Rhetoric kings and Gas bags

 

Democrats: U.S. has lost global standing

 

The United States has lost its global standing during George W. Bush's presidency and needs a Democratic commander in chief to restore America's place in the world, Democrats running for the White House said Saturday.

My comment:  These observations are obviously candidate’s rhetoric. US role is always at the top and the White House wannabes fully realized that. Belittling that fact would of course make their rhetoric shine, albeit with mediocrity

. "We are today internationally and domestically a nation that is no longer a leader," said New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, one of three candidates to address a convention of the South Carolina Democratic Party.

My comment:  This perception of Richardson is indicative retrograde mentality.  He creates a make-believe vacuum and puts himself in  position to fill it. Crustacean outlook, to say the least.

Former North Carolina Sen. John Edwards, the 2004 vice presidential nominee, said the world needs to see that "America can be a force for good."

"What their perception is that America is a bully and we only care about our short-term interests," Edwards said. "The starting place is to end the bleeding sore that is the war in Iraq."

My comment:  Edwards is on delusion trip of the gentle giant. Fact is America always operates on a position of strength, mistaken for a bully.  A nation can not be great by allowing itself as other nations ‘ doormat.

Richardson, Edwards and Delaware Sen. Joe Biden said they would make ending the war a priority.

"The American people are looking for us as Democrats," said Biden, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. "They're looking for someone literally, not figuratively, to restore America's place in the world."

Biden said the country's other problems cannot be solved until the U.S. successfully deals with Iraq.

My comment:  Operations in Iraq with a timetable for withdrawal is SURRENDER, pure and simple, far from SUCCESSFULly dealing with the problem. Biden betrays his rhetoric here – ‘literally, not figuratively’

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Euphoria of a Senate Majority Leader

 

Bush vows to resist calls for withdrawal

President Bush warned Congress Friday that he will continue vetoing war spending bills as long as they contain a timetable for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq.

Speaking a day after the Democratic-controlled Congress approved legislation that requires that a troop drawdown begin by Oct. 1, Bush said — as he has before — he will veto it because of that demand. He invited congressional leaders to come to the White House to discuss a new piece of legislation that would not include a timetable, and expressed hope a deal could be reached.

Bush has set benchmarks for the Iraqi government, but has steadfastly opposed attaching any timeframe to them or requiring any actions if they are not met.

"I invited the leaders of the House and the Senate to come down soon after my veto so we can discuss a way forward," the president said. "I'm optimistic we can get a bill, a good bill and a bill that satisfies all our objectives."

Later, White House deputy press secretary Scott Stanzel said invitations were extended Friday afternoon to nine top congressional leaders, from both parties, to come to the White House on Wednesday.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record), D-Nev., urged Bush on Friday to "carefully read this bill."

"He will see it fully provides for our troops and gives them a strategy worthy of their sacrifices," Reid said. "Failing to sign this bill would deny our troops the resources and strategy they need."

For full details click on banner headline …

………………

Harry Reid thinks Bush has lost his reading ability, or perhaps Reid is on the threshold of dementia. Earlier Reid said that “Iraq is lost” although other senate stalwarts do not agree.  The recently crafted war spending bills setting forth withdrawal timetables is a way of flexing the newfound muscles of the democratic majority without regard to consequences. In other words, it is meant to make the democrats look good – in the words of Harry Reid: “I have fulfilled my constitutional duty”, even if doing so amounts to a unilateral surrender to the forces of insurgents and terrorists. What is lamentable is the shortsightedness of Reid who can’t see beyond his nose: he can’t  see or he does not care about the consequences of surrender. I hope he sobers up from his intoxication of occupying the majority leader’s chair.

