President Obama News Thread

[sabang]

H'mm, and how many billions a day is the US spending in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Perhaps you republicans would prefer he invade India.

[Humbert]

^Good point. It wouldn't take much selling. After all many of them are rag heads so that's two strikes against them.

[sabang]

Yeh, I suppose it's too much to expect a GI to know the difference between a Sikh and a Muslim.

[Boon Mee]

H'mm, and how many billions a day is the US spending in Iraq and Afghanistan?
Perhaps you republicans would prefer he invade India.

Yeah, right, and who else comprises the NATO troops there in Afghanistan..

[Panda]

Is there oil in India?

Although bombing a few more "ragheads" could be fun to watch on the evening news for US patriots concerned with being invaded by those funny looking people.

[Boon Mee]

Yeh, I suppose it's too much to expect a GI to know the difference between a Sikh and a Muslim.

OK...and when have the GI's been targeting Sikh's, eh?

Your elitist slip manifesting / showing itself again there sabang?

[Panda]

Everybody knows there are no camels in India. They ride elephants over there. Thats how you tell the difference between a Siek and a Muzzie camel jockey. But they all wear that towel wrapped around their heads. So best just to kill them.

[Humbert]

Pakistan is one of the most reviled countries in the world and since most Americans probably view India and Pakistan as the same thing, it would not take
much to whip up the masses to bomb either country. I think Michelle Bachman is up for the job.

[Boon Mee]

most Americans probably view India and Pakistan as the same thing, it

A very highly doubtful scenario there Humbert. 'Merkins might be by in large ignorant re geography but I'm sure most have seen the movie Ghandi...

[Humbert]

Tongue firmly in cheek Booners as opposed to the previous posts that fell for the story started in the Indian press that the Obama trip to India will cost 200 million a day. The folks on the right that made a big fuss over this never bothered to check the facts.

[Humbert]

Interesting critique of Obama by Paul Krugman. Another argument for a larger stimulus package which still seems like a huge risk to me.

The Focus Hocus-Pocus
By PAUL KRUGMAN
Op-Ed Columnist
Published: November 4, 2010

Fred R. Conrad/The New York Times
Paul Krugman
Go to Columnist Page »Blog: The Conscience of a LiberalReaders' Comments
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But I have no idea what, if anything, people mean when they say that. The whole focus on “focus” is, as I see it, an act of intellectual cowardice — a way to criticize President Obama’s record without explaining what you would have done differently.
After all, are people who say that Mr. Obama should have focused on the economy saying that he should have pursued a bigger stimulus package? Are they saying that he should have taken a tougher line with the banks? If not, what are they saying? That he should have walked around with furrowed brow muttering, “I’m focused, I’m focused”?
Mr. Obama’s problem wasn’t lack of focus; it was lack of audacity. At the start of his administration he settled for an economic plan that was far too weak. He compounded this original sin both by pretending that everything was on track and by adopting the rhetoric of his enemies.
The aftermath of major financial crises is almost always terrible: severe crises are typically followed by multiple years of very high unemployment. And when Mr. Obama took office, America had just suffered its worst financial crisis since the 1930s. What the nation needed, given this grim prospect, was a really ambitious recovery plan.
Could Mr. Obama actually have offered such a plan? He might not have been able to get a big plan through Congress, or at least not without using extraordinary political tactics. Still, he could have chosen to be bold — to make Plan A the passage of a truly adequate economic plan, with Plan B being to place blame for the economy’s troubles on Republicans if they succeeded in blocking such a plan.
But he chose a seemingly safer course: a medium-size stimulus package that was clearly not up to the task. And that’s not 20/20 hindsight. In early 2009, many economists, yours truly included, were more or less frantically warning that the administration’s proposals were nowhere near bold enough.
Worse, there was no Plan B. By late 2009, it was already obvious that the worriers had been right, that the program was much too small. Mr. Obama could have gone to the nation and said, “My predecessor left the economy in even worse shape than we realized, and we need further action.” But he didn’t. Instead, he and his officials continued to claim that their original plan was just right, damaging their credibility even further as the economy continued to fall short.
Meanwhile, the administration’s bank-friendly policies and rhetoric — dictated by fear of hurting financial confidence — ended up fueling populist anger, to the benefit of even more bank-friendly Republicans. Mr. Obama added to his problems by effectively conceding the argument over the role of government in a depressed economy.
I felt a sense of despair during Mr. Obama’s first State of the Union address, in which he declared that “families across the country are tightening their belts and making tough decisions. The federal government should do the same.” Not only was this bad economics — right now the government must spend, because the private sector can’t or won’t — it was almost a verbatim repeat of what John Boehner, the soon-to-be House speaker, said when attacking the original stimulus. If the president won’t speak up for his own economic philosophy, who will?
So where, in this story, does “focus” come in? Lack of nerve? Yes. Lack of courage in one’s own convictions? Definitely. Lack of focus? No.
And why would failing to tackle health care have produced a better outcome? The focus people never explain.
Of course, there’s a subtext to the whole line that health reform was a mistake: namely, that Democrats should stop acting like Democrats and go back to being Republicans-lite. Parse what people like Mr. Bayh are saying, and it amounts to demanding that Mr. Obama spend the next two years cringing and admitting that conservatives were right.
There is an alternative: Mr. Obama can take a stand.
For one thing, he still has the ability to engineer significant relief to homeowners, one area where his administration completely dropped the ball during its first two years. Beyond that, Plan B is still available. He can propose real measures to create jobs and aid the unemployed and put Republicans on the spot for standing in the way of the help Americans need.
Would taking such a stand be politically risky? Yes, of course. But Mr. Obama’s economic policy ended up being a political disaster precisely because he tried to play it safe. It’s time for him to try something different.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/11/05/opinion/05krugman.html?_r=1&ref=opinionhttp%3A%2F%2Fnyti.m s%2FaOjRwB

