4um: Former secretary of state Colin Powell backs Obama

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Retired U.S. Gen. Colin Powell, a former secretary of state in the Bush administration, on Sunday endorsed Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama.

In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press," Powell backed Obama over fellow Republican John McCain, calling the Democratic nominee a "transformational figure" who could be an "exceptional president."

Powell said he plans to vote for Obama in the November 4 election but does not intend to campaign for the Illinois senator as Obama and McCain enter the final weeks of their battle for the White House.

Powell, who served in the military and government for 40 years, said he is not looking for a job in an Obama administration. However, he said, "I've always said if a president asks you to do something, you have to consider it."

McCain, appearing on "Fox News Sunday," said Powell's support of Obama did not come as a surprise and said four other secretaries of state had endorsed him.

In picking Obama over McCain, Powell said either "man would be a good president."

Powell praised Obama's "depth of knowledge" and "steadiness," while he was critical of what he described as McCain's uncertainty over how to deal with economic crisis.

Powell also voiced concern about McCain's selection of Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as his vice presidential running mate.

"She is a very distinguished woman and she is to be admired," Powell said. "But ... I don't believe she is ready to be president of the United States."

He's a lying sack of shit Traitor to his country, just as McBama and you are, Corn Flake Mike.

"If you love wealth more than liberty, the tranquility of servitude better than the animating contest of freedom, depart from us in peace. We ask not your counsel nor your arms. Crouch down and lick the hand that feeds you. May your chains rest lightly upon you and may posterity forget that you were our countrymen.”—Samuel Adams

I saw the clips from Sarah's SNL appearance. She's totally unfunny. She looks and she sounds stupid (probably because she is so) even when she is scripted to look and sound funny.

This coming from a Traitor of Eastern European Communist origins that is supporting the Feral Reserve's black racist Globalist (Communist World Government) love child?

You're too stupid to understand how ballot stuffing works and you think 4um cares about your hack TV critiques??

Who woulda thunk it? Golllllllleeeeeee, as Gomer would say, sirpriiiiiiize, sirpriiiiiiize!!! Of course Powell backs Obama, was there ever any doubt he would? Powell is black, Obama is (a little) black, so naturally da brutha gwine ter back de fellow brutha. Obama probably won't get much more than 150% of the "black vote."

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
Lord Acton

Christine, what are you views on the creep that seems to be working so hard to disrupt your site?

True love: two black (ahem) world socialist, gun grabbing - baby murderers have found one another. These bastards can stuff my ballot up their acorn.

Obviously I can't, and don't pretend to, speak for Christine but my view is that you should stop disrupting the site. You and Corn Flake both. I noticed a couple of days ago where Corn Flake got $#it-canned from LP by making implied threats of calling in the gestapo goons on people for expressing their opinions. And he was whining about the poor ol' secret service goons and what a hard job they have--why hell, if you didn't know better I guess his tales of woe would bring a tear to a glass eye. They should all quit and go find some honorable work.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
Lord Acton

I wrote Colin Powell and his opinions off WHEN HE WHORED HIMSELF TO THE CURRENT ADMINISTRATION AND THEIR WORLD OF LIES REGARDING IRAQ. I don't understand how anyone else would consider his opinion to have merit==unless, of course, they support the killing and relocations of hundreds of thousands of innocent people, and the depletion of our nation's men and materiels.

why don't you add something of value to the 'conversation'.....surely, you have something noteworthy of saying either for/against the person or their actions........and drop the names, labels, and the like. I really do think you have it in you to contribute more than the bilge.

Heh, Actually he was one of the few Generals I really liked and trusted as a Staff Sergeant in the U.S. Army, and I was disappointed to the highest degree when he joined the Bush Administration.

However, he proved he was a man of character when he and Bush had a falling out and he left as his conscious dictated he should. Your bombastic rhetoric might keep you warm at night, but you go nowhere accusing this man of being a traitor, or in accusing the same of Barack Obama.

You are just incapable of honoring the Constitutionally sanctioned free market of ideas and political efficacy.

From my standpoint, you would only feel comfortable in a Choir Country, one where everyone towed the line and danced to your tune politically and socially.

Now if you want to advance your political objectives naturally you are going to feel constipated with zero tolerance for anything else but what you believe and manners to do things.

It is your resounding intolerance and the raw hatred emanating from you I find odious to the extreme. I hope you recover from this someday. And I am profoundly glad you are not Arator, and his name is not the only thing you get backwards.

Shove your A.A. General up your commie ass, you lying sack of shit corn ferret Traitor.

I hope to hell you aren't trying to sell me on your thoughts or ideals, but rather are trying to reach lurkers, and others who you might be able to convince to side with you and your opinion.

Eight second sound bytes are meaningless from the mouths of the political hacks, and they don't add anything to your persona either.

For some reason you seem hellbent on tearing down Chrissie's website......bring it down to gutter level, instead of trying to elevate it to the best site on the net for political discussion.

This is only a contrived vehicle to pose an attack on Obama supporters. White Guilters exist most strongly in the minds of people who are primarily against Obama because of race.

They naturally assume everyone else must be driven by racism as the central notion to everything, and I am here to tell you this is not so.

I am glad to see the aspect of triumph over racism to this, but that is a minor sidebar to the point that he is immensely qualified to be president, and that he played the game fairly and by the rules, and is in the position to win a landslide victory come this November 4th.

Like all stoopids, you are what you are. [okay, I'll make it clear for you, since you are a stoopid. what i meant to tell you was that you are a stoopid.]

Note that all I did was noticing the presence of a creep at Christine's site. Apparently, the stoopid creep is not alone. He's got you and the Hoffenbacher guy for company so, given that there's some general agreement that three's a crowd, we shall conclude that there's at least one crowd of stoopids at this site, doing what stoopids do best - being themselves that is. [okay, i'll translate for you. when i wrote that stoopids like you are themselves it meant that stoopids such as yourself are stoopid.]

If Dr. Ron Paul were more purple than Alan Keyes, I'd still vote for him in a heart beat.

