The Republican Thread

[southsider2k5]

http://newsbusters.org/blogs/mike-sargent/...s-dont-come-u-s

 

Apparently, America’s love of firearms has not rubbed off on our Mexican neighbors quite as much as the mainstream media led us to believe.

 

It has been widely reported that 90 percent of the weapons used in the Mexican drug cartel wars come from America. As it turns out, that statistic is simply incorrect. According to the figures obtained from ICE and ATF officials by Fox News, only about 17 percent of the weapons recovered from cartel-related crime scenes in Mexico actually originate in the United States.

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Correspondent William LaJeunesse in an April 2 report (first aired at 12:27PM, then a shorter segment with an ATF agent at 2:55PM:

 

According to the Mexican Attorney General, in the last two years, they've recovered about thirty thousand, twenty-nine thousand weapons in Mexico. They have submitted about only one-third of those to the United States for tracing. And according to testimony that we have from the special agent in charge, in Phoenix, of the ATF, only about six thousand of those were successfully traced, and about ninety percent of those came from the U.S. But basically, the bottom line here is that according to our figures, which we got from them, eighty-three percent of the guns that have been recovered in Mexico at these crime scenes are not from the United States.

 

One might ask how the United States Secretary of State might have made such an error in her math.

 

LaJeunesse explains:

 

Well one reason is, it's basically the sampling issue. Number one, Mexico is finding guns at the crime scene which may have no markings at all. They may be clearly Chinese or Russian weapons, and so they are not submitting those to the United States for, quote, tracing. A U.S. weapon has a serial number on it, a manufacturer on it, it says where it is made. So clearly, Mexico is not going to give over weapons to the U.S. for tracing which clearly don't come from here. We had an ICE official, special agent in charge here in Phoenix tell us, and I'm quoting from him, “Not every weapon seized in Mexico has a serial number. Those are not submitted. Only we trace weapons with U.S. markings.

 

So to summarize, ninety percent of the traced weapons that Mexico decides to give back to us come from the United States – a sample which doesn’t include the vast majority of the weapons found.

[kapkomet]

I wonder if this same manner of sampling will be used in the census?

 

 

[southsider2k5]

Speaking of party's imploding from the wings to the center... It looks like the left wing is going after its own centrists. I guess this is what makes it the party of inclusion?

 

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/articl...grakWAD97ACE5O0

 

Democratic leader tempers expectations for 2010

 

By BEN EVANS – 1 day ago

 

WASHINGTON (AP) — Liberal groups targeting moderate congressional Democrats should "beware of forming a circular firing squad" that could hurt the party in 2010 elections, says the head of the Democrats' House campaign efforts.

 

Rep. Chris Van Hollen, who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, said at a news conference Wednesday he has personally talked with certain individuals from liberal organizations who have begun raising money to finance challenges to centrist Democrats. He warned the efforts threatened to split the party and allow Republicans to pick up seats.

 

The Maryland congressman is trying to defuse heady expectations in his party for more gains in next year's midterm elections. He spoke after too-close-to-call results in this week's election for a vacant Democratic seat in New York.

 

Van Hollen presided over his party's 2008 House campaign, which added 18 seats to the Democrats' majority. While there will be some opportunities for knocking off House Republicans in 2010, he said the focus will be on "playing defense" to protect freshmen Democrats and other vulnerable members who won by close margins in November.

 

Noting that the president's party has traditionally lost seats in midterm elections, Van Hollen said Democrats' fortunes in 2010 rest largely on how the public judges President Barack Obama's handling of the economy.

 

"Our prospects are obviously tied to how well the president is doing," he said.

 

The election Tuesday was for the House seat vacated in January when New York Gov. David Paterson appointed Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand to the Senate to succeed Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.

 

The Democratic candidate, political newcomer Scott Murphy, was locked in a tight race with longtime Republican state legislator Jim Tedisco in a district that has a Republican advantage of about 75,000 voters. The race will be decided by absentee ballots.

 

Murphy ran as a strong supporter of Obama's economic policies, while Tedisco criticized Murphy for supporting Obama's $787 billion stimulus plan.

 

Democrats currently have a 76-seat advantage in the House.

