Biden on Cheney Criticism: 'Who Cares?'

Really or blowing in the wind

ger real of AZ

I knew Bill Clinton was found guilty as draft dodger but given pardon by Jimmy Carter so was able to become President.

I did not know Chaney was draft dodger. What President pardoned him so he could VP ???

Did you inhale ???

Obama make terrorist grow in Iraq have a nice day 4 American Future

Qaeda-linked group claims Baghdad bomb attacks

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Play Video Iraq Video:Baghdad Bombings FOX News .

Play Video Iraq Video:Baghdad blasts death toll over 150 Reuters .

2 hrs 29 mins ago

DUBAI (Reuters) – An al Qaeda-linked group has said it carried out the twin suicide bombings that killed 155 people in Baghdad on Sunday and revived doubts about security in the run-up to Iraq's elections in January.

The statement dated October 26 was posted by the Islamic State in Iraq group on a website often used by militants to announce responsibility for such attacks.

"Suicide bombers targeted the dens of infidelity and pillars of the rejectionist Shi'ite state in the land of the caliphate," the statement said.

It employed language often used by Sunni Arab militants to describe the Shi'ite Muslim majority that has dominated the Iraqi government since the U.S.-led invasion of 2003.

"Among the chosen targets were the ministry of oppression known as the ministry of justice and the Baghdad provincial assembly ... The enemies only understand the language of force," said the statement.

The authenticity of the claim could not be immediately verified.

The same group has said it was behind attacks near government ministries in Baghdad that killed 95 people in August.

Officials have said two mini-buses were used in Sunday's attacks, circumventing a ban on truck traffic in heavily policed central Baghdad.

Both were driven by suicide bombers from a nearby site, according to aerial images from U.S.-operated airships that hover over the city.

The January ballot is expected to focus on security gains under Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki after years of war and sticky questions about the distribution of power and oil wealth.

Insurgents are widely expected to try and upset an electoral process that is meant to prepare the way for an ordered withdrawal of most U.S. troops from Iraq.

(Reporting by Andrew Hammond)

Can I drive Joe?

So ,Class of 59,one person's de facto ruler is not another's....at least you skipped down from Olympus to compliment their spelling . What an anal show off you are "Sport Fisherman" in Fla. somebody break out the glasses for some 30 year old Scotch.If it were not for V.P. Biden's connections on the Hill and his Irish Catholic Good Fellas ,your "One" would still be a "well spoken" gleam in Saul Alinsky's eye. P.S. zippy-I thought the Richelieu' analogy was accurate enough,if not a bit partisan .But,given the toxic climate ,understandable.

cheney needs to take care of his grandkids

let the world troubles be dealt with my real men instead of a repeat draft dodger like cheney

go.joe.go

dick had eight years.now he is history thank god...

Back to a traditional Veep

Joe is right of course, nobody cares what Cheney says - which is why the White House responded immediately, Dems continue to talk about it, and the news media are all over it. Joe needs to get a little attention now because he knows no one will be interested in what HE has to say when he is the ex-Veep.

Foot-in-mouth Biden

Joe baby needs some of that public option nonsense health care to get the necessary surgery to remove his foot! AGAIN.

Go Joe!

Go, Joe Biden! Cheney is the one who said that he'd like to see the region in perpetual state of war. He is a violent man, a war monger, who believes in torture and gives the finger to international law and treaties. If Americans value the constitution and the principles of the founding fathers, Cheney would have been impeached and spent the rest of his life in jail like Madoff.

The bad economy is the result of Bush's policy of "everything goes to the rich." Obama made a huge mistake by continuing Bush's wars and bailing out Wall Street crooks. I hope he realizes that before it's too late.

BIDEN IS A JOKE

unfortunately he is the brightest in the circus which runs this country so i guess we will have to live with it.

Obama need more troop or face losing the war

14 Americans killed in 2 Afghan helicopter crashes

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Play Video Video:NATO Backs U.S. Troop Boost in Afghanistan ABC News .

Play Video Video:Green Room: Afghanistan Worse Than Vietnam? ABC News .

AFP/File – A US Army Chinook helicopter seen in operation in southern Afghanistan. Four US soldiers have been killed …

By HEIDI VOGT, Associated Press Writer Heidi Vogt, Associated Press Writer – 32 mins ago

KABUL – Helicopter crashes killed 14 Americans on Monday — 11 troops and three drug agents — in the deadliest day for the U.S. mission in Afghanistan in more than four years. The deaths came as President Barack Obama prepared to meet his national security team for a sixth full-scale conference on the future of the troubled war.

In the deadliest crash, a helicopter went down in the west of the country after leaving the scene of a firefight, killing 10 Americans — seven troops and three Drug Enforcement Administration agents. Eleven American troops, one U.S. civilian and 14 Afghans were also injured.

