President Obama just delivered a near hour-long speech on drone strikes and counterterrorism policy. There was a lot there; he announced, among other things, new steps the administration is taking to close Guantanamo Bay, changes in policies regarding drone strikes, and a more lenient policy for the transfer of Guantanamo detainees. He defended the strike that killed Anwar al-Awlaki and the practice of drone strikes in general, but also acknowledged their limitations. You can read the full text of the speech here (Photo credit: AP) source
The problem with Politico is the top editors can’t make up their damn minds.
Can we make ‘Go Bulworth’ a thing, you guys? #GoBulworth on Twitter and everything?
Obama would make a really good Bulworth.
Any one of those stories would be enough to knock an Administration back on its heels. All three — and with the IRS and AP stories coming in rapid succession over the past 96 hours — threaten to permanently derail Obama’s plans to fortify his presidential legacy in the first 18 months of his second term.
The problems are both practical and symbolic. They have both short term and long term political consequences. And almost none of it portends well for President Obama and his Administration.
Another point here worth considering: “Remember that President Obama was elected in 2008 in no small part because of his pledge to be the anti-George W. Bush. That is, prizing competence over all in governance and putting a premium on transparency. And both of those pillars are undermined by developments in the past four days.”
Republicans came up with all kinds of convoluted and made-up explanations for voting against gun background checks, and some are starting to do the same for the immigration bill. A few are even using the Boston bombing as an excuse. But for many lawmakers, the real reason is depressingly familiar. They don’t want to give President Obama anything he wants.
It doesn’t really matter how many business groups say the immigration system has to change, or how many suburban voters are disgusted by the easy access to guns for criminals. For these Republicans, the visceral hatred of the president is their only guiding star, and they are absolutely convinced the voters in their districts feel the same way.
A government in gridlock is a government that doesn’t work. (ht Connie Schultz)
I admire their commitment to cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate.
That’s what Obama said about CNN at last night’s White House Correspondents Association dinner.
Let me explain why that is such a great line. CNN sees itself as “in the middle” between left and right, MSNBC and Fox. Just recently, in fact, CNN president Jeff Zucker praised the middle as the place to be. But CNN also sees itself as a great newsgathering organization that is all about truthtelling rather than ideology. “Keeping them honest,” as Anderson Cooper, face of the brand, likes to say.
Put them together and what do you have? Keep ‘em honest, but stay in the middle. Which doesn’t work. For what happens when one side is BS-ing us more than the other? What happens when independent and honest reporting shows that these people on this side are mostly right in what they’re saying, and those people on that side are distorting the case?
CNN wants to believe, tries to believe and I think does believe that this problem does not exist. Therefore we have to remind them about it, because it does exist. And that’s what Obama did: “cover all sides of the story just in case one of them happens to be accurate” is saying to CNN: Accuracy and truthtelling will be sacrificed to your ideology— the middle, no matter what it takes.
(via jayrosen)
The sad part is, they had all these problems before they hired Jeff Zucker. And then they hired Jeff Zucker, a man whose entire recent career has been built on tone-deaf failures to understand his network’s audience, whatever that network might have been.
What we’ve said to the girls is, ‘If you guys ever decided you’re going to get a tattoo, then mommy and me will get the exact same tattoo in the same place. And we’ll go on YouTube and show it off as a family tattoo.’ And our thinking is that might dissuade them from thinking that somehow that’s a good way to rebel.President Obama • Kiboshing his daughters’ future attempts to rebel against him and Michelle.
BREAKING NEWS: Letter with suspicious substance sent to President Obama; intercepted at off-site facility, Secret Service says
Details: http://nbcnews.to/10gt75J
Yikes. Not again.
digg:
From the White House Flickr:
President Barack Obama talks on the phone with FBI Director Robert Mueller to receive an update on the explosions that occurred in Boston, in the Oval Office, April 15, 2013. Seated with the President are Lisa Monaco, Assistant to the President for Homeland Security and Counterterrorism, and Chief of Staff Denis McDonough. (Official White House Photo by Pete Souza)
I’m moving back to New York in a few days. Unlike past...
OMG. I got so...
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Tumblr this morning. [h/t anne]
#@#$%!.tumblr.com
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“With the passing of Baroness Margaret Thatcher, the world has lost one of the great champions of freedom and liberty, and America has lost a true friend. As a grocer’s daughter who rose to become Britain’s first female prime minister, she stands as an example to our daughters that there is no glass ceiling that can’t be shattered. As prime minister, she helped restore the confidence and pride that has always been the hallmark of Britain at its best. And as an unapologetic supporter of our transatlantic alliance, she knew that with strength and resolve we could win the Cold War and extend freedom’s promise.
Here in America, many of us will never forget her standing shoulder to shoulder with President Reagan, reminding the world that we are not simply carried along by the currents of history—we can shape them with moral conviction, unyielding courage and iron will. Michelle and I send our thoughts to the Thatcher family and all the British people as we carry on the work to which she dedicated her life—free peoples standing together, determined to write our own destiny.”
What was your opinion on the Iron Lady’s work?
See, the Western tradition of admiration for a beautiful woman is an ancient and wonderful thing. While the Mohammedans like to wrap their women up in black sacks, we glorify them. From the Vatican to the Louvre, we deck the halls with them. And if it’s OK with the pope, it’s OK with us.The Daily Caller’s Christopher Bedford, opining on the President Obama-Kamala Harris hoopla and, in the process, giving Reince Priebus yet another headache on the path to rebranding. source
The public, stated reason for this is to show solidarity with federal workers who were furloughed due to the sequester. An alternate explanation: The President warned for weeks that the sequester would have a disastrous effect on the country, but its effects since hitting haven’t been acutely felt by the citizenry at large. These pledges by the president and his allies serve as a public reminder that yes, the sequester did have tangible, measurable effects—at least for the workers who’ve been furloughed—and thus retroactively lend credence to the president’s warnings. source
So the White House released their April Fool’s joke, a video with a kid president, which would be pretty unremarkable except this kid KILLS IT. It’s like a minute long, just watch it.
“I think I’m stuck.”
Today in the only April Fool’s joke we’ll post on this blog (well, barring this one, probably).
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