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Obama's sister, Maya said,
"There was always a joke
between my mom and
Barack
that he would be
the first black president."
Now the
joke's on us.
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event |
description |
| Naïveté |
Obama said that by ordering the shutdown of the Cuban prison within a
year, he hoped to send a message that the U.S. would pursue the struggle
against violence and terrorism vigilantly, effectively and "in a manner
that is consistent with our values and our ideals."
He said his
administration would not "continue with a false choice between our
safety and our ideals," an express slap at policies pursued by his
predecessor, former President George W. Bush.
"It is precisely
our ideals which give us the strength and moral high ground to deal with
the unthinking violence that we see emanating from terrorism
organizations around the world," Obama said.
I suggest that this
is a strange combination of hubris (he can find a way out of this
Gordian knot that no one before him could) and fatuity (the notion that
there exists some sort of international goodwill which can be tapped to
help us repatriate the prisoners and see that they are imprisoned
humanely on the soil of their native lands). Then there’s the idea
that illegal combatants can either be released before the end of
hostilities or tried as criminals in our courts.
Much more
here.
Related -- Two men released from the US "war on terror" prison at
Guantanamo Bay, Cuba have appeared in a video posted on a jihadist
website, the SITE monitoring service reported.
One of the two
former inmates, a Saudi man identified as Abu Sufyan al-Azdi al-Shahri,
or prisoner number 372, has been elevated to the senior ranks of
Al-Qaeda in Yemen, a US counter-terrorism official told AFP.
Three other men appear in the video, including Abu al-Hareth Muhammad
al-Oufi, identified as an Al-Qaeda field commander. SITE later
said he was prisoner No. 333.
On the video, al-Shihri is seen
sitting with three other men before a flag of the Islamic State of Iraq,
the front for Al-Qaeda in Iraq.
"By Allah, imprisonment only
increased our persistence in our principles for which we went out, did
jihad for, and were imprisoned for," al-Shihri was quoted as saying.
Al-Shiri was transferred from Guantanamo to Saudi Arabia in 2007,
the US counter-terrorism official said.
The other men in the
video are identified as Commander Abu Baseer al-Wahayshi and Abu Hureira
Qasm al-Rimi (also known as Abu Hureira al-Sana'ani).
The Defense
Department has said as many as 61 former Guantanamo detainees -- about
11 percent of 520 detainees transferred from the detention center and
released -- are believed to have returned to the fight. |
You Vill
Obey |
During a morning meeting with congressional leaders from both parties,
Obama
reminded Republicans that, "I won," and
warned them that they need to quit listening to radio king Rush
Limbaugh if they want to get along with Democrats and the new
administration.
"You can't just listen to Rush Limbaugh and get
things done," he told top GOP leaders, whom he had invited to the White
House, described by many as "window dressing," to discuss his nearly $1
trillion stimulus package.
Ahhhh, bipartisanship -- LOL! |
Eavesdropping
Suddenly
OK |
The Obama administration
fell in line with the Bush administration Thursday when it urged a
federal judge to set aside a ruling in a closely watched spy case
weighing whether a U.S. president may bypass Congress and establish a
program of eavesdropping on Americans without warrants.
In a
filing in San Francisco federal court, Obama adopted the same
position as his predecessor. With just hours left in
office, President George W. Bush late Monday asked U.S. District Judge
Vaughn Walker to stay enforcement of an important Jan. 5 ruling
admitting key evidence into the case.
Thursday's filing by the
Obama administration marked the first time it officially lodged a court
document in the lawsuit asking the courts to rule on the
constitutionality of the Bush administration's warrantless-eavesdropping
program. The former president approved the wiretaps in the
aftermath of the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks.
"The
Government's position remains that this case should be stayed,"
Will Harry Reid and Nancy Pelosi
now ask for Obama's impeachment, like she did for Bush and Cheney?
I don't think so. |
Obama
Dope |
Add heroin to the scores of products that have been branded with Obama's
name. Cops in upstate New York this week broke up a drug ring that
allegedly sold heroin under several brand names, including "Obama." (photo)
A total of five men and women were
arrested Wednesday night following a three-month investigation,
during which undercover police purchased decks of heroin from street
dealers. Undersheriff Eric Chaboty said the dealers were selling
heroin in towns that stretched from Monticello to Livingston Manor.
The alleged dealers were pushing a variety of heroin that they
called "Obama." Chaboty said dealers are known to stamp the
glassine wax paper that carries the heroin with brand names -- like
"Black Death" or "Blue Sunshine" -- so that users can identify their
preferred brands. This drug ring's stamp carried the new
president's surname. |
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Copyright Beckwith 2009
All right reserved
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