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Accounts of Crowley's phone conversation with President Obama indicate that Crowley was blown away by the call. But the question remains unanswered in light of the harsh police union criticism of Obama, did Crowley actually accept the invitation? Other reports indicate it was Crowley's idea to get together for a beer.
Bottom line, does it even matter whose idea it was? Just have a beer and move on with your lives.Accounts of Crowley's phone conversation with President Obama indicate that... more
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We've heard bits and pieces about what's happened with Henry Louis Gates, Jr., a prominent African-American scholar at Harvard...
Haven't heard?
Well, Gates was arrested Thursday afternoon at his home by Cambridge police investigating a possible break-in. Had had lost his keys, and was banging around loudly, trying to get into his home that he was renting from the school.
To quote the artice:
"He was booked for disorderly conduct after “exhibiting loud and tumultuous behavior,” according to a police report. Gates accused the investigating officer of being a racist and told him he had "no idea who he was messing with,'' the report said.
Gates told the officer that he was being targeted because "I'm a black man in America.''
Now, I don't know if I'm the only person out there that feels this way, but if there was a ruckus outside and I saw someone being shady trying to get into a house, I would call the police too. If I WAS THE PERSON, I would expect someone to call the police on me. You can always prove you live there, right? Maybe the officer would have helped me get into my house!
To call this racial profiling is, to me, ridiculous. Sure, the police aren't always doing the right thing at the right time, but in this case, I would say that they were doing their jobs the right way.
Didn't I mention something about beer with Mr. P?
Ah, yes! In an article I read this morning, I learned that this man, Mr. Gates, was invited to the White House to have a beer with B. Obama. The President also invited the officer who charged Mr. Gates, Officer Crowley. They all sat down, had a beer, and forgot the whole incident.
Now, here's what pops my corn... Racial profiling, or just a way to take attention off of the ever failing new health-care plan? You hear about stories all the time involving "African-American police officers attacking young white boys" or "Hispanic locals being discriminated against by white store owners" etc etc etc. It just goes on and on and on and on!
What makes this so special?
Because he's a scholar?
Because he's wealthy?
Because he has a large following of African-American students and peers that choose to see it as racial profiling?
Personally, I think everything is way over publicized. In this case, the officer was doing his job, and because Mr. Gates is a wealthy and powerful man, he cries "RACIAL PROFILING!" and it suddenly becomes a fever in the media.
To me, it's just another version of "Gucci Bandanna". Just the same thing, repeating itself, popular only because of who produced it.
And please, we are all adults here. I am just voicing my opinion. If you don't agree, that's excellent. I love hearing other sides of how people think. Just don't tell me I'm wrong because you believe something different than me.
Namaste' y'all!
-Kelly Ann
PS- This is my first post. Practice makes perfect..We've heard bits and pieces about what's happened with Henry Louis Gates,... more
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So Crowley finally accepted Obama's invitation to have a beer with him and professor Gates. I love Obama's "let's move forward and forget the past" attitude. It's a can do, get things done, just do it attitude. You never see cops with that attitude.
Wasn't Bush the one elected on the premise that he was the kind of guy you'd want to have a beer with? Yet he turned out to have the most secretive closed door Presidency ever.
Now we have Obama having beers with guys.
The racial profiling argument continues and it's good to have this argument. Did Crowley act professionally? Was he profiling Gates? He says he went by the book. But this is the big problem with Crowley and the police in general.
Cops walking around with guns and the authority to turn people's lives upside down should not be making decisions about people "by the book"? They should use their brains to consider the situation and ramifications, assuming they have brains and some kind of minimal eduction in sociology and dealing with humans. Otherwise what we have is a police state.
This isn't about integrity. It's about the authoritarianism ingrained into our police. Authoritarianism is when people just follow orders and do what they're told without thinking for themselves. It is a dangerous policy and it comes from eight years of the Bush-Cheney authoritarian right.So Crowley finally accepted Obama's invitation to have a beer with him and... more
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US President Barack Obama has told reporters he should not have described the arrest of a black Harvard professor as "stupid".
Mr Obama has faced criticism for wading into the controversy during a televised news conference on Wednesday.
Professor Gates was apprehended at his own home after a witness saw him apparently trying to force his way in.
He was held for disorderly conduct after allegedly accusing the arresting officer, Sgt James Crowley, of racism.
Making a surprise appearance at the daily White House press briefing, Mr Obama said he should have chosen his words more carefully at his Wednesday news conference.
