Nachrichten Heute (Nachrichten Heute, Hintergrundinformationen und Berichte) : Rubrik:usa

Obama und die Gnade der doppelten Geburt

sfux — 2009-08-09T18:07:00Z

World Content News - Bereits seit James Bond wissen wir: Man stirbt nur zweimal. Das aber jemand am gleichen Tag zweimal geboren wird, einmal im Coast General Hospital in Mombasa und einmal im Kapiolani-Hospital in Honolulu auf Hawaii, das bringt wohl nur ein späterer US-Präsident zuwege. Die US-Anwältin Orly Taitz hat gestern dem Bundesbezirksgericht von Kalifornien eine angebliche Geburtsurkunde von Barack Obama aus Kenia vorgelegt. Aber einen kleinen Geburtsfehler hat das Dokument dann offenbar doch.

Yes we can twice: Urkunde aus Kenia ...

... und von Hawaii (Computerausdruck)

Die kenianische Fassung soll Orly Taitz von einem anonymen Informanten zugespielt worden sein, der angeblich "um sein Leben fürchtet". Die Zeitung WorldNetDaily glaubt durch Vergleich anderer Urkunden aus diesem Zeitraum belegen zu können, dass zumindest der Vordruck echt ist.

Ob jetzt die "Birther" auf den Tischen tanzen und die USA bald einen neuen Präsidenten braucht, weil man ja für dieses Amt laut Verfassung in den USA geboren sein muss?

Aber nicht doch. Ausgerechnet Karl Rove, ehemals wichtiger Berater von George Bush und Enttarner der CIA-Agentin Valerie Plame hat sich auf die Seite von Obama geschlagen und das neu aufgetauchte Dokument flugs für falsch erklärt. Und einer der Herausgeber von Daily Kos hat herausgefunden, dass nicht sein kann, was nicht sein darf: Die Geburtsurkunde, die vom Februar 1964 stammt (Obama wurde 1961 geboren), ist mit der Bezeichnung "Republic of Kenya" versehen. Das Land wurde zwar 1963 unabhängig, die Republik wurde offiziell aber erst im Dezember 1964 ausgerufen.

Und auch die Malen-nach-Zahlen-Verschwörungsexperten meinen zu wissen: Da hat sich jemand einen schlechten Scherz erlaubt. Die Dokument-Nummer 47.044 weist ganz klar darauf hin: Obama, 47, ist der 44. Präsident der USA. Da muss man erst mal drauf kommen, äh. Wurden die rechtsschaffenden Made in U.S.-Zweifler reingelegt?

Auf der anderen Seite, auf Haiwaii, regiert der über alles erhabene Computer:

"This certified document is a true abstract of the official record filed with the Registrar-Recorder."

Gewöhnliche Sterbliche müssen mit solchen Bescheiden vorlieb nehmen, eine Einsichtnahme in die Originale gibt es nicht. Man muss schon als Zeuge bei der Geburt dabei gewesen sein, um sicher zu gehen.

Die schlichte Wahrheit ist: Eines dieser Dokumente ist falsch. Der Unterhaltungswert bleibt jedenfalls hoch. Bis Sarah Palin die nächste Präsidentin der Vereinigten Staaten wird? Gott verhüte.

A propo, wer es noch nicht gemerkt hat: Barack Obama feiert morgen seinen 48. Geburtstag. An welchem Ort auch immer. Wenigstens das Datum ist verbürgt :-) WCN is proud to be the first congratulator ...

Update (!) 04.08.: Wunderbare Web-Community: Nur wenige Stunden nach der Veröffentlichung der kenianischen Geburtsurkunde hat sich herausgestellt: Sie ist eine klare Fälschung, als Vorlage wurde eine australische Geburtsurkunde benutzt. Dies haben Surfer nach einer fieberhaften Suche herausgefunden.

Urkundenvergleich: Sogar die Seitennummern sind identisch

Ein Australier namens David Bomford hatte seine genealogischen Daten auf seiner Homepage präsentiert, die Fälscher hatten den Vordruck seiner Geburtsurkunde offenbar übernommen und daraus eine kenianische Urkunde mit Obamas Daten generiert.

Zunächst herrschte Verwirrung, da nach entsprechenden Hinweisen auf das Fake Bomfords Webseite plötzlich nicht mehr erreichbar war, auch im Cache und im Webarchiv waren alle Spuren des Originals verschwunden. Wollten Obama-Anhänger mit einem Fake ein Fake nachweisen? Nein, Bomford hat inzwischen der australischen ABC ein Interview gegeben:

"It's definitely a copy of my certificate. It's so laughable it's ridiculous.
Wonderful. Die "Birther"-Bewegung wird sich nach dieser Niederlage voraussichtlich nicht mehr erholen. Der Krieg um Obamas Geburtsort dürfte ein jähes Ende erfahren. Na ja, fast ...

Orly Taitz: "From Nazi Germany"?

Is This the Source of the Forged Kenyan Birth Certificate?
(Washington Independent, 03.08.2009)

Quellen:
Is this really smoking gun of Obama's Kenyan birth?
(WorldNetDaily, 02.08.2009)
Verschwörung der Zeichentrickfiguren
(Süddeutsche Zeitung, 31.07.2009)
«Obama ist in Kenya geboren ich will mein Land zurück»
(Tagesanzeiger.ch, 30.07.2009)
On birth, and the death of the conservative movement
(oregonlive.com, 03.08.2009)

Dieser Artikel erschien erstmailig bei World Conent News

Is this really smoking gun of Obama's Kenyan birth?

sfux — 2009-08-08T20:21:00Z

WorldNetDaily - California attorney Orly Taitz, who has filed a number of lawsuits demanding proof of Barack Obama's eligibility to serve as president, has released a copy of what purports to be a Kenyan certification of birth and has filed a new motion in U.S. District Court for its authentication.

This document purports to be a Kenyan certification of birth for Barack Obama, allegedly born in Mombasa, Kenya, in 1961

The document lists Obama's parents as Barack Hussein Obama and Stanley Ann Obama, formerly Stanley Ann Dunham, the birth date as Aug. 4, 1961, and the hospital of birth as Coast General Hospital in Mombasa, Kenya.

Document enlarged to show detail alleges Barack Obama was born at Coast General Hospital in Mombasa on Aug. 4, 1961

No doctor is listed. But the alleged certificate bears the signature of the deputy registrar of Coast Province, Joshua Simon Oduya. It was allegedly issued as a certified copy of the original in February 1964.

WND was able to obtain other birth certificates from Kenya for purposes of comparison, and the form of the documents appear to be identical.

An enlarged view of the bottom of the document

Last week, a counterfeit document purporting to be Obama's Kenyan birth certificate made the rounds of the Internet, but was quickly determined to be fraudulent. The new document released by Taitz bears none of the obvious traits of a hoax.

One of the issues Taitz must deal with will be the authentication of the document. Critics immediately jumped on the Feb. 17, 1964, date for the document, explaining that the "republic" of Kenya wasn't assembled until in December of that year.

Media Matters wrote, "Sorry, WorldNetDaily: Kenya wasn't a republic until Dec. 1964."

But Kenya's official independence was in 1963, and any number of labels could have been applied to government documents during that time period.

At Ameriborn Constitution News, the researcher noted that the independence process for the nation actually started taking as early as 1957, when there were the first direct elections for Africans to the Legislative Council.

"Kenya became an Independent Republic, December 12, 1963, which gives more [credibility] that this is a true document," the website stated.

The 1963 independence is corroborated by several other information sources, including the online African History.

Even the People Daily news agency cited, on Dec. 12, 2005, the "42nd independence anniversary" in Nairobi. "The country gained independence from Britain on Dec. 12, 1963," the report said.

An online copy of the Kenya Constitution, "adopted in 1963, amended in 1999," states: "CHAPTER I - THE REPUBLIC OF KENYA, Article 1, Kenya is a sovereign Republic. Article 1A, The Republic of Kenya shall be a multiparty democratic state"

It was in November 1964 when the region voluntarily became a one-party state, according to an online source.

The region including Mombasa originally was dealt with as a separate independence movement, but it almost immediately became part of Kenya when the sultan of Zanzibar ceded the "coastal strip" to Kenya, according to sources.

Taitz told WND that the document came from an anonymous source who doesn't want his name known because "he's afraid for his life."

Taitz's motion, filed yesterday in the U.S. District Court for the Central District of California, requests the purported evidence of Obama's birth both the alleged birth certificate and foreign records not yet obtained be preserved from destruction, asks for permission to legally request documents from Kenya and seeks a subpoena for deposition from Secretary of State Hillary Clinton.

"I filed the motion with the court asking for expedited discovery, which would allow me to start subpoenas and depositions even before Obama and the government responds," Taitz told WND. "I am asking the judge to give me the power to subpoena the documents from the Kenyan embassy and to require a deposition from Hillary Clinton so they will be forced to authenticate [the birth certificate].

"I'm forcing the issue, where Obama will have to respond," she said.

