Israel mulls truce offer on Day 4 of Gaza assault

GAZA CITY, Gaza Strip (AP) - Israel is considering suspending its Gaza offensive to give Hamas militants an opening to halt rocket fire on Israel, but the threat of a ground offensive remains if the cease-fire does not hold, an Israeli defense official said Tuesday.

Israel’s defense minister is to raise the proposal during a meeting of Israel’s security Cabinet on Wednesday, the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly. Israel TV’s Channel 10 also reported such a proposal.

At the same time, the security Cabinet will also be asked to consider various plans for a ground invasion, the defense official said. The public rhetoric from Israeli officials has indicated they expect the operation to continue.

Earlier Tuesday, Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Olmert said the current, aerial phase of the operation was just “the first of several” that have been approved, an Olmert spokesman said.

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Israel mulls truce offer on Day 4 of Gaza assault

I will say this, and I take no pleasure in doing so, but IF Israel doesn’t move ahead with the full prosecution of this offensive, if Israel doesn’t settle this Palestinian problem definitively, once and for all, I will withdraw ALL support OF Israel and will not support them again.

It’s just that simple. I am all for Israel doing what MUST be done, but I am terribly tired of Israel hitting back, using moderate force and slowing down, or temporarily halting the attacks from Palestine, and then just dumping their offensive, leaving far too much work to be done!

Israel starts off going great guns and then fizzles out after a few days, it’s like they go in all pissed off and righteous and then lose their will to fight.

This has happened several times in the past, and every time Israel stops killing the Palestinians, the Palestinians once again launch rockets into Israel, or sends in human bombers to target innocent people going about their daily lives. In my not so humble opinion, you do NOT engage in a fight without having the will and desire to be the outright and undisputed WINNER of the battle. I am not going to beat the hell out of someone and then stop on their liars promise to not attack me again. That is NOT how it works. If you don’t render your opponent totally incapable of striking back, they WILL, at some point in time, strike back.

Finish this battle Israel, finish it once and for all, or risk looking like a no warfighting buffoon that doesn’t have the courage, the strength and the determination to bring a fight to an obvious, and victorious conclusion!

Ex-aides say Bush never recovered from Katrina

WASHINGTON (AP) - Hurricane Katrina not only pulverized the Gulf Coast in 2005, it knocked the bully pulpit out from under President George W. Bush, according to two former advisers who spoke candidly about the political impact of the government’s poor handling of the natural disaster.

“Katrina to me was the tipping point,” said Matthew Dowd, Bush’s pollster and chief strategist for the 2004 presidential campaign. “The president broke his bond with the public. Once that bond was broken, he no longer had the capacity to talk to the American public. State of the Union addresses? It didn’t matter. Legislative initiatives? It didn’t matter. P.R.? It didn’t matter. Travel? It didn’t matter.”

Dan Bartlett, former White House communications director and later counselor to the president, said: “Politically, it was the final nail in the coffin.”

Their comments are a part of an oral history of the Bush White House that Vanity Fair magazine compiled for its February issue, which hits newsstands in New York and Los Angeles on Wednesday, and nationally on Jan. 6. Vanity Fair published comments by current and former government officials, foreign ministers, campaign strategists and numerous others on topics that included Iraq, the anthrax attacks, the economy and immigration.

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Ex-aides say Bush never recovered from Katrina

I really don’t have anything to add to this story other than to express my belief that it’s probably pretty accurate. No individual comes to the presidency fully prepared and ready to assume the mantle all on their own. No person!

The fact that the Bush administration was going downhill after Katrina is fairly obvious. The war in Iraq wasn’t going well. The people of the *Chocolate City* were begging for more and sitting on their asses expecting the federal government to do it ALL for them. The Louisiana Army National Guard, the 256th BCT, went to Iraq as an armored unit, they came back as light infantry. The reason being, the DoD didn’t have the equipment to continue the prosecution of the war in Iraq.

The 256th, like all units, took their equipment to Iraq, and the DoD kept it for others to use, simply because they had no more in the federal stockpile to replace it! And even now, several years after the 256th was deployed to Iraq, they are still a Light Infantry unit, set to be redeployed to Iraq in a year or so.

I’m not going to use this piece to bash Bush, but I am going to say this: I did NOT support George W. Bush when he was elected the 1st time. I didn’t support Algore either, I was forced to do the thing I hate the most, I had to accept the lesser of 2 evils. I was pretty well *cold* on Bush until 9-11 occurred, at that point, some good old fashioned patriotism kicked in and I did my very best to get behind the guy, he was, after all, the President.

When Bush took the American military into Afghanistan I was forced to rethink my positions again. I was in full support of Bush and was beginning to believe that I had been much too harsh on the man and that perhaps there was a lot more to the man than ANY of us had seen.

Then he took us to Iraq. That was when I knew that my 1st impression had been correct. I was one of those folks that knew Iraq didn’t present the threats we were told it did. I knew that Saddam wasn’t directly responsible for 9-11, but I saw that Bush was seriously determined to have his way!

