News Headlines Roundup 8 Mar 2010

North Korea to abandon disarmament over U.S. exercises: (CNN) -- North Korea said Sunday it would no longer move forward with nuclear disarmament in response to a planned U.S.-South Korean joint military exercise.

The announcement was made by the official Korean Central News Agency, or KCNA.

"The maneuvers clearly indicate once again that the U.S. and the South Korean authorities are the harassers of peace and warmongers keen to bring a war to this land," the statement said.

North Korea also announced it would no longer abide by the armistice that brought a truce to the Korean War, saying that South Korea violated the agreement by participating in the military cooperation with the United States.

Disarmament talks were already at an impasse between North Korea, the United States and other nations. The military exercises would bring negotiations to a standstill and push North Korea to boost its nuclear arsenal, the statement said.

"The process for the denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula will naturally come to a standstill and (North Korea) will bolster its nuclear deterrent for self-defense," the statement said.

All talks between North Korea, the United States and South Korea will be suspended if the joint exercises go through as planned, North Korea said.




U.S. envoy: Iraqis 'deserve congratulations' for vote: Baghdad, Iraq (CNN) -- Iraq's elections "really went very, very well" and the "Iraqi people deserve a lot of congratulations from us," the United States' ambassador to Baghdad said Monday.

"The election was supported by the overwhelming majority of Iraqi people," Christopher Hill told CNN's "American Morning" program, saying there was "a great deal of support for this political process."

Hill was speaking a day after millions of Iraqis turned out to cast ballots for the country's parliament, despite the ongoing threat of violence.

Militants intent on disrupting the vote carried out dozens of attacks, leaving 38 people dead.

Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. military commander in the country, said most of the casualties came from a single incident when bombers collapsed an apartment building in Baghdad, portraying the overall level of security nationwide as good.

"In the rest of Iraq, it was extremely peaceful," he said. "I was very impressed with the coordination and work done by the Iraqi security forces."

Hamdiya al-Husseini, a commissioner of the Independent High Electoral Commission said Monday that the election turnout was 62 percent nationwide and 53 percent in Baghdad.

The general feeling on election day was the longing for change, of electing a government that will be able to provide basic services like water and electricity, jobs, and security, a CNN crew posted at a Baghdad polling station reported.






Palin should cut the hypocrisy: by Roland Martin (CNN) -- Sarah Palin's most ardent supporters in "real America" love to suggest that those of us who don't buy into her shtick fail to grasp why they love her, citing her realness, plain-spokenness and whatever else they can conjure up.

... Why haven't I cottoned to Palin? Because she portrays herself as a straight-talking politician who wants to lead a movement in the "Lower 48th" -- but is nothing more than a political celebrity willing to cash every check she can grab.

What truly exposed her for me? It was the ridiculous way she reacted in opposing ways last week to two political heavyweights who used the word "retard."

... Sarah, I haven't bought into your fake "I'm-a-real-American" persona. You slam the president for using teleprompters, but write crib notes on your hand to remember basic beliefs that should be easy to regurgitate.

You decry the "lamestream" media, but you bask in its glory and have joined its payroll as a Fox News contributor, even having the network build a studio in your home. Talk about media elite.

You give a speech riddled with falsehoods about the president and national security, and then try to shrug them off as the "lamestream" media attacking you.


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4 of 10 Top Quotes of 2009

*** Thought you might enjoy a teaser of Cheeky Quote Day! This is an excerpt from the full post over at The Social Poets:

Political Cats!From Denny: Some of the cheekiest - most irreverent or most odd - quotes were uttered in the year of 2009 in America. There are times when I wonder if there are regions of the country with lead in the water, sounding as bizarre as ancient Rome did right before they destroyed their empire. The ancient Romans poisoned themselves with lead in their wine, unknowingly, that also sterilized them, dropping the population of the ruling aristocracy. Their increasing bizarre behavior is well documented historically and, of course, Hollywood celebrated it with many a movie. After all, villains are great story grist! :)

I knew there was a verbal bridge somewhere in here... more like a teetering wood suspension bridge in the Amazon... 2009 has been a very bizarre year for quotes from politicians in particular and a few celebrities too. Notice that Tiger Woods is noticeably silent. Maybe he's saving his quotes for 2010. Stay tuned...

1. "Do ya think?" he's: Holding Back

"He deserves my silence."

— George W. Bush, former President, refusing to criticize President Barack Obama during a speech in March, his first address since leaving office. Yet the Republicans didn't waste any time later in the year, propelling Bush out in front to take the fire for complaining about Obama's job performance and handling of terrorism issues.

Hmmmm... yes, Obama still deserves his silence. The man was a hack in the Presidency so what real advice could he offer? The majority of the time he never watched nor read the news, depending upon filtered information from jealous coveting-the-power aides like Rove.



Photo by Ross D. Franklin/Getty

2. Obama's Persistent Peanut Gallery (OPPG) throwing rotten tomatoes:

"The America I know and love is not one in which my parents or my baby with Down syndrome will have to stand in front of Obama's 'death panel' so his bureaucrats can decide, based on a subjective judgment of their 'level of productivity in society,' whether they are worthy of health care."