"Before, they said, 'You don't have anything backing your claims,'" Taitz explained. "Now I have something. In fact, I have posted on the Internet more than Obama has. My birth certificate actually has signatures."

Taitz's most celebrated case involved a military officer, Maj. Stefan Cook, whose order to deploy to Afghanistan was revoked when he challenged Obama's eligibility to hold office. That case has now been refiled in federal court in Florida, raising the specter of a class-action claim among members of the military that their orders aren't valid because of questions surrounding Obama's constitutional eligibility.

Taitz told WND she plans to file additional paperwork with the Florida court tomorrow, adding the alleged Kenyan birth certificate to Maj. Cook's case.

Read it all @ World Net Daily

Unterhaltsames: Clintons Trip nach Nordkorea wurde von Hollywood gesponsert

sfux — 2009-08-08T20:04:00Z

Net News Global - Die Befreiungsaktion der beiden Journalistinnen Laura Ling und Euna Lee aus einem staatlichen Gästehaus in Pjöngjang geht wohl auf eine private Medien-Initiative zurück. Die entstandenen Reisekosten in Höhe von 200.000 Dollar werden offenbar gänzlich von dem Hollywood-Produzenten und Immobolienhai Steve Bing übernommen. Die Huffington Post mutmaßt darüber hinaus, dass Bill Clinton bei dieser "humanitären, privaten Mission" das US-State Department einfach links liegen gelassen hat.

Heimkehrer-Boeing N2121: Private Mediengeiselinitiative von Shangri-La Entertainment

Wie die Nachrichtenagentur ABC meldete, hat der Medienmogul Bing nicht nur gratis seine Boeing 737 für den Rücktransport zur Verfügung gestellt, sondern will auch für alle anderen entstandenen Kosten aufkommen. Dies erklärte der Operator des Flugzeugs, die Firma Avjet. Steve Bing selbst wollte sich zunächst nicht dazu äußern.

Die Journalistinnen waren Mitte März an der Grenze zu China festgenommen worden, als sie dort über nordkoreanische Flüchtlinge berichten wollten. Ihr Auftraggeber: Current TV, zu deren Mitgründern der ehemalige Präsidentschaftskandidat Al Gore zählt. Dieser war auch die treibende Kraft hinter der Freilassung und wollte ursprünglich selbst nach Nordkorea reisen, was jedoch von Kim Jong Il abgelehnt wurde.

Großer Gast, kleiner Stuhl: Clinton meets Kim Jong Il

US-Präsident Obama wiederum macht gute Mine zu diesem privatwirtschaftlichen Coup. Ihm ist es ganz recht, weil er dadurch den politischen Druck auf Nordkorea weiterhin aufrecht erhalten kann. Er habe nicht persönlich mit Bill Clinton gesprochen, hieß es aus dem Weißen Haus. Washington hatte zunächst über schwedische Diplomaten versucht, die Freilassung von Ling und Lee zu erreichen.

Noch sind keine näheren Einzelheiten bekannt, wie es den beiden Festgehaltenen während ihrer Haft ergangen ist. Nur unser Unterhaltungsmedium BILD hat wieder mal vorab wichtige Aufklärungsarbeit geleistet: Sie mussten Reis mit Steinen essen.

Wird wohl Zeit angesichts des leeren Staatssäckels, dass die deutsche Medienindustrie bei soviel Kümmerlichkeit auch mal ordentlich was springen lässt, bei der nächsten Geiselnahme in Afghanistan etwa.

Quellen:
Steve Bing to Pay $200K for Clinton Korea Trip
(ABC News, 05.08.2009)
Why the North Koreans Picked Bill
(taylormarsh.com, 05.08.2009)
Bill und Al sind wieder Freunde
(Die Zeit, 07.08.2009)
Umjubelte Heimkehr der begnadigten Journalistinnen
(diestandard.at, 05.08.2009)
Obama drängt nach Clinton-Besuch zur Aufgabe des Atomprogramms (Focus, 06.08.2009)
Glückliches Ende einer heiklen Mission
(Frankfurter Rundschau, 05.08.2009)
Stellt Obama jetzt Hillary Clinton kalt?
(bild.de, 06.07.2009)

Dieser Artikel erschien erstmalig bei World Content News

ACLU Documents 44 Detainee Deaths While in US Custody, Including 21 Homicides

sfux — 2009-02-12T07:18:00Z

History Commons - The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) releases a report that documents the death of 44 detainees in Iraq and Afghanistan while in US custody. Most died during interrogation. The report, based on government reports (including autopsy reports, death reports, and other documents turned over to the ACLU through a Freedom of Information Act request), finds that detainees were hooded, gagged, strangled, beaten with blunt objects, subjected to sleep deprivation, and to hot and cold environmental conditions.

ACLU director Anthony Romero says: There is no question that US interrogations have resulted in deaths. High-ranking officials who knew about the torture and sat on their hands and those who created and endorsed these policies must be held accountable. America must stop putting its head in the sand and deal with the torture scandal that has rocked our military. The detainees died during or after interrogations by Navy SEALs, military intelligence officials, and OGA (Other Governmental Agency) personnel, a designation the ACLU says is usually used to refer to the CIA.

Twenty-one of the 44 deaths were homicides, the ACLU says. Eight died from abusive techniques; autopsy reports show the causes of death were strangulation, asphyxiation, and blunt force injuries. Most of the natural deaths were attributed to what government doctors termed Arteriosclerotic Cardiovascular Disease.

The ACLU notes that the report proves that detainees died not only at the hands of CIA personnel, but from abuse and maltreatment by Navy SEALs and military intelligence officials as well. The report cites, among other deaths, an Iraqi prisoner who died from hypothermia (see April 5, 2004), an Iraqi prisoner who was strangled and beaten to death (see January 9, 2004), an Iraqi general who died from smothering and chest compressions (see November 26, 2003), an Iraqi prisoner beaten and smothered to death (see Between 4:30 a.m. and 5:30 a.m. November 4, 2003), two Afghani civilians beaten to death by US soldiers (see November 6, 2003 and December 10, 2002), and an older Iraqi man strangled to death while in US custody (see June 5, 2003). ACLU lawyer Amrit Singh says: These documents present irrefutable evidence that US operatives tortured detainees to death during interrogations. The public has a right to know who authorized the use of torture techniques and why these deaths have been covered up.

Purba on Barry Soetoro aka Barack Obamas Indonesian connection.

sfux — 2009-01-29T15:12:00Z

Indonesia Matters - Obama Barack has been democratically elected President of the US. Quite an about face for the best democracy money can buy, in view of the Bush presidential se-lection.

But of course, corruption, collusion and nepotism is the sole monopoly of the Third World - or so the deluded denizens of the West repeat to themselves as they hug their knees, rocking back and forth - reminding themselves of how they uphold human rights equally across the board, entirely devoid of double-standards and totally oblivious to race, creed or religion.

Barrak Hussein Obama II was born to a white American Ann Dunham and Kenyan Barrak Hussein Obama Snr, in Nyangoma Kogelo now in Kenya.

Here the Indonesian link starts.

Ann Dunham married in 1967 Lolo Soetoro, a Javanese, whose own father, in 1946 was killed along with his eldest brother were killed, after which the Dutch army burned down the familys home. Soetoro fled with his mother into the countryside to survive. Incidentally yet more proof of Dutch War Crimes - delibrate destruction of civilian property outside the scope of battle.

Pak Lolo Soetoro was an army geologist then later a government relations consultant for Mobil Oil. Obama describes Soetoro as well-mannered, even-tempered, and easy with people.

Barry Soetoro in Indonesia with mother Ann Dunham, step-father Lolo Soetoro, baby-sister Maya Soetoro-Ng.

From age 6 to 10, Obama lived in Jakarta. Age six, Obama attended the Catholic Primary St Francis di Assisi. Much was made of the lie he was educated in a Madrassa - or more accurately a pesantren - this of course was totally untrue. Obama Jnr later attended Model Primary School, Menteng and was registered as a Muslim - as his father was Muslim.

In Obamas own words:

In the Muslim school, the teacher wrote to tell my mother that I made faces during Koranic studies. My mother wasnt overly concerned. Be respectful, shed say. In the Catholic school, when it came time to pray, I would close my eyes, then peek around the room. Nothing happened. No angels descended. Just a parched old nun and 30 brown children, muttering words.

One of Berrys childhood friends was Adi who often visited Berrys 16 Jalan Haji Ramli house. Speaking volumes of Dutch development at the time the road was of this established middle-class neighbourhood was a dirt lane where Obama used to wile away the hours kicking a soccer ball.

Adi recalled Obama and his friends wore plastic bags over their shoes to walk through the muddy street during the rainy seasons.

Neighborhood Muslims worshiped in a nearby house, which has since been replaced by a larger mosque. Sometimes, when the muezzin sounded the call to prayer, Lolo and Barry would walk to the makeshift mosque together, Adi said.

His mother often went to the church, but Barry was Muslim. He went to the mosque, Adi said. I remember him wearing a sarong.

