"The List": Obama's Fifty Sixth Week in Office

Nachumlist ^ | 2/18/10 | Nachum

[Nachum]

 Obama's Fifty Sixth Week in Office

Latest Additions to "The List"

"The List" for 2/18/2010

Rashad Hussain, the president's appointee to serve as Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference was named a Fellow to the Paul and Daisy Soros Foundation:

The "New Dawn" memo -- a copy of which was sent to the Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Admiral Mike Mullen

ABC News has learned that the Obama administration has decided to give the war in Iraq -- currently known as Operation Iraqi Freedom -- a new name....The new name: "Operation New Dawn." In a February 17, 2010, memo to the Commander of Central Command, Gen. David Petraeus, Defense Secretary Robert Gates says the "requested operation name change is approved to take effect 1 September 2010, coinciding with the change of mission for U.S. forces in Iraq."  If Gates was hoping that "Operation New Dawn" would convey a new period in the US-Iraq relationship, it's not clear that was the best choice of name......Operation New Dawn was the name for the bloody and grueling 2004 battle for Fallujah.

Obama will meet Tibet's exiled leader, but deference to China dictates that conditions have been attached to the invitation. The Dalai Lama meets the US President today not with the status of a head of state but as an "internationally respected religious leader and spokesman for Tibetan rights". The two Nobel Peace Prizewinners will meet not in the Oval Office but in the Map Room, once used by Franklin D. Roosevelt to track the war and now relegated to low-scale private meetings. There will be an official photograph, but the Dalai Lama will leave without a joint news conference.

Last month, U.S. Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and her senior staff privately met in Washington, D.C., with a select group of Muslim, Arab, and Sikh organizations. Among the mix were three organizations directly associated with an outlawed terrorist entity — the Muslim Brotherhood.  Secretary Napolitano spent an hour and a half briefing them on Department of Homeland Security (DHS) counter-radicalization and anti-terrorist programs. The intensive briefings spanned two days (January 27 and 28) and were called by the DHS.

The Obama administration reached a deal with black farmers that could end a years-long stalemate over alleged rasial discrimination by the Agriculture Departmen  The agency is planning to announce a $1.25 billion fund Thursday to compensate African-Americans who say they were unfairly denied assistance from USDA

The White House and congressional leaders are preparing a detailed health care proposal designed to win passage without Republican support if GOP lawmakers fail to embrace bipartisan compromises at next week's summit.

Obama signed an order Thursday unilaterally creating a bipartisan commission to rein in unruly deficits after Congress rejected a similar body with considerably more enforcement power.

During his first year in office, President Obama (according to a White House count) gave 158 interviews to the press and delivered 411 speeches -- for an average of more than 1.5 a day.

More than a dozen pristine landscapes, wildlife habitats and scenic rivers in 11 Western states, some larger than Rhode Island and Delaware combined, are under consideration by the Obama administration to become America's newest National Monuments -- a decision the administration can make unilaterally without local input or congressional approval. 

A $5 billion federal weatherization program intended to save energy and create jobs has done little of either, according to a new report obtained by ABC News on the one-year anniversary of President Obama's American Reinvestment and Recovery Act. Only 9,100 homes had been weatherized nationwide as of Dec. 31, according to the new report by the Government Accountability Office, to be released Thursday.

"The List" for 2/17/2010

The US would maintain a minimum nuclear deterrent while working towards the goal of achieving a nuke-free world, a top Obama administration official on nuclear disarmament has said.  "This administration will work toward a world without nuclear weapons and we will continue to maintain a safe, secure, and effective deterrent as we proceed toward that goal," Ellen Tauscher, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, said.

Michelle Obama stocks the White House library with books on socialism

Obama and his administration have continued to ignore the loud outcry over the appointment of a radical gay activist, Kevin Jennings, to head up the nation’s “safe schools” office.....they plan to give Jennings significantly more money.  President Obama’s proposed 2011 budget would allocate $410 million for programs overseen by Jennings. That’s an increase of $45 million.

US secretary of state says her country focusing on trying to change Iranian behavior, not planning anything other than sanctions  US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said her country has no plan for military action against Iran over its nuclear program, in a television interview broadcast on Wednesday.

Harry Knox, who serves on President Barack Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-Based and Neighborhood Partnerships and who has said the Pope is “hurting people in the name of Jesus,” has a record of making anti-Catholic statements

Transparency requirements pushed for by the Obama administration have not changed the total spending on earmarks for 2010, according to a study by a group critical of the practice. The amount of money directed by lawmakers in 2010 to specific projects back in their districts adds up to $15.9 billion, according to the analysis by Taxpayers for Common Sense

George Maloof of the Sacramento Kings ownership family will host a million-dollar fundraiser attended by President Barack Obama on Thursday night at his Las Vegas home.

