Shady Politics

Vice-President Dick Cheney has expressed desires begin discussions with Azerbaijan in an attempt to open additional routes for exporting the region’s oil to Western nations. Obviously, this refers to an alternative route which would not include Russia. Vice-President Dick Cheney made it clear that US have deep interest in Azerbaijan and hinted at the security which US could provide to the nation in exchange for closer ties.

The Bush Administration wishes to benefit from the huge energy deposits within the Caspian Sea, however, its clear that due to raising conflict, it is in not in the best interest of the US for all those pipelines to be headed north into Russia. These new pipelines will be vital if US and Europe is to avoid being energy dependent on Moscow. US and Europe plans to have an additional pipeline take natural gas from Azerbaijan and Central Asia to Turkey, where it will be transported to Austria.

Vice-President Cheney also visited Ukraine and Georgia, to assure them that US has their security and well-being at interest. Vice-President Cheney stressed US support in Georgia and Ukraine. Many believe that this trip will infuriate Russia, however, US must build up support amongst former Soviet States if they are to have any chance of applying significant pressure onto Moscow. The West must also secure oil interest within the region while deterring Russia’s control over a majority of the regional pipelines.

Should we drill is a question that is currently being debated. Republicans are demanding that we drill, while some Democrats are rejecting the idea. One of these Democrats is House Speaker, Nanci Pelosi. Recent, she appeared on “This Week” where she was asked about Obama change of mind regarding offshore drilling and why she continue to oppose it.

First Excuse
Her first excuse was that big oil companies already have leased land, including in the Gulf of Mexico, which is currently not being used to produce oil. My issue with this excuse is that despite big oil already have leased land that is not being drilled, there are more productive areas which would be more profitable for those oil companies. She must realize we live in a capitalist society and companies are out to maximize profits and satisfy stockholders. Therefore, the land currently leased is not being drilled become it is not deemed profitable enough or in the best interest of those oil companies to begin long term production in those areas.

Second Excuse
Secondly, she stated that allowing these companies to drill would deter their likeliness of investing into alternative energies and she also stated that these companies don’t want alternative energies which become competition. The issue with this excuse is that even if these big oil companies are not allowed to drill, they will continue to raise oil prices and make record profits. Secondly, alternative energies will eventually develop regardless of more oil being pumped. Many companies have already begin to build solar powers vehicles and even solar generators to power homes. Within 30-50 years, we will have another major energy sources, but, until then it would be in our best interest to increase oil productions to influence the price of oil.

This is something that the monarchy of Saudi refuses to do, they wish to deflate oil supplies to increase their nation revenue and profits. If Saudi refuses to increase supply, we should increase produce our own oil and bring some of our money home rather then sending it over to the Middle East.

Final Excuse
Pelosi final excuse was that old fashion whining about the effect on the environment. This excuse is becoming old and worn out. My argument for this is that once a more environment friendly alternative energy is put into effect drilling will be more limited and less needed. An alternative energy which is more environment friendly could be widely used within 30-50 years. After those 30-50, the environment will recover and humans or animals will most likely not extistent due to offshore drilling. We eat more animals in the Pacific & Atlantic then are killed due to oil spills. They are in the cold food section of the grocery store, have you not checked?

I am tired of the environmental nuts. They complain and complain, but, if electricity were to be limited to 1 hour a day, and driving 1 day a week, they would cry out loud. They reject nuclear power, but they wish for electricity. They reject offshore drilling, but they wish to continue driving their cars. They reject cutting down trees, but they wish for toilet paper and paper for petitions to stop the cutting down of trees. They are all around hypocrites. I support working towards a better environment which we are currently doing by research alternative energy etc, but, in the mean time lets not be radical and hypocritical.

Lieberman: If Barack Obama’s policy in Iraq had been implemented, he couldn’t be able to be in Iraq today. It’s because he was prepared to accept “retreat and defeat” and that would mean today, al Qaeda would be in charge of parts of Iraq, Iranian-backed extremists would be in charge of other parts of Iraq, there’d be civil war and maybe even genocide. And the fact is, we’re winning in Iraq today. And you know, you can’t choose as Sen. Obama seems to think, to lose in Iraq so you can win in Afghanistan. The reality is if we lost in Iraq-which Obama was prepared to do-we would go to Afghanistan as losers and instead, al Qaeda has its tail tucked between its legs as it’s exiting Iraq to go to try to [crosstalk-unintelligible] into Afghanistan.

