hatoyama resigns over US military base on okinawa from japan today: The Liberal Democratic Party demanded that a general election be called as opposition parties intensified their attacks on the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the government Wednesday after Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced his decision to resign. "Not one problem has been solved" with Hatoyama’s decision ... Hatoyama said he has decided to step down to take responsibility for his failure to resolve a dispute over relocating a U.S. military base in the way he promised, as well as scandals over political funds involving himself and other DPJ members.
from raw replay: President Barack Obama greeted ABC World News anchor Diane Sawyer with a kiss to begin their interview Monday. But an awkward moment soon followed when Sawyer asked the president if the job was ever so difficult that he would consider not running for a second term. “I’d rather be a really good one-term president than a mediocre two-term president,” said Obama. This video is from ABC’s World News, broadcast Jan. 25, 2010.
obama's day 1: recession, war, ethics & more from ap: In a first-day whirlwind, President Barack Obama showcased efforts to revive the economy on Wednesday, summoned top military officials to the White House to chart a new course in Iraq and eased into the daunting thicket of Middle East diplomacy. "What an opportunity we have to change this country," said the 47-year-old chief executive, who also issued new ethics rules for his administration and hosted a reception at the presidential mansion for 200 inauguration volunteers and guests selected by an Internet lottery.
day 1 for the global savior barack obama from kurt nimmo: Now that Obama is installed in the Oval Office, the job of “saving the world” can begin. Of course, that’s what the corporate media tells us — this one-term senator, basically a man out of nowhere — will save us. In fact, Barack Obama cannot save us and that will not be his job, even though millions apparently believe it. Barack Obama is a front man for the New World Order. He is a used car salesman tasked with selling us on global fascism, that is to say transnational corporatism. As Obama wrote for the globalist Council on Foreign Relations periodical Foreign Affairs, “the security and well-being of each and every American depend on the security and well-being of those who live beyond our borders.” For the globalists, “security and well-being” translates into invading small and enfeebled countries like Iraq and Afghanistan. In order for the global elite to be secure — that is to say, for them to retain power and push their world domination agenda forward — small nations resisting globalization must be invaded and carpet bombed with depleted uranium.
security team could use presidential doubles from telegraph: Security experts said doubles could be used for public photo opportunities where he is not required to speak but may be exposed to a potential threat. President Obama is understood to be against the idea of using doubles himself because the tactic is generally associated with rulers including Saddam Hussein, Kim Jong-il of North Korea, Stalin and Adolf Hitler. But following hundreds of threats to his life already some of those charged with protecting him believe it may become an option. However, the best known Obama lookalike so far, said he didn't want the job. Ilham Anas, 34, an Indonesian photographer who bears a striking resemblance to the president, said: "I don't want to get shot."
US senate confirms clinton as secretary of state from wikinews: The United States Senate has, in a 94–2 vote yesterday, approved Hillary Clinton as the next United States Secretary of State. She is now the 67th person to hold that position and succeeds Condoleezza Rice. During the Senate debate, the issue of the foundation of Hillary's husband, former President Bill Clinton, was again raised, as it was during the hearing held by the United States Senate Committee on Foreign Relations. Some politicians have expressed concern that foreign donations to the foundation may create conflicts of interest for Hillary, as the Secretary of State is the country's top diplomat. The foundation employs Bill Clinton as its head.
senate committee approves geithner as treasury chief from iht: The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday backed President Barack Obama's nominee to head the U.S. Treasury, Timothy Geithner, overlooking his underpayment of some $34,000 in taxes and clearing the way for a full Senate confirmation vote. As part of the confirmation process, Geithner, in written responses to questions from Senate Finance Committee members, said that the new U.S. administration believes China is manipulating its currency. "President Obama - backed by the conclusions of a broad range of economists - believes that China is manipulating its currency," Geithner said. "The new economic team will forge an integrated strategy on how best to achieve currency realignment in the current economic environment."