Obama spent most his spare time hanging out with Adi and other friends at the home of Yunaldi Askiar, a classmate. They used to play a kind of fencing game using sticks, kick a ball up and down the narrow dirt lanes or go swimming in the river behind the school, said Askiar, 42, a car mechanic.

Obama was taller and better dressed than most kids in classes where shoes and socks were still luxuries, so he stood out from the start. As an African American, and the only foreigner, he suffered racial taunts and teasing but never turned to violence.

At first, everybody felt it was weird to have him here, Israella Dharmawan, his first grade teacher said. But also they were curious about him, so wherever he went, the kids were following him.

His friends enjoyed playing tricks on Berry: Harmon ASki recalled,

Sometimes wed say, Barry, do you want a chocolate? And wed give him a chocolate. The next day wed give him a chocolate again. The third time wed give him terasi (fermented shrimp paste) wrapped up like chocolate. Obama didnt get mad. He would laugh it off.

Ann Soetoro moved to Yogyakarta, while Obama Jnr studied in Jakarta. She was inspired by Jogja village industries, which became the basis of her 1992 doctoral dissertation.

She loved living in Java, said Dr. Dewey, who recalled accompanying Ms. Soetoro to a metalworking village. People said: Hi! How are you? She said: Hows your wife? Did your daughter have the baby? They were friends. Then shed whip out her notebook and shed say: How many of you have electricity? Are you having trouble getting iron?

Dunham-Soetoro became a consultant for the United States Agency for International Development on setting up a village credit program, then a Ford Foundation program officer in Jakarta specializing in womens work. Later, she was a consultant in Pakistan, then joined Indonesias oldest bank to work on what is described as the worlds largest sustainable microfinance program, creating services like credit and savings for the poor.

Obama in Hawaii with Maya and Ann and maternal grand-father, shortly after leaving Indonesia.

In his tellingly-titled Memoir, Dreams from My Father, Obama describes his Indonesian interlude as one long adventure, the bounty of a young boys life. But he also recalls being troubled by the poverty around him: the empty look on the faces of farmers the year the rains never came, and the desperation of the disabled beggars who came to the familys door.

The world was violent, I was learning, unpredictable and often cruel, he writes. Obama and his mother thus we were very well acquainted with the harsh realities of indigenous Indonesians.

Fermina Katarina Sinaga, recalled yojhng Obama in her class: in the common task of class to write an essay titled My dream: What I want to be in the future. Obama wrote I want to be a president, she said. During a later writing assignment on family, he wrote, My father is my idol.

The Indonesian connection for Obama and all that shaped him proving once again all things Javanese and indigenous Indonesian the bedrock for the towering monuments built on the foundations of a great civilisation.

This article was first published by Indonesia Matters

Mothers Linked World Wide

sfux — 2008-12-09T20:09:00Z

Rebekah Spicuglia - They met in Toronto and cemented a movement of mothers that now promises a global network, with a website and a wide-ranging set of objectives. The author helped film a documentary tracing their progress.

Beginning December 1, 2008, mothers around the world have had access to the first global consortium of motherhood organizations. Marking ten years after the Association for Research on Mothering (ARM) was founded, mothers organizations in North America and around the world came together in October for the ARM annual Toronto conference on motherhood and emerged as an International Motherhood Network (IMN).

The website is live and inviting members to join, but IMN does not officially launch until May 8, 2009 (International Womans Day). At the Toronto conference, the founding organizations agreed to hold off the launch in order to include as many mothers organizations around the world as possible on the big day. With 35 founding organizations already linked and committed to publicize events in the month of May, and a conference planned for 2011, IMN plans to influence public discussion for a more mother-centered world.

My husband, Marcarthur Baralla (Defendshee Production), and I filmed the conference and interviewed more than 30 women for a documentaryThe Motherhood Movement: You Say You Want a Revolutionbeing produced for the Museum of Motherhood. Exploring the movements evolution over the last 50 years, the documentary will be a highlight of the museum, which was established online in 2003 and will soon be a physical museum located in Seneca Fallshome of the first U.S. womens rights convention in 1848. The museum, founded by ARM and the Motherhood Foundation, is a long overdue project to honor the achievements of mothers.

For the documentary, Andrea O'Reilly, founder and director of ARM and York University professor, spoke about the effect of motherhood on her work in womens studies. I realized that the topic of motherhood had scarcely been mentioned. Violence against women, health, work, education, beauty myth, sexuality were the topics under discussion in the womens studies curriculum, she said, explaining why she designed her own course on motherhood. The few times motherhood was mentioned, it was usually done so negativelya patriarchal trap.

What was obvious from our interviews is how wide-ranging the movement has become. From LiteraryMama to Mamapalooza, Mothers Acting Up to CODEPINK, SisterSong to Welfare Warriors, organizations raise awareness about the impact of mothers on their communities. MomsRising in particular has made great strides over the last year with an activism that combines swift online force with in-person delivery, taking action against toxic toys and demanding that politicians improve workplace policies. Read all at Womans Media Center

Rebekah Spicuglia is the WMC media manager. She has combined her dedication to progressive values with her background in film and television production to create and advocate for inclusive, effective media. In addition to her role as News Brief editor, Rebekah writes for the WMC website and blog, oversees media production, manages interns, and coordinates outreach and program logistics.

The Post-American World - my thoughts

sfux — 2008-12-08T19:37:00Z

Tom Zacharski - I recently read a very interesting book - The Post-American World by Fareed Zakaria (hes a NYTimes publisher). The book is basically about the relative fall of American position in the world, the key word here being relative. Mr Zakaria is talking about the rise of the rest - obviously the rest is being lead by China and India, but these are also other developing countries like Brazil, Central and Eastern Europe or South-East Asia. The book also discusses Americas position in the world and potential future as a leader or not a leader. Definitely worth reading.

What struck me most in the book were two stories I read I would like to share them here, because they are huge eye-openers. The first one is about a meeting between Condoleezza Rice and French President Nicolas Sarkozy after his election in 2007:

Condoleezza Rice () asked him, What can I do for you? His response was revealing. Improve your image in the world. () Its difficult when the country that is the most powerful, the most successful - that is, of necessity, the leader of our side - is one of the most unpopular countries in the world. It presents overwhelming problems for your allies. So do everything you can do to improve the way youre perceived - thats what you can do for me.

President Sarkozys frankness revealed what I believe is a huge problem for America today - its declining image as the worlds leader and the worlds superpower. The good news is that America seems to have a great chance to improve its prestige right NOW. With a president who is loved by Europe and the rest of the world, with leaders of other powerful countries being pro-American (e.g. France, Germany, Japan) the United States have a great chance of reclaiming the love of the world. Yet, loved or not, the United States will still be perceived as a global policeman - which brings to the next story from the book:

In July 2002, the government of Morocco sent twelve soldiers to a tiny island called Leila, a few hundred feet off its coast, in the Straits of Gibraltar, and planted its flag there. The island is uninhabited, except for some goats, and that thrives on it is wild parsley, hence it Spanish name, Perejil. But its sovereignty had long been contested by Morocco and Spain, and the Spanish government reacted forcefully to the Moroccan aggression. Within a couple of weeks, seventy-five Spanish soldiers had been airlifted onto the island. () From afar, the whole affair looked like a comic opera. But however absurd it may have seemed someone was going to have to talk the two countries down. This role fell not to the United Nations, or to the European Union, or to a friendly European country like France, which has good relations with both sides. It fell to the United States.

Isnt that amazing? A conflict of such low magnitude, which would have been easily resolved by any institution, actually had to be resolved by the United States and required tens of phone calls made by Secretary of State Colin Powell. That was in 2002 A lot has changed since that time and Im not exactly sure if today the two states would look towards America as a potential mediator.

To conclude - Americas image and Americas leadership need to be redefined for the XXIst century. And that will be one of President Obamas most important task. I hope that the economic crisis will not last very long and President Obamas administration will consider those strategic matters as its priority. What makes me optimistic is the fact that at some time during the Summer Senator Obama was seen with Fareed Zakarias book in his hand (yup, that fact was one of the reasons for which I bought the book in the first place).

Tom Zacharski, a citizen of Poland and the United States, is a student of SGH in Warsaw (5th year of Management). He also studied at Harvard and Georgetown University in the U.S.A., and took part in university exchange programs in Austria, Canada and the Czech Republic. His Web site: tomzacharski.com .

What will President Obama have to deal with?

sfux — 2008-11-24T20:02:00Z

Tom Zacharski - It was wonderful to see the people cheering throughout the night of November 4th. Many will define this date as the day that brought change, change being the main slogan of president-elect Barack Obama. After a hard-fought campaign it is time for America to unite and start working on its problems in a bipartisan spirit. Sen. McCain said in his concession speech that he would not spend a minute regretting the campaign, as there are more important issues at stake Americas future. That is absolutely true and one has to forget about the campaign, as it is time for America to heal its wounds and start working on its problems. And the road ahead is rather bumpy.

