Friday - May 29, 2009

RACISM !!!

In America, at least prior to 11/4/08, if the police were anywhere near the polling stations they were tarred with the Intimidation brush. Hell, if they were just sitting in their cars by the side of the road blocks away they caught grief.

You don’t have armed guards outside of the polling stations in America. It simply is not done. Ever. Period.

The mere presence of this pair of thugs, in “uniform” is evidence of intimidation. That they were armed makes the charge far worse. That one of them was holding a nightstick in his hand, and waving it around? This is called brandishing a weapon, and is a fairly severe offense.

There is no question whatsoever of their guilt. They didn’t have to bust heads to be guilty. They didn’t have to hassle voters to be guilty. All they needed was to be there, “providing security” unasked for. And believe me, they were unasked for. And there is no question that this didn’t happen. Here it is, on YouTube, although this video has been edited for run time; we don’t see the police showing up and telling them to leave.

So this is pretty much an open and shut case. So why is the Justice Department dropping the charges? Because these guys are black? Here is the entire news article from Fox News:

Three men were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force—one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon.

Charges brought against three members of the New Black Panther Party for Self-Defense under the Bush administration have been dropped by the Obama Justice Department, FOX News has learned.

The charges stemmed from an incident at a Philadelphia polling place on Election Day 2008 when three members of the party were accused of trying to threaten voters and block poll and campaign workers by the threat of force—one even brandishing what prosecutors call a deadly weapon.

The three black panthers, Minister King Samir Shabazz, Malik Zulu Shabazz and Jerry Jackson were charged in a civil complaint in the final days of the Bush administration with violating the voter rights act by using coercion, threats and intimidation. Shabazz allegedly held a nightstick or baton that prosecutors said he pointed at people and menacingly tapped it. Prosecutors also say he “supports racially motivated violence against non-blacks and Jews.”

The complaint says the men hurled racial slurs at both blacks and whites.

A poll watcher who provided an affidavit to prosecutors in the case noted that Bartle Bull, who worked as a civil rights lawyer in the south in the 1960’s and is a former campaign manager for Robert Kennedy, said it was the most blatant form of voter intimidation he had ever seen.

In his affidavit, obtained by FOX News, Bull wrote “I watched the two uniformed men confront voters and attempt to intimidate voters. They were positioned in a location that forced every voter to pass in close proximity to them. The weapon was openly displayed and brandished in plain sight of voters.”

He also said they tried to “interfere with the work of other poll observers ... whom the uniformed men apparently believed did not share their preferences politically,” noting that one of the panthers turned toward the white poll observers and said “you are about to be ruled by the black man, cracker.”

A spokesman for the Department of Justice told FOX News, “The Justice Department was successful in obtaining an injunction that prohibits the defendant who brandished a weapon outside a Philadelphia polling place from doing so again. Claims were dismissed against the other defendants based on a careful assessment of the facts and the law. The department is committed to the vigorous prosecution of those who intimidate, threaten or coerce anyone exercising his or her sacred right to vote.”

This is outrageous. But you know what? This is just a little thing, compared to what’s coming down the pike. Oh lawdy, the Change be a’comin.

CNN is ignoring this story. Not one word.

Posted by Drew458     on 05/29/2009 at 09:07 AM   
Filed Under: • Obama, The One • Racism and race relations •  
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   Thursday - May 07, 2009

What’s everyone complaining about on BMEWS? According to this report, USA is soothed. ??

Soothed?  Why?
Just thought this item which I’m way behind in posting, was worth sharing with other folks who are not so convinced.

Even if I read about stuff at home reported here, or go to an American source directly, I don’t guess that can measure up to being at home and seeing things for myself. 

I know this will hand you all a laugh. Hmm, maybe not. Judgment reserved.

America is soothed by no-drama Obama
The president’s cautious, mollifying approach is winning ever more support
by, Andrew Sullivan, The Times.

As I sat watching President Barack Obama’s 100 days press conference I realised, after only a few minutes, I was bored. What a wonderful feeling. It’s not something I have experienced for many years when contemplating the government of the United States. Every time I began to feel twitches of irritation or anxiety or engagement, the president soothed them away with a flow of reasoned and unemotional responses. The one network that decided not to run the press conference beat the president in the ratings with a drama. That said a lot. Obama is no drama.

That seems to me to be the upshot of his first 100 days. It is far too soon to know if his strategy of easing the banks out of their toxic assets will work, if his recasting of America’s image abroad will result in real changes for the better, if his decision to expose the torture policies of the past without aggressively seeking accountability will hold up over time.

It’s too soon to know if he will secure healthcare reform in this Congress, or if he can get his carbon trading bill and immigration reform passed. Events, dear reader, events have yet to have their say. But there does seem to be a palpable shift in the underlying shape of American politics three months in. Almost all of it is in Obama’s direction.

Don’t know if I like the sound of, “seeking accountability.” In fact, I don’t like that at all.  That’s a cave in to the far left for sure if he does. And I have read that he’s waffled on that issue.  Also, this carbon trading thing looks like a move towards the European way of thinking.  Do I have that right?
To be honest, I haven’t read any real details with regard to the carbon subject, except someone (joking? don’t know) said Gore would be pleased. Huh?  That most definitely would worry me.  Frankly, reading this edited version (see entire article HERE ) I don’t find much to be encouraged about if this fellow has even part of it right.  I just see a gradual swing further to the left, and more PC and strangling rules and regs the left love so much.  And trust me on this, I see enough of that here. 

