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Politics : Liberalism: Do You Agree We've Had Enough of It? -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (34414)	7/12/2008 1:54:49 PM
From: Ann Corrigan	Respond to of 224755

Foreign US military bases are considered US soil, same as American embassies.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (34414)	7/12/2008 3:35:41 PM
From: longnshort	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224755

More PC crap from you people. breitbart.tv

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (34414)	7/12/2008 4:03:59 PM
From: ManyMoose	Respond to of 224755

is he a "natural born" citizen? Yes.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (34414)	7/12/2008 10:15:44 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 224755

Herbert....."The Democrats, timid as always, should be pounding the populist pavement from one coast to another, explaining how the reckless and deliberately inequitable policies of the past several years have gotten the U.S. into this terrible fix. We should be getting chapter and verse about how badly the war in Iraq is hurting us here at home. We should be seeing charts and graphs explaining how ordinary Americans, now the hardest-working people on the planet, have been cheated out of their share of the extraordinary productivity improvements they’ve racked up over the years. There should be a sense of urgency coming from the Democrats in this campaign, a clarion call compelling enough to rally the legions who have been treated unfairly and badly hurt in the nation’s other undeclared war: the class war."

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (34414)	7/12/2008 10:20:34 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 224755

Diplomacy working...........http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/1001322.html

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (34414)	7/12/2008 10:23:28 PM
From: puborectalis	Respond to of 224755

The end of the American century By Ari Shavit ASPEN, Colorado - It's hard to think of a happier place than Aspen. The tiny mountain city in western Colorado is not only a place of breathtaking beauty, it is a place of inconceivable abundance. The town of wooden houses that was built as a mining town in the late 19th century turned into a town of wealth and well-being in the late 20th century. The wealthy of New York and Chicago come to Aspen to ski in the snows of December and January, and the tycoons come to vacation in the lovely hills of July and August. Aspen is the place where the new American capitalism celebrates itself with restraint and elegance. No more gritty robber-baron capitalism, but a refined capitalism of environmental awareness, art collecting and outdoor concerts. And yet even in Aspen, the Fourth of July this year differed from any previous Fourth of July. Although there were barbecues on the lawns, fireworks in the evening against the snow that remains on the mountaintops, there was an unpleasant silence in the air. A silence of restrained anxiety. A silence of an empire that has lost its way, of a superpower that is no longer certain of its supremacy. Advertisement Ostensibly the problem is Iraq. The Americans cannot forgive themselves or their president for the adventure on the Tigris in which he has embroiled them. But the truth is that in Iraq the situation is improving. General David Petraeus, the commander of the armed forces in Iraq, is succeeding in imposing a relative calm there, and the elected government of Nuri Maliki is gradually becoming stabilized. In 2007-2008 Washington repaired the serious mistakes it made in 2003-2004 by instituting a sophisticated policy that succeeded in winning over both Shi'ites and Sunnis. The achievements of the new strategy are still brittle and reversible, but they are likely to enable the next American president to withdraw from Iraq cautiously, gradually and without disgrace. So the real problem is not Iraq. The problem is America. The problem is that 80 percent of Americans believe that their country is on the wrong track, and 75 percent do not believe that the economic situation next summer will be better than it is now. The problem is that of General Motors. The company's value is now a fraction of Toyota's. The problem is that Chrysler is on the verge of bankruptcy, Starbucks is in trouble and the Dow Jones is in deep trouble. The problem is that the budget deficit is out of control, the national debt is irreparable and the dollar is worthless. Something about the way the Americans do things is not working. Something is not as it used to be. Three Rottweilers are now at America's throat: very expensive energy, badly shrinking credit and a collapsing real estate market. Uncle Sam is bleeding because his dependence on energy is greater than that of other countries. His addiction to credit is more serious than that of other countries, and he is very exposed to the bursting real estate bubble. Cheap energy, cheap money and accelerated construction rescued America from the collapse of the Twin Towers and the high-tech crisis at the beginning of the decade. They enabled America to celebrate as though there were no tomorrow and no bill to pay. But tomorrow is here. The bill is steep. The bottom line is cruel and profound: The American century is over. The 40 years (1945-1985) when America was the exclusive leader of the free world are over. The 20 years (1986-2006) when American was in effect the sole superpower are over. The era of imperial America, which dictated the world agenda, is over. The very fact that America exported itself is acting as a boomerang against it. The Americanization of the world is what is weakening it. The residents of Aspen are worried this summer because they are not waking up to a reality of another cyclical economic recession. They are waking up to a challenge the likes of which they have not known since Franklin Roosevelt invented the New Deal for them. Will a new Roosevelt be found for them in November? While the rain begins to fall on the green valley that descends to the river, shortly before the start of the Sunday afternoon Dvorak concert, the concerned liberals of Aspen are talking about Barack Obama. Not because Obama really is a new and proven Roosevelt. Far from it. But because Obama is a promise for change. Obama is 2008's desperate longing to repair America.

To: Kenneth E. Phillipps who wrote (34414)	7/12/2008 10:37:04 PM
From: puborectalis	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 224755

Q: What do you think led to the current war. What's the oil link? A: Look at what's in Iraq and what's undeveloped. Iraq represents a major insurance package against any kind of political overhaul in Saudi Arabia or problems elsewhere in the Middle East. Look at the policy that people like Rumsfeld and others were recommending in the 1990s leading up to this war and they certainly cited the threat of Saddam Hussein to regional oil supplies as a cause for war. Certainly if the Bechtel pipeline had been built, the course of Iraqi-U.S. relations would have been much different. The failure of that pipeline set into motion a much different course for those relations. A: So having control of Iraqi oil is still a key issue? Q: It's the sole reason why the Persian Gulf region and Iraq have been a United States national security concern for so long. It's not geography. Q: So what would you say is the lesson of all this? A: The lesson is that when it comes to oil, a dictator is friendly to the U.S. when he's willing to do business and he's a mortal enemy when he's not. That has been the driving force behind national security policy, especially since the fall of the Soviet Union. Oil and national security policy were all submerged in the context of the Cold War. But once that Cold War collapsed, now it's a no-holds-barred battle for oil globally, and the U.S. has seen itself cut out of the world's second largest reserve of oil--and oil that is very inexpensive to extract. So with the U.S. shut out of Iraq, certainly it makes the trigger fingers of U.S. policy-makers itchy. And whether it's a blood feud or a war for oil, it's just a tragedy that the people of Iraq and our own sons and daughters and brothers and sisters are paying the price. About the Author: Dave Lindorff is the author of Killing Time: an Investigation into the Death Row Case of Mumia Abu-Jamal.