Tom Zacharski, with Sen. Barack Obama & Richard Durbin

What are the challenges that Barack Obama will have to face after January 20th, when he officially becomes President of the United States? There is a lot of them dealing with the economy crisis; restoring Americas image throughout the world; managing relations with foreign policy actors, who are becoming increasingly hostile. All of this needs to be wrapped in a change package. People will not forget Obamas slogans and the hope he gave them, therefore the new president will have a lot of expectations management to deal with. Yet, foremost, it seems that the most pressing issue at the moment is unting all Americans and truly working in a spirit of bipartisanship.

I will be your President, too. With these words President-Elect Barack Obama addressed in his victory speech the people who cast their vote for a different candidate. Throughout his campaign change and hope were parallel to the ideas of bipartisanship. The campaigns message was very often close to Washington in broken, those people are fighting each other, Barack Obama will unite them. It is true to say that Washingtons politics is very partisan with a two-party system it is hard to see any other alternative. Hovering around this system and having two parties - one, which needs to reinvent itself and one which might take advantage of the others weakness - Mr. Obama will have to be a very fair judge and will have to stick to the principle of bipartisanship even stronger.

But if he succeeds it will truly be change that he brings to Washington. With two parties working together it will not be very difficult to convince the people to unite. And even though Mr. Obama might have a problem with managing expectations, which are unusually high, it will not be hard to look better than his predecessor. Although he ran a particularly idealistic campaign his record shows that he is a very pragmatic politician coming from the hard-reality of Chicago politics. With that in mind one can hope that the next President knew what he was doing during the campaign. As an educated person he also knows that social unrest usually starts when you give people hope and suddenly take it back.

It is also important to remember that Mr. Obama is not a one-man army in the huge Washington apparatus. The upcoming few weeks are more important for America than the last two years of campaigning because they will determine who will deal with both internal and foreign policy. Dealing with the economy crisis and restoring Americas image in the world were two important issues debated throughout the campaign, therefore the Secretary of Treasury and Secretary of State will be positions of high importance. We can expect very clever choices in these positions, maybe even choices from the other party.

The day after Election Day was one when Americans woke up to a new world. This is both fortunate and unfortunate Europe seemed friendlier as if a magical wand made them like America within hours. Hopefully this situation wont go away as easily as it came. It would be great if America would have an ally in Europe because many will try to take advantage of a President who was described as weak during the campaign. A few hours after the elections Iran reminded the Americans to respect their borders and not to fly any aircrafts above their airspace. The Russian President made an aggressive speech in which he assured the world that Russia will not move out from Caucasus and will respond to the American missile shield with appropriate measures. The North Korean President made an outlook of the military. Mr. Obama will clearly have a lot of hostility on part of those countries.

But, as the elections have shown, Americans have a more pressing issue at mind right now. With the Dow Jones taking a ride on the roller coaster and economists forecasting a recession for the third quarter of 2009 the Obama administration will have to make wise choices for the economy. Wise choices are usually about taking a long-term stance and accepting the short-term consequences. If he really wants to cure the economy some very unpopular decisions will have to be made. And forget about cutting taxes not only the deficit needs to be taken care of, but also the money has to flow to cover for all the social policies Mr. Obama will want to introduce. Among them is the ticking time bomb of rising health care costs. From a more practical point of view it is hopeful to say that the Obama administration will not have to deal with hard political realities both the House and the Senate have a clear Democrat majority and the Democrats are very close to having a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate which will allow them to pass pretty much any legislation coming from the Oval Office.

So far, so good. In the first few days of being the president-elect Mr. Obama made an interesting choice for his Chief of Staff, launched a webpage called change.gov and talked to President Bush about making the transition as smooth as possible. We can expect a lot of Internet usage by the administration and amazing speeches from the President. The upcoming months will show if its not only words that Mr. Obama deals with handily. During his first press conference he joked that the most important and immediate issue right now is choosing the right puppy for his daughters. Let us hope this will be the most difficult of his challenges.

Tom Zacharski, a citizen of Poland and the United States, is a student of SGH in Warsaw (5th year of Management). He also studied at Harvard and Georgetown University in the U.S.A., and took part in university exchange programs in Austria, Canada and the Czech Republic. His Web site

John McCain: Country First. Barack Obama: Hope and change

sfux — 2008-11-04T18:43:00Z

David Dastych - On Tuesday, November 4, 2008 it will be decided who will become the next President of the United States. The new presidents His serial number will be 44, a somewhat magic numerical symbol, which in my country is usually associated with Adam Mickiewiczs poetic and prophetic drama Dziady (Forefathers Eve, an ancient form of Halloween), where 44 is the name of a mysterious savior of Poland. Will the 44th President of the U.S.A. be a savior of America, a great reformer, or a destroyer of the Union, the one who ignores the Constitution and the Bill of Rights?

The media bias
In the heat of the election campaign, both party nominees and their followers exchanged hard blows. Barack Obama was often called socialist and even communist, while John McCain was depicted as a hardhead and warmonger, who would send more GIs to Iraq and Afghanistan and start new wars to continue George W Bushs belligerent policy. In the last week of the campaign, one Obama Girl, a left-wing feminist and writer Erica Jong, told Italian press If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. And its not a coincidence that President Bush recalled soldiers from Iraq for Dick Cheney to lead against American citizens in the streets. Her friends, Jane Fonda and Naomi Wolf were equally terrified and obsessed by a possibility that their idol might lose.

If Obama loses it will spark the second American Civil War. Blood will run in the streets, believe me. And its not a coincidence that President Bush recalled soldiers from Iraq for Dick Cheney to lead against American citizens in the streets.

How come? Barack Obama got steady and strong support from the American MainStream Media. Comments made by sources, voters, reporters and anchors that aired on ABC, CBS and NBC evening newscasts over the past two months reflected positively on Obama in 65 percent of cases, compared to 31 percent of cases with regards to McCain, according to the Center for Media and Public Affairs. And influential newspapers, like the Chicago Tribune and the Washington Post openly endorsed the Democratic nominee. Some journalists proclaimed him the winner several weeks prior to Election Day.

Commenting on unfair and unequal treatment of the Republican nominee, ABC columnist Michael Malone remarked what I object to (and I think most other Americans do as well) is the lack of equivalent hardball coverage of the other sideor worse, actively serving as attack dogs for the presidential ticket of Sens. Barack Obama, D-Ill., and Joe Biden, D-Del. () If the current polls are correct, we are about to elect as president of the United States a man who is essentially a cipher, who has left almost no paper trail, seems to have few friends (that at least will talk) and has entire years missing out of his biography.

But not all American media treated the Republican nominee so badly. The Wall Street Journal in its article McCains Honor (Nov.1, 2008) wrote about him The former Navy pilots politics has always been more personal than ideological. His core convictions are duty, honor and country. He has always been passionate to the point of being impulsive, an unguided policy missile until he locks on target. Then he can be tenacious, and sometimes moralistic. These traits have characterized the McCain candidacy for better or worse and, we suspect, would also mark his Presidency. What the media cant say with a straight face is that they are shocked by any of this; they should admit theyve simply found a new romance in Barack Obama.

Equality or liberty
It looks like the biggest stake in this election is not just political or personal character difference between the two parties and their nominees but much more: reform or change of the American politico-economic system, developed over 200 years ago. This election is about equality or liberty.

Richard John Neuhaus wrote in First Things journal (October 31): One can argue that every presidential election is a historic election. But some are more historic than others. Daniel Henninger had a provocative column yesterday making a strong case that this one is a tipping point between America continuing as an entrepreneurial society or going the way of the European social democracies. He cites the late Senator Pat Moynihan who said the big difference between Europe and America is that the former gives priority to equality and the latter to liberty. Im not sure that Henninger is right in saying there would be no turning back after four or eight years of President Obama and an overwhelmingly Democratic Congress imposing their passion for a government-directed program of redistribution and social coordination, but the future he depicts is both plausible and ominous.

Daniel Henninger actually wrote in The Wall Street Journal, October 30: With this election, the U.S. is at a philosophical tipping point. The goal of Sen. Obama and the modern, progressive Democratic Party is to move the U.S. in the direction of Western Europe, the so-called German model and its social market economy. Under this notion, business is highly regulated, as it would be in the next Congress under Democratic House committee chairmen Markey, Frank and Waxman. Business is allowed to create wealth so long as its utility is not primarily to create new jobs or economic growth but to support a deep welfare system () One sees what Joe (The Plumber) Wurzelbacher saw. The real change being put to a vote for the American people in 2008 is not simply a break from the economic policies of the past eight years but with the American economic philosophy of the past 200 years. This election is about a long-term change in Americas idea of itself.

William R. Mann, a Lt Col USA (Ret), sent to me his own comment: Richard John Neuhaus is a Lutheran Minister turned Catholic Priest. He was a civil rights marcher in the 1960s with Martin Luther King. This time, ironically, is a time where a Man of Color seeks to restrict all citizens Inalienable Rights, and he is close to receiving 50% approval to do so! Obamas possible election is indeed a big deal. It may be more than just the end of Religious Freedom. We know this because of his expressed disdain for the immutable nature of ideas embraced in the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution and the Bill of Rights. Obama thinks that these documents are to be molded to fit his ideas of Change; sadly, not vice versa.

