Tag Archives: President Barack Obama

April 14, 2012 · 6:00 AM

Secret Service agents with Obama at summit relieved of duty

Secret Service, United States images

When you put this news into context, those secret service agents were jeopardizing the security of the POTUS.

That’s a serious offense…

Politico

A dozen Secret Service agents with President Barack Obama at an international summit have been relieved of duty because of allegations of misconduct.

The Associated Press received an anonymous tip that the misconduct involved prostitutes in Cartagena, Colombia, the site of the Summit of the Americas. A Secret Service spokesman would neither confirm nor deny the allegation.

A U.S. official, who was not authorized to speak publicly on the matter and requested anonymity, put the number of agents at 12. The agency was not releasing the number of personnel involved.

The incident threatened to overshadow Obama’s economic and trade agenda at the summit and embarrass the U.S. The White House had no comment.

Secret Service spokesman Ed Donovan would not confirm that prostitution was involved, saying only that there had been “allegations of misconduct” made against Secret Service personnel in the Colombian port city hosting Obama and more than 30 world leaders.

Donovan said the allegations of misconduct were related to activity before the president’s arrival Friday night.

Obama was attending a leaders’ dinner Friday night at Cartagena’s historic Spanish fortress. He was due to attend summit meetings with regional leaders Saturday and Sunday.

Those involved had been sent back to their permanent place of duty and were being replaced by other agency personnel, Donovan said. The matter was turned over to the agency’s Office of Professional Responsibility, which handles the agency’s internal affairs.

“These personnel changes will not affect the comprehensive security plan that has been prepared in advance of the president’s trip,” Donovan said.

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January 6, 2012 · 4:38 PM

John McCain Slips Up, Says ‘Obama Will Turn This Country Around’

It looks like the Old Senator is losing his grip on reality.  This occured yesterday.

Today he did the same thing.

The Huffington Post

While speaking at a campaign rally Thursday in support of GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney, Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) mistakenly professed his faith in President Barack Obama’s ability to improve the economy.

“I am confident, with the leadership and the backing of the American people, President Obama will turn this country around,” McCain said, as seen above in  a video  from Goose Creek Patch.

McCain – who endorsed Romney on Wednesdayjust after the GOP hopeful won the Iowa Caucus by a razor-thin margin — appeared at the rally in Charleston, S.C., along with fellow Romney supporter Gov. Nikki Haley (R-S.C.).

The crowd, as well as Haley and Romney, quickly realized McCain’s error. Haley leaned in to correct McCain, grabbing his elbow.

“Excuse me, President Romney,” McCain said.

The Obama-Romney mix-up wasn’t the only awkward moment during McCain’s appearance.  According to BuzzFeed’s Zeke Miller, McCain made a comment about Clemson University’s “victories on the gridiron.”

Clemson lost the Discover Orange Bowl to West Virginia University on Wednesday night. Miller later tweeted that McCain intended the line as a joke.

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November 17, 2011 · 8:16 AM

Lauren Pierce, President Of College Republicans At Texas University: Obama Assassination ‘Tempting’

This is scary and absurd, all at once…

The Huffington Post

Lauren Pierce, the president of the College Republicans at UT Austin, said on Twitter Wednesday that the idea of assassinating President Barack Obama was “tempting.”

At approximately 2:30 p.m., Pierce posted, “Y’all as tempting as it may be, don’t shoot Obama. We need him to go down in history as the WORST president we’ve EVER had! #2012.”

The tweet came hours after police arrested a man for firing shots at the White House, leaving two bullets in the executive mansion.

Pierce joked that “it must be a slow news day” after ABC News posted a story on her comment:

Pierce told ABC News that the comment was a “joke” and that the “whole [shooting incident] was stupid.” Giggling, she said that an attempted assassination would “only make the situation worse.”"Insofar as she’s a representative [of the College Republicans], maybe it shouldn’t be said, but she’s made a positive statement in a way,” said Cassie Wright, the group’s vice president.

“I don’t really see anything wrong with it,” Wright added. “It’s just a personal comment, not representative of any group. Just freedom of speech, you know?”

Amid growing attention, Pierce removed the post and apologized on Twitter for her actions.

“It’s never funny to joke about such a serious matter,” she said. “I have learned a very valuable lesson.”

Lauren Pierce@laurenepierce 

Lauren Pierce
I apologize for my previous tweet. It was in poor taste and and should never have been written.
 
 
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September 2, 2011 · 2:00 PM

Joe Walsh To Skip Obama Jobs Speech, Calls President ‘Idiotic’

Joe Walsh is obviously projecting about his own shortcomings.  The real idiot is Joe Walsh!