In a separate incident, two U.S. Marine helicopters — one UH-1 and an AH-1 Cobra — collided in flight before sunrise over the southern province of Helmand, killing four American troops and wounding two more, Marine spokesman Maj. Bill Pelletier said.

It was the heaviest single-day loss of life since June 28, 2005, when 16 U.S. troops on a special forces helicopter died when their MH-47 Chinook helicopter was shot down by insurgents. The casualties also mark the first DEA deaths in Afghanistan since it began operations there in 2005.

U.S. authorities have ruled out hostile fire in the collision but have not given a cause for the other fatal crash in the west. Taliban spokesman Qari Yusuf Ahmedi claimed Taliban fighters shot down a helicopter in northwest Badghis province's Darabam district. It was impossible to verify the claim and unclear if he was referring to the same incident.

Military spokeswoman Elizabeth Mathias said hostile fire was unlikely because the troops were not receiving fire when the helicopter took off.

NATO said the helicopter was returning from a joint operation that targeted insurgents involved in "narcotics trafficking in western Afghanistan."

"During the operation, insurgent forces engaged the joint force and more than a dozen enemy fighters were killed in the ensuing firefight," a NATO statement said.

Afghanistan is the world's largest producer of opium — the raw ingredient in heroin — and the illicit drug trade is a major source of funding for insurgent groups.

U.S. forces also reported the death of two other American service members a day earlier: one in a bomb attack in the east, and another who died of wounds sustained in an insurgent attack in the same region. The deaths bring to at least 46 the number of U.S. service members who have been killed in October.

This has been the deadliest year for international and U.S. forces since the 2001 invasion to oust the Taliban. Fighting spiked around the presidential vote in August, and 51 U.S. soldiers died that month — the deadliest for American forces in the eight-year war.

The Obama administration is debating whether to send tens of thousands more troops to the country, while the Afghan government is rushing to hold a Nov. 7 runoff election between President Hamid Karzai and challenger Abdullah Abdullah after it was determined that the August election depended on fraudulent votes.

The Obama administration is hoping the runoff will produce a legitimate government. In Washington, Obama was to meet with his national security team Monday in what was to be the sixth full-scale Afghanistan conference in the White House Situation Room.

Abdullah on Monday called for election commission chairman Azizullah Lodin to be replaced within five days, saying he has "no credibility."

Lodin has denied accusations he is biased in favor of Karzai, and the election commission's spokesman has already said Lodin cannot be replaced by either side.

Abdullah made the demand in a news conference during which he spelled out what he said were "minimum conditions" for holding a fair second round of voting, including the firing of any workers implicated in fraud and the suspension of several ministers he said had campaigned for Karzai in the first round before the official campaigning period began.

Abdullah did not say what would happen if his demands were not met. "I reserve my reaction if we are faced with that unfortunate situation," he said.

Abdullah said he was willing to meet with Karzai to discuss the conditions, but repeated that he would not discuss a coalition government as some have suggested, nor compromise on his recommendations out of concerns that they are difficult to implement.

"These are not impossible things," Abdullah said, stressing that his team had pared them down to what they considered essential to a fair vote and possible to put in place before the runoff.

Another flawed election would cast doubt on the wisdom of sending in more U.S. troops.

With less than two weeks to go until the vote, disagreements have emerged between the U.N. and the Afghans on how to conduct the balloting.

Lodin said the commission hopes to open all 23,960 polling stations from the first round. The U.N. wants to open only 16,000 stations to cut down on the number of "ghost polling stations" that never opened but were used to stuff ballot boxes.

Elsewhere Monday, Nangarhar province Gov. Gul Agha Sherzai survived an assassination attempt after a gunman fired automatic weapons at his convoy in Jalalabad, according to his spokesman Ahmad Zia Abdulzai. Sherzai's bodyguards killed the gunman, as well as another attacker wearing a suicide vest and carrying grenades.

Meanwhile, security forces in Kabul fired automatic rifles into the air for a second day Monday to contain hundreds of stone-throwing university students angered over the alleged desecration of Islam's holy book, the Quran, by U.S. troops during an operation two weeks ago in Wardak province. Fire trucks were also brought in to push back protesters with water cannons. Police said several officers were injured in the mayhem.

U.S. and Afghan authorities have denied any such desecration and insist that the Taliban are spreading the rumor to stir up public anger. The rumor has sparked similar protests in Wardak and Khost provinces.

___

Associated Press Writers Rahim Faiez, Todd Pitman and Robert H. Reid contributed to this report from Kabul; Noor Khan reported from Kandahar and Devlin Barrett from Washington.