Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : GOPwinger Lies/Distortions/Omissions/Perversions of Truth -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Brumar89 who wrote (113863)	1/28/2008 9:59:46 PM
From: Land Shark	Respond to of 173976

Five US soldiers killed in flashpoint Iraq city 10 hours ago MOSUL, Iraq (AFP) — Five US soldiers were killed in flashpoint Mosul city on Monday when their patrol was struck by a roadside bomb and then attacked by gunmen holed up in a nearby mosque, the American military said. The attack comes days after the city was rocked by devastating blasts that killed dozens, including a police chief, and Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki promised a "decisive battle" against Al-Qaeda in its last urban stronghold. US military spokeswoman in northern Iraq, Major Peggy Kageleiry, said the soldiers had been conducting a mounted patrol when their vehicle detonated a roadside bomb, killing five soldiers. "Insurgents attacked the other soldiers in the patrol with small arms fire from a nearby mosque. "Iraqi army forces and coalition forces secured the area and returned fire on the insurgents. The Iraqi army entered the mosque, but the insurgents had fled the area," Kageleiry said. "The insurgents are willing to desecrate a place of worship by using it to attack soldiers to further their agenda." Iraqi police said fighting broke out on Monday between US troops and unidentified armed men in eastern Haysuma neighbourhood, a known Al-Qaeda bastion, but gave no other details. Iraqi and US forces are engaged in an extensive operation against Al-Qaeda in Mosul as part of a nationwide crackdown on the jihadists codenamed Operation Phantom Phoenix launched on January 8. The latest US deaths bring to 3,940 the number of American soldiers killed in Iraq since the 2003 invasion, according to an AFP tally based on independent website www.icasualties.org. January has seen a spike in US fatalities, with 36 recorded so far against 23 in December. Al-Qaeda is blamed by American commanders for much of the violence still shaking Iraq. Iraq's Defence Minister Abdel Qader Jassim Mohammed said the situation in Mosul is "worse than imagined" after touring the flashpoint city on Sunday. The minister was sharply critical of the Iraqi army's deployment in the city, telling reporters: "The forces are scattered. "We are working to unify the command. The military units are distributed in Mosul in a way that means they haven't studied the area. "The 2nd Brigade of the Iraqi army works in the day and withdraws at night, leaving the insurgents free to move. There are many negative things and we must address them," the minister added. "The security generally in Nineveh province is at a good level but in Mosul, the provincial capital, it is bad. The situation ... is worse than imagined by far." Defence ministry spokesman Major General Mohammed al-Askari said on Sunday that military reinforcements, comprising troops, tanks and vehicles, had reached Mosul for a huge offensive against Al-Qaeda. He gave no details of the size of the deployment and would not comment on when the operation would begin. The prime minister on Friday promised a "decisive battle" against the jihadists in Nineveh province after last week's devastating blasts. On Wednesday, according to the US military, a cache of munitions stored by insurgents blew up in a building in west Mosul's Zanjili suburb, leaving a massive crater and damaging about 100 surrounding houses. A suicide bomber killed provincial police chief Brigadier General Salah al-Juburi and two other officers the next day when they went to inspect the carnage. Iraqi officials put the toll from Wednesday's blast at 35 people killed and 217 wounded, but the Iraqi Red Crescent in a report on its website said the toll was much higher. "Many families had buried their killed relatives immediately after the attack without getting them registered," it said. "This has brought the estimate of the number of killed people to 60; most of them were children, women and elderly," the Red Crescent said. "At least 280 people were wounded in the attack; some of them are in a very critical situation. It is expected that there are still dead bodies buried under the rubble."

To: Brumar89 who wrote (113863)	1/29/2008 1:37:15 AM
From: Peter Dierks	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 173976

Invidious Bill By JAMES TARANTO January 28, 2008 Hillary Clinton had her head handed to her by Barack Obama in Saturday's South Carolina primary, and her husband was quick to minimize the loss, Jake Tapper(http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2008/01/bubba-obama-is.html) of ABC News reports: Said Bill Clinton [Saturday] in Columbia, SC: "Jesse Jackson won South Carolina in '84 and '88. Jackson ran a good campaign. And Obama ran a good campaign here." This was in response to a question from ABC News' David Wright about it taking "two Clintons to beat" Obama. Jackson had not been mentioned. Boy, I can't understand why anyone would think the Clintons are running a race-baiting campaign to paint Obama as "the black candidate." Yet while Tapper and many other observers are put off by Mr. Clinton's evident appeal to racial prejudice, Jackson himself professes not to be, according to the New York Times(http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/01/28/jackson-not-upset-by-clinton-remarks/): The Rev. Jesse Jackson said late Sunday that he was not offended by comments on Saturday by former President Bill Clinton, who brought up Mr. Jackson's name in response to a question about Senator Barack Obama. Mr. Clinton had noted that Mr. Jackson had won South Carolina in the Democratic contests in 1984 and 1988. Pundits and many in the blogosphere interpreted Mr. Clinton's mention of Mr. Jackson as an attempt to diminish Mr. Obama . . . because Mr. Jackson had not gone on to win the Democratic nomination. But Mr. Jackson said he did not see it that way. "I don't read anything negative into Clinton's observation," Mr. Jackson said in a phone conversation late Sunday night. . . . Still, Mr. Jackson said that he had spoken to Mr. Obama on Saturday night and to Mr. Clinton a few days earlier and that he had appealed to both to "take it to a higher ground." In Mr. Clinton's defense, it may be said that Obama has some things in common with Jackson as a presidential candidate. Like Jackson (at least in South Carolina), he won an overwhelming number of black votes--78%, according to CNN exit polls--presumably in part because of ethnic pride. As for the white vote, one can argue that Obama's glass is half empty (less than 1 in 4 whites went for him) or half full (Obama's 24% was much better than the estimated 5% to 10% Jackson got in the 1988 caucuses, according to the New York Times). Also, in this columnist's opinion, Obama, like Jackson, is too liberal and too inexperienced to make an ideal president. Given all this, and given that Jackson himself is taking the high road, shouldn't we refrain from making a big deal of Mr. Clinton's remark? Absolutely not. Jackson is impossibly compromised in this matter, because at the root of Mr. Clinton's comment is the recognition that Jackson stands for something loathsome--something that Obama has repudiated. Jesse Jackson is not a racial healer but an ambulance chaser. He has made his career exploiting black insecurity and white guilt, seizing on racial disputes and misunderstandings to profit financially and enhance his own status. If racial disharmony disappeared tomorrow, Jackson would be out of a job. In this sense--the sense that is most important to Jackson's political identity--Obama is Jackson's opposite. He has emerged as a national political figure, and a plausible prospective president, by calling for unity, not by seeking to take advantage of division. When Mr. Clinton likens Obama to Jackson, the clear message to white voters is that a black candidate cannot be better than Jackson, cannot be relied upon to put the interests of the country above those of his race or himself. This is a truly bigoted notion--and it is one that Jackson cannot protest, for to protest it would be to acknowledge the truth about himself. online.wsj.com