeful they can at least get the two sides to agree to a second round of talks next month.
Presidential Address On U.S. Combat Troop Withdrawal From Iraq
Coast Guard Admiral Thad Allen (Ret.) Briefing on Gulf Oil Spil
Air Line Pilots Association, Int’l 2010 Air Safety Forum
92nd Annual American Legion National Convention
Share this:
A Milestone On The Road Out of Iraq
Yesterday evening, speaking to the nation from the Oval Office, President Obama “declared an end to the seven-year American combat mission in Iraq,” saying that “the United States has met its responsibility to that country and that it is now time to turn to pressing problems at home.” While around 50,000 U.S. troops remain in Iraq, and will still engage in combat while carrying out what is now primarily a training and advising mission, yesterday’s announcement by the President represents the fulfillment of a promise he made in February 2009, to have the majority of U.S. troops out of Iraq by the end of August 2010. The President noted that, over the last decade in Afghanistan and Iraq, “we have spent over a trillion dollars at war, often financed by borrowing from overseas,” and that “as we wind down the war in Iraq, we must tackle those challenges at home with as much energy and grit and sense of common purpose as our men and women in uniform who have served abroad.” Describing the new Iraq mission, Vice President Biden said, “We have a written agreement with the Iraqi government, signed by George W. Bush, binding President Barack Obama to withdraw all troops by the end of next year. … But we have faith that the Iraqi troops who our sacrifices have allowed to be trained are in fact ready and will be increasingly able to supply total security to this country by the end of next year.” Biden adviser Tony Blinken told reporters, “We’re not disengaging from Iraq, and even as we draw down our troops, we are ramping up our engagement across the board.”
DEFINING THE WAR’S LEGACY: President Bush’s decision to invade and occupy Iraq remains controversial, though it’s now obvious that the main justifications for the war — Iraq’s possession of weapons of mass destruction and a substantive relationship between Saddam Hussein and al Qaeda — were false. Several key decisions the Bush administration made, such as disbanding the Iraq army and the de-Baathification of Iraq’s bureaucracy, fed a growing insurgency that was gathering steam even as President Bush prematurely declared in May 2003 that “major combat operations in Iraq have ended.” The ensuing insurgency led to years of sectarian strife and the near-collapse of the Iraqi state. With the U.S.’s attention and resources focused on dealing with the Iraq insurgency, Iran was able to extend its influence both with Shia parties in Iraq and throughout the region, the Taliban was able to retrench in Afghanistan, and anti-American extremists throughout the Middle East drew strength from the constant images of death and destruction beamed out of Iraq via satellite. Many of these radicals gained expertise from tactics honed against American forces in Iraq.
COUNTING THE COST: While the ultimate legacy of the U.S. intervention in Iraq is still to be determined, it is possible — and necessary, given the implications for future interventions — to attempt to tally the war’s costs and benefits to the national security of the United States. In May 2010, Center for American Progress analysts Matt Duss, Brian Katulis, and Peter Juul quantified the costs in their report, The Iraq War Ledger. While recognizing that the end of Saddam Hussein’s brutal regime represents a considerable global good, the authors note that most of the war’s other benefits very much remain in the realm of conjecture. A nascent democratic Iraqi republic allied with the United States could potentially yield benefits in the future, but the war’s costs are very real in the here and now, with the current cost of Operation Iraqi Freedom hovering around $748.2 billion, and the projected total cost of veterans’ health care and disability at $422 billion to $717 billion. As of yesterday, 4,416 American troops had lost their lives in Iraq, with more than 30,000 wounded and more than 39,000 diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder. Low-end estimates of Iraqi civilian deaths are around 100,000, with many more wounded, and over 4 million displaced both within and outside Iraq.
