The US Presidential Race.

[BathTub]

Originally Posted by Trigger

so this is pretty cool
Kristol: Bush Might Bomb Iran If He ‘Thinks Senator Obama’s Going To Win’

I love when people pretend Bush has any real power in the govt anymore. And I really love that some people actually think others might believe that scaremongering.

[Ab]

You do realise that he's the President of the United States, right? All he has to do is sign an executive order and his instructions are law. That's the whole point of these recent scandals. Right now the President is THE ONLY POWER.

[Hory]

That's not entirely true.
However Bush can use the legislation Congress passed last year designating the Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Iranian army as a 'terrorist organisation' as legal justification for an invasion of Iran.

[Cheeps]

Paint the whitehouse grey tbh.
Then call it the Grey House. That way its a sign that white and blacks can get along.

[Ab]

Originally Posted by Hory

That's not entirely true.
However Bush can use the legislation Congress passed last year designating the Revolutionary Guard Corps of the Iranian army as a 'terrorist organisation' as legal justification for an invasion of Iran.

See the recent torture, wiretapping, Valerie Plame, and lost email incidents for White House replies of "if the President tells you to do it, it's legal"

[SpaceCowboy]

Originally Posted by doppelgänger of someone

What, a slow news day? http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/americas/7126117.stm

"One source, who has close links to US intelligence, said that members of Vice President Dick Cheney's staff continued to call for military strikes against Iran "on a daily basis". "

why hasnt he been chased out of office with pitchforks yet?

[Lightspeed]

Originally Posted by Cheeps

Paint the whitehouse grey tbh.
Then call it the Grey House. That way its a sign that white and blacks can get along.

I think the chocolate house would be more apt.

[BaM]

[Hazmat]

Originally Posted by BaM

Actual LOL

[dead goon]

How about that turn out in Berlin?

GG Obama, speech was great, even though it consisted of the standard issues at hand. But it went well. And the fans were loving him, like he was some movie star. Can you imagine if McCain tried the same thing, what sort of turn out would he get?

[Havs]

Ill be suprised if Obama wins.

Who thought Bush would be re-elected? I don't see anything different happening this time around.

McCain is a carbon copy of bush, including his mind boggling stupid comments and tv apperances.

Red states will vote McCain, Diebold will vote McCain. McCain for the win.

[Haydos]

Obama has dirt.. you just wait until the electioneering really starts and he's going to be crippled by his past. The democratic party have made a huge mistake here in my view.

[Hory]

[chubby]

Originally Posted by Havs

Ill be suprised if Obama wins.



Red states will vote McCain, Diebold will vote McCain. McCain for the win.

QFT

[zeekiorage]

Germany likes Obama. Not too bad for a politician with "no international or foreign policy experience".

[Haydos]

It's not that they like Obama.

They hate Bush.

[Trigger]

so germany likes obama, what good is that if they can't vote for him?

[dead goon]

You bunch of miserable fuckers.

Wheres the spirit? wheres the HOPE!

[dead goon]

Originally Posted by Haydos

It's not that they like Obama.

They hate Bush.

True, but if Obama came to my town I'd be out there too.

I wouldn't be surprised if most of the crowd actually LIKED Obama for who he is, and he's a great speaker with charisma, people flock to the man.

[chubby]

Originally Posted by Haydos

It's not that they like Obama.

They hate Bush.

but kiwis will all be voting for John 'who the fuck?' Key, right?

[zeekiorage]

Nobody outside USA likes Bush.

To have thousands of people come out and listen to someone's speech, the person has to be likable.

If Democrats lose this election they should dissolve their party and move to Germany or start a revolt and join United States of Canada.

[FaTBoB]

Obama: The real power behind the throne-to-be

By Eric Walberg

Global Research, July 23, 2008
Al Ahram Weekly


It is hard to sort through the hype and heat of Obamania, but one thing is clear: who’s pulling the strings, argues Eric Walberg

As the United States election race enters the final stretch, Barack Obama as the candidate promising change is revealing his true colours, much to the despair of anyone actually expecting any change. His recent call to declare Jerusalem the undivided capital of Israel, his denial of Palestinans’ right of return, and his support for a Bantustan Palestinian “state” which poses no threat to Israel show how completely he has caved in to the Zionist establishment on that issue.

