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Obama’s Wall Speech Should Have Been About Israel Not Berlin watch!
democracynow.org — We speak with Steve Clemons of the New America Foundation, who writes, “Had he given those remarks in Israel, at any of the checkpoints that have been added since the Annapolis process began, or at the large dividing wall Israel has constructed, or just about anywhere frankly in Israel or Palestine—it would have been a ‘game-changing speech.’”
BobbleBingnut- 111 diggs
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- yellowcakewalk, on 07/28/2008, -3/+22http://www.stopthewall.org/latestnews/637.shtml
The International Court of Justice ruled the Apartheid Wall ILLEGAL in July, 2004- MorganMghee, on 07/28/2008, -1/+5Breaking the law? Wonder where they got that idea from.
- Conspiracy20, on 07/28/2008, -1/+12This is the ADL site. scroll down to see what the Arab world thinks of our "presidential" candidate!
http://www.adl.org/main_Arab_World/as_cartoons_can ...- deadlydentures, on 07/28/2008, -3/+2The Arab world also has friendly looking rabbits on kids shows that want to kill and eat Jews.
- nick1971, on 07/28/2008, -3/+4Just a comment from someone in Germany. It takes a certain amount of enthusiasm to get 250K Germans standing in the blazing heat to listen to a speech in English. The Tageschau (the Evening News) had .also a record number of people tuning in to hear about the speech.
Israel and Palestine are a terrible and perhaps intractable problem. However to get anywhere in an international environment you need to have coalitions. What Obama did in his speech is to start reversing the damage that GWB has done to transatlantic relations- yellowcakewalk, on 07/28/2008, -3/+6Thanks much for the comment, and I hope you are right. GWB and his gang have done tremendous damage. Obama, however, in spite of his soaring speeches and heartwarming demeanor, strikes many of us Americans as phony.
Obama has:
1) voted to fund Bush's war crimes every time it came up for a vote.
2) voted to renew the hated PATRIOT act, by which many of our domestic liberties were robbed from us.
3) Two weeks ago, voted with the Bush and the most conservative republicans to authorize sweeping new powers for the government to spy upon the communications of Americans. This was an especially painful betrayal. This gutted a cherished tenet of our Bill of Rights.
4) Has made the most obsequious speeches to the Israeli Lobby ( AIPAC ), making promises that were far beyone official USA policy. His speech at AIPAC was a true disgrace to our country.
5) Does not promise to end the occupation of Iraq. Promises to increase the occupation of Afghanistan.
Here's some more material from respected Canadian economist and author Naomi Klein about Obama's brand of capitalism.
http://www.democracynow.org/2008/7/15/with_crises_ ...
You can say that he's the "lesser of two evils".
I say that the lesser of two evils is still evil.- nick1971, on 07/28/2008, -1/+4I'm only an external observer of the US political system, but it seems to me the US is hell bent on choosing a bland and status quo type politician.
My logic would be that a political candidate needs to squeaky clean with an immaculate personal history.
They then need to navigate through the middle of issues which are political dynamite - abortion, guns,drugs, terror.
I sit here in Germany with a large number of American friends and wonder why these are such non-issues in Europe.
I have never heard a single politician here talk about abortion, get anything other than a giggle for something in their private life, yes its possible to have a gun here but you have to wait on a background check. Military action here requires months of careful debate because of history. Roll back of privacy and data protection far longer.
This leads to political campaigns which are based upon issues and are neither about the candidates private life nor about issues which have been sorted out before.
If Germany can have such a system even with our terrible past what is wrong with US politics?
Are the people on DIGG so unrepresentative of the electorate?
Why do you have a choice between the devil and the deep blue see?
Why is someone not standing as president who has a strategy to bring the country forward?
From reading DIGG i get the impression that the electorate is disenfranchised with the system. Is this really true and if it is, then is their really no way the electorate can change it?
My answers to your points about Obama are
1, 2, 3 & 5 He could not vote against be cause he would have been against the war on terror. "Obama soft terror" fits as its a great US Today headline, CNN sound bite and fits nicely on a bumper sticker.
I cant comment on point 4 as I am a German. - known, on 07/29/2008, -0/+1Known Devil is Better Than Unknown Devil.
- nick1971, on 07/28/2008, -1/+4I'm only an external observer of the US political system, but it seems to me the US is hell bent on choosing a bland and status quo type politician.
- AmericaIsDoomed, on 07/29/2008, -0/+1You're absolutely right. Many dictators have used the power of the devil to gain influence over unsuspecting crowds.
- yellowcakewalk, on 07/28/2008, -3/+6Thanks much for the comment, and I hope you are right. GWB and his gang have done tremendous damage. Obama, however, in spite of his soaring speeches and heartwarming demeanor, strikes many of us Americans as phony.
- spongya77, on 07/28/2008, -1/+3nick1971
There's no reply option for your post, so here it goes.
The US electoral system is broke. It was turned into a stupid show with non-issues for an electorate that is ignorant and uninformed. They turn non-issues into issues in order to stop any meaningful political discussion. I'm from Europe, and it is a very scary thing to witness. Especially that the same transition is going on in my own country molded from the American example.
I guess they learned from the masters of propaganda. - MarkEarhart, on 07/29/2008, -0/+3Obama, assuming we have an election, should have kept his ass at home and focused on issues important to America. I daresay he would have to actually LISTEN to Americans before he could even do that. He isn't running for Emperor of the world, he's supposed to be running for President of the US. For those of you who think this to be an attack targeted solely at OBAMA, THINK AGAIN!!! McCain is no better, and I detest both parties equally!!!
Israel should have been a topic of discussion at home, but is one of many crucial issues we must deal with as a nation.
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