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There have been many rumors that Joe Biden's name will be removed from the Democrat ticket (some say the date will be October 5th). However what purpose would removing his name serve? In most of the 50 states Biden's name will physically remain on the ballot; absentee ballots are distributed and it has been estimated that one third of all the votes will have been cast prior to November 4th. There have been past Senatorial and Representative campaigns when one of the candidates has died prior to the election. The dead candidate's name remains on the ballot, votes are cast,...

If this is true, I don't see how the guy wins even one state in November. From the New York Post. While campaigning in public for a speedy withdrawal of US troops from Iraq, Sen. Barack Obama has tried in private to persuade Iraqi leaders to delay an agreement on a draw-down of the American military presence. According to Iraqi Foreign Minister Hoshyar Zebari, Obama made his demand for delay a key theme of his discussions with Iraqi leaders in Baghdad in July. "He asked why we were not prepared to delay an agreement until after the US elections and...

WASHINGTON, Aug. 16, 2008 – Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said today she expects Russia, which reportedly signed a cease-fire deal with Georgia, will begin to withdraw its forces “expeditiously” from the former Soviet republic. Russian President Dmitriy Medvedev today signed a French-brokered peace deal, a day after Georgia's President Mikheil Saakashvili endorsed the agreement, which includes a drawdown of troops to levels that existed before Russia invaded its neighbor last week, according to news reports. “Now that President Medvedev has reportedly signed the cease-fire agreement, I assume that Russian forces are going to begin to withdraw expeditiously,” Rice...

BEIRUT, Lebanon - Hezbollah TV says that Hezbollah-led opposition forces will withdraw all their gunmen from Beirut in compliance with an army request. An opposition statement says the move comes after the army called on gunmen to get off the street and reopen the roads. But the statement said that a "civil disobedience" campaign will continue until its demands are met. Hezbollah gunmen seized most of the capital's Muslim sector Friday in the worst sectarian strife since a 15-year civil war ended nearly two decades ago. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier...

McCain considers setting benchmarks for Iraqis By Margaret Talev McClatchy-Tribune Tucson, Arizona | Published: 01.26.2007 WASHINGTON — Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., one of the most stalwart supporters of the war in Iraq, said Thursday that he might propose that the Iraqi government meet certain benchmarks for the United States to continue its engagement. Fellow senators and independent political scientists said McCain's thinking reflected growing concerns within the Republican Party about the course of the war, and also might mark a turning point for the likely 2008 presidential contender, whose previous unconditional backing of the war may have hurt his prospects....

Democratic presidential front-runner Hillary Clinton said Sunday she won't vote for any more money to support the four-year-old war in Iraq without a plan to start bringing U.S. troops home.

WASHINGTON - Iraq has achieved only spotty military and political progress toward a democratic society, the Bush administration conceded Thursday, an unenthusiastic assessment followed quickly by a House vote to withdraw U.S. troops by spring. The measure passed 223-201 in the Democratic-controlled House despite a veto threat from President Bush, who has ruled out any change in war policy before September. "The security situation in Iraq remains complex and extremely challenging," the administration report concluded. The economic picture is uneven, it added, and the government has not yet enacted vital political reconciliation legislation. As many as 80 suicide bombers per...

"We will not achieve our goals … if our eyes are always on the clock and our focus is solely on what others do. We are more than bookkeepers and spectators. We are leaders, and our fundamental objective … is not to leave. It's to win."-- Madeleine Albright, Secretary of State under President Clinton,regarding President Clinton's use of force in the Balkians

Sadr raises pressure for US to withdraw By Damien McElroy, Foreign Affairs Correspondent Last Updated: 2:20am BST 17/04/2007 The United States faced a fresh challenge to its presence in Iraq yesterday when supporters of Moqtada al-Sadr's radical Shia Muslim movement quit the Baghdad government to demand a deadline for withdrawal of its troops. By pulling out of the ruling Shia Alliance coalition, Sadr has moved a step closer to outright confrontation with the American-led military effort to stabilise Iraq. A Shia militiaman wears an identity card with a picture of Moqtada al-Sadr on the back The loss of Sadr's followers,...