The polling tells you something important. His approval ratings have actually gone up since he took office. Take away the party labels and, in the latest Gallup poll, Obama is winning the support of 90% of liberals with 7% against but, much more significantly, he is winning self-described “moderates” by a massive 73% to 19%. Even conservatives are split on him — with 42% approving and 53% disapproving; 41% of weekly church-goers approved of him just before the election — and now that number has risen to 57%. That’s a direct hit at the core Republican appeal.

In the critical battle for image and comfort, Obama has trounced his opponents without aggressively attacking them. And they have done themselves in, to a large extent, by prematurely attacking him. Few events revealed this as starkly as the veteran Republican senator Arlen Specter’s decision last week to become a Democrat.  Specter, facing rejection , jumped before he was pushed overboard.

Specter has long been a genuine maverick, with a deep legal mind and quirky temperament. But he’s also an opportunist and a realist.

Obama has been in moving the US out of the Bush era, especially among the young. A clear majority now favours immigration reform that includes some version of amnesty for illegal immigrants already in America. A huge majority of even Republican voters — 64% — now favours regulation of greenhouse gases. For the first time in any national poll, ABC News last week found supporters of marriage rights for gay couples outnumbered opponents. Even on a question such as marijuana decriminalisation, the public is now close to evenly split: 52% against to 46% in favour. These are seismic shifts from only a few years ago.

Black Americans are, predictably, monolithic in their support for the first black president. More significantly, Hispanics have emerged as an unexpected Obama strength. He has an 85% approval rate in that demographic, which, if it holds for his party, all but guarantees further Republican collapse in the southwest and west. A recent survey of voter participation in the 2008 election reveals the significance of this huge gap: some 22% of all voters were black, Hispanic or Asian last year, compared with 13% 20 years earlier. Karl Rove and George Bush knew this and adopted plans to win over black and Hispanic voters. But they failed — and Obama rubbed it in.

Every now and again conservative writers let their frustration show. Last week Byron York, the respected conservative reporter, penned an atypically sloppy sentence: “Obama’s sky-high ratings among African-Americans make some of his positions appear a bit more popular overall than they actually are.” What he meant was: than they actually are among whites alone. And he’s right about that. If today’s America were racially that of 1958, Obama would have only about a 60% approval rating rather than a whopping 68%. The biggest factor? The Latino factor. Wonder why Obama spent so much time in Trinidad hobnobbing with Latin and South American leaders two weeks ago? He knows the new face of the country he is now leading.

Will this endure? I cannot know. Obama is riding his honeymoon and his big picture ratings are not outside historical norms. Racial and generational dynamics have propelled him further upward and may be distorting the overall picture. But first impressions matter; and the calm and confidence Obama has displayed in testing times strike me as real achievements. He got lucky as well. Shooting three pirates in the head on the high seas is more good fortune than Jimmy Carter ever had. But there is also a stylistic conservatism in a still small-c conservative country that should not be underestimated.

Posted by peiper     on 05/07/2009 at 07:23 AM   
Filed Under: • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Editorials • Obama, The One •  
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   Tuesday - April 28, 2009

Are You Nuckin’ Futz?

New York City Flyover Photo Flop Triggers Recriminations

Many in New York and Washington are asking what the White House could have been thinking when it failed to alert New Yorkers that it was sending a 747 plane over the city to take pictures of the Air Force One backup plane with the Statue of Liberty in the background.

A photo-op over the Manhattan skyline that sent thousands of New Yorkers running for their lives has officials in Washington, D.C., running for cover.

Many New Yorkers on Tuesday were asking what the Obama administration could have been thinking when it authorized an Air Force One backup plane to fly over the city for photos capturing the presidential plane with the Statue of Liberty in the background.

The 747 plane, with an F-16 escort following close behind, circled the Statue of Liberty and the skyline near the World Trade Center site for about a half-hour. Offices were evacuated. Emergency call centers were inundated. Witnesses reported that the planes were flying dangerously low

The site evoked memories of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and left White House Military Office Director Louis Caldera accepting responsibility and apologizing late Monday for permitting the exercise that infuriated New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who had not been alerted to the flyover.

President Obama, who was meeting with FBI Director Robert Mueller and other senior officials at the FBI on Tuesday, called the photo-op “a mistake.”

Caldera “should resign, to be quite frank,” GOP consultant and former Bush administration official Bradley Blakeman told FOX News.

“This is more than a lapse of judgment. This is complete stupidity in a time of economic crisis, wasting hundreds of thousands of dollars for publicity photos for Air Force One when you could have put that on your PC at home and done the same thing without that cost and disruption,” Blakeman said.

Posted by Drew458     on 04/28/2009 at 12:06 PM   
Filed Under: • Obama, The One •  
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   Thursday - April 23, 2009

Obama intelligence official says interrogation provided ‘high value information’.

So then, just what is the savior of the world up to with his looney tune release of top CIA documents?

