-
Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Has No Plan to Strike Iran?
Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll
Syrian President Bashar al-Assad (R) and his Iranian counterpart Mahmoud Ahmadinejad in Damascus January 19, 2006. The United States denied on Friday it was preparing for military action against Iran and Syria , after President George W. Bush issued a stern warning to them, raising concerns of a spillover from the Iraq war.
AP: Administration: No plan to strike Iran
Their comments came after President Bush vowed in a prime-time address to the nation to go after Iranian terrorist networks feeding the insurgency in Iraq.
The U.S. and Iran have been involved in a bitter standoff over Tehran’s nuclear program, a clash that has intensified because the United States says Iran helped provide roadside bombs that have killed American troops in Iraq. Tensions inched upward another notch this week after five Iranians were detained by U.S.-led forces after a raid on an Iranian government liaison office in northern Iraq.
Bush’s remarks Wednesday in a speech announcing his plan to boost U.S. forces in Iraq prompted questions from members of Congress about whether the U.S. is considering attacks on Iranian territory. Bush administration officials have long refused to rule out any options against Iran but said military action would be a last resort.
But, President Bush did authorize Iranian’s arrest in Iraq.
A recent series of American raids against Iranians in Iraq was authorized under an order that President Bush decided to issue several months ago to undertake a broad military offensive against Iranian operatives in the country, Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said Friday.
“There has been a decision to go after these networks,†Ms. Rice said in an interview with The New York Times in her office on Friday afternoon, before leaving on a trip to the Middle East.
Ms. Rice said Mr. Bush had acted “after a period of time in which we saw increasing activity†among Iranians in Iraq, “and increasing lethality in what they were producing.†She was referring to what American military officials say is evidence that many of the most sophisticated improvised explosive devices, or I.E.D.’s, being used against American troops were made in Iran.
Ms. Rice was vague on the question of when Mr. Bush issued the order, but said his decision grew out of questions that the president and members of his National Security Council raised in the fall.
The administration has long accused Iran of meddling in Iraq, providing weapons and training to Shiite forces with the idea of keeping the United States bogged down in the war. Ms. Rice’s willingness to discuss the issue seemed to reflect a new hostility to Iran that was first evident in Mr. Bush’s speech to the nation on Wednesday night, in which he accused Tehran of providing material support for attacks on American troops and vowed to respond.
No United States plan to strike at Iran?
The United States WILL go after Syria and Iran in Iraq. We may never hear of the operations. But, if the Qods Forces are in Iraq and aiding the insurgents – they are FAIR GAME.
Hugh Hewitt suggests a few unpublicized bombs in Iranian IED manufacturing facilities might be in order to gain some Iranian RESPECT and FEAR.
Meanwhile, more American military assets are making their way to the Persian Gulf.
Could it be there is more to the SURGE than Iraq?
You betcha
The “NUCLEAR POINT OF NO RETURN” is imminent.
Stay tuned……..
Previous:
Iran Nuclear Watch: Iran Arrests a Nuclear Spy
Iran Nuclear Watch: United States Submarine Collides With Japanese Ship
Iran Nuclear Watch: Israel Planning Nuclear Strike on Iran’s Nuclear Facilities?
The Natanz uranium enrichment complex in Natanz is pictured in this January 2, 2006 satellite image.
Technorati Tags: Iran, Ahmadinejad AliLarijani, Israel
-
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Leading in North Carolina Poll
Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll
New York Times: Edwards, Giuliani Lead Pack in North Carolina
But whatever Edwards’ appeal to fellow North Carolinians, he could not forestall the Republicans’ seventh consecutive presidential win in the GOP-leaning Southern state: The ticket of President Bush and Vice President Dick Cheney won North Carolina comfortably over the Kerry-Edwards ticket, by 56 percent to 44 percent.
The poll that showed Edwards ahead among Democrats gave former New York City Mayor Rudolph Giuliani the lead in a field of potential Republican candidates. Giuliani — who also is showing strongly in national polls on the GOP race — led with support of 30 percent of the likely North Carolina Republican primary voters.