You're nothing but a world socialist / Lefty / Communist / Feral Reserve loving redistributionist TRAITOR. But we all knew that already.

So it's now 'smart' on 4um to support a Zbig-Soros world communist racist who is owned by the Globalist Banksters?

Now that is funny.......LOLOLOLOL.......coming from *ahem* the forum's great wordsmith!

But ya know what, don't quit your day job--that is, if you even know what work is.

Actually I agree with the late General George Patton on this point. But if you are asking if I am a coward, Jimmy Cliff's song 'The Harder they Come' is an anthem to live by, or die by if that happens.

Trilateral Commission - Council on Foreign Relations - (American friends of) Bilderberg Society bump

Those words are the opinion of a man who filters anything he thinks through the most temperamental side of his brain.

A man who has only the intent to insult and belittle, and who considers anything less then a lockstep run into his own footprints through the snow to be a horrible thing.

You obviously loath the U.S. Constitution, and have severe emotional control issues.

Colin Powell started out as the closest thing to a voice of sanity in the Bush administration (a policy "realist" instead of a neoconservative). Cheney, Wolfowitz, and others in the admin wanted to marginalize his influence on Bush, because Powell originally opposed the Iraq invasion, supported the creation of a Palestinian state, etc.

I lost all respect for the man when he appeared in front of the UN and, against his own stated beliefs, endorsed the Bush administration's lies about "Weapons of Mass Destruction" in Iraq. He was probably trying to save his job - a lot of good it did him, because a year later he resigned anyway.

Powell had a chance to be a man of principle and chose to be another opportunistic politician instead. The Obama bandwagon is just another exercise in opportunism for him.

This is the man whom I wish had won the war for leadership in Mainland China after the Japanese surrender. He would of done a far better job then Mao.

apparently they're scared shitless that obama's gonna do a putin on the neocons, which would kinda put a crimp in the exxon/AEI/PNAC plan... and that would also explain the anti-obama hysteria at a time when everyone seems in agreement that it doesnt make a tinker's dam worth of difference who's elected.

so powell signs on with obama... which no doubt increases the neocons' uneasiness...

but since we all agree that elections are a farce, why is everyone so worked up?

Y'all have your own truth, the one antithetical to our nation's restoration and survival.

Except I am no more a communist or socialist then you are trying to stick to discussion and not just baiting to demonstrably show your discontent. Not only that, I would also note that I didn't take part in the demonstrations and civil disobedience in Seattle protesting the concept of world trade the people you talk about because I support it.

You need to stop trying to scapegoat. That is no answer to what ails your approach to things.

would you mind explaining why you're attacking a supposed neocon when, if your attacks are successful, you will elect a confirmed neocon?

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison.

you attack obama on the grounds that he's a neocon, but if your attacks are successful, a confimed neocon will be elected.

Speaking for anyone with two brain cells to rub together ... we should line up the top 100 candidates from each party before a firing squad and execute them.

Under a government which imprisons any unjustly, the true place for a just man is in prison.

so you are willing to admit that your attacks on obama show that you'd rather have a confirmed neocon as president.

I wish I had the time and patience to help you extricate your head from mcbama's ass. Enjoy your world order, the new wars and the new new new deal welfare. Paid out in the new global currency.

so far the neocons' attempts to achieve "benevolent global hegemony" have killed maybe a million people.

Barack Obama: Neocon Warrior

These are the ways we will answer the challenge that arrived on our shores that September morning more than five years ago. A 21st century military to stay on the offense, from Djibouti to Kandahar.

---
Remarks of Senator Barack Obama to the Chicago Council on Global Affairs

April 23, 2007

Good morning. We all know that these are not the best of times for America’s reputation in the world. We know what the war in Iraq has cost us in lives and treasure, in influence and respect. We have seen the consequences of a foreign policy based on a flawed ideology, and a belief that tough talk can replace real strength and vision.

Many around the world are disappointed with our actions. And many in our own country have come to doubt either our wisdom or our capacity to shape events beyond our borders. Some have even suggested that America’s time has passed.

But while we know what we have lost as a consequence of this tragic war, I also know what I have found in my travels over the past two years.

In an old building in Ukraine, I saw test tubes filled with anthrax and the plague lying virtually unlocked and unguarded – dangers we were told could only be secured with America’s help.

On a trip to the Middle East, I met Israelis and Palestinians who told me that peace remains a distant hope without the promise of American leadership.

At a camp along the border of Chad and Darfur, refugees begged for America to step in and help stop the genocide that has taken their mothers and fathers, sons and daughters.

And along the crowded streets of Kenya, I met throngs of children who asked if they’d ever get the chance to visit that magical place called America.

So I reject the notion that the American moment has passed. I dismiss the cynics who say that this new century cannot be another when, in the words of President Franklin Roosevelt, we lead the world in battling immediate evils and promoting the ultimate good.

I still believe that America is the last, best hope of Earth. We just have to show the world why this is so. This President may occupy the White House, but for the last six years the position of leader of the free world has remained open. And it’s time to fill that role once more.

I believe that the single most important job of any President is to protect the American people. And I am equally convinced that doing that job effectively in the 21st century will require a new vision of American leadership and a new conception of our national security – a vision that draws from the lessons of the past, but is not bound by outdated thinking.

In today’s globalized world, the security of the American people is inextricably linked to the security of all people. When narco-trafficking and corruption threaten democracy in Latin America, it’s America’s problem too. When poor villagers in Indonesia have no choice but to send chickens to market infected with avian flu, it cannot be seen as a distant concern. When religious schools in Pakistan teach hatred to young children, our children are threatened as well.

Whether it’s global terrorism or pandemic disease, dramatic climate change or the proliferation of weapons of mass annihilation, the threats we face at the dawn of the 21st century can no longer be contained by borders and boundaries.

The horrific attacks on that clear September day awakened us to this new reality. And after 9/11, millions around the world were ready to stand with us. They were willing to rally to our cause because it was their cause too – because they knew that if America led the world toward a new era of global cooperation, it would advance the security of people in our nation and all nations.