 An open-source assessment of Russia's Sukhoi PAK-FA, aka the Raptor Killer, Air Power Australia

In an open-source assessment of Russia's Sukhoi PAK-FA, aka the Raptor Killer, Air Power Australia  concludes, "once the PAK-FA is deployed within a theatre of operations, especially if it is supported robustly by counter-VLO capable ISR systems, the United States will no longer have the capability to rapidly impose air superiority, or possibly even achieve air superiority." " Moreover, the Obama administration's decision to kill the F-22 air superiority fighter in favor of the multi-role F-35 Joint Strike Fighter may prove disastrous,

Virginia joined a growing list of opponents to the Environmental Protection Agency's plan to regulate greenhouse gases. Attorney General Ken Cuccinelli II petitioned a federal court Tuesday to reconsider EPA's decision that greenhouse gases, which are linked to global warming, are a public health threat. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and Texas filed similar suits.

Determined to have a deficit commission with or without Congress' backing, Obama plans to announce on Thursday that he is establishing a panel similar to—although weaker than_ the one lawmakers rejected.

Airport screeners for the first time will begin roving through airports taking chemical swabs from passengers and their bags to check for explosives, the Transportation Security Administration said Tuesday.

Obama said on Wednesday a $787 billion stimulus program helped the United States avoid dipping into an economic depression.

Las Vegas Mayor Oscar Goodman has refused an invitation to meet with President Obama when he arrives in town on Thursday. Mayor Goodman called President Obama a slow learner after he told Americans not to blow money on a weekend in Las Vegas if they were saving to put their kids through college. “I’ve got other things to do quite frankly for my constituents here in Las Vegas who rely on me to do the right thing as a mayor,”. …

Vice President Joe Biden asserted in an interview today that taxpayers have “gotten their money's worth” out of the $787 billion stimulus program that Congress passed during the depths of the recession

Vice President Joe Biden, "Washington is broken"

"The List" for 2/16/2010

NASA Administrator Charlie Bolden said Tuesday that President Barack Obama has asked him to “find ways to reach out to dominantly Muslim countries” as the White House pushes the space agency to become a tool of international diplomacy.

Obama's $787 billion stimulus prevented another Great Depression while creating or preserving 2 million jobs, according to a White House report to be released on Wednesday.  The report, signed by Vice President Joe Biden who oversees how stimulus money is spent, stressed the depth of the crisis confronting Obama when he took office 13 months ago, as the President constantly reminds Americans in his speeches

$135 million in federal stimulus for on an "upgrade" for the Edith Green-Wendell Wyatt Federal Building in Portland, Oregon,

Obama will hold a town hall meeting at a high school, tout job creation in a speech at CityCenter and attend a $1 million Democratic fundraiser in a visit this week that comes after he twice singled out Las Vegas as a place not to spend money during economic hard times.

White House insists that the health care summit is not a trap.-  The purpose of the Obama administration's upcoming summit on healthcare is to find solutions to issues like soaring insurance premiums, not score political points against the Republicans, the White House insisted on Tuesday.

The White House hinted on Tuesday that President Obama might post his own bill on the Internet before the bipartisan health care summit he is planning for Blair House next week

Visitor logs reveal what pro-life advocates suspected would happen once Obama took over as president.  He and his administration have allowed the Planned Parenthood abortion business unfettered access to the White House and top staffers

Now it is up to three.  Three large corporations are quitting the U.S. Climate Action Partnership, a broad group of businesses and environmental organizations that has been instrumental in building support in Washington for capping U.S. emissions of greenhouse gases. Oil giants BP PLC and ConocoPhillips along with Caterpillar Inc., the Peoria, Ill., heavy-equipment maker, have decided against renewing their membership in the organization, according to a statement released by the group Tuesday.

The State of Texas ratcheted up its attack on the Obama administration's environmental policies on Tuesday, filing suit against the EPA over a declaration that could broaden government enforcement of carbon dioxide emissions. Gov. Rick Perry, Attorney General Gregg Abbot and Agriculture Commissioner Todd Staples announced the lawsuit at a joint news conference to declare that the two-month-old declaration is based on bogus conclusions and could cause billions of dollars of economic damage in Texas.

White House officials are retooling the administration's communications strategy to produce faster responses to political adversaries, a more disciplined focus on Obama's call for "change" in Washington and an increasingly selective use of the president's time.

