Jack & Jill Politics

President Is Set to 'Take the Baton'
As Skepticism on Health Reform Mounts, He Will Intensify His Efforts

Six months into his presidency, Barack Obama may have no greater test of his ability to translate personal popularity into a successful legislative agenda than the upcoming two weeks.

With skepticism about the president's health-care reform effort mounting on Capitol Hill -- even within his own party -- the White House has launched a new phase of its strategy designed to dramatically increase public pressure on Congress: all Obama, all the time.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

I love Drop Dead Diva.

Just started watching it tonight. I think I'm going to enjoy it.

The Chris Matthews Show: On Health Care Reform, Won't Someone Think About Us Rich People???
By Nicole Belle Sunday Jul 19, 2009 1:00pm

Clearly, the Beltway Bubble operates much like the looking glass does in Lewis Carroll's works: it inverts logic, turns issues inside out and makes the most trivial loom large and ignores the elephant in the room.

The moneyed, privileged bobbleheads are a perfect example of the "MFFY" generation of which Nonny spoke, because for them, it's all about the taxes. Notice how they talk about it as if it's across the board, rather than those making over $250,000 a year (approximately 2% of the population)

BROOKS: You know, they made some progress on the Hill, they got a House bill out, they got a Senate bill moving forward. They’re scaring the dickens out of the moderates in their own party, let alone the Republicans. They’re scaring the dickens out of them because the House bill calls for raising the top tax rate to 52 or in some cities, 57%. That’s higher than in France, Spain, Italy…

No, David, YOU'RE scaring the dickens out of these politicians. With your handy-dandy Luntz talking points, you have pounded into the heads of these craven politicians that they MUST fear the tax increase, that their entire career depends on it.

Never mind that the tax increase is for only the top 2% of Americans.

Never mind that 76% of Americans want to see some sort of nationalized health care in place.

Never mind that even your precious group of top 2% earners are ALREADY paying for the under- and uninsured now with increased insurances and medical costs.

Let me clue you in, Brooks, Parker, Page, O'Donnell and Matthews: HAVING YOU PAY A LITTLE HIGHER IN TAXES IS SWEET JUSTICE FOR ALL THE MISINFORMATION YOU'VE USED TO FRAME THIS DEBATE SINCE 1983. It's not about you guys. It's about the vast majority of Americans who are barely getting by and are one even minor catastrophe away from ruin. It's about acknowledging that health care is a right--not a privilege for the moneyed class. It's about acknowledging that this is what AMERICANS--not you bobble-headed bubble boobs--want.

And here's a kick in the pants for you, Brooks: What does it say about all the weakening of the Obama's health care plan and the public option by those frightened politicos if other countries like France and Spain can offer a fully socialized (*gasp*) and robust single payer program to their citizens for less taxes than are currently being proposed here?

If you were truly interested in being fiscally responsible and lowering taxes, then you would champion single payer, you blind ideologue.

VIDEO

http://crooksandliars.com/nicole-belle/chris-ma...

Let me clue you in, Brooks, Parker, Page, O'Donnell and Matthews: HAVING YOU PAY A LITTLE HIGHER IN TAXES IS SWEET JUSTICE FOR ALL THE MISINFORMATION YOU'VE USED TO FRAME THIS DEBATE SINCE 1983.


BWAH!! We should double tax them!

from BOOMAN TRIBUNE:

Iran: 36 Military Officers Arrested
by Steven D
Sun Jul 19th, 2009 at 06:30:08 PM EST

Things continue to bubble away in Iran, as news reports now say that Iran's army arrested 36 officers who had planned to attend a prayer service Friday where former President Hashemi Rafsanjani provided the sermon. From the Guardian:

The officers were rounded up on Friday morning by army intelligence agents who had caught wind of the plan. They are said to have been arrested at their homes and taken to an unknown location.
Peiknet, a Farsi website, said the officers had agreed the action at a weekly prayer meeting the night before at the Shah Abdolazim religious shrine in Shahr-e Rey, on Tehran's southern outskirts. "They decided to attend the Friday prayer in their military clothes as a sign of protest against the cruel massacre of people by the basij and revolutionary guards and to show their objection against this process and support for the people," the site said. It named 24 of the officers, who included two majors, four captains, eight lieutenants, six sergeants and four warrant officers.

