27 November 2008

Iraq Approves Deal Charting End of U.S. Role

Published: November 27, 2008
BAGHDAD — With a substantial majority, the Iraqi Parliament on Thursday ratified a sweeping security agreement that sets the course for an end to the United States’ role in the war and marks the beginning of a new relationship between the countries.

President Bush congratulated the Parliament on the vote.

“Today’s vote affirms the growth of Iraq’s democracy and increasing ability to secure itself,” Mr. Bush said in a statement. “Two years ago this day seemed unlikely — but the success of the surge and the courage of the Iraqi people set the conditions for these two agreements to be negotiated and approved by the Iraqi Parliament.”

The security agreement and an accompanying document that outlines America’s relationship with Iraq in areas like economics, health care and education, would grant Iraq considerable authority over American troop operations, requiring court orders to search buildings and detain suspects.

It also sets out a timetable requiring American troops to withdraw from cities and towns by June 30, 2009, and for all troops to leave the country by the end of 2011 unless the Iraqis and Americans negotiate a separate pact to extend the American military presence. (In contrast, President-elect Barack Obama campaigned under a promise to withdraw all American combat brigades from Iraq by May 2010, but set no date for a complete withdrawal.)

15 November 2008

Election spurs 'hundreds' of race threats, crimes

Cross burnings. Schoolchildren chanting "Assassinate Obama." Black figures hung from nooses. Racial epithets scrawled on homes and cars.

Incidents around the country referring to President-elect Barack Obama are dampening the postelection glow of racial progress and harmony, highlighting the stubborn racism that remains in America.

From California to Maine, police have documented a range of alleged crimes, from vandalism and vague threats to at least one physical attack. Insults and taunts have been delivered by adults, college students and second-graders.

There have been "hundreds" of incidents since the election, many more than usual, said Mark Potok, director of the Intelligence Project at the Southern Poverty Law Center, which monitors hate crimes.

One was in Snellville, Ga., where Denene Millner said a boy on the school bus told her 9-year-old daughter the day after the election: "I hope Obama gets assassinated." That night, someone trashed her sister-in-law's front lawn, mangled the Obama lawn signs, and left two pizza boxes filled with human feces outside the front door, Millner said.

She described her emotions as a combination of anger and fear.

"I can't say that every white person in Snellville is evil and anti-Obama and willing to desecrate my property because one or two idiots did it," said Millner, who is black. "But it definitely makes you look a little different at the people who you live with, and makes you wonder what they're capable of and what they're really thinking."

Potok, who is white, said he believes there is "a large subset of white people in this country who feel that they are losing everything they know, that the country their forefathers built has somehow been stolen from them."

Grant Griffin, a 46-year-old white Georgia native, expressed similar sentiments: "I believe our nation is ruined and has been for several decades and the election of Obama is merely the culmination of the change.

"If you had real change it would involve all the members of (Obama's) church being deported," he said.

Change in whatever form does not come easy, and a black president is "the most profound change in the field of race this country has experienced since the Civil War," said William Ferris, senior associate director of the Center for the Study of the American South at the University of North Carolina. "It's shaking the foundations on which the country has existed for centuries."

"Someone once said racism is like cancer," Ferris said. "It's never totally wiped out, it's in remission."

If so, America's remission lasted until the morning of Nov. 5.

The day after the vote hailed as a sign of a nation changed, black high school student Barbara Tyler of Marietta, Ga., said she heard hateful Obama comments from white students, and that teachers cut off discussion about Obama's victory.

Tyler spoke at a press conference by the Georgia chapter of the NAACP calling for a town hall meeting to address complaints from across the state about hostility and resentment. Another student, from a Covington middle school, said he was suspended for wearing an Obama shirt to school Nov. 5 after the principal told students not to wear political paraphernalia.

The student's mother, Eshe Riviears, said the principal told her: "Whether you like it or not, we're in the South, and there are a lot of people who are not happy with this decision."

Other incidents include:

_Four North Carolina State University students admitted writing anti-Obama comments in a tunnel designated for free speech expression, including one that said: "Let's shoot that (N-word) in the head." Obama has received more threats than any other president-elect, authorities say.

_At Standish, Maine, a sign inside the Oak Hill General Store read: "Osama Obama Shotgun Pool." Customers could sign up to bet $1 on a date when Obama would be killed. "Stabbing, shooting, roadside bombs, they all count," the sign said. At the bottom of the marker board was written "Let's hope someone wins."

_Racist graffiti was found in places including New York's Long Island, where two dozen cars were spray-painted; Kilgore, Texas, where the local high school and skate park were defaced; and the Los Angeles area, where swastikas, racial slurs and "Go Back To Africa" were spray painted on sidewalks, houses and cars.

_Second- and third-grade students on a school bus in Rexburg, Idaho, chanted "assassinate Obama," a district official said.

_University of Alabama professor Marsha L. Houston said a poster of the Obama family was ripped off her office door. A replacement poster was defaced with a death threat and a racial slur. "It seems the election brought the racist rats out of the woodwork," Houston said.

_Black figures were hanged by nooses from trees on Mount Desert Island, Maine, the Bangor Daily News reported. The president of Baylor University in Waco, Texas said a rope found hanging from a campus tree was apparently an abandoned swing and not a noose.

