tagged w/ President Barack Obama
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We Have NO Big Strategic Interest In Afghanistan!
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Nobody likes a leaker, least of all President Barack Obama. Obama says he is angry about leaks from his deliberations on more troops for Afghanistan, and said he considers such disclosures a firing offense.
During a round of network interviews, Obama told CBS's Chip Reid that he is "angrier than Bob Gates" about the leaks surrounding his deliberations on strategy in Afghanistan. Obama said, "we have these deliberations in the Situation Room for a reason—because we are making decisions that are life-and-death," calling the slips "not appropriate."
When Reid asked if the leaks were a "firing offense" Obama said "absolutely." Obama is close to a decision on Afghanistan, which he will announce in the "next several weeks" he said during an interview with CNN's Ed Henry. The new plan will set out "clear benchmarks" for Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government, Obama said, and will include "clarity about what we're doing, how we're going to succeed, how much this is going to cost" and the burden on "young men and women in uniform".Nobody likes a leaker, least of all President Barack Obama. Obama says he is angry... more
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by Richard Wolffe
To the president’s critics, this week’s White House trip to Asia has largely failed because of excessive deference. Obama bowed to the Japanese emperor, and he metaphorically genuflected to the Chinese leadership by refusing to confront them publicly about human rights.
Yet the president’s biggest foreign-policy setback of the week—by several orders of magnitude—came on the other side of Asia. And its negative impact was worsened by an administration policy that started with public confrontation, not compromise.
More @ linkby Richard Wolffe
To the president’s critics, this week’s White House trip to... more
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While some Americans believe that the way to pay for healthcare reform is to increase taxes on the rich, this strategy could hurt businesses at a time when the economy is already dragging.While some Americans believe that the way to pay for healthcare reform is to increase... more
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Jenime
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7 days ago
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I have seen a few articles floating around about whether or not President Obama is keeping his promises to us. I would say according to his Politifact scorecard he's doing a great job.
What do you think?
http://politifact.com/truth-o-meter/promises/I have seen a few articles floating around about whether or not President Obama is... more
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US President Barack Obama on Sunday won the strongest backing yet from Russia on the Iranian nuclear crisis as he warned that Tehran was "running out of time". Russian President Dmitry Medvedev said after talks with Obama that neither he nor the US leader were satisfied with the pace of progress, as Tehran drags its feet over its response to a UN-sponsored nuclear enrichment deal.US President Barack Obama on Sunday won the strongest backing yet from Russia on the... more
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Jenime
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10 days ago
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Jenime
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11 days ago
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Katie Couric asks Al Gore if we are moving in the right direction on climate change. Gore also offers his opinions on Afghanistan, North Korea, and President Barack Obama's winning of the Nobel Peace Prize. He also talks about Laura Ling and Euna Lee.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rDmY2jXYOagKatie Couric asks Al Gore if we are moving in the right direction on climate change.... more
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Sen. John McCain pressed President Barack Obama to give a posthumous pardon to Jack Johnson, the black heavyweight boxing champion who was imprisoned nearly a century ago because of his romantic ties with a white woman.
McCain, R-Ariz., and Rep. Peter King, R-N.Y., noted in a letter to Obama that both houses of Congress this summer passed their resolution urging a pardon. After the vote, the lawmakers wrote to Obama in August asking him to issue the pardon.
"Regrettably, we have not received a response from you or any member of your administration," they wrote in the letter, adding they hoped that Obama would be eager to "right this wrong and erase an act of racism that sent an American citizen to prison."
The White House declined to comment on the letter.
When he unveiled the resolution in April, McCain said he was sure that Obama "will be more than eager" to issue the pardon. McCain said he was still confident the president would do so.
"The president's been very, very busy," McCain said in a telephone interview with the Associated Press. "Hopefully, this letter will be a kind of reminder that it's important to get it done. But I'm not critical of the president yet. We'll give him some time."
The senator said he hasn't personally talked to Obama about the issue.
"The conversations that I've been having with him have been on Afghanistan," he said. "But we'll see what result we get from this letter."
Johnson became the first black heavyweight champion on Dec. 26, 1908 — 100 years before Obama was elected the first black president. Johnson won the title after police in Australia stopped his 14-round match against the severely battered Canadian world champion, Tommy Burns.
That led to a search for a "Great White Hope" who could beat Johnson. Two years later, Jim Jeffries, the American world titleholder Johnson had tried for years to fight, came out of retirement but lost in a match called "The Battle of the Century," resulting in deadly riots.