The arrests expose the authorities' sensitivity to signs of mutiny among the various branches of the security forces.

Reports last month suggested that a senior revolutionary guard commander, General Ali Fazli, had been arrested for refusing to obey orders to suppress protests against election result. The reports were later denied but some sources say Fazli remains under pressure to toe the line.

Rafsanjani used the sermon to attack the authority of the regime's Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Khamenei. Police assaulted hundreds of thousands of protesters after the prayer service with tear gas. A photo gallery of the protests Friday can be viewed at TPM. In another sign of growing unease within the regime, a moderate (and in Iran that is a relative term) member of President Ahmadinejad's government, appointed recently, was forced to resign his position under pressure from hardliners according to a report in the LA Times today:


The Ahmadinejad aide, Esfandiar Rahim Mashaei, who was minister of tourism in Ahmadinejad's first term, was publicly reprimanded last year after he said that Iran had no quarrel with the people of Israel, just its government, a position deemed too soft by Iran's anti-Israeli leaders. Ahmadinejad's decision to name him as his first vice president sparked an immediate furor among hard-line clergy and pressure groups. "The news of your appointment by the legal president has plunged into deep surprise a large number of idealistic students who endured the widespread wave of defamation launched by opposition against Mr. Ahmadinejad and backed his candidacy," the Union of Islamist Students said in statement addressed to Mashaei on Saturday. "While reaffirming our support for Mr. Ahmadinejad, the best choice for president, we believe that your immediate resignation from the post of first vice president would be the only way to serve fundamentalism," it said, adding menacingly, "You will be on the receiving end of the dire consequences of this appointment."
I'd have resigned too if I thought the man who appointed me as his vice president had so little control over his followers that he would allow veiled threats against my life to be made publicly. Clearly, President Ahmadinejad is able to exercise less and less control over his supporters and other hard line fundamentalists as the current crisis continues to unfold. Perhaps he appointed Mr. Mashaei as a test case of his authority. If that was indeed his purpose, he failed that test.

The LA Times also reports that "Rafsanjani traveled to Mashhad to meet with senior clergy including several top-ranked grand ayatollahs and the head of the judiciary . . ." It cited as its source a conservative news website in Iran. The Times also reports that more protests are planned for Tuesday. With support for the regime obviously shaky among the much of the population (at least in the urban areas), members of military, the Revolutionary Guard and the high ranking members of Iran's ruling clergy, I expect events to continue unravel with more violence and oppression from the government a near certainty.



http://www.boomantribune.com/story/2009/7/19/18...

just booked my flight for Netroots! won a scholarship from DFA and I am on my way

Congrads.

yeah!!

congrats

Unprecedented unemployment and political posturing by Governor Rick Perry have forced the Texas Workforce Commmission into a complete breakdown. . . . media reported on July 15 that tens of thousands of jobless Texans will not get their check and tens of thousands of telephone calls for help are going unanswered. Reporter Robert T. Garrett of the Dallas Morning News estimated that 82,000 unlucky Texans won't get the federal 13-week extension of benefits when their state benefits expire, and 150,000 telephone calls couldn't get through in one day, July 13.

Texas unemployment system breaks down

They are negotiating for $643 million in federal loans, which is, ironically, almost as much as the federal stimulus grant money that showboat Governor Rick Perry forced the legislature to turn down in the recent session. He called a special session afterward, but did not allow the unemployment crisis on the agenda. In a press conference, the Governor bragged about having given yet another tax cut to businesses and a special tax tax dispensation for Chambers of Commerce.

---

A good read: The Coming $50 Billion State Unemployment Bill. "$10.9 Billion. That's the amount of money currently lent by Federal Department of Labor (DOL) to a group of 15 states whose unemployment insurance (UI) trust funds have run dry. And it's about to get a whole hell of a lot worse. By the end of the year that number will likely have have grown to 35 states. Total DOL emergency loans to states at that time? Nearly $50 billion dollars. The situation will be far worse for some states than others."

karma

is undefeated!

