| 28.09.2008 |
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| The right is calling Barack Obama a flip-flopper after his statement during Friday night’s debate that “I actually believe we need missile defense.” The truth is a little more subtle than any charge of a flagrant flip-flop that took life that evening, but either way, Obama’s position has apparently shifted over time, and his current stance raises some questions. At one point, anyway, it appeared that Obama opposed missile defense entirely. Back in 2001, he said, according to a quote from a television station that the John McCain campaign rustled up: “I, for example, don't agree with a missile defense system.” That’s the only quote from the interview I’ve been able to find – what he said before or after that, and in what context, is not readily available. But for as far back as I can discern other than that remark, Obama has primarily taken a skeptical view of missile defense, not a “no way, no how” view of missile defense. Almost all of his statements have indicated he does not oppose missile defense in theory. But he has favored cutting spending on missile defense – “I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems,” he said in February – and has opposed deployment of missile defense infrastructure in Europe until certain conditions are met. “The Bush administration has been developing plans to deploy interceptors and radar systems in Poland and the Czech Republic as part of a missile defense system designed to protect against the potential threat of Iranian nuclear armed missiles,” he said in July of last year when the Polish president visited. “If we can responsibly deploy missile defenses that would protect us and our allies we should - but only when the system works. We need to make sure any missile defense system would be effective before deployment. The Bush administration has in the past exaggerated missile defense capabilities and rushed deployments for political purposes.” Between those two statements lies the following question: Given the billions that have been spent on missile defense so far and that fact that the United States still has no working shield, how will cutting missile defense spending increase the chances of producing a system that works? |
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| 11 Comments |
| The tragedy in politics is that the opponent twist your remark in a way to attack you and distort your image. But this article is a balanced article.Thanks Dear Citizen: Are you ready yet for the November 4th Elections? How about your friends, family, and neighbors? More Americans are expected to vote this year than ever before in history, so don’t be left out! Be sure to ask everyone you know the following questions: Are you registered to vote? If you moved recently, have you updated your voter registration? Did you apply for an Absentee Ballot? Do you know your state may not require any reason? Can you find your local Polling Place? Do you know it may have changed from last time? The answers to these questions -- and all your voting needs -- can be found at www.StateDemocracy.org -- the FREE 1-Stop citizen empowerment portal that Delivers Democracy to your Desktop! StateDemocracy is among the Internet’s first (since 2001) and most encompassing civic empowerment tools. In order to boost voter participation this year, StateDemocracy.org is offering FREE widgets for all 50 states. You can simply download and embed these widgets into your own website so your visitors can register to vote, get an absentee ballot or find their local polling place. Lobby Congress Via StateDemocracy StateDemocracy.org also equips you to maintain an active dialog with your state and federal lawmakers once they are elected. And RIGHT NOW is an especially opportune time to contact your U.S. Senators and House Member, as Congress takes up major legislation on such issues as offshore oil drilling, another economic stimulus package and all federal appropriations bills over the next few weeks. As you lobby your elected officials, remember that lawmakers view your constituent input as reflective of scores of other citizens who felt similarly, but didn’t have (or take) the time to share their opinions. LobbyDelegates.com Further Empowered Grassroots Voices Over the past 5 months, you may have visited www.LobbyDelegates.com, along with 26,000 other visitors. This latest public interest portal by the StateDemocracy Foundation remained the only online tool enabling rank-and-file Democrats to lobby all 800+ Super Delegates on which candidate to back for the party’s Presidential nomination. StateDemocracy Foundation Website Users Unite! Many of you have used our StateDemocracy.org and LobbyDelegates.com tools in recent times, and have hopefully found your experience uplifting and empowering. I encourage all of you to help spread the news about StateDemocracy.org to enable more of our fellow citizens to Connect! Engage! And Empower! |