We now know how badly this Administration squandered that opportunity. In 2002, I stated my opposition to the war in Iraq, not only because it was an unnecessary diversion from the struggle against the terrorists who attacked us on September 11th, but also because it was based on a fundamental misunderstanding of the threats that 9/11 brought to light. I believed then, and believe now, that it was based on old ideologies and outdated strategies – a determination to fight a 21st century struggle with a 20th century mindset.

There is no doubt that the mistakes of the past six years have made our current task more difficult. World opinion has turned against us. And after all the lives lost and the billions of dollars spent, many Americans may find it tempting to turn inward, and cede our claim of leadership in world affairs.

I insist, however, that such an abandonment of our leadership is a mistake we must not make. America cannot meet the threats of this century alone, but the world cannot meet them without America. We must neither retreat from the world nor try to bully it into submission – we must lead the world, by deed and example.

We must lead by building a 21st century military to ensure the security of our people and advance the security of all people. We must lead by marshalling a global effort to stop the spread of the world’s most dangerous weapons. We must lead by building and strengthening the partnerships and alliances necessary to meet our common challenges and defeat our common threats.

And America must lead by reaching out to all those living disconnected lives of despair in the world’s forgotten corners – because while there will always be those who succumb to hate and strap bombs to their bodies, there are millions more who want to take another path – who want our beacon of hope to shine its light their way.

This election offers us the chance to turn the page and open a new chapter in American leadership. The disappointment that so many around the world feel toward America right now is only a testament to the high expectations they hold for us. We must meet those expectations again, not because being respected is an end in itself, but because the security of America and the wider world demands it.

This will require a new spirit – not of bluster and bombast, but of quiet confidence and sober intelligence, a spirit of care and renewed competence. It will also require a new leader. And as a candidate for President of the United States, I am asking you to entrust me with that responsibility.

There are five ways America will begin to lead again when I’m President. Five ways to let the world know that we are committed to our common security, invested in our common humanity, and still a beacon of freedom and justice for the world.

The first way America will lead is by bringing a responsible end to this war in Iraq and refocusing on the critical challenges in the broader region.

In a speech five months ago, I argued that there can be no military solution to what has become a political conflict between Sunni and Shi’a factions. And I laid out a plan that I still believe offers the best chance of pressuring these warring factions toward a political settlement – a phased withdrawal of American forces with the goal of removing all combat brigades from Iraq by March 31st, 2008.

I acknowledged at the time that there are risks involved in such an approach. That is why my plan provides for an over-the-horizon force that could prevent chaos in the wider region, and allows for a limited number of troops to remain in Iraq to fight al Qaeda and other terrorists.

But my plan also makes clear that continued U.S. commitment to Iraq depends on the Iraqi government meeting a series of well-defined benchmarks necessary to reach a political settlement. Thus far, the Iraqi government has made very little progress in meeting any of the benchmarks, in part because the President has refused time and again to tell the Iraqi government that we will not be there forever. The President’s escalation of U.S. forces may bring a temporary reduction in the violence in Baghdad, at the price of increased U.S. casualties – though the experience so far is not encouraging. But it cannot change the political dynamic in Iraq. A phased withdrawal can.

Moreover, until we change our approach in Iraq, it will be increasingly difficult to refocus our efforts on the challenges in the wider region – on the conflict in the Middle East, where Hamas and Hezbollah feel emboldened and Israel’s prospects for a secure peace seem uncertain; on Iran, which has been strengthened by the war in Iraq; and on Afghanistan, where more American forces are needed to battle al Qaeda, track down Osama bin Laden, and stop that country from backsliding toward instability.

Burdened by Iraq, our lackluster diplomatic efforts leave a huge void. Our interests are best served when people and governments from Jerusalem and Amman to Damascus and Tehran understand that America will stand with our friends, work hard to build a peaceful Middle East, and refuse to cede the future of the region to those who seek perpetual conflict and instability. Such effective diplomacy cannot be done on the cheap, nor can it be warped by an ongoing occupation of Iraq. Instead, it will require patient, sustained effort, and the personal commitment of the President of the United States. That is a commitment I intend to make.

The second way America will lead again is by building the first truly 21st century military and showing wisdom in how we deploy it.

We must maintain the strongest, best-equipped military in the world in order to defeat and deter conventional threats. But while sustaining our technological edge will always be central to our national security, the ability to put boots on the ground will be critical in eliminating the shadowy terrorist networks we now face. This is why our country’s greatest military asset is the men and women who wear the uniform of the United States.

This administration’s first Secretary of Defense proudly acknowledged that he had inherited the greatest fighting force in the nation’s history. Six years later, he handed over a force that has been stretched to the breaking point, understaffed, and struggling to repair its equipment.

Two-thirds of the Army is now rated “not ready” for combat. 88% of the National Guard is not ready to deploy overseas, and many units cannot respond to a domestic emergency.

Our men and women in uniform are performing heroically around the world in some of the most difficult conditions imaginable. But the war in Afghanistan and the ill-advised invasion of Iraq have clearly demonstrated the consequences of underestimating the number of troops required to fight two wars and defend our homeland. That’s why I strongly support the expansion of our ground forces by adding 65,000 soldiers to the Army and 27,000 Marines.

But adding troops isn’t just about meeting a quota. It’s about recruiting the best and brightest to service, and it’s about keeping them in service by providing them with the first-rate equipment, armor, training, and incentives they deserve. It’s about providing funding to enable the National Guard to achieve an adequate state of readiness again. And it’s about honoring our veterans by giving them the respect and dignity they deserve and the care and benefits they have earned.

A 21st century military will also require us to invest in our men and women’s ability to succeed in today’s complicated conflicts. We know that on the streets of Baghdad, a little bit of Arabic can actually provide security to our soldiers. Yet, just a year ago, less than 1% of the American military could speak a language such as Arabic, Mandarin, Hindi, Urdu, or Korean. It’s time we recognize these as critical skills for our military, and it’s time we recruit and train for them.