Rick Perry is a sob! I'm a Texan & I want this sob run out of town!

"the Governor bragged about having given yet another tax cut to businesses and a special tax tax dispensation for Chambers of Commerce."

Guess he won't need those Dept. of Labor dollars for those unemployment checks.

This 60 minutes special on Walter Cronkite is awesome.....

yeah i cried

it was classy

His career was just......WOW! The interview with Sinatra was too funny in how it ended.

Looking at this photo of the "victorious" New Haven firefighters, I can say without a doubt that NONE of these guys would show up and support *us* in any of *our* discrimination cases ...

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/object/article?f=...

I read that Frank Ricci for his first job sued because he was dyxlesic.Now I may be dumb but didn't he discriminate against someone who didn't read his words backwards?Jus sayin

?tahW

I'm not gonna laugh
I'm not gonna laugh


To the "bad chair" dj!

LOL!

I will not laugh
I will not laugh
I will not laugh
I will not laugh

(djchefron...you going to hell....and sending me with you)

I will not laugh
I will not laugh
(and I have a close friend whose dyslexic! please forgive me)

lol

Time to go
July 19, 2009
"It seemed benign back then."

-- University of Illinois trustee Lawrence Eppley, explaining his role in the back-door admissions process for politically connected applicants, in testimony before the Illinois Admissions Review Commission.

"Back then," of course, was before we all learned that the university quietly maintained a separate system for candidates with friends in high places. Hundreds of applications -- marked with a big red stripe -- were routed through the "Category I" track, greased by lawmakers, lobbyists, trustees and others who have no business deciding who gets into the U. of I.

There was nothing benign about it, then or now, and university trustees were among the worst offenders, referring nearly 100 names in the last three years alone. That's why correcting this problem needs to begin with a clean sweep of the board.


First in line is Eppley, ex- Gov. Rod Blagojevich's go-to guy on the board of trustees. Under questioning by the review panel last week, he estimated that he forwarded up to four names a year on behalf of the now-indicted governor and his inner-circle-turned-co-defendants Chris Kelly, Lon Monk and John Harris.

All of the trustees -- except for Edward McMillan, who joined the board in May -- forwarded "inquiries" that ended up in Category I, a Tribune investigation found.

Some of them seemed to regard such interventions as a job perk, sort of like the friends-and-family discount enjoyed by retail employees. One as-yet unidentified trustee twice used his position to make sure a relative got into the classes he wanted, jumping ahead of hundreds of other students.

Board Chairman Niranjan Shah lobbied for nine applicants in the last three years. In a January 2006 e-mail to Chancellor Richard Herman, he inquired about "the son of a key employee of mine. ... I wonder if you might be able to see if anything can be done here." In a 2007 e-mail, he asked Herman to "take a second look" at two applicants who had been denied admission.

Eppley helped reverse the university's rejection of a relative of convicted influence-peddler Antoin "Tony" Rezko. Herman forced the law school to admit a relative of Blagojevich donor Kerry Peck -- over the dean's bitter protest -- because Eppley told him the governor ordered it, according to Herman's testimony to the commission.

Eppley said he can't recall a discussion about the applicant, perhaps because the pertinent e-mail exchange occurred the same weekend the university lost its final appeal in the Chief Illiniwek case. He told the commission he has scant memory of any of the applicants he pushed -- 19 of them in the last three years alone. The sun gets in his eyes a lot, we suppose.

Eppley said he doesn't know how or why the Blagojevich team clouted him into the board chairman's seat -- even though he was the newest member of the board and it was, by long-standing tradition, trustee Kenneth Schmidt's turn -- or why Eppley was still chairman six years later, when the normal term is two.

(At their January meeting, which occurred after Blagojevich was impeached but before he was removed from office, the trustees elected Shah as chairman.)Testifying before the admissions review panel last week, Eppley acknowledged no link between the good things that happened to him during the Blagojevich era and the bad things that were happening in the admissions office. All he was doing was passing on names, he said. It seemed benign back then.

