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The turmoil in Burma gives President Bush the perfect opportunity to put his “democracy and freedom” rhetoric into positive action. But will he act in a forceful effective way? One can’t count on it, especially if you are a long suffering Burmese dissident.

The ruling military junta in Burma is one of the most secretive, repressive, brutal, and plain weird regimes in the world. They are so strange that they almost make North Korea’s “great leader”, Kim Jong Il, look normal. Over the protests of the international community the junta has ruled Burma for the past 19 years.

Under their corrupt and self serving rule the Burmese people have become some of the poorest people in the world even though Burma is a potentially rich country with oil, natural gas, mineral, and timber resources that should be developed in a way to provide a good life for the Burmese people. Instead the military junta keeps almost all income for itself.

In his speech before the UN this week President Bush did mention Burma and said the the US would increase sanctions. We should know what that means by now, right? The common folks will suffer all the more while the government and black market operators will prosper all the more.

I have not once heard that affinity credit cards are designed in such a way as to attract customers that would never apply for them otherwise. That is, affinity credit card deals offer programs that are of particular interest to certain categories of the customer base.

In other words they target individual attitudes and preferences of potential cardholders, influencing their state of mind and thus winning their recognition and love. At the same time, however, affinity credit cards, cannot boast of competitive interest rates and fees, and very often they can be rather costly for certain credit consumer type.

Unfair? Well, not quite so, if you take your time and learn what affinity credit card deals have to offer in return. Affinity credit card is a product resulting from the cooperation between the bank or credit card company and a non-profit organization such as a charity, a club or some professional organization.

You yourself choose what non-commercial group you want your credit card tied to and apply correspondingly. At this point your credit card starts giving you feedback. What do I mean? Using the affinity credit card, you allow your credit company to take certain percentage from each of your purchase, cash advance or balance transfer and donate it to the name recognition and further development of the organization you stand for.

And isn’t it sort of moral satisfaction when you know that with each dollar spent, you contribute to the reduction of gas emissions, protection of wildlife habitats or provision of humane education program.

The new premier league season is at a good start. We can still see the same faces but what excites most football fans are the new faces on the league. Most of the teams have new additions to the force. This makes everyone think about the outcome of the matches with these new players on the team.

The new season makes me think, who among the season’s players will make it big this time around? Let us first forget about the “already big” names like Cristiano Ronaldo, Didier Drogba and the others. Let us focus on the new faces. There are players who are totally new on the premier league while some are merely new transfers. So who has the potential to establish a big name of this new premier league season?

We all have our own bets. I bet for these top 5 big potential players:

1. Eduardo Da Silva

Da Silva is the new addition to the forceful Arsenal team. Back to his previous seasons, Da Silva has displayed his excellent football abilities so there is no doubt he has a big chance of making a big name on the premier league season. Da Silva appears like a replacement for Thierry Henry, Arsenal’s star who has left for FC Barcelona. Da Silva may be less skilled as others may have thought of him compared to Henry but his dedication and goal spirited mindset will take him a long way in the premier league.

Chuck Hagel, Nebraska’s senior U.S. Senator, is serving his second term in the United States Senate. Senator Hagel’s duties include membership on four Senate committees: Foreign Relations; Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs; Intelligence and Rules.

Senator Hagel knows a thing or two about military affairs. Hagel served in Vietnam with his brother Tom in 1968. They served side by side as infantry squad leaders with the U.S. Army’s 9th Infantry Division. Hagel earned many military decorations and honors, including two Purple Hearts.

Hagel is one member of the Republican Party who is willing to stick up for the military. This is from last Friday’s Real Time TV appearance with Bill Maher.

Maher: “Isn’t it a dirty trick on the American people when you send a military man out there to basically do a political sell-job?”

Hagel: It’s not only a dirty trick, but it’s dishonest, it’s hypocritical, it’s dangerous and irresponsible. The fact is this is not Petraeus’ policy; it’s Bush’s policy. The military is — certainly very clear in the Constitution — is subservient to the elected public officials of this country… but to put our military in a position that this administration has put them in is just wrong, and it’s dangerous.”

There you have it. To place General David Petraeus into a highly politicized position by having him front for the President’s fatally flawed position on Iraq is just plain wrong and a grave injustice to General Petraeus and to the US military.

It’s very clear from this exchange between President Bush and President Vladimir Putin of Russia that Putin has lost all respect for Bush and for the Bush administration’s policies.

No world leader likes to be lectured to about how to run their country. Especially by a clumsy lecturer like Bush. Based on Bush’s performance, especially in Iraq, Putin and other world leaders will no longer remain silent when President Bush continues to try and market his program of democratization and to lecture them on how they should be governing their own countries.

Bush is an embarrassment to the United States as this video clearly shows. For the remainder of his Presidency he really should just camp out at Camp David and keep his mouth shut. Alone.  

Wishful thinking, eh?

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