Former Vice President Dick Cheney tonight joins a chorus of critics who say President Barack Obama istaking way too long to decide whether to send another 40,000 U.S. troops to Afghanistan.

Cheney, no fan of any of the current administration’s foreign policy initiatives, prodded the White House to fulfill the president’s promise to give the U.S. armed forces a clear mission in Afghanistan and to do it now.

“It’s time for President Obama to make good on his promise. The White House must stop dithering while America’s armed forces are in danger, ” Cheney said in remarks prepared for delivery at the Center for Security Policy, a Washington think-tank.

“Having announced his Afghanistan strategy last March, President Obama now seems afraid to make a decision, and

unable to provide his commander on the ground with the troops he needs to complete his mission,” Cheney said.

Cheney also refuted what he said was a complaint by White House chief of staff Rahm Emanuel that “the Obama administration had to start from scratch to put together a strategy.”

“The new strategy they embraced in March, with a focus on counterinsurgency and an increase in the numbers of troops, bears a striking resemblance to the strategy we passed to them,” Cheney said.

“Now they seem to be pulling back and blaming others for their failure to implement the strategy

they embraced. It’s time for President Obama to do what it takes to win a war he has repeatedly and rightly called a war of necessity,” he added.

Earlier in the day, Obama said he could reach a decision on a new strategy before the outcome of Afghanistan’s presidential run- off on Nov. 7 And he pushed back against critics who accuse him of vacillating.

“We are going to take the time to get this right,” Obama told MSNBC.

“We’re not going to drag it out because there is a sense that the sooner we get a sound approach in place and personnel in place, the better off we’re going to be. But we also want to make sure that we don’t put resources ahead of strategy.”

Photo credit:Reuters/Joshua Roberts (Cheney speaking on national security in May)

By Rebecca Lovell, Francesca
Panetta, Christian Bennett
(World news and comment
from the Guardian |
guardian.co.uk)

In the fourth of five films, Berliners remember the night in November 1989 when the barrier between two ideologies was breached Rebecca Lovell

Google Maps with
Layers is now available
for BlackBerry (it’s must
-have download)

Google Maps is the best BlackBerry mapping solution I’ve found and it just got a whole lot cooler. The Layers function will overlay different information sets on the the current map few. For instance, you can overlay a location-aware Wikipedia screen. Or Latitude. Or even make your own favorite locations and travel itinerary in a function called My Maps. You really should watch the demo video to see it in action. It’s killer. Update your B l a c k B e r r y

Senator John Kerry, who once aspired to host meetings in the Oval Office, will be visiting President Barack Obama in that room Wednesday to talk about his recent trip to Afghanistan.

Kerry, chairman of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, was credited with playing a key role in convincing Afghan President Hamid Karzai to agree to a second round of voting ina disputed national election.

into Karzai’s ear on Tuesday was splashed across the major U.S. newspapers on Wednesday and news programs gave detailed reports on Kerry’sbehind-the- scenes shuttle diplomacy.

ABC news said over the last five days in Afghanistan, Kerry acted more like a secretary of state than a senator as he played a central role in brokering the agreement with Karzai and his main rival Abdullah Abdullah.

In Kabul on Tuesday after hours of talks with Karzai, Kerry said the Nov. 7 run-off would be difficult and made a point to praisethe Afghan leaderfor

Now Kerry has a chance to give advice and his impressions to Obama, who has been meeting with his war council to make a decision on whether to send more troops to Afghanistan. Obama administration officials have stressed that a credible and legitimate government in Kabul is essential for Washington to be able to succeed in Afghanistan.

A new Washington Post-ABC News public opinion poll showed that Americans are evenly and deeply divided over whether Obama should send 40,000 more troops to Afghanistan, as

The poll showed 47 percent in favor of a troop buildup in Afghanistan while 49 percent oppose it. The survey also found a large majority of Americans believe the administration lacks a clear plan for dealing with the problems in Afghanistan.

Photo credit: Reuters/Ahmad Masood (Kerry and Karzai at news conference in Kabul)

UPS delivers
lower Q3
earnings

Speedy delivery service United Parcel Service(NYSE: UPS) delivered a mixed bag of third- quarter results on Thursday.

The company reported earnings of 55 cents per share, topping the consensus estimate by two cents per share. While these results were better than the consensus estimate, they are a far cry from the 96 cents per share earned in the same quarter a year ago.

Quarterly sales came in at $11.15 billion, short of the consensus estimate of $11.17 billion and last year's $13.1 billion.

UPS delivers lower Q3 earnings originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Thu, 22 Oct 2009 09:20:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds. Permalink| Email this| Comments

That's the premise that Republican U.S. Senator Lamar Alexander is promoting.

Alexander served as U.S. education secretary in the administration of the first President George Bush and also as president of the University of Tennessee.

Speaking at the Reuters Washington Summit, Alexander suggested that more colleges take a look at allowing at least some students to obtain an undergraduate degree in three years rather than the normal four. "It's one way to attract students," he said.

How does he expect colleges to respond? "Skeptically," Alexander said. "Colleges don't change easily."

He said that the idea has been tried and worked on a limited basis -- and that the marketplace will likely determine how widespread a three-year degree becomes.

have been key to developing competitive advantages that help Americans produce 25 percent of all the world's wealth, he said.

But Alexander said tuition has soared, leaving students with unprecedented debt.

Writing in the Oct. 17 issue of Newsweek magazine, Alexander noted that Hartwick College, a small liberal arts school in upstate New York, offers three-year degrees to "well prepared- students" -- providing them the opportunity to save $43,000, the amount of one-year's tuition and fees.

He said a number of other "innovative colleges" are making the offer, too.

"The three-year degree could become the higher-education equivalent of the fuel-efficient car," wrote Alexander. "And that's both an opportunity and a warning for the best higher-education system in the world."

Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Senator Lamar Alexander at Reuters Washington Summit)

U.S. Commerce Secretary Gary Locke says one thing he doesn't want to see is a Shanghai Silicon Valley develop from China's investment in clean energy.

He warned that if the United States doesn't move forward on clean energy, it risks falling behind China where the government is spending almost $100 billion a year to support renewable energy and clean energy efficiency.

And China is not doing it just to address climate change issues, but because it sees an economic opportunity. "They're really focusing investing in the clean energy field to serve the needs of the world," Locke said at the Reuters Washington Summit.

"And so that's why it's very important that we pass clean energy legislation because there's so many investors, entrepreneurs, venture capitalists who are sitting on the sidelines waiting for that certainty," he said. "They just want to know what the rules of the game are, what the tax incentives are, what the tax rules and regulations are before they commit."

energy legislation, "the farther ahead the Chinese will be and we certainly do not want 10 years from now Shanghai and other parts of China to be the Silicon Valley of the clean energy field," Locke said.

He agreed with President Barack Obama's equation. "The president has said that the country that leads in the clean energy sector will lead the world economy, I believe that's true," Locke said.

Photo credit: Reuters/Jonathan Ernst (Commerce Secretary Gary Locke at Reuters Washington Summit)

Look at that monster burger. It’s five inches tall and of course is made with seven beef patties in honor of Windows 7. What’s the message here? Eat this burger to

hope that none of our Japanese readers actually buys the ¥777 ($8.50) burger. But if someone out there does, send us a pic. I would love to see how disguising the burger looks in real life. [via Electronista]