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Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: jlallen who wrote (319070)	1/7/2007 6:28:11 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1576112

Well at least you admit you are dumb... I am dumb because I want to stop this crime against America that is hurting not only her cities but her small towns as well! You dare to tell me that I am the dumb after the guy you voted for twice has so messed things up in Iraq that it is a seething cauldron of violence not fit for man or beast. You dare to question my intellect when your party has porked itself right out of Congress and is filling our prisons with the corrupt and criminal. You dare to question my education when the vast American public have told you that you and your ilk are wrong and border on the evil. Frankly, I think you are in no position to pass judgement on a rat, let alone another human being. White small-town America pays price in Iraq By Edward Luce in Washington Published: January 5 2007 17:12 \| Last updated: January 5 2007 17:12 Every night at the end of Jim Lehrer’s News Hour on America’s PBS channel, there is a roll call of American soldiers who died in Iraq that day. Apart from their tragic fates, most of the dead have something else in common – they come from places of which few people have heard. Obscure towns like Hollidaysburg, Pennsylvania, Wolfeboro Falls, New Hampshire and Thermopolis, Wyoming, dominate the listings rather than the big cities. “It is like watching a different reality,” says Larry Wilkerson, a former colonel who was chief of staff to Colin Powell. “Nothing could better illustrate the alienation of America’s armed forces from the college-going Americans for whom the Iraq war has meant tax cuts, SUVs and nice holidays.” During the week since the 3,000th American soldier was killed in Iraq – by a roadside bomb in Baghdad – Washington’s attention has turned to speculation over George W. Bush’s reported plans to order a “surge” of US troops to Iraq. What is often missing from America’s increasingly recriminatory debate over Iraq is how isolated are the communities that bear most of the human cost. The Pentagon does not disclose the socio-economic background of the 25,000 US soldiers who have been killed or wounded in Iraq. But a breakdown of their ethnicity and states of origins shows they are overwhelmingly white and from small towns in the interior states of mid-America and the South. For example, the ratio of killed to the state’s population is 221 per cent for South Dakota, 178 per cent for Nebraska and 163 per cent for Louisiana. In contrast, the District of Columbia, which is home to Washington, the US capital, has a ratio of just 52 per cent, while Connecticut is 66 per cent and New Jersey is 60 per cent. Charles Moskos, a military sociologist at Northwestern University, says the divorce between the social origins of most US army personnel and the character of the population as a whole is greater than ever. When he attended Princeton as a student in the late 1950s, 400 out of his class of 750 had served in uniform. Last year only nine of Princeton’s class of 1,100 had been in the armed services, he says. Even during the Vietnam war, when the well-connected, such as George W. Bush and Dick Cheney, were able to avoid combat in spite of a national enlistment lottery or, like Bill Clinton, dodge the draft altogether, America’s middle classes were better represented. “There is a myth that Americans respect people who have served in combat,” said Mr Moskos. “But if you look at the last four presidential elections, it is the draft dodger who has been elected to the White House. They might hate to admit it, but middle class Americans identify with the draft dodger.” As the war continues, the US military is finding it increasingly hard to meet enlistment targets. Spending on recruitment has risen several times to more than $1bn in the last twelve months. Standards have been lowered too. The army is now enlisting men aged 40, paying recruitment bonuses of up to $40,000 and has lowered the mental threshold to “category three” which, according to Mr Wilkerson, is “one level above imbecility”. Some, including Charlie Rangel, a Democratic representative from Harlem, have even argued for a reinstatement of the draft to make recruitment fairer. Others argue for much larger incentives for graduates to enlist. Cindy Sheehan, the celebrity anti-war activist whose son Casey was killed in Baghdad in 2004, says she is receiving a huge volume of emails from mothers worried their sons should not sign up. “People are joining the military for economic reasons,” said Mrs Sheehan, who is from Vacaville, California. “I call it the poverty draft.” However, according to a poll by the Military Times this week, serving US soldiers are not yet fully disenchanted. Seventy-two per cent said they would support their son or daughter if they wished to enlist. But their opinions on Iraq offer little comfort to Mr Bush as he contemplates whether to increase the number of soldiers in harm’s way. Almost half the soldiers polled said the Iraq war bore no relation to the “war on terrorism” – a key justification for continued fighting. And only 13 per cent said the US was “very likely to succeed” in Iraq. ft.com

To: jlallen who wrote (319070)	1/7/2007 6:31:31 PM
From: tejek	Respond to of 1576112

