ThinkFast: June 16, 2009
ThinkFast: June 16, 2009
The Human Rights Campaign sent a letter to Obama yesterday “to protest the administration’s recent legal backing of the Defense of Marriage Act.” “This brief would not have seen the light of day if someone in your administration who truly recognized our humanity and equality had weighed in with you,” the letter said. The New York Times criticizes the administration’s decision as a “bad call on gay rights.”
Iran’s Guardian Council said today that “it was prepared to order a recount of disputed ballots in Friday’s deeply divisive elections, but ruled out an annulment of the vote.” Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei yesterday ordered a formal review of the electoral process. Opposition candidates, including top challenger Mir Hussein Moussavi are calling for a new election to be held.
“Defense Department officials are debating whether to ignore an earlier promise and squelch the release of an investigation into a U.S. airstrike last month, out of fear that its findings would further enrage the Afghan public, Pentagon officials told McClatchy Monday.” The decision about what to release regarding the May 4 air attack that killed dozens of Afghan civilians “is now in limbo,” the official said.
After a meeting with President Obama yesterday, Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi agreed to take three detainees from Guantanamo Bay. The EU also said yesterday that European nations “are ready to help the Obama administration ‘turn the page‘ on Guantanamo, and take detainees on a case-by-case basis.”
With the Boston Red Sox coming to town next week to play the Washington Nationals, members of Congress sense a great fundraising opportunity. More than a dozen lawmakers have scheduled fundraisers at Nationals Park, selling lobbyists marked-up seats and the chance to make their own pitch.
Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has released a report alleging to have found $5.5 billion in wasteful spending among President Obama’s stimulus projects. “Senator Coburn’s report, however, is filled with inaccuracies,” an Obama economic adviser replied, “including criticisms of projects that have already been stopped, projects that never were approved and some projects that are working quite well.”
President Bill Clinton, currently serving as the U.N.’s special envoy to Haiti, said that “Haiti has the best chance in decades to escape poverty and political upheaval and he will seek in his new job as U.N. special envoy to improve life for the estimated 9 million Haitians.”
The top U.S. commander in Iraq, Gen. Ray Odierno, said combat troops will leave all Iraqi cities by their scheduled deadline of the end of this month, “including Mosul, which remains the country’s most dangerous urban area.”
According to a new report from the Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General finds that “[f]ewer than half of Veterans Affairs centers given a surprise inspection last month had proper training and guidelines in place for common endoscopic procedures such as colonoscopies” and that “errors in…minimally invasive procedures performed at VA facilities may be more widespread than initially thought.”
And finally: Sen. John McCain twitters about the purchase of his new car. “Time to get a new car — decided on the Ford Fusion Hybrid,” McCain wrote in a tweet yesterday. In a 2007 interview, the Arizona Senator famously couldn’t remember what kind of car he drove. (An aide had to remind him that he owned a Cadillac.) McCain’s new hybrid gets 41 miles per gallon in the city and 36 mpg on the highway.
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“5.5 billion in wasteful spending”
What did Obama do, send billions of dollars in cash to a warzone and then forget where it was?
Ha ha, just kidding. No President would be that ignorant/irresponsible.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:05 amHave a recount but declare it wont anull the previous vote…whats the purpose of a recount again?
June 16th, 2009 at 9:06 amCities not bases…
June 16th, 2009 at 9:08 amThey are already enraged and a report isnt going to enrage them much more — more airstrikes will do that.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:11 amI think the administration has the wrong idea about DADT. It doesn’t mean don’t ask what we’re doing because we can’t tell you because of the repercussions.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:11 amSen. Tom Coburn (R-OK)
And how is your investigation into the wasteful spending in the middle east during the last administration going? How about those pallattes of money that just vanished? Your report on that is coming out soon, right?…..
Oh…. wait…. you’re not interested in curbing wasteful spending… you’re just playing politics for your party and nothing more.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:16 am“Senator Coburn’s report, however, is filled with inaccuracies,”
Imagine that….
June 16th, 2009 at 9:17 amAccording to a new report from the Department of Veterans Affairs Inspector General finds that
I would like to know who is the inspector general, and is he a politicized person? I ask becasue this report, which seems to want to denigrate the care of the VA hospitals, seems conveniently timely to use as a talking point against healthcare reform. Very convenient….
June 16th, 2009 at 9:19 amXisithrus Says:
Have a recount but declare it wont anull the previous vote…whats the purpose of a recount again?
