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Obama Holds Secret Meeting With Reporters

June 12, 2013 by 8 Comments


Barack Obama 5 SC Obama Holds Secret Meeting with Reporters

Sometimes a scandal-plagued President has to take a few minutes out of his busy day to make sure his loyal friends in the media still have his back. According to Buzzfeed, that’s what happened on Monday:

President Obama held an off-the-record meeting with select reporters from some of the nation’s largest print and online outlets Monday, in the White House’s latest effort to placate an increasingly restive press corps.

White House officials regularly meet with reporters for so-called “background briefing sessions,” where the attendees cannot be mentioned by name nor quoted directly, but Monday’s meeting was different. Initially billed as a conversation with White House Chief of Staff Denis McDonough, the president made a surprise appearance — a very unusual move — and the White House placed the proceedings off the record beforehand. The meeting came amid a series of scandals crashing over the White House that has placed the administration on defense in a way it hasn’t been until now.

Formally scheduling closed-door meetings with Eric Holder to manage press coverage didn’t work – the media was genuinely angry with President Boyfriend over the AP/Fox News crackdowns, and could hardly afford the optics of marching into secret off-the-record training sessions with the Attorney General. Plan B was to hustle reporters from a select group of top news organizations into a more run-of-the-mill briefing by lesser officials, then bring Obama into the room after the doors were locked.

Read More at Human Events . By John Hayward.

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Obama: Moment Is Now For Immigration Reform

June 12, 2013 by 7 Comments

Barack Obama speech 11 SC Obama: Moment is Now for Immigration Reform

President Obama has been intentionally absent from formulating immigration reform legislation that could be the centerpiece of his second term, well aware that his fingerprints on any bill could deter necessary Republican support.

But as a bipartisan Senate measure reached a critical stage Tuesday, Obama stepped forward publically in a cheerleading role. He is president, after all, and if he is going to claim an eventual achievement he must at least nominally contribute to its passage. And his push for the legislation — while no surprise — comes at a time when both Democrats and Republicans in Congress are carefully courting votes

Senate leaders are aiming for a final vote by the July 4 recess, and the next three weeks will test the efficacy of several months’ worth of delicate negotiations, during which lawmakers crafting the bill urged the president to stay on the sidelines. The measure cleared the first in a series of procedural hurdles Tuesday, with the Senate voting 84-15 to debate the bill, which includes a 13-year path to citizenship for the nation’s 11 million undocumented immigrants, enhanced border security, low-skill and high-tech visa provisions, and mandatory workplace background checks.

Now, the tenuous amendment process and the hunt for 60 “yes” votes begin in earnest. In anticipation, Obama held a press conference at the White House attended by activists, business leaders, law enforcement officials and a couple of so-called “Dreamers” — children of illegal immigrants.

“A lot of people, Democrats and Republicans, have done a lot of good work on this bill,” the president said, arguing that his administration had done what it could to secure the border, deport criminals, and help Dreamers.

Read More at Real Clear Politics . By Caitlin Huey-Burns.

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Southern Baptists Oppose Allowing Gay Boy Scouts

June 12, 2013 by 3 Comments

Cross SC Southern Baptists oppose allowing gay Boy Scouts

HOUSTON— The Southern Baptist Convention has approved a resolution opposing the Boy Scouts of America’s new policy allowing gay Scouts.

The resolution also calls on the Boy Scouts to remove executive and board leaders who tried to allow gays as both members and leaders without consulting the many religious groups that sponsor Scout troops.

While the resolution does not recommend that Southern Baptists drop ties with the Scouts, it expresses support for those churches and families that decide to do so.

Read More at OfficialWire . By Juan Lozano.

Photo Credit: John H. Wright (Creative Commons)

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Facing Controversy, Obama Political Value Unclear

June 12, 2013 by 4 Comments

Barack Obama 11 SC Facing controversy, Obama political value unclear

BOSTON — Trailed by controversy, President Barack Obama is pressing ahead with efforts to boost Democrats Wednesday in Boston and Miami, raising questions about whether the second-term president will be more asset or liability to his party in the coming election season.

Fulfilling a pledge to work harder to help elect Democrats than he did in years past, Obama visits Massachusetts to rally voters ahead of a nationally watched special Senate election. He stops in Miami in the evening to raise cash for the Democratic Party at two private homes.

Each stop lends Obama’s proven ability to energize Democrats to the party’s cause this year and next, with control of Congress and Obama’s second-term agenda at stake. But the visits also create opportunities for Republicans eager to link their Democrat opponents to the Obama administration’s recent troubles, like a string of high-profile controversies involving the Internal Revenue Service and government intelligence-gathering.

Even in Democrat-friendly Massachusetts, there are signs of modest declines in his popularity as Republicans seize on the White House’s struggles in the special election to replace John Kerry and in nascent campaigns across the nation.

“We hope that the president thinks he’s going to be an asset, and goes all over the place,” Reince Priebus, chairman of the Republican National Committee, said. “When you look at how the candidates are reacting, so far the early ones are running away fast.”

Read More at OfficialWire . By Josh Lederman.

Photo Credit: Geoff Livingston Creative Commons

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Does Obama Nominee Mean War?

June 12, 2013 by 2 Comments

Does Obama Nominee Mean War?

Unlike Susan Rice—President Barack Obama’s newly appointed national security advisor, who hasn’t published any major book or article on issues relating to global affairs—Samantha Power, designated to be the next U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, has a very long and impressive paper trail, including a Pulitzer-winning book on American policy response to genocide.

