[BREITBART] For those who believe in human rights and liberty, the sight of our president bounding up some stairs to energetically shake hands with Raul Castro, dictator of Cuba, was more than a little unsettling -- regardless of the circumstance. But that's what President Obama seemed to go out of his way to do at Nelson Mandela's memorial service Tuesday. Although Castro has imprisoned American Alan Gross for four years now, CNN alternately applauded and made excuses for the handshake. Birds of a feather, etc.
Obviously worried that shaking hands with a dictator might hurt Obama politically, the media were quick to play goalie. CNN's Chris Cuomo went so far as to read Obama's mind and report on the president's true intent:
And that handshake obviously was a huge moment. But not to be misunderstood, the handshake with Raul Castro, the president of Cuba, we believe was President Obama showing respect to Nelson Mandela and the occasion of today, the spirit of reconciliation. Of course, it will be dissected politically.
No matter the ongoing political disputes, on this day, it was about something bigger. It was about forgiveness and reconciliation, because it was about a man who was bigger: Nelson Mandela. And that is what the tribute has been all about today.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/11/2013 00:00 ||
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#1
I doubt he's too concerned about that handshake.
#5
Danish Prime Minister Helle Thorning-Schmidt. No, it is my understanding FLOTUS did not request copies of the group 'selfie' either. Must have been a wet, cold night in the City of Gold.
#6
This is supposed to be such an event that there was a moment of silence for pro football and flags half masted serious reverence you all. Here is the man of deep lake thoughts yucking it up with the obituary right in his face. Two gentlemen in front probably watching a soccer game. The only one taking this seriously is Michelle, and the grump grump is likely because she knows, other than her hero is dead, that this is a definite Sarkozy "nice shoes" photo moment.
#7
How come he never has to say or do something to Lech Walesa, or Vaclav Havel, that has to be explained in order to keep from being misunderstood? How come there's no accidental bows to President Park?
#15
Mandela was, if nothing else, a pragmatist. He and the entire ANC knew they could not bring about a total transition overnight without suffering a bloody a civil war. As a result, they employed the time tested communist method of incrementalism.
#16
One more pic for the story: MommyDearest by way of American Digest. Seats have been switched at this point and apparently, Raoul wasn't the only tyrant getting a handshake.
#17
Hmmm. Nobody here (of all places!) commenting on responsibility for the seating arrangements? Jeez, am I gonna have to turn my own freakin' TV on here or what? Goodnight, moon!
[Bangla Daily Star] President Barack Obama I mean, I do think at a certain point you've made enough money... has hired senior Democratic strategist John Podesta to try to get his troubled second term back on course, The Washington Post reported late Monday.
Podesta, 64, served as chief of staff to Bill Clinton when he was president and will work for Obama for a year as an adviser in his inner circle, the Post said, quoting sources familiar with the move.
Podesta will return to the White House as Obama tries to regain his political footing and popularity following the very messy rollout of his signature achievement, the health care reform known as Obamacare.
Besides that key program, Podesta's brief will be broad and include climate change issues and executive actions, the Post quoted its sources as saying.
Podesta was Clinton's chief of staff during the Monica Lewinsky scandal and impeachment process during his second term.
Podesta is considered one of the Democratic Party's most experienced strategists and wardheelers.
Posted by: Fred ||
12/11/2013 00:00 ||
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The Hildebeast's advance party has arrived at the White House.
U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida lost $18 million in a scheme that cheated him and about 120 other investors out of more than $35 million, according to court papers.
The Virginia man who ran the scheme, William Dean Chapman, was sentenced Friday in federal court to 12 years in prison. Prosecutors say Chapman used the money to fund a lavish lifestyle including a Lamborghini, a Ferrari and a $3 million home.
In most of the court papers, Grayson's identity is protected -- prosecutors say only that an elected official with the initials A.G. was the primary victim -- but documents twice mention Grayson by name. The Democratic congressman on Monday confirmed he is the A.G. mentioned in the documents.
Nothing in the court papers suggests Grayson was anything but a victim of the scheme. Grayson, a former trial attorney, said he has had a long record for picking winning stocks, which formed the basis for his personal fortune.
Why, what a novel idea. Let's spend some money investigating why Obama and Sebelius completely botched the largest government program in history due to their sheer incompetence. While we're at it, let's investigate why Obama and Sebelius never once met to go over the details. But now she's all about accountability or something.