(CNSNews.com) - Securing Iraq is a lost cause for U.S. forces, and President Bush should begin withdrawing troops to avoid "floundering ineffectually" and further damaging U.S. credibility, a report issued by the Council on Foreign Relations concludes. "The American intervention in Iraq unseated a murderous despot in April 2003," Steven Simon, a senior fellow at CFR, acknowledges in the report, originally published last week but presented Wednesday in a teleconference. "It also triggered the collapse of the Iraqi state, plunged the country into a civil war that brought about the deaths of tens of thousands of Iraqi civilians, wrecked the...

WASHINGTON — Rep. Nancy Pelosi's public statements on Iraq decidedly fall in favor of a quick withdrawal of U.S. troops, but the House speaker's position hasn't always been for a "cut and run" approach. In mid-2004, then Minority Leader Pelosi called for increasing the number of troops in Iraq and scolded the administration for not incorporating more troops into its initial war plans. The conflicting statements may make for a useful political weapon by opponents, but an aide to Pelosi said the contrasts do not reflect any inconsistency and should be viewed in terms of then and now.

TEHRAN (Reuters) - Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad said on Sunday Iran was ready to help the United States and Britain in Iraq but only if they pledged to change their attitude and withdraw their troops. The remark comes amid growing calls for Washington to engage Iraq’s neighbors, Iran and Syria, to help prevent Iraq plunging into civil war. A senior U.S. official said this month Washington was "in principle" ready to discuss Iraq with Iran but said the timing of such talks was unclear. Ahmadinejad has previously said he would talk but only if Washington changed its behavior. "The Iranian...

Why America must get out of Iraq now. Courtesy US DOD Withdraw immediately or stay the present course? That is the key question about the war in Iraq today. American public opinion is now decidedly against the war. From liberal New England, where citizens pass town-hall resolutions calling for withdrawal, to the conservative South and West, where more than half of “red state” citizens oppose the war, Americans want out. That sentiment is understandable. The prewar dream of a liberal Iraqi democracy friendly to the United States is no longer credible. No Iraqi leader with enough power and legitimacy to...

WASHINGTON -- After months of trying unsuccessfully to develop a common message on the war in Iraq, Democratic Party leaders are beginning to coalesce around a broad plan to begin a quick withdrawal of US troops and install them elsewhere in the region, where they could respond to emergencies in Iraq and help fight terrorism in other countries. The concept, dubbed ''strategic redeployment," is outlined in a slim, nine-page report coauthored by a former Reagan administration assistant Defense secretary, Lawrence J. Korb, in the fall. It sets a goal of a phased troop withdrawal that would take nearly all US...

Iran says UK must withdraw troops from Basra Staff and agencies Friday February 17, 2006 The Iranian foreign minister today demanded that Britain pull its troops out of the southern Iraqi city of Basra. Speaking during a visit to Lebanon, Manouchehr Mottaki said: "The Islamic Republic of Iran demands the immediate withdrawal of British forces from Basra." He said UK troops were destabilising the city. The prime minister, Tony Blair, dismissed the comments as an attempt to "divert attention" from international concerns over Iran's stability. Mr Blair today held talks with the German chancellor, Angela Merkel, in Berlin, at which...

Hackett Says Fellow Democrats 'Hurt' Campaign CINCINNATI (Feb. 15) - Iraq war veteran Paul Hackett, a Bush administration critic who had been recruited by top Democrats to run for U.S. Senate, said Tuesday he was reluctantly dropping his campaign and declared his political career over. Paul Hackett, seen here meeting voters, says he was pressured by top Democrats to abandon his Ohio Senate campaign. Hackett said he was pressured by party leaders to drop out of the Senate primary and run for the House against Republican Rep. Jean Schmidt instead. National Democratic leaders, especially Sen. Charles Schumer, added to that...

Almost since the moment Congressman John Murtha (D-Pennsylvania) took the stage last Thursday to call for the withdrawal of American troops from Iraq, the left and the media that supports them have gone out of their way to construct a picture of this Vietnam veteran that is somewhat inconsistent with the truth.