Recount? Everyone knows that a recount doesn’t wo…wait.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:20 amWith the Boston Red Sox coming to town next week to play the Washington Nationals, members of Congress sense a great fundraising opportunity. More than a dozen lawmakers have scheduled fundraisers at Nationals Park, selling lobbyists marked-up seats and the chance to make their own pitch.
I’d like to see the names of the “lawmakers” who’ve decided to sell lobbyists marked-up seats to get access. No wonder so many are supporting the healthcare industry over the real needs of Americans.
Adds a new level to the concept of “pay to play”.
PEACE
June 16th, 2009 at 9:25 am“Sen. Tom Coburn (R-OK) has released a report alleging to have found $5.5 billion in wasteful spending among President Obama’s stimulus projects.”
Laughable.
Senator Coburn, how about those totally non-wasteful (sarcasm ought to obvious here) tax cuts of the Bush administration that pushed our nation over the current debt cliff that we are currently free falling over?
What is wrong with conservatives? I honestly want to understand what the disconnect is.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:27 amMcCains new hybrid gets 41 mpg city. Mrs McCains private jet, a Cessna Citation Excel, however burns about 250 gallons per hour.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:28 amWith the Boston Red Sox coming to town next week to play the Washington Nationals, members of Congress sense a great fundraising opportunity. More than a dozen lawmakers have scheduled fundraisers at Nationals Park, selling lobbyists marked-up seats and the chance to make their own pitch.
Any lobbyist who’s buying a “marked-up seat” to a Nats game is an idiot — I can get seats to any game I want these days for far under face value; that’s how bad our Nats are playing these days… .
June 16th, 2009 at 9:29 amSenator Coburn:
There was no wasteful spending in Iraq, right?
There wasn’t $9 billion lost and unaccounted for?
There weren’t helicopters full of millions of dollars delivered to remote areas of the country?
No-bid contracts were not considered for the Bush-friendly contractors?
The costs of the war were always included on the federal budget, right?
Coburn is an ass. His feigned indignation at Obama’s so called wasteful spending is hollow.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:31 amPresident Obama appears to be reluctant to spend any political capital at all on the issue of granting basic rights to gay Americans — not only by affirming the DOMA, but also by doing nothing about DADT.
While I can appreciate that his chess strategy is geared toward a much larger all-encompassing vision, and he’s plotted out a certain order for moves to occur, we must continue to be visible in our demands for gay Americans to be given the same rights as all Americans. For when one group is disenfranchised, we are all diminished.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:32 amSen. John McCain twitters about…
Really? (First of all, out of context, the above phrase is funny in a fruity, Tiny-Tim-strumming-his-ukelele way…)
I have a difficult time believing the Sen. McCain actually twitters. Oh, sure…he might dictate a tweet, but so much of what we hear out of him and his colleagues via Twitter sound less like the Senators and more like what their staffers and intern think they would say in any given situation.
Whatever the case, I will be glad to see the Twitter fad die.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:34 amThe latest talking point is that President Obama will double the national debt from $10 trillion (actually $11 trillion when he took office) to $20 trillion over the next eight years.
It would be nice if some Dem would refute this meme by articulating how much interest must be paid each year on the debt Obama inherited.
Clinton inherited a $4.5 trillion debt, left office with the debt at $5.5 trillion but Clinton paid $1.5 trillion in interest on the debt he inherited, effectively decreasing the debt by $500 billion during his two terms.
Please, please someone step up to the microphone and tell the American people the truth about the debt!
PEACE
June 16th, 2009 at 9:34 amPresident Bill Clinton,
currently serving as the U.N.’s special envoy to Haiti …
should be:
FORMER President Bill Clinton, currently serving as the U.N.’s special envoy to Haiti …
what is with that??? has always bothered me…
it’s disrespectful of the CURRENT President… whoever it is.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:36 amIran’s Guardian Council said today that “it was prepared to order a recount of disputed ballots in Friday’s deeply divisive elections, but ruled out an annulment of the vote.”
____________________________________________________________
This is a little like saying, “the defendent has been granted a new trial, but any verdict other than ‘guilty’ has been ruled out.”
What happens if a recount shows evidence not only of ballot miscounting, fraud, and assorted election mischief? Oh, silly me. If the election was tainted, there’s no reason to believe a recount wouldn’t be similarly tainted.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:36 amuh oh…
Obama blocks list of visitors to White House
Taking Bush’s position, administration denies msnbc.com request for logs
[...]
June 16th, 2009 at 9:38 amThe Obama administration is arguing that the White House visitor logs are presidential records — not Secret Service agency records, which would be subject to the Freedom of Information Act. The administration ought to be able to hold secret meetings in the White House, “such as an elected official interviewing for an administration position or an ambassador coming for a discussion on issues that would affect international negotiations,” said Obama spokesman Ben LaBolt.