Recognizing that deeper problems may lurk behind the botched rollout of the health care website, President Barack Obama's top health official Wednesday called for an investigation into management and contracting decisions.
Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius said in a blog post early Wednesday that she is asking the department's inspector general to investigate the contracting process, management, performance and payment issues that may have contributed to the flawed launch of HealthCare.gov.
The website was supposed to have been the online portal to coverage under the new health care law, but technical problems turned it into a frustrating bottleneck for millions of consumers. It's working better now after two months of repairs.
Where is the evidence of that? The administration claiming it's so?
The announcement comes as Sebelius heads to Capitol Hill for another round of grilling Wednesday before the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Lawmakers want explanations for dozens of questions about the website's design, workability and security. They also want to know why Sebelius and other top officials repeatedly assured them everything was on track.
A little pre-emptive ass covering here, obviously.
"I believe strongly in the need for accountability, and in the importance of being good stewards of taxpayer dollars," Sebelius said in her announcement. The website has cost taxpayers more than $600 million so far, according to the congressional Government Accountability Office.
These buffoons love to talk about accountability, yet nobody is ever held accountable.
#5
To quote a former high ranking official of this administration (who likely attended the same Senior Executive Effectiveness in Government course)
What difference at this point does it make?
Posted by: Au Auric ||
12/11/2013 14:16 Comments ||
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#6
I'd be afraid of what comes out, massive incompetence resulting in firing. (Also called impeachment)
Posted by: Redneck Jim ||
12/11/2013 16:09 Comments ||
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#7
Inmates running the asylum.
Posted by: Bangkok Billy ||
12/11/2013 16:40 Comments ||
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#8
Re #3: (From numberwatch.co.uk):
In this respect, it is always well to remember the traditional cynical list of the stages of a project:
1. Enthusiasm
2. Depression
3. Panic
4. Search for the guilty
5. Punishment of the innocent
6. Rewards for the non-participants
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/11/2013 17:18 Comments ||
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#9
So, based on the above list, Obama, Sebelius, and a few others should get rewards, since they are all non-participants.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
12/11/2013 17:19 Comments ||
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#10
IMO the website debacle is justa PC cover for the fact that very few mainstream Americans do NOT want the US Gubmint in charge of their personal health = health services.
Thus of course the abovesame US Gubmint is ignoring them + proceeding wid it anyway, BECAUSE IFF IT DOESN'T IT HAS TO FIND ANOTHER PRO-STATUS QUO COSTLY WAY OF PAYING ITS INTENTIONALLY EXCESSIVE, POST-2015 NATIONAL-SOON-TO-BE-OWG-GLOBAL WELFARE-NANNY STATE, TO INCLUDE AMERIKA'S EXCESSIVE DEBT + DEFICIT BURDENS.
IMO again the Gubmint is "preempting" 2015 by intentionally committing the country to a nominal or dubious OWG org + cost structure, etc. which has NOT been electorally voted on, NOR has been reliably dev yet, i.e. PRE-COMMITTANCE TO A HIGHLY SUBJECTIVE = UNKNOWN WORK-IN-PROGRESS POLITY.
SURPRISE, SURPRISE, DESPITE POPULAR OR ELECTORAL RESISTANCE THE GOVT IS KEEPING THE RFID CHIP.
* RFID CHIPS = THE "BORDERLESS" ANTI-SOVEREIGN AMERIKA OF POST-SO15 CAN'T DISTINGUISH LEGAL CITIZENS-RESIDENTS [also read, "LOYAL"] FROM THE MANY MILYUHNS-N-DILYUHNS OF FOREIGN + ILLEGAL MIGRANTS THAT WILL BE ENTERING OWG AMERIKA + NORAM [OWG NAU + related]IN THE FUTURE.
VIA THE WEAK OR POROUS BORDERS THAT PRO-DEBT-EXPANSION WASHINGTON HAS NO INTENTION OF SECURING.
OTOH what the Washinton critters can do is pretend to bitterly complain about the wily dastardly social + demographic shifts, etc. occurring in Amerika that they knowingly deliberately helped to create.
[Daily Caller] President Barack Obama wrapped himself in Nelsons Mandelas mythical reputation today as he used the media-magnified memorial service to jab at the GOP and to praise his own progressive ideology. A eulogy used as a sermon, how innovative.
