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POPSThe Real Top Ten Stories of the Past Decade Go to the website for the full account of a decade of madness. " I don't like being negative, but we need to know what happened and what is broke, it we have any chance of climbing out of the hole in the ground that we find ourselves in.l Historians will look back on the Naughts as the time when Americans Lost Their Country."
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POPSSmoking Like a Barbecue: WH Homeland Liason Brennan Asserts that the Homeland defense Worked "every other day," in 2009, Just Not on a Major Holiday Over Detroit. http://bit.ly/8xEHKg Abdul mutallab was smoking like a barbecue. Will this performance stand? Nah. The Homeland hearings are starting in January. Brennan will get scorched like Abdul mutallab. It is an election year. They are offering him as the barbecued goat. Enough? Nah. Pass the sauce. (And Brennan's swerve to run Dick Cheney into the ditch is a self-destructive ploy. The clock is running down on Brennan's public role. The resume must already be at Xe.)
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POPSPapa B's Predictions for 2010 Russia and China know out that if Israel goes to war, everyone gets involved. And we .....we do have 200,000 military close to the Iranian border. With respect to politics, Papa B goes on to hope for some sort of "centrist consensus", but we all know that must be satire. Need some cheering up after ShadowStats' description of an inescapable "financial Armageddon"? Well, Papa B's predictions for the new year definitely won't fit the bill. Financial Armageddon http://bit.ly/5eQSMt
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POPSDemocrats Know They'll Lose... While many Democrats are eager to pass the healthcare bill, they know Americans don't really want it. So...what will they do? Quit! Because either way, they know they'll lose in November. Now we see a multitude of Democrats retiring and one has even switched parties because he has a conscience! (Imagine that) Read on to learn who's decided to quit:
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POPSA remarkably bitter take on the "top ten stories of the last decade" -- in short, we're hosed The last paragraph is worth quoting in full: "The meaninglessness of elections: This is the most embittering revelation of all. Despite the greatest electoral majority since Johnson crushed Goldwater in '64, Obama has betrayed everything he ran on. In every case where he had the opportunity to confront power " in financial bailouts, financial regulation, health care, wars and military spending, utilities and global warming, national surveillance " Obama has sided with the rich and powerful against the interests of the American people. He has probably engendered more cynicism, more disaffection with government than any president since Richard Nixon. It will deal a staggering blow to the hopes of mobilizing masses of people again for a real takeback of government. And he's not even one year into it."
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POPSBarack Obama is vulnerable on terror – and he knows it "Republicans smell blood. There is a pattern in the Obama administration of dismissing Islamist terrorist attacks as regrettable random acts. In his radio address after Major Nidal Hassan's slaughtered 13 at Fort Hood, Texas, Obama made no mention of terrorism or militant Islam, instead blandly promising that the "ongoing investigation into this terrible tragedy" would "look at the motives of the alleged gunman".
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POPSThe PTSD Nation - America the Traumatized This breaking of the national psyche was bound to happen; it's been decades in the making. American exceptionalism -- the idea that we are somehow better and more blessed than any other people on the face of the earth -- was bound to fail as our nation, like every other before it, found itself caught in the grinding wheels of history. The 2000 election, 9/11, Enron and WorldCom, Afghanistan, Iraq on a lie, Abu Ghraib, the USA Patriot Act, Guantánamo, Katrina and near economic collapse: each of these -- and many, many others -- challenged our sense of national identity, giving the lie to who we thought we were, and compromising a sense of safety, however delusional, that we once enjoyed. No longer were Americans exempt from the perils that face other nations. sneaked up behind us and whacked us in the head.