[...]
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31373407/ns/politics-white_house/
I just got back from riding about 2000 miles between Atlanta, Greensboro, Charleston, and Pittsburgh.
I saw a lot right wingers in SUVs adorned with McCain/Palin stickers, riding in the left lane, refusing to get out of the way of faster moving traffic.
That is a perfect representation of the right wingers in general. Always blocking progress, not because it would affect them, but just because they themselves are slower traffic and just want to slow down the progress of America.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:39 amen son videolar
June 16th, 2009 at 9:39 amen son videolar
geez, 2 spammers in a row
still, nobody cares about your silly blog, jeff, get over it
June 16th, 2009 at 9:43 amWanna bet McIIIrd just bought that little car for show?
Chances of him driving it outside of photo ops = .0001 %.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:43 amThe Iranian recount is just for show.
It is still a dictatorship of the Mullahs.
You know, kinda like what Sarah Palin would like the USA to be, doncha know?
June 16th, 2009 at 9:45 amMr.Bungle Says:
What is wrong with conservatives? I honestly want to understand what the disconnect is.
If I may offer my humbe opinion, it is that modern conservatives have been convinced that all republican decisions are good and beneficial while all other ideas are wrong and detrimental. Partizanship taken to its extreme, which has had the effect of a reverse opinion from those they label as their “opposition” to them as well. However, the democratic politicians, and the president, have acted as if true compromise is still possible, as if the modern republicans are rational and acting in their belief that what they do is good for the country, even though most of the modern republicn actions are clearly partizan and in support of private interests that do not have the public welfare in mind. Most modern consevatives believe that unregulated and unrestricted corporate power is a good thing, and beneficial to the country.
As you well know, they do not perceive any tax cuts as being detrimental, and particualrly tax cuts enacted by a republican.
They truly believe that they and more specifically their party can do no wrong, and the only errors lay in anyone not within their party, or at least not aquiescing to their party’s every demand.
Their ideology and actions indicate their belief that corporatism (in America) is a good thing and that theocratic rule (in America) is a good thing and that the unitary executive (in America WITH a republican in charge) is a good thing. Funny, that they do recognize that these things are not good in other countries.
I suppose it comes back to American Exceptionalism, or even moresoe “Republican Exceptionalism.”
June 16th, 2009 at 9:47 ambarracks9 Says:
[...]
Whatever the case, I will be glad to see the Twitter fad die.
except richard engle gave the twitter major credit for the reports out of iran…
but, mostly, i agree…
good with the bad…?
June 16th, 2009 at 9:48 amCagey, that was a lot of words to simply say: Republicans are not bothered with reality.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:49 amhttp://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/26315908/#31378527
“Web tool an asset for Iranian protests”
June 16th, 2009 at 9:51 amkaty Says:
President Bill Clinton,
currently serving as the U.N.’s special envoy to Haiti …
should be:
FORMER President Bill Clinton, currently serving as the U.N.’s special envoy to Haiti …
June 16th, 2009 at 9:36 am
___________
I was pretty sure that was the official protocol for addressing a former President, but so far haven’t been able to find any official document to confirm this.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:51 amRantingTommy Says:
Cagey, that was a lot of words to simply say: Republicans are not bothered with reality.
Yeah, yeah…. I’ve never been accused of brevity….
June 16th, 2009 at 9:52 ammcCREEP was on the TODAY show giving another 2cents about what he thinks obama should do about the iranian elections…
that lump on the side of his face seems to have gone down…
June 16th, 2009 at 9:53 amIn other news over the weekend, south of Tucson three skin head white supremacist cretins shot and killed a Mexican and his 9 year old daughter and wounded the mother who shot back. The pukes were also hunting down another daughter who was staying at a friends house.
The ringleader had previously told her brother that she planned to kill Mexicans and rob them to fund a white supremacist group. One of the other shooters had killed a Mexican while he was asleep rolled up in a blanket, stabbed him 7 times.
I guess they were just exercising their right to free speech and to carry guns, right?
Napalitano had it right to begin with. The greatest threat to America is from these right wing freaks.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:53 amnanlichi Says:
The ringleader had previously told her brother that she planned to kill Mexicans and rob them to fund a white supremacist group. One of the other shooters had killed a Mexican while he was asleep rolled up in a blanket, stabbed him 7 times.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:53 am
____________
This is terrorism. There is no more descriptive term for it.