[kapkomet]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090403/pl_politico/20871

 

Inside Obama's bank CEOs meeting

 

Eamon Javers – Fri Apr 3, 2:00 pm ET

 

The bankers struggled to make themselves clear to the president of the United States.

 

Arrayed around a long mahogany table in the White House state dining room last week, the CEOs of the most powerful financial institutions in the world offered several explanations for paying high salaries to their employees — and, by extension, to themselves.

 

“These are complicated companies,” one CEO said. Offered another: “We’re competing for talent on an international market.”

 

But President Barack Obama wasn’t in a mood to hear them out. He stopped the conversation and offered a blunt reminder of the public’s reaction to such explanations. “Be careful how you make those statements, gentlemen. The public isn’t buying that.”

 

“My administration,” the president added, “is the only thing between you and the pitchforks.”

 

The fresh details of the meeting — some never before revealed — come from an account provided to POLITICO by one of the participants. A second source inside the meeting confirmed the details, and two other sources familiar with the meeting offered additional information.

 

The accounts demonstrate that despite the public comments on both sides that the meeting was cordial, the tone in the room was in fact one of mutual wariness. The titans of finance -- men used to being the most powerful man in almost any room -- sized up a new president who made clear in ways big and small that he expected them to change their ways.

 

There were signs from the outset that this was a business event, not a social gathering. At each place around the table sat a single glass of water. No ice. For those who finished their glass, no refills were offered. There was no group photograph taken of the CEOs with the president, which typically happens at ceremonial White House gatherings but not at serious strategy sessions.

 

“The only way they could have sent a more Spartan message is if they had served bread along with the water,” says a person who attended the meeting. “The signal from Obama’s body language and demeanor was, ‘I’m the president, and you’re not.’”

 

According to the accounts of sources inside the room, President Obama told the CEOs exactly what he expects from them, and pushed back forcefully when they attempted to defend Wall Street’s legendarily high-paying ways.

 

From the White House, there were five principal attendees: chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who arrived a few minutes late, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, Council of Economic Advisers chairwoman Christina Romer, senior adviser Valerie Jarrett and director of the National Economic Council Larry Summers. Uncharacteristically, Summers said almost nothing, and it appeared to one participant as if he had been told to remain silent.

 

To break the ice, JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon offered Geithner a fake check for $25 billion, the amount of Troubled Asset Relief Program money that the company has accepted. Although many of those in the room laughed, Geithner didn’t keep the check.

 

The president entered the room a few minutes later and made a lap of the table, shaking hands and saying hello to the CEOs, several of whom he called by name.

 

Taking his seat at the table, the president said, "So let's get to it." He spoke for several minutes without notes, giving an overview of the economic situation as he saw it. But the first comment that made an impression on several attendees was on Wall Street salaries and bonuses.

 

The president spoke of public outrage over the high-flying executive lifestyle. "The anger gentlemen, is real," Obama said. He urged pay reform and said rewards must be proportional, balanced, and tied to the health and success of the company.

 

The president described the financial system as still “fragile” and asked for cooperation from the CEOs. But he also told them he wouldn’t shy away from regulatory reform. Obama wrapped up his remarks and threw the conversation open to the table, saying, “So, who’d like to talk?”

 

JPMorgan’s Dimon spoke first. He began by complimenting the president on the economic team he’d assembled. And he said his industry needs to explain more directly to the American people that the economic recovery plans are already working. Dimon also insisted that he’d like to give the government’s TARP money back as soon as practical, and asked the president to “streamline” that process.

 

But Obama didn’t like that idea — arguing that the system still needs government capital.

 

The president offered an analogy: “This is like a patient who’s on antibiotics,” he said. “Maybe the patient starts feeling better after a couple of days, but you don’t stop taking the medicine until you’ve finished the bottle.” Returning the money too early, the president argued could send a bad signal.

 

Several CEOs disagreed, arguing instead that returning TARP money was their patriotic duty, that they didn’t need it anymore, and that publicity surrounding the return would send a positive signal of confidence to the markets.

 

Bank of America CEO Ken Lewis cracked a joke at the expense of his peers who’d lavished praise on the administration: “Mr. President,” he said, “I’m not going to suck up to Geithner and Summers like the other CEOs here have.” Lewis also urged the president not to paint all the banks with the same broad brush.