As President George W Bush calls for early reductions in combat troops in Iraq, Obama’s position on Iraq — a vow to bring troops home within 16 months, excepting a “residual force” — looks less and less of a defining moment in his foreign policy. Whatever happens to troop levels, there is no explicit talk of overriding the plans for 14 permanent bases.

Obama is toeing the line in Afghanistan, too. As NATO casualties continue to mount, surpassing monthly Iraqi casualities as of June this year, he is proposing — now seconded by McCain — that the United States shift up to 15,000 more troops there from Iraq. Just prior to his trip to Afghanistan, he wrote in a New York Times Op Ed, “We need more troops, more helicopters, better intelligence-gathering and more nonmilitary assistance to accomplish the mission there.” Please, will someone show me the silver lining in an Obama victory in November?

But then none of the above should come as any surprise to those familiar with his chief promoter and foreign policy adviser, Zbigniew Brzezinski, who, along with current (and likely future) Secretary of Defense Robert Gates, has already entered history as helping “suck the Soviets into a Vietnamese quagmire”. These are the words of President Jimmy Carter’s Under-Secretary of Defense Walter Slocumbe in March 1979, eight months before the Soviets were successfully “sucked in”, when Gates was CIA chief. The changing of the guard, come November, will change nothing. US foreign policy has a logic which transcends who sleeps in the White House.

What’s especially ghoulish about all this is that there are five Brzezinski offspring who are all onboard the Obama wagon: Mark (director of Russian and Eurasian Affairs at the National Security Council under President Bill Clinton, and one of the prime movers of the 2004 color revolution in Ukraine), Ian (currently the US Deputy Assistant Secretary of State for European and NATO affairs and a backer of Kosovan independence, NATO expansion into Ukraine and Georgia and US ABM missiles in Poland), Mika (political commentator on MSNBC whose interview with Michele Obama contributed to the general media Obamamia) and finally, Matthew (a friend of Ilyas Akhmadov, “foreign minister” and US envoy of the Chechen opposition).

Brzezinski’s brand of anti-Russian, anti-Muslim geopolitics will dominate a future Obama administration. In Second Chance: Three Presidents and the Crisis of American Superpower, published last year, he lays out his New World Order agenda without so much as a blush. Apparently, there is a global political awakening going on, the goal of which is “dignity”. Not economic development, not the alleviation of poverty, not national sovereignty against the IMF and World Bank. Just plain old dignity, though Zbig’s brand of dignity is the kind attained through secession, balkanisation, and the creation of weak statelets for each ethnic minority subservient to the US. Think: Kosovo and — if he has his way — Chechenia. Neo-Wilsonian demagogy in the service not of peace but of US world domination, encirclement of Russia and control of the Arab world.

Zbig said in endorsing Obama: “What makes Obama attractive to me is that he understands that we live in a very different world where we have to relate to a variety of cultures and peoples.” Obama’s alleged global approach and trans-ethnic, trans-racial allure are right out of Zbig’s university textbook, or rather Second Chance, which will be the manual for the Obama campaign and presidency.

Obama is literally a second chance for Brzezinski: having destroyed the Soviet Union and shattered the Warsaw Pact, he now wants to dismember the Russian Federation itself and put the finishing touches on Afghanistan as an impregnable US military base against China, Russia... the list is endless. Perhaps Zbig is dreaming of restoring Greater Poland circa 1600 — from the Black Sea to the Baltic, all controlled by petty szlachta aristocrats like... the Brzezinskis?

The Economist blog put it best: “A new brain for Barack Obama! It’s 78 years old and it still works perfectly. It belongs to Zbigniew Brzezinski, the peppery ex-national security adviser to Jimmy Carter.”

