Contrary to the insistence (and wishful thinking) of my dear co-blogger Michael, all indications are that the Iraqi government indeed DOES support Obama’s plan for Iraq withdrawal.

First, Nouri al-Maliki was quoted as saying that he supported a similar timetable for withdrawal as Obama. This was very quickly spun as a “mistranslation” by a spokesman. (more…)

David Brooks wrote a good column about the “culture of debt,” he considers prevalent in the US today. He starts off by looking at the current debt crisis in his country - people have borrowed thousands of Dollars but aren’t able to pay them back, hence the economy suffers - and then especially at one specific place. (more…)

There’s been a decent amount of coverage here at Poligazette over the statements by Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki and Iraq withdrawal in general this weekend. On Saturday, I made an entry expressing my thoughts on the statements by Maliki, but moreso on the Bush administration’s “time horizons” (which appears to be an actual phrase). Michael van der Galien noted on Sunday that an Iraqi spokeman said that Maliki was misunderstood. Today, he called out liberals for claiming that Maliki’s statements equate an endorsement for Barack Obama’s Iraq plan.

However, what there hasn’t been at this site is a full roundup of what is essentially flip-flopping coming from Iraq. After the jump, I’ll list all the quotes by Maliki (including the NYT translation of his quote in Der Spiegel) and the various Iraqi government spokesmen. Then I’ll propose why both McCain and Obama might end up being right on an endgame for Iraq.

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Yes, gentle reader, believe it or not the Joo has no horns, no tail. We are as human as the rest of you, we bleed, we cry, we laugh, we suffer, we sing and we too can have our hearts shuttered… But… if you look at Jewish history… we were attacked by the greatest empires, they all even held us under their individual yoke for a while and then… they disappeared! Yet… while we Jooz were decimated by the millions, while the hatred of the world at our stubbornness never abated we cried, we prayed, we hoped and died with the word “Jerusalem” on our lips! And so in 1948 of the Current Era - symbolically, Abraham was born in 1948 in the Hebrew calendar - we once again got our own independent Jerusalem.

We will survive the MSM and their hypocrisy, even though the UN’s Human Rights Council will never bring itself to discuss the Jews’ cause. We will survive the IslamoFascists hatred as they will eventually burn up in the pyre of their own poison. Yes, gentle reader, if you prick us we do bleed, if you poison us we do die… but, like the mythical phoenix, we always rise from our ashes and accomplish the impossible! Look at Israel today, a prosperous garden in the desert, a center of science and technology where there was only sand and poverty!!!

You may read the rest on: Freedom’s Cost

I come home from work today and checked my mail and noticed that I got a mail from John McCain and the Republican National Committee. This wasn’t unexpected to me. As an Independent, I know Democrats, Republicans, Libertarians, et. al would love to get my vote. I was annoyed two years ago when I got endless calls on my cell phone (which was on the Do-Not-Call list at the time) from the RNC urging me to vote Rob Simmons in my House district. I think the Republicans may have gotten that message, and changed strategy. So, a mailing campaign seems fair and smart

Until I found out how that strategy may have changed.

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The headline is pretty self-explanatory. I’m going on vacation to Chicago to visit family. This will be my first time back in the US in five years. I plan to eat unhealthy foods and spend bloated euros while looking confused with a city map in my hand. My internet capacity will be sketchy, at best, during the next week, but I’ll try to check in now and again.

Bye!

Today I participated in a bloggers’ conference call with Representative Marsha Blackburn and McCain campaign spokesman Michael Goldfarb. The subject of the call was Barack Obama’s foreign policy. Although one may find it a bit awkward that the McCain campaign organized a call about Obama rather than McCain, it has to be said that this turned out to be quite interesting; not only did we talk about Obama, but they contrasted the Senator from Illinois with John McCain. (more…)

‘All of the most important objectives of the surge have been accomplished in Iraq. The sectarian civil war is ended; al Qaeda in Iraq (AQI) has been dealt a devastating blow; and the Sadrist militia and other Iranian-backed militant groups have been disrupted.’ (more…)

Has atheism become too radicalized and militant? Some people think so. After the jump, I’ll discuss why some atheists have become disgusted with the modern face of the movement, and talk about what I’ve seen in my own experience.