New York Post Editorial

REID'S BLOODY HANDS

April 24, 2007 -- Fresh from his declaration that "this war [in Iraq] is lost," Senate Demo cratic leader Harry Reid is moving quickly to hasten America's unilateral surrender.
And to cast the Middle East into murderous chaos.
Reid yesterday promised that the Democratic-controlled Congress will within days pass legislation requiring U.S. troops to withdraw from Iraq over the six months starting Oct. 1.
Never mind that such legislation:
* Likely wouldn't pass either house of Congress . . .
* . . . and, even if it did pass, certainly wouldn't survive a veto.
So the point must be not to make policy, but to send a message: That Harry Reid's Democratic Party is against war in the Middle East, maybe?
Or that war in the Middle East is OK - so long as no Americans are fighting?
Or, maybe it's all about politics?
To be sure, Reid won't risk calling for an immediate pullout. He cautioned his party's bug-out-now wing to be patient, despite "the restlessness" of those who "voted for change in November [and] anticipated dramatic and immediate results in January."
The problem, said Reid, is that "George W. Bush is still the commander-in-chief - and this is his war."
And there's the real problem: From the start, Reid and the Democrats have seen the war in Iraq as a partisan opportunity.
They refuse to present a unified front to the rest of the world - especially to America's enemies - because, in their pinched view, to do so would be to weaken their own prospects for retaking the White House in 2008.
No, Reid didn't repeat his declaration of defeat during yesterday's speech from the Senate floor.
It probably has dawned on him just how big a political blunder he committed - witness Sen. Chuck Schumer's gentle contradiction of the majority leader over the weekend, insisting that "the war is not lost."
Then again, Reid didn't have to repeat his original remarks - because the imposed timetable he announced, if enacted, would bring about precisely the same result.
That is, a precipitous U.S. withdrawal from the region - if Reid thinks the bug-out would stop at Iraq, he's dumber than he sounds - followed by:
* A rapid, al Qaeda/Iranian-driven descent into regional chaos.
* Most likely, a general war.
* And, almost certainly, a Mideast nuclear-arms race as Saudi Arabia, Eygpt and (probably) Turkey rush to arm themselves in anticipation of an Iranian bomb.
At the very least, Reid has to understand that his rhetoric can only encourage short-run insurgent attacks on Americans in Iraq.
Their blood stands to be on his hands.
And that's a terrible price to pay for a political payday that's so tentative that even an instinctive gut-fighter like Chuck Schumer recoils from the risk.
Harry Reid needs to put a cork in it.
Today.

Guilty without Proof

 

   The Senate Judiciary Committee is pressuring Attorney General Alberto Gonzales to step down although there is no evidence of wrongdoing that they can find. The Senate democrats insist that the polls indicate negative numbers for the Attorney General and therefore the AG must step down. The leadership in the senate are acting like robots -  unthinking and allowing the polls to dictate their actions. On a deeper introspection, there is racial discrimination here – more than meets the eye.

 

Specter: Gonzales undermines AG's office

 

Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has hurt the Department of Justice and the Bush administration with his poor handling of the firing of eight federal prosecutors, a leading Republican senator said Sunday.

Sen. Arlen Specter (news, bio, voting record) of Pennsylvania, the top Republican on the Judiciary Committee, stopped short of calling for Gonzales' resignation.

But he said there was "no doubt" Gonzales was undermining the agency and the morale of its employees.

"The attorney general's testimony was very, very damaging to his own credibility. It has been damaging to the administration," Specter said. "No doubt, it is bad for the Department of Justice. It is harmful. There has been a very substantial decrease in morale. There's no doubt about that."

Asked whether Gonzales should resign, Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Patrick Leahy (news, bio, voting record), D-Vt., said: "I don't think he can be effective" if he ignores the growing pressure on him to resign as the nation's top law enforcement official.

"A lot of those calls are coming from Republicans," Leahy said. "He's lost the confidence of many Democrats and Republicans in the Congress, and many people throughout America."

Specter said Sunday that he didn't think it would be appropriate for him to call for Gonzales' resignation, saying that is the decision of the president or Gonzales himself. Sen. Charles E. Schumer, D-N.Y., and Tom Coburn (news, bio, voting record), R-Okla., are among the lawmakers who have called for Gonzales to leave.

"I do not think that it is appropriate for me to call for his resignation," Specter said. "I don't challenge anybody else who wants to do it. But my own mindset is to leave it up to the attorney general and the president."