"You didn't see anything wrong with it at the time, before the Tribune told you it was wrong?" commission chair Abner Mikva asked.

Nope.

Apparently, none of the trustees did. They were just passing along "inquiries" or asking for "status reports," they say, completely unaware that their involvement carried any weight. Even now, Schmidt just doesn't get that a trustee shouldn't intervene in his son's law school application.

Pressure is growing from political leaders and respected educators for a sweep of the board. "It is within the Governor's power to alter the composition of the board and ... appoint a generation of Trustees who will create a new culture of governance," former Presidents Stanley Ikenberry and James Stukel and former Chancellors Morton Weir and Michael Aiken wrote in a letter last week to the commission.

The most charitable reading of the situation is that some of the trustees were hopelessly naive, but if Gov. Pat Quinn wants to restore public confidence in the integrity of the state's flagship university, he can't afford to be charitable.

McMillan, the newest member, should get a pass. But the rest of the trustees were either complicit, compliant or clueless. The university needs a fresh start without them.

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/opinion/edit...

They were just passing along "inquiries" or asking for "status reports," they say, completely unaware that their involvement carried any weight.

Oh! I get it! Sorta like when "Big Tony" or "Johnny No Thumbs" goes over to see if a local business has considered an offer from the Gambino family to go into business together - its just an inquiry...no pressure...doesnt carry any "weight" (well maybe the cement blocks tied around your waist carry some as you're dumped into the Hudson).

Lesley Stahl is doing a segment on the upswing in gun purchases in the U.S. in recent months.....60 minutes tonight.

I thought thy were gonna do a full Cronkite memorial tonight? I'm watching now, but I didn't see the first 10 minutes of the show to know what's coming up.

oh - I was going by what I saw on the TV-Guide online listing. I check to see if there's anything "interesting."

Celebrating Cronkite while ignoring what he did

"The Vietcong did not win by a knockout [in the Tet Offensive], but neither did we. The referees of history may make it a draw. . . . We have been too often disappointed by the optimism of the American leaders, both in Vietnam and Washington, to have faith any longer in the silver linings they find in the darkest clouds. . . .
"For it seems now more certain than ever that the bloody experience of Vietnam is to end in a stalemate. . . . To say that we are closer to victory today is to believe, in the face of the evidence, the optimists who have been wrong in the past" -- Walter Cronkite, CBS Evening News, February 27, 1968.


"I think there are a lot of critics who think that [in the run-up to the Iraq War] . . . . if we did not stand up and say this is bogus, and you're a liar, and why are you doing this, that we didn't do our job. I respectfully disagree. It's not our role" -- David Gregory, MSNBC, May 28, 2008.


http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/07/...

Victims of music torture are subjected to deafening music played for hours, days and months on end in order to ‘break’ them. Such techniques are currently used by the US military to destroy victims psychologically; the long-term damage is often far more devastating than physical injury. Recently released detainee from Guantanamo Bay says "There was loud music, [Eminem’s] ‘Slim Shady’ and Dr. Dre for 20 days."

Should the Military Pay Dr Dre For Using His Music?

Musician and human rights campaigner Peter Gabriel has today written to President Obama requesting an explicit ban on the use of music by US military interrogators.

The letter is co-signed by the Musicians' Union and UK Music and supported by artists including Dizzee Rascal, Graham Coxon and Doves.

Victims of music torture are subjected to deafening music played for hours, days and months on end in order to ‘break’ them. Such techniques are currently used by the US military to destroy victims psychologically; the long-term damage is often far more devastating than physical injury.

<snip>

“We are, of course, against all forms of torture, but as musicians we are particularly concerned about the misuse of music and that this practice may slip under the radar unless you explicitly condemn it,” Peter Gabriel writes to the President in today’s letter.

“The practice is an abuse of our rights as well as, of course, those of the prisoners who are subjected to it.

“We ask you to send a clear message and explicitly outlaw the use of music to ‘break’ and interrogate prisoners.”