THE IMPORTANCE OF TIMETABLES: While the U.S. was bound by the terms of the withdrawal agreement signed by the Bush administration and Iraq, setting August 31, 2010 as an official date for the change in mission was President Obama’s decision, and one with important implications for Afghanistan. It sends the signal that the U.S.’s deployments will not be determined by events outside of U.S. control, and that the U.S. will make the decision when it leaves. CAP’s Larry Korb and Brian Katulis observed that, while the conventional wisdom holds that Bush’s open-ended commitment of troops to Iraq created conditions for the U.S. withdrawal, “a closer examination of the facts demonstrates that the opposite is true — in Iraq, violence declined because more Iraqis perceived that U.S. troops were leaving and took appropriate action.” Sticking to a timetable for Afghanistan, Korb and Katulis write, “offers the best hope for us and the Afghan people because it will motivate them to take control of their own affairs and increase their own security forces.”
Share this:
Iraq …a message from President Obama
RE-Post …
Tonight marks the end of the American combat mission in Iraq.
As a candidate for this office, I pledged to end this war responsibly. And, as President, that is what I am doing.
Since I became Commander-in-Chief, we’ve brought home nearly 100,000 U.S. troops. We’ve closed or turned over to Iraq hundreds of our bases.
As Operation Iraqi Freedom ends, our commitment to a sovereign, stable, and self-reliant Iraq continues. Under Operation New Dawn, a transitional force of U.S. troops will remain to advise and assist Iraqi forces, protect our civilians on the ground, and pursue targeted counterterrorism efforts.
By the end of next year, consistent with our agreement with the Iraqi government, these men and women, too, will come home.
Ending this war is not only in Iraq’s interest — it is in our own. Our nation has paid a huge price to put Iraq’s future in the hands of its people. We have sent our men and women in uniform to make enormous sacrifices. We have spent vast resources abroad in the face of several years of recession at home.
We have met our responsibility through the courage and resolve of our women and men in uniform.
In seven years, they confronted a mission as challenging and as complex as any our military has ever been asked to face.
Nearly 1.5 million Americans put their lives on the line. Many returned for multiple tours of duty, far from their loved ones who bore a heroic burden of their own. And most painfully, more than 4,400 Americans have given their lives, fighting for people they never knew, for values that have defined our people for more than two centuries.
What their country asked of them was not small. And what they sacrificed was not easy.
For that, each and every American owes them our heartfelt thanks.
Our promise to them — to each woman or man who has donned our colors — is that our country will serve them as faithfully as they have served us. We have already made the largest increase in funding for veterans in decades. So long as I am President, I will do whatever it takes to fulfill that sacred trust.
Tonight, we mark a milestone in our nation’s history. Even at a time of great uncertainty for so many Americans, this day and our brave troops remind us that our future is in our own hands and that our best days lie ahead.
Thank you,
President Barack Obama
Share this:
A new way to hold Republicans accountable
 |
||
| With Congress’s August recess now under way, Republican members of Congress are starting to show up at Tea Party events and campaign rallies all over the country.
We saw last year during the fight for health reform that this is a time when the extremists run rampant. Remember “death panels?” This year, Republicans are looking to have it both ways, trying to appeal to independent voters while making promises to the Tea Party crowd to pursue an extreme right-wing agenda if they regain control of Congress. We don’t — but I sure wish we did. That’s where the “Accountability Project” comes in. It’s a platform for citizens to document Republican candidates and their public statements at local events, as well as their campaign tactics. The Accountability Project allows you to submit videos, recordings, and other items for publication online, so that candidates see that there’s a cost to their dishonest statements — and so that everyday citizens can see what their Republican candidates for office are saying. We need people like you to take the lead. Sign up today to be a part of the Accountability Project here.  The American people deserve an honest debate — and far too often, candidates try to make misleading attacks and false claims under the radar. This project seeks to shine a light on those practices, and you have a crucial role to play in making it happen. There are several ways in which folks can participate: — If you have anything that can record video — from a cell phone to a video camera — you can go to public events and record what candidates say. — If you receive any sort of mailings or literature from candidates, you can post them online for all to see. — And if you hear of any upcoming public events for Republican candidates in your area, you can let everyone know, so that other concerned citizens can get out there. This project will enable folks to keep track of Republican candidates running for every office, up and down the ballot. Please help fight back against Republicans’ shadowy tactics — participate in The Accountability Project: http://my.democrats.org/APsignup Thanks, Shauna Shauna Daly |
||
Be a Seed for Change 
You must be logged in to post a comment.