It's not just the hair:
"Obama displays contradictory views on his troubled relationship with Congress" May 01, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama needled a GOP senator Tuesday, then praised Republicans working to solve the immigration riddle. He pledged to reengage with Congress to close the US detention facility in Guantanamo Bay, then decried the intractability of Congress. He cast Republicans as potential allies, then criticized their obstruction.
Related: Slow Saturday Specials: Inside Guantanamo
When it comes to his relations with Congress, President Obama is a man of two minds....
Then he is schizophrenia?
Related: Mapping the Mind of Obama
I'd rather not.
The limits of Obama’s success with Congress have dogged his presidency since Republicans won control of the House in 2010. A fiscal ‘‘grand bargain’’ containing tax increases and long-term spending reductions has eluded him. The automatic budget cuts that he once vowed ‘‘will not happen’’ kicked in March 1....
Related: Budgeting My Posts
Now I'm budgeting my time.
During his 47-minute appearance in the White House briefing room, Obama’s answers illustrated the complicated and sometimes contradictory approach he has taken in his dealings with lawmakers.
At one point, he complimented Republican senators he has met with, saying they appear to have a ‘‘genuine desire’’ to get beyond the gridlock of Washington. Yet moments before, he offered a scornful response to an assertion by Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, that national security protections have deteriorated since he became president....
He was dismissive when a questioner asked: ‘‘Do you still have the juice to get the rest of your agenda through this Congress?’’
‘‘If you put it that way,’’ he told ABC’s Jonathan Karl, ‘‘maybe I should just pack up and go home. Golly.’’
Good idea!
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I'm sorry, folks. I've kind of tuned out the president these days. I hear and see enough bulls*** as it is.
Also see: Globe is Black and White Today
It all seems clear to me.
"Obama renews his effort to close Guantanamo" by Charlie Savage | New York Times, May 01, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama said Tuesday that he would recommit himself to closing the Guantanamo Bay prison, a goal that he all but abandoned in the face of congressional opposition in his first term and that faces steep challenges now.
‘‘It’s not sustainable,’’ Obama said at a White House news conference. ‘‘The notion that we’re going to keep 100 individuals in no man’s land in perpetuity,’’ he added, makes no sense. ‘‘All of us should reflect on why exactly are we doing this? Why are we doing this?’’
Describing the prison as a waste of taxpayer money that has had a damaging effect on US foreign policy, Obama said he would try again to persuade Congress to lift restrictions on transferring inmates....
How about letting them all go seeing as they are all innocent? Everyone in the world knows Muslims didn't do 9/11; Israel and her helpers in various western governments and intelligence agencies did. For some reason, media always seems to miss the links.
But there is no indication that Obama’s proposal to close the prison in Cuba, as he vowed to do upon taking office in 2009 after criticizing it during the presidential campaign, has become any more popular. Obama remarked that ‘‘it’s a hard case to make’’ because ‘‘it’s easy to demagogue the issue.’’
The plan for Guantanamo he proposed — moving any remaining prisoners to a supermax-style prison in Illinois — was blocked by Congress, which barred any further transfers of detainees onto domestic soil.
A spokesman for Senator Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, the Republican Senate leader and one of the leading opponents of closing the prison, said on Tuesday that ‘‘there is wide, bipartisan opposition in Congress to the president’s goal of moving those terrorists to American cities and towns.’’
As if they were going to be released into the community!
Obama made his remarks following the arrival at the prison of more than three dozen Navy nurses, corpsmen, and specialists to help deal with a mass hunger strike by inmates, many of whom have been held for more than 11 years without trial.
Oh, THAT is WHY he's out there calling for closure. It's making him look bad!
As of Tuesday, 100 of the 166 prisoners were officially deemed to be participating, with 21 now being force-fed a nutritional supplement through tubes inserted in their noses.
“I don’t want these individuals to die,’’ Obama said.
Not that way anyway.
Both conservatives and civil libertarians said that under existing law, Obama could be doing more to reduce the number of low-level detainees held at the prison.
The chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Representative Howard P. McKeon, Republican from California, said the Obama administration had never exercised the power it has had since 2012 to waive, on a case-by-case basis, most of the restrictions lawmakers have imposed on transferring detainees to countries with troubled security conditions.
Really? He doesn't seem to have a problem sending out executive orders on other things.
‘‘For the past two years, our committee has worked with our Senate counterparts to ensure that the certifications necessary to transfer detainees overseas are reasonable,’’ McKeon said. ‘‘The administration has never certified a single transfer.’’
Human rights groups also urged Obama to direct the Pentagon to start issuing waivers, and said he should appoint a White House official to run Guantanamo policy with the authority to resolve interagency disputes.
For example, because of disagreements over evidence tainted by torture, the administration has missed by more than a year a deadline to begin parole-style hearings by so-called Periodic Review Boards....
It is not only tainted, it is inadmissible and absolutely useless.
Obama was ambiguous about one of the most difficult problems raised by Guantanamo: what to do with dozens of detainees deemed too risky to release but not feasible to prosecute. His policy has been not to release those prisoners, but to continue to imprison them indefinitely under the laws of war — just somewhere else.
And here he is out there lecturing the world about human rights!
Also see: Obama Retains Indefinite Imprisonment Policy
Some change.
Yet at another point, Obama appeared to question that policy at a time when the war in Iraq has ended, the one in Afghanistan is winding down and the original makeup of Al Qaeda has been decimated....
Tell the people in Iraq the war has ended as "Al-CIA-Duh" hits them with car bombs ever day. Afghanistan seems far from winding down, in fact, it's picking up, and if "Al-CIA-Duh" is decimated why are they in Syria?
But hey, what's a few more distortions and deceptions in a newspaper that is full of them every day?
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Related:
"BULL BISCUITS! Obama doesn't really want to close Guantanamo. Guantanamo is a military base and Obama is the Commander in Chief. He can close it with a single order. But that is not what Obama wants. Not only are many of those people in Guantanamo innocent of any wrongdoning, but now it is known that the government has known they were innocent all along but did not release them to save embarassment. That agenda has not changed. Worse, some of those prisoners have been tortured even worse than waterboarding. So releasing them to be interviewed by the world press would only reinforce the global opinion that the United States has become the Fourth Reich. But Obama did promise to close Guantanamo back in 2008, so now he has to pretend he is trying! But Guantanamo will remain open until all those "live liabilities" are dead and unable to tell the story of what happened to them." -- What Really Happened
No grayness at the FCC:
"Obama will nominate ex-lobbyist to lead FCC" by Cecilia Kang | Washington Post, May 01, 2013
WASHINGTON — President Obama is expected to nominate Tom Wheeler, a friend and telecom industry executive, to head the Federal Communications Commission as early as Wednesday, three people familiar with the administration’s decision said.
Wheeler, a venture capital investor, would take over an agency struggling to keep up with enormous changes in the telecom industry as consumers turn to mobile devices and ultra-fast broadband Internet....
Wheeler comes with deep ties to the biggest telecom lobbying groups....
(Blog editor stops and ruminates on how disappointed he is in the fake and fraud of a president)
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