US Claims It Will Begin Pullout From Afghanistan Next Summer

US claims it will begin pullout from Afghanistan next summer

Via Raw Story: By The Associated Press
Monday, June 21st, 2010 — 9:00 am

The Obama administration reaffirmed Sunday that it will begin pulling U.S. troops out of Afghanistan next summer, despite reservations among top generals that absolute deadlines are a mistake.

President Barack Obama’s chief of staff said an announced plan to begin bringing forces home in July 2011 still holds.

“That’s not changing. Everybody agreed on that date,” Rahm Emanuel said, adding by name the top three officials overseeing the policy girding the war: Gen. David Petraeus, Defense Secretary Robert Gates and the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, Adm. Mike Mullen.

Petraeus, the war’s top military boss, said last week that he would recommend delaying the pullout if conditions in Afghanistan warranted it. Days after the date was announced in December, Gates pointedly said it was not a deadline.

Emanuel’s remarks reflect the White House view that Obama must offer a war-weary American public and Congress a promise that the nearly nine-year war is not open-ended. The problem, congressional Republicans and some military leaders say, is that a fixed date encourages the Taliban-led insurgency and undermines U.S. leverage with Afghan leaders.

MORE HERE

Read Full Post »

Is Rahm Emanuel Providing Cover for Karl Rove and GOP Thugs?

For OpEdNews: Roger Shuler
March 24, 2010

Cross Posted at Legal Schnauzer
White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel has led efforts to prevent investigations of political prosecutions during the George W. Bush administration, according to a recent Web report.

Brendan DeMelle, at Huffington Post, writes that the Obama administration’s decision to turn a blind eye to politicization of the U.S. Justice Department has profound implications for the country–not to mention the victims of political prosecutions, such as Don Siegelman in Alabama, Paul Minor in Mississippi, and Charles Walker in Georgia.

Read more…

Read Full Post »

Michael Moore: Senator Ben Nelson Wears Sooner Panties — Backwards!

Sen. Ben Nelson's Sooner Panties

Just to give you an idea of the new style I’ll be bringing with me, when a cornhole like Sen. Ben Nelson tries to hold you up next time, this is what I will tell him in order to get his vote: “You’ve got exactly 30 seconds to rescind your demand or I will personally make sure that Nebraska doesn’t get one more federal dollar for the rest of Obama’s term. And then I will let everyone in your state know that you wear Sooner panties, backwards. NOW DROP AND GIVE ME 50!”

President Obama: Replace Rahm with Me …an open letter from Michael Moore

Friday, March 5th, 2010

Dear President Obama,

I understand you may be looking to replace Rahm Emanuel as your chief of staff.

I would like to humbly offer myself, yours truly, as his replacement.

I will come to D.C. and clean up the mess that’s been created around you. I will work for $1 a year. I will help the Dems on Capitol Hill find their spines and I will teach them how to nonviolently beat the Republicans to a pulp.

And I will help you get done what the American people sent you there to do. I don’t need much, just a cot in the White House basement will do.

Now, don’t get too giddy with excitement over my offer, because you and I are going to be up at 5 in the morning, 7 days a week and I am going to get you pumped up for battle every single day (see photo). Each morning you and I will do 100 jumping jacks and you will repeat after me:

THE AMERICAN PEOPLE ELECTED ME, NOT THE REPUBLICANS, TO RUN THE COUNTRY! I AM IN CHARGE! I WILL ORDER ALL OBSTRUCTIONISTS OUTTA MY WAY! IF THE AMERICAN PEOPLE DON’T LIKE WHAT I’M DOING THEY CAN THROW MY ASS OUT IN 2012. IN THE MEANTIME, I CALL THE SHOTS ON THEIR BEHALF! NOW, CONGRESS, DROP AND GIVE ME 50!!”

Read Full Post »

Rahm Emanuel: A Closer Look at The Healthcare Issue

Chief of Staff Draws Fire From Left as Obama Falters

Wall Street Journal

By PETER WALLSTEN JANUARY 26, 2010

WASHINGTON—President Barack Obama’s liberal backers have a long list of grievances. The Guantanamo Bay prison is still open. Health care hasn’t been transformed. And Wall Street banks are still paying huge bonuses.

But they are directing their anger less at Mr. Obama than at the man who works down the hall from him. Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, they say, is the prime obstacle to the changes they thought Mr. Obama’s election would bring.

Some observers say Rahm Emanuel is losing favor with liberal Democrats. Could his job be on the line? Kelsey Hubbard talks with WSJ’s Peter Wallsten about the future of President Obama’s chief of staff.