obama’s nightmare 'green agenda' officially unveiled from paul joseph watson: President Barack Obama’s plan to implement a cap-and-trade program that would cut carbon dioxide emissions by 80 per cent and also sink an already battered U.S. economy into a new great depression has officially been announced on the White House.gov website. However, the secondary phase of the agenda that would counter-balance such a move, the creation of millions of “green” stasi government jobs, has also been announced. According to the outline for the Obama-Biden comprehensive New Energy for America plan, the new administration will “Implement an economy-wide cap-and-trade program to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 80 percent by 2050.” The proposal has its roots in the defeated 2007 Lieberman/Warner bill, “America’s Climate Security Act,” which proposed a cap and trade system to reduce carbon emissions 70 per cent by 2050. If such a program was to be fully implemented, the consequences for the American economy would be devastating. The 2007 bill was rejected for a very good reason - its passage would have created economic conditions comparable to a new Great Depression and sunk America to near third world status.
obama orders guantanamo's closure within a year from washington post: President Obama today signed a series of executive orders to close the U.S. detention facility at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, within a year and end harsh interrogation techniques previously used on terrorist suspects, saying America will wage war on terrorism "in a manner consistent with our values and ideals." In a ceremony at the White House after a meeting with retired military flag officers, Obama said the Guantanamo facility would be closed "no later than one year from now" and that prisoners held there would be dealt with appropriately in keeping with the interests of justice and U.S. national security. The order to close the controversial detention camp, where terrorism suspects have been detained for years without trial, fulfills a promise Obama made during his presidential election campaign. "I can say without exception or equivocation that the United States will not torture," Obama said later at the State Department in announcing the appointment of two special envoys. Former Senate majority leader George J. Mitchell (D-Maine) was named Middle East envoy to seek Arab-Israeli peace, and former U.N. ambassador Richard Holbrooke was appointed envoy for Afghanistan and Pakistan to deal with the resurgence there of al-Qaeda and the radical Taliban movement.
obama frees bush historical records from robert parry: When authoritarian forces seize control of a government, they typically move first against the public’s access to information, under the theory that a confused populace can be more easily manipulated. They take aim at the radio stations, TV and newspapers. In the case of George W. Bush in 2001, he also took aim at historical records, giving himself and his family indefinite control over documents covering the 12 years of his father’s terms as President and Vice President. It was, therefore, significant that one of Barack Obama’s first acts as President was to revoke the Bush Family’s power over that history and to replace it with an easier set of regulations for accessing the records. Just as George W. Bush upon taking office in January 2001 immediately delayed the scheduled release of documents from the presidencies of Ronald Reagan and George H.W. Bush, Obama wasted no time in reversing that policy by signing a new executive order on his first working day in office. Eight years earlier, George W. Bush initially postponed the document release and then – after the 9/11 attacks – sought to extend the cloak of secrecy over those documents virtually forever. Bush signed Executive Order 13233 on Nov. 1, 2001, granting the sitting President as well as former Presidents or ex-Vice Presidents – or their heirs – veto power over release of many documents. In other words, Bush was giving himself and his family effective control over key chapters of 20 years of American history (his father’s eight years as Vice President and four years as President, and his own eight years as President). Presumably at some point, that power would have passed to George W. Bush’s daughters, Jenna and Barbara, and to their progeny, giving the family a kind of dynastic control over how Americans would understand key events of an important national era. Self-serving myths could become a substitute for accurate history – all the better to protect the Bush Family’s interests.
and now, a few more updates from days 2 & 3...
