October 20, 1962 — Day 5 of the Cuban Missile Crisis
President Kennedy, in Chicago campaigning for congressional candidates, decides to return to the White House as the crisis reaches a new urgency. To avoid public suspicion the president consults his physician and together they fabricate the diagnosis of a cold, allowing JFK to return to Washington without arousing panic. A quick glance at Presidential Secretary Evelyn Lincoln’s day planner proves Kennedy was quite busy during his supposed sick days.
(source: jfklibrary.org)
It’s official: Barack Obama accepts the Democrats’ nomination for President of the United States.
![gifhound:
Hmmm. Kill him with kindness? Barack Obama lauded VP candidate Paul Ryan as a good man and family man and silenced anti-Ryan cheers from the crowd on the trail in Iowa today, before stating that he fundamentally disagrees with Ryan’s economic plan, of course.
[Source: Associated Press]](http://25.media.tumblr.com/tumblr_m8tqdabXDr1rtxen9o1_500.gif)
Hmmm. Kill him with kindness? Barack Obama lauded VP candidate Paul Ryan as a good man and family man and silenced anti-Ryan cheers from the crowd on the trail in Iowa today, before stating that he fundamentally disagrees with Ryan’s economic plan, of course.
[Source: Associated Press]
- Our correspondent Rana Baker assesses the situation in Gaza, once again sealed at the border following the recent attacks on Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai peninsula – for which Palestinians are being blamed and punished by the Egyptian authorities;
- Rampant power cuts in Gaza leave Palestinians in the dark during Ramadan;
- Gaza mourns the mother of a detainee who passed away while on the bus traveling to see her son after six years of Israel’s imposition of a family visitation ban;
- Palestinian prisoner Hassan Safadi still on hunger strike after Israel breaks yet another deal to free him; meanwhile, Bilal Diab and female prisoner Woroud Qasem were released from Israeli jails back to their homes in the West Bank;
- Why the bubble in the foreign-aid dependent West Bank economy is about to burst;
- Bogus charges of anti-Semitism create a real climate of fear for Arab and Muslim students in the US;
- A concert promoter who raised money for the Israeli army will hold a Lollapalooza music festival on the ruins of a Palestinian village next year;
- And a British energy firm ditches occupation profiteer and private security giant G4S.
(via mehreenkasana)
We need tax reform.
And by tax reform, I mean closing loopholes, special interest tax breaks and corporate subsidies. It’s just plain wrong to be protecting tax breaks for oil companies and to be rewarding businesses that ship jobs overseas.
It’s time to stop the shouting and bickering and political attacks. It’s time to show the world that America can take care of business.
Fidel
Happy Birthday, Fidel!
So this happened:
Constituent: “What I’m here to do is ask you for your apology.”
McCain: “What apology is in order?”
Constituent: “Because that was very clumsy of you”
McCain: “Was there anything wrong with what I said?”
Constituent: “Are you saying you’re not apologizing?”
McCain: “I don’t know what to apologize for.”
Heard in the back: “For calling tea partiers hobbits!”
McCain: “What I said was true. It’s unrealistic and unfair to the American people to tell them that we have to pass a balanced-budget amendment to the Constitution before we would act. If anyone misunderstood that then of course I would apologize. … But it’s not my fault if they misunderstood. … I am sorry if I was misunderstood. But I am not sorry for what I said. Why should I if it was a fact?”
Added McCain, “You Tolkien to me?”
We’ve got a real problem, and I’m tired of Republicans and Democrats, who either — Republicans who want to burn the place to the ground, or Democrats — with all due respect — who wanna offer a plan that gets (their party) through the end of the second term of their presidency, and then screws me and my kids when it’s over!
…We have to deal wit the extraction that is afoot. It is the reason the financial markets are behaving the way they’re behaving — that is a mathematical fact! This is not some opinion! This is a mathematical fact: tens of trillions of dollars are being extracted from the United States of America! Democrats aren’t doing it; Republicans aren’t doing it. An entire, integrated financial system, trading system, taxing system, that was created by both parties over a period of two decades is at work on an entire country right now! And we’re sitting here, arguing about whether we should do the $4 trillion plan that kicks the can down the road for the President (until) 2017, or burn the place to the ground — BOTH of which are reckless and irresponsible and stupid.
…The fact of the matter is that there is a refusal on both the Democratic and the Republican side of the aisle to acknowledge the mathematical problem: that the United States of America is being extracted (from): it’s being extracted through banking, it’s being extracted through trade, and it’s being extracted through taxation. And there’s not a single politician who has stepped forward… to deal with this.
I would like (President Obama) to go to the people of the United States of America and say ‘People of the Unites States of America: your Congress is bought. Your Congress is incapable of making legislation on healthcare, banking, trade or taxes because if they do it, they will lose their political funding, and they won’t do it. But I’m the President of the United States, and I won’t have a country that is run by a bought Congress!
Perhaps this is the rallying cry for the Donner Party.
People tend to only mention places like South Africa when they reference racism concerning Africa, but it has it’s place in all areas. A good example is in Sudan, where for almost 30 years a vicious genocide has taken place. In their society Christians/dark-skinned people are considered second class citizens, while being Arab or Muslim is seen as a positive. The same division is found in Egypt.
Africa in many ways is still a 20th century continent, due to the effect of Imperialism and other factors. It has been abused for nearly 400 years and is just trying to establish itself. People have to realize that it is a continent and not a single country. We tend to group or box Africans as all the same, but clearly the people don’t feel that way and there are cultural distinctions even within single countries.
Places like South Africa thrive, while other nations suffer. Some are saved from things like Tourism. I think we have to make accommodations for the fact that it hasn’t emerged as a modern 21st century continent. Which is ironic because many people would suggest that the countries with the highest GOP are still practicing 20th century politik(USA,China,etc).
So despite my initial reaction, are we really surprised that revolutions are taking place? Maybe during the Cold War, we should have invested more time in the African continent then spending time holding back communism in Europe and Asia.
Nixon, is credited for being the President that began the modern relationship between China and the US, but what President has established a strong contact with several African nations?
Obama and the Secretary of State are very ginger in their statements. They’re not willing to outwardly condemn anything which while serving a purpose,neglects to send any messages to these large regimes that continue to abuse the people.
You know? You know how people say party over blah. I say human rights over country. Human Rights over foreign relations. Human Rights over economic well being.
We’re all one in this world and we shouldn’t let things like nationality stop us from denouncing injustice.
