GUN VIOLENCE IN AMERICA: FOR WHO THE BELL TOLLS NEXT.

Just five people shy of Sandy Hook elementary school mass shooting incident that claimed 26 lives, the Uvalde Texas Robb elementary school mass shooting at 21 victims, now ranks among the highest grossing gun carnage in America. It is sad that such frequent blood spilling has tragically become part of our culture as a society. May the souls of the killed now rest.

25th AMENDMENT: ITS NOW ALL CRICKET.

Madam Speaker Nancy Pelosi once questioned former President Donald John Trump's fitness to remain in office due to what she claimed was his declining mental capacity. Does anyone know what Madam Speaker presently thinks about the incontrovertible case which America is now saddled with? Just curious!

WHO WILL REBUILD UKRAINE?

The West should convert frozen Russian assets, both state's and oligarchs' owned, into a full seizure and set them aside for the future rebuilding of Ukraine. Like the Marshal Plan, call it the Putin Plan.

A HERO IS BORN.

I am staying put. I will not run away and abandon my people. The fight is here in Ukraine. What I need are weapons and ammunitions, not a ride out of town like former Afghanistan President Ashraf Ghani - President Volodymyr Zelensky.

IT IS WHAT IT IS.

"There is too much hate in America because there is too much anger in America." - Trevor Noah.

WORD!

A life without challenges is not a life lived at all. A life lived is a life that has problems, confronts problems, solves problems and then learns from problems. - Tunde Fashola.

NOW, YOU KNOW.

When fishing for love, bait with your heart and not your brain, because you cannot rationalize love. - Mark Twain.

JUST THE FACT.

In our country, you can shoot and kill a nigger, but you better not hurt a gay person’s feelings - Dave Chappelle

DO YOU?.

“What you believe in can only be defined by what you’re willing to risk for it." - Stuart Scheller.

HEDGE YOUR CRISIS.

Never get in bed with a woman whose problems are worse than yours. - Chicago PD.

PROBLEM SOLVED.

'The best way to keep peace is to be ready to destroy evil. If you Pearl Harbor me, I Nagasaki you.' - Ted Nugent.

OUR SHARED HUMANITY.

Empathy is at the heart of who we are as human beings. - Cardinal Matthew Kukah.

WORDS ON MARBLE.

"Birth is agony. Life is hard. Death is cruel." - Japanese pithy.

REPENT OR PERISH - POPE.

Homosexuality is a sin. It is not ordained by God, therefore same sex marriage cannot be blessed by the church - Pope Francis.

CANCEL CULTURE IS CORROSIVE.


FOR SAKE OF COUNTRY.


MAGA LIVES ON: NO RETREAT, NO SURRENDER!

TWITTER IS BORING WITHOUT HIS TWEETS. #RestorePresidentTrump'sTwitterHandle.


WORD.

"If you cannot speak the truth when it matters, then nothing else you says matters.” - Tucker Carlson.

#MeToo MOVEMENT: A BAD NEWS GONE CRAZY.

"To all the women who testified, we may have different truth, but I have a great remorse for all of you. I have great remorse for all of the men and women going through this crisis right now in our country. You know, the movement started basically with me, and I think what happened, you know, I was the first example, and now there are thousands of men who are being accused and a regeneration of things that I think none of us understood. I’m not going to say these aren’t great people. I had wonderful times with these people. I’m just genuinely confused. Men are confused about this issue. We are going through this #MeToo movement crisis right now in this country." - Harvey Weinstein.


RON DELLUMS: UNAPOLOGETICALLY RADICAL.

"If it’s radical to oppose the insanity and cruelty of the Vietnam War, if it’s radical to oppose racism and sexism and all other forms of oppression, if it’s radical to want to alleviate poverty, hunger, disease, homelessness, and other forms of human misery, then I’m proud to be called a radical.” - Ron Vernie Dellums.


WHAT REALLY MATTERS IN LIFE - STEVE JOBS

“I reached the pinnacle of success in the business world. In others’ eyes, my life is an epitome of success. However, aside from work, I have little joy. Non-stop pursuing of wealth will only turn a person into a twisted being, just like me. God gave us the senses to let us feel the love in everyone’s heart, not the illusions brought about by wealth. Memories precipitated by love is the only true riches which will follow you, accompany you, giving you strength and light to go on. The most expensive bed in the world is the sick bed. You can employ someone to drive the car for you, make money for you but you cannot have someone to bear sickness for you. Material things lost can be found. But there is one thing that can never be found when it is lost – Life. Treasure Love for your family, love for your spouse, love for your friends. Treat yourself well. Cherish others.” - SJ

EVIL CANNOT BE TRULY DESTROYED.

"The threat of evil is ever present. We can contain it as long as we stay vigilant, but it can never truly be destroyed. - Lorraine Warren (Annabelle, the movie)


ONLY THE POOR WISH THEY HAD STUFF?

“I’m not that interested in material things. As long as I find a good bed that I can sleep in, that’s enough.” - Nicolas Berggruem, the homeless billionaire.

Thursday, August 28, 2008

DOBSON, WHO DOES HE WORSHIP?

What manner of a man of God is Pastor Dobson and his group of fanatical "Christians" aka 'American Talibans' that they "pray" for ills on imaginary enemies and supposed opponents, yet they pretend to worship God? Whatever happened to the creeds that Jesus Christ gave about loving your "enemy" and being a good Samaritan? Whatever happened to leadership by example? What about forgiveness and love? Where is the symbolism of 70 x 70 or was Jesus mincing words when he preached that gospel? Pastor Dobson's Focus on the Family "notoriety" prayed that Barack Obama's acceptance speech in Invesco stadium Denver be washed away by a deluge! That the heavens should open up and mar the open-air celebration of his acceptance speech and yet these demagogues profess Christianity. That rain should fall and soak all the beautiful preparations made for the historic acceptance speech? Using their exact same words, that "evangelical Christians have been asked to pray for “rain of biblical proportions” to fall on Senator Barack Obama as he accepts the Democratic nomination. (Stuart Shepard of James Dobson's Focus on the Family evangelical movement, one of America’s leading evangelical groups, was shown in a video filmed at Denver’s Invesco Field, asking Christians to pray for “torrential” rain).


If this is what every christian of the evangelical order looks like; if this Pastor Dobson and his flock is the true representative of the minds and hearts of all that profess evangelism, may this blogger die an heathen!

Why are you so evil, Pastor Dobson's group? What did your Jesus Christ preach regarding hate? It is despicable as it is horrifying that these charlatan devil-worshippers, racist bigots who mask themselves as men of God run amok in America today and you ask yourself what type of God do these decrepitude fellows worship? Icheoku says and emphatically too, that it cannot be the same biblical God of Abraham, Jacob and Isaac! Pastor Dobson's Focus on the Family group must be witch-doctors, voodoo priests and/or men whose heart reek with hatred and are as black from evil-doing as the darkest place on earth. At their current hate-driven madness and indiscriminate vitriolic utterances, the possibility exist that they especially their "leader", Dobson shall join Jerry Falwell in the hottest place in hell upon his demise! How can a supposed ambassadors of Christ be so hateful that it hurts.


