Ventura is a former Navy Seal, also former Governor of Minnesota. As he blasted Cheney on Larry King, he shuts up the sniping Hasselbeck from ABCs The View.
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Monday, May 18, 2009
Elisabeth Hasselbeck from The View, got a cup of STFU from Jesse Ventura in regards to waterboarding (Video)
President Obama and Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu Press Availability (Video and Transcript)
Full Video
Transcript
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Pentagon no longer quotes bible versus' on briefings (Video)
That GQ article was a bombshell. I posted it yesterday. It was a huge eyeopener on Rumsfeld and on Bush. Now we have the Pentagon clearing it all up.
The Pentagon said Monday it no longer includes a Bible quote on the cover page of daily intelligence briefings it sends to the White House as was practice during the Bush administration.
Pentagon spokesman Bryan Whitman said he did not know how long the Worldwide Intelligence Update cover sheets quoted from the Bible. Air Force Maj. Gen. Glen Shaffer, who was responsible for including them, retired in August 2003, according to his biography.
For a period in 2003, at least, the daily reports prepared for President George W. Bush carried quotes from the books of Psalms and Ephesians and the Gospel of Peter. At the time, the reports focused largely on the war in Iraq.
The Bible quotes apparently aimed to support Bush at a time when soldiers' deaths in Iraq were on the rise, according to the June issue of CQ magazine. But they offended at least one Muslim analyst at the Pentagon and worried other employees that the passages were inappropriate.
On Thursday, April 10, 2003, for example, the report quoted the book of Psalms — "Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him. ... To deliver their soul from death." — and featured pictures of the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down and celebrating crowds in Baghdad. read more here.....
Obviously, it happened and all I can type is "what next to come from under the rug during the Bush years." Again, separation of church and state was WRITTEN explicitly for a reason with metric to govern. The Bush Administration just ignored it, as they did many things during their tenure.
From the Ed Show
And Pat Buchanan had a cow on Hardball over this.....
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FLOTUS, Michelle Obama in New York for the Arts (Pictures)
First lady Michelle Obama spent her second New York City visit emphasizing the crucial role the arts play in our society, reopening part of the American wing of the Metropolitan Museum of Art on Monday and later addressing the crowd at a glittering ballet gala.
At both events, Mrs. Obama was greeted with enthusiastic ovations from audiences that included prominent figures in politics, the arts, entertainment and fashion. She stressed the importance of giving young people better access to the arts.
"The arts are not just a nice thing to have or to do if there is free time or if one can afford it," she said at the museum. "Rather, paintings and poetry, music and fashion, design and dialogue, they all define who we are as a people and provide an account of our history for the next generation."
"The president and I want to ensure that all children have access to great works of art," she told a crowd that included students from four New York City public schools that focus on the arts. "We want all children who believe in their talent to see a way to create a future for themselves in the arts community, either as a hobby or as a profession."
And she reminded the audience that her husband, President Barack Obama, had included an additional $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts in his economic stimulus package.
Mrs. Obama spoke in the newly renovated Charles Engelhard Court, a striking room filled with sunlight, in front of the Greek Revival-style facade of an early 19th-century bank branch that was originally on Wall Street. She wore a bright purple Isaac Mizrahi sheath and coat.
To the amusement of a crowd that included Mayor Michael Bloomberg, Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D-N.Y., Vogue editor Anna Wintour, former model Iman and designer Ralph Lauren, Mrs. Obama was reminded by museum president Emily Rafferty that she and the president had their first date in a museum.
"Thank you for reminding me," Mrs. Obama said. "You know, after 20-some-odd years of knowing a guy, you forget that your first date was at a museum. But it was, and it was obviously wonderful; it worked." read more here....
Michelle at the Met and the Ballet
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Obama to Netanyahu "...get to the peace table...." (Video)
Obama is being a hardliner for this behind the scenes and he should. If we want things fixed in the Middle East it starts with the two-state solution. Netanyahu can be a hardliner for being against it, but in the end will not get the support he needs in the international community if he does not go back to the table with the Palestinians as an honest broker on this. Simple as that, get to the peace table.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Monday he is ready to resume peace talks with the Palestinians immediately, but any agreement is contingent on their acceptance of Israel's right to exist as a Jewish state. His comments came after a meeting with President Barack Obama, who bluntly told the Israeli leader it was time to get back to the negotiating table.