June 16th, 2009 at 9:58 amCoburn suddenly has a conscious when it comes to taxpayers money. What a phony. He didn’t speak out when all the billions of dollars went missing in Iraq under Bush’s watch. Just another yapping mouth like all the other phony Republicans in Washington DC.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:03 amHere’s a link (I hope) to the story. I agree chiroptera toasterhead, this is raw terrorism.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:09 am
June 16th, 2009 at 10:10 am
nanlichi Says:
——————————————————————————–
In other news over the weekend, south of Tucson three skin head white supremacist cretins shot and killed a Mexican and his 9 year old daughter and wounded the mother who shot back. The pukes were also hunting down another daughter who was staying at a friends house.
David and Logan have been writing about this over at C&L
June 16th, 2009 at 10:10 amRantingTommy Says:
[...]
I saw a lot right wingers in SUVs adorned with McCain/Palin stickers, riding in the left lane, refusing to get out of the way of faster moving traffic.
recently declared ILLEGAL in illinois…
i am guilty of the practice – but NOT when there is someone behind me…
my little car gets tossed around in the grooves created by heavy truck in soft pavement, and the bumps from “repairs”…
the worst stretch is being repaved though… on I57, there were signs designating the project part of the Obama Reconstruction project
i get annoyed with the drivers in the passing lane who are on cruise-control but don’t realize that they CAN put their foot on the peddle and make the car go faster… just for a minute, please, to get around and allow others to do so also…
June 16th, 2009 at 10:10 amGood news, if you haven`t already heard Glenn becks new book goes on sale today. I was thinking about buying it instead of toilet paper this week.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:12 amhttp://www.azstarnet.com/sn/border/
June 16th, 2009 at 10:12 amkaty Says:
recently declared ILLEGAL in illinois…
Katy, I hope you’re referring to right wingers in SUVs adorned with McCain/Palin stickers!
PEACE
June 16th, 2009 at 10:17 amthe signs say “slower traffic keep right”
unfortunately, Republicans think that is a political instruction, being slower traffic
mostly it is because right wingers are ignorant, mean-spirited, and selfish and when someone gets around them, they lose the power to delay someone else and that pisses them off
the concept of simply learning how to drive never enters their “mind”
June 16th, 2009 at 10:21 amtoasterhead – i appreciate the research, but it’s been a practice for as long as i remember, and it has bothered me for as long…
imagine a foreign person tuning in at such a time – very confusing!
just sayin’…
June 16th, 2009 at 10:26 amand there’s watchpuppy with his unrelated, irrelevant spam from his favorite right wing propaganda sites
typical
June 16th, 2009 at 10:27 amspencers mom Says:
Katy, I hope you’re referring to right wingers in SUVs adorned with McCain/Palin stickers!
in case that wasn’t just a joke -
no, i was referring to driving in the passing lane…
actually a new law against it in illinois…
as to the stickers, i get mine, so they can have theirs…
June 16th, 2009 at 10:32 amOne way to help lift them put of poverty would be to remove the current president of Haiti and put Aristide back… remember that America took him out on a plane when he legally won their election? And ever since there has been an official policy in Haiti of rounding up, imprisoning and killing members of his Lavalas (sp?) party.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:33 amMaybe if the US hadn’t already been shown to be on the wrong side of this fight I would think we were going to do something about it… but no one cares about the people of Haiti – they have been a thorn in the side of the establishment since they first revolted.
watchdog Says:
Life in paradise as Gitmo 4 take a dip, eat ice cream
The former terror suspects have traded razor wire-encircled jail compounds for beach cottages, where they are staying at U.S. taxpayers’ expense
June 16th, 2009 at 10:25 am
_____________
Thank you for finally posting some good news in your daily hate-rant! :)
June 16th, 2009 at 10:36 amI don’t know where you right wingers got the idea that we think Obama is perfect. We know better. But, then again, in comparison to Cheney, Bush, McCain, or Palin, he is much closer to perfect than he is to them.
We made the correct choice.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:42 amGood posts youngsters, Thank you….As each day go’s by and the media flood’s our air way’s with news from the riots in Iran and all over the world, it make’s me think why are they so pre occupied with every where but here in America? ..
.Could it be no one want’s to remind the public our officials are glossing over the investigations of the past administration?…..Do our officials want to keep all eyes on foreign problems so we can’t see what they are doing now, or not doing what they should be.? Or by showing all the riots and problems are they manipulating the publics mind set for fear of what could happen here if we were to march and show our displeasure.?…
Do we have a right to butt into every other countries problems.? I think not…I haven’t heard any word of Peace keeping and actual help for other countries with the exception of suppling arm’s….What about food and aid.? Little is said about that and yet millions are starving..Right here at home millions of children are going to bed hungry every night…What about that.?