obama orders closure of cia's secret prisons from cryptogon: When I read Obama’s executive order to close the Guantánamo Bay prison camp, I just laughed the thing off as window dressing on a network of an unknown number of secret CIA prisons and torture facilities. In short, I felt that it was so ridiculous that I didn’t even bother mentioning it. Now, however, we have another executive order, ENSURING LAWFUL INTERROGATIONS... Don’t get me wrong, don’t put words in my mouth, don’t get too happy, BUT, this is a very big deal. This is a substantive, positive development. Now, the tendency of people in desperate situations is to think that any positive development means that the crisis is over, nothing more to see here, let’s go buy a new iPod, etc. This is what the Obama Cult is doing now. Obviously, that’s dumb. I must, however, acknowledge substantive positive developments when they occur. Since I expected no substantially positive developments out of the Obama regime at all, this is a welcome development, and after just a couple of days. Of course, Obama’s spy choice won’t call waterboarding torture, but… look, at a minimum the latest executive order is something I definitely wasn’t expecting. Like trading, however, one countertrend crank doesn’t mean a reversal of the larger trend. Maybe the Obama regime will require much more sophisticated analysis and discernment than the familiar one-way, race-to-the-bottom paradigm of the Bush era (which covers the years from 1981 to the first couple of weeks of 2009, in my opinion). This will make my work much more interesting, which I welcome. The fact that even I see this as a noteworthy positive development should be an indication of just how far off the rails the U.S. has gone. WooHoo! The U.S. is closing its secret torture facilities! WooHoo! Yes, it’s good news. But the much more disturbing issue remains the fact that it was allowed to happen in the first place, when it was obviously the work of Machiavellian people who were mostly despised. If no resistance was offered under those circumstances, what would the new regime be able to accomplish for the dark side with Obama’s cult of personality status and the sycophantic Hollywood myth makers practically experiencing glossolalia over the prospect of serving it??? Holy shit. I don’t want to think about it.
many bush officials held over at homeland stupidity from washington post: Obama Administration Makes the Unusual Move to Ensure Continuity... Wary of being caught short-handed in case of a domestic crisis, the Obama administration has asked nearly two dozen Bush administration officials in the Department of Homeland Security to stay in their jobs until successors can be named. The attempt at continuity is unusual in presidential transitions between parties, which typically lead to wholesale purging of politically appointed personnel. At the Justice Department, for example, almost no Bush holdovers remain beyond Deputy Attorney General Mark R. Filip, who is acting as attorney general pending confirmation of Obama nominee Eric H. Holder Jr., and Filip's two top aides. By contrast, Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has retained the department's second-ranking official, Deputy Secretary Paul A. Schneider, and its top border security official, U.S. Customs and Border Protection Commissioner W. Ralph Basham, as well as its operations director and the assistant secretaries responsible for policy and private sector coordination. The heads of the Coast Guard and Secret Service, who are not political appointees, and DHS Undersecretary for Management Elaine C. Duke, whose tenure is set by law, also remain. Napolitano acted "to assure a smooth and effective transition in a department whose responsibility for the security of the American people is paramount," spokesman Sean Smith said. "People were exercising prudent caution."
obama's orders leave torture & indefinite detention intact from global research: On Thursday, President Barack Obama issued executive orders mandating the closure of the Guantánamo Bay prison camp in a year’s time, requiring that Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) and military personnel follow the Army Field Manual’s prohibitions on torture, and closing secret CIA prisons overseas. While the media is portraying these orders as a repudiation of the detention and interrogation policies of the Bush administration, they actually change little. They essentially represent a public relations effort to refurbish the image of the United States abroad after years of torture and extralegal detentions and shield high-ranking American officials from potential criminal prosecution... This followed Tuesday’s request for a stay from the Federal District Court in Washington in similar appeals that could affect the cases of more than 200 Guantánamo prisoners. Thus, the immediate effect of the new administration’s moves is to halt civilian trials that could prove immensely damaging to the government by revealing systematic torture of the detainees and could potentially entangle high government officials.
from christopher ketcham: The American presidency in its outward show and innermost tendency has since World War II increasingly shown all the markings of monarchy. The president is hovered over and catered to by hundreds of aids and sycophants, his every whim answered at notice. He enjoys a private army in the guise of the paramilitaries in the intelligence agencies. He lives in a “White House” that is itself a court contained in a bubble where the troubles of the average man cannot penetrate. He certainly does not walk often among the people, but when he does, he allows the people to touch him as they would a king, the black-suited guard walling him off, his contempt expressed in direct proportion to the ceremony, noise, trumpets, curtains, light, music, and entertainments meant to ensure that we understand this is no mere man but an ur-expression of power itself.