Netanyahu and President Barack Obama met for more than two hours at the White House and focused on Mideast peace talks, Iran's nuclear program and the U.S.-Israeli relationship.
Obama said he expects a positive response from his diplomatic outreach to Iran on stopping its nuclear program by the end of the year. The president said the United States wanted to bring Iran into the world community, but declared "we're not going to have talks forever." read more here....
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Obama Administration requires cars to get 42 MPG
This is great news, all around. It should have been done YEARS ago with these automobiles. This is too long overdue.
New cars and trucks will have to get 30 percent better mileage starting in 2016 under an Obama administration move to curb emissions tied to smog and global warming, sources said Monday.
President Barack Obama was expected to adopt the higher mileage standards on Tuesday, administration sources said, speaking on condition of anonymity ahead of the official announcement.
The new requirement will mark the first time that limits on greenhouse gases will be linked to federal standards for cars and light trucks.
While the 30 percent increase would be an average for both cars and light trucks, the percentage increase in cars would be much greater, according to the New York Times, rising from the current 27.5 mpg standard to 42 mpg starting in 2016. The average for light trucks would rise from 24 mpg to 26.2 mpg.
California, 13 other states and the District of Columbia had earlier urged the federal government to let them enact more stringent standards than the federal government's requirements. The states' regulations would cut greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent in new cars and trucks by 2016.
[snip]
Daniel Weiss, director of climate strategy at the Center for American Progress, described it as "a triple play: It will help move America off foreign oil, save families money and spur American businesses to take the lead in developing the job-creating, clean-energy technologies of the future."
Obama's plan also would effectively end litigation between states and automakers. The latter had opposed state-specific rules, arguing that having to meet several state standards would be much more expensive for them than just one federal rule.
SOURCE
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Getting fired by a president means nothing if you are a former GM CEO
Again, it means nothing. It was proverbial lip service, obviously, because the man is still getting a pay check.
Seven weeks after the Treasury Department announced that it was ousting General Motors chief G. Richard Wagoner Jr. in the federal bailout of the company, he is still technically on GM's payroll.
Wagoner's removal has been held up because senior Treasury officials have yet to decide whether he should get the $20 million severance package that the company had promised him.
The delay is one of many hitches that have slowed a host of important policy actions in the four months since Timothy F. Geithner became Treasury secretary. While Geithner has taken dramatic steps to address flashpoints in the economy, the work of carrying out those policies has bogged down because critical decisions about how to do so aren't being made, interviews with a broad range of federal officials show.
Government officials, inside the Treasury and out, say the unresolved issues are piling up in part because of vacancies in the department's top ranks. But some of the officials also cite the Treasury's ad-hoc management, which is dominated by a small band of Geithner's counselors who coordinate rescue initiatives but lack formal authority to make decisions. Heavy involvement by the White House in Treasury affairs has further muddied the picture of who is responsible for key issues, the officials add.
In other words, they don't know what the hell they are doing. Sorry, but if you make a decision to fire someone, that decision should be final. Meaning, all discussion and decisions of any bonus should have been made, prior to any firing. So, now we have a fired CEO, getting a pay check and the firing did not mean anything.
At least that is what we minions in the nosebleed section think.
Source
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700 people opened their wallets in Indiana at Obama Fundraiser
They opened up the wallets for Obama and the Democrats.
In fact, about 700 friends opened their billfolds Sunday night to support Democrats as Obama made his first post-election visit to the Circle City.
His quick tour of the Westin hotel Downtown lasted less than half an hour, but the president managed to reel in hundreds of thousands of dollars in campaign cash for the Democratic National Committee and four incumbents in Congress. The precise amount raised was not immediately available.
After leaping onto a ballroom stage in front of 650 people who dined on honey chicken breasts, cheesecake and champagne orzo, Obama proclaimed, "It's good to be back in Indiana."
[snip]
Flanked on stage by Reps. Andre Carson, Joe Donnelly, Brad Ellsworth and Baron Hill, Obama said he needed Indiana voters to re-elect their Democratic incumbents so he can continue to push his agenda of change.