"Because this has been ratcheting up and I obviously helped to contribute ratcheting it up, I wanted to make clear in my choice of words I think I unfortunately gave an impression that I was maligning the Cambridge Police Department or Sgt Crowley specifically," Mr Obama said.
"I could have calibrated those words differently," he added
Mr Obama also revealed that he had spoken to Sgt Crowley on the telephone, and described him as an "outstanding police officer and a good man".
He said he continued to believe that Professor Gates's arrest was "an overreaction", but that "Professor Gates probably overreacted as well".
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Watch the video at this URL---http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/world/americas/8168467.stmUS President Barack Obama has told reporters he should not have described the arrest... more
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The recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates is just the latest in a long line of incidents that should've gone better. Along the way, Gates felt humiliated, a white cop was dissed, and The Messiah tripped over a ripple in the water he usually walks on. But in the end, everyone was simultaneously right and wrong and America will continue to struggle with race.The recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates is just the latest in a long line of incidents... more
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President Obama should apologize to members of the Cambridge Police Department for saying they acted stupidly, the president of the city's police union said Friday.
Sgt. Jim Crowley says he is disappointed President Obama opined on the matter without having all the facts.
Dennis O'Connor, president of the Cambridge Police Superior Officers Association, said at a news conference that Obama should not have criticized officers' actions in last week's arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates Jr.
Sgt. James Crowley, the officer who arrested Gates for disorderly conduct, has previously said he was dismayed by the president's remarks and that Obama had offended police in Cambridge and elsewhere. "I was a little surprised and disappointed that the president, who didn't have all of the facts by his own admission, then weighed in on the events of that night and made a comment that really offended not just officers in the Cambridge Police Department but officers around the country," Crowley told CNN affiliate WHDH-TV in Boston.
Obama, however, stood by his comment, saying he is "surprised by the controversy surrounding" it.
"I think it was a pretty straightforward commentary that you probably don't need to handcuff a guy, a middle-aged man who uses a cane, who's in his own home," Obama told ABC's "Nightline." Video Watch Crowley's boss defend the arrest »
When Obama waded into the story by answering a question about it during his news conference Wednesday night, he admitted that he "may be a little biased" because Gates is a friend.
"I don't know all the facts," he also conceded.President Obama should apologize to members of the Cambridge Police Department for... more
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When I first heard Obama's remarks about this case, my reaction was "Wait a second, like everyone else, he does not know the exact facts of what happened during the arrest." Obama's remarks were completely out of line for a government official.
Yes, it very well could be that Gates was arrested simply because he is black, as he has claimed. It is also possible though that Gates was causing a scene and was arrested for disorderly conduct, as the officers have claimed and that he is now crying "discrimination" to cover his actions.
If any government body is to remark on who acted "stupidly" in this case, it is a court to which witnesses and other facts of an investigation has been presented.
I am very interested in knowing other opinions on this matter in the comments below.When I first heard Obama's remarks about this case, my reaction was "Wait a... more
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A $680 billion dollar defense spending bill for next year just got a warning from President Obama about the wasteful spending pushed for by both parties in Congress for weapons procurement. Defense contractors are big business, bringing jobs to districts and campaign contributions to politicians. The F-22 Raptor is a marvelous piece of military technology, but the question is how many are enough?
When it comes to air superiority fighters, the US is not in any danger of being overwhelmed by any other country. The US fights major wars as a part of NATO, so talking about one country at a time isn't the most relevant measure, but I'll do it anyway. The US has about 2600 air superiority fighter aircraft, including about 140 F-22s, while China has around 1700 (premiering around 130 Sukhoi SU-27 variants (4.5g)and 150 J-10 variants (4.5g)) and Russia has around 1600 (premiering around 500 Sukhoi SU-35, -30 and -27 variants, (4.5g)). The Russian and Chinese air forces often have serious logistical, maintenance, and operational issues, and both operate in fairly small military alliances. The US Air Force is confident that the F-22 will dominate not only the Sukhoi-27 variants (including SU-30/35 and J-11), but all other fighters currently being designed.
A DERA study in 1994 concluded that the F-22 was about as capable as ten SU-35s, and each SU-35 was as capable as about 3 F-16s. This would imply that 140 F-22s would probably win against 1400 SU-35s, which are the most advanced of the SU-27 variants. Of course, a lot of things have changed since the era of Hootie and the Blowfish, in technology and budgets.
"I will veto any bill that supports acquisition of F-22s beyond the 187 already funded by Congress." said Obama in a letter to the chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee. John McCain, the ranking Republican Senator on the committee, has already voiced his opposition to ordering more F-22s.