Lieberman is complete a joke. He continues to call himself an independent democrat, like it actually means something important. The way I see it, he is nothing more then a sideline Republican who continues to contradict himself on national television. First he launch an all out attack on Obama. He accuses Obama of preparing to “lose in Iraq”. First of all, what exactly do you mean by “lose”? Do you mean “lose” as in Vietnam? What exactly do you mean by “lose”? It is not like suicide bombings will just disappear and American troops will walk out with Iraqi citizens waving flags and singing God Bless America. Our goal were to train and prepare Iraqi troops and we have done that, it is time to bring to war to the front lines and move those resources to Afghanistan.

Lieberman: If John asks me, and he thinks I can help him, because I believe this is no ordinary time, no ordinary election, John McCain is no ordinary candidate.  I want to help him.  I’m not going to go to attack Barack Obama.  I’m going to go to explain why I as an Independent Democrat am supporting John McCain, hoping that I can convince other Independents and Democrats to join me in choosing the man who is clearly more ready to be the President America needs today.

Lieberman, trust me, you can only hurt McCain. You will be thrown under the bus with the “American whiner” sooner or later. Wait…did Lieberman just say he is not going to attack Barack Obama, accusing Obama of being “prepared to lose in Iraq” is an hell of an attack. Which one is it? Are you going to tell us why we should vote for McCain, or why shouldn’t we vote for Obama? The only reason I can think of to vote McCain is that he might die in the middle of the campaign anyway.

According to Shadi Sadr, a lawyer and women’s activist, eight women and one man convicted of adultery are set to be stoned to death in Iran.

Shady Sadr: “Six of the nine were convicted based solely on judges’ decisions with no witnesses or the presence of their lawyers during their confessions. Most of the nine come from areas of Iran that have low rates of literacy and some did not understand the cases against them, she said.”

It is a total disgrace. Firstly, according to reporters, most of the convicted pleaded guilty to adultery even though they did not know the meaning of the charge. Secondly, it shows that Iran is truly a theocracy. Their judicial system is obviously stoning its citizens based on Koran teachings. Some continue to proclaim that Iran is a democracy, it is obviously not. In a true democracy, the government does not interfere in the internal affairs of it citizen. Adultery being against the law symbolizes far reaching control over citizens. Also, the punishment given for adultery is unacceptable. I would expect the death penalty to be given to murders or terrorist. I would also expect that penalty to be humane rather then a bloody mess.

Death by stoning is just about as brutal as it comes. I would rather be hung or lashed to death. Imagine being buried in sand while stones are being bashed into your skull. Stones plunging into your face, cracking your teeth and smashing your lips and nose until their bloody and numb. Those same stones being crushed into your spine and into the rear end of your neck. The brutally is equal to the crucifixion if Jesus, maybe worst. But, I don’t at all feel sorry for the citizens of Iran or those being stoned there. They have endorsed these brutal types of punishments for decades and continue to endorse it. They have danced and paraded in the company of public hangings and lashings. They are never against it until they are actually being bashed in the head with stones.

Today NATO and Afghan police clashed after mistaking each other as taliban insurgents. After airstrike was called in, nine Afghan police were killed. The police chief of Farah’s Anar Dara district was amongst those wounded and is currently in serious condition. NATO & local security forces have been accused of not coordinating their operations properly. This has not been the only incident where mis-coordination has resulted in disastrous results.

There have been several deadly incidents of “friendly fire” in Afghanistan where many local and international security forces are involved in the fight against Taliban insurgents. There has also been civilian deaths due to bad or no coordinations. One example, Afghan security forces along with the assistance of NATO recently killed eight civilians in an air strike targeting militants in Farah. Afghan officials said nine women and a boy were killed. Another example is a recent incident where NATO and Afghan forces mistakingly air striked a wedding party, killing 47 people including the bride.

Obviously, Afghan forces need serious training and should be more prepared to protect their nation from terrorist. They should be receiving the same training that Iraqi forces are currently receiving. Everytime Afghan & US forces decided to work together, there are mistakes. When they are not working together, they are mistaking each other for terrorist and exchanging fire. Do they not have some source of communication with one another? While troops and commanders are over in Iraq training Iraqi armed forces, we are losing sight of Afghanistan and their security needs. When will the same resources given to Iraqi forces, be given to Afghan forces. We will never and can not expect to win in Iraq when we refuse to focus on the source of terrorist which is Afghanistan. We should be strengthening the front lines and aggressively pursuing terrorism, not sitting back and allowing terrorist to bring the war to us in Iraq.

US troops have shot dead the son, Husam, and nephew of Hamid Hummud al-Shakti, the governor of Iraq’s northern Salaheddin province. According to Iraqi police, the killings occurred during a raid on Sunday in the town of Baiji. The first thing I could think of is…just another reason to blame US troops and the United States in general for the problems that Iraq face.