Change? What change!
Four days before Election Day, I discussed the forthcoming elections with Harvards prominent historian and a former advisor to President Reagan, Professor Richard Pipes. We met at Warsaw Sheraton Hotel on Friday night, October 31, his last night in Poland, as he was to fly back to the United States on Saturday to cast a vote on Tuesday. In Cambridge, the hometown of the Harvard University where I live, I have found only one McCains poster and all around there was a lot of Obamas, Professor Pipes told me. In 1972, when George McGovern ran against Richard Nixon, McGoverns only two electoral vote victories came in Massachusetts and in Washington, D.C. McGovern even failed to win his home state of South Dakota. But now Barack Obama might win in many states, including my home state. Theres no chance for the Republican nominee to win in Massachusetts, and I will go to vote in Cambridge for McCain just to fulfill my patriotic duty. I still hope that John McCain will become the winner of this presidential election.

A Republican President could become a check-and-balance versus the Democratic-dominated Congress,

I asked Professor Pipes for his opinion about the Democratic nominee and his program. He told me Barack Obama was talking much about change but what change has he set his mind on? When John McCain focused on security matters and stabilizing the American constitutional order and the economy, Barack Obama was advocating a sort of socialist agenda, proposing to the Americans some kind of welfare state by equal spreading of wealth.

There havent been such elections in my lifetime, Professor Pipes said. Whats so particular about this one, I asked? He replied thoughtfully: It isnt about race, as that might not be the main problem for the Americans now, as it was in the 1960s. Nor it is about the recent financial breakdown and economic crisis, which really is not the fault of the Bush Administration, in spite of many erroneous FED decisions made by Alan Greenspan, who was the Chairman of the Federal Reserve from 1987 to 2006, covering the terms of office of four U.S. Presidents. This election is about the future form of government of the United States and the countrys Constitutional order.

So this election is about Americas future, we both agreed. Professor Richard Pipes expressed his hope for John McCains victory. A Republican President could become a check-and-balance versus the Democratic-dominated Congress, he told me. And what if Senator Barack Obama will win the election on Tuesday and become the 44th U.S. President, I asked. He will have to adapt to the American system and he will have to solve difficult problems and respond to grave challenges. There wont be a new American Revolution just because Barack Obama and not John McCain is President.

I was glad to discuss all that with Professor Richard Pipes and listen to his opinions. He is a naturalized U.S. citizen, who was exceptionally lucky to escape from Nazi-occupied Poland in September 1939, to reach to the American shore in 1940 and get a chance to find there the best opportunity for himself. His great chance was the American open society and individual freedom. Barack Hussein Obama, a would-be-President, got the same chance and he shouldnt spoil the Constitutional system that enabled his own advance. Professor Richard Pipes always expressed his great confidence in the United States and his optimism as to Americas future. Barack Obama repeated so many times that he loves the United States and hes proud of his country. Let him prove it now.

John the Patriot
It is a race that pits the iconoclast against the newcomer, the heroic prisoner of war against the first African American nominated by a major party, by these words PBS Frontline introduced their documentary The Choice 2008 shown also on Polish TV during the weekend preceding the November 4 Election Day. I watched this documentary, finding it very interesting and in a way impartial, as compared to most of the pro-Obama media productions.

I think, this TV documentary in its many interviews and filmed presentations got to the main core of John McCains true character and performance. His fellow prisoner of war, Orson Swindle, who spent seven years (1966-1973) in North Vietnamese captivity, told about McCain: Hes got a sense of honor, a sense of integrity, a sense of being a man, of being courageous, of not being just milquetoast, compliant with the norms. Hes adventuresome. Those are things he is today, and I contend he was that way when he was a kid. ...

And Robert Timberg, the author of a book John McCain: An American Odyssey and The Nightingales Song, answered a reporters question about McCains leadership qualities: I think the best leaders are those who are the most original thinkers, those who look to what they see as the right way to do something, and do whatever it takes to advance it. John McCain is not the kind of guy who was simply going to follow orders blindly. It doesnt mean hes going to refuse to carry out orders, but the best officers will turn to their commanding officer and say, Sir, I think theres a better way to do this. And I think the better commanding officers are happy to hear better ways to do things. ...

When I look back at John McCains background and his past life, I find many controversial moments. Some people contest his plight in the Communist PoW camp and accuse him of treason. But I know what had happened to American pilots there in Hanoi Hilton and The Plantation. And I cant agree with an article published by The Times of London about McCain on October 25, featuring nice interviews with Tran Trong Duet, a former POW prison commander and other North Vietnamese security officers. I never tortured or mistreated the PoWs and nor did my staff, says Mr Duyet in contradiction of Mr McCains account and those of other prisoners. The Americans were dropping bombs on military and civilian targets so its not as if they had important information we needed to extract. Mr Duyet says that he sympathises with Mr McCain and other PoWs for claiming that they were tortured. Its up to the Americans to decide whether or not he counts as a hero. He was very brave, very manly, he dared to argue with me and he was very intelligent. But all the talk of being tortured is for the sake of votes.

Who of the former Communist security officers would admit to torturing prisoners of war, even 41 years after? Some media reporters just try to put dirt on John McCains wartime history. I was in Hanoi, under American bombs, in 1967, a few months before John McCain was shot down. As member of the International Control Commission (and a covert intelligence agent), I was often called to attend press conferences in Hanoi, where captured American pilots were shown to the public to confess their crimes. Each time it was a pitiful and degrading show and the victims were drugged or forcibly frightened and pushed to confess along the Communist propaganda lines. We all knew the US pilots were treated badly, probably tortured and certainly put through psychological pressure and mind-control experiments, preformed by Soviet and Cuban interrogators. John McCain was no exception because he refused to be exchanged for North Vietnamese or Viet-Cong important prisoners held by Americans. He was a high value PoW for the Communists, but also a patriotic and rebellious man that they couldnt use for their goals.

The Vietnam war and his PoW years in Hanoi did not break John McCain but hardened him and pushed him into a political career after his release in 1973. By the way, in 1973 I was again in Vietnam, in the North and South. One of my duties was to observe the exchange of PoWs between the North, the Viet Cong and the South. I will never forget these terrible scenes

It is my deepest conviction and the most positive feeling that Senator John McCain is fully fit to command as a possible future 44th President of the United States. His military family background, his wartime experience, education and a longtime public service record, as well as his uncompromising devotion to the principle my country first predestinate him to the highest state office.

But it is up to the American voters to decide whom they will vote for on Tuesday, November 4, 2008.

David Dastych is a veteran journalist who served both in the Polish intelligence and the CIA; jailed in Poland by the Communist regime he spent several years in special prison wards; released in early 1990s he joined international efforts to monitor illegal nuclear trade in Europe and Asia; handicapped for lifetime in a mountain accident in France, in 1994; now he returned to active life and runs his own media agency in Warsaw.

This article was first published at Canada Free Press

Biden: The Other Half of the Moveon.org DreamTeam

sfux — 2008-11-03T19:08:00Z

Rachel Alexander - If Obama looked like Ted Kennedy, he would not be doing this well. The reality is, the only "change" Obama is bringing is that he is African-American, and at age 47 is significantly younger than most U.S. Presidents have been (JFK was elected to President at age 43). Those two distinguishing characteristics are a lot less determinative of what his administration will be like than his record and viewpoints on issues - which are both far to the left.

The reality is, the only "change" Obama is bringing is that he is African-American, and at age 47 is significantly younger than most U.S. Presidents have been

When Barack Obama picked Joe Biden to be his Vice-Presidential running mate, he demonstrated that he was not in favor of "change," but would continue the Democrats' conventional policies. Biden, a member of the U.S. Senate since 1973, has become more liberal over the years and now represents the liberal wing of the Democrat Party.

The reality is, the only "change" Obama is bringing is that he is African-American, and at age 47 is significantly younger than most U.S. Presidents have been (JFK was elected to President at age 43). Those two distinguishing characteristics are a lot less determinative of what his administration will be like than his record and viewpoints on issues - which are both far to the left.

If Barack Obama looked like Ted Kennedy in physical appearance (their political views are almost exactly the same), he would not be doing this well in the race for president. It's wonderful that society has moved beyond racism, but now it's gone too far to the other extreme, promoting race to the exclusion of everything else.

Voters aren't interested in "change" because the Republicans haven't done a good job - we're the wealthiest country in the world with the highest living standards. The primary reason voters are interested in "change" is superficial and shortsighted; it's due to natural presidential party fatigue and the Federal Reserve's meddling in interest rates. Manipulation of interest rates inevitably leads to recessions which lead to voter disillusionment with the party in power. Combine that with Bush's acquiescence to the Democrats on spending during a time when our federal debt is spiraling, and voters are easily fooled into thinking that Democrats are the cure. In reality, the Fed's manipulation of interest rates has little to do with the party in control of the presidency, and a Democrat administration will increase spending and taxes faster than any Republican administration would.

