They apparently needed a study to confirm that there are more men in news stories because there are more men “holding positions of authority.” The “solution”? Do different types of stories that “interest women.” That wouldn’t be condescending or playing to stereotypes, would it?
Thomas Friedman cautions the President-elect to get real: “So whether its cars, Kabul or banks, we have to stop wishing for the worlds we want and start dealing with the things themselves. ” No change we can believe in? No transformative presidency?
You have to love the tone of protectiveness as the media explains Rahm Emanuel was just doing his job, conveying approved candidates. Nothing to see. Just walk along.
Good grief: “Faced with painful choices about who will suffer most from looming budget cuts, Alexandria officials have taken the unusual step of paying a professional ethicist to help them grapple with the moral issues involved.” Have we so completely lost confidence in our ability to self-govern that we must resort to pseudo-experts to tell us what to do? Yup.
Secretary of Defense Robert Gates declares: ““So anyone who thought that the upcoming months might present opportunities to ‘test’ the new president would be sorely mistaken.” Yeah, you got that Mr. Vice President-elect!?
The A.P. reports: “Despite a summer deadline to pull American combat troops from urban areas, thousands will stay in cities to support and train Iraqis, the top U.S. commander in Iraq said Saturday.” I am so comforted by the election of John McCain Barack Obama because I can now rest easier that there will be no precipitous withdrawal of U.S. forces, even if it takes years to stabilize Iraq.
David Broder writes: “When you talk about reorganizing one-sixth of the U.S. economy and changing the way a vital service is delivered, every single decision from the most trivial to the monumental will be controversial.” This is supposed to make me feel better about health care reform? But don’t you see, its passage will be proof positive that ”representative government” can work. First we had to prove we weren’t racists by electing Barack Obama, now we have to support nationalized health care to show we don’t despise our system of government. It never ends.
This is precisely right: “ I’m hearing the truly bizarre argument that the UAW didn’t scuttle the negotiations; it was the Republicans unreasonable insistence that they cut their wages to levels comparable to that of their competition. After all, the UAW was perfectly willing to negotiate their compensation package–in 2011, when their current contract expires.And I think that’s perfectly reasonable. We’ll just wait until 2011 to give them the money, then.” This is all a stunningly effective argument for bankruptcy, where collective bargaining muscle counts for nothing and the judge can refashion labor agreements.
The Bobby Jindal media swoon continues. Even though he said “no” to 2012, politicians have been known to change their minds when a “spontaneous” outpouring of excitement lifts them to the nomination. (I’m not buying that his 2011 race for governor makes it impossible for him to run for President the following year — if we learned anything from 2008 it was that every effort before January 2008 was wasted time and money.)
The Coleman-Franken recount has now become a mess, as rejected absentee ballots get counted and Coleman goes to court. We should follow Harry Reid’s advice on Illinois — let the Governor appoint the successor.
“Obama might figure he has to maintain his campaign pledge to “end the war,” but if is willing to extend his 16-month pullout timetable by three months, why not by more?”
Because the only way to cut defense and pay for a few trillion dollars worth of other stuff is by taking the troops out of Iraq, or so the President’s budget gurus think.
It’ll be another “peace dividend,” only this time we won’t be at peace.
Heaven forbid we get into *another* war in the next couple of years.
by August 2010? .. in a word .. “elections”
Get a grip. You spin this “leak” as if Obama’s plan wasn’t always to leave about 50,000 troops in Iraq. It’s not newfound pragmatism that “mitigates somewhat the risks of President Obama’s forthcoming pullout.” It’s the number his advisors gave throughout most of the campaign and what experts have long assumed.
Here’s an LA Times story from December 2008:
“Although Obama has proposed removing all combat troops in 16 months, he has proposed a residual force after May 2010. Advisors have said that residual force could consist of as many as 50,000 troops.”
http//
articles.latimes.com/2008/dec/19/nation/na-obama-troops19
Here’s a VOA news report from about the same time:
“U.S. and Iraqi officials, and President-elect Barack Obama, have spoken about the need for some “residual” U.S. force in Iraq beyond 2011. Experts put the size of the force at perhaps 40,000, or 50,000 troops, about one third the size of the current force.”
Google and you’ll see these same sort of figures being kicked about by the Obama campaign for more than a year. And reassigment of combat soldiers to support roles has been going on for months. They complain about it loudly. So there really is no aspect of this story that is new. Save for the extra three months — not unexpected since Obama promised to incorporate the advice of his commanders — this is another instance of Obama keeping his campaign promises.
Early on in the campaign Obama made the promise to end the Iraq war and to pull out of Iraq. He called the Surge strategy preordained to fail. When it wasn’t the debacle that the usual critics anticipated, and as McCain was beating him in the polls before the economic meltdown, suddenly the fine print appeared about residual forces. It is certainly better than the initial consequences and facts be damned approach, but shouldn’t a president as opposed to a candidate move beyond symbolic gestures such as closing Gitmo for no good reason or withdrawing troops unless its militarily warranted when dealing with something as important as national security?
Obama promised to (without saying it directly) bring about socialism to our (capitistic)
society. He pledged to withdraw from Iraq within 16 months of being elected.
He is keeping to both promises, even though we (US) and Iraq’s parliament have agreed to 2011 and many on the right are warning of increasing governmental control of our
banks, etc.
John McCain and George Bush were loath to have a timeline (deadline) and for good reason.
They knew that timelines would simply embolden our enemies in Iraq.
Can we imagine how Hitler and Tojo would have behaved it the Allies had set timelines.
Let’s imagine our withdrawal from Europe after Normandy within one year. I can just
see Hitler’s generals now, plotting and planning accordingly. Would they have
thrown in those 200,000 young, fresh troops at the Battle of the Bulge.
Let’s assume we gave Hanoi a reasonable timeline. Would there have
been the Battle of Tet?
Bill Maher said the other night on public TV that Al Qaeda are just a bunch
of bearded men sitting around in a cave, and nothing to fear., believing
we (the US) are fragile and ready to go over the cliff.
Well, in fact, Al Qaeda are ensconsed in 60 countries, allied with
Hamas, Hezbollah and Sunni insurgents in Iraq ( who on a dime and for a dime will revert
back to anti-US activities ). Young Pakistanis for a rifle and seven dollars, will gladly
kill our troops next door in Afghanistan. And there is plenty of opium money to pay them.
This conflict in Iraq is only about oil..and they have it and we need it, Obama’s planned energy
policies notwithstanding. Afghanistan is not about territory, the Taliban control it, It’s about
opium, billions of dollars in opium sales. They have it, Europe and we need it.
No. Korea is planning to test a long range missile capable of reaching California.
Iran is now operating it’s first uranium plant and will have 50,000 centrifuges within a few years. ( Centrifuges are used to spin uranium gas to manufacture fissionable material).
Venezuela now will permit Chaves, it’s blatantly anti-US leader to lead indefinitely, with a little
arm twisting of his population.
Syria wants the Golan Heights back..so it can threaten it’s neighbors more conveniently,
while secretly operating nuke plants (it says being used for other purposes).
Unfortuntately, Obama and his delusional advisers, just don’t get it.
Hopefully before there is a mushroom cloud over US or our best friends,
they will get it and wake-up.
# 3 Graham -Even I posted last year that there wold need to be at least 40,000 personnel in Iraq long term.
NOBODY leaves facilities such as those built by USa – 5 bases & a mega embassy -worlds largest ever).
I am not a military genius -nor even American.