Banking reforms proposed by US President Barack Obama cannot be "transposed" directly into a European context, the EU's financial services chief said on Tuesday. "You can't just copy or transpose the Obama reforms to Europe" said French internal market commissioner Michel Barnier

Promising "this is only the beginning," President Obama on Tuesday announced more than $8 billion in federal loan guarantees for the construction of the first nuclear power in the United States in nearly three decades.

VIDEO: Secretary of State Hillary Clinton responds if she thinks Sarah Palin will be President and if she would move to Canada: "Well, the short answer is no. I will not be emigrating. I will be visiting as often as I can."

Michelle Obama to address the nation's governors about her obesity campaign

The White House is still urging Congress to adopt the excise tax as a way to help pay for President Obama’s health care proposals.

On Tuesday, President Obama will announce plans to break ground on two new nuclear reactors at a Southern Company plant in Burke, Georgia -- the  first new U.S. nuclear reactors since the incident at Three Mile Island in 1979.

Obama, defending his economic stimulus plan on its first anniversary, is dispatching his Cabinet across the country to try to calm an anxious public as Democrats head into potentially devastating midterm elections. A weeklong push to highlight the stimulus program's first year was starting with a Tuesday trip by Vice President Joe Biden to hard-hit Saginaw, Mich., to tour a small business, a jobs training program and a solar factory that all received Recovery Act dollars

ConocoPhillips [NYSE: COP] today announced that it will not be renewing its membership in the U.S. Climate Action Partnership (USCAP).- "House climate legislation and Senate proposals to date have disadvantaged the transportation sector and its consumers, left domestic refineries unfairly penalized versus international competition, and ignored the critical role that natural gas can play in reducing GHG emissions,"...

"The List" for 2/15/2010

President Obama’s newly appointed envoy to the Organization of the Islamic Conference, Rashad Hussain, was quoted in 2004 as saying an American who aided a Palestinian terrorist group was the victim of “politically motivated persecutions” who was being used “to squash dissent.”

The White House is considering endorsing a law that would allow the indefinite detention of some alleged terrorists without trial as part of efforts to break a logjam with Congress over President Barack Obama’s plans to close the Guantanamo Bay prison, Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Monday.

Obama lawyers delay "Walpin-gate" case

John Podesta, president of the Center for American Progress, can describe the state of Washington politics with a single word. Asked in an interview with the Financial Times to comment on "the health of American political system," Podesta responded: "Sucks.

A top Obama administration scientist- “It is important that people recognize that weather is not the same thing as climate,” said Jane Lubchenco, head of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.

Drillgate: Obama administration found to withheld the publication of public support for offshore drilling.

American and Afghan troops say they're fighting the latest offensive in Afghanistan with a handicap -- strict rules that routinely force them to hold their fire.Although details of the new guidelines are classified to keep insurgents from reading them, U.S. troops say the Taliban are keenly aware of the restrictions.

VIDEO: Hillary Clinton- "Iran is moving toward a military dictatorship"

Restrictions on oil and gas drilling will cost the U.S. economy $2.36 trillion through 2029, according to a study requested by state utility regulators and paid for in part by industry-sponsored groups.

Obama counter-terror chief John Brennan chief is getting calls for his resignation after the following comments: "People sometimes use that figure, 20 percent, say 'Oh my goodness, one out of five detainees returned to some type of extremist activity,'" Brennan said. "You know, the American penal system, the recidivism rate is up to something about 50 percent or so, as far as return to crime. Twenty percent isn't that bad."

Vice President Biden stunned New York officials on Sunday by accusing Mayor Bloomberg of inflating the cost of 9/11 terror trials in Manhattan

Hillary Clinton today said Iran was becoming a military dictatorship.

"The List" for 2/14/2010

Biden: GOP use of filibuster, the worst he's ever seen

The woman that poses as Barack Obama on all his social networking websites such as Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter is connected to the far-left organization MoveOn.org.

Rashad Hussein, White House official and President Obama’s newly appointed Special Envoy to the Organization of Islamic Conference, has a history of participation in events connected with the U.S. Muslim Brotherhood as well as support for Brotherhood causes, once having called prosecution of the U.S. leader of a Palestinian terrorist organization one of many “politically motivated persecutions.”

VIDEO: John Brennan's comments at the Islamic Center at New York University

Comments by John Brennan assistant to the president for homeland security and counterterrorism, at the Islamic Center at New York University on Saturday, are drawing fire and have prompted at least one call for his resignation by a Republican senator.  At one point, Brennan was asked about a recent assessment from the intelligence community that 20 percent of detainees transferred from Guantanamo are confirmed or suspected of recidivist activity, as Brennan confirmed in a letter to Congress earlier this month.