Hence, the pomp of the presidential inauguration, which now, under Barack Obama, is expected to become the most expensive in US history. One estimate is that the total cost for the festivities of January 20, and in the days running up to it and after, will rise above $150 million. (By contrast, the 2005 swearing-in of George W. Bush, as profligate an executive as ever imagined, cost $42 million.) Of the $150 million budgeted to handle the millions of people who will descend on Washington, and to finance the lavish parties, the assignations in backrooms, the dying lobsters and the champagne uncorked, just $45 million - an obscene sum alone - has been offered up by private donors. The rest, which includes an emergency $75 million requested from the federal government by the city of DC for transportation costs and for the ever-effective bugaboo of "security," will be drawn from the pockets of taxpayers. We the people will also fund a mass prayer service as the cherry on top.
Oh happy day! Thus doth Change descend among us in the same old purple raiment and with the smiling largesse that the peons pay for. January 20 is a historic wasted opportunity. Obama might have signaled real change from the outset by canceling the whole rotten affair as the waste and silliness and ostentation that it is. Instead, a simple address, televised or better yet on radio, would have sufficed. Something like the following: “My fellow Americans, this is no time for frivolity. The country is falling down around our ears! The reason is mostly because we have blown our money in bad investments, whether it be in war or on Wall Street or on Main Street. Let’s not flush millions of dollars more down the toilet in self-congratulation and the flatus of long speeches. Nuff said. See you tomorrow when the work begins.” Click.
new commander-in-chief sworn in from ap: Stepping into history, Barack Hussein Obama grasped the reins of power as America's first black president on Tuesday, saying the nation must choose "hope over fear, unity of purpose over conflict and discord" to overcome the worst economic crisis since the Great Depression. In frigid temperatures, an exuberant crowd of more than a million packed the National Mall and parade route to celebrate Obama's inauguration in a high-noon ceremony. They filled the National Mall, stretching from the inaugural platform at the U.S. Capitol to the Lincoln Memorial in the distance. With 11 million Americans out of work and trillions of dollars lost in the stock market's tumble, Obama emphasized that his biggest challenge is to repair the tattered economy left behind by outgoing President George W. Bush.
as security envelopes capital, def sec robert gates hides out in a 'continuity of government' scheme as 'designated successor' from danger room: As the crowds descend on the National Mall to hear President-elect Barack Obama take the oath of office, security in Washington is tighter than ever. Over 10,000 National Guard troops are on duty, part of a task force orchestrated by the Secret Service that includes uniformed police, plainclothes officers and representatives of dozens of government agencies... Perhaps the most important security precaution, however, is being taken by the Pentagon. As part of a "continuity of government" scheme, Secretary of Defense Robert Gates will go to an undisclosed location, where he will ride out the inaugural festivities as Obama's designated successor in the event of some catastrophe. The White House announced the plan on Monday; Pentagon spokesman told Agence France-Presse that Gates "will be spending the day at a military installation outside the national capital region."
inaugural inanity from lew rockwell: Ten thousand National Guardsmen, 7,500 active-duty soldiers, 25,000 cops from "99 federal, state and local law-enforcement agencies." A city "honeycombed" with "communication command centers"spying on supposedly free Americans with 5,265 surveillance cameras. And, as if we aren’t already up to our eyeballs in goons, an entire brigade of the US Army on call. The cost for this hyperbolic hysteria? Hundreds of millions at a time when many taxpayers can’t scrape together the next month’s mortgage. All for an inauguration that has attracted no "specific threats." 'Critics' contend that this is overkill. Go figure... You can say this for the TSA and the millions of Americans cheering an emperor who has no clothes: they certainly deserve one another.
