Thursday, July 30, 2009

US colonel – TOTALLY leave Iraq by 2010



Col. Timothy Reese, advising Iraq’s Baghdad command, says keeping U.S. forces in Iraq beyond 2010 will only foster a sense of dependency and delayed development in Iraqi forces. Therefore, even though corruption and other problems remain high, it’s a href="http://www.nytimes.com/2009/07/31/world/middleeast/31adviser.html"time for us to get out/a:br /blockquote “As the old saying goes, ‘Guests, like fish, begin to smell after three days.’ ” Colonel Reese wrote. “Since the signing of the 2009 Security Agreement, we are guests in Iraq, and after six years in Iraq, we now smell bad to the Iraqi nose.”/blockquotebr /Reese said Iraqi troops have become “cooler” to U.S. advisors, imposed new restrictions on troops and done other things that make our presence less and less worthwhile.br /br /Gen. Ray Odierno, Iraq theater commander, stressed, when questioned, that Reese’s comments were NOT official U.S. policy. Speaking of that, official policy calls for us to still have 50K troops there a year from now.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-4371869414632684970?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div

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The Economist on Nick Clegg



From the new a href="http://www.economist.com/world/britain/displaystory.cfm?story_id=14140761"Economist/a:divblockquoteMr Clegg influences politics in two ways that depend little on his party’s electoral showing, however. If the next election yields a hung parliament, the Lib Dems may enter government in coalition with either of the big parties. Even if they lose MPs (and many of their southern ones are vulnerable to the Tories), they need only hang on to third place for Mr Clegg to remain kingmaker-in-waiting./blockquoteblockquoteThis consideration doubtless plays a part in the government’s hints that it is pondering a referendum on a “fairer” voting system. The Lib Dems crave full-blown proportional representation but may decide the best chance of any reform lies with Labour./blockquoteblockquoteMr Clegg can also shift the political debate in his direction. His campaign on behalf of veteran Gurkhas, the Nepalese soldiers who serve Britain, forced a government u-turn in April. The decision of some Lib Dems to monitor police conduct during the G20 protests was seen as pretentious by many, but it was vindicated by events. Mr Clegg was also the first party leader to call for the resignation of Michael Martin, the former speaker of the House of Commons, who duly stood down in June./blockquoteblockquoteHis outrider status may prove as influential on matters of tax and spend. He has named government schemes he wants scrapped (baby bonds) or shrunk (the nuclear deterrent). The fiscal crisis may yet force the two big parties to be as specific./blockquote/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6606798-3432183181020335838?l=liberalengland.blogspot.com'//div

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Honduras – Micheletti softens on possible Zelaya return



Honduras’ interim president, Roberto Micheletti, says he is open to even discussing a href="http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090730/wl_nm/us_honduras_2"the restoration to office/a of ousted (ex)-President Manuel Zelaya.br /br /Now, that’s with the caveat that Zelaya attempt nothing along the lines of what got him the boot from Honduras three weeks ago.br /br /I give the likelihood of him making an acceptable pledge to that end at about 50-50.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-1794386130768679677?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div

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Esther Rantzen launches her campaign in Luton South



a onblur="try {parent.deselectBloggerImageGracefully();} catch(e) {}" href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj09fjLgdWqmr7aIpAn5gCVlQ06sRQFc4TNuwrF_lR4lWdxE-b9-3xQMyOlOESM0tttGiKFc99l7PV5tjbHGJ-5zq6wlFRu1PLnAdiq3OW30_ZJqoqeiShTk98RB8IxwrrL0tOtZSXpBp9T/s1600-h/vegetable.bmp"img style="cursor:pointer; cursor:hand;width: 400px; height: 300px;" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj09fjLgdWqmr7aIpAn5gCVlQ06sRQFc4TNuwrF_lR4lWdxE-b9-3xQMyOlOESM0tttGiKFc99l7PV5tjbHGJ-5zq6wlFRu1PLnAdiq3OW30_ZJqoqeiShTk98RB8IxwrrL0tOtZSXpBp9T/s400/vegetable.bmp" border="0" alt="" id="BLOGGER_PHOTO_ID_5364297600085248434" //adiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/6606798-3674072726882115613?l=liberalengland.blogspot.com'//div

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A Compromise Too Far



I now officially regret having voted for the President.  First, a href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-05-10/obamas-dont-ask-dont-tell-hypocrisy/"no movement on /aa href="http://www.thedailybeast.com/blogs-and-stories/2009-05-10/obamas-dont-ask-dont-tell-hypocrisy/"DADT/a.  Second, bailing out the very people who brought the global economy down.  Third, criminally not pushing for an NHS style socialized medicine for the United States.  (OK, I am angry about the first, moderately miffed about the second, and employing a sense of humor about the third -- although one of the best things about living in the UK is the NHS.)divbr //divdivBut this is a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/07/29/the-beers-obama-gates-cro_n_247392.html"too much/a.  Bud Light?  What the hell are you thinking, man?divbr //divdivIf you have to prove you're down with the folk, go for Busch, full on Bud, Old Milwaukee, or in a wink to hipsters everywhere, PBR.  But Bud freaking Light?/divdivbr //divdivThe NYT has an interesting, even entertaining analysis of this debacle, and correctly points out that the Blue Moon has a href="http://thepour.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/07/30/a-cold-one-at-the-white-house/?hp"no craft beer cred/a.  /div/divdiv class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-6836827439763906629?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div

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Physcians Charging For Medical Services--How Shocking!



It's been a while since a troll has advanced it at our site, but I've always had a morbid fascination with conservative attempts to portray doctors who perform abortions as profiteers and hence, somehow immoral. a href="http://jezebel.com/5325700/who-is-enriching-himself-in-the-abortion-debate"This gets at/a some of the idiocies with this line of "argument." Most obviously, any ob-gyn who was concerned primarily with profits would tend to abjure abortions, given that just delivering babies is more lucrative and generally doesn't require hiring security to protect you from terrorists.div class="blogger-post-footer"img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7163938-1053323357770131197?l=lefarkins.blogspot.com'//div

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Pete Sessions, earmark hypocrite



Of course, this isn’t anywhere near the first case of BS from the Dallas congressman, but Mr. Anti-Earmark steering an earmark of nearly $2 mil a href="http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0709/25599.html"to a company not even in his district/a has moved the Sessions bar even lower.div class="blogger-post-footer"There is no god and I am his prophet.img width='1' height='1' src='https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/tracker/7532871-8799324551198077710?l=socraticgadfly.blogspot.com'//div

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