Johnson was convicted in 1913 of violating the Mann Act, which made it illegal to transport women across state lines for immoral purposes. He fled the country after his conviction, but agreed years later to return and serve a 10-month jail sentence.
Filmmaker Ken Burns helped form the Committee to Pardon Jack Johnson, which filed a petition with the Justice Department in 2004 that was never acted on. His 2005 documentary, "Unforgivable Blackness: The Rise and Fall of Jack Johnson," explored the case against the boxer and the sentencing judge's acknowledged desire to "send a message" to black men about relationships with white women.
McCain and King — both of whom have done their share of amateur boxing — pushed similar resolutions in recent years but only this year were able to get it through both chambers of Congress.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5jxZUzUJNy8yUJqArJJG4BWTCHXZAD9BCDEVO0Sen. John McCain pressed President Barack Obama to give a posthumous pardon to Jack... more
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The Obama administration's recovery act has created or saved over 1 million jobs, top administration officials told reporters this week. While official data compiled and released by the independent recovery act oversight board this week showed that direct recipients of federal dollars under the act reported creating at least 640,000 full-time jobs, Jared Bernstein, a top economic advisor to Vice President Biden, stated that the report only told part of the story.
The new report described only "a subset" of the total number of jobs "directly created or saved" by the President's economic recovery act, Bernstein explained on a conference call with reporters. Essentially, the new report was based on reports made by some 57,000 public and private entities about the number of jobs they were able to save or create with the assistance of federal recovery act money.
Analysis of the "jobs multiplier" created by other recovery act money, such as unemployment insurance expansion, tax rebates, stimulus checks to seniors and veterans, expanded health benefits payments and additional circulation of money through the economy was not included in the report. According to Bernstein, the evidence suggests the total number of jobs reported by recipients and created with as a result of the "jobs multiplier" is at least 1 million.
"And the recovery act is on track to create or save 3.5 million jobs before it winds down at the end of next year," Bernstein pointed out. So far $340 billion from the recovery act have been obligated in direct payments to public and private recipients as well as in tax credits, unemployment compensation and stimulus rebates.
Senior White House Advisor Ed DeSeve explained that the new report showed that an estimated 300,000 jobs related to public education had been saved or created by the recovery act. At least 80,000 construction jobs, virtually all of which are private sector jobs, have also been saved or created. He also explained that 90 percent of the recipients of federal dollars reported on the number jobs they create door saved with recovery act money.
While this latter number was higher than expected, a quick calculation shows that as many as 6,000 entities failed to report for some technical reason or other misunderstanding. The true jobs number is likely to be higher.
Even in its limited review, the AP found job counts that were more than 10 times as high as the actual number of paid positions; jobs credited to the stimulus program that were counted two and sometimes more than four times; and other jobs that were credited to stimulus spending when none was produced.
For example:
- Some recipients of stimulus money used the cash to give existing employees pay raises, but each reported saving dozens of jobs with the money, including one Florida day care that claimed 129 jobs saved.
- A Texas contractor whose business kept 22 employees to handle stimulus contracts saw its job count inflated to 88 because the same workers were counted four times.
- The water department in Palm Beach County, Fla., hired 57 meter readers, customer service representatives and other positions to handle two water projects. But their total job count was incorrectly doubled to 114.
Those errors were included in an early progress report on the stimulus released two weeks ago that featured numerous mistakes, including a Colorado business' claim that its stimulus contract created more than 4,200 jobs. TeleTech Government Solutions actually hired 4,231 temporary workers for its stimulus project, but most of them worked for five weeks or less and the others no more than five months, company president Mariano Tan said.
http://www.politicalaffairs.net/article/articleview/9127/The Obama administration's recovery act has created or saved over 1 million jobs, top... more
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Vice President Joe Biden is joined by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and Maryland Governor Martin OMalley as he reports on the success of the Recovery Act in creating or saving over a million jobs so far. October 30, 2009.Vice President Joe Biden is joined by California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger and... more
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US President Barack Obama has paid his respects to 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan, the first time he has honoured the fallen in this way.
His predecessor, George W Bush, visited the families of dead troops but never received the bodies at the base, in Dover, Delaware.
Mr Bush also did not go to military funerals, telling the military newspaper Stars and Stripes three years ago that he preferred to meet families privately.