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| dennis | Homepage | E-Mail | 29.10.2008, 10:03 | ||
| Rush Limbaugh and his band of merry morons should be sued for for slander and libel for all of our losses on the market yesterday... | ||
| Becky | Homepage | E-Mail | 30.09.2008, 12:05 | ||
| I don't know about you folks, I getting tired of Oprah Winfrey telling us what to think, what to read, who to vote for, what to eat, what appliances to use, what cars to drive etc..... Who made her the last expert on every subject known to mankind. We are on the verge of electing a candidate for president who no resume to speak of and certainly no outstanding personal qualities other than he can make a speech. What leadership has this person shown other than ridiculing and mocking people. He reminds of the smart alack we all remember from high school, you know who I am talking about, the guy who seemingly knows everything and speaks to olthers in a condescendingly patronizing voice that is supposed to tell everyone only he has the truth and everybody else is just plain mean to him so we all should feel sorry for this person and vote for him because he is a nice guy. Trouble is though, he is just as dirty a politician as any I've seen. Even moreso because he told us he would win with new politics. What he has done the last 2 weeks is keep throwing crap against the wall with the hopes that some of it will stick. America, this guy has no reume, he hasn't been a senator long enough to hang his hat. Let me say it because no one else seems to want to, the only reason he is in this presidential race because the media gave him almost a total pass because of his race. You, the press, have hounded Sara Palin from the moment she accepted the vice presidential nomination. Where the hell were you when Obama announced his intent to run. You, the media, had Mr. Obama as the second coming of the messiah and did not dig deep enough into his past. Things that happened during the Democratic primaries that would have sunk a caucasian candidate, but you let slide with Obama because of his race. You are about to elect a guy who has absolutely no experience except to make sure the other person speaks first so he can repudiate, then add his own 2 cents. People say he should be elected because he went to Harvard. My question to this is, how the heck did he get into Harvard with only a B average at Occidental College. I know if I got a B average at Occidental Harvard would say,"Yeah, right" to my application. This country is about to make the biggest mistake it ever has by electing Obama president. |
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| michael lashway | Homepage | E-Mail | 30.09.2008, 04:31 | ||
| Casey Brown-Meyers, how did Democrats prevent the reform of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac in 2002 and 2005 when both Congress and the White House were controlled by Republicans at the time? If they can launch a pre-emptive strike and occupy a country for 5 years to the tune of 10 billion a month, they could have reformed Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac. If they actually thought it was needed at the time, it's their own fault for putting other "priorities" first. And we CAN afford Obama. His budget plan is focused on reducing the deficit and cutting wasteful spending. McCain has promised to cut taxes across the board without reducing spending. If we think this country is in a financial crisis now, wait until we have two years of outrageous tax cuts and even more record deficits. I hope you'll enjoy paying $8 a gallon for gas and twice as much for everything else. The only other alternative is for him to go back on his word about taxes to keep funding the Republican wasteful military spending. |
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| William | Homepage | E-Mail | 30.09.2008, 03:11 | ||
| "The Democrats created this finanical 9/11 with there refusal to reform Fannie/Freddie when Bush, McCain brought it to the attention of Congress in early 2002 and 2005." Remind the class - which party held the White House and Congress in 2002 and 2005? |
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| Fred | Homepage | 30.09.2008, 02:43 | ||
| It was Bush who said, spend for patriotism after 9/11, remember? Although you are losing your jobs and the future seems uncertain, go spend money you do or do not have to keep the country afloat. Wal-Mart had a special sale shortly after his plea -- a Patriotism Sale?? So, whoever created the credit society, Bush II sure had a hand in promoting spending on credit as an American thing to do. | ||
| R. Gullible | Homepage | 30.09.2008, 01:22 | ||