And while this Rice (not unlike the other Rice) is first and foremost a political operator and bureaucratic infighter and not a foreign-policy intellectual in the tradition of Henry Kissinger and Zbigniew Brzezinski, Power is clearly a serious thinker who has very strong views on America’s role in the world and could probably be described as one of the founders of a foreign-policy school of thought known as “humanitarian interventionism.”

Moreover, if you read what Power has written and said about the need to use American military power to protect citizens of other nations from atrocities committed against them by their own leaders, you have no choice but to conclude that she has been a forceful advocate of that position and has devoted much of her professional career to advancing it at home and abroad as an activist and woman of ideas. If fact, I wouldn’t hesitate to call her an idealist, committed to fighting for her principles.

Which raises the question of why President Obama nominated Power for a top foreign-policy position in his administration. Another important question is why Power agreed to take the job now.

After all, if you examine President Obama’s hands-off response to the evolving civil war in Syria, you could argue that it has been a challenge to much of what Power believes—which explains why the administration’s Syria policy has been decried by so many liberal internationalists (as well as neoconservatives) who continue to believe that Washington should intervene in the conflict, if not by deploying troops then by increasing military assistance to the Syrian anti-government militias and establishing a “no-fly zone” in some areas of the country.

 Read More at The American Conservative . By Leon Hadar.

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Obama Campaign Database Has ‘Information About Everything On Every Individual’

June 11, 2013 by 12 Comments


Maxine Waters 2 SC Obama Campaign Database Has Information About Everything on Every Individual’

(CNSNews.com) – Earlier this year, in an interview with TV One, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) praised President Barack Obama for putting together a campaign database that “will have information about everything on every individual.”

“And that database will have information about everything on every individual in ways that it’s never been done before,” Waters told “Washington Watch” host Roland, referring to Obama’s “Organizing for America,” which was changed from a campaign organization to a 501(c)(4) called Organizing for Action.

 Read More at CNS News . By Penny Starr.

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Energy Officials Land Summer Jobs For Their Kids

June 11, 2013 by 2 Comments

Department of Energy SC Energy officials land summer jobs for their kids

WASHINGTON — At least a dozen children or other relatives of Energy Department officials have received summer jobs at the department in apparent violation of federal nepotism rules, an agency watchdog said Monday.

Inspector General Gregory Friedman said in a report that one senior Energy Department official was actively involved in securing summer jobs for his three college-aged children, including two who ended up getting jobs in the division where the official works.

The official, who was not named, is a senior staff member in the Office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy. The report says the Energy Department is considering “appropriate corrective action” but offers no specifics.

“Nepotism or even its appearance can have a decidedly negative impact on morale within an organization,” Friedman wrote in a 19-page report.

Providing inappropriate advantages for relatives of federal employees “damages the integrity of the competitive process and erodes public trust in the federal hiring process,” Friedman added. “The impact is likely severe, especially when considering the intense competition for (summer) intern positions within the department.”

 Read More at OfficialWire . By Matthew Daly.

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Obama To Nominate Furman As Top Economic Adviser

June 11, 2013 by Leave a Comment

Barack Obama speech 8 SC Obama to nominate Furman as top economic adviser

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama will nominate Jason Furman, a veteran White House economic official, as chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers.

The White House says Obama will make the announcement Monday afternoon.

The council is one of two of the president’s main sources of economic advice to the president. The other is the National Economic Council, where Furman currently serves as principal deputy director.

 Read More at OfficialWire . By Jim Kuhnhenn.

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Senators Push Bill To Declassify Secret FISA Surveillance Rulings

June 11, 2013 by 3 Comments


Mike Lee SC Senators push bill to declassify secret FISA surveillance rulings

Eight senators introduced legislation on Tuesday that would require the Attorney General to declassify significant opinions made by courts operating under the secretive Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act.

If the bipartisan bill was law, it would have required the government to reveal its collection of Verizon phone records and the PRISM Internet data mining program.

“Americans deserve to know how much information about their private communications the government believes it’s allowed to take under the law,” said Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), who is spearheading the effort alongside Sen. Ron Wyden (D-Ore.).

The effort has the backing of Senate Judiciary Committee Chairman Pat Leahy (D-Vt.), according to a release from Wyden’s office.

Sens. Dean Heller (R-Nev.), Mark Begich (D-Alaska), Al Franken (D-Minn.), Jon Tester (D-Mont.) and Mike Lee (R-Utah) have also signed on as co-sponsors to the proposed legislation.

Read More at The Hill . By Carlo Munoz.

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House Speaker John Boehner: NSA Leaker A ‘Traitor’

June 11, 2013 by 17 Comments

John Boehner SC House Speaker John Boehner: NSA Leaker a ‘Traitor’

House Speaker John Boehner today called NSA leaker Edward Snowden a “traitor” who put Americans at risk by releasing classified information to the media.

“He’s a traitor,” the highest ranking Republican in the House of Representatives said in an extensive interview with ABC News’ George Stephanopoulos. “The disclosure of this information puts Americans at risk. It shows our adversaries what our capabilities are. And it’s a giant violation of the law.”

Boehner endorsed President Obama’s characterization of two programs, which allow the NSA to gather information about phone calls made in the U.S. as well as information on foreign suspects collected from major internet companies, as critical to the government’s ability to fight terrorism. He said that there are “clear safeguards” built into the programs to protect Americans.

“The president outlined last week that these were important national security programs to help keep Americans safe, and give us tools to fight the terrorist threat that we face,” Boehner said. “The president also outlined that there are appropriate safeguards in place to make sure that there’s no snooping, if you will, on Americans here at home.”

Snowden, a 29-year-old contractor with the National Security Agency, admitted that he was the source of several leaks of top secret NSA documents to the British paper, The Guardian, and the Washington Post.

Read More at ABC News . By Abby D. Phillip.

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