The messianic idealism of the Obama campaign has not been seen since the days of another Brzezinski creation — Jimmy Carter, who made him national security adviser with disastrous results. Brzezinski’s anti-Russian obsession back in 1976 prompted him to foment the rise of Islamic fundamentalism, which he touted as the greatest single bulwark against Soviet communism. Tarpley argues that Brzezinski was even a prime behind-the-scenes mover in the overthrow of the Shah of Iran and installing Ayatollah Khomeini in power in Tehran. Brzezinski cared less about the Middle East and its oil than he did about the need for a centre from which Islamic fundamentalism of the most retrograde type could penetrate the soft southern underbelly of the USSR. For Brzezinski, the space between the southern frontier of the Soviet and the Indian Ocean littoral became an “arc of crisis”, and we have his handiwork to thank for the horrors taking place there to this day.

The 1980 Carter Doctrine — that the US was determined to dominate the Persian Gulf — is at the root of the first Gulf War, of the present Iraq war, and of the possible war on Iran. Brzezinski’s grandiose schemes of world transformation caused a renewal of the Cold War and gave birth to Al-Qaeda, and without Soviet restraint the results could easily have been far more tragic than they turned out to be. By 1980, disillusionment with Carter led to the nightmare of the Reagan regime. But this was of little concern to Brzezinski — a mere blip on his radar screen.

In 2008, we have an obscure Illinois senator, a neophyte with no legislative achievements to speak of, but with a raft of utopian promises, including solving the race problem once and for all. Recession, unemployment and an alarming rise in poverty are of no consequence; a golden age is at hand thanks to his magnetic personality. Since he knows nothing of foreign policy, these matters will be competently managed by the Brzezinski cabal.

But there seems to be one slight hitch. Despite Obama’s slavish pro-Israeli genuflections of late, he is still not trusted by the Jewish lobby. Quite possibly because they know who the power behind the throne-to-be is, and they can’t stomach him, nor he them. Addressing the AIPAC crew in an interview with The Daily Telegraph, he said, “They operate not by arguing but by slandering, vilifying, demonising. They very promptly wheel out anti-Semitism. There is an element of paranoia in this inclination to view any serious attempt at a compromised peace as somehow directed against Israel.”

But then Brzezinski was a key player in Carter’s 1978 Camp David Accords, much loathed by the Zionists as giving up Sinai in exchange for a cold peace with Egypt. Brzezinski is definitely not a hardcore Zionist, though he’s happy to allow the destruction of Palestine. Perhaps he is, under his suave exterior, still the quintessential Polish anti-Semite, with a vision of the New World Order without Israel at the centre.

If he can keep up the momentum, however, he may be able to outflank the Zionists in Washington and bringing his horse first past the finish line. They are on the defensive these days, what with spy trials, even J Street Project, a Jewish lobby group that — gasp — dares to criticise Israel. Is this, then, the silver lining in an Obama victory?


Eric Walberg writes for Al-Ahram Weekly. You can reach him at www.geocities.com/walberg2002/

Eric Walberg, Al Ahram Weekly, 2008

The url address of this article is: http://www.globalresearch.ca/PrintAr...articleId=9649

[crocos]

Apparently Walberg can't count:

What’s especially ghoulish about all this is that there are five Brzezinski offspring who are all onboard the Obama wagon: Mark (...), Ian (...), Mika (...) and finally, Matthew (...).

Not actually commenting either way on the content, but it DID amuse me.

Hmm... On reflection, I suppose "Ziggy" could be considered one of the five.

[dead goon]

When do the yanks go to the polls?

[fidgit]

Originally Posted by crocos

Apparently Walberg can't count:

What’s especially ghoulish about all this is that there are five Brzezinski offspring who are all onboard the Obama wagon: Mark (...), Ian (...), Mika (...) and finally, Matthew (...).

Not actually commenting either way on the content, but it DID amuse me.

Hmm... On reflection, I suppose "Ziggy" could be considered one of the five.

"Mark", "Ian", "Mika", "And Finally", "Matthew". I see 5.