So what does Biden bring to an already far left presidential ticket? There are two things that stand out about Biden: his history of plagiarism, which forced him to drop out of a 1988 bid for president, and his liberal voting record.

In law school, he was accused of plagiarizing five pages of a 15 page law review article, receiving an F in the course. When he ran for president in 1988, he was caught plagiarizing several lines from a speech by Neil Kinnock, leader of the British Labor Party at the time. Biden also has a problem with the truth. He has said he graduated in the top half of his law school class, when he really graduated 76th out of 85. He said he received a full scholarship to law school when in reality it was only a partial scholarship. Much of this came to light during his presidential bid, and he withdrew, saying his candidacy had been overrun by "the exaggerated shadow" of his past mistakes. He ran for president again last year in the Democrat primary; apparently his misgivings about running due to his problem with the truth don't matter anymore.

The perception that Biden is a moderate Democrat is no longer accurate. Last year, Biden received a 0 rating from the American Conservative Union. The year before, he received a 4. His lifetime rating has been going down, and now stands at a 13.04. Even Obama has a better record, scoring 7 last year and 8 the year before, his only years in the Senate. The AFL-CIO gave Biden a 100% rating. The ACLU ranked him 91% last session; one point lower than John Kerry, six points higher than Ted Kennedy, 11 points higher than Obama, and 16 points higher than Hillary Clinton.

Biden's accomplishments in the Senate including bragging in 2007 that he he'd brought home $67 million worth of pork for his constituents through Congressional earmarks. One of his biggest pork projects has been funneling extra money to Amtrak. It's a selfish interest that benefits himself; Biden rides Amtrak to work in Washington, D.C. He hosts a dinner for Amtrak employees every year.

Biden has served on the Judiciary Committee for much of his Senate career. He chaired the judicial confirmation hearings of conservative judicial nominee Robert Bork, ensuring that Bork was not confirmed, even though he'd indicated a year prior that he would approve Bork. Biden is responsible for authoring the 1994 Violence in Women Act (VAWA), which provided billions of dollars to combat gender-crimes and domestic violence. It has been sharply criticized by conservatives as a federal encroachment into an area that should be left up to the states' jurisdiction.

Biden's foreign policy record is dismal. One of his main accomplishments in this area was persuading former President Bill Clinton to use force against the Serbs. Conservatives were hesitant to bomb Kosovo because there were atrocities being committed on all sides, not just by the Serbs. The Republican Policy Committee of the Senate issued a statement expressing concern that Clinton was forming an alliance with the Kosovo Liberation Army, a group of radical Albanians classified as a terrorist organization by the U.S. State Department.

Biden voted against authorization for the Gulf War in 1991. Currently, he believes Iraq should be divided into three separate ethnic enclaves. This has been rejected by Iraq's political leadership which unified to denounce the plan. Biden is no friend to Israel. In May 2008, he said it was "bullsh**" for President Bush to give a speech in Israel saying that Democrats were acting similarly to appeasing Hitler before WWII. He later apologized.

Biden is a big supporter of "campaign finance reform," which hurts candidates who are able to raise significant amounts of money on their own. He supports it because having made the Senate his lifelong career, he's never become a millionaire like half the other members in the Senate. Public campaign financing permits career politicians like himself to run for free for office on the taxpayers' dime.

Biden's record on social issues is abysmal. Due to his far left pro-abortion record, Biden has been barred from receiving communion by the bishop in his hometown of Scranton, Pennyslvania.

Last year, while running for the Democratic presidential nomination himself, Biden said Obama was not qualified to be president. "I think he can be ready, but right now I don't believe he is. The presidency is not something that lends itself to on-the-job training." Now that Biden has agreed to be Obama's running mate, one wonders whether Biden says these things because he's not very smart, or if he's capitulated because he wants the fame and status. Either reason speaks poorly of Biden, and ultimately he brings just more of the same predictable far left views to the presidential ticket.

Rachel Alexander ist praktizierende Anwältin für die Regierung in Phönix im U.S. Staat Arizona. Als ehemaliges Redaktionsmitglied und Kolumnistin des Arizona Daily Wildcat, gewann sie für ihre journalistischen Arbeiten drei Auszeichnungen und schreibt Kolumnen für IntellectualConservative.com und Nachrichten Heute.

What Is the True Story of McCains Wartime Experience?

sfux — 2008-10-29T20:05:00Z

Mary Hershberger - Journalists have had years to vet John McCains account of wartime heroism in Vietnam. But no real critique of its veracity has emerged from leading media outlets. Reporters and commentators remain remarkably disinclined to investigate a major underpinning of McCains argument that he is qualified to be commander-in-chief. Here, historian Mary Hershberger questions why.

As we approach the end of an astonishing campaign season, one thing grows clear: John McCains campaign has suffered a string of disastrous decisions. These mistakes have overwhelmed even the campaigns trump cardits image of John McCain as war hero. And not just an ordinary war hero but one who was captured by enemies, imprisoned near death, and resurrected to return home with visible wounds that marked his sacrifice.

Aside from the patriotic fervor and powerful religious themes this tale evokes in American Christians who believe that redemptive violence lies at the core of their faith, McCains campaign correctly counted on the media treating the image of war hero as if it stood outside history, beyond journalistic scrutiny. The swift boating of John Kerry four years ago left the media reluctant to engage in legitimate examination of John McCains claims.

As a historian who has studied Vietnam War documents, I read McCains Faith of My Fathers with growing concern over the troubling inconsistencies and internal contradictions that I found there. When I sought out official reports, news accounts, film footage and other reliable sources to help resolve these contradictions, I consistently found questionable assertions in McCains claims. All memoirs are constrained by the limitations of our memory, but McCains accounts are unusually problematic, with many stories grossly exaggerated or simply made up.

Given the media scrutiny heaped upon Cindy McCains life during this campaign, one might expect the candidate himself would face equal investigation. That has not been true. When I wrote a piece documenting McCains less-than-heroic actions following the disastrous fire on the USS Forrestal, mainstream print newspapers and magazines turned it down, including those that printed investigative pieces on his wife and relentlessly dredged up every scrap of information to expose her vulnerabilities. Ask yourselfhave you seen investigative reports of McCains claims about his military record that match the level of scrutiny given his wife?

McCains war record is a legitimate topic of investigation precisely because he cites it as evidence that he should be president, as proof that he is tested and ready to lead from day one. As such, it ought to be more thoroughly examined than anything else. The few investigations that have been carried out are not reassuring.

On the single issue of his plane crashes, for example, the Los Angeles Times has concluded that though standards were looser and crashes more frequent in the 1960s, McCains record stands out. A pilot whose performance included two plane crashes and a collision with power lines usually underwent official review to determine his fitness to fly. McCain refuses to allow his military records to be released so that the voting public can see whether his record matches his claims.

Much of the mainstream media frequently repeat without question McCains assertions about his war record, including his recent claim that he was on track to be promoted to admiral when he left the Navy. It is due to the diligence of writers on the Internet that claims like this have been investigated.

A recent column by John Dean at Findlaw.com, which includes a Q & A with me, looks at other areas in which McCain has made claims at stark odds with official documents or news reports. Dean concludes that the dwindling importance of the mainstream media is related to its reluctance to sort fact from fiction in the wake of the Swift Boaters. The result is that the media gives McCain a pass rather than risk irritating him by digging out the truth of his military background.

The irony of McCains free pass is that newspapers like the New York Times need look no further than their own pages to check his claims. For example, McCain says that when he was shot down on October 26, 1967, the Vietnamese beat him over and over and refused to provide medical treatment for days until, in desperation, he told them that his father was an important military officer. In contrast, the New York Times, on October 28, 1967, quoted Hanoi radio reporting the day before that, the son of the commander of the United States Naval Forces in Europe was captured in North Vietnam. At the time, the New York Times reported that the Vietnamese knew about McCains family connections as soon as he was captured, not days later. Which story is true?

Likewise, as a Rolling Stone piece recently pointed out, the New York Times reported on November 11, 1967, less than two weeks after McCain was captured, that he had said that Vietnam appeared to be winning the war and the United States appeared isolated. There is a significant conflict between this and McCains memoirs, one that has gone unexamined in the Times.

Read all at Womans Media Center

Mary Hershberger is a historian, teacher, and author of Jane Fonda's War: A Political Biography of an Antiwar Icon, and Traveling to Vietnam: American Peace Activists and the War. She has taught at the University of Georgia, Virginia Tech, Eastern Mennonite University, Ohio State University, and at schools in East and Central Africa, including Makerere University in Uganda. Her article in the Journal of American History, "Mobilizing Women, Anticipating Abolition: The Struggle against Indian Removal in the 1830s," won the Organization of American Historians Binkley-Stephenson award for best scholarly article. She is currently writing a book on the movement against Indian removal and its impact in shaping movements for abolition and women's rights.