The mild surprise was that the close runner-up was not Arizona Sen. John McCain, another national poll front-runner, who was third with 23 percent.
Rather, it was former Georgia Rep. Newt Gingrich, the House Speaker from 1995 to 1999, favored by 29 percent of the respondents.
Another poll lead for the Mayor.
It is surprising in this poll that Mitt Romney is doing so very poorly. Is this now a two person race in North Carolina?
And when is the North Carolina primary election?
Super Tuesday – February 5, 2008: Alabama, Arizona, Arkansas, Missouri, New Mexico, North Carolina, North Dakota, Oklahoma, Utah, West Virginia (which will nominate a candidate at a state nominating convention)
The public policy poll is here:
Survey results:
Q1 There will be a number of people running for President in 2008 as Republicans. Some of the most talked about are Rudy Giuliani, John McCain, Mitt Romney, and Newt Gingrich. If the Republican primary were today which of these men would you vote for, or would you vote for somebody else? If you would vote for Rudy Giuliani, press 1 on your key pad now. If for John McCain, press 2. If for Mitt Romney, press 3. If for Newt Gingrich, press 4. If youwould vote for somebody else, press 5.
Giuliani………………. .30%
McCain………………. .22%
Romney …………….. . 6%
Gingrich …………….. .29%
Somebody else …… .13%Stay tuned…….
Previous:
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani and Gingrich – GETTING IRAQ TO WORK
Hillary Clinton Watch: Clinton Heads Off to Iraq
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Dismisses LEAKED Political Strategy Memo
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Supports Iraq Troop SURGE
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani’s Business Links May Hurt Bid?
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Leads GOP Polls in Nevada
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Recruits Two Veteran GOP Communicators
Rudy Giuliani Watch: The Purloined Presidential Campaign Strategy Book
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Bill Simon Building a Network of California Conservative Support
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Michael Barone – Giuliani is a Front-Runner
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Continues to Lead Clinton, Gore
The Rudy Giuliani Files
Technorati Tags: RudyGiuliani
-
Michael Ramirez on California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Radical Health Care Proposal
Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll
AP: Schwarzenegger’s health plan has critics
Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger is taking on just about every major interest group in California in his audacious effort to bring universal health care to the nation’s biggest state: unions, small business, doctors, hospitals, insurance companies, conservatives.
The Republican governor unveiled a $12 billion-a-year plan on Monday to extend health care coverage to most of California’s 6.5 million uninsured and make it the second state, behind Massachusetts, to require everyone to carry insurance. Coverage for the poorest of the poor would be free; for many others, it would be heavily subsidized.
Schwarzenegger also proposed to share the sacrifice by requiring individuals, employers and health care providers to contribute to the cost, saying the program will save billions, in part by providing preventive care, which is cheaper than waiting for people to get sick and treating them in the emergency room.
“Building on shared responsibility, where everyone does their part,” the governor said, “we will fix California’s broken health care system and create a model that can be used by the rest of the nation.”
But for all his optimism, Schwarzenegger is getting some pushback. Some of those who will have to pay are opposed, or at least leery.
Economists warn the plan will expose the state to runaway costs.
Calif.’s healthcare plan looks familiar
Wall Street Journal: Terminatorcare
Real Clear Politics: Schwarzenegger’s Health Care Socialism by Ross Kaminsky
Arnold Schwarzenegger Watch: California Governor Schwarzenegger Proposes RADICAL Health Care Reforms
Technorati Tags: MichaelRamirez, ArnoldSchwarzenegger
-
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani and Gingrich – GETTING IRAQ TO WORK
Wall Street Journal: Getting Iraq to Work
New York City’s successes have lessons for Baghdad
The American mission in Iraq must succeed. Our goal–promoting a stable, accountable democracy in the heart of the Middle East–cannot be achieved by purely military means.
Iraqis need to establish a civil society. Without the support of mediating civic and social associations–the informal ties that bind us together–no government can long remain stable, and no cohesive nation can be maintained. To establish a civil society, Iraqis must rebuild their basic infrastructure. Iraqis must take control of their destiny by rebuilding houses, stores, schools, roads, highways, mosques and churches.