Schumer, one of Gonzales' most vocal critics and the first to call on the attorney general to resign, maintained Sunday that Gonzales ought to resign as soon as possible.

 

Fulfilling the Mandate of the People?

 

Iran starts enrichment at Natanz site: IAEA

Iran has begun making nuclear fuel in its underground uranium enrichment plant, the international atomic watchdog said on Wednesday, in a move by Tehran that raises the stakes in its showdown with world powers.

A confidential note by the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA) also said Iran had started up more than 1,300 centrifuge machines in an accelerating campaign to lay a basis for "industrial scale" enrichment in the Natanz complex.

Iran has been steadily upping the ante in a standoff with the U.N. Security Council, which has demanded an enrichment halt over suspicions that Tehran's declared civilian nuclear fuel project is a cover for mastering the means to build atom bombs.

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   Tehran has been consistently ignoring UN admonitions to halt its nuclear  ambitions because the UN hesitates on flexing its muscle.  The world body cannot quite assert its responsibility of controlling rogue nations because of its dovish inclinations and appeasement leanings. Tehran recognizes this pussyfooting as weakness of the world body and therefore ignores with impunity the UN sanctions. Tehran is so bold at this stage to thumb its nose at the world body – how much bolder will it get when it has achieved nuclear capabilities? It will undoubtedly bully the  the world in the same fashion that it bullied UK and the mariners.

   Tehran knows that Bush got his hands tied now that the democrats are in power. Iran is virtually cheering the democrats to get their resolve on the cut and run song and at the same time fueling more strife on the streets of Baghdad. Iran is growing and sharpening its horns while the democrats are singing cut and run. Never mind the consequences – Harry Reid says he is fulfilling the mandate of the people.

Carrying People's Mandate with Mediocrity

 

Bush, Democrats in stalemate over Iraq

 

“Listen, I understand Republicans and Democrats in Washington have differences over the best course in Iraq," Bush said. "That's healthy. That's normal, and we should debate those differences. But our troops should not be caught in the middle."

"The president has a choice to make in the coming days: Cling to the discredited policies that have led our troops further into an intractable civil war, or work with a bipartisan majority of Congress to make us more secure," said Majority Leader Reid.

"We're committed to pressing these goals to the administration until they do change course," he said.

Vice President  Dick Cheney has predicted that Democrats will cave and that Congress will pass a "clean" bill that funds the war in Iraq and Afghanistan without timetables.

The Democrats disagreed. "The president is not going to get a bill that has nothing on it," Reid said. "It would be wrong for this legislative branch of government to capitulate to this wrong-headed policy that the vice president and the president have been leading."

Sen. Carl Levin (news, bio, voting record), a Democrat and chairman of the Armed Services Committee, told reporters in Michigan Monday that if Bush vetoes their original bill, Democrats would go with a "second-best approach" to dealing with security issues in Iraq. He said the second bill would tie U.S. economic and military support to the Iraqi government's ability to meet performance benchmarks.

Illinois Rep. Rahm Emanuel (news, bio, voting record), chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, said that Bush and Republican congressional leaders have abandoned efforts to hold the Iraqi people and government accountable.

"As they rush to embrace the Bush plan for more of the same in Iraq, the Republican policy is to make U.S troops bear the full burden of the war on their shoulders," Emanuel said.

For more details click on banner headline

 

   Obviously nobody is listening to anybody.  Each one is engrossed on his/her own  mindset, except the President who is open to any dialogue. Harry Reid is in no mode for dialogues – he is in combat mode, and will not ‘capitulate’.

   The Democrats want to ‘change course’ but all the course the see is only beyond their noses – to cut and run. They do not see or refuse to see what will happen after ‘cut and run’.  They appear incapable of presenting other alternatives ‘to change course’ and trying to foist such mediocrity as obeying the mandate of the people.

Asia Dream Team

 

North Korea Nuclear Deadline Slips

By CHARLES HUTZLER

 

BEIJING (AP) - North Korea missed a Saturday deadline for shutting down its main nuclear reactor, and a key U.S. negotiator said the country must keep the disarmament program from foundering.