Weekend box office: 'Harry Potter' opens to $159.6 million, '500 Days' starts
big

"Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince," continuing the series' strong
performance at the box office but failing to significantly outperform its
predecessor, sold $159.6 million worth of tickets on its first five days in the
U.S. and Canada, according to Warner Bros.

That's a solid opening given that the movie cost Warners $250 million to produce
and another $155 million to market and distribute around the world. It's the
third-biggest launch ever for a movie that opened on a Wednesday.

It initially looked like "Half-Blood Prince" would earn much more when it broke
the record for midnight debut shows, earning $22.2 million. It quickly slowed
down from that torrid start, however, settling into a performance that otherwise
essentially tracked the $139.7-million five-day opening of 2007's "Harry Potter
and the Order of the Phoenix," plus ticket-price inflation.

Indie romantic comedy "500 Days of Summer" opened to huge numbers at 27
locations. It earned an estimated $837,500, giving it a big per-theater average
of $31,000 and setting it up for a very strong run


Box office top ten:

1. 'Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince' - $79,475,000

2. 'Ice Age: Dawn of the Dinosaurs' - $17,700,000

3. 'Transformers: Revenge of the Fallen' - $13,750,000

4. 'Bruno' - $8,374,000

5. 'The Hangover' - $8,315,000

6. 'The Proposal' - $8,294,000

7. 'Public Enemies ' - $7,592,000

8. 'Up' - $3,147,000

9. 'My Sister's Keeper' - $2,825,000

10. 'I Love You, Beth Cooper' - $2,665,000

Thank God

Once-Trendy Crocs Could Be on Their Last Legs

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/ar...

I hope they stay afloat we are family of Croc wearers.

Heeey, I wear crocs LOL :p

LOL....I cannot STAND the sight of crocs - its like the scratching of a chalkboard to my eyes!

Don't worry I only wear them in the house. :)

Homeless people die after bird flu vaccine trial in Poland. .21 people died after being given the vaccine. Three Polish doctors and six nurses are facing criminal prosecution after a number of homeless people died following medical trials for a vaccine to the H5N1 bird-flu virus. Meanwhile, on the home front, U.S. set to give legal Immunity for Swine Flu Vaccine Makers

Vaccination Kills: Deaths resulting from medical trials for a vaccine to the H5N1 bird-flu virus

The medical staff, from the northern town of Grudziadz, are being investigated over medical trials on as many as 350 homeless and poor people last year, which prosecutors say involved an untried vaccine to the highly-contagious virus.

Authorities claim that the alleged victims received £1-2 to be tested with what they thought was a conventional flu vaccine but, according to investigators, was actually an anti bird-flu drug.

The director of a Grudziadz homeless centre, Mieczyslaw Waclawski, told a Polish newspaper that last year, 21 people from his centre died, a figure well above the average of about eight.

---

In the U.S. School-age Children Key Targets of Flu Vaccine. I sincerely feel that we should learn more about the vaccine before the mass vaccination starts.

The young soldier "kidnapped" by the Taliban in Afghanistan? I was watching GPS this morning on CNN, and with the news break - this came on and it was kind of stunning - considering how many troops we have overseas.

Well, GPS was awesome this morning...it is back on now, for those who may not have caught it.

It was great listening to how Rwanda has prevailed with an approach no one else uses. The killers and victims live next to each other, the country is prospering and the technique of the Rwanda President needs to be taken note of.

Hope he makes it home safe but if he gets waterboaded and tortured I wonder how many of the armchair chickenhawks will cry foul.

The first thing I thought of was Guantanamo because 'the authorities' are saying the video released is humiliating the soldier and against international law. Really? And HOW many times did we tell these numbnutted fuckheads - don't torture people!?!

Very interesting post on Pat Buchanan. Long story short: Maybe the children ARE THE FUTURE!

A tiny bit more on grumpus Pat Buchanan

Interesting that you are pointing this out, Rikyrah. I have been wondering about all of this myself, what with all of the President's foreign travel and resetting of policy--she's been practically invisible, except for when she presented the symbolic 'reset' button to her Russian counterpart, only to be told that the translation for the word 'reset' was incorrect...ouch!