This totally unprecedented  disrespect for the office of the Presidency because Barack Obama is occupying the office is absolutely absurd and says more about the GOP than about the POTUS.

The Huffington Post

House Republican Joe Walsh, a Tea Party favorite from Illinois, will not be attending President Barack Obama’s Sept. 8 jobs speech, the Chicago Tribunereports.

“I don’t see the point of being a prop for another of the president’s speeches asking for more failed stimulus spending and more subsidies for his pet projects,” he said in a statement issued Thursday.

Walsh, a member of the House Small Business Committee, will instead be hosting a small business forum in Illinois. He said he opposes Obama’s eagerness to give another major jobs speech before meeting with more constituents.

“The president needs to stop the speeches, get out of his office and away from all the White House academics and start talking to real people out there,” Walsh said. “They’re the ones who are going to create the jobs, not White House paper-pushers and bureaucrats.”

Walsh’s comments come after Obama embarked on a three-day bus tour through the Midwest to speak with citizens about jobs and the economy. Obama stopped in Iowa, Minnesota and Illinois, hosting town halls and addressing constituents’ concerns about the nation’s debt and high unemployment rate.

Walsh also criticized the president and his jobs plan earlier this week, according to the Northwest Herald. He called Obama “idiotic” while speaking to a group of voters in Illinois on August 31.

“How idiotic is this president?” Walsh said. “I don’t want to be disrespectful, but he’s going to bring forth a jobs plan next week. Think about that for a minute. He’s been in office for three years. He’s destroyed job creation systematically for three years.”

Walsh plans to return to Washington Friday morning after the speech.

 

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July 17, 2011 · 9:19 PM

Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee Questions Whether Race is a factor in the debt ceiling talks…does she have a point?

Discussing race in this country is such a divisive topic that most people would rather deny its existence or at least sweep it under the rug and discuss it at a later date.  In my years online, I have learned to stay away from the topic in general discussion forums.  People will attack you as being a “militant”, “prejudice”, “racist” and “anti-white” or one is “playing the race card”.  Mostly because they don’t want to talk about it.

I suspect Rep. Sheila Jackson-Lee will get the same response…(See related articles, below.)

Ebony Mom Politics

We have never seen the debt ceiling issue play out like this before. We have never seen or heard talk of the United States of America defaulting on its loans, but we also have never had a black president before. Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee raised this issue on the floor of Congress. I have heard several people that I know ask this same question this week. So tell me what you think is  race a factor?

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November 19, 2010 · 2:50 AM

Sarah Palin Slams Michelle Obama in Racially Charged Passage From New Book

The Huffington Post - Geoffrey Dunn

In passages leaked from her forthcoming book America by Heart, Sarah Palin — the erstwhile quitter governor of Alaska, who now, by all indications, fancies herself as President of the United States — has taken another cheap shot at First Lady Michelle Obama.

In a passage on perceptions of racial inequality in the United States, Palin slams President Barack Obama, who, she asserts, “seems to believe” that “America — at least America as it currently exists — is a fundamentally unjust and unequal country.”

And then she goes after Michelle Obama:

Certainly his wife expressed this view when she said during the 2008 campaign that she had never felt proud of her country until her husband started winning elections. In retrospect, I guess this shouldn’t surprise us, since both of them spent almost two decades in the pews of the Reverend Jeremiah Wright’s church listening to his rants against America and white people.

The passage — coming on page 26 in a chapter entitled “We, the People” — echoes remarks made by Palin on the eve of the midterm elections, at a rally in San Jose, California, at which point she mocked remarks made by Michelle Obama during the 2008 campaign: “You know, when I hear people say, or had said during the campaign that they’ve never been proud of America,” Palin spat out. “Haven’t they met anybody in uniform yet? I get tears in my eyes when I see that young man, that young woman, walking through the airport in uniform…you too… so proud to be American.”

In fact, Michelle Obama’s remarks were made (in Madison, Wisconsin, during the 2008 campaign) in a context of Americans being “unified around some basic common issues”:

What we have learned over this year is that hope is making a comeback. It is making a comeback. And let me tell you something–for the first time in my adult lifetime, I am really proud of my country. And not just because Barack has done well, but because I think people are hungry for change. And I have been desperate to see our country moving in that direction, and just not feeling so alone in my frustration and disappointment. I’ve seen people who are hungry to be unified around some basic common issues, and it’s made me proud.