[Ripley]

I was right the first time, it is ten days. Ten days =two billion dollars. It's not easy being right all of the time. Such is life.

Falling coconuts make no sound.

Coconuts removed from trees in preparation for Barack Obama's India trip - Telegraph

Debunking shall now commence;

Debunking the myth: The cost of Obama's trip to Asia - CNN.com

(CNN) -- It's a story that originated from a single, unnamed sourced in India -- but it quickly gained momentum, spreading like wildfire among critics of the Obama administration in the United States and eventually, the airwaves.

The claim: The United States will be "spending a whopping $200 million per day" on President Barack Obama's trip to Asia.
That's roughly the amount the federal government spends each day on the war in Afghanistan. The figure has been dismissed by the White House as "wildly inflated."

What's more, the claim doesn't appear to hold water.
The former chief of staff for George W. Bush told CNN's Anderson Cooper in a Thursday interview that it doesn't pass the "sniff test."

"It doesn't to me, but I think the White House is appropriate in saying they don't talk about what it costs for the president to travel," said Andrew Card. "We want our president to be safe wherever he goes. I can't imagine it would cost $200 million a day.
"If it costs anywhere close to that number, the president should be asking tough questions of the Defense Department and the Secret Service and the State Department. But he should also be paying attention to keeping his entourage as small as credibly possible and still do the job that he has to do for the country as he travels."

While the White House has not released specifics on the cost of the trip, citing security concerns, White House spokeswoman Amy Brundage has said, "It's safe to say these numbers are wildly inflated."
Those numbers, according to Republican Rep. Michele Bachmann, are: $200 million a day, $2 billion total, 34 diverted Navy ships, a 2,000-person presidential entourage, and 870 hotel rooms in India.
"And these are five-star hotel rooms at the Taj Mahal Palace Hotel," Bachmann told CNN's "AC 360" Wednesday night.
Pressed by Cooper to back up her numbers, Bachmann said, "These are the numbers that are coming out in the press."

The press she was referring to is the Press Trust of India, one of the largest news organizations in that country. Its source for Tuesday's article on the cost of Obama's trip..

... was based on a single anonymous source: "a top official of the Maharashtra government privy to the arrangements for the high-profile visit."

The Press Trust article was picked up by The Drudge Report and other sites online and quickly made its way into conservative talk radio, sparking outrage by the likes of Rush Limbaugh, Michael Savage and others.

