TOKYO (AP) — Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe announced Wednesday he will resign, ending a troubled year-old government that has suffered a string of damaging scandals and a humiliating electoral defeat.
Abe announced his departure just as the government faced a battle in Parliament over whether to extend the country's refueling mission in the Indian Ocean. Just days earlier, he said he would quit if he failed to win parliamentary passage of legislation extending the mission.
The United States has turned up the pressure on Japan to extend the mission. U.S. Ambassador Thomas Schieffer met with Cabinet officials, including Foreign Minister Nobutaka Machimura, earlier Wednesday to make Washington's case for extension.
Abe, a nationalist whose support rating has plunged to 30 percent, also cited the ruling party's defeat in July 29 elections, in which the opposition took control of the upper house of Parliament.
maybe Bush should take serious note of this...
rimasco
posted
Maybe he knows somthing is brewing and wants no part?
When are WE gonna get off our fast food eating fat asses and follow suit?
stocktrader2006
posted
Oh geeesh, by the title of this thread, I thought one of his testicles jumped out of his nutsack and sprinted down the road.
glassman
posted
LOL, that apparently happened to his last one just about the time he quit drinking
andrew
posted
I wonder why no one is talking how foolish the democrats looked the past few days.
Relentless.
posted
Has been discussed I believe.
glassman
posted
quote:Originally posted by andrew: I wonder why no one is talking how foolish the democrats looked the past few days.
you mean because they don't have enough votes to override Bush's veto?
they do look like they are sitting around doing nothing to put Bush in his place..
i watched the testimony....
Petraeus specifically refused to say that the US is safer now having invaded Iraq... at least he's honest...
his statisics show that we are back where we were before the surge started... no more no less...
you call that progress?
glassman
posted
Bush's speech tonight was a joke...
i like how he mentioned the 36 countries of the coalition.... how many troops are over there besides ours? take away the Brits and i think it's less than a thousand...
and the Brits are withdrawing...
Relentless.
posted
Complete propoganda. Adored the bit where he showed how a family saw the greater good in sacrificing their beloved son to his mission... held them up as examples for us all he did.
glassman
posted
we are also now overcommitted and have no choice but to draw down troops unless they increase rotations to 18 and 12... which would be criminal..
Relentless.
posted
How many troops do we have over there right now? He's talking about two thousand less... seems that is in the single digits percentage wise. Rather pointless
glassman
posted
my take is that we have 169,000 total, and Bush said he'll reduce it by 5,700 by Christmas..
and the numbers after that are sketchy, but it appears we would go back to the pre-surge (130,000) numbers next summer (maybe)...
i think Petreaus did a great job this week...
he stated his mission and he stated waht he's done and what he can do...
he also stated that it's NOT his job to decide policy, or whether we stay in Iraq... in other words? he's following orders...
he also stated clearly that there's NO military solution... then he handed it off to the Amabssador to explain why the Iraq govt hasn't gotten anything done...
his story was not so straightforward... he looked pretty wide-eyed, and tired most of the time...
i kept thinking that if these guys think answering question in congresss is hard? maybe they should go on patrol in Ramadi instead...
glassman
posted
as i listened to Bush tonight? heard him say we are never leaving Iraq...
IMO? he's setting the next president (Dem or GOP) up for failure no matter what they do...
Relentless.
posted
It is almost as if the entire globe is acting out Lord of the Flies. This is ridiculous. All I hear is excuses and finger pointing. There is no way out of Iraq and they planned it that way.
glassman
posted There is no way out of Iraq and they planned it that way.
i agree...
and "refereeing" their civil war is an unsavory thought too...
Relentless.
posted
Engineered civil war... Doubt any of us have a choice about that.. I'm quite sure that's why we're there... A civil war like that might never really end.
glassman
posted
i sure would like to see those notes from the Cheney Energy Policy meeting in spring of '01, i always thought they were up to no good, but i never guessed.......
Relentless.
posted
You were quicker around that curve than I was. I was hopefull at that point... lol..long gone are those days. They've been planning this for years.
andrew
posted
100% no chance of Hillary Rotten Clinton or Barack my name isnt Osama bin Laden Obama becoming President. I will take any Republican over any of the sorry democrat canidates. Democrats in Congress are a freaking Joke.
glassman
posted
LOL, Andrew, the Bushs's are handing the baton back to the Clintons and there's nothing you (or any of the rest of us little folk) can do about it...
glassman
posted
Andrew alot of GOP's that have read here have been pretty mad at me, and even said i am not a GOP...
i've been warning the rest of my party how much trouble we GOP's are in since '04...
let's say i'm wrong about hillary winning (i hope i am) and we get Giulianni (Thompson i don't take seriously yet)
here's where it's gonna get tough Andrew:
Virginia Democrat Mark Warner to Run for U.S. Senate (Update2)
By Lorraine Woellert and Julianna Goldman
Sept. 13 (Bloomberg) -- Former Virginia Governor Mark Warner declared his candidacy for the U.S. Senate seat now held by retiring Republican John Warner, giving Democrats an opportunity to widen their Senate majority
i beleive this Warner is a slam-dunk... he had very high aproval ratings in a RED state..
there's one GOP senate seat that you can kiss good-bye...
in next years senate races democrats possess the field advantage, needing to defend only 12 seats, while Republicans must defend 22.
if the Dems continue to ALLOW the president to keep "taking rope" til next year? the Senate will go further Dem, i don't think it's likely to go 60 votes Dem, but the problem is that if the Dems only need 2 or three GOP's to "come over" to them to get stuff done? they'll be able to TRADE for votes.. and they will.
the GOP is falling apart under the current strategy, and i would really hate to see hillary up there with 57 Dem senators....
that would show the rove/bush strategy to have been the most effective Dem campaign in the history of the US...
rimasco
posted
quote:Originally posted by glassman: Bush's speech tonight was a joke...
i like how he mentioned the 36 countries of the coalition.... how many troops are over there besides ours? take away the Brits and i think it's less than a thousand...
and the Brits are withdrawing...
Hey, what about the 2000 monkeys Morocco gave US to detonate mines?
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