The Obama administration projected Thursday that the unemployment rate would fall this year by only a little, if at all, and would remain well over 6 percent until 2015.

Central Florida congressman, Bill Posey, has accused President Obama of breaking the law for trying to cancel  NASA contract bids

U.S. Army Chief Mullen: “The option to attack Iran is still on the table, but we’re not there yet.”

FASHBACK: Obama in 2008: "I'll do everything in my power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon. Everything,"

The United States expressed readiness to provide Lebanon by 2013 with aircraft designed for light attack, the local daily As Safir reported Friday.

Vice President Joe Biden says the administration has not ruled out a military trial for the professed mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks even if a civilian trial would be preferable

Vice President Joe Biden says the U.S. had made "significant progress" in addressing Iran's nuclear program.

VIDEO: Joe Biden- praises Obama for the way he has "managed Iraq" since taking office. ...the Iraq War was not "worth it"

Vice President Joe Biden on Sunday belittled Dick Cheney's criticism of the Obama administration's commitment to fighting terrorism as either ''misinformed or he is misinforming''

Vice President Joe Biden says the Iraq war -"mishandled", hasn't been worth its "horrible price."

VIDEO: Here is video of Dick Cheney on "This Week" responding to Joe Biden saying that Iraq "may ultimately prove to be one of the greatest achievements of the Obama administration."Cheney said, "I'm glad he now believes Iraq is a success" ....Cheney said, "If they're going to take credit for it, fair enough, but it ought to go with a healthy dose of thank you George Bush up front."

VIDEO: Dick Cheney: "I think, in fact, the situation with respect to Al Qaeda, to say, you know, that was big attack we had on 9/11 but it’s not likely again – I just think that’s just dead wrong."

Vice President Joe Biden and former Vice President Dick Cheney hurtled barbs across the airwaves Sunday in a split-screen debate over terrorism, charging each other with being dangerously “misinformed” or just “dead wrong.” 

House Minority Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, issued a statement late Saturday in response to President Obama's Friday invite to a bipartisan Health Care Summit at the White House.  "It doesn't sound much like bipartisanship"

Vice President Joe Biden says the White House is ready and willing to listen to health care ideas from Republicans.

Joe Biden proposed in 2006 that Iraq be divided into three separate regions — Kurdish, Shiite and Sunni — with a central government in Baghdad.

Industry advocates are voicing concern with U.S. President Obama’s decision to cancel NASA’s Moon-bound Constellation program and the threat it poses to America’s aerospace work force

Obama said Saturday new budget rules that say spending cuts must accompany spending increases will force Congress to "pay for what it spends, just like everybody else."Obama signed a bill Friday reinstating budget rules known as "paygo" — short for "pay as you go."

"The List" for 2/13/2010

The Obama administration on Thursday said it does not believe that Iran can enrich uranium at the level it claims it can. White House officials say work is underway for stronger international sanctions against Iran.

The word is that Holder and Obama "never expected" the kind of pushback against holding a civilian trial for 9/11 plotter Khalid Sheikk Mohammed. Never expected this kind of "push back".  Now they are frantically looking for a way out...

The White House did not invite House or Senate Budget Committee leaders to its healthcare reform summit later this month, including a Republican who recently offered to work with President Barack Obama to strike a bipartisan deal.

President Obama's counterterrorism chief acknowledged Saturday that the country is safer since the attacks of September 11, 2001, saying that government actions have made the nation "less hospitable" to terrorism. But he also called some of the precautions taken after the attacks "over the top".

Department of Homeland Security has disclosed that it will be monitoring the comments and posts on websites and social media like Twitter for information on possible terror threats

Obama, was quite in favor of the filibuster in 2005 when it was used to stop nine of Bush's appointments, including Miguel Estrada and Janice Rogers Brown

VIDEO: Obama reaches out to the Muslim world again by addressing the U.S. IslamicWorld Forum.  Obama lists all the things America is doing to try to win over the Muslim world, -...notice the Arabic greeting, the Arabic subtitles and ending his remarks with 'god's peace be upon you'Obama and his team are preparing an array of actions using his executive power to advance energy, environmental, fiscal and other domestic policy priorities.“We are reviewing a list of presidential executive orders and directives to get the job done across a front of issues,” said Rahm Emanuel, the White House chief of staff.

The 2010 Quadrennial Defense Review report gives unprecedented attention to the issue of climate change.  The report mentions "climate change" 19 times.