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Of course the mortgage scandal and problems are a ‘bipartisan affair.’ As Froma Harrop points out, every single person was more than willing to use the housing bubble in an attempt to make a quick buck. (more…)

Although I have become a supporter of the surge like I was a supporter of the Iraq War the first three - four years or so (I became a critic somewhere last year) - I think it is important to point out that the success of the surge does not mean that Iraq will be stable, independent, democratic and strong. (more…)

‘Despite the scientific consensus that climate change is occurring, there remain sharp political disagreements both here in the United States and around the world about how policymakers should respond. Nowhere is this gap more profound than between developed and developing countries,’ Richard G. Lugar and Henry M. Paulson Jr. write. (more…)

Starting with this election, I have become very interested in the various third parties in the United States. I became an Independent because I was disgusted with the state of the two party system and the two parties that were propping up and maintaining that system. Still, that doesn’t mean I’m unwilling to hear what parties have to say. So, I’ve spent a great deal of time following them, as well as Indpendent candidates.

In this entry, I give a pretty thorough roundup of who’s running for these third parties, as well as explaining what the parties are all about, and my take on the candidates’ chances.

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A couple days ago, I wrote an entry here at Poligazette making my case for divided government, that is, government where the executive and legislative branches are controlled by different parties. This entry makes a few clarifications and speaks a little bit about the subject of mandates.

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Nicholas D. Kristof - a journalist I greatly respect, especially because of his knowledge of China - tries to explain why some global leaders, and especially the leaders of G-8 countries, don’t seem to be too concerned about the massacres taking place in Darfur right now, and not about genocide in general. (more…)

Thus writes Steve Chapman: ‘Federal budget policy is a dry subject with far too many numbers and charts, which makes it uninviting to most Americans. But the theme of the current budget story is one that could have come from a blockbuster summer movie: We are doomed. There is a fiscal asteroid on course to pulverize us, and no one is coming to the rescue.’ (more…)

Below follows the transcript of the speech Senator John McCain gave to the 79th Annual League of United Latin American Citizens (LULAC) Convention in Washington, DC. As usual, I will not comment on the speech myself. I simply want to give you all the opportunity to read it, think about it and to comment on it yourself if you are so inclined. (more…)

I’m not asking whether you want to be a German, but whether you could become one if you wanted to. You see, the German government has created a new test for people who migrate to Germany are already living in Germany and want to get the German nationality. The test has received a lot of criticism, from a variety of sources. (more…)

In a move that is reminiscent of Darfur and the Congo the just “reelected” President of Zimbabwe, Robert Mugabe, has come up with a new tactic to assert the power he so blatantly stole:

Mugabe thugs raping teens: aid staff

DOZENS of teenage girls have been made pregnant after being taken into the bush and raped in torture camps by President Robert Mugabe’s youth militia operating near Mudzi, a town 160km northeast of Harare, human rights workers allege.

Read the rest on: Freedom’s Cost

Below follows the transcript of a speech Senator John McCain gave titled “Jobs for America.” As usual, I will not comment on the speech itself; I simply want to give you all the opportunity to read it, think about it and comment on it if you are so inclined. (more…)

Increasingly more American Muslims are objecting to the way in which the Barack Obama campaign is trying to defend itself against ‘rumors’ that Obama is a traitor Muslim (one gets the impression that being a Muslim is consider to be as bad as being a traitor these days). Quite some American Muslim leaders now complain that Obama’s campaign gives people the impression that there’s something wrong with being Muslim. (more…)

Fareed Zakaria argues that the United States is ’seriously behind the rest of the industrial world’ when it comes to energy. In his latest column he tries to explain what US President George W. Bush can do to catch up. (more…)

You know, I’m all for free speech. It’s a value this country was founded on, and one all Americans cherish the most. Yet, some of this free speech has a time and place. This kind, for example.

In the linked video, hecklers and protesters at a citizenship ceremony yesterday shout at the stage phrases such as “war criminal,” “he has brought fascism,” and others that really don’t have a reason for being at an event that should be happy and joyful.

I would hate to have one of the best days of my life, becoming a citizen of this country, marred by people who are so self-centered that they can’t go protest somewhere else.

Disgusting.