The proposed bill funds $1.75 billion for more F-22s, and $439 million for new engines for the next mod of the F-22. $2 billion is small change for the DOD, but not for the Congressmen who want it spent in their districts. Defense Secretary Gates and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman ADM Mullen argue that with the current buildout plans, they're still on track to have twice the modern airpower of China in 2020. Each additional F-22 costs around $140 million, and so far the program has cost the US $65 billion over the years to develop, test, build, and retrofit since the program began in 1986.
The DoD needs as much savings as it can find these days, with two wars on going, and deployments in many other countries, not to mention the general budgetary chaos in Washington.A $680 billion dollar defense spending bill for next year just got a warning from... more
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Good news, folks. Microsoft founder Bill Gates has turned his attention to controlling the weather. Five U.S. Patent and Trade Office patent applications, made public on July 9, propose slowing hurricanes by pumping cold, deep-ocean water in their paths from barges. If issued, the patents offer 18 years of legal rights to the idea for Gates and co-inventors, including climate scientist Ken Caldeira of the Carnegie Institution of Washington.
Hurricanes, most famously demonstrated by the deadly intensification of Hurricane Katrina before its landfall in 2005, draw strength from warm waters on the ocean's surface. The patents describe a system for strategically placing turbine-equipped barges in the path of storms to chill sea surfaces with cold water pumped from the depths.
First requested by Gates and colleagues last year, the patents describe methods "not limited to atmospheric management, weather management, hurricane suppression, hurricane prevention, hurricane intensity modulation, hurricane deflection" to manage storms.
The Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation and Caldeira declined to comment on the patents.
"The bottom line here is that if enough pumps are deployed, it is reasonable to expect some diminution of hurricane power," says hurricane expert Kerry Emanuel of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. He is not part of the patent effort. Cutting sea surface temperature by 4.5 degrees under the eye of a hurricane would actually kill a storm, he adds. "This would have to be done on a massive scale, but is still probably within the realm of feasibility."
Says climate scientist Michael Mann of Pennsylvania State University in State College: "Needless to say, there is a whole lot of skepticism about this among tropical meteorologists. But it's not so ridiculous that I would actually dismiss it out of hand. There is certainly an important role of upper ocean mixing on tropical cyclone behavior."
CLIMATE TROUBLEMAKER: New El Nino could fuel more Atlantic hurricanes
Ocean water quickly grows colder with depth, reaching temperatures of 28 to 37 degrees (salty ocean water doesn't freeze at 32 degrees) about 500 feet down. The patents envision sail-maneuvered barges, with conduits 500 feet long, pumping warm water down to the depths and bringing cold water up. The average depth of the Gulf of Mexico is 5,300 feet.
"By cooling a region in the path of a hurricane (over 60 square miles), models suggest we could knock a half-a-category in wind speed out," says Philip Kithil of Atmocean in Santa Fe, an ocean-pumping firm mentioned in Gates' applications. "All the models indicate the path of the storm would be unaffected."
In the average year, six hurricanes develop in the Atlantic Ocean, Caribbean or Gulf of Mexico in a season that officially extends from June 1 to Nov. 30. Over the past century, the annual cost of hurricanes to the USA has averaged about $10 billion, according to a 2008 Natural Hazards Review study. In 2005, Hurricane Katrina killed at least 1,800 people and caused at least $81 billion in damage.
"From a scientific and political standpoint, (the Gates plan) looks fanciful," Quinn says. "But the physics is real and like a lot of things, the question is whether the damage you prevent is worth the money you would spend to develop something so massive."Good news, folks. Microsoft founder Bill Gates has turned his attention to controlling... more
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday he wants to make the law prohibiting gays from serving openly in the armed forces "more humane" until Congress eventually repeals it. He said he has lawyers studying ways the law might be selectively enforced.
"One of the things we're looking at is, is there flexibility in how we apply this law?" Gates said.
The defense chief, a holdover from the Republican administration of former President George W. Bush, told reporters traveling with him in Europe that the Clinton-era ban was written without much wiggle room. The Pentagon general counsel is looking at potential avenues around full enforcement as a stopgap, Gates said.
For example, Gates said, the military might not have to expel someone whose sexual orientation was revealed by a third party out of vindictiveness or suspect motives. That would include, Gates said, someone who was "jilted" by the gay service member.
"That's the kind of thing we're looking at to see if there's at least a more humane way to apply the law until the law gets changed," Gates said, according to a transcript released by the Pentagon.
