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POPSU.S. Accepts Iran's Offer of Talks
Iran's proposal included efforts to curb nuclear weapons, so this should be interesting. Right now Western propganda says Iran MAY want nuke weapons someday...but if the focus gets to those countries that actually HAVE nuke weapons at least it would be talking about reality. Bush era politics refused to talk to Iran, so this is another progressive step forward for the Obama Administration: first the job creation and economic stimulus plans, health care reform on track to victory, withdrawal from Iraq going according to timetable/treaty deal, talking to Iran instead of threatening another war based on lies, first Hispanic/woman on Supreme Court, rolling back some unfair Bush era tax breaks for the Superrich, proposed regulations to stop Wall St. scams, restoring power to unions, equal pay for woman, end of torture, freeing Gitmo innocents and proceeding towards closing it down, etc. The country certainly is in better hands. 2010 elections the next big battle. It starts abou
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POPSEducation - how it could be better We believes that education needs to move out of this constricting framework into the real world of work, responsibility and the practical application of ideas.
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POPSLancashire cutting bus routes This is happening right across the country. The sound idea of pensioners riding free on empty busses has been badly abused, not by pensioners, but by officials who cannot organise a piss up in a brewery. No Lancashire breweries? Okay! What elderly passengers need is certainty, a strict timetable and a recognition that they have paid for everything that this govenment offers as privilege.
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POPSGuantanamo inmates for Ireland
While the two men were not being admitted as refugees within the terms of the Geneva Convention, Mr Ahern said he intended to adhere to the norms of official procedure in respecting the rights of the two men to their privacy. “There would not therefore be public disclosure of any personal information, family situations, nor would details of the arrangements for travel to Ireland be made public,” he said. The Minister said he made the decision to accept the men after receiving a report from a group of Irish officials last weeek on their visit to Washington and Guantanamo. Mr Ahern said he was conscious of the intention of the Obama administration to close the centre at Guantanamo Bay, “in part by transferring detainees, no longer regarded as posing a threat to security but who cannot return to their own countries, to other countries willing to accept them.” He said during his tenure as Minister for Foreign Affairs he had consistently called for the closure of the detention f
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POPSFDA: Lower Antibiotics to Farm Animals Meet, eggs, and dairy products are currently loaded with pass-me-down antibiotics, as a result of giving them to farm animals whether they are specifically needed or not. Humans then get those same antibiotics when they consume the products. Too many antibiotics can kill off all the good bacteria in human systems with results that often keep people staring at bathroom mirrors much longer than before. No one knows exactly the consequences of a life time of eating hand-me-down antibiotics but I dounbt that it is a good thing. So this is a good admission that there ought to be reasonable standards.
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POPSSPECIAL PREVIEW: The Abandonment of Democracy . . . should set aside the goal of democracy in Afghanistan” had prompted that country’s foreign minister to make “an impassioned appeal for continued U.S. support for an elected government.” In early April, former New York Times correspondent Joel Brinkley summed up the administration’s initial performance: Neither President Obama nor Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has even uttered the word democracy in a manner related to democracy promotion since taking office more than two months ago. The State Department’s Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights and Labor has put out 30 public releases, so far, and not one of them has discussed democracy promotion. Democracy, it seems, is banished from the Obama administration’s public vocabulary.
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POPSStop! The traffic light is turning red! There are so many people driving vehicles on the streets but you rarely see chaotic events due to traffic. Why? Mathematics play an important role controlling traffic lights by helping traffic controllers optimizing the signal changes of traffic lights. Click the link below to learn more about this interesting application of mathematics and traffic lights.
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POPSThe Banality Of Bush White House Evil "Five years after the Abu Ghraib revelations, we must acknowledge that our government methodically authorized torture and lied about it. But we also must contemplate the possibility that it did so not just out of a sincere, if criminally misguided, desire to “protect” us but also to promote an unnecessary and catastrophic war. Instead of saving us from “another 9/11,” torture was a tool in the campaign to falsify and exploit 9/11 so that fearful Americans would be bamboozled into a mission that had nothing to do with Al Qaeda. The lying about Iraq remains the original sin from which flows much of the Bush White House’s illegality."
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POPS"I Know, Let's Cut Missile Defense If . . . Blah,Blah,Blah"
Iran would face “isolation, international pressure, and a potential nuclear arms race in the region that will increase insecurity for all.” And Obama said he would continue to pursue a missile-defense system in Europe as long as the Iranian nuclear threat existed – but suggested he would abandon it if Iran abandoned its nuclear pursuits. Though there is bipartisan support for many of the steps, Obama may face resistance from Republicans in the Senate on ratification of the Test Ban Treaty and other moves. Speaking to Iran, the other nation widely thought to be pursuing nuclear weapons, Obama reiterated his campaign pledge to engage the Tehran regime, winning applause for saying, “We believe in dialogue.” In his speech Obama laid out shorter-term steps, like beginning international talks on banning production of fissile material, could revive momentum on international arms control, despite potential resistance from Republicans in Congress.
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POPSLabor's 'deafening silence' as web censorship trials delayed Nice to know that there are bigger problems than censorship. The Govt knows that it has promised to upgrade the whole system, and it must do that before it claims enough ownership to even conduct trials on censorship. They also may have accepted that there is no efficient filter system available.