When the 2nd election came along I still felt that I was voting the lesser of the evils by voting for Bush over Kerry, but to be totally honest with you, I would have voted for ANYONE over that pompous ass John Kerry.

By standing up for MY beliefs this time, and by not voting for John McCain, I personally feel much better about myself. I can look myself in the eye and like the guy I see in the mirror. I also rest assured in knowing that those of us that voted a 3rd party candidate were such a minority that we in no way influenced Obama winning the 2008 election.

Is George W. Bush evil? I don’t think so, not EVIL. I think he was even more unprepared for the presidency than anyone thought. I believe he didn’t grow with the job and continued to act on HIS wishes and not on those of We, The People. History can judge him any way they like, but my biggest fear is that history will be obliterated in the coming catastrophe that this nation is sure to face. Bush may not be the worst president in history once it all plays out, history may be a lot more kind to him than I am, but the final vote isn’t in yet.

What I would give to be able to get a glimpse of this nation 200 years into the future!

‘Jena 6′ Teen in Hospital After Shooting Self in Chest

MONROE, La. — Police say one of the teenagers arrested in the “Jena Six” case has been taken to the hospital after shooting himself in the chest.

Monroe, Louisiana, police Sgt. Cassandra Wooten says Mychal Bell’s wound isn’t life-threatening.

Wooten says the 18-year-old wounded himself around 7:40 p.m. in Monroe. He’s been staying with a foster family there.

Wooten believes Bell was upset over media coverage of his arrest last week on a shoplifting charge.

He was one of six black teens charged with beating a white classmate at Jena High School in December 2006. The case aggravated racial tensions in the central Louisiana town and led to a massive civil rights demonstration.

Bell pleaded guilty in juvenile court to a charge of second-degree battery.

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‘Jena 6′ Teen in Hospital After Shooting Self in Chest

You can take the boy out of *da hood* but you can’t take *da hood* out of the boy!

I wonder, how long before we read that this kid is dead or bound for Angola State Prison?

Russian Professor Predicts Fall of U.S. in 2010

MOSCOW — For a decade, Russian academic Igor Panarin has been predicting the U.S. will fall apart in 2010. Now he’s found an eager audience: Russian state media, who are interviewing him twice a day.

A polite and cheerful man with a buzz cut, Professor Panarin insists he does not dislike Americans. But he warns that the outlook for them is dire.

“There’s a 55-45 percent chance right now that disintegration will occur,” says Panarin. “One could rejoice in that process,” he adds, poker-faced. “But if we’re talking reasonably, it’s not the best scenario — for Russia.”

Prof. Panarin, 50 years old, is not a fringe figure. A former KGB analyst, he is dean of the Russian Foreign Ministry’s academy for future diplomats. He is invited to Kremlin receptions, lectures students, publishes books, and appears in the media as an expert on U.S.-Russia relations.

Mr. Panarin posits, in brief, that mass immigration, economic decline, and moral degradation will trigger a civil war next fall and the collapse of the dollar. Around the end of June 2010, or early July, he says, the U.S. will break into six pieces — with Alaska reverting to Russian control.

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Russian Professor Predicts Fall of U.S. in 2010

For many years I have heard the rumors of the impending demise of this United States of America. For many years I wrote those rumors off as nothing more than wishful thinking by our enemies. Wishful thinking and hopes that our way of life would be destroyed.

The timeline stated in this story may be close to correct. The United States of America is on life support as you read this article. Our nation is very close to death, right now. Our finances are a wreck. Our politics are even worse. Graft and corruption are the order of the day.

Once upon a time, I would have fought ANYONE that said the American people and this nation were on the verge of falling. I no longer feel that way. I KNOW we are in a seriously precarious position. I KNOW that we really are on the verge of collapse. The last 4 or 5 years under George W. Bush, and his administrations rape of this nation, have made that fact glaringly apparent.

And to ANY that think Obama is going to be, or DO, anything better than Bush, think again. Bush has built the coffin this nation will be laid to rest in. Obama will dig the hole, hammer the nails, drop the casket in the ground and cover it up!

I would not be at all surprised to see a *civil war* in this nation. I would also not be at all surprised to see America splinter into several smaller nations. The far west would likely be Aztlan. The Mexicans would try to take Texas back but that would be their Waterloo. Texas will emerge as a nation unto itself, a relatively self sufficient REPUBLIC that has the rest of this Balkanized nation wanting all that we produce and control!

Those predictions by the Russian Professor are not at all out of the realm of possibilities. The *dire straights* that he refers to are here now, just not quite dire enough to bring us to our knees. Yet.

I truly pity many parts of this nation as well. Can you imagine Detroit or Chicago trying to be self sufficient? Can you imagine the *Chocolate City* being self sufficient even in thriving times? Those cities can’t maintain their citizens NOW. God help us all if this nation falls into total anarchy in the coming months!