Now Pastor Dobson's group, it would appear that your "god" has finally answered your "incantations" with hurricane Gustave as your Republican Party's convention may not hold at all. Is it possible that even the heavens disapproves of all the atrocities your party committed these past eight years of their being in power that immediately after a brilliant Democratic Party's convention, the heavens opened up with such a gift of hurricane for your party? Your hate-themed convention has been annulled from high above? How about that for prayers? Where was your golden rule? Icheoku says, please cease and desist from such hateful misbehaviour as it does not reflect a true man of God! All haters are hell-bound or would you rather dine with Lucifer? You may see the full report of the rain "prayer" by clicking this link Evangelicals asked to pray for rain at Barack Obama nomination

MARTIN LUTHER KING DREAMT OF OBAMA!

Today, August 28th 2008 as all men of goodwill, faith and hope commemorate the 40th anniversary of the etched in marble "I have a dream" speech, of Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr, delivered on the same date in 1963 at the Lincoln Memorial, Washington D.C. may we see in Barack Obama a potential realisation of what Nostradamus MLK foretold then! Icheoku says never in recent times has a prophesy come this close to fruition within a lifetime; and wish to thank Dr. Martin Luther King Jnr for paving the way for a hopeful Barack Obama's presidency! MLK, we are ever grateful for your being such a worthy and revered fore-runner of every present day possibilities in America regarding race relations.
Now please enjoy the full text of the "I have a dream" speech and do some soul-searching as you read on the act of selfless service. Happy trails!
"I am happy to join with you today in what will go down in history as the greatest demonstration for freedom in the history of our nation.
Five score years ago, a great American, in whose symbolic shadow we stand today, signed the Emancipation Proclamation. This momentous decree came as a great beacon light of hope to millions of Negro slaves who had been seared in the flames of withering injustice. It came as a joyous daybreak to end the long night of their captivity.
But 100 years later, the Negro still is not free. One hundred years later, the life of the Negro is still sadly crippled by the manacles of segregation and the chains of discrimination. One hundred years later, the Negro lives on a lonely island of poverty in the midst of a vast ocean of material prosperity. One hundred years later, the Negro is still languished in the corners of American society and finds himself an exile in his own land. And so we've come here today to dramatize a shameful condition.
In a sense we've come to our nation's capital to cash a check. When the architects of our republic wrote the magnificent words of the Constitution and the Declaration of Independence, they were signing a promissory note to which every American was to fall heir. This note was a promise that all men - yes, black men as well as white men - would be guaranteed the unalienable rights of life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.
It is obvious today that America has defaulted on this promissory note insofar as her citizens of color are concerned. Instead of honoring this sacred obligation, America has given the Negro people a bad check, a check that has come back marked "insufficient funds."
But we refuse to believe that the bank of justice is bankrupt. We refuse to believe that there are insufficient funds in the great vaults of opportunity of this nation. And so we've come to cash this check, a check that will give us upon demand the riches of freedom and security of justice. We have also come to his hallowed spot to remind America of the fierce urgency of now. This is no time to engage in the luxury of cooling off or to take the tranquilizing drug of gradualism. Now is the time to make real the promises of democracy. Now is the time to rise from the dark and desolate valley of segregation to the sunlit path of racial justice. Now is the time to lift our nation from the quicksands of racial injustice to the solid rock of brotherhood. Now is the time to make justice a reality for all of God's children.
It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment. This sweltering summer of the Negro's legitimate discontent will not pass until there is an invigorating autumn of freedom and equality. Nineteen sixty-three is not an end but a beginning. Those who hoped that the Negro needed to blow off steam and will now be content will have a rude awakening if the nation returns to business as usual. There will be neither rest nor tranquility in America until the Negro is granted his citizenship rights. The whirlwinds of revolt will continue to shake the foundations of our nation until the bright day of justice emerges.
But there is something that I must say to my people who stand on the warm threshold which leads into the palace of justice. In the process of gaining our rightful place we must not be guilty of wrongful deeds. Let us not seek to satisfy our thirst for freedom by drinking from the cup of bitterness and hatred. We must forever conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to a distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny. And they have come to realize that their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone.
And as we walk, we must make the pledge that we shall always march ahead. We cannot turn back. There are those who are asking the devotees of civil rights, "When will you be satisfied?" We can never be satisfied as long as the Negro is the victim of the unspeakable horrors of police brutality. We can never be satisfied as long as our bodies, heavy with the fatigue of travel, cannot gain lodging in the motels of the highways and the hotels of the cities. We cannot be satisfied as long as the Negro's basic mobility is from a smaller ghetto to a larger one. We can never be satisfied as long as our children are stripped of their selfhood and robbed of their dignity by signs stating "for whites only." We cannot be satisfied as long as a Negro in Mississippi cannot vote and a Negro in New York believes he has nothing for which to vote. No, no we are not satisfied and we will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like waters and righteousness like a mighty stream.
I am not unmindful that some of you have come here out of great trials and tribulations. Some of you have come fresh from narrow jail cells. Some of you have come from areas where your quest for freedom left you battered by storms of persecution and staggered by the winds of police brutality. You have been the veterans of creative suffering. Continue to work with the faith that unearned suffering is redemptive.
Go back to Mississippi, go back to Alabama, go back to South Carolina, go back to Georgia, go back to Louisiana, go back to the slums and ghettos of our northern cities, knowing that somehow this situation can and will be changed.
Let us not wallow in the valley of despair. I say to you today my friends - so even though we face the difficulties of today and tomorrow, I still have a dream. It is a dream deeply rooted in the American dream.
I have a dream that one day this nation will rise up and live out the true meaning of its creed: "We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal."
I have a dream that one day on the red hills of Georgia the sons of former slaves and the sons of former slave owners will be able to sit down together at the table of brotherhood.
I have a dream that one day even the state of Mississippi, a state sweltering with the heat of injustice, sweltering with the heat of oppression, will be transformed into an oasis of freedom and justice.
I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin but by the content of their character.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day down in Alabama, with its vicious racists, with its governor having his lips dripping with the words of interposition and nullification - one day right there in Alabama little black boys and black girls will be able to join hands with little white boys and white girls as sisters and brothers.
I have a dream today.
I have a dream that one day every valley shall be exalted, and every hill and mountain shall be made low, the rough places will be made plain, and the crooked places will be made straight, and the glory of the Lord shall be revealed and all flesh shall see it together.
This is our hope. This is the faith that I go back to the South with. With this faith we will be able to hew out of the mountain of despair a stone of hope. With this faith we will be able to transform the jangling discords of our nation into a beautiful symphony of brotherhood. With this faith we will be able to work together, to pray together, to struggle together, to go to jail together, to stand up for freedom together, knowing that we will be free one day.
This will be the day, this will be the day when all of God's children will be able to sing with new meaning "My country 'tis of thee, sweet land of liberty, of thee I sing. Land where my father's died, land of the Pilgrim's pride, from every mountainside, let freedom ring!"
And if America is to be a great nation, this must become true. And so let freedom ring from the prodigious hilltops of New Hampshire. Let freedom ring from the mighty mountains of New York. Let freedom ring from the heightening Alleghenies of Pennsylvania.
Let freedom ring from the snow-capped Rockies of Colorado. Let freedom ring from the curvaceous slopes of California.
But not only that; let freedom ring from Stone Mountain of Georgia.
Let freedom ring from Lookout Mountain of Tennessee.
Let freedom ring from every hill and molehill of Mississippi - from every mountainside.
Let freedom ring. And when this happens, and when we allow freedom ring - when we let it ring from every village and every hamlet, from every state and every city, we will be able to speed up that day when all of God's children - black men and white men, Jews and Gentiles, Protestants and Catholics - will be able to join hands and sing in the words of the old Negro spiritual: "Free at last! Free at last! Thank God Almighty, we are free at last!"