The United States and other governments involved in six-nation talks on North Korea's nuclear programs said the slipping of the 60-day deadline was significant, but not yet fatal to a two-month-old agreement that laid out a timetable for disarmament.

``It's time for the North Koreans to get moving on their issues,'' Assistant Secretary of State Christopher Hill, the chief U.S. negotiator, told reporters after meeting in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart.

Hill ticked off the unmet conditions of the February agreement: North Korea's failure to shutter its Yongbyon reactor and allow verification by U.N. inspectors, and South Korea's resulting refusal to ship 50,000 tons of fuel oil to the North.

Saturday's missed deadline marked the latest setback for an agreement that, when reached in February, offered the prospect of disarming the world's newest declared nuclear power.

North Korea successfully tested a nuclear bomb in October.

For full details click on banner headline

   It would be difficult to make the new kid on the nuclear block  toe the line. North Korea has landed on first base and pumped up with adrenalin to make the homerun. It wants to belong to the nuclear club. North Korea prides itself of having the stick but no carrots. South Korea has got the carrots. If North and South come to their sensibilities and merge, that would be a very formidable KOREA!That would be the dream team of Asia.

 

Tehran Disconnect

 

 

Iranian: U.K. can help mend relations

 

Ambassador Rasoul Movahedian told the Financial Times newspaper in an article published Saturday that Iran had "showed our goodwill" by freeing the Britons.

"Now it is up to the British government to proceed in a positive way," he was quoted as saying. "We will welcome in general any steps that could defuse tensions in the region."

The British mariners, captured in the Persian Gulf on March 23, were freed Wednesday by Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who called their release a gift to Britain.

For full details click on banner headline…

 

   Can’t fault the Iranian Ambassador … he is just doing his job, toeing the propaganda line of this boss in Tehran, despicable as it may be. A gift to Britain?!! Kidnapping and releasing hostages is considered a gift?  It is a crime and the perpetrator should be punished. The little man in Tehran might be sincere in his belief that he gave Britain a ‘gift’, which means an utter disconnect of his brain functions, just like his denial of the holocaust.

Hilarious Hillary

 

Clinton urges Dems to press Bush on Iraq

 

Democrats should pressure President Bush to agree to a withdrawal of troops from Iraq rather than concede that he will veto such a plan, New York Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton said Tuesday.

Bush has promised to veto House and Senate versions of a war spending bill that includes timetables for drawing down troops, but Democrats shouldn't give up, said Clinton, the front-runner for the 2008 Democratic nomination.

For more detils click on banner headline ….

"I'm not ready to concede that," Clinton said. "We're actually back into a bipartisan government where we have a Democratic Congress and a Republican president. What has historically happened is there has to be some negotiation and compromise and we may not get it, but I'm not willing to concede."

   Hilarious Clinton is doing her best – citing past precedents, doubting present goings-on and making future commitments. This is not even double talk, it is triple talk. Congenital liars do not realize they are prevaricating when they do. It is so ingrained in their mental makeup and could not discern between truth and lies. And this is she who is gunning for the white house.

 

Napoleonic Complex

 

Reid may move to cut Iraq war funds

 

WASHINGTON - Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (news, bio, voting record) said Monday he wants to cut off money for  war next year, making clear for the first time that Democrats are willing to pull out all the stops to end U.S. involvement.

   Reid was an amateur pugilist during his college days and obviously thinks  like one now in the Senate – no foresight and can only see  as far as his nose. He is thinking only of the voters who put the Democrats in the majority, without regard to consequences of his actions. Never mind the chaos and anarchy that will ensue, “I have done my constitutional duty”, he said, and in effect thumping his chest.

   Other Democrats are singing the same tune and assuming the same stance – Napoleonic complex, fantasizing that they are generals and commander-in-chiefs. The Democrats need not go very far to see the effect of their folly – they can go to the kitchen and see  many cooks on the job. Perhaps they can have a sumptuous meal.