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

To: bentway who wrote (786294)	5/25/2014 2:39:19 PM
From: i-node	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1573070

Yours is the usual liberal mantra, but it is just factually inaccurate. Prior to the surge there was real concern that Iran would be strengthened. But because of GWB's persistence (in the face of liberal protests) that did not happen. The Iraq War can be blamed for a huge shift in Middle East oil production, where Iraq has increased its oil output to levels higher than the late 80s. At the same time, Iran's production has dropped radically, which made the Iran Uprisings possible (which, of course, the idiot Obama totally mishandled). You should not be confused about it; oil is "geopolitical" power. And instead of that Iraqi oil money going to Saddam or his kids to re-militarize, it is being used for more benigh purposes. Never mind that we got rid of a brutal dictator who had been a source of chronic instability in the region for 30 years and would have been (via his kids) for at least another 50.

To: bentway who wrote (786294)	5/25/2014 3:02:05 PM
From: SiouxPal	1 Recommendation Recommended By bentway Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1573070

Sorry, urban kids: Republicans are in charge here Boehner weeps, but not for "urban children." The Republican Party continues to toil under numerous image problems of their own creation. The one that tends to make the most news these days is their overt hostility to women: Every passing day seems to evince yet another creepy outrage even more horrific than the last. But equally in the running, of course, is the self-created perception that Republicans could care less about minorities and have too vested an interest in protecting the wealthy from any sort of regulation or externally imposed scruple of conscience. Republicans may be trying to figure out how to countermand these notions, but one thing seems clear: They've decided to start their systematic rebrand until after drafting the latest version of their House budget for agriculture and food safety programs, because ... boy, is this one a doozy. As reported by Politico, this House Republican ag budget does its best to combine most everything people despise about the Republican Party into one tightly wound ball of awful: House Republicans proposed a $20.9 billion budget for agriculture and food safety programs Monday, an 82-page bill that challenges the White House on nutrition rules and denies major new funding sought by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission to better regulate the rich derivatives market.The CFTC fares better than in the past in that the GOP allows for a modest $3 million increase for information technology investments. But the $218 million budget is still $62 million less than President Barack Obama’s request and continues a pattern that has frustrated the administration’s ability to implement Wall Street reforms called for under the Dodd-Frank law enacted in July 2010. Yes, this is bad, but it's not altogether unsurprising, right? We know that Republicans despise Wall Street regulations, and we also know that they also like to use the power of the purse to attempt to defund governmental priorities with which they don't agree. So, one might rate this as typical, but not shocking. But you will be shocked by what happens next: And in a surprising twist, the bill language specifies that only rural areas are to benefit in the future from funding requested by the administration this year to continue a modest summer demonstration program to help children from low-income households — both urban and rural — during those months when school meals are not available. ... Democrats were surprised to see urban children were excluded. And the GOP had some trouble explaining the history itself. But a spokeswoman confirmed that the intent of the bill is a pilot project in “rural areas” only.At this point, it's almost as if Republicans have given up making excuses for their own behavior. They've sought to restrict a summer food aid program for children to rural areas only, at the exclusion of urban areas (read: "letting poor white kids continue to get summer food help while putting the screws to black and brown children") and don't even have a ready-made policy excuse as to why. That's just the intent of the program, with no other explanation needed. It appears that House Republicans have completely bought into Rep. Paul Ryan's racist dog whistleabout how men in inner cities "aren't even thinking of working" and have decided to withhold food aid to children to teach those inner-city men about the value of work. Because after all, there's no better way to teach historically disadvantaged people the value of work than to starve their kids.Oh, and the bill also accedes to the demands of the potato industry to have white potatoes qualify as a vegetable under the WIC program, which provides healthy meals to women and children—so it looks like french fries have now joined ketchup in the pantheon of Republican vegetables. Doing the bidding of Wall Street, discrimination against racial minorities and giveaways to big agribusiness at the expense of women and children. In other words, just another day at the office at Republican Party headquarters. dailykos.com

To: bentway who wrote (786294)	5/25/2014 3:40:00 PM
From: Brumar89	1 Recommendation Recommended By FJB Respond to of 1573070

Lech Walesa is displeased US no longer world leader By Steve Eggleston In an interview with the Associated Press, former Polish President Lech Walesa said of the world and the American role in it, “(T)he world is disorganized and the superpower is not taking the lead. I am displeased.” Walesa, who led the Solidarity movement that led to the end of Communism in Poland, knows a thing or two about leadership. After all, unlike the “peaceful transition” the AP article insinuates, his Solidarity movement was brutally repressed by the Polish Communist leaders in the early 1980s. Now, why would Walesa say the US is not taking the lead? Among the many reasons, there are several just related to Poland. One of President Barack Obama’s first foreign policy actions was to cancel a European missile shield that would have been based in Poland at the insistence of Russia. Never mind that Russia is prohibited by treaty from having missiles that target Europe, and that the shield was designed more for protection from missiles launched from Iran. Obama’s promise of more flexibility vis a vis Russia in his second term is rather disturbing to Poland. Going back through history, not only did the former Soviet Union dominate a nominally-independent Poland after it (re)seized eastern Poland following World War II, but before World War I, it directly ruled Poland as a part of the Russian Empire. Obama’s and Secretary of State John Kerry’s rudderless reaction to Russia’s seizure of the Crimea peninsula and designs on other parts of Ukraine bear that out. Like Poland, Ukraine was forcibly annexed into the pre-World War I Russian Empire, and Russian President Vladmir Putin has expressed a desire to recreate that version of Russia. One more thing – the AP story notes that Obama didn’t meet with Walesa on his previous trip to Poland. Something tells me that, even though the purpose of the June trip is to mark the 25th anniversary of Poland’s emergence from Communism, Obama will duck Walesa again. http://datechguyblog.com/2014/05/25/lech-walesa-is-displeased-us-no-longer-world-leader/