Wednesday, August 27, 2008

NO WAY! NO HOW! NO McCAIN!

Finally she delivered! Mrs Hilary Rodham Clinton that is - she salvaged herself at the Democratic Party's convention in Denver on Tuesday, August 26th, 2008! Hilary wholeheartedly, no holds-bare and without any reservation whatsoever threw her weighty support behind our Presidential nominee Senator Barack Obama. Icheoku says thank you Senator Hilary Clinton for a job well done; your sins and misspeaks are forgiven and now together we shall ensure that Barack Obama becomes the next president of America come, November 2008!

Now enjoy the full text of Senator Hilary Clinton's speech at Denver Colorado in August 26th 2008 Democratic Party's convention.

"I am honoured to be here tonight. A proud mother. A proud Democrat. A proud American. And a proud supporter of Barack Obama. My friends, it is time to take back the country we love. Whether you voted for me, or voted for Barack, the time is now to unite as a single party with a single purpose. We are on the same team, and none of us can sit on the sidelines. This is a fight for the future. And it's a fight we must win.
I haven't spent the past 35 years in the trenches advocating for children, campaigning for universal healthcare, helping parents balance work and family and fighting for women's rights at home and around the world ... to see another Republican in the White House squander the promise of our country and the hopes of our people. And you haven't worked so hard over the last 18 months, or endured the last eight years, to suffer through more failed leadership. No way. No how. No McCain.
Barack Obama is my candidate. And he must be our president. Tonight we need to remember what a presidential election is really about. When the polls have closed, and the ads are finally off the air, it comes down to you - the American people, your lives and your children's futures. For me, it's been a privilege to meet you in your homes, your workplaces, and your communities. Your stories reminded me every day that America's greatness is bound up in the lives of the American people - your hard work, your devotion to duty, your love for your children and your determination to keep going, often in the face of enormous obstacles. You taught me so much, you made me laugh, and ... you even made me cry. You allowed me to become part of your lives. And you became part of mine.
I will always remember the single mom who had adopted two kids with autism, didn't have health insurance and discovered she had cancer. But she greeted me with her bald head painted with my name on it and asked me to fight for healthcare. I will always remember the young man in a Marine Corps t-shirt who waited months for medical care and said to me: "Take care of my buddies; a lot of them are still over there … and then will you please help take care of me?" I will always remember the boy who told me his mom worked for the minimum wage and that her employer had cut her hours. He said he just didn't know what his family was going to do. I will always be grateful to everyone from all 10 states, Puerto Rico and the territories, who joined our campaign on behalf of all those people left out and left behind by the Bush administration. To my supporters, my champions - my sisterhood of the traveling pantsuits - from the bottom of my heart: thank you. You never gave in. You never gave up. And together we made history.
Along the way, America lost two great Democratic champions who would have been here with us tonight. One of our finest young leaders, Arkansas Democratic Party chair, Bill Gwatney, who believed with all his heart that America and the south could be and should be Democratic from top to bottom. And congresswoman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a dear friend to many of us, a loving mother and courageous leader who never gave up her quest to make America fairer and smarter, stronger and better. Steadfast in her beliefs, a fighter of uncommon grace, she was an inspiration to me and to us all.
Our heart goes out to Stephanie's son, Mervyn, Jr, and Bill's wife, Rebecca, who traveled to Denver to join us at our convention. Bill and Stephanie knew that after eight years of George Bush, people are hurting at home, and our standing has eroded around the world. We have a lot of work ahead. Jobs lost, houses gone, falling wages, rising prices. The supreme court in a right-wing headlock and our government in partisan gridlock. The biggest deficit in our nation's history. Money borrowed from the Chinese to buy oil from the Saudis. Putin and Georgia, Iraq and Iran.
I ran for president to renew the promise of America. To rebuild the middle class and sustain the American dream, to provide the opportunity to work hard and have that work rewarded, to save for college, a home and retirement, to afford the gas and groceries and still have a little left over each month. To promote a clean energy economy that will create millions of green collar jobs. To create a healthcare system that is universal, high-quality and affordable so that parents no longer have to choose between care for themselves or their children or be stuck in dead end jobs simply to keep their insurance.
To create a world-class education system and make college affordable again. To fight for an America defined by deep and meaningful equality - from civil rights to labour rights, from women's rights to gay rights, from ending discrimination to promoting unionisation to providing help for the most important job there is: caring for our families. To help every child live up to his or her God-given potential.
To make America once again a nation of immigrants and a nation of laws.
To bring fiscal sanity back to Washington and make our government an instrument of the public good, not of private plunder. To restore America's standing in the world, to end the war in Iraq, bring our troops home and honor their service by caring for our veterans. And to join with our allies to confront our shared challenges, from poverty and genocide to terrorism and global warming.
Most of all, I ran to stand up for all those who have been invisible to their government for eight long years. Those are the reasons I ran for president. Those are the reasons I support Barack Obama. And those are the reasons you should too. I want you to ask yourselves: Were you in this campaign just for me? Or were you in it for that young Marine and others like him? Were you in it for that mom struggling with cancer while raising her kids? Were you in it for that boy and his mom surviving on the minimum wage? Were you in it for all the people in this country who feel invisible?
We need leaders once again who can tap into that special blend of American confidence and optimism that has enabled generations before us to meet our toughest challenges. Leaders who can help us show ourselves and the world that with our ingenuity, creativity and innovative spirit, there are no limits to what is possible in America.
This won't be easy. Progress never is. But it will be impossible if we don't fight to put a Democrat in the White House. We need to elect Barack Obama because we need a president who understands that America can't compete in a global economy by padding the pockets of energy speculators, while ignoring the workers whose jobs have been shipped overseas. We need a president who understands that we can't solve the problems of global warming by giving windfall profits to the oil companies while ignoring opportunities to invest in new technologies that will build a green economy.
We need a president who understands that the genius of America has always depended on the strength and vitality of the middle class. Barack Obama began his career fighting for workers displaced by the global economy. He built his campaign on a fundamental belief that change in this country must start from the ground up, not the top down. He knows government must be about "we the people" not "we the favored few". And when Barack Obama is in the White House, he'll revitalise our economy, defend the working people of America, and meet the global challenges of our time. Democrats know how to do this. As I recall, President Clinton and the Democrats did it before. And President Obama and the Democrats will do it again.
He'll transform our energy agenda by creating millions of green jobs and building a new, clean energy future. He'll make sure that middle-class families get the tax relief they deserve. And I can't wait to watch Barack Obama sign a healthcare plan into law that covers every single American.
Barack Obama will end the war in Iraq responsibly and bring our troops home - a first step to repairing our alliances around the world. And he will have with him a terrific partner in Michelle Obama. Anyone who saw Michelle's speech last night knows she will be a great first lady for America. Americans are also fortunate that Joe Biden will be at Barack Obama's side. He is a strong leader and a good man. He understands both the economic stresses here at home and the strategic challenges abroad. He is pragmatic, tough and wise. And, of course, Joe will be supported by his wonderful wife, Jill. They will be a great team for our country. Now, John McCain is my colleague and my friend. He has served our country with honor and courage.But we don't need four more years ... of the last eight years.More economic stagnation … and less affordable healthcare. More high gas prices … and less alternative energy. More jobs getting shipped overseas … and fewer jobs created here. More skyrocketing debt ... home foreclosures … and mounting bills that are crushing our middle-class families. More war ... less diplomacy. More of a government where the privileged come first … and everyone else comes last. John McCain says the economy is fundamentally sound. John McCain doesn't think that 47m people without health insurance is a crisis. John McCain wants to privatise Social Security. And in 2008, he still thinks it's okay when women don't earn equal pay for equal work.
With an agenda like that, it makes sense that George Bush and John McCain will be together next week in the Twin Cities. Because these days they're awfully hard to tell apart. America is still around after 232 years because we have risen to the challenge of every new time, changing to be faithful to our values of equal opportunity for all and the common good.
And I know what that can mean for every man, woman and child in America. I'm a United States senator because in 1848 a group of courageous women and a few brave men gathered in Seneca Falls, New York, many traveling for days and nights, to participate in the first convention on women's rights in our history. And so dawned a struggle for the right to vote that would last 72 years, handed down by mother to daughter to granddaughter - and a few sons and grandsons along the way. These women and men looked into their daughters' eyes, imagined a fairer and freer world, and found the strength to fight. To rally and picket. To endure ridicule and harassment. To brave violence and jail.
And after so many decades - 88 years ago on this very day - the 19th amendment guaranteeing women the right to vote would be forever enshrined in our Constitution. My mother was born before women could vote. But in this election my daughter got to vote for her mother for president.
This is the story of America. Of women and men who defy the odds and never give up. How do we give this country back to them? By following the example of a brave New Yorker , a woman who risked her life to shepherd slaves along the Underground Railroad. And on that path to freedom, Harriett Tubman had one piece of advice. If you hear the dogs, keep going. If you see the torches in the woods, keep going. If they're shouting after you, keep going. Don't ever stop. Keep going. If you want a taste of freedom, keep going.
Even in the darkest of moments, ordinary Americans have found the faith to keep going. I've seen it in you. I've seen it in our teachers and firefighters, nurses and police officers, small business owners and union workers, the men and women of our military - you always keep going.
We are Americans. We're not big on quitting.
But remember, before we can keep going, we have to get going by electing Barack Obama president.We don't have a moment to lose or a vote to spare.Nothing less than the fate of our nation and the future of our children hang in the balance.I want you to think about your children and grandchildren come election day. And think about the choices your parents and grandparents made that had such a b
ig impact on your life and on the life of our nation.
We've got to ensure that the choice we
make in this election honours the sacrifices of all who came before us, and will fill the lives of our children with possibility and hope. That is our duty, to build that bri
ght future, and to teach our children that in America there is no chasm too deep, no barrier too great - and no ceiling too high - for all who work hard, never back down, always keep going, have faith in God, in our country and in each other.
Thank you so much. God bless America and Godspeed to you all".