The friction was laid bare in August when Mr. Emanuel showed up at a weekly strategy session featuring liberal groups and White House aides. Some attendees said they were planning to air ads attacking conservative Democrats who were balking at Mr. Obama’s health-care overhaul.

“F—ing retarded,” Mr. Emanuel scolded the group, according to several participants. He warned them not to alienate lawmakers whose votes would be needed on health care and other top legislative items.

Deja-Vu? Well, not being up to date on Emanuel’s history, I wondered why, with his Zionist connections, he was chosen as senior adviser by Obama. So, being kind of  kicked back in the now, went straight to the Wiki. I wasn’t disappointed.

Some highlights:
*At the start of then-Arkansas Governor Bill Clinton’s presidential primary campaign, Emanuel was appointed to direct the campaign’s finance committee.

*Following the campaign, Emanuel became a senior advisor to Clinton at the White House from 1993 to 1998. In the White House, Emanuel was initially Assistant to the President for Political Affairs and then Senior Advisor to the President for Policy and Strategy.

*He was a leading strategist in the unsuccessful White House efforts to institute universal healthcare; and many other Clinton initiatives
*
*Emanuel was named to the Board of Directors for the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corporation (“Freddie Mac”) by then President Bill Clinton in 2000.

Rahm Israel Emanuel

A view from beyond the Left

Read Full Post »

SNL: Rahm Emanuel’s Apology For ‘Retarded’ Comment- 2/6/10 (VIDEO)

SNL Takes On Rahm Emanuel’s Apology For ‘Retarded’ Comment (VIDEO)

HuffPo-  First Posted: 02- 7-10 09:47 AM   |   Updated: 02- 7-10 11:21 AM

Played by Andy Samberg, Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel offered up an “Even-Tempered Apology” last night on SNL for his use of the word “retarded.” While Samberg’s impression occasionally veered toward his take on Mark Wahlberg, he captured the fiery Emanuel perfectly. Addressing Palin’s call for him to be fired, he screamed:

“You come after me on facebook? What, are your fourteen? Here’s a status update: Grow the f–k up! Poke me again, and I will write s–t on your wall so obsene your computer will cry. Go back to the tundra, you f–king gimmick!”

Samberg then summed things up succinctly: “In conclusion, boo f–king hoo. Get over it.”

WATCH:

Vodpod videos no longer available.

Read Full Post »

Rahm Must Go!

James Brett | OpEdNews | January 20, 2010

Here at OpEdNews Rob Kall posted an article from CNN’s “Politics Ticker” about Progressives digging in to unseat Rahm Emanuel from his job as Chief of Staff in the Obama White House. This is the best news I have heard in months! How long does it take Democrats to understand that the Obama we see is the result of heavy-handed manipulations by a person whose qualities of character are so negligible as to call into question the character of those who associate with him. Rahm Emanuel is bad for Obama, bad for Democrats, bad for America because he is an arrogant, slithering, cockroach of a politician, one whose chief claim to fame is that he can brow beat members of Congress both sides of the aisle.

Rahm works through fear. He is supposedly a centrist in an era where the center is where the media says it is, but not where the hearts and minds of the public are. The center is functionally sterile. This suits Rahm because he actually has no program or values other than himself.

Rahm demands obedience from everyone, cabinet secretaries included, and one wonders how he gets away with this. So, wonder. When you are finished wondering, you have to understand that Obama lets him.

SOURCE

Read Full Post »

Blame Obama, Rahm Emanuel, Harry Reid, Nancy Pelosi for Coakley’s Defeat

By Rob Kall | OpEdNews | January 20, 2010

Coakley has lost the seat long held by Teddy Kennedy to a far right extremist and pundits will spin the reasons it happened.

I’m particularly interested in those who are using this Democratic debacle to attack progressives.

Right wingers, like Mitt Romney, spin it as attributable to Obama’s extreme left-wing, progressive agenda.

Some Democrats are going to do something similar– blame the loss on progressives efforts to affect the healthcare legislation. They’ll say that progressives did not compromise enough, did not buy Obama’s message to not allow the perfect to be the enemy of the good. Those Democrats are looking a lot like members of the Republican party. They’re looking a lot like tea partyers.

SOURCE

Read Full Post »

White House Party Crashers May Face Criminal Charges (PHOTOS)

White House Party Crashers Met President, May Face Criminal Charges (PHOTOS)

Huffington Post |  Alex Leo & Alexander Belenky
First Posted: 11-27-09 11:51 AM   |   Updated: 11-28-09 11:15 AM

The White House released a picture today of Michaele Salahi shaking hands with the president despite earlier reports that the couple who allegedly crashed the state dinner never came in contact with Obama.

