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POPSPolitical News It appears Obama's early lead has subsided now as McCain rides the mometum of his foreign policy experience
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POPSShould The US Join The ICC??? McCain thinks so! Here is another article on the opinions of candidates who were are still are in the race for POTUS. http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/01/02/MNLUU4LBH.DTL
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POPSThe Dangers of Having a "Maverick" as POTUS
McCain’s top foreign policy adviser, Randy Scheunemann, was until recently a paid lobbyist for Georgia’s government. McCain also announced this week that two of his closest allies, Sens. Lindsey O. Graham (R-S.C.) and Joseph I. Lieberman (I-Conn.), would travel to Georgia’s capital of Tbilisi on his behalf, after a similar journey by Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice. The extent of McCain’s involvement in the military conflict in Georgia appears remarkable among presidential candidates, who traditionally have kept some distance from unfolding crises out of deference to whoever is occupying the White House. The episode also follows months of sustained GOP criticism of Democratic Sen. Barack Obama, who was accused of acting too presidential for, among other things, briefly adopting a campaign seal and taking a trip abroad that included a huge rally in Berlin. Obama made a speech and shook hands w/ people. He was criticized for meddling in foreign policy.
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POPSFox News to Air Obama, McCain Documentaries "Character and Conduct" Both set air Monday and Tuesday at 8 p.m. Fox News Channel has set aside some key cable news real estate next week for one-hour documentaries on Barack Obama and John McCain. "2008 Presidential Character and Conduct" will premiere at 8 p.m. Monday and Tuesday in a time slot usually held by cable news' top-rated program, "The O'Reilly Factor." Bill O'Reilly will be off Monday and Tuesday, making way for Monday's Obama docu, hosted by Bill Hemmer, and Tuesday's McCain docu, hosted by Eric Shawn. Pamela Browne is the executive producer of both programs.
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POPSMcCain: In 21st C. "nations don't invade other nations." Amazement must be seizing the whole world. While the USA tries to extricate itself from the aftermath of an invasion, one of its presidential candidates - the one who supported the invasion - insists invasions don't happen. No wonder they hate us.
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POPSChavez - More Like Castro Everyday Nevertheless, Mr. Chávez appears pleased with the circumstances, illuminating another way in which he resembles Castro: Both men are narcissists above all else, and both have been driven by an intense desire to rule as the omnipotent caudillo. The welfare of the nation is beside the point.
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POPSMcCain Divorced his Crippled Wife to Marry Cindy "in sickness and in health....til death do us part"? McCain claims to be a man of honor and his word. This is an interesting test of that "straight talk". McCain claimed to be a Christian too during the primaries, so this is a fair consideration to weigh. "Maverick" should actually be "pragmatist", John will do whatever John wants.
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POPSMcCain-Lieberman Ticket? No surprise. Israel wins, especially if something happened to the "gray hair dude" (P. Hilton). Neocon "birds of a feather...". There really is no true republican candidate. This might just send a whole lot of conservatives to third party candidates and ensure Obama a win--unless there is an October Surprise (false flag attack), which would help the military veteran.
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POPSGeneral Barry McCaffrey (ret) Says More Troops Aren't The Answer In Afghanistan
More ominously, the general says, we can expect a Taliban drive to erase Afghanistan's border with Pakistan in the wild frontier provinces of Pakistan that have provided sanctuary for Taliban and al Qaida leaders and fighters since Osama bin Laden escaped there in 2001. Military means, he writes, won't be enough to counter terror created by resurgent Taliban forces; we can't win with a war of attrition; and the economic and political support from the international community is inadequate. The battle will only be won, McCaffrey says, when there's a real Afghan police presence in all of the country's 34 provinces and 398 districts; when the Afghan National Army is expanded from 80,000 troops today to 200,000 troops; when we deploy five U.S. combat engineer battalions with a brigade of Army Stryker forces for security to begin a five-year road building program that also trains Afghan Army engineer units and employs Afghan contractors and workers.
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POPSAmericans Want Healthcare Reform If you go by GOP talking points, this means that 82% of Americans are socialists. Maybe that explains why this issue has become such a loser for Republicans. No one believes Republicans are ever going to address healthcare.
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POPSPresidential Debate Moderators Announced The Commission on Presidential Debates announced the moderators for the three 2008 presidential and vice presidential debates Tuesday morning. Each of the debates, except the second presidential debate, will be divided into eight, 10 minute segments devoted to a single topic. During that time the candidates will be able to engage each other in direct exchanges. Each of the debates will be 90 minutes long.
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POPSBarack Obama Plays The Race Card The End of the "Post Racial" Candidacy When Barack Obama started his long quest for the White House, he presented himself as a post racial candidate, as a man who transcended race, unlike previous African American Presidential candidates such as Jesse Jackson. This made his candidacy compelling to many.
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POPSMad about Obama That's MAD magazine's jumping-off point for a couple of spoofs on the presidential candidates of the two major political parties.
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POPSCrude Political Ads Who likes crude? It appears that both presidential candidates have received quite a bit of funding from the oil industry, though McCain far more than Obama, according to the Center for Responsive Politics
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POPSOrganized Religion Preaches Love but Practices Unacceptance This article is a good example of the negatives of organized religion. While many of them preach love, kindness, and peace, in practice they do nothing but reinforce nonacceptance of anyone or anything that does not conform to the religion's teachings and standards. I understand the psychological role or organized religion in our society, but I continue to stand by the belief that organized religion has been the cause of the great majority of the major wars, conflicts, and hatred in our history. Starting with the crusades and going up through to the terrorism we see in the world today. Religions reinforce that anyone or anything outside of their teachings are "wrong" and that those who don't "believe" are not worthy and should be punished. I firmly believe we won't have world peace until organized religion becomes a thing of the past.