I don’t think I need to post the entire article.  In fact, you can read it in papers at home no doubt.
What I want to post instead is this other bit that appeared this morning.
Naturally there’s one part that sticks out ....

President Barack Obama’s top intelligence official sent a memo to his staff saying “high value information” was obtained during interrogations using controversial techniques.

TOBY HARNDEN in WASHINGTON

Last Updated: 12:51AM BST 23 Apr 2009

Adml Blair’s original note to his staff last Thursday said “high value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al-Qaeda organisation that was attacking this country”.

The memo is an embarrassment for Mr Obama because the conclusion reached by Adml Blair, who oversees the CIA and 15 other US intelligence agencies or departments, undermines a central plank of the White House argument – that the harsh techniques did not work.

Personally, I thought the article was of interest, especially as O’s own man claims info gotten from terror scum was valid.

Now for another bit of news from Mr. Harnden, in Washington.

Q&A: Barack Obama and the CIA ‘torture’ memos
What was the purpose of the memos?

By Toby Harnden in Washington
Last Updated: 6:19PM BST 22 Apr 2009

The four memos, written by Justice Department officials Jay Bybee, John Yoo and Steven Bradbury in 2002 and 2005, describe the harsh interrogation techniques that they judged to be legal and available for use by the CIA against al-Qaeda suspects.

What were the methods?

They included depriving prisoners of sleep for up to 11 straight days, keeping them in a dark, cramped box, placing them in “stress positions” and putting insects into the box to exploit their fears. The most controversial method is “water-boarding” - a type of simulated drowning, used since the Spanish Inquistions and prosecuted by the US as a Japanese war crime after the Second World War.

Were these methods torture?

Most now judge that they were, particularly when used in combination for extended periods. Some former Bush administration officials maintain, however, that the arguments in the memos were essentially correct because the prisoners suffered no long-term damage. The methods have not been authorised since 2005.

Were they effective?

Opinion is sharply divided. Former CIA chief Michael Hayden maintains they were, as does Vice President Dick Cheney. Even Mr Obama’s own intelligence chief, Admiral Dennis Blair, says that “high value information” was given up. Critics, however, say that prisoners will say anything when tortured and information is therefore unreliable as well as morally tainted.

Why did Mr Obama release the memos?

He was responding to a lawsuit by the American Civil Liberties Union, though he could have resisted. The White House said that most of the details had been leaked anyway and that making the memos public was a way of getting all the information out and “moving on”.

Could this backfire on Mr Obama?

Yes. The issue shows no signs of going away and congressional investigations could turn into a political circus. CIA operatives say that the saga has torpedoed morale and will lead to spies avoiding taking risks for fear of prosecution - thereby making America more vulnerable to another terrorist attack.

AMERICA VULNERABLE

Posted by peiper     on 04/23/2009 at 09:53 AM   
Filed Under: • Commies • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Obama, The One •  
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   Wednesday - April 22, 2009

OH THEY’LL LOVE HIM IN EUROPE.  Barack Obama: Bush officials could be prosecuted.

That’s the headline people.  But then I guess you already know.

Question ... if things work out here and we can sell this place in say a year.  Will I have a country to come home to?
Will I want to?

This is really getting scary and I don’t mind tellin’ ya I’m worried more now then I was after the election.  I knew things weren’t gonna go our way.
We all expected that.  But man oh man this is really the start of some very bad news.  Sure hope I have it bass ackwards and am shown to be wrong.
But how can I be unless that line about bowing to the left is wrong.  And come on, how many of us believe that the line is not correct?
Oh damn.  “bowing to the left.”

Enjoy the read.  Comrades.

Barack Obama: Bush officials could be prosecuted over ‘torture’ documents
US President Barack Obama has bowed to pressure from the Left by opening the door to Bush administration officials being prosecuted for approving alleged torture by CIA interrogators.

By Toby Harnden in Washington
Last Updated: 12:20PM BST 22 Apr 2009

IN A DRAMATIC SHIFT by a White House that on Monday had brushed aside questions about the issue by insisting the American president was “focused on looking forward”, Mr Obama indicated that officials could be called to account for the US losing its “moral bearings”.

Last week, Mr Obama made public four memos written by officials in President George W. Bush’s administration that contained explicit details of the CIA’s methods of extracting information from al-Qaeda suspects between 2002 and 2005.

On Sunday, Rahm Emanuel, Mr Obama’s chief of staff, told ABC News that “those who devised policy ... should not be prosecuted”.

But Mr Obama on Tuesday drew a sharp distinction between CIA interrogators who believed they were acting legally and the officials who had approved the advice.

“For those who carried out some of these operations within the four corners of legal opinions or guidance that had been provided from the White House, I do not think it’s appropriate for them to be prosecuted,” he said.

“With respect to those who formulated those legal decisions, I would say that that is going to be more of a decision for the Attorney General within the parameters of various laws, and I don’t want to prejudge that. I think that there are a host of very complicated issues involved there.”

Mr Obama’s dramatic u-turn raises the prospect of the three men who wrote the memos - Jay Bybee, a former assistant attorney general who is now a federal judge, and his deputies John Yoo and Steven Bradbury - and others facing congressional investigations and even criminal charges.

