A Happier Thanksgiving

Joe - enjoy your Holidays as well.
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I'm wondering if this Status of Forces Agreement would have been agreed to by our Congress. I'm a little nervous that we're not free to intervene when we see a need to since we're there but glad for us and the Iraqis to be making concrete moves to get out of there.

Joe-Happy Holidays. Hope I don't get in trouble witht the war on Christmas folks for that.

Wish our country had the guts to do this.
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Credit card giants have been given two weeks to agree to stop charging exorbitant rates to borrowers or risk losing their operating licences.
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Ministers said they were giving Britain's major lenders one last chance to prove they were not profiteering from the downturn. The ultimatum was delivered at a four-hour Whitehall summit called after The Independent disclosed some credit card and store card providers had raised interest rates – in some cases to 30 per cent – even though the cost of borrowing had fallen.
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The credit card companies agreed last night to give borrowers who run into trouble paying their bills a "breathing space" of up to two months before they face action. They also pledged to draw up a clear "statement of principles" over their rates by 9 December. It will commit them to give clear information to borrowers, not alter rates constantly and charge "proportionate" levels of interest.
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Lord Mandelson, the Business Secretary, and Gareth Thomas, the Consumer Affairs minister, told leaders of the industry that they were alarmed by lenders increasing their rates overnight without justification.
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Government sources said they were encouraged by the companies' initial response, but demanded watertight commitments from them within a fortnight. Ministers warned they were prepared to refer firms that exploited borrowers to the Office of Fair Trading (OFT), the consumer watchdog.
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http://www.independent.co.uk/news/uk/politics/two-weeks-to-cut-rates-card-issuers-told-1036887.html

Happy Thanksgiving and Save Travels

Be safe, Joe, and thanks for the good news!
Grown-ups in the White House, soldiers coming home -- happy Thanksgiving, everyone!

Peace, Joe.
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Has the Bush Administration released an English-language version of the agreement as yet? As of this past weekend, they were balking at allowing reporters to read the actual agreement. Hope it doesn't contain any untoward surprizelets for the Obama Administration.
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Thanks for all the good words and the funky ones too.

Ask that Karzai fellow exactly what sort of concessions to the Taliban does he have in mind when he opens negotiations.

kathy
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If reports on the SOFA are to be believed then one of the biggest potential problems is that the Iraqis will have more oversight of American troops when their activity might be deemed illegal. That, to me, has the potential of being a powder keg

Since Barack has sworn to get US troops out of Iraq in 16 months, doesn't this agreement for three years handicap his ability to pull out, or are the three years just a maximum US troops can stay there? Is this another time-bomb Bushie has left for the new administration?

Anyone?

wagonjack
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The SOFA doesn't hurt Obama at all. It doesn't say they have to stay there until 2012, it just says they MUST be out by 2012. Just so happens that would be an election year anyway so our troops would have to be out by the next election anyway per the agreement therefore it harms Obama not at all.

According to Juan-not-John Cole, the agreement "stipulates that all US troops will be out of Iraq by 2011."
Source: Informed Comment: Security Agreement is Passed by the Iraqi Parliament

I'll be heading to Afghanistan just after Thanksgiving...

Happy Holidays, everyone....

James in LA
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John Cole wrote it up wrong. Here is how its worded in the Reuters article that he links to.
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BAGHDAD (Reuters) - Iraq's parliament on Thursday approved a security pact with the United States that paves the way for U.S. forces to withdraw by the end of 2011, taking the country a big step closer to full sovereignty.

Juan that is

sg,
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thanks for pointing that out. However, apparently there is not an English version of the agreement available. That said, Juan-not-John's post was not that precise. And too, I don't doubt the agreement will be amended once we have a new, shiny, competent, ethical administration who behaves in good faith according to the US Constitution. Unlike the clusterf^&k we have for the next 54 days (but who's counting?)

James in LA
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Ackerman takes a whack at breaking it down for us regular folks and explains how potentially the withdrawal date could be moved up by the Iraqis.

What happened to that so-called "civil war" that leftist political advocacy groups like NBC self-described "News" declared existed in Iraq? Can we expect NBC to declare "America's defeat" when the thoroughly unqualified community organizer offers to surrender unconditionally to America's enemies in Iraq?

I know it's low hanging fruit but I'm nevertheless struck by the marvelous logic laid out in textees post. He notes that there's no civil war in Iraq. Therefore we've one and have a stable ally in the region. He then immediately refers to our surrendering to our enemies in Iraq.

So which is it. Is there no civil war? Or are there no enemies?

Or is slogan based nonthought sufficiently out of fashion that it can now be safely ignored?

Paul Dirks
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There used to be a time when textee actually tried defend its statements. Now textee just shows up to start sh!t then bounces. Its no use in every trying to feed that troll because its too cowardly to ever respond. Better to just point at it and laugh and keep it moving.

texte. Hahahahahahaha. *points finger* and laughs some more.

Instaputz is not too impressed with Joe Klein. I guess it might have something to do with Joe's propensity to go on <a href="Ackerman">Hugh Hewitt's show and shuck and jive for him just like Halperin. Say it aint so Joe lol

sg...I had trouble with your link, so I'm assuming its the Instaputz item that had this: HH: But do gay rights matter, Joe?
JK: No, I mean, I don't think that they matter nearly as much as this other stuff.

First, I don't listen/read Hewitt. It encourages him too much. And I'm not fond of the tendency toward punditocracy national reporters get into. It's destroyed journalism by making them entertainers.

That said, JK's statement was little artless, perhaps, but I don't put it up with the sycophantic sludge that spewed from Halperin's mouth, who all but gave Hewitt a big, fat wet one.

Again, if/when Klein says something stupid, hit him for it. I've no problem with that. Let's just keep in mind what he's getting right too.

I worked till late yesterday, so I didn't have a chance to say it earlier: Happy Turkey Day, everyone! *Goes back to clutching her stomach and groaning in overfed agony*

Since I'm several time zones away, it's hard to get the timing right, but hope all in the Swamp had a great Thanksgiving. We went out to a restaurant that put together an American T-giving with turkey etc., but not quite the same.
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Safe travels Joe. Look forward to your posts when you return.

Speaking of India, it's interesting to contrast how the press over there is battering the government's failures, versus the our own press after 911.
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Indian papers flail intelligence failures in Mumbai attacks
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NEW DELHI (AFP) — Indian newspapers on Friday slammed the government and intelligence agencies for failing to prevent the Mumbai attacks, saying the country's anti-terrorism forces were ill-prepared for the militants.
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"Mumbai Maimed, Nation Shamed" read the banner headline in the Mail Today, which said the country's intelligence agencies "had no clue of the impending attack" despite spending huge amounts of money on anti-terror measures.

Source:AFP: Indian papers flail intelligence failures in Mumbai attacks
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In contrast, our own press swooned over Bush's three-days-late speech (and throwing a baseball) after he had gone hiding incognito after the attack, then went completely prostate, suspending all skepticism for 4 years. Even after the 911 Commission Report detailed all of the Bush Administration's failures to prevent the attack, the press politely refrained from bringing those failures to the public's attention, especially the August 8 PDB entitled "Bin Ladin Determined to Attack Inside the US."
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The US press cowered and transformed into slavish stenographers of the deceptions and outright lies disseminated by the Bush Administration while they systematically set upon dismantling our rule of law, our Constitutional checks and balances, and our constitutional protections against government overreach. They didn't do their job. It looks like the Indian press is doing theirs.