Two Sunday Exclusives! White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs weighs in on President Obama's first 100 days in office and the escalating debate over torture. Then Jordan's King Abdullah II joins us to discuss his meeting with President Obama; prospects for peace in the Middle East; the fight against terrorism and the global economy. Plus, insights and analysis on the first 100 days with two Pulitzer Prize winners: the newly awarded Jon Meacham of Newsweek magazine and presidential historian Doris Kearns Goodwin.
Yesterday, King Abdullah II of Jordan was in Washington, DC to start the Middle East peace process. Yes, Obama is continuing the "check mark" off the list.
Deepening his direct role in reviving stalled Middle East peace efforts, Mr Obama met King Abdullah on Tuesday and invited Benjamin Netanyahu, the Israeli prime minister, the Palestinian president Mahmoud Abbas and the Egyptian president Hosni Mubarak for separate talks by early June.
The US president reassured King Abdullah of his commitment to a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict despite reluctance by Mr Netanyahu’s new right-leaning government to support the idea of eventual Palestinian statehood.
In contrast to the more hands-off policy of George W Bush, Mr Obama reasserted his pledge to “deeply engage” in Arab-Israeli peace diplomacy.
“What we have to do is step back from the abyss,” he told reporters after meeting the Jordanian king at the White House.
He said a “sense of urgency” was needed to resuscitate the peace process and said he expected “gestures of good faith” to be made in coming months.
“I agree that we can’t talk forever, that at some point steps have to be taken so that people can see progress on the ground. And that will be something that we will expect to take place in the coming months,” Mr Obama said.
He said he was a “strong supporter of a two-state solution”, adding: “I have articulated that publicly, and I will articulate that privately. And I think that there are a lot of Israelis who also believe in a two-state solution.”
Washington Mutual Inc., the biggest U.S. savings and loan, reported a 3.3 billion second-quarter loss on uncollectible loans as a record number of borrowers were unable to keep up with mortgage payments.
The loss of $6.58 a share compared with net income of $830 million, or 92 cents a share, a year earlier, Seattle-based Washington Mutual said today in a statement. The company said mortgage-related losses through 2011 will be at the high end of its previous forecast of $12 billion to $19 billion.
Chief Executive Officer Kerry Killinger, 59, stripped of the chairman position last month, is facing increased pressure from investors after the stock dropped 86 percent over the past year and his peers from Citigroup Inc. and Wachovia Corp. were fired. The company, which has raised capital, cut employees and reduced the size of its home-lending business, increased provisions for loan losses 69 percent to $5.9 billion.
In the late 90s, early 00's this bank was heavy in the mortgage business. Bought out quite a few smaller banks throughout the United States, including PNC, which was a small regional bank in Illinois and opened up all these mortgage banking offices, only to end up closing them, along with many of the retail branches that WAMU opened.
Well, again as we saw IndyMac tank, keep an eye out on many of these banks. As Enron, who cooked the books for as long as they could, why not these banks? If the mortgage meltdown has taken IndyMac down, why not any other bank? Yeah, you can tell, I just don't trust them.
All of us should ask these questions. And even though FDIC is stating they don't foresee another IndyMac, who knows?
And while I am in a banking "bitchery" mood, good old Fannie and Freddie will not help any American, anytime soon.
Now we know why U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson was reluctant to reveal to lawmakers last week the potential cost of the Bush administration's rescue plan for mortgage giants Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.
It's going to be a mind-popping $25 billion over fiscal 2009 and 2010, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO), which released its estimate of the rescue plan Tuesday morning. Let's put that in perspective: $25 billion for two financial institutions compared with $125 billion for the entire S&L industry in 1989-1991? Ouch.
But, this being Washington, there's a catch. CBO Director Peter Orszag told reporters Tuesday that the plan could also cost nothing--or as much as $100 billion.
And who is going to pay for this? You got it? Good ol' us. 'nuff said.
Gordon Brown today paved the way for the withdrawal of British troops from Iraq, promising a "fundamental change" of mission in the first half of 2009.
In a Commons statement, the prime minister heaped praise on the work of British soldiers and insisted the security situation in Basra had been "transformed".
"We will continue to reduce the number of British troops in Iraq," Brown said.
"Just as last year we moved from combat to 'overwatch', we would expect a further fundamental change of mission in the first months of 2009 as we make the transition to a long term bilateral partnership with Iraq, similar to the normal relationships which our military forces have with other important countries in the region."
This bolsters Obama's 16 month plan of troop withdrawal from Iraq. This is important.
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moveon.org ad "timetable"
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John McCain's Neverending War
This video is by JedReport. It is nine minutes long, but extremely informative and to the point.
I caught Anderson Cooper 360 before hitting the bed last night, one of the many glorified media desk clerks.
One thing that caught my ear was the framing of Obama "supposedly" in Iraq talking negotiations. Now this came from David Gergen and agreed with by Gloria Borger. Both stating that there is one president and that he should not be doing this. When I get a clip, I will post it, but I went to bed with a "WTF", here. One thing that Barack Obama has been clear on is that he is on this expedition to "listen" and there is only one president, that is George W. Bush. Sooooooo......?????
Then we have Andrea Mitchell, NBC, who is skeptical about the images, video, etc., coming out of Iraq. Well, there is nothing that Obama can do about that, it is controlled by the DoD. Maybe because as a "journalist", that is Mitchell, Obama has given a scoop to CBS's Face the Nation and ABC's Nightline there is some chomping at the bit? Obama's press conference today in Jordan, expect the press core to attempt to eat his lunch, per se. Sorry, they have not had their "Obama fix".
Ummmm, wonder if that wonderful "New Yorker Magazine" satire cover of The Obamas had anything to do with it?
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morning joe on obama's trip, thus far
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Now NBC/MSNBC is pushing the McCain picking a VP this week story...
Citing Bob Novak, who can be out there, there sometimes, but hey this is not far off the mark. When you are the other party's candidate and got rejected by the NYT or told to rewrite your op-ed piece, sucking for free media air, maybe picking a VP pick is not a bad idea. At least the press will be talking about you??
Seems like he is on the same page as Barack Obama on this 16 month pullout.
n a Commons statement, he will reiterate the Government's intention to pare down the remaining 4,000-strong force as Iraq becomes more secure.
The Prime Minister's statement comes as two senior figures in the armed forces stated that British withdrawal should now be quickened. At the weekend, Air Chief Marshal Sir Jock Stirrup, the Chief of the Defence Staff, said that British troop levels in Iraq should come down significantly in 2009.
Acknowledging that the numbers had not come down as quickly as had been hoped, and again emphasising that the forces were not structured to maintain two large operations for an extended period, Sir Jock said: "I would expect us to see further substantial progress towards a more sustainable tempo in the course of the next year."
Meanwhile Brigadier Julian Free said that the Iraqi Security Forces "are in a position now where they can maintain security almost without our help". Paying tribute to the British troops' "transformation" of the security situation, Brig Free said: "The Iraqis are keen to do more for themselves and I think they will soon be in a position when they can take over." continue
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