— Sarah Palin, former Alaska governor, rambling all over the place on her Facebook page, whiner lying about a provision of the proposed health care bill that called for Medicare to reimburse doctors for counseling patients on end-of-life-care issues such as living wills and hospice availability. Somehow, she had reading comprehension problems and started screaming death panels are in the bill when clearly they are not.



3. Perilously Close on the Heels of Republican Retreads

"I'm happy to get good ideas from across the political spectrum, from Democrats and Republicans. What I won't do is return to the failed theories of the last eight years that got us into this fix in the first place, because those theories have been tested, and they have failed. And that's what part of the election in November was all about."

— President Obama, during his first official press conference, on 9 Feb 2009. What's annoying is when you follow such a disastrous act like Bush and Cheney who basically broke several world governments, is that you are forced to continue some of the same policies until you can stabilize a region, beginning new policies to repair all the damage.

So it goes in American politics for decades: Republicans like to blow up the world and Democrats come in behind them to clean up their mess. Then the public gets angry it takes too long to clean up the mess and choose Republicans again, thinking the economy will pick up. There is a real disconnect of the American voter with an understanding of just how long it takes to repair a mess and then gin up the economy.



4. The Commies Are Coming! The Commies Are Coming! Stay safe; hide under your school desk when the nukes hit. (Now there's a plan.)

"I don't want this country turning into Russia, turning into a socialized country. My question for you is, What are you going to do to restore this country back to what our founders created according to the Constitution?"

— Katy Abram, a Pennsylvania mother, speaking at a health care town hall moderated by Senator Arlen Specter in August in Lebanon, Pennsylvania. If this woman knew what she was talking about, understood economics, international diplomacy and common sense, and actually cared if women got equal pay for the same job, well, she would never have voted Republican in the first place. These guys are the ones who sent our country careening out of control financially for decades starting with President Reagan and his paranoid Star Wars concept.

*** For the full post and quotes 5 - 10: including Michael Jackson, Hillary Clinton, Berlusconi, David Letterman and con man Madoff, visit The Social Poets, go here.

*** THANKS for visiting!

Video: Palin Ordered Her Own Health Care Death Panels on the Alaskan Elderly

From Denny: Palin and the caustic Wingnut Party have so incensed reasonable and compassionate people like anchorman Keith Olbermann they have done some Palin research into how she ran Alaska's government health care and it isn't pretty.

Palin was looking for ways to keep the elderly out of state run or partly financed nursing homes and so many were reassessed and kicked out or just plain died while undergoing assessment. Palin is responsible for killing off someone else's Grandmas with her own version of the Alaskan Death Panel as she made these decisions. From the Anchorage Daily News: "In one 2 1/2 year stretch, 227 elderly adults already getting services died while waiting for a nurse to reassess their needs."

Palin strikes me as an alcoholic because of her classic "blaming behavior" and never takes any responsibility for her own decisions. It does make a person wonder about how many in the Republican Party are hard core alcoholics... It's always someone else to blame for this or that. C'mon, at some point the buck stops at her desk. Two words: grow up. And while you're at it: quit drinking, sober up and live smarter.

If this woman is what the Republicans are hanging their hopes on for Presidential material, well, good luck - because they are going to need it. No one with an ounce of logic, compassionate and care for others, anyone who wants affordable health care and a decent job that pays their bills will vote for that level of greed and insanity.

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Video: Wingnut Politics Against Health Care and Olbermann Answers Palin's Idiot Claims of Health Care Death Panel

From Denny: The Republicans have moved way beyond the status of the Right Wing of Politics. With the recent Birther Movement to challenge President Obama's status as an American born in this country by declaring Hawaii isn't really a state (it is and long before Obama was born there) they have now waded into the even more bizarre waters.

Now they are claiming legislation being developed is "going to kill Grandma" before her time by putting her to death by some Death Panel. As usual, they operate on the increasingly wingnut ridiculous for the weak minds out there who already have a few screws lose or they could spot the obvious about these illogical and unreasonable arguments and finally figure out they are being manipulated into believing lies. As usual, when the grab for political power and wealth is involved the truth becomes the first casualty.

The more sensational and outrageous are the Over The Edge and Off The Cliff Politics screamer claims from the Republicans the more the media enjoys "the fray of raucous politics" as they call it. In my book it's just plain stupid politics of whiners throwing temper tantrums because they can't get their own way and continue to promote hate, racism, greed and lies. The majority of America has said, "Enough!" and voted Obama into the White House.

Here's what Olbermann had to say about the scorched earth politics quitter, now former Republican Governor, Sarah Palin's idiot claims about health care's new Death Panel to put us all to death if we don't measure up. Hmmm... could this be a prophecy? Maybe the Republicans are thinking of doing this to anyone who votes Democrat? Democrats don't even think like this perversion. Usually, the first person to put it out there as a claim is the perverted one hoping "he who lies first gets believed." Now there's a strategy...

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

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Video: Comedian Bill Maher Rips Palin

From Denny: On a lighter note about circus acts in politics...

CNN: Comedian Bill Maher attacks former Alaska governor and vice presidential candidate Sarah Palin.




Here's the news story about her leaving the Alaskan Governor's Mansion with 18 months left to serve. She just up and quit like some diva, surprising everyone and angering Republicans for being a quitter. Guess she can't fade the heat of 16 ethics charges.

CNN: CNN's Candy Crowley reports on the questions remaining following Sarah Palin's decision to quit her job.