The president has faced an uproar from former CIA chiefs and deep concern from current operatives but also a fierce reaction from Left-wing groups and Democrats on Capitol Hill determined to pursue the authors of the memos and other senior Bush officials.

Mr Obama visited the CIA on Monday in an attempt to placate the agency. But there was no sign of the anger on the Left subsiding as as it emerged that the highly controversial technique of “water-boarding”, a type of simulated drowning, had been used 266 times on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and Abu Zubaydah, two senior al-Qaeda prisoners.

Mr Obama’s abandonment of his previous position that the US should “move forward” and put the “dark and painful chapter in our history” behind it came after he was urged by Democrat senatorsSenator Dianne Feinstein of California, chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee, urged him not to rule out prosecutions.

On Monday night, Dick Cheney, the former vice-president, told Fox News it was “disturbing” that Mr Obama’s administration had released some documents “but they didn’t put out the memos that showed the success of the effort”.

Posted by peiper     on 04/22/2009 at 09:09 AM   
Filed Under: • Commies • Democrats-Liberals-Moonbat Leftists • Insanity • Obama, The One • Outrageous •  
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   Friday - April 10, 2009

BARRY BOWS TO HIS BETTERS?  That’s my caption. What’s yours?

I’m pretty sure the president of the United States ain’t supposed to do this.

I saw the story and photo in the Telegraph.  BUT .. the Telegraph being who they are, which means totally fucked up, don’t have the article online.
Nor is there a Google link to the article I read. So I hunted for the story and found the photo which is clear. He did bow.
The paper here quoted The Washington Times but I can’t get that either as the Times doesn’t have it now. Or at least not when I went there a minute ago.
ANYWAY ... just to show you (as if BMEWS readers did not already know) white house spoksman said, Obama did not actually bow. Right. The photo we see here is a figment of our imagination.

Saudi King Greeting Spurs Obama ‘Power Bow’ Craze
by Scott Ott for ScrappleFace

When the most powerful man in the world bent at the waist, and lowered his gaze to greet a Muslim monarch at the G-20 summit in London this week, he could not have known how the gesture would catch on back home. But that’s just what’s happened.

The so-called ‘Obama Power Bow’ has become a new craze embraced by the rich and famous, as they continue to emulate everything about their chic new American president.
Saudi Arabian King Abdullah received the traditional expression of fealty and servitude from the U.S. commander in chief with evident glee, smiling broadly — his grin superseded only by that of French President Nicolas Sarkozy who looked on with apparent admiration and a touch of envy.

Now, from the offices of Wall Street to the corridors of power in Washington DC, executives, senators and corporate leaders have taken to kowtowing to their subordinates as an expression of ultimate power.

“When you approach a man and lower your head like that,” said one unnamed CEO, “and you expose your unprotected neck, it’s like you’ve got swagger on steroids. If the guy had a sword, he could chop your head off and you’re saying, ‘I’m not afraid of you’.”

White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said the president was not actually bowing, but “merely assumed the position before the Arab king in an effort to see if he could find common ground.”

H/T scrappleface.com

Posted by peiper     on 04/10/2009 at 12:22 PM   
Filed Under: • Obama, The One •  
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   Thursday - April 09, 2009

Turkish newsreader ‘blacked up’ face during Barack Obama visit .

OK it isn’t earth shattering and do we really believe anything in Huff-Po. Whatever.

I thought this was funny no matter what message they were trying to get through.

A Turkish newsreader blacked up his face to report on US President Barack Obama’s visit to the country.

By Alex Spillius in Washington
Last Updated: 12:54PM BST 09 Apr 2009

But a rough translation of his opening remarks by the Huffington Post website suggested he was not mocking the US president but paying tribute.

“Welcome, Mr Obama. You took our hearts with your hospitality. We appreciate your kindness. We will do whatever America asks of us, as friends. Now, we ask the same of you,” he said.

It was not clear if the broadcast was a spoof or not.

The Buzzfeed blog speculated that the face-darkening was meant to be “a metaphor for the way the Bush administration ‘darkened’ the face of the Turkish public, and how the anchor hopes Obama will turn things around”.

The practice of adding dark make up to the face of a broadcaster or entertainer has been widely considered to be politically incorrect for decades.

The Black and White Minstrel Show, a long-running British television variety series which featured performers with their faces painted to appear as African-Americans, ceased production in 1978.

MAMMY MINE

Right. I’ll get on to more serious stuff a little later. Just could not resist this.

Posted by peiper     on 04/09/2009 at 07:28 AM   
Filed Under: • Humor • Obama, The One •  
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   Monday - April 06, 2009

SARKOZY OF FRANCE TO OBAMA OF USA.  KEEP YER FREEKIN NOSE OUT OF OUR BUSINESS.

From The Times
April 6, 2009
Leave Turkey’s bid to join EU to us, Nicolas Sarkozy warns Barack Obama

David Charter in Prague
The love-in between Nicolas Sarkozy and Barack Obama proved short-lived after the French President warned his US counterpart yesterday to keep his nose out of the issue of Turkey’s membership of the European Union.

President Obama used his first EU-US summit, on the eve of his visit to Turkey, to encourage European leaders to embrace the Muslim country and “anchor it in Europe”. However, Mr Sarkozy, a long-standing opponent of full membership for Turkey, rebuffed the US leader in language that seemed to sour the revival of Franco-US relations.