Former Secretary Rumsfeld said, “You go to war with the Army you have, not the one you want.” I say that if the need arises when I’m President, the Army we have will be the Army we need.

Of course, how we use our armed forces matters just as much as how they are prepared.

No President should ever hesitate to use force – unilaterally if necessary – to protect ourselves and our vital interests when we are attacked or imminently threatened. But when we use force in situations other than self-defense, we should make every effort to garner the clear support and participation of others – the kind of burden-sharing and support President George H.W. Bush mustered before he launched Operation Desert Storm.

And when we do send our men and women into harm’s way, we must also clearly define the mission, prescribe concrete political and military objectives, seek out advice of our military commanders, evaluate the intelligence, plan accordingly, and ensure that our troops have the resources, support, and equipment they need to protect themselves and fulfill their mission.

We must take these steps with the knowledge that while sometimes necessary, force is the costliest weapon in the arsenal of American power in terms of lives and treasure. And it’s far from the only measure of our strength.

In order to advance our national security and our common security, we must call on the full arsenal of American power and ingenuity. To constrain rogue nations, we must use effective diplomacy and muscular alliances. To penetrate terrorist networks, we need a nimble intelligence community – with strong leadership that forces agencies to share information, and invests in the tools, technologies and human intelligence that can get the job done. To maintain our influence in the world economy, we need to get our fiscal house in order. And to weaken the hand of hostile dictators, we must free ourselves from our oil addiction. None of these expressions of power can supplant the need for a strong military. Instead, they complement our military, and help ensure that the use of force is not our sole available option.

The third way America must lead again is by marshalling a global effort to meet a threat that rises above all others in urgency – securing, destroying, and stopping the spread of weapons of mass destruction.

As leaders from Henry Kissinger to George Shultz to Bill Perry to Sam Nunn have all warned, the actions we are taking today on this issue are simply not adequate to the danger.

There are still about 50 tons of highly enriched uranium – some of it poorly secured – at civilian nuclear facilities in over forty countries around the world. In the former Soviet Union, there are still about 15,000 to 16,000 nuclear weapons and stockpiles of uranium and plutonium capable of making another 40,000 weapons scattered across 11 time zones. And people have already been caught trying to smuggle nuclear materials to sell them on the black market.

We can do something about this. As President, I will lead a global effort to secure all nuclear weapons and material at vulnerable sites within four years – the most effective way to prevent terrorists from acquiring a bomb.

We know that Russia is neither our enemy nor close ally right now, and we shouldn’t shy away from pushing for more democracy, transparency, and accountability in that country. But we also know that we can and must work with Russia to make sure every one of its nuclear weapons and every cache of nuclear material is secured. And we should fully implement the law I passed with Senator Dick Lugar that would help the United States and our allies detect and stop the smuggling of weapons of mass destruction throughout the world.

While we work to secure existing stockpiles of nuclear material, we should also negotiate a verifiable global ban on the production of new nuclear weapons material.

As starting points, the world must prevent Iran from acquiring nuclear weapons and work to eliminate North Korea’s nuclear weapons program. If America does not lead, these two nations could trigger regional arms races that could accelerate nuclear proliferation on a global scale and create dangerous nuclear flashpoints. In pursuit of this goal, we must never take the military option off the table. But our first line of offense here must be sustained, direct and aggressive diplomacy. For North Korea, that means ensuring the full implementation of the recent agreement. For Iran, it means getting the UN Security Council, Europe, and the Gulf States to join with us in ratcheting up the economic pressure.

We must also dissuade other countries from joining the nuclear club. Just the other day, it was reported that nearly a dozen countries in and around the Middle East –including Syria and Saudi Arabia – are interested in pursuing nuclear power.

Countries should not be able to build a weapons program under the auspices of developing peaceful nuclear power. That’s why we should create an international fuel bank to back up commercial fuel supplies so there’s an assured supply and no more excuses for nations like Iran to build their own enrichment plants. It’s encouraging that the Nuclear Threat Initiative, backed by Warren Buffett, has already offered funding for this fuel bank, if matched two to one. But on an issue of this importance, the United States should not leave the solution to private philanthropies. It should be a central component of our national security, and that’s why we should provide $50 million to get this fuel bank started and urge other nations, starting with Russia, to join us.

Finally, if we want the world to deemphasize the role of nuclear weapons, the United States and Russia must lead by example. President Bush once said, “The United States should remove as many weapons as possible from high-alert, hair-trigger status – another unnecessary vestige of Cold War confrontation.” Six years later, President Bush has not acted on this promise. I will. We cannot and should not accept the threat of accidental or unauthorized nuclear launch. We can maintain a strong nuclear deterrent to protect our security without rushing to produce a new generation of warheads.

The danger of nuclear proliferation reminds us of how critical global cooperation will be in the 21st century. That’s why the fourth way America must lead is to rebuild and construct the alliances and partnerships necessary to meet common challenges and confront common threats.

In the wake of the Second World War, it was America that largely built a system of international institutions that carried us through the Cold War. Leaders like Harry Truman and George Marshall knew that instead of constraining our power, these institutions magnified it.

Today it’s become fashionable to disparage the United Nations, the World Bank, and other international organizations. In fact, reform of these bodies is urgently needed if they are to keep pace with the fast-moving threats we face. Such real reform will not come, however, by dismissing the value of these institutions, or by bullying other countries to ratify changes we have drafted in isolation. Real reform will come because we convince others that they too have a stake in change – that such reforms will make their world, and not just ours, more secure.

Our alliances also require constant management and revision if they are to remain effective and relevant. For example, over the last 15 years, NATO has made tremendous strides in transforming from a Cold War security structure to a dynamic partnership for peace.

Today, NATO’s challenge in Afghanistan has become a test case, in the words of Dick Lugar, of whether the alliance can “overcome the growing discrepancy between NATO’s expanding missions and its lagging capabilities.”