'goodbye bush': chant in crowded washington metro from dpa: Washington thrummed with excitement Tuesday morning as tens of thousands crowded into subway cars and poured through the streets to celebrate the end of one era and the beginning of another. In just four hours, Barack Obama will take the reins of US power from George W Bush, and Metro riders at L'Enfant Plaza, stalled by train problems, began to sing. 'Goodbye Bush, Goodbye Bush,' over and over and over they chanted. The mood was as much an outpouring of support for the country's first African-American president as it was a celebration of the Republican president's departure after eight increasingly unpopular years in the White House.
cheney finally wheeled away from raw story: Outgoing Vice President Dick Cheney will attend President-elect Obama's inauguration in a wheel chair, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said on Monday. Cheney was moving boxes into his new residence in McLean, Va., when he pulled a muscle in his back. Cheney's doctor said he will need to travel by wheelchair for several days, according to a published report.
how obama is wooing the military from time: Amid all the pomp and solemnity surrounding his arrival in Washington, Barack Obama found time to perform a couple of quiet salutes to an important constituency. On Sunday morning, he and Vice President–elect Joe Biden placed a wreath at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington National Cemetery. On Monday morning, the President-elect slipped over to Walter Reed Army Medical Center for an unannounced visit with troops wounded in Afghanistan and Iraq. Much of the country may have missed those brief visits, but the men and women of the U.S. military didn't... And so, as far as the courtship is going, Obama is getting a solid salute back from the rank and file.
from raw replay: President Bush answered questions asked by the White House press corps for the final time today. RAW STORY has more details here. This video is from CNN.com, broadcast Jan. 12, 2009.
bush: 9/11, 2 wars, katrina: 'we had fun' from guardian: It was eight turbulent years: 9/11, two wars, Hurricane Katrina and the worst recession since the 1930s. But President George Bush's verdict at his final press conference yesterday was: "We had fun." He and his team had many joyous days in office, he said. "And people, they say, I just don't believe it to be the case. Well, it is the case... In the darkest moments of Iraq and every day when I was reading the reports about soldiers losing their lives, no question there was a lot of emotion, but there were times where we could be lighthearted and support each other."
can two puppets meet together in the oval office & convince the public that they actually run anything? from cbs: President-elect Barack Obama and President Bush gathered for their first face-to-face meeting Monday, an Oval Office session that came during a historic shifting of power to a new administration. Neither the incoming nor the current president spoke to reporters at Obama's arrival or departure Monday afternoon. Bush walked Obama to his limousine as he left... Taking a bit of prerogative, the president-elect put his left hand on Mr. Bush's back as the two couples entered the Diplomatic Reception Room... "There's a lot of play-acting involved when a President-elect of the opposition party is received at the White House by the outgoing President," writes CBS News White House Correspondent Mark Knoller.
the obamessiah is going to produce profound disillusion
from telegraph: There is a video clip running on YouTube at the moment which shows a black woman moved nearly to tears at an Obama rally, telling a television interviewer that all her problems will be at an end when he is elected president. She won't have to worry anymore about putting gas in her car or paying her mortgage because "he will help me". It would be easy to find this absurd - the blind faith of an unsophisticated voter who has clearly mistaken Barack Obama for Jesus - but in truth it is both sad and alarming... What will this mean for the future? What if, as will almost certainly be the case, the great deliverance fails to deliver? The disillusion and sense of betrayal may create divisions in American society that will be greater and deeper than any we have seen for a generation. The sense of hopelessness and bitter disappointment may well be - as Americans say - toxic. Then again, maybe American politics will simply get the grown-up message that no one mortal is the final answer: that the fulfilment of the American dream must always lie within the individual and not with the government. To be fair, Obama himself suggests this when he tells the crowds, "It's not about me - it's about you."