This revelation comes just hours after the Secret Service took responsibility for the breech. Director Mark Sullivan told the AP that his agency failed to verify whether the couple was invited to the party and expressed his deep concern and embarrassment. He went on to say that measures have been taken to ensure this will not happen again.

Despite that, the Secret Service has not ruled out bringing charges against Tareq and Michaele Salahi. The agency maintains they were not on the guest list despite protestations from the couple, who are auditioning for the Bravo reality show “The Real Housewives of DC”, that they did not crash the party.

“As this moves closer to a criminal investigation there’s less that we can say,” spokesman Jim Mackin said. “I don’t want to jeopardize what could be a criminal investigation. We’re not leaving any option off the table at this point.”

No specific charges were mentioned but the Salahis lawyer, Paul Gardner, claims the couple were indeed invited and that there is no risk of punishment. He posted a comment on Facebook saying, “My clients were cleared by the White House, to be there.”

PHOTOS HERE

Read Full Post »

UPDATE: American Police Force Hardin Montana

APF Reveals Little Information

By Nick Lough & Katie Ussin

Story Published: Sep 28, 2009 at 7:53 PM MDT

Story Updated: Sep 29, 2009 at 10:00 AM MDT
Multimedia

BILLINGS – Confusion and secrecy about American Police Force has grown during the last few weeks.

“APF has been here for 10 months but it has never been stealth,” said APF spokesperson Becky Shay at a press conference on Saturday morning. The group announced its plans to fill the $27 million dollar detention facility and build a police training center next to the jail. While they gave details for the site, other questions went unanswered.

Where will the prisoners come from? What experience does APF have in prisoners and training police officers? Why was Two Rivers Authority Executive Director Greg Smith placed on administrative leave?

During the press conference APF also refused to release any information on its funding or organization “The decision is the name of the parent company will not be released,” said Shay.

When questioned about the decision to show up in Hardin last week in vehicles with “Hardin Police” templates, members were brief in their explanation. “They are to show are intentions are good,” said APF leader Captain Michael Hilton. “Why not put an APF logo on it,” said Shay. “You know we’re getting there.” All of the decals were removed from the vehicles two days later.

APF has consistently stated the community has nothing to fear and says its plans will help stimulate the Hardin economy. “This corporation’s intention is to buy local and stay local and do local business as much as we can,” said Shay.

Residents appear split in their feelings over the company. Some want more information, but others believe it will be a tremendous boost to the area. The company plans to hold a job fair in Hardin the third week of October.

Another development this weekend was the naming of Shay as APF’s new public relations director. Shay was a reporter with the Billings Gazette who had covered the detention facility story for last few years. She announced on Friday she was leaving the paper and hosted the APF press conference Saturday morning.

Be sure to check out comments on this…
~More~

Read Full Post »

Why The GOP Is Screwing Itself

The “leader of the Republican Party” question has been thoroughly analyzed and debated. And after many days and many cable news roundelays, I think we can all agree that, yes, the GOP has been inextricably grasped within the meaty, sweaty mitts of that familiar planetoid of addiction, racism and self-indulgence known as Rush Limbaugh.

And that’s just fine and dandy.

But contrary to what Drudge and Politico are reporting today, this isn’t some sort of wicked conspiracy cooked up by Rahm Emanuel and Robert Gibbs from within the same underground war room where they keep the president’s madrassa diploma and his secret Kenyan birth certificate.

This Limbaugh situation is entirely the fault of the Republican Party. The White House is merely exploiting it — and rightly so.

Throughout the last several decades, the Republican Party has been careening willingly towards this destiny. Year after year, the Republicans have been magnetically drawn ever closer to the simplistic worldview espoused by far-right talk radio: a segment of American society that’s perhaps a little too comfy with laughing at a racial or sexist joke, or repeating nearsighted bumper sticker slogans like, “Your mortgage is not my problem.”

The Republican Party has become the purview of The Dittohead: the thoughtless undead automaton who lazily yet proudly announces on the radio that he or she doesn’t simply “ditto” but, in fact, “mega-dittos” everything spoken by Rush Limbaugh. “Mega” as in millions of times over.

Michael Steele has proved himself to be a Dittohead. Mike Pence and Rick Santorum and Tom DeLay? All dittoheads. You’d be hard pressed to find a Republican politician who hasn’t in some way expressed his or her Dittohead status while also genuflecting at the bloated cankles of their radio warlord.

So it should come as no surprise that the leader of the dittoheads has become the leader of the Republicans.

Read Full Post »