He must feel like he's on one given the diminishing U.S. influence around the world.
"Obamas arrived on Martha’s Vineyard" by Mark Shanahan | Globe Staff, August 10, 2013
MARTHA’S VINEYARD — Residents gathered to catch a glimpse of President Obama and Michelle Obama as they arrived on Martha’s Vineyard on Saturday to begin their eight-day vacation on the island.
The president, whose day began with a speech to a convention of disabled veterans in Orlando, touched down at Martha’s Vineyard Airport in a helicopter at 3:50 p.m. He looked relaxed in a pair of beige khakis and a gray-blue shirt with the sleeves rolled up with his wife by his side.
While two mesh bags of basketballs were unloaded from one of the two Osprey V-22 helicopters, the president and his wife stepped into a black car and traveled in a motorcade to the 5,000-square-foot home on Snail Road in Chilmark where they will spend the week.
A large crowd waited outside Alley’s General Store in West Tisbury as the phalanx of Secret Service and State Police vehicles hurried by. One sign read “Sasha and Malia 2016,” a reference to the president’s two daughters, who were not in the car but are expected to join their parents on the island. First dog Bo was spotted at the airport, however.
This summer’s stay on the Vineyard is abbreviated compared with the president’s three previous vacations on the island, but White House Press Secretary Jay Carney would not say why when asked by reporters traveling with Obama on Saturday.
“I think he is obviously looking forward to the time that he is able to take,” Carney said.
The first family is staying in a private home, owned by David Schulte, of Chicago, with views of Chilmark Pond and the ocean.
As always, the president’s itinerary while on the island is expected to include a lot of golf, perhaps a bike ride with his daughters, and dinner out with his wife.
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Nothing about the upset residents.
Related: The Boston Globe's NSA Intercepts
President Obama and big names on Vineyard
I didn't make the list?
"US-Russia relations: Calling out a false friend" August 11, 2013
The asylum granted to National Security Agency leaker Edward Snowden is hardly the first issue to come between President Obama and Russian President Vladimir Putin. In October, Putin let it be known that he would not renew America’s Cooperative Threat Reduction program, which has safeguarded nuclear stockpiles in former Soviet countries since the 1990s. Then, in September, Putin threw the US Agency for International Development out of Russia.
That's because AID = CIA, and the whole world knows it.
Oh, btw, DIA = CIA, too!
In December, Putin signed a law barring Americans from adopting Russian babies.
All in response to AmeriKan sanctions, but what's another omission in a paper full of them.
On top of all that, Moscow has cracked down on its own activists, continued to supply Syrian President Bashar Assad with weapons, and resisted international efforts to sanction Iran.
These are the real sticking points, not that other stuff.
It’s no wonder that a meeting between Obama and Putin in Northern Ireland in June was described as a “frowning contest.”
Which Putin won.
Now that Putin has granted asylum to Snowden, Obama is finally pushing back by canceling a planned summit next month with his Russian counterpart. A White House statement explained what many foreign policy experts have considered obvious for quite some time: There simply isn’t enough common ground to make the meeting more than a photo op.
That's all those things are anyway, so what's the big deal?
For a president who made the “reset” of relations with Russia a signature foreign policy priority during his first term, the canceled summit is a public acknowledgment of failure.
Just another in a long list during his presidency. Given the world and domestic situation, this president is a colossal failure.
Still, Obama knows he can’t torpedo the whole relationship. The United States still needs Russia to help us transport food and ammunition to US troops in Afghanistan.
I thought we were leaving.
And we still need cooperation on counterterrorism, as the Boston Marathon bombings showed.
Yeah, right. Russia sends us red alerts about the kid and the FBI says nope, nothing.
But that doesn’t mean Obama must remain silent about Russia’s Cold War revival. Obama has countless tools at his disposal to quietly make Putin’s life more difficult.
They mean Chechen CIA-Duh terrorists. Who is reviving the Cold War here?
For instance, Russia needed US help to get into the World Trade Organization in 2011. Now, Russia wants to join the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development. The United States should be clear that cooperation is a two-way street, and that Putin, who is hosting the Winter Olympics next year, can’t expect much of it without giving a lot more.
Good thing we don't need his help.
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What is the Globe trying to do, start a war with Russia?
If anyone should be called out it is Israel! Not only did they and their helpers do 9/11, they spied on us!
Related: Slow Saturday Special: Obama Criticizes Putin's Posture
That harsh enough for you, Globe?
"Edward Snowden’s father plans visit to Russia" by Brian Knowlton | New York Times, August 12, 2013
WASHINGTON — Edward J. Snowden’s father said Sunday he had obtained visas to visit the former intelligence contractor in Russia and indicated he would encourage him to return to the United States to face federal charges for revealing secret US surveillance programs to journalists, but only if acceptable trial conditions could be negotiated.
Sorry, Dad, that is not a good idea, especially after we saw what happened to Bradley Manning. I think Snowden is a lot smarter than that.
“What I would like,” said Lon Snowden, “is for this to be vetted in open court, for the American people to have all the facts.”
We can. Government can come clean about it all. We don't need a court or trial for that.
He said he favored his son’s return if a fair trial was assured.
Fair trial? In AmeriKa?
As for a possible plea deal, he said, “I’m not open to it, and that’s what I’ll share with my son.”
Appearing on the ABC News program “This Week,” Lon Snowden and the family’s lawyer, Bruce Fein, declined to say when they would visit, to avoid what Fein called a news media “frenzy,” but they said it would be soon....
“We intend to visit with Edward and suggest criminal defense attorneys who have got experience in Espionage Act prosecutions,” said Fein.
I used to like Fein because he called the Bush administration treasonous over torture and spying, but this advice is wrong.
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