We must close this gap, rallying members to contribute troops to collective security operations, urging them to invest more in reconstruction and stabilization, streamlining decision-making processes, and giving commanders in the field more flexibility.

And as we strengthen NATO, we should also seek to build new alliances and relationships in other regions important to our interests in the 21st century. In Asia, the emergence of an economically vibrant, more politically active China offers new opportunities for prosperity and cooperation, but also poses new challenges for the United States and our partners in the region. It is time for the United States to take a more active role here – to build on our strong bilateral relations and informal arrangements like the Six Party talks. As President, I intend to forge a more effective regional framework in Asia that will promote stability, prosperity and help us confront common transnational threats such as tracking down terrorists and responding to global health problems like avian flu.

In this way, the security alliances and relationships we build in the 21st century will serve a broader purpose than preventing the invasion of one country by another. They can help us meet challenges that the world can only confront together, like the unprecedented threat of global climate change.

This is a crisis that cannot be contained to one corner of the globe. Studies show that with each degree of warming, rice yields – the world’s most significant crop – fall by 10%. By 2050 famine could displace more than 250 million people worldwide. That means people competing for food and water in the next fifty years in the very places that have known horrific violence in the last fifty: Africa, the Middle East, South Asia.

As the world’s largest producers of greenhouse gases, America has the greatest responsibility to lead here. We must enact a cap and trade system that will dramatically reduce our carbon emissions. And we must finally free ourselves from our dependence on foreign oil by raising our fuel standards and harnessing the power of biofuels.

Such steps are not just environmental priorities, they are critical to our security. America must take decisive action in order to more plausibly demand the same effort from others. We should push for binding and enforceable commitments to reduce emissions by the nations which pollute the most – the United States, the European Union, Russia, China, and India together account for nearly two-thirds of current emissions. And we should help ensure that growth in developing countries is fueled by low-carbon energy – the market for which could grow to $500 billion by 2050 and spur the next wave of American entrepreneurship.

The fifth way America will lead again is to invest in our common humanity – to ensure that those who live in fear and want today can live with dignity and opportunity tomorrow.

A recent report detailed Al Qaeda’s progress in recruiting a new generation of leaders to replace the ones we have captured or killed. The new recruits come from a broader range of countries than the old leadership – from Afghanistan to Chechnya, from Britain to Germany, from Algeria to Pakistan. Most of these recruits are in their early thirties.

They operate freely in the disaffected communities and disconnected corners of our interconnected world – the impoverished, weak and ungoverned states that have become the most fertile breeding grounds for transnational threats like terror and pandemic disease and the smuggling of deadly weapons.

Some of these terrorist recruits may have always been destined to take the path they did – accepting a tragically warped view of their religion in which God rewards the killing of innocents. But millions of young men and women have not.

Last summer I visited the Horn of Africa’s Combined Joint Task Force, which was headquartered at Camp Lemonier in Djibouti. It’s a U.S. base that was set up four years ago, originally as a place to launch counter-terrorism operations. But recently, a major focus of the Task Force has been working with our diplomats and aid workers on operations to win hearts and minds. While I was there, I also took a helicopter ride with Admiral Hunt, the commander of the Task Force, to Dire Dawa, where the U.S. was helping provide food and water to Ethiopians who had been devastated by flooding.

One of the Navy captains who helps run the base recently told a reporter, “Our mission is at least 95 percent civil affairs. It's trying to get at the root causes of why people want to take on the U.S.'' The Admiral now in charge of the Task Force suggested that if they can provide dignity and opportunity to the people in that region, then, “the chance of extremism being welcomed greatly, if not completely, diminishes.”

We have heard much over the last six years about how America’s larger purpose in the world is to promote the spread of freedom – that it is the yearning of all who live in the shadow of tyranny and despair.

I agree. But this yearning is not satisfied by simply deposing a dictator and setting up a ballot box. The true desire of all mankind is not only to live free lives, but lives marked by dignity and opportunity; by security and simple justice.

Delivering on these universal aspirations requires basic sustenance like food and clean water; medicine and shelter. It also requires a society that is supported by the pillars of a sustainable democracy – a strong legislature, an independent judiciary, the rule of law, a vibrant civil society, a free press, and an honest police force. It requires building the capacity of the world’s weakest states and providing them what they need to reduce poverty, build healthy and educated communities, develop markets, and generate wealth. And it requires states that have the capacity to fight terrorism, halt the proliferation of deadly weapons, and build the health care infrastructure needed to prevent and treat such deadly diseases as HIV/AIDS and malaria.

As President, I will double our annual investments in meeting these challenges to $50 billion by 2012 and ensure that those new resources are directed towards these strategic goals.

For the last twenty years, U.S. foreign aid funding has done little more than keep pace with inflation. Doubling our foreign assistance spending by 2012 will help meet the challenge laid out by Tony Blair at the 2005 G-8 conference at Gleneagles, and it will help push the rest of the developed world to invest in security and opportunity. As we have seen recently with large increases in funding for our AIDS programs, we have the capacity to make sure this funding makes a real difference.

Part of this new funding will also establish a two billion dollar Global Education Fund that calls on the world to join together in eliminating the global education deficit, similar to what the 9/11 commission proposed. Because we cannot hope to shape a world where opportunity outweighs danger unless we ensure that every child, everywhere, is taught to build and not to destroy.

I know that many Americans are skeptical about the value of foreign aid today. But as the U.S. military made clear in Camp Lemonier, a relatively small investment in these fragile states up front can be one of the most effective ways to prevent the terror and strife that is far more costly – both in lives and treasure – down the road. In this way, $50 billion a year in foreign aid – which is less than one-half of one percent of our GDP – doesn’t sound as costly when you consider that last year, the Pentagon spent nearly double that amount in Iraq alone.

Finally, while America can help others build more secure societies, we must never forget that only the citizens of these nations can sustain them. The corruption I heard about while visiting parts of Africa has been around for decades, but the hunger to eliminate such corruption is a growing and powerful force among people there. And so in these places where fear and want still thrive, we must couple our aid with an insistent call for reform.