"I can't rebuild our economy, reform our health-care and education system and preserve our environment and keep our nation safe if I'm all alone in the Oval Office," he said. "I need partners in Congress, people who are going to work hard every day to move this country forward."
About 650 people paid between $250 and $5,000 to hear Obama's 15-minute speech and support the four congressmen.
Then he spent some time with couples that paid $15,000 for the DNC.
Does anyone smell 2010? Mid-term elections?
Source
Obama's Remarks
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Yes, Obama did win the election.
In winning a presidential election comes CHOICES, the honor of picking his cabinet, placing people in key governmental positions and placing persons on the Supreme Court.
Yes, that is what winning an election means. It means that the other side can kick themselves in the "you know what" but have to deal with the president's choices because, well, the other side did not win the election. And the Republicans did not even come CLOSE in 2008, in fact they lost more seats in the house and senate, in fact lost Senator Arlen Specter to the Democrats, in fact Governor Jon Huntsman (a moderate governor from Utah and a mormom) is now Obama's official envoy or Ambassador to China, in fact have been losing the perception game to President Obama.
Yes, folks elections have repercussions if you win or lose. If you win, you set the agenda. If you lose, you are in the weeds for a long time.
President Obama has not yet named his choice to succeed Justice David H. Souter, but several Republicans acknowledge that it is unlikely they will be able to derail the nomination absent some startling revelation about the candidate.
Those Republicans, including senior staff aides and some senators, suggested in interviews that they believed Mr. Obama’s first nominee for the court would be confirmed without great difficulty no matter how they framed the issues during the confirmation process.
[snip]
A senior Republican Senate official not connected to Mr. Sessions said, “Everyone up here can see the political pieces on the board.” The official, who spoke on the condition of anonymity in order to discuss the situation candidly, added, “No one is talking about the possibility of defeating any nominee, barring something coming out of left field.”
The official said that not only did Democrats have command of the committee and a strong majority in the Senate, but that any nomination would also come at a time when the president’s public standing was high.
A second top Republican Senate aide, also not connected to Mr. Sessions, said, referring to Mr. Obama, “Elections have consequences; he won.”
Indeed, Mr. Obama did win.
Source
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Is Dick Cheney helping the GOP? (Video)
My take is no. But the Republicans have no leader with enough pull to tell him to shut up, outside of George H.W. Bush or possibly, George W. Bush. So, they are quietly just letting Cheney and his sidekick, daughter beat the terror drum. They are not talking because once you start talking about torture and the Bush policy in the Middle East, that is a can of worms that neither can defend. And yes, the CIA lies and yes, this tempest in the teapot about Nancy Pelosi is dead by Friday.
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Sunday, May 17, 2009
Alan Keyes is one sick, "(You Fill in the Blank)" (Video)
From Alan Keyes on Obama...." he is the focus of evil......child killing?"
He is another face of the Republicans that makes you say, "WTF???" for real.
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President Obama's Commencement Speech at the University of Notre Dame, South Bend, Indiana (Video and Transcript)
President Obama received the Honorary Doctorate Degree from the University of Notre Dame
President Obama's entrance into University of Notre Dame's Commencement
President Obama accepting his Honorary Doctorate Law Degree
President Obama's full Commencement Speech at University of Notre Dame
President Barack Obama is pictured at the University of Notre Dame with University President Rev John Jenkins
Transcript of President Obama's Commencement Speech
MSNBC Video of Obama's Commencement Speech at Notre Dame
NPR's University of Notre Dame Commencement Speech Transcript
Politico Video of Obama's Notre Dame Commencement Speech
Obama @ Notre Dame Photo Diary
Obama wins at Notre Dame
Michelle Obama's Commencement Address at The University of California - Merced
And the protesters? Mostly, outside groups? Where were they when George W. Bush accepted his honorary degree? When the Catholic Church is vehemently against capital punishment, and George W. Bush killed more folk on death row than any governor. And let us not talk about wars. Where were these protesters? This is a fake outrage that makes them look small in the larger picture.