Support for Turkey in joining the EU, a process that it began formally in 2005 and hopes to complete before 2020, has long been an American foreign policy goal.

Mr Obama, who flew to Turkey last night, clearly wanted to leave on a positive note. He told EU leaders: “The United States and Europe must approach Muslims as our friends, neighbours and partners in fighting injustice, intolerance and violence.

“Moving forward towards Turkish membership in the EU would be an important signal of your commitment to this agenda and ensure that we continue to anchor Turkey firmly in Europe.”

Mr Sarkozy, who has talked of offering Turkey a privileged partnership rather than membership, did not wait to hit back. “I have been working hand in hand with President Obama but when it comes to the European Union it is up to member states of the European Union to decide [on membership],” Mr Sarkozy said in an interview on French television. “I have always been opposed to this entry and I remain opposed,” he added.

His comments laid bare the continuing EU split over Turkish membership, with France and Austria openly opposed and deep reservations in Germany and the Netherlands. Turkey would become the most populous EU country and Germany in particular is said to have concerns about the shift in power that this would cause, with the largest number of MEPs coming from Turkey, along with strong voting rights in European Council decisions.

José Manuel Barroso, the European Commission President, sought to paper over the cracks as he welcomed Mr Obama’s comments. “We have started a process of negotiations with Turkey for membership of the European Union and that was a unanimous decision of the European Union, all 27 member states,” Mr Barroso said.

“Of course we have to go on with the negotiations and at the end, we have to see if Turkey is ready to join and if the European Union is ready to integrate Turkey.”

Recep Tayyip Erdogan, the Turkish Prime Minister, reiterated his country’s desire to join the EU when he visited Brussels this year.

Olli Rehn, the EU Enlargement Commissioner, called last week on Turkey to renew its focus on reforms to meet Union entry criteria for democracy and workers’ rights. “The pace of negotiations depends on the pace and intensity of the reforms in your country,” he said.

The Turkish press said yesterday that the country had secured concessions for dropping its objections to Anders Fogh Rasmussen, the Danish Prime Minister, becoming the next Nato Secretary-General.

Ankara had argued that Mr Rasmussen was not suitable because he did not offer an apology for cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad published in a Danish newspaper in 2005, which led to violent demonstations across the Muslim world. Turkey expects to secure several key Nato posts, including that of assistant secretary-general.

Mr Rasmussen insisted in the Danish media yesterday that he had not sacrificed his defence of freedom of expression in order to secure Turkey’s support of his nomination.

Turkey also objected to the hosting by a Danish satellite of a Kurdish television channel that is regarded by Ankara as a mouthpiece of the outlawed PKK (Kurdistan Workers’ Party). Speaking to the Danish daily newspaper Jyllands-Posten, Mr Rasmussen added: “If it can be proven that Roj TV is participating in terrorist activities, then we will do what we can to close the television station . . . within the framework of what Danish legislation allows.”

SARKOZY

Posted by peiper     on 04/06/2009 at 11:15 AM   
Filed Under: • EUro-peons • Obama, The One •  
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President Barack Obama rejects allegations that US at war with Islam .

President Barack Obama has declared that “the United States is not and will never be at war with Islam” and spoken of his
“deep appreciation for the Islamic faith” in a speech to Turkey’s parliament.

by Toby Harnden in Ankara
Last Updated: 2:49PM BST 06 Apr 2009

“So let me say this as clearly as I can: the United States is not and will never be at war with Islam,” he said.

Many Americans “have lived in a Muslim-majority country – I know, because I am one of them” Obama, on the first stop of a two-day trip to Turkey, his first as president to a Muslim country, said earlier that the U.S. and Turkey can forge a “model partnership"that bridges the religious and cultural divide between the western world and the predominantly Muslim east.

The US leader was introduced to the parliament as “Barack Hussein Obama”

In a speech that celebrated the cultural ties and shared history between American and Turkey, Obama said their alliance has made the world “more secure.” He pledged to give U.S. support to combat the “terrorist activities” of the Kurdish separatist movement, the PKK, winning applause from lawmakers. The U.S. is prepared to be a partner to help work through the issue of Armenian massacres in 1915, and “strongly supports” Turkish membership of the European Union, Obama said.

Whoa Kemo Sabe. Hold the phone there. What?  Who are you to encourage (I’m asking as tho he will read this. lol) their joining the eu?
Now Sarkozy of France has issued a statement critical of BO and claiming he has no business making comments on internal euro affairs.
That’s really rich considering Sarko and wife and most in Europe have been sticking their collective noses in our back yard at Gitmo.

“Our partnership with the Muslim world is critical,” he said.

President Obama urged Turkey to speed up liberal reforms aimed at bringing the Muslim country into the European Union.

Obama said during a speech before parliament that Turkey had made progress on freedom of expression and minority rights for ethnic Kurds, but said Ankara should press on with reforms.

Turkish entry talks with the EU have been held up by European concerns over human rights, a perceived lack of progress on reforms, and by a long territorial dispute with EU member Cyprus.