But the constant threat of violence, combined with a high unemployment rate estimated between 30% and 50%, fundamentally undermines that effort. This not only sustains the fertile breeding ground for terrorist recruiters but has the same corrosive effect as it would in any city–raising the likelihood of further violence, civic decay and a crippling sense of powerlessness.
A massive effort must be made to engage in a well organized plan to rebuild Iraq. The goal: an infrastructure to support and encourage a strong, stable civil society.
The week before Christmas, the Pentagon asked Congress to approve a supplemental $100 billion for military operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, on top of the estimated $500 billion spent to date. The administration should direct a small percent of that amount to create an Iraqi Citizen Job Corps, along the lines of FDR’s Civilian Conservation Corps during the Great Depression. The Job Corps can operate under the supervision of our military and with its protection. The Army Corps of Engineers might be particularly helpful in directing this effort. It will place our military in a constructive relationship with the Iraqis–both literally and figuratively.Today, Iraq has almost 200 state-owned factories that have been abandoned by the governing authorities since the outbreak of war in 2003. Deputy Undersecretary of Defense Paul A. Brinkley has led a team to 26 of those facilities, traveling far beyond the Green Zone to idled plants from Fallujah to Ramadi. Mr. Brinkley believes that under Department of Defense leadership, at least 10 of these facilities could be re-opened almost immediately, putting more than 10,000 Iraqis to work within weeks. This should be done without delay–and it is only the beginning.
The wages that these thousands of gainfully employed workers receive will be used to purchase goods and services that will employ other Iraqis. Those goods and services must be produced by still other Iraqis. These are the first steps in creating the requisite conditions of a stable functioning economy and the best hope of displacing retribution and violence with hope and opportunity.
We must try to achieve constructive and compassionate goals through conservative means–jump starting civic improvement and the individual work ethic in Iraq, without creating permanent subsidies. The goal is to get more Iraqis working, especially young males, who are most susceptible to the terrorist and warlord recruiters.
There are many lessons from the successful welfare reforms in New York City that can be readily applied in Iraq. In the early 1990s, New York City suffered an average of 2,000 murders a year while more than 1.1 million people–one out of every seven New Yorkers–were unemployed and on welfare. Too many neighborhoods were pervaded by a sense of hopelessness that came from a combination of high crime, high unemployment and despair. “Workfare” proved an excellent method to change this destructive decades-long paradigm. It required able-bodied welfare recipients to work 20 hours a week in exchange for their benefits. In the process, we reasserted the value of the social contract, which says that for every right there is a responsibility, for every benefit an obligation.
As many as 37,000 people participated at a single time, working in the neighborhoods that most needed their help, cleaning up streets with the Sanitation Department, removing graffiti from schools and government buildings, or helping to beautify public spaces in the Parks Department.
More than 250,000 individuals went through our Workfare program between 1994 and 2001, and their effort helped to visibly improve the quality of life in New York City. Many of them moved on to permanent employment. This change from welfare to work did as much as the New York Police Department Compstat program to keep reducing crime. A similar model can work in Iraq.
There is an opportunity not only to increase employment by rebuilding roads, houses, schools and government buildings, but also to engage the Iraqi people to participate in laying the foundation for a civil and prosperous society.
The population of Iraq is roughly 30 million with a pre-war median annual income equivalent to $700. Subsidizing unemployed Iraqis with a meaningful wage in exchange for meaningful work rebuilding their society is well within the means of the U.S. and its allies.
The entire effort will help stabilize and grow the Iraqi economy. It should be open to all willing Iraqis–Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds–as a means of helping to create a common culture through shared participation in work projects to rebuild and take ownership of their nation.One word of caution: The program should be overseen by the U.S. military, not private contractors, to avoid unnecessary delays in deployment or accusations of cronyism in the bidding process. Our military will still be devoted to its primary role of hunting down terrorists and patrolling the streets, but administering a jobs program would be a direct extension of their effort to secure law and order. After the program has been started and becomes successful, it can be transferred to a civilian authority within the Iraqi government.
