Inspire Political Discourse

Patrick Kennedy Calls Out the National Press

During a debate today on ending the war in Afghanistan, Rep. Patrick Kennedy aimed a fierce diatribe at the press, which he feels has been irresponsible in reporting on the topics that really matter.

“There's one, two press people in this gallery. We're talking about Eric Massa 24/7 on the TV. We're talking about war and peace; $3 billion; 1,000 lives and no press! No press!

You want to know why the American public is fit? They're fit because they're not seeing their Congress do the work that they're sent to do! It's because the press, the press of the United States, is not covering the most significant issue of national importance and that's the laying of lives down in the nation for the service of our country. It's despicable, the national press corps right now.” [....]

It's about damn time that someone said it. You GO, Patrick.

IPD Political News Summary: Wednesday, April 8, 2009

Political News Summary: Monday, April 6 – Tuesday, April 7, 2009

| President Obama spent two days in Turkey, before ending his trip with an unannounced visit to the troops in Iraq, bringing the war back to the forefront of the news again.
In Turkey, Obama reached out to Muslims, telling them;

. “One of the great strengths of the United States is ... we have a;very large Christian population -- we do not consider ourselves a Christian nation or a Jewish nation or a Muslim nation. We consider ourselves a nation of citizens who are bound by ideals and a set of values.”

You can view the video here. Obama also held a town hall with Turkish students, and spoke to Turkish lawmakers where he told them that America is not at war with Islam.

“The United States is not, and will never be, at war with Islam,” Obama declared, adding that America's relationship with the Muslim world “cannot, and will not, just be based upon opposition to terrorism. We seek broader engagement based on mutual interest and mutual respect.”

In Iraq, the president invoked warmer feelings from the Iraqis than former President Bush had. He also spoke to U.S. troops in Bagdad, telling them

“Under enormous strain and under enormous sacrifice, through controversy and difficulty and politics, you have kept your eyes focused on just doing your job and because of that, every mission that has been assigned from getting rid of Saddam to reducing violence, to stabilising the country, to facilitating elections, you have given Iraq the opportunity to stand on its own as a democratic country.”

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US Abandons UN Conference on Racism

:: The US is boycotting the conference over language in the documents that is very hostile to Israel. From POLITICO:

White House aides told Jewish leaders on a conference call today that the United States will boycott the United Nations' World Conference on Racism over hostility to Israel in draft documents prepared for the April conference.

The aides, including an advisor to U.N. Ambassador Susan Rice, Jennifer Simon, and longtime Obama advisor Samantha Power, said the administration will not participate in further negotiations on the current text or participate in a conference based on the text, sources on the call said.

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Political News Summary: Tuesday, January 27, 2009

:: Rush Limbaugh copies GOP liars, makes false claim that ACORN is mentioned in the stimulus and will receive $4.19 billion. What a sad loser cherub-cheeked Rushie is...... From Media Matters:

Summary: Parroting GOP talking points, Rush Limbaugh falsely claimed $4.19 billion of President Barack Obama's economic recovery package "is going to ACORN." In fact, the bill does not mention ACORN or otherwise single it out for funding.

TAGS: Rush Limbaugh, Conservative Pundits, GOP/Republicans, President Obama, LIES,
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Political News Summary: Monday, January 26, 2009

:: Geithner confirmed as Treasury Secretary. From HUFFPOST:

WASHINGTON — The Senate has confirmed New York Fed chief Timothy Geithner to be President Barack Obama's secretary of the treasury.
The 60-34 vote puts Geithner at the helm of Obama's plan to rescue the economy from the worst financial crisis in three generations.
Obama and others supporting Geithner's nomination said the nation couldn't afford to wait for Obama to search for another nominee to run the Treasury Department.

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:: The US to engage in diplomacy with Iran. From HUFFPOST:

United Nations — President Barack Obama's administration will engage in "direct diplomacy" with Iran, the newly installed U.S. ambassador to the United Nations said Monday.

Not since before the 1979 Iranian revolution are U.S. officials believed to have conducted wide-ranging direct diplomacy with Iranian officials. But U.S. Ambassador Susan Rice warned that Iran must meet U.N. Security Council demands to suspend uranium enrichment before any talks on its nuclear program.

AP photo.
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Ludicrous: Hamas to control relief efforts in to Gaza

An organization internationally recognized as a terrorist organization, an organization which took over the Gaza strip in a very violent coup in 2007, an organization which provoked the recent Israeli attack on Gaza by firing thousands of rockets at Israeli civilian areas, then proceeded to deliberately put Palestinians in harm's way during the recent conflagration, now wishes to control the flow of relief efforts in to Gaza.
Excuse me, but isn't that a little like putting the lions in charge of the zoo? From an AFP report:

GAZA CITY (AFP) — The Hamas-run government in Gaza said on Saturday it would create a committee of senior officials to oversee all relief efforts in the territory after Israel's massive assault earlier this month.
The National High Committee for Relief will be headed by Ahmed al-Kurd, the Hamas-appointed minister of social affairs, and will distribute some 35 million euros (45 million dollars) to those who lost family members or their homes.
"It will be the only body to oversee and supervise the rescue. We will be in contact with all other bodies, whether local, national or international, to organise[sic] the relief," Kurd said at a Gaza City news conference.