an open letter to obama: between hope & reality from ralph nader: Dear Senator Obama, In your nearly two-year presidential campaign, the words "hope and change," "change and hope" have been your trademark declarations. Yet there is an asymmetry between those objectives and your political character that succumbs to contrary centers of power that want not "hope and change" but the continuation of the power-entrenched status quo. Far more than Senator McCain, you have received enormous, unprecedented contributions from corporate interests, Wall Street interests and, most interestingly, big corporate law firm attorneys. Never before has a Democratic nominee for President achieved this supremacy over his Republican counterpart. Why, apart from your unconditional vote for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, are these large corporate interests investing so much in Senator Obama? Could it be that in your state Senate record, your U.S. Senate record and your presidential campaign record (favoring nuclear power, coal plants, offshore oil drilling, corporate subsidies including the 1872 Mining Act and avoiding any comprehensive program to crack down on the corporate crime wave and the bloated, wasteful military budget, for example) you have shown that you are their man?
now that obama has won... there is no excuse from george washington: Now that a Democrat has been elected president, the Democrats in Congress have no excuse. They can no longer pretend that they have to "hold back" to win the election.
They have no excuse to delay war crimes charges against Bush, Cheney and company for Iraq.
They have no excuse to delay war crimes charges for torture.
They have no excuse to delay criminal charges for spying on Americans.
They have no excuse to delay criminal charges for 9/11.
Now is not the time for Democratic machine politics. Now is the time to implement true American values - cherished across the political aisle - of liberty and justice.
There can be no liberty in America unless the tyrants who have tried to imprison us and enslave us are prosecuted.
There can be no justice in America unless the high and mighty are held accountable for their actions.
Obama is a former Constitutional law professor. He knows the value of the Constitution and the rule of law. He promised during his campaign to curb the unconstitutional practices of the executive branch. But that is not enough. Because if the tyrants in both parties who have trampled on the vision of the founding fathers are not held accountable, then future tyrants will learn that they can get away with it, also. Now that Obama has won, there is no excuse. Those who have trampled on our country and our people must be held to account for the whole world and future generations to see.
pentagon preps for obama transition from danger room: As the ballots were cast yesterday, Jim Garamone of American Forces Press Service reported that Pentagon officials were already making room for the president-elect's transition team. This is the first wartime transition of power since the Vietnam War, and Defense Secretary Robert Gates has created a task force to ensure a smooth transition. Among other things, Garamone reports that Gates was surveying top political appointees within the building to see who might be willing to stick around until their successors can take over. He quotes Pentagon flack Bryan Whitman as saying: “There are a number of people that have given an indication that if they were asked to stay on and serve as a bridge after Jan. 20 until their replacement is on board, they would do so.” The Washington Postadds that Obama's advisers are now "debating whether to ask Defense Secretary Robert M. Gatesto stay on, to allow planning for a withdrawal from Iraq to begin as soon as possible." Keeping Gates on might be a common-sense move. As Noah wrote here back in June: "[S]ince Gates has been brought in, things have started to turn. Budgets have begun to return to reality. People lose their jobs when they can't do them right. Experts in their fields are being heard. Sound policy is often trumping adherence to political orthodoxy. And the Pentagon is slowly, slowly starting to focus on today's wars in Afghanistan and Iraq." Former Navy Secretary Richard Danzig, one of Obama's top national security advisers and another possible candidate for SecDef, seems to agree. We'll keep a close eye on this as Obama assembles the new administration.
what obama means to america's 'information operations' from danger room: A story about Barack Obama. In late January, shortly after the Iowa caucuses, I found myself at a conference, sitting next to a flag-level officer. He was an unapologetic Christian conservative -- sent his kid to Jerry Falwell's Liberty University, saw the fight against terror as a religious war. So he was not exactly inclined to say nice things about a Democrat running for president. Yet here the officer was, praising Obama. You see, this officer oversaw special operations work around the Horn of Africa and the Middle East. Sensitive stuff, that requires delicate negotiations. And already, just as one among many candidates for president, Obama was making this officer's job easier. Officials in other governments were more willing to provide his troops access to their countries. Foreign intelligence services were more willing to share information. One of the themes of this conference was information operations, or "IO" - how the U.S. can influence others around the world. This officer and other conference-goers were disgusted, by how badly the U.S. had bungled this war of ideas, and allowed opinions about America to sink so low. Candidate Obama, the group concluded, was the best IO campaign America had had in years. Allies were more ready to listen. Enemies' narratives about America were being undercut. So what happens to our standing in the world, now that the candidate is President-elect? Obviously, negative views about America aren't going to change overnight - if they change at all. For instance, some of the instant reactions from the electronic version of the Arab "street" seem decidedly undecided about a president with the middle name Hussein. But judging from the giddy reactions from Kabul to Caracas, America's most powerful IO campaign gets even stronger, when Barack Obama moves from the campaign trail to the White House.
