Tag Archives: U.S.

Palin Endorses Joe the Candidate – Snubs Murkowski

Maybe the Todd Palin announcement didn’t have quite enough oomph, because now the full-fledged Sarah Palin endorsement has come. Republican candidate for U.S. Senate Joe Miller will be challenging the GOP behemoth Lisa Murkowski in the primary with the support of both Palins.

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Sarah Palin Snubs Lisa Murkowski, Endorses Tea Party Challenger For Alaska Senate Seat

Former Alaska Governor Sarah Palin is fast becoming a headache for the national Republican campaign committees — endorsing insurgent challengers over establishment candidates and, in the process, turning once-safe districts into heated contests.

The latest and most dramatic endorsement came on Wednesday, when Palin took to her Facebook page to announce her support for Joe Miller — an Alaska Tea Party candidate who failed to win a state Senate seat — in his effort to unseat U.S. Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) in the Aug. 24 primary.

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The World Cup of Economic and Military Warfare

Islamabad — “Our situation is like a football match. The superpower countries are the players, and we are just the ball to be kicked around.” This sentiment, expressed by a young man from North Waziristan, has been echoed throughout many of our conversations with ordinary people here in Pakistan and in Afghanistan. Most are baffled that the United States, with the largest and most modern military in the world, can’t put a stop to a few thousand militants hiding out in the border regions between Pakistan and Afghanistan.

Just about everyone we have spoken with, Pashtuns included, has little to no sympathy for the Taliban or their tactics. Many people have lost limbs, homes and loved ones to the brutal assaults of suicide bombers or the indiscriminate violence of IEDs. Yet, people expressed frustrated confusion over uncertainties regarding U.S. government goals in relation to the Taliban. Some believe that the United States might be working with the ISI (Pakistani Intelligence Services) or at least not working against them, to enable continued Taliban resistance. If there is no resistance, according to this view, a military presence in the region cannot be justified. Nor can a so-called humanitarian presence further flood the Pakistani and Afghan economies with millions of dollars in aid that most often lines the pockets of the politicians, elite bureaucrats, and United States corporations involved in construction and security.

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Oil Spill Becomes Election Issue, Blanche Lincoln Accused Of Facilitating BP Crisis

The BP oil spill made a dramatic entrance into electoral politics on Wednesday as two predominantly progressive groups took out ads tying Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) to “Big Oil,” in general, and the crisis in the Gulf, specifically.

In a new television ad that will run in Arkansas from now until the Democratic U.S. Senate runoff election on June 8, the League of Conservation voters accused Lincoln of voting “to allow risky offshore drilling for BP and others.”

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Elliot Abrams Giving Advice On The Middle East Is Like BP Giving Advice On Capping Oil Wells

It really must be understood how ridiculous it is for Elliot Abrams — whose incompetence bears as much responsibility as any American official’s for the current sad state of affairs in Israel-Palestine — to presume to criticize the Obama administration for its handling of the Israel-Palestine file. That’s certainly not to say that there’s nothing to criticize, it’s just that when you’re the guy whose (possibly illegal) attempt to reverse the outcome of Palestinian elections (that your own administration insisted on having!) blew up in your — and Israel’s, and Palestine’s — face, resulting in a Palestinian civil war that left Hamas in control of Gaza and Israel targeted by its rockets, you might have the decency to think twice about bad-mouthing the current administration to anyone who will listen.

Not Abrams, who seems to relish the opportunity to tell Israelis how bad President Obama is for them. (Apparently it’s okay now for former U.S. officials to criticize the current administration in foreign media. Something tells me this will change when a Republican is president.) Writing in the Weekly Standard, Abrams is unsatisfied with the Obama administration’s statement of solidarity with Israel and its watering down of the United Nations statement on the flotilla attack, and insists that Obama administration has left Israel to “stand alone“:

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Tactics, Yes. But Strategy?

We say we’re training and equipping the Afghans to fight the Taliban – but are we? And are we showing them how to wage the war successfully, or how to screw it up?