Aus der Hölle in Krankheit und Obdachlosigkeit US-Soldaten nach der Rückkehr...

onlinedienst — 2008-10-24T22:09:00Z

Dr. Alexander von Paleske - Seit Oktober 2001 haben etwa 1,6 Millionen US-Soldaten im Irak und Afghanistan Militärdienst geleistet. Nicht wenige der Heimkehrer, der sogenannten Veterans, haben sichtbare Verletzungen davongetragen, die sie zu Krüppeln gemacht haben, noch mehr leiden als Folge des Einsatzes an einer unsichtbaren Verletzung: dem sogenanntem Posttraumatic Stress Disorder, im Jahre 2007 allein 14.000 neue Fälle, gegenüber 9500 im Jahre 2006.

Endstation Obdachlosenheim
Aber damit nicht genug. Obwohl die Kriegsveteranen nur 9% der Gesamtbevölkerung der USA ausmachen, stellen sie 23-30% aller Obdachlosen in den USA.

91% der obdachlosen Veterans haben Alkohol- oder Drogenprobleme, wie die hochangesehene Medizinzeitung LANCET im August berichtet, ebenfalls Folgen des Kriegseinsatzes.

Es gab offenbar keinerlei Planung für die Lösung der sich aus dem Krieg für die Soldaten ergebenden Probleme, deren Familien oft genug an den durch den Krieg unmittelbar bzw. mittelbar erzeugten Folgen zerbrechen und die oftmals nicht in ihren zivilen Job zurückkehren können, weil ihre Arbeitsplätze verlorengegangen sind.

Und so enden viele Soldaten am untersten Ende der Gesellschaft, in Obdachlosenheimen für Kriegsveteranen.
Die Soldaten zahlen somit einen hohen Preis für Kriege, in denen sie als Kanonenfutter dienen und die in der Heimat kaum noch Zustimmung finden.

Diese Probleme dürften sicherlich auch bei nicht wenigen Bundeswehrsoldaten nach der Rückkehr aus Afghanistan relevant werden. Nach der offiziellen Lesart handelt es sich aber dort nicht um einen Krieg, wie Verteidigungsminister Jung kürzlich erklärte, sondern lediglich um einen Einsatz der Bundeswehr im Ausland.

Lügen vor dem Irakkrieg und Vorbereitungen für den Irankrieg
ABRECHNUNG - Sir Richard Dearlove (MI6) gegen Tony Blair
Chefsöldner Tim Spicer erhält Pentagon-Vertragsverlängerung im Irak
Irak: Wenn die regulären Truppen gehen, kommen die Söldner
British Mercenary Simon Mann's last journey?
Blair drängt auf Söldnernachschub aus Südafrika
Söldner, Gauner, Waffen und Rohstoffe

Obamas Read my Lips: 95% of working families will receive a tax cut

sfux — 2008-10-16T19:00:00Z

Rachel Alexander - If he wins the election, the only satisfaction we'll get is when he fails to give 95% of voters a tax break, and raises taxes on those making as little as $42,000, as McCain has predicted. Then we'll vote him out of office after one term, just like the voters did with George H.W. Bush for failing to keep his promise regarding not raising taxes.

Obama won on style, but McCain won on substance.

In last night's third presidential debate, Obama won on style, but McCain won on substance. Obama championed his promise that he would give 95% of working families tax cuts - in addition to an extension of the Bush tax cuts. Currently facing the biggest deficit in history, over half a trillion dollars, and considering that 38% of working families currently pay no income taxes, this promise is a bald-faced lie. Unfortunately, most Americans don't have the time to do the research to figure this out. A debate format is not a conducive environment for explaining complex economic issues, which tends to hurt Republicans. It's easy to trump the Democrat platform in a couple of soundbites, "We're going to give you x,y, and z." It takes quite a few more sentences to explain why it's not possible to play Santa Claus with others' money.

Obama has been labeled the most liberal Senator in the U.S. Senate by National Journal. The amount of spending he is promising is going to make Bush look like a fiscal conservative. Obama criticized McCain for voting for four of Bush's five budgets, and said a McCain administration would give us "eight more years of the same thing." It was incredulous to hear him turn this around. Obama voted against those budgets because he wanted budgets that would have spent even more money, not the other way around.

If conservative policies are so bad, then why is Obama touting an astronomical level of tax cuts, a Republican solution? Apparently even the Democrats admit that when liberal policies like runaway spending get us into fiscal crises, it takes conservative policies to get us out.

The winner of the evening was "Joe the plumber," a small businessman McCain talked about who had spoken with Obama about how his tax hikes would affect him. Obama could not deny this.

McCain confronted Obama about the wasteful earmarks he had obtained as a Senator. Instead of acknowledging that earmarks contribute to our massive budget debt, Obama minimized them, saying that they only account for a small percentage of the budget.

McCain did a great job of confronting Obama about his association with domestic terrorist Bill Ayers. Obama was forced to discuss his relationship with the man who bombed the U.S. Capitol and Pentagon. Obama tried to minimize it, but didn't deny it.

When McCain asked Obama whether he would punish people who chose not to purchase healthcare insurance, Obama ducked the question, saying that he would exempt small businesses from providing healthcare for their employees. He never answered whether folks in their 20's who make a conscious decision to avoid buying healthcare insurance while healthy would be exempt. He kept emphasizing that employers are responsible for healthcare, but never explained why. It would be a lot cheaper for everyone if we could choose our healthcare program piece by piece through the private market, just like we choose car insurance or home insurance, instead of forcing us to go with the limited one-size-supposedly-fits-all options our employers offer.

The candidates were asked about how they would reduce dependence on foreign oil. McCain emphasized offshore drilling. Obama said he would give tax breaks to U.S. auto companies in order to keep jobs in the U.S. This didn't make much sense, considering the economy has become so international, foreign auto companies like Honda have plants in the U.S. and U.S. auto companies similarly have parts made overseas. More symbolism than substance.

The last topic of the debate was abortion. McCain pointed out that Obama is so liberal that he voted against a ban on partial-birth abortion in the Illinois Senate. Even Congress was able to agree and pass a ban on partial-birth abortion. Obama claimed that the bill didn't have an exception for the health of the mother. McCain retorted that the "health of the mother" is a ruse that can be used to justify almost anything, it's broader than "to protect the life of the mother." Obama showed his immaturity at losing that argument and swore, which was bleeped out on TV.

The best part of the debate came at the end, when McCain in a Freudian slip referred to Obama as "Senator Government" instead of Senator Obama.

Because Obama was so slick during the debate, to the average ill-informed voter he probably came across the winner. If he wins the election, the only satisfaction we'll get is when he fails to give 95% of voters a tax break, and raises taxes on those making as little as $42,000, as McCain has predicted. Then we'll vote him out of office after one term, just like the voters did with George H.W. Bush for failing to keep his promise regarding not raising taxes.

Rachel Alexander ist praktizierende Anwältin für die Regierung in Phönix im U.S. Staat Arizona. Als ehemaliges Redaktionsmitglied und Kolumnistin des Arizona Daily Wildcat, gewann sie für ihre journalistischen Arbeiten drei Auszeichnungen und schreibt Kolumnen für IntellectualConservative.com und Nachrichten Heute.

Arms for the Poor

sfux — 2008-10-16T17:49:00Z

Jeff Huber - Those poor kids at the Pentagon. They receive more funding than the rest of the world's military establishments combined, but it's just not enough. Pentagon officials have prepared a new defense spending estimateone they plan to spring on us just before young Mr. Bush slinks out of officethat projects a requirement for $450 billion more over the next five years than previously announced.

Whoa, you might be thinking. We already spend well over a half trillion a year on defense, and what do we get in return? The Pentagon did such a lousy job defending the homeland on 9/11 that we had to buy a whole separate agency to take that job over, and only neocons and other lunatics would say our military is protecting our national interests overseas.

You ignorant bedwetting liberal. Don't you see? The half trillion plus a year only buys you history's best equipped, best trained military and a few wars for them to fight in. If you want your armed forces to do what you pay them to do, that will cost extra.

Battle Budget Galactica
It's hard to tell exactly how much everybody spends on defense. America's fiscal year 2008 defense budget request was $623 billion. The Chinese, the nearest thing we have to a peer military competitor, say they spend about $25 billion a year on defense, roughly four percent of what we spend. The American warmongery, ever eager to create scary phantasms, claims that China spends a lot more on defense than it admits to. Critics of the Pentagon say they Chinese can't possibly lie more about their defense spending than we do. Our official defense budget doesn't include things like defense related spending by other departments, the Homeland Security budget, some veterans' care expenses, the ubiquitous "supplemental allotments" that never make it into the regular budget but always get through Congress, the ultra secret "black" budget, and other hush-and-slush funding.

Some say the Chinese spend up to three times on defense what they claim to spend. If so, they're still spending a half-trillion a year less than our official budget. Many claim that we spend twice as much on defense as the official budget total. If that's true, we're spending over a trillion dollars a year more than three times what the Chinese say they spend. Either way we're spending a bunch load more money on defense than the Chinese are. Half a trillion dollars a year will buy you very many $400 toilet seats. A trillion will buy you twice that amount.