Decker Communications Announces Top Ten Communicators of 2006 prweb.com San Francisco, CA (PRWEB) January 2, 2007 -- Decker Communications, Inc. ( deckercommunications.com ), a leading communications training and executive coaching firm, announces its annual list of Top Ten Communicators. This year's list highlights notable individuals from business, politics, sports and entertainment -- and shows how their communications helped make or break them in 2006. The Ten Best 1. Senator Barack Obama -- he burst on the scene with one speech at the 2004 Democratic National Convention. And he has kept up his impact in the high risk, high profile arena of politics -- so much so he deserves to be the Top Communicator of 2006. He looks his interviewers and public in the eye, holds himself tall, yet remains informal and humble in stance in posture. Yes, he's a real candidate for the presidency. 2. Pastor Rick Warren -- truly one of the greatest communicators in print and person. Author of the mightiest best seller of all time (except for the Bible), and leader of one of the largest churches in the country, Rick Warren does it all through personal influence. He is always focused with strong Point Of View whether preaching, speaking or in personal appearances, but true to form never formalizes his conversational tone and manner, no matter how serious the subject. 3. Speaker Nancy Pelosi -- it's not just the results in becoming the first female Speaker of the House in the United States that makes Nancy so impressive, it's what she has had to do to overcome. Before running for office, she was not a natural public speaker. She worked at it, and worked at it hard. Pelosi is now outstanding in thinking on her feet, giving the best sound bite, and smiling as if it has always been natural to her. 4. Commissioner Israel Gaither -- newly elected National Commander of the Salvation Army in the U.S., Israel Gaither has absolute conviction and high level communication. The first African American Commander, Gaither is a superb preacher and speaker -- he would say it's the power of God and if you met him you would not argue. Nor would you argue about his skill as a communicator playing a strong role in his rise to leadership -- he commands an audience whether it is a small group of civic leaders, or thousands of the members of his Army. 5. Angelina Jolie -- finally, a movie star, and beautiful at that, who is now known as much by what she says and how she says it as being beautiful. Under klieg lights she appears natural, (and they say those lips are natural too.) It is a tribute to her cause, and her articulation of that cause for children and the impoverished, that she has become a public figure as a stateswoman rather than just a beauty. 6. Nido Qubein -- the only repeat from last year's Best List influenced so much in 2006 he must be included again. Nido Qubein will also someday be known by the one name "Nido," because he continues to communicate his vision of the world in a way that positively impacts tens of thousands - most recently as President of High Point University. He's one of those who could speak for one minute or one hour at a moment's notice, and change your life. 7. Guy Kawasaki -- businessman, blogger and brazen raconteur, Guy Kawasaki is the original Apple "evangelist" who keeps on writing books, financing companies with his venture capital, and speaking out in a wry, witty and winsome style to further his own fortunes and others. His irreverent and relevant communication style sends him on his way to sharing the same platform with his mentor and last year's Communicator of the Year Steve Jobs. 8. Tavis Smiley -- Some say he is in the image of Oprah, but here's a fresh face who has his own talk show, a best seller atop the NY Times best seller list, and is authentic to boot. Smiley is smiley, as well as serious, sincere and simpatico. Excellent in thinking on his feet, he is also thoughtful with a Point Of View. 9. Jim Cramer -- perhaps Jim Cramer is an odd one for the Ten Best list, since he is the outrageous host of Mad Money. His commitment to impact drives his success -- he lets it all hang out, and in so doing may alienate some, but in the process can convince and persuade the majority. He makes a difference, and if we are to communicate well, at some point we have to be out there. 10. Jon Stewart -- there are a lot of comedians out there who are funny -- which is a GREAT communication asset -- but don't have much beef to add to the human comedy. Jon Stewart is an exception. The Daily Show is a great forum for public converse as well as laughs, but the real reason Stewart lands here is the Academy Awards. Few off beat comics make it to host the Academy Awards, and Stewart did, and he did well. And for the Top Ten Worst Communicators of 2006...please visit 301url.com ----------------- <<...10. George Bush – Communications problems have not been addressed The President unfortunately returns as the only repeat on the Worst List – because of his influence, or lack thereof. Mired in the problems of Iraq, soundly defeated in the mid-term elections, President Bush more and more sounds like a voice crying in the wilderness of unpopularity, and not doing it very effectively at that. He continues to appear too much as a petulant child, pleading for his case with a high voice, and a look that continues to be the most parodied on television. And TV is the mass media that a president must use as a bully pulpit if he is to be effective. And George Bush just is not. Last year I said that he could cut his problems in half if he was effective in his speaking. He hasn’t changed. As a communicator, he’s no John Kennedy, and the numbers reflect it...>>