The White House and Pentagon have fielded questions about the Indian report and have dismissed the claims in the article.
"I will take the liberty this time of dismissing as absolutely absurd this notion that somehow we're deploying 10 percent of the Navy, some 34 ships and an aircraft carrier in support of the president's trip to Asia," Pentagon spokesman Geoff Morrell told reporters this week. "That's just comical. Nothing close to that is -- is -- being done."

While the exact cost of Obama's 10-day trip to Asia is not known to the public, an examination of similar presidential excursions in the past support the likelihood that the $200 million-a-day figure is exaggerated.
For example, an 11-day trip by then-President Bill Clinton to Africa in 1998 involved about 1,300 people and cost roughly $3.5 million a day, according to the federal Government Accountability Office. That's about $5.2 million after adjusting for inflation.

According to figures from the U.S. Air Force, it costs more than $100,000 an hour to fly Air Force One, meaning Obama's 13-hour flight from Andrews Air Force Base to Mumbai would cost about $1.3 million. However, the trip also includes costs for support staff, Secret Service, equipment and hotels.
Obama's voyage, which began Friday, is intended to expand export markets and strengthen security cooperation in what he considers a region vital to U.S. interests.
The trip to India, Indonesia, South Korea and Japan encompasses a G-20 summit, an Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation summit, major holidays in India and Indonesia, and bilateral talks with Chinese President Hu Jintao and at least five other leaders, as well as four presidential news conferences.
It's all part of an administration focus on Asia as a strategic region in the 21st century, said Ben Rhodes, the deputy national security adviser for strategic communications.

The president's itinerary in India includes a speech to the Indian parliament, a state dinner and a wreath-laying at the grave of Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi.

[Boon Mee]

Gone kinda quiet in the Domestic threads - usual suspects? Defend your president!

President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle arrived in India's commercial hub of Mumbai on Saturday, days after voters punished his Democrats in mid-term elections.

Probably not since the days of the Pharaohs or the more ludicrous Roman Emperors has a head of state travelled in such pomp and expensive grandeur as the President of the United States of America.

While lesser mortals – the Pope, Queen Elizabeth and so on – are usually happy to let their hosts handle most of the security and transport arrangements when they venture beyond their home shores, the United States creates a mini-America on the move to ensure that nothing is left to chance.


Read more: Obama's India visit security erect a bomb proof tunnel at the Gandhi museum | Mail Online

Looks like she was so excited she wet her pants!

[Panda]

Probably not since the days of the Pharaohs or the more ludicrous Roman Emperors has a head of state travelled in such pomp and expensive grandeur as the President of the United States of America.

Fair enough too, as if someone other than a fellow American kills him, its sure to mean another war. And India aint no little piss-ant country like Vietnam, Cambodia, Korea, Iraq or Afghanistan.

Oh whats that I hear? The Yanks didnt win any of those?
Well, all the more reason to keep it safe with a bigger bunch of third world peasants.

[Boon Mee]

^
Put down the Bong there Panda...nobody's going to war with India or anyone else for that matter even if the Moonbat Messiah were to fall prey to some nutter in some foreign land. His popularity is so low, there would be hardly a ripple of discontent.

On a different note:

Indian Politicians Shocked to Learn Obama Isn’t The Gifted Orator He’s Supposed to be and Needs a Teleprompter to Give His “Hypnotizing Speeches”…


Sorry Obama, cat’s out of the bag, you’re a joke…

(Hindu Times)- Namaste India! In all likelihood that will be silver-tongued Barack Obama’s opening line when he addresses the Indian parliament next week. But to help him pronounce Hindi words correctly will be a teleprompter which the US president uses ever so often for his hypnotising speeches..
According to parliament sources, a technical team from the US has helped the Lok Sabha secretariat install textbook-sized panes of glass around the podium that will give cues to Obama on his prepared remarks to 780 Indian MPs on the evening of Nov 8.
…Obama will make history for more than one reason during the Nov 6-9 visit. This will be the first time a teleprompter will be used in the nearly 100-feet high dome-shaped hall that has portraits of eminent national leaders adorning its walls.
Indian politicians are known for making impromptu long speeches and perhaps that is why some parliament officials, who did not wish to be named, sounded rather surprised with the idea of a teleprompter for Obama.
“We thought Obama is a trained orator and skilled in the art of mass address with his continuous eye contact,” an official, who did not wish to be identified because of security restrictions, said.
Obama is known to captivate audiences with his one-liners that sound like extempore and his deep gaze. But few in India know that the US president always carries the teleprompter with him wherever he speaks.
Teleprompters, also called autocue or telescript, are mostly used by TV anchors to read out texts scrolling on a screen and attached to a camera in front of them.