Fellow Americans: The Sacramento City Council is feeling the heat because of you and this Veteran's Day weekend we need to step up our efforts. After the Council passed a resolution by an 8-1 vote calling for the immediate withdrawal from Iraq and saying that, "we're losing in Iraq," the Council Members have been bombarded with over 1,000 phone calls, emails, letters and FAXes. This is all because of you. And here's the best part - now the Council Members are starting to back track. Not only have they gone to the news media to "clarify" their intentions, but...

WASHINGTON - In a striking defeat for President Bush, White House counsel Harriet Miers withdrew her nomination to the Supreme Court on Thursday after three weeks of brutal criticism from fellow conservatives. The Senate's top Republican predicted a replacement candidate within days.

Dear Harriet: I write to you today as one conservative woman to another, asking you to do something that almost no one in Washington, D.C., seems capable of doing: putting your own self-interest aside and withdrawing your name from consideration as a U.S. Supreme Court justice. Watching from outside the Beltway of Washington, D.C., I see and hear things that are not reported by the mainstream media. As a talk-show host, I hear from our conservative base on a daily basis, and it's not encouraging for your nomination. By asking President Bush to withdraw your name from nomination to the...

Yikes, the Associated Press, in Senate Dems Defend Miers on Top Court Nod, points with glee how the Democrats are trying to take advantage of the rift between conservatives on Harriet Miers' nomination to the Supreme Court. Senator Mikulski is dead wrong -- the opposition to Miers doesn't relate to her gender at all, but is rather a battle between what The Black Republican calls Church Lady v. Ivy League. And, as Peggy Noonan states, there is a "great old American tradition of not really liking Church Lady. However, Mikulski is correct by saying that "a woman who was one of...

PHOENIX - Anti-war activist Cindy Sheehan is urging Governor Napolitano to request the withdrawal of Arizona National Guard troops from Iraq. Her request was made in a letter she delivered today to the governor's office. She cited the potential danger of wildfires as well as a loss of firefighters and law enforcement officers as reasons .....

My fellow Americans, my parents’ generation is known as the Greatest Generation. But it was not because they were the Greatest Generation that they prevailed in World War II. Rather, they became the Greatest Generation because of the struggles and hardships they were willing and able to endure — in order to win World War II. Their struggle then was against the forces of totalitarianism and terror. Our struggle today is — once again — against the forces of totalitarianism and terror. Their challenge was immense and the stakes were historic. Our challenge is immense and the stakes are historic....

Poland to Pull Troops from Iraq at End of Year By REUTERS Published: April 12, 2005 Filed at 6:20 a.m. ET WARSAW (Reuters) - Poland's government decided on Tuesday to withdraw its troops from Iraq at the end of 2005, making official an earlier proposal, Defense Minister Jerzy Szmajdzinski said. ``At the time of the expiry of the Security Council's mandate -- meaning at the end of 2005 -- the operations of the Polish stabilization mission should be finished,'' Szmajdzinski told a news conference after a cabinet meeting. Poland, a close ally of Washington in Europe and one of the...

Just a few months ago, during the Presidential election, Iraq was the center of the political universe. It was a crisis, at the boiling point, a fiasco, a failure; and all media talk centered on the need for a "quick exit strategy," otherwise known as "John Kerry." The day after the election, the unavoidable crisis that had reached the boiling point was moved to the back burner to simmer indefinitely. Apparently, the unbearable burden became somehow more bearable when it could no longer benefit the Democratic Party to comment upon its weight. So I suppose our surrender will need to...

Why Syria loves Lebanon: Billions in skimmed revenues, Bekaa Valley's drug paradise, top-secret WMD tunnels 3-18-05 http://www.geostrategy-direct.com President Bashar Assad loves little Lebanon because he and his cronies have been sucking their neighbor dry for years. Lebanon feeds billions of dollars into Assad's coffers that allows him to resist Western sanctions and maintain power. Assad inherited this revenue stream, U.S. officials said. His late father, Hafez, created the system. First, Lebanon has been a drug paradise for the Assad regime. The Bekaa Valley, heavily guarded by Iranian and Syrian troops, contains one of the largest drug operations in the world....