U.S. Military statement: “When the force entered the target buildings, they encountered two armed men. Perceiving hostile intent, coalition forces engaged and killed them.

Lieutenant-Colonel Saad al-Qaisi: “They shot dead Husam and wounded three others. This is barbaric and inhuman”

The governor brother, Saad al-Qaisi, who is also an Lieutenant-Colonel in the Iraqi armed forces, called US troops “barbaric and inhuman”. I do understand the frustration that this family has, but, firstly they must understand that Iraq is a war zone. Secondly, they must understand that thousands of American families have lost their children in this war also due to the barbarity of the Iraqi extremist and suicide bombers. A good question would be, why were these two individuals armed and why would they be in a target building?

It sounds more like the governor family are members of some militant group or terrorist organization. How likely is it that a building be targeted by U.S. military and when its entered everyone is armed, but yet, everyone is innocent. In fact, US troops had also wounded and captured an al-Qaeda financier during the raid. What is an al-Qaeda financier doing in the same building as the family of the governor? Obviously, something doesn’t sound right here. Could there be corruption within the Iraqi government on both province and federal levels? Absolutely! An farther investigation could possibly reveal that the governor of northern Salaheddin is a terrorist.

Today Barack Obama announced that he could possibly refine his policy on Iraqi withdrawal once he visited Baghdad and had an opportunity to talk with ground troops and commanders. The mainstream media quickly accused Barack Obama of backing off of his promise of withdrawal which was made during the primaries and served as a platform which he strongly campaigned on. They also accused him of adopting the war policies of the Bush Administration in order to draw in the Republican vote. However, Obama should not be accused of flip flopping, backing off, or giving George Bush a big liberal hug. Over time things change, including the conditions within Iraq, and with change there is a different approach to difficult situations such as the War in Iraq.

There has been many improvements in Iraq over the past few months. The Iraqi Forces are beginning to be trained to carry out defense & anti-terrorist operations. Iraq is being introduced to new technology which will allow them to obtain accurate intelligence on possible acts of terror and training camps operated by insurgents. There have also been many draw backs, particularly the cause of the increasing body count of US troops, but, there is enough progress to re-evaluate the policies which should be implemented after the Bush Administration has left office. Obviously, Barack Obama does not and has not had full knowledge of the situation in Iraq, as he is not yet in the office which will grant him access to such information.

Barack Obama has made it clear that he is not stepping down from his withdrawal policies, but rather refining it if needed. His primary promise concerning the war was a time limit on withdrawal of US troops, when he says “refine”, what that could mean is modifying the time limit for withdrawal to an earlier or later date depending on the progress, drawbacks, overall conditions on the ground, and the stability of the Iraqi government. Refining is not flip flopping, its a rational response to change.

Today President George W Bush signed a bill removing Nelson Mandela from US terrorist watch list. Nelson Mandela being on US terrorist list shows how much of a joke it really is. US citizens simply can not take the terrorist list seriously because it honestly has hurt its creditability. Who will be placed on the terrorist list next? The Pope and Mother Teresa? The US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice called it a “rather embarrassing matter”.

President George W Bush removed Nelson Mandela and several leaders of Africa from the terrorist list after US Secretary of State Condoleeza Rice expressed disappointment in having to to give out waivers to South Africa leaders, including Nelson Mandela, before they could visit the United States. We can now all stop having a watchful eye on Nelson Mandela when he visits the United States, he is on longer all the United State’s unreliable terrorist list. The 90 year old African leader who is one of the most loved and admired people in the world, can now freely visit the United States without being thrown in Guantanamo Bay.

The idea that the United States is headed towards removing North Korea from US list of terrorist state is simply enough to realize that it has no creditability. North Korea is either a terrorist state or not, the existence of non existence of nuclear research does not make you a terrorist state or vice versa. The US Government is beginning to place everyone on the terrorist list who they disagree with, rather then actual terrorist. We can take Iran for an example. Are sectors of the Iranian Government considered terrorist because they actually support terrorist organization or because of US disagreement with the Iranian Nuclear Program? If Iran completely destroys their nuclear program at this moment, they would most likely be completely removed despite if they support terrorism or not.

I have to say, I believe Mugabe is thrilled with all the attention he is receiving. Who would of thought that the President of the poor nation of Zimbabwe could have become just as famous and hated as George Bush. It seems like ruining your country and making it hard for your people is the best way to establish a legacy, just look at Hitler. Mugabe has already made it clear that he is the God of Zimbabwe and showed that to the world during the recent elections.