AFP photo.

Political News Summary: Wednesday, January 21, 2009

:: Executive order would close down Guantanamo within one year. Trials were halted as of today.
The order was drafted today, is undated, and has yet to be signed. However, I would expect that it will be done as soon as possible. From HUFFPOST:

WASHINGTON — The Obama administration intends to close the Guantanamo Bay detention center within a year and halt military trials of terror suspects held there, according to a draft order obtained Wednesday.

The executive order was one of three expected imminently on how to interrogate and prosecute al-Qaida, Taliban or other foreign fighters believed to threaten the United States.

Image source: Wikimedia Commons
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Full Transcript - This Week's George Stephanopoulos' Interview With Obama, January 11, 2009

George Stephanopoulos' Exclusive Interview with President-Elect Barack Obama

GEORGE STEPHANOPOULOS: Hello, again. In nine days he will be president of the United States. This morning Barack Obama is our exclusive headliner. Welcome back to THIS WEEK.

BARACK OBAMA, PRESIDENT-ELECT: Thank you, George.

STEPHANOPOULOS: Does it feel like you're president already?

OBAMA: No.

The US Must Stand for Israel, and the Media Sucks

It's a sunny, cold Saturday morning, and you are outside getting ready to take your kids to their weekend activities. Your son has a one day camping trip with the boy scouts, and his ride shows up to get him.

A near by, huge, thundering, explosion causes you to jump and shake with fear. You look up and see smoke and fire rising from the street behind you. You tell your son and daughter to get back in the house, and rush in behind them. You hear the sirens and turn on the tv. The news has broken in to programming and is telling you that it's Canada, with whom we have had a peace accord for a year or so, launching rockets at us. They note that a woman died when this rocket struck a house.

Over the next months, you keep your children close. You are even afraid to send them to school, but you do because you must. More rockets fall, all from Canada. Two more casualties. It is a good thing that Canada is not nearly as well-armed as we are.

You wonder why the US does not respond with our own rockets, aircraft, whatever else they need to prevent more Canadian rockets from landing on US soil.

You wonder why Canada elected a terrorist group to run their government. A group called "al Qaeda" which has very vociferously announced it's intention to annihilate the United States. You think about what they have already done to us using airplanes, suicide bombers, and more. You cry, and you pray that the US will stop the rockets from Canada soon. The economic blockade that the US implemented when al Qaeda took over the Canadian government (elected by the citizens of Canada, knowing full well who and what al Qaeda is) has done nothing to solve the problems.

Political News Summary - Tuesday, December 16, 2008

:: IPD Daily Cartoon Find.

 
Bob Lang/It's only money

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It's Torture, Not "Coercion" and Euphemisms are Unacceptable

An excellent op-ed piece by Andrew Sullivan of The Daily Dish, Sullivan refuses to go with the popular practice of using euphemisms to describe what exactly was authorized by the American government concerning the use of torture, and forces the reader to look at the reality.

“This is the defining line of torture: not some arbitrary comic book technique, but a psychological and physical fact: pushing another human being to the point where choice becomes unavailable to him or her. You can do this in any number of ways; it can take  three seconds of electrocution or it can take two months of sleep deprivation, hypothermia and darkness. But the line it eventually crosses is the same line.

(Photo: a detainee killed by US forces in Abu Ghraib prison, after being beaten and forced into a position with his arms bent back over and behind his head, with a hood restricting his breathing. All the techniques used against him were authorized by president George W. Bush.)” [.....]

RELATED - RECENT POST

>Full Transcript and Video of President-elect Obama's Weekly Video Address to the Nation, November 22, 2008
>Video of President-elect Obama's Weekly Address to the Nation as He Promises to Take Action on the Economy Immediately Upon Taking Office
>Jon Stewart and the Somali Pirates
>Sarah Palin and the Turkeys
>Daily Political News Round-Up - Friday, November 21, 2008
>The Obama Administration: a Listing of the Obama Cabinet, White House Staff, and Cabinet - Level Positions

Petraeus Appears to Back Obama Positions

►Petraeus Talk Bolsters Obama - Washington Independent

Throughout Sen. John McCain’s presidential campaign, the Republican nominee has wrapped himself in the mantle of U.S. Army Gen. David H. Petraeus, proclaiming himself the leading advocate of the former commanding general in Iraq who devised last year’s controversial troop surge. Yet during a talk Wednesday about Iraq at the Heritage Foundation, a conservative Washington policy organization, Petraeus repeatedly made statements that bolstered the foreign-policy proposals of Sen. Barack Obama, McCain’s Democratic rival, or cut against McCain’s own lines.

Petraeus relinquished command in Iraq last month. He assumes responsibility for U.S. Central Command later this month, putting him in charge of U.S. forces in the Middle East and South Asia.

Continue reading here.

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