Tuesday, August 26, 2008

MICHELLE OBAMA IN DENVER!

She was marvelous and poised as she re-introduced her husband Barack Obama and herself to the American populace at the Democratic Party's convention in Denver Colorado on Monday August 26th, 2008.

Now enjoy the full text of Michelle Obama's speech Monday August 26th, 2008

"As you might imagine, for Barack, running for President is nothing compared to that first game of basketball with my brother Craig. I can't tell you how much it means to have Craig and my mom here tonight. Like Craig, I can feel my dad looking down on us, just as I've felt his presence in every grace-filled moment of my life. At six-foot-six, I've often felt like Craig was looking down on me too literally. But the truth is, both when we were kids and today, he wasn't looking down on me — he was watching over me. And he's been there for me every step of the way since that clear February day 19 months ago, when — with little more than our faith in each other and a hunger for change — we joined my husband, Barack Obama, on the improbable journey that's brought us to this moment.
But each of us also comes here tonight by way of our own improbable journey. I come here tonight as a sister, blessed with a brother who is my mentor, my protector and my lifelong friend. I come here as a wife who loves my husband and believes he will be an extraordinary president.
I come here as a Mom whose girls are the heart of my heart and the center of my world — they're the first thing I think about when I wake up in the morning, and the last thing I think about when I go to bed at night. Their future — and all our children's future — is my stake in this election.
And I come here as a daughter — raised on the South Side of Chicago by a father who was a blue collar city worker, and a mother who stayed at home with my brother and me. My mother's love has always been a sustaining force for our family, and one of my greatest joys is seeing her integrity, her compassion, and her intelligence reflected in my own daughters.
My Dad was our rock. Although he was diagnosed with Multiple Sclerosis in his early thirties, he was our provider, our champion, our hero. As he got sicker, it got harder for him to walk, it took him longer to get dressed in the morning. But if he was in pain, he never let on. He never stopped smiling and laughing — even while struggling to button his shirt, even while using two canes to get himself across the room to give my Mom a kiss. He just woke up a little earlier, and worked a little harder. He and my mom poured everything they had into me and Craig. It was the greatest gift a child can receive: never doubting for a single minute that you're loved, and cherished, and have a place in this world. And thanks to their faith and hard work, we both were able to go on to college. So I know firsthand from their lives — and mine — that the American Dream endures. And you know, what struck me when I first met Barack was that even though he had this funny name, even though he'd grown up all the way across the continent in Hawaii, his family was so much like mine. He was raised by grandparents who were working class folks just like my parents, and by a single mother who struggled to pay the bills just like we did. Like my family, they scrimped and saved so that he could have opportunities they never had themselves. And Barack and I were raised with so many of the same values: that you work hard for what you want in life; that your word is your bond and you do what you say you're going to do; that you treat people with dignity and respect, even if you don't know them, and even if you don't agree with them. And Barack and I set out to build lives guided by these values, and pass them on to the next generation. Because we want our children — and all children in this nation — to know that the only limit to the height of your achievements is the reach of your dreams and your willingness to work for them. And as our friendship grew, and I learned more about Barack, he introduced me to the work he'd done when he first moved to Chicago after college. Instead of heading to Wall Street, Barack had gone to work in neighborhoods devastated when steel plants shut down, and jobs dried up. And he'd been invited back to speak to people from those neighborhoods about how to rebuild their community.
The people gathered together that day were ordinary folks doing the best they could to build a good life. They were parents living paycheck to paycheck; grandparents trying to get by on a fixed income; men frustrated that they couldn't support their families after their jobs disappeared. Those folks weren't asking for a handout or a shortcut. They were ready to work — they wanted to contribute. They believed — like you and I believe — that America should be a place where you can make it if you try. Barack stood up that day, and spoke words that have stayed with me ever since. He talked about "The world as it is" and "The world as it should be." And he said that all too often, we accept the distance between the two, and settle for the world as it is — even when it doesn't reflect our values and aspirations. But he reminded us that we know what our world should look like. We know what fairness and justice and opportunity look like. And he urged us to believe in ourselves — to find the strength within ourselves to strive for the world as it should be. And isn't that the great American story? It's the story of men and women gathered in churches and union halls, in town squares and high school gyms — people who stood up and marched and risked everything they had — refusing to settle, determined to mold our future into the shape of our ideals. It is because of their will and determination that this week, we celebrate two anniversaries: the 88th anniversary of women winning the right to vote, and the 45th anniversary of that hot summer day when Dr. King lifted our sights and our hearts with his dream for our nation. I stand here today at the crosscurrents of that history — knowing that my piece of the American Dream is a blessing hard won by those who came before me. All of them driven by the same conviction that drove my dad to get up an hour early each day to painstakingly dress himself for work. The same conviction that drives the men and women I've met all across this country:
People who work the day shift, kiss their kids goodnight, and head out for the night shift — without disappointment, without regret — that goodnight kiss a reminder of everything they're working for. The military families who say grace each night with an empty seat at the table. The servicemen and women who love this country so much, they leave those they love most to defend it. The young people across America serving our communities — teaching children, cleaning up neighborhoods, caring for the least among us each and every day.

