Daily Archives: 28 September 2008

McBama backs Bailout

Surprise, surprise.

“US presidential hopefuls Barack Obama and John McCain have broadly welcomed an outline multi-billion dollar plan to help shore up the US financial system.” (Read more from news.bbc.co.uk)

“Whenever a Great Bipartisan Consensus is announced, and a compliant media assures everyone that the wondrous actions of our wise leaders are being taken for our own good, you can know with absolute certainty that disaster is about to strike.” -Ron Paul

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Presidential Candidates in favor of the bailout:
Barack Obama (Republicrat)
John McCain (Republicrat)

Presidential Candidates against the bailout:
Chuck Baldwin (Constitution Party)
Cynthia McKinney (Green Party)
Ralph Nader (Independent)
Bob Barr (Libertarian Party)

Headlines from the Occupation

– “Jewish settlers ‘kill Palestinian’
A Palestinian shepherd has been shot dead by Israeli settlers in the occupied West Bank, according to Palestinian security and government officials. The young man, identified as Yehia Apa Riham, was among a group of shepherds grazing their flocks south of Nablus and near the Itamar settlement when they were attacked by the settlers, security officials said.” (Read more from aljazeera.net)

– “Olmert decries ‘evil wind of extremism’ in Israel
JERUSALEM – An ‘evil wind of extremism’ is threatening Israel’s democracy, outgoing Prime Minister Ehud Olmert warned Sunday, after a pipe bomb attack wounded a professor critical of Israel’s settler movement. Olmert’s forceful comments came amid growing concerns in Israel about violence by hard-line radicals, including extremist West Bank settlers. Israeli defense officials and human rights groups have noted a rise in settler violence against Palestinian soldiers and Israeli soldiers in recent months. On Sunday, police were investigating the shooting death of a 19-year-old Palestinian shepherd whose body was discovered in ravine in a remote area of the West Bank. The shepherd’s relatives blamed Jewish settlers, but police said they were still investigating. Also, dozens of Israeli civilians entered the Palestinian village of Kufr Diek in the West Bank late Saturday, smashing the windows of several cars and homes, said the mayor, Jamal al-Diek.” (Read more from news.yahoo.com)

Joe Biden – A Profile in Cowardice

“In Friday’s presidential debate on foreign policy (assuming the show still goes on), we can be sure that Barack Obama will hit John McCain hard for supporting what Obama has called a ‘dumb war’ in Iraq. But in doing so, Obama has at least one major handicap to overcome: his running mate.

In October 2002, Sen. Biden voted to authorize the Iraq war. ‘I made a mistake,’ he now says – he had ‘vastly underestimated’ how incompetent the Bush administration would be in prosecuting the war.

So has Biden changed his position on Iraq? Not really. In October 2002, when the congressional vote was held, Biden, like most members of Congress, was in favor of avoiding accountability and punting the question of war or peace to the president. And Biden remains firmly in favor of avoiding accountability for Iraq today. That tells us something about Joe Biden’s judgment and integrity. More importantly, it tells us a lot about the health of Congress as a political institution, and about the erosion of Congress’s power to declare war.” (Read more from the Cato Institute)

Iran Resolution Shelved in Rare Defeat for AIPAC

“‘We’ll resubmit it when Congress comes back, and we’ll have even more signatures,’ the resolution’s main author, New York Democrat Rep. Gary Ackerman, told the Washington Times, adding that the resolution currently has 270 co-sponsors, or some two-thirds of the House’s entire membership.

Still, the decision by the chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Howard Berman, to shelve HR 362 marked an unusual defeat for AIPAC, according to its critics who charged that the resolution was designed to lay the groundwork for the Bush administration or any successor administration to take military action against Iran.” (Read more from antiwar.com)