We must do so not in the spirit of a patron, but the spirit of a partner – a partner that is mindful of its own imperfections. Extending an outstretched hand to these states must ultimately be more than just a matter of expedience or even charity. It must be about recognizing the inherent equality and worth of all people. And it’s about showing the world that America stands for something – that we can still lead.

These are the ways we will answer the challenge that arrived on our shores that September morning more than five years ago. A 21st century military to stay on the offense, from Djibouti to Kandahar. Global efforts to keep the world’s deadliest weapons out of the world’s most dangerous hands. Stronger alliances to share information, pool resources, and break up terrorist networks that operate in more than eighty countries. And a stronger push to defeat the terrorists’ message of hate with an agenda for hope around the world.

It’s time we had a President who can do this again – who can speak directly to the world, and send a message to all those men and women beyond our shores who long for lives of dignity and security that says “You matter to us. Your future is our future. And our moment is now.”

It’s time, as well, for a President who can build a consensus at home for this ambitious but necessary course. For in the end, no foreign policy can succeed unless the American people understand it and feel a stake in its success – and unless they trust that their government hears their more immediate concerns as well. After all, we will not be able to increase foreign aid if we fail to invest in security and opportunity for our own people. We cannot negotiate trade agreements to help spur development in poor countries so long as we provide no meaningful help to working Americans burdened by the dislocations of a global economy. We cannot expect Americans to support placing our men and women in harm’s way if we cannot prove that we will use force wisely and judiciously.

But if the next President can restore the American people’s trust – if they know that he or she is acting with their best interests at heart, with prudence and wisdom and some measure of humility – then I believe the American people will be ready to see America lead again.

They will be ready to show the world that we are not a country that ships prisoners in the dead of night to be tortured in far off countries. That we are not a country that runs prisons which lock people away without ever telling them why they are there or what they are charged with. That we are not a country which preaches compassion and justice to others while we allow bodies to float down the streets of a major American city.

That is not who we are.

America is the country that helped liberate a continent from the march of a madman. We are the country that told the brave people of a divided city that we were Berliners too. We sent generations of young people to serve as ambassadors for peace in countries all over the world. And we’re the country that rushed aid throughout Asia for the victims of a devastating tsunami.

Now it’s our moment to lead – our generation’s time to tell another great American story. So someday we can tell our children that this was the time when we helped forge peace in the Middle East. That this was the time when we confronted climate change and secured the weapons that could destroy the human race. This was the time when we brought opportunity to those forgotten corners of the world. And this was the time when we renewed the America that has led generations of weary travelers from all over the world to find opportunity, and liberty, and hope on our doorstep.

One of these travelers was my father. I barely knew him, but when, after his death, I finally took my first trip to his tiny village in Kenya and asked my grandmother if there was anything left from him, she opened a trunk and took out a stack of letters, which she handed to me.

There were more than thirty of them, all handwritten by my father, all addressed to colleges and universities across America, all filled with the hope of a young man who dreamed of more for his life.

It is because someone in this country answered that prayer that I stand before you today with faith in our future, confidence in our story, and a determination to do my part in writing our country’s next great chapter.

The American moment has not passed. The American moment is here. And like generations before us, we will seize that moment, and begin the world anew. Thank you.

http://www.wakeupfromyourslumber.com/node/1362

The cabal has ensured with 100% iron-clad guarantees that one of theirs (both McBama are theirs) is going to be selected next ruler over North America.

You happened to choose the marxist Globalist neocon brand over the socialist Globalist neocon brand.

i think you guys are scared shitless that obama might turn into another putin, especially once israel attacks iran, closes hormuz, and the price of oil goes to 200 bucks a barrel.

you look at putin, you see how popular he is with the russian people... maybe 90% approval rating after he shitcanned his israeli russian neocons and reclaimed his oil.

you're afraid obama, despite his kowtowing to AIPAC, might do the same thing once the effects of israel's wars become apparent.

your problem is, israel has to bomb iran and close hormuz to stimulate pipeline construction from the persian gulf to israel.

not to mention you've got to prolong the agony ---and the opportunities to loot- - - as long as possible, dont you? ...another page out of the israeli russian book.

and you never did explain why, if it doesnt make any difference who's elected, you're so violently opposed to obama.

In case you've forgotten, Powell is the pig who sold the Iraqi war to the American people. Who can forget that comical UN Step n' Fetchet routine. He should be in jail w/Perle, Wolfowitz, Cheney and Rumsfeld. Powell gives the name House nigger a new meaning.

It is a scary thought. The fucker has been selling America's participation in illegal wars since Vietnam. He's a war pig deluxe.

the big problem is, once hormuz is closed, that 15 million barrels a day wont be going on the market, and god only knows what will happen to the price of oil.

it could be that a black president would make a good scapegoat... or it could be that obama would have enough balls to resist efforts to attack iran... and it could be that, once the attack takes place, the price of oil goes through the roof and lynch mobs start forming in america, he'd have balls enough to start calling spades spades... an admitted long shot, given the power of the israel lobby.

but israel has to close hormuz, preferably by suckering america into doing it... israelis have convinced themselves that they have a 4000-year history in palestine, so they may be looking way down the line, way after the oil runs out, and they have to secure israel before the oil runs out... and they'd just as soon be the oil hub of the middle east as the oil is running out.

not to mention the fact that if global warming turns out to be the real deal, israelis will need the palestinians' high ground in the west bank... maybe not this century, but again, these people have convinced themselves that they own that land... not to mention, if they continue on with this ashkenazi supremacism shit, and continue to work the way they have historically, they will need a permanent refuge of last resort.

Excellent critique, wadosy. We are heading heading into uncharted waters with turmoil at home and abroad. Gotta laugh at the goofballs fighting the McCain v Obama battle. The power behind the throne will be the same regardless of who is selected. Great gif, btw. It always helps me when I see the strategic importance of that tiny strip.