_Crosses were burned in yards of Obama supporters in Hardwick, N.J., and Apolacan Township, Pa.

_A black teenager in New York City said he was attacked with a bat on election night by four white men who shouted 'Obama.'

_In the Pittsburgh suburb of Forest Hills, a black man said he found a note with a racial slur on his car windshield, saying "now that you voted for Obama, just watch out for your house."

Emotions are often raw after a hard-fought political campaign, but now those on the losing side have an easy target for their anger.

"The principle is very simple," said BJ Gallagher, a sociologist and co-author of the diversity book "A Peacock in the Land of Penguins." "If I can't hurt the person I'm angry at, then I'll vent my anger on a substitute, i.e., someone of the same race."

"We saw the same thing happen after the 9-11 attacks, as a wave of anti-Muslim violence swept the country. We saw it happen after the Rodney King verdict, when Los Angeles blacks erupted in rage at the injustice perpetrated by 'the white man.'"

10 November 2008

George Bush's Final Days

George Bush's Final Days

6 November 2008

Барак Обама подарил Кении новый праздник



День 6 ноября в Кении официально объявлен государственным праздником. Почему? Догадаться несложно: потому что Барак Обама стал первым американским президентом-афроамериканцем, сообщает агентство Би-Би-Си.Президент Кении Мваи Кибаки в личном обращении к Бараку Обаме отметил, что и он сам, и его народ «в чрезвычайной степени гордится» корнями последнего.Ведь новоявленный президент США, чье полное имя Barack Hussein Obama Jr., хотя сам и не родом из африканской Кении (родился на Гаваях), его соотечественникам все-таки есть чем гордиться. Дело в том, что мама Барака Обамы американка, а отец – кениец. Правда, впоследствии их семья распалась – мать вышла замуж второй раз и уехала в Индонезию, где Барак Обама прожил четыре года, прежде чем вернуться на Гаваи.Безусловно, среди всех уроженцев Кении столь больших высот пока удалось добиться только Бараку Обаме. Именно поэтому нет ничего странного в том, что кенийцы решили навсегда вписать этот знаменательный день в Историю – пусть и потомки будут в курсе и тоже станут гордиться своим более удачливым соплеменником

4 November 2008

CHANGE HAS COME





OBAMA'S VICTORY SPEECH... WATCH IT... READ IT... McCain Concedes: "This Campaign Was And Will Remain The Great Honor Of My Life" THE RESULTS: STATES FOR OBAMA, STATES FOR MCCAIN... SENATE, HOUSE RACE RESULTS... DEMS WIN 12 HOUSE SEATS... 5 NEW SENATE SEATS... MORE RACES COMING IN... HOUSE: GOP's Chris Shays Loses Congressional Seat In Connecticut... SENATE: GOP'S Liddy Dole Loses Seat In North Carolina To Democrat Kay Hagan... GOP Senate Leader McConnell Re-Elected In Kentucky... Democrat Tom Udall Wins New Mexico... Democrat Shaheen Wins New Hampshire... Democrat Warner Wins Virginia Senate Seat... Democrat Mark Udall Wins ColoradoHUFFPOST REPORTERS' ELECTION BLOG... MORE ELECTION BLOGS...





WASHINGTON--Democrat Barack Obama was headed for certain victory late Tuesday in his quest to become the first black president of the United States.
The victory will make the Illinois senator the nation's 44th president.
As polls closed throughout the United States, Obama, 47, was a sure winner in the states of Ohio, Pennsylvania, Illinois, New Hampshire, Michigan and Wisconsin.
His Republican rival, Arizona Senator John McCain, 72, looked set to snare North Dakota and South Carolina.
Voter turnout was apparently very heavy.
Obama campaigned vigorously under the slogan of "change," while McCain stuck to the Republican policies espoused by the White House incumbent, George W. Bush.
The election centered around the unpopular U.S.-led war in Iraq and the mounting global financial crisis that started in the United States.
On Jan. 20, 2009, Obama will be sworn in as the first Democrat commander in chief of the United States in eight years, following Bill Clinton.
His running mate, Senator Joe Biden of Delaware, will be vice president.
Obama was born Aug. 4, 1961, in Honolulu to a Kenyan father and a Caucasian mother from Kansas. His parents divorced when he was a child, and he spent four years in Indonesia after his mother remarried an Indonesian.
He returned to Hawaii in 1971 and was raised by his maternal grandparents.
A graduate of Columbia University and Harvard Law School, Obama was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2004, where he is the only black senator.

Barack Obama est élu président des Etats-Unis


Barack Obama, 47 ans, est désormais le 44e président des Etats-Unis et le 4 novembre 2008 fera date dans l'histoire du pays. Il était 5 h 5, heure de Paris, lorsque les médias américains ont annoncé la victoire du candidat démocrate face à John McCain. Barack Obama devient ainsi le premier président noir des Etats-Unis. Moins d'une heure plus tard, le nouveau président était sur la scène du Grant Park de Chicago – son fief – pour fêter sa victoire et assurer aux Américains que "le changement est arrivé".