Much of what China spends on defense goes to update its arsenal. Admiral Tim Keating, head of U.S. Pacific Command, says the Chinese admit to being "25 years behind us." I say that's another thing the Chinese are fudging facts about. The majority of their combat jets are J-7s and J-8s, fighters copied from the Soviet Mig-21 that first flew more than a half century ago.

However much the Chinese are lying about their defense spending, Russia spends somewhat less than they do, and however much we're lying, Iran's defense spending is less than one percent of ours and only about 70 percent of Mexico's, and those evildoing terrorists could hide their defense budget under a tic egg.

So at this point in the New American Century, whatever two-war strategy we're arming ourselves to fight must involve simultaneous conflicts with the Klingons and the Borg.

Force Plan 9 From Outer Space
As best we can tell, the 2009 defense budget only carries $520 million for space weapons research, which sounds like a trifling amount until you consider that we've signed on to a treaty that prohibit putting weapons in space. Don't feel too bad for space though; the Pentagon isn't neglecting it. In fact, the U.S. military is so heavily invested in space that it cannot navigate, communicate or hit a target without it. Without space, esoteric air breathing systems like the ultra stealthy, $2 billion a pop B-2 strategic bomber would be, well, worthless. Read all at Larisa`s At-Largely

Commander Jeff Huber, U.S. Navy (Retired) was operations officer of a naval air wing and an aircraft carrier, and he commanded an E-2C Hawkeye aircraft squadron. His satires and analyses of military and foreign policy affairs have appeared in Proceedings, The Navy, Jane's Fighting Ships, and other print periodicals. Some of his essays have been required student reading at the U.S. Naval War College, where he received a master's degree in national security studies in 1995.

Gewinner Obama, Verlierer Obama: Der nächste Präsident der USA

Spreegurke — 2008-10-16T06:30:00Z

[Jörg Frh. v. Oldershausen] Am 4. November 2008 werden die Bürger dieses Landes den 111. Kongress und den 44. Präsidenten der Vereinigten Staaten wählen. Mit großer Wahrscheinlichkeit wird dieser Barack Obama heißen. Eine Wahl mit historischer Relevanz, die ein stolzes Licht auf Amerikas Entwicklung und Toleranz werfen wird. Obama wird auf eine robuste Mehrheit der Demokraten im "House of Representatives" und möglicherweise auf Filibuster", also eine sichere Mehrheit von 60 Stimmen im Senat zählen können. Damit wird es zu einer kompletten Umkehrung der Machtverhältnisse kommen. Noch 2004 hielten die Republikaner Mehrheiten in beiden Kammern des Kongresses und stellten den Präsidenten.

Die Amerikaner sind sauer, stinksauer. Und sie sind demoralisiert und halten die derzeitige Regierung unter George W. Bush für die bestehende Misere verantwortlich. Reagon fragte einst die Amerikaner: "Steht ihr euch heute besser als vor vier Jahren?" und stellte sich mit diesen Worten als bessere Alternative gegen Carter zur Wahl. Eine solche Fragestellung wäre heute absurd und würde in wüsten Beschimpfung enden. Natürlich steht niemand besser da. Die Zeichen stehen auf Wechsel und die Republikaner stehen im Weg.

John McCain: Richtiger Kandidat zur falschen Zeit
Unter anderern Voraussetzungen und zu anderen Zeiten hätte John McCain durchaus eine gute Chance, die Wahl zu gewinnen. Der Kandidat aus den republikanischen Reihen ist moderater und unabhängiger als die meisten anderen Republikaner und durchaus Willens, trotz politisch hoher Kosten - Irak Surge, Immigranten - für seine Überzeugungen einzustehen. Das mag die republikanische Basis nicht erfreuen, aber so manchen Unabhängigen und verschnupften Demokraten, wie etwa Frauen, die auf Hillary setzen, einnehmen. Die Basis erhielt ihren extra Keks in der Form von Sarah Palin, die ihre Unerfahrenheit durch Sexappeal und Gusto mehr als ausgleichen konnte und neue Begeisterung für das "ticket" unter den Glaubenstreuen auslösen konnte. Die außergewöhnliche Lebensgeschichte John McCains, seine lange und harsche Gefangenschaft in Vietnam, seine militärische und politische Karriere, Charakter, ja auch sein explosives Temperament sind Legende und würden in jedem Wahlkampf einen positiven Unterschied machen. Nicht so dieses Mal. Das negative Gepäck der Republikaner mit seinem zutiefst unpopulären Präsidenten, der Krieg im Irak und nun einer Wirtschaft in Trümmern dies alles wiegt zentnerschwer.

Obama, der geborene Politiker
Seit 20 Monaten kämpft Obama um die Präsidentschaft. Er darf vor allen Dingen Hillary danken, dass sie ihn gnadenlos über viele Monate hin herausgefordert und zu einem erstklassigen Wahlkämpfer gemacht hat. Schon Hillary hat trozt ihrer eigenen, großen Popularität feststellen müssen, dass Obama nicht zu unterschätzen ist. Sein Charisma, sein Appeal für die jüngere Generation und seine deliberate, von Taktik geprägte Strategie, übertrafen vermeintliche Nachteile wie Rasse, zweifehafte Förderer, eine selbst für Amerikaner - fast exotische Lebensgeschichte und politische Unerfahrenheit. Mit Hilfe von David Axelrod, Penny Pritzker und David Plouffe hat Obama eine erstklassige, mit weit über 450 Millionen-Spenden gut finanzierte Organisation aufgebaut, die das Rückrad für die Wahlkampfmaschine des möglichen künftigen Präsidenten äußerst kräftig ölte. Seine verhaltene, eher studierte und ruhige Art Probleme anzugehen und zu artikulieren, findet in diesen turbulenten Zeiten besonderen Anklang.

In riesigen Arenen überzeugte Obama vor enormen Menschenmengen, von denen andere Politiker nur träumen können. Seine Reden inspirierten und zielten auf den Idealismus der Bürger. Sie waren speziell auf die Jugend ausgerichtet, ohne dabei politisch kalkulierend zu wirken. Mit einzigartigen Worten, die ihn über den Anspruch eines Politikers hinweghoben, stellte er sich den Herausforderungen, denen sich unsere Gesellschaft ausgesetzt sieht. Nach dem Gewinn der Primaries entwickelte sich ein mehr zentrisch liegender und praktischer Obama. Die Reden bezogen sich nun auf "Brot und Butter", Themen, politisch kalkulierend auf all jene Gruppierungen fokussiert, die er ansprechen wollte. Trotz seiner relativ kurzen Karriere in der Bundespolitik hat sich Obama zum formidablen Politiker gemausert. Er trägt den Mantel der Hoffnung und Hoffnung ist es, was das Land dringend braucht.

Warum Obama?
Die augenblicklichen Umfragen zeigen Obama zwischen vier und sieben Prozent vor McCain. Nicht ausreichend um den Ausgang dieser Wahl zu seinen Gunsten vorherzusagen. Die Umfragen täuschen jedoch, da sie bundesweit unter potentiellen Wählern gehalten wurden. Sie sind mehr oder weniger ein Popularitätskontest. Amerika hat ein indirektes Wahlsystem. Nicht der Wähler bestimmt den Präsidenten, sondern das "Electoral College". Jeder Bundesstaat bestimmt "electors" entsprechend der Anzahl an Senatoren und Repräsentanten im "House". Zusammen mit Washington DC ergeben sich damit 538 Wahlmänner. 48 Bundesstaaten und Washington DC folgen der Regel: "the winner takes all". Nur Nebraska und Maine haben ein anderes System. Die Folge: Ganz gleich wieviele Stimmen der Verlierer in einem Bundesstaat erhält, sie zählen am Ende nicht. Alle möglichen Stimmen der "electors" gehen an den Gewinner. Es bedarf 270 "electoral votes", um die Wahl zu gewinnen. Analysiert man die Umfragen von Bundesstaat zu Bundesstaat, dann wird klar, dass es für McCain fast unmöglich ist, ausreichend "electoral votes" zu gewinnen.

Sieger Obama, Verlierer Obama
Fast kann man Mitleid mit dem Sieger und nächsten Präsidenten der Vereinigten Staaten haben. Der Krieg im Irak, die Krise im Gesundheitswesen, galoppierende Haushaltsdefizite, eine Staatsverschuldung die Neugeborenen graue Haare schafft, Rentenobligationen, Energiekrise und vieles mehr. Die Herausforderungen sind gigantisch und extraordinär. Und als ob dies an Problemen noch nicht ausreicht, befinden wir uns mittlerweile in einer Rezession und weltweiten Wirtschaftskrise, welche die Fähigkeit der amerikanischen Regierung hinsichtlich der vorgenannten Herausforderungen weiterhin einschränkt. Obama wird jeder in ihn gesetzten Hoffnung gerecht werden müssen, um den gigantischen Mist-Stall auch nur annähernd in den Griff zu bekommen. Republikaner und Demokraten beten gleichermaßen, dass er dieser Herausforderung gewachsen ist. Es geht um viel. Es geht um die Zukunft Amerikas.