TELEGRAPH

Posted by peiper     on 04/06/2009 at 09:21 AM   
Filed Under: • Obama, The One • RoPMA •  
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   Saturday - April 04, 2009

All Hail The One!

Posted by Drew458     on 04/04/2009 at 02:24 PM   
Filed Under: • Obama, The One •  
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Barack Obama: ‘arrogant US has been dismissive’ to allies, makes apology for Bush years.

Oh boy ...
Now wait a minute. He did also say that Euro-peons misjudged us and blamed America for everything wrong in the world when in fact we have done much good.
BUT ... according to the morning paper in front of me ...
Well here.  Read it for yourself.

Barack Obama: ‘arrogant US has been dismissive’ to allies
President Barack Obama has offered an apology for the Bush era, declaring that America had “shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive” towards its allies.

By Toby Harnden in Strasbourg
Last Updated: 8:37PM BST 03 Apr 2009

President Obama said the US had “failed to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world”.

His speech in Strasbourg went further than any United States president in history in criticising his own country’s action while standing on foreign soil.

But he sought to use the mea culpa as leverage to alter European views of America and secure more troops for the war in Afghanistan.

He declared that there had to be a fundamental shift on both sides of the Atlantic. “America is changing but it cannot be America alone that changes,” he said.

Addressing a crowd of some 2,000 mainly students from France and Germany, Mr Obama said: “In America, there is a failure to appreciate Europe’s leading role in the world.

“Instead of celebrating your dynamic union and seeking to partner with you to meet common challenges, there have been times where America has shown arrogance and been dismissive, even derisive.”

He then balanced this striking admission with a tough message to Europeans that blaming America was foolish.

“But in Europe, there is an anti-Americanism that is at once casual, but can also be insidious. Instead of recognising the good that America so often does in the world, there have been times where Europeans choose to blame America for much of what is bad.

“On both sides of the Atlantic, these attitudes have become all too common. They are not wise. They do not represent the truth. They threaten to widen the divide across the Atlantic and leave us both more isolated. They fail to acknowledge the fundamental truth that America cannot confront the challenges of this century alone, but that Europe cannot confront them without America.”

Earlier, Mr Obama had thrown down the gauntlet to his European counterparts, saying: “We want strong allies. We are not looking to be patrons of Europe. We are looking to be partners of Europe.”

Mr Obama lauded France as America’s “oldest ally, our first ally” and hailed Mr. Sarkozy’s “initiative, imagination, creativity.” Returning the compliment, Mr Sarkozy spoke of a new White House occupant who wanted to “change the world” and was not concerned only with narrow American self interest.

But behind Mr Obama’s charm was a tough message that Europe needed to do more, particularly in Afghanistan where the US is sending 21,000 more troops.

“It is probably more likely that al Qaeda would be able to launch a serious terrorist attack on Europe than on the United States because of proximity,” Mr Obama said.

“We would like to see Europe have much more robust capabilities. That’s not something we discourage.”

Mr Obama said that Nato would remain the bedrock of American foreign policy but made clear he believed it should not be a one-way street.

“Nato is the most successful alliance in modern history. And the basic premise of Nato was that Europe’s security was the United States’ security and vice versa.”

Mr Sarkozy praised Mr Obama for pledging to close the Guantanamo Bay prison: “Guantanamo was not in keeping with US values”, adding that using “terrorist methods” was not a way to defeat terrorism.

The American president responded: “I made the decision to close Guantanamo because I don’t think it makes America safer.”

WTF!  Just why the ‘F’ should Sarko care about Guantanamo? Why is that the business of the French or any other fuckin foreigner?
Oh and France is in such great shape too. uh Huh.  And BO thinks closing the place makes American safer.  Has anyone heard any reason why that should be so?  I haven’t but then I do miss a lot.

Mr Obama took the opportunity to warn North Korea that it should abandon its “provocative” plans to launch a long-range rocket. He said he had made clear the reclusive Stalinist state should “stop the launch” or the US would “take appropriate steps to let North Korea know that it can’t threaten the safety and security of other countries with impunity”.

Well ok I can understand that and very soon now BO will kiss ass and apologize to No.Korea and all will be well in the world. Bah!

TELEGRAPH

This was not a bad speech but decide for yourselves.

I still miss Ronnie! Am waiting for Palin.

Posted by peiper     on 04/04/2009 at 03:39 AM   
Filed Under: • International • News-Briefs • Obama, The One •  
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   Tuesday - March 24, 2009

DOES OBAMA KNOW WHO THE PRESIDENT OF FRANCE IS?

This is from the “Too Amusing To Ignore” dept.

Nothing earth shattering but worth posting none the less.

PC working today.  Hope it lasts.

By Toby Harden
The Telegraph
US Editor

It’s long been the case that the easiest way for an American and a Brit - whatever their respective political persusasions - to bond is to chuckle over something rude about the French.

Jokes about garlic, frogs’ legs, surrender, duplicity, take your pick - it’s safe ground. If Barack Obama had gone on Leno and made a barbed quip about our Gallic friends instead of the Special Olympics he’d have been home free.

So perhaps the new president is being devilishly clever by, as Le Figaro reports, writing to Jacques Chirac, former French president, that: “I am certain that we will be able to work together, in the coming four years, in a spirit of peace and friendship to build a safer world.”