People like Hillary Clinton, who put those 18 million cracks in the glass ceiling, so that our daughters — and sons — can dream a little bigger and aim a little higher. People like Joe Biden, who's never forgotten where he came from, and never stopped fighting for folks who work long hours and face long odds and need someone on their side again. All of us driven by a simple belief that the world as it is just won't do — that we have an obligation to fight for the world as it should be. That is the thread that connects our hearts. That is the thread that runs through my journey and Barack's journey and so many other improbable journeys that have brought us here tonight, where the current of history meets this new tide of hope. That is why I love this country. And in my own life, in my own small way, I've tried to give back to this country that has given me so much. That's why I left a job at a law firm for a career in public service, working to empower young people to volunteer in their communities. Because I believe that each of us — no matter what our age or background or walk of life — each of us has something to contribute to the life of this nation. It's a belief Barack shares — a belief at the heart of his life's work. It's what he did all those years ago, on the streets of Chicago, setting up job training to get people back to work and afterschool programs to keep kids safe — working block by block to help people lift up their families. It's what he did in the Illinois Senate, moving people from welfare to jobs, passing tax cuts for hard working families, and making sure women get equal pay for equal work.
It's what he's done in the United States Senate, fighting to ensure the men and women who serve this country are welcomed home not just with medals and parades, but with good jobs and benefits and health care — including mental health care.
That's why he's running — to end the war in Iraq responsibly, to build an economy that lifts every family, to make health care available for every American, and to make sure every child in this nation gets a world class education all the way from preschool to college. That's what Barack Obama will do as President of the United States of America. He'll achieve these goals the same way he always has — by bringing us together and reminding us how much we share and how alike we really are. You see, Barack doesn't care where you're from, or what your background is, or what party — if any — you belong to. That's not how he sees the world. He knows that thread that connects us — our belief in America's promise, our commitment to our children's future — is strong enough to hold us together as one nation even when we disagree. It was strong enough to bring hope to those neighborhoods in Chicago. It was strong enough to bring hope to the mother he met worried about her child in Iraq; hope to the man who's unemployed, but can't afford gas to find a job; hope to the student working nights to pay for her sister's health care, sleeping just a few hours a day. And it was strong enough to bring hope to people who came out on a cold Iowa night and became the first voices in this chorus for change that's been echoed by millions of Americans from every corner of this nation. Millions of Americans who know that Barack understands their dreams; that Barack will fight for people like them; and that Barack will finally bring the change we need. And in the end, after all that's happened these past 19 months, the Barack Obama I know today is the same man I fell in love with 19 years ago. He's the same man who drove me and our new baby daughter home from the hospital ten years ago this summer, inching along at a snail's pace, peering anxiously at us in the rearview mirror, feeling the whole weight of her future in his hands, determined to give her everything he'd struggled so hard for himself, determined to give her what he never had: the affirming embrace of a father's love.
And as I tuck that little girl and her little sister into bed at night, I think about how one day, they'll have families of their own. And one day, they — and your sons and daughters — will tell their own children about what we did together in this election. They'll tell them how this time, we listened to our hopes, instead of our fears. How this time, we decided to stop doubting and to start dreaming. How this time, in this great country — where a girl from the South Side of Chicago can go to college and law school, and the son of a single mother from Hawaii can go all the way to the White House — we committed ourselves to building the world as it should be. So tonight, in honor of my father's memory and my daughters' future — out of gratitude to those whose triumphs we mark this week, and those whose everyday sacrifices have brought us to this moment — let us devote ourselves to finishing their work; let us work together to fulfill their hopes; and let us stand together to elect Barack Obama President of the United States of America.
Thank you, God bless you, and God bless America".

Sunday, August 24, 2008

HILARY CLINTON, WHY?

What a friendly look, Hilary?

THE HIT LIST - our incredible but true story series: Serie 6!

1. Pedicure by Fish!

At Yvonne Hair & Nails Saloon in Alexandria Virginia, pedicure has taken a different meaning ad it is called nibbling by aquatic inhabitants! Getting a pedicure is now somewhat of an unusual experience. Instead of the usual Vietnamese little soothing hands prying away rough skins, it is fish that does the job. Garra Rufa fish they are called, are the pedicure specialists in this saloon.


2. Mixed twins for mixed couple!
Nature has a way of playing tricks on humanity. In Berlin Germany this mixed twins was born to a mixed couple, Mr and Mrs Gerth. Their mother, Florence Addo-Gerth, 35, is from Ghana and their father, Stephan Gerth, 40, is from Potsdam - Germany.
3. A five star hotel for dogs!
In San Francisco California, you can now check your dog or cat into a five star hotel exclusively just for dogs/cats!


4. Spray-on Condom!



One size fits all condom? The days of it is too loose or too small is finally over; all you have to do is just spray it on your manhood and it will dry alongside the contours for that perfect fit. The downside however it would seem is that by the time it dries up, "misterman" may have grown weary!
A German inventor, Jan Vinzenz Krause, has invented a spray-on condom that allows men of all sizes to have safe sex. See invention!

5. Women wanted, apply in person -

In Mount Issa Queensland near Brisbane Australia there is an acute shortage of women. According to the Mayor John Moloney there is no ugly woman in the dictionary of the town as every woman is treated as a queen by the ever virile but deprived randy miners that populate the sleepy mining town. So all the not so endowed "ugly ducklings" out there, who have been itching to be looked at or to get some, you have been put on notice! It is so bad it sucks! The ratio is five men to one woman! Icheoku asks is Mount Issa the "Brokeback Mountain" of Australia?