U.S. President George W. Bush reveals his true vision for the future of Israel: Removal of Jewish communities to make room for a contiguous PLO state in Judea and Samaria. Bush's statement was made at a press conference with Jordan's King Hussein at his side. Bush called on Israel to “sacrifice, meaning that Israel must withdraw from the settlements, there must be contiguous territory for a Palestinian state – into which a Palestinian state can grow.” Inasmuch as the Sharon government is adopting the Bush vision for the Middle East, the current plan for expelling Jewish residents from Gaza and...

Despite an upsurge in the frequency and severity of terrorist attacks, the IDF is going ahead with plans to transfer control of five key cities in Judea and Samaria to the Palestinian Authority. Defense Minister Shaul Mofaz is scheduled to meet with PA Chairman Mahmoud Abbas in the next few days in order to coordinate the IDF withdrawal. The withdrawal, agreed upon at the Sharon-Abbas summit in Sharm El-Sheik, has been held up due to a terrorist attack on a Tel Aviv night club on February 25, which killed five and wounded 50. The suicide bomber came from Tulkarem, one...

So, Iraqis went to the polls and bested the expectations that many pundits had for their election. People may be too scared to vote. People may not care to vote. Those predictions, it turned out, were wrong. Now Iraq can continue to build on the success of a vote - yes, not all Iraqis got to go to the polls because of safety issues in their areas - and work on creating a more secure nation. Sen. Ted Kennedy, D-Mass., has already called for the United States to look beyond the election and start bringing U.S. troops home, possibly including...

A wise young thing writes provocatively. He wants to know when the serious right wing in America — National Review, and critical legislators and commentators — is going to come out and say what he thinks, that we were wrong to go into Iraq. At a dinner meeting in New York last week of fourteen urbane and weighty conservatives, the host asked the question, How many of you would have voted to go into Iraq if circumstances were as advertised? The vote in favor of intervention was unanimous. The next question was, "Given what we now know, are you glad...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) - The United States is calling for the immediate withdrawal of Syrian forces from Lebanon, according to a a draft resolution circulated in the U.N. Security Council late Tuesday. The new measure also offers support for elections under the current Lebanese constitution, which would rule out a second term for pro-Syrian President Emile Lahoud. The United States decided to press for a resolution - with the support of France, Lebanon's former colonial ruler - after what many saw as a Syrian-engineered move to change the constitution to extend Lahoud's term. The resolution calls on the council "to...

WASHINGTON (AP) - Illinois Republican senatorial candidate Jack Ryan, his candidacy in turmoil over sex club allegations, decided to quit his quest for Congress on Friday. "I am today withdrawing from the race," he said in a statement prepared by his campaign. "What would take place, rather, is a brutal, scorched-earth campaign - the kind of campaign that has turned off so many voters, the kind of politics I refuse to play." Politics is a cruel mistress. If Jack Ryan were a masochist instead of an exhibitionist, he might be having the time of his life right now. The 44-year-old...

JPost.com » News » Security-Diplomacy » PM fires Elon and Lieberman Jun. 1, 2004 23:47 | Updated Jun. 4, 2004 16:19 PM fires Elon and Lieberman By TOVAH LAZAROFF Cabinet secretary Yisrael Maimon spoke Friday morning with all Israeli Cabinet ministers, informing them of prime minister Ariel Sharon's decision to dismiss Transportation Minister Avigdor Lieberman and Tourism Minister Benny Elon. Once all the ministers were informed, as is demanded by Israeli law, messengers were sent to Elon and Lieberman's homes with their letters of dismissal. "According to the protocols of the law I have decided to relieve you of your...

Well, Spain's Zapatero is withdrawing troops from the battle against terrorism in Iraq. Once again, when danger reared its ugly head, he proudly tucked his tail and fled...