[Panda]

Hmmmm.... sounds like Obama has been hijacked and drugged by Republicans with the teleprompter being the modern equivalent of the old hand up his arse moving his mouth.

[Cujo]

Can I kiss your arse?
What a weak, feeble little [at][at][at][at].
Americans should be embarrassed by this little turd.

[Boon Mee]

The Rally To Restore Muslim Relations and/or How’s That Outreach Working Out For You?



Indonesian Muslims march during a rally against the planned visit of U.S. President Barack Obama in Jakarta, Indonesia, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2010. Obama is scheduled to visit the world’s most populous Muslim nation next week. Banners say, ‘Obama comes, imperialism prevails’ and ‘Reject Obama, president of war and imperialism’.



Members of the Islamic group Hizbut Tahrir Indonesia hold an anti-Obama posters during a demonstration against U.S. President Barack Obama’s visit, in Jakarta November 7, 2010. U.S. President Barack Obama is expected to visit the world’s most populous Muslim country next week, where he spent four years while growing up. The posters say ”Do not add more grief to Indonesia with Obama”

Source

[Panda]

^ Nothing a few strategic drone strikes couldn't fix.

Damn Muslims just dont seem to understand the meaning of "American interests"-- or maybe they do?

[sabang]

It seems they haven't yet been informed over in Indon that Obama is a Socialist Moslem.

[attaboy]

If you still believe Obama is the messiah, you might not want to read this NPR report and the Politico article.

NPR: Some Democrats Fear White House Is Too Insular

by Ari Shapiro
11.8.2010

highlights from NPR report:

In virtually every important area of the White House, an outgoing senior official has been replaced by a longtime confidant of President Obama in the past two months.

Now that the president's party has lost dozens of congressional seats in the midterm elections, though, some Democrats are worried that the White House is ignoring a big, flashing sign that it needs to change course.

Knowing what the president would do means understanding what goes on in the president's head, which cannot be expected of outsiders. But an inner circle that understands the president's internal monologue may also share his blind spots. As one very plugged in and slightly exasperated Democratic outsider put it, this president is "heavily enabled."

Many prominent Democrats outside of the White House share this concern, but most would not speak on the record for fear of burning bridges. Particularly after a midterm that Obama described as a "shellacking," many believe that the White House needs new voices and new ideas. The perception is that everyone in the president's inner circle is on the same page — which is not necessarily a good thing.

What is that supposed to mean? Would not speak...fear of burning bridges? Are they afraid of being ostracized for speaking truth to power? Is that how disagreement is handled by Obama?


Yet even according to people within the White House, a certain bunker mentality persists. Nolan believes that may change over time. When she started as a junior White House aide, she didn't know the Clintons at all.

During the presidential campaign, Obama had a "no new friends" rule. This midterm election suggests that it may be time for him to re-evaluate whether that rule should continue to apply to his senior staff.

Some Democrats Fear White House Is Too Insular : NPR






POLITICO: President Obama isolated ahead of 2012
By MIKE ALLEN & JIM VANDEHEI | 11/8/10 4:30 AM EST Updated: 11/8/10 10:12 AM EST


highlights from Politico article:


President Barack Obama has performed his act of contrition. Now comes the hard part, according to Democrats around the country: reckoning with the simple fact that he’s isolated himself from virtually every group that matters in American politics.

Congressional Democrats consider him distant and blame him for their historic defeat on Tuesday. Democratic state party leaders scoff at what they see as an inattentive and hapless political operation. Democratic lobbyists feel maligned by his holier-than-thou take on their profession. His own Cabinet — with only a few exceptions — has been marginalized.