Afterwards, the First Lady further clarified her remarks by noting that she was referencing the “record number” of young voters participating in the political process in the 2008 campaign:

For the first time in my lifetime, I am seeing people rolling up their sleeves in way that I haven’t seen and really trying to figure this out, and that’s the source of pride I was talking about.

The passages from Palin’s latest book first appeared at Palingates, where several other pages from American by Heart have also been posted. Palin followed up her comments about Michelle Obama by throwing an elbow at U.S. Attorney General Eric Holder, also focusing on racial overtones:

It also makes sense, then, that the man President Obama made his attorney general, Eric Holder, would call us a “nation of cowards” for failing to come to grips with what he described as the persistence of racism.

 

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November 5, 2010 · 5:07 AM

Glenn Beck Is Concerned For Obama’s Safety On India Trip

My concern, is people like Beck, Limbaugh, Fox News, et al, are broadcasting  the POTUS’ itenerary too freely. 

Beck feigns concern about Obama’s trip, but my take on this is that these people could care less about the President’s safety, so why all the fuss, Mr. Beck?

Mediaite

The main uproar over President Barack Obama’s upcoming trip to India is how much it may or may not cost, but Glenn Beck (while also wondering some about the cost) has a different question: will the president be safe?

Beck didn’t elaborate much on the cost speculation (except to say we don’t really know what the figures are), but did voice concern that the president isn’t paying attention to advice from the Secret Service, and that he’s staying at a hotel (the Taj Mahal Palace) where some of the deadly terrorist attacks in Mumbai two years ago took place. Especially worrisome to Beck, though, was whether or not the Secret Service was allowed to change the president’s itinerary and routes after the prospective trip was canceled previously.

Though Beck said he’s personally against the trip (he wondered why Obama couldn’t simply pick up the phone and accomplish much of what he plans to on the trip), the segment below doesn’t live up to the divisive reputation some have given him. No matter how hyper-partisan rhetoric on either side of the aisle gets, most people can still agree they don’t want to see anyone harmed personally.

See video here…

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September 30, 2010 · 6:32 PM

Emanuel leaving White House on Friday

Goodbye Rahm.  Can’t say that I’m sorry to see you go.  When you were head of the DCCC and I would get calls to contribute to that organization, I refused, because of you.  When the President selected you as his Chief-of-Staff, I was not happy.  You see Rham, I knew that you were a “blue dog” Democrat and I knew that your conservative values would not benefit the Democratic party during the 2008 campaign when you were head of the DCCC and when you were part of the Obama administration.  Your right of center policies have been a disaster for our president and his base.  So, with an anxious gesture I wave goodbye.  You will not be missed.

MSNBC

 Rahm Emanuel will resign as White House chief of staff on Friday. NBC News has confirmed that Pete Rouse, senior advisor to President Barack Obama, will be named as successor — likely on an interim basis.

It is still unclear who will take over the position permanently.

“The president will have a personnel announcement tomorrow,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said in a press conference Thursday. “We will save the specifics for then.”

Gibbs said the president has “complete loyalty and trust” in Rouse, though he wouldn’t confirm Rouse had been tapped for the interim post.

Two people familiar with his plans, who spoke on condition of anonymity because they did not want to pre-empt Emanuel’s announcement, told The Associated Press that he will return to Chicago over the weekend and begin touring neighborhoods on Monday.

“He intends to run for mayor,” one of the people said.

Both people said they did not know when Emanuel would make an official announcement about his mayoral bid but that he would launch a website with a message to Chicago voters in the near future.      Continue reading…

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September 17, 2010 · 7:20 AM

What Democrats want Barack Obama to say

I think that during the 2007/8 campaign season, Barack Obama and his supporters were rather idealistic and frankly, rather myopic to the muck and mire of Washington politics.

Obama talked a good game about cleaning up Washington and having an open and transparent government.  However, the reality of being the President of the United States hit him like a ton of bricks.  The reality of our national security issues prevented him from closing Gitmo as promised.  The reality of the wars in the Middle East caused Obama to increase troop level in Afghanistan, something he was opposed to during the campaign.

The stark reality of  partisan politics kept the “public option” out of the watered down Health Reform Bill passed in the beginning of the year.   Climate change and renewable energy plans (which would have created “green jobs”) were shelved for more important reasons, like a  10% unemployment for the last 18 months or so.) 

I don’t think the POTUS fully understood that there was no such thing as “post racial” America  after his election and that one-third of the country resented him to the point that they found multiple reasons to question his legitimacy to hold the office of the President of the United States of America.

