Pujah

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  1. Interesting OP-ed from our newly minted chairman of the Foreign Relations Commitee

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    June 18, 2009

    Op-Ed Contributor

    With Iran, Think Before You Speak

    By JOHN KERRY

    Washington

     

    THE grass-roots protests that have engulfed Iran since its presidential election last week have grabbed America’s attention and captured headlines — unfortunately, so has the clamor from neoconservatives urging President Obama to denounce the voting as a sham and insert ourselves directly in Iran’s unrest.

     

    No less a figure than Senator John McCain, the Republican presidential nominee in 2008, has denounced President Obama’s response as “tepid.” He has also claimed that “if we are steadfast eventually the Iranian people will prevail.”

     

    Mr. McCain’s rhetoric, of course, would be cat*****c for any American policy maker weary of Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s hostile message of division. We are all inspired by Iran’s peaceful demonstrations, the likes of which have not been seen there in three decades. Our sympathies are with those Iranians who seek a more respectful, cooperative relationship with the world. Watching heartbreaking video images of Basij paramilitaries terrorizing protesters, we feel the temptation to respond emotionally.

     

    There’s just one problem. If we actually want to empower the Iranian people, we have to understand how our words can be manipulated and used against us to strengthen the clerical establishment, distract Iranians from a failing economy and rally a fiercely independent populace against outside interference. Iran’s hard-liners are already working hard to pin the election dispute, and the protests, as the result of American meddling. On Wednesday, the Iranian Foreign Ministry chastised American officials for “interventionist” statements. Government complaints of slanted coverage by the foreign press are rising in pitch.

     

    We can’t escape the reality that for reformers in Tehran to have any hope for success, Iran’s election must be about Iran — not America. And if the street protests of the last days have taught us anything, it is that this is an Iranian moment, not an American one.

     

    To understand this, we need only listen to the demonstrators. Their signs, slogans and Twitter postings say nothing about getting help from Washington — instead they are adapting the language of their own revolution. When Iranians shout “Allahu Akbar” from rooftops, they are repackaging the signature gesture of the 1979 Islamic Revolution.

     

    Mir Hussein Moussavi, the leading reformist presidential candidate, has advocated a more conciliatory approach to America. But his political legitimacy comes from his revolutionary credentials for helping overthrow an American-backed shah — a history that today helps protect protesters against accusations of being an American “fifth column.”

     

    Iran’s internal change is happening on two levels: on the streets, but also within the clerical establishment. Ultimately, no matter who wins the election, our fundamental security challenge will be the same — preventing Iran from acquiring a nuclear weapon. That will take patient effort, and premature engagement in Iran’s domestic politics may well make negotiations more difficult.

     

    What comes next in Iran is unclear. What is clear is that the tough talk that Senator McCain advocates got us nowhere for the last eight years. Our saber-rattling only empowered hard-liners and put reformers on the defensive. An Iranian president who advocated a “dialogue among civilizations” and societal reforms was replaced by one who denied the Holocaust and routinely called for the destruction of Israel.

     

    Meanwhile, Iran’s influence in the Middle East expanded and it made considerable progress on its nuclear program.

     

    The last thing we should do is give Mr. Ahmadinejad an opportunity to evoke the 1953 American-sponsored coup, which ousted Prime Minister Mohammed Mossadegh and returned Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi to power. Doing so would only allow him to cast himself as a modern-day Mossadegh, standing up for principle against a Western puppet.

     

    Words are important. President Obama has made that clear in devising a new approach to Iran and the wider Muslim world. In offering negotiation and conciliation, he has put the region’s extremists on the defensive.

     

    We have seen the results of this new vision already. His outreach may have helped to make a difference in the election last week in Lebanon, where a pro-Western coalition surprised many by winning a resounding victory.

     

    We’re seeing signs that it’s having an impact in Iran as well. Returning to harsh criticism now would only erase this progress, empower hard-liners in Iran who want to see negotiations fail and undercut those who have risen up in support of a better relationship.

     

    John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, is the chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.

     

    Op-Ed


  2. ^^ I agree with # 3 100% I have seen a lot of girls stuck in a relationships I wouldn't wish on my worse enemy but then I am not in their shoes and probably can't see what they see.


  3. Here is a classic case of The pot calling the kettle black

     

     

    A disgrace to the state

     

    By Dan Walker

    December 11, 2008

     

    While I admittedly erred in my private life 10 years after serving as Illinois governor—and paid the price for my mistakes—I am too proud of my state and my unblemished service as governor to remain silent about the despicable conduct of Gov. Rod Blagojevich.

     

    The 76-page criminal complaint's incredible account of corruption is based on Blagojevich's taped conversations. In Shakespeare's words, he is hoisted with his own petard. The complaint ranks with Al Capone in establishing a disgraceful image of Illinois in the minds of people all over the world.

     

    Just as with Richard Nixon, we don't need a trial to comment on this sordid story. The government's representation of the tapes alone establish that Blagojevich believed a seat in the U.S. Senate could be sold to the highest bidder. Not just any seat, but the one vacated by President-elect Barack Obama.

     

    Blagojevich's attorney said his client "would not resign because he didn't do anything wrong." And then he added that what the governor did was "just politics." Is it just politics to assert, as Blagojevich is taped as saying, that the "Senate seat is "a [expletive] valuable thing, you just don't give it away for nothing"?

     

    If attempts to sell a seat in the U.S. Senate were "just politics," not subject to criminal punishment, then politics in America has really fallen into a sad state.

     

    What's a Senate seat worth? In Blagojevich's mind, up to $1 million. And he actually had the gall to believe (or so he says) that he could involve the president-elect in his nefarious schemes.

     

    In the taped conversations, Blagojevich also bragged repeatedly about using his gubernatorial powers to obtain campaign contributions. Seats on state regulatory boards were allegedly sold by his cronies for huge campaign contributions.

     

    The Chicago Tribune has traced many contributions of $25,000 to Blagojevich's campaigns and found that many of the donors received a quid pro quo of some sort.

     

    Illinois now has undisputed top billing in the governmental pay-to-play game. That's saying quite a lot because that game has players from coast to coast in all levels of government.

     

    As the conviction of former Illinois Gov. George Ryan made clear, one of the worst abuses of power in state government is the use of state employees to raise money for the boss. Blagojevich brags about doing just that.

     

    Thirty-five years ago, I prohibited that rampant practice by executive order. Since then, governor after governor has engaged in it.

     

    What can be done to prevent Blagojevich from continuing his spree of corruption? Immediate impeachment by the Illinois legislature appears to be the best alternative. And impeachment does not preclude prosecution for crimes committed. If he tries to escape impeachment by grabbing the Senate seat for himself, he still should face prosecution.

     

    This man's "business model" is too damaging to the public's confidence in government to allow justice to be thwarted.

     

    Former Illinois Gov. Dan Walker served 18 months in the federal prison in Duluth, Minn., for bank fraud unrelated to his public duties. He

     

    is the author of "The Maver-

     

    ick and the Machine: Governor Dan Walker Tells His Story."

     

    Copyright © 2008, Chicago Tribune

     

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  4. These vaccines may not be legally required but they are mandatory in a way because no school or day care center will accept your child unless they have had all their shots. I think families that are worried about the effects of these vaccines really have no good options - do they take the risk in vaccinating their children knowing very well they could potentially develop autism or do they refuse it and run into the risk of catching polio at worse or not being able to enter school at the very least.