His relations with business leaders could hardly be worse. Obama has suggested it’s a PR problem, but several Democratic officials said CEOs friendly with the president walk away feeling he’s indifferent at best to their concerns. Add in his icy relations with Republicans, the media and, most important, most voters, and it’s easy to understand why his own staff leaked word to POLITICO that it wants Obama to shake up his staff and change his political approach.

It should be a no-brainer for a humbled Obama to move quickly after Tuesday’s thumping to try to repair these damaged relations, and indeed, in India on Sunday, he acknowledged the need for “midcourse corrections.”

Is he humbled? He has done nothing but mouth a few word about a "shellacking". He has said more about the defeats being due to the voters being stupid, incapable of understanding what he is telling them.

But many Democrats privately say they are skeptical that Obama is self-aware enough to make the sort of dramatic changes they feel are needed — in his relations with other Democrats or in his very approach to the job.

This is a sign of a person who is completely out of his league. He is relying on his ego and false bravado to get him through the day.


“This guy swept to power on a wave of adulation, and he learned the wrong lessons from that,” said a Democratic official who deals frequently with the White House. “He’s more of a movement leader than a politician. He needs someone to kick his ass on things large and small and teach him to be a politician.”

This is problematic because in a 50-50 country, political infrastructure matters — and the consensus among Democratic consultants is that Obama has allowed theirs to atrophy by neglect.

Florida Democratic gubernatorial nominee Alex Sink took it further, hitting a “tone-deaf” Obama White House to explain why she narrowly lost her campaign, saying the administration mishandled the BP oil spill and hasn’t fully grasped the political damage done by Obama’s health care reform push. “They just need to be better listeners and be better at reaching out to people who are on the ground to hear about the realities of their policies as well as politics,” Sink told POLITICO.

Other executives complained that Obama did not do enough outreach, even after the friction became clear. And executives who did get an audience complain that he is too often behind a podium, not doing the off-the-record question-and-answer sessions that would make them feel more involved and maybe promote understanding between the two sides.


Obama is hiding out because the mystique is gone.

President Obama isolated ahead of 2012 - Mike Allen and Jim VandeHei - POLITICO.com

[Boon Mee]

As if this was news, eh? The Libtards at MSNBC are finally seeing the light? Even if you were trapped in a bizarre moonbat hell in which the only channel on TV was MSNBC, you would still know that Comrade Obama is politically inept:



How 'bout that? The office of President of the United States isn't an entry-level position after all!

[Lambik]

Obama is maybe a Muslim as some pretend but apparently he is against al Qaida :

"Jakarta, Nov 10 (IBNS): U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday sent out a call to the Muslim world to join the West in the war against al Qaida.

The President returned to Jakarta after 39 years, where he had spent 4 years in his young days, and said, “America is not, and never will be, at war with Islam.”


“Instead, all of us must defeat al Qaida and its affiliates, who have no claim to be leaders of any religion, certainly not a great world religion like Islam,"

According to me it is the first time a president of America make such a call in a Muslim Country.

[Boon Mee]

The Obamamessiah AWOL on Vets Day. That's about right considering his scorn for the military and the sacrifices it has made to keep America safe.

"WASHINGTON -- Today is Veterans Day. Do you know where your president is?

With his feeble flame of "hope" thoroughly doused here in the United States by last week's elections, President Obama has set out around the globe in search of throngs still enthralled by his flowery rhetoric.

He found them, of course, in Indonesia this week by telling them about how Americans must stop mistrusting Islam.

So that is why your president is halfway around the world instead of being here in the United States to celebrate the sacrifices American soldiers, sailors and airmen have made around the world to keep the real, still-burning flame of freedom alive.".

Read more: Obama hails "this great country" -- Indonesia - NYPOST.com

What a guy, eh?

And this

"When my stepfather was a boy, he watched his own father and older brother leave home to fight and die in the struggle for Indonesian independence," Obama told the audience.

And the White House wonders why so many people think there is something foreign about this guy.

At least he didn't bring up his uncle who fought in the Soviet Red Army.


Not amused by Hoax and Chains.

[sabang]

Obama is in the process of visiting several countries, including both the worlds second largest country by population, and the worlds largest Muslim country by population. What sort of idiocy says he would have been better off not paying these State visits, and turning up at some American cemetery instead to put flowers on graves, or whatever it is you do Stateside. Ridiculous.