Those opponents had been vocal even before Obama was elected and have grown in numbers and anger about the economy, jobs, too much government, as well as homophobic, xenophobic and cultural issues.

I believe the folks who said that Obama was too inexperienced in Washington politics, to become president, may have had a point after all…

Politico

After months of grappling with governance and a year’s worth of crises, President Barack Obama has leapt back into the political fray — to the relief of some Democrats and the indifference of others who want as little to do with him as possible.

But, try as some individual Democrats might to run away from Obama, the party’s collective fate is bound to his. As one Hill Democrat put it: “2010 and 2012 have now become the same year.”

In other words, his mojo is ultimately their mojo.

“He’s starting to get going, but I’d have him out there more, more, more — four days a week,” said former Democratic National Committee chief Howard Dean, who has been heartened by recent red-meat Obama speeches in Milwaukee and Cleveland.

But is the real Barack really back?

Democrats aren’t so sure — and, as usual, they are never short of advice. So, here are five suggestions for Obama’s Recovery Fall, courtesy of 20 or so Democratic operatives, politicians and academics canvassed by POLITICO.

Stop saying the plan is working. Obama’s record of domestic achievement — passing health care reform, forcing through banking regulations, stopping economic freefall — and the public’s disdain for such “results” is the most distinctive feature of the Obama presidency. Nothing frustrates the West Wing more than the idea that the president cannot take credit for what they regard as a record of historic accomplishment and canny crisis management.’

But they have to let it go, Democrats say. Quit defending the economic policies, however sound, that have left the country with a 9.6 percent unemployment rate. Ditch the just-give-our-remedies-more-time-to-work stuff — emphasize the fight, not a statistical recovery many working-class voters aren’t experiencing.

“They believe that they have to say what they’re doing is working, but let me tell you, that’s annoying the hell out of people,” said James Carville, the former Bill Clinton adviser. “No one thinks it’s true. It irritates people who are out there struggling and just feeds this perception that they are out of touch.”

What they should do, Carville advises, is to say “Every day, we’re out there fighting for you — the middle class — and every day these Republicans are blocking us from helping you.”

Dean, who made the fight central to his 2004 Democratic campaign — sometimes to a fault — said that Obama’s been taking it to Republicans more often. One top Democratic operative even said the past two weeks have been “like someone flicked a switch on and Obama finally came back to life.”

Democrats who were heartened by Obama’s fiery speeches last week are hoping for more of the same in an upcoming series of Obama campaign rallies in Wisconsin, Pennsylvania, Ohio and Nevada.       Continue reading…

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September 12, 2010 · 4:35 AM

Poverty Rate In U.S. Saw Record Increase In 2009: 1 In 7 Americans Are Poor

This entire economic situation, in which the middle class has been attacked and broken by fat cat shills of greedy corporations is astonishing. 

The so-called “tea party” who is in bed with the likes of Koch Industries and other corporations should be ashamed of themselves.  Talk about going against one’s own self interest, tea partiers and others who embrace the GOP strategy of corporate culture and greed, epitomize that scenario…

Huffington Post

The number of people in the U.S. who are in poverty is on track for a record increase on President Barack Obama’s watch, with the ranks of working-age poor approaching 1960s levels that led to the national war on poverty.

Census figures for 2009 – the recession-ravaged first year of the Democrat’s presidency – are to be released in the coming week, and demographers expect grim findings.

It’s unfortunate timing for Obama and his party just seven weeks before important elections when control of Congress is at stake. The anticipated poverty rate increase – from 13.2 percent to about 15 percent – would be another blow to Democrats struggling to persuade voters to keep them in power.

[...]

Demographers also are confident the report will show:

_Child poverty increased from 19 percent to more than 20 percent.

_Blacks and Latinos were disproportionately hit, based on their higher rates of unemployment.

_Metropolitan areas that posted the largest gains in poverty included Modesto, Calif.; Detroit; Cape Coral-Fort Myers, Fla.; Los Angeles and Las Vegas.

“My guess is that politically these figures will be greeted with alarm and dismay but they won’t constitute a clarion call to action,” said William Galston, a domestic policy aide for President Bill Clinton. “I hope the parties don’t blame each other for the desperate circumstances of desperate people. That would be wrong in my opinion. But that’s not to say it won’t happen.”

Lawrence M. Mead, a New York University political science professor who is a conservative and wrote “The New Politics of Poverty: The Nonworking Poor in America,” argued that the figures will have a minimal impact in November.

“Poverty is not as big an issue right now as middle-class unemployment. That’s a lot more salient politically right now,” he said.    Continue reading…

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