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POPSTHE QUESTION ? The question should really be, Can we get a president with some savvy about the world and could put two sentences together ,after all we had 8yrs of "ONE CHILD"who left us all behind . GO TO THE SITE & VOTE, SEE THE RESULTS !
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POPSReligion Out of Govt Our government is designed to operate without regard to religion. Unfortunately, many have not figured that out yet.
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POPSMcCain Should Pick Romney, And Soon (3) Romney will bring economic credibility. With a few exceptions, qualities or qualifications have not been transferred from veep to the top guy. It's just as possible that, rather than boost McCain's economic bona fides, Romney would underscore the impression that those bona fides are pretty weak. (4) Romney can raise extra cash. He probably can, but by itself this is not a reason to select him. A veep nominee is more important than an ATM, so Romney has to offer McCain something else. If he can, his fundraising prowess is really just a supplement. McCain has an asset that Hillary simply lacked. He can outsource the attacks, handing the duties over to the veep pick. McCain can go back to being the maverick straight talker while the vice-presidential nominee can go after Obama. Never in his political career has Obama encountered an opponent who can land a blow as well as Romney. This is why Mitt Romney might make a good veep candidate.
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POPSMcCain's Double Standard on Campaign Visits to Military Bases With Department of Defense rules prohibiting political campaigning on military bases, it was determined that in some cases McCain could visit the installations as a senator but could not engage in any political activity or have news media present. McCain campaign officials said Thursday they intentionally did not campaign on military property. "We follow the rules," said senior McCain adviser Steve Schmidt. Because all three presidential candidates are sitting senators, DoD officials have privately noted for some weeks that the whole matter of drawing the line between Senate business and campaigning is sensitive. A U.S. Army official told CNN there are no pending requests from any of the campaigns to visit Army bases at this time. He noted that Sen. Barack Obama recently visited Fayetteville, North Carolina, but did not go to Fort Bragg; and Sen. Hillary Clinton visited Killeen, Texas, but did not go to Fort Hood.
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POPSObama's Idol Status Overseas Many in Washington were scratching their heads while he (McCain) was traipsing through the jungles of Colombia last month. But then came the freeing of hostages held by the FARC Colombian rebels, and McCain looked, well, presidential. And really, that’s the whole point of these “fact-finding” missions – looking good for the cameras. Perhaps these work vacations by politicians are more sophisticated than they first appear. Maybe Americans appreciate the fact that their presidential candidates are traveling beyond the confines of America and seeing the world firsthand. Perhaps, but do not be deceived. These are trips staged to the finest detail, with little left to chance and happenstance. Obama and McCain know this, and they have treated it as such – an extension of their political campaigns. Why do you think the network anchors are along for the ride? It is surely not because of the news quotient that the “surge” is working.
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POPSGreen ‘Peace Party’ positions against the Iraq and Afghanistan wars compared to pro-occupation Clint
“The occupation of Iraq will continue whether a Democrat or a Republican moves into the White House in January 2009,” said Jason Wallace, Green candidate for Congress in Illinois’ 11th District <http://www.electwallace.us> and a member of Iraq Veterans Against the War <http://ivaw.org/index.php>. IVAW has announced ‘Winter Soldier’ (March 13-16), a four-day event bringing together veterans from across the country to testify about their experiences in Iraq and Afghanistan <http://ivaw.org/wintersoldier>. “The ILWU action planned for May 1 is evidence that working people are impatient with vague promises to end these wars. Will Ms. Clinton or Mr. Obama endorse the ILWU protest and pledge to call home all US military personnel immediately?” “By calling the Iraq War a matter of military preparedness and botched strategy, Democrats are sidestepping the premise of the war,” said Bob Kinsey, Green candidate for the US Senate in Colorado <http://www.kinseyforsenate.org>. “While it’s true that
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POPSMedia "Obamathon" Couric Showcases Obama Over McCain The Media Is In Love With Barack It's pretty obvious that the media has a bizarre fascination with Barack Obama. Some may even say it's a love affair. Watch the video 2:56 http://www.johnmccain.com/ It has been an Obamathon ever since the presumptive Democratic presidential nominee touched down in Afghanistan. At today's press conference in Amman, a throng of reporters recorded his every move. In total, 200 journalists requested seats on “Air Obama” -- 40 of them were accepted. The bill for the trip? About $20,000 each.
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POPSRon Paul's GOP Counter-Convention Continues to get his revolutionary message out that the GOP is way off the mark in regard to their own traditional republican principles of limited government and individual liberty which the neoconservatives have trampled entirely. The popularity of the message cannot be overlooked and demonstrates the latent great dissatisfaction with the presumptive party nominees of McCain and Obama (who is continuing the talk of the "war on terrorism" as if it is a legitimate and constitutional war--see comments on Afghanistan). This might be the year of the greatest number of alternative candidates on the Presidential ticket: Constitution Party, Libertarian Party, Green Party, will probably be on every state ballot.
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POPSNot In My Backyard... But I changed my tune after recent accidents involving the platforms, part of more than 300 accidents worldwide in the last 25 years, according to a British study. The scariest for me occurred last September when a cloud of poisonous gas was expelled by a nearby natural gas rig and drifted over the island, sickening dozens of residents and forcing the evacuation of the Dauphin Island Sea Lab School. Exxon Mobil confessed to the unplanned expulsion of hydrogen sulfide, a fatally poisonous byproduct of all the wells. The noxious, sour-smelling gas is usually burned off by a continuous flame on the rig, which had inexplicably gone out, like a pilot light in the wind