Free Republic

Environmental groups believe John Podesta will be a force for change on climate issues at the White House. The groups argue that for must of Obama’s years in office, an administration that took power at the height of the recession has prioritized helping the economy over other goals. That’s created an uphill climb for advocates pushing the White House to take a tougher line in reducing carbon emissions and cleaning up polluters. Podesta’s arrival as a White House adviser, which comes as unemployment hits a low point under Obama, is a pivotal moment, activists predict. “The most significant thing about...

".......“Podesta has no financial interest in the Keystone XL decision,” says Credo Action. Is that truly the case? I am not saying that John Podesta is directly invested in companies that will profit if Keystone is defeated. What I am saying is that the connections between VIPs and think-tank donors and corporate boards and lobbying clients are hard to disentangle. It is so easy for a reporter to lose the thread, especially when that reporter is already inclined to think that the motives of his subject are pure. Podesta’s fame and power have certainly helped line the pockets of his...

President Obama has recalled John Podesta to work at the White House as a “counselor.” Podesta is the Clinton hand who founded the far-left Center for American Progress (home of the clownish Think Progress blog). Podesta’s appointment, which needs no congressional approval, comes at a time when Obama is already making moves to do without Congress. He has used executive actions to re-write Obamacare, and to recalibrate immigration law, both in ways that just happen to favor either himself or the Democrats.

Specializes in bypassing Congress to enact 'progressive change' A senior progressive strategist and former chief of staff for President Bill Clinton who specializes in the use of executive authority to bypass Congress is reportedly joining the White House. The New York Times is reporting John Podesta, founder of the Center for American Progress, has agreed to serve as counselor to President Obama for a year. Podesta last month announced the establishment of a new group, the Washington Center for Equitable Growth, that will work within his Center for American Progress. The new center bills itself as a research and grant-making...

<p>John Podesta, a former chief of staff to President Bill Clinton and a trusted Democratic operative, will join the White House staff as a senior counselor to President Barack Obama, two persons familiar with the move said late Monday.</p> <p>Podesta will take his place at the White House at a critical time for Obama as his health care law tries to shake itself off from a disastrous enrollment rollout and as the president seeks to re-establish his agenda going into a midterm election year.</p>

The return of Podesta is somewhat of a surprise after a Politico report last month that he and former Obama campaign manager Jim Messina were in serious discussions to reboot Priorities USA, the pro-Obama political action committee that aided the president’s reelection effort.President Obama is bringing former Clinton chief of staff John Podesta back to the White House for a year-long stint as a top adviser, an administration official confirmed Monday. Podesta, a longtime Democratic operative who led President Obama’s transition team, is returning to an embattled White House that has seen the president’s popularity hammered by the botched rollout...

Full title: Obama flubs during health care conference call with community organizers, claims 'more than 100 MILLION Americans' have enrolled President Barack Obama told a conference-call audience of progressive volunteers on Monday evening that 'more than 100 million Americans' – in a nation of less than 314 million – have successfully signed up for health insurance via the Affordable Care Act. And at a time when his signature legislative initiative's website has made the White House the butt of jokes, the website hosting the conference call was plagued with its own connection errors and other malfunctions. A weary-sounding Obama made...

Reports indicate that Marine General James Mattis is being forced out of CENTCOM for questioning certain aspects of the Obama administration's Middle East policy. In particular, it appears his questions surrounding the U.S. response to Iran's nuclear ambitions drew the ire of civilian military and security advisers. These civilians were apparently upset by the way Mattis pushed them to "consider second and third-order consequences of military action against Iran." Nor did they appreciate the way he pushed them to think long term and consider what the U.S. will do if Iran develops non-nuclear weapons that can be used to keep...

SNIP Hagel, however, has friends in Democratic lobbying circles. The powerful Washington D.C. organization known as the Podesta Group is reportedly asking defense contractors for financial support to run ads defending the Hagel nomination. Fox News White House Chief White House Correspondent Ed Henry reported on Friday: (2:15 in) "Sources confirm to Fox [that] Democratic super lobbyist Tony Podesta has been hired by a firm known as the Bipartisan Group to help mobilize support for Hagel. And defense contractors received calls this week urging them to be ready for a Hagel pick as soon as Monday, and asking them for...

Perhaps this one of the most important discussion threads ever regarding Legacy Media manipulation. We sincerely hope you will take the time to digest the content, think about the ramifications to what is here, and then share the information with others. This is not a matter of opinion, the CNN stories are documented, attributed and cited. They are factual. Everything is verifiable within the embedded links and citations. Believe it or not, just creating this discussion thread is risky. We are unable to expand. Before getting to the CNN Amber Lyon expose’ (which is incredible and troubling) let’s first back...

In his United Nations speech on Tuesday, President Obama talked about the September 11 attack on the U.S. consulate in Libya and declared that "there should be no doubt that we will be relentless in tracking down the killers and bringing them to justice." What he didn't say is how relentless he'll be in tracking down the security lapses and intelligence failures that contributed to the murders. Let's say there's some doubt about that. None of the initial explanations offered by the White House and State Department since the assault on the Benghazi consulate has held up.First the Administration blamed...