 

The president argued that’s not what the White House was doing. Indeed, earlier the same week, Obama said at a nationally televised news conference, “The rest of us can’t afford to demonize every investor or entrepreneur who seeks to make a profit.”

 

As the meeting wound down after nearly an hour and a half, the CEOs hustled out to live television positions on the White House grounds, where many gave interviews to CNBC.

 

It had been a landmark day in the history of American capitalism. Unbeknownst to the financial executives, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner was also on Pennsylvania Avenue that day, meeting with Obama’s auto bailout task force. Although the finance CEOs got a meeting with the president, Wagoner saw only Obama’s senior advisor Steven Rattner at the Treasury Department. During the meeting, Rattner demanded Wagoner’s resignation.

 

It had been a tough day for CEOs in the nation’s capital.

 

What an arrogant piece of s***. This man is ruining our country. I'm glad that he's supported to do so.

[Balta1701]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090403/pl_politico/20871

What an arrogant piece of s***. This man is ruining our country. I'm glad that he's supported to do so.

That sounds to me exactly like the attitude he should be taking.

[kapkomet]

That sounds to me exactly like the attitude he should be taking.

You just lost all credibility to me.

 

Please let me clarify. I think it's really sad that you truely believe that Obama's adminstration should have this kind of power. Who created the people with the pitchforks? The asshole who is president now had a lot to do with this. Then he has the arrogance to say HE is the only one who can stop it? f*** him and the horse he rode in on.

 

I don't get why these people (and you, since you said what you did) are scared of the individual.

Edited April 4, 2009 by kapkomet

[southsider2k5]

That sounds to me exactly like the attitude he should be taking.

 

Telling people what to do and not listening to them? Sounds amazingly like George W Bush to me.

[ChiSox_Sonix]

Telling people what to do and not listening to them? Sounds amazingly like George W Bush to me.

 

 

But this is all different

[southsider2k5]

 

http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard/art...ouse/article.do

 

Here comes top-security travelling White House

Paul Thompson

30.03.09

 

WHITE House aides are today putting the finishing touches to President Barack Obama's eagerly anticipated first major foreign trip.

 

More than six weeks of planning has gone into the visit which begins with the G20 summit in London followed by other European cities.

 

Mr Obama, who has an entourage of several hundred, has become the most protected president in US history. All 76 seats on Air Force One will be taken by his aides and support staff, including his chef.

 

As many as 200 secret service agents will be on duty during the three days he is in London.

 

Secret service agents will create a "sterile area" around the President, with only those approved in advance allowed to come near him.

 

Many of the agents arrived over the weekend although teams of armed bodyguards have already been in London on at least three occasions to fine-tune security.

 

The driver of the presidential limo - Cadillac One - arrived last week to familiarise himself with driving on the left. The £300,000 rocket and bullet-proof car was flown to the UK by a US Air Force transport plane.

 

Some of the 20 vehicles that make up the President's convoy were also flown in. Mr Obama will have what aides call the "travelling White House" - a scaled down version of his secretarial, intelligence and administration support.

 

The President and his wife Michelle are said to be "nervous but excited" about meeting the Queen at Buckingham Palace on Wednesday.

 

They will then join other G20 leaders for a reception attended by Prince Charles and Camilla.

 

At Camp David over the weekend the President spent time with White House head of protocol going over royal etiquette for the meeting.

 

The President will touch down at Stansted Airport tomorrow and be taken to the US ambassador's residence in Regent's Park.

 

Accompanying the party will be a total of 500 officials including kitchen staff, 35 vehicles in all, four speech writers and 12 teleprompters.

[Balta1701]

Took some Googling to find because it seems no one cared before now, but here's a New Zeland Herald article on the size of Bush's entourage.

The United States President, who arrived in Sydney last night, brought not one Jumbo jet, but three, as well as another two aircraft that carry aircraft. The President's Jumbo has a back-up, and the back-up has a back-up.

 

Air Force One can jam enemy radar, and radar-guided missiles, and is equipped with flares to avoid heat-seeking missiles.

