updated:

Obama's 'secret war': U.S. soldiers killed inside Pakistan

Paul Koring

Washington - From Thursday's Globe and Mail
Published on Wednesday, Feb. 03, 2010

Barack Obama may have banned the Bush-era term “war on terror,” but the scope of the conflict hasn't diminished. In fact, with covert and mostly deniable violence, the President has vastly escalated the war against Islamic extremists, far beyond the obvious 30,000 additional troops sent to Afghanistan.

In Pakistan and in Yemen, and perhaps even more quietly elsewhere – in the failed state of Somalia, for example – small cadres of special operations soldiers and near-silent unmanned aircraft capable of assassinations in the middle of the night have taken the fight against Islamic extremists to new levels and new places.

Air strikes in Pakistan are on pace to reach 150 this year, triple last year's total, while at the same time top U.S. generals have all but banned warplanes from bombing targets in Afghanistan because of the risk of civilian casualties and resulting fury among ordinary Afghans.No such limit seems to curb drone strikes in Pakistan.The killing yesterday of three U.S. soldiers in a remote and mostly lawless part of Pakistan where Islamic militants roam and Osama bin Laden is presumed hiding, lifted – if only partially – the veil of secrecy that shrouds American covert operations in Pakistan.Officially, the three were killed by a remote-controlled bomb while visiting a U.S.-funded aid project at a girls school. They were the first known deaths of U.S. soldiers in Pakistan's border region. Three children and a Pakistani soldier were also killed in the attack, for which the Pakistani Taliban took credit.

Obama: Counterfeit Change and No-Excuse Lies

By Dr. Goldstein

January 25, 2010 "TPM" - -- November 4th, 2008 was a night to remember. I had e-mailed the invitations to my victory celebration party a month earlier. "Join us in celebrating America's first non-white President, and the end of the Bush regime," the invitations proclaimed. The gathering in my home was well attended.

Canadians had followed the campaign closely, eh?. Canada is America's biggest trade partner and America's biggest oil supplier. Eventually we will also become America's fresh water provider as the USA's emerging water crisis worsens.

Obama: "I will never lie to you"

Cheers and applause broke out as Obama assured us "I will never lie to you" while Oprah cried her puddle of tears. Little did we know that Obama was just another smooth-talking politician, telling "the folks" exactly what they wanted to hear. I'll admit it: I was one of the people he suckered. Obama's lies were awesome and they got me really pumped up.

Obama's Big No-Excuse Lie

Here is the lie I call Obama's Big No-Excuse Lie.  This one had me fist-bumping, and high-fiveing like a high school wanna-be gangbanger. It was exactly what the whole world wanted to hear:    "I will promise you this, that if we have not gotten our troops out by the time I am president, it is the first thing I will do. I will get our troops home. We will bring an end to this war. You can take that to the bank. " - Candidate Barack Obama, October 27, 2007. 

That later became "within 16 months", and now it is obvious this was all a stinky pile of crap. That's right. Obama's #1 main issue that got him elected in the first place was 100% pre-meditated bullshit.

There is NO EXCUSE ALLOWED on this one. He can't blame "special interests." He can't blame "Republicans."  He can't blame "lobbyists." He can't blame "the Generals."  He can only look in the mirror, point at himself, and try not to puke. As Commander In Chief of America's Armed Forces Obama can give the pullout order at any second he chooses. The former President ordered the troops in, and the current President can order them home just as quick. Obama has not and will not fulfill his promise. The only thing I believe now is that Obama is a certified warmonger who is probably in the process of starting World War Three. I feel like I got duped by a slick Chicago con-man. Yes - we were all suckered in by this Bullshit Artist In Chief.  

Nobody realized that Obama's "change" administration would also include many of the same tired faces everybody was already sick of seeing.

Obama promised to get tough with Wall Street and bring prosperity to Main Street. It sure sounded great, but his Administration is now dominated by the scummiest rats that ever crawled out of the Wall Street sewers. Main Street got mugged by Wall Street banksters and their bailouts.

Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me.

Obama will likely be a one term wonder, unless he convinces the American public that he is the 'least-worst' option in America's de-facto one party "Republicrat" system. However, that could be Obama's Mission Impossible. Americans have a long history of giving their President the boot when the economy sucks. If you think the economy sucks now, well, as Bachman Turner Overdrive said,  "You ain't seen nothin' yet." The massive and permanent crash of America's economy will be here shortly.

I could go on and on listing Obama's lies, but it's too depressing. We were all duped. That's the bottom line.

Namaste

Forget the Deficit; People Need Jobs

By Jesse Jackson

January 26, 2010 " Sun-Times"

The state of America's union is stark. The economic collapse triggered by the bursting of the housing bubble continues to take its toll.We know the statistics. Nearly one in five American workers is unemployed or underemployed. That means wages are losing ground. One in three homes with a mortgage is under water. Millions of Americans are headed to losing their homes.

That will leave families adrift, children displaced.