bush signs order to ease switch to next president from ap: A piece of paper that President Bush signed Thursday [Oct9] helps ease his way out of the White House when his term ends and clears the way for his successor.
For seven years and nearly nine months, he has signed virtually every memo or order or piece of legislation imaginable. He even vetoed a few bills, but the directive he put his name on Thursday was one that few talk very much about. Basically, it's the executive order that turns the keys to the White House over to whomever is elected president on Nov. 4.
A little publicized truth is that Washington can't wait until inauguration day next Jan. 20 to figure out the details of a transition to a new presidency. Both Barack Obama and John McCain already have designated officials to oversee such a transition once the outcome of the election is known. The transition team of the winning candidate will set up procedures for selecting key personnel and making policy decisions in the 11 weeks between the new president takes office.
Congress has appropriated $8 million to finance transition operations.
White House press secretary Dana Perino said Bush's order was designed to help coordinate efforts already under way to ensure a seamless transition. She said Bush wants to make sure the next president's team has everything it needs to hit the ground running.
"This is especially important as our nation is fighting a war, dealing with a financial crisis and working to protect ourselves from future terrorist attacks," Perino said.
"The council shall assist the major party candidates and the president-elect by making every reasonable effort to facilitate the transition between administrations," Bush's order said.
from yahoo: Obama wins California, Hawaii, Oregon, Colorado, Nevada, and Washington, giving him 338 electoral votes to McCain's 141 (AP). He will be the 44th president of the United States. After a tight battle against Republican Sen. John McCain, Obama has become the first African American president in the history of the United States.
huge truck bomb strikes marriot hotel in islamabad from winter patriot: A huge truck bomb exploded at the entrance to the Marriott Hotel in Islamabad on Saturday evening, killing at least 40 people and wounding more than 150, the police said. This according to Carlotta Gall, who reports from Pakistan and Afghanistan for the New York Times: "The blast, one of the worst acts of terrorism in Pakistan’s history, went off just a few hundred yards from the prime minister’s house, where all the leaders of government were dining after the president’s address to Parliament." ... an address which was reported as a broadside against both terrorism and US intervention ...
In addition to the speech mentioned above, this attack comes mere days after Pakistan's announcement that its military would fight back if American troops attacked on its soil again, and a few days before a scheduled meeting between the presidents of Pakistan and USA, at which the fight against terrorism is on the agenda - or is the agenda! Thus, the timing can hardly be coincidental. And as you can see quite clearly from the photos posted here, this attack is orders of magnitude beyond the suicide terrorism which occurs in Pakistan on a regular basis. In other words, it appears to be state-sponsored. And you can probably guess which state. You might think everybody would hate these terrorists. But you'd be wrong. Some people like them. For some people, terror is good for business. The presidential candidates lost no time in pointing fingers - even though they can have no idea who was behind this atrocity... So there you have it: the government was "elected" and the threat is "enduring"; that's all the pretext these guys need for another hundred years of war. But what the heck? Your kids weren't planning to do anything different with their lives, were they?
the questionable timing of the pakistan blast from 9/11 blogger: Let me see if I got this straight now.
Over the past 7 years we have dumped billions and billions of dollars into Pakistan to help with the Global War on Terror™. Yet, we know that former President Musharraf spent much of that money beefing up his military presence on the border of India, while another large part of that money, just went missing. Some of that money was traced to election fraud attempts. All of this, and the accepted wisdom is that the Taliban and bin Laden, are in Pakistan (of course I think he is dead, but that is beside the point).
