Where is the 'CHANGE' President Obama promised? We are "OUTTA' there.

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Last US Combat Troops Leave Iraq  (click title to entry - thank you)

Dan Robinson
Washington
18 August 2010

Two weeks ahead of the schedule set by President Barack Obama, the last U.S. combat troops have left Iraq. The departure fulfills a commitment that Mr. Obama made to transition the U.S. presence in Iraq from a military-led mission to an advisory and training operation.
U.S. news agencies and television networks embedded with departing troops confirmed the withdrawal, as the 4th Stryker Brigade, 2nd Infantry Division, which was officially designated as the last brigade to leave Iraq, crossed into Kuwait at the Khabari border crossing.
The departure is well ahead of the August 31st deadline set by President Obama for ending combat operations, and comes seven years and five months after the U.S. and coalition forces invaded Iraq in March 2003.
The news came at the end of an otherwise quiet news day in which President Obama was concluding a multi-state cross country trip focused on the U.S. economy and supporting Democratic political candidates.
Neither the president nor officials traveling with him gave any indication in advance of the accelerated withdrawal, nor did the White House issue any immediate statement...

When is the "Ground Breaking Ceremony" for the Lower Manhattan Mosque? This is all getting out of hand.

                                                                                             They are organizing a Sept. 11 rally against the mosque that will feature former U.S. House speaker Newt Gingrich. They advise the FBI and other government security agencies on the threats posed by Islamic radicalism, headline "tea party" events and attract millions of readers concerned or curious about Islam to Web sites with names such as Jihad Watch, Creeping Sharia and Stop Islamization of America....

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081802582.html

It is a political plot.  Innocent people are being victimized to propagate fear and it is taking root in other areas of the country.  This is outrageous !  The media is attempting to produce a fire storm.

...The Pentagon Memorial Chapel, which is maintained by the Pentagon Chaplain's Office, allows Muslims as well as Jews, Protestants, Catholics, Hindus and adherents of other denominations to worship just 80 feet or so from the site of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in Washington.
Pentagon officials told the AP that no families of the victims of 9/11 or members of the military have ever protested the fact that Muslims worship near hallowed ground -- or that the Pentagon itself promotes the open, nondenominational use of the chapel...

http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local-beat/A-Ground-Zero-Mosque-in-Action-101009619.html


The Republicans have NO ISSUES to run on, so they victimize innocent people and who cares if there are injuries or death along the way.  They need to be held responsible should something tragic happen.




The Republicans are so very, very "W"rong.  They need to apologize to the country.


Op-Ed:
Couple behind Ground Zero mosque a model of tolerance


By Walter Ruby · August 18, 2010
NEW YORK (JTA) -- Over the last few months, I have had a front-row seat to history.
Last May, I spoke at a public hearing of Manhattan’s Community Board No. 1 in support of Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf and Daisy Khan, the husband-and-wife team who initiated plans to build a 13-story Islamic community center two blocks north of Ground Zero.
I was there on behalf of the Foundation for Ethnic Understanding, which has worked with the group Rauf and Khan lead, the American Society for Muslim Advancement, in ongoing efforts to strengthen Muslim-Jewish relations in the United States and around the world.
In my testimony at the hearing, I said that since our organizations began cooperating three years ago, I have consistently found both Feisal and Khan to be unequivocally opposed to violence and terrorism and deeply committed to the American values of democracy and pluralism. These are values, Feisal argues in his book, “What’s Right with Islam,” that are intrinsic to Islam as well....


http://www.jta.org/news/article/2010/08/18/2740526/op-ed-couple-behind-ground-zero-mosque-a-model-of-tolerance


Anyone recall the Mission of The Daniel Pearl Foundation?

No?

Let me remind you.

Mission:  (click title to entry - thank you)
Mutual understanding and improved relationship between Muslim and Jews through frank and respectful dialogue.


The Ongoing Project:
Professors Ahmed and Pearl have been invited to share their dialogue in many stages in the U.S. and abroad. The conversations, which are never the same, cover issues from theology, history and ideology to politics and current news, and encourage audience participation. Two principles guide the conversation; first, no Issue is taboo and, second, respect at all times. Professors Ahmed and Pearl believe that these open and honest dialogues are essential for the future of humanity. It is their hope that these public dialogues will carve a path of legitimacy and inspire individuals and communities to continue the dialogue at the grass roots level.
In 2006, Professors Ahmed and Pearl were among the recipients of the first annual Purpose Prize “in recognition of [their] simple, yet innovative approach to solving one of society’s most pressing problems.”


The opposition to a place of worship and a community center is Anti-American.  I congratulate the Republicans for attaining an all time LOW.

Fighting the good fight. You can always tell when Murdoch is pushing for ratings and/or political bottomlines by the length of the women's skirts that host his shows.

The short skirt issue is especially evident on the "Fox and Friends" show with the low coffee table in front of the hosts.  It will change tomorrow, but, its true.  There were some mornings when the hemline was nearly up to her buttocks while she was sitting down. 

Bye, bye, Laura.  Everyone say good-bye to Laura.  BYEeeeee.

...“Black guys talking (click title to entry - thank you) to each other seem to think it’s O.K.,” she said. “I don’t get it. If anybody without enough melanin says it, it’s a horrible thing. But when black people say it, it’s affectionate.”...

Halliburton wins Iraq oil wells deal (click here)

Baghdad
Mon, 16 Aug 2010

Iraq, along with oil major Royal Dutch Shell and Malaysia's Petronas have awarded a contract to Halliburton Co to drill 15 oil wells in the supergiant Majnoon oilfield, an oil official said on Monday.
Oil and gas services company Petrofac also won a contract to build two new crude processing plants with a capacity of 50,000 bpd per each and to rehabilitate the existing crude plant, the official added. - Reuters

The Iraq invasion was 'designed' by Halliburton under the direction of Dick Cheney when he was Defense Secretary under George H. W. Bush.