No word on any penelty to Israel for killing all their neighbor’s..No accountability for the past administrations murdering millions of men, women and children by our own government….Keep sending them money and bomb’s…No Peace talks for Iraq, Pakistine, Afganistine, just move the troops and deck chairs….No posative enforcement of curbing the reich winged skin head’s or radical christian nut cases here at home…..
I’m sorry youngsters, it’s a given I can’t spell but I do have a good thinking mind and it’s not buying into more of the sameness of this administration as the past…Every day it’s one or more of the bush madness being used again by our new administration…Being suttle and adding one thing here and another there is not going unnoticed by me….I got enough of the mind game’s with the last bunch in office, I’m not buying into any again, no matter how subtle they claim to be by saying it’s a chess game….It’s not a chess game, it’s the game of life and many are dying daily in our name…….Peace, Blessings & Justice ….
June 16th, 2009 at 10:47 amPretty funny coming from the party that wants to keep them imprisoned forever at “U.S. Taxpayers’ expense”.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:56 amRantingTommy Says:
and there’s watchpuppy with his unrelated, irrelevant spam from his favorite right wing propaganda sites
typical
To be fair, he’s posting his list of important daily Redstate stuff much like TP is posting their daily stuff in ThinkFast. This is the “random” section to begin with.
June 16th, 2009 at 10:59 amwatchdog Says:
RantingTommy Says:
——————————————————————————–
and there’s watchpuppy with his unrelated, irrelevant spam from his favorite right wing propaganda sites
typical
Why is Obama Blocking the list of visitors to the white house?
Do you remember a promise he made during the campaign? I do. His administration was going to be the most transparent in presidential history. You remember now?
…
“why”, jeff?
:|
June 16th, 2009 at 11:08 am….
purple,
it is fun to check “red state”
and look at doggie’s stuff.
***
boy can’t think for himself.
:)
that erik erikson’s really kookie.
for a hermaphrodite.
:)
June 16th, 2009 at 11:14 amHere’s a little election humor I think we can all appreciate.
I ran; an election in Iran.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:24 amI voted for Obama, but I did so knowing that he was a bigot about gay people. He does not recognize that they are fighting for civil rights. Until Obama is able to look past his own homophobia and respect gay people as human beings he will continue the hateful policies of the previous administration.
I see it as one of his singular failings. That a man who will forever stand as a symbol of the triumph of the civil rights movement was such a bigot himself that he was unable to engage the fight on behalf of another oppressed minority.
June 16th, 2009 at 11:34 am34 nanlichi,
Hadn’t heard a word about that here in the central US.
However, as we are often the source of “minuteman” groups parading to the borders to protect them, is there any evidence linking the shooter to any of the volunteer border security groups ?
June 16th, 2009 at 1:01 pm>”The dissenter is every human being
> at those moments of his life when
> he resigns momentarily from the
> herd and thinks for himself.”
You support a guy who thinks some imaginary sky daddy tells him to invade countries and you imply people like us are sheep?
June 16th, 2009 at 2:45 pm34. Nanlichi – just followed some of your links. Looks like an awful strong connection between murderer and minuteman militia.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:46 pm>Carter to Obama: Remove Hamas From Terror List
You imply this would be a bad thing? YOu know they are the democratically elected government of palestine, right? Why dont you support democracy in the middle east? Isnt that why we went into iraq?
June 16th, 2009 at 2:49 pm52 Ranting Tommy says:
I don’t know where you right wingers got the idea that we think Obama is perfect. We know better.
Although it is only a theory of mine, I have noticed that the Neocon is populated with folk that only see issues in concrete terms (black/white, without nuance) which is a stage of moral development reached by a young child. In fact, I see a lot of the distrust of academics as a reaction against having to understand nuance.
In support of this, I notice an inability to see someone as doing good but with a flaw. Obama is either totally good or totally bad. etc.
I also note that such absolutist views are instrumental in the need to wage war against those seen as flawed – whether individuals or nations.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:51 pmMapleStreet Says:
Sorry I had a meeting that drug on foreever, but yes the murderers were members of one of the many Minutemen splinter groups.
There is a continuous battle during the summer between humanitarian groups who put water in the desert to keep the crossers from dying and the haters who slash the water bottles.
There are several crossers dead every year. I guess in the hater’s mind the punishment fits the crime.
June 16th, 2009 at 2:59 pm