| There's no inconsistency in Obama's view. Like a lot of Dems (including Obama, apparently), my own view for years has been (a) spend money on missile defense research and preliminary testing, but (b) don't spend years rushing to build and set up the hardware (as the Bush admin did in already setting it up in Alaska) when it flat-out doesn't work yet -- that's just wasted money. It's BS to say "We have more successful missle defense tests than we do failures" - because the "successes" are shots at targets that are nothing like missiles; recent "successful" tests have been shots at slow-moving targets that lack the countermeasures some missiles have. I'm all in favor of testing on slow-moving targets, to perfect the targeting system, before testing on far harder missile-speed targets -- but the successful tests don't mean "we've successfully tested missile defense." In fact, pro-defense conservatives: if you really WANT a working missile defense, you should be AGAINST wasting money on premature building and setup of the hardware -- and you should SUPPORT throwing as much money as possible at researching hwo to make it work, because it just doesn't work yet. Rushing out missile defense is the worst sort of wishful thinking from the Bush administration. At his best, McCain used to offer hard truths... but he sure hasn't been at that best recently. |
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| Scott Moss | E-Mail | 29.09.2008, 23:11 | ||
| The liberals have left a paper trail, or in this case, a video trail of their failures. //youtube.com/watch?v=_MGT_cSi7Rs I will post more damning evidense later. |
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| Casey Brown-Myers | Homepage | E-Mail | 29.09.2008, 21:47 | ||
| The Democrats created this finanical 9/11 with there refusal to reform Fannie/Freddie when Bush, McCain brought it to the attention of Congress in early 2002 and 2005. I will be writing every member of Congress to demand an investigation into this matter. The Clinton Admin. in general and the Democrats in particular are guilty of this highjacking of taxpayers money. A vote for Obama is a vote for more of the same fleecing of the American taxpayers. A vote for Obama is a vote for Jimmy Carter syle foreign policy. |
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| Casey Brown-Myers | Homepage | E-Mail | 29.09.2008, 21:24 | ||
| Mr. Obama is not flip-flopping on this issue, he is just against this issue. He always says he is for a system if it "works". He states that it is "unproven" at present, so in essence he does not support it. We have more successful missle defense tests than we do failures. All technology is a failure until proven in battle and these libs do not want to give it that chance. Liberals did not want the surge to work because it would go against their cause. The liberals did not want the military build up against the Soviets in the 80's to work because it would go against their cause. The libs do not want to tax cuts to work because it would go against their cause. Liberals are wrong and see ideology first and country second. We cannot afford Obama. The world cannot afford Obama. |
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| Casey Brown-Myers | Homepage | E-Mail | 29.09.2008, 03:58 | ||
| Bush, McCain can run. But they cant hide anymore. What ever congress does to try and fix our stunning economic catastrophe needs to be done very carefully. Congress needs to take their time, and be sure of what they are doing. Whatever is done needs to be sharply focused at helping, and protecting the best interest of the ordinary Americans. In particular the vast American middle class. 700 billion dollars is a lot of the peoples money to spend to bail out a bunch of corrupt Bush loan sharks. When have you ever known any government plan, or project to only cost what the government said it would. Remember the war in Iraq. Bush and his so-called advisers said it would only cost you about 80 billion dollars. But we now know that the war in Iraq will cost you, and your children, and your grand children over a trillion dollars, and still counting. So if 80 billion can end up costing you over a trillion dollars. How much could 700 billion end up costing you. Any math wizards out there. I come up with 9 trillion...:-( My fellow human beings, just as I warned you ahead of this catastrophic economic meltdown, I must now warn you that what is ahead has the potential to be even more catastrophic than what we are going through now. The worlds geopolitical landscape has been booby trapped by the Bush McCain administration and their republican allies in congress. These booby traps are poised to spring at any time. Fortunately the Worlds Nations have been blessed with many excellent leaders (except the US) who have been careful, wise, strong, and self-restrained in dealing with the provocations, and antagonism's of the Bush, McCain administration. Barack Obama and the democrats are your best hope now. Tell your family, friends, and everyone you know to support them as best you can, and vote for them like your life, and the lives of your loved ones depends on it. Because it does. You will not survive 4 more years of Bush McCain. JACK SMITH - WORKING CLASS... |
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| jacksmith | Homepage | E-Mail | 29.09.2008, 00:45 | ||