tagged w/ John Podesta
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George Soros funds the Center for American Progress, which has been characterized as Barack Obama’s Ideas Factory. John Podesta, its head, led the transition team when Barack Obama became President. The Center has also become a hiring hall for the Obama team, filling its positions with former employees (among these was controversial Van Jones — who now is back at the Center).
Apparently, George Soros and his Center are upset that the American people placed a roadblock in their plans when we rose up and painted the nation red. The Center now is providing a blueprint of ways Barack Obama can do an end run around the people’s will by resorting to methods that will strike many of us as being improper-to say the least. Relying on executive orders, interpretation of regulations, rule -making and the like they are collectively a recipe for even more power being assumed by President Obama.
From Tuesday’s Politico Playbook:
[The] Center for American Progress today is releasing a report, “Power of the President,” proposing 30 executive actions the president can take to advance progressive change in the areas of energy, the economy, health care, education, foreign policy, and national security. “The following authorities can be used to ensure progress on key issues facing the country today: Executive orders, Rulemaking, Agency management, Convening and creating public-private partnerships , Commanding the armed forces, Diplomacy.
The New York Times fleshes out these proposals with some suggestions about policy changes across the board. The ideology of George Soros shines through the Center’s report as it justifies this forceful approach to circumvent Congress when it states that:
[The] legislative battles that Mr. Obama waged during his first two years – notably on health care and financial regulatory reform – have created a weariness among the general public with the process of making laws. And it hints it has not helped Mr. Obama politically in the process.
In other words, when Congress passed a variety of laws Americans became dismayed by the horse-trading and bribes that were resorted to by Democrats to impose these policies on us. Instead of compromise and listening to the American people, Soros counsels that more forceful measures should be used to override the will of the American people.
And this is the man the Democratic Party has as their sugar daddy and who various Democratic leaders over the years have defended and praised (for example, as shown by thisletter from 11 Democratic lawmakers).
He is certainly a dictatorial daddy.George Soros funds the Center for American Progress, which has been characterized as... more
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Democratic operative John Podesta on Sunday offered one of the most stinging rebukes yet of Republican claims that law enforcement agents mishandled their investigation of the Christmas Day bomb plot.
Podesta, the former White House chief of staff in the Clinton administration called it "unconscionable" for GOP leaders to "attack the FBI for their conduct" in the underwear bomber case. Podesta's comments appeared to be in refernce to remarks made recently by Sen. Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) who declared that CNN softball interviewer Larry King would have done a "better" job interrogating Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/07/john-podesta-gop-criticis_n_452626.htmlDemocratic operative John Podesta on Sunday offered one of the most stinging rebukes... more
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T. Boone Pickens, Senator Harry Reid, John Podesta and Bracken Hendricks wrote a letter to President Obama asking him to act to usher in a green economy.T. Boone Pickens, Senator Harry Reid, John Podesta and Bracken Hendricks wrote a... more
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Complete video of the release of the "Wired For Progress 2.0" plan from The Center For American Progress.
Watch all 6 parts on my YouTube page: http://www.youtube.com/user/enkih2Complete video of the release of the "Wired For Progress 2.0" plan from The... more
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At a briefing before well over 100 reporters, John Podesta, the co-chair of Barack Obama's White House transition, announced three priorities for the interim period and laid out just how comprehensive the effort would be.
The transition team will operate off a budget of $12 million ($5.2 million has been appropriated by Congress, the rest will be raised separately through individual donations of under $5,000), employ 450 people and operate out of offices in Washington D.C. and Chicago. Already, Podesta reiterated, the team has granted 100 interim security clearances.
As for the priorities - they resembled the same major interests Obama announced repeatedly on the campaign trail.
• The team, Podesta said, would be "laying the groundwork in stabilizing the economy and putting Americans back to work."
• They "also will be engaged as is required and necessary in national security issues that remain constant throughout the transition."
• And, of course, there is "the task of building a government."
Podesta called for an accelerated process when it comes to appointing potential cabinet members, saying that past "expedited" efforts by president-elects were not fast enough for this go-around. As such, he called on both parties in Congress, the current administration and relevant agencies to work together to help get a team in order, quickly.
"So far that has moved smoothly," Podesta said. "We anticipate that we will be able to both make appropriate selections, and get those people through the clearance process, which sometimes can get bogged down. There will be adequate recourse devoted by the FBI and other agencies."
"We are hopeful that we can do a good deal better than previous administrations," he added. "And frankly, if you look at the findings of the 9/11 Commission, we need to do a lot better."
Later in the briefing session, Podesta was asked about one cabinet position in particular: the Secretary of Defense. Reports have surfaced in recent days that Obama was considering keeping the current occupant of that post, Robert Gates, in office. Podesta did not hint which way Obama stood on the matter, saying only that a review for that position was taking place.
"He has great respect for Secretary Gates," he said, "but beyond that he intends to engage, as I suggested, across the board with the agencies."
At the meeting Podesta also announced what the campaign calls the strictest, and most far reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history. The rules, which were reported a few weeks ago by the Huffington Post, are:
• Federal Lobbyists cannot contribute financially to the transition.
• Federal lobbyists are prohibited from any lobbying during their work with the transition.
• If someone has lobbied in the last 12 months, they are prohibited from working in the fields of policy on which they lobbied.
• If someone becomes a lobbyist after working on the transition, they are prohibited from lobbying the Administration for 12 months on matters on which they worked.
• A gift ban that is aggressive in reducing the influence of special interests.
sounds like a good start....At a briefing before well over 100 reporters, John Podesta, the co-chair of Barack... more
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