An article in the May 30 New York Times by Dexter Filkins, “Taliban Push Afghan Police Out of Valley,” offers a glimpse into the first question. How were the Taliban able to push out the Afghan police? The Afghan police ran out of ammo. Ran out of ammo! Doesn’t sound as though we’ve equipped them quite well enough. And there have been many other accounts of the shortcomings of the equipment the U.S. is supplying to the Afghans – old rifles, outdated ammo. We’re not giving them the good stuff, so they can’t match the firepower of the better-equipped Taliban, who seem to have an endless supply of Kalashnikovs, the world standard foot-soldier weapon. The Afghan soldiers and police can see what the U.S. and NATO forces are using in the field, and must be wondering why they, the Afghans, are not similarly equipped.

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Mexican Man, Anastasio Hernandez, Dies After Being Shocked With Stun Gun By Border Patrol Agents

SAN DIEGO (AP) — A 32-year-old Mexican man has died after being shocked by a stun gun during a confrontation with Border Patrol agents at a California border crossing, officials said Tuesday.

Anastasio Hernandez died Monday at a hospital in Chula Vista, south of San Diego, days after he was shocked at San Isidro, U.S. and Mexican officials said.

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We Need Andrew Romanoff to be Colorado’s Next Senator Now More Than Ever

One of Mahatma Ghandi’s best known sayings is: “Be the change that you want to see in the world,” and Andrew Romanoff is the only candidate in Colorado’s U.S. Senate race thus far who embodies that saying. Democrats in Colorado are seeking to do more than just take a refill of our incumbent on the rocks–people want that hope and change tonic that President Obama himself reminded us to demand.

At the State Assembly in Broomfield Romanoff earned 60.4 percent of the delegate votes, leaving incumbent Michael Bennet with just enough to get second place on the ballot. By refusing to accept PAC money, he owns up to the principles of government accountability and has gained loyal reserves of trust among Coloradans that cannot be bought. After all if money can’t buy happiness, then why should it be buying votes?

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Shelby Wins Alabama GOP Primary, Defeats Tea Party Challenger

MONTGOMERY, Ala. (AP) — Four-term Alabama Republican U.S. Sen. Richard Shelby easily beat his primary challenger, tea party activist N.C. “Clint” Moser.

Shelby was drawing more than 80 percent of the votes in the unofficial count Tuesday evening.

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Eight Ways to Save the Gulf’s Endangered Species

The Deepwater Horizon rig continues to uncontrollably spew 200,000 gallons per day of oil into the Gulf of Mexico with the possibility of this environmental catastrophe not ending until August. BP, formerly known as British Petroleum, launched a now-proven unsuccessful campaign a few years ago to re-brand itself as an environmentally-friendly company, with a new name (and the ironic slogan “Beyond Petroleum”) but the same behaviors. BP spent nearly $16 million lobbying Washington last year with key political players from both parties at its side. The company is now fending off accusations that it failed to abide by safety provisions, while it tries to outmaneuver paying massive liability charges. Whatever the company wants to call itself will do little to change the consequences of its actions. With no relief in sight, the oil rig disaster is a somber reminder in dramatic, real time that our environmental behaviors and policies, which helped to create this mess, are out of whack.

It is the residents of the Gulf region who will lose the most and suffer for many years to come. This includes the families of the oil rig workers who tragically died and the fishermen and others who rely on the Gulf for their economic survival. I’m also referring to the fish, birds, marine mammals — many of whom are endangered species — that are critical to the health of the region, whose are now struggling to survive. The Gulf of Mexico is already downstream from the interior U.S.’ garbage, toxic run-off and other waste, creating a gigantic area commonly known as a ‘Dead Zone.’ Add in a robust and aggressive fishing industry, so it wasn’t the easiest place for endangered species to survive. And with the millions of gallons of crude oil now in the mix, you’ve turned the Gulf into a potential morgue.

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