Yes, I saw it. There were several days on the M$M Hilary is being pushed out memes. Sounds like their co-president plans are misfiring.

Lawd knows that we had problems with Condi, but she was Secretary of State for W, and had to shill his policies, plain and simple. That's what Clinton is supposed to do.

Yep, HRC, is doing exactly as she should. Like President Obama said "I set the policy, they execute"

Glad to see that is how it is working...she is not suppose to be a star. Obama is the President and she is executing as HE planned.

IF there is a resolution or progress on the Iraeli-Palestinian conflict, then she will go down in history as the SOS...HE sets the policy she merely EXECUTES it...but make no mistake HISTORICALLY Obama will get the lions credit for that..as it SHOULD be.

His judgment DECIDED she only EXECUTES it.

Exactly.

I don't know about whose or what 'co-president plans' are misfiring. Just a reminder: She broke her wrist a few weeks ago; it's healing and it might even be painful for her. I don't read something into every little step, side-step, trip or fall that happens.

She broke her elbow. Breaking any joint is BAD...but elbow is worse than wrist...knee is bad as ankle.

Agreed. The M$M segments that I am addressing is related to her role as SoS. There seem to be "concerns" that her SoS activities were not given enough airtime.

"There seem to be "concerns" that her SoS activities were not given enough airtime."

Those 'concerns' are about white entitlement vs. the power of the Presidency...since he is black and all..they wanna act like that does not supercede her job being and all that she is white...and it DOES.

Amen!

Oops, there it is!

"Those 'concerns' are about white entitlement vs. the power of the Presidency...since he is black and all..they wanna act like that does not supercede her job being and all that she is white...and it DOES."

Even if PBO didn't call for transparency in his administration, we could call out the bullshit in a blackout.

I think the "Hilary is not getting enough limelight/visibility" memes is a bit surreal. My question to those who make such a statement, why suddenly the SoS needs airtime for speeches?

On Friday, July 10th, Alaska Governor Sarah Palin signed House Joint Resolution 27 (HJR27), sponsored by State Rep. Mike Kelly. The resolution “claims sovereignty for the state under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States.”

Palin Signs Alaska Sovereignty Resolution

The House passed the resolution by a vote of 37-0 (3 not voting) and the Senate passed it by a vote of 40-0.

Six other states have had both houses of their legislature pass similar resolutions - Tennessee, Idaho, North Dakota, South Dakota, Oklahoma and Louisiana - Alaska joins Tennessee as the second to have such a resolution signed by the Governor.

A GROWING MOVEMENT

Passage of this resolution appears to be part of what is now a growing state-level resistance to the federal government on various levels. Similar 10th Amendment resolutions have been introduced in 37 states around the country, and various states are considering single-issue legislation in direct contravention to federal laws.

Most recently, the Arizona Legislature passed a measure for public approval on the 2010 state ballot that would give Arizona voters the opportunity to nullify, or opt out, of any potential national health care legislation.

Since 2007, more than two dozen states have passed legislation refusing to implement the Real ID act of 2005. In response, the federal government has recently announced that they want to “repeal and replace” the law due to a rebellion by states.

Pending legislation in states around the country also includes preventing state law enforcement officials from enforcing federal laws, refusing federal gun regulations, refusing to send a state’s national guard to any duty other than what the constitution authorizes, legalizing marijuana for various purposes and more.

---

Wow.

Looks like they waited until the black guy got into office to push the secessionist movement in earnest. If these wack jobs continue unabated with their agenda, Obama will have more in common with Lincoln than we can ever imagined. Meaning, a President perhaps dealing with a civil war or just trying to keep the union together.

Will someone explain to me how the 10th Amendment got made into a call for seccession?

I'm really not seeing the connection.

I don't know but here :Tenth Amendment Talking Points

I say let them have their stupid, ill considered movement. In the end it's all about the green, disaster aid, and law enforcement when the locals can't deal. These states talk big until something bad happens to them.
Funny how Perry in Texas got quiet about secession when it came to the point of his state going bankrupt, now he's begging the fed for a loan and is a whole lot quieter. Palin's legislature made her take the stim money and a kid sued Sanford to force him to take it the SC stimulus money. The crazy republican base will always want to get the hell out of the union as long as someone like George Bush ( who kicked their ass) isn't in office.