White House criticized
Gay rights activists and others have criticized the Obama administration for not quickly following through on a pledge to lift the ban on openly gay military service.
President Barack Obama and his spokesmen say he remains committed to repealing the Clinton-era law known as "don't ask, don't tell," but neither the White House nor congressional leadership has moved swiftly to do so.
Under "don't ask, don't tell" rules, gays and lesbians can serve in the military if they do not disclose their sexuality or engage in homosexual behavior.
There is no timetable for the pending bill to repeal the 1993 law, which was intended as a compromise to get around a full ban on gay military service. Gay rights leaders, however, have said it is an insult.Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Tuesday he wants to make the law prohibiting gays... more
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Hard-pressed British soldiers in southern Afghanistan will be reinforced by thousands of American troops early next year, under plans being drawn up by Nato and US commanders.
Alarmed by a resurgence of the Taliban, Washington is to send up to 10,000 troops to Helmand province, a force large enough to outnumber the 8,000-strong struggling British contingent.Hard-pressed British soldiers in southern Afghanistan will be reinforced by thousands... more
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Subcontractor of KBR is confining foreign workers in Iraq to windowless warehouses
About 1,000 Asian men who were hired by a Kuwaiti subcontractor to the U.S. military have been confined for as long as three months in windowless warehouses near the Baghdad airport without money or a place to work."
Baghdad - About 1,000 Asian men who were hired by a Kuwaiti subcontractor to the U.S. military have been confined for as long as three months in windowless warehouses near the Baghdad airport without money or a place to work.
Najlaa International Catering Services, a subcontractor to KBR, an engineering, construction and services company, hired the men, who're from India, Nepal, Sri Lanka and Bangladesh. On Tuesday, they staged a march outside their compound to protest their living conditions.
"It's really dirty," a Sri Lankan man told McClatchy, speaking on the condition of anonymity because he still wants to work for Najlaa. "For all of us, there are about 12 toilets and about 10 bathrooms. The food - it's three half-liter (one pint) bottles of water a day. Bread, cheese and jam for breakfast. Lunch is a small piece of meat, potato and rice. Dinner is rice and dal, but it's not dal," he said, referring to the Indian lentil dish.
After McClatchy began asking questions about the men on Tuesday, the Kuwaiti contractor announced that it would return them to their home countries and pay them back salaries. Najlaa officials contended that they've cared for the men's basic needs while the company has tried to find them jobs in Iraq.
The laborers said they paid middlemen more than $2,000 to get to Iraq for jobs that they were told would earn them $600 to $800 a month. Some of the men took out loans to cover the fees.
"They promised us the moon and stars," said Davidson Peters, 42, a Sri Lankan. "While we are here, wives have left their husbands and children have been shut out of their schools" because money for the families has dried up. The men live in three warehouses with long rows of bunk beds crammed tightly together. Reporters who tried to get a better glimpse inside were ushered away by armed guards.Subcontractor of KBR is confining foreign workers in Iraq to windowless warehouses... more
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Norway – An Afghan teenager who lost both legs in a cluster bomb explosion helped persuade his country to change its stance and join nearly 100 nations in signing a treaty Wednesday banning the disputed weapons.
Afghanistan was initially reluctant to join the pact — which the United States and Russia have refused to support — but agreed to after lobbying by victims maimed by cluster munitions, including 17-year-old Soraj Ghulan Habib. The teen, who uses a wheelchair, met with his country's ambassador to Norway, Jawed Ludin, at a two-day signing conference in Oslo.
"I explained to the ambassador my situation, and that the people of Afghanistan wanted a ban," Habib, who said he was crippled by a cluster bomb seven years ago, told The Associated Press.
Speaking through an interpreter, Habib said the ambassador called Afghan President Hamid Karzai, who agreed to change his stance on the treaty.
"Today is a historic day," Habib declared.Norway – An Afghan teenager who lost both legs in a cluster bomb explosion... more
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and so let the cover-ups begin....
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During the transition period there is a silent coup d'état occurring inside the federal government in the form of last-minute firings and dubious personnel placements. The easy response to this practice is: "That always happens during the transition period and it isn't even newsworthy. That's how Washington works - always has, always will." Perhaps, but considering how pervasively the Bush administration has flouted every branch of government, from ignoring Congressional subpoenas, to ignoring Supreme Court rulings, to violating the Geneva Conventions, to profuse and legally feeble signing statements - it's clear that embedding operatives loyal to the party and policies jettisoned by the voters in the election is tantamount to laying mines throughout the government.