Halliburton has a very, very long history of doing business with countries that have supported terrorist networks.  They get away with it because they have so much money they simply pay fines that they view as 'operating costs.'  The USA Justice Department needs to start putting CEOs in prison after the legislature actually puts some 'teeth' into the law.

...Following the end of Operation Desert Storm in February 1991, the Pentagon, led by then Defense Secretary Dick Cheney, paid Halliburton subsidiary Brown & Root Services over $8.5 million to study the use of private military forces with American soldiers in combat zones.[21] Halliburton crews also helped bring 725 burning oil wells under control in Kuwait.[22]
Thomas H. Cruikshank, who served as chairman and CEO from 1989 until 1995, was replaced by Dick Cheney.[23]
In the early 1990s Halliburton was found to be in violation of federal trade barriers in Iraq and Libya, having sold these countries dual-use oil drilling equipment and, through its former subsidiary, Halliburton Logging Services, sending six pulse neutron generators to Libya. After having pleaded guilty, the company was fined $1.2 million, with another $2.61 million in penalties.[24]
During the Balkans conflict in the 1990s, Kellogg Brown-Root (KBR) supported U.S. peacekeeping forces in Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Hungary with food, laundry, transportation and other lifecycle management services.[25]
In 1998 Halliburton merged with Dresser Industries, which included Kellogg. Prescott Bush was a director of Dresser Industries, which is now part of Halliburton. Former United States president George H. W. Bush worked for Dresser Industries in several positions from 1948–1951, before he founded Zapata Corporation.[26]...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halliburton

The corruption won't end until the CEOs and Board of Directors serve time in prison for breaking the law.  To simply fine these huge companies for breaking the law, the USA appears to be a PARTNER that is 'on the take' AFTER THE FACT.

I really don't want to hear how if such laws existed there won't be anyone willing to be a CEO. 

Give me a break!

Alabama Sues BP, Halliburton, & Transocean for "Catastrophic" Oil Spill



Submitted by Leader Staff on August 13, 2010 - 3:50pm.
 
On Friday, Alabama attorney general Troy King announced that the state was suing BP Plc., Halliburton, and Transocean for "catastrophic harm" caused by the oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. Alabama is the first state to sue BP for damage from the worst oil spill in United States' history.
Alabama's decision stems from the fear that economic victims will not be adequately compensated, and that BP will shirk its financial responsibility.
King explained:
"We are making this claim because we believe that BP has inflicted catastrophic harm on the state ... We are suing them for the amount it will take to make Alabama whole."
Amongst others, the lawsuit also named Anadarko Petroleum Corp.
Transocean was the owner of the Deepwater Horizon drilling rig that exploded and sank in April. BP hired the rig. Hallburton provided the cement work for the well, and Anadarko was a minority owner.
The lawsuit alleges:
"It is believed the explosion on the Deepwater Horizon was a blowout relating to the cementing work."...

http://www.clevelandleader.com/node/14359


Fla. developer sues Halliburton over Gulf spill
August 05, 2010
By SAMANTHA BOMKAMP
AP Business Writer
New York, NY 10001, United States — (08-05) 08:54 PDT New York (AP) --


Florida real estate developer St. Joe Co. is suing Halliburton Co. over its role in the rig explosion that led to the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico.


St. Joe said late Wednesday that Halliburton, which was responsible for encasing BP PLC's subsea well in cement, ignored safety procedures and didn't properly manage the cementing process. In deepwater drilling, cementing is a critical element in preventing oil and gas from escaping from the well....

http://articles.sfgate.com/2010-08-05/business/22206452_1_bp-plc-halliburton-rig-explosion

The right to voite without equality. Huh?

On the left, Susan B. Anthony. 


On the right, Elizabeth Kady Stanton.


Their accomplishment?


The 19th Amendment to the USA Constitution which insured women the right to vote.


Whatever happened to The Equal Rights Amendment?


It is outrageous in this country that women out number men and they aren't 'interested' in having equal rights AND RESPONSIBLITIES under the law?  Amazing.  How can women vote on any issue or for any candidate unless they understand the full brevity of citizenship on equal status with the opposite gender? 

Stanton/Anthony Friendship

"I revolted in spirit against the customs of society and the laws of the state that crushed my aspirations and debarred me from the pursuit of almost every object worthy of an intelligent, rational mind."


Emily Collins

These words summed up the sense of protest evoked in a significant number of women by the status allotted to them during the early part of the nineteenth century. Young Elizabeth Cady learned Greek and acquainted herself with law in her father's office. Instead of winning his praise, he only lamented "Elizabeth, if only you were a boy." Young middle-class women of the time watched their brothers depart for college while they stayed at home, lost all rights to property when they married (William Blackstone had said in his famous Commentaries, "Husband and wife are one and that one is the husband"), and, in some cases, were subjected to legally permissible physical punishment at the hands of their spouses to ensure their "obedience." If they spoke in public, they were denounced by the churches for "promiscuous activity." Most important, women were denied any voice in enactment of laws by which they were governed....

So, now as second class citizens women are allowed a voice in the laws created to govern them, but, they aren't allowed the status of men. 

I wonder why there is still a glass ceiling?

And the women of the USA have the audacity to pass judgement on other oppressed women?

Really?

Let's see, women in the USA don't like women to be stoned in public in the Middle East, but, they have no need for completely equal footing with men in their own country.  Isn't that just a tad bit ludicrous? 

What gives USA women the right to speak against the cruel treatment of women elsewhere? 

Freedom of Speech? 

Are you sure?