People are letting ideologues who care nothing for their well-being dish out this secessionist swill that will eventually come back to bite them all in the ass-- all because they fear a black man who wants to make their poor assed lives a whole lot more livable. Eff 'em.

You notice all these states are on welfare from Uncle Sam.The main one being Alaska.I say dont give them anymore of tax dollars than they pay.Then we will see and hear how much they hate the Federal Government.

Aren't Alaska and Hawaii, strategic in terms of National Security? You know Russia and Japan/China, respectively?

At first I thought you were being funny but I see you are serious so lets explore your points.First why would Japan attack the US?You think since they didn't get Pearl Harbor right the first time they are planning to try again.As far as China is concern our economies are to intertwined for them to start a war.Now Russia, maybe you believe Sister Sarah that we need to keep an eye on Putin raising his head but we have this thing called Norad and if Russia attacks the missiles would come over the Arctic circle and not thru downtown Wassila.Oh by the way if you fell for the ronnie raygun cartoon of us shooting down ballistic missiles I have some prime beach front in Arizona for you.Get in on it now all you have to do is wait for the big one.

"At first I thought you were being funny but I see you are serious so lets explore your points.First why would Japan attack the US?Y"

It is not about whether they would TODAY, rather it is about WHY those countries were STRATEGIC national interests at that time in our history. AND we have no way of knowing if they would not STILL do so today, do we?

Does Japan need OIL more than US? Did you read The Coming War with Japan?

"As far as China is concern our economies are to intertwined for them to start a war"

China's war is financial, and for the most part they have succeeded...they are our bankers...bankers to a society that bases everything on capitalism. Many would say they identified the achilles heel and have won the war. Witness the global financial crisis. We had no leverage, other than as the biggest DEBTOR!

"Now Russia, "

As far as Russia goes..what was that country that had the meltdown during the General, (too tired to goggle) banking on the USA backing them up? I think Russia proved their might there, did they not?

The world is smaller, but that does not mean that those countries are any LESS of a strategic interest when it comes to military engagement.

Hi, djchefron

You're better than me. I say - let them secede. This means that Alaska, Texas, et al, are on their own - a sovereign country 'country', if you will. Just off the top of my head, these country 'countries' would no longer have access to the following:

Federal road improvement funds
Federal improvement funds for bridges
Federal education funds
Federal Aid To Dependent Children funds
Federal Medicaid funds
Federal Head Start funds
Federal disaster aid relief funds
Federal grants for police and fire departments
Federal aid for rural communities

So... let 'em go ahead. We will see how far this crap goes when the electorate in these country 'countries' realise how much their 'government' will be in their pockets to make up for the funds that were lost in seceding from the U.S.

And let them have quotas for becoming resident aliens in the proper USA. Heh...visas that are no longer than three months...heh...Lets have an embargo on their goods...lets see what are they again? heh

Seriously--cut the purse strings, close the bases, stop the farm subsidies and the DOJ $ helping to fight meth, the HHS money for Medicaid for redneck teenagers' maternal/fetal health, cut the highway funds. Hmmm...

and send it to states that have no problems with staying in The Union.

Those states are strategic national security interests. Both are the closest to the MAINLAND from Russia and China/Japan.

Let's not get stupid, just cause we have not had recent conflicts.

I hope our President lets them go! Where are they going! They know what they will lose if they lose the "security" of the United States. Who will pay their Social Security? Who will protect them from their "enemies"? Who will provide the States the money to collect their garbage? Don't let them fool you; they are trying to "bluff". Let's call it. Who needs them?

Did you all see this mess?

Obama's Other Wife
by Tina Brown
Alexey Druzhinin, AFP / Getty Images In an article that reverberated through the media all week, Tina Brown on how Clinton became the invisible woman at the State Department over the past six months.


Read more analysis on Hillary's speech from other Daily Beast writers.

It’s time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa.

