political nonsense

It was reported that since the US invaded Iraq in 2003 an estimated 4.2 million Iraqis have fled their homes, US-led forces reported killing 49 insurgents and no civilians on Sunday during predawn clashes with renegade Shiite militia members, while Iraqi police said at least 13 civilians were dead, including three children and a woman, at least 3,834 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the war, and Kurdish rebels crossed the Iraq-Turkey border and killed at least 17 Turkish soldiers Sunday, while the Turkish army retaliated by stepping up its bombardment of the Iraqi side of the border, hitting 11 different areas close to towns and villages, Kurdish officials said.
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It was reported that Dick Cheney and Barack Obama are cousins.

[duh]
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US and Iraqi officials were negotiating Baghdad’s request to expel the private security company Blackwater within six months following last month’s deadly shoot out in Baghdad, a Washington Post correspondent was shot dead in Baghdad, former US military commander in Iraq Lieutenant General Ricardo Sanchez described the war as a “nightmare with no end in sight,” the Turkish government formally sought authorization from the Turkish parliament to invade Northern Iraq and attack Kurdish rebel groups after amassing 60,000 troops along the country’s border and shelling Kurdish regions across the border, and a former top US general admitted the war in Iraq was about oil. “Of course it’s about oil, we can’t really deny that,” former Commander General John Abizaid said.
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The United States decided it should deliver weapons to Iraq faster after finding out that the Iraqis ordered $100 million in military equipment from China, Iraqi officials accused the US of killing at least 17 Iraqi civilians in multiple helicopter air strikes near Baquba on Friday, an Iraqi judge concluded corruption extended into the government of Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki and an American official said that US efforts to combat the problem are inadequate, General Petraeus blamed Tehran for escalating violence in Iraq, current and former US officials accused the State Department of ignoring repeated warnings that private security contractors were endangering Iraqi civilians and undermining US efforts to win support from the population, and the Iraqi prime minister’s office reported that the government’s investigation had determined that Blackwater USA private security guards who shot Iraqi civilians three weeks ago in a Baghdad square sprayed gunfire in nearly every direction, committed “deliberate murder” and should be punished accordingly.
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A British think tank concluded that the War on Terror has been a disaster.
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The US House of Representatives passed legislation that allows the prosecution of security personnel contracted by the US government for work in Iraq and other hostile places.
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The Bush administration increased more than fivefold Tuesday the number of Near East and South Asian refugees the U.S. can admit as it seeks to accept 12,000 Iraqi refugees during the next 12 months.
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Bush vetoed the child healthcare bill and 51% of Americans said they would be willing to pay higher taxes so that all children could have health insurance,with those with lower household incomes showing the most support.
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The Department of Homeland Security announced that the completion of a $20 million “virtual fence” pilot project along the Mexican border near Tucson would be delayed because its cameras and radar were unable to distinguish people and vehicles from bushes and cows.

[not a mexican]
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The Senate voted to authorize spending another $150 billion for the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, the FBI is sending a team of agents to Baghdad to investigate Blackwater, a senior al-Qaeda leader was arrested, Iraq announced it wants the UN Security Council to extend the mandate of the United States-led multinational force in Iraq only through the end of 2008 and then replace it with a long-term bilateral security agreement, The US Embassy criticized a Senate resolution that could lead to a division of the country into sectarian or ethnic territories-agreeing with a swath of Iraqi leaders in saying the proposal “would produce extraordinary suffering and bloodshed,” it was reported that at least 3,802 members of the U.S. military have died since the beginning of the Iraq war, and the US military said it regrets civilian deaths, as it announced a new surge of strikes against Al-Qaeda in Iraq in which six militants were killed and a child was hit in the crossfire.
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Turkey and Iraq on Friday signed an agreement to crack down on Turkish Kurd rebels based in northern Iraq, the US military reported it killed a senior leader of al-Qaeda, a top US general in Iraq admitted that security contractors in Iraq use some over-the-top tactics and overreact at times, the Senate approved a measure which supports dividing Iraq into federal regions for Iraqi Shiites, Sunnis and Kurds, Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri Al-Maliki condemned the Senate vote saying it would lead to “catastrophe,” and it was revealed that Saddam Hussein offered to go into exile before the Iraq War if he could keep a billion dollars.
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A federal judge ruled two provisions of the USA Patriot Act allowing secret wiretapping and un-substantiated searches are unconstitutional.
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US Defence Secretary Robert Gates ordered a review of the way private security firms operate in Iraq and the oversight given by the US military, car bombs killed 27 people and wounded more than 90, the US government began a new battle with Congress after demanding the unprecedented sum of 189 billion dollars to fund the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, and Prime Minister Al-Maliki pointed out that the vision of national reconciliation in Iraq is plagued by a tenacious insurgency and sectarian warfare.
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Raytheon unveiled Silent Guardian, a device that radiates unbearable pain which the US plans to use in Iraq. “You don’t have time to think about it,” said an executive. “You just run.”

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The US Senate urged the Bush administration Wednesday to declare Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard a terrorist group to help the United States roll back Iranian influence in Iraq.
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The Bush administration planned to increase its 2008 financing request for military operations in Iraq, Afghanistan and elsewhere by almost $50 billion and it was reported that the Iraq war is costing $500,000 a minute, fourteen Iraqis were killed during separate operations and raids by US army and Iraqi police, the UN considered a greater role in Iraq, the Iraqi government rejected calls to expel the US firm Blackwater which is under investigation over a shooting which killed 11 Iraqis claiming it would leave a “security vacuum” in Baghdad, while the Iraqi Prime MinisterNouri al-Maliki noted that Blackwater has been linked to at least seven incidents involving gunfire on Iraqi civilians- “There are serious challenges to the sovereignty of Iraq,” he said.
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A Government official was charged with stalking his ex-girlfriend using homeland security data.
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The Canadian dollar surpassed the value of the American dollar.
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Al-Sadr’s movement announced it would withdraw from the largest political bloc in Parliament- a coalition of Shiite parties, a group of gunmen killed a leader from Shiite cleric Muqtada al-Sadr’s Mahdi Army in west Baghdad, while the militia retaliated by killing four Iraqis and causing scores of families from the region to be displaced, new figures showed that the number of displaced Iraqis his risen by about fifty-thousand since July, the US security firm Blackwater has resumed limited operations in the Iraqi capital Baghdad four days after a deadly shootout involving the company, and the Senate has overwhelmingly rejected a measure that would cut off funding for combat operations in Iraq by next June as well as a measure that would haven given U.S. troops longer rest periods in between deployments in Iraq and Afghanistan.
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President George W. Bush skipped all events related to the UN discussions on global warming, except for dinner, because he was holding his own summit later in the week.
harpers weekly