Bush also said that gave up playing golf in honor of the troops, instead of continue playing golf and giving up starting wars. He said playing golf during wartime sent the wrong message. Kind of like giving a victory speech under a banner that reads "Mission Accomplished".
http://firedoglake.com/2009/10/29/disgraceful-in-8-years-george-w-bush-never-greeted-fallen-troops/US President Barack Obama has paid his respects to 18 Americans killed in Afghanistan,... more
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President Barack Obama on Wednesday signed the first major piece of federal gay rights legislation, a milestone that activists compared to the passage of 1960s civil-rights legislation empowering blacks.
The new law adds acts of violence against gay, lesbian, bisexual and transgender people to the list of federal hate crimes. Gay-rights activists voiced hope that the Obama administration would advance more issues, including legislation to bar workplace discrimination, allow military service and recognize same-sex marriages.
Congress passed the hate crimes protections as an unlikely amendment to this year's Defense Authorization Act. Obama, speaking at an emotional evening reception with supporters of the legislation, said that more than 12,000 hate crimes had been reported the past decade based on sexual orientation.
The expanded federal hate crimes law was added to a $680 billion defense authorization bill that Obama signed at a packed White House ceremony.
The hate crimes measure was named for Matthew Shepard, a gay Wyoming teenager who died after being kidnapped and severely beaten in October 1998, and James Byrd Jr., an African-American man dragged to death in Texas the same year.
Shepard's mother, Judy, was among those at the ceremony that also included Vice President Joe Biden, Defense Secretary Robert Gates, Attorney General Eric Holder and leading members of Congress and the Pentagon, who were on hand for the appropriations bill signing.
To loud applause, Obama hailed the hate crimes measure in the bill as a step toward change to "help protect our citizens from violence based on what they look like, who they love, how they pray."
He cited the work of the late Sen. Edward Kennedy of Massachusetts and others "to make this day possible."
Several religious groups have expressed concern that a hate crimes law could be used to criminalize conservative speech relating to subjects such as abortion or homosexuality. However, Holder has said that any federal hate-crimes law would be used only to prosecute violent acts based on bias, not to prosecute speech based on controversial racial or religious beliefs.
Former President George W. Bush had threatened to veto a similar measure, but Obama brought a reversal of that policy to the White House.
When the bill won final congressional approval last week, Human Rights Campaign president Joe Solmonese called the hate crimes measure "our nation's first major piece of civil rights legislation for lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender people."
Earlier this month, Obama told the Human Rights Campaign, the country's largest gay rights group, that the nation still needs to make significant changes to ensure equal rights for gays and lesbians.
More @ linkPresident Barack Obama on Wednesday signed the first major piece of federal gay rights... more
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You'd never know it from the mainstream media, but he deserves high grades for his work so far in Iran, Iraq and Pakistan.You'd never know it from the mainstream media, but he deserves high grades for his... more
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When the Nobel Committee awarded its annual peace prize to President Barack Obama, it afforded him a golden opportunity seldom offered to American war presidents: the possibility of success. Should he decide to go the peacemaker route, Obama stands a chance of really accomplishing something significant. On the other hand, history suggests that the path of war is a surefire loser. As president after president has discovered, especially since World War II, the U.S. military simply can't seal the deal on winning a war.When the Nobel Committee awarded its annual peace prize to President Barack Obama, it... more
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The military can comply with a White House order to empty the detention center and clear all 221 war-on-terror captives off this remote base "with 10 days notice,'' the prison camps commander said Tuesday.
Navy Rear Adm. Tom Copeman said in an interview that his 2,100-member team of guards and other support staff can meet President Barack Obama's Jan. 22 closure deadline right through the eighth anniversary of the establishment of the controversial prison camps.
"If they say on Jan. 12, 'Move them out,' we can meet the deadline,'' he said, "given the proper amount of logistical support.''
He ticked off such requirements as enough airplanes to move them elsewhere and ferry runs across the bay that separates the prison camps from the Navy base landing strip where C-17 Globemaster aircraft shuttle the captives away.
More @ linkThe military can comply with a White House order to empty the detention center and... more
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A nod to human rights with renewed sanctions and condemnation of “genocide,” another to the regime with incentives for cooperation—the new Sudan policy is classic Obama. Eliza Griswold on whether the middle line will work.
After months of contentious deliberation over U.S. policy in Sudan, President Obama has announced his administration’s long-awaited position on the largest country in Africa. In a statement released on Monday, Obama said…well, not very much, really. Carefully calibrated not to further enrage the Khartoum regime or the human rights activists irate over the softening approach the Obama administration has appeared to be taking on Sudan, the president’s missive offered a nod to both.