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POPS The Challenge of Freedom Part II
a murderous totalitarian thug. He visited Copenhagen to receive polite applause from people that gave socialist dictator Hugo Chavez a thunderous ovation for his anti-capitalist ravings. Could anyone in this Administration deliver a heartfelt endorsement of capitalism to the hungry ears of the Iranian protesters? Would any of them even be willing to try? President Obama’s belief that America’s standing in the world would improve with his election, because he’s a “good listener,” is the exact opposite of the truth. Wise people, and nations, are always listening carefully… but the world improves when America speaks with confidence. Obama’s cherished Indonesian childhood, and the travels through the Muslim world he boasts of, have proven to mean nothing to the forces of Islamic fascism. He should have spent more time learning what his American heritage means to the people dying on the streets of Tehran, and those like them around the world. Doctor Zero Blog http://bit.ly/8lUxeb
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POPSMYG | Nebraska's Sen. Ben Nelson
He made recent headlines for his deal making on health care reform, but will his legislative success spell doom with Nebraska voters? ___ In 1990, Ben Nelson entered the realm of Nebraska politics by running for Governor. He won the Democratic primary by only 42 votes and entered the governor’s office by besting incumbent Kay Orr by 4,000 votes. Nelson’s plan as Governor was to bridge the gaps between rural and urban areas " a “One Nebraska” " and create a “more efficient and effective state government.” These successes did not go unrecognized, for when Nelson was re-elected Governor in 1994, he attracted 74% of the vote, the largest margin of victory for a governor in half century. In 2000, Nelson ran for the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy created by the retirement of Senator Bob Kerrey. Nelson, a conservative Democrat, carried the day even as Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush won Nebraska with 62% of the vote. ___ http://senate.gov.twi.bz/h
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POPS“A History lesson….Cry for Me, Argentina” 12.9.2009 Among Irigoyen’s changes: mandatory pension insurance, mandatory health insurance, and support for low-income housing construction to stimulate the economy. Simply put, the state assumed economic control of a vast swath of the country’s operations and began assessing new payroll taxes to fund its efforts. With an increasing flow of funds into these entitlement programs, the government’s payouts soon became overly generous. Before long its outlays surpassed the value of the taxpayers’ contributions. Put simply, it quickly became under-funded, much like the United States Social Security and Medicare programs. The death knell for the Argentine economy, however,came with the election of Juan Perón. Perón had a fascist and corporatist upbringing ; he and his charismatic wife aimed their populist rhetoric at the nation’s rich. This targeted group “swiftly expanded to cover most of the propertied middle classes, who became an enemy to be defeated and humiliated.”
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POPS Murder in the Streets; Bloody Ashura in Tehran ..... and Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s website announced that the wartime prime minister’s nephew was one of those who had been killed. Seyyed Ali Habibi Mousavi Khamene, Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s nephew was shot by a bullet yesterday near Azadi avenue and passed away after being taken to Ibn-Sina hospital. Mehdi Farhadinia, Mohammad Ali Rasekhinia, Amir Arshadi and Shahram Faraji were the other four dead protesters. Officials prevented the bodies of these martyrs from being delivered to their families. One source close to Mir-Hossein Mousavi told Rooz that despite the presence of Mir-Hossein Mousavi and Ali Habibi Mousavi’s parents at Ibn-Sina hospital, Ali Habibi Musavi Khamene’s body was not given to his family but was instead delivered to the coroner’s office. After news of the death of Mir-Hossein Mousavi’s nephew broke out, a large number of people marched toward the hospital. A Rooz correspondent reported in front of the hospital that from about ten thirty pm .....
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POPSForgettable Things of 2009 There are more but these are the best ones. Read the entire article there may be others that you think are the most forgettable things of 2009
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POPSDeath Toll Rises to 10 as Clashes in Iran Intensify of the protests so far. The Shah’s forces never fired on protesters during Ashura, wary of violating the day’s sanctity. Obama Silent as Iranians Die for Freedom Iranian youth no longer chant “death to America.” Now they shout “death to the dictators” as they trample photos of Iran’s Supreme Leader. They also chant “Obama are you with us or with them ?” The reaction from the White House to the latest violence and the calls for recognition of the freedom movement? Silence. Once again, Obama doesn’t want to rock the boat with his hopes for a deal with the mad Mullahs who hold the Iranian people hostage to their warped ideology. Why won’t Obama adopt Reagan’s successful Cold War winning strategy? Because he was raised by a cadre of leftists who despised Reagan and resented the application of U.S. power especially when it was aimed at the Soviet Union with which many of Obama’s mentors and family had great sympathy.
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POPSBreathtaking Courage in Iran fight!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (as always, Pamela Geller is THE BEST source for news, photos and updates from Iran)
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POPSWhen Sleight of Hand Is Used to Pass an Unpopular Bill by Michael Barone prohibiting slavery in territories north of Arkansas and substituted popular sovereignty -- territory residents could vote slavery up or down. We cannot say with assurance that the Kansas-Nebraska Act was unpopular -- Dr. Gallup didn't start polling until 81 years later. But the results of the next election were pretty convincing. The Republican Party was suddenly created to oppose the Kansas-Nebraska Act, and the 1854-55 elections transformed the Democrats' 159-71 majority to a 108-83 Republican margin. Democrats didn't win a majority of House seats for the next 20 years. Nor did the Kansas-Nebraska Act settle the issue it addressed. Pro-slavery and anti-slavery settlers fought it out in "bleeding Kansas," and Douglas felt obliged to break with the Democratic administration and disown election-stealing by the pro-slavery side. The issue roused a former congressman named Abraham Lincoln to re-enter politics, and he beat Douglas in the popular vote (but not in the legislature)
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POPSThe 2010 Elections: Bring ' em on! Some interesting charts and graphs on the what things looked like during and shortly after the Bush years for working Americans, and where things are at now for working Americans
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POPSTop 25 Censored Stories for 2009/10 "Project censored is one of the organizations that we should listen to, to be assured that our newspapers and our broadcast outlets are practicing thorough and ethical journalism." — Walter Cronkite
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