These kind of seem like the kind of words most suitable for a sitting head of state, not a former one. The use of the word “peace” is apparently being interpreted by the French newspaper as a tacit recognition of Chirac’s strong stance against the Iraq invasion.

Some have interpreted the move as a one-fingered gesture to Nicolas Sarkozy, the current president of France. “So, if I understand well, Mister O., who has already despised Gordon Brown, behaving with him as if he did not know he is Prime Minister of Britain, does not even know the name of the French president,” blogs Europumas.

“I wonder if someone had told him, when he came to France last summer, that the man he met was NOT Jacques Chirac!”

What better way to make up with Gordon Brown after the DVDs fiasco than to insult France’s president?

Or perhaps it could have been payback for Sarkozy’s supposed opinion that Obama’s stance on Iran was “utterly immature”.

But wait. The now online-only Christian Science Monitor reports that Obama was simply replying to a letter from Chirac “who was writing him as the head of his foundation - the Jacques Chirac Foundation for sustainable development and cultural dialogue”.

Perhaps the hair-trigger settings of the Obama gaffe detectors are leading to a few shots going wide of the mark.

HARDEN

Posted by peiper     on 03/24/2009 at 06:41 AM   
Filed Under: • Eye-Candy • Obama, The One •  
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   Saturday - March 21, 2009

Barack Obama takes his eye off the ball, and puts his foot in it. Some Brit reactions to O.on Leno

Believe it or not America, there were even opinions given on radio programs as to whether or not a president should appear on a TV talk show, and if it demeaned the office.  There were even comments in local papers.
Who wouldda thought anyone outside the USA would give a flip one way or another if an American president went on late night talk show? But apparently there is genuine interest.  Or perhaps the interest is only in what Obama does. 

In a recent editorial on the subject, there was also a general critique of American late TV, Leno, Letterman and a mention of O’Brien.  All were found wanting and the opinion was that America late night just is NOT FUNNY.  And if ya think about it, it really isn’t all that great. Especially since Carson left.
And even his routines could sometimes go on too long. 

The TV critic at The Telegraph says that our late night TV is “designed for an audience already half asleep” and that the “formats are creaky and haven’t had a touch of paint in decades.”

BUT WAIT .... Post is about Barry (fooled ya?) not USA late night.  I was just giving some background. Anyway ....

It appears Mr. Obama kinda put his foot in it and had to say “sorry.” Though I’m damned if I understand why.  It wasn’t like he set out to denigrate
handicapped people or insult the “Special Olympics.”

So here’s some reaction from this side of the water you folks at home might find interesting.  And oh yeah.  Had it been a conservative said it, well you know the rest.

Barack Obama takes his eye off the ball… and puts his foot in it during late-night TV gaffe

By David Gardner
Last updated at 9:32 AM on 21st March 2009
The Mail on Saturday

Barack Obama has been forced to apologise after making a rare gaffe in front of millions of television viewers.

The normally sure-footed president tripped up with a joking reference to his ten-pin bowling skills during an appearance on one of America’s biggest talk shows.

Barack Obama on Jay Leno risks becoming a bore

By Simon Heffer
Last Updated: 7:37PM GMT 20 Mar 2009
The Telegraph

It was painful to watch the Leader of the Free World on Jay Leno’s late-night talk show on Thursday, doing a good-ol’-boy act and cracking jokes about being President while the economy tanked. Leno purports to be a comedian but is about as funny as Josef Fritzl, which helped Mr Obama look good.

The President’s apologists said that it was his equivalent of Roosevelt’s fireside chats, which may be so: but if Mr Obama makes a habit of going on blue-collar TV and being blokeish, he’ll soon stop being the new Messiah and start being an old bore

Predictably, Mr Obama used this soft interview to do his spin doctors’ bidding on scapegoating Wall Street for America’s economic disaster, exculpating himself from the AIG bonuses, and pretending he could keep all his campaign promises despite the mess America is in. Any Briton watching would have been reminded of the easy, demotic charm of Tony Blair. And we know how that ended.

COLOR ME EMBARRASSED. I CAN’T RECALL WHERE I FOUND THIS CARTOON BUT IT IS USA, NOT UK. 

March 21, 2009
Barack Obama red-faced after Special Olympics jibe on Leno Show
It was all going so well as the President chatted to Jay Leno. Then he made a crack about the Special Olympics ...
Chris Ayres
The Times, Saturday.

It was billed as the first time that a sitting President of the United States had appeared as a guest on a late-night talk show. After Barack Obama’s performance on The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, there’s also a good chance that it was the last.

Granted, the President, as always, was charming. Granted, he lit up the studio with that Hollywood-grade smile. Yes, he explained the AIG crisis in clear, measured terms, and wisely backed away from a congressional attempt to impose a 90 per cent tax on unpopular bankers. (“I think that the best way to handle this is to make sure that you’ve closed the door before the horse gets out of the barn,” he said, calmly. “What happened here was that the money had already gone out, and people are scrambling to try to find ways to get back.” All in all, “Oboe One” reminded several million Americans why they voted for him.

Then . . . he made a joke about the Special Olympics.

It seemed to pop out of nowhere. One minute he was being all warm and self-deprecating, the next he was making fun of the disabled.