Pressure mounted on Sen. Tom McClintock to withdraw from the gubernatorial race Tuesday as Sen. Minority Leader Jim Brulte endorsed rival Republican Arnold Schwarzenegger. Brulte joined other GOP leaders in voicing fears that McClintock and Schwarzenegger will split the Republican vote and ensure victory for Democratic Lt. Gov. Cruz Bustamante. The endorsement dealt a blow to McClintock, especially since Brulte has long been a supporter. Brulte co-chaired McClintock's campaign for state controller last year and raised significant amounts of money for him. But Brulte noted that McClintock continues to place third in statewide polls. A survey released last week by...

In the clearest sign yet that the Republican Party is coalescing behind actor Arnold Schwarzenegger, three influential party leaders Tuesday ratcheted up the pressure on state Sen. Tom McClintock to abandon his bid to be governor. The state's ranking Republican, Senate Minority Leader Jim Brulte, said McClintock's candidacy threatens to put another Democrat in the governor's office. The man who bankrolled the recall petition drive, U.S. Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Vista, pointedly called on McClintock to drop out of the race. And the former head of the party, a fellow conservative, is asking county chairs to endorse the more moderate Schwarzenegger...

MIAMI -- A group of Florida Republican state representatives is warning President Bush that he could lose their support for the 2004 election if he fails to adopt a tougher Cuba policy. The Cuban-American leaders drafted a letter to be mailed Monday asking the administration to revise its current migration policy, indict Fidel Castro for the 1996 shoot down of two planes by Cuban fighter jets, ensure that TV Marti is viewed by people in Cuba and increase aid to dissidents on the island. ``We feel it is our responsibility as Republican elected officials to inform you that unless substantial...

17 March – The United Kingdom, United States and Spain today announced they will not pursue a vote in the Security Council on a draft resolution presenting an ultimatum to Iraq and said they reserved the right to take their own steps to secure that country’s disarmament. MORE TO FOLLOW

US ready to withdraw South Korea troops By Rupert Cornwell in Washington 07 March 2003 Despite the worsening confrontation with North Korea, Washington is considering pulling some or all of its 37,000 troops away from the South's border, and perhaps out of the Korean peninsula altogether. At a question-and-answer session with Pentagon employees yesterday, Donald Rumsfeld, the US Defence Secretary, said Washington's existing force deployments in Europe and Korea were a Cold War relic. He added that the South Korean economy was "25 to 35 times" as large as that of the reclusive Communist north, meaning that Seoul had "all...

Kuwaitis withdraw capital from US By Jack Fairweather in Kuwait (Filed: 01/01/2003) Kuwaitis, faced with the threat of war against Iraq, are withdrawing hundreds of millions of dollars from America to invest at home. Kuwait's stock market has soared by more than 30 per cent in the past year, and last month alone around $90 million (£60 million) was removed from investment projects in America. The reason, according to one Kuwaiti investor, is simple: "People in Kuwait are looking at what happened to America on September 11, and all the threats of further terrorism, and have reached the decision that...

Should Israel Withdraw? Is Anti-Israel Violence 'Terrorism?'

MADRID, April 23 (Xinhuanet) -- The European Union (EU), on Tuesday, demanded that Israel suspend its military operations and immediately withdraw its forces from the Palestinian cities of Bethlehem and Ramallah. The demand was included in a document adopted by the foreign ministers of the EU at the end of the 5th Euro-Mediterranean Conference which concluded in the Spanish city of Valencia, in theeast part of the Iberian country. The EU asked Israel to respect and guarantee the personal security and liberty of movement of Palestinian President Yasser Arafat, and find a peaceful solution to the Israeli siege of the...

UNITED NATIONS, April 9 (IslamOnline & news Agencies) - The U.N. Security Council is to resume debate Tuesday, April 9, on an Arab request for another resolution calling on Israel to withdraw from the West Bank, as Israeli tanks pulled out of two towns. U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John Negroponte, rebuffed the request late Monday, saying it was "time for leadership on the ground and in the region. We do not need any more resolutions, we need full implementation of the existing ones." He was speaking Monday, April 8, in a public debate, the council's fifth meeting since...