A pro-golf lobbying group asked Republicans to stop making jokes about President Obama's "passion" for the links. In a letter to Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla, the group "WeAreGolf" said, "As we enter the final stretch of campaign season, we write to make a request we hope you will receive in the same spirit in which it is offered. "Please reconsider your political strategy of criticizing President Obama's passion for golf." Rubio was one of several GOP members who made fun of Obama's golf game during the recent Republican National Convention.

Check this out. During the lead up to the terror attacks on our embassies, the Obama regime sponsored a trip to Egypt. Officials from the State Department, as well as Soros lackey [and communist] John Podesta were part of the group touring Egypt and looking for ways to make money by teaming up with our enemies. From the Washington Free Beacon: [emphasis mine] A delegation of American business leaders with lobbying ties to relatives of a top Obama administration adviser wrapped up a four-day tour in Egypt aimed at laying the groundwork for increased economic cooperation on Tuesday, as violent...

The US has a new diplomatic tool to improve its foreign relations -cooking! US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton has signed up 80 celebrity chefs from across the nation to cook special themed-menus for foreign dignitaries in an attempt to influence diplomatic relations, the Daily Mail reported. More than 80 top-rated chefs were inducted into the first American Chef Corps on Friday. The State Department plans to use the chefs to cook meals for visiting dignitaries and travel to US embassies abroad to help educate foreign audiences and host culinary experts from around the world in their US kitchens. "The...

The head of the Soros-funded Center for American Progress (CAP) is defending controversial State Department official Huma Abedin, a top aide to Secretary of State Hillary Clinton who is suspected of playing a role in Obama Administration “engagement” with the anti-American Muslim Brotherhood. Neera Tanden, president and CEO of CAP and Counselor for CAP’s Action Fund, has sent out an email defending Abedin and asking that Rep. Michele Bachmann be thrown off the House Intelligence Committee for asking questions about the vetting process that Abedin was supposed to go through. “Michele Bachmann has gone from outrageous to dangerous,” Tanden said...

Progressive organizations behind White House policy have crafted specific, second-term plans for President Obama to transform the U.S. Armed Forces into a social work-style organization designed to combat “global warming,” fight global poverty, remedy “injustice,” bolster the United Nations and increase “peacekeeping” forces worldwide. The groups, already instrumental in influencing Obama’s first-term defense agenda, call for massive, second-term slashes to the military budget. The savings are to be used to invest in “sustainable energy” and in fighting worldwide climate change. The schemes, and many more, are documented in the soon-to-be-released book “Fool Me Twice: Obama’s Shocking Plans for the Next...

Political Islam, which is the heart of the Muslim Brotherhood, is anti-modernity, anti-progress, anti-human rights, anti-democracy, anti-peace, anti-otherness, anti-pluralism, anti-women's rights, anti-liberal education, and anti-free-and-critical thinking -- BY DEFINITION. I cannot believe the "rumors" that the US wants to see members of the Muslim Brotherhood as Egypt's new rulers. If this "rumor" is correct, that policy decision will be the most gigantic, monumental strategic mistake made by the US since the end of WWII. Such a policy decision would also reflect nothing but an amazing inability to understand that while there are many moderate Muslims, there does not exist such...

DID YOU KNOW SOUTH AFRICA HAS A CONSTITUTION THAT'S FAR SUPERIOR TO OUR OWN? THAT'S WHAT ONE U.S. SUPREME COURT JUSTICE, AS WELL AS SHADOWY ACTIVITIST GROUPS WORKING BEHIND THE SCENES TO EFFECT CHANGE, BELIEVE. “I would not look to the U.S. Constitution, if I were drafting a constitution in the year 2012. I might look at the Constitution of South Africa … a fundamental instrument of government that embraced basic human rights …” -Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jan. 30, 2012. That stunning disavowal—by an associate justice of the United States Supreme Court—of the Constitution she has sworn...

George Soros has donated more than $8 billion globally to his Open Society Foundations. Couple that with decades of investing around the world and it would be easy to assume Soros in a figure of global popularity. Only he isn’t. He’s almost the polar opposite. Soros made headlines recently warning of increased economic problems, the growth of Occupy Wall Street and government repression what he characterized as “strong-arm tactics to maintain law and order.” In short, the kind of chaos helped foment in the old Soviet Union and elsewhere.In his book “Open Society,” Soros credits his foundation with “mobilizing civil...

Michelle Obama's campaign to transform school foodguidelines is not your typical first lady literacy or "just say no to drugs" project. No, hers is an all-out insidious plan to use food, a basic biological need and foundation of the mother-child relationship, to nudge parents out of the way at the ground level.The first lady's deceptive initiative has closely followed the Center for American Progress' policies set out in their 2008 report Change for America: A Progressive Blueprint for the 44 th President. Led by John Podesta and funded by George Soros, CAP began working on the plan for President Obama's...