I believe this is the same Powell who spewed a completely unsubstantiated line of shit about about WMDs in Iraq before the UN. Yeah, that one. But that's all water under the bridge since he's down with his tribesman Barry. Condi will next. Jesse will have some problems, however, since Barry, presumably, would like to keep his nuts intact. Perhaps Jesse can offer one of his clever poems to Maximum Leader. Then they can work out the nuts and bolts of reparations together.

i guess one fallback position, if the PNAC project completely runs out of steam, would be race wars in america that would justify martial law...

and there will have to be some mechanism in place to control the disintegration so america can be properly looted as it falls apart.

You support a candidate that will use government force, which is violent force to steal my money & rob me of what few 2nd Amendment Rights I have left.

You lie in your posts about about your messiah obama being a benevolent fix-all for America's problems

No real American would seek to impose this form of tyranny on his fellow countrymen

so you're going for the "israel bombs iran, closes hormuz, gas prices go to $7 a gallon, and obama is the goat".

in the meantime, just to refresh everyone's memory about putin and his israeli russian oligarchs....

berezovsky, who has lately taken to calling for violent regime change in russia, was originally a putin backer.

berezovsky has also planted the legend of missing russian nukes... and that legend ought to come in handy if a couple of your favorite american cities get lit up some fine day...

i think that obama is the catalyst to incite race wars that will bring on martial law. there's already much talk of the national guard units in various states being stripped of their weaponry so as not to be able to protect the american people.

The way arms were pouring out of the USSR when it collapsed anything is possible.

i'm using "legend" in the sense of a story deliberately circulated to pave the way for an intelligence operation.

I have no confidence more time will fend off the inevitable. I'd rather bring it to a head now. In another decade, the invasion will be complete and the resistance invisible, even here on the 'net.

so you are justifying the resistance to obama on this board as an attempt to stave off potential race wars in america.

i'm not trying to justify what anyone else posts on this board. merely expressing what i think is coming. my belief is that both candidates are owned and controlled by the same global masters whose plan is the destruction of america.

i think most sensible people in the world decided, somewhere along the line, that america had to be destroyed because it's been too successful in promoting a very wasteful way of life.

now that peak oil is probably here, now that the co2 concentrations have risen to the point that massive arctic thawing may arrive soon ---with the methane releases that will really screw things up--- the situation has come to a head.

these people must have decided that telling people the truth was politically impossible, especially in view of the israel problem, the holyhoax, israeli control of american media and politics, and the need to secure israel before everything goes to hell in a handbasket.

it's hard to say how far up the ladder the 9/11 operation went, but 9/11 and the "war on terror" are sure to result in the destruction of america, seeing as how the only chance we would have had would have been to muster our resources to convert to alternate sources of energy.

we are now wasting those resources in an attempt to secure israel and control oil.

well, that's just how it goes... and maybe the wise men decided there was no other way to do it. i would much rather have been told the truth, back in 1970 when american oil production peaked.

Maybe he and the others are spies from the new Freeper site LP whose goal is to undermine this site by trying to bring it down to the LP level?

Maybe you dream of being in the limo on your knees servicing obama while he smokes crack.

b_i_a_m, are you ready to publicly pronounce Barry Hussein Obama (NP) the savior again?!

The affirmative action show will soon be over. People are mad as hell and aren't going to put up with it much longer.

Chinese pipeline........... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kazakhstan- China_oil_pipeline

I haven't read the whole poop; however, back in the 'good ol days' at tos1, a group of us did a lot of investigation regarding pipelines when the perverted prez was bombing Serbia, i.e., 1999. There was a lot of info and data regarding China's energy needs in the foreseeable future. While I can't say with a really accurate degree of accuracy, it seems as though it was reported back then by 2025, China could use half the worlds oil and/or natural gas--the figure could have been higher, I just can't recall. I'd have to dig thru piles of hard copy to try to find the figures...perhaps DOE still has the data.

Most anything is possible with him/her/it. One thing is for certain, the level of discussion/conversation doesn't have to rise to much of a level for him/her/it to be in their comfort zone. :)

it could be that those balkan pipelines ---SEEL and AMBO, at least--- were not much more than recruiting schemes to lure balkan hillbillies ---especially croatia, macedonia, kosovo and albania--- into PNAC's plans to occupy the power vacuum left when the soviet union collapsed... there's been all that talk, but no pipelines yet, mainly because PNAC has to steal the oil to put in them, and the oil acquisition project isnt doing too well.

the new pipelines, gas pipelines nabucco and south stream, plan to bypass those trouble spots.

i guess you know that richard perle and MPRI recruited bosnian muslims into the croats' ethnic cleansing of serbs ---russian buddies--- on the croats' SEEL pipeline route... which kinda puts a kink in the neocons' "clash of civilizations", which supposedly pits heroic judeo-christian armies against brutal, bloodthirsty muslims.

...and the neocons got the same problem in china: they have to liberate those chinese muslims in xinjiang province ---who supposedly are sitting on 150 billion barrels of oil--- from their cruel han chinese masters.

but china's got to be controlled, hopefully by controlling its access to oil, otherwise everything's just gonna get way out of hand...

Obama will help heal residual racial division in America. He will be a positive role model inspiring many kids of all colors and ethnic backgrounds to aspire to excel at their studies and to make something of themselves.

Why would the son of an American and a well known Kenyan economist want to destroy the United States? Progeny of immigrants are generally the most fiercely in love with the American dream and everything good about this country.

What you claim about the National Guard makes no sense either. Under the Smirk and Snarl show, the president has gained the authority to federalize the Guard with the stroke of a pen.

How can governors use a guard if their spot in the chain of command can be switched off by the president of the United States?

We have to lobby to get things changed back to the way they were before Smirk and Snarl and undo changed he made to the National Guard and Posse Comitatus. We need to remove much of the current presidential authority concerning declaring martial law and get ride of every aspect of the Patriot act.

Now, I plan on working that advocacy very deeply and hard the next eight years of the Barack Obama presidency. We have a much better environment to do this with a President Obama then with a John Sidney McCain the third as president.