The desperate effort to keep the financial system from failing has succeeded. It has saved the big banks -- leaving them more concentrated than ever -- but not succeeded in removing the clot in financing. Small businesses can't get loans; homeowners can't get mortgages adjusted. Finance is like the blood of the economy. When there is a clot, the economy can't work and people suffer.

Republicans argue that the president's recovery plan has failed. Then they prescribe the same poison that created the breakdown in the first place. They want more top-end tax cuts, more breaks for business, more deregulation. We tried tax cuts under Bush; it leads nowhere.The reality is that the recovery plan created or saved millions of jobs. Aid to states and localities kept teachers and police from being laid off in large numbers. Spending on infrastructure helped put some to work. Investment in new energy created new jobs. Aid to the unemployed -- extending unemployment benefits, subsidizing health care COBRA payments, and providing food stamps -- put money into the pockets of those who need it most.

The problem with the president's plan -- as any honest economist will tell you -- is that it wasn't big enough. The collapse was far deeper than the president's economists predicted.

We need another big jobs program. Aid should go to states and localities that now face brutal cuts that will lay off teachers, police and professors. Public jobs programs -- a green corps, an urban corps -- should target hard-hit areas like the Midwest and urban centers. We should invest in infrastructure by repairing schools, weatherizing public buildings and creating the projects that will hire construction workers.Without these commitments, there will be no recovery. Businesses won't expand into an economy in which one in five people are unemployed. Exports won't increase -- particularly with the Chinese continuing to manipulate their currency. Consumers have taken a $10 trillion hit on assets, and are tightening their belts. States and localities are facing brutal cuts.

People are confused and angry. They see high deficits and think the money is going to Wall Street. There is a crisis of confidence as well as a grinding fear of what comes next.Here we need the president to lead and take on the naysayers and the false leaders. He must lay out what needs to be done, and rally the country to act.The pollsters say independents are angry about deficits, so Washington is talking about deficit reduction. "If we expect families to balance their budgets in hard times, shouldn't the government do so also?" goes the mantra.That is the big lie because, in reality, when everyone else is cutting back, government must step in and put people to work. This will require deficits because tax revenues are down and expenditures on unemployment and food stamps are up.

The simple fact is, you can't balance the budget without generating economic growth. Any attempt to do so now will deepen the downturn. Once people go back to work, and the economy gets going, tax revenues will go up, emergency spending will decline and steps can be taken to bring the deficit down. But it is utter foolishness to do so before people are at work.

That's why the State of the Union is so important. It is vital that the president use this moment to set the direction, to rally the country, to take on the naysayers and to call this country to move forward.

© 2010 Sun-Times Media, LLC


U.S. lawmakers to Obama: Press Israel to ease Gaza siege
Haaretz Correspondent
Fifty-four members of the U.S. Congress have signed a letter asking President Barack Obama to put pressure on Israel to ease the siege of the Gaza Strip.

The letter was the initiative of Representatives Jim McDermott from Washington and Keith Ellison from Minnesota, both of whom are Democrats. Ellison is the first American Muslim to ever win election to Congress. McDermott and Ellison wrote that they understand the threats facing Israel and the ongoing Hamas terror activities against Israeli citizens but that "this concern must be addressed without resulting in the de facto collective punishment of the Palestinian residents of the Gaza Strip."

"We ask you to press for immediate relief for the citizens of Gaza as an urgent component of your broader Middle East peace efforts," they wrote, adding that the siege has hampered the ability of aid agencies to do their work in Gaza.

The congressmen urged Obama to pressure Israel to ease the movement of people into and out of Gaza, especially students, the sick, aid workers, journalists and those with family concerns, and also to allow the import of building materials to rebuild houses. Israel has warned that such materials would be used to rebuild Hamas infrastructure and not civilian homes.

Ellison has harshly criticized the House of Representatives decision to reject the Goldstone report, arguing that the report "only presents facts and raises recommendations for the future." He cast doubt that members of Congress who voted to reject the report even took the time to read it and that the rejection hurt the Obama government's role as an honest broker in the Middle East conflict.

In addition to members of Congress, several leftist organizations also signed the letter, including Americans for Peace Now and J Street.

The Israeli Embassy in Washington responded to the letter: "The Israeli position is that the Hamas government in Gaza does not meet the conditions set forth by the international community and the Quartet. And as long as Hamas continues to attack Israel with missiles and other means, Israel will not open the border crossings. With this, Israel is doing everything possible to ensure that humanitarian aid enters Gaza in a controlled manner so that it is ensured that the population receives what it needs, including medical care in Israel. But Israel will not allow a neighbor that calls for its destruction to enjoy the benefits of an open border."

Also, a letter signed by 33 members of Congress was sent to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton to raise the issue with Israel of students from Gaza who are having difficulty studying at universities in the West Bank due to the lack of free passage between the Gaza Strip and the West Bank.

"Ensuring that students from Gaza have access to higher education in the West Bank promotes U.S. foreign policy interests by investing in the future of the region," the letter states.

The State Department responded to the letter: "Education is a fundamental right and a force for moderation. The Secretary responds to all Congressional correspondence as appropriate."