Here’s a really nice profile of Barack Obama from the DNC 2008

Representative John Yarmuth, a Democrat from Kentucky, said that the Iraq war is a is a “leading cause” of the United State’s recent economic troubles. The Iraq war cost “more than half-a-trillion dollars,” money that he said could and should be used on problems within the United States and not wasted on the improgress associated with the Iraq war effort. “Across America, our roads and bridges are crumbling and are in desperate need of repair, yet taxpayer dollars are being squandered on an Iraqi government that is riddled with waste, fraud and corruption…The cost of one month in Iraq could extend the Children’s Health Insurance Program, which the president vetoed, to 10 million children of working families for a full year,” he said.

Former United States President Jimmy Carter said that he will likely meet with the militant group Hamas during a trip to Syria. “It’s likely that I will be meeting with the Hamas leaders,” Carter told ABC News.

He says he hopes for cooperation from Hamas in pushing forward the Israeli peace initiative.

The decision was not taken in warmly by Israeli leaders, who said that they have no plans to meet with him during his trip to the mideast.

U.S. President George W. Bush ended up his trip to Israel and the West Bank on Friday, where he met with Israeli and Palestinian leaders for the promotion of his peace plan.

U.S. President George W. Bush arrived in Israel on Jan. 9, for his first trip during his presidency. The reason for the trip is to promote peace talks he initiated for the region late last year. During their discussion, Israeli Prime Minister Olmert mentioned that Israel does will tolerate attacks on it’s civilians. “And we made it clear to everyone that we’ll take all the necessary measures in order to reach out for those who are responsible for these attacks, and we will not hesitate to take all the necessary measures in order to stop them.” Olmert stated that if the attacks continue, Israel will not be able to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians. “As long as there will be terror from Gaza it will be very, very hard to reach any peaceful understanding between us and the Palestinians.” President Bush said that the new talks presented an “opportunity to spread freedom as a great alternative to their ideology,” referring to terrorism by extremists and radicals, and to build “a society based upon human rights and human dignity, a society in which every man, woman and child is free.”

Bush stated:
I believe that two democratic states, Israel and Palestine, living side-by-side in peace is in the best interests of America and the world. I believe it’s in the long-term security interests of Israel, and I know, to provide a more hopeful society for the Palestinians. And that’s why I articulated this vision early in my presidency. And that’s why I’m so pleased to have — to watch two leaders, you and President Abbas, work hard to achieve that vision.

The leaders also discussed the Iranian threat, with Bush saying that “Iran is a threat to world peace…and Iran will be a threat if the international community does not come together and prevent that nation from the development of the know-how to build a nuclear weapon. A country which once had a secret program can easily restart a secret program.

WASHINGTON (AFP) - Iran resumed its nuclear weapons program in 2004, according to a US-based dissident who said Tuesday that US intelligence had failed to include his findings in a surprise about-face downgrading the Iranian threat.

“The weaponization program is alive, is active, and has been resumed since 2004,” Iranian opposition figure Alireza Jafarzadeh told AFP, contradicting the US National Intelligence Estimate released a week ago.

Read full story: AFP / Yahoo News 

Story credit to AFP / Yahoo News

President Bush has sent a high profile letter to Kim Jong-il, leader of North Korea, mentioning the possibility of formalized relations between the United States and North Korea. The letter stated that if North Korea were to disclose it’s nuclear programs and got rid of all nuclear weapons, the two countries could enter a formalized relationship. This might come as a surprise to many, as Bush once included the North Korean leader in his “axis of evil,” and publicly referred to him as a tyrant. The White House is trying to keep a low-key on the situation, mentioning that Bush sent letters to four other countries. President Bush signed the letter by hand.

Israeli media is reporting that for the first time during his presidency, George W. Bush plans to visit Israel. The visit is supposedly scheduled for mid-January. The visit has not yet been confirmed by government officials. He is planning on visiting the leaders of Israel and leaders of the Palestinian Authority. The visit will be to further the ongoing peace talks, which were initiated recently in Annapolis, Maryland.

U.S. intelligence agencies are reporting that they have evidence that Iran halted it’s nuclear weapons research and development program in 2003, and all nuclear research is being focussed on energy.  Bush says that he still fears that once this technology is developed, Iran will have the resources to develop that nuclear weapon. He says that he still holds his stance.

Hugo Chavez’s recently proposed referendum was voted on recently, but was rejected by voters. The proposed overhaul of Venezuela’s constitution would have increased the presidential term to six years, vould have given Chavez more power and close to complete control over the government and state. It would have transformed the country to socialism, and would have allowed him to remain in office indefinitely for the remainder of his life. He could have been transformed from
constitutional leader to dictator. But he failed.