Also see :
Triumph, but Also Vulnerability •
As if this isn't enough, while the outgoing administration lays mine fields to sabotage President-elect Obama's initiatives that could threaten the status quo, it is also terminating outstanding federal employees whom the current administration can assume, correctly, would be supportive of the new president's policies. In the case of Dr. Marsha Coleman-Adebayo, who received her Notice of Proposed Removal from the Environmental Protection Agency on October 30, 2008, the message is clear: remove the person who has demonstrated like no other person within the EPA a determination to ensure that what the agency protects is the environment (as opposed to the corporations and other interests whose practices harm the environment but yield staggering profits) - and a chilling effect on other conscientious workers will have been achieved. Dr. Coleman-Adebayo's landmark court victory in Coleman-Adebayo v. Browner (former EPA Administrator Carol Browner,) represents the most serious challenge the status quo has ever seen. Thus, decapitate the head and the uncontrolled beast of conscientious federal workers will fall. Last week, this particular purge prompted a letter to beleaguered outgoing EPA Administrator Stephen Johnson from Congressional Liaison to the White House Chris Van Hollen, urging reconsideration of Dr. Coleman-Adebayo's firing, and the postponement of any further action until the transition is complete.
cont.....and so let the cover-ups begin....... more
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Robert Gates during a confirmation hearing for his nomination to be CIA director in 1987. (Photo: Paul Hosefros / The New York Times)
Nearly 16 years ago, during the last transition from a President Bush to a Democrat, Moscow made an extraordinary gesture to Washington: The Kremlin supplied a summary of its intelligence information about secret U.S.-Iranian contacts in the 1980s.
The report was from a national security committee of the Russian Duma to Rep. Lee Hamilton, who had requested what might be in Moscow's files as part of a task force investigation into whether the Reagan-Bush campaign in 1980 had interfered with President Jimmy Carter's bid to free 52 American hostages then held in Iran.
Also see:
The Danger of Keeping Robert Gates •
The Russian report arrived late, via the U.S. Embassy in Moscow, showing up on Jan. 11, 1993, but the contents were stunning. The Russians reported that their intelligence revealed that long-rumored meetings between Republicans and Iranians in Europe during Campaign 1980 had indeed occurred.
But this information went against what Hamilton and other members of the task force had decided to conclude, that there had been no such contacts. Hamilton had already rebuffed advice from his chief counsel, Lawrence Barcella, that the investigation be extended a few months because of other late-arriving evidence of Republican guilt.
Instead, Hamilton had ordered the probe wrapped up with a conclusion of Republican innocence. The Russian report just represented another complication, especially since the task force's debunking report had already gone to the printers and was set for release two days later, on Jan. 13, 1993.
So, the Russian report - like much of the other incriminating evidence - was kept secret, unceremoniously stuck into a cardboard box and filed away in a make-shift Capitol Hill storage room.
cont.....if you want the full facts...Robert Gates during a confirmation hearing for his nomination to be CIA director in... more
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Seeking experience in wartime, President-elect Barack Obama intends to re-enlist Defense Secretary Robert Gates as head of the Pentagon - if only temporarily - and has chosen a retired Marine general to be White House national security adviser, officials said Tuesday.Seeking experience in wartime, President-elect Barack Obama intends to re-enlist... more
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Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday ordered his top department leaders to conduct a broad review to determine whether the military, National Guard and Reserve can adequately deal with domestic disasters and whether they have the training and equipment to defend the homeland.
His memo comes in the wake of a stinging 400-page independent commission report that concluded the military isn't ready for a catastrophic attack on the country, and that National Guard forces don't have the equipment or training they need for the job.Defense Secretary Robert Gates on Monday ordered his top department leaders to conduct... more
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As Iraq's Oil Flows Freely, Profits Are Stuck in Bureaucracy
U.S., Iraqi Officials Question Terms of Draft Security Deal
Podcast: Down to the Wire for Security Deal
Gates, Rice Brief Lawmakers On Draft Accord With Iraq
Al-Qaeda in Iraq Figure Was a Swedish CitizenAs Iraq's Oil Flows Freely, Profits Are Stuck in Bureaucracy
U.S., Iraqi... more
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The U.S. military conceded it was not winning the battle against an increasingly deadly insurgency in Afghanistan and said on Wednesday it would revise its strategy for the region to include militant safe havens in neighboring Pakistan.
The U.S. military conceded it was not winning the battle against an increasingly... more
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