Obama's political operation, Organizing for America, is hiring a "social networks manager" whose primary responsibilities will be maintaining the group's Twitter, Facebook and MySpace accounts.

Iran's parliament speaker said that attempts by the Obama administration to quell its nuclear program will only encourage the Islamic Republic to speed up its uranium enrichment even more

The White House is reviewing a plan that would require the Justice Department and FBI to consult with the intelligence community before deciding whether to inform terrorism suspects arrested in the United States that they have the right to remain silent and to consult with an attorney, according to the Washington Post

"The List" for 2/12/2010

VIDEO: of West Virginia Democrat Sen. Jay Rockefeller saying about President Obama, "He's beginning to not be believable to me." Rockefeller was specifically referring to Obama's inconsistent statements about "clean coal," which are making Rockefeller feel unsure of where Obama really stands.

The White House on Friday defended Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's move to scuttle a bipartisan jobs bill and replace it with a Democratic-written measure, arguing that Mr. Reid's bill will end up drawing Republican support.

The White House has recently laid the groundwork for a federal takeover of the Great Lakes and its tributaries. The activities of a White House task force have raised questions about state sovereignty and federal control over natural resources.

By the end of this year, there will be no shuttle, no U.S. manned space program, no way for the U.S. to get into space.

Proposed White House changes to Marshall Space Flight Center-managed rocket program

A group of North Alabama leaders concerned over proposed White House changes to Marshall Space Flight Center-managed rocket programs have come together to form a task force in an effort to restore funding cuts.  The "Second to None Initiative" brings together 25 community leaders, led by former Huntsville U.S. Rep. Bud Cramer, to fight the Obama White House proposal that would shift NASA's focus from returning to the moon to technology development and seeding small, private space companies.

Obama has asked asked Congress to give Planned Paranthood a raise.  In the budget Obama submitted for 2011, he requests a $10 million increase in Title X funds, for a total of $327,356,000 that will go directly to Planned Parenthood

Two new documents laying out the Obama administration's defense and homeland security strategy over the next four years describe the nation's terrorist enemies in a number of ways but fail to mention the words Islam, Islamic or Islamist.

A federal commission has yet to enact a year-old executive order that President Obama thinks will avoid labor unrest but one that critics say discriminates against non-union companies and non-union workers in federal contracting.  The construction industry, one of the hardest hit industries from the economic downturn, is speaking out against enactment of the executive order.

Obama dropped his threat to bypass the Senate and install nominees to their positions through recess appointments after Republicans released their holds and allowed 29 nominees to receive votes.

[Nachum]

This is the list for our fearless leader's 56th week.

I am thinking of holding the Captain Queeg contest. -In what week will Obama crack up like Captain Queeg from the 'Caine Mutiny'. The winner gets a genuine Obama dartboard....

Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list.

[Paperdoll]

SAVE

[pandoraou812]

Read this..

[La Lydia]

And now, for a palate-cleanser:
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/news/2166746/posts

[Nachum]

Oh thanks for that!

[YHAOS]

Fifty-Six weeks, huh. Gosh, that’s nearly one week for each state in the nation.

[G Larry]

I’m waiting for his 92nd when his agenda is pronounced “TOAST”!
Following the Republicans smothering Obama’s agenda!

[Jet Jaguar]

BTTT

[Jet Jaguar]

With the White House opening up twitter and facebook pages, you should begin posting these links to the WH pages. They would become a national historical record.

[TigersEye]

From today’s list I see he wants to lock up millions of acres in the west as National Monument. Skimming over the list of sites my gut feeling is these are areas rich in coal, oil shale and gas. Research is needed to confirm that suspicion but it wouldn’t surprise me.

[Nachum]

With the White House opening up twitter and facebook pages, you should begin posting these links to the WH pages. They would become a national historical record.

That is an excellent idea. I will investigate that.

[pandoraou812]

At this point nothing would surprise me sadly.

[Nachum]

Just tried to post to their facebook page and they removed my post in about 2 seconds. The best I can do is post the link to nachumlist as a reply to an existing thread. Still, it was worth a try.

[Jet Jaguar]

LOL!

No surprise.

[haroldeveryman]

“The winner gets a genuine Obama dartboard....Let me know if you would like to be on or off the ping list.”

Sounds like fun. But I’m a little concerned. Dartboards cost money. Judging from your list, and that’s just for the past week, Obama’s Captain Queeg moments are mounting exponentially and may already have exceeded the rate of increase of his budget deficit. You may have to buy some time on the NORAD computers to keep track. And hope for Weimar Republic style inflation rates so you can reward all the winners.