Posted by peiper     on 03/21/2009 at 02:52 PM   
Filed Under: • Miscellaneous • Obama, The One •  
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   Thursday - March 19, 2009

Obama plans to save America are Doomed, say the critics.

Interesting comment from one of the editors at the Telegraph.

President Obama has been in power for just over 50 days, but already critics believe his plans to save America from disaster are doomed.

By. Simon Heffer
The Telegraph
3/17/09

Even in the worst economic crisis since the 1930s, New York knows how to throw a party. For most of yesterday hundreds of thousands of people made a sea of green that paraded up Fifth Avenue to mark St Patrick’s Day. Tens of thousands lined the street to watch them. The all-day party, fuelled by imports of Guinness and whiskey, seemed the more intensely engaged upon as an escape from omnipresent financial gloom.

Away from the party, the mood in America’s cultural and business capital is more firmly anchored in stark reality, and quite different from the euphoria that pervaded it when I was last here, on election day. President Obama still enjoys the popularity that comes with not being George Bush, especially in a city top-heavy with Democrats. But his initial response to the global calamity that he found on entering the Oval Office has not inspired popularity’s more sober elder brother, confidence. Large constituencies, notably business, are voicing their scepticism openly. The President’s much-vaunted $787 billion stimulus package is being widely interpreted, even by some of those (such as Warren Buffett, America’s second-richest man) who openly supported Mr Obama for the presidency, as a serious failure. And we are only just past the first 50 days.

Mr Obama is lucky that his Republican opponents in Congress are disorganised, incoherent and without ideas of their own. The White House branded Rush Limbaugh, the populist talk radio host, leader of the opposition, following an assault Limbaugh had made on the President’s neo-socialist policies. This remark was designed not just to humiliate elected Republicans for their impotence, but also to attempt to terrify the American public at the thought of a man widely seen as a demagogue and an extremist leading a main political movement. It should worry Mr Obama that while the former part of the strategy has hit home, the latter hasn’t.

The main concern about the $787 billion package is that around $400 billion of it (estimates vary) is being used to buy off various Democratic constituencies, granting funding to local projects dear to the hearts of the congressmen whose votes were required to get the package through, and bailing out discredited banks and businesses that many feel deserved to go under. Only yesterday Nancy Pelosi, the Speaker of the House, asked for a change in funding rules to save the San Francisco Chronicle, an ailing newspaper in her own home town that has, by coincidence, loyally supported her. It is not impossible that her wish will be granted. This is what the Americans call pork-barrel politics, and there is enough pork in this scheme to keep pigs in business for decades. Another criticism of the package is that only 23 per cent of the money is expected to come on-stream this year, making a mockery of claims that the money was needed urgently to prevent meltdown.

With the aid of the conservative media, the public is being alerted to the pork – or to what are now being called the “tea parties” being funded by the $787 billion, but which will do no real good to any but a small minority of Democratic client-groups.

There is a rising consciousness here that money is being wasted, that Mr Obama is simply spraying it around, and that America is at risk of bankruptcy. Unlike in Britain – and this is the most refreshing aspect of coming here at this moment of crisis – there is a real, animated, exciting public debate about policy. It extends far beyond the normal political class. Instant books about the alleged failure of Obamanomics are flying off the shelves. Even more astounding, the doorstep-sized novel Atlas Shrugged by Ayn Rand, the objectivist philosopher, published in 1957, is in huge demand. It tells the story of an America destroyed by high taxes and the dictatorship of welfarism, and which can be restored only by the triumph of capitalists and capitalism. The capitalists bring America to its knees by withdrawing their labour and their enterprise; in the end the socialists who have provoked this catastrophe beg them to re-engage. It was only a matter of time before educated opinion here would associate Rand’s fantasy with what is happening today.

Conscious that he has made mistakes, and conscious especially of the increasing perception that he is simply throwing cash at unreformed institutions in the hope that something will happen, Mr Obama is trying to raise his game. He had a soft target two days ago, when he joined in America’s outrage at the paying of bonuses to executives of AIG, the sinking insurance giant now buoyed by public money. This provoked further attacks on him from the Right. Why was he using US taxpayers’ money to bail out a company whose main investors were French, German, Swiss and British banks? And wasn’t he merely jumping on the bandwagon of attacking the bonuses to distract attention from his own policy failings – creating a bogeyman in the same way that Gordon Brown and Harriet Harman did with Sir Fred Goodwin last month?

Mr Obama has shown little evidence that he has connected with the tens of millions in his country for whom hardship is not theoretical.

Six hundred thousand people a month in America are going on the dole. Much of the $275 billion – perhaps as much as $200 billion – earmarked for the mortgage industry will go to shore up Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac rather than provide direct support to those whose homes are being repossessed. The pawn shops, the half-finished and overgrown housing developments on the edges of towns, the roads to nowhere and the new proliferation of beggars and down-and-outs on the streets of New York (I have not seen so many here since the 1980s) are a growing testament to the President’s challenge. He has yet to prove he is equal to it.

HERE FOR THE REST OF HEFFER EDITORIAL

Posted by peiper     on 03/19/2009 at 05:58 AM   
Filed Under: • Economics • Editorials • Obama, The One •  
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