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POPSDeal Signed: War with Iraq Over. The End is Near OMG. - Now that this is approved here is the one sentence that was DENIED: "However, Maliki's government, or its successor, can negotiate a later, separate, agreement with the Americans allowing them to stay longer if it believes Iraq is not yet stable enough." All up to now news reports I've read said the deal could absolutely NOT be extended but could only be shortened, forcing an earlier withdrawal. But now, instead, the USA twisted the arm and bribed this first puppet government and when it needs to several years from now it will do it again. Yea! Our Oil companies can stay! Our most expensive embassy in the world can stay! Victory at last! Even if the deal didn't have this critical possibility of extension I figured - there were bound to be loopholes anyhow. Our generals would argue over what the phrase 'complete withdrawal,'
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POPSIraq Cabinet Approves Removal of US troops Still, Kevin Drum argues that sticking to the deal would be good for Obama: since this essentially makes his decision to withdraw into a bipartisan agreement. After all, conservatives can hardly complain about Obama following a timetable that was negotiated and approved by Bush. Obama has enough on his plate already, and taking this issue off the table ought to be a considerable relief to him. Hmmm, maybe. But it wouldn't go down well with many progressives who expect Obama to stick to his promises to America before he sticks to Bush's promises to Iraq.
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POPSSadr Takes Aim at New U.S.-Iraq Agreement Overthrowing occupation is a religious and patriotic duty supported by logic and texts. Therefore it requires no agreement with those who respect neither faith nor promises.” In his message, Sadr stressed that he considers the agreement void even if ratified and asserted that the “faithful will not be bound by it.” He called on the parliament to reject it without the least hesitation so that “Iraq and its people do not get sold out the way other Muslim countries were.” Sadr also announced the formation of the Promised Day Brigade from Sadr movement elements and other sympathetic armed groups in order to fight American forces. Previously Sadr communicated through his spokesmen that there shall be no negotiations with the United States without a timetable for withdrawal on the table. This expected insistence on “resistance” exposes the way Sadr and other Arab “resisters” think and operate.
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POPSObama Victory Alters the Tenor of Iraqi Politics Over all, however, there was a new tone of optimism. “The atmosphere is positive with the American attempt to preserve the sovereignty of the Iraqi nation,” the government’s spokesman, Ali al-Dabbagh, told the news channel Al Arabiya. He praised the inclusion of a new provision stating that Americans would not launch attacks on Iraq’s neighbors from Iraqi soil. “There’s going to be a significant presence, but they are not going to be ‘combat’ forces,” said the administration official. “The other thing we witnessed through the Bush period was that when the Iraqi politicians couldn’t reach a compromise, Bush interfered,” Mr. Habeeb said. “I don’t think Obama will do that; he will not try to set the Iraqi agenda,” he said. “I think the politicians will have to be mature enough to solve their own problems and dare to make compromises.”
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POPSElection Night Timetable 10 p.m.: Voting ends in GOP-held, Iowa, Montana and Nevada, a combined 15 votes. Losing these would be a setback for McCain, while winning them would be a boon for Obama. Utah's five votes are a certainty for McCain. • 11 p.m.: Four states — mega-prize California, Hawaii, Oregon and Washington — are expected to quickly give Obama a combined 77 votes, while Idaho is expected to award its four votes to McCain. • 1 a.m.: Capping off the night is Alaska, where GOP vice presidential nominee Sarah Palin is governor. The Republican ticket is a shoo-in for those three votes. And then it's over. Or not.
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POPSWhy Barack Obama Is Winning Cont I would be making the exact same argument," he began. "Your job is to succeed in Iraq on as favorable terms as we can get. But my job as a potential Commander in Chief is to view your counsel and interests through the prism of our overall national security." Obama talked about the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan, the financial costs of the occupation of Iraq, the stress it was putting on the military. Barack Obama has prospered in this presidential campaign because of the steadiness of his temperament and the judicious quality of his decision-making. They are his best-known qualities. The most important decision he has made — the selection of a running mate — was done carefully, with an exhaustive attention to detail and contemplation of all the possible angles. Two months later, as John McCain's peremptory selection of Governor Sarah Palin has come to seem a liability,
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POPSRudd moves to stop executive greed The move will be popular with most people and the money people can't argue when it is their greed that caused this problem. When you foul up in "extreme sports", you usually suffer.
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POPSMcCain: Lies an incomplete list from http://www.dailykos.com/storyonly/2008/7/28/165138/698
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POPSTrashed Tech Dumped Overseas: Does the U.S. Care? Our uranium sales are restricted because of the debate over the waste materials. No doubt we have similar situations here, and most countries are the same. We really are doing a good enough job wrecking the planet, without the global weirding* (TM BartendingBear).
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POPSObama Tried To Stall GI's Iraq Withdrawal His latest position is that US combat troops should be out by 2010. Yet his effort to delay an agreement would make that withdrawal deadline impossible to meet. Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki and the Bush administration have a more flexible timetable in mind. According to Zebari, the envisaged time span is two or three years - departure in 2011 or 2012. That would let Iraq hold its next general election, the third since liberation, and resolve a number of domestic political issues. Even then, the dates mentioned are only "notional," making the timing and the cadence of withdrawal conditional on realities on the ground as appreciated by both sides. Iraqi leaders are divided over the US election. Iraqi President Jalal Talabani (whose party is a member of the Socialist International) sees Obama as "a man of the Left" - who, once elected, might change his opposition to Iraq's liberation.
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