The Obama administration calls Darfur a “genocide” while offering to engage with the regime that perpetrated it. Middle ground or no, that’s a difficult line for anyone—even Obama—to pursue.
In one breath, Obama called Darfur an unqualified “genocide” and announced the U.S. would renew the sanctions, called the “national emergency,” now in place against Sudan. In the next, he talked about engaging Khartoum and even mentioned “incentives” if the Sudanese government cooperates with the U.S. (In an interview with The Washington Post last month, the U.S. special envoy to Sudan, retired Maj. Gen. Scott Gration, called such incentives “cookies” and “gold stars,” much to the chagrin of advocates who oppose such engagement.)
Beneath the din of these sound bites, however, the administration’s new policy does offer something more substantive and promising: a renewed commitment to the 2005 Comprehensive Peace Agreement, which north and south Sudan both signed. Lest we forget, before 300,000 people were killed in Darfur beginning in 2003, at least 2 million lost their lives in decades of civil war between north and south Sudan.
And without U.S. pressure, the north would never have signed the 2005 peace deal, which, for all its flaws, did indeed bring an end to much of the fighting between north and south—for the time being, at least. Over the past four years, the Comprehensive Peace Agreement has largely been forgotten as the U.S. has turned its attention to the conflagration in Darfur. Now it’s time to return our attention to the whole of Sudan as the Khartoum-based cabal continues to wage attacks against its margins—west, east, south, and even north, in order to hold onto power.
The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum, claiming discrimination and neglect. U.N. officials say the war has claimed at least 300,000 lives from violence, disease and displacement.
More @ link
Obama Issues New Plan For Darfur
http://current.com/items/91223566_obama-issues-new-plan-for-darfur.htmA nod to human rights with renewed sanctions and condemnation of “genocide,”... more
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President Barack Obama said Monday that the U.S. is shifting its policy toward Sudan, offering the government incentives if it takes steps to improve the human suffering there and work toward internal peace.
But sanctions and pressure from the international community will follow if Sudan does not follow that path, Obama said.
The president said he will soon renew tough sanctions against the government of President Omar al-Bashir, whom the International Criminal Court has charged with crimes against humanity and war crimes for allegedly masterminding deadly attacks throughout Sudan's Darfur region.
The U.N. says the conflict in Darfur has claimed at least 300,000 lives as a result of violence, disease and displacement since February 2003, when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum, claiming discrimination and neglect. Some 2.7 million fled their homes. At its peak in 2003-2005, the situation was called the world's worst humanitarian crisis.
Obama has labeled the conflict in Darfur as genocide.
The Darfur conflict began in February 2003 when ethnic African rebels took up arms against the Arab-dominated Sudanese government in Khartoum, claiming discrimination and neglect. U.N. officials say the war has claimed at least 300,000 lives from violence, disease and displacement.
More @ linkPresident Barack Obama said Monday that the U.S. is shifting its policy toward Sudan,... more
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US Senator John Kerry said, in an interview to be aired Sunday, it was "irresponsible" to send more US troops to Afghanistan at this time, amid a deepening election crisis that has placed the Kabul government's legitimacy at stake.
The United States should not proceed with a new Afghanistan strategy committing a potentially major increase in US resources, including tens of thousands more troops, without first securing a clear partner in Kabul, Kerry told CNN.
Kerry is not promoting sending more troops now. That would be irresponsible, he said, when Afghanistan’s election is not yet finished.
“I don’t see how President Obama can make a decision about the committing of our additional forces or even the further fulfillment of our mission that’s here today without an adequate government in place or knowledge about what that government’s going to be,” he said.
Afghan President Hamid Karzai's government has been plagued by uncertainty and a legitimacy crisis after allegations of widespread fraud in the August elections whose preliminary results put him on top, and ongoing charges of corruption.
Obama is nearing a decision on the way forward in Afghanistan, after weeks of deliberations with his top advisers, but also as public support wanes for the conflict.
The US contingent, set to reach 68,000 troops by the end of the year, is experiencing heavy casualties as it combats a Taliban that has regrouped and gained momentum. Related article: Obama's tensions with generals.
Among those options being considered are to follow a grim assessment by the top US and NATO commander in Afghanistan, General Stanley McChrystal, and adopt a counter-insurgency strategy that requires at least 40,000 additional troops.US Senator John Kerry said, in an interview to be aired Sunday, it was "irresponsible"... more
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