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Meet the Press with RNC Chair Michael Steele and DNC Chair Governor Tim Kaine, (Video and Transcript)
Exclusive! In their first Sunday showdown as Party Chairs, the DNC's Tim Kaine and the RNC's Michael Steele square off on the many issues that divide their two parties including health care reform, foreign policy and the economy. Plus, how does each leader plan to steer his side to victory in 2010 and beyond? We'll find out, only on "Meet the Press." And, insights and analysis from our political roundtable: Council on Foreign Relations' Richard Haass, Newsweek's Jon Meacham, The Wall Street Journal's Peggy Noonan, and National Journal's Ron Brownstein.
Transcript
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Donald Rumsfeld's peers are talking and it is not nice
Former Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld's former peers are speaking out to GQ and it is not flattering. Excellent article, a must read.
ON THE MORNING OF Thursday, April 10, 2003, Donald Rumsfeld’s Pentagon prepared a top-secret briefing for George W. Bush. This document, known as the Worldwide Intelligence Update, was a daily digest of critical military intelligence so classified that it circulated among only a handful of Pentagon leaders and the president; Rumsfeld himself often delivered it, by hand, to the White House. The briefing’s cover sheet generally featured triumphant, color images from the previous days’ war efforts: On this particular morning, it showed the statue of Saddam Hussein being pulled down in Firdos Square, a grateful Iraqi child kissing an American soldier, and jubilant crowds thronging the streets of newly liberated Baghdad. And above these images, and just below the headline SECRETARY OF DEFENSE, was a quote that may have raised some eyebrows. It came from the Bible, from the book of Psalms: “Behold, the eye of the Lord is on those who fear Him…To deliver their soul from death.”
This mixing of Crusades-like messaging with war imagery, which until now has not been revealed, had become routine. On March 31, a U.S. tank roared through the desert beneath a quote from Ephesians: “Therefore put on the full armor of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand.” On April 7, Saddam Hussein struck a dictatorial pose, under this passage from the First Epistle of Peter: “It is God’s will that by doing good you should silence the ignorant talk of foolish men.”
These cover sheets were the brainchild of Major General Glen Shaffer, a director for intelligence serving both the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the secretary of defense. In the days before the Iraq war, Shaffer’s staff had created humorous covers in an attempt to alleviate the stress of preparing for battle. Then, as the body counting began, Shaffer, a Christian, deemed the biblical passages more suitable. Several others in the Pentagon disagreed. At least one Muslim analyst in the building had been greatly offended; others privately worried that if these covers were leaked during a war conducted in an Islamic nation, the fallout—as one Pentagon staffer would later say—“would be as bad as Abu Ghraib.”
But the Pentagon’s top officials were apparently unconcerned about the effect such a disclosure might have on the conduct of the war or on Bush’s public standing. When colleagues complained to Shaffer that including a religious message with an intelligence briefing seemed inappropriate, Shaffer politely informed them that the practice would continue, because “my seniors”—JCS chairman Richard Myers, Rumsfeld, and the commander in chief himself—appreciated the cover pages.
But one government official was disturbed enough by these biblically seasoned sheets to hold on to copies, which I obtained recently while debriefing the past eight years with those who lived them inside the West Wing and the Pentagon. Over the past several months, the battle to define the Bush years has begun taking shape: As President Obama has rolled back his predecessor’s foreign and economic policies, Dick Cheney, Ari Fleischer, and former speechwriters Michael Gerson and Marc Thiessen have all taken to the airwaves or op-ed pages to cast the Bush years in a softer light. My conversations with more than a dozen Bush loyalists, including several former cabinet-level officials and senior military commanders, have revealed another element of this legacy-building moment: intense feelings of ill will toward Donald Rumsfeld. Though few of these individuals would speak for the record (knowing that their former boss, George W. Bush, would not approve of it), they believe that Rumsfeld’s actions epitomized the very traits—arrogance, stubbornness, obliviousness, ineptitude—that critics say drove the Bush presidency off the rails. read more here.....
I have been waiting for the hammer to come down on Rumsfeld from his own crew and it is coming down.
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Saturday Night Live (SNL) spoofs Dick Cheney (Video)
I swear Will Farrell continues to have George W. Bush down pat.
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