Vote for Barack Obama, No Thank You!

Obama to AIPAC: Won't rule out nuking Iran

The Iranian "regime is a threat to all of us," Obama said.

Well, I am sad about this one because I liked Obama the most out of any of the candidates. Looks like I will be voting for Nader again.

Original Source

Vote for Duncan Hunter, No Thank You!

Duncan tells all in this 2 second video clip:

DownWithTyranny! has a great article on Republican Presidential Candidate Duncan Hunter, from his ties to the Duke Cunningham scandal and defense contractors, to the blocking of Congressional investigations into Abu Ghraib and 9/11.

More recent info, direct from Condoleezza Rice and Dick Cheney's favorite news channel, Fox News:

Hunter was a close ally of former Rep. Randy "Duke" Cunningham, a California Republican who was sentenced to more than eight years in prison this year for accepting $2.4 million in bribes from defense contractors. Hunter has accepted $46,000 in campaign donations from the same contractors at the center of the Cunningham scandal, Brent Wilkes and Mitchell Wade.

Vote for Hillary Clinton, No Thank You!

So I was doing research for a school paper, and I ran into this interesting link on Google. The page is titled: "Senator Clinton's Remarks to the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC)." This is straight from Hillary Clinton's Senate website, and is dated February 1, 2007. This speech pretty much sums up what to except in terms of her foreign policy if elected President, so if you want the United States to move towards peace around the world in the next few years, you might want to start looking at another candidate.

Her comments about Iran sound like they came from Fox News or some other right-wing nut case:

"Israel is a beacon of what's right in a neighborhood overshadowed by the wrongs of radicalism, extremism, despotism and terrorism. We need only look to one of Israel's greatest threats: namely, Iran. Make no mistake, Iran poses a threat not only to Israel, but to the entire Middle East and beyond, including the U.S."

She also mentions that the Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad has:

"...called for Israel to be wiped off the map."

To this day, I still have not seen the evidence that he has said that. If someone has a transcript of Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's speech using that line, please post it in the comments. More on Iran:

"But Iran is a threat not only because of the hateful rhetoric spewed by its president, not only because of its nuclear ambitions, but because it uses its influence and its revenues in the region to support terrorist elements that are attacking innocent Israelis; and now we believe attacking American soldiers. Hezbollah's attacks on Israel this summer using Iranian weapons clearly demonstrate Iran's malevolent influence even beyond its borders."

It sure seems like someone wants a war with Iran badly (and I'm not talking about William Kristol).

Explosions in Lebanon vs. Wintry Weather

Yes, wintry weather and eleven feet of snow in New York is a story, but it isn't the only story. Same goes for Anna Nicole Smith. If I want to hear about it, I will watch E! or some other lame entertainment show. I have had the tv on quite a bit today, and have not heard one mention of the explosions that rocked Beirut, Lebanon. Two buses were destroyed, with at least 3 reported dead and 20 wounded. One is to wonder, if this tragedy took place inside of Israel, would the American media have reported on it? And if so, how much coverage would it receive?

Media Hypocrisy, Yet Again

The media has been reporting on the comments of Australian Prime Minister John Howard today about Barack Obama and the Democrats, with not one ounce of criticism:

"If I were running al-Qa'ida in Iraq, I would put a circle around March 2008 and be praying as many times as possible for a victory not only for Obama but also for the Democrats"

I remember a few months back, Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez made comments calling President Bush the devil, and he was pulverized by the American media.

At least Obama's campaign people seem to have backbones (so far); an Obama spokesman fired back at the Prime Minister's comments calling them: "cowboy rhetoric."

Conflict in the Niger Delta

The other day CNN ran a two part story on the on-going conflict in the Niger Delta. The Nigerian government and oil companies have been exploiting the people of the Delta for years, stealing the oil and not giving any of the profits to the locals that live in poverty. At this point you can guess what was going to happen. A rebel group called MEND (Movement for the Emancipation of the Niger Delta) formed to fight the oil companies, disrupting the oil production.

CNN reports: "Nigeria is Africa's largest oil producer. In 2005, it was the world's sixth largest exporter of oil, but the conflict there has cut distribution by an estimated 500,000 barrels per day, according to the U.S. Department of Energy."

MEND also started kidnapping foreign oil workers. They are believed to have 30 hostages now, one of them an American. CNN's international correspondent Jeff Koinange traveled to the Niger Delta to uncover this story, being shot at while trying to do so. It is definitely worth a read to see what is going on. Jeff Koinange's video should also be up on CNN's website.

Link to Jeff Koinange's report.

Come Back

I am on break this week and am trying to get back into blogging more. There are a bunch of under reported stories recently that I think deserves some attention, so hopefully I can find time to work on that.

I leave with another classic quote:

"The best way to defeat the totalitarian of hate is with an ideology of hope -- an ideology of hate -- excuse me -- with an ideology of hope." -President Bush

No Memory Expert for Libby Trial

"Judge Reggie Walton, in an opinion Thursday, wrote the testimony of memory export, Dr. Robert Bjork, chairman UCLA's psychology department, would be a "waste of time," and could mislead and confuse a jury."
...Also...
"Libby lawyers have argued that a key to their defense is their client simply did not remember "snippets of conversations" with three reporters about how he learned or what he knew about CIA employee Valerie Plame. Libby's defense team has said the pressure of Libby's White House job, "could have easily caused him to confuse or misremember minor details of conversations about his former [Ambassador Joe Wilson's] wife and her job at the CIA - topics Libby did not consider significant at the time."

At a hearing last week, Libby's defense team brought out the first witness in their case, psychologist Elizabeth Loftus, a professor at the University of California at Irvine, who tried to persuade Judge Walton that a memory expert was essential in the Libby trial."

Click here for the full article from MSNBC.