 

The Jumbos are carrying 700 of the President's closest friends, including a doctor, nurse, personal chef and four cooks.

 

They are also carrying advisers, and it is clear the President will not be short of advice.

 

His entourage includes 50 White House political aides, 150 national security advisers and 200 specialists from other government departments.

 

POTUS, as he is known in Secret Service jargon (President Of The United States), is getting by with a mere 250 protective agents.

 

That doubtless would have been more if the First Lady was here too, but Laura Bush is back at home nursing a pinched nerve in her neck, a casualty of a hiking trip four months ago.

As usual, IOKIYAR (It's ok if you're a Republican). (Googling Bush trip entourage brought up about 1-2 hits involving Bush, one of which took me to that site, and about 10 people already complaining about the current President taking the exact same sized group.)

[southsider2k5]

Took some Googling to find because it seems no one cared before now, but here's a New Zeland Herald article on the size of Bush's entourage.

 

As usual, IOKIYAR (It's ok if you're a Republican). (Googling Bush trip entourage brought up about 1-2 hits involving Bush, one of which took me to that site, and about 10 people already complaining about the current President taking the exact same sized group.)

 

My laugh was at needing to bring 12 telepromptors.

[lostfan]

My laugh was at needing to bring 12 telepromptors.

That's what I figured. 12?

[Balta1701]

That's what I figured. 12?

200 staff members right? How many of them wind up giving prepared speeches during any given day?

[kapkomet]

Ahh yes, Obama is always right and good and wholesome and everything he does is justified and right, and GWB is the asshole of the world for which everything wrong must be blamed.

 

*YAWN*

[southsider2k5]

That's what I figured. 12?

 

They could have just brought along one of these guys...

 

[NorthSideSox72]

Ahh yes, Obama is always right and good and wholesome and everything he does is justified and right, and GWB is the asshole of the world for which everything wrong must be blamed.

 

*YAWN*

In other news, the sun will set sometime later today.

 

[southsider2k5]

Looks like Patterson might get thrown under the bus next...

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/04/06..._top_democ.html

 

Top New York Democrats have privately set a deadline of early November for Gov. Paterson to turn his poll numbers around or they'll urge him not to run next year.

 

"The idea is to let him get through the budget and get through the summer," said a prominent Democratic donor who sees the fall elections as the cutoff for Paterson's improvement.

 

"Nobody really wants to go to a sitting Democratic governor who's African-American and say, 'Hey. You're a disgrace. Get out.'"

 

Paterson allies hold out hope he'll be able to mount a timely comeback, but admit his historically low job approval rating - a March Siena poll pegged it at 19% - presents a significant challenge.

 

"Even if he went up 100%, it wouldn't be much," the donor said. "The goal is to be close to 50, but I think if he could climb over 40%, he can begin to show real momentum."

 

The question is: Can he do it in time?

 

It took just two months for Paterson's favorability rating to plunge from 54% to 29% - a rate Siena poll spokesman Steve Greenberg called "staggering."

 

Greenberg said Paterson "certainly can come back in time, [but] it would be incredible to me to see it come back in two months."

 

"It could happen in a number of months, and only if he has good issues," Greenberg said. "It depends on how you define 'fast enough.'"

 

A "number of months" might not be quick enough for members of the New York congressional delegation, whose fate in the next round of redistricting after the 2010 census lies in the hands of whoever controls the Senate.

 

If Paterson doesn't improve and refuses to bow out gracefully, Democrats worry having him at the top of the ticket could imperil their tenuous 32-to-30 hold on the Senate majority.

 

"It's fish or cut bait after these elections," one Washington Democrat said. ""If he can't put it together by November, you're going to see some real calls for a new slate."

 

Paterson has taken steps to right his listing administration. He shook up his staff, presided over passage of an almost on-time budget and recently adopted a tougher tone with the Legislature on getting a Metropolitan Transportation Authority bailout deal.

 

Critics have panned the budget for spending too much and being negotiated almost entirely in secret. Paterson has defended the plan, saying federal stimulus aid accounts for the spending increase.

 

Paterson will hit the hustings this week for a statewide tour to tout projects funded with stimulus cash. He will join local, state and federal lawmakers at each stop.