Saturday, August 23, 2008

OBAMA - BIDEN 08 (OBAMADEN TICKET)

Exactly what the doctor ordered! Barack Obama and Joseph Biden Democratic Ticket! What else can beat that? Icheoku says, nothing! It is a match made in political heaven and ready to role into 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue in January 2009 after winning the November presidential election! Anyone who watched Senator Joseph Biden run through the stage at Springfield Illinois to meet with the Presidential candidate Barack Obama will see what is good about America and her politics. Here was Senator Joseph Biden, first elected Senator when Barack Obama was only eleven years old running to answer his call to join his ticket as his running mate! Only in America - the land of all possibilities! And Joe Biden delivered on his first outing as Barack Obama' running mate!
Icheoku heretofore publishes the full transcript of the powerful Senator Joseph Biden Jr’s remarks after being introduced as Senator Barack Obama’s vice-presidential running mate in Springfield, Illinois today, August 23, 2008. Happy trails!
" Well, it's great to be here! On the steps of the old State House in the land of Lincoln. President Lincoln once instructed us to be sure to put your feet in the right place. Then stand firm. Today, Springfield, I know my feet are in the right place. And I am proud to stand firm for the next president of the United States of America, Barack Obama. Folks, Barack and I come from very different places, but we share a common story. An American story. He was the son of a single mom, a single mom who had to struggle to support her son and her kids. But she raised him. She raised him to believe in America. to believe that in this country there is no obstacle that could keep you from your dreams. If you are willing to work hard and fight for it. I was different. I was an Irish-Catholic kid from Scranton with a father who like many of yours in tough economic times fell on hard times, but my mom and dad raised me to believe, it's a saying Barack you heard me say before, my dad repeated it and repeated it. Said champ, it's not how many times you get knocked down, it's how quickly you get up. It's how quickly you get up. Ladies and gentlemen, that's your story. That's America's story. It's about if you get up, you can make it.
That's the America Barack Obama and I believe in. That's the American dream. And ladies and gentlemen, is there no ordinary times, and this is no ordinary election. Because the truth of the matter is, and you know it, that American dream under eight years of Bush and McCain, that American dream is slipping away. I don't have to tell you that. You feel it in your lives. You see it in your shrinking wages, and the cost of everything from groceries to health care to college to filling up your car at the gas station. It keeps going up and up and up, and the future keeps receding further and further and further away as you reach for your dreams. You know, ladies and gentlemen, it is not a mere political saying. I say with every fiber of my being I believe we cannot as a nation stand for four more years of this. We cannot afford to keep giving tax cuts after tax cuts to big corporations and the wealthiest Americans while the middle class America, middle class families are falling behind and their wages are actually shrinking. We can't afford four more years of a government that does nothing while they watch the housing market collapse. As you know, it's not just the millions of people facing foreclosure. It's the tens of millions of your neighbors who are seeing the values of their homes drop off a cliff along with their dreams.
Ladies and gentlemen, your kitchen table is like mine. You sit there at night before you put the kids -- after you put the kids to bed and you talk, you talk about what you need. You talk about how much you are worried about being able to pay the bills. Well, ladies and gentlemen, that's not a worry John McCain has to worry about. It's a pretty hard experience. He'll have to figure out which of the seven kitchen tables to sit at. Folks, again, it's not political sloganary when I say we literally can't afford four more years of this non- energy policy written by and for the oil companies, making us more and more dependent from hostile nations on our ability to run this country and literally, not figuratively, literally putting America's security at risk, we can't afford four more years of a foreign policy that has shredded our alliances and sacrificed our moral standing around the world.
Ladies and gentlemen, that's the bad news. But there is good news, America. We don't have to have four more years of George W. Bush. And John McCain. The next President of the United States is going to be delivered to the most significant moment in American history since Franklin Roosevelt. He will have such an incredible opportunity, incredible opportunity, not only to change the direction of America, but literally, literally to change the direction of the world. Barack Obama and I believe, we believe with every fiber in our being that our families, our communities as Americans, there's not a single solitary challenge we cannot face if we level with the American people. And I don't say that to say it; history, history has shown it. When have Americans ever, ever, ever, let their country down when they've had a leader to lead them?
Ladies and gentlemen, we believe that our tomorrows will be better than our yesterdays, and we believe we'll pass on to our children an even better life than the one we lived. That literally has been the American way, and it can be that way again. But there's a big, missing piece. The missing piece is leadership.

In all my time in the United States Senate, and I want you to know there's only four senators senior to me, but Barack, there's still 44 older than me. I want you to know that part. But all kidding aside, of all my years in the Senate, I have never in my life seen Washington so broken. I have never seen so many dreams denied and so many decisions deferred by politicians who are trying like the devil to escape their responsibility and accountability. But, ladies and gentlemen, the reckoning is now. And the reality, the reality is that we must answer the call or we will risk the harshest version and verdict of history. These times call for a total change in Washington's worldview. These times require more than a good soldier. They require a wise leader. A leader -- a leader who can deliver. A leader who can deliver the change we need.
I'll say straight up to you - John McCain and the press knows this, is genuinely a friend of mine. I've known John for 35 years. He served our country with extraordinary courage and I know he wants to do right by America. But the harsh truth is, ladies and gentlemen, you can't change America when you boast. And these are John's words, quote, the most important issues of our day, I've been totally in agreement and support of President Bush. Ladies and gentlemen, that's what he said. You can't change America when you supported George Bush's policies 95% of the time. You can't change America when you believe, and these are his own words, that in the Bush administration we've made great progress economically. You can't change America and make things better for our senior citizens when you signed on to Bush's scheme of privatizing social security. You can't change America and give our workers a fighting chance when after 3 million manufacturing jobs disappear, you continue to support tax breaks for companies who ship our jobs overseas. You can't change America and end this war in Iraq when you declare and, again, these are John's words, no one has supported President Bush in Iraq more than I have, end of quote. Ladies and gentlemen, you can't change America, you can't change America when you know your first four years as president will look exactly like the last eight years of George Bush's presidency.
My friends -- yes, we can. My friends, I don't have to tell you, this election year the choice is clear. One man stands ready to deliver change we desperately need. A man I'm proud to call my friend. A man who will be the next president of the United States, Barack Amer - You know, you learn a lot of things being up close with a guy. Let me tell you about Obama. You learn a lot about a man when you campaign with him. When you debate him 12 or 13 times. When you hear him speak. When you see how he thinks. And you watch how he reacts under pressure. You learn a lot about his strength of his mind, and I think even more importantly, the quality of his heart. Ladies and gentlemen, no one knows better than I do that presidential campaigns are crucibles in which you're tested and challenged every single day. And over the past 18 months, I've watched Barack meet those challenges with judgment, intelligence, and steel in his spine. I've watched as he's inspired millions of Americans, millions of Americans to this new cause.
And during those 18 months, I must tell you, frankly, I've been disappointed in my friend, John McCain, who gave in to the right wing of his party and yielded to the very swiftboat politics that he so -- once so deplored. And folks, campaigns for presidents are a test of character and leadership. And in this campaign, one candidate, one candidate has passed that test.
Barack has the vision, and what you can't forget, you know his vision, but let me tell you something. He also has the courage, the courage to make this a better place, and let me tell you something else, this man is a clear eyed pragmatist who will get the job done. I watch with amazement as he came to the Senate. I watch with amazement. He made his mark literally from day one reaching across the aisle to pass legislation to secure the world's deadliest weapons, standing up to some of the most entrenched interests in Washington, risking the wrath of the old order to pass the most sweeping ethics reform in a generation. But I was proudest, I was proudest, when I watched him spontaneously focus the attention of the nation on the shameful neglect of America's wounded warriors at Walter Reed Army Hospital. Ladies and gentlemen, I know I'm told I talk too colloquially, but there's something about this guy. There's something about this guy. There's something about Barack Obama that allows him to bring people together like no one I have worked with and seen. There's something about Barack Obama that makes people understand if they make compromises they can make things better.
It's been amazing to watch him. But then again, that's been the story of his whole life. I end where I began. This is a man raised by a single mother who sometimes was on food stamps as she worked to put herself through school, by grandparents from the prairies of Kansas who loved him, a grandfather, a grandfather who marched in Paton's Army and then came home and went to college on the G.I. Bill, and a grandmother, a grandmother with just a high school education, started off working in a small bank in the secretarial pool and rose to be vice president of that bank. Ladies and gentlemen, ladies and gentlemen, these remarkable people gave Barack Obama the determination and drive, and, yes, the values to turn down that big job on Wall Street, to come to Chicago's south side, where he helped workers help themselves after the steel mills had been shut down and the jobs disappeared.
Ladies and gentlemen, my wife Jill, who you'll meet soon, is drop dead gorgeous. My wife Jill, who you'll meet soon, she also has her doctorate degree, which is a problem. But all kidding aside, my Jill, my Jill, my wife Jill and I are honored to join Barack and Michelle on this journey, because that's what it is. it's a journey. We share the same values, the values that we had passed on to us by our parents and the values Jill and I are passing on to our sons Beau and Hunter and Ashley.
Ladies and gentlemen, I'm here for their future. I'm here for the future of your kids. I'm here for everyone I - I'm here for everyone I grew up in Scranton, Pennsylvania, who's been forgotten and everybody in Claymont, Delaware, in Wilmington where I lived. I'm here for the cops and the fire fighters, the teachers and the line workers, the folks who live - the folks whose lives are the measure of whether the American dream endures.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is no ordinary time. This is no ordinary election. And this may be our last chance to reclaim the America we love, to restore America's soul. Ladies and gentlemen, America gave Jill and me our chance. It gave Barack and Michelle their chance to stand on this stage today. It's literally incredible. These values, this country gave us that chance. And now it's time for all of us, as Lincoln said, to put our feet in the right place and to stand firm. Ladies and gentlemen, it's time to elect Barack Obama president. It's our time. It's America's time. God bless America, and may he protect our troops!"
In this link following is the introductory remarks of Presidential Candidate Barack Obama before Biden's remarks above:- Text: Senator Obama’s Remarks Introducing Senator Biden !
Go today to http://www.barackobama.com/ to help this superlative ticket!