Consider the president’s Moscow trip a week ago. In a cozy scene at Vladimir Putin’s dacha, the boys enjoyed traditional Russian tea and breakfast on a terrace. Sitting on Putin’s right was the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. Where was Lavrov’s counterpart? She was back home, left there with a broken elbow to receive a visit from the ousted Honduran president, José Manuel Zelaya.

It becomes clearer by the day how cleverly Obama checkmated both Clintons by putting Hillary in the topmost Cabinet job.

Same thing last month, when the president stopped off to see King Abdullah en route to his oratorical home run in Cairo: no Hillary. Nor was there any sign of Middle East envoy George Mitchell or anyone else from the State Department on the Saudi leg of the trip, even though its main mission was to recruit Abdullah into a peace-making partnership with Israel. The king told Obama no, by the way, so it’s fair to ask whether the president could have used a bit more Foggy Bottom prep work. Jim Hoagland noted in Sunday’s Washington Post that the White House’s leak of Obama’s decision to send an ambassador to Syria took Clinton’s State Department by surprise and trumped State’s efforts to squeeze another concession or two out of Damascus first.

Hillary finds herself in a familiar bind with a different twist. If she allows daylight between herself and the president, she becomes the kind of lame duck Colin Powell became once foreign powers realized the ex-general was nowhere near Bush’s inner circle. It becomes clearer by the day how brilliantly Obama checkmated both Clintons by putting Hillary in the topmost Cabinet job. Secretary Clinton can’t be seen to differ from the president without sabotaging her own power. And ex-President Clinton has been uncharacteristically disciplined about not threatening the careful political equilibrium his wife is trying to maintain. Besides, when Hillary had her own deep misgivings about taking the job in the first place, it was Bill who seconded Obama and encouraged her to accept.

http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/...

Obama's Other Wife...

It’s time for Barack Obama to let Hillary Clinton take off her burqa...

That’s the trouble. You could say that Obama is lucky to have such a great foreign-policy wife. Those who voted for Hillary wonder how long she'll be content with an office wifehood of the Saudi variety...


The remix of the "Obama's really a Muslim" meme, as well as a dog whistle of the racist sexual stereotype of black men, particularly when it comes to white women. I. See. You. Tina. Brown.

It becomes clearer by the day how brilliantly Obama checkmated both Clintons by putting Hillary in the topmost Cabinet job.

And that's why they mad!

Obama is right. He is establishing his power HE is the President..HE sets policy, HRC executes. HE let all those HEADS of STATE know, he is in command, as he should. HRC is his emissary, and when she DOES visit them..they will KNOW she carries his MISSION not hers.

President Obama is RIGHT. He IS the BIG dog..if you have a problem with his SOS you need to call him cause she speaks for HIM!

Tina Brown huh??

Damn, how many lives do these "pumas" have anyway?

And I've noticed that Hillz has been complaining about the vetting process of the Obama administration.....interesting.

Yep! PUMA's at work..but this is more CUMA when they try to divide Obama and HRC.

These feminists THINK they can carve out a role for her and they can't.
President Obama is IN command.

Doing it!!

and

I am lovin it!!

"And I've noticed that Hillz has been complaining about the vetting process of the Obama administration.....interesting."

Was she complaining or stating the stark truth for why very capable individuals are NOT in the administration? In a perverse way she gave herself and those in the cabinet more CREDS...they COULD and DID pass the security requirements.

THAT says a WHOLE lot, especially given all the NASTY stuff said about the Clintons. SHE and others submitted and PASSED...so what does that tell you about the rest of the "HIGHLY QUALIFIED"?

Seems to me their bkgrds can't take the same scrutiny.

Well she is partly at fault for that. she was one of the ones harping on the Rev. Wright business. I guess from that Obama learn that he can't be too careful.

How does Rev Wright fit with the security clearance and vetting process in terms of HRC and President Obama? How does that make it partly her fault? Most of those folks had nothing to do with Wright.

Also after all the paperwork I had to fill out just to get my crappy document coder job, I have little sympathy about security clearances.

All I'm saying was that she was one of the one harping on Wright during the primaries. So he decided to be careful.