I think it might be you that can't count.


Dead goon: The spirit is gone after we used it to drown the hope, following the 2004 election-theft.

Not that I'm really opposed to Walnuts winning - Imagine how boring John Stewart's going to be if there's a democrat in power...

[Biff]

The Daily Show has been on fire lately. I can't get enough of Obama Quest

[Redneck]

love the homage to Harryhausen

[Kickass]

Originally Posted by Biff

The Daily Show has been on fire lately. I can't get enough of Obama Quest

ahahah yes, its been great. some very funny moments

[Saladin]

Faux news Godwins the campaign (plus some hilarity around them using 8 year old footage of McCain 2000 rallies to make him look younger)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HPoaovzD6x4

[Saladin]

Oops, second segment with the Hitler/Mussolini comment was CNN not Faux..

[Sgt Seb]

Originally Posted by Biff

The Daily Show has been on fire lately. I can't get enough of Obama Quest

It's great, but does anyone else think John Oliver's segments are overrated?? The other sketches are funny as hell but his are always '...ha' in comparison.

[ilk]

Yeah, sometimes he seems a little out of his depth. On a tangent, very pleased with the start that Crazy-girl-from-Flight-of-the-Conchords (Kristen Schaal) has made as a contributer.

Oh, Presidential Race? If I had to vote it would be for the guy who can play basketball like a fiend.

[Sgt Seb]

yep I thought so too. Which is surprising because usually I don't find female comics funny at all :P that new tall skinny black guy, forget his name, is awesome too. the segment where he went to florida was classic!

[dead goon]

Word on the street is that McCain has now edged past Obama as the favourite.

Also Bush is in South Korea, doing his thing. How will McCain deal with the Koreans when he openly said he "hates the gooks?"

[BaM]

Originally Posted by dead goon

Word on the street is that McCain has now edged past Obama as the favourite.

It depends who you ask.

It's all pretty even, and November is quite a way off.

[BathTub]

The main thing is how much of the lead obama has lost.

[Sgt Seb]

This website is pretty cool for a breakdown of the polls:

http://www.realclearpolitics.com/epo...ama_vs_mccain/

From what I've read, this far out polls don't really mean much. The majority of Americans are still not following the election that closely and there is probably a fair amount of volatility implicit in any poll taken.

If you look at the broader strategic picture though, I don't think it looks too good for McCain. He is not raising anywhere near the amount of money Obama is, and I can imagine Obama raising much more in the upcoming months without too much difficulty. Although this doesn't seem to be that important now, it seems this is going to damage McCain during the height of the campaign when both campaigns are playing tonnes of expensive ads during prime time. Obama won't have a problem here, McCain will be struggling to keep up.

2nd, its 3 months out, and McCain is already looking desperate. He hired a new campaign strategist who is much more aggressive and responsible for the Hilton-Spears attack ads. Not sure how effective they will be but when the american public is looking for a change it doesnt exactly make you look good just to attack the new guy.

Lastly Obama just isnt fucking up. He went to Europe which everyone, even the hardcore republican pundits thought was a success. IMO He looked more like a statesman than Bush. This is pretty much McCain's only chance - hoping the new guy fucks up and shows his inexperience. Unless this happens, which is looking increasingly unlikely, I think (hope) this will be a cake walk

Of course I'm waiting for Ohio/Idaho to fuck things up somehow once bitten, twice shy...etc

[A Corpse]

I still think that when push comes to shove, Americans won't be able to get themselves to vote for a black guy, even if they think he's a better choice.

[Whiplash]

http://zenoferox.blogspot.com/2008/0...s-herself.html

God damn it, now I have some respect for Paris Hilton :-/

[CCS]

Oh come on, the last paragraph gives it all away:

And poor John McCain. With the keen judgment and political dexterity we have come to expect from him, he has alienated Paris Hilton's family (maxed-out contributors to the McCain campaign who are now pissed off) and unleashed the powers of her long-idling brain.

Which just confirms the suggestion made earlier in the article that it was written for her.