Mugabe is the best poll rigger since George Bush, with almost 30 years of experience. His slogan should be “Rigging Polls Since 1980″. But, not only did Mugabe secure his legacy by rigging the polls, he literally kicked his opponents out of the country, and when they were eventually allowed back in, he scared them away with his fully brainwashed military. If only we could send Hillary over to Zimbabwe to run for President, just make sure she doesn’t fall into debt and Mugabe troops wouldn’t be able to pull her away from the podium. In reality, Mugabe will be the leader of Africa till the day he dies. The only way he could possibly be removed is by military force, which is very unlikely due to the lack of interest from the world power, while at the same time, the Africa Union has taken a very under spoken stance on the situation in Zimbabwe.

There have been UN sanctions against Zimbabwe, but Mugabe has learned from the best…..Iran. Iran has taught Mugabe inside and out how to ignore those sanctions and use them to redirect the suffering into hate. In fact, Mugabe has some Zimbabweans still blaming the United Kingdom for their misfortunes. Mugabe is rolling all over his palace laughing at UN sanctions and thinking to himself that sanctions couldn’t destroy Zimbabwe anymore then he already has, but it actually helps him explain why his country is so fucked up. Mugabe will continue to win his sham elections, he will continue to drag his opponents voters from their homes to the polls and force them to vote, he will continue to order the military to commit war on humanity and genocide against opposition, and he will continue to blame sanctions for his countries problems.

Presidential Candidate, Barack Obama, recently made a speech regarding comments made by his former pastor at Trinity United Church of Christ. Videos of Rev. Wright racist and anti-American rethoric were leaked onto Youtube and played in an on going cycle by Media Networks not only in the United States, but around the world.

— In a sermon after the terrorist attacks on Sept. 11, 2001: “We bombed Hiroshima, we bombed Nagasaki, and we nuked far more than the thousands in New York and the Pentagon, and we never batted an eye,” Wright said. “We have supported state terrorism against the Palestinians and black South Africans, and now we are indignant because the stuff we have done overseas is now brought right back to our own front yards. America’s chickens are coming home to roost.”

— In a 2003 sermon, he said blacks should condemn the United States: “The government gives them the drugs, builds bigger prisons, passes a three-strike law and then wants us to sing ‘God Bless America.’ No, no, no, God damn America, that’s in the Bible for killing innocent people. God damn America for treating our citizens as less than human. God damn America for as long as she acts like she is God and she is supreme.”

— Promoting Obama’s candidacy in a sermon last December: “Barack knows what it means to be a black man to be living in a country and a culture that is controlled by rich white people. Hillary can never know that. Hillary ain’t never been called a nigger.”

Many Americans were surprised to see such rhetoric being preached within the African American church. But, it was not just some random incident, it’s the African American culture. Racism is a topic of discussion on just about every Sunday in the majority of African American Baptist churches. I can honestly say that I have never attended an Sunday sermon without racial comments being made, most which have been worst then the statement of Rev.Wright.

— Portion of Obama’s speech on racial divide: “I can no more disown him than I can disown the black community,” Obama said. “I can no more disown him than I can my white grandmother ? a woman who helped raise me, a woman who sacrificed again and again for me, a woman who loves me as much as she loves anything in this world, but a woman who once confessed her fear of black men who passed by her on the street, and who on more than one occasion has uttered racial or ethnic stereotypes that made me cringe… these people are part of me. And they are part of America, this country that I love.”

The portion of Barack Obama’s speech above, was one of the most awaking parts of the speech. This is because most Americans don’t understand that what has been said by Obama’s former pastor, has been said by the majority of elderly black pastor, especially in the Baptist Church. Most of the people that I know, church going or not, has sat through a racial sermon on more then one occasion. Most African Americans think nothing of it or overlook the racial portions of the sermon because it is understood that the ideologies were born during the slavery and civil rights era. In fact, the Baptist Church was founded due to slavery.

When I had the opportunity to attended my great grandmother’s church, her pastor began to preach a racial sermon. I can’t recall the sermon enough to quote the exact statements concerning the white race that he made, but they were pretty nasty and disgraceful. What caught my attention the most and made me uncomfortable, was that the church had a white deacon. Here is this pastor, preaching all of this racist rhetoric, with a white man sitting behind him and the family of the white man sitting within the church. I have never agreed with any pastor’s racial comments, but I was totally outraged that he would make such comments outside of African American company.

However, the idea that racism only exist in the white community is mistakenly false. I am not suggesting that there are a bunch of black racist extremist, but there is still a lot of hate floating around due to slavery and the civil rights era. There is racism in both the white and black community, but the racism in the black community isn’t taken into account because its usually behind closed doors and sometimes overlooked due to the cruelty of the former white generations.