In any even, believe what you want, and when the time is right, just ask; I'll dig up some good crow recipes for ya.

Leftist Supreme Court Justices appointed that will screw the country for the next 30 years.

Capital gains tax rate to more than double, stifling long term investment in this country and throwing us into a full depression.

Obama with a RAT Congress is a perfect storm of chaos that will flatten the Constitution faster than a Cat 5 Hurricane can blow away a house trailer.

If you think anything else is going to happen, you're smoking crack and dreaming of limo rides.

He was one of the fuck-ups in Somalia. Clinton finally told him and the other "military" geniuses, "I'm not listening to any of you anymore," sent out tanks, put snipers on the roofs to take out any Somalian with a gun -- and no more Americans died.

Freepers: hearts full of hate and cowardice, and skulls full, to quote a favorite saying of one of their favorite cowards, of mush.

Obam's father was a drunk and a polygamist and a frenzied follower of the doctrine of Jomo Kenyatta. Kenyatta was the muderous leader of the Mau Mau, who brutally butchered whole families of Whites during Kenya's quest for independence from England

want to clue us in as to what kind of dog deathwish christians have in this fight?

Mike it would have been tough to wind up crazier than Mao, but Chiang had a huge set of problems. The US would have been far better off distancing from all of it and maintaining our majesty to both factions.

BTW, my parents went to cocktail parties with he and Ms Kai-shek, just as a personal note - I may have seen him, from a distance, on one of the massive "Double Ten" day parades in Taiwan c. 1963.

and i will do the same for you. i admit i'm jaded, but i think i have enough history to look at to justify disbelief of any candidate's campaign promises, and, Mike, all i need to know is that obama stumped hard, real hard, for passage of the bailout.

MSM never mentions that fact. Below re a foot soldier writing a letter about the massacre....

"The letter's troubling allegations were not well received at Americal headquarters. Maj. Powell undertook the assignment to review Glen's letter, but did so without questioning Glen or assigning anyone else to talk with him. Powell simply accepted a claim from Glen's superior officer that Glen was not close enough to the front lines to know what he was writing about, an assertion Glen denies.

After that cursory investigation, Powell drafted a response on Dec. 13, 1968. He admitted to no pattern of wrongdoing. Powell claimed that U.S. soldiers in Vietnam were taught to treat Vietnamese courteously and respectfully. The American troops also had gone through an hour-long course on how to treat prisoners of war under the Geneva Conventions, Powell noted.

Four hundred to five hundred murdered, IIRC, families and children. I believe a chopper pilot threatened machine gunning the US GI's to stop the massacre.

And even today you can easily find vets who whole heartedly support the massacre, and even more.

Powell was a "soldier of fortune", in that his race got him to the top. His "military record" is so thin that it is non existent.

Gee whiz, he did save us from Saddam's carnival trailers that were used to inflate balloons.

Thanks for the ping. I recall reading a readers digest story many years ago about powell (gads, I want to say back in the 80s?) and recall very vaguely the mention of this Mai Lai affair.

It seems like 12 years ago, or so, that both parties were dying to run him at the top of the ticket. That has always stuck in my mind, "great, just what the country needs--a leader that no one knows what his politics are", sort of thoughts. And I believe back at that time I read something again about Mai Lai--maybe in the New American magazine.

Any one of those reasons are sufficient for me to say that I'd never vote for him for anything--dog catcher or president.

Shortly after Powell assumed that command, President Bush over the objections of the military's top brass reached well beyond their ranks and pulled his thoroughbred political general to the top, appointing Powell as the U.S. military's top officer - chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. "I believe the entire professional military establishment was disturbed by his appointment," said Admiral Eugene Carroll. "Looking at General Powell's career record, it is clear that he was picked out early for a more important role in life than getting his boots dirty." During 1992, Powell's Pentagon had the singular honor of proving that it was a team player for the Bush administration.

Great post. I think you are exactly right. And I KNOW you are right about Powell.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
Lord Acton

Yeah, right. "Peak oil" is a scam. Oil is continuously created under the earth's crust. Ever hear of the abiotic oil theory? You might want to check that out. Or maybe not, if you choose to believe Al Gore's stupid fairy tales.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
Lord Acton

I don't know. Just because they're wrong on the "rapture", doesn't mean they're wrong on obama.

Just another bought and paid for whore politician, no matter what his sycophants believe. If they didn't own him he wouldn't have gotten their nomination. Of course the establishment pretty much owned everyone who ran on an R or D ticket with the exception of Ron Paul.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
Lord Acton

please explain why ukraine is dependent on russia for oil and gas, seeing as how ukraine, along with russia, was the birthplace of abiotic oil theory.

please explain why all producing oil wells are found within traditional sedimentary basins, and please dont trot out the vietnamese white tiger field, since it's been proven that white tiger oil has biogenic markers from nearby sedimentary source rock.

please explain why oil companies are drilling sedimentary basins under 10,000 feet of water, and 20,000 more feet of dirt under that, when there's so much abiotic oil in, for instance, the igneous rock under oregon.

please explain why thomas gold's abiotic drilling efforts in sweden were a total failure.

...and the fact that they're yearning for armageddon has nothing to do with anything, especially in view of the fact that they're likely to support people like neocons, who are most likely to produce an "armageddon".

Well, if they had a brain they wouldn't feel guilt over their color so I guess the answer is that they will always be white guilters.

Liberty is not a means to a higher political end. It is itself the highest political end.
Lord Acton

peak oil was the motive to stage 9/11, so peak oil has to be disguised by crashing the economy and destroying demand for oil.

meanwhile, in the resulting chaos, america can be looted like the soviet union was looted.

in september of 2000, PNAC admitted they needed a new pearl harbor... netanyahu said 9/11 was "very good". if these guys needed a new pearl harbor, if they thought 9/11 was "very good", then we have to assume they had motives to commit 9/11, the most logical motive being, peak oil.