 

Anyone seeking to get Paterson out of the 2010 race will have to tread lightly. He is New York's first black governor, although he wasn't elected to the post, having inherited it after Eliot Spitzer got caught up in a prostitution scandal. He is also legally blind.

 

The man on whom Republicans have pinned their hopes, Rudy Giuliani, has said he'll decide after the '09 elections whether to run for governor next fall.

 

Observers said it would be impossible for someone like state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to challenge Paterson unless black and Hispanic lawmakers provide "cover" by calling for the governor to step aside.

 

Cuomo angered Democrats with his failed 2002 primary challenge to then-state Controller Carl McCall - the first black candidate for governor.

 

Assemblyman Keith Wright, a Harlem Democrat and Paterson ally, called it "silly" for anyone to set deadlines for the governor's resurrection and said the "good work" Paterson has been doing will boost his poll numbers.

 

"Anybody that underestimates the governor at this point does so at their peril," Wright said. "This is a very savvy, astute student of politics and political trends. ... Did he need a minute to get his sea legs? Yes. But he'll be there."

 

[email protected]

[mr_genius]

My laugh was at needing to bring 12 telepromptors.

 

just in case 11 break down

[NorthSideSox72]

just in case 11 break down

Maybe they were made by GM.

 

And insured by AIG.

 

[mr_genius]

Maybe they were made by GM.

 

And insured by AIG.

 

well at least he buys American made goods. i can't fault him on this one.

[kapkomet]

 

 

Now our president is bowing to the Saudi King? WTF, are you serious?

[NorthSideSox72]

Now our president is bowing to the Saudi King? WTF, are you serious?

Didn't you JUST get on Obama like a couple days ago for breaking protocol with foreign heads of state? For not respecting their level of office?

 

You are seriously getting to the point of being obsessive, man.

 

[kapkomet]

Didn't you JUST get on Obama like a couple days ago for breaking protocol with foreign heads of state? For not respecting their level of office?

 

You are seriously getting to the point of being obsessive, man.

Protocol is not bowing. Did the other heads of state bow to him? No.

 

I'll start it now. HE IS A MUSLIM!

 

But ... my point is who in the hell is teaching him the proper protocols? It's one continuous blunder, imo. You don't show subserviance (if that's a word) like this. Everyone knows that it is a subserviant thing to do in the middle east. He might not have meant it that way, but you have to know your protocols.

 

ETA: Oh, I just thought of one more... THANK YOU for your funds in helping me get elected. Again, GREEEEEEEEN... but it's fun.

Edited April 7, 2009 by kapkomet

[Balta1701]

Looks like Patterson might get thrown under the bus next...

 

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/04/06..._top_democ.html

Your article, I can presume only entirely by accident because what motivation would they have to make things look bad for the Democrat...left out some key, key polling data. From your piece:

Observers said it would be impossible for someone like state Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to challenge Paterson unless black and Hispanic lawmakers provide "cover" by calling for the governor to step aside.

 

Cuomo angered Democrats with his failed 2002 primary challenge to then-state Controller Carl McCall - the first black candidate for governor.

The small bit they left out:

 

"There's nothing good for Paterson in this poll. Cuomo, who has minded his manners during Paterson's collapse, saying nothing about the Governor, trounces Paterson in a theoretical match-up. Giuliani whomps Paterson, too."

 

"This poll has nothing but good news for Cuomo. His job approval is stratospheric, duplicating his 76 percent approval in February. And in election matchups, he leads Paterson more than 3-1 and shows he's the Democrat who can beat Giuliani," Carroll said.

 

New York State voters give Cuomo a 63 - 17 percent favorability rating, with a 43 - 33 percent positive among Republicans. Paterson gets a negative 27 - 55 percent favorability and Giuliani gets a positive 55 - 35 percent.

You better hope that Cuomo has a hooker problem if you think the Republicans can beat those numbers with Rudy.

[southsideirish71]

 

F-22 purchases canceled. And no boosting the F-35 is not the answer. The F-35 has a purpose, and that is multi-role fighter.

 

Yes, they are tough on defense.

Edited April 7, 2009 by southsideirish71