When Musharraf lost the election, he shut down the democracy in Pakistan and arrested judges and opposition party leaders. Eventually, Pakistan shamed us by actually impeaching their president for corruption, while ours gets off Scott-Free thanks to Nancy Pelosi and a complicit congress.
Along comes a new President, President Asif Zardari, one that isn’t in the pocket of BushCo and low and behold, we start ramping up the rhetoric about needing to attack inside Pakistan “when ever we feel like it“. They even get the leading “progressive” man-god, Obama, to spin the same bullshit story.
Now, after several weeks of international bad press because of drone planes being piloted by 19 year olds with joy-sticks in California, blowing up families in Pakistan willy-nilly, after all that, the “terrorists” in Pakistan decide to blow up a second rate hotel there, killing civilians, and making them the bad guys once again? How’s that for the worst timing ever, huh? Well, the worst timing for them and the best possible timing for those troubled U.S. Military PR guys and all the politicians who had been saying just a month ago we need to step up military action in Pakistan.
Let’s face it, the Global War on Terror™ is the biggest thing since sliced bread for making serious cash, removing those troubling restrictions, and undermining the constitution at every turn.
but before the bombing, all of this was going on...
washington is risking war with pakistan from robert baer: As Wall Street collapsed with a bang, almost no one noticed that we're on the brink of war with Pakistan. And, unfortunately, that's not too much of an exaggeration. On Tuesday, the Pakistan's military ordered its forces along the Afghan border to repulse all future American military incursions into Pakistan. The story has been subsequently downplayed, and the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, Mike Mullen, flew to Islamabad, Pakistan's capital, to try to ease tensions. But the fact remains that American forces have and are violating Pakistani sovereignty.
unknown powder sent to US diplomats in pakistan from ap: Two American diplomatic outposts in Pakistan received envelopes containing an unknown white powder last week, sparking a security scare, a U.S. Embassy spokesman said Sunday. Tests are being conducted on the substance, spokesman Lou Fintor said. He declined comment on whether any embassy staffers had become ill or were under observation. The envelopes were sent to the U.S. Consulate in Karachi on Thursday and the U.S. Embassy in Islamabad on Friday. Fintor said both facilities have remained open, with no plans to close them. "Embassy personnel followed established response procedures," Fintor said. "We applaud the rapid and appropriate response by our mailroom and security staff to contain any potential threats. We take threats of this type very seriously, hoax or not." He would not say where the envelopes had been mailed from, pending an investigation, or to whom they were addressed.
bhutto widower elected pakistan president from ap: Benazir Bhutto's widower swept Pakistan's presidential election on Saturday, offering hope for stability to a nuclear-armed country feeling intense U.S. pressure to crack down on Islamic militants. In a grim reminder of the problems awaiting Asif Ali Zardari, rescuers in the northwest dug with their hands for survivors after at least 30 people were killed in a massive suicide bombing. Already head of the main ruling party, Zardari becomes one of the most powerful civilian leaders in Pakistan's turbulent 61-year history. Last month, he marshaled a coalition that forced stalwart U.S. ally Pervez Musharraf to quit as head of state.
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from the local: German President Horst Köhler announced his surprise resignation on Monday after appearing to suggest the country's unpopular Afghanistan mission was partly motivated by commercial interests. "I announce my resignation from the office of the federal presidency with immediate affect," Köhler said in Berlin. He said the decision came after withering criticism of comments he made connecting Germany's military deployment in Afghanistan with the country's economy.
from japan today: The Liberal Democratic Party demanded that a general election be called as opposition parties intensified their attacks on the ruling Democratic Party of Japan and the government Wednesday after Prime Minister Yukio Hatoyama announced his decision to resign. "Not one problem has been solved" with Hatoyama’s decision ... Hatoyama said he has decided to step down to take responsibility for his failure to resolve a dispute over relocating a U.S. military base in the way he promised, as well as scandals over political funds involving himself and other DPJ members.