The creation of an Iraqi Citizen Job Corps will help expedite the establishment of a more stable civil society and improve the growing Iraqi economy through the transforming power of an honest day’s work.
####################
So, while Hillary is travelling to Iraq and Barack moans about the war, Rudy Giuliani and Newt Gingrich propose real solutions for stabilizing and reconstructing Iraq.
After all, where are the Democrats?
Didn’t a few months ago, some Democrats like Nancy Peliosi and Harry Reid call for an increase in troops?
Now not so much? Senator Russ Feingold wants to cut off all funds for the troops.
Significance?
Rudy Giuliani has been a chief executive – Mayor of New York City and Newt Gingrich a Speaker of the House of Representatives – they know how to LEAD and ACCOMPLISH GREATNESS.
More significance?
Could this be the GOP ticket in 2008?
PERHAPSStay tuned…….
Previous:
Hillary Clinton Watch: Clinton Heads Off to Iraq
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Dismisses LEAKED Political Strategy Memo
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Supports Iraq Troop SURGE
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani’s Business Links May Hurt Bid?
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Leads GOP Polls in Nevada
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Recruits Two Veteran GOP Communicators
Rudy Giuliani Watch: The Purloined Presidential Campaign Strategy Book
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Bill Simon Building a Network of California Conservative Support
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Michael Barone – Giuliani is a Front-Runner
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Continues to Lead Clinton, Gore
The Rudy Giuliani Files
Technorati Tags: RudyGiuliani
-
Hillary Clinton Watch: Clinton Heads Off to Iraq
Readers: Please Vote in Flap’s January 2008 GOP Presidential Poll
New York senator and 2008 presidential hopeful Hillary Clinton, seen here in December 2006, is to visit Iraq and Afghanistan this weekend to meet government officials and US military leaders, her office said
We’ve now heard from the Iraq Study Group, but we need the White House to become the Iraq Results Group.— Sen. Hillary Rodham Clintonresponding to the Iraq Study Group’s recommendationsAP: Clinton, other lawmakers, head to Iraq
Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton and two other lawmakers are headed to Iraq this weekend as Congress engages in fierce debate over President Bush’s plan to send 21,500 more troops to salvage the U.S. effort there.
Clinton, a Democrat from New York who is considering running for president, is traveling with Sen. Evan Bayh (news, bio, voting record), D-Ind., who had also eyed the 2008 race but opted out, and Rep. John McHugh (news, bio, voting record), a Republican from upstate New York.
The three, all members of armed services committees, are to meet with top Iraqi officials and U.S. military commanders. The trip also takes them to
Afghanistan.“This was the first opportunity we had to be able to go because of the long weekend, and it turns out that the timing is propitious because of the president’s plans,” said Clinton, who opposes Bush’s plan to send more U.S. troops to Iraq.
Perhaps Hillary can then tell the world what HER plan is to solve the Iraq War crisis.
Let’s see…..
Hillary voted for the Iraq War and has no regrets about voting for authorizing President Bush
Hillary said she would NOT vote for it againHillary said she is against the SURGE
So, now what?
Senator McCain and Mayor Giuliani are supporting the President and the SURGE for Victory – to stabilize the situation in Iraq.
And Democrat Senator Joe Lieberman supports the President.
Is Hillary going to Iraq to figure out an Iraq campaign strategy?
Doubtful……she is trying to appear a “MODERATE” for the general election race against McCain or Giuliani.
The NUTROOT Michael Moore folks cannot be happy with her – I mean why isn’t she in the streets of San Francisco with the Iraq War protesters?
Well, she wants to be elected President – so why not go to Iraq and appear Presidential. She has learned from the master.
But, will Hillary get away with it?
Linked to Stop the ACLUÂ
Previous:
Hillary Clinton Watch: Barack Obama’s Presidential Candidacy Will Diminish
Hillary Clinton Watch: Clearing the Field
Rudy Giuliani Watch: Giuliani Continues to Lead Clinton, Gore
Hillary Clinton Watch: Iraq War – “Wouldn’t Have Voted That Wayâ€
Technorati Tags: HillaryClinton
-
Day By Day by Chris Muir January 12, 2006