Barack Obama -- February 5, 2009

February 05, 2009

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"This was the moment when the rise of the oceans began to slow and our planet began to heal"

Barack Hussein Obama

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You've Been Warned, Obama	Former Vice President Dick Cheney is blasting Obama's fledgling administration, arguing that its policies dealing with terrorism and international foes are naïve and dangerous, making it all the more likely that terrorists will succeed in their next attempt at killing Americans. Simply by closing Guantanamo Bay’s detention camp for terrorists, Cheney said, Obama inadvertently will aid enemies eager to make another attack on the United States. Another major attack on this country -- perhaps even using biological or nuclear materials -- is very likely in the next few years, Cheney said. "I think there’s a high probability of such an attempt," Cheney said. "Whether or not they can pull it off depends whether or not we keep in place policies that have allowed us to defeat all further attempts, since 9/11, to launch mass-casualty attacks against the United States." Cheney opined that the inevitable attack will be "a 9/11-type event where the terrorists are armed with something much more dangerous than an airline ticket and a box cutter -- a nuclear weapon or a biological agent of some kind," that would be set off in an American city. "When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an al-Qaida terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry," Cheney said. "If it hadn’t been for what we did -- with respect to the terrorist surveillance program, or enhanced interrogation techniques for high-value detainees, the Patriot Act, and so forth -- then we would have been attacked again," he said. "Those policies we put in place, in my opinion, were absolutely crucial to getting us through the last seven-plus years without a major-casualty attack on the U.S." Protecting the country’s security is "a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business," he said. "These are evil people, and we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek."
Screw You Cheney Take This	ABC News has learned that Obama will order the Department of Defense's Military Commission to withdraw charges against terrorist suspect Abd al-Rahim al-Nashiri, who been identified as the former Persian Gulf Operations Chief for al Qaeda and the mastermind of the attack on the U.S.S. Cole, that killed 17 American sailors and wounded nine. Obama tied his administration's own hands, requiring his Secretary of Defense to drop the charges. The executive order President Obama signed on closing the Guantanamo Detention Facilities states that "all proceedings" in the US Military Commissions must be "halted." Last week the judge supervising the al-Nashiri trial -- Army Col. James L. Pohl, the chief judge at the Guantanamo Bay war crimes court -- said he would not heed President Obama's request for a 120-day continuance, or delay, in prosecutions of terrorism suspects. Pohl called the president's request "not reasonable" and not "in the interests of justice." The arraignment of al-Nashiri was scheduled for Monday, February 9. These Gitmo grads just murdered an American woman, among others, in Yemen
As Promised	Obama plans to reduce US nuclear arsenal by 80%, keeping the promise he made in this video. "I'm the only major candidate who opposed this war from the beginning. And as president I will end it. Second, I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending. I will cut investments in unproven missile defense systems. I will not weaponize space. I will slow our development of future combat systems. And I will institute an independent "Defense Priorities Board" to ensure that the Quadrennial Defense Review is not used to justify unnecessary spending. Third, I will set a goal of a world without nuclear weapons. To seek that goal, I will not develop new nuclear weapons; I will seek a global ban on the production of fissile material; and I will negotiate with Russia to take our ICBMs off hair-trigger alert, and to achieve deep cuts in our nuclear arsenals." Barack Obama 22 October 22, 2007 This line, "I will cut tens of billions of dollars in wasteful spending," is a laugh riot, in light of Obama's bloated, trillion dollar "Stimulus Program."
Winning Over Muslims	Obama was asked, in a television interview with CNN's "Anderson Cooper 360," why he hasn't used the oft-repeated "war on terror" phrase coined by the Bush administration. Obama said he believes the U.S. can win over moderate Muslims if he doesn't. Instead, Obama has spoken broadly of the "enduring struggle against terrorism and extremism" and pledged to "go after" extremists and "win this fight." "I think it is very important for us to recognize that we have a battle or a war against some terrorist organizations," Obama said Tuesday. "But that those organizations aren't representative of a broader Arab community, Muslim community." He added that he believes the U.S. can convince Muslims "that we should be working together to make sure that everybody has got a better life."
A Man Of His Word	Obama appears poised to break his campaign pledge to give the public five days to review a bill before he signs it. Obama scheduled a bill signing for 4:35 p.m. Wednesday, even though the House has yet to vote on the legislation expanding a children’s health insurance program. The legislation is expected to win final approval only hours before the president will make it law. The quick turnaround breaches Obama’s promise to offer "sunlight before signing," a concept he detailed on the campaign trail and on his website. "Too often bills are rushed through Congress and to the president before the public has the opportunity to review them," the campaign website states. "As president, Obama will not sign any non-emergency bill without giving the American public an opportunity to review and comment on the White House website for five days." The White House issued a statement Wednesday saying Obama was committed to the pledge, and "we will be implementing this policy in full soon."
Obama Retreats	Obama found another way to look weak and inexperienced this week, this time on the trade war threatened by the administration’s stimulus package. After pandering to unions by inserting a "Buy American" clause in the gigantic porkfest, Europe and Asia threatened trade sanctions on American companies competing for business in their markets. The EU threatened to retaliate if the US Congress went ahead with sweeping measures in its $800 billion (£554 billion) stimulus plan to restrict spending to American goods and services. … So Obama ran up the white flag, saying, "I agree that we can’t send a protectionist message. I want to see what kind of language we can work on this issue. I think it would be a mistake, though, at a time when worldwide trade is declining, for us to start sending a message that somehow we’re just looking after ourselves and not concerned with world trade."