Friday, August 22, 2008

OBAMADEN IS THE TICKET!

Joseph Biden pointing out to Barack Obama the way forward!


At last it is not Hilary Clinton so we are happy and satisfied! Icheoku had called for "anybody but Hilary Clinton" and Barack Obama listened to millions of such calls. Barack Obama is a wise one and Icheoku hereby re-endorses his candidacy and affirms that it shall be hence an all out campaign for the ticket!

Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware is it! He is Barack Obama's vice presidential candidate nominee and we are satisfied. A combination of these two very erudite Senators means that the campaign is finally ready as the necessary gravitas and foreign relations experience has been supplied; also the fear of the majority white men has been assuaged, hence nothing else can reasonably be asked of this campaign. America, now is your turn to show good faith - vote OBAMADEN 08!

Icheoku
heretofore sends a hearty congratulations to the ticket and particularly congratulates Senator Joseph Biden of Delaware for his selection by the Obama campaign as his vice presidential running mate. Together we shall take back the White-house. Now that the issue of the vice presidential candidacy has been taken care of, Icheoku here now reaffirms our total, full, complete and undiluted support for OBAMADEN 08 campaign.
For Grandpa Senator John McCain, you are hereby put on notice that our team of bloggers do not take prisoners, all valves are now open and we shall be firing from all cylinders to make sure your feeble campaign does not soar! This November 2008 election is obviously all too important and also the generational divide between you and our Barack Obama speaks of the feeble and the very energetic; this election is about ancient and modern; new and old, past and future, twilight and hope; possibilities and despondency and above all whether we shall move forward in a new direction with the new age or wallow in nostalgia of what once was with a near senility! The choice is clear - OBAMADEN!

Vote Barack Obama + Joseph Biden in November 2008 for president and vice president! Vote energy, courage, intelligence, audacity, hope, change and above all experience. You cannot beat the ticket! Once again, Icheoku says, CONGRATULATIONS OBAMADEN 08!

Barack Obama listening to wise counselling from Joseph Biden!

Go today to http://www.barackobama.com/ to help this superlative ticket!

Wednesday, August 20, 2008

PAT BUCHANAN SPEAKS!


With every imaginable protocol observed, particularly to the copyright owners CREATORS SYNDICATE INC.; Icheoku seeks permission to republish this article due to its insight and for the benefit of our teeming visitors. Messers Creators Syndicate Inc., please permit, authorize and accept this republication! It was done in good faith purely in the interest of extending the reach of this very insightful expose` to a wider world audience especially our ardent visitors. The views of Pat Buchanan as expressed here is entirely and fully adopted by Icheoku as very salient.

"Who Started Cold War II: - Opinion by Pat Buchanan
Tue Aug 19, 3:00 AM ET

The American people should be eternally grateful to Old Europe for having spiked the Bush-McCain plan to bring Georgia into NATO. Had Georgia been in NATO when Mikheil Saakashvili invaded South Ossetia, we would be eyeball to eyeball with Russia, facing war in the Caucasus, where Moscow's superiority is as great as U.S. superiority in the Caribbean during the Cuban missile crisis. If the Russia-Georgia war proves nothing else, it is the insanity of giving erratic hotheads in volatile nations the power to drag the United States into war.

From Harry Truman to Ronald Reagan, as Defense Secretary Robert Gates said, U.S. presidents have sought to avoid shooting wars with Russia, even when the Bear was at its most beastly. Truman refused to use force to break Stalin's Berlin blockade. Ike refused to intervene when the Butcher of Budapest drowned the Hungarian Revolution in blood. LBJ sat impotent as Leonid Brezhnev's tanks crushed the Prague Spring. Jimmy Carter's response to Brezhnev's invasion of Afghanistan was to boycott the Moscow Olympics. When Brezhnev ordered his Warsaw satraps to crush Solidarity and shot down a South Korean airliner killing scores of U.S. citizens, including a congressman, Reagan did — nothing. These presidents were not cowards. They simply would not go to war when no vital U.S. interest was at risk to justify a war. Yet, had George W. Bush prevailed and were Georgia in NATO, U.S. Marines could be fighting Russian troops over whose flag should fly over a province of 70,000 South Ossetians who prefer Russians to Georgians.

The arrogant folly of the architects of U.S. post-Cold War policy is today on display. By bringing three ex-Soviet republics into NATO, we have moved the U.S. red line for war from the Elbe almost to within artillery range of the old Leningrad. Should America admit Ukraine into NATO, Yalta, vacation resort of the czars, will be a NATO port and Sevastopol, traditional home of the Russian Black Sea Fleet, will become a naval base for the U.S. Sixth Fleet. This is altogether a bridge too far. And can we not understand how a Russian patriot like Vladimir Putin would be incensed by this U.S. encirclement after Russia shed its empire and sought our friendship? How would Andy Jackson have reacted to such crowding by the British Empire?