There are too many people who happily embrace [Mandelas] legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms that would challenge chronic poverty and growing inequality, he said, without mentioning GOP House Speaker John Boehner by name. The panderer in chief explaining the concept of pandering. Instructive indeed.
Through his peroration, Obama declared that Mandelas political choices are relevant to other countries, including the United States. And he shielded his own progressive agenda with Mandelas saint-like reputation. Regardless of our station or our circumstance, we must ask: How well have I applied his lessons in my own life? Its a question I ask myself, as a man and as a President, Obama told the rain-soaked crowd in Johannesburg. Yes, yes, if I had a father, he would look like......
In America our work is not yet done, he said. And right after his bit of theater, we're headed to Hawaii for holiday.
We still see children suffering from hunger and disease. We still see run-down schools. We still see young people without prospects for the future, according to Obama, who has presided over a slow-growing economy in which nearly all the gains have gone to his political allies in the top 1 percent income-bracket.
Around the world today, men and women are still persecuted for what they look like, and how they worship, and who they love.... Er huh, and a special 'shout out' to Helle Thorning-Schmidt President of Daneland", he said. Obama frequently used the informal name, Madiba, for Mandela, and portrayed him as a post-religious saint whose life should be taught to children. "Madiba" is a tribal clan name.
Its tempting I think to remember Nelson Mandela as an icon, smiling and serene, detached from the tawdry affairs of lesser men I am not a saint, he said, unless you think of a saint as a sinner who keeps on trying, Obama pronounced. Channeling Mother Teresa?
Let me say to the young people of Africa and the young people around the world you, too, can make his lifes work your own, he pleaded in his speech, which will likely be shown to millions of students at American schools. Millennials, wake up! The ANC ACA is your future.
Over 30 years ago, while still a student, I learned of Nelson Mandela and the struggles taking place in this beautiful land [They] woke me up to my responsibilities to others and to myself, and it set me on an improbable journey that finds me here today. Obamas support among young people has recently crashed, partly because of the stalled economy, but also because of his you can keep your plan lie about Obamacare. Not to mention a long list of other lies.
The speech included slightly-cloaked jabs at the GOP, whose discordant coalition of social-conservatives, libertarians and business lobbyists has stymied Obamas congressional agenda after 2010. Poor Champ, "discordant coalition" is Greek to these people. They are an entire nation of 95 percenters.
He even hinted that the American people are somehow culpable for not supporting his failing agenda or for not boosting his dropping poll ratings.
Rural and suburban mostly. Urban America, not so much. There are too many of us on the sidelines, comfortable in complacency or cynicism when our voices must be heard, he said. Let us search for his largeness of spirit somewhere inside of ourselves, he lectured his listeners. More selfies, more Horatio Alger stories please.
And when the night grows dark, when injustice weighs heavy on our hearts, when our best-laid plans seem beyond our reach, let us think of Madiba and the words that brought him comfort within the four walls of his cell: It matters not how strait the gate, how charged with punishments the scroll, I am the master of your my fate; I am the captain of my soul.
#1
There are too many people who happily embrace [Mandelas] legacy of racial reconciliation, but passionately resist even modest reforms..."
That's because racial reconciliation in SA (and not elsewhere!) was the only area where Mandela might conceivably have been right.
Mandela was an apologist for cleptocracy and brutal clannish despotism as practiced in e.g. Cuba and Libya. Among other things these policies lead to economic decay and poverty.
"Around the world today, men and women are... still persecuted for what they look like, and how they worship, and who they love"
And 'Madiba' has been the persecutors' staunch ally, apologist, accomplice and enabler throughout his political life.
I am not a saint
He was no saint indeed. He might have gotten some things right about SA but he was also conducting amoral realpolitik.
He collaborated with political criminal and he didn't care one bit about his allies' victims.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
[BREITBART] For those who believe in human rights and liberty, the sight of our president bounding up some stairs to energetically shake hands with Raul Castro, dictator of Cuba, was more than a little unsettling -- regardless of the circumstance. But that's what President Obama seemed to go out of his way to do at Nelson Mandela's memorial service Tuesday. Although Castro has imprisoned American Alan Gross for four years now, CNN alternately applauded and made excuses for the handshake.
U.S. Rep. Alan Grayson of Florida lost $18 million in a scheme that cheated him and about 120 other investors out of more than $35 million, according to court papers.