As of 1991, the oil of Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan and Azerbaijan belonged to Moscow. Can we not understand why Putin would smolder as avaricious Yankees built pipelines to siphon the oil and gas of the Caspian Basin through breakaway Georgia to the West? For a dozen years, Putin & Co. watched as U.S. agents helped to dump over regimes in Ukraine and Georgia that were friendly to Moscow. If Cold War II is coming, who started it, if not us? The swift and decisive action of Putin's army in running the Georgian forces out of South Ossetia in 24 hours after Saakashvili began his barrage and invasion suggests Putin knew exactly what Saakashvili was up to and dropped the hammer on him.

What did we know? Did we know Georgia was about to walk into Putin's trap? Did we not see the Russians lying in wait north of the border? Did we give Saakashvili a green light? Joe Biden ought to be conducting public hearings on who caused this U.S. humiliation. The war in Georgia has exposed the dangerous over-extension of U.S. power. There is no way America can fight a war with Russia in the Caucasus with our army tied down in Afghanistan and Iraq. Nor should we. Hence, it is demented to be offering, as John McCain and Barack Obama are, NATO membership to Tbilisi.

The United States must decide whether it wants a partner in a flawed Russia or a second Cold War. For if we want another Cold War, we are, by cutting Russia out of the oil of the Caspian and pushing NATO into her face, going about it exactly the right way. Vladimir Putin is no Stalin. He is a nationalist determined, as ruler of a proud and powerful country, to assert his nation's primacy in its own sphere, just as U.S. presidents from James Monroe to Bush have done on our side of the Atlantic.

A resurgent Russia is no threat to any vital interests of the United States. It is a threat to an American Empire that presumes some God-given right to plant U.S. military power in the backyard or on the front porch of Mother Russia. Who rules Abkhazia and South Ossetia is none of our business. And after this madcap adventure of Saakashvili, why not let the people of these provinces decide their own future in plebiscites conducted by the United Nations or the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe?
As for Saakashvili, he's probably toast in Tbilisi after this stunt. Let the neocons find him an endowed chair at the American Enterprise Institute".

This link takes you to the original publication:- Who Started Cold War II?

Also recommended is this story: -

STEPHANIE TUBBS JONES IS GONE!

Remember her on CNN fighting ferociously for Hilary Rodham Clinton's nomination during the last Democratic party's presidential primaries that eventually produced Barack Obama as the party's nominee! An avid Hilary Clinton supporter is no more, like all mortals, gone forever! United States of America House of Representative member, Stephanie Tubbs Jones was everywhere on the grounds of Ohio State, her district 11, talk-shows, TV etc campaigning for Hilary Clinton! According to Stephanie, Hilary should be the preferred choice for the Democratic Party. Her stance was surprisingly strange to many African Americans since she is black and race-loyalty ordinarily would have suggested she supported Barack Obama.
Stephanie died Wednesday August 20th, 2008 of aneurysm induced brain hemorrhage at Huron Hospital in East Cleveland, a facility owned and operated by the world famous Cleveland Clinics. Stephanie suffered the hemorrhage while driving her car in Cleveland Heights on Tuesday night preceding her Wednesday's death. Stephanie was just 58 years old!

Representative Stephanie Tubbs Jones was variously described as very feisty in anything she believes in; unwavering and indefatigable; poured her heart and soul into whatever she believes; outspoken and gregarious lawmaker and a fiery speaker who could inspire crowds at political rallies! Before running and winning her United States House of Representatives seat as Congress-woman representing 11th district, Ohio, Stephanie Tubbs Jones had served as a Cuyahoga County Common Pleas judge and prosecutor.
Icheoku
asks, what is the essence of life? How can a life so full and vibrant be suddenly cut short? If only we understand this drama called life, then life as we know it could become more meaningful and livable! Until that time, please take a deep breath and adjust your attitude to your fellow human-beings as tomorrow may be unattainable. Do not wait until tomorrow whatever you can do today including some favors. Here was Congress-woman Stephanie Tubbs Jones, a United States of America House of Representatives member and a Democratic Party's super-delegate getting ready for their Denver convention next week! She was hale and hearty; was just cruising in her car in a summer evening and possibly miming a tune when suddenly an artery ruptured somewhere in her brain and the rest is now history. Please search your soul, dear visitor; tidy up your affairs, make peace with yourself today as no one knows the time or the hour of exit!

Tuesday, August 19, 2008

AS ZAMBIA MOURNS!


President Levy Mwanawasa who died at Percy Military Hospital, Paris, France from complications of a stroke he suffered on June 29th, 2008 while attending the 11th Session of the African Union Heads of State and Government Summit in Egypt. Levy Mwanawasa was 59 years old.

Levy prior to this fatal stroke, suffered a minor stroke in April 2006, four months before he won a reelection, which term he was serving as president before his death. Also as a vice-president in the 1990s he was also involved in a near-fatal road accident.

President Levy Mwanawasa was described variously as a champion of democracy whose death was a great loss for the African continent and a great leader loved by his people because he did great things.

Levy Mwanawasa was born in Mufulira, Zambia, on 3 September 1948, second child in a family of 10. He was married and had six children. He was a practising lawyer since 1973 until 1982 when he was appointed by former president, Kenneth Kaunda, as the Solicitor General of Zambia. That same year he was appointed vice president of Zambia by then President Frederick Chiluba; a position which he resigned in 1994 in protest of gross abuse of office and corruption by some government officials. In December 2001 after his predecessor retired from power in what became the country's fourth multi-party elections since independence from Britain in 1964, Levy Mwanawasa was elected first term President of Zambia. Mwanawasa declared a zero tolerance on corruption and insisted on cautious expenditure of public resources. But his critics accused him of persecuting his political rivals under the guise of fighting corruption.
To the family of Levy Mwanawasa and his people of Zambia, Icheoku says may you treasure his memory through the legacy he left behind. To die is to live in the heart of those who loves you! Adieu President Levy Mwanawasa, rest in peace.

THE LOOK OF CHAMPIONS!

At the Beijing 2008 Olympics please meet and greet outstanding champions, Michael Phelps of the United States of America and Usain Bolt of Jamaica!



Michael Phelps 'great-white' like performances was magical and he came up tops with eight (8) Olympic gold medals to show for these efforts. Icheoku says congratulations for a job well done! All the trainings eventually paid off and big!

Usain Bolt lived up to his name and like a 'lighting-bolt' zapped the 100 meters race. Icheoku says congratulations to this son of Jah, Yaman! With a 9.68 seconds Olympic record set in the men's 100 meters race, Usain Bolt needs no additional introduction.

Icheoku singled out these two guys for a particular mention because 8 gold medals and a 9.68 seconds 100 meters Olympic record are both stellar and groundbreaking!











For all other winners and participants alike, Icheoku says congratulations for winning and participating in the XXIV Olympiad. It